Chapter 88 87 Cao Cao rises up

Cao Cao was born in Qiao County, Peiguo (now Bo County, Anhui Province, Bo sounds bo).His father, Cao Song, was the adopted son of an eunuch.Cao Cao was clever and capable since he was a child.At that time, there was a famous scholar named Xu Shao (sound shao), who was good at judging people.When Cao Cao was young, he asked him to comment.Xu Shao said: "You man, if you were in peacetime, you might become a capable minister; if in troubled times, you would become a traitor." When Cao Cao was 20 years old, he became a Luoyang North Captain (an official in charge of public security in the north of the capital).As soon as he took office, he asked craftsmen to make more than 20 five-color sticks, which were hung around the yamen.He established a ban, and anyone who broke the ban, no matter if he was a wealthy family, would be beaten with a big stick.

At that time, Jian Shuo had an uncle who was a well-known bully. He relied on Jian Shuo's power to run amok in Luoyang, and no one dared to offend him.Once, he made trouble with a knife at night, which violated Cao Cao's prohibition.No matter how old he was, Cao Cao arrested him and beat him with a five-color stick.The bully couldn't stand it and died instantly.This incident caused a sensation in Luoyang.Everyone praised Cao Cao for not being afraid of power and enforcing the law strictly.The eunuch hated and feared him, and later transferred him out of Luoyang to become a county magistrate.

During the Yellow Turban Uprising, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty made Cao Cao the captain of cavalry and sent him to Yingchuan (now Yu County, Henan Province) to suppress the uprising.He defeated the Yellow Turban Army led by Bocai.The Eastern Han Dynasty believed that he had meritorious service in combat and promoted him to the position of Prime Minister of Jinan.After several years, he returned to Luoyang. Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang. In order to win people's hearts, he bought some officials with high-ranking officials and generous salaries.He heard that Cao Cao was a little famous, so he promoted Cao Cao to the rank of captain of Xiaoqi.But Cao Cao saw that Dong Zhuo was perverse, unpopular, and would collapse sooner or later. He didn't want to work under Dong Zhuo, so he escaped from Jiyang and went to Chenliu (now Chenliu County, Henan) to find his father.

Cao Cao's father had some property in Chenliu.Cao Cao returned to Chenliu, got his father's consent, spent money to recruit troops, and prepared to attack Dong Zhuo.There was a local rich man, Wei Zi, who also donated a lot of money and food to help Cao Cao.Soon, Cao Hong, Cao Cao's cousin, brought a thousand people to join Cao Cao.Cao Cao gradually gathered more than 5,000 horsemen.While he was training his soldiers and horses, he sent people to listen everywhere. Since the Yellow Turban Uprising, each state and county has a team of troops.The governors and prefects of many prefectures and counties originally had ambitions to separate themselves, and taking advantage of the chaos in Luoyang, they raised troops one after another in the name of condemning Dong Zhuo.Among them, Yuan Shao is the most powerful.

After Yuan Shao fell out with Dong Zhuo in Luoyang, he ran to Jizhou and became the prefect of Bohai.Because Yuan Shao was a noble family, and Jizhou Mu Han Fu was an old subordinate of the Yuan family, Yuan Shao quickly organized a team in Bohai County. In 190 A.D., Cao Cao and other groups attacked Dong Zhuo with a total of more than 100,000 troops. They gathered in Suanzao (now southwest of Yanjin, Henan) near Chenliu to form a coalition army, and everyone recommended Yuan Shao as the leader. The news of the rising of troops from various places reached Luoyang, and Dong Zhuo became a little frightened.Regardless of the objections of the ministers, he decided to move Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and millions of people to Chang'an, and stayed near Luoyang to deal with the coalition forces.When Emperor Xian was forced to leave Luoyang, Dong Zhuo set fire to all the palaces, government offices, and private houses.Within more than two hundred miles around Luoyang, no one was left behind.The common people were forced to leave Luoyang. There were starved to death, trampled to death, beaten to death, and countless corpses lying on the roadside.

However, the coalition forces that attacked Dong Zhuo near Suanzao watched each other and did not move.Once, generals from all walks of life held a meeting in Yuan Shao's camp. Cao Cao said to everyone: "Everyone raised an army to attack Dong Zhuo. Now Dong Zhuo has robbed the emperor and burned the palace. The whole country is in panic. This is a good time to eliminate the rebels. , why are you still hesitating?" Although Cao Cao spoke impassionedly, everyone was not enthusiastic at all.Even the leader Yuan Shao doesn't want to move, who would want to do it first? Seeing that they only wanted to preserve their strength and didn't want to fight Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao was very angry, so he decided to march to Chenggao (now Sishui Town, Xingyang, Henan) with 5,000 troops alone.

When Dong Zhuo heard that Cao Cao was marching towards Chenggao, he had already sent a large army to set up a formation on the edge of Bianshui (in the southwest of Xingyang, Henan today, Bianyin bian).As soon as Cao Cao's troops arrived in Bianshui, they were intercepted by Dong Zhuo's general Xu Rong. Xu Rong had many soldiers, but Cao Cao had few soldiers. Once the two fought, Cao Cao's troops collapsed.When Cao Cao retreated on his horse, he was hit by an arrow in the shoulder; he hurriedly slapped his horse and ran away, but another arrow wounded Cao Cao's horse.The horse was frightened and threw Cao Cao off.

The shouts of Xu Rong's pursuers getting closer and closer.At the critical moment, fortunately Cao Hong caught up.He jumped off his horse and helped Cao Cao up.Cao Cao escaped danger by riding on Cao Hong's horse. Cao Cao lost his army and lost his generals. When he returned to Suanzao, he looked at his allies. Not only did they stay still, but the generals also drank and had fun every day. They didn't want to attack Dong Zhuo at all. Filled with anger, he ran to the place where Yuan Shao and the others held a banquet, and accused them: "You are called rebels, but you hesitate to wait and see here, and let the people of the world down. I am really ashamed of you."

After a while, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses of Suanzao used up all the food and broke up. After this crusade, Cao Cao felt that he could not achieve great things with these people, so he went alone to Yangzhou (now south of the Huai River in Anhui and the south of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu) to recruit troops and prepare to regroup.