Chapter 198, Cao Cao's heartache
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What Xun Yu said, Cao Cao has always attached great importance to it, and it can be said that Cao Cao is the best partner, when Cao Cao is fighting outside, Xun Yu governs the internal affairs of Yanzhou to give Cao Cao a stable rear, it can be said that Xun Yu is very important to Cao Cao.
For a long time, Xun Yu has also been very compatible with Cao Cao, and they are both loyal ministers loyal to the Han Dynasty, but Cao Cao changed later, and Xun Yu has not changed. In fact, Cao Cao was the hope of the Han family when he first debuted, and he was a stunned young man who didn't understand anything. When He Jin went to meet the Empress Dowager He before attacking, Cao Cao even stood up directly and collided with He Jin in person. At that time, He Jin was a general of the Han Dynasty, so He Jin could have followed Cao Cao's advice at all. When Cao Cao was planning to kill Dong Zhuo, he even went to assassinate Dong Zhuo directly with a knife. At that time, Cao Cao did not leave a way back for himself at all. After Cao Cao's assassination of Dong Zhuo was revealed, he was caught by Chen Gong, who was the commander of Zhongmu County at the time, in the process of escaping. A series of stories happened, and finally Chen Gong was fooled, but unfortunately Chen Gong was dissatisfied with Cao Cao's massacre of the people, betrayed Cao Cao, and after Cao Cao returned to his hometown Yanzhou, it was like a different person. He is no longer as sloppy as he was when he was younger. On the contrary, Cao Cao became a scheming person. Cao Cao's power in his hometown was very large, so when Cao Cao raised troops. There will be so many people following Cao Cao. After that, Cao Cao was looking for a partner with him all the way. But Cao Cao was not very satisfied. Yuan Shao was the one who played best with Cao Cao when Cao Cao was a child, but Yuan Shao was born in a family of the third prince of the fourth world, and Yuan Shao's power was too huge for Cao Cao. If Cao Cao and Yuan Shao partnered, Cao Cao would only become a subordinate of Yuan Shao, which was the most unbearable thing for Cao Cao, and the princes at that time were either too small and not strong enough to have enough military strength, or they simply did not look down on Cao Cao. Just when Cao Cao had no suitable candidate, Xun Yu came to Cao Cao's big tent. Xun Yu was a well-known Yingchuan Xun clan in the northern region at that time. Xun Yu is also the leader of the Ta Mo En family. Xun Yu even recommended talents such as Xun You and Chen Qun to Cao Cao. These people later became the pillars of Cao Cao's regime. When Cao Cao went out to fight. Cao Cao rarely took Xun Yu with him. The two of them are basically Xun Yu's main and Cao Cao's main outside. Xun Yu was in Yuan Shao's camp at first, but Xun Yu finally chose to take refuge in Cao Cao. At that time, Cao Cao became famous all over the world because of his crusade against Dong Zhuo. In the eyes of outsiders, Cao Cao was loyal to the Han family and loyal to the Son of Heaven. At that time, the Han family was already in a state of turmoil, and after Xun Yu came to Cao Cao's account, he asked Cao Cao to coerce the Son of Heaven to order the princes.
In history, Xun Yu could use Cao Cao's ability to help the Han dynasty that was about to collapse. But the longer Xun Yu followed Cao Cao, the more power in Cao Cao's hands gradually increased, and Cao Cao was not satisfied with his current position. Xun Yu has always been loyal to the Han family, so he took the initiative to defect to Cao Cao at that time, and with the efforts of the two of them, they gradually created a world that belongs to them, but then you because of political discord, Xun Yu chose to commit suicide, these are all later words.
Cao Cao said to Xun Yu that he had wronged Xun Yu, but Xun Yu actually felt it, Xun Yu has been working silently in Cao Cao, and his reputation is still not obvious, so Cao Cao feels like this.
The problem Xun Yu said is very realistic, and it is difficult to deal with, Cao Cao is back, and the development of Yanzhou is no longer his, all kinds of cows, ghosts, snakes and gods have come out to do things, and they have been driven back to Dongjun, but the difference is that Cao Cao has a large number of troops this time, so how much do you use, him.
Cao Cao thought of these forces in Yanzhou, gritted his teeth and said: "Fight, subdue them one by one, integrate Yanzhou, and make any trouble for me in the future."
Chen Gong said that Zhang Miao welcomed Lu Bu into Yanzhou and stabbed Cao Cao from behind, making Cao Cao's heart dripping with blood and almost losing his foothold.
In fact, this is also a normal reaction, Cao Cao also understands that this is all made by himself, and the prediction of the change of dynasty by strategists is not a new topic. Therefore, in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, there are often some words such as "the cause of this ancestor" and "the capital of this overlord". The princes of all walks of life who were active in the Central Plains were all ambitious, and the advisors and warriors who took refuge in them were also eager to try. Chen Gong is undoubtedly a person who dreams of entering the prime minister, and more importantly, Chen Gong is very straight, upright and strong may be the best description of Chen Gong, just such an upright person, can he not be angry when he hears the news of Cao Cao's massacre of the people? And, more importantly, Chen Gong's ambitions were not realized.
Chen Gong can be said to have contributed the most to Cao Cao's occupation of Xuzhou, and entering Yanzhou is undoubtedly an opportunity for Cao Cao, and at the same time, to some extent, it may also make some changes in Chen Gong's heart. However, after Chen Gong made this great achievement, what was his status in Cao Ying? It is highly likely that Cao Cao's positioning of him does not match Chen Gong's own expectations.
Chen Gong was a general with troops under Cao Cao, but when Cao Cao conquered Tao Qian, he did not bring Chen Gong, but let him stay in Tundong County, just from the military merits, Chen Gong lost a good opportunity, and at this time Cao Cao's subordinates can already be regarded as talented, Chen Gong may be in a very disadvantageous position in the competition, which may be unacceptable for Chen Gong, who is quite pretentious. People go to high places, Chen Gong's betrayal, maybe what is missing is just an opportunity.
After Cao Cao entered Yanzhou, he fought for many years, and all forces surrendered, but Chen Gong did not have an obvious role in it, especially this time he went to Xuzhou, this is a major event to expand the territory, Cao Cao did not take Chen Gong with him, how could there be no complaints? We must note that this time the war ended in a hurry with Cao Cao's lack of food and his army. We may say that although Cao Cao has achieved some victories, this war caused by personal enmity has not gained much except for the huge losses caused by Xuzhou, which is not a wise and successful action from a strategic point of view, and the slaughter of the people of Xuzhou has changed the views of all parties on Cao Cao, so it is understandable that Chen Gong seized the opportunity to fight at this time.
"Lord, there are a lot of forces in Yanzhou now, we should pull a batch to fight a batch, otherwise we may suffer heavy losses", Xun Yu calmly analyzed.
Cao Cao held his forehead with a headache and asked, "What is Wen Ruo's opinion?"
Xun Yu smiled, looked at Cao Cao's face and said, "Lu Bu, Zhang Miao are the most critical, and they are also the ones that the lord hates the most, and the others can be won over by both soft and hard."
Cao Cao's face was helpless, and when he calmed down, it was actually just that matter, it was nothing more than interests, and said with a wry smile: "Yes, then fight these two, otherwise it will be difficult to calm the hatred in my heart."
In the turmoil in Yanzhou, Zhang Miao's attitude may be the real key. In Cao Cao's entry into Yanzhou, Bao Xin's attitude is very crucial, although Cao Cao and Zhang Miao also have a good personal relationship, but Cao Cao has a firm supporter Bao Xin, and the Zhang Miao family, another big force in Yanzhou, has naturally become more eye-catching.
It is worth mentioning here the relationship between Cao Cao, Zhang Miao and Yuan Shao. It should be said that the reason why Bao Xin supported Cao Cao was, to a certain extent, to unite against Yuan Shao, which may also be an important prerequisite for Zhang Miao, who was hostile to Yuan Shao, to recognize Cao Cao. It is possible that the internal struggle for leadership of the Dong Alliance has not stopped, and we may be able to simply divide it into three factions, that is: Zhang Miao's line includes Yanzhou Thorn Shi Liu Dai, Yuzhou Thorn Shi Kong, Chen Liutai Shou Zhang Miao, Dongjun Taishou Qiao Mao, Guangling Taishou Zhang Chao, and the remaining Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu factions.
Cao Cao's attitude towards Yuan Shao was very important to Zhang Miao. But unfortunately, although Cao Cao is also dissatisfied with Yuan Shao, but temporarily adopted a certain degree of unity, mainly Cao Cao and Yuan Shao have common interests, both need a peaceful Yanzhou then the problem comes, Zhang Miao as the first volunteer soldier of a town princes, and later with Yuan Shao and other Zhulu rebels formed a larger alliance, but it is clear that Zhang Miao is unwilling to be driven, Zhang Miao's attitude towards Cao Cao was initially grateful and trusting, because Cao Cao, like him, was not obedient to Yuan Shao's words, This is the political basis for their rapprochement. Then, after Cao Cao and Yuan Shaojun carried out a joint military operation, this foundation was not so solid, there is a saying that there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests, as an ambitious forceββββ it seems inevitable that it will be shaken. What's more, Yuan Shao always hoped that Cao Cao could help him get rid of Zhang Miao.
Then everything is logical, Cao Cao's role in the early days of the Kwantung Coalition Army was only Zhang Miao's vassal, although Cao Cao's fame was relatively large, but the real power was really not as big as Zhang Miao, Cao Cao fled back to his hometown to recruit troops in his personal capacity, whether it was actual or the status at the time, it could not be compared with the official canonization of the Han Dynasty Zhang Miao-Chen Liutaishou, Liu Dai-Yanzhou Assassin History, and others, it was these people who constituted the main body of the so-called Kwantung Coalition Army. As for Yuan Shao, the leader of the coalition alliance who had a relationship with Cao Cao in Luoyang in the early years, he and Cao Cao did not belong to the same system at this time. From the map, it can be seen that the base of the Kwantung generals is in Suoju, threatening the east of Luoyang, while Yuan Shao, who raised troops as the Taishou of the Bohai Sea, is stationed in Hanoi, and the main direction of attack is the north of Luoyang. Later, Dong Zhuo was frightened by Liu Yi and began to move westward, and Cao Cao put forward a motion to pursue, although his status in the Kwantung Army was not high, but because of his close relationship with Zhang Miao, the proposal was finally passed, and Zhang Miao himself also provided support. The scale of the Kwantung Army's mobilization was very large, in addition to Zhang Miao's strong support, Yuan Shao may also have given support, but unfortunately suffered a fiasco, the Kwantung Army was frightened, and caused a big defeat because of his motion, and no one gave him a good face, and it was really embarrassing to stay, so he just asked for leave to go home to recruit soldiers, in fact, recruitment is secondary, and hugging new thighs is true. In this way, it can be regarded as breaking away from the Kwantung Army system and throwing into the arms of the powerful Yuan Shao.
What happened later was that Cao Cao developed in Dongjun, Yuan Shao gave support, and Cao Cao's relationship with Yuan Shao became more intimate in the future, and the comparison of strength was not what it used to be. At this time, several Kwantung giants at the time of the discussion of Dong, Qiao Mao was killed by Liu Dai, Liu Dai was calculated to death, and there was a huge vacuum in Yanzhou's power, and it was logical that Cao Cao could get Yanzhou. Although the relationship between superiors and subordinates changed at this time, Zhang Miao and Cao Cao's cooperation was still close on the surface, and Cao Cao also entrusted his family to Zhang Miao when he went to Xuzhou. However, there is a certain kind of rift that is becoming more and more obvious, and the basic cause of the rift is, of course, profit. Obviously, Yuan Shao wanted to use Cao Cao's hand to obtain the real power of Yanzhou, and even include Henan in the territory, but this obviously could not be tolerated by Zhang Miao. In terms of practical interests, since the second year of the first peace, Yuan Shao expressed Cao Cao's leadership of Dongjun, Zhang Miao has already divided Cao Cao into Yuan Shao's camp, and later Cao Cao and Yuan Shao's actions are also very close, Yuan Shao also moved his mind to let Cao Cao get rid of Zhang Miao, Cao Cao should be very painful during this period, he quickly dealt with the anti-Cao incident of Wang Kuang who defected to Zhang Miao, but he was unable to attack Zhang Miao himself.
Here we must mention another big background, that is, the Yuan brothers officially parted ways politically after the end of the discussion of Dong. In contrast to Yuan Shao's plan to establish a separate imperial court, that is, the aforementioned Liu Yu, Yuan Shu appeared as a follower of the Guanxi Emperor during this period, not only being officially appointed by the Han family, but also establishing close ties with the Han family through Wuguan Road, which went north through Nanyang. In the year of Zhang Miao's rebellion, although the plan of the new court had failed, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's position of not recognizing the Guanxi court remained unchanged, which was obviously intolerable to the Yanzhou Zun Han scholars, so that the basis for Zhang Miao's betrayal was formed. Of course, the image of supporting the Han Dynasty who pursued Xu Rong was also the basis for Cao Cao to be cited as the state pastor, and later due to multiple reasons, he did not recognize the status of the imperial court.
Zhang Miao and Cao Cao have political differences, lies in whether they support the Han Dynasty or not, Cao Cao does not recognize the Han Dynasty court, and slaughters the people, Zhang Miao has always been loyal to the Han family, plus the previous younger brother has become the boss, his heart is unbalanced, why don't he wait? And. The key figure here is Chen Gong, who invokes LΓΌ Bu's force to fight Cao Cao. Interestingly, Zhang Miao's cooperation with Chen Gong was also flawless, giving Cao Cao's Yanzhou a fatal blow, coupled with Cao Cao's massacre of the people of the Han Dynasty, so that other forces in Yanzhou also looked at him unpleasantly, and Yanzhou instantly became a mess.
In any case, judging from Zhang Miao's betrayal, I am afraid that this person's spiritual strength is not strong enough, and he did not resist the pressure of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao Cao Cao may not be hostile subjectively, but the expansion of power and the cooperation with Yuan Shao's military action are pressure itself, which is probably the difference between an ordinary warlord and a big warlord like Yuan Cao. In fact, such a move even fulfilled Yuan Shao's wishes, but it was a lose-lose situation for Zhang Miao and Cao Cao. For Yuan Shao, the union of Zhang Miao and Cao Cao in Yanzhou was an extremely dangerous situation, except for Cao Cao's direct attack on Zhang Miao, Zhang Miao's first stabbing this game of chess was already an ideal situation. Zhang Miao's betrayal postponed Yuan Cao's official breakup for several years. Of course, in the longer term, this defeat at least taught Cao Cao an important lesson: the Han family still held a considerable position in the hearts of scholars, it was unrealistic to blindly start from scratch, and what could be done so arrogantly after the massacre of the common people.
Now Cao Cao's goal is to eliminate Lu Bu and Zhang Miao, no matter whether he succeeds or not, he has to go, he has plenty of troops, he is occupied by others, and he doesn't dare to fight back, wouldn't it be very embarrassing, and if he can't fight back, he can go to Yuan Shao for help, anyway, the relationship between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao is still very ambiguous, there is no need to help in vain, with Yuan Shao's support, Yuan Shao is still very sure.
Xun Yu looked at Cao Cao and thought helplessly: "Is the lord betting on whether Zhang Miao will rebel?" Otherwise, I wouldn't have taken all the troops away, but unfortunately, it seems that I lost the bet."
Cao Cao's father was killed Xun Yu knew that Cao Cao would definitely be very angry, but no matter how angry he was, he would not ignore the enemies who usually threatened him, especially Zhang Miao's affairs have been bothering Cao Cao, in order to take revenge, he took all the troops away directly, Xun Yu didn't believe that Cao Cao couldn't think of Zhang Miao's unstable factor, the only explanation was that Cao Cao was gambling, betting on whether Zhang Miao would rebel, but unfortunately Chen Gong directly reversed and welcomed Lu Bu into Yanzhou, Zhang Miao cooperated with a wave there, so Cao Cao was so angry and lost Yanzhou, The once good friend has also become an enemy, especially Chen Gong, as a subordinate, actually stabbed Cao Cao directly in the back.