Chapter 15 2. The civil uprising in Western Anhui

After the Battle of Chibi, the confrontation between Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei was temporarily balanced, Cao Ren retreated from Jiangling, and Sun Quan was repelled to Hefei.Xiangyang on the center line and Hefei on the east line became the forward bases of Cao Jun, forming two major battlefields. This confrontation pattern will last for quite a long time. Cao Cao attached great importance to Hefei. In addition to appointing Wen Hui, Jiang Ji, Cang Ci and others to manage the economy, government affairs, and farming affairs, he also transferred Le Jin, Zhang Liao, and Li Dian from other battlefields to move their troops over to consolidate the eastern front. battlefield.

However, the ministries hadn't finished deploying their defenses yet, but there was a rebellion inside. The rebellion took place in the six counties of Jiujiang County (now Lu'an, Anhui) and Qianxian (now Huoshan, Anhui), which belonged to the "Cao Tong District".This is the current Western Region, located in the northern part of the Dabie Mountains. The folk customs here have been strong since ancient times. In addition, it is located in a mountainous area, which is suitable for guerrilla warfare. In ancient times, it was often a place where strongmen haunted.As early as before and after the Battle of Guandu, there were many rebels in this area, and the relatively large ones included Chen Gan, Mei Cheng, and Lei Xugu.At that time, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were at a stalemate in Guandu, unable to go east, so they sent Liu Fu as the governor of Yangzhou to maintain the situation.Liu Fu is very capable. Although he is a polished commander, he quickly opened up the situation, expanding the area of ​​​​the "Cao Tong District" a little bit, and rebuilding Hefei City, creating conditions for Cao Cao to now confront Sun Quan.

One of Liu Fu's important measures to open up Yangzhou was to recruit people. Mei Gan, Chen Lan, and Lei Xu were all recruited by Liu Fu successively. From around the fifth year of Jian'an (200) to the 14th year of Jian'an (209), these He is quite honest, and nothing has happened to him.Among them, Liu Fu's personal prestige cannot be underestimated. However, in the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Liu Fu passed away, and Cao Jun and Sun Quan fought for several months, which brought a certain burden to the local people. Although Cao Cao followed up with a series of measures to resume production and promote social development measures, but the instability of popular sentiment has become a reality.

However, this does not seem to be the cause of a large-scale rebellion. The answer seems to be found in "Three Kingdoms Jiang Ji Biography".According to the biography of Jiang Ji, Cao Cao didn't have much confidence in how to manage Huainan at first. He even wanted to move the people of Huainan to the north to avoid the war.Cao Cao asked for Jiang Ji's opinion, but Jiang Ji objected. Cao Cao said: "Back then, Yuan Shao and I had a stalemate in Guandu, and it seems that it is not impossible to relocate the people of Yan County and Baima County as a whole." Jiang Ji replied: "At that time, I was weak and the enemy was strong. If I didn't move away, I would be taken by the enemy. The situation is completely different now. Our power is strong enough, and the people will not have other ideas. At the same time, the common people have a nostalgic complex. If you are willing to relocate, if you push it hard, everyone will feel uneasy."

Cao Cao still did not adopt Jiang Ji's suggestion, but ordered a large-scale population migration between Jianghuai and Huaihe Rivers.This order really caused panic among the people. According to the records of "Three Kingdoms", more than 100,000 people ran to the area controlled by Sun Wu, and Cao Cao quickly ordered to stop the immigration activities.Regarding this matter, Cao Cao had a face-to-face self-criticism the next time he saw Jiang Ji again. Although "Three Kingdoms" and other books did not explain the reasons why Chen Lan and others rebelled again, judging from the time, the two events happened at the same time.

The rebellion affected the safety of the Hefei base, which had just reached a certain scale. Seeing this situation, Cao Cao, who was already in Qiao County (now Bozhou, Anhui), immediately dispatched troops to suppress the rebellion. According to historical records, the big rebellion at this time was still Chen Lan and other three groups, but Meigan was written as Mei Lan, whether it was the two names of one person or two different people is unknown.The main areas of their activities are Liuxian County and Qianxian County in Jiujiang County. The specific number of people is unknown, but it can be seen from Cao Cao's military deployment that the scale of this rebellion is quite large.

Cao Cao ordered the establishment of a temporary "Bandit Suppression Headquarters", with Xia Houyuan acting as the commander-in-chief (leading the army), under the jurisdiction of Jin, Zangba, Zhang Liao, Lejin and other ministries, under the command of Zhang Liao, Zhang, Niu Gai and other ministries, Cao Jun More than half of the elite taxpayers and top generals participated in this operation. Such mobilization of the army shows that Chen Lan and others are coming very quickly, and the problem cannot be solved if they are weak; second, it shows that Cao Cao attaches great importance to the Hefei base. After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao can no longer lose. Even if it is a civil uprising, he dare not main idea.

Xia Houyuan did not directly participate in the Battle of Chibi, his task was to be in charge of logistics support.Two years ago, in the twelfth year of Jian'an (207), the rebellion of Xu He, Sima Ju, the remaining tribe of the Yellow Turban, and others occurred in Jinan State and Le'an State. The Jinan King Liu in the Liu clan was even killed.As a lieutenant of the Dian Army, Xia Houyuan was responsible for suppressing civil uprisings, beheaded Xu He, regained the counties, and accumulated rich experience in suppressing chaos, so he was transferred this time. In addition to serving as the commander-in-chief, Xia Houyuan was also directly responsible for dealing with Lei Xu.In Meicheng's group, because of Jin and Zang Ba's confrontation, Zhang Liao led Zhang and Niu Gai's troops to deal with Chen Lan.

Cao Cao's backyard caught fire, and Sun Quan, who had just retreated from Hefei, was not idle. He secretly established contact with Chen Lan and sent Han Dang to lead his troops to support Chen Lan.Zang Ba received the order and led his troops to the area of ​​Wan County to block Han Dang, so that Wu soldiers could not pass through.The two sides fought successively in Fenglong and Jiashi, and Cao Jun won both.Zang Ba received information that Sun Quan sent tens of thousands of people by boat to Shu County to support Chen Lan, so he moved to Shu County to intercept, and Sun Quan's army retreated after hearing the news.

Zang Ba quit and ordered an overnight pursuit, which lasted more than a hundred miles overnight, and finally caught up with the enemy at dawn. The two sides fought fiercely, and Cao Jun won a big victory. Chen Lan didn't wait for foreign aid, and gradually became overwhelmed by the attacks of Zhang Liao, Zhang and others.At this moment, he unexpectedly waited for other reinforcements.In fact, this is not a reinforcement, but Mei Cheng's.Mei Cheng began to surrender to Yu Jin, but Yu Jin accepted it without noticing the difference.Unexpectedly, before long, Mei Cheng colluded with Chen Lan again, and they joined forces and fled into Qianshan together.

There is a Tianzhu mountain in the Qianshan mountain range. The mountain is high and the road is narrow, and Chen Lan guards it by danger.Zhang Liao wanted to launch an attack, but his general persuaded him, "There are few soldiers and the road is dangerous, so it's hard to go deep." Zhang Liao said, "Now is the time when we meet on a narrow road, the brave wins (this is called one and one, the brave wins the ears)!" Zhang Liao ordered a strong attack, and one fell swoop. Beheaded Chen Lan and Mei Cheng. Zhang Liao made the most contributions in this battle in western Anhui. Afterwards, Cao Cao rewarded Zhang Liao for his meritorious service. Zhang Liao added 200 households to the town, adding to the previous 1,000 households, reaching 1,200 households, and won the honor of "Jiejie".Cao Cao said in the awarding order: "climbing Tianshan Mountain, walking through the dangers, beheading Chen Lan and Mei Cheng, these are all the credits of General Dangkou." After these two popular uprisings were completely suppressed, Xia Houyuan also went smoothly against Lei Xu, and Lei Xu was defeated.At the end of this battle, there was another civil uprising in Bingzhou, and the leader Shang Yao and others captured Taiyuan City.Cao Cao ordered Xia Houyuan to be reappointed as "Commander-in-Chief of Bandit Suppression in the West" (West Conservation Army), and went to Bingzhou to quell the chaos.From Jinan to Western Anhui and then to Bingzhou, Xia Houyuan became a "specialized bandit suppressor". Lejin also increased by 500 households in Shiyi, reaching 1,200 households, and Yujin increased by 200 households, reaching 1,200 households. After the civil uprising subsided, Cao Cao ordered Le Jin and Zhang Liao to stay in Hefei, together with Li Dian's troops who had just arrived after receiving the order, the three of them would guard Hefei together, while other troops withdrew. In this civil uprising, someone reported that Jiang Ji had colluded with the rebels and participated in the rebellion.Cao Cao didn't believe the report from the relevant departments. He said in front of Yu Jin and others: "How could Jiang Ji do such a thing (Jining has such a thing)? If there is such a thing, it means that I don't know people. This It must be false." Later, it was verified that it was a false accusation. Cao Cao seemed to have a special appreciation for Jiang Ji, who was in his twenties, and later simply changed him to be the Deputy Director of the Personnel Department of the Prime Minister's Mansion (Prime Minister Xi Cao's genus), and the Director of the Prime Minister's Mansion Office (Prime Minister's Master Book).