During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao had many top strategists, including Jia Xu, a "poison warrior" who had no exhaustive strategy, Sima Yi, the final winner who returned the Three Kingdoms to Jin, Xun Yu, who was called "my son's house" by Cao Cao, Guo Jia, who was praised by the Internet as "Guo Jia is immortal, Zhuge cannot come out", Liu Ye, who became famous at a young age and was talented in the world, Xun You, who was called "mastermind" by Cao Cao, Cheng Yu, and Xi Zhicai.
Among these courtiers, Xun Yu was Cao Cao's "chief strategist" and his status was above that of many courtiers, but in recent years, the topic of Guo Jia was very hot, for example, many people said, "Guo Jia does not die, Zhuge does not come out", "Guo Jia does not die, there will be no Three Kingdoms", etc., comparing Guo Jia and Zhuge Liang, and even some people feel that Guo Jia's talent is not lost to Zhuge Liang. Since Guo Jia had already died when Zhuge Liang came out of the mountain, it was difficult to evaluate who was strong and who was weak. In the history of the Three Kingdoms, Xun Yu and Guo Jia, the two Cao Wei ministers, who were more powerful?
First, Guo Jia in history
In modern times, netizens have a high evaluation of Guo Jia, calling Guo Jia a "ghost talent". During Guo Jia's assistance to Cao Cao, Cao Cao never lost either by attacking Yuan Shu, Lü Bu, or by fighting Yuan Shao, who was stronger than him. In the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao's army of 110,000 with 20,000 troops, which is a classic battle in ancient times in which less victories were more. At the same time, the Battle of Guandu also changed the trend of the Three Kingdoms.
During Guo Jia's assistance to Cao Cao, Cao Cao repeatedly defeated strong enemies and rarely lost, and after Guo Jia's death, Cao Cao immediately defeated Sun Liu's army of 50,000 soldiers and horses at Chibi with an army of 230,000. Such an obvious gap further reflects Guo Jia's importance to Cao Cao. After the fiasco at Chibi, Cao Cao cried in front of all the conspirators, "If Guo Fengxiao is here, why is he alone?" It even raised Guo Jia's value.
Cao Cao had many advisers under him, and his victories such as the Battle of Guandu and the fiasco at the Battle of Chibi were caused by a variety of factors, and we should not be too mythical, Guo Jia's contribution in a series of wars, ignoring the contributions of Xun Yu, Xun You, Xu You and other advisers.
Guo Jia in the history of zheng is the top strategist of "talent and strategy, the wonder of the world". After the great chaos in the world at the end of the Han Dynasty, Guo Jia went to yuan shao after the famous gate. Yuan Shao was "multi-faceted and indecisive", Guo Jia was under him for six years, never reused, idle for six years, so that Guo Jia felt that he was a hero useless, took the initiative to leave Yuan Shao, and was later recommended to Cao Cao by his friend Xun Yu.
In the second year of Jian'an, Cao Cao was defeated by Zhang Xiu, which frustrated his confidence. Faced with a more formidable rival, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao was filled with concern. At this time, Guo Jia put forward the famous theory of "ten wins and ten defeats", and he gave ten reasons to prove that Cao Cao had ten victories and Yuan Shao had ten defeats. Although it was unable to reverse cao Cao's inferiority in military strength, it boosted the morale of Cao's generals and laid the foundation for Cao Cao to defeat Yuan Shao.
In the third year of Jian'an, during Liu Bei's attachment to Cao Cao, because Liu Bei had great ambitions, and Zhang Fei, Guan Yu and other "ten thousand enemies" fierce generals, the consequences were endless, so Cao Cao's adviser Cheng Yu suggested that Cao Cao kill Liu Bei to avoid future troubles. Guo Jia persuaded Cao Cao that killing Liu Bei would make him bear the notoriety of killing the Sages, causing the people of the world to stop defecting to him. He suggested that Cao Cao put Liu Bei under house arrest.
In the fifth year of Jian'an, when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were fighting, Sun Ce was preparing to attack Xu Du, which made Cao Cao very worried. Guo Jia predicted that Sun Ce would die at the hands of the Assassins and did not have to worry about him. Sure enough, as expected, soon Sun Ce was assassinated by the disciples of the enemy Xu Gong while hunting.
After Yuan Shao's crushing defeat at the Battle of Guandu, he fell ill and died in Jian'an seven years later. At this time, Cao Cao wanted to take the opportunity to attack Hebei. Sun Ce persuaded Cao Cao that if he attacked Hebei now, Yuan Shao's sons would join forces against him, and if they were not in a hurry to attack them, they would have infighting in order to fight for power and profit, which would lead to a great loss of their strength. At this time, another army will be sent to attack, but they can be annihilated in one fell swoop.
According to Guo Jia's strategy, Cao Cao waited for Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan to have an infighting before attacking them, and finally defeated Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan and pacified Hebei.
Second, Xun Yu in the history of zhengyi
Xun Yu was born in the Yingchuan Xun clan of the famous and prestigious clan in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and when he first started, he also went to yuan shao, but Xun Yu felt that Yuan Shao seemed to be tolerant and narrow-minded, and the appointment of talents was too suspicious to achieve great things, so he left Yuan Shao and defected to Cao Cao.
Xun Yu had the talent of Wang Zuo, and after he defected to Cao Cao's account, at the strategic level, he formulated a blueprint and military route for Cao Cao to unify the north. At the same time, Xun Yu also revised Cao Cao's strategic policy several times. Xun Yu persuaded Cao Cao to "meet the Heavenly Son" and helped Cao Cao to achieve the goal of holding the Heavenly Son hostage to the princes. Xun Yu suggested that Cao Cao "take root in order to control the world", which was the key to Cao Cao's consecutive defeats of strong enemies.
In the first year of Xingping, when Cao Cao led an army to attack Tao Qian, his subordinate Chen Gong and others rebelled and ceded Cao Cao's Yanzhou to Lü Bu. At the critical moment, Xun Yu persuaded Xiahou Yu and Cheng Yu to hold the city and protect the three counties of Juancheng, Dong'a, and Fancheng for Cao Cao, without letting all of Yanzhou fall into Lü Bu's hands. Cao Cao, based on the 3 counties, began to counterattack, eventually defeating Lü Bu and retaking Yanzhou from Lü Bu and Chen Gong.
In the second year of Jian'an, Xun Yu persuaded Cao Cao to destroy Lü Bu before he and Yuan Shao fought. Three years after Jian'an, with the help of Xun Yu, Cao Cao destroyed Lü Bu.
In the fifth year of Jian'an, during the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao ran out of grain and grass and wanted to retreat to Xuchang. Xun Yu wrote to persuade him to choke the enemy's throat and hold on to the opportunity. Soon after, Xun You came to Cao Cao and offered him the plan to burn the Wuchao and help Cao Cao defeat Yuan Shao.
During Cao Cao's foreign conquests, Xun Yu took the center to handle military affairs for him, so that Cao Cao had no worries. At the same time, Xun Yu also recommended many top talents for Cao Cao, such as Xun You, Guo Jia, Xi Zhicai, Zhong Xuan, Chen Qun, Du Xian, etc. Later, Cao Cao wanted to enter the Duke of Jueguo and seal Jiu Xi, but Xun Yu was dissatisfied and stood up to stop it, which caused contradictions between the two, and eventually Xun Yu was abandoned by Cao Cao and ended up depressed.
On the whole, Xun Yu's talent, contribution to Cao Wei and his status in Cao Wei are all incomparable to Guo Jia, who is one level stronger than Guo Jia.