In Cao Cao's early years, there was only one base area in Yanzhou, but he was betrayed by Zhang Mi Chen Gong and others to lü Bu, which made Cao Cao very embarrassed. In the following years, Cao Cao fought with Lü Bu. In 199 AD, Cao Cao finally attacked Lü Bu's stronghold of Xia Pi and captured Lü Bu and his generals.
However, when facing Lü Bu's generals Zhang Liao and Gao Shun, Cao Cao chose to surrender Zhang Liao, but killed Gao Shun.
Perhaps we can find some answers from the early experiences of Zhang Liao and Gao Shun.
1 Zhang Liao's early life
Zhang Liao was actually an experienced general, and there were two points: Zhang Liao had met or known Cao Cao in his early years, and was not a concubine of Lü Bu.
Zhang Liao, a native of Hezhou, served as an official of Yanmen County in his early years. Later Ding was originally appointed to the history of the prefecture, and took a fancy to Zhang Liao's bravery and was recruited to engage. And Ding Yuan was very close to He Jin.
The great general He Jinmou cursed the eunuchs, so he asked the local army to recommend high-quality young people to Beijing. Zhang Liao and Zhang Yang are in Ding Yuan's recommendation sequence. By the way, Lü Bu was also a native of Hezhou, and at this time was a subordinate of Ding Yuan, but Ding Yuan left Lü Bu by his side.
Zhang Liao therefore came to Luoyang, the capital of Beijing. At this time, Cao Cao was appointed as a lieutenant of the military academy, which was also a political star, so they may have known each other, at least Zhang Liao should have heard of Cao Cao.
Later, He Jin sent Zhang Liao back to the prefecture to recruit troops, and by the time Zhang Liao recruited troops back to the Beijing Division, He Jin was already dead. Zhang Liao was now unaccompanied in The Jing Division, so he had to defect to Dong Zhuo, who was in power.
During this time under Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao was also pretending to befriend Dong Zhuo, so it was possible that Zhang Liao and Cao Cao had contact or at least heard about it.
After Dong Zhuo's defeat, Zhang Liao became an orphan again. Zhang Liao chose to "belong to Lü Bu with soldiers", Zhang Liao's official position should not be low, and after belonging to Lü Bu, he was moved to the rank of knight lieutenant.
At this time, the reason why Zhang Liao chose Lü Bu should be due to the fact that he was also a native of Hezhou, and at the same time, according to the records of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and the "Zizhi Tongjian", Zhang Liao served as both Lu Xiang and Beidi Taishou, and in Lü Bu's camp, he should have maintained considerable independence.
Bu was defeated by Li Dai and ran from Budong to Xuzhou, leading Lu Xiang at the age of twenty-eight. --Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Biography of Zhang Liao
Lü Bufu and Yuan Shutong sent Zhonglang to attack Liu Bei with Gao Shun and Zhang Liao, the Northern Taishou Yanmen. --Zizhi Tongjian
After that, Zhang Liao followed Lü Bu to various places, and finally Lü Bu was defeated.
There are two versions of Zhang Liao's surrender, one saying that he was treated with courtesy and surrendered with Lü Bu's generals, and the other saying that he led his troops and horses to surrender to Cao Cao.
Therefore, there are two aspects, Cao Cao feels that Zhang Liao is available. First, Zhang Liao died many times, did not stand on his own, but chose to surrender, in Cao Cao's view this is a person who can be subdued, the ambition is not so big; second, Cao Cao has heard of Zhang Liao before, at least heard of the state system, it is beneficial to accept him, at the same time Zhang Liao also heard of Cao Cao in his early years, there is a basis for surrender.
2 Gao Shun's curriculum vitae
Gao Shun did not list a separate biography in the Three Kingdoms, only said something in Lü Bulie's biography. His early life experience is unknown, but his main experience was after Lü Bu fled Luoyang and became a prince. This shows that Gao Shun has no connection with the previous Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo periods, at least not too high status.
However, from the perspective of the later experience, Gao Shun is quite heavily affected. The core troops under Gao Shun's command were trapped camps, with about 700 people, known as a thousand people, and each attack was a front, and the attack was indestructible.
Shun is innocent and majestic, does not drink alcohol, and is not fed. The more than 700 soldiers will be called a thousand people, the armor and fighting tools are all refined and neat, and each attack is indestructible, called the trap camp. --Wang Yue, "Heroes"
Shun is innocent and majestic, less words, will be neat, and every battle will be conquered. --The Biography of Hou HanShui Lü Bu
At the same time, Gao Shun was loyal and advised Lü Bu many times, but was not used by Lü Bu.
Its governor Gao Shunzhi stopped... Shun every admonition ... Bu knew his loyalty and could not follow. --The Book of the Later Han Dynasty
From these two aspects, first, Gao Shun commanded the elite soldiers under Lü Bu's command, which should be the generals of the concubine line promoted by Lü Bu; second, Gao Shun was relatively close to Lü Bu and was able to advise Lü Bu many times, and Lü Bu also knew his loyalty, but he could not decide.
Then, in this case, after Lü Bu's defeat, he will definitely die. Then Gao Shun, as Lü Bu's concubine, had a majestic and innocent personality, so it was difficult to be loyal to Cao Cao, who killed the late lord.
When Gao Shun came to Cao Cao, he also did not say a word and was bent on death.
As far as Cao Cao was concerned, it would have been difficult to accept, and it was indeed necessary to give an account to the generals, Lü Bu was a great threat to Cao Cao in his early years, if such a person's generals could be pardoned, it would be too tolerant, how to suppress the generals?
It can be seen that Zhang Liao can be used by Cao Cao, but Gao Shun is difficult to use by Cao Cao. At the same time, they were all generals and could not let the tiger return to the mountains, so Zhang Liao, who was effectively loyal to the foundation, surrendered, and Gao Shun, who did not surrender, could only be killed.