Chapter 51 7. Good things keep coming

For Cao Cao, good luck cannot be stopped once it starts. Cao Cao, who has experienced many setbacks, ushered in the good thing that Dongjun and Xun took the initiative to defect to him by accident, but this is not over yet, his good luck continues.This time, it was the peasant uprising army that brought him luck, but it was not the Black Mountain Army, but the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou. At the same time that the Montenegro Army was advancing eastward, the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army also began to act. This team had a large number of people, claiming to be over one million, but this number included all family members and support personnel accompanying the army, and far fewer could actually participate in the battle.

Qingzhou Inspector Jiao He was weak by nature, and ran away as soon as he saw the Yellow Turban Army. Yuan Shao immediately appointed Zang Hong as Qingzhou Inspector, and competed with Tian Kai, Qingzhou Inspector appointed by Gongsun Zan.After Zang Hong took office, he changed Jiao He's weak policy and took the initiative to seek a decisive battle with the Yellow Turban Army. The Yellow Turban Army suffered consecutive defeats and had to consider a strategic shift.In November of the second year of Chuping (191), shortly after Cao Cao became the prefect of Dongjun, the main force of the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army entered Taishan County in Yanzhou, and was defeated by the prefect Ying Shao.

It can be seen from this that although the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou has a large number of people, its combat effectiveness is average.Afterwards, they attacked Bohai County. At this time, Gongsun Zan had already developed to this area. The Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou was attacked by Gongsun Zan again and was defeated again. It was at this time that Gongsun Zan's old classmate Liu Bei became the prefect of the Pingyuan Kingdom of the Qingzhou Governor's Department. His mission was to seize the territory, and Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others followed him.It was also at this time that Liu Bei came into contact with Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun deeply felt Liu Bei's friendship, so he left Gongsun Zan and followed him.Liu Bei served as Prime Minister of Pingyuan for about two years.

Zhao Yun's switch to Liu Bei is a bit similar to Xun's switch to Cao Cao. The reason why Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao didn't care about it, and it didn't affect their relationship with Liu Bei and Cao Cao afterwards, is that at this time, whether it is Liu Bei or Cao Cao, they are both in name. The subordinates of Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao, Xun and Zhao Yun are equivalent to internal work transfers in the same system. Another important reason is that at this time, Xun and Zhao Yun had not yet emerged, and did not attract the attention of Gongsun Zan or Yuan Shao. The Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou was frustrated one after another, so they wanted to join forces with the Black Mountain Army in the west to change the passive situation on the battlefield, so they gathered their forces and attacked Yanzhou and Jizhou in the west.Yu Du, Bai Rao, Sui Gu and others led the main force of the Black Mountain Army to leave the base in the Taihang Mountains and attack Hanoi County and Dong County to the east to cooperate with the actions of the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou.

After Cao Cao defeated Bai Rao, the Black Mountain Army basically withdrew from Dongjun, and Cao Cao became famous.Not far from Dongjun, Li Gan and his nephew Li Dian, a wealthy family in Shanyang County, led their troops to defect to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao's strength was further strengthened. Li Dian, courtesy name Mancheng, was only eighteen or nineteen years old at this time. He was brave in battle, knowledgeable, elegant, respectful of scholars and officials, and later grew into a Confucian general in the Cao army, known as the "old man in the army". In the spring of the third year of Chuping (192), Cao Cao led the main force to leave Dongwuyang and stationed in Dunqiu County not far from the strategically important Puyang. The purpose of this trip may be to cooperate with Yuan Shao's military operations.After Yuan Shao captured Jizhou, the conflict with Gongsun Zan intensified. The two were planning a decisive battle in the northern part of Jizhou and Youzhou. Yuan Shao ordered Cao Cao to protect the safety of the southern line to avoid future worries.But as soon as Cao Jun moved, something went wrong.

The Black Mountain Army who came over quietly saw Cao Cao leading his army westward, so Yu Du immediately assembled his troops to attack Dongwuyang. Dongwuyang was Cao Jun's rear base at this time, and his family members, food, grass and supplies were all here. Yu Du's move was fast and accurate. When the news reached Dunqiu, Cao Jun's soldiers panicked. According to historical records, most people advocated returning to the army immediately for rescue. Cao Cao thought it was too late to return to the army. It is better to adopt the method of encircling Wei and saving Zhao, directly attacking the old nest of the Black Mountain Army and forcing the Black Mountain Army to return to the army.So Cao Jun abandoned Dongwuyang and attacked northwestward, heading straight to the Heishan Army base in the south of Taihang Mountains.The Black Mountain Army attacking Dongwuyang really withdrew after hearing the news, and Cao Cao led the army to lay a beautiful ambush on the road and defeated Suigu.Later, on the road, he encountered Shanyu Fuluo, the Shanyu of the Southern Huns who had just surrendered to Yuan Shao, but rebelled while Yuan Jun was going north, and Cao Cao defeated him again.

With one trick, two victories, the siege of Dongwuyang was solved in response, which is indeed a classic example.If you restore the route of this battle on the map, you will find many doubts.Although Dunqiu is far to the west of Dongwuyang, Taihang Mountain is farther to the west, and the whole Hanoi County is far away in the middle. It is really hard to say where the enemy's lair is. The organization of the Black Mountain Army is very scattered. Black Mountain is not a city, nor is it a cottage. I don't know how to start. Moreover, the Montenegrin Army took their wives and children with them when they fought, so there were hundreds of thousands of people in the army. It was just wishful thinking for Cao Cao to copy other people's lairs.If this is the case, the siege of Dongwuyang will not be solved, and Cao Cao will be copied first.

However, the writers, including Chen Shou, have all explained this mobile warfare clearly and plainly, which cannot be doubted.If we look through the history books again with doubts and find that the source of Chen Shou's information is Wang Chen's "Wei Shu", it will be easy to understand.As a representative of the history books of the pro-Cao faction, Wang Shen's "Book of Wei" often exaggerates and exaggerates Cao Cao's achievements without losing the opportunity, and sometimes it might as well make up some fiction and diversion.Regarding the battle of "surrounding Heishan and saving Dongwuyang" in the spring of the third year of Chuping, it can basically be regarded as a fiction.

The real situation is that the Black Mountain Army did besiege Dongwuyang, but Dongbuyang has not been captured due to the resistance of the remaining troops.The advantage of the Montenegrin Army is that they don't love to fight, they fight if they win, and they leave if they don't win, so they retreat voluntarily.Cao Cao encountered Suigu's troops on the way back to his division and defeated them.As for the battle against Fuluo in Neihuang County (now Huangxian County, Henan Province) in Hanoi County, if there is one, it may be a part of Cao Jun, and it will not be led by Cao Cao himself.

While the Black Mountain Army was besieging Dongwuyang, the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou was also moving in this direction, with a total number (not the total strength) of more than one million people.They first entered Ren Chengguo, the governor of Yanzhou, and Zheng Sui, the minister of Ren Chengguo, was killed.The news reached Changyi in Shanyang County, and Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou who was guarding here, decided to send troops to meet him. Bao Xin, the Prime Minister of Jinbei, was also here. He advised Liu Dai not to advance rashly. Bao Xin's strategy is to stick to it and let the troops recharge their energy (to accumulate the strength of the soldiers, first stick to it), and wait until the enemy cannot advance or retreat, and the food and grass are exhausted. time to strike again.Liu Dai refused to listen and insisted on leading the army to attack, but was killed.

After Liu Dai's death, the eight prefectures of Yanzhou were in a situation without a leader. Facing the menacing Yellow Turban Army, the most urgent task was to introduce a strong and capable leader to repel the Yellow Turban Army and protect the local security. wishes.In this situation, Chen Gong came out. The real Chen Gong never served as a county magistrate in Zhongmu, let alone "capture and release Cao".Chen Gong, styled Gongtai, was born in Dongjun. According to history books, he was "upright and heroic, and rarely connected with well-known people in the country."He belongs to the powerful faction in the local area, and his words have a certain influence. In order to protect his hometown from being burned, he contacted some local celebrities to find a new head of Yanzhou, and finally locked his target on Cao Cao, the prefect of Dongjun. According to "Shiyu", Chen Gong personally went to Dongwuyang to meet Cao Cao and said: "There is no leader in Yanzhou now. I volunteered to persuade everyone in the state to welcome you to the state. By virtue of this, I will seize the world and become a king." Chen Gong Gong returned to Yanzhou and lobbied the officials and gentry in the state. Bao Xin was the first to express his support, and everyone followed suit.Finally, everyone elected Bao Xin and the state official Wan Qian as representatives, and went to Dongwuyang to welcome Cao Cao to take office. In this way, Cao Cao became the chief executive of Yanzhou, but he was not the governor, but the governor of the state.Cao Cao had served as Prime Minister of Jinan a few years ago, with a rank of two thousand shi, and the rank of governor was only 600 shi. With Cao Cao's previous qualifications, he was qualified to be the governor of the state.But this is not an official appointment by the imperial court, it is at most a collective recommendation by the masses. In any case, Yanzhou Mu Cao Cao became a local official alongside Liu Yu, Liu Yan, Yuan Shao and others, but at this time Liu Biao, Tao Qian and others were only governors, and were lower than Zhou Mu in name. After Cao Cao took office, he immediately rectified his army and horses, preparing for a decisive battle with the Yellow Turban Army.The Yellow Turban Army had no way out, and there was a strong enemy behind. They showed desperate energy, and the situation of fighting and running in the past disappeared, making this battle extremely difficult. Even Wang Chen had to do it in "Book of Wei". It is recorded as follows: Once, Cao Cao led more than a thousand people to patrol the battlefield, and was suddenly attacked by the main force of the Yellow Turban Army. Nearly half of his men were killed and injured, and they had to retreat.The Yellow Turban Army continued to attack. They had been battle-hardened and their soldiers were strong, while Cao's army was full of new recruits, inexperienced, and their morale was not high.Cao Cao personally put on armor and helmet, was on the front line, strictly enforced military discipline, and clearly defined rewards and punishments, so his morale improved slightly. The climax of this battle was the Battle of Shouzhang. In the fierce battle, Cao Cao was in danger many times. One of them was saved by Bao Xin's desperate resistance, but Bao Xin died in battle. Bao Xin was Cao Cao's most loyal comrade-in-arms and most reliable ally at the beginning of his career. He was full of admiration for Cao Cao and helped Cao Cao many times.Bao Xin's death in battle was a great loss for Cao Cao, and Cao Cao was extremely sad.After Bao Xin's death, even the corpse was not found. Cao Cao ordered a reward for the search, but he still couldn't find it. He had to have a statue of Bao Xin carved in wood to worship. The opponent actually fought harder, and the Yellow Turban Army gradually became overwhelmed. They wrote a letter to Cao Cao.In the letter, I first approached it, starting with Cao Cao's being the prostitute temple in Jinan, saying that Cao Cao's political views were actually consistent with their Taiping Taoism, and then persuading Cao Cao to follow the way of heaven and not to be an enemy of the Yellow Turban Army.Cao Cao ignored him and continued to attack. According to history, Cao Cao "set up strange ambushes, fought day and night, and captured them in battle, but the thieves retreated." The Yellow Turban Army was defeated in the direction of Jibei Kingdom, and Cao Cao ordered his troops to pursue them. The Yellow Turban Army had no way out, so they had to ask for surrender.Cao Cao accepted their surrender, reorganized on the spot, and formed a new team: Qingzhou soldiers. According to Chen Shou and others, there are more than 300,000 soldiers who were surrendered this time. The number of Qingzhou soldiers Cao Cao formed is unknown. He only said "receive the elite". If two out of ten were selected, there would be at least 60,000 more than one person. In fact, otherwise, the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army must not have more than 300,000 soldiers capable of fighting.It is impossible for Cao Cao to increase his team by 60,000 all at once. A more reliable number should be around 20,000 to 30,000, which is actually quite impressive.After Bao Xin died in battle, Cao Cao entrusted his original troops to Bao Xin's old subordinate Yu Jin to command.Yu Jinzi Wenze, a native of Taishan County, Yanzhou Governor's Department, followed Bao Xin as early as the first year of Zhongping (184) when he raised troops to fight against the Yellow Turban Army.Cao Cao heard that Yu Jin was brave in battle, so he promoted him to be the regiment commander (army commander), and Yu Jin entered the ranks of Cao Jun's first-line generals. Although Cao Cao became the shepherd of Yanzhou, his actual control is still limited at this time.The seat of Yanzhou was originally in Changyi County of Shanyang County, which was too far away from the Yellow River and quite far from Dongjun, Cao Cao's rear base, so Cao Cao moved his headquarters to Juancheng, where Jiyin County and Dongjun intersect The strategic focus is on the front line of the Yellow River. After Liu Dai's death, Dong Zhuo heard the news and appointed a governor of Yanzhou, Jin Shang, an old party member.Jin Shang brought people to take up the post, but Cao Cao of course refused to do so, so he deployed soldiers at the place where Jin Shang entered the state boundary. Jin Shang saw that he could not defeat him, so he ran to Nanyang County to join Yuan Shu. Occupying Yanzhou brought Cao Cao's career to a new level.Cao Cao served as the shepherd of Yanzhou. Although he could not completely control Yanzhou, he formed an active political momentum. Local celebrities in Yanzhou came here to defect. In addition to Chen Gong, there were also Cheng Yu, Mao, Man Chong, Lu Qian and others. Their affairs will be introduced later. After Cao Cao was stationed in Juancheng, he took the Bian family over. This winter, the Bian family gave birth to their third son, Cao Zhi. At this time, Cao Pi was six years old and Cao Zhang was three years old.Cao Pi later wrote in his reminiscence article that when he was five or six years old, Cao Cao personally taught him how to archery, so that he could develop the habit of bowing horses since he was a child.