The Three Kingdoms period can be said to be a chaotic but charming era in Chinese history, during which princes and princes will fight each other and fight each other, and the long river of history will be dazzling, leaving many popular stories. However, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when there were no Three Kingdoms, the Yuan family was even stronger, and Yuan Shao was the head of the Yuan family. Yuan Shao, who was in the middle of the day, was completely defeated in the north by Cao Cao, who had just emerged at that time, and the north completely became Cao Cao's territory.
Yuan Shao of the fourth and third dukes
Some people are born with a golden spoon, and there is no doubt that Yuan Shao is such a person. Yuan Shao came from a wealthy family, and four generations of the family had sat in the high position of the third duke. He himself has been outstanding since he was a child, and Liang Ji, the great general at that time, liked this young man very much.
When he grew up, Yuan Shao showed that he loved to make friends very much, coupled with his good family background, profligate money, and relatively modest outside, and was regarded by everyone as a contemporary Meng Weijun. At that time, the people were proud to know Yuan Shao, and the warriors and temple officials all liked to make friends with Yuan Shao.
Unfortunately, Yuan Shao was empty, and when the great general He Jin was discussing with him how to deal with the eunuchs in power, Yuan Shao, who was among the dragons and phoenixes, thought of a good idea, and he contacted the general He Jin to ask him to recall Dong Zhuo to the capital. However, the consequence of this move was that Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, and the lives were ruined, and the people were not happy, which directly accelerated the process of the collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It can also be seen from here that Yuan Shao is empty and has a table, and it is difficult to become a big thing.
The sharp Cao Cao
Chen Shou's "Records of the Three Kingdoms" said that Cao Cao was the chancellor of the Han Dynasty, and everyone had a consensus on this point: false.
Cao Cao was originally supposed to be surnamed Xiahou, but because Cao Cao's father Cao Song recognized the then eunuch Cao Teng as his father, he followed the surname Cao, so Cao Cao's Cao character was just pulling tiger skin to make a big banner to bluff people.
Compared with Yuan Shao, although Cao Cao is also a famous family, but his famous family was given by eunuchs, and the most hated by the court and the public at that time was eunuchs, although Cao Teng was not as unscrupulous as Zhang Rang in the Rebellion of the Ten Constant Attendants, but he was still not recognized by the scholars at that time.
But after all, Cao Cao is also a famous master, and before the death of the Spirit Emperor Liu Hong, he appointed Cao Cao as a military captain, although Cao Cao accepted this appointment, but he did not have a decent army in his hands, and could only watch the country be messed up by Dong Zhuo under Yuan Shao's strange operation, and then Dong Zhuo came to take over the national politics while the chaos was in chaos, adding chaos to chaos, and opening the door to destruction.
Everyone could not bear Dong Zhuo's absurdity and cruelty, and finally decided to unite on a crusade, so the army led by Yuan Shao, known as the Eighteenth Route Princes, and Dong Zhuo's Northwest Army fought against each other. Dong Zhuo's brutality doomed him, and this crusade war was originally used by Yuan Shao to accumulate political capital for himself, but he did not expect that in the end, he attacked the palace, and the jade seal of the kingdom was obtained by Sun Jian, and Yuan Shao pretended to have a meal and did not get any benefits.
But the biggest beneficiary in this war is Cao Cao, who is the one who really made a fortune. In June of the first year of Jian'an (196 AD), Cao Cao went to Luoyang to meet the emperor in exile and led troops to protect Luoyang, so Cao Cao began to truly step onto the stage of history, and began the era of holding the Son of Heaven to order the princes.
The battle of Guandu, which is both high and low, but also determines life and death
There can only be one king in the north, so for Cao Cao it is necessary to solve Yuan Shao. As his old friend, Cao Cao was too familiar with Yuan Shao, and for this old friend of the princely family of the fourth and third princes, Cao Cao said of him as follows: he was oblivious when he saw small profits, and he spared his life when he did big things. In Cao Cao's eyes, Yuan Shao and the like were not enough.
Yuan Shao dispatched 100,000 elites, but how many people did Cao Cao have? According to Chen Shou's "Three Kingdoms", it is "less than 10,000". One hundred thousand to ten thousand, the advantage is in me, maybe this is what Yuan Shao thinks in his heart.
That being said, Cao Cao's situation is really not so easy. Here Yuan Shao pressed step by step, Sun Ce in the rear stared at Xu Du, Liu Bei harassed and fought guerrilla everywhere, Cao Cao had the victory in hand, but he was really panicked in his heart.
However, the heavens will always favor some lucky people at critical times, and Cao Cao has been the darling of the heavens over the years, first of all, Sun Ce, who was preparing to attack Xudu, was assassinated by assassins before the trip; Second, Liu Bei and Liu Pi, who were harassing near Xudu, were defeated by Cao Ren; In the end, Yuan Shao's core adviser Xu Yu took advantage of the night to defect to Cao Cao. The time and place were favorable, and Cao Cao used Xu Yu's suggestion to lightly attack Yuan Shao's grain and grass base camp, Wuchao, and at this critical time, Yuan Shao actually thought of using the method of encircling Wei to save Zhao, and exchanged one with Cao Cao, and as a result, Cao Cao, who fought in the backwater, set fire to Yuan Shao's grain and grass camp.
In October of the fifth year of Jian'an (200 AD), Cao Jun launched a full-scale counterattack against Yuan's army from Guandu. At this time, the soldiers of the Yuan army, who had run out of food, were hungry and cold, and had no intention of fighting, and the so-called 100,000 people soon collapsed into an army, and Cao Cao eventually became the winner of the Battle of Guandu.
The Battle of Guandu fully demonstrated Cao Cao's military talent, while Yuan Shao's side lost eight generals and 70,000 soldiers. Yuan Shao himself fled with only a few hundred people, so the entire north had no place for Yuan Shao from then on, and Cao Cao became the overlord of the entire north.