Cao Cao pacified Hebei
Although Yuan Shao returned from a major defeat at Guandu, he maintained a strong influence in the Hebei region and remained a strong enemy of Cao Cao. However, Yuan Shao had a fatal weakness, that is, his three sons were at odds with each other. Yuan Shao's three sons, the eldest son Yuan Tan, the second son Yuan Xi, and the youngest son Yuan Shang. It was supposed that the eldest son, Yuan Tan, should be the heir, but Yuan Shao favored the younger son Yuan Shang and wanted to make Yuan Shang the queen. Therefore, Yuan Shao ordered his eldest son Yuan Tan to serve as the Assassin of Qingzhou, the second son Yuan Xi to serve as the Assassin of Youzhou, and his nephew Gao Gan to serve as the Assassin of Youzhou, and only Yuan Shang remained with Jizhou himself. Discord between brothers arises from this. In particular, the contradictions between the eldest son Yuan Tan and the youngest son Yuan Shang were particularly prominent, resulting in divisions among the subordinates. The staff officers and Feng Ji followed Yuan Shang, and Xin Ping and Guo Tu followed Yuan Tan, and the two sides were incompatible with each other.
Abolishing the eldest son and establishing another heir will always leave behind troubles. Yuan Shao knew that he had committed a crime and insisted on taking his young son Yuan Shang as his successor, which was really unwise. However, it was not only Yuan Shao who was unwise. Liu Biao, a Mu of Jingzhou, who was allied with Yuan Shao, made the same mistake. Liu Biao wanted to bypass his eldest son Liu Qi and establish his second son Liu Qi as his successor, causing discord among the brothers and leading to the end of his demise. Later, this kind of family dispute between brothers for power and profit even involved even their subordinates, except for Liu Bei's Shu, occurred in Both Wei and Wu, becoming a typical political struggle in the Three Kingdoms era.
Just three years after the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao died in frustration. As soon as Yuan Shao died, the confrontation between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang intensified, and the two clashed. Yuan Tan, as the eldest son but could not get the status of heir, was dissatisfied and asked for help from his father Yuan Shao's long-time enemy Cao Cao. At this time, Cao Cao was faced with two choices, one was to attack Jingzhou in the south, and the other was to use the infighting of the Yuan brothers to send troops to the north.
Most of Cao Cao's subordinates favored the former, but Cao Cao took Xun You's advice and decided to send reinforcements to rescue Yuan Tan. Cao Cao knew that Yuan Tan was deceitful, but in order to win yuan Tan over, he also let his son Cao Quan marry Yuan Tan's daughter as his wife. Of course, this is entirely out of the needs of political strategy, and it is also Cao Cao's usual means of attracting opponents.
Cao Cao sent an army to Hebei, and the momentum was like a bamboo, and he diverted water to irrigate the city and conquered Yuan Shang's base area of Yicheng. At this time, Yuan Tan made a negative promise against Cao. Cao Cao sent his daughter back to yuan tan, who was defeated and killed. Shi Gaogan also surrendered to Cao Cao when Yecheng fell, but later rebelled. Cao Cao sent troops to fight, and Gao Gan was killed on his way to Jingzhou. Cornered, Yuan Shang had no choice but to flee to Youzhou to join Yuan Xi. In Youzhou, yuan shang and yuan xi defected to the west of Liao, and continued to resist. Soon, Cao Cao fought wuhuan in the north, and defeated the wuhuan cavalry army at Liucheng, and wuhuan was defeated. Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi had no choice but to defect to Gongsun Kang, the Taishou of Liaodong. After the death of Gongsun Du of Liaodong, he was succeeded by his son Gongsun Kang as Taishou. Gongsun Kang knew that confronting Cao Cao was not the best policy, so he killed Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi and offered his head to Cao Cao. Zhang Yan, the leader of the peasant armed Montenegro Army, who was active in the Taihang Mountains, also surrendered to Cao Cao, and all of Hebei was pacified by Cao Cao.
The account of Cao Cao's pacification of Hebei is only used three times in the one hundred and twenty times in the Yanyi. This gives people a sense that pacifying Hebei is only an after-the-fact treatment of the Battle of Guandu. But in fact, Cao Cao's pacification of the triumphant City of Hebei was already the first month of the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208). It took him seven years to pacify Hebei. That is to say, after the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao devoted one-third of his life to the arduous cause of pacifying Hebei. It is conceivable that pacifying Hebei was of extraordinary significance to Cao Cao. This is also the reason why he did not return to Xudu, where Emperor Xian was, but instead made Yecheng his new base area permanent. During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Yicheng was used as a rallying place by the Yellow Turban Army, and later Yuan Shao and Cao Cao successively used this as a base, which also shows that the impact of the Yellow Turban Rebellion is quite large and cannot be underestimated.
In this year, Cao Cao abolished the three dukes in Yicheng. In June, Cao Cao made himself chancellor, and his dream of world domination took another step forward. At this point, the only people who could confront Cao Cao in the north were Han Sui and Ma Teng in the western Liangzhou. At this time, infighting broke out between Han and Ma, and Ma Teng accepted that Huairou also came to Yecheng. From the victory at the Battle of Guandu to the unification of the north, Cao Cao spent the most fulfilling golden age of his life. At this time, Cao Cao was fifty-four years old. Cao Cao returned to Yicheng, immediately built an artificial lake Xuanwu Pond, and began to train the water army to prepare for the attack on Liu Biao in Jingzhou. In July of the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao's seat was not yet hot, and he could not wait to lead a large army to the south, hoping to sweep away Liu Biao's forces in Jingzhou in one fell swoop. But he never dreamed that he would be greeted by Chibi's great defeat.
