Chapter 35 Chapter 6 Looking at the world

Yuan Shao lost miserably. Most of the more than 100,000 troops he led went south. These were the elite soldiers he selected, and they were his foundation. More importantly, Yuan Shao lost his vigor. He was about fifty-seven years old this year, and Cao Cao was forty-seven years old.In the winter of the fifth year of Jian'an (200), the forty-seven-year-old Cao Cao defeated his old friend and fifty-seven-year-old Yuan Shao in Guandu in one fell swoop. Most people were surprised when the news came out.If the gambling industry was popular at that time, the payout rate offered by the banker to Cao Cao must be much higher than that of Yuan Shao, because Cao Cao was not favored before the war.

But now that Cao Cao had won the battle, Yuan Shao fled back to the north of the Yellow River in embarrassment. Yuan Shao's base on the north bank of the Yellow River was Liyang, and his general Jiang Yiqu was stationed here. The panicked Yuan Shao and his son fled into Jiang Yiqu's camp, and the fear was still difficult to calm down.Jiang Yiqu hurriedly rectified his troops and stepped up his defense in case Cao Jun took advantage of the victory to cross the river. However, Cao Jun had no plan to "chase victory bravely and chase the poor bandits". For Cao Jun, the victory came purely by accident, and they were unable to cross the Yellow River at this time.Cao Cao ordered people to clean up the battlefield there, and Yuan Shao and his son had a chance to breathe.

When Yuan Shao returned to Ye County, the first thing he did was not hold a reflection meeting to study how to take revenge in the next step, but he was busy killing Tian Feng who was in prison. At the beginning, Tian Feng advised Yuan Shao not to rush to send troops. Tian Feng believed that to defeat Cao Cao, he should fight steadily and not rush for success. Blindly attacking will turn a stable winning situation into an unpredictable duel, which is usually more beneficial to the weaker side. . But Yuan Shao did not listen to Tian Feng's advice, and Tian Feng was a person who would never give up until he achieved his goal, so he insisted on persuading Yuan Shao to withdraw his order.Yuan Shao was furious, thinking that Tian Feng's remarks had hurt morale before the army came out, so he locked him up.

Tian Feng, courtesy name Yuan Hao, is proficient in power strategy and is a genius. When he was young, he also worked in the Taiwei Mansion of the capital and other institutions. Cao Cao had heard of his name a long time ago, and maybe he had met before.According to the records of "The Deeds of the Sages", when Cao Cao heard that Tian Feng did not go south with Yuan Shao, he was so happy that he clapped his hands: "Yuan Shao must be defeated!" Later Yuan Shao fled, Cao Cao sighed: "If Tian Feng is here, Yuan Shao Why is this!" Yuan Shao was defeated and returned, and the jailer who was guarding Tian Feng said happily to Tian Feng: "Mr. Tian, ​​it's all over now, you will be reused!" Unexpectedly, Tian Feng made the opposite judgment. If the army is in power, my fate will be fine, but now that the army is defeated, I will die!"

Tian Feng knew Yuan Shao very well, and he knew the people around Yuan Shao even more.The number one person around Yuan Shao who made trouble was Guo Tu, and the number two person was Feng Ji.Previously, Fengji had slandered Yuan Shaojin many times to frame Tian Feng, but this time he simply seized the opportunity and caused Tian Feng to die. Both Feng Ji and Guo Tu knew what Yuan Shao liked to eat.After Yuan Jun's defeat, there was a lot of discussion in the army: "If Tian Feng was here, how could we have lost so badly?" Yuan Shao was also very ashamed at first, and he said to Feng Ji and others: "At the beginning, only Tian Feng advised me not to rush to send troops. , I am ashamed to see him now." Yuan Shao's shame was true, but Feng Ji saw that there was something else hidden behind the shame, and he felt that the opportunity had come.

Feng Ji knew that this leader was not only ambitious and talented, but also desperate for face. On the surface, he was modest and magnanimous.Leaders with such characteristics are usually easy to fool. You just need to choose what he is most comfortable with, and pick what he has the most face to do. Feng Ji can see that Yuan Shao's shame is real, and his anger is also real. Feng Ji reported: "Tian Feng clapped his hands and laughed when he heard that you had withdrawn and came back. He was proud of being hit by his words." Yuan Shao was really annoyed and decided to kill (so he meant to harm Feng).

Later, Yuan Shao killed Tian Feng. After Cao Cao won the victory at Guandu, he did not immediately formulate a battle plan for crossing the river. The main reason was that his logistical support problem still could not be resolved. After the new year, that is, in the spring of the sixth year of Jian'an (201), Cao Cao led some troops to Dongping State, the governor of Yanzhou, and stationed in Anping. Cao Cao held a military meeting in Anping to study the next action plan.According to Cao Cao's idea, Yuan Shaoxin was defeated and temporarily unable to go south, so he should take advantage of this opportunity to deal with Liu Biao first.Xun opposed this plan. He said: "Yuan Shao is newly defeated, and his people are alienated. We should continue to maintain high pressure on him until we completely defeat him. If we go to Jianghan and Yuan Shao takes the opportunity to pack up the remnants and attack from behind us, the consequences will be disastrous."

Cao Cao thought that what Xun said was reasonable, so he redeployed the main force to the banks of the Yellow River.In April, Cao Cao personally rushed to Dongjun, commanded the battle of Cangting on the bank of the Yellow River, defeated Yuan Jun again, and Yuan Shao's troops completely retreated to the territory of Jizhou. At this time, Cao Cao had a chance to fight across the river, and he could cross the river from Dongjun.Puyang in Dongjun is a strategically important place, and it is already under the control of Cao Cao at this time. The area of ​​Dongjun north of the Yellow River was once Cao Cao's territory. He has a certain foundation here. The opportunity to defeat Jizhou.

However, Cao Cao ordered the withdrawal of troops, and they have been withdrawn to Xu County. The reason is that Xu County is facing a crisis again, and the maker of this crisis is Liu Bei again. At the beginning, Liu Bei was ordered by Yuan Shao to detour to Runan County to join Liu Pi, the rest of the Yellow Turban, and caused trouble behind Cao Cao. At one point, he attacked only a few dozen miles away from Xu County. Later, Cao Ren launched a blitzkrieg and caught them by surprise. Liu Bei Back to Yuan Shao. Before Yuan Shao was defeated, Gong Du and others in Runan County raised troops to respond to Yuan Shao again, and Yuan Shao also sent Liu Bei to Runan County. At this time, it was the time of the fierce battle at Guandu. Cao Cao couldn't send a general, so he sent a man named Cai Yang. The lesser-known generals of the army went to meet the enemy. Cai Yang was no match for Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun. They lost the battle and Cai Yang was killed.

Both Liu Bei and Gong's morale was greatly boosted, and Liu Biao in Jingzhou was also eager to try.Seeing that there was going to be an accident in the south, Cao Cao did not dare to be careless, so he withdrew his main force from the Yellow River, and then conquered Runan County himself. Liu Bei is very clever in fighting. He knows to fight if he wins, and run away if he can't win. This is the advantage he has kept for most of his life.He knew that Yuan Shao's more than 100,000 troops had been swallowed up by Cao Cao, and his own number of people plus Gong Du's stragglers would not be enough for a plate of food, so he slipped away before meeting Cao Cao.Liu Bei then went to Jingzhou, was accepted by Liu Biao, and began his sojourn life for seven or eight years.

In the second half of the sixth year of Jian'an (201), there were basically no major battles on Cao Cao's side. After the Guandu War, the troops needed to recover, and all localities also needed to quell the bandits and develop production. Cao Cao wanted to harvest the crops of the year first. , Sow next year's grain to accumulate strength for the greater war below. This year, Yuan Shao did not launch an attack either. Firstly, his strength was greatly weakened, the morale of officers and soldiers was low, internal disputes continued, and he had no strength to reorganize the offensive. Second, Yuan Shao seemed to have changed since the defeat at Guandu. He used to be high-spirited and despised everything. , but now he is discouraged, has no fighting spirit, and sighs all day long. Nearly sixty years old, Yuan Shao was worried and angry, his health was deteriorating, and he lived in Ye County and never came out again.Yuan Benchu, who once commanded the world and was famous far and wide, unexpectedly fell into his present state. After another year, Cao Cao prepared food and grass, and his soldiers had a full rest. He was ready to launch a summer offensive.Cao Cao had just arranged all the arrangements, but news came that Yuan Shao was dead. Yuan Shao was indeed dead.In May of the seventh year of Jian'an (202), Yuan Shao suffered from depression and died of vomiting blood at the age of about fifty-eight. The cause of Yuan Shao's death is not recorded in the history books, but he died very similar to Yuan Shu, both contracted the disease in a very bad mood, and he vomited blood before his death. From a medical point of view, hematemesis is divided into hemoptysis and hematemesis. Hemoptysis is usually a problem with the respiratory system below the throat, while hematemesis is usually a problem with the digestive system.Both Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao had hematemesis, and Yuan Shu even vomited more than a bucket of blood, indicating that they were suffering from diseases of the digestive system, such as peptic ulcer, or rupture of esophageal and gastric varices caused by liver cirrhosis, and acute gastroenteritis. Mucosal lesions, etc. From the similar symptoms of the two brothers, the disease they have may be hereditary. Yuan Shao is dead. Although the huge Yuan Empire is not over yet, Yuan Shao's era is over. On the stage of history at the end of the Han Dynasty, Yuan Shao had a chance to become a great man of his generation, but maybe his fate was not good, so he died before his ambition was fulfilled.Maybe he was born at the wrong time, so he happened to be in the same era as Cao Cao.Maybe he didn't have the ability to set things right and reform the past.In short, he left with regret. Chen Shou didn't speak highly of Yuan Shao, saying that he was "lenient outside and taboo inside, scheming but indecisive, talented but not useful, and good at learning but not accepting." Fan Ye quoted a few words from "Han Feizi" to evaluate him: " Being discordant, overbearing and victorious, the legitimate son being despised and the concubine being valued, this is called the march of perdition." It means: to be strong and aggressive but not united, to be stubborn and aggressive, to despise the legitimate son but to value the concubine son, these are all signs of doom . Cao Cao, an old friend who has known him for decades, had a more profound evaluation of him. Cao Cao said that he is "hard-faced and timid, always planning; he cherishes his life when he does big things, and forgets his life when he sees small gains." Today’s Cangzhou City, Hebei Province belonged to Bohai County, Jizhou Provincial Department of History at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In its territory, there is an ancient tomb in the northeast of Qiangao Longhua Village, Gaochuan Township, Cangxian County. The soil is tall and covers an area of ​​about 1500 square meters. Yuan Shao's tomb.This place is a plain, and not far from the north, there is the old course of the Hutuo River passing through it from east to west. It has been listed as a cultural relic protection unit in Hebei Province. Yuan Shao's hometown is Runan County of the Yuzhou Governor's Department, which is now the enemy's territory, and he cannot return to his hometown for burial after his death.Yuan Shao's fief was in Ye County, which was his administrative center, but he was not buried here, but in Bohai County, where he used to work. It is unknown whether this was due to his dying will. These are not important anymore, the important thing is that Yuan Shao is dead.