【Wandering Lu Bu】

After Li Guo and the others conquered Chang'an, Lü Bu led the remnants of the army to escape from Guanzhong and left from Wuguan to prepare to defect to Yuan Shu. Lü Bu originally thought that he had avenged Yuan Shu by killing Dong Zhuo, and that Yuan Shu would treat him well, but Yuan Shu hated Lü Bu's capriciousness and refused to accept him (Note 1).

Lu Bu had no choice but to take his men and horses north to defect to Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao accepted him and went with him to Changshan to attack Zhang Yan.

Zhang Yan has more than 10,000 elite soldiers and thousands of cavalry. Lu Bu has a good **, named Chitu. Lü Bu, together with his close generals Cheng Lian and Wei Yue, charged and fought to break Zhang Yan's army. After Lü Bu defeated Zhang Yan, he took the opportunity to expand his power, and his soldiers also robbed and plundered from time to time, and Yuan Shao began to hate him. Lu Bu also felt that Yuan Shao would not reuse him, so he went to see Yuan Shao and asked to leave. Yuan Shao agreed.

As soon as Lu Bu left, Yuan Shao was afraid that he would turn against him and harm himself, so he wanted to send strong men to kill Lu Bu quietly at night, but the strong men failed to find Lu Bu. This matter was known to Lü Bu, and he hurried to Hanoi to unite with Zhang Yang. Yuan Shao once again sent troops to chase and kill Lu Bu, but those soldiers were afraid of him, and no one dared to approach when they caught up.

When Lü Bu went to Hanoi, he passed by Chenliu, and Taishou Zhang Miao sent someone to greet Lü Bu and treat him greatly, and when they parted, the two held each other's arms and swore to tie up.

After Lu Bu came to Hanoi, Zhang Yang was very good to Lu Bu. At that time, Li Dao and Guo Yan took control of the imperial court and demanded that Zhang Yang kill Lü Bu, but Zhang Yang ostensibly agreed, but in fact he eventually protected Lü Bu.

After Li Xun and others ordered a reward for the capture of Lu Bu, Zhang Yang's generals were all fighting Lu Bu's idea. Lu Bu was very scared, so he said to Zhang Yang: "I am a fellow villager with you, and if you kill me now, your credit may not be great." It's better to sacrifice me alive, and you can greatly get the knighthood and favor of Li Xuan and others. Zhang Yang thought that what Lu Bu said was right, and the matter was dismissed.

Because of the threats of Li Dao and Guo Yan, despite Zhang Yang's every possible defense of him, Lu Bu still couldn't stay in Hanoi. However, at this time, there was a big change in Yanzhou, in the first year of Xingping (194), Cao Cao sent troops to Xuzhou again, Zhang Miao and Chen Gong took the opportunity to rebel and welcome Lü Bu as the pastor of Yanzhou, and Lü Bu led the army to enter Yanzhou.

[Unexpected Betrayal]

Cao Cao could not have imagined in history that Zhang Miao and Chen Gong would betray him, because in his opinion, it was simply impossible.

Zhang Miao is Chen Liutaishou, who was Cao Cao's old boss when he crusaded against Dong Zhuo, and his relationship with Cao Cao was very old. Zhang Miao had been friends with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao before, and when the imperial court recruited him as an official, he was appointed as a cavalry lieutenant with excellent examination results, and soon after was appointed as Chen Liutaishou.

After the establishment of the anti-Dong coalition army, Yuan Shao became the leader of the alliance, and often behaved arrogantly and reservedly, and Zhang Miao often bluntly rebuked him. Yuan Shao was very unhappy with him, and once asked Cao Cao to kill Zhang Miao, but Cao Cao did not agree, but blamed Yuan Shao and said: "Meng Zhuo (Zhang Miao's character) is my good friend, no matter what, he should be tolerated, if there is chaos today, he should not kill each other!" After Zhang Miao learned about this, he respected Cao Cao even more.

After Cao's father, Cao Song, was killed by the Xuzhou people, Cao Cao decided to crusade against Xuzhou, and before sending troops, Cao Cao said to his family: "If I can't come back, you can go to Meng Zhuo." ”

After the war, Cao Cao returned triumphantly and met Zhang Miao, and the two looked at each other and cried. At that time, the relationship between Cao Cao and Zhang Miao was so close.

As for Chen Gong, let's not talk about it, it was Chen Gongtai who single-handedly pushed Cao Cao to the position of Yanzhou Mu.

Cao Cao was completely stunned when he knew that Zhang Miao and Chen Gong had rebelled and welcomed Lu Bu when he attacked Tao Qian in the first year of Xingping (194).

So why did Zhang Miao, Chen Gong and others rebel against Cao Cao?

Chen Gong was the first batch of strategists who took refuge in Cao Cao, and personally pushed Cao Cao to the position of Yanzhou Mu in the back, it can be said that Chen Gong was absolutely loyal to Cao Cao at the beginning, and Cao Cao also trusted Chen Gong very much. It can be seen that Cao Cao is really blue-eyed and extremely fond of Chen Gong. Why did Chen Gong turn his back on Cao Cao?

It's a pity that there is no clear record of this in the historical materials, but we can still find the reason from those clues.

This starts after Cao Cao became the pastor of Yanzhou, after Cao Cao was called the boss of Yanzhou, he used people in an eclectic manner, and promoted a lot of talents, but at that time, the Yanzhou family was very powerful, and there was a conflict with Cao Cao's employment policy, plus one of the representatives of the family, Bian Rang, said some words criticizing Cao Cao, and Cao Cao used the topic to play, killed Bian Rang's whole family, and implicated many children of the family, so that the Shi clan was greatly harmed. And Chen Gong, as a scholar and a good friend of Bian Rang, was very dissatisfied with Cao Cao's actions.

On the other hand, Cao Cao killed a lot and was too brutal in his crusade against Xuzhou, and Xuzhou was almost empty in the place where Cao's army passed. These actions also made the scholars of Yanzhou very dissatisfied, believing that Cao Cao was a tyrant.

Therefore, at that time, Chen Gong, Xu Yan, Wang Kai and some others conspired to take advantage of the emptiness of Yanzhou to rebel against Cao Cao when Cao Cao sent troops to attack Xuzhou again.

In history, the reason why Zhang Miao betrayed Cao Cao actually had little to do with Cao Cao himself, Zhang Miao rebelled against Cao Cao because he was afraid of Yuan Shao.

Although Zhang Miao and Yuan Shao were friends before, Zhang Miao offended Yuan Shao very badly during Dong Zhuo's crusade, and at this time Yuan Shao had already moved to kill Zhang Miao, and even took action, but he was stopped by Cao Cao.

Later, Zhang Miao sent someone to greet Lu Bu after Yuan Shao released Lu Bu, treated him heavily, and swore a good alliance with Lu Bu, which made Yuan Shao very angry, Zhang Miao was even more worried after learning about it, and at that time Cao Cao was a well-known close ally of Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao even asked Cao Cao to kill Zhang Miao, although Cao Cao refused, but in Zhang Miao's heart, he actually still failed to let go of the matter.

After Cao Cao became the pastor of Yanzhou, he first killed the whole family of Bian Rang, and then almost cleaned up the scholars in Yanzhou, and slaughtered countless people in Xuzhou, Cao Cao's killing intent made Zhang Miao feel terrified, at this time Zhang Miao thought of the intimate relationship between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and his heart was shaken.

After Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou again, Zhang Miao's younger brother Zhang Chao and Cao Cao's generals Chen Gong, engaged in Zhonglang Xu Yan, and Wang Kai took the opportunity to discuss betraying him. Chen Gong persuaded Zhang Miao: "Nowadays, there are many heroes and talents, the world is divided, you have such a vast land and many soldiers, you are in the situation of being attacked on all sides, and you can also be called a hero among people, but you are controlled by others, isn't it a damage to your identity?" Today, the army in Yanzhou City is crusading eastward, the city is empty, Lu Bu is a strong general, good at fighting, and moving forward bravely, if he is ushered in for the time being, jointly occupy Yanzhou, wait and see the situation, and act with the camera, so that he may be able to make a great cause!"

Chen Gong's words became the last straw that broke the camel's back, and Zhang Miao finally made up his mind to betray Cao Cao. And why did Zhang Miao's younger brother Zhang Chao intervene? Because he is Guangling Taishou, Guangling is a county in Xuzhou, which means that Tao Qian may also be involved in this matter.

Zhang Miao and Chen Gong betrayed Cao Cao and greeted Lü Bu, making Yanzhou basically fall into the hands of the enemy at that time, and at this time, Cao Cao, who was deeply involved in the enemy formation, faced the most difficult moment in his life after officially becoming a prince.

Note 1: It is recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty that Yuan Shu took in Lü Bu and was very good to Lü Bu, but Lü Bu killed Dong Zhuo by himself. If he is kind to the Yuan family, he indulges his subordinates to plunder. Yuan Shu had a headache, and Lu Bu was uneasy, so he took refuge in Zhang Yang, then Yuan Shao, and then Zhang Yang.

ps: The relationship between Zhang Miao and Cao Cao is really not bad in history, but no matter how good the relationship is, it is not as important as his own life. Cao Cao has not given Yuan Shao face in history, it is estimated that he will not do anything to Zhang Miao because of Yuan Shao, Zhang Miao will betray, and it can also be said that Cao Cao was shot while lying down.