Chapter 25 (25) Give up halfway

In the history of the Three Kingdoms, the Battle of Chibi was a watershed: before the Battle of Chibi, the heroes were separated; after the Battle of Chibi, the three pillars of Wei, Shu and Wu were basically formed.Although Cao Cao coerced the emperor to command the princes, his strength has never reached its peak. So, will Cao Cao give up?After the Battle of Chibi, what actions will Cao Cao take militarily?Professor Yi Zhongtian of Xiamen University is a guest of "Hundreds of Lectures", and will give you a wonderful taste of the Three Kingdoms - halfway. The Three Kingdoms is an era of changing conditions, vicissitudes of life, heroes emerging in large numbers, and fascinating times. Many heroes show their talents here and dominate the situation. .Beginning in February 2006, "Hundred Schools Forum" launched a series of programs, and a total of 24 episodes were broadcast until August 30. In the first 24 episodes, Mr. Yi Zhongtian used "Wei Wu Wailing the Whip" and "Sun Liu Alliance "" as the main line, describes the formation and struggle process of the three major groups of Wei, Shu, and Wu, and portrays the portraits of the three kingdoms headed by Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan.In the program, Mr. Yi Zhongtian used stories to tell characters, characters to tell history, history to tell culture, and culture to talk about human nature, lifted the curtain full of doubts, and narrated the magnificent history.

Starting from the twenty-fifth episode, Mr. Yi Zhongtian will continue to read the history of the Three Kingdoms for you, starting with Cao Cao after the Battle of Chibi.As an ambitious man, Cao Cao was defeated in Chibi and suffered a military defeat, but Cao Cao's ideal is to conquer the world and unify Kyushu. Will he stop there?What will he do next?Professor Yi Zhongtian of Xiamen University is a guest of "Hundreds of Lectures", and will give you a wonderful taste of "Halfway" of the Three Kingdoms. After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao mainly did three things in the military, that is, breaking the horse, conquering Han, conquering Sun Quan, and defeating Zhang Lu. Let's talk about it one by one.

Let me talk about the first thing first, Po Ma, Han.Po Ma and Han are Po Ma Chao and Han Sui. Ma Chao and Han Sui were the separatist forces entrenched in Guanzhong at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.After Cao Cao suffered a defeat in Chibi, and was temporarily unable to shake the combined forces of Sun and Liu, he aimed at the weaker separatist forces such as Ma Chao and Han Sui. In the 16th year of Jian'an, that is, after the Battle of Chibi After more than two years, Cao Cao began a military campaign to conquer Ma Chao and Han Sui.So, are Ma Chao and Han Sui easy to fight? But Ma Chao and Han Sui are not easy to fight, why is it not easy to fight?Ma Chao and Han Sui are officials appointed by the imperial court, that is, their official positions are officially appointed by the imperial court, and they have no rebellious actions or suspicions. It is unreasonable for you to beat him out of nowhere.But Ma Chao and Han Sui must be eliminated by Cao Cao, what should we do?Cao Cao thought of a ghost idea to force Ma Chao and Han Sui to rebel, so he ordered Zhong Yao to conquer Zhang Lu in the spring of the sixteenth year of Jian'an.Zhang Lu is also a local government that separates one side, so where is Zhang Lu?Zhang Lu was in Hanzhong, so when Cao Cao sent troops to conquer Zhang Lu, he must pass through the territory of Ma Chao and Han Sui, because Ma Chao and Han Sui were in Guanzhong.So when Cao Cao gave this order, some people immediately opposed it, and many people went to Cao Cao and said that this cannot be done.They said that when you go to conquer Zhang Lu, you must pass through the defense lines of Ma Chao and Han Sui. Who is Zhang Lu?This Zhang Lu is a person in the deep mountains and old forests, who can't make a fortune; and people like Ma Chao and Han Sui have no ambitions. He just wants to keep his territory. Are the two in a hurry?What if the two of them provoked a rebellion?Cao Cao laughed in his stomach after hearing this, I just want him to rebel, if he doesn't rebel, I have no reason to beat him, cunning and cunning.

All in all, Zhong Yao's army passed by. After passing by, Ma Chao and Han Sui's group rebelled. At that time, they united ten princes and claimed 100,000 horses, stationed in Tongguan, and prepared to fight Cao Cao to the death.After such a fight, someone came to remind Cao Cao at that time, saying that Ma Chao and Han Sui might not be easy to deal with. They are soldiers from the Kansai region, and the soldiers from the Kansai region "know to use spears."Cao Cao said that it doesn't matter, they just have spears, and I made his spears unable to pierce, so the army drove over.

After driving over, things were not as simple as Cao Cao said. In fact, the beginning of the war was very difficult.At that time, Cao Cao led the army to cross the Yellow River to the north. When crossing the Yellow River, Cao Cao let the large army go first, and he brought hundreds of elite soldiers to cut off the rear and personally cut off the rear.At this time, Cao Cao had only a few hundred people, and Ma Chao brought 10,000 people and killed them.Cao Cao was still sitting there, but the generals around him saw that something was wrong, they lifted Cao Cao and left, saying that you can't sit here anymore, Prime Minister, Ma Chao 10,000 people came, so they put him on the boat.At this time, Ma Chao's army had already arrived, and Ma Chao ordered to release arrows, "The arrows fell like rain", and the arrows shot like rain.The troops who had already crossed the river didn't know what kind of situation Cao Cao was in, so they panicked. After Cao Cao crossed the Yellow River, everyone cried after seeing Cao Cao.Cao Cao laughed, hehe, yes yes yes, today is a bit dangerous, almost let a thief kill him.

Although Ma Chao and Han Sui are relatively weak, it is not easy for Cao Cao to defeat them.In the initial stage of the victory, the two sides had each other's victory and defeat. After the war turned into a stalemate, Cao Cao not only won the victory in some battles, but also deliberately stuck to the camp.Because Ma Chao and Han Sui were fighting with the coalition forces, they hoped for a quick battle. Cao Cao's delay was not good for Ma Chao and Han Sui's joint military operations. The initiative of the war had already been in Cao Cao's hands. At this time, Ma Chao and Han Sui raised the question of ceding land for peace, that is, if we are willing to donate a little land, will we be spared?And we are willing to "proton", that is, send our children to you as hostages, okay?Cao Cao asked Jia Xu, what do you think?Jia Xu said: "Pseudo Xu Zhi". What do you mean by "pseudo-promised"? Pretend to agree to him.Cao Cao asked again, what about the "false Xu Zhi"?Jia Xu said: "It's all about separation", that is, they were separated.Cao Cao understood right away, and used the strategy of alienation.

Ma Chao and Han Sui joined forces to fight against Cao Cao, this is fighting for their own survival, because Cao Cao's conquest of Ma Chao and Han Sui is to take down their sphere of influence - Guanzhong, and wipe out separatist forces like them.In this case, although the contest on the battlefield was not good for Ma Chao and Han Sui, they had no way out, and they must fight Cao Cao to the end.So at this time, Cao Cao wants to use alienation to disintegrate the coalition forces of Ma Chao and Han Sui. Is it possible? Yes, because the relationship between Ma Chao and Han Sui is very delicate. Ma Chao's father is Ma Teng, and Ma Teng and Han Sui are old friends; Going to the court to become an official; Han Suicai colluded with Ma Teng's son Ma Chao and united again.So they were already a little bumpy, so since they are bumpy, they can make a difference.

But if there is an opportunity, the opportunity will come as soon as it is said.One day when the two armies were fighting, Han Sui asked to see Cao Cao, and Cao Cao said yes, then we should meet.So Han Sui and Cao Cao rode forward and walked to the middle between the two formations. How about it? "Jiao Ma Yu Yi Shi", what is "Jiao Ma Yu Shi Shi", that is, the heads of the two of their horses missed each other like this, they both met like this, and the two of them chatted on horseback, how long did they chat Woolen cloth?More than one hour, one hour in ancient times is equivalent to two hours now, that is, they chatted for more than two hours, what did they talk about? "But let's talk about the old days of Kyoto", because Cao Cao, Han Sui and Han Sui's father are both old people. I used to be an official in the same dynasty, so it should be an old friend, so I haven't seen each other for many years, so I will catch up and talk about the old stories.When the two were talking happily, they held hands and laughed, touched their hands hahahaha and smiled. After talking, they went back.After returning, Ma Chao asked Han Sui, what did Cao Cao tell you?Han Sui's answer was: "I have nothing to say." I didn't say anything.He didn't say anything at all, he didn't say anything at all, Ma Chao didn't believe it, he said that you two ran into the middle, the horse's head was so staggered, and you talked intimately for two and a half hours, you said Didn't say anything, who would believe it!It started to whisper in my heart.

A few days later, probably on the third day, Han Sui proposed to see Cao Cao again, this time taking Ma Chao with him to see Cao Cao.Cao Cao immediately changed his face. This time Cao Cao didn't come alone, he brought an army, followed by Xu Chu, who was slashing his sword, staring at both eyes, who is he staring at?Stare at Ma Chao.Then set up a barrier in front of him, called "wooden horse", "wooden horse" is the kind of obstacle made of wood.It was Han Sui who came to talk to me, and I just rode my horse forward and "turned the time" to be affectionate; I can't trust you when you Ma Chao comes, so I will set up obstacles first, and there is another person behind me, riding a horse and holding a knife , staring at you, clearly expressing distrust of Ma Chao.It is obvious that Han Sui and Ma Chao are treated separately.

So this meeting is very interesting, there are three things worth mentioning.First, during this meeting, the generals of the Han and Ma allied forces came over and immediately bowed their hands to Cao Cao. They are all here, good morning, Prime Minister.It's going to be a war, and he still said hello, this is the first thing.Second, the soldiers of the Ma and Han allied forces scrambled forward to see Cao Cao. They all stretched their necks, those behind pushed forward, and those in front moved forward again.So Cao Cao rushed forward and said that you all want to see Cao Cao, but I am, with two eyes and one nose, no more than you, and a little more wisdom if you want to talk more.We have told this story before, this is the second thing.So what is the third thing, that is, after Cao Cao finished speaking, those people who were vying to see Cao Cao reacted, and then looked behind Cao Cao, five thousand cavalry, all of them were holding the most sophisticated weapons, Their weapons gleamed in the sun, and the Ma and Han coalition forces basically lost their fighting spirit at that time.

So with so much foreshadowing, Cao Cao officially used his plan. Cao Cao wrote a letter to Han Sui. After writing, he circled and daubed on the letter, deleted some words, added some words, and then sent it To Han Sui.We don’t know what this letter is about, and its content is not recorded in the book, but we can be sure of three points: first, Cao Cao expected this letter to be read by Ma Chao; second, the letter written by Cao Cao is ambiguous There are many, ambiguous, evasive, one sentence can be understood in one way or another, and it must be tampered with; then the third point is to let people see that it was changed by the recipient, not the writer!It was all in Cao Cao's expectation. Ma Chao really saw the letter, and really suspected that Han Sui had some ulterior motives with Cao Cao. After Cao Cao wrote a letter, it was tampered with by Han Sui. He didn't believe Han Sui either. Then we know that what the coalition forces fear most in combat is discord between the coaches.You have to know that this Ma-Korean coalition army is known as the princes of the ten routes, with a hundred thousand horses, but it is actually a mob. If you become suspicious, you will not be able to fight this battle.Under this premise, Cao Cao began to march, and Ma Chao and Han Sui were defeated in one battle. Ma Chao and Han Sui fell into Cao Cao's estrangement, and the two were suspicious of each other. Under such circumstances, Cao Cao easily defeated the combined forces of Ma Chao and Han Sui.But Cao Cao's poor bandits did not pursue and let the two escape. This was Cao Cao's first resignation after the Battle of Chibi.Next, Cao Cao conquered Sun Quan. This should be a good opportunity for Cao Cao to avenge the Battle of Chibi. So, will Cao Cao give up halfway? Then the second thing is to recruit Sun Quan.After Ma Chao and Han Sui settled down, Cao Cao thought it was time to beat Sun Quan, but before he beat Sun Quan, Cao Cao wrote a long letter to Sun Quan.It’s a very long and gorgeous letter, but the content is very simple. It is to set out the conditions, saying that if you, Sun Quan, agree to kill Zhang Zhao and Liu Bei, the land of Jiangdong will belong to you forever, and the imperial court will give you more officials. Jue, if you are reluctant to kill Zhang Zhao, you can kill Liu Bei alone.But Sun Quan didn't follow this set, Sun Quan was already ready for a decisive battle with Cao Cao, he did two things: the first thing was to rule him - because Sun Quan was not yet a country at this time, it couldn't be called The capital can only be called the administrative office——moved his administrative office from Beijing to Jianye, Beijing is now Zhenjiang City in Jiangsu Province, and Jianye is now Nanjing City in Jiangsu Province; the second thing is in Ruxukou, Where is Ruxu, now Wuwei County in Anhui Province, a military port was built there, just to resist Cao Cao. In Cao Cao's view, it was necessary to fight, so in the seventeenth year of Jian'an Cao Cao personally led the troops, claiming that 400,000 people conquered Sun Quan, and marched into Ruxukou in the eighteenth year of Jian'an.So this time Cao Cao's preparations for the war were insufficient, the enemy was not well-predicted, and he returned without success.Sun Quan has made full preparations, so the war is in a stalemate, and it is not good for Cao Cao.In the end, Cao Cao had no choice but to hold out in the military stronghold of his navy, and Sun Quan challenged Cao Cao many times but did not come out.After challenging Cao Cao so many times and failing to come out, Sun Quan went by himself, and Sun Quan drove a boat into the camp of Cao Cao's navy, so what happened after entering?There are two theories, both of which are in the notes of Pei Songzhi in "Three Kingdoms". Then Sun Quan’s boat tilted over. Sun Quan ordered the boat to turn around again. Cao Cao released the arrow again. After the boat was balanced, Sun Quan went back. This is the prototype of the story of "straw boat borrowing arrows".Another way of saying is that after Sun Quan's boat sailed in, Cao Cao knew that Sun Quan was coming, so he gave an order saying not to move, not to act rashly, and not to shoot arrows. Let's see what Sun Quan thinks of us.So, Cao Cao's army was all ready to fight, but they didn't shoot a single arrow, watching Sun Quan's ship circle around Cao Cao's military port.After the circle, Sun Quan gave the order to play music, and then everyone cheered and went away. Cao Cao nodded and said, "Oh, Sun Quan is indeed a hero."Then he said a famous saying: "Being a child should be like Sun Zhongmou". Sun Zhongmou is Sun Quan, and Sun Quan's word is Zhongmou. Cao Cao means that if you have a son, you should have a son like Sun Quan, because Sun Quan dared to drive a boat into the camp of Cao Cao's water army when the two armies were at war. Of courage and boldness.Cao Cao's emotion also shows that he did not take advantage of Sun Quan.However, when the two armies were confronting each other and the two sides were in a stalemate, Cao Cao withdrew his troops because he was concerned about the safety of his rear without deciding the winner. It can be said that he gave up halfway again.So, will Cao Cao give up halfway in the next war? In the nineteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao conquered Sun Quan and returned without success. At this time, Liu Bei, another old opponent of Cao Cao, took Yizhou from Liu Zhang, and Zhang Lu, a separatist force near Yizhou, was weak in military strength. If Cao Cao did not attack Zhang Lu, Zhang Lu is bound to be annexed by Liu Bei.The expansion of Liu Bei's power was a threat to Cao Cao's ideal of pacifying the world and unifying Kyushu. Therefore, in the 20th year of Jian'an, Cao Cao began to conquer Zhanglu again.So, Cao Cao gave up halfway in the previous two wars, will Cao Cao give up halfway this time? Then the third thing is to level Hanzhong, or defeat Zhang Lu.This incident happened in the 20th year of Jian'an. At that time, Cao Cao was 61 years old, and he personally led the army to Yangping Pass.As soon as Cao Cao's army arrived, Zhang Lu was ready to surrender. Zhang Lu had little resistance.But Zhang Lu's younger brother was called Zhang Wei. Zhang Wei disagreed, saying that he would surrender if he didn't fight. Zhang Lu said that he should fight.So this battle was very fun, what is the general situation?It was Cao Cao who went to attack Pingyang Pass and found that Yangping Pass was not easy to fight.At that time, Cao Cao had an informant on Zhang Lu's side, and the informant reported to Cao Cao that the Yangping Pass was easy to fight; Cao Cao withdrew his troops when he found that it was not easy to fight.After withdrawing the troops, he suddenly killed a carbine and defeated Zhang Wei. But what the hell is going on?There are many, many theories recorded in this history book: one says that it was Cao Cao’s secret order to kill the carbine, that is, Cao Cao decided to kill the carbine; the second statement is that it was Liu Ye’s suggestion, and Liu Ye advocated killing the carbine; There are three ways to say that it happened by accident, or that they didn't intend to kill the carbine.There are two theories that this incident happened by accident. One is that Cao Cao's troops drove into Zhang Wei's barracks in a daze when they were retreating. When Zhang Wei heard that it was Cao Cao's army, he didn't know Cao Cao. It was a retreat, thinking they were coming to attack, and they dispersed in a crowd, that's all, this is a way of saying.There is also a saying that it was not Cao Cao's army that strayed into Zhang Wei's camp, but what? Thousands of elk, the sika deer on the mountain rushed into Zhang Wei's camp inexplicably thousands of them, Zhang Wei's camp He yelled and said, "Cao Cao is here, and he disperses in a hurry. Then Cao Cao's army saw him disperse in a hurry, and took the opportunity to kill him back."Anyway, I can't figure it out, it's just that this war has brought it down in a muddle-headed way. What about the result after it was shot down?It was Zhang Wei who surrendered, Zhang Wei surrendered, Zhang Lu went to Bazhong, Zhang Lu went to Bazhong, and not long after that, he also surrendered.Because Zhang Lu originally wanted to surrender, but some people under him disagreed, saying that it is hard to talk about the price of our surrender, so let's resist it first and negotiate a price.After resisting for a while and negotiating a price, he surrendered. After surrendering, Cao Cao gave him very high treatment, and the area of ​​Hanzhong was pacified by Cao Cao. Cao Cao captured Hanzhong and Zhang Lu surrendered. Cao Cao not only expanded his sphere of influence, but also threatened the comfort of Liu Bei Group, because Hanzhong was the throat and gateway of Shu County. When Hanzhong was taken by Cao Cao, Shu County directly confronted Cao Cao's military power .If Cao Cao takes advantage of the victory to march, it may threaten the comfort of Shu County. So at this time, will Cao Cao take advantage of the victory and march?How did Cao Cao's subordinates suggest it? Many people advocate that at this time, we should go all out and pursue the victory to win Shu County.There were two people who made this suggestion, one was Liu Ye, and the other was Sima Yi. Both of them served as senior staff members in Cao Cao's army at that time.Then Liu Ye told Cao Cao that Liu Bei is a hero, but Liu Bei has a shortcoming, that is, his reaction is always half a beat slower than ours. I won the Shu County in my hand, the people are dissatisfied, and my heel is not stable. This is the best time to hit him; once he has a firm foothold, it will be difficult to deal with. Flying a hundred battles and winning every battle, at that time we will be in trouble, this is what Liu Ye said.What did Sima Yi say?Sima Yi said a very famous saying, "A sage can't go against the time, and he can't lose the time."You are a smart person, you can’t work with the timing and opportunity, you insist on doing it when the time is not ripe, this is not allowed; but you can’t say that you don’t do it when the time and opportunity comes, you let it go It is also impossible.These words should be very reasonable and very in place, but Cao Cao did not accept them.According to "Book of Jin·Xuandi Ji", which is recorded in Sima Yi's biography, it is said that Cao Cao said such a sentence, "People have no suffering, and if they have to worry about the right, they want to get Shu again." He said, alas, It's just that greed is not enough, I have to worry about Shu, and I have already got worry, but I still want Shu.What he meant was, alas, why are people so greedy and insufficient?If you are worried, don't look forward to Shu!He decided to withdraw his troops and not go any further. Judging from Cao Cao's original idea, he won the war against Zhang Lu, Zhang Lu surrendered, and Hanzhong also fell into Cao Cao's hands.Although it should be said that it is a very good time to fight Liu Bei again at this time, Cao Cao has to worry about Shu. After taking down Hanzhong, he doesn't want to attack Shu County anymore, so Cao Cao withdrew his troops.Mr. Yi Zhongtian believes that Cao Cao's withdrawal of troops instead of fighting Liu Bei is one of Cao Cao's greatest regrets in his life. As a result, he lost the possibility of unifying China forever. Why is this? As soon as Cao Cao left, Liu Bei became terrified, because Liu Bei was only afraid of one person in his life. Cao Cao, when Liu Bei was in Xuzhou, Cao Cao went to punish him. He said that Cao Cao would not come, it’s okay, everyone sit here, Later, people said that you saw Cao Cao coming, and the flags were all seen. When Liu Bei saw Cao Cao's flags, he turned around and ran away. He was afraid of Cao Cao.But he is not afraid of others, and he is not afraid of Cao Cao's subordinates. At this time, Liu Bei was originally on the front line, on the front line of Jingzhou, and he was fighting with Sun Quan for Jingzhou.This is one of the reasons why both Liu Ye and Sima Yi said that this is the best time, because Liu Bei is not in Chengdu.Then, as soon as Liu Bei got the news that Hanzhong was pacified by Cao Cao, he immediately made peace with Sun Quan and divided Jingzhou equally. We will also explain this matter in the future.Jingzhou was divided equally, and then he hurried back with his troops. As a result, Zhang Lu had already surrendered to Cao Cao.But when Cao Cao left the battlefield by himself, Liu Bei felt that he could act. At this time, Liu Bei's No. 2 counselor, Fazheng, proposed that this was the best time. Here is a little explanation of Fazheng, this Fazheng is an important counselor Liu Bei got after he won Shu.According to the records in "Three Kingdoms • The First Master", when Liu Bei arrived in Chengdu, he used "Zhuge Liang as his arm, Fazheng as his mastermind, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Ma Chao as his minions." It is Zhuge Liang who is responsible for major military and political affairs. Then Fazheng proposed to Liu Bei: "This is the best time for me." This time, God has given us the place of Hanzhong, and this opportunity cannot be missed.Then Liu Bei adopted Fazheng's suggestion, personally led troops to conquer Guanzhong, left Zhuge Liang to guard Chengdu, and Fazheng accompanied him.But Cao Cao's generals are still very powerful, so when Liu Bei went to attack Hanzhong, it didn't go well at first, and he was stubbornly resisted by the generals left by Cao Cao, so Liu Bei immediately wrote an urgent letter back to Chengdu, please Zhuge Liang hurriedly dispatched troops for reinforcements.But I don’t know why, maybe Zhuge Liang is really cautious and hesitant in doing things, so he took this letter to ask Yang Hong, an old minister in the middle of Shu, saying that the lord asked us to send troops for reinforcements, should we send troops?Yang Hong said that of course it is time to send troops!Yang Hong said such a famous saying, he said: "If there is no Hanzhong, there will be no Shu, and this is the disaster of this family. In today's affairs, men should fight, and women should be lucky." If Hanzhong loses Shu, it will be impossible to keep Shu , This is a disaster at our doorstep. At this time, men should serve as soldiers, and women should do logistics.He said that the military division—because Zhuge Liang’s current position is the military division general—the military division dispatched troops quickly, so why doubt the military division dispatching troops?Hurry up and send troops, what is there to hesitate?This Zhuge Liang sent the army to the front.After being sent to the front line, Liu Bei took the initiative in the war. At this time, when Cao Cao came to reinforce him again, the situation was out of control.After a stalemate for a period of time, one day, Cao Cao issued a password, which was the password used by the army to check the sentry at night. It was tasteless, and then withdrew.From then on, Hanzhong belonged to Liu Bei, and never fell into Cao Cao's hands again. After Liu Bei got Hanzhong, he got Shu again, that is, he got the whole Yizhou, so Liu Bei was not polite, and he called himself the king of Hanzhong in this place, and he became the king, and Cao Cao lost the possibility of unifying China forever. sex.So we have a question, that is, breaking the horse, Han, conquering Sun Quan, and defeating Zhang Lu. These three things have different successes and failures, but they have a common characteristic, that is, they have not done everything completely, so we are very Wanting to know why, Fazheng said that "there are worries and pressures inside", it must be that there are more serious problems in his rear, and he must go back to solve them.So we have to ask, is that so?Please see the next episode - pushing an inch.