In the first year of Jian'an (196), Jia Xu, who was uncomfortable staying here in Duan Xuan, planned to find another way, if the chaos has appeared today, the princes will definitely fight, and the demand for strategists is increasing day by day, but not everyone can take refuge.
Such as Yuan Shao, Liu Biao, Cao Cao, Liu Zhang and the like, the power is strong, and a lot of people have already gathered around them, in terms of relationship and status, as a person from Xiliang, Jia Xu must not be able to integrate into it, and Jia Xu, who is too weak, can only choose someone who is slightly weaker, but a little famous, so as to occupy the initiative.
Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu
So who is Jia Xu's preferred assistant? At present, the best candidate is Zhang Xiu in Nanyang.
Zhang Xiu's family background was inherited from his uncle Zhang Ji, Zhang Ji once and Li Dao, Guo Yan, and Jia Xu were the four captains under Niu Fu's account, and Niu Fu was Dong Zhuo's son-in-law, and he was one of the five commanders of Dong Zhuo's Western Liang Army.
Knowing that Jia Xu defected to him, Zhang Xiu was extremely happy, and even served Jia Xu with the etiquette of his children and grandchildren, which won Jia Xu's heart.
And Jia Xu came up and offered Zhang Xiu the first strategy: to unite Liu Biao.
This can make Zhang Xiu stunned, you must know that Zhang Ji attacked Nanyang County, Jingzhou because of lack of grain and grass, but was killed by a stray arrow, and Jingzhou belongs to Liu Biao's territory, in other words, Zhang Xiu and Liu Biao have a life-and-death feud.
After all, it is an uncle, Zhang Xiu thinks that Jia Xu will definitely not harm himself, but the joint Liu Biao is too outrageous, and hurriedly asks what it means.
It turned out that Liu Biao's Jingzhou was in the land of four wars, and because of Sun Jian's death in the east, Sun Ce and Liu Biao were already incompatible, and the two sides would inevitably fight constantly. As for the north, Nanyang borders Cao Cao's Yuzhou, so it can't be guarded against.
Heroes of the late Han Dynasty
Zhang Xiu's soldiers and horses were brave Liangzhou soldiers, and Zhang Ji died in Sui County, Zhang Xiu would inevitably continue to attack in order to take revenge, threatening Liu Biao's north gate of Jingzhou.
But if Zhang Xiu puts aside his hatred and chooses to unite with Liu Biao, Liu Biao will definitely agree, and he can take the opportunity to ask for land to settle down, wouldn't everyone be happy?
Although Zhang Xiu was skeptical, he still listened to Jia Xu's words and began to contact Liu Biao.
And things turned out to be as Jia Xu expected, knowing that Zhang Xiu was willing to take refuge, he was about to let Wancheng out for him to station, such a lucrative condition, Zhang Xiu thought about it, and directly agreed, after all, there is a shortage of food at the moment, and if there is no food, the Xiliang soldiers below will have to flee.
The Xiliang soldiers are brave and good at fighting
In this way, Zhang Xiu not only gained the territory of Wancheng, but also continued to maintain an independent Xiliang soldier, which was equivalent to Liu Biao's vassal.
And Liu Biao not only removed a threat, but also used Zhang Xiu to help him guard the north of Jingzhou, and the loss was only a small Wancheng.
Both sides were very satisfied with this union, especially Zhang Xiu, who threw himself into the ground for Jia Xu's admiration, and all this was exactly what Jia Xu expected.
I don't know if Zhang Xiu has thought about this question, why did Uncle Zhang Ji have been in Hongnong for so many years, Jia Xu never came, and not long after he died, he came non-stop?
Zhang Xiu didn't know this question, but Jia Xu knew in his heart that Zhang Xiu was chivalrous and good at admonishing, which was simply one of the favorite assistants of strategists in troubled times, who didn't want their plans to be heard?
What's more, Zhang Xiu still trusts himself, and he can use this trust and Xiliang Bing to accomplish his goals.
Honest man Zhang embroidery
As a strategist, Jia Xu must collect information about the surrounding forces, and after learning that Zhang Ji was killed, the chivalrous Zhang Xiu must have worked hard with Liu Biao for revenge, after all, Zhang Xiu's character is really made.
In the early years, Zhang Xiu was an official in Zuli County, and the local rebel army actually killed the county commander Liu Jun under the leadership of Lisheng, out of retribution, Zhang Xiu didn't say a word, and waited for the opportunity to assassinate Lisheng, avenging Liu Jun, so he became famous.
Even the county order that is kind to him can take revenge, not to mention his uncle, so Jia Xu didn't even bring his family, and came quickly, after all, this time is short, once Liu Biao and Zhang Xiu talk about peace and fail, the Xiliang soldiers left by Zhang Ji may really be gone.
Fortunately, there was time, and Jia Xu knew Zhang Xiu's personality well, so this matter was done.
However, Zhang Xiu didn't stay long before he attracted Cao Cao's conquest.
Previously, Cao Cao had just welcomed the Han Dynasty and offered the emperor, and he planned to try the effect of "serving the Son of Heaven to please not be a minister", and the first object was Zhang Xiu, who was slightly weaker in the south.
Serve the Son of Heaven to please not be subordinate
Knowing that Cao Cao's army was coming, Zhang Xiu immediately asked Jia Xu what countermeasures he had, but he didn't expect Jia Xu's answer to be very simple: surrender.
surrendered before fighting, Zhang Xiu said that he didn't understand, and Jia Xu didn't talk nonsense, and directly told him that if he wanted to fight, there was basically no chance of winning.
That embroidery said that there is no Liu Biao in the south, and it can be combined with Liu Biao.
As a result, Zhang Xiuzhi shook his head, thinking that Liu Biaosu prided himself as a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty and would never be an enemy of Cao Cao in the name of the imperial court because of helping Zhang Xiu.
Without Liu Biao's grain and grass assistance, Zhang Xiu couldn't hold out for long at all, rather than taking the initiative to surrender and surrender after defeat, it is better to take the initiative to surrender to preserve his strength, and besides, he can also surrender in the name of surrendering to the imperial court, not afraid of being said.
When Zhang Xiu heard this, he admired, but Jia Xu saw it far away, and immediately chose to take the initiative to surrender to Cao Cao.
At the beginning of the second year of Jian'an (197), Zhang Xiu led the crowd to surrender, and Cao Cao held a banquet that night, but he didn't expect that at the banquet, Cao Cao actually wanted to accept Zhang Ji's widow Zou as a concubine, and that's it, Cao Cao actually secretly contacted Zhang Xiu's general Hu Che'er.
In a word, such a big disaster has been caused
The intention is obvious, that is, to completely occupy Zhang Xiu's Xiliang soldiers.
For Zhang Xiu, it is okay to surrender to Cao Cao, but the premise is that he cannot move his own army and maintain his independence, but Cao Cao stretched out his hand, wouldn't he become the commander of the light pole? How can this be worthy of his uncle, and he plans to turn against Cao Cao at the moment.
So Zhang Xiu came to Jia Xu to discuss, Jia Xu didn't say a word, and offered another strategy: sneak attack.
Of course, sneak attacks also have to pay attention to strategy, Cao Cao is familiar with the art of war, so he will naturally be on guard, how can he attack him unprepared?
The answer is to hide it.
Jia Xu asked Zhang Xiu to pretend to send soldiers to transport ordnance, and the transportation road must pass through Cao Cao's camp, and took the opportunity to transport ordnance, and claimed that there were too few vehicles to transport, and these ordnance were too heavy, so it was better to let the soldiers wear ordnance to transport, so as to reduce the weight of the transport.
Cao Cao felt that this matter was reasonable, so he didn't think about Zhang Xiuhui taking this opportunity to sneak attack.
Jia Xu deserves to be a "poisoner", and ordinary people really can't think of this strategy, which finally made Cao Cao look away.
The battle of Wancheng was a great loss for Cao Cao, who lost his beloved general Dian Wei, his beloved son Cao Ang and nephew Cao Anmin, and buried Cao Wei's serious battle for succession in the future.
The Battle of Wancheng
In this way, Zhang Xiu and Cao Cao formed another big beam.
After that, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao fought again, the enemy of the enemy is a friend, Yuan Shao sent someone to recruit Zhang Xiu, Zhang Xiu also thought that uniting with Yuan Shao at the moment was the best choice to protect himself, and immediately agreed.
However, Jia Xu refused in person, and then gave Zhang Xiu a jaw-dropping plan: surrender to Cao Cao again.
To tell the truth, when Jia Xu first said this plan, Zhang Xiu even thought that he had drunk too much, after all, he had only sneak attacked and killed someone's son and general before, and now surrendered, wouldn't he have thrown himself into the net.
Regarding Zhang Xiu's doubts, Jia Xu explained to Zhang Xiu intimately.
The first is that Cao Cao is now "serving the Son of Heaven to please not be a minister", whether it is Yuan Shao or Zhang Xiu, they are nominally Han courtiers, and they should respect Cao Cao's Han family.
The second is that Yuan Shao is known as an army of 700,000, with strong soldiers and strong horses, and he has no splash at all, and it is easy to be marginalized.
But here is different in Cao Cao, now Cao Cao is in urgent need of people, so thousands of people are different, instead of going to Yuan Shao to put the icing on the cake, it is better to go to Cao Cao's side to send charcoal in the snow, and the status that can be obtained on both sides is obvious.
As for Zhang Xiu's worry about throwing herself into the net, it is not a matter at all in Jia Xu's eyes.
Cao Cao's ambition is in the world, and he must subdue the hearts of the people in the world, if Zhang Xiu defects, he will be killed when he turns back, where do other people dare to defect to Cao Cao, on the contrary, if Cao Cao can abandon his previous suspicions and treat Zhang Xiu well, so magnanimous, it will inevitably attract others to come and defect.
Yuan Shao
After saying this, Zhang Xiu kept nodding his head, and Zhang Xiu was originally a person who was good at admonishment, and he also trusted Jia Xu very much, so he chose to surrender to Cao Cao.
And the consequences were as Jia Xu expected, Cao Cao didn't care about the previous suspicions, and even let Zhang Xiu form a family of children, but Zhang Xiu didn't know, Jia Xu didn't say another reason, that is, he bet on both sides.
After all, Jia Xu didn't know who had the last laugh between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, after all, on the surface, Yuan Shao was powerful, but the internal was not aligned, Cao Cao was weak, but the internal combat effectiveness was strong, it was hard to say.
If Cao Cao wins in the end, then Jia Xu and Zhang Xiu will naturally be treated as before, and if Yuan Shao wins, according to Yuan Shao's belly, he will inevitably clean up a wave of Cao Cao's people, and although Zhang Xiu surrendered to Cao Cao, after all, he has a grudge against Cao Cao, but he will be regarded as Cao Cao's "enemy" and be retained.
Therefore, no matter who wins or loses, Jia Xu is the winner, and this is what Jia Xu has always pursued, and it is also the purpose of defecting to Zhang Xiu: that is, using Zhang Xiu's Xiliang soldiers to let him find a place to survive in troubled times, no matter who wins the world in the future, he can protect himself.
Of course, Zhang Xiu is not bad behind, he did his best on Cao Cao's side, and made many achievements.
Of course, he never cooperated with Jia Xu again, after all, Jia Xu's goal of self-preservation was achieved, and after returning to Cao Cao, he also offered three strategies, and then did not ask about the world.
But for Zhang Xiu, Jia Xu assisted himself for only a few years, but every time Jia Xu proposed, he played cards out of common sense, and every time he was so shocking, but it turned out that Jia Xu was right.
Of course, it is also a tightrope, a bad operation will overturn, fortunately, Zhang Xiu's luck is also good, every time he can land safely, I don't know if Zhang Xiu has thought so in his heart, and there is a strategist like Jia Xu who does not play cards according to common sense, should he cry or laugh?