Let's say that Cao Cao left fifty thousand troops to guard Xudu and led one hundred thousand troops to resist Lu Bu's army. The two armies fought for more than ten rounds, with each other winning and losing, facing each other under the city of Puyang in the East County of Yanzhou.
Cao Cao had many counsellors and generals, why did he only tie with Lu Bu? It turned out that although Lu Bu was only a strong general, he had the assistance of Chen Gong, a counselor, and Zhang Liao, a wise and brave general under him, as well as Gao Shun, Zang Ba, Hao Meng, Cao Xing, Cheng Lian, Wei Xu, Song Xian, Hou Cheng and other eight warriors are also quite powerful. Except for Gao Shun's assistant Lu Bu's son, Lu Zhuangshou, who did not come to Xuzhou, all the other generals were present.
Chen Gongzi Gongtai, with upright temperament and resourcefulness. Chen Gong was once the magistrate of Zhongmu County, admiring Cao Cao's courage to assassinate Dong Zhuo and his high righteousness to save the country, so he abandoned the official and fled with him. The two fled to the home of Cao Cao's father, Cao Song's old friend Lu Boshe, and were treated warmly. Cao Cao was too suspicious and mistakenly believed that the Lu Boshe family wanted to capture the two of them and asked for a reward, so they killed his family. After learning of the misunderstanding, the two left Lu's house overnight, but they met Lu Boshe who had come back from a drink. Cao Cao didn't want to leave trouble, so he killed Lu Boshe. Chen Gong didn't care about what he had done, consciously mistakenly believed in Cao Cao, but could not bear to kill him, so he resolutely left Cao Cao.
Hou Chen Gong's assistant Lu Bu occupied Xuzhou, and Lu Bu became stronger day by day. When Cao Cao attacked Yuan Shu, Chen Gong suggested that Lv Bu attack Cao Jun's foundation-Yanzhou. After Cao Cao returned to defense in time, the two armies fought for dozens of rounds and confronted Puyang City.
Chen Gong saw that Puyang couldn't attack for a long time, and that Cao Cao had arranged it properly and the army had a firm foothold, he persuaded Lu Bu to retreat. But Hao Meng persuaded, "Cao Jun didn't dare to send out in the tortoise shrinking city. Our army is full of vigor. As long as we grit our teeth, we can attack Puyang in one go, and Yanzhou will be at our fingertips."
After hearing this, Lü Bu hesitated, so he decided to look at the situation before making a decision... After Chen Gong learned about it, he was very anxious and repeatedly discouraged Lü Bu from retreating. Chen Gong was very angry, and complained, "War without war, retreat and never retreat, this is the way to bring disaster!" Lu Bu was very angry when he heard that, and drove Chen Gong back to Xuzhou to assist Lu Zhuang to manage Xuzhou.
The reason why Cao Cao couldn't stand firm in Puyang was because he followed the advice of military master Guo Jia. Guo Jia said: "Lü Bujin led an army to make a sneak attack of 100,000. He wanted to take Yanzhou in one go. He didn't expect our army to return to the defense in time. The spirit was wrong. However, if our army can fight now, even if it can win, it will be a miserable victory. It's better to wait for his army to run out of rations and his morale is exhausted, and he can do his best to annihilate Lu Jun at the least cost.
Guo Jia's character is Feng Xiao, from Yingchuan Yangdi. When he was young, he had a vision, seeing that the world would be in chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty. After a weak crown (20 years old), he lived in seclusion, secretly befriended heroes and did not associate with the world, so not many people knew him. In the first year of Jian'an (196 AD), Xun Yu recommended his friend Guo Jia to Cao Cao. Cao Cao summoned Guo Jia to discuss major events in the world. After the discussion, Cao Cao said: "He is the one who can help me achieve my great cause!" After Guo Jia left the camp, he also said overjoyed: "This is the hero I can really assist."
After Guo Jia turned to Cao Cao, he repeatedly offered tricks, and Guo Jia's accurate judgment of the mental state of each opponent often became the key to Cao Cao's victory.
Guo Jia heard the spies report that Chen Gong was driven back to Xuzhou by Lu Bu. He was overjoyed, so he hurried to meet Cao Cao and said: "Lu Bu is brave and intrepid, but he is hesitant. Fighting cannot win quickly; retreating, but unwilling .Now the general hesitates, the fighting spirit of the soldiers of the three armies is completely eliminated. Now it is time to take Lu Bu's decision, and he has not retreated, and launches a fierce attack to destroy Lu Bu.
After Cao Cao was very happy, he killed pigs, slaughtered sheep and rewarded the three armies, and attacked Lu Jun in the middle of the night. That night, Cao Cao led Xu Chu, Li Dian, Xia Houyuan, Xu Huang, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Lu Qian and other generals to raided Lu Bu camp. Lu Jun didn't expect Cao Jun to kill him in the middle of the night, like a frightened bird, fleeing everywhere, trampling on each other, causing countless deaths and injuries. General Lu Jun shouted: "Don't panic, resist and protect your lord to break through."
After Xu Chu heard it, he drove his horse and slashed at Cheng Lian with a Huoyun knife. With just one knife, Cheng Lian’s weapon was shaken off, and another cut ended his life. Poor Cheng Lian hadn’t figured out what was going on. Died under the horse.
As soon as Zhang Liao left the camp carrying the weapon, he was caught in a cable net by a group of people. It turned out that Cao Cao knew Zhang Liao's prestige and wanted to use it for himself, so he sent Cao Ren to lead a team to capture Zhang Liao.
Although Lu Bu was extremely brave and could not bear too many enemy troops, he was besieged by a team led by Li Dian, Xia Houyuan, and Xu Huang. Lu Bu killed dozens of people in a row, and was eventually taken prisoner by Cao Jun because of physical exhaustion.
The four generals Wei Xu, Song Xian, Hou Cheng, and Hao Meng were frightened by Cao Jun and immediately surrendered to Cao Jun.
The two generals, Zang Ba and Cao Xing, were loyal to Lu Bu. Seeing that Lu Bu was arrested, he led the army to rescue him. However, the general situation is gone and Cao Xing can't beat Cao Jun at all, Cao Xing said loudly to Zang Ba, "The general situation is gone, hurry up and report to Young Master Lu Zhuang and the army division. Prevent Cao Cao from taking advantage of the situation to take Xuzhou City." Zang Ba heard that and went away with tears. Cao Xing gradually became exhausted, and he fainted by cutting off an arm by Cao Hong a little carelessly.
Zhang Liao has always been dissatisfied with Lu Bu, so he happily joins Cao Cao. Wei Xu, Song Xian, Hou Cheng, and Hao Meng knelt down and begged for mercy, and Cao Cao pardoned them.
After a while, Cao Xing and Lu Bu were also tied up in front of Cao Cao. Lu Bu asked to loosen the tie, and Cao Cao smiled and said, "Tie the tiger tightly." Lu Bu knelt down and said, "Duke Cao gets me, I am the pioneer, and Duke Cao is in the center to command, so he can unify the world." Cao Xing heard Lu Bu. He was very angry, so he cursed, "A man who dies is dead, why beg for mercy. Cao Cao wanted to persuade Cao Xing to subdue, but Cao Xing would rather die than to subdue. Cao Cao dragged Cao Xing out and beheaded.
Cao Cao was quite moved by Lu Bu's words, so he turned his head and asked Guo Jia next to him, "Are Lu Bu's words credible?"
Guo Jia looked at Lu Bu and said, "Didn't the lord see the end of Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo?"
After Cao Cao heard, he sent someone to hang Lv Bu.
Afterwards, Guo Jia suggested that Cao Cao sent troops overnight to siege Xuzhou, Pengcheng, the capital of Xuzhou.
Chen Gong had long known that Lu Bu would lose, and had already made preparations to defend the city. After receiving Zang Ba's report, Chen Gong hurriedly respected Lu Zhuang as the master and gathered people's hearts. The order is high and the army is ready to fight.
Cao Cao led his army to the city of Xuzhou. Seeing that Lu Jun was standing up, he ordered the whole army to encamp, besieged Xuzhou City, and trapped Xuzhou to death.
In the early spring of the third year of Jian'an (198 AD), Cao Jun had besieged Xuzhou for more than March, and the food in the city was gradually insufficient. Lu Zhuang was very anxious. He asked Ji Yu Chen Gong and said: "Cao Jun has been besieging our army for more than three months, and the food in the city is almost unable to support it. What should I do?"
Chen Gong replied calmly, "Cao Jun 100,000 besieged Xuzhou, and the rear military is weak. Liu Bei and Yuan Shao are Cao Cao's enemies. Early spring is a suitable season for combat. In a few days, they will definitely send troops to attack Cao Jun. The lord need not panic. ."
Although Lu Zhuang was dubious, there is no other way but to wait silently.
Sure enough, within a few days, Cao Cao heard that Yuan Shao assembled an army in Yecheng and Liu Bei in Xinye, as if to attack Xudu. Cao Cao evacuated Xuzhou for fear of losing the rear. The danger of Xuzhou was finally relieved.
When Cao Cao returned to Xuchang, Xiahou Dun and others came to plead guilty because they lost the city of Yuzhou. Cao Cao had asked about reporting to Yuzhou a long time ago, but he didn't blame it.
Yuan Shao and Liu Bei saw that Cao Cao's army had returned to defense, so they withdrew.
Cao Cao was very angry because Liu Bei and Yuan Shao prevented him from attacking Xuzhou, and wanted to immediately attack Liu Bei with troops, but Guo Jia dissuaded him. Guo Jia suggested to train the soldiers first, prepare the army for war, and then make plans.
Two months after the military rest and training, Cao Cao sent Xu Huang and Jia Xu to lead the army northward to guard against Yuan Shao, and then sent Cao Ren and Li Dian to lead an army of 50,000 to fight against Liu Bei. The generals were puzzled, and they said that the rainy season is not suitable for the army to fight, and it will take some time before it is suitable for fighting. Cao Cao said, what you know, Liu Bei also knows, you can only win if you don't play cards according to common sense. The generals suddenly realized.
Therefore, Cao Ren took Xinye by surprise, and Liu Bei led his army to Fancheng. Liu Bei's son, Liu Xun, persuaded Yuan Kui to attack Runan alone. Since most of Cao's army has been transferred to the north to defend against Yuan Shao, Cao Cao has no army around him, so he ordered Cao Ren to assist Runan. Cao Ren had to withdraw from Xinye, unable to attack Fancheng again, and Liu Beijun's crisis was resolved.
Yuan Kui's campaign against Runan was very tragic, but Yuan Kui was not Cao Ren's opponent after all. He was defeated by Cao Ren and had to withdraw his troops.
The crisis in Runan was resolved, and Cao Cao was very happy, thinking about the next step. Is it to take advantage of the situation to capture Yuzhou, or to capture the strategically important Xuzhou? Cao Cao hesitates
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