Chapter 38 Chapter 6: Long Sword Test

Jiwu is an ordinary county under Chenliu County of Yanzhou Governor's Department. It is located at the junction of Liang State, Chen State and Chenliu County, southwest of Shangqiu City, Henan Province.At the end of the sixth year of Zhongping (189), the place suddenly became lively. A group of outsiders came here, set up tents outside the county seat, and began to recruit men to join the army. At the gate of the camp was a notice issued by Zhang Miao, the prefect of the county himself. In recent years, due to continuous civil upheavals, the imperial court has been recruiting troops, local officials and even wealthy families have also recruited troops, and the passing Taiping Daoyi Army has also recruited troops.Some people were quite interested in this at the beginning, but as the locals who served as soldiers left here one by one, they lost their news, and everyone gradually lost interest in this kind of thing.

Until one day the situation suddenly changed, and there was an endless stream of applicants, all vying to sign up. The reason was that everyone heard that Wei Xiaolian, the most famous and powerful person in the county, personally led thousands of people to participate in this team. team. Wei Xiaolian's name is Wei Zi, and he is a well-known person in the county. He used to be He Miao's subordinate, and after He Miao died, he worked under Situ Yang Biao's men. Later, he also sneaked back to his hometown.Under Zhang Miao's instruction, Wei Zi used his local appeal to organize a team of thousands of people.

Wei Zi has been an official in Luoyang for many years. Although he has no contact with Cao Cao, he has known Cao Cao's name for a long time.He felt that he lacked the ability to lead the army to fight. He heard that Cao Cao had arrived in Jiwu, and after discussing with Zhang Miao, he brought more than a thousand recruits to join him. Not only that, Wei Zi also brought all his family wealth as funds for recruiting soldiers, which moved Cao Cao very much. In the team brought by Wei Zi, there is also a strong man named Dian Wei. Dian Wei is a native of Jiwu County. The important figures mentioned in the history books generally have characters other than their names, but there is no record of Dian Wei's characters. Maybe he didn't have any characters in the first place, which shows that he was born in a poor family.Dian Wei is tall and strong, he is a well-known chivalrous man in the local area, to put it bluntly, he is similar to a gangster.

This is not nonsense, history books record a case of Dian Wei being a thug for others.There are two counties not far from Jiwu County, Xiangyi and Suiyang.A man surnamed Liu in Xiangyi had a grudge against a man named Liu Yong in Suiyang. Dian Wei was hired to avenge the Liu family in Xiangyi.Liu Yong used to be a county magistrate in the south, and he has some wealth, so he usually takes strict precautions.Dian Wei sat in a car, brought chickens and wine, and pretended to be someone who was going to visit Liu Yong. As soon as the door opened, he took out a knife from his arms and killed him. Not only Liu Yong was killed, but also Liu Yong's wife was killed. Did not let go.Liu Yong's family lived near the market, and Dian Wei must have been covered in blood when he came out.The whole outside vibrated, and hundreds of people chased him all at once, but no one could get close to him, and they chased him for four or five miles.The brothers who supported Dianwei arrived, and there was a chaotic battle, and Dianwei escaped.

From then on, Dian Wei became famous in Jianghu.Witz recruits people, and he joins Witz's team.However, Dian Wei's current position in the army is still very low, serving as a soldier under a regiment leader (Sima) named Zhao Chong. With the joining of Wei Zi, the originally deserted recruiting activities suddenly became popular, and some people even came from the nearby countries of Liang and Chen to apply for the recruitment.Among these applicants, Cao Cao found a man who was not tall, had piercing eyes, spoke and acted neatly, and was skilled in martial arts. Cao Cao liked him very much, so he asked him to be a guard.

This person is the famous Le Jin in the future. Le Jin, styled Wenqian, was born in Weiguo (a marquis state, equivalent to a county) in Dongjun, Yanzhou Governor's Department.Cao Cao is not tall, so you can't choose a guard who is too tall, and Le Jin also has this honor. When Cao Cao first entered Chenliu County, he sent someone to Qiao County to deliver a letter, asking Cao Hong and Xiahou to come to Jiwu County to meet up quickly.Not long after, they arrived one after another. These brothers included Cao Hong, Cao Ren, Cao Chun, Xia Hou, Xia Houyuan, and his nephew Cao Anmin.Anmin is the name of this nephew. His name and which brother of Cao Cao his father is are no longer known.

Cao Hong, Cao Ren, and Cao Chun returned to Qiao County one after another not long ago. During this period of time, they paid attention to recruiting disciples according to Cao Cao's instructions.There are more than a thousand people brought by them.In this team, one of the more famous generals in the future is Shi Huan. Shi Huan, whose name is Gong Liu, was a native of Peiguo, Cao Cao's hometown. He came here as a mercenary (guest army), and he often followed Xiahou in action. There are no Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen and others among these clansmen.Cao Xiu defected to Cao Cao a little later. He should be in the south of the Yangtze River at this time. He "changed his name and transferred to Jingzhou" when he heard the news of his uncle's rebellion. He went through untold hardships to find Cao Cao.Cao Cao was very happy to see Cao Xiu, and said to his left and right: "This is our Cao family's thousand-mile horse."

And Cao Zhen was very young at this time, about the same age as Cao Pi, about three or four years old.Cao Zhen's father, Cao Shao, heard the news of Cao Cao's rebellion, and recruited disciples in the local area, but unfortunately aroused the suspicion of the local officials and was killed.Later, Cao Zhen was led to find Cao Cao, and Cao Cao regarded him as his adopted son. The above two teams, plus the new recruits, have a total of about 5,000 people, although not many, but compared to Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu at this time, they already have a sense of accomplishment. The composition of this team is about one-third from Qiao County, about one-third from Jiwu, and about one-third from other counties and nearby counties.Before going through systematic training and experiencing the tempering of the war, this was still a typical militia organization. Everyone was very motivated to join the army. It was majestic to walk in front of relatives and acquaintances wearing military uniforms, but desperately fighting on the battlefield. The spirit and the experience of going all out are obviously lacking.This directly affected the outcome of Cao Cao's first military operation.

There is a question: Qiao County is not far from here, that is, less than two hundred miles away. Why didn't Cao Cao go back to his hometown in Qiao County to recruit soldiers? Some people thought that Cao Song did not support what his son did and would not let him return to Qiao County.Some people think that Cao Cao is afraid of hurting his family.In fact, these are just speculations. The reason why Cao Cao set up his base camp in Chenliu County is because the area around Chenliu County is the front line of the current anti-Dong forces, and he cannot be too far away from this center. Cao Cao used Jiwu as his base, placed these 5,000 people in surrounding areas, and then began training.Cao Cao has a lot of experience in training the new army. He organized the team according to the regular army system. The basic unit is regiment (department), each regiment (department) has about 1,000 people. Zhao Chong and others, as well as Cao Hong, Cao Ren, Xia Hou, and Xia Houyuan were the head of the regiment (Sima) and deputy head of the regiment (Sima of the fake army).

The biggest difficulty at this time was the lack of weapons. Cao Cao ordered people to set up a blacksmith furnace to make weapons.In the book "Beitang Shuchao" compiled by Yu Shinan in the Tang Dynasty, a military order issued by Cao Cao is included, which records that Cao Cao used to build weapons with craftsmen in Xiangyi, a neighboring county of Jiwu, in the early days of Cao Cao's army. . At that time, Cao Cao was working with craftsmen to forge a weapon called "Baishou Dao".A friend named Sun Binshuo came to see him, and he was very puzzled, and said, "You should think about big things now, why do you work as a craftsman?" Cao Cao replied, "What's wrong with being able to do big things and small things?" (It can be small but can be big again, why bother)?"

The team pulled up in the Jiwu area is the first army created and completely controlled by Cao Cao himself, marking the official foundation of the Cao Wei Empire here, and the small town of Jiwu has become the birthplace of the "Cao Family Army". Brothers, Le Jin, Dian Wei, Shi Huan, Wei Zi and others became the founders and earliest participants of this army. In the future, more and more people will join this team, some come here for fame, some come from the enemy's camp, there are generals and scholars, and this team will grow stronger and stronger. Cao Cao led this team to fight north and south, with victories and failures, and finally established a new dynasty.