The Battle of Guandu, one of the most famous battles of the Three Kingdoms period. In the end, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao with a weak victory and unified northern China, which was a household name. But how did Cao Cao defeat Yuan Shao's 110,000 men with 20,000 troops? In that era of cold weapons, the strategy should be there, but under the advantage of such a huge disparity in numbers, how could Yuan Shao lose? Today, we will talk about the decisive key figure in the victory or defeat of this war: Xu You.
Xu You, Yuan Shao, and Cao Cao are three people who are small, and their relationship is very unusual, in our words, they are good friends when they are small, peeking at widows bathing, stealing other people's brides, and doing all the dirty things of stealing chickens and dogs.
In the first year of Zhongping (184), Xu You, in conjunction with various local powerful people, plotted to abolish emperor Hanling and establish the Marquis of Hefei as emperor, and asked Cao Cao to work with him. Cao Cao thought that your immature idea was too immature, and he directly refused. Sure enough, the matter was exposed somehow. The Han Ling Emperor summoned them to the court. Some people commit suicide in fear, and Xu You flees without knowing what he is doing.
Five years later (189), when Dong Zhuo monopolized the people of the imperial government for a long time, the whole society was on the verge of collapse and chaos in the world. Large and small anti-Dong forces poured out of all parts of the country, including two major groups headed by Yuan Shao and Cao Cao. Xu You then followed Yuan Shao's development, and Xu You urged Yuan Shao to join forces with Cao Cao and other anti-Dong forces to overthrow Dong Zhuo's rule, which is the famous Eighteen-Way Princes in history to attack Dong Zhuo. The leader of the alliance was Yuan Shao.
After Dong Zhuo was overthrown, the whole country was divided up by these large and small anti-Dong forces. At the beginning, the two major groups of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao did not pay attention to anyone, each developing its own, and the two constantly annexed and plundered the surrounding territories. Eleven years later ( 200 ) , the territory of the two was joined together. The famous battle of the Three Kingdoms period, the Battle of Guandu, broke out.
In the past, the good friends turned against each other, and they never saw the beautiful situation of peeking at the widow taking a bath together.
At the beginning of the Battle of Guandu, Xu You said: "Cao Cao has few soldiers, and he concentrates all his strength to resist our army, if you send a team to advance lightly and sneak into Cao Cao's hometown of Xuchang, so that he cannot take care of both the head and the tail, he will be able to capture Cao Cao." Yuan Shao disagreed, saying, "I want to fight him head-on." ”
I guess Xu You must have thought in his heart that there was something in this thing's braincase.
At this time, someone in Xu You's family broke the law, and the trial of the people who stayed in Yecheng arrested them, Xu You was furious when he found out, or perhaps to save himself, so he defected to Cao Cao overnight.
Cao Cao heard of Xu You's arrival and greeted him barefoot. Xu You was Yuan Shao's adviser and knew many secrets of Yuan Jun, so he turned to Cao Cao, and cao Cao's beating of Yuan Shao was not the same as opening a hanging.
Xu You suggested that Cao Cao send troops to Wuchao. Cao Cao followed Xu You's advice and made a surprise attack on Wuchao and set fire to the grain in the granary. Yuan Shaojun's army was in disarray, and the front line collapsed completely.
The kitchen was all burned down, and it was a hammer to play with.
Cao Cao won a great victory in the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao killed more than a thousand soldiers, cut off all their noses, and sent them to the Yuan army together with the tongues of cattle and horses, and the generals of the Yuan army were horrified.
Chun Yu Qiong captured The General Le Jin for Cao Cao and was brought before Cao Cao. Cao Cao remembered that he was a former colleague and only cut off his nose to leave Chun Yu Qiong's life. Xu You advised: "In the future, when he looks in the mirror and sees his severed nose, he will not forget today's shame." After listening, Cao Cao agreed to kill Chun Yu Qiong.
Four years later ( 204 ) , Cao Cao pursued Yuan Shao 's forces and attempted to annihilate Yuan Shao in one fell swoop. At this time, Yuan Shangzhen was defending the city of Yicheng, and Cao Cao was difficult to conquer. Xu You made a plan to make the Zhanghe River break the embankment and flood the city of Ye, successfully conquering the city, and Yuan Shang's army fled in defeat. As soon as the city fell, Yuan Shao's foundation completely collapsed. Cao Cao successfully pacified Jizhou and dominated the north.
Xu Youli had merit, but Xu You, who was proud of his high merits, repeatedly belittled Cao Cao, and every time he attended, regardless of the occasion, he called Cao Cao's nickname directly, saying: "Ah Qi, without me, you will not get Jizhou." ”
Cao Cao smiled on the surface and said, "You're right. "But there is a lot of mustard in my heart.
When I was a child, your name was ah qi, and now I am a good villain, a noble third duke, and you have a mouthful of ah cai, which makes me so embarrassed.
Once, Xu You came out of the east gate of Yecheng and said to the left and right: "This family (referring to Cao Cao) cannot enter this gate without me." Someone reported it to Cao Cao, so Xu You was taken into custody and eventually killed.
Regarding Xu You's death, the world is quite controversial. But history is written by living people, and it is so simple to want to give him a crime, in my opinion, Xu You is just a pawn of Cao Cao against Yuan Shao, and yuan shao's existence will be dispensable once he falls