In real history, the battle between Cao Cao and Lu Bu over Yanzhou was very tragic and arduous, and even Cao Cao himself had other thoughts in this battle. But on the other hand, there are also many stories about this war.

The war was roughly divided into two phases, the first of which began with Cao Cao's return of reinforcements to attack Lü Bu's Puyang.

In fact, after Cao Cao returned, he said: "Lu Bu won a state in one day, but he did not occupy Dongping, cut off the passage between Kangfu and Taishan, and intercepted me with dangerous terrain, but stationed troops in Puyang, so I concluded that he did not do much."

So Cao Cao, who looked down on Lu Bu, soon sent troops to attack Puyang, but the war was not as smooth as Cao Cao imagined.

The two armies faced each other, Lu Bu went out to fight, first sent cavalry to disperse the Qingzhou soldiers, Cao's army was in chaos, Cao Cao rode his horse to break through the siege, and burned his left palm. It was the marching Sima Lou who helped Cao Cao to get on his horse and led him out of the encirclement. Before arriving at the camp, the generals were very frightened because they did not see Cao Cao. Cao Cao supported himself, took the wounded to comfort the troops, and ordered the troops to rush to make siege equipment, and prepare to march again to attack Lü Bu, which stabilized the morale of the army. Since then, the two sides have fought many times and have been in a stalemate here for more than 100 days.

At that time, there was a man named Dian Wei under the command of Xiahou Dun, when Cao Cao attacked Lü Bu in Puyang, Lü Bu had another army stationed forty or fifty miles west of Puyang, Cao Cao attacked at night, and defeated this army at dawn, but before he had time to withdraw the army, Lü Bu's rescuers arrived and attacked alternately from three sides. At that time, Lu Bu personally rushed into battle, fighting from morning to afternoon, dozens of rounds, and the situation was very urgent.

Cao Cao temporarily recruited warriors who charged into battle, and Cao Cao asked dozens of people recruited to wear several layers of clothes and double armor, abandon shields, and only use spears and halberds. At this time, the battle situation on both sides was urgent, and Dian Wei led the army to block it. The enemy soldiers fired arrows indiscriminately, and the arrows flew like raindrops, but Dian Wei did not look at them, and said to his subordinates: "Let me know when the enemy rushes ten paces away from me." The subordinate said, "Ten steps!" Dian Wei said again: "Five steps to tell me." The subordinates were frightened and shouted: "The enemy is coming!" Dian Wei held more than ten small halberds, shouted and threw the enemy with the halberd, and those who threw them fell down. This battle was fought for a long time, and it was already evening, when Lü Bucai led his army to retreat, and Cao Cao's army was also able to retreat.

After the war, because of Dian Wei's outstanding performance, Cao Cao worshiped Dian Wei as the captain, led him to the left and right, and asked him to lead his own soldiers to guard him.

During Cao Cao's attack on Puyang, the surname Tian in the city was Cao Cao's rebellion, and Cao Cao was able to lead his army into the city. The fire then burned down the east gate, indicating that there was no intention of rebellion. Cao Cao and Lü Bu's armies fought in the city, ending in the defeat of Cao Cao's army. (Note 1)

During the battle, Lü Bu's cavalry captured Cao Cao, but they didn't know who he was? So he asked Cao Cao, "Where is Cao Cao?" Cao Cao hurriedly replied: "The person who rode the yellow horse is Cao Cao!" Lu Bu's cavalry hurriedly left Cao Cao to chase the man on the yellow horse. The fire at the east gate was still very strong, and Cao Cao was finally able to break out of the fire.

This incident is also the prototype of Cao Cao's robes and broken sleeves killed by Ma Chao in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

At this time, there was a drought in Yanzhou, and there was a large area of locusts, Cao Cao and Lu Bu were not enough food, so they had to stop fighting on both sides, and both of them withdrew their troops. This was the end of the first round of the battle for Yanzhou between Cao Cao and Lü Bu.

In September of that year, Cao Cao returned to Juancheng with his troops. Lü Bu led his troops to Chengshi County, but was defeated by the local Li Jin and retreated east to garrison Shanyang.

That year, Yanzhou grain rice was worth more than 500,000 yuan, so that there was a phenomenon of "people eating people", so Cao Cao dismissed the newly recruited recruits and let them go back to resume production.

When Cao Cao was defeated by Lü Bu several times, almost all the military rations were lost, and Yanzhou was lost, Yuan Shao sent people to persuade Cao Cao to make peace, hoping that Cao Cao could move to Yecheng, leaving a way back for Cao Cao.

At that time, Cao Cao's situation was very unfavorable, he was not able to defeat Lu Bu in the first time to recapture Yanzhou after returning to the army, but suffered a lot of losses under Puyang City, Xiahou Dun's one eye was lost when Cao Cao counterattacked Lu Bu, and finally the only remaining military food was almost exhausted, and Yanzhou was basically disabled, so Cao Cao was very moved by Yuan Shao's proposal, and was even ready to agree to him.

At this time, Cheng Yu knew about it, and he ran to see Cao Cao and said to him: "I heard that the general wants to move his family and unite with Yuan Shao, is there really such a thing?"

Cao Cao didn't think too much about it, so he said, "Yes." ”

Then Cheng Yu was angry, and said to Cao Cao with hatred: "I think the general is probably afraid of something when he encounters something, otherwise how can he not think about it so deeply?" Yuan Shao occupied the Yan and Zhao regions and had the desire to annex the world, but his resourcefulness could not help him succeed. General, can you live under Yuan Shao yourself? With the power of a dragon and tiger, can the general do what Han Xin and Peng Yue have done? Although Yanzhou is ruined now, there are still three cities in my hands, and there are no less than 10,000 soldiers who can fight to the death. With the general's divine strength, together with Xun Wenruo (i.e. Xun Yu) and I, Cheng Yu, etc., clean up the remainder, give full play to their strength, and the cause of hegemony and domination can be successful. I hope the general will think about it carefully"

In fact, Cheng Yu still hasn't said a word, that is, "I hope the general won't let me be disappointed!" ”。

Cheng Yu's words also woke up Cao Cao, Cao Cao thought about it, although the current situation is very difficult, but it has not yet reached the point of exhaustion, and Yuan Ben originally wanted to dominate the world, why not I, Cao Mengde! Cao Cao finally gave up the idea of taking refuge in Yuan Shao.

According to Xie Cheng's Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Cao Cao surrounded Lü Bu in Puyang, but was eventually broken by Lü Bu, so he turned to Yuan Shao, who took pity on Cao Cao and supported Cao Cao's 5,000 men and horses to help Cao Cao recapture Yanzhou.

Here Cao Cao should ask Yuan Shao for help, but he is not really attached.

Cao Cao cheered himself up and re-established his armament for war. In the spring of the second year of Xingping (195), the war between Cao Cao and Lü Bu broke out again, and the second round began. Cao Cao first led his troops to attack Dingtao, but Cao Cao failed to conquer it because Jiyin was too guarded by Wu Zi to defend the southern city of Dingtao. It just so happened that Lu Bu arrived, and Cao Cao fought to defeat him.

Cao Cao sent Li Gan (Li Dian's uncle) back to Chengshi to comfort the surrounding counties. Lu Bu's other driver Xue Lan and Li Feng in Zhizhong lured Li Gan and wanted him to rebel against Cao Cao, but Li Gan did not listen, so he was killed.

In the summer of this year, Lü Bu sent Xue Lan and Li Feng to garrison Juye Cao Cao led the army to a sneak attack, Lü Bu led troops to the rescue, and Li Gan's army led by Li Gan's son Li Quantong at that time, and defeated Xue Lan and Li Feng together with the generals. When Lu Bu came, Xue Lan had been defeated, and Lu Bu had no choice but to retreat, and Xue Lan and others were beheaded by Cao Cao.

Lü Bu also joined Chen Gong with more than 10,000 people from Dongmi, at this time Cao Cao had few soldiers, set up an ambush, and broke Lü Bu.

When the army of Lü Bu and Chen Gong arrived, most of Cao Cao's soldiers went out to harvest wheat, and the army left in the city was very small, less than a thousand people, which was not enough to defend the city, and even the barracks might not be able to hold it. But Cao Cao had a lot of ideas, so he ordered those women to guard the city, and the city was full of warblers singing and dancing.

On the west side of the barracks there was a large embankment, and to the south of it was a forest, deep and unfathomable in the trees. Lu Bu suspected that there was an ambush, so he said to everyone: "Cao Cao is so deceitful, don't enter his ambush." So he led his army and stationed it ten miles to the south.

The next day Lü Bu came again, and Cao Cao ambushed the army in the embankment, and then mobilized half of the soldiers to the embankment. Lü Bu saw that Cao Cao's troops didn't feel so much and prepared to attack, so he first ordered a small number of troops to fight, but Cao Cao ambushed all his troops, broke Lü Bu, and got his drum cart, and chased him to Lü Bu's camp before returning.

At this point in the Battle of Yanzhou, Cao Cao finally had the upper hand, but soon Cao Cao had other ideas of his own (Note 2).

Note 1: The original text is "Taizu surrounded Puyang, Puyang's surname Tian was reversed, and Taizu had to enter the city." Burn its east gate to show no objection. "I've watched it several times, but I haven't been able to figure out whether Tian is Cao Cao's spy or a double agent, and I tend to be a double agent.

Note 2: This point in time may also have occurred after the Battle of Juye and before the arrival of Chen Gong's reinforcements.