The Idiom story of the Three Kingdoms we are going to talk about today comes from the 51st time of the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which takes place at the time of the Battle of Jiangling, involving niu jin and Cao Ren, the original translation is as follows: Cao Ren is in the south, and he sent Cao Hong to guard the Yi Tomb. As a result, the horns formed, and some people reported that Wu Bing had crossed the Han River, while Cao Ren said that it was the best policy to stick to not fighting.
At this time, Cao Ren had a brave and good warrior under the account of Niu Jin, said, the soldiers will not fight when they come to the city, this is undoubtedly afraid, not to mention that our army has just failed, now is the time to revitalize the spirit, I am willing to lead 500 elite troops, decisive battle. Cao Ren followed his advice and let Niu Jin take 500 elite soldiers to battle, Ding Fengjia ma came to meet, the two fought for about four or five rounds, Ding Feng was defeated. Niu Jin hurriedly led people to the front of the line, and Ding Feng commanded the generals to trap Niu Jin in one fell swoop, and although Niu Jin clashed left and right, he could not get out. Cao Ren saw niu jin surrounded in the middle above the city wall, so he put on his armor and rode on horseback, leading hundreds of brave soldiers out of the city to meet the enemy and swing their swords vigorously.
Killed in the Middle of the Wu Formation, Xu Sheng fought, but could not resist Cao Ren, Cao Ren killed all the way to the core, and finally rescued Niu Jin, looking back, he found that there were still dozens of brothers who could not come out of the formation. Cao Ren then turned over again and rescued the brother, this time just in time to meet Jiang Qin. Cao Ren and Niu Jin fought hard, and his younger brother Cao Chun also led troops to meet him, and everyone killed a group, and after the defeat of the Wu army, Cao Ren returned victoriously.
And the idiom we are talking about today is the absolute death battle that Niu Jin said in his own mouth when he asked for a battle, that is to say, to have a life-and-death battle with the enemy. Later, we used it to describe a person's mental state of a thing, or the determination and desire of two armies to win the war when they fought, and this idiom was also pioneered by Mr. Luo Guanzhong.
At that time, Cao Ren received orders to defend Jiangling and fight with the combined forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei, a historical event that was true, and lasted for more than a year from the beginning of Jian'an 13 to the second year. In the face of the fierce attack of the coalition forces, Cao Ren can be said to be not afraid of danger, and can perfectly resolve the danger many times.
Cao Renzhen was stationed in Jiangling, buying time for Cao Cao to stabilize the situation after the defeat at the Battle of Chibi and make strategic adjustments, and the story we just told is also a real event in history. Judging from the performance of this battle, Cao Ren was very good in terms of defensive ability, and it was no wonder that Cao Cao later asked him to defend Fancheng, and don't forget that it was Guan Yu who was defending at that time. In the history of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Ren's defensive ability was comparable to that of Hao Zhao, Zhang Liao, and others, and Cao Ren could be said to be one of the most outstanding defending generals at that time.