According to historical records and the impression of many people, Cao Cao was a very murderous person, often killing Tucheng, very brutal, Cao Cao's father in order to avoid Dong Zhuo's rebellion, with a reintroduction back to his hometown, passing through Xuzhou was killed by the Xuzhou army, Cao Cao therefore inspired to take revenge on the Eastern Crusade, in 193 AD, Cao Cao "attacked Tao Qian, Xuzhou Slaughter City".
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Luo Guanzhong portrayed Cao Cao as a character who "would rather let me bear the people of the world than let the people of the world bear me", which is also in line with cao Cao's spiritual core.
A group of soldiers killed his father, he was going to slaughter the city, but in the Three Kingdoms period, there was a person who rebelled, and also killed his son and the love general Dianwei, even Cao Cao himself was almost killed, what is surprising is that this person finally turned to Cao Cao again, and he could still die well!
This person is Zhang Xiu, although he is only a second-rate warlord, his life is full of legends.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, warlords in various places fought in a scuffle for territory, and after Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, he also brought liangzhou's forces into Guanzhong, including Zhang Ji of the Liangzhou Hao clan, who was then known as a general of the Hun Horse. Zhang Xiu, as Zhang Ji's nephew, accompanied Zhang Ji in his early years to fight in the west, and when Dong Zhuo was killed, Zhang Ji and Zhang Xiu attacked Chang'an as Dong Zhuo's old subordinates, and Zhang Xiu also mixed with a Xuanwei Marquis.
However, Dong Zhuo was killed, Zhang Jibu was unable to continue, began to go to Jingzhou to compete with Liu Biao for territory, and was killed by an arrow in the melee, Zhang Ji's army was also absorbed by Zhang Xiu, in the face of such a situation, Liu Biao not only did not take advantage of the victory to pursue Zhang Xiu, but instead sent people to surrender, Zhang Xiu was moved by Liu Biao's benevolence and accepted the reorganization. Liu Biao then arranged for Zhang Xiutun to guard the northern gate of Jingzhou.
Of course, this kind of reorganization of Zhang Xiu was not completely integrated into the Jingzhou Army, but a kind of guest army, and later when Liu Bei surrendered to Liu Biao, it was also this form, although he played a big banner on the surface, but he still had full autonomy.
This laid the groundwork for Zhang Xiu's surrender to Cao Cao in the Later Battle of Wancheng, Cao Cao led a large army to attack Liu Biao in the south, zhang Xiu, who was in the defense of the north gate of Jingzhou, surrendered directly, many people believed that Zhang Xiu betrayed his faith, in fact, in the chaotic world at that time, survival was the first priority, and Cao Cao also used the banner of the Han Room, which was very appealing at that time.
After the acquisition of Zhang Xiu, Cao Cao was ready to continue to attack Liu Biao in the south, but during this time, unexpected things happened, and during Cao Cao's stay in Wancheng, he actually took Zhang Ji's wife Zou Shi (that is, Zhang Xiu's aunt, Zhang Xiu was able to get ahead, largely by borrowing the light of his uncle Zhang Ji).
Zhang Xiu was very annoyed by this, Cao Cao learned of it, wanted to assassinate Zhang Xiu, the result was that the news was accidentally leaked, Zhang Xiu took the lead in sneaking up on Cao Cao, and cao jun was caught off guard, in this war, Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang, nephew Cao Anmin, and Cao Cao's most beloved martial general Dianwei were all killed, and Cao Cao was also beaten to the point of losing his armor.
In the following two years, Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu had frequent military confrontations, and because Zhang Xiu had a strategist Jia Xu, the war was generally in a state of balance, and Cao Cao was also angry.
It is estimated that Cao Cao at that time wanted to chop Zhang Xiu's heart, and this vendetta was not shared by heaven!
However, things took a major turn, two years after Zhang Xiu betrayed Cao Cao, a few months after the end of the last confrontation, Zhang Xiu surrendered to Cao Cao again, and when Zhang Xiu arrived at XuDu, the two people had a good relationship with each other and walked together, in order to show that the two could "forever tie the same heart", Cao Cao let one of his sons marry Zhang Xiu's daughter, worship Zhang Xiu as the general of Yang wu, this turn is estimated that anyone can not look at it, can not count the previous suspicions to this point, it is really strange.
Cao Cao accepted Zhang Xiu's surrender, or put it in the context of the time, after Zhang Xiu rebelled against Cao Cao, when Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu were at war, Yuan Shao wanted to take the opportunity to attack Cao Cao, the Battle of Guandu broke out, just withdrawn from Zhang Xiu's battle, Cao Cao had to fight with the largest boss in the Three Kingdoms, and the pressure could be imagined.
Although Cao Cao's political card of "holding the Son of Heaven to order the princes" was very effective, in the face of the strength of Yuan Shao's 100,000-strong army, the virtual was useless, Yuan Shao, as the fourth and third dukes, had a huge influence, in order to form a strategic encirclement of Cao Cao, Yuan Shao sent emissaries to unite various princes.
As far as the situation at that time was concerned, there were not many people who responded to Yuan Shao, Liu Biao in Jingzhou responded positively, of course, the greatest threat to Cao Cao was Liu Bei, Liu Bei and Dong Cheng at that time engaged in a belt edict, almost overthrowing Cao Cao's only political slogan, at that time Zhang Xiu was also within the scope of Yuan Shao's alliance, the so-called enemy of the enemy is a friend.
The generals of Guanzhong expressed neutrality, neither helping Yuan nor Cao Cao, which shows the difficult situation of Cao Cao at that time, it was at this time that Zhang Xiu listened to Jia Xu's words and refused Yuan Shao's solicitation, but instead surrendered to Cao Cao, which made Cao Cao quite moved, which led to the beautiful picture of the two holding hands behind.
In this process, Cao Cao's impression of Zhang Xiu also changed, at first Zhang Xiu surrendered to Cao Cao without a fight, which Cao Cao did not look up to, yes, Cao Cao is such a person, the person who surrendered to him, he can't see it, Cao Cao's biggest surrender in his life was Liu Biao's son Liu Qi, leading the whole of Jingzhou to surrender, which was originally a great thing, but Cao Cao later said when evaluating Sun Quan: "Give birth to a son like Sun Zhongmou!" If Liu Jingsheng son, guinea pig ears! "Liu Jingsheng is Liu Biao, saying that his son's brain is like a pig and a dog.
Cao Cao did not look up to Zhang Xiu and did not put him in his eyes, so he had a plan to seize Zhang Xiu's widowed aunt and secretly kill Zhang Xiu, but after two years of fighting, Cao Cao found that Zhang Xiu was not as bad as he thought, and in his most difficult time, Zhang Xiu was able to reject Yuan Shao and join the weak Cao Jun camp, showing the sincerity of his heart.
In the Battle of Guandu, Zhang Xiu also made battle achievements, and Cao Cao watched Zhang Xiu as a general who broke the Qiang, gained a firm foothold in the lineup of Cao Cao's army, won Cao Cao's trust, accompanied Cao Cao in the southern expedition to the north, and died of illness on the way to Wuhuan.
Some people speculate that Zhang Xiu was murdered by Cao Cao, which is unfounded, Cao Cao's conquest of Wuhuan was a very difficult battle, the marching road conditions were bad, not to mention that Zhang Xiu was old at that time, that is, Guo Jia, an important strategist under Cao Cao, also died in this conquest at the age of thirty-eight.
Although Cao Cao had a previous crime of slaughtering the city, it cannot be denied that Cao Cao was a man of temperament, especially in the Battle of Guandu, the generals who had kindness to Cao Cao, he remembered in his heart, such as Guan Yu for Cao Cao to relieve the siege of the white horse, Cao Cao said that he was the Marquis of Hanshouting, when Guan Yu wanted to follow Liu Bei, he still let go, this kind of generosity, and very human can have.
The reason why Cao Cao was portrayed by Luo Guanzhong as "I'd rather let me bear the world's people than let the people of the world bear me" is because Cao Cao and Chen Gong said it when they killed Lü Bohao, Chen Gong couldn't see Cao Cao's personality, so he left, in the right history, Cao Cao was very good to Chen Palace, but Chen Gong joined forces with Lü Bu during Cao Cao's conquest to seize Cao Cao's territory, and later Lü Bu's wife said when talking to Lü Bu about Chen Palace: "Cao Cao treats Chen Palace like a baby in the arms of his father's mother, you treat Chen Palace, you can't surpass Cao Cao, and even give the whole city to him?" "It's clear who makes people bad.