Chapter 61 3. Launch an act of revenge

Before Cao Cao's revenge could start, Tao Qian took the initiative instead. Tao Qian took the lead in attacking Yanzhou in the summer of the fourth year of Chuping (193).Prior to this, several important things happened on Tao Qian's side, which need to be explained. One thing is that Tao Qian has been officially appointed as Xuzhou Mu by the "three-person team" in Chang'an at this time. Before that, he had been serving as the governor of Xuzhou. Around the time Cao Cao sent Wang Bi to Chang'an, Tao Qian also sent someone to Chang'an to pay tribute. The person he sent was Zhao Yu, a local celebrity.At that time, Tao Qian had several famous people, besides Zhao Yu, there were also Wang Lang, Zhang Zhao and so on.Wang Lang, whose name is Jing Xing, was a student of the former Taiwei Yang Ci, and he was still a brother of the Ling Emperor Liu Hong and the former General He Jin. He and Zhao Yu jointly persuaded Tao Qian to send an envoy to Chang'an. Tao Qian accepted the suggestion and sent Zhao Yu. Yu went to Chang'an.

Unlike Cao Cao's situation, Tao Qian's special envoy was welcomed in Chang'an because Tao Qian was officially appointed by the imperial court as the governor, while Cao Cao's Yanzhou Mu had no provenance.In the end, the imperial court worshiped Tao Qian as General Anton, and was promoted from governor of Xuzhou to Mu of Xuzhou.At the same time, Zhao Yu was appointed as the prefect of Guangling County, and Wang Lang was appointed as the prefect of Kuaiji County.It was at this time that Wang Lang left Tao Qian and took up his post in Jiangnan.Another thing is that Tao Qian joined forces with Que Xuan, the remaining tribe of the Yellow Turban, and his power increased greatly.

According to the records of "Hou Han Shu Wu Xing Zhi", a rare natural phenomenon occurred in the Central Plains and North China this summer: it was a hot summer, but a cold wind blew up, just like winter. This miraculous natural phenomenon encouraged people who wanted to rebel or were rebelling. In their view, this was another proof of the death of Liu Han.A man named Que Xuan led the rebellion in the Xiapiguo area of ​​Xuzhou Governor's Department, and many people responded. When he saw that Heaven also came out to punish those in power, he stopped being polite and called himself the Son of Heaven, fighting against Emperor Xian of Chang'an.At that time, daring to rebel was not considered a skill, but daring to call himself the emperor was definitely commendable.

Tao Qian, who had just been appointed by the imperial court as Xuzhou Mu, not only did not lead his troops to crusade, but joined forces with Que Xuan to further strengthen his power.On the one hand, Tao Qian sent people to Chang'an to swear allegiance to the emperor, and on the other hand, he called the person who claimed to be the emperor a brother. This man's pragmatic style is really good. However, many people in later generations expressed doubts about this, such as Sima Guang. He did not believe that Tao Qian, who was a shepherd of Xuzhou, would really get involved with the rebels openly, because this kind of behavior was no different from direct rebellion.There is also Mr. Li Dongfang who holds this view. He believes that not only Cao Song's killing has nothing to do with Tao Qian, but also such a thing as a union with Que Xuan is simply non-existent.This represents a very popular view. In the eyes of many people, Tao Qian is a modest gentleman, not a villain.

However, if you look at Tao Qian’s unique personality when he was on the Northwest front in his early years, it seems impossible to say that he has grown into a gentle elder. After Tao Qian arrived in Xuzhou, he trusted villains and suppressed upright people. Playing tricks, engaging in double-dealing, every incident has been recorded, and there is nothing to make a fuss about combining with a powerful faction like Que Xuan at the critical moment. Obtaining the title of Xuzhou Mu and uniting with Que Xuan, if you look at these two things together, Tao Qian at this time has not only improved his reputation, but also strengthened his strength, which is the rising period of his career.He may not take Cao Cao seriously. If Tao Qian had long thought of challenging Cao Cao and deliberately planned the killing of Cao Song, it is also possible.

Whether it is intentional planning or misunderstood, the current battle with Cao Cao is inevitable.Tao Qian and Que Xuan formed an allied force and took the lead in attacking Yanzhou. The direction of their attack was not Chenliu County and Jiyin County in front of Cao Cao, but Taishan County and Rencheng State on the right.Ying Shao, the prefect of Taishan County, had abandoned his official position and fled to Yuan Shao. Cao Jun's defense here was relatively weak, and many places in Rencheng State and Taishan County were occupied by Tao Qian. In the face of the enemy's preemptive attack, Cao Cao decided to divide his forces into three groups: one was led by Xia Hou to stay in Yanzhou, and the focus was on strategic places such as Juancheng, Puyang, Dingtao, and Dongwuyang, and Xun and Cheng Yu stayed to assist him; Led by Cao Ren, they entered Dongping State and Rencheng State from the north of Dongjun County, and then went to Taishan County to attack the Xuzhou Army there; all the way, led by Cao Cao himself, went south from Jiyin County and entered Peizhou, the governor of Yuzhou, which had been controlled by Tao Qian. They attacked the northern part of the state, and then attacked the Pengcheng State (the government is located in the area of ​​Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province) and the Xiapi State (the government is located in the area of ​​Pixian County, Jiangsu Province), and other places, and went straight to Tan County (now Tancheng, Jiangsu Province), the headquarters of Tao Qian.

Generally speaking, it is to use partial divisions to fight against Tao Qian's main force, and to attack the enemy's side with the main force. For Cao Jun, who has lost his first-mover advantage, this is a correct choice. This was a war with an unpredictable ending. Before Cao Cao left Juancheng, he told his wife Bian that if he could not come back, he would let Bian take the children to Chenliu County and join Zhang Miao (if I don’t return, I will go to Yimengzhuo) ). The war began in the autumn of this year, and Cao Jun's journey was smooth and powerful.The road led by Cao Cao took more than a dozen cities in Yanzhou occupied by Tao Qian in one go, and approached Pengcheng, a strategic place in Xuzhou, forcing Tao Qian to withdraw from the right. He personally led the army to fight. There was a fierce battle.

In ancient Kyushu, there was Xuzhou, and Xuzhou was also called Pengcheng.Pengcheng is an ancient city. Although the city is surrounded by hills and highlands of various sizes, the transportation is very developed.In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was an Dongfang Avenue starting from Luoyang. It basically followed the current Longhai Railway in the first half and the Beijing-Shanghai Railway in the second half. Pengcheng was the transportation hub on this avenue. Surrounding Pengcheng is the confluence of Sishui and Shui. It has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times, and it is also an ideal battlefield for large corps to fight.Four hundred years ago, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu had a great battle here. As a result, Liu Bang was defeated and Xiang Yu almost captured Liu Bang alive.The Battle of Pengcheng between Cao Cao and Tao Qian was not as fierce as the Chu-Han War, and the battle showed a one-sided trend.Cao's army was victorious, and nearly 10,000 people under Tao Qian were killed. Tao Qian withdrew his troops and retreated eastward to Tan County.

Regarding this great war, there are only 16 words in "Three Kingdoms·Wudiji": "In autumn, the Taizu conquered Tao Qian, and went down to more than ten cities, but Qian guarded the city and dared not go out." It is roughly the same, except that there are ten more words: "There are tens of thousands of dead, and the Surabaya River will not flow." The translation of the latter sentence roughly means that nearly tens of thousands of people were killed, and the corpses blocked the river, so that the Surabaya River would stop flowing. up. The records of this war in the early official history only have these 20 characters.But later, I don't know which dear friend changed the "tens of thousands" to "tens of thousands" intentionally or unintentionally, and things were a little different.In Sima Guang's pen, this incident has evolved into the following:

"In autumn, Cao Cao led his troops to attack Qian, and attacked more than ten cities. When he arrived at Pengcheng, he was defeated in a great battle and left to Baotan. Fuck it, kill hundreds of thousands of men and women in Surabaya, and the water will not flow...the chickens and dogs will be gone, and there will be no pedestrians in the ruins." Hundreds of thousands of people were buried alive at one time, which is simply appalling! If Cao Cao really did this, we must take the hat of number one villain in the Han and Wei Dynasties from Dong Zhuo's head and put it on Cao Cao, and sue him for a crime against humanity!

Unfortunately, this is not the truth. Due to the lack of historical materials, it is not clear how this event evolved from the Chen Shou version to the Sima Guang version.In the earlier period of Emperor Huan, the total population of Pengcheng State was less than 500,000, and the population of the whole country was more than 50 million at that time.After the Yellow Turban Uprising, natural disasters, and massacres in wars, the population of the whole country has dropped to more than 10 million at a later date. At this time, the population of Pengcheng Kingdom must have also dropped significantly. While Cao Cao was fighting, he had to send people to attack everywhere to capture all the people in Pengcheng Kingdom and bury them all alive?Really incredible! Cao Cao attacked from a long distance, and the number of soldiers used in Pengcheng at this time was at most 20,000 to 30,000.After breaking through Pengcheng, Cao Cao ordered everyone not to clean up the battlefield or chase the enemy, but to do a more important thing: Each person assigned more than a dozen soldiers and civilians captured in the enemy-occupied areas and led them to the Sishui River Valley Buried alive, no food if you can't finish the work! Even if the captured people have been tied up and fastened in advance, and even if those who are about to be buried alive are willing to cooperate, the amount of engineering involved in completing this task is huge. Hundreds of thousands of men and women were murdered, the scale is comparable to the Nanjing Massacre, can you imagine it?However, due to Sima Guang's authority, few people think about it carefully, and this kind of statement gradually became popular in later generations. Let's not talk about this public case, let's talk about Tao Qian's resignation to Tan County.Cao Cao continued to pursue, and fought another fierce battle with Tao Qian's main force in Wuyuan, east of Tan County, and won another victory, and his troops approached Tan County.Starting from Juancheng to Tanxian County, the straight-line distance is thousands of miles away. Cao Jun came from a long way. Although he won every victory, he was exhausted himself, the number of soldiers was reduced, and the combat effectiveness declined.The opponent had no way to retreat, and desperately defended, Cao Jun was unable to attack the city. There is another reason why Tan County is difficult to attack: a new force has come to the city. Tao Qian was full of confidence at first, thinking that he could at least fight Cao Cao, but he didn't expect his troops to be so vulnerable in front of Cao Jun.Seeing that Tan County was in critical condition, he hurriedly sent someone to ask for help from the allied army Gongsun Zan before Cao Jun surrounded him. After Yuan Shu was beaten away, if Tao Qian was eliminated again, Gongsun Zan's strategic deployment of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's north-south attack would come to nothing, so he couldn't ignore Tao Qian's plea for help.Gongsun Zan ordered Tian Kai and Liu Bei, who were closest to Xuzhou, to rush to help Tan County. Tian Kai and Liu Bei were appointed by Gongsun Zan as Governor of Qingzhou and Prime Minister of Pingyuan respectively.Liu Bei led Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others to arrive first. At this time, his force was still very limited, only more than a thousand people, plus some Wuhuan cavalry, and thousands of refugees. It didn't look like he was here to help fight , it seems that they are here to eat a big family. But these are freshmen.Yanzhou Army and Xuzhou Army have been fighting for several months, and both sides are exhausted.Because of the joining of Liu Bei, Tan County's defensive strength was significantly enhanced. Therefore, although Cao Hong, Xia Houyuan and others personally supervised the battle and tried to take Tan County in one fell swoop, they stormed several times but failed to capture it. It is unrealistic to besiege the city for a long time. This is an enemy-occupied area, and the enemy will have more and more backup, while your own team will face difficulties in logistics and supplies.Cao Cao decided to give up the siege and return to Yanzhou. The offensive and defensive battle in Tan County must have left a deep impression on Cao Cao, and he may have heard the name Liu Bei from the intelligence personnel.Before that, he may still be relatively unfamiliar with this name, but from now on his life will be closely linked with this person. In the direction of Taishan County, Cao Ren also progressed smoothly. He defeated Tao Qian's troops there, recovered Kai County, Hua County, Fei County and other places, and expanded the scope of "Cao Tong District" to the entire Rencheng State and Taishan County. . After the new year, Liu Xie, the emperor Xian in Chang'an, issued an edict to change the year name to Xingping.In the spring of the first year of Xingping (194), Cao Cao returned to Juancheng after his first expedition to Xuzhou that lasted nearly half a year. Zhang Miao, the prefect of Chenliu County, went to the state border to welcome them triumphantly.Thinking of the situation when Cao Cao's life and death were uncertain during the expedition half a year ago, and Cao Cao entrusted his family to each other, the two old comrades-in-arms couldn't help "weeping at each other".