After moving the capital to Xuchang and before the decisive battle with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao not only subdued Xun You, Guo Jia, Chen Qun, Chen Deng, Yuan Lian, Zhang Liao, Zang Ba and other talents, but also obtained Zhong Xuan, Kong Rong, Xu Chu, Li Tong, Xu Huang, Liu Ye, Liu Xun, Zhu Ling (exceptional), Jia Xu, Zhang Xiu and other civil and military talents.

Zhong Xuan, the character Yuan Chang, was a native of Yingchuan Changshe (now Changgedong, Xuchang, Henan). He is Zhong Hao's great-grandson. Cao Cao once sent an envoy to express his allegiance to Emperor Xian after becoming the pastor of Yanzhou, but Li Dao and others did not think so and prepared to detain the envoy. Only Cao Cao's heart is towards the royal family. If the court refused to accept his loyalty, it would disappoint those who would follow his example in the future. Li Dao and others changed their minds because of Zhong Xuan's words, and repaid the envoy generously, and Cao Cao was able to send an envoy to get in touch with the Han Emperor.

After Cao Cao welcomed the Son of Heaven, recommended by Xun Yu, he appointed Zhong Xuan as a lieutenant in the capacity of the servant, and supervised all walks of life in Guanzhong.

Kong Rong, the word is lifted. A native of Lu (now Qufu, Shandong). He was the nineteenth grandson of Confucius, who was defeated by Yuan Shao's eldest son, Yuan Tan, in the battle for Qingzhou, and was later called by the imperial court as a master craftsman, and later promoted to Shaofu. Kong Rong was also a leader of the anti-Cao faction within the imperial court later.

Xu Chu, the word Zhongkang, the people of the country (now Bozhou, Anhui), Cao Cao's hometown. Xu Chu is more than eight feet tall, with a wide waist and ten girths, a majestic and resolute appearance, and an amazing strength of courage. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xu Chu gathered young people and thousands of his own clan to resist the thieves. At that time, more than 10,000 robbers in Runan and Gepi came to attack Xu Chu's fortress, Xu Chu people could not beat it, and the fatigue of desperate fighting was extreme, and the arrows were also used up, so they called the men, women and children in the barrier, and piled up the stones into the shape of a bucket and put them on the four corners of the barrier. Xu Chu threw stones at the enemy, and the bodies he touched were all disrupted, and the robbers did not dare to approach.

Later, due to Xu Chu's lack of food, he pretended to make peace with the enemy, exchanged cattle for food with the enemy, and robbers came to fetch cattle, and the cattle immediately ran back. Xu Chu rushed out of the front of the formation, dragged the ox's tail with one hand, and walked more than a hundred steps, the robbers were so frightened that they didn't dare to take the ox and ran away. From then on, in the Huaihe, Rushui, Chen, and Liang areas, people who heard about this incident were afraid of him.

Cao Cao later toured the Huai and Ru areas to defeat Yuan Shu, Xu Chu led his troops to submit to his fellow countryman Cao Cao, Cao Cao thought he was very strong, and said: "This is my Fan Xu." On the same day, he appointed him a lieutenant and brought him into his own camp as a guard. The knights who came with him were all used as tiger warriors. Xu Chu followed Cao Cao in his crusade against Zhang Xiu, preemptively ascended to the city, killed thousands of enemies, and was promoted to lieutenant, and after Dian Wei's death, Xu Chu gradually took his place.

Li Tong, whose name is Wenda, is a native of Pingchun, Jiangxia County (now Xinyang, Henan). Famous for their chivalry, he raised troops in Langling with Chen Gong, a native of the same county, and many people defected to them at that time. At that time, there was a man named Zhou Zhi, who had more than 2,000 families under his subordinates, and Chen Gong and Li Tong were in harmony on the surface, but they actually hated each other, and Li Tong wanted to try to kill Zhou Zhi, but Chen Gong thought it was difficult. Li informed that Chen Gong was indecided, so he made a plan alone, gathered with Zhou Zhi, killed Zhou Zhi while he was drunk, and his subordinates rioted, Li Tong led Chen Gong to kill the leader of Zhou Zhi's subordinates and annexed his team.

Later, Chen Gong's brother-in-law, Chen He, killed Chen Gong and took possession of his subordinates. Li Tong broke through Chen He's troops and beheaded Chen He to pay tribute to Chen Gong's grave. He also captured Wu Ba, the commander of the Yellow Turban Army, alive and surrendered his subordinates. In the years of the great famine, Li Tong went bankrupt to save the people, and shared the chaff with the Confucian scholars, and everyone scrambled to obey him, and since then, the thieves have never dared to invade again.

In the early years of Jian'an (196), Li Tong led his troops to Xuchang to defect to Cao Cao, who appointed him as the general of Zhenwei Zhonglang and stationed in the western boundary of Runan County.

Xu Huang, whose name is Gongming, is a native of Yang County, Hedong County (now southeast of Hongdong, Shanxi). When he was young, he was a small official in Hedong County, and later accompanied the cavalry general Yang Feng to fight against thieves and was appointed as a cavalry captain. During the civil war between Li Dao and Guo Yan in Chang'an, Xu Huang persuaded Yang Feng to let him send the Son of Heaven back to Luoyang, and Yang Feng listened to his strategy. Emperor Xian crossed the Yellow River to Anyi, rewarded the meritorious personnel, and Xu Huang was named the Marquis of Duting.

In 196 A.D. (the first year of Jian'an), under the protection of Emperor Zhang Yang and Yang Feng of the Han Dynasty, he returned to Luoyang. Later, the general and lieutenant Han Xian and the general Dong Cheng fought for power and intrigues, and the infighting escalated, Xu Huang persuaded Yang Feng to submit to Cao Cao, and Yang Feng decided to obey him at first.

But later Yang Feng repented, Cao Cao went to Liangdi to crusade against Yang Feng, and Xu Huang defected to Cao Cao. Cao Cao granted Xu Huang the right to the army, and sent him to attack the thieves of Juan County and Yuanwu, won a complete victory, and was promoted to general Pei. With Cao Cao's expedition against Lü Bu, Xu Huang alone forced Lü Bu's generals Zhao Shu, Li Zou and others to surrender, and later beheaded Zheng Gu in Hanoi County with Shi Lian.

Liu Ye, whose name is Ziyang, is a native of Chengde, Huainan (now southeast of Shou County, Anhui). It is the descendant of Liu Yan, the son of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu, the king of Fuling, and an out-and-out royal family. When Xu Shao took refuge in Yangzhou, he once said that Liu Ye was a talented person in the world.

In the early stage of Jian'an, Liu Ye once took refuge in Liu Xun, and after the failure of Yuan Shu, Liu Xun took over the remnants of Yuan Shu, and his strength was greatly enhanced, and he was very jealous of Sun Ce. So Sun Ce used the strategy of diverting the tiger from the mountain, although Liu Ye saw Sun Ce's plan, but Liu Xun did not listen to the persuasion, and was finally taken advantage of by Sun Ce from the back and lost the base camp.

In 199 AD (the fourth year of Jian'an), Liu Xun defected to Cao Cao, and Liu Ye followed.

Zhu Ling, whose name is Wenbo, was born in Qinghe County, Jizhou (now Xiajin, Dezhou City, Shandong). Zhu Ling took refuge in Cao Cao earlier, he was originally Yuan Shao's subordinate, and later Cao Cao crusaded against Tao Qian in Xuzhou, and Yuan Shao sent Zhu Ling and others to support Cao Cao.

After the war, most of the generals sent by Yuan Shao went back, but Zhu Ling said: "I read a lot of people, but there is no one like Cao Gong, this is really a master!" Now that I have met the true master, who else do I want to go to? So Zhu Ling stayed and never left, and the soldiers he brought admired Cao Cao and all stayed with Zhu Ling.

Zhang Xiu was originally Cao Cao's mortal enemy, and in the early stage of Jian'an, Cao Cao's group crusaded against Zhang Xiu four times, but did not achieve a decisive victory, but the most unexpected thing was that Zhang Xiu surrendered to Cao Cao again in the fourth year of Jian'an (199), and it was also in the critical period when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao fought against each other in Guandu.

And this point is mainly the credit of Jia Xu, under Jia Xu's strong suggestion, Zhang Xiucai chose Cao Cao again between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and Cao Cao did not make a second mistake, so that before the decisive battle with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao had basically swept away the troubles.

PS: Volume 3 is coming to an end.