Compared with many emperors, Cao Cao's comprehensive quality is enough to rank among the best, but in the initial stage of his career, Cao Cao's location is very unfavorable to him.
Yanzhou was in the land of four wars, around 197 AD, there was the powerful Yuan Shao in the north, the sinister and vicious Yuan Shu in the south, Zhang Xiu was entrenched in Wancheng, and Cao Cao was a stranglehold, in the east there was the sworn enemy Lü Bu, and in the west there were the veteran warlords Ma Teng and Han Sui.
Cao Cao looked around, there was no fuel-saving lamp, even if Cao Cao had already held the Heavenly Son in his hand at that time, it was still like walking on thin ice, and if he lost his hand, he might lose everything.
After the planning of Xun Yu, Guo Jia and other strategists, Cao Cao prepared to solve Zhang Xiu and Lü Bu first, and then plotted to destroy Yuan Shao, Cao Cao thought about it repeatedly, and in 197, decided to take Zhang Xiu first. Theoretically, Zhang Xiu was a relatively weak one among many warlords, but unexpectedly, Cao Cao planted a big heel on Zhang Xiu, not only almost killed himself, but also buried his son and a fierce general.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="76" > Cao Cao coveted women and angered Zhang Xiu</h1>
In the rendition, Zhang Xiu was known as the "Gun King of the North", and in the first month of 197 AD, Cao Cao led an army to attack Zhang Xiu, and soon after, Zhang Xiu directly surrendered the city. The reason why Zhang Xiu did this was mainly because Jia Xu gave advice to him in the back, and this top master of power in the Three Kingdoms helped Zhang Xiu a lot.
At that time, Cao Cao's strength was far inferior to Yuan Shao's, so Cao Cao was very welcome to join Zhang Xiu, however, at this stall, there was a small episode.
Historical records record that "He took Zhang Ji's wife and hated it; and he embroidered Hu Che'er with gold and embroidery, and embroidered it and was suspicious of it."
In Zhang Xiu's camp, Cao Cao found a beautiful woman, that is, Zhang Xiu's aunt, known as Lady Zou in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and we will call her Lady Zou. Lady Zou was Zhang Ji's wife, and this Zhang Ji was Zhang Ji who counterattacked Chang'an with Li Dai and Guo Feng, and Zhang Xiu was Zhang Ji's nephew.
Prior to this, Zhang Ji had died, and Zhang Xiu's successor to the uncle's forces, although Zhang Xiu raised troops to surrender, but he did not intend to sacrifice his aunt to Cao Cao, Cao Cao's lustful behavior caused Zhang Xiu's dissatisfaction.
Historical records record that "Embroidery has a pro-Hu Che'er, bravely crown its army." Taizu loved qi Xiaojian and held it with gold. Embroidered and suspected that Taizu wanted to stab him left and right, so he rebelled. ”
In addition, Cao Cao also bribed Zhang Xiu's general Hu Che'er with a lot of money, which made Zhang Xiu, who had just surrendered, change from suspicion to fear, and he was afraid that Cao Cao would kill him. So, did Cao Cao really want to kill Zhang Xiu? Before that, Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu did not have much hatred, Zhang Xiu defected to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao was too late to be happy, which was obviously unlikely.
If Cao Cao really wanted to kill Zhang Xiu, he would definitely do a good job of all kinds of countermeasures, and judging from the situation of Zhang Xiu's sneak attack after that, Cao Cao did not have any defenses at all, which made Zhang Xiu's sneak attack successful.
Just when Cao Cao thought that everything was going well, Zhang Xiu counterattacked and let Cao Cao suffer a big loss.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="34" > Zhang Xiu counterattacked, and Cao Ang saved his father and was killed</h1>
If Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu were to fight with real knives and guns, Zhang Xiu would definitely not be an opponent, but at that time, Cao Cao was defenseless, and Zhang Xiu suddenly sneaked into Cao Cao's camp and caught Cao Cao off guard.
Historical records record that "the name of the horse in the office was lost, and it was hit by a stream of arrows, injuring the cheek and foot, and the right arm of the duke." ”
Cao Cao rode a horse named Absolute Shadow, in the chaos, Cao Cao was about to run on horseback, but the horse was shot by an arrow, without a horse, it was difficult to escape, it was an emergency, the eldest son Cao Ang saw that his father had no horse to ride, and immediately gave up his horse to his father.
Historical records record that "attacked Cao Jun and killed Cao's eldest son, Ang." the middle of the arrow, lose away.
Cao Cao couldn't take care of so much, and rode away on his horse, even so, Cao Cao was also wounded by arrows, and the troops behind chased him, Cao Ang was killed in the rebel army, along with Cao Ang's nephew Cao Anmin.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="79" > died in battle</h1>
In the process of Cao Cao's escape, in addition to the eldest son Cao Ang sacrificing horses, Dianwei was the greatest hero, and if Dianwei did not stop him, Cao Cao would probably die in the rebellion.
Cao's army was fierce, but when it came to the value of individual soldiers, Dianwei was strong enough to take the lead, and when Cao Cao feasted on Zhang Xiu, Dianwei was guarding him, he was holding a long axe, standing left and right, and whenever he saw Zhang Xiu's people, he stared angrily, and Zhang Xiu and his men were shocked and did not dare to look up.
Dianwei was superior in arm strength, proud, and loyal to Cao Cao, and in view of Dianwei's military value, Cao Cao appointed him as a lieutenant, with guards at his left and right. This time, Zhang Xiu surrendered and rebelled, just happened to run into Dianwei, Cao Cao wanted to escape, dianwei was in charge of the palace, delaying time.
Historical records record that "Lieutenant Dianwei fought with Xiuli, left and right were slightly killed and wounded, and Wei was wounded dozens of times." The embroidered soldiers fought forward, and Wei Shuang threatened the two to kill them, and they died with a scolding. ”
At that time, Dianwei only brought a dozen people, and Zhang Xiu came prepared and had a large number of people, even so, under Dianwei's obstruction, Zhang Xiu's soldiers could not rush over. Dianwei held a spear, rushed left and right, and immediately repelled a large number of enemies, and Dianwei's soldiers were not inferior, one by one, and killed the enemy in one place.
Dianwei's men were too few and surrounded by enemy groups, and at this moment, Dianwei burst out with amazing combat strength, cutting off more than a dozen enemy spears under one sword, and Zhang Xiu's troops were stunned. During the charge, Dianwei was also hit by dozens of wounds, just as the so-called good tiger could not stand a group of wolves, under the siege of the enemy, Dianwei bled too much, in order to protect Cao Cao, fought and died.
Cao Cao escaped from the siege and saved his life. In this sneak attack, Cao Jun did not hurt Yuan Qi, Lieutenant Colonel Pingyu organized troops in time to stabilize the situation, Cao Cao's injuries were not serious, and the most heart-wrenching thing was that Cao Cao lost his son and Dianwei.
When Cao Ang's adoptive mother, Lady Ding, learned that Cao Ang had been killed, she blamed Cao Cao and said, "You killed my son, and I have nothing to linger on!" Subsequently, Mrs. Ding returned to her hometown.
When Cao Cao was dying, he was still guilty about Cao Ang's affair, and sighed: "I acted before and after, and I did not have any responsibility in my heart." If death were to be made of spirit, if the Son asked, 'Where is my mother,' I would answer! ”
Knowing that Dianwei died for him, Cao Cao wept bitterly, and after finding Dianwei's body, he personally handled the aftermath for him. All in all, Cao Cao had countless setbacks in his life, but the loss of his son and Dianwei this time hit him the hardest and made him feel pain, if Cao Cao really collapsed because of this, there would be no Cao Wei after him.
The road to the emperor has never been smooth, not only requires superb strategy and the art of taming people, but also needs a strong heart, after experiencing a huge blow, Cao Cao finally survived, Cao Cao is not a mortal after all, in Cao Cao's mind, perhaps only continue to walk firmly, is the best consolation for the victims!
References: Zizhi Tongjian, Volume 62, Wei Luo
Author: Our special guest author Nine Fish Pavilion