Chapter 14 4. Yuan Shao was defeated

In Guandu, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao had a stalemate for several months. Cao Cao's army was short of food and food, and Cao Cao could hardly stand it anymore. He even thought of withdrawing his troops. Just when the two sides were in a stalemate, something happened that brought a turn for the war, which was Xu You's rebellion.It turned out that seeing the stalemate between the two armies, Yuan Shao's subordinate Xu You thought of a plan.He said to Yuan Shao, Cao Cao's large army is exhausted in this place, Xudu must be empty, why not take the opportunity to send light cavalry to attack, in this way, we will be the ones who hold the emperor to make the princes, even if we fail, we can let them go Cao Cao was under attack from both sides.This is indeed a clever plan, but Yuan Shao, who is stubborn, doesn't appreciate it. Didn't you see that each of me sent down the three-foot rope?I want to break through Guandu and capture Cao Cao alive!

Xu You's opinion was not accepted. At this time, news came that his family members broke the law in Yecheng and were arrested by the judge.Furious, Xu You left Yuan Shao and defected to Cao Cao.When Cao Cao heard that Xu You was coming, he went out to greet him without even bothering to put on his shoes. He clapped his hands and laughed loudly. Indeed, who is Xu You?He is Yuan Shao's senior counselor, and he has a lot of first-hand information, not to mention that he is very smart and has a lot of tricks.Sure enough, as soon as he saw Cao Cao, Xu You gave him an idea-burn Wuchao.Where is Wuchao?Wuchao is 20 kilometers north of Guandu, where Yuan Shao stockpiles military supplies.Cao Cao immediately adopted this idea, leaving Cao Hong and Xun You guarding at Guandu. He personally led five thousand riders, pretended to use Yuan Jun's banner, tied his mouth with a horse's title, and each of them brought firewood.

At this time, Yuan Shao got the news that Cao Cao had attacked Wuchao.General Zhang Yun suggested to Yuan Shao to immediately send heavy troops to reinforce Wuchao. This Wuchao is too important, and if it is lost, there will be no retreat.But one of Yuan Shao's advisers named Guo Tu disagreed. He said that we should attack Guandu now. If Guandu was in a tight spot, Cao Cao would return to his horse to rescue him. Wouldn't the siege of Wuchao be solved?Yuan Shao's whole heart was wedged in Guandu, and Guo Tu's ideas naturally fit into his arms, so he sent light troops to rescue Wuchao and sent heavy troops to attack Guandu.Zhang He continued to persuade, Guandu is Cao Cao's stronghold, if we can take it, we would have taken it already, do we need to wait until now?It's better to send more troops to save Wuchao, Yuan Shao will ignore it.

At this time, Cao Cao had already arrived at Wuchao, and as soon as he arrived, he besieged and set fire to it. Chunyu Qiong, the guard of Wuchao, was attacked at night, and there was chaos.The next morning, Yuan Shao's reinforcements also arrived. Cao Cao not only resisted without dividing his troops, but also issued a death order: we must press forward.When Cao Jun got the order, his morale was greatly boosted, and he fought desperately, defeated Yuan Jun, cut off Chunyu Qiong's head, and burned Wuchao to nothing. Cao Cao also ordered people to cut off the nose of the killed Yuan Jun, and cut off the tongues of the captured cattle and horses to demonstrate to Yuan Shao's men and horses.When Yuan Shao's soldiers saw a basket of noses and tongues, they were frightened and lost their minds.

What about Guandu?As Zhang He expected, Cao Ying was impregnable and unable to attack immediately.Guo Tu panicked when he saw it. Wuchao lost it, and Guandu couldn't get it. This shows that my idea was wrong.In order to shirk his responsibility, he went to slander Yuan Shaojin, saying that Zhang Yun did not try his best to attack Guandu, and now that he heard that Wuchao was lost, he took pleasure in other's misfortune, saying that he did not listen to his words and caused the disaster.Yuan Shao was narrow-minded in the first place, and immediately became suspicious.Zhang Yun saw that the front was defeated, the backyard was on fire, and there was no way to go. He discussed with his subordinate Gao Lanyi that he should surrender to Cao Cao. He immediately burned his chariot, raised the flag, and surrendered to Cao Cao.

At this time, Cao Cao was still on his way back to Guandu. When General Cao Hong heard that Zhang Yun had come to surrender, he was still muttering, was this a real surrender or a fake surrender?The military adviser Xun You said that it must be a real surrender, and General Cao should not hesitate.So he opened the gate of the camp to welcome Zhang He.When Cao Cao came back from Wuchao, he couldn't help being overjoyed when he heard about it. He took Zhang Xi's hand and said that Wei Zi went to Yin and Han Xin returned to Han! Xu You defected, Yuan Shao lost his brains; Zhang He surrendered Cao, Yuan Shao broke his arm; Wuchao was burned, Yuan Shao had no retreat.After this battle, Yuan Shao's power is gone.Cao Cao followed Jia Xu's suggestion and concentrated his forces to attack Yuan Shao. The morale of Yuan Shao's troops was already in chaos and they were vulnerable. Cao's army wiped out more than 70,000 Yuan's troops.Yuan Shao turned around and fled back to Hebei with his eldest son Yuan Tan.

After Yuan Shao fled, Cao Cao came to Yuan Shao's big tent and found that there were books, treasures and antiques in the big tent.This really reflects Yuan Shao's characteristics, ability is not enough, showing off is necessary, pragmatism is not possible, retreat is a must.Yuan Shao has always regarded himself as a celebrity, and he always brings treasures and antiques wherever he goes to show his elegance.This time is good, it all became Cao Cao's spoils of war. This happened at the end of 200 AD. Cao Cao won the battle of Guandu with less and won an all-round victory. In 201 AD, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao again in Cangting.From then on, Yuan Shao became depressed and became ill. In May 202, he vomited blood and died.Since then, the Yuan's Group has been seriously injured, and it no longer has the ambition and ability to compete in the Central Plains.

Yuan Shao was not an incompetent person. He successfully used family resources to push his career to a glorious peak. Yuan Shao's achievements greatly surpassed his predecessors.However, being born in a family and having a successful official career also endowed Yuan Shao with the weakness of being self-righteous and having an eye above the top, making him too obsessed with his own opinions and unable to learn from others' strengths. Therefore, at critical moments, he became blind and often unable to make correct judgments . There are many farsighted counselors under Yuan Shao, Ju Shou and Tian Feng are two of them.Jushou and Tian Feng firmly opposed Yuan Shao's launching of this war at the beginning.Tian Feng suggested that our current strategy should be to strengthen our own strength, and at the same time, we can send a small group of troops to harass Cao Cao from time to time. If Cao Cao is in the east, we will fight the west; if Cao Cao is in the west, we will fight the east, so that Cao Cao will be tired To deal with it, we will wait for work with leisure, so it won't take long, why worry about not being able to defeat Cao Cao.Now that you are throwing all the strength of one hundred thousand elites, have you ever thought about what to do if you fail?

When Yuan Shao heard this, he became very angry. The word "failure" never existed in his dictionary.Yuan Shao took it for granted that there is no reason to fail when my army is overwhelming the country, but you keep pouring cold water on me, one failure after another, chattering endlessly, isn't this a curse on me?So Tian Feng was imprisoned in the prison without any reason, you stay in the prison first, and see what you have to say when I come back victorious. A year later, when the Battle of Guandu was defeated, friends came to visit Tian Feng in prison one after another, congratulated him, and said Brother Tian, ​​your opinion has been proved to be correct, and you can finally be released from prison and be reused.Unexpectedly, when Tian Feng heard the news, he felt sad instead of happy, raised his head and sighed, this time I am doomed.Friends are puzzled, your opinion is correct, how can you be dead?Tian Feng said, if we win this time, the lord may forgive me as soon as he is happy, the winner is always tolerant, but this time he loses the battle, he will definitely become angry and take it out on me, so I Back is dead.

This time, Tian Feng was right again.Yuan Shao fled from Guandu to Yecheng with the remaining 700 troops. Yuan Jun's officers and soldiers all beat their chests and said, if Tian Feng was here, how could we have ended up like this?When Yuan Shao heard this, he was jealous and hated, so he asked Feng Ji, how was Tian Feng doing in Yecheng?Feng Ji is a villain, so he said, he, he heard that we were defeated, clapped his hands and laughed, gloated, and said that this proves that he is wise.As soon as Yuan Shao returned to Yecheng, he went to kill Tian Feng first. From this point, we can see the difference between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.Cao Cao has always been defeated, so he takes responsibility and criticizes himself, and when he wins, he thanks those generals who have made great achievements.As for Yuan Shao, if he wins, he attributes it to himself, and if he loses, he blames others.

The Battle of Guandu was a pivotal battle in Chinese history. After this battle, history changed its course. Yuan Shao gave up the northern hegemony, and Cao Cao officially ascended the status of northern hegemony.However, centipedes are dead but not stiff.Yuan Shao also has three sons, Yuan Tan, Yuan Xi, and Yuan Shang. What will be their fate? The Battle of Guandu was not so much the result of Cao Cao's use of soldiers like a god, but Yuan Shao's stupidity.In the final analysis, Yuan Shao's failure was a failure of his personality and character. Yuan Shao made a series of mistakes in command, such as the white horse was tricked, the supply line was stretched, he did not accept the suggestion of a surprise attack on Xuchang, and he did not send heavy troops to rescue Wuchao. His most fundamental mistake, however, was a mistake in employing people.Yuan Shao's eyes are higher than the top, and he doesn't know anyone other than himself.His principle of employing people is very simple, whoever pleases me, I will listen to him, and whoever gives me advice, I will hate him.Faithful advice is rare, so Yuan Shao has a special talent: he will never listen to any correct opinion that is beneficial to him; he will definitely listen to any wrong opinion that is not good for him. of.It is a strange thing that Yuan Shao is undefeated by employing people like this!