Chapter 13 3. Battle of Guandu

Beginning in 190 AD, after ten years of war and elimination, most of the leaders gradually withdrew from the political arena. There are two players left - Cao Cao and Yuan Shao.Yuan Shao occupied the four prefectures of Jizhou, Qingzhou, Bingzhou, and Youzhou; Cao Cao controlled most of the areas from Guanzhong in the west, Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Xuzhou in the east, south of the Yellow River, and north of Huaihan.The two giants confronted each other in the lower reaches of the Yellow River across the river from north to south. One mountain cannot contain two tigers, it is imperative for Cao Cao and Yuan Shao to show off, and the leader is Yuan Shao, who is invincible.In February of the fifth year of Jian'an, Yuan Shao preemptively sent general Yan Liang across the Yellow River to attack Baima, and at the same time sent general Wen Chou to attack Yanjin, and the Battle of Guandu began.

Yuan Shao mainly attacked the white horse, and Liu Yan had only 3,000 men stationed at the white horse. When he resisted until April, he couldn't stand it anymore, so he wrote a chicken feather letter to Cao Cao asking for help.Cao Cao immediately decided to reinforce the White Horse. His counselor Xun You suggested that instead of attacking the White Horse, we should attack Yanjin, and make a posture that we will cross the Yellow River from Yanjin and encircle Yuan Shao's back road. In this way, Yuan Shao will be deceived and send troops to reinforce Yanjin. This is the so-called strategy of "strike the east and attack the west". Cao Cao understood it, so he led an army to march towards Yanjin with great fanfare.Sure enough, Yuan Shao was fooled and immediately sent reinforcements to Yanjin.Cao Cao stopped halfway, and sent Guan Yu to lead a troop of light cavalry to attack the white horse along the path.

Why is Guan Yu under Cao Cao?In 199 AD, Liu Bei rebelled against Cao Cao. Cao Cao personally led elite soldiers to attack Liu Bei, occupied Pei County, and recovered Xuzhou. Liu Bei was defeated and fled to Yuan Shao's tent.Cao Cao cherished Guan Yu as a hero and loved him in every possible way. Although Guan Yu was grateful, he couldn't forget his brother Liu Bei. Now is the opportunity to make meritorious deeds, Guan Yu and his party suddenly descended on the white horse like magic soldiers and generals, Yan Liang was caught off guard, and Guan Yu chopped off his head on the spot.At this time, Yuan Shao realized that he had fallen into Cao Cao's plan to attack the west, and quickly sent Liu Bei and Wen Chou to intercept Cao Cao.Cao Cao had already expected Yuan Shao's reaction, and had no intention of defending the white horse. In order to prevent Yuan Shao from taking revenge on the local people after arriving in Baima, Cao Cao decided to take the people in Baima along the Yellow River to Yanjin.Marching with the common people, the speed will naturally not be fast.Not long after, Liu Bei and Wen Chou's troops rushed forward.

At that time, Cao Cao was leading five or six hundred cavalrymen to a hillside. The sentinel reported that several hundred cavalrymen had come, and after a while they reported another thousand cavalrymen, and there were countless infantrymen.Cao Cao heard that, not only did not flee, but ordered all the troops to rest on the spot.The subordinates are surprised, the enemy is coming, we should prepare to fight, how can we rest?Moreover, the baggage brought in from the white horse, such as food and cloth, were all thrown on the road in a mess, so they had to clean it up, right?Cao Cao said, don't worry about it, I have my own measure.It turned out that this was another trick of Cao Cao - a trick to lure the enemy.

Sure enough, Liu Bei and Wen Chou's cavalry rushed over. Seeing that the ground was full of good things, they hesitated for a while, but they couldn't resist the temptation. The enemy stopped fighting and got off their horses to pick up the treasures.At this time, Cao Cao stood up suddenly and gave the order to get on the horse!All of a sudden, trumpets and drums blared, and the sound of killing shook the sky. Six hundred cavalry rushed down from the hill, beating Yuan Jun to flee in all directions, and Wen Chou was also beheaded by Guan Yuli.When Liu Bei saw this situation, the hero didn't suffer the immediate loss, so he smeared the soles of his feet with oil, turned around and ran away.Guan Yu made this contribution as a repayment for Cao Cao's kindness, so he left a farewell letter and a reward from Cao Cao. He rode a red rabbit horse to chase his brother who ran faster than a rabbit.

At the beginning of the war, Cao Cao caught Yuan Shao by surprise and killed two of Yuan Shao's generals, which can be said to have won a preliminary victory.However, Yuan Shao had a great advantage in military strength after all. At that time, Yuan Shao was known as an army of 100,000, while Cao Cao had less than 10,000 troops. Therefore, if Cao Cao wanted to win the final victory, he had to make arduous efforts.Next, the war entered the most difficult stalemate period. After Cao Cao won, he did not garrison Baima, nor did he stay in Yanjin, but retreated to Guandu.When Yuan Shao saw it, he became more and more proud. Cao Cao retreated after winning the battle, obviously because he was afraid of me, so he followed closely, pitched a tent at Guandu, and confronted Cao Cao.Yuan Shao also asked every soldier to bring a three-foot-long rope so that he could catch Cao Cao and tie him up on the spot.Yuan Shao is really cute, don't even think about it, is Cao Cao so easy to catch?He didn't even expect Cao Cao's good intentions in this move.From Baima to Guandu, Yuan Shao's supply line was longer, but Cao Cao's was shorter.Cao Cao put himself in a favorable position by retreating.

After the two armies set up their tents at Guandu, they began to use their unique skills, fighting wits and courage.Yuan Shao first built a high hill on his side, and built tall buildings on the hill, and then sent archers to shoot arrows at Cao Ying.High-altitude archery, like the current rocket launcher, cannot be blocked, and Cao Jun suffered heavy casualties.How could Cao Cao wait to die, so he made a machine called a stone cart, which used the principle of leverage to throw a huge boulder upwards, smashing Yuan Shao's wooden building into pieces. Yuan Shao dug tunnels again, intending to dig to Cao Ying and give Cao Cao a lot of trouble.Seeing the trick, Cao Cao dug a deep ditch and a wide trench around the camp, which bankrupted Yuan Shao's Tuxingsun plan.

After a few months, both sides were extremely exhausted, especially on Cao Cao's side, the food and grass were running out, the soldiers were exhausted, and the situation was even more embarrassing.One day Xudu's grain transport trucks came, and Cao Cao went to work in the army. He saw that the transport team was exhausted and exhausted. Some transporters didn't even have shoes, and they were walking barefoot.Seeing this, Cao Cao was very sad. He took the transporter's hand and said, "Brothers have worked hard. Please give me another 15 days. After 15 days, I will never let you work so hard again."

How can Cao Cao be sure of winning within fifteen days?He actually didn't want to fight anymore.Compared with Yuan Shao, he was single and weak, so he couldn't compete with other people's strength. Cao Cao planned to withdraw his troops within fifteen days.He wrote a letter to Xun Yu who stayed behind in Xudu, but Xun Yu firmly opposed it.Xun Yu used the example of the battle between Chu and Han to encourage Cao Cao, saying that although you are at a disadvantage, it may not be more embarrassing than when Liu Bang was in Chenggao, Xingyang. Lost momentum ah!Yuan Shao's mobilization this time is clearly to fight us to the death, if you retreat, he will advance, we have no way out, we can only hold back.Cao Cao asked Jia Xu again, and Jia Xu said, "Mr. Cao, you surpass Yuan Shao in four respects, your wisdom surpasses Yuan Shao, your courage surpasses Yuan Shao, your employment surpasses Yuan Shao, and your determination surpasses Yuan Shao. But why can't you win after fighting for half a year?" Woolen cloth?This is because you blindly seek stability and worry too much. As long as you make up your mind and concentrate your strength on a fierce attack, you will surely win.

The words of the two counselors were like a reassurance, calming Cao Cao's restless heart. Cao Cao made up his mind to stick to the end, fight to the end, and never return! Just when Cao Cao made up his mind, the turning point came suddenly and rescued Cao Fang from the stalemate of the war.What happened? In the difficult stage of the stalemate at Guandu, if Cao Cao gave up holding on, the situation in the world may be rewritten.In wars, especially in cold wars, opportunities and risks coexist, and no one is sure of victory. At critical moments, the two sides compete for strength, intelligence, and will. Which side has the stronger will? Which side will have more chances of winning, often a little more effort will bring the final overall victory.Of course, "Persevere and you will win" is not only applicable to war.