Chapter 59 Chapter IX Defense of Yanzhou

At the beginning of the fourth year of Chuping (193), that is, before and after Ma Ri and Zhao Qi went to the Kanto, the overall pattern of the world was a confrontation between the North and the South, with Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu as the core, forming two camps. Except for the Liangzhou Group entrenched in Chang'an and the Liu Yan Group located in Yizhou, from north to south, powerful factions such as Liu Yu, Gongsun Zan, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Tao Qian, Yuan Shu, and Liu Biao were all involved in the relationship between these two groups. During the confrontation, forces such as the Black Mountain Army, Zhang Yang of Hanoi County, and Yu Fuluo of the Southern Huns were interspersed in the middle.

The two camps are roughly divided as follows: the Yuan Shao camp includes Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Liu Biao, and Liu Yu; the Yuan Shu camp includes Yuan Shu, Gongsun Zan, Tao Qian, Zhang Yang, the Black Mountain Army, and Yu Fuluo.As for Sun Ce and Liu Bei, their influence was still very limited at this time, and they were subordinate to Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shu respectively.Lu Bu, who escaped from Chang'an, also joined them later, and was attached to Yuan Shao for a short time, and in most cases he was regarded as a member of Yuan Shu's camp. This pattern is very interesting. It can be summed up in one sentence as "distance and close attack". The enemy is in front of you, and the friend is behind the enemy. Finally, a situation of flanking and counter-flanking is formed.In the future, this situation will continue to change. After defeating the people in the opposing camp, the same camp will start fighting again.

Now, the biggest enemy in Yuan Shao's eyes is Gongsun Zan, and Gongsun Zan's alliance with Yuan Shu made Yuan Shao very annoyed.Yuan Shu, who was staying in Nanyang County, suddenly moved northward at the beginning of the fourth year of Chuping (193), aiming at Yanzhou, Cao Cao's sphere of influence. Regarding the reasons why Yuan Shu left Nanyang County to seek another development, one kind of reason thinks that Yuan Shu cooperated with Gongsun Zan and Tao Qian's military operations, and the other thinks that Liu Biao exerted pressure on Yuan Shu.Liu Biao continued to attack northward, attacking Yuan Shu's grain roads, and Yuan Shu had difficulty developing in Nanyang County.

In the spring of this year, Yuan Shu personally led troops into the territory of Chenliu County, and the prefect of Chenliu County was Zhang Miao.Speaking of which, only three or four years ago, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao, and Zhang Miao were still good friends, and they often got together in Luoyang.Now, it's time for swordsmen to meet. After Cao Cao became Yanzhou Shepherd, Zhang Miao's mentality has undergone some subtle changes, but his support for Cao Cao has remained unchanged on the whole.Faced with Yuan Shu's uninvited guest, he immediately notified Cao Cao and asked for reinforcements.

After Yuan Shu started to move, the Black Mountain Army and Yu Fuluo immediately responded and supported Yuan Shu on the northwest flank.Yuan Shu's vanguard was led by Liu Xiang and stationed in Kuangting. The location of Kuangting is in Pingqiu County of Chenliu County. It has penetrated more than 100 miles into Chenliu County, and further ahead is Dongjun, Cao Cao's rear base.Cao Cao didn't dare to be careless, so he personally led the troops to fight. Xun and the others analyzed that Liu Xiang's move to the north was just Yuan Shu's tentative attack. They could surround Kuangting and not fight, and see Yuan Shu's next reaction.Cao Cao accepted and surrounded Kuangting, and Yuan Shu led his army north to reinforce.

Cao Cao set up his formation in the area of ​​Pingqiu and Donghun, waiting for Yuan Jun to arrive.Cao Jun waited for work with leisure, Yuan Jun only went north, and his strength was slightly inferior. In the end, he was defeated, and Yuan Shu retreated to Fengqiu.Fengqiu was not far from Suanzao, where the Kwantung Allied Forces met, and was also in Chenliu County. Cao Cao chased after him and surrounded Fengqiu. This was an opportunity, because Yuan Shu's main force had not yet arrived, and Yuan Shu was advancing alone. If Cao Jun moved faster, Fengqiu City might be besieged to death, and Yuan Shu would not be able to leave.But that would be a very difficult matter, whether killing Yuan Shu or capturing him alive was not in Cao Cao's current interests.Cao Cao left a gap (unclosed) when he decided to besiege the city.

Yuan Shu was also sensible, knowing that this was an old friend sincerely letting him go, so he escaped along the gap.The place he fled to was Xiangyi, which was still in the territory of Chenliu County. Cao Cao couldn't ignore it, and chased him to Xiangyi. Yuan Shu didn't wait for Cao's army to arrive, and took the initiative to retreat to Taishou near Xiangyi. At this time, Yuan Shu's reinforcements also arrived.After one defeat after another, Yuan Shu lost all face. He thought that this time he couldn't run anymore, he had to fight a battle to win back his face.However, this is just his wish.

Although the siege of Taishou was not as easy as the previous few times, Cao Jun still won the victory. The method they adopted was to dig nearby channels and flood the city with water.Yuan Shu was defeated, so he gave up Taishou and fled to Ningling.Xiangyi and Ningling are not far away. Cao Cao once recruited soldiers in this area, and this is the starting point of Cao Cao's career.Cao Cao led his troops to pursue again, and Yuan Shu simply fled to Jiujiang County this time.Cao Cao won five battles and five victories, and completely drove Yuan Shu out of Chenliu County.The ambitious Yuan Shu was hit hard. He didn't expect that he had always been quite conceited, and his level of leading troops in battle was so poor that he ran for his life like a bereaved dog.Since then, Yuan Shu's ambitions have dropped sharply, and he no longer hopes to annex the Central Plains and roam the world. He is quite content with being able to settle in a corner of Huainan.

From Kuangting to Ningling, Cao Cao taught his old friend a military lesson by showing his own personal experience, and convinced Yuan Shu. In fact, Yuan Shu dared to advance lightly because of the cooperation of Gongsun Zan and Tao Qian. They originally planned to act in a unified manner and put pressure on Cao Cao from all directions at the same time.Yuan Shu fled all the way to Jiujiang County and still wondered: Why did the other two buddies go? Actually, Gongsun Zan and Tao Qian did not miss their appointment.While Gongsun Zan was fighting hard against Yuan Shao, he sent Shan Jing, governor of Yanzhou, and Liu Bei, prime minister of Pingyuan, to cooperate with Yuan Shu's actions.Shan Jing led his troops to Pingyuan State, and Liu Bei led Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others to Gaotang County, which is in the territory of Pingyuan State, just in the north of Dongjun. Waiting place is not far away.

According to Chen Shou's records, Tao Qian also participated in this joint military operation, and the place where he was stationed was Fagan.But if you look at it against the map, it seems impossible.Fagan County belongs to Dongjun County, and it is only forty or fifty miles away from Dongwuyang, Cao Cao's rear base. Whether Tao Qian can deploy his troops to such a deep place is another matter. As the governor of Xuzhou, whether Tao Qian can leave Xuzhou, Crossing multiple enemy-occupied areas and coming to Fagan County, thousands of miles away, is first of all a question. Perhaps Fagan County did have a small army from Xuzhou, but it was not led by Tao Qian himself.

If Tao Qian cooperates with Yuan Shu and Gongsun Zan in joint operations, a feasible solution is to attack Xuzhou's northern neighbors, namely Taishan County, Rencheng State, Dongping State, and Shanyang County of the Yanzhou Governor's Department, so as to cause trouble for Cao Cao.Judging from the subsequent developments, Tao Qian did indeed do so. The above-mentioned joint military operations will cause Cao Cao to be attacked from the north, south and southeast at the same time, and Yanzhou will be very dangerous.But Cao Cao easily resolved the crisis because of the time difference. The reason why joint military operations are called joint must reach a tacit understanding in terms of time and place.After Shan Jing and Liu Bei on the north road arrived at the predetermined location, Yuan Shu's team was still on the way, so Cao Cao, with Yuan Shao's support, calmly dealt with the enemy in the north first, and they took the initiative to attack and repelled Liu Bei and Shan Jing.After being withdrawn alone, Liu Bei withdrew from the Pingyuan Kingdom, and Gongsun Zan was the first to withdraw from the joint operation. When Cao Cao was chasing Yuan Shu all the way, Tao Qian could have helped, but firstly, the journey was a bit long, and secondly, Tao Qian wanted to preserve his strength. He had the idea of ​​seeing before talking, and wanted to wait for Cao Cao and Yuan Shu to fight for a while before going forward to help.What surprised Tao Qian was that Yuan Shu, who had always been very popular, had such poor military ability. Cao Cao beat him all the way, and he had no way to parry him, only to escape for his life.Seeing this situation, Tao Qian gave up the reinforcement operation. In this way, the three-party joint combat plan was successfully disintegrated by Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Shan Jing were repelled, Yuan Shu was beaten away, and Tao Qian was left, which would be much easier.