During the Three Kingdoms period, heroes and heroes emerged. In that chaotic world, countless heroes who were revered by future generations emerged. Even in such an era of strife, there are still people who can become famous in one battle and leave a glorious mark. The man we mentioned today is to pass on the legacy of a classic battle, and he is Zhou She.
The story of Zhou Qu's hair cutting off and earning Cao Xiu is a classic passage in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and it is also a relatively rare part of this novel that respects historical facts and is very wonderful at the same time. Zhou Qu used the trick of deception to trick Cao Xiu into going deep alone with tens of thousands of troops, which resulted in a fiasco, and Cao Xiu himself died in shame. Then, Cao Xiu, who was highly powerful in the Wei state, should be very capable, why did he make such a huge mistake? Today, let's start with what happened here.
In the second year of Cao Wei's reign (228 CE), the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui, who had reigned for two years, ordered Sima Yi to go south from Hanshui and Sima Cao Xiu to lead an army to Xunyang, totaling two large armies to attack Wu. This was another large-scale military campaign by Cao Wei after the fourth year of the Huang Dynasty (223 AD).
This premise is very important, but it is often overlooked. If the world is too peaceful and Zhou Qu comes to deceive, I am afraid that Cao Xiu may not believe it. The real situation was that Cao Xiu led a large army to march, and he was full of confidence, and was likely to expect the Eastern Wu general to kneel and beg for forgiveness. And Zhou Qu's surrender may only be in line with Cao Xiu's good wishes.
Even so, Cao Xiu was not so easy to deceive. In order to successfully hide the sky and cross the sea, Zhou Qu did enough work. In order to gain Cao Xiu's trust, Zhou Sent his own cronies to write seven letters to Cao Xiu in a row to express his sincerity. The number of these seven letters, first, seemed to be valued, and second, there was indeed the kind of caution that really surrendered, which first gave Cao Xiu a psychological hint.
In these seven letters, Zhou Qu gradually expressed his sincerity to Cao Xiu. He begins with a lyrical willingness to naturalize, and then tells the reasons for his surrender. According to Zhou She's letters, his predecessor Taishou of Poyang was punished simply because of the mutiny of the people, and he had no choice but to surrender to Cao Wei, but the secret was leaked and he was beheaded by the door. In his letter, Zhou Said that he was now the Taishou of Poyang, and the people here were still restless. He was afraid that he would be the next to suffer, so he could only surrender to Cao Wei and save the life of his whole family.
Next, Zhou Qu also broke the news, providing Cao Xiu with the plan of Sun And Liu's two families to jointly attack Cao Wei, and the content was extremely detailed. Then, he "pointed out a clear path" to Cao Xiu: Eastern Wu's heavy troops were hanging outside and the interior was empty, and he would help Cao Xiu open the gate of Anhui, and Cao Jun could go all the way to Wuchang and take Eastern Wu.
In order to show his sincerity, Zhou Qu not only sent two of his closest confidants, but also was willing to leave one of them as a hostage. In the end, he also applied to Cao Xiu for the Great Seal of the General and Marquis of Wei, saying that he wanted to reward his subordinates, everything was similar, and his acting skills were extremely high.
Even so, Cao Xiu was still very cautious, and sent his men to investigate many times, asking Zhou Qu this and that. In these several inspections, any one of them may be a mistake, resulting in the abandonment of previous achievements. Fortunately, Zhou Qu was fully prepared, did not show any flaws, and his words were very consistent, which made Cao Xiu relax his guard.
In order to complete the final blow to Cao Xiu's vigilance, Zhou Qu even angrily cut the hair on his head to Mingzhi.
This was a very important move that completely made Cao Xiu give up his suspicions about him. We all know that the ancients paid attention to "the skin of the body, the parents, do not dare to destroy", and cutting hair in ancient times even belonged to a kind of punishment, which is the so-called punishment. At first, Because Cao Cao violated his own orders, he also punished himself with a punishment. For the ancients, the punishment of punishment was extremely severe. It was such a move that made Cao Xiu believe Zhou Qu.
Zhou Qu also explained in his letter that the local people were fierce and difficult to control (the previous mutinies of the people also laid the groundwork for this place, which was very clever), so he could not lead the army and people to Cao Ying to surrender, and could only bother Cao Xiu to lead a large army to occupy in order to suppress the people. Therefore, in August of that year, Cao Xiu led an army of 100,000 people, weighing countless weights, and went to receive Anhui with great vigor and joy.
He never expected that what awaited him was not Zhou Qu, but Sun Quan, the King of Wu. Cao Xiu knew that he had been deceived, but he still did not accept defeat, and he had an army of 100,000 in his hands, and he wanted to kill a fish with Eastern Wu, and even set up an ambush. However, his every move was already in the hands of Eastern Wu, and the Wu army of Lu Xun, Zhu Huan, and Quan Chun attacked, and Zhou She also gathered the troops of the county and Lu Xun to join forces and cut Cao Xiu's army into several pieces. As for Cao Xiu's so-called ambush troops, they had long been beaten to death and fled in a hurry.
During the battle, Tens of thousands of Cao Wei's troops were destroyed and buried in Eastern Wu. Cao Xiu fled back to Cao Wei, and although Emperor Wei did not punish him, he was ashamed and embarrassed in his heart, and eventually died of depression.
I believe that many people see this and still think that Cao Xiu believes in Zhou Qu so easily, which is still a bit incredible. In fact, there are some details that we have not introduced, and I would like to add them here.
In the third year of the Huang Dynasty (222 AD), Cao Pi launched what I call the most luxurious battle in the history of the Three Kingdoms, but the result was fruitless, only Cao Xiu made a victory, and Cao Pi made Cao Xiu the pastor of Yangzhou. Over the next few years, Cao Xiu won several victories in Anhui, forcing some minor Eastern Wu generals to surrender. Coupled with some early experience of victory, for Cao Xiu, he felt that the war was not difficult.
This was his psychological expectation, Eastern Wu was oppressed by his 100,000-strong army, and it was natural for Eastern Wu to surrender.
However, there are still people who calmly see the problem. For example, Cao Wei's old minister Man Yu pointed out: "Although Cao Xiu has a clear mind and is decisive in doing things, he has always been a staff officer and rarely commands the army alone. Next, together with another old minister, Jiang Ji, he analyzed the situation on the battlefield at that time, believing that once Cao Xiu agreed to surrender, he would go deep alone and face Sun Quan's elite troops, while the local upstream had the famous Eastern Wu general Zhu Ranzhen guarding, and the situation was very dangerous.
Unfortunately, before the favored expression could be delivered to the emperor, Cao Xiu and Lu Xun fought, and finally lost.
Even so, this failure is not a so-called brittle defeat. According to records, although Cao Xiu's initial battle was unfavorable, he could still fight a war. It was only when stationed at The Stone Pavilion at night that the army was suddenly frightened and chaotic, which led to a complete defeat, and it was only with Jia Kui's reinforcements that it was able to escape.
Finally, let's summarize several major reasons why Cao Xiu believed Inqui:
As a staff officer when he was young, the victory rate was relatively high, giving Cao Xiu blind self-confidence and not seeing the ability he lacked as a commander;;
The victory of the battle in the third year of Huang Chu, as well as the achievements in the battle in the next few years, made Cao Xiu have psychological expectations in advance, and it was even possible to think that the surrender of Eastern Wu was an inevitable event;
Cao Wei was the one who took the initiative to attack, so Zhou Qu's surrender was not abrupt, and Cao Xiu had an army of 100,000, and the local advantage was indeed obvious, which made the surrender seem reasonable;
Cao Xiu was wary, and even arranged an ambush after believing in Zhou Qu, and knew that there were reinforcements from Jia Kui, thinking that even if he was deceived, he would not fail miserably;
Zhou Qu's words were rigorous, airtight, his acting skills exploded, and he even did not hesitate to cut off his self-awareness, which completely dispelled Cao Xiu's doubts.
Perhaps, each one alone would not be enough to make the fall successful, but each one could be the last straw that crushed the camel. In this way, Zhou Bream did not hesitate to cut off his hair, and finally exchanged it for a victory and made himself famous in a battle.
While later generations admired Zhou Qu, some people also made different remarks. Pei Songzhi's note in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wushu Zhou, quotes Xu Zhong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, who said that the shou of a county was blamed on protecting the border and the people, and as a result, he took the initiative to seduce Cao Xiu, even at the cost of shaving his hair, and finally gained a meritorious name, which was really not an act appreciated by gentlemen.
I believe that after reading this article, everyone can also make a clear judgment: Zhou Qu did not actively want to pursue fame, but Cao Wei was the first to send troops. Secondly, the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms also clearly states that Zhou Qu was "ordered", and Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian was directly said to have been ordered by Sun Quan, so why did Zhou Qu take the initiative to seduce Cao Xiuyi?
It can be seen that Zhou Qu is worthy of a generation of good ministers, loyal to repay the service, worthy of respect. As for the basis of Xu Zhong's comments, Xiaosheng really didn't understand...