In the second year of the first peace, that is, in 191 AD, after the dissolution of the Kwantung Alliance Army, Yuan Shaoque's nest was occupied, Han Fu was squeezed out, and he was worshiped as the pastor of Jizhou.

At that time, the Yellow Turban Army in the south of Jizhou was extremely rampant, Yuan Shao's bench was not hot, and he had to guard against Gongsun Zan in the north, so he was really unable to look south, so he sent Cao Cao to the East County area to encircle and suppress the Yellow Turban Army in the name of the alliance leader.

Cao Cao quickly defeated many forces of the Yellow Turban Army, and won successive battles, and the results were quite fruitful!

Yuan Shao was very happy, and personally praised the imperial court to appoint Cao Cao as the Taishou of Dongjun.

Cao Cao also obtained the first valuable base in this way!

In the same year, Xun Yu, a famous scholar in Yingchuan, broke away from Yuan Shao and defected to Cao Cao, at this time Cao Cao only had a place to stand in the troubled times of warlord melee, so Xun Yu's arrival has extraordinary significance.

Xun Yu was not only a first-class strategist, but also the best politician and strategist of his time.

With Xun Yu's joining, Cao Cao can rest assured that he will fight abroad and expand his territory. And the internal affairs management, grain and grass supply and other military affairs were all handed over to Xun Yu to dispatch and plan.

The significance of Xun Yu's joining is far more than that, in the past, Cao Cao only had a group of martial artists around him, and they were basically members of the clan, coupled with Cao Cao's identity after eunuchs, it can be said that there is almost no attraction to the talents of the scholar clan, and this is precisely the key to the success of a military group, otherwise, Dong Zhuo, who is as strong as holding the emperor and despises the world, will also face the end of ashes!

Yingchuan Xun was the top family at that time, so the arrival of Xun Yu made the world's celebrities begin to look at Cao Cao, who was not known at that time, with another vision, and Xun Yu himself was also very good at recommending talents, under the call of Xun Yu, Xun You, Xi Zhicai, Zhong Xuan, Chen Qun, Guo Jia and others came to Cao Cao one after another!

The think tank composed of Xun Yu and others became Cao Cao's biggest reliance on Cao Cao to stand out and dominate the world.

The following year, 192 A.D.

A large force of the Yellow Turban Army entered Yanzhou from Qingzhou, where they captured Rencheng, killed Zheng Sui, the minister of Rencheng, and then marched to Dongping.

Liu Dai, the assassin of Yanzhou, led his army to meet him, but was killed in the melee.

In order to allow Cao Cao to obtain the position of Yanzhou assassin, Chen Gong, a famous scholar from Dongjun, volunteered to go to Yanzhou to act as a lobbyist.

Cao Cao's old friend, Bao Xin, the prime minister of Jibei, was also clamoring from the side, so under the persuasion of Chen Gong and Bao Xin, the officials of Yanzhou agreed to welcome Cao Cao into Yanzhou and resist the Yellow Turban Army!

This year, Cao Cao was thirty-eight years old!

Yanzhou is now the southeast of Shanxi and the eastern part of Henan, where the land is fertile, the talent gathers, the east is Qingzhou and Xuzhou, the southwest is Yuzhou, the north is Jizhou, including Dongping County, Jibei County, Chenliu County, Jiyin County, Shanyang County, Rencheng County, Dong County and Taishan County including eight counties.

After a short rest, Cao Cao and Bao Xin joined forces to attack the Yellow Turban Army in the Dongping area.

The battle was very fierce, Bao Xin was killed, and Cao's army was also defeated for a time, and finally succeeded in forcing the Yellow Turban Army back after paying great casualties.

Cao Cao struck while the iron was hot, led the army to cover all the way, pursued the Yellow Turban Army relentlessly, chased it to Jibei, and forced the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army, which had 300,000 troops, to surrender to him!

Cao Cao selected fifty or sixty thousand elite soldiers from them and formed a team with considerable combat effectiveness, known as the Qingzhou soldiers!

Since then, Cao Cao's strength has increased greatly, and in Yanzhou, Cao Cao not only occupied the territory and expanded the army, but also obtained many outstanding civil and military generals in the Yanzhou area, such as Mao Jie, the local landlord Haoqiang Li Dian, Lu Qian, and Yu Ban and others.

The addition of these talents enabled Cao Cao to gain a firm foothold in Yanzhou.

In the fourth year of the first peace, that is, at the beginning of 193 AD!

Cao Cao and Yuan Shao joined forces to defeat Yuan Shu at Fengqiu, forcing Yuan Shu to flee to Shouchun and removing the threat from the south! Cao Cao began to seek Xuzhou to the east,

Tao Qian was appointed as the assassin of Xuzhou during the Yellow Turban Uprising, and he did not participate in the Kwantung Army's crusade against Dong Zhuo, so he was exceptionally promoted to Xuzhou Mu by Dong Zhuo.

Tao Qian once fought against Yuan Shao and Cao Cao with Yuan Shu and Gongsun Zhan, so he had a grudge against Cao Cao!

In the summer of the same year, Cao Cao's father, Cao Song, was intercepted and killed by Tao Qian's subordinate Zhang Min on his way to Yanzhou in Langya.

Cao Cao and Tao Qian really had an old hatred and a new hatred, so Cao Cao immediately led the army and gritted his teeth to Xuzhou.

Cao Jun was like a bamboo, connecting more than ten cities in Xuzhou and arriving in Pengcheng.

Tao Qian led the army to greet him, but suffered a great defeat and had to flee from Pengcheng and retire to Tan County.

Cao's army then broke through Pengcheng and besieged Tanxian, but it could not be captured for a long time, so it turned to lead the army south and captured Suiling, Xiaqiu and other places.

This time, Cao Cao had a strong purpose of revenge, so wherever Cao's army passed, all the cities were slaughtered, the people were innocently killed, and in many places even the chickens and dogs that were killed were not left.

Several towns in Xuzhou have become no man's land.

Tao Qian was terrified, and hurriedly asked Tian Kai, the Qingzhou assassin at that time, for help!

Tian Kai sent Liu Bei, the prime minister of the plains, to lead thousands of men and horses to the rescue.

It happened that Cao's army had run out of grain and grass, and Cao Cao had no choice but to give the order to retreat!

Tao Qian knew that Cao Cao would not give up easily, so he praised Liu Bei as the assassin of Yuzhou, and allocated Liu Bei 4,000 men and horses, so that Liu Bei could garrison Yu Xiaopei and resist Cao's army for him.

A year later, in April 194 A.D.!

Cao Cao's second eastward expedition to Tao Qian, this time Cao's army drove straight in, all the way to Langya and Donghai County, where he still slaughtered. More than 100,000 people were killed in Xuzhou.

Cao Jun then marched into Tan County again, Tao Qian and Liu Bei joined forces to meet the attack, but was defeated by Cao Cao, Tan County was not safe, Tao Qian was ready to flee for his life, but then the news of the Yanzhou rebellion came, Cao Cao was shocked after hearing the news, and immediately led the army to withdraw.

Tao Qian once again luckily kept Xuzhou, the rebellion was launched by Chen Liutaishou Zhang Miao and Chen Gong, both of them were Cao Cao's friends, when crusading against Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao was also attached to Zhang Miao's army, Chen Gong also made a great effort in the process of Cao Cao's ascension to Yanzhou Mu, but the famous man Bian Rang was ordered to be executed for criticizing Cao Cao, which made the two deeply dissatisfied, plus Cao Cao repeatedly ordered the slaughter of the city in Xuzhou, which also made Zhang Miao and Chen Gong see the cruel side of Cao Cao's character.

So, they took advantage of Cao Cao's eastern expedition and the emptiness inside, and secretly welcomed Lü Bu from Hanoi to Puyang, the seat of Dongjun, and jointly promoted Lü Bu as the pastor of Yanzhou.

Zhang Miao and Chen Gong themselves are both Yanzhou people, and they have been operating here for many years, and their power is very strong, far from being comparable to Cao Cao, so they raised their arms and shouted, and all counties and counties in Yanzhou responded one after another, and took refuge in the new Yanzhou Mu Lu Bu.

At that time, there were eight counties in Yanzhou, including 80 counties, and only Juancheng, the seat of Yanzhou, and two counties under the jurisdiction of Dongjun, Fan County and Dong'e did not follow the rebellion, which shows how bad the situation was for Cao Cao.

Fortunately, it was Xun Yu who stayed in Juancheng, he was very calm and calm, Xun Yu first sent someone to quickly inform Cao Cao of the news of the rebellion, and then transferred Xiahoudun, the general stationed in Puyang, back to Juancheng.

Xiahoudun led the army back quickly, and killed dozens of Juancheng generals who tried to cooperate with the enemy that night, stabilizing the situation in the city.

Xun Yu sent Man Chong to Fanxian and Dong'e to boost his morale and stabilize the morale of the army.

In this way, under the protection of Xun Yu, Man Zhong and Xiahou Dun, Cao Cao kept these three precious footholds. I love to read

At this time, Cao Cao, who had suffered the biggest setback since the start of the army, was hurrying up his horse and rushing back to Puyang in the starry night.

Between Cao Cao and Lu Bu, the two new and old state pastors, a big drama is about to be staged for the right to rule Yanzhou!

In the first year of Xingping, that is, in 194 A.D., May!

Cao Cao led his troops back to Yanzhou and immediately laid siege to Puyang, which was occupied by Lü Bu.

Lu Bu is said to hold on, but Cao Cao with the help of Puyang surnamed Tian, led the army into the east gate of Puyang, in order to inspire his soldiers to fight to the death, Cao Cao followed Han Xin's example, self-defeated, after entering the city, he burned the east gate, but what Cao Cao did not expect was that his Qingzhou soldiers, as soon as they entered the city, they were scattered by Lu Bu's cavalry.

In street battles, the cavalry still had a huge advantage.

Cao's army was in chaos, and Cao Cao was also caught by the cavalry under Lu Bu, but fortunately, no one in this group had ever seen Cao Cao, so he lied that the one riding a yellow horse not far away was Cao Cao.

Everyone was overjoyed, so they abandoned Cao Cao and went to chase Cao Cao, a yellow horse!

Cao Cao took the opportunity to escape, he braved the fire, forced his way out of the east gate, and burned his left hand.

The first battle was lost, Cao Cao was not discouraged, he boosted morale, collected the remnants, and continued to attack Puyang, after which the two sides fought many times, each with a victory or defeat!

The two armies held each other for more than 100 days from May to August, when there was a severe drought in Yanzhou and a serious locust plague broke out, and there was no way to raise military rations, and many soldiers fled due to hunger.

Cao Cao had no choice but to lead his army back to Juancheng to rest.

Lü Bu also moved to Shanyang due to lack of food.

In the era of war, food is the most important, but also the most scarce strategic materials, Zhang Xiu's uncle, Zhang Ji was killed because of the grain grabbing, Yuan Shu's defeat is also related to the lack of food, countless warlords, large and small, often not defeated by more powerful armed forces, but without a fight, because of the lack of food and perishing.

During the confrontation with Lu Bu, it was the most difficult period for Cao Cao, when Man Chong (the prototype is Cheng Yu, slightly changed, please forgive me) in order to help Cao Cao tide over the difficulties, he had no choice but to order the army to grab food in Changyi in Shanyang County.

can rob the stored grain in the hands of the fathers and elders in his hometown, which is only enough for Cao Jun to support him for three days, and the military food is even mixed with a lot of jerky.

Since then, the impact of these behaviors on reputation has accompanied the life of Man Pet, and it is also an important reason why Man Pet has not been ranked to the third prince in his life!

It was in this extremely difficult situation that Cao Cao led his soldiers through the harsh winter, regrouped, and began to regain lost territory!

At this time, Han Bao led the army to come, and Cao Cao joined forces with him to drive Lu Bu out of Yanzhou!

A year later! That is, August 196 A.D.!

Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to Xudu, in order not to offend Yuan Shao and Li Yang, he gave the title of general to Yuan Shao, and the title of captain to Li Yang, and he was appointed as the chief and took charge of the government.

Soon, all the heads of the real power departments in the imperial court were replaced by Cao Cao's henchmen.

Xun Yu was worshiped as a servant, kept the book order, and was responsible for the specific affairs of the court.

Man Chong was named Jiyin Taishou, the governor of Yanzhou, and was responsible for the large and small government affairs of Yanzhou.

Chen Qun is the order of Xu Du and controls the new capital!

Dong Zhao is the order of Luoyang and controls the old capital!

Mao Jue is Dong Cao Peng, responsible for the election of officials!

The generals, captains, etc. in the army are all sloppy cronies!

Such as Xiahoudun, Xiahouyuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Yu Ban, Lu Qian, Li Dian, Le Jin and others.

Since the first year of Jian'an, that is, in 196 AD, Cao Cao coerced the princes of the Son of Heaven to order the princes, the situation in the world has also undergone some changes, and many small warlords have been annexed.

Jizhou Mu Hanfu and Hanoi Taishou Wang Kuang both died indirectly in the hands of Yuan Shao, while Chen Liutaishou Zhang Miao and Guangling Taishou Zhang Chao both died indirectly in the hands of Cao Cao, Dongjun Taishou Qiaomao was killed by Liu Dai, and Yanzhou Assassin Liu Dai and Jibei Xiang Bao Xin both died at the hands of the Yellow Turban Army, Shanyang Taishou Yuan Yu was killed by Yuan Shu, and Yuzhou Assassin Shi Kong Ling died of illness shortly after Dong Zhuo's crusade, Gongsun Zhan was defeated by Li Yang, and finally died on the way to kill Hu Lu in a relatively decent way!

In just six years, there are only a few people left among the princes of the Eighteenth Road who vigorously fought against Dong back then, which shows the speed of the big waves and sand!

The back waves like Liu Bei are still brewing and accumulating strength, but most of the front waves have been slapped on the beach.

At this time, Cao Cao was surrounded by strong enemies, the north was the powerful Yuan Shao and Li Yang, the southeast was Yuan Shu of Huainan, the east was Lu Bu of Xuzhou, the south was Han Bao who seized Nanyang, and then south was Liu Biao of Jingzhou, and the northwest was Ma Teng and Han Sui.

In order to stabilize Ma Teng and Han Sui, Cao Cao sent Zhong Xuan to Chang'an and let him supervise the military in Guanzhong in the name of the Son of Heaven.

After Zhong Xuan arrived in Chang'an, he immediately wrote a letter to Ma Teng and Han Sui, and clarified the stakes with them.

Ma Teng and Han Sui replied one after another, expressing their obedience, and each sent a son to the court as a hostage.

For Han Leopard, who is closest to him and weaker, Cao Cao is obviously not so polite!

In August of that year, Cao Cao personally led a large army and embarked on the road to conquer Nanyang!

In Cao Cao's military career, there are few places like Nanyang, which makes him full of ecstasy and bitter memories!

Nanyang County, Taishou Mansion, in the study!

Han Bao and Jia Xu sat opposite each other, and Han Dang and Wang Liang sat at the bottom of the two!

At this time, the scout came to report: "Report, Xiahoudun, the vanguard of the Cao army, has set up camp in Shuishui." ”

Han Bao waved his big hand with a disapproving face and said, "Explore again!" ”

"No!" The scout is gone!

Jia Xu hesitated again and again, and said: "General, Cao Cao is good at using soldiers, and the generals under the account can all fight in battle, and now he has raised a large army of 150,000, and the soldiers are coming in three ways, which shows that his momentum is great, and he cannot be defeated!" ”

Han Bao frowned slightly, and said, "With the meaning of Wenhe, what should I do?" ”

"Nanyang is the place of the four wars, and Liu Biao's army is not enough to rely on, so it is better to give up Nanyang, lead the army to the north, and join forces with the prince, I don't know what the prince wants?"

"Since Cao Cao is here, how can we not fight?" Han Bao shook his head like a rattle and said, "When you have a battle with Cao Cao, it's not too late to go!" ”