Chapter 8 Second, the water shock

Just after the New Year in the second year of Jian'an (197), Cao Cao made up his mind to prepare for the southern expedition to Zhangxiu. After the men and horses are ready, according to the custom, he will go to the palace to report to the emperor and bid farewell.When Cao Cao entered the palace, he hadn't seen Emperor Xian Liu Xie yet, but something happened that surprised him. According to the etiquette system, Cao Cao, as Sikong and acting as the general of chariots and riders, should follow the following etiquette when meeting the emperor: when he is about to see the emperor, he should take off his shoes, disarm his weapon, and trot all the way to see the emperor.

There will be a master of ceremonies standing next to the emperor, shouting: "Fei Tinghou, Sikong, General Cao Cao, riding a chariot, see the emperor." When Cao Cao heard this, he would kneel down and say loudly: "Long live my emperor, long live! .” According to the book "Shiyu", Cao Cao hadn't seen the emperor this time, probably just took off his shoes, when suddenly two warriors with halberds came over, and the iron halberds they held in their hands were real guys, and they didn't say anything , clicked and put the halberd on Cao Cao's neck.Cao Cao was unprepared and was stupid at the time.The two walked forward with Cao Cao crossed like this. Cao Cao had no choice but to follow, came to Emperor Xian, and knelt down to talk to Emperor Xian.

He must not remember what Cao Cao said, and his mind was probably blank at that moment.Coming out of Emperor Xian, the sweat on Cao Cao's back drenched his clothes, he was nervous. What kind of etiquette is this?In fact, it has a history. In order to prevent powerful officials from usurping power, the Han Dynasty stipulated many checks and balances, such as "the five majors are not around", that is, five types of powerful officials, such as foreign relatives and three princes, cannot go outside to lead troops.In case of special circumstances, it is necessary to lead the army, so the procedure just now has to be followed. When the powerful officials bid farewell to the emperor before dispatching troops, the warriors will cross their halberds across their necks and move forward (crossing their necks forward), which means to try Do you have ghosts in your heart?Those who can stand the test are good comrades, and those who have different ideas have to weigh whether they dare to come.

Cao Cao probably hadn't heard of this rule, or didn't expect Liu Huihui to play with him for real. This surprise was really no small matter.If Liu Xie really attacked him, wouldn't this be an opportunity?How did He Jin die that year?How did Dou Wu and Liang Ji die?Regardless of the power over the world, a single detail can wipe you out. The more Cao Cao thought about it, the more frightened he became. According to "Shiyu", he never went to court with Emperor Xian again (and never again). After this episode, Cao Cao led his troops to the south, and the soldiers headed straight to Wan County in Nanyang County, and soon arrived near the water.Water is the most important tributary of the Han River, which is the Baihe River in Henan Province today, which flows into the Han River near Xiangyang.On this river, there is a famous place called Xinye.

Zhang Xiu was very nervous when he heard that Cao Cao led the army. He had heard Cao Cao's name for a long time. Yuan Shu, Tao Qian, Lu Bu and other heroes in the world were not his opponents. Not at all. Previously, Zhang Xiu had sent Jia Xu to Xiangyang to meet Liu Biao.According to "Fu Zi", when Jia Xu came back, he said to Zhang Xiu: "Liu Biao has some talents, and he should be competent to be a Sangong in peacetime (the Sangong is also a talent in peacetime). Now I can't see the situation clearly, so I have more doubts and less judgment." , won’t do much.” Jia Xu's trip to Xiangyang dispelled Zhang Xiu's idea of ​​relying on Liu Biao to resist Cao Cao, and he decided to surrender to Cao Cao.There is no record to indicate whether Zhang Xiu's decision was Jia Xu's suggestion, but Jia Xu at least did not object.In this way, Cao Cao originally planned to go south and there must be a fierce battle, but now it seems that it does not exist.

Cao Cao was very happy, and set up a military camp by the water river, and hosted a banquet for Zhang Xiu and his men.Before the banquet, Zhang Xiu and others saw a big man they didn't know standing behind Cao Cao, who was extremely mighty, and they couldn't help being secretly surprised. This warrior was Dian Wei. When Cao Cao was serving wine, Dian Wei followed Cao Cao with a big ax with a blade of more than a foot. No matter who Cao Cao walked in front of, Dian Wei stood behind Cao Cao and stared at each other with all his strength. Make the guests have no mind to eat and drink well.Until the end of the banquet, Zhang Xiu and his generals did not dare to face Cao Cao squarely.

Originally, this Southern Expedition could have ended satisfactorily, but an accident happened, which turned the situation abruptly. Cao Cao turned victory into defeat, and the defeat was a complete mess. Cao Cao always liked warriors like Dian Wei and Xu Chu, and he always wanted to get his subordinates.According to the book "Fu Zi", Zhang Xiu had a trusted general named Hu Che'er, who won the three armies bravely, and he was probably as fierce as Dian Wei.Seeing that Hu Che'er was also very fond of Cao Cao, he wanted to win over him and see if he could be recruited in the future, so he personally met Hu Che'er and gave him a lot of money.Cao Cao probably didn't intend to solve Zhang Xiu through Hu Che'er at this time, because fighting Zhang Xiu is not what he needs to do most at present.Zhang Xiu has surrendered, and Nanyang County has been temporarily stabilized. He should return to the army as soon as possible and prepare for the Eastern Expedition.

But Zhang Xiu knew about this, so he didn't think so. He thought that Cao Cao's move had bad intentions, and he wanted to bribe Hu Che'er to murder him. "Three Kingdoms Zhang Xiu Biography" also revealed a detail, saying that after Cao Cao's victory, he saw Zhang Xiu's aunt, the widow of the late hussar general Zhang Ji, who was very beautiful, so he took her as his concubine.Zhang Xiu felt insulted and dissatisfied.Cao Cao learned that Zhang Xiu had an opinion on him, so he wanted to plan to get rid of Zhang Xiu. Contacting Hu Che'er was probably part of the plan, but the plan was leaked ahead of time, and Zhang Xiu made the move first.

According to the "Book of Wu", Jia Xu gave Zhang Xiu an idea and asked him to report to Cao Cao, saying that the troops wanted to move to a higher ground and pass through Cao Ying in the middle.Zhang Xiu also reported to Cao Cao: "There are too few vehicles, and the soldiers have to carry a lot of supplies. Please allow the soldiers to pass by in armor." Cao Cao agreed, but when Zhang Xiu took advantage of his own people entering Cao Ying, he suddenly attacked and beat Cao Jun. One was caught off guard.The above two records seem to be contradictory. If Cao Cao wants to solve Zhang Xiu, how can he agree to Zhang Xiu's subsequent request?Therefore, it is possible that although the Hu Che'er incident and the Zhang Ji widow incident were true, Cao Cao had no intention of plotting against Zhang Xiu, so Zhang Xiu took advantage of the loophole.

This battle took place on the banks of the Shui River, and Cao Jun's embarrassment surpassed the Battle of Bianshui and the Battle of Puyang that year.During the melee, the horse Cao Cao was sitting on was shot in the face and leg by random arrows, and his right arm was also shot by the arrow.It is very dangerous for Cao Cao to lose his horse. According to the "Book of Wei", the horse Cao Cao rode was called Jueying, and it was another famous horse Cao Cao rode after Bai Hu.When he was in danger, a young man ran over, got off his horse, and gave his horse to Cao Cao to ride.Cao Cao saw that it was the eldest son Cao Ang.

Brothers in battle, father and son soldiers in battle, it is the father and son brothers of their own family who can sacrifice their lives to save each other at critical moments.In the Battle of Bianshui that year, if Cao Hong hadn't given way, Cao Cao might have died long ago.Now Cao Ang gave up his horse to Cao Cao again. But Cao Ang was not as lucky as Cao Hong. He died in the rebellion at the age of twenty. This battle not only lost face for Cao Cao, but also suffered heavy losses. The eldest son Cao Ang died in battle.Not only that, but his nephew Cao Anmin and Dian Wei, an officer of the guards, also died in battle. Dian Wei died extremely tragically.At that time, Cao Cao fled with Qingqi, and Dian Wei stayed behind to fight fiercely at the gate of the camp in order to cover Cao Cao's retreat.Due to Dian Wei's extraordinary bravery, the enemy was unable to advance, so they dispersed and entered Cao Ying from other places. At this time, there were only a dozen or so people around Dian Wei. These people were warriors carefully selected by Cao Cao. Their main duty was to protect the safety of the Chinese army.However, with more and more enemy soldiers, they gradually broke down and fell into a tight siege. Dian Wei held a long halberd in his hand, dashing from left to right, stabbing with a halberd, more than a dozen spears of the enemy soldiers could be broken (one fork penetrated, and more than ten spears were destroyed).In the end, all Dian Wei's left and right were killed in battle, and he himself was injured dozens of times, but he still fought fiercely with the enemy soldiers at close range. Dian Wei grabbed two enemy soldiers and killed them with his bare hands. The rest of the enemy soldiers were quite surprised and did not dare to approach again.Dian Wei rushed forward and killed a few more enemies. However, due to serious injuries and blood loss, he finally died of yelling and yelling. The enemy soldiers were convinced that Dian Wei was dead, so they stepped forward to cut off his head in fear, and passed it to each other, wanting to observe why this strange man was so vigorous. Cao Jun was defeated all the way from the Shuihe River, and retreated to Wuyin, a hundred miles east of Wan County. After Cao Jun's various ministries heard about it, they all wanted to take the trail and rush to Cao Cao's rescue first. Lieutenant Pinglu led hundreds of people to take the initiative to break the battle, and they fought and retreated to delay the enemy's attack. Seeing that the enemy could not continue to expand the results of the battle, they retreated slowly.Yu Jin ordered his men and horses to be rectified and returned to camp beating the drums. Walking along the road, I encountered more than a dozen wounded soldiers, all of whom were naked, which was horrible.Yu Jin asked what happened to them. These people said that they were robbed by Qingzhou soldiers, and Yu Jin was furious. This Qingzhou soldier is the army that Cao Cao incorporated after defeating the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army.This army fought bravely and was an elite division, but its military discipline had always been poor. Cao Cao usually took good care of them, which made them think that they were terrible.Yu Jin ordered the Qingzhou soldiers to be recovered and dealt with them.Afterwards, the Yujin command post set up a camp to prevent the enemy from coming again.At this time, his subordinates advised him not to rush to set up camp, but to report the situation to Cao Gong first, in case the villains in Qingzhou would file a complaint first.Yu Jin said: "Now the enemy is behind and will come here soon. If you are not prepared, how can you fight the enemy? Mr. Cao is well aware of the details, so there is no need to argue!" Sure enough, Qingzhou soldiers went to Cao Cao to complain in advance, but Cao Cao didn't listen to them.After seeing Yu Jin and listening to Yu Jin's report, Cao Cao was very happy, and said to Jin: "The water is difficult, our side is in danger, the general can be chaotic but not chaotic, rectify the troops, punish atrocities, and build high fortifications. Jie, even if you are a famous general in ancient times, it is difficult to surpass you!" Therefore, based on the merits he made before and after the ban, the Son of Heaven was granted the title of Marquis of Yishou Pavilion. Cao Cao lost his eldest son Cao Ang and nephew Cao Anmin in this battle, which made him very sad.What made him even more sad was that his confidant and beloved general Dian Wei also died in battle.Cao Cao did not pay homage to his beloved son and nephew in Wuyin, but held a grand funeral for Dianwei. He also managed to recover Dianwei's body and sent it back to his hometown Xiangyi for burial.Cao Cao later appointed Dianman, the son of Dianwei, as a doctor, as his personal servant.From then on, every time he passed through Chenliu County, he would detour to Xiangyi to offer sacrifices to Dianwei. Cao Cao's first expedition to Zhang Xiu ended in failure. He retreated from Wuyin to Xu County, leaving Cao Hong stationed in Nanyang County to confront Zhang Xiu. After Zhang Xiu defeated Cao Cao, he quickly expanded his results. With the support of Liu Biao, he took back Wuyin and other places that Cao Jun had occupied, and compressed Cao Hong to Ye County, the northernmost part of Nanyang County.Cao Hong was in a difficult situation in Nanyang County, and could barely hold the northernmost line of defense. Cao Cao knew that Cao Hong was having a hard time in the south, but he couldn't help him quickly at this time, because not long after he returned to Xu County, a major event happened in the world, and he had to respond.