Everyone who had read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was very familiar with Hao Zhao, and he stationed Chen Cang with three thousand soldiers and horses, and he had no choice but to resist Zhuge Liang's army of 300,000 people, allowing Zhuge Liang to use cloud ladders, rushing cars, and even filling the city trenches and digging tunnels. In the main history, Hao Zhao's most famous deeds are also roughly the same, with a thousand soldiers and horses to defend Chen Cang, Zhuge Liang attacked for more than twenty days without attacking. However, this glory also became the last battle of Hao Zhaoping's life, and he fell ill and died shortly after the war, and before he died, he told his son Hao Kai a shocking secret.
Hao Zhao was a native of Taiyuan, a fellow countryman with Emperor Ming of Wei,during which he was promoted to a miscellaneous general by virtue of his military exploits. For more than ten years, Hao Zhao had been active in the Hexi region, quelling the rebellion of the Hexi warlords Such as Koji Yan, Zhang Jin, and Koji Ying, and gradually established his prestige in the Hexi region of Liangzhou, and during this period, his talent was also in the eyes of Cao Zhen. When Cao Pi first ascended the throne, Cao Zhen served as the general of Zhenxi and the governor of Yongliang, and was responsible for guarding Cao Wei's northwestern border, so Cao Zhen was Hao Zhao's immediate superior, which also laid the groundwork for Hao Zhao to guard Chen Cang in the future.
During Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, he sent Ma Mo to guard the strategic street pavilion, but it was attacked by Zhang Guo, and the Shu army had no choice but to retreat. The general Cao Zhen at that time believed that Zhuge Liang would soon attack Chen Cang, so he sent Hao Zhao and Wang Shuang to build Chen Cang City in advance to prevent the Shu army from attacking. The real Cao Zhen was not as sloppy as described in the rendition, or somewhat capable, and his prediction later became a reality, and in the second year of the Battle of Jieting, Zhuge Liang sent a large army to attack Chen Cang from Scattered Pass.
After Zhuge Liang arrived at Chen Cang, he realized the trickiness of things. Chen Cangcheng was more solid after being rebuilt, and Chen Cang's defender Hao Zhao was also experienced in hundreds of battles, and it would definitely take a lot of effort to conquer it. Therefore, Zhuge Liang tried to persuade Hao Zhao to surrender, so that he could surrender without a fight is a high move, after all, he is also very prestigious, before the Northern Expedition, there were three counties of Tianshui that were successfully persuaded to surrender, not to mention that he brought tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and there are not many people in the city, and people who know the current affairs point will surrender.
Zhuge Liang found Hao Zhao's compatriot named Jin Xiang and asked him to shout to Hao Zhao outside the city, but Hao Zhao's oil and salt did not enter, "Wei Jia Ke Fa, Qing Practiced; I am a man, Qing also knows." I have received many blessings from the nation and the door is heavy, and the secretary has nothing to say, but there are ears that will die. Qing also thanked Zhuge Zhuge and could attack it. Helplessly, Zhuge Liang had to choose the next strategy - a strong attack. But this battle was far beyond Kong Ming's imagination.
The first wave of attacks on Zhuge Liang used siege weapons - cloud ladders and rushing cars. Hao Zhao used a rocket to shoot a cloud ladder and smashed the crushing car with a "rope and stone mill", successfully repelling the intruders.
The second wave of Zhuge Liang used well attacks. The well is said to have been invented by Mozi, which is 100 feet high, which can be described as a moving arrow tower, but the result is still not good.
Zhuge Liang had the advantage of manpower, and cao Wei's reinforcements had not yet arrived, so he continued to attack the city by other means. However, Hao Zhao had already made the best and sufficient preparations in Chen Cangcheng, the soldiers came to block, the water came to cover, and all these attacks were defused by Hao Zhao one by one. The Shu army "filled the moat with earthen pills and wanted to climb the city directly", and as a result, Hao Zhao built another city wall in the city; the Shu army sent a shovel team to prepare to dig tunnels into the city, and as a result, Hao Zhao dug horizontal tunnels in the city to intercept it.
This attack and defense were stalemated for more than twenty days, and the reinforcements sent by Cao Zhen arrived, and Zhuge Liang had no choice but to retreat. Hao Zhao held on to Chen Cang and resisted Cao Wei's great trouble, Zhuge Liang, and the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui was overjoyed, made him the Marquis of Guannei, and personally received him at Luoyang City, preparing to reuse him.
Unfortunately, not long after, Hao Zhao became seriously ill, perhaps injured while defending the city and running along the way to Luoyang, or something else! Before his death, he warned his son Hao Kai that "I am a general, and I know that I will not be able to do anything", and told his son not to bury him thickly, because "I count the number of graves, and take his wood as an offensive weapon".
Here Hao Zhao said a very obscure thing - tomb robbery, although tomb robbery was rampant in the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but it was mostly sneaky and unrecognized behavior, from Chen Lin's "YuZhou Wen for Yuan Shao" accused Cao Cao of digging a tomb and setting up a general in The Middle Lang of FaQiu and a lieutenant who touched Jin, which is obviously a disgraceful thing. However, the reasons given by Hao Zhao are very grandiose, "counting the hairs and graves" and "taking their wood" are not treasure digging, but only used as instruments for attacking battles, and I am afraid that few people believe it. Ancient forest coverage is still relatively high, rather than laborious digging in the ground is better to go directly to logging, not to mention the wood in the ground to dig out is still good to use? Of course, except for the golden silk nan wood, but the tomb that can afford to use that kind of wood is so easy to dig, even if it is dug out for offensive equipment, it is not too wasteful.