Chapter 18 8. Pacify Xiliang

After pacifying the north, Cao Cao naturally turned his attention to the south.In 208 A.D., the summer heat had just subsided, and Cao Cao couldn't wait to lead an army of 150,000 all the way south to Jingzhou. As if to compensate Cao Cao for his hard work, this time, fate was especially sympathetic to Cao Cao, and the battle of Jingzhou went smoothly unexpectedly.Before the army came to the city, Liu Biao died of a serious illness at the right time.After his youngest son Liu Cong came to the throne, under the persuasion of his ministers, he raised the flag to surrender to Cao Cao. When Liu Cong surrendered, Liu Bei was in Fancheng. Hearing the news, he hurriedly led his subordinates and local people to retreat to Jiangling.Cao Cao left his luggage and led Qingqi to rush day and night, and caught up with Liu Bei at Changban, Dangyang, forcing Liu Bei to abandon his wife and son, and fled to Xiakou with Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others.

Perhaps it was too easy for Jingzhou to come, Cao Cao was a little bit smug, he just occupied Jiangling, he didn't continue to chase Liu Bei, and gave Liu Bei a chance to make a comeback.Perhaps Cao Cao underestimated Liu Bei's toughness, and counted all heroes from ancient times to the present. Liu Bei is the most qualified to win the tumbler award.Fleeing in a hurry today, without his wife and children, he will be able to make a comeback tomorrow, and let Cao Cao taste the bitterness of underestimating the enemy. Is not it?Two months later, Cao Cao assembled Liu Cong's team and went eastward along the river. While threatening to eliminate Liu Bei, he invited Sun Quan to "hunt in Wu".At this time, Liu Bei and Sun Quan stood on the same front.The Sun Liu coalition army encountered Cao Cao for the first time in Chibi, and Cao Cao suffered a defeat.

Jia Xu persuaded Cao Cao to "repair the army and support the people, and slowly advance slowly." However, Cao Cao, who has been fighting for many years and has never been defeated, was driven by inertia and was unwilling to stop his progress.At this time, Cao Jun was not acclimatized, suffered from plague, and his combat effectiveness declined; and in order to overcome the weakness of the northern soldiers who were not good at water warfare, Cao Cao confusedly connected all the ships with iron chains, but forgot that in this way, it was stable, but Flexibility is gone. Sun Liu immediately seized Cao Cao's omission and formulated a plan to burn Cao Cao.Veteran Huang Gai feigned surrender to Cao Cao, defrauding Cao Cao's trust, and within the agreed time, Huang Gai brought ten warships to surrender to Cao Cao.The boat was full, and what was packed was not generous gifts for Cao Cao, but dry diesel oil and other flammable and explosive items.At that time, the southeast wind was strong, and the boat took advantage of the wind to move forward rapidly.When approaching Cao's army, Huang Gai ordered to set fire to it. Taking advantage of the wind, the fire burned wantonly, engulfing Cao Cao's warship in an instant, and spreading to Cao's camp on the shore.Cao Jun was in chaos, and countless people were burned to death and drowned.Wu Jun took advantage of the situation to hide and kill, Cao Jun was completely defeated, and Cao Cao escaped back to Jiangling from Huarong Road by chance.

After suffering this great loss, Cao Cao left a few generals to guard Jiangling and Xiangyang, and led his troops back to his hometown in desperation.After the Battle of Chibi, the situation of the three kingdoms was basically formed, and the momentum of Cao Cao's heyday began to decline.Will Cao Cao give up on this?The answer is of course no.After two years of rest, Cao Cao pointed his long sword at Guanzhong again. Ma Chao and Han Sui are separatist forces that have been entrenched in Guanzhong since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Cao Cao has always adopted a policy of appeasement towards Ma Chao, Han Sui and others, maintaining the temporary tranquility in Guanzhong.However, this kind of tranquility is not solid enough. After all, Guanzhong is not Cao Cao's sphere of influence. Zhong Yao, appointed by Cao Cao to Fuzhen Guanzhong, can't even reach Chang'an, so he can only live in Hongnong and lead Guanzhong.Therefore, it is imperative to beat Ma Chao and Han Sui.

But Ma Chao and Han Sui are imperial officials in name, and they didn't have any rebellious actions, so it's no name to beat them like this.So Cao Cao came up with a trick to force Ma Chao and Han Sui to rebel. In the spring of the sixteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao ordered Zhong Yao to conquer Zhang Lu.Zhang Lu is a separatist regime in Hanzhong, and to attack Zhang Lu must go through the territory of Ma Chao and Han Sui.As soon as this order was given, some people in the court opposed it. Ma Chao and Han Sui were originally people with no ambitions. Now you go to beat Zhang Lu and provoke them into rebellion, but what should we do?Cao Cao didn't answer, and thought with a smile, I just want to force them to rebel, otherwise where would I find an excuse to beat them?

In March of that year, Zhong Yao led his army out of Hexi first, and then Xia Houyuan and Xu Huang went east and west, claiming to crusade against Zhang Lu in Hanzhong.As expected, Ma Chao and Han Sui couldn't sit still. It was obvious that such a big knife was going to kill Zhang Lu, a plague chicken. It was clearly aimed at our Xiliang army!Ma Chao and Han Sui, together with ten princes and one hundred thousand horses, stood guard at Tongguan, ready to fight Cao Cao to the death. In July of the 16th year of Jian'an, Cao Cao personally led the army and drove to Tongguan.Tongguan was in sight, and the vanguard led by Cao Cao was blocked by the Jihe River, a tributary of the Yellow River.It was necessary to rush to cross the Ji River, so Cao Cao let the large army cross the river first, and he led hundreds of "tiger warriors" to break the rear.Seeing that more than 10,000 troops had crossed the river, Cao Cao was about to cross the river, when suddenly there was a shout of killing from behind. It turned out that Ma Chao had crossed the Ji River ahead of time and was waiting for Cao Cao!

I saw Ma Chao holding an iron gun, and the Xiliang army with more than 10,000 shining spears came surging.Xu Chu and others hurriedly persuaded Cao Cao to disembark, but Cao Cao forced himself to remain calm and sat on the armory box, intending to command the "tiger warriors" to fight in formation and wait for the main force to come to the rescue. The first battle is related to the morale of both sides, and Cao Cao does not want to give up easily .But hundreds of people are no match for 10,000 people. Seeing that Cao Cao was about to be injured by the spear, Xu Chu and others pulled Cao Cao by force and dragged him onto the boat.The Xiliang army chased after him, shooting arrows at Cao Cao in the river again and again, and the arrows rained down. Xu Chu held his saddle to block horizontally and vertically, and the situation was extremely critical.At this time, the school captain Ding Fei, the fellow of Cao Cao who exchanged official seals for big cakes, drove a group of cattle and sheep to deliver military supplies to Cao Cao. Seeing this situation, he quickly released the cattle and sheep.The Xiliang army has always had a fine tradition of grabbing things for themselves, so Cao Cao stopped fighting and got off their horses to grab cattle and sheep, so Cao Cao took the opportunity to cross the river.

The troops who had already crossed the river didn't know whether Cao Cao was dead or alive, and they were all panicked. After seeing Cao Cao, they were relieved and cried with Cao Cao.Cao Cao was very unrestrained, as if he just lost a game, he laughed and said, "Hehe, today is a bit dangerous, almost being tricked by a thief." In any case, Cao Jun all crossed the river, set up camp by the river, and confronted Ma Chao and Han Sui.In the first few battles, both sides won and lost. After a few rounds, Cao Cao scored more and more.At this time, Cao Cao not only did not take advantage of the victory to continue to attack, but slowed down the pace and adopted delaying tactics.

In order to ensure unimpeded supply, Cao Cao built a dedicated grain transportation line called "Nongdao".On both sides of the road from the ferry to the camp, a layer of protection nets were built with tree fences and vehicles, just like today's highway protection nets, to protect the grain road from enemy troops.With this unimpeded "highway", Cao Cao will not have to worry about food shortages, so he is not afraid of delay. But Ma Chao was afraid, because the Guanzhong Allied Forces had assembled 100,000 troops in Tongguan since March, and the agricultural production of that year was almost completely abolished. At this time, winter was approaching, and the Allied Forces could not collect new food, and the whole army was about to face the danger of running out of food.

In this way, the initiative of the war was transferred to Cao Cao's hands.Ma Chao and Han Sui proposed to cede land for peace, and to send their children to Cao Cao as hostages.Of course Cao Cao would not agree, because the purpose of his trip was not to occupy a few hills, but to completely calm down the northwest.But this time he listened to Jia Xu's opinion, "false Xu Zhi", and pretended to agree to them. As for the next step, Jia Xu said: "It's just a separation", and used a divorce plan to separate them.Cao Cao nodded: "Solution!" Got it. As soon as Cao Cao made a plan, the Xiliang Army sent him an opportunity.One day when the two armies were fighting, Han Sui proposed to meet Cao Cao. Cao Cao agreed, so the two rode forward and met between the two battles.History books describe "crossing horses and talking about shifting", two horses with different heads, and two people riding on the horses chatted freely.Cao Cao and Han Sui's father was Xiaolian in the same year, and he and Han Sui were officials in the same dynasty, so the two are old friends. They haven't seen each other for many years, so naturally they have to talk about the past.This conversation lasted for more than two hours. When it came to the joy, the two held hands and laughed.After the talk, each returned to the formation.

Ma Chao asked Han Sui, what did you say to Cao Cao?Han Sui said: "There is nothing to say", chatting casually, but he really didn't say anything.But Ma Chao didn't believe it. You two chatted affectionately for two and a half hours. How could you not say anything?There must be something hiding from me.It's no wonder that Ma Chao suspects Han Sui. The relationship between these two Xiliang forces has always been up and down, and each of them already has a rift in their hearts. A few days later, Han Sui proposed to see Cao Cao again, this time not alone, but with Ma Chao.Cao Cao's attitude immediately turned cloudy, Xu Chu and a group of guards followed behind him, and a barrier called "wooden horse" was set up in front of him, and the guards were heavily guarded.The two people are treated differently, obviously to tell Ma Chao that you are different from Han Sui. There is another interesting thing about this meeting. The "Book of Wei" records it like this: "The thief will meet the public, and he will pay homage immediately, and the Qin and Hu observers will repeat it." The generals of the Han and Ma coalition forces all rode over to salute Cao Cao, and the Xiliang soldiers became star-chasers, scrambling to see the famous Cao Cao's true face, and almost took his notebook to ask for his autograph. Cao Cao is also very famous. Seeing that everyone is so curious about him, he simply rode up to let everyone see clearly. He also gave an impromptu speech: "You want to watch Cao Gongxie? You are like a human being. You must have four eyes and two mouths. But you are so wise!" Don't you want to see me, Cao Cao?I'm the same as you. I don't have four eyes and two mouths, but I'm a little more intelligent than you—but you can't see it. The Xiliang soldiers were overwhelmed by Cao Cao's demeanor. Looking behind him, there were five thousand iron cavalry heroes, with shining armor and dazzling swords and guns.From this point of view, Xiliang soldiers basically lost their fighting spirit. After making these foreshadowings, Cao Cao officially used his plan.He wrote a letter to Han Sui, and after he finished writing it, he intentionally smeared it, changed it again and again, in order to make people suspect that it was a tricky letter.Sure enough, this letter came to Ma Chao's hands later, and Ma Chao became suspicious when he saw it. What's going on?So many places have been altered, did Cao Cao accidentally send the draft, or did you ask Han Sui to cover up some intentional changes?Since then, Ma Chao no longer believed in Han Sui. As soon as the divorce plan was finished, Cao Cao immediately asked Ma Chao for a time to fight, and Ma Chao naturally couldn't ask for it.The most taboo thing for the coalition forces to fight is the discord between the commanders. Once Ma Chao and Han Sui were separated from each other, their combat effectiveness would become a problem. As soon as Cao Cao marched, Xiliang soldiers were beaten to pieces.Cheng Yi and Li Kan were killed, Liang Xing fled to Fucheng Mountain to fight guerrillas, Yang Qiu surrendered, Han Sui and Ma Chao were defeated and fled to Liangzhou.The coalition forces in Xiliang collapsed, and although Han Sui and Ma Chao had not yet been wiped out, the northwest became Cao Cao's sphere of influence in a veritable name. The most impressive thing about Cao Cao is his smile.Cao Cao loves to laugh, the most rare thing is to laugh when he loses a battle. He almost gave his life to Ma Chao by the Ji River, and Cao Cao, who escaped from death, still laughed heartily. isolated case.Laugh when you win, and laugh when you lose. Cao Cao, who likes to laugh, was able to have the last laugh and became the most powerful hero in the Three Kingdoms. According to the investigation of scientists, the average IQ of Nobel Prize winners is not high, and most of them have average grades in school, but why are they and not their neighbors finally reached the pinnacle of life?Emotional intelligence dictates!It is their undefeated spirit that guides them to maximize their potential.