The famous Chinese classical literature "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" can be called a textbook of power, wisdom or yang and conspiracy. In this magnificent historical novel, all kinds of wisdom and ingenuity emerge endlessly, dazzling and dizzying. In terms of planning, only you can't think of it, and there is no wisdom of the Three Kingdoms that can't do it. This classical book can be said to be a political, military, diplomatic, and personnel encyclopedia of strategies, and in this literary work that has had a great influence on the literature, military, and power and deception of later generations, there may be only one amazing "counter-plan" that has had an important impact on a certain turning point in history, which is the legendary story of Zhou Yu using Jiang Gan to borrow Cao Cao's hand to eliminate the big trouble of Cai Mao and Zhang Yun.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the masses were vying for hegemony and the three kingdoms of Wei, Wu, and Shu had not yet formed, Cao Cao gradually pacified most of the area north of the Yellow River by "holding the Son of Heaven hostage to order the princes", and then he sent hundreds of thousands of troops, claiming millions of people to the outside world, and launched a large-scale southern expedition in an attempt to eliminate the Forces of Sun Quan who occupied Jiangdong and unify the world again.
The newly ascended lord of Jingzhou, Liu Chun, saw that Cao's army was powerful, panicked, and surrendered without a fight, and Juzhou surrendered to Cao Cao. Cao Cao occupied Jingzhou almost without a single soldier, and also received tens of thousands of Jingzhou water troops and dozens of huge ships, and his confidence increased greatly. After breaking Jingzhou, he used the Jingzhou generals Cai Mao and Zhang Yun as the governors of the water army to train water masters for himself.
Cao's army came from the north, mainly on infantry and horseback, and the generals were good at riding and shooting but did not understand water warfare, if Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, who were familiar with water warfare, could train a water army that was good at water warfare for Cao Cao, then the military superiority and combat characteristics of Eastern Wu would basically not be threatening.
Cai Mao and Zhang Yun trained the water army for Cao Cao day and night, and they worked hard. Zhou Yu, the governor of Eastern Wu, took a small boat at night to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, and when he went to the vicinity of the Cao Army's naval division camp, he saw that the ships were lined up, the columns were neat and orderly, and he obviously had a certain ability to fight water, and he was very worried in his heart.
After returning home, Zhou Yu thought hard about countermeasures, but he couldn't do anything. It just so happened that Cao Cao's curtain guest Jiang Gan crossed the river to visit. Jiang Gan had been in the same window as Zhou Yu, and the two had a close relationship. When Jiang Gan came this time, he boasted to Cao Cao that haikou was going to "rely on his three inches of incorruptible tongue to say that this person (referring to Zhou Yu) would come to Jiangdong to descend." Zhou Yu and Jiang Gan's classmates for several years, well aware that this man has no plot in his belly, but he has a good tongue, very good at bragging, he came this time, but zhou Yu had a plan, just through his tongue to get rid of The Great Trouble of Dongwu's henchmen Cai Mao and Zhang Yun.
Zhou Yu warmly received his old classmate Jiang Gan, ordered him to set up a banquet, and said that he would only talk about the old feelings of his classmates, not talk about Cao and Wu's attacks, and that the offenders would be beheaded immediately, so as not to prevent Jiang Gan from visiting as a lobbyist for Cao Cao.
Zhou Yu's shouting had a deterrent effect, making Jiang Gan a little desperate, but before he came, he had made a promise to Cao Cao, and he said it too hard, and he could not receive it back, and he could not become a lobbyist, but he always had to catch something to go back, so as not to be empty-handed, unable to make a difference, and would also be laughed at and despised.
Zhou Yu's operation paved the way for the later Jiang Gan to steal books.
The classmates had not been seen for a long time, and once they had been reunited for a long time, it was inevitable that they would not talk about the wine and get drunk, and Zhou Yu deliberately arranged to lie on the same bed with Jiang Gan and sleep on his feet to dispel his suspicions; he also pretended to be overwhelmed by alcohol and fell into a deep sleep to provide an opportunity for Jiang Gan to steal books.
Sure enough, Jiang Gan saw that Zhou Yu was snoring like thunder, so he quietly got up and peeked at the letter documents of Governor Wu Dadu, and one of the letter envelopes was covered with the words "Cai Mao, Zhang Yunfeng", and pulled it out, and the letter read: "A certain class descended cao, not Tu Shilu, forced by the ear." Now the Northern Army has been trapped in the village, but it has the convenience to dedicate the head of Cao Thief to his command. Sooner or later, when people arrive, they will report it. Fortunately, don't be suspicious, and respect it first." Jiang Gan's heart was like hitting a deer, and if he had obtained the most precious treasure, he quickly crept out and fled across the river overnight to escape back to Cao Cao's camp.
Cao Cao was a man of complex personality, both generous and suspicious, and immediately summoned Generals Cai and Zhang Er to ask, "I want you two to immediately lead an army to attack Eastern Wu, is it okay?" Cai and Zhang replied: "The (water) army has not yet been trained, so it should not be rashly advanced." This answer seems to verify that the information brought by Jiang Gan is not empty. Cao Cao was furious, so he didn't investigate deeply, he drank: "If the army is skilled, my first rank is dedicated to Zhou Langyi!" The two could not argue, and ordered the sergeant to launch a beheading.
After all, Cao Cao was a brilliant and wise man, and when he saw the bloody first rank of the two, he suddenly woke up and realized: "I am in the middle of the plan"! However, the order was given by himself, and he could not admit his mistake, and when the crowd was surprised to ask the reason, Cao Cao had to cover up in a vague and vague way: "The two people neglected the military law, and I beheaded them."
When Zhou Yu heard the news that Cai Mao and Zhang Yun had been killed by Cao Cao, he only said one sentence: "My patients, these two people's ears." Now that I have eliminated it, I have no worries." If Cai Mao and Zhang Yunzai had been there, Xu Shu's "serial plan" would have been discovered, the fiasco of burning Chibi would not have happened, perhaps Sun Quan's clique would have been wiped out by Cao Cao in one fell swoop, and the fragmented China would have been unified by him decades earlier.
【Illustrations from the Internet】