The vast starry sky is boundless, and the years are like songs. In the splendid history of China, countless heroes and heroines are like stars shining, dotted with the galaxy of civilization.
The Three Kingdoms era is full of fierce generals, but there are not many generals who can fight and train troops, and the character we want to talk about today is such an all-round general - Cao Chun.
Cao Chun's reputation in literary works such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is not as famous as that of Cao Ren, Xiahou Huan, Xiahou Yuan, and others, but his talent far exceeds that of the above people, and it is only because he died young that his reputation is not obvious."
Cao Chun was Cao Cao's cousin.
Cao Chun lost his father at the age of fourteen and lived separately from his elder brother Cao Ren. Unlike his brother, who only liked bows and horses, Cao Chun preferred to study and study, and he respected the learned Confucians, often sitting with them, and many Confucians came to him.
Although he lost his father at an early age, but fortunately, his family was well-off, "inheriting his father's business, rich in wealth, and having hundreds of servants and guests", Cao Chun was able to run the family with Discipline at a young age, supervise the imperial servants, and the great family business was well taken care of by Cao Chun alone, so the townspeople thought that Cao Chun was very talented.
Under the propaganda of the townspeople and Confucian disciples, Cao Chun's reputation soon spread and was praised by near and far.
In the fourth year of Zhongping (187), "in the eighteenth year, he was a yellow door attendant", and before he was weakly crowned, Cao Chun was able to enter the dynasty as an official. But at this time, the Number of Eastern Han Qi will be exhausted. Only two years later, Dong Zhuo was in Cholera, and his cousin Cao Cao escaped after failing to assassinate him, "scattering his family wealth and joining the righteous soldiers", recruiting troops at Chen Liu, with the intention of uniting the righteous soldiers of the world to fight against Dong Zhuo.
At this time, Cao Chun, who was only twenty years old, gave up an official uniform and the Confucian classics that he loved, followed Cao Cao to Xiangyi to recruit soldiers, and began his career of fighting horses in all directions. This conquest lasted twenty years.
In Cao Cao's hands, there was such an ace army, called "Tiger and Leopard", "Pure Supervision Tiger and Leopard Riding, all the world is sharp, or from a hundred people will make up for it, Taizu is difficult to command." In order to conquer the world, Cao Cao created such an elite cavalry, but it was difficult for Cao Cao to be selected by whom to command. All along, Cao Cao had held this elite in his hands, but as his power grew, Cao Cao needed a son of his own family who could take on great responsibilities to lead.
However, the tiger and leopard were all hundred generals inside the horse, and it was normal for anyone to disobey anyone, except for their lord Cao Cao, who could convince them?
Cao Chun did it, "Pure selection as the governor, caressing the people's hearts", Cao Chun is good at war, very popular with the people, people pay attention to discipline, do not lose reason, good learning, respect and love pawns.
From the time he took over this army until his death, Cao Chun controlled this "ace army" for five years, which in addition to his great talent, also showed that Cao Chun belonged to one of Cao Cao's most trusted generals.
It has always been a huge cost to build cavalry, not to mention that the person who can serve as a general in the ordinary army is only an ordinary soldier in the "Tiger and Panther Horse", which is enough to see its importance in Cao Cao's mind. Although there are very few records about tiger and leopard riding, every game is a difficult and hard battle, and it is also a trump card that Cao Cao only invested in the most critical moments of the battle.
In the tenth year of Jian'an (205), Cao Cao attacked Yuan Shao's eldest son Yuan Tan, who was unwilling to sit still and fight at Nanpi City. The battle was extremely difficult, in the face of Yuan Tan, who was trapped in the beast, Cao Tan suffered heavy losses, and even Cao Cao almost gave up, only Cao Chun strongly dissuaded Cao Cao from attacking with his division, "Attack quickly, Tan lost."
Chun's subordinates beheaded Tan". In the twelfth year of Jian'an (207), Cao Chun followed Cao Cao on a northern expedition against Wuhuan and met the Wuhuan army on the White Wolf Mountain. At this time, Cao Cao only had a small number of troops around him, and both sides were very frightened, but Cao Cao resolutely ordered an attack, "thinking that he was holding the Liao", Cao Chun and the tiger and leopard rode under the command of Zhang Liao, and defeated Wu Huan, "Beheading Dun and the famous king have been down, and Hu and Han have surrendered more than 200,000 mouths." ”
After defeating Yuan Shao, surrendering Wu Huan, and basically pacifying the north, Cao Cao sent his troops straight to Jingzhou and Jiangdong on fang. In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Cao Cao personally led a large army to march south to Liu Biao, and Liu Biao died of illness during the march, and his son Liu Chun thought that it was impossible to resist, and the people of Jingzhou surrendered to Cao Cao. However, Liu Bei, who had defected to Liu Biao, did not choose to surrender, but led his army to retreat to Jiangling City.
Jiangling was a major town in Jingzhou, and a large number of materials were stockpiled, and Cao Cao was afraid that Liu Bei's strength would increase greatly, so he personally led 5,000 elite cavalry to pursue, and Cao Chun and Tiger and Leopard were in the army.
The tiger and leopard not only caught up with Liu Bei at a speed of "more than three hundred miles a day and one night", but also defeated Liu Bei's army with the impossible combat strength of a tired division, "preparing to abandon his wife and ride away with Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and dozens of others."
In this battle, Cao Chun fought bravely, captured Liu Bei's two daughters, and harvested a large number of heavy weights and pawns. Cao Chun then occupied Jiangling City, and after the defeat at the Battle of Chibi, Cao Chun escorted Cao Cao back to Tan Commandery.
Just when Cao Cao summed up the experience of the defeat in the Battle of Chibi and recruited talents from all over the world, Cao Chun, who was only forty years old, died one step ahead, how could this not make Cao Cao feel sad. Although most of the tigers and leopards were difficult to show because they had to defend Cao Cao, these moments of brilliance were also the most critical and critical times of the war situation.
Cao Chun accompanied Cao Cao for many years, and because of his family's status and outstanding military talent, he was deeply trusted and left an important position in Cao Cao's heart. It is no wonder that after Cao Chun's death, Cao Cao was extremely sad and said the words "pure ratio, how can it be regained".
![What did Cao Cao rely on to rise, and how strong was his strength? Just look at his family and relatives[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)