At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial court was corrupt, consorts and eunuchs were authoritarian, and natural and man-made disasters continued, which eventually led to the Yellow Scarf peasant uprising. Although the uprising was suppressed, the Eastern Han Dynasty existed in name only. The world is divided and the war is continuous. By the summer of the fourth year of Jian 'an (199), Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were roughly formed in the north of China. Yuan Shao supported hundreds of thousands of soldiers, occupying the counties such as You, Ji, Qing and He in the north of the Yellow River, and was in a favorable position to attack and retreat. Cao Cao occupied Zhou, Yu, Xu and other counties south of the Yellow River, and took Emperor Xian of Han to Xuchang to "hold the emperor to make the princes". However, Cao Cao has only tens of thousands of military forces, and its geographical position is easy to attack and difficult to defend, and its rear is very unstable. Liu Biao in Jingzhou, Sun Ce in Jiangdong and Zhang Xiu in Nanyang are still enemies of Cao Cao. Therefore, the overall operational situation is favorable to Yuan and unfavorable to Cao.
In June of the fourth year of Jian 'an (199), Yuan Shao took up 100,000 troops and 10,000 horses in an attempt to attack Xu Changnan, and the battle of Guandu started.
The news that Yuan Shaoju sent troops south reached Xuchang. General Cao Cao said, "I know Shao is a man, ambitious and wise, strong and afraid of him, afraid of others and weak, with too many soldiers and unclear plans, and he will be arrogant and have different orders." Although the land is vast and the food is abundant, it is enough for us to use. " So I decided to arise and meet the enemy for 20 thousand.
In August, Cao Cao led the troops into Liyang, an important town on the north bank of the Yellow River, and sent Cang Ba to lead the troops into Qingzhou to consolidate the right wing and prevent Yuan Jun from attacking Xuchang from the east. Hold Yanjin, an important ferry on the south bank of the Yellow River, and let Liu Yanshou, the governor of Dong Jun, ride on a white horse to prevent Yuan Jun from crossing the river south. This is the first line of defense. In September, Cao Cao returned to Xuchang and established a base in Guandu as the second line of defense. Guandu is the throat where Yuan Shao attacked Xuchang. In February of 65438+ AD, Cao Cao returned to Guandu, and personally sat in the town, preparing for Yuan Jun's attack.
Just as Cao Cao went all out to arrange the war against Yuan, Liu Bei rebelled against Cao Cao, killed Che Zhou, the secretariat of Xuzhou, occupied Xiapi, stationed troops in Peixian County, and actively contacted Yuan Shao to jointly attack Cao Cao. Cao Cao analyzed the present situation and thought that "her husband Liu Bei is an outstanding man. If he doesn't attack today, it will be a future trouble." Although Yuan Shao was ambitious, he was too late to be moved. "So in the first month of the fifth year of Jian 'an (200 years), he led a good soldier to crusade against Liu Bei, occupied Pei County in one fell swoop, recovered Xuzhou, moved the capital to Pi, and forced Guan Yu to land. Liu Bei's whole army was defeated, and only a few soldiers and horses fled to Hebei to join Yuan Shao. After Cao Cao's victory, he also led troops across the river to meet Yuan Shao.
In February of the fifth year of Jian 'an (200), Yuan Shao marched into Liyang and sent Guo Tu, Chun Yuqiong and Yan Liang to attack Baima stationed in Ada, the satrap of Dong Jun. At that time, we were weak and besieged by Yan. The situation is urgent. In April, Cao Cao decided to lead an army to save Ada. He accepted the adviser Xun You's suggestion and led the troops to Yanjin first, pretending to cross the river and attack Yuan Shao's rear. Yuan Shao immediately adapted to the west. But Cao Cao took the opportunity to lead the elite troops to attack the white horse in the east. Yan Liang was caught off guard and killed by Guan Yu, and the siege of the White Horse was solved. Lombardi also sent generals Wen Chou and Liu Bei to cross the river with five or six thousand infantry to pursue Jun. At that time, there were only more than 500 cavalry in Cao Jun. In a critical situation, Cao Cao ordered all cavalry to lay down their horses and trench on the way to Yuan Jun. Soon, Wen Chou soldiers arrived and saw that Cao Jun had abandoned the horse's trench, killing each other and making a mess. Seeing this, Cao Cao immediately ordered more than 500 cavalry to mount and killed Yuan Jun.. Yuan Jun was immediately defeated and General Wen Chou was beheaded. This time, Junlian beheaded Yan Liang and Wen Chou, two famous Hebei players, and Yuan Jun was greatly shocked. Yuan Shao ordered the withdrawal from Wu Yang. Cao Cao also stayed with the officers.
In August, Yuan Shaobing arrived in Guandu and camped in the sand pile, covering dozens of miles from east to west. Cao Cao also divided the camp and confronted Yuan Jun .. In September, Cao Jun launched an attack, but the battle was not smooth. At that time, Cao Cao's troops were less than 10 thousand, and 23 of the ten were wounded, so he had to go back to camp and hold on. When Yuan Jun saw this, he piled up heaped-up mountains, set up high oars, and hit Cao Ying with an arrow, so that Cao Jun soldiers could only walk under the shield. In order to reverse this passive situation, Cao Cao ordered craftsmen to build a thunderbolt overnight and gave a flying stone to Yuan Jun, destroying the towers of Yuan Jun. Yuan Shao also ordered foot soldiers to dig tunnels to attack Cao Cao, and Cao Jun also made tit-for-tat attacks by digging trenches in the camp. Cao Cao also heard that Yuan Shao's thousands of wagons and stores were about to be shipped to Guandu Camp. He immediately sent generals Huang Xu and Shi Huan to intercept and burn all the grain in Yuan Jun.
The two sides fought for more than a month. When Cao Jun was in a hurry and his foot soldiers were tired, Cao Cao looked for an opportunity to fight Yuan Shao. In October of the fifth year of Jian 'an (200), Yuan Shao sent another car to transport grain, and ordered Chunyu Qiong and other five people to lead more than 10,000 people to guard the grain and stored it in Wuwo, four miles north of Daying. Xu You, the counselor, suggested that Yuan Shao send a light horse to attack Xuchang at night, but Yuan Shao refused to adopt it. At this moment, someone in Xu You's family broke the law and was detained by his political opponent Shen Pei. In a rage, he found Cao Cao and put forward a plan to attack Wu's lair suddenly. Xu You's plan accords with Cao Cao's desire to find fighters and win by surprise. So Cao Cao made a decisive decision, leaving Cao Hong and Xun You to guard Guandu Camp, riding five thousand people himself, and set out overnight, pretending to be Yuan Jun all the way, fooling Yuan Jun's post. When they arrived in Wuchang, they surrounded the grain depot and set it on fire until dawn. Chunyu Qiong saw that Cao Jun was short of soldiers, so he went out to fight. Cao Cao attacked them and killed them. Yuan Jun couldn't resist, so he had to go back to camp and stick to it. At this time, Yuan Shao sent cavalry to save Wu Chao and ordered Zhang Hekun and Gao Lan to attack Jun Guandu Camp in an attempt to defeat Cao Cao. When Yuan Jun's reinforcements approached the Wu Dynasty, the left and right sides reported Cao Cao's short radius of resistance. Cao Cao was furious and said, "Speak when the enemy soldiers are behind me!" So all the soldiers fought to the death, defeated the defenders of the Wu Dynasty, and killed Yuan Jiangchun and Yuqiong alive. Zhang Qian and Gaolan came to attack the stronghold, and when they heard that Chunyu Qiong was defeated, Yuan Shao was suspicious and led his troops to surrender. Cao Cao took advantage of the situation to attack and kill Yuan Jun, and Yuan Shao and his son Yuan Tan fled to Hebei with only more than 800 riders.
The battle of Guandu, after more than a year of confrontation, ended in Cao Cao's overall victory. Cao Cao launched a surprise attack with about 20,000 troops and defeated Yuan Jun with100,000 troops. This example became a typical example in the history of China. With his extraordinary intelligence and courage, Cao Cao wrote the most brilliant page in his military career. In the seventh year of Jian 'an (202), Yuan Shao died of defeat and depression, and Cao Cao took the opportunity to completely destroy Yuan's military clique. In the 12th year of Jian 'an (207), Cao Cao conquered Wuhuan again, and at this point, the war-torn north was unified.
After the death of Sun Ce, Sun Quan succeeded to the throne. In order to win people's hearts, Cao Cao made Sun Quan a general. Yuan Shao has been fighting Cao Cao. Hearing the news, he immediately called more than 700,000 troops to attack Xuchang.
Cao Cao had already stationed troops in Guandu, and Yuan Shao's 700,000 troops had gradually approached Guandu. Cao Cao hastily convened a meeting and asked the military and civilian generals to discuss countermeasures.
A civilian said, Yuan Shao's attack this time, we can't meet the enemy head-on because there are many people! Chu Xu next to him said, where did you say you met the enemy? The civil servant said that from the left, where there is a river, and from the right, where there are their crossbowmen, I think it is better to meet the enemy from behind! Cao Cao said, that's not meeting the enemy, that's chasing the enemy! Chu Xu said with a smile that the enemy's barracks are more than 90 miles long, which is equivalent to several marathons. Even the horses have to be untied, let alone people!
Cao Cao clenched his fist firmly and said, we are few, but we eat less, so we can supply food and grass. However, Yuan Shao has many people and eats a lot. Their biggest problem is food and grass. You can make a fuss about it.
At this time, Zhang Liao's men came in holding a Lombardi soldier. It turned out that this small group of soldiers was scouting and transporting food and grass. Cao Cao laughed: God help me too! We'll take Yuan Shao's food and grass! So Cao Cao arranged for Chu Xu, Zhang Liao and other generals to grab hay.
In the middle of the night, on the mountain road next to Yuan Shao's military camp, Chu Xu and Zhang Liao took people to ambush on the side of the road. The convoy carrying grain and grass came gradually, and Chu Xu shouted, Hold on! So people marched forward bravely and broke up the grain delivery team, and then Chu Xu returned to Cao's camp with three thousand carts of grain and grass.
Cao Cao looked at the hay of 3,000 wagons and was so happy that he kept his mouth shut. At the commendation meeting that night, Cao Cao personally awarded Chu Xu 100 two gold coins, 10 gold coins, a pair of wooden spoons, a pennant and four Chinese characters-General Fan. Cao Cao said to the crowd, "hay is man's rice, and grass is horse's rice!" " ! Chu Xu robbed the enemy of 3,000 wagons of grain and grass, which meant that the other side was deprived of a month's rations. In the future, everyone should strive to grab, openly grab, and take the initiative to grab! Strive to rob Yuan Shao to go home hungry! This is our nibbling strategy.
Cao Cao swallowed, and then said, these robbed night grass and night grain will be eaten at noon tomorrow! All the officers and men cheered.
Yuan Shao was so angry here that he blew his beard and stared, saying that he was incompetent. Yuan Shao said to the left and right, Cao Cao Can robbed me of food and grass. Why can't I rob him? So he ordered his men to do the same.
At noon the next day, Cao Cao's camp was filled with smoke and everyone was thinking about lunch. Everyone is waiting for the chef in the kitchen to shout: dinner!
At this point, suddenly listen to a commotion outside, I saw a small army of Lombardi rushed in, Chu Xu Zhang Liao hurriedly dressed, ready to meet them. I don't know. Yuan Shao's troops are just guarding the road around the kitchen.
These soldiers jumped off their horses, rushed into the kitchen, grabbed delicious food and began to eat. Cao Cao's soldiers saw it in their eyes, worried in their hearts, and rushed into the kitchen desperately. So the two sides took a bite with food in one hand and a sword in the other, and fought.
The battle was extremely tragic, and the soldiers who had been hungry for a long time on both sides killed their eyes. Some people cut off their hands for a steamed bread in the enemy's hand. Some people pulled out their enemy's teeth for half a piece of Sichuan style stew pork in their mouths. Some soldiers stabbed buns with swords, and as a result, they strung a string of buns on the sword to lure the other side to eat, but the other side licked blood on the knife edge to eat. Many soldiers died because of steamed stuffed buns.
After the last meal, Yuan Shao's troops were half starved and retreated, because there were too many people coming and there was too little food in the kitchen.
Cao Cao took Chu Xu, Zhang Liao and others to inspect the battlefield around the kitchen. I saw leaves, rice balls and corpses all over the floor. Some soldiers are counting people, putting the dead aside and pulling the injured to the other side, while the chef sits in the steamer and cries loudly. Cao Cao comforted: people always die in war! The chef said that some of our brothers died hungry in the kitchen. How poor they are!
Finally, a civilian gave Cao Cao a casualty statistics. Cao Cao watched and said-alas, eighty soldiers were killed, fifty-two choked on steamed bread and steamed buns, two drowned in scrambled egg soup with tomatoes, forty-seven starved to death and sixty-six died of greed. Suddenly, he frowned and asked, Why did fifteen soldiers suffocate?
Official statistics: I don't know, this is the fierceness of the war! Cao Cao thought for a moment and said to the left and right, this kitchen encounter is really tragic! In order to make the enemy eat less, he would rather die by himself! I propose-vigorously commend the fifteen soldiers who died!
Chu Xu said, if you can survive in this situation, you are a good soldier!
Cao Cao continued: This time the enemy was very cunning-Yuan Shao was obviously jealous that we robbed him of his food and grass. He was hungry all day and then let them rob our kitchen. It is really tragic. The most exasperating thing is that we grab food. Our chefs work hard to cook raw rice into cooked rice and raw meat into cooked meat, so they come to grab our food when they smell the fragrance! This is worse than us robbing their food!
Cao Cao added: Fortunately, there were few of us, so they still lost. Most of them starved to death, and we also had soldiers who died in battle. This is our victory!
Chu Xu said, what should we do? Seeing that Cao Cao was silent, he went on to say: We should go and get it back at once and get the food back from their mouths!
Cao Cao sneered, I'm afraid it's not a good time to go now! Now the food they have eaten in their mouths has reached the small intestine and will soon enter the large intestine. Why don't you catch shit?
Yuan Shao also called a meeting of soldiers here. Yuan Shao said, today our army attacked Cao Cao's kitchen, which is a good start! What does this mean-it means that I am smarter than Cao Cao! Because he robbed me of my grain and grass, I robbed him of his grain, and if he robbed me again, I would only have shit! The following Wu Wen laughed.
Yuan Shao went on to say: However, we must prevent similar incidents from happening again, so I decided to change our grain storage location. Our grain will be placed in Wu Chao in the future, and General Chunyu Qiong will be stationed in Wu Chao!
So the two armies confronted each other again, and no one dared to make a move.
Cao Cao sent someone to inquire that Yuan Shao's commissary had been put in the nest, and he thought about how to rob it again every day. But Yuan Shao learned to be smart, and the number of grain trucks tripled every time.
On this day, Chu Xu came to discuss with Cao Cao again. Chu Xu said, can we find our way from the Bird's Nest? Cao Cao corrected: it was the place where the Wu Dynasty and Yuan Shao were heavily stationed. No chance! Xu Chu said: Not necessarily. Sun Tzu's Art of War says that the most dangerous place is the safest place. On the contrary, they think that the safest place may be the most dangerous place!
Cao Cao cocked his head and thought, That makes sense! Chu Xu added: Yuan Shao's grain and grass have been robbed twice by us, and he will definitely be wary of us robbing again. This time, we just don't grab it! Cao Cao scolded: damn it-don't rob you of what you said! Chu Xu said, if we don't rob, we can steal!
Cao Cao looked at the simple and honest Chu Xu, angry and laughing. Suddenly he had an idea and said, Don't say anything-I have an idea. We won't rob or steal it. Let's burn it! Chu Xu said: Look, my brain is still useful!
Cao Cao immediately arranged to grab grain overnight, but secretly prepared flammable and explosive items such as sulfur explosives. When Yuan Shao's grain transport troops appeared, the people in Chu Xu rushed down, dispersed the grain transport team, and then mixed the sacks that caused the fire in the grain bags. When the grain delivery team here rallied and brought back the grain, Chu Xu people didn't chase it, so they went back to Cao Cao's camp.
At midnight, the internal staff of Wu Chao Food Guard lit a fire. The soaring flames flew up, and soon Lombardi's food and grass were completely burned out. Yuan Shao's army was in chaos here, and Cao Cao took the opportunity to attack on a large scale. As a result, Yuan Shao was defeated.
Cao Cao defeated the strong with the weak, and finally defeated Yuan Shao's 700,000 troops.