Chapter 232: Great Victory at Guandu and Surrender [Subscription Request]

It was getting dark.

Yuan Shao sat in the Guandu camp in a daze.

Outside the camp there were shouts and cries of killing.

The Yanzhou army was launching the most fierce offensive and continuously shooting arrows into the camp. Even the arrow shafts were engraved with words of surrender: No killing for surrender, no accountability for past mistakes!

People were in a state of panic, food supplies were cut off, and the ferry crossing on the way home was also cut off.

The longer you delay, the more passive you will become. Surrendering early will still provide a chance for survival.

The Cao army attacking the camp shouted in unison for surrender, and the voices continued to pour into the Yuan army camp.

At this time, how many people would fight to the death for him, Yuan Shao, and risk their lives!

Yuan Shao's face turned pale and his fists were clenched.

He refused to accept it, he refused to accept it!
Why did his people rebel against him? !
He did not expect that Chunyu Qiong, a veteran general who had been through many battles and had deployed a large number of troops, would be defeated by Cao Cao in such a short time.

When Yuan Shao received the news that Wuchao had been captured, he did not give up. He immediately sent a message and redeployed defenses in Liyang.

The remaining troops in Jizhou drew out their forces and made every effort to prevent Liyang from being attacked.

But he didn't know that he had fallen into a trap.

Cao Cao ordered Zhao Yun to attack the ferry. Using troops was like a brain teaser, and Yuan Shao didn't understand.

He was stunned by Cao Cao's unexpected attacks one after another and felt that Cao Cao was cheating.

This broke Yuan Shao's understanding of military affairs.

In terms of governing ability and military ability, he is indeed not as good as Cao Cao.

But there was actually no big problem with his deployment for the Battle of Guandu. He decided from the beginning to use his military advantage to force Cao Cao to fight a major battle.

The problem was that the power of bows and crossbows, digging tunnels, and head-on attacks all failed to gain the upper hand.

Continue fighting on the Guandu battlefield chosen by Cao Cao.

After Yuan's army had used up all their tricks, they began to compete in military strength and tactics, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

Qu Yi was no match for Cao Cao either.

In fact, a few days ago, Zhang He advised Yuan Shao to guard against Wuchao with all his strength.

But Yuan Shao didn't listen.

He is the kind of person who is usually indecisive, but at critical moments, he always trusts himself the most.

He wanted to take advantage of the situation. If Cao Cao attacked Wuchao, he would attack Cao's main camp and try his best to break through his main camp.

However, Chunyu Qiong failed to hold out for a single night and was defeated.

The defeated soldiers who escaped back said that Cao's army descended from the sky and captured Chunyu Qiong alive in the blink of an eye, leaving them no time to react.

All their defenses were disrupted.

Yuan Shao didn't know whether it was because he rejected Zhang He's proposal that caused him to become rebellious.

Why would he and Gao Lan surrender so easily?

Is this defeat... Yuan Shao's clenched hands turned white from excessive force.

Just like that, they lost the Battle of Guandu and the confrontation between Yanzhou and Jizhou.

Lost the battle between Cao Cao and his Yuan Shao.

He turned around to look at his eldest son Yuan Tan, who was lying on the couch with a pale face and weak breathing. Yuan Shao's chest was heaving, blood was flowing backwards, and blood was oozing from the corners of his mouth.

Outside the camp, the shouting and screaming became louder.

----

Zhang He and Gao Lan rode side by side and led their troops to the outside of Wuchao City.

Surrendering to Cao was not a sudden decision. Cao's camp had already sent troops to instigate rebellion.

But they were rejected by both of them at that time.

By the time of the Battle of Guandu, the Jizhou army was increasingly at a disadvantage. Zhang He repeatedly made suggestions, but Yuan Shao did not accept them.

The idea of ​​surrender then sprouted like a seed and grew stronger.

When they learned that Wuchao had been occupied, the ferry was back under the control of Cao's army and the food supplies had been lost.

Yuan Shao led his troops to counterattack, but gained nothing except increasing consumption.

Zhang He and Gao Lan decided to surrender to Cao.

In January of the first year of Xingping, a cold wind blew on my face.

The gates of Wuchao City were wide open, and Cao Cao went out in person to greet Gao Lan and Zhang He's surrender.

These two people surrendered well and can serve as role models.

Their surrender would cause the fear of failure to spread unstoppably in Yuan’s army camp like a dam breaking.

Yuan Jun is finished.

The surrender of Zhang He and Gao Lan represents more than just the two of them.

It also represents the interests of their respective groups and represents the willingness of the aristocratic groups in Jizhou to surrender to Yanzhou at this time.

Yuan Shao gathered nearly 150,000 troops in his main force at Guandu.

Gao Lan, Zhang He brought more than 70,000 people, exactly half.

In history, Cao Cao did two things when accepting the surrender at Guandu, one wise and the other cruel.

Because of his brutal and willful actions, he suffered heavy losses, causing the Jizhou gentry who had originally surrendered to him to rebel again and turn back to support Yuan Shao, thus delaying the unification of the north.

The most brutal thing he did was to kill Zhang He and most of the surrendered soldiers brought by Gao Lan, amounting to tens of thousands of people.

One of the reasons was that Cao Cao was wary of Yuan Shao and was afraid that these people would change their ways.

With Yuan Shao's reputation, it is not impossible to gather these people together again and bring them back under his command.

If these tens of thousands of troops were surrendered as a temporary measure, Cao Cao would suffer the consequences.

Another reason is the limitation of food supply.

It would be very difficult to feed these tens of thousands of extra surrendered soldiers.

But now, Cao Cao left a large amount of food and grass in Wuchao instead of burning it as in history.

The strength of Yanzhou was also sufficient to accommodate these tens of thousands of surrendered soldiers.

Also because of his own strength, Cao Cao was not worried about these people repeating themselves.

This battle will allow the people of the world to see Cao Cao's identity as the overlord.

Only by following him can there be a future.

If I go back to Yuan Shao and lose the battle again, I'll be courting death.

Cao Cao personally came out to greet them, which made Gao Lan and Zhang He feel relieved. They immediately knelt down and swore to serve him.

The reason they showed some mercy to Yuan Shao was that they did not capture him and offer surrender.

Cao Cao's army then left the camp and advanced to the outside of the Guandu camp of the Jizhou army.

It was a cloudy afternoon on January 14th.

The Jizhou military camp was wide open. Cao Cao, wearing a black robe with red patterns, put one hand on the hilt of the Chengying sword at his waist, and rode into the military camp to accept the surrender.

This means that he has won the main battlefield of the Battle of Guandu.

Cao Cao entered the central military camp.

It was a mess inside.

Yuan Shao fled, taking his son Yuan Tan with him, under the protection of his personal army.

Many things were left in the camp where he was, including some secret letters. During this period, Yuan Shao's spies from Jizhou frequently traveled to various places to lobby various parties.

In Runan County of Yuzhou, the ancestral home of the Yuan family, it seemed that only a few families such as the Li family and the Cui family returned to the embrace of the Yuan family.

But secretly, more aristocratic families, and even some officials from aristocratic families in Yanzhou, had correspondence with the Yuan family.

These people are fence-sitters, not that they have already pledged their allegiance to Yuan Shao.

They want to prepare for both situations, wait and see who wins, and then decide which side to go to.

These people have no loyalty, they just follow whoever wins.

When Cao Cao walked into Yuan Shao's camp, some troops from Yanzhou had already come in to check and see if there was any danger.

The soldiers who came in first reported that they had found many secret letters between Yuan Shao and various noble families, as well as officials within Yanzhou.

You know, Runan, the ancestral home of the Yuan family, is almost the center of the world's gentry.

Among the officials from various places, most of them came from Runan and Yingchuan.

The base number is shockingly large.

There were hundreds of secret letters from various families that had contact with Yuan Shao.

Cao Cao felt as if there were countless pairs of eyes staring at him from behind.

He walked out of the big tent again and said to everyone calmly:
"Yuan Shao deliberately left many letters in the camp. He wanted to divide Yanzhou.

Jizhou is very powerful. Even I was worried before the war and considered surrendering to Yuan Shao, let alone others. "

"Burn all the secret letters. I said, I won't hold grudges against you!"

Many people in the crowd secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Including some civil servants from Yanzhou who came with them to take inventory of the Jizhou camp.

Cao Cao learned this method of calming people's hearts from history books.

Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, also used it.

Cao Cao was well-versed in history books and learned from history.

Let the past be the past.

This is the message conveyed by Cao Cao that everyone received.

But Cao Cao turned around and secretly asked Jia Xu: "Wenhe, who has contacted Jizhou? Did you write down all these secret letters?"

Damn it, they are collaborating with the enemy behind the scenes. These people must be recorded and highlighted, and they will be punished later.

The open burning of the letter just now was a means to avoid causing subsequent turmoil.

Why don't you get rid of the black sheep among you, or let him harm you again?
Jia Xu: "I remember it very clearly. I asked two groups of people to record it separately and then check it. There will be no mistakes. It is impossible to conceal it."

Cao Cao praised Jia Xu for his kindness and he always trusted Jia Xu to do things.

The Battle of Guandu could be declared a great victory and announced to the world.

But the confrontation between Yuan and Cao was far from over.

Where is Yuan Shao?
"Yuan Shao has disappeared since last night. He must have escaped with his son Yuan Tan under the protection of his personal army!"

Not long after, someone came to report that Yuan Shao's whereabouts had been found.

Cao’s camp has troops and has already caught up with them.

Yuan Shao fled north with his son.

Late January.

When Yuan Shao used a small ferry to escape back to the north bank of the Yellow River, he was left with only a few hundred soldiers and horses, and they were in a miserable state.

His son Yuan Tan had endured the hardships of the escape and was on his deathbed.

Yuan Shao stood on the north bank of the Yellow River and thought of the hundreds of thousands of troops when he set out to fight and their firm determination to defeat Yanzhou. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

Three months later, Guandu was a disastrous defeat.

He was ambitious and planned to conquer both the north and the south, but his plan failed.

Tears flowed silently from Yuan Shao's face.

A few days later, Cao Cao crossed the Yellow River and landed on Jizhou.

Supported by Zhang Liao, Zhao Yun, Yu Jin, Jia Xu, Xun You, Guo Jia and a group of civil and military officials, the army advanced northward.

In history, after defeating Yuan Shao, Cao Cao did not have the energy to immediately expand his victory.

The Battle of Guandu was also a huge drain on him.

After the war, he rested for half a year before he recovered a little.

It took several more years to completely pacify the north.

However, Cao Cao's current series of arrangements consumes much less energy.

He led his troops into Jizhou and became unstoppable.

Cao Cao was ready to stabilize the situation in the north and completely defeat Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao fled back to Yecheng.

Cao Cao knew that Yuan Shao would not live long.

Yuan Shao and the King of Chu have one slight similarity.

Xiang Yu won every battle in his life. He defeated Emperor Gaozu of Han many times and even captured his father and wife. When he was escaping, he even pushed his own flesh and blood off the carriage.

But in the Battle of Gaixia, Liu Bang surrounded and annihilated the Chu army.

Xiang Yu only lost that one time.

But this time, his pride would not allow him to fail. Losing this time would cost Xiang Yu his life.

He would rather commit suicide than accept failure, and he was too embarrassed to live and start his business again.

In this respect alone, Yuan Shao and Xiang Yu were similar and could not bear failure.

Yuan Shao's life was too smooth and he was surrounded by thousands of people.

After this defeat, he felt like he had lost everything. People all over the world were mocking him and abandoning him.

Yuan Shao's mentality had collapsed and he was depressed and wanted to survive.

He fell ill as soon as he returned to Yecheng.

In fact, at this moment, Yuan Shao had not lost his foundation in Jizhou.

As long as he cheers up and comes back to take charge in person.

He also controlled the entire Jizhou and Youzhou, which were vast territories, and had many civil and military generals.

If Cao Cao wanted to deal with him, he would have to fight at least several battles to determine the winner.

But Yuan Shao’s defeat at Guandu was not due to his defeat on the battlefield, but to his fragile heart.

A severe setback knocked him down, and he no longer had any ambition.

He did not have the heroic spirit of Xiang Yu, who was willing to fight in iron-blooded battles and face life and death head-on, and he did not dare to commit suicide to thank the world.

He returned to Yecheng. He was afraid to die, but also felt ashamed to be alive. He became listless and fainted.

Cao's army marched into Jizhou in large numbers.

The Jizhou army was in a panic and leaderless, so the next battle became a foregone conclusion and they were defeated in every battle.

When Yuan Shao was in despair, he ordered a retreat to the north.

Yuan Wei tremblingly led the Yuan family's people, abandoned the base camp in Yecheng, and retreated to the north.

When Cao Cao was about to pursue, he received a message from Xi Zhicai: "There have been some changes in the governors of Qingzhou and Xuzhou. Liu Bei's whereabouts have been found."

Ps: Please vote~
(End of this chapter)