Cao Shuang continued: "I think that taking Hanzhong is not only the wish of generations of ancestors in the Wei Dynasty, but more importantly, Hanzhong is also the key to the survival of Shu. It is better to have such an important place in our own hands."
Huan Fan nodded and said: "What the Prime Minister said is that it was really helpless for Emperor Wu to call such an important place useless."
Cao Shuang thought for a while and then said: "You can't say that. After all, things have changed now and the situation of the three parties has changed. During the Hanzhong war, Shu was strong and Wei was weak.
But now that Wei is strong and Shu is weak, we need Hanzhong more than ever, and we can firmly control it by taking it."
In the 20th year of Jian'an, Zhang Lu surrendered. After Cao Cao took over Hanzhong from Zhang Lu, in the 22nd year of Jian'an, he started the Hanzhong War with Liu Bei.
In the later stages of the Hanzhong War, what Cao Cao said was useless was "If you want to conquer Liu Bei, you will not be able to advance, but if you want to defend, it will be difficult to achieve success." This is a kind of helplessness due to lack of strength.
After Cao Cao captured Hanzhong, Chief Secretary Liu Ye, Sima Yi and others all advised Cao Cao to continue marching to Shu. Because Liu Bei captured Yizhou last year, the local people were unstable, and this year, Sun Quan launched another attack in Jingzhou. Liu Bei wanted to
Solve the issue of Jingzhou's ownership and personally lead his troops to Jingzhou to negotiate with Sun Quan.
Liu Ye and others believed that the land of Shu was empty and people's mentality had changed, so it was a good time to enter Shu. However, Cao Cao rejected this idea and delayed the opportunity.
Liu Bei, who was in Jingzhou, learned that Hanzhong had been lost and sent Huang Quan to meet Zhang Lu. However, it was too late. Zhang Fei and Huang Quan prepared for war in Badi to prevent Cao Cao's army from going south. Liu Bei and Sun Quan reached a peace agreement to divide Jingzhou equally.
Hurry back to Yizhou.
After Liu Bei came back, he killed some people who tried to contact Cao Cao and barely calmed down the people in Yizhou. Cao Cao hesitated before leaving and asked Liu Ye if he could fight Liu Bei again. Liu Ye said: "It's too late."
, Cao Cao then decided to formally withdraw his troops.
When Cao Cao withdrew his troops, he moved the population and property of Hanzhong into Guanzhong, and also moved the ethnic minorities from Badi into Hanzhong. This series of actions by Cao Cao can be said to have turned Hanzhong, which Zhang Lu had managed for decades, upside down.
Towards the sky.
After Cao Cao dispatched his troops, Xia Houyuan, who was stationed in Hanzhong, sent Zhang He to Bajun to continue relocating the people. Zhang Fei, sent by Liu Bei, defeated Zhang He at the Bameng Mountain, and the friction between the two sides intensified.
At the end of the 23rd year of Jian'an, after Liu Bei stabilized Bashu, he followed the opinions of Fazheng, Huang Quan and others and began to send troops to Hanzhong.
Liu Bei first sent Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Wu Kuang, Lei Tong and others to attack Wudu County, but were defeated by Cao Hong. After that, Liu Bei personally led his army to Yangping Pass to confront Xia Houyuan and Zhang He.
Afterwards, Xia Houyuan was beheaded by Huang Zhong. Cao Cao heard about the incident and quickly led his army to Hanzhong in an attempt to fight Liu Bei decisively.
Liu Bei guarded Yangping Pass and focused on defense. Cao Cao could not take any advantage and finally chose to withdraw his troops again. At this point, Liu Bei left Wei Yan to manage Hanzhong. Liu Bei's group's territory reached its peak and its strength surpassed Cao Cao's in one fell swoop.
During the confrontation between Liu Bei and Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang, who was stationed in Chengdu, received a letter from Liu Bei, asking for rapid reinforcements. Zhuge Liang asked Yang Hong, who was in charge of the Shu tribe, and Yang Hong said: Hanzhong is the throat of Yizhou, and it is the life and death of Yizhou.
At the right time, if there was no Hanzhong, there would be no Shu. This would be a disaster for the whole family.
Therefore, the strategic significance of Hanzhong to Liu Bei is higher than that of Cao Cao.
Without Hanzhong, Liu Bei's Yizhou may face an existential crisis. For Cao Cao, it is just a strategic loss for one side.
What's more, when Cao Cao withdrew his troops in the 20th year of Jian'an, he also left Xia Houyuan, Zhang He and others in Hanzhong, and did not really give up the "tasteless" Hanzhong.
But at this time, Cao Cao's strength was no longer as strong as it was before the Chibi War after unifying the north. Even if he wanted to hold on, he couldn't defeat Liu Bei, so he had no choice but to give up in the end.
After all, with Cao Cao's strength at that time, he couldn't defend or defeat him, so he could still save some face for himself by giving up, and he could calmly move all the people in Hanzhong away.
Huan Fan lamented: "If the Wei Dynasty had won the Battle of Chibi in the 13th year of Jian'an, and crossed the Yangtze River in one fell swoop, how could we have maintained the three-point trend that we have to this day? It's a pity, as time goes by."
Cao Shuang continued to look at the bamboo slips on the desk and said, "Who says it's not true, but this is an irreversible fact. Fortunately, we have taken back Jingzhou and Jiangbei this year.
The next step is to plot Hanzhong. The time is almost here. In another two or three years at most, we can hunt Hanzhong with the Shu State. Now we have to build up some strength, so you must handle the matter of prospecting well."
In July of the thirteenth year of Jian'an (AD 208), Cao Cao led an army of 150,000 to 60,000 troops and set out from Ye to attack Jingzhou.
Arriving at Xinye in September, the new Jingzhou Shepherd Liu Cong (son of Liu Biao) was forced to surrender by the power of Cao Cao's army.
At that time, Liu Bei was stationed in Fancheng. After learning that Liu Cong had surrendered, he withdrew southward to Dangyang (today's Dangyang City, Hubei Province), and sent Guan Yu to lead hundreds of naval warships to Jiangling.
Cao Cao considered going to Jiangling to hoard a large amount of military supplies, fearing that Liu Bei would seize it first, so he abandoned his food and baggage and hurried to Xiangyang with light equipment.
He personally led 5,000 elite cavalry in rapid pursuit, marching more than 300 miles day and night, and defeated Liu Bei's troops when they reached Changban in Dangyang County.
This forced Liu Bei to give up his plan to retreat to Jiangling, and Jiangling was attacked by Cao Cao. Jiangling was a naval fortress in Jingzhou and stored a large amount of military supplies. It was not only a key point in the north and south of the Yangtze River, but also an upstream military base along the east side of the Yangtze River.
Cao Cao's move ruined Liu Bei's plan to meet Guan Yu in Jiangling, which was a major victory in strategic planning.
After Liu Bei's disastrous defeat at Changban (today's Dangyang City, Yichang City, Hubei Province), he fled to Fankou. He only had 20,000 troops in his hands, and the strength gap was huge, making it difficult to resist Cao's army.
When Sun Quan heard that Cao Cao was leading his army south, he sent Lu Su as an envoy to persuade the defeated Liu Bei to form an alliance with him.
Zhuge Liang believed that only by uniting with Sun Quan could he resist Cao Cao, and Liu Bei also agreed.
So Zhuge Liang was ordered to follow Lu Su to Chaisang (today's Chaisang District, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province) to meet with Sun Quan. He analyzed the shortcomings of Cao's army and believed that Cao's army was exhausted from afar, was not accustomed to the acclimatization and was not accustomed to water warfare, and that the people of Jingzhou were only forced to surrender.
, not truly obedient.
At this time, Cao Cao wrote to Sun Quan and said: "I was ordered by the emperor to attack the guilty rebels. The military flag pointed south, and Liu Cong surrendered. Now, I command a navy of 800,000 people and will hunt with the general in Wu.
"
Sun Quan handed the letter to his ministers for discussion. Zhang Zhao and others were frightened by Cao Cao's power. They believed that Cao Cao had the upper hand both politically and in terms of military strength, and advocated surrender;
Lu Su, Zhou Yu and others knew themselves and the enemy, and were quite confident of victory. They analyzed the situation of Cao's army and urged Sun Quan to make up his mind to join forces with Liu to fight against Cao.
In the end, Sun and Liu decided on the strategic policy of jointly resisting Cao Cao. Sun Quan appointed Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu as the left and right governors, and Lu Su as the captain of the Zan Army. He led 30,000 naval troops to fight jointly with Liu Bei's troops.