The Battle of GuanDu - The decisive Battle!（Three Kingdoms 33）
Chinese History of Three Kingdoms
Previous Chapter ：Cao Cao,persisting in the desperation - The Battle of Guandu（Three Kingdoms 32）
October 200 AD,Yuan Shao ordered his mighty General, ChunYu Qiong淳于琼 to lead more than 10,000 men to escort provisions and stationed in Wuchao乌巢 . One of Yuan Shao’s counsellor, Ju Shou, suggested Yuan Shao that they should send more soldiers to assist ChunYu Qiong in defense, but Yuan Shao refused to listen.
Yuan Shao’s another counsellor,Xu You许攸, thought that they should take advantage of the weak defense of Cao Cao’s headquarters,XuChang许昌,to sneak up on it. But because there had been a lesson that Yuan Shao had ordered one of his General Han Xun韩旬 to march in XuChang along the western road, and resulted with being repelled by Cao Cao’s fierce general Cao Ren曹仁 , so Xu You's suggestion was also rejected by Yuan Shao.
But Yuan Shao ignored a key point, that was, Xu You's character. Xu You is not as loyal as Ju Shou . Coupled with Xu You's own self-esteem, arrogant and frivolous personality, so Xu You’s plan was not adopted, making him very unhappy. And then a news came from the rear, It was said that one of Xu You's family member broke the law and was arrested by the Shen Pei审配,one of Yuan Shao’s trusted minister who was in charge of guarding Yuan Shao’s headquarters Yecheng邺城. Xu You was furious when he heard the news, and immediately left Yuan Shao's battalion at night to defect to Cao Cao.
When Cao Cao heard that Xu You had come to surrender, he was overjoyed and ran out to welcome him without wearing any shoes. Xu You saw that Cao Cao attached so much importance to him, immediately told Cao Cao that most of Yuan Shao's provisions and materials were now hoarded in Wuchao, and they were not strictly guarded, if Cao Cao attacked by surprise with elite troops and burned these provisions and materials , Yuan Shao would be defeated without a fight in less than three days.
When Cao Cao told Xu You's strategy to his generals and advisers, everyone thought that such a critical location for provisions must be well defended, and that a sneak attack on Wuchao would require bypassing Yuan Shao's battalion, which was too risky. Many people even thought that Xu You was a fraudulent surrender, only the councellors, Xun You荀攸 and Jia Xu贾诩 thought this plan was feasible.
After some discussion, Cao Cao decided to give it a go, leaving Cao Hong曹洪 and Xun You behind, while he took all the other generals and 5,000 elite soldiers , marched towards Wuchao under the banner of Yuan's army,pretend to be Yuan Shao's troops.
After the arrival of the Cao's army, they set fires everywhere, and the Yuan's army did not expect that, Chunyu Qiong hastily engaged but was defeatd. Then he retreated to his battalion and held on, on the other hand he sent his man to seek help from Yuan Shao.
Upon learning the news, Yuan Shao quickly summoned his subordinates for consultation. A general Zhang He张郃 advocated sending a mighty army to reinforce Chunyu Qiong. While Guo Tu郭图,another counsellor , urged Yuan Shao to take advantage of the weak defence of Cao’s GuanDu battalion to attack it. Yuan Shao then decided to take Guo Tu's suggestion and send only some light cavalry to rescue Wuchao, and ordered Zhang He and another general Gao Lan高览 to lead a large number of soldiers to attack the Cao's GuanDu battalion.
In fact, Yuan Shao's decision itself had not much problem, after all, Wuchao was 20 kilometers away from Yuan Shao's battalion, and it had been fighting fiercely for a long time, Cao Cao was likely to have succeeded, at this time there was indeed a risk of sending a large number of troops but for nothing, once Yuan Shao could take advantage to conquer Cao's GuanDu battalion, then Yuan Shao was still the ultimate winner. But the problem was that at that time, every general had their own trusted subordinates, and whether the combat effectiveness of a troop could be fully stimulated was determined by the identity of the commander, especially the commander of a military regime. Which was why in every major battle, Cao Cao would personally go to the front line to personally command, and he did not dare to be lazy to stay in the rear.
Moreover, Zhang He had opposed to attacking Cao's battalion, and Yuan Shao had just vetoed his proposal,while conversely, he forced Zhang He to carry out an action that he did not approve of, which was obviously inappropriate.
As for Yuan Shao himself, as the commander of the whole army, he neither led his mighty army to rescue Wuchao, nor personally led them to attack the Cao's battalion, but chosed to sit in the camp and waited. Compared with Yuan Shao's caution, Cao Cao was more like an outlaw, he only had 5,000 men, while Wuchao's defenders exceeded 10000, and ChunYu Qiong held on his battalion, Cao Cao only had less than half of the enemy's soldiers,still attacked madly to the end. If Cao Cao was not personally on the battlefield, the situation would be unpredictable.
After dawn , Yuan Shao's reinforced cavalry had reached Wuchao, but the Cao's army had still not conquered the Wuchao battalion, at which time someone suggested that Cao Cao divide his troops to resist Yuan's reinforced army, but Cao Cao shouted angrily: "Leave them alone, report again until the enemy is right behind me !!! "
Inspired by Cao Cao's fearless spirit, all the soldiers fought to the death, thus finally broke through the battalion at the last moment. Chunyu Qiong,the commander of Yuan’s army was beheaded on the spot by Cao Cao’s mighty general,Yue Jin乐进.
At this time, Zhang He was still attacking Cao army's Guandu battalion, then the news came that the provisions in Wuchao had been burned, causing Zhang He to be resentful and angry, and the soldiers were even more panicked. At the meanwhile, Because of his strategy of attacking Guandu instead of saving WuChao was failed , Guo Tu was worried that Yuan Shao would blame him, so this villain sues his victim before he is punished by Yuan Shao, he framed Zhang He up for gloating and not contributing.
When Zhang He learned this, he changed from anger to fear, so he simply called Gao Lan and went to Cao's battalion together to ask for surrender. At that time Cao Cao had not yet returned from Wuchao,the commander in Guandu battalion, Cao Hong, was worried that Zhang He would falsely surrender and did not dare to accept him. Finally under Xun You's persuasion, Cao Hong accepted the surrender of Zhang He and Gao Lan. After Cao Cao returned, he promoted them to Generals and made Zhang He the Marquis of Capital Precinct都亭侯 and Gao Lan the Marquis of Donglai Village东莱亭侯.
The surrender of Zhang He and Gao Lan made this war that had been lasted for nearly a year no longer suspenseful, the Yuan's army was in chaos,their morale was shattered. Cao Cao took advantage of the situation to attack then won a great victoty.Yuan Shao and his eldest son Yuan Tan袁谭 fled back to his base Yecheng邺城 with only 800 cavalries.
In this war, the Cao's army won a great victory, obtained countless material and treasures, and the main force abandoned by Yuan Shao had more than 80,000 men,all of them were killed by Cao's army, and the counsellor Ju Shou was also captured by Cao Cao. Cao Cao sighed and told him that:“if You joined me earlier, I am afraid that the whole country would have been unified."But Ju Shou made it clear that he would not surrender, Cao Cao loved his talent very much and still treated him favorably. But Cao Cao did not expect that Ju Shou secretly plotted to return to Yuan Shao, so Cao Cao had no choice but to kill him.
The successive surrenders of Xu You and Zhang He, as the keys turning point in the final victory. They were not only two unpredictable accidents,also the inevitable result of Yuan Shao's unclear employment, incorrect commanding during the war, and internal factional struggling within the group, undermining each other's work.
After this war, Yuan Shao's strength was greatly lost and he was no longer able to go south, while Cao Cao, although won narrowly, also had no spare power to fight again, he was temporarily unable to attack north.Yuan and Cao entered a period of post-war peace.
To Be Continued