How difficult was the beginning of Cao Cao's Venture?
Three Kingdoms 118 (Special - Review of Cao Cao's Life 3)
If someone asked me which of the thirteen provinces at the Late Han period, would be the most difficult for a warlord to start a career in, I would answer Yanzhou兖州.
Yanzhou is a very small province, devastated by the peasant Uprising, with fewer people, less food, and not enough soldiers, and it is also located in a plain surrounded by enemies, with no natural dangers to fall back on, making it extremely difficult to gain a foothold.
If you ask me again which county in Yanzhou has the most chaotic status quo and the most complicated situation, I will answer Dongjun东郡.
Here, there are all kinds of peasant rebels: the Yellow Turbans黄巾军, the Black Mountain Army黑山军, the Baibo Army白波军, as well as the forces of the Southern Xiongnu南匈奴 and other ethnic minorities, all kinds of armed forces are intertwined, and there is a lot of thievery, and corpses are all over the place.
Not to mention that the Commanderial Governor of Dongjun at that time was complaining about his suffering, even the Provincial Governor of Yanzhou had already lost control of Dongjun.
In order to allow his power to penetrate into Yanzhou, at the end of 191 AD, the Powerful warlord,the then Provincial Governor of Jizhou,Yuan Shao ,dispatched his subordinate Cao Cao to lead thousands of soldiers under his command into Dongjun.
In his first battle, Cao Cao repelled a leader of the Black Mountain Army, at Puyang濮阳,The Capital of Dongjun, and then captured Dongwuyang东武阳.
Yuan Shao felt honored by his little brother's victory, so he recommended Cao Cao to replace the position of the former commanderial governor of Dongjun.
In the spring of the following year, Cao Cao marched into Dunqiu顿丘, where he had once served as county magistrate, while the main force of the Black Mountain Army attacked Dongwuyang.
All the generals urged Cao Cao to return to rescue Dongwuyang, but Cao Cao used the strategy of “surrounding the Wei to save Zhao” and went straight west into Black Mountain to attack the headquarters of the Black Mountain army.
The main force of the Black Mountain army rushed back, but Cao Cao was able to wait for the enemy and set up an ambush, defeating the Black Mountain army.
Cao Cao capitalized on his victory by marching into the Neihuang内黄 and defeating the force of the Southern Xiongnu, which led to him basically occupying the entire Dongjun, thus carving out a valuable foothold in a difficult pattern like the hell.
In the summer of the same year, a one-million-strong Yellow Turban Rebellion army entered Yanzhou aggressively from Qingzhou青州 to the east. The Commanderial Governor of Rencheng任城 and the provincial governor of Yanzhou were both killed in battle，Yanzhou was once again thrown into a state of chaos.
Chen Gong陈宫, a famous scholar from Dongjun, volunteered to lobby Yanzhou's deputy governors for Cao Cao. He only said briefly, “Cao Cao is a great hero, and only by inviting him to rule Yanzhou will the people be able to live a stable life!”
There are no fancy words, but they are far better than a thousand words, for Cao Cao's performance in the Dongjun is already well-known, and at this point the name Cao Cao is a sign of strength. Meanwhile, Cao Cao's good friend Bao Xin鲍信, the Commanderial Governor of Jibei济北,who had attacked Dong Zhuo together with Cao Cao, personally rushed to Dongjun to greet Cao Cao, and together they elected Cao Cao to be the provincial governor of Yanzhou.
For Cao Cao, this seal of provincial governor is so attractive and so challenging. After receiving this seal, he would have to fight the millions of Yellow Turbans entrenched in Yanzhou without hesitation, and only the victor would be eligible for recognition, while the loser would only become a lonely grave in the wilderness.
In the fall of 192 A.D., Cao Cao took all the forces he could muster and left Dongjun, together with Bao Xin, marching tragically toward Shouzhang寿张. There, the main force of the Yellow Turbans army, whose strength was far greater than theirs by several times, was waiting in the wings.
It's a battle like a moth to a flame, as Cao Cao, armored and in person, leads the charge and fights the enemy. Although his army is infected by Cao Cao's courage and fights to the death, the Yellow Turbans are too numerous and Cao Cao suffers a major defeat in the first battle.
At that time, the mountains were filled with the bodies of soldiers died in battle, even Bao Xin was killed. Cao Cao wanted to bury him, but he couldn't even find his remains. Cao Cao then ordered someone to carve a statue of Bao Xin out of wood, hugging the statue and crying.
While Cao Cao recruited troops again, he toured the battalion day and night, giving speeches and comforting the wounded soldiers, finally revitalizing the morale of the entire army.
At this time, the leader of the Yellow Turbans sent a messenger to Cao Cao with a letter that said, “When we were in Jinan济南, we admired you for your actions in tearing down shrines and punishing corrupt officials. But now the Han Dynasty has exhausted itself, which is beyond your ability to save.”
When Cao Cao saw the letter, although he angrily scolded the envoy in public, he took the opportunity to urge the Yellow Turbans to surrender several times in his reply.
Afterward, the Yellow Turbans moved north, Cao Cao then pursued them to JiBei, where he fought the Yellow Turbans day and night with all kinds of tactics. In the winter of the same year, the Yellow Turbans, who had a population of one million and over 300,000 soldiers from Qingzhou, finally decided to surrender. Cao Cao's good deeds, which he had done many years earlier when he was the Commanderial Governor of Jinan of Qingzhou province, brought him great rewards.
He chose the best infantry from them and organized them into a force that belonged solely to him, called the “Qingzhou Soldiers”青州兵. As Cao Cao's strength grew, he looked around and found that the situation in the Central Plains of China,which had changed from a group of warriors fighting for the stakes to the Yuan Brothers contending for hegemony.
The warlords Gongsun Zan公孙瓒 of Youzhou幽州 and Tao Qian陶谦 of Xuzhou徐州 belonged to Yuan Shu's袁术 faction, while Cao Cao and Liu Biao刘表,the Provincial Governor of Jingzhou荆州 were in Yuan Shao's side.
At that time, Liu Bei刘备 was still under the command of Gongsun Zan, who had sent him to garrison Gaotang高唐, while another of Gongsun Zan's subordinates, Shan Jing单经, was cantoned in Pingyuan平原, and the Provincial Governor of Xuzhou, Tao Qian, was himself stationed in Fagan发干 to the south, watching intently.
So Cao Cao, who was still restoring his troops in Jibei, soon received an invitation to join forces with Yuan Shao, and the two combined their forces, finally repelling all three of these forces(Liu Bei,Shan Jing,Tao Qian) by the end of the year.
In the spring of 193, Cao Cao dragged his weary body back to Juancheng鄄城 to rest and recover, but just as he arrived, Yuan Shu traveled north from Nanyang南阳 and reached Fengqiu封丘.
Yuan Shu sent his subordinates to be stationed at Kuangting匡亭, and united the leaders of the Southern Xiongnu and the Black Mountain Army to prepare for the capture of Yanzhou in one fell swoop.
Cao Cao takes advantage of the night to raid Kuangting, and Yuan Shu's men are easily defeated. Yuan Shu personally leads another troop to come to his rescue, and the two armies engage in a melee outside the city of Kuangting, with Cao Cao winning a great victory and Yuan Shu retreating back to Fengqiu.
Cao Cao follows in close behind, Yuan Shu is defeated again, and has to continue to flee southward. Cao Cao chases him to Taishou太寿, where Yuan Shu is again defeated and defends the city of Xiangyi襄邑. Cao Cao digs a canal and drowns the city with water, so Yuan Shu abandons the city and flees to Ningling宁陵. However, Cao did not relent and chased him to Ningling again. Yuan Shu’s road back to Nanyang was blocked,so he had to abandon Nanyang and fled eastward to Shouchun.
Cao Cao gave up his pursuit and prepared to triumph, but no sooner had he reached Dingtao than he heard the news that Tao Qian, the provincial governor of Xuzhou, had gathered the rebel forces from Xuzhou and had already attacked into Yanzhou together.
At this point, the Entire Rencheng Commandery had already been lost, and the bordering Taishan Commandery had also lost two counties. Cao Cao was so shocked by what he heard that he had to lead his army eastward without stopping, preparing to fight Tao Qian again.
This is Yanzhou, Cao Cao's original base, surrounded by strong enemies and with no terrain to rely on for defense. Cao Cao has been fighting non-stop since he first arrived here, though he has been winning, without a chance to catch his breath.
Looking at the entire history of China, I am afraid that no warlord has had a harder starting position than him. Cao Cao highly respected Sun Tzu's Art of War, and had even annotated it, but with a base like his, even if his idol, Sun Wu(孙武=Sun Tzu), the author of Sun Tzu's Art of War, came in person, he would probably be worn out alive.