Thirteen years after Jian'an, at the end of 208 AD, Cao Cao suffered a heavy blow in the Battle of Chibi, losing more than half of his soldiers and horses, and the originally planned southern expedition strategy was shelved!
The following year, he lost the southern military town of Jiangling, and the continuous blows made Cao Cao physically and mentally exhausted!
In order to alleviate the depression and frustration caused by this failure, Cao Cao retreated to Yu County with his men and horses, which can be described as the low point of Cao Cao's life. It is said that people will reflect after failure, and Cao Cao is no exception, he has conducted a series of reviews of his past!
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What was in front of Cao Cao was that the road to the south was temporarily impassable!
He conducted a detailed analysis and ranking of the warlord factions in front of him, and found that, for the time being, Sun Quan of Jiangdong ranked first, followed by Liu Bei, then Han Sui, Ma Chao, and some small warlords such as Zhang Lu! The purpose of his ranking is to choose a goal! Worthy of being a tyrant of the Three Kingdoms, his life cannot stop moving forward! So he thought of Han Sui and Ma Chao in the Northwest Pass!
However, when Han Sui and Ma Chao once attacked Yuan Shang, they once helped themselves defeat Gao Gan and Nan Danyu's corps, which was half a friendly army! Since it is a friendly army, it cannot be done directly without reason, morality must still be disguised, and human design cannot collapse!
So Cao Cao thought of a way, that is, to attack Zhang Lu in the name of seizing the territory of Han Sui, Ma Chao and other Guanzhong forces!
Guanzhong forces exist, Cao Cao still has scruples in the south after all, to know that the Guanzhong forces are still relatively strong, although they are relatively weak individually, but they are united, as long as there is something, they will be concentrated together to unite with the outside world! This is the reason why Cao Cao is more jealous of the Guanzhong forces!
Guanzhong forces include: Ma Chao, Han Sui, Candidate, Yang Qiu, Cheng Yin, Li Kan, Zhang Heng, Liang Xing, Cheng Yi, Ma Play, known as the Ten Generals of Guanzhong! The total strength of the army is more than 100,000 people! It is a force to be reckoned with!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > this is not Cao Cao still has some strength, want to poke this honeycomb! </h1>
In the sixteenth year of Jian'an, in March 211, Cao Cao ordered Zhong Xuan, who was guarding Chang'an, to attack Zhang Lu, and sent Xiahou Bao and Xu Huang, who had just quelled the rebellion of Taiyuan Shangyao, to cooperate! In this way, the troops must pass through the territory of Ma Chao and Han Sui when they advance westward!
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The matter of sending troops through the road has happened many times in history, but this is originally a matter that integrates diplomatic relations and military affairs!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="44" > borrowed the road, there are two huge risks for Han Sui and Ma Chao! </h1>
1, offended Zhang Lu, if Zhong Xuan and Xiahou Yuan can not beat Zhang Lu, then Zhang Lu may take this matter to retaliate against Han Sui Ma Chao!
2. If Zhong Xuan and Xiahou Yuan won the battle against Zhang Lu, it was also possible that they would turn their troops and destroy themselves by the way!
Faced with such a risk, how will Han Sui and Ma Chao choose? I think that's a very important question!
Originally, there was still room for negotiation on this kind of thing, because Ma Chao's family was in Cao Cao's hands, and he was not afraid that he would not listen to his own dispatches! What I didn't expect was that Ma Chao, who was stunned, was really young and vigorous, and chose not to listen to Cao Cao, and as a result, Ma Teng was killed!
Ma Chao and Han Sui gathered an army of 100,000 Qiang, Hu, and Han to duel with Cao Cao at Tongguan!
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<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" > the famous Battle of Tongguan begins! </h1>
In August 211, Cao Cao's army marched west along the Yellow River through Hangu and reached Tongguan!
Although this place of Tongguan is an important level, it is not a natural danger to rely on, and it requires a large number of soldiers and horses to guard Tongguan!
So Han SuiMa Chao and the others gathered all their strength to defend Tongguan!
Cao Cao faced this situation, not worried but happy!
The crowd didn't understand the Tao, and Cao Cao was playing a big game! He knew that as long as all the soldiers and horses in Guanzhong were concentrated in Tongguan, it would be beneficial to himself! Because it means that the garrison in other places must be weak, Tongguan is only a frontal battlefield, but the combat soldiers do not have to fight here!
Cao Cao secretly sent Xu Huang and Zhu Ling to lead 4,000 people across Pushanjin and occupy Hexi as a camp! The purpose was to receive Cao Cao's army from Hedong to Hexi! At the same time, it can be used to break the back road of Han Suima!
Originally, only five thousand soldiers and horses could block Cao Jun's westward crossing, but the result was that Xu Huang seized the opportunity to seize the ferry! Ma Chao regretted it! But it's too late!
What followed was a wave of chaotic operations by Cao Cao, who almost did not stun Ma Chao
First of all, Cao Cao in Hexi was captured, and along the river, a fence was made of car trees to separate a passage, and the soldiers and horses could easily advance south!
At this time, Ma Chaotun was in Weikou, and Cao Cao set up a lot of suspicious soldiers along the road to attract Ma Chao's attention! Secretly, however, the boats were pulled from the Yellow River to the Wei River, and a pontoon bridge was built overnight, so that the soldiers and horses could easily cross the Wei River and reach the south bank of the Wei River to camp! Ma Chao was startled by this sudden Cao Jun, what speed is this?
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Cao Cao arrived in Weinan and was not in a hurry to attack! Just couldn't hold out, and made the horse half dead!
During this period, Han Sui, Ma Chao and Cao Cao also met, and Cao Cao only brought Xu Chu! Originally, Ma Chao wanted to make Yin Zhao take the opportunity to arrest Cao Cao, but he did not expect that Huhou Xu Chu would calm Ma Chao! In the end, Ma Chao could not get his wish, and Cao Cao retreated perfectly!
But no matter what, the battle will still be fought, and the scheme will still be played!
Han Sui, Ma Chao, and others began to garrison Tongguan in March, and until the end of the year, the grain and grass were a little anxious! In addition, this year, there was basically no agricultural production, all manpower was put into battle, winter was coming soon, and grain and grass in various places could not be mobilized, and it was a mess!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" > Cao Cao's strategist Jia Xu, known for his conspiracies, he gave Cao Cao a plan! </h1>
Jia Xu believes that now that the grain and grass of the coalition army are in a hurry, they have two choices, one is a decisive battle, and the other is to seek peace! It depends on how they choose!
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The result was that the coalition forces chose to seek peace, and if they asked for peace, it would be a good thing for Cao Cao! So Jia Xu suggested to Cao Cao to pretend to promise them first, as long as their power is dispersed, it is an opportunity for us!
Han Sui and Cao Cao held peace talks, and the result was that the two negotiated very happily, but Han Sui could not show it, and when Ma Chao asked Han Sui what he had talked about, Han Sui flashed his words and did not want much! Ma Chao wondered, is this not what contract they have reached against me?
So the contradiction between Ma Chao and Han Sui was also highlighted!
In the end, the decisive battle still happened, only because there was a gap between Han Sui and Ma Chao, the coordination of the army was not as good as before, and the heart was not in concert! In the end, the coalition forces were defeated by Cao Cao!
Han Suima Chao and others fled to Liangzhou, Yang Qiu went to Anding, and Cheng Yin and Hou Xuannan entered Hanzhong to join Zhang Lu! The rest were wiped out by Cao Cao! Although the Guanzhong forces were not completely solved, they could no longer pose a threat to Cao Cao! Since then, Cao Cao swept the northwest, and his next step was to attack Hanzhong with confidence!