Chapter 22 Section 2 Battle of White Horse and Yanjin

When Cao Cao sent troops to attack Liu Bei, Xu Du was empty.When the news spread to Hebei, Tian Feng, Yuan Shao's counselor, believed that this was a good opportunity to capture Cao Cao's base camp, and he should send troops to attack Xudu.Cao Cao's subordinates have already reminded Cao Cao to beware of Yuan Shao's attack.Cao Cao believed that Yuan Shao was indecisive and hesitant when encountering problems, so he would definitely not make a quick decision.Sure enough, as Cao Cao expected, Yuan Shao refused to accept Tian Feng's suggestion on the pretext that his youngest son was ill.Tian Feng was so angry that he poked the ground with his cane and said, "What a pity, what a pity! Such a rare opportunity was lost by using the baby's illness as an excuse!"

In the first month of the fifth year of Jian'an (200 A.D.), Liu Bei was defeated and came to Yecheng (now Linzhang County, Hebei Province) to join Yuan Shao. Yuan Shaocai called all the generals to discuss how to attack Xudu.Tian Feng believes that the situation has undergone major changes, and it will be unfavorable to attack Xu again.He dissuaded Yuan Shao and said: "Since Cao Cao has defeated Liu Bei, Xudu is no longer empty. Besides, Cao Cao is very good at using troops, witty and flexible, and unpredictable; although Cao's army is small, it should not be underestimated. It is better to make long-term plans in the future. You occupy a vast land with strong mountains and rivers, and you have a large population of the four states. You should take advantage of this favorable situation to make friends with heroes abroad, manage farming internally, and enrich your army. Then select elite soldiers to take advantage of false attacks to harass Cao Cao's sides and start mobile operations. , so that Cao Jun ran around and exhausted his life; the people there could not find peace and resented Cao Cao. In this way, we can win without fighting in less than two years. If we don’t do this, but rush to a decisive battle with Cao Cao, If you fail, it will be too late to regret it!" (see "Three Kingdoms·Yuan Shao Biography" for the original text) Tian Feng's analysis based on reality is very reasonable.However, Yuan Shao, who was full of ambition and no strategy, not only didn't listen to him at all, but instead became disgusted with Tian Feng.Tian Feng didn't care about these, he still stated his interests again and again, and offered advice to Yuan Shao.This suddenly annoyed Yuan Shao.In a rage, Yuan Shao charged Tian Feng with "disturbing the morale of the army" and ordered him to be imprisoned.Later, in the battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao was defeated and returned. He simply killed Tian Feng because he was afraid of being ridiculed by others.

In February of the fifth year of Jian'an, Yuan Shao assembled 100,000 troops in Liyang (now northeast of Jun County, Henan Province) on the north bank of the Yellow River, preparing to cross the river and march directly to Xudu; and first sent General Yan Liang to attack Baima (in today's Hua County, Henan Province northeast).In April, Cao Cao led his troops northward from Guandu to rescue Yuan Shao's siege of Baima.He adopted the battle plan of Xunyou (youyou), a military adviser, who followed the army and led his troops to Yanjin (now north of Yanjin County, Henan Province), pretending to cross the river to attack Yuan Shao's rear, so that Yuan Shao divided his troops to fight; Attack the white horse and attack it unprepared.Yuan Shao didn't know what it was, so he sent some troops to Yanjin to fight.Cao Cao immediately led the light cavalry, led by Zhang Liao and Guan Yu, and advanced towards the white horse.When Cao Jun came to a place more than 10 miles away from the white horse, Yan Liang realized it and hurriedly mounted his horse to fight.Guan Yu rushed into Yuan Jun's formation unexpectedly, and beheaded Yan Liang with a knife in his hand.The commander-in-chief was killed, and Yuan Jun was in chaos immediately. Some were killed, some were captured, and some escaped.After the battle, Cao Cao ordered all the residents of Baima City to move out and follow the army to retreat along the Yellow River to Guandu.

When Yuan Shao heard that Cao Cao had withdrawn from the white horse, he personally led the army across the river in pursuit, wishing to swallow Cao's army in one go.The counselor Ju (ju Ju) dissuaded him and said: "The change of the outcome of the war must be carefully considered. Now it is best to garrison in Yanjin and allocate part of the force to attack Guandu. If it can be captured, the army stationed in Yanjin It is not too late to move on, if the army advances blindly to the south, if it fails, the whole army will be in danger of being wiped out." But Yuan Shao rejected Ju Shou's correct suggestion and ordered the main force to cross the river in pursuit.Ju Shou knew that Yuan Shao would definitely fail. When the army was crossing the river, he couldn't help sighing, "Yellow River! Yellow River! Can we cross the river again?" So he asked to resign on the pretext of being ill.Yuan Shao didn't allow it, but took some of the troops under his command to Guo Tu's command.

Yuan Shao's vanguard quickly approached Yanjin.Cao Cao ordered his soldiers to set up camp at the foot of the hill to the south of Yanjin, and sent out lookout posts to monitor Yuan Jun's movements.The lookout post found Yuan Jun and immediately reported to Cao Cao: "Yuan Shao sent five or six hundred cavalry to come." After a while, he reported again: "Yuan Jun's cavalry has increased again, and the number of infantry is too large to count." Cao Cao's subordinates The generals all thought that the enemy army was numerous and might be difficult to resist, so they advocated retreating to the camp.Cao Cao ordered that no more reports should be made, but at the same time ordered all his cavalry to unsaddle their saddles, let their horses graze, and park all their luggage and vehicles on the road that Yuan Jun was about to pass.The generals found it strange, but only the counselor Xun You understood Cao Cao's intentions, and said to everyone, "This is just to lure the enemy to take the bait. How can we retreat?" Soon, Yuan Shao's general Wen Chou and others led five or six thousand troops, came one after another. to Yanjin.The generals of Cao Jun felt that the situation was urgent and urged Cao Cao to order to mount his horse and fight.Cao Cao was very calm, and said to them: "It's not time yet." After a while, most of Yuan Jun's follow-up troops arrived.Cao Cao immediately commanded all the cavalry to mount their horses and charge, defeating Yuan Jun, beheading Wen Chou, Yuan Shao's general, and capturing all of Wen Chou's troops.

After Yanjin's victory, Cao Cao calmly withdrew his troops to Guandu, which was convenient for defense, in order to lure the enemy deep and prepare for a decisive battle.