The Battle of Guandu, which took place in 200 AD, was one of the three major battles of the Three Kingdoms, and was also a strategic decisive battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao for hegemony in the north.
The Battle of Guandu was caused by Cao Cao's siege of Lü Bu at Xia Pi
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In 199 AD, Cao Cao besieged Lü Bu's army entrenched in Picheng, which was under the rule of Xuzhou, lü Bu asked for help from Zhang Yang of Hanoi County, so Zhang Yang led an army to attack and prepare to rescue Lü Bu, but in the process Zhang Yang was assassinated by his subordinate Yang Ugly, Yang Ugly was ready to lead the army to cao Cao, only to be killed by Zhang Yang's other general, Xiao Gu, who was born as a black mountain thief, and after Killing Yang Ugly, led his army to garrison Atu (shooting dog) (northwest of present-day Wuzhi County, Henan Province), preparing to surrender to Yuan Shao, Cao Cao sent Shi Zhuo and Cao Ren to attack and behead Xiao Gu. So Cao Cao occupied Hanoi County.
After Cao Cao occupied Hanoi County, for the first time extended his forces to the north of the Yellow River, and bordered with Yuan Shao's territory and states, and Xiao Gu was originally ready to defect to Yuan Shao and was killed by Cao Cao, so Yuan Shao felt threatened, and the two sides silently adhered to the unwritten rule of the Yellow River as the boundary, and now Cao Cao crossed the Yellow River, so the Battle of Guandu was inevitable.
Cao Cao
In fact, in the final analysis, the expansion of the power of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao will inevitably form competition and conflict, war will break out sooner or later, on the surface Yuan Shao took the initiative to launch the Battle of Guandu, in fact, the Battle of Guandu is a continuation of the expansion war between the two sides, Cao Cao dared to cross the Yellow River to seize the territory north of the Yellow River, and he was not afraid of Yuan Shao.
Before the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao had roughly unified the four states of Hebei, and the four states of Hebei had always been rich and large states, especially Jizhou, and the entire four states of Hebei were conservatively estimated to have more than 2 million people, and Yuan Shao's army also had at least 150,000 or 60,000 people, and Yuan Shao's strength became the largest prince in the world.
Although Yuan Shao is strong, in fact, Cao Cao is not weak, Yuan Shao has four states in Hebei, in fact, Cao Cao also occupies the four prefectures of the Central Plains: Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Sili Prefecture, the size of the territory occupied by Cao Cao is almost the same as That of Yuan Shao, but the Central Plains region is in the land of four wars, the population is not as good as the four states of Hebei, in addition, Cao Cao's other strength is not weaker than Yuan Shao, at least Cao Cao's army will not be less than Yuan Shao, Cao Cao when he broke the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army, he once collected 300,000 soldiers, From here, Cao Cao's army will not be less than Yuan Shao's, and there is a high probability that Cao Cao concealed his strength in the Battle of Guandu.
Cao Cao and Yuan Shao
In the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao's army was 110,000 people, 100,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, the number of cao Cao's troops involved in the battle of Guandu has always been a mystery, from various records, Cao Cao's army on the front line of Guandu was at least 30,000 or 40,000 people, which is certainly not the number of all of Cao Cao's troops, but the number of troops on the front line of Guandu, and other armies are distributed throughout the territory to which he belongs.
The Battle of Guandu from the initial start of the battle to the stage of stalemate, yuan shao in the loss of troops, the battle of the white horse, Yuan Shao's forward general Yan Liang was killed by Guan Yu, thousands of forward Yuan army rout, the battle of Yanjin, Wen Ugly was killed by the army of the rebel army, Liu Bei's army was defeated, five or six thousand Yuan Shao was defeated. In just two battles, Yuan Shao lost two famous generals and nearly 10,000 soldiers.
Although Yuan Shao's army had always relied on the large number of troops to achieve a step-by-step posture, by the late period of Guandu, Yuan Shao's main force had approached Guandu (northeast of present-day Zhongmu County, Henan), and Guandu was already on the south bank of the Yellow River, only 300 miles away from Xuchang, where Emperor Xiandi of Han was at the time, approaching Cao Cao's political center, and even at this step, Cao Cao had no intention of moving the capital, and still confronted Yuan Shao at Guandu and fought a war of attrition.
Cao Cao and Xun Yu
Cao Cao wrote to Xun Yu at the most difficult time when Guandu and Yuan Shao were at odds, asking if the current situation could be withdrawn. However, Xun Yu resolutely advised Cao Cao to hold on, and it was also at this difficult moment that Xu You, the core strategist of Yuan Shao's camp, was arrested by the left-behind trial because his family who stayed behind in the rear committed crimes, so he resented the interrogation, and at the same time turned his resentment to Yuan Shao, and in a fit of anger, Xu You surrendered to Cao Cao, and informed Cao Cao that Yuan Shao's grain existed in Wuchao, and sent troops to Cao Cao to burn the grain of Yuan Shao's Wuchao camp, cao Cao adopted Yuan Shao's advice, personally led five thousand people to sneak into Wuchao, and burned Yuan Shao's grain, and it was precisely because of this incident that Cao Cao took Yuan Shao's advice and personally led five thousand people to sneak into Wuchao and burn Yuan Shao's grain. This led to a fundamental turn in the Battle of Guandu, and Yuan Shao made another wrong decision, and finally Yuan Shao's 100,000 troops collapsed and Cao Cao won a great victory.
Without Xu You's defection, would Cao Cao be able to defeat Yuan Shao at Guandu?
The answer was yes, Cao Cao could still defeat Yuan Shao even without Xu You's dedication.
If you carefully study the situation at that time and the garrison map of the two sides, you can find that Yuan Shao's army has actually crossed the Yellow River for the most part, hit Guandu here, the confrontation point between the two sides is in Guandu, and Yuan Shao, in order to facilitate the supply of grain for the army, also set up a warehouse for storing grain in Wuchao on the south bank of the Yellow River, and the location of Wuchao is 40 miles behind the Guandu front line, also on the south bank of the Yellow River, and then all the supplies of Yuan Shao's army are supplied by crossing the Yellow River from the north.
Yuan Shao's army actually has a fatal weakness, that is, the Yellow River, most of the army of Yuan Army is south of the Yellow River, if Cao Cao cut off the Yellow River, the entire Yuan army on the south bank of the Yellow River is a rootless water, in a position of being surrounded, Cao Cao only invested 30,000 to 40,000 troops in the Guandu front, so where are Cao Cao's other armies? Isn't it a little scary to think about?
Cao Cao's deployment map at the Battle of Guandu
Cao Cao has always used troops like gods, that year to collect 300,000 Qingzhou soldiers, and then how to put together an army of 100,000 people should not be a problem, Yuan Shao's main army is about to form a lone army before the official crossing, as long as Cao Cao sends troops from both flanks, cut off the yuan army's retreat, and cut off the crucial Yellow River, then the entire Yuan army south of the Yellow River will fall into a desperate situation, which is the biggest hidden danger of Yuan Shao's army at that time, Cao Cao will not fail to see it.
You may say that Cao Cao's army is already short of food, and there is no food at all to continue the war. If you think so, you are underestimating Cao Cao. Cao Cao once wrote to Xun Yu, Xun Yu was Cao Cao's chief strategist, and cao Cao's use and loyalty were second to none at the time, in Xun Yu's words, if you think that Cao Cao has no grain at this time, then you are outrageously wrong, when Xun Yu replied to Cao Cao like this:
Although the military food at present is small, it is not as difficult as when Chu and Han were between Xingyang and Chenggao. At that time, both Liu Bang and Xiang Yu refused to retreat first, and the party that retreated first must be passive. You have now held out on the spot with one-tenth of the enemy's strength, holding the enemy's throat so that he cannot advance for half a year. The enemy's bottom line has been clear, the sharpness has been exhausted, and the situation will certainly change, and this is a good opportunity to use magic tricks, which must not be lost!
Xun Yu cited the example of the Chu-Han conflict in those years to persuade Cao Cao not to retreat first, Xun Yu was one of the highest-ranking generals that Cao Cao had left in the rear, and was also responsible for Cao Cao's grain and grass distribution in the rear, whether there was grain or not, Xun Yu actually knew very well, if there was really no grain to persist, Xun Yu did not need to let Cao Cao persist, moreover, Xun Yu had already said that although the grain was small, it was not yet the most difficult point, and asked Cao Cao to continue to persist.
Map of the situation of the Battle of Guandu
It can be seen here that Cao Cao did not have no grain, there was grain, but there was not as much as it was at the beginning, and it could be maintained, even if it was not judged by Xun Yu's words, from Cao Cao's operation over the years, it can be seen that Cao Cao had recruited a million Qingzhou troops in his early years, most of which were the family members of the army, and Cao Cao's placement of these family members with the army was to let them plant grain in the fields, and part of the grain planted was handed over to Cao Cao, and part of it was kept for himself to eat Cao Cao suddenly got hundreds of thousands of grain farmers, and the taxed grain produced by these peasants, how could there be no grain?
In addition, Cao Cao also had a Tuntian Du Lieutenant named Zao Zhi, this person was the first official to persuade Cao Cao TunTian to produce grain, Cao Cao's Tun Tian not only had Mintun, but also Juntun, Mintun is similar to the nature of the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army's military family, Juntun is Cao Cao's soldiers who do not fight specifically to cultivate grain in Tuntian, Cao Cao actually solved the problem of lack of grain long ago, otherwise Cao Cao is located in the Central Plains of the Land of Four Wars, there is no grain for a long time, and the Battle of Guandu is actually provoked by Cao Cao. How could it be that half of the fight was without food, and the jujubes were still alive during the Battle of Guandu.
So Guandu fought to the back, Cao Cao was not without grain, but in the confrontation was too difficult, so Cao Cao had some slack, people are not sages, who can be blameless, people are not grass and trees, who can be ruthless, Cao Cao is also an ordinary person, there were only three cities left in Yanzhou that year, Cao Cao insisted on it, the Battle of Yanzhou was the most difficult time, Cao Cao also had some plans to give up, and also planned to turn to Yuan Shao, fortunately persuaded by Cheng Yu, so the Battle of Guandu Cao Cao wrote to Xun Yu, but it was only a little slack under heavy persistence.
When Cao Cao received a reply from Xun Yu, he quickly strengthened his confidence, just happened to encounter Xu Youlai to surrender, even if xu You surrendered, with the current military state, cao Cao wanted to defeat Yuan Shao is not difficult, Cao Cao's territory at that time from Sili Prefecture to Qingzhou, the entire south of the Yellow River, at that time Cao Cao's camp Zang Ba had also led an army from Xuzhou into Qingzhou, if Zang Ba's army continued to fight westward, it would almost form a siege of Yuan Shao's army.
Battle of Guandu
Even if Zang Ba does not move,
Cao Cao could also send an army to the Yellow River crossing, burn all the ships, and deprive Yuan Shao of the ships to transport supplies and cross the Yellow River, which was also a great panic for Yuan Shao's army
Other than that
Guandu was close to Xuchang, close to Cao Cao's city, and all of Cao Cao's transportation and supply lines were much closer than Yuan Shao's, and Cao Cao could send troops to attack Yuan Shao's supply lines
Anyway, south of the Yellow River is Cao Cao's territory, even if he does not know where Wuchao is, Cao Cao can also send a small force to harass the logistics supply line of Yuan Jun, burn materials and grain a few more times, Yuan Shaojun's heart will be shaken, and then it will still fail.
Cao Cao had a hundred ways to defeat Yuan Shao, not only by Xu You's schemes, Xu You's schemes only accelerated the time for Yuan Shao to fail, even without Xu You, Cao Cao still defeated Yuan Shao. In Xun Yu's words, if you are confused by Cao Cao's illusion at this time, and you think that you are wrong, Cao Cao will still achieve the final victory.