The Complete Biography of Cao Cao

Chapter 18: Hard on the Outside and Brave on the Inside: Dare to Think, Dare to Do, Never Regret

Do what you say and do what you say
There is an old saying: It is better to get Jibu Yinuo than to get a hundred catties of gold.It is said that people must keep their promises.As the lord of a country and the commander of an army, it is essential to stick to credit.Although Cao Cao is known as a traitor, he also has a trustworthy side. Although sometimes it is unavoidable to have a strong purpose, his style of doing things and doing things with results has added a lot to him. brilliance.

But Cao Cao was not a philanthropist after all. When Cao Cao captured Xiapi City and captured Chen Gong, he admired Chen Gong very much. Unfortunately, Chen Gong abandoned him at the beginning of Cao Cao's uprising. After being captured, Chen Gong wanted to die.Cao Cao promised that Chen Gong would treat his family well, and then executed him with tears in his eyes.Cao Cao's move has his own deep meaning. On the one hand, it is to show his magnanimity, to show favor to his opponents, and to convince the world's sages; people.There is only one purpose, and they are all to attract more people of insight.

Cao Cao was treacherous all his life, and his actions were numerous, but he still kept his promises in the majority.Simpi was a person with profound strategy during the Three Kingdoms period, and he contributed a lot to Cao Cao's major military and political decisions such as destroying the Yuan family's forces in the north.

Xin Pi initially served under Yuan Shao's tent with his elder brother Xin Ping.When Cao Cao served as Sikong, he recruited Simpi, but Simpi failed. When Yuan Shang attacked his brother Yuan Tan in Pingyuan County, Yuan Tan sent Simpi to Cao Cao to make peace.

At that time, Cao Cao was about to conquer Jingzhou and was stationed in Xiping County.After seeing Cao Cao, Simpi conveyed Yuan Tan's intention to seek peace, and Cao Cao was very happy after hearing this.A few days later, Cao Cao wanted to go back on his word. He wanted to pacify Jingzhou first. Instead of accepting Yuan Tan's peace proposal, he wanted to make Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang kill each other.

So, Cao Cao set up a banquet with wine, and Simpi was good at observing words and expressions. He saw Cao Cao's expression was wrong, and knew that things had changed, so he told Guo Jia about it.Guo Jia reported to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao said to Simpi: "Can Yuan Tan be trusted? Can he definitely defeat Yuan Shang?"

Simpi replied: "Don't ask them if they really want to surrender, you should just study the current situation. The Yuan family was originally brothers attacking each other, and they didn't think others could intervene among them. They only thought that the world could be decided by themselves. Now there is a day for you to ask for help, everything can be seen from this. Yuan Shang saw that Yuan Tan was struggling but he was unable to take it for a long time, which shows that he was exhausted. He was defeated by others outside, and his advisers were killed inside. , Brothers fought each other, the land was divided into two, years of fighting, even the armor and helmets of the soldiers were covered with gnats. In addition, drought, locusts, famine and famine occurred together, and there was no food in the national granary. There is no dry food to carry, the heavens report natural disasters, and the people below are struggling. The people, no matter they are stupid or smart, already know that the Yuan family will eventually fall apart. With a completed city wall and millions of soldiers, if there is no food, the city cannot be defended. Now if Yuan Shang goes to attack Yecheng, and Yuan Shang does not return to rescue, Yecheng will not be able to defend it by himself. If he returns to rescue, then Yuan Tan will attack from behind. Pursue. Relying on your might, dealing with the enemy who is at the end of the road, attacking the weak and weak bandits, is no different from the wind sweeping away the fallen leaves in autumn. The heavens entrusted Yuan Shang to you to destroy, but you did not attack Jingzhou. Jingzhou is rich in products and the people are happy. , there is no loophole to take advantage of in the county and country. Zhong Fei said: "Attack a country in chaos and bully a country that is about to perish." Now the two Yuans don't work hard to consider the long-term interests and spend their energy on fighting each other internally, which can be regarded as chaos; People have nothing to eat, and those who travel have no dry food. They are about to perish. They don’t think about how to live in the evening after the morning. The life of the people is difficult, but they don’t go to appease them. You still want to wait until later, and there may be a bumper harvest in the future , and he may know his own doom and change his ways and improve his moral cultivation, then he will lose the most important condition for being able to use soldiers. Now, taking advantage of the opportunity of his request for rescue to appease the people, this is the time to gain the most. Besides There is no enemy in the four directions stronger than the Yuan Clique in Hebei; if the north of the Yellow River is pacified, then your military might will be great and the world will shake, and it will be very easy to unify the world.”

What Simpi said was clear and logical.Cao Cao said repeatedly, "That's a good point." So he agreed to make peace with Yuan Tan and go to ask Yuan Shang to replace him.

In the second year, he attacked Yecheng, captured Yecheng, and recommended Xinpi as Yilang in front of the emperor.It can be regarded as a reward for Simpi.

Cao Cao initially agreed to accept the surrender. Although he wavered for a short time, he finally kept his promise under Xin Pi's persuasion and made up his mind to attack Hebei, which showed his decisive and resourceful characteristics in dealing with affairs.

Only when you keep your word, you have the courage to accomplish great things. Although Cao Cao's word is more out of consideration for winning people's hearts, after all, he has formed a de facto keeping his promise, which is worthy of recognition.

The second is to settle down and lay down the foundation for Yanzhou

If a person wants to achieve a great cause, he must have a solid shelter.If you go out, you can break through the world, and if you go in, you can protect yourself, so that you can have no worries.For the ambitious Cao Cao, there is an urgent need to establish a solid base.

When Chen Liu launched an army to attack Dong Zhuo, he didn't even have his own base. Later, he owned Yanzhou, and continued to expand his territory based on it.Later, he attacked Xuzhou to avenge his father, and Lu Bu took advantage of the false attack to attack Yanzhou.Puyang, Juancheng, Dong'e, and Fan counties were in emergency at the same time.

Cao Cao adopted Guo Jia's opinion, sold favors to Liu Bei, and withdrew his troops from Xuzhou to retreat. Tao Qian, the prefect of Xuzhou, died, and Liu Bei became the shepherd of Xuzhou without any effort.Cao Cao was very annoyed, so he sent troops to attack Xuzhou.

Xun Yu, Cao Cao's counselor, disagreed with this approach, and suggested to Cao Cao: "In the past, Gao Zu and Xiang Yu fought for the world, and ordered Xiao He to guard Guanzhong; Emperor Guangwu managed Hebei, and Kou Xun guarded Hanoi. These are all rooted first, and then Then it is a good strategy to seize the world. In this way, advance can defeat the enemy, and retreat can preserve the fundamentals. Therefore, although they also have difficulties and failures, they have finally completed their great cause.

The general originally raised his troops in Yanzhou. Yanzhou is an important place in the world. Although it is a bit dilapidated, it can still be used to protect itself. This is the general's Guanzhong and Hanoi.Now that we have defeated Li Feng and Xue Lan, if we divide our troops to attack Chen Gong eastward, making it impossible for Chen Gong to look west, we can use this opportunity to grab food and store up military supplies, and we can defeat Lu Bu in one fell swoop.In this way, Liu Yao can be united in the south, and Yuan Shu can be attacked together, and the power can be developed to the Huaihe and Surabaya areas.If we abandon Lu Bu and do not fight, and attack Xuzhou in the east, if there are more troops left behind, there will be insufficient troops in the front, and if there are fewer troops left behind, we will not be able to secure the rear.

If Lu Bu took the opportunity to attack and plunder, Yanzhou would be in danger of being lost, and Xuzhou could not be taken for a while, where would the general go to gain a foothold? "

Xun Yu is worthy of being Cao Cao's "Zhang Zifang", and he pointed out the direction for Cao Cao when he was about to go astray.

Xun Yu's passage contains the three most important factors related to the success or failure of hegemony:

First of all, to win the world, you must have your own base.Second, the location of the base is very important.Third, do not make many enemies and avoid fighting on two fronts.Concentrate superior forces to destroy the enemy one by one.Throughout the ages, no one who has achieved imperial career can leave these three conditions.

Xun Yu's analysis is not only an analysis of the current situation, but also a program of Cao Cao's entire actions, which has played a huge role in the success or failure of Cao Cao's career that cannot be described in words.

If you give up on the Eastern Expedition to Lu Bu, it will be tantamount to giving the enemy a chance to breathe. Not only will the previous hard work be wasted, but after the opponent recovers, he will definitely take revenge on you.With Lv Bu's unstoppable courage and Chen Gong's resourcefulness, it is very likely that Yanzhou will not be able to keep it.

When Xuzhou Mu Taoqian was dying, he knew that Cao Cao would not give up and would take advantage of the situation to fight for it, so he gave the position of Xuzhou Mu to Liu Bei.Liu Bei is a royal relative.Sitting in Xuzhou, the name is justified, Cao Cao went to attack, the teacher came out of nowhere and it was hard for the teacher to come from afar.What's more, although Liu Bei was wandering around at that time, he had more than ten thousand soldiers and a few generals under his command, so it was not easy to deal with, and Xuzhou might not be able to attack.

Comparing Yanzhou and Xuzhou again, Yanzhou is located in the Central Plains, with a large population and a strategic location, which has always been contested by military strategists.Controlling this place will cut off the connections between the warlords in the east, west, north, south, and south, but Cao Jun can take the initiative to attack everywhere and defeat them one by one. Xuzhou and Yanzhou are hard to compare.So even if Xuzhou is won and Yanzhou is lost, it is very uneconomical.

Cao Cao carefully considered Xun Yu's suggestion and thought it was very reasonable, so he gave up his plan to attack Xuzhou, and settled down in Yanzhou first to seek far-reaching results.

Sure enough, before long, Lu Bu and Chen Gong led more than ten thousand troops to attack Cao Cao.Cao Cao had been prepared for a long time, set up suspicious troops, defeated Lv Bu, and Lv Bu retreated to Dingtao.This time Cao Cao made up his mind to put the opponent to death, so as to avoid future troubles, he personally led the army to pursue closely.After fierce fighting, Dingtao was captured.Seeing that the general situation was over, Lu Bu took the remnants of the defeated generals to Xuzhou and defected to Liu Bei.As a result, Cao Cao recovered the prefectures and counties of Yanzhou, allowing Cao Cao to continue to manage Yanzhou.

After Lu Bu's defeat, Zhang Miao fled to Xuzhou with Lu Bu, leaving his younger brother Zhang Chao and his family to guard Yongqiu (now Qi County, Henan).In the eighth month, Cao Cao's troops besieged Yongqiu.In October, the imperial court saw that Cao Cao had actually completely controlled Yanzhou, and formally appointed him as Yanzhou Mu. At this time, it had been more than three years since he acted in this position.In this way, Cao Cao was also recognized in name.

In December, Cao Cao captured Yongqiu, Zhang Chao committed suicide, and Zhang Miao's family was killed by Cao Cao.After Zhang Miao learned that Yongqiu was besieged, he went to Yuan Shu to rescue soldiers, but was killed by his subordinates on the way.So far, Yanzhou has been completely settled.

After more than a year of conquest, Cao Cao finally consolidated his position in Yanzhou, and was officially recognized by the court, and he had a veritable base that could be attacked and defended.This laid a good foundation for his continuous development to the surrounding area in the future.

Three Weighing the Pros and Cons

One of the secrets of success, of course, is to move forward bravely, with a spirit of striving to make progress and daring to be the first.But the courage to rush forward is not enough to do things, there must be room for thinking.Learn to weigh the pros and cons, and use the stakes as a guide for doing things. If the pros outweigh the cons, it is feasible;Cao Cao's expulsion of Lu Bu and his attack on Tao Qian is a reflection of this strategy.

In the spring of the fourth year of Chuping (AD 193), Cao Cao stationed troops in Juancheng.Juancheng was a military base on the bank of the Yellow River at that time. After Cao Cao became the shepherd of Yanzhou, he moved the government office from Changyi to here.At this time, Liu Biao approached Yuan Shu's Nanyang City and cut off the food road of Nanyang City.Yuan Shu then led his troops into Chenliu, Yanzhou, and stationed them in Fengqiu.The Black Mountain Army and the remnants of Yufulo the Huns also defected to Yuan Shu.Yuan Shu sent Liu Xiang to garrison Kuangting in the northeast of Fengqiu, and Cao Cao immediately led troops south from Juancheng to attack Liu Xiang.

Yuan Shu knew very well that once Kuangting was lost, Fengqiu would not be safe, so he personally led troops to rescue Liu Xiang.When the two armies fought, Yuan Shu was defeated and had no choice but to abandon Kuangting and retreat to Fengqiu.Cao Jun continued to besiege Fengqiu with all his might, but Yuan Shu knew it would be difficult to resist, so before Cao Jun closed the siege, he quickly abandoned Fengqiu and fled to Xiangyi.Cao Cao was still chasing after him, and when he reached Taishou, he decided to open a canal to flood Yuan Shu's army.Yuan Shu had to continue to flee to Ningling.Cao Cao was determined to beat his opponent to death with a single blow, so he held on tightly. Yuan Shu was chased by Cao Jun and had no choice but to continue to escape.In this way, he fled to Jiujiang County before stopping.

In this battle, Cao Cao seized the favorable opportunity and fought continuously to overcome difficulties.Under the circumstances that are beneficial to our army, we continued to expand the results of the battle, drove Yuan Shu to a place far away from Yanzhou, and relieved a major threat to the south of Yanzhou.In summer, Cao Cao led his army back to Dingtao.

Immediately afterwards, after weighing the balance, Cao Cao punched continuously and launched a campaign to attack Mu Taoqian in Xuzhou.Tao Qian, courtesy name Gongzu, was born in Danyang.He has successively served as magistrate of Lu County, governor of Youzhou, and Yilang.Later, because of his contribution to the suppression of the Xuzhou Yellow Turban Army, he was appointed as the governor of Xuzhou.When Dong Zhuo was in power, he did not participate in the Kwantung Allied Forces' operations, so he was appointed Xuzhou Mu by Dong Zhuo.

Cao Cao's attack on Tao Qian was a prudent decision after careful weighing:
First, in the conflict between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao, Tao Qian supported Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shu, and sent troops to cooperate with Gongsun Zan to attack Yuan Shao.Since Cao Cao allied with Yuan Shao and led his army to defeat the common enemy Yuan Shu, it was logical and united Yuan Shao to target Tao Qian, another common enemy.Moreover, during this period, the Heishan peasant uprising army in Hebei became active again. Yu Du once led tens of thousands of troops to capture Yecheng, the governor of Jizhou, and killed the prefect of Weijun.The rebel army led by Liu Shi and others and the Black Mountain Army led by Zhang Yan also moved frequently. The Xiongnu and Wuhuan also invaded for a time. Yuan Shao was too busy dealing with it to go south. Therefore, the responsibility for attacking Tao Qian naturally fell on Cao Cao alone. .

Second, Cao Cao has a strong egoism, so he must have his own interests to consider.Xuzhou is close to Yanzhou, and like Qingzhou, faces Yanzhou from the east and northeast to form a siege.Tao Qian, Tian Kai, Liu Bei and others not only posed a threat to Yuan Shao, but also put pressure on Cao Cao.Even later, this threat turned into direct aggression and plunder.In May of the fourth year of Chuping (AD 193), Que Xuan from Xiapi gathered thousands of people to rebel and claimed to be the Son of Heaven.Tao Qian once joined forces with Que Xuan to send troops to attack Yanzhou, captured Hua County and Fei County, and plundered Rencheng.

The third is that Cao Cao wanted to avenge Tao Qian for killing his father. The death of Cao Cao's father Cao Song had something to do with Tao Qian.

After comprehensive consideration, in order to maintain the alliance with Yuan Shao, protect the interests of Yanzhou, and have the legitimate banner of avenging his father, Cao Cao decided to decisively send troops to Tao Qian to deal a severe blow.

Cao Cao attacked Tao Qian on a large scale for the first time, captured a large area of ​​the city in one go, and entered Pengcheng.Tao Qian led troops to fight, but was defeated by Cao Cao, losing tens of thousands of soldiers.With a strong heart of revenge and a mentality of establishing prestige, Cao Cao killed wildly, even ordinary people.Tens of thousands of men and women (some say as many as 10) were killed innocently, and their corpses fell in the Surabaya River flowing through Pengcheng, and the river was blocked by corpses.When Luoyang and Chang'an encountered Dong Zhuo's rebellion, many people came to Xuzhou to seek refuge, but they were brutally killed during the war.

Cao Cao got Yuan Shao's support in this expedition.Yuan Shao also sent troops to fight with Cao Cao. Among them, Zhu Ling led the three battalions and made great achievements in the battle.

At the end of the battle, all the generals returned to Hebei one by one. Only Zhu Ling stayed by Cao Cao's side and said: "I have met many people, and none of them can compare with Cao Gong. Cao Gong is really a wise master! Now I We finally met, how can we leave easily?" His subordinates stayed with him.Later, Zhu Ling became an important general of Cao Cao, second only to Xu Huang and others.From the official to the general, he was named Gaotang Tinghou.

[-]. Work hard to forge ahead and not seek comfort and start to rule the roost
People are most afraid of not thinking about making progress, being complacent about the achievements they have made, and taking credit for themselves.As everyone knows, doing business is like sailing against the current, if you don’t advance, you will retreat!Not only will the business not be able to expand further, but the original foundation will also be ruined.

Most of the heroes in Chinese history were defeated by "eager to be king and hegemony". Not to mention, Yuan Shu, who was a contemporary of Cao Cao, was eager to become emperor because he obtained the Jade Seal of Chuanguo, and was excluded from the power struggle early.

There is no shortage of positive examples, and Cao Cao is one of them.Faced with a situation praised by thousands of people, and with great power in his hands, it is rare that he did not waver, and finally opened the Cao Wei dynasty.History has proved that those who are aggressive will catch up from behind and eventually achieve great things; those who have no ambitions and only want to be "Emperor of the Earth" and covet comfort will surely fail and fail.

Liu Biao, another man of the same period as Cao Cao, was a tyrant in the separatist regime at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was "more than eight feet long and very majestic in appearance. He was regarded as a great general in the Northern Army."

He once occupied large areas such as Hubei and Hunan.Take a wait-and-see attitude towards the warlord melee in the Central Plains.Later, he was a herdsman in Jingzhou, and the area where he lived was relatively less damaged.In addition, many people from the Central Plains came to seek refuge, including Zhuge Liang and other talented people.These are all favorable factors for him to make great achievements, but it is a pity that he has no enterprising heart.

Sima Biao's "Strategy" records: When Liu Biao first entered Jingzhou, some clans surnamed Liu in the south of the Yangtze River rebelled against the soldiers.People in the world often say that "killing surrender is inauspicious", and this move of his has completely confessed to the world that he is a mediocre person with no long-term plans.

Cao Cao is not the case. He has a long-term vision and clear thinking. He always thinks that one day he will be in power, and even the emperor will be afraid of himself. His actions are gradually carried out according to this idea.

After Dong Zhuo's former subordinates Li Jue and Guo Si invaded Chang'an, they wanted to join Liu Biao as foreign aid.Then Liu Biao was granted the title of General of Zhennan, Shepherd of Jingzhou, Marquis of Wu and Holiday.At this time, Cao Cao took the opportunity to welcome Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to Xu County, and took Xu County as his capital, realizing the initial power.

On the one hand, Liu Biao paid tribute to the emperor, and at the same time colluded with Yuan Shao in the north, thus dealing with the three major forces of Dong Zhuo's former army, Yuan Shao, and Cao Cao, thinking that he could do a job with ease.Deng Xi, the governor under him, advised Liu Biao not to do this, but Liu Biao refused to listen.He replied to Deng Xi in this way: "It is the great righteousness of the world not to neglect the tribute duty internally, and not to betray the leader externally. Why is it so strange to govern alone?"

Later, Zhang Xian, the prefect of Changsha, betrayed Liu Biao, and Liu Biao was surrounded for years.After Zhang Xian died of illness, his son Zhang Yi succeeded him.Liu Biao immediately attacked Zhang Yi and won.So Liu Biao "collected Ling and Guangxi in the south, and occupied Hanchuan in the north, covering thousands of miles, with more than [-] armored troops." Liu Biao thought that he was powerful and no one dared to provoke him, so he became a prince at ease.At this point, Cao Cao was not content to be much smarter and farsighted than him.

When Cao Cao and Yuan Shao confronted each other at Guandu, Yuan Shao sent someone to ask Liu Biao for help, but Liu Biao agreed but did not send troops, but he did not help Cao Cao either. manner.

These actions all show Liu Biao's mentality of passively guarding his own land, doing nothing, and having no ambitions.Compared with Cao Cao, Cao Cao's political vision and enterprising spirit are far higher than him.

In fact, Liu Biao's neutrality and self-preservation cannot fulfill his foundation.Jingzhou is a large land and rich in people, everyone wants to take it for themselves, and at the same time, it is in the handover place of Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei. Everyone has the idea of ​​​​annexation, and it is impossible to get away from competing with each other.On this point, when Yuan and Cao Guandu confronted each other, Liu Biao’s subordinates, Zhonglang Han Song and Biejia Liu Xian, pointed out: "The mighty and powerful are fighting together, and the two heroes are at each other. The most important thing in the world lies in the general. It is okay to take advantage of the disadvantages; otherwise, the general will choose what to follow, the general will have a crowd of one hundred thousand, sit quietly and watch. The husband sees the good but cannot help, please make peace but cannot. .”

Finally, after Liu Biao's death, his son Liu Cong was forced to surrender to Cao Cao.

From Liu Biao's inevitable ending, we should see that as a human being, one cannot only have appearances without reality.Be brave to forge ahead, have lofty aspirations, not be satisfied with temporary comfort, and be prepared for danger in times of peace.

Looking back at Cao Cao's life, he really did this, because the Cao family's country was built by Cao Cao's constant progress.It is not easy for Cao Cao to take arrows and stones in person, haunt the army formation, and wipe out the heroes. Although he has the strength to establish a new dynasty, he insists on not proclaiming himself emperor.

Chen Shou, the author of "Three Kingdoms", said: "At the end of the Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and the heroes rose together. Yuan Shao looked down on the four states, and no one dared to fight against him when he was strong. Taizu planned and planned, and used troops at home. Laws and policies, the use of Han Xin and Bai Qi's strategy of winning by surprise, granting different official positions according to people's different talents, restraining emotions, not thinking about old evils, and finally mastering the power of the country and accomplishing grand undertakings. This is really inseparable from his keen insight and outstanding strategy Yes. It can really be called an extraordinary person, a superhero."

In fact, Cao Cao has always expressed that he does not want to be emperor, and privately believes that only having great power is the most important thing.Moreover, when Cao Cao raised the flag of righteousness to raise troops to challenge Dong Zhuo, the emperor of the Han Dynasty no longer had a piece of land where he could give orders. The emperor was just a pawn in the hands of powerful officials.In this sense, the state of Wei established by Cao Pi was actually brought down by Cao Cao's entire life as a soldier.If Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty did not have Cao Cao, could he still be the emperor in name for decades?
(End of this chapter)