Cao Cao occasionally suffers some losses with Li Su. It’s not that Cao Cao’s IQ is not good, it’s purely because he doesn’t know how well his opponent knows him, and he suffers from information asymmetry.

Take Wang Bi as an example. Although it is well known that Wang Bi was the envoy sent by Cao Cao to Chang'an court, who could have expected that "although Wang Bi has been in Chang'an for two years and has caught up with Liu Bei to restore Chang'an and drive away the Han thieves, the Wang Bi must still be in the Han camp and Cao's heart"?

People will change, not to mention that for more than two years, the world situation and personal mentality will change greatly. No one can predict.

Even if an insurance company in later generations sells personal insurance, and the policyholder commits suicide more than two years after taking the insurance, the insurance company must pay as expected - because the law presumes that a person cannot firmly believe in committing suicide and committing insurance fraud, and will still implement it decisively after enduring it for two years.

Therefore, if this happens, it should be considered as "there is a temporary idea after taking out insurance because of unsatisfactory life" rather than "they are determined and have been planning to cheat insurance for a long time."

(Note: Article 44 of the Insurance Law of the People's Republic of China: If the insured commits suicide within two years from the date of the contract being established or the contract is restored, the insurer shall not bear the liability for paying the insurance premium, except where the insured commits suicide as a person without civil capacity when committing suicide.)

Only people like Li Su who read the answers to history directly can make such bold assumptions.

After Cao Cao suffered a small loss, he fully realized the strength of his potential opponent. If he had any mistakes, he would correct him and would no longer be careless next time, that's it.

He has a good mentality and knows that he should look forward in life. He will not suffer some losses like Yuan Shao, who has never suffered losses, and will be so angry that he will be so angry that he will die of taints.

To put it bluntly, in history, Er Yuan's death was so angry that he died of vomiting blood when he was young that he was beaten less by society and his psychological quality was not good.

Cao Cao was used to being beaten by society, and Liu Bei was beaten even more than him, so he could come back no matter how much he lost.

In Guo Degang's statement, this is what it means to "being slapped in society every day since childhood, and when he was twenty-five, his mentality was as good as Tie King Kong." And Er Yuan "had never been angry since he was a child. At the age of twenty-five, he was stared at him and carried him over for the first time when he went out on the street and was stared at him for a moment."

...

Faced with adversity, Cao Cao instead made some psychological construction for Xun Yu, Guo Jia and Cheng Yu, so that they would not be discouraged and would not be able to overcome. Then, he sincerely asked Xun Yu for advice on what diplomatic attitude should he use to solve this matter.

Of course, Xun Yu was very unwilling to accept it. After all, he was a loyal and Han faction, and among the three major strategists under Cao Cao, he most hoped that Emperor Liu Xie would continue to work.

So his answer was relatively low, and he was unwilling to give up Liu Xie's private plan of obtaining a private plan:

"For the current plan, it is true that the court has already made an order. The Ming Gong did not even have the title of righteousness. If you want to resist Yuan Shao, you can only rely on the power of the army. Ming Gong thought that he would defend himself based on the Yellow River and use force to block Yuan Shao in Hebei, would he be sure?"

Cao Cao thought about it carefully for a while and said frankly:

"Yuan Shao has already occupied the four states. I heard that he had more than 6 million people in Jizhou alone. He drew one army in five households, and had more than 200,000 soldiers. He destroyed Gongsun Zan of Youzhou and had tens of thousands of veterans. He had more than 100,000 bandits in Bingzhou, and most of them were recruited, and several soldiers in Qingzhou were included. In this way, even if Yuan Shao no longer expanded his mobilization, he would have an army of 400,000.

Our army raised an army for several years, and there were only tens of thousands of old subordinates in Yanzhou. Later, Zang Ba was destroyed, Tai bandits were pacified, and the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou invaded Yan and Xu, which had a population of 200,000, but the old, weak, women and children were eliminated, and there were only tens of thousands of soldiers who could fight.

Xuzhou has only been pacified for more than a year, and I did kill too hard at the beginning, and my household registration was reduced by more than half. Tao Qian's old subordinates and the gentry of Xuzhou were not happy to use it for me, and it would take at least several years to win people's hearts. If I go to war with Yuan Shao, it would be difficult for such a huge Xuzhou to send 20,000 troops to support our army.

Our army did its best, but only got 100,000 people, and still had to divide its troops to defend the area bordering Yuan Shu. Yuan Shao left 100,000 people to defend, and he could draw 300,000 people to attack. The righteousness was not with me, so I was better off."

Cao Cao was very self-aware of the settlement. When Yanzhou was in its prime, four million people were in its prime, and now there were only more than two million people in its prime. When Xuzhou was in its prime, it was 2.7 million, but now it was only 900,000 (because Guangling was not under Cao Cao's hands, Chen Deng and Sun Ce). There was only more than three million people under Cao Cao's rule.

Under Yuan Shao's command, there were six million people in Jizhou, and Youzhou increased instead of decreasing, reaching more than two million. Qingzhou was in its heyday at the end of the Han Dynasty, but it was also a severely affected area of ​​the Yellow Turbans, and now there are only one and a half million people left. Bingzhou has 500,000 people (the part occupied by the Xianbei and the pseudo-Southern Xiongnu is not included), and the total population of Yuan Shao's controlled area is 10 million, which is more than three times that of Cao Cao.

This population gap is even more disparate than before the Guandu Battle in history. After all, in the Guandu Battle in history, Cao Cao destroyed Yuan Shu the year before and occupied two or three million people in Yuzhou (Yuzhou had 7 million people at its peak at the end of the Han Dynasty, and was a large-capital state. It was a rampant person by Yingchuan Yellow Turban Army, Gebi Yellow Turban Army, Huang Shao He Yi, Runan Yellow Turban Army many times and the tug-of-war during the Dong Zhuo period. Yuan Shu exploited and harmed him, and about 70% of the population died before Guandu.)

The emperor doesn’t support you yet, how can you resist this?

By the way, today, the population distribution of the areas occupied by the vassals is about 10 million Liu Bei, 10 million Yuan Shao, 10 million Cao Cao, and 5 million Yuan Shu (Yuzhou has not been completed yet, and Nanyang County and Jingzhao County are also under Yuan Shu’s hands), Sun Ce’s four counties in Jiangdong are more than 2 million, and Liu Biao’s Jingbei plus 2 million Jiangxi.

The other small warlords had only a few hundred thousand people, such as Guo Si's 500,000, Han Sui's 200,000, Han Xian, Guo Taibaibo's thief, Zhu Yan's Henan Yin 300,000, Dong Chengduan Weihongnong 200,000, and Mi Zhu's one million.

The entire Han Dynasty had more than 50 million people at its peak, but now only 34 million were left, which was 40% dead compared to the peak. The massacre, famine and plague in troubled times lasted for more than ten years.

Therefore, this real strength comparison cannot be calculated based on the size of the area on the power map. Liu Bei, Liu Biao and Sun Ce are all very large, with many southern mountainous areas and undeveloped areas. Really, Liu Bei has nearly half of the world's area, and it is just as many people as Yuan Shao.

...

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After calculating the accounts, not only Xun Yu felt that he could not resist, but even Guo Jia, who was the most radical, liked strange tricks, had no courage to "win ten wins and ten defeats". He suggested that Cao Cao seek stability and endure humiliation for the time being.

Xun Yu said, "Since Ming Gong himself knows that I think at this moment, I must give in, at least the two items of the right time, place, and people will be transformed into favorable to us, so that we can have a slight chance.

Yuan Shao attacked and we defended. We were relatively superior in terms of geographical advantages, and the benefits were in me. People could no longer fight for harmony, but only to strive for the will of heaven. It is better for us to mediate and prepare:

First of all, I sent an envoy to sincerely ask for advice and explaining Wang Bi and Xue Ti's affairs, and it is impossible to overturn the case, but it can be said that "our army was not aware of it for a while, and failed to maintain contact with Wang Bi for two years, and did not understand the recent situation of Guanzhong and the court. The king was eager to make contributions, wanted to be promoted, and made his own decisions, exaggerating Liu Bei's threat to the emperor. Gong Ming was eager to protect the emperor, so he failed to observe for a while. In this way, he could win some external sympathy and morality for our army."

Xun Yu carefully analyzed and pondered the specific words. In short, it was to teach Cao Cao to emphasize that "even if he had any faults, it was only targeting Liu Bei, and there was no intention of offending or smearing Yuan Shao." It was just that the two parties were opposed to destroying the relationship, so they accidentally injured Yuan Shao.

As for offending Liu Bei, there is no way to do it. Now I have offended him and I don’t have to worry about debt. Moreover, Dong Cheng and Duan Wei, who are separated from Hongnong and Zhu Jun, who are separated from Luoyang, will not come to attack Cao Cao alone thousands of miles away.

According to the distance and attack near and far, of course, we must first stabilize Yuan Shao, who has more than a thousand miles of Yellow River border with Cao Cao.

Cao Cao thought for a while: "How could Yuan Shao be persuaded by this little bit of low-key attitude? What he wants is real benefits! And doing so, it is..."

Cao Cao was about to say, "I will take the blame for the dead Wang Bi, and maybe he will blame his family for flattering Yuan Shao, and he couldn't bear it." But he quickly stopped this sentence.

There is no need to say it out, just pretend it was not expected. If you say it out, it would be even worse.

Cao Cao doesn't like to kill his own people, but he also likes to kill his own people. He says he doesn't like to kill his own people because he won't kill people for his own face or conflicts in exchange of opinions. He says he likes to kill his own people because he will kill his own people for very pragmatic purposes.

After Wang Bi and Xue Ti's reputation was poured into some sewage and his family had some remaining heat. It's nothing, it's the same as tying Wang Wu's head to keep the morale of the army. As long as he does it well, other ministers and aides will know that Wang Bi was really guilty of misleading his lord for his meritorious service. If you do it beautifully, don't let the rabbit die and the fox be sad, then there's no problem.

Not to kill people for the sake of being in vain, but to kill people for the sake of being in vain. This is the difference between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao - in history, Yuan Shao killed Tian Feng, which is a typical example of killing people for the sake of being in vain for the sake of face.

Cao Cao paused for a moment, redirected the topic back to "I'm afraid that surrendering will not satisfy Yuan Shao", and asked Xun Yu and Guo Jia and others to continue discussing.

At this time, Guo Jia, who had not spoken, looked carefully for a while and finally bowed and said, "Ming Gong, Yuan Shao, who is a man who does big things and cherishes his life, and forgets his life when he sees small profits. He has always been greedy for small things and hates losses, and likes to gain benefits in vain.

Didn’t he want to attack on the grounds that “Ming Gong blocked the king’s road”? Ming Gong would rather show sincerity and let him be free from bloodshed. He proposed to cede all the Yanjin, Baima, Yan County, and Fengqiu, Zizao and Wuchao in Chenliu County to Yuan Shao. Both sides used the Guandu of the Bian River between Junyi County (Kaifeng) and Fengqiu County in Chenliu County as the boundary.

Didn’t Yuan Shao say that he crossed the Yellow River from Liyang south and went to Luoyang to meet the emperor by our way? We gave it up, Yanjin White Horse is an important ferry crossing of the Yellow River, and Fengqiu blocked the Hulao Pass. We gave it all the way. If Yuan Shao was aggressive, he would not be in the court. At that time, the emperor would definitely make a fair judgment and think that the reason was on our side. Even if we lost six counties, we could be in exchange for the same hatred and united oneself."

Cao Cao thought about it and found that he was still able to take it and let it go. As long as he avoided Yuan Shao's military attack and first admitted his mistake and gave the six counties a free reason, it was not unacceptable.

He made a decisive decision: "Since that's the case, Wenruo, thank you for your hard work to go to Chang'an in the first month of next year, and be responsible for going to the emperor to admit his mistakes and let the court know the sincerity of our harmony with Yuan Shao. Where is Yuan Shao, I am sending another person... Can anyone choose you?"

Xun Yu first took his mission, then thought about the candidate who was suitable for Cao Cao's under the curtain and could also be favored by celebrities like Yuan Shao. He suggested:

"Mao Xiaoxian was mature and polite, and had the style of an elder, so he could serve as a servant. Unfortunately, his family background was not obvious, so he was afraid that Yuan Shao would look down on it. Sima Boda, Hanoi, could also be employed with his eloquence and character. He had a very sincere words and deeds and had good expectations, but he was younger and afraid that he would not be steady enough."
Chapter completed!