Most difficult moment for Cao Cao in Battle of Guandu（Three Kingdoms 31）
History of Three Kingdoms
Previous Chapter ：The All Stars under Cao Cao's command(Three Kindoms 30)
The defeat of the two outpost battles of Baima白马 and Yanjin延津 caused some blows to the morale of the Yuan army, but it was not a wound.
In July 200,Yuan Shao's army of 110000 men had assembled in Yangwu阳武 to prepare for a decisive battle with Cao Cao, and Cao Cao's troops had all gathered at Guandu官渡, with a total strength of about 40,000 or 50,000 men, less than half of Yuan's army.
More terrible than the number of troops was the gap between forage, backed by the rich Jizhou冀州, Yuan Shao's material reserves were very sufficient, there was no shortage of food. Although Cao’s army had shortened the front line to the greatest extent and saved transportation costs, the forage was still stretched, which gave Cao Cao a headache.
Right at this moment,two intelligences, one good and one bad, came from the rear.
The good news was: Sun Ce孙策 the warlord of Jiangdong江东,had been assassinated two months ago. Sun Ce had been planning to attack Xuchang许昌 during the decisive battle between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and his death made Cao Cao breathe a sigh of relief,since then, Jiangdong's policy had changed from crazy expansion to contraction. The largest bomb in the southeast of Cao Cao was removed.
The bad news was that Liu Pi刘辟, the leader of the Yellow Turban Army entrenched in Runan汝南 commandery, Yuzhou豫州, openly rebelled and plundered under the banner of opposing Cao, because Runan was Yuan Shao's hometown, so it was difficult to say that this rebellion was not instigated by Yuan Shao.
Soon, Yuan Shao sent Liu Bei to lead troops south to support Liu Pi, and the two guerrilla leaders surnamed Liu joined forces, and theit momentum was greatly enhanced. Inadvertently, Cao Cao's backyard became in chaos again.
At this time, Guan Yu also received news that Liu Bei was in Runan, so he asked to leave. Among all the martial generals, Cao Cao especially loved Guan Yu, not only because of his mighty, but also because of his appreciation of Guan Yu's character.
When Guan Yu had just surrendered, Cao Cao asked Zhang Liao张辽 to listen to his thoughts from the perspective of personal feelings. Guan Yu said to Zhang Liao that :"I know the love of Cao Cao for me, but I swore with General Liu Bei to die together, never betray, and I will leave after I have done merit to Cao Cao." After Zhang Liao told Cao Cao what Guan Yu said, Cao Cao was amazed and said that Guan Yu was a righteous man.
In order to keep Guan Yu, Cao Cao continued to give him rich rewards, and even made him the Marquis of Hanshou Village汉寿亭侯. In fact, Guan Yu should know where Liu Bei was at this time, but he couldn't leave at this time,becanse he was shame to leave. When the siege of Baima was solved, the reason why Guan Yu rushed into the enemy position to kill Yan Liang颜良 regardless of his life was because he was anxious to make meritorious contributions and repay Cao Cao.
Now that he could finally leave with his honor, Guan Yu no longer felt indebted to Cao Cao, so he sealed all the rewards given by Cao Cao with a letter, and rushed all the way south to Liu Bei. At that time, the generals around Cao Cao wanted to chase and kill Guan Yu, but they were stopped by Cao Cao, looking at Guan Yu's departing back, Cao Cao only said : "each man as his master, don't chase."
Guan Yu deserves the honor of being the model of the Chinese nation's spirit of Loyalty and righteousness. "You can kill me,while if you don't kill me, I will leave sooner or later, it's very clear, but I will never escape secretly. If you are good to me, I will sacrifice my life to repay you, only if I don't owe you that can I leave in good faith."
Guan Yu's righteousness was enough to be admired, but Cao Cao's tolerance was even more touching, he knew that Guan Yu was going to help Liu Bei, and he knew that he himself was about to start a war with Liu Bei, and Guan Yu will help Liu Bei to fight with him for sure . In this case, Cao Cao could still willingly let Guan Yu leave, willingly fulfill Guan Yu's loyalty, did not obstruct, did not threaten, did not kill, how many people can do it througout that ages?!
Soon Cao Cao sent Cao Ren曹仁 to lead an elite cavalry team to Runan to suppress the rebellion, Liu Bei and Liu Pi were both defeated by Cao Ren, and Liu Bei fled back to north again to join Yuan Shao.
At this time, Yuan Shao sent his general Han Xun韩旬 to attack Xuchang许昌 from the west, after Cao Cao heard the news ,he urgently ordered Cao Ren to return and defeat Han Xun at Jiluo mountain鸡洛山.
Liu Bei saw that Runan was empty again, so he took the initiative to break away from Yuan Shao and return to Runan on the pretext of helping Yuan Shao and Liu Biao刘表 contain Cao Cao. After arriving, Liu Bei together with Gong Du龚都,who was also from the yellow turban army, gathered a team of thousands of people to disgust Cao Cao, but at this time Cao Cao really had no time to deal with Liu Bei, because Yuan Shao's army had launched a general attack.
Before marching, Ju Shou沮授 once again proposed to Yuan Shao: We have many troops and sufficient forage,a quick battle is beneficial to Cao Cao,a slow battle is beneficial to our army,while we should use long-term and slow tactics to consume the Cao’s army and drag down then." But Yuan Shao still did not obey.
In August 200, Yuan Shao led the main force to approach Guandu,Cao Cao led his army to fight but was repulsed. Facing a huge military disadvantage, Cao Cao, who had rarely been defeated before, felt for the first time the sense of pressurizing suffocation, oppression and powerlessness.
Yuan Shao's battalion stretched for tens of miles from east to west, the banner covered the sky and sun,which was spectacular.
In September there was a solar eclipse in the sky, Cao Cao took the opportunity to fight again, but was defeated again. After which Cao Cao returned to the battalion and chose to hold on,no longer dared to attack easily.
Yuan Shao saw that the Cao’s army didn't come out, so he ordered the soldiers to pile up a mountain of earth outside the Cao's battalion,setting up a tall building on the mountain to shoot arrows into the Cao's battalion,the soldiers of Cao Cao had to hold shields to walk safely in the battalion, patrolling back and forth and creeping forward, which greatly damaged the morale of the Cao’s army.
In response, Cao Cao ordered people to make a catapult, also known as a "Thunderbolt Chariot", which could throw stones,smashing the tall buildings built by Yuan Shao on the earth mountain.
Since that the plan could not be achieved, Yuan Shao came up with another idea,which was the way to defeat Gongsun Zan公孙瓒,digging a tunnel to Cao's battalion,while Cao Cao ordered the soldiers to dig deep ditches in the battalion to cut off the tunnel.
In this way, the Cao’s army could only shrink,while the Yuan’s army had attacked for a long time but couldn’t take it down, the two sides entered a difficult confrontation stage.
What Cao Cao feared most was consumption, because compared with Yuan Shao, Cao army's provision was seriously insufficient. Sure enough, Cao’s army quickly ran out of food and fell into a desperate situation.
In desperation, Cao Cao also lacked confidence,he had the idea of withdrawing to Xuchang and then holding the city, so he ordered someone to bring a letter to Xun Yu荀彧, who remained in Xuchang in charge of provisions.
To be continued…