Ever since Liu Bei escaped from Cao Cao. It has always occupied Xuzhou. and openly confronted Cao Cao.

After Cao Cao learned what had happened, Cao Cao was furious. Prepare to raise troops to attack Xuzhou. Liu Bei asked Yuan Shao for help.

So what's the situation on Yuan Shao's side?

In 199, at this time, Yuan Shao had already defeated Gongsun Zan in Yijing, and sat on the land of Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Youzhou, and Jizhou. There are more than 100,000 mercenaries to capture Cao Cao's Xu Capital.

The generals felt that he would not succeed, Cao Cao said: "I have always been familiar with Yuan Shao, he is ambitious, short-witted, and timid. Although the land is vast and the grain is abundant, it is only brought to me. ”

At this time, Yuan Shao had become the largest warlord in the north. Cao Cao also understood this.

Yuan Shao was dissatisfied with Cao Cao in two ways at this time.

On the one hand, Cao Cao "coerced the Son of Heaven to order the princes" to control the emperor.

The second aspect is Cao Cao's continuous expansion of power. These two aspects made Yuan Shao dissatisfied with Cao Cao. As a result, Yuan Shao regarded Cao Cao as his worst enemy. At this time, Yuan Shao made up his mind to compete with Cao Cao.

In 199 AD, Yuan Shao mobilized an army of 100,000. Ten thousand war horses launched an attack on Cao Cao's base camp Xu Du and attempted to wipe out Cao Cao in one fell swoop.

At this time, Cao Cao had long expected that he would have a battle with Yuan Shao, and he had planned to attack Yuan Shao before. It's just that the strength was not strong enough at that time, so he didn't dare to act rashly. Now after a few years of expansion, he has begun to have strength. At this time, Cao Cao was full of confidence in defeating Yuan Shao.

So how did Yuan Shao do it in the first place?

Yuan Shao was planning to crusade against Cao Cao, and immediately set out with more than 100,000 troops (300,000 in romance, but according to research, there are only more than 100,000). The strategist Guo Tu said to Yuan Shao: "When the Ming Duke crusaded against Cao Cao, he should first send a document to all counties and announce his crimes to the world. ”

Yuan Shao felt that it was very reasonable, and immediately ordered the clerk Chen Lin to write Cao's inscription. Chen Lin then wrote nearly 2,000 words freely, and Yuan Shao was very satisfied with it, and ordered someone to send the text to the states and counties. Stickers are all over the Guanjin Pass.

When the text reached Xu Du, Cao Cao was suffering from a head wind and was sick in bed. When reading the text, Cao Cao felt a cold sweat in his bones, and he didn't feel that his head wind was actually better. Cao Cao jumped up from the bed and immediately summoned his subordinates to discuss a strategy to meet Yuan Shao.

Cao Cao asked Liu Dai and Wang Zhong to lead 50,000 troops to feint against Liu Bei, and he personally led 200,000 troops to Liyang to meet Yuan Shao. The two armies held each other for two months, but they never fought, Cao's army had few soldiers and took a defensive position, although Yuan Shao had many soldiers, but he was too suspicious and did not want to attack. Subsequently, Cao Cao ordered his generals to guard their positions, and he himself returned to Xudu.

Let's talk about Liu Dai, Wang Zhong is naturally not Guan Yu's opponent, and both of them were caught. Liu Bei wanted to reconcile with Cao Cao, so Haosheng entertained the two, and put them back to Xudu, asking them to say more good things for themselves in front of Cao Cao, but the two were immediately dismissed from their official positions by Cao Cao after they returned.

According to the suggestion of the strategist Sun Qian, Liu Bei sent troops and horses to garrison Xiapi and Xiaopei, and they were horns for each other. In case Cao Cao, Guan Yu guarded Xiapi, Sun Qian, Jian Yong and others guarded Xuzhou, and Liu Bei and Zhang Fei guarded Xiaopei.

Cao Cao used the strategy of the strategists to recruit Zhang Xiu. Zhang Xiu wanted to defect to Yuan Shao, but the strategist Jia Xu said: "Yuan Shao can't even be compatible with brothers, how can he tolerate others?" So the two decided to defect to Cao Cao. Cao Cao ignored his previous suspicions, and treated Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu with courtesy.

Cao Cao asked Kong Rong to surrender to Liu Biao, and Kong Rong recommended his friend You Heng. Cao Cao summoned You Heng, who belittled the civil and military generals around Cao Cao to the point of being useless. Cao Cao thought he was too crazy and wanted him to make a fool of himself, so he asked him to specialize in drumming.

At this point, there was an incident in which You Heng beat the drum and scolded Cao.

The next day, Cao Cao invited guests to drink in the hall, and You Heng beat the drums to cheer up. At this time, You Heng came up in old clothes, and the rhythm of his drums was wonderful, generous and powerful, and the guests present were all infected. At this time, Cao Cao's attendant said to You Heng, "Why don't you put on new clothes?" You Heng immediately stripped naked and scolded Cao Cao.

Cao Cao didn't make things difficult for You Heng on the spot, but just asked him to recruit Liu Biao to surrender. Because of your natural pride in talent, when you see Liu Biao, you still blindly ridicule and tease. Liu Biao knew that Cao Cao wanted to kill You Heng with his hand. So Liu Biao didn't want to fall for the scheme, so he asked You Heng to see Huang Zu. Huang Zu was a military general, and he couldn't stand You Heng's ridicule, so he killed him.

From the incident of beating the drum and scolding Cao, it can be seen that Cao Cao was very unpopular at that time. There is also Yuan Shaoxing's soldiers attacking Xu. can reflect that Cao Cao was not only scolded by the people at that time. They are also in danger of war. You Heng beat the drum and scolded Cao. I guess it was secretly designed by Kong Rong, or that You Heng is not normal. Something is wrong. Later, Cao Cao planned and asked him to recruit Liu Biao. The first is to recruit Liu Biao, and the second is to let Liu Biao get rid of this waste You Heng who beats the drum and scolds Cao.