Historically, Guanzhong was easy to defend and difficult to attack, so Cao Cao personally came and did not fight to the death with the Mahan coalition army, but actively adopted a strategy, led the main force to drag the enemy in Tongguan, and secretly sent Xu Huang, Zhu Ling and other generals to cross Puhanjin by darkness, and successfully occupied the west of the Yellow River, and then Cao Cao led the army across the river, crossed Tongguan and confronted the Ma-Han coalition army, thus eliminating the geographical advantage of the other party.

Later, Cao Cao used Jia Xu's divisive strategy to defeat the Guanzhong coalition army in one fell swoop.

【Successful River Crossing】

In order to quell the rebellion in Guanzhong, Cao Cao personally led his troops to the west and confronted Ma Chao's army across Tongguan. At that time, Cao Cao dragged Ma Chao's troops, and secretly sent Xu Huang, Zhu Ling and other generals to cross Puhanjin in the dark, occupy the west of the Yellow River, and set up camp.

According to the "Biography of Xu Huang", after Cao Cao arrived at Tongguan, he was blocked by Ma Chao in Guanzhong and was not allowed to advance. Cao Cao asked Xu Huang about his plan, and Xu Huang said: "You have brought a large number of troops here, and the enemy no longer divides his troops to defend Pu Han, which shows that they lack strategy. Please give me a crack army, cross Kasakazu, and serve as the lead of the army, cut off the enemy's rear route, and capture them. Cao Cao Zhi agreed to this move and sent Xu Huang and Zhu Ling to lead 4,000 elite soldiers to cross the Yellow River from Pubanjin. Before the position was built, the enemy leader Liang Xing led more than 5,000 infantry cavalry to attack Xu Huang at night, Xu Huang knocked him away, and then established a bridgehead position.

In the leap August of the same year (one says September), Cao's army crossed the river from then on, occupied the north bank and confronted the Malaysian-Korean coalition army. It is said that Cao Cao was about to cross the river, and he led his troops to the river, letting the army go first, and he and Xu Chu and more than 100 Hushi broke off. At this time, Ma Chao rode more than 10,000 horses to rob and kill Cao Cao, and the arrows rained down. Xu Chu said to Cao Cao: "There are many thieves, now that our troops have crossed the river, you should also go." So he helped Cao Cao to get on the ship, the thieves were unstoppable, and the rest of the troops were scrambling to get on the ship, and the ship was overweight. Xu Chu killed the boat climber, holding a saddle with his left hand to block Cao Cao's arrows, and pushing the boat across the river with his right hand. Seeing that the situation was critical, Captain Ding Fei released a large number of cattle and horses to lure the thieves, and the thieves competed for the cattle and horses, and the formation was chaotic, so Cao Cao was able to cross the Yellow River and build a passage along the river to the south. On that day, if there was no Xu Chu and Ding Fei, Cao Cao would be in danger.

After the defeat of the Ma-Han coalition army and occupied Weikou to resist, Cao Cao set up more suspicious troops, secretly sent the troops into Weishui by boat, erected a pontoon bridge, and camped on the south bank of Weishui by night. The Guanzhong army attacked Cao's camp at night, and Cao Cao sent an ambush to defeat them. Ma Chao and others were stationed in Weinan and sent people to deliver a letter to sue for peace on the condition of ceding the west of the Yellow River, but Cao Cao did not agree.

According to the "Shanyang Gongji", when Cao Cao's army was stationed in Pusaka and wanted to cross the river westward, Ma Chao said to Han Sui after hearing about it: "You can hold on the north bank of the Wei River, and in less than 20 days, the grain in the east of the river will run out, and the enemy will withdraw on its own." But it was replaced by Han Sui's strategy of "half-crossing the attack". Cao Cao later heard about Ma Chao's plan and sighed: "If Ma Chao doesn't die, I'm afraid I won't even have a place to bury."

According to the "Biography of Cao Cao", when Cao Cao was preparing to cross the river, Ma Chao led his army to kill, when Cao Cao's former army had just crossed, and Cao Cao himself was still standing still on the Hu bed. Zhang He and others saw that the situation was in crisis and immediately helped Cao Cao to get on the boat. The river was very fast, and after four or five miles, Ma Chaojun still kept chasing and shooting arrows, and the arrows were like rain, and the army did not know Cao Cao's safety and was very worried. Later, everyone saw that Cao Cao was safe and sound, and they had mixed joys and sorrows, but Cao Cao laughed: "I was almost trapped by a thief today!" ”

But as soon as they arrived on the south bank, Ma Chao's cavalry launched round after round of attacks, and Cao's army simply did not have time to set up camp. The shore was covered with soft sand, and there was no way to set up camp. Lou Gui suggested: "Now that the weather is cold, you can build a city with earth and sand, and then pour water into it, and the water will freeze and be as hard as iron and stone." A city can be built overnight. Cao Cao listened to his advice and sent troops to cross the river at night and build a city with earth and sand. Under the cover of this sand city, Cao's army all crossed the Weishui.

After Cao Jun crossed the river, he changed from passive to active and firmly controlled the initiative in the war.

【Big Victory】

After Cao Cao led his army across the river, the Guanzhong coalition lost its defensive advantage, and the balance of war had begun to tilt in favor of Cao Cao. After that, Cao Cao even adopted Jia Xu's divisive tactics to divide the relationship between Ma Chao and Han Sui, and expressed that he agreed to the peace of the princes of Guanzhong, but secretly mobilized troops, integrated and prepared for war, and finally defeated the Guanzhong coalition army in one fell swoop, thereby pacifying Guanzhong.

After Cao Cao led the army across the river, Ma Chao came to challenge him many times, but Cao Cao could not hold out, so that Ma Chao wanted to win quickly. In September, Ma Chao and others again put forward the request of demarcating the land as a boundary and sent the son as a hostage. Jia Xu thought that he could pretend to agree on the surface and paralyze the other party, but in fact he actively prepared and waited for an opportunity to annihilate the enemy. Cao Cao asked Jia Xu how to break the enemy, and Jia Xu said: "Divide them", Cao Cao said that he understood when he heard it.

Han then asked to meet Cao Cao. Cao Cao and Han Sui's father were recommended as filial piety in the same year, and they were the same generation as Han Sui and had a friendship. When the two met, they talked for a long time in front of the battle, not about military affairs, but about the old things in Kyoto, and when it came to happy places, the two clapped their hands and laughed. At the end of the meeting, Ma Chao and others asked Han Sui: "What did Cao Gong say?" Han Sui replied, "Nothing." Ma Chao and the others were very suspicious of Han Sui's attitude, worried that he would have private contact with Cao Cao. A few days later, Cao Cao wrote a letter to Han Sui, but in the letter, he deliberately smeared and changed many words, as if Han Sui had changed it; Ma Chao and others became more and more suspicious, and Cao Cao took advantage of this time to agree on a decisive battle with the coalition forces.

According to the Book of Wei, Cao Cao planned to talk to Han Sui and others in the future, and the generals said: "When the lord talks to the enemy, it is not advisable to relax his vigilance, and he can set up a wooden frame to prevent the enemy's attack." Cao Cao thought so. During the meeting, the generals and soldiers of the Guanzhong coalition army came to see who Cao Cao was, and Cao Cao smiled and said to them: "You all want to see Cao!" I'm just an ordinary person, I don't have four eyes and two mouths, I'm just more resourceful! In another meeting, Cao Cao reversed his previous practice of showing weakness to the enemy, and suddenly listed 5,000 ironclad cavalry, which were in a strict array, and "the sun was shining brightly", and all the armies in Guanzhong were shocked and frightened.

At that time, Cao Cao talked with Han Sui, Ma Chao and others alone, and did not accompany him left and right, only taking Xu Chu alone. Ma Chao was conceited of his bravery and wanted to secretly attack Cao Cao, but he often heard of Xu Chu's name on weekdays, and suspected that it was this person who followed him. So he asked Cao Cao: "Where is the tiger marquis of Cao Gong?" Cao Cao pointed at Xu Chu with his finger, Xu Chu looked at him angrily, and Ma Chao didn't dare to move.

According to the "Jiangbiao Biography", during the period when Ma Chao Han Sui negotiated with Cao Cao face-to-face, Ma Chao conceited his bravery, placed six rice bags in front of the horse, rode back and forth, measured Cao Cao's weight with Hu rice, and wanted to secretly attack and capture Cao Cao, but heard that Cao Cao's guard Xu Chu was brave, so he gave up this idea. Cao Cao soon found out that he had palpitations and said, "I was almost bullied by a cunning thief."

Cao Cao agreed with Ma Chao and Han Sui when they were suspicious of each other, first teasing the enemy with lightly armed troops, and after fighting for a long time, he sent elite cavalry to attack, defeated the enemy, and Cheng Yi and Li Kan were beheaded. Han Sui, Ma Chao and others fled to Liangzhou, Yang Qiu fled to Anding County, and Guanzhong was pacified.