"Suffering from repeated adversities, never leaving behind the dangers of war, adhering to integrity, and having an unbreakable ambition." Biography of Fu Zhan, Book of the Later Han Dynasty.
At the beginning of the year, due to the chaos in the imperial court, they finally lost control of the local areas, and the local areas attacked each other and did not do civil affairs. As a result, the long-dormant Yellow Turbans began to become active. In addition to the Yellow Turbans in Baibo, Heishan and other places, the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans once again gathered hundreds of people.
Ten thousand, wreaking havoc across the land.
The reason why it is said that it was again is because they rebelled once in the second year of Chuping. That time they gathered 300,000 people to attack Bohai County, intending to join forces with the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans from east to west. However, they were defeated by Gongsun Zan's cavalry.
He defeated 20,000 people, beheaded more than 30,000 people, captured more than 70,000 people, and lost countless chariots, armor, and property. Gongsun Zan's illustrious martial arts power shocked Hebei.
So this time the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou were revived. Even if they gathered millions of people and became more powerful than before, they did not dare to go north to find trouble with Gongsun Zan because of the lessons learned from the past. They had to go west along the Yellow River and quickly invaded Yanzhou. Jibei Prime Minister Bao Bao
Xin couldn't resist and led his defeated army to defect to Liu Dai, the governor.
After this battle, the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans became more and more courageous as they fought, and soon captured the Dongping Kingdom and Rencheng Kingdom, killing Zheng Sui, the Prime Minister of Rencheng. Liu Dai, the shepherd of Yanzhou, rushed to fight and died on the battlefield.
At this time, Cao Cao was recognized by Yuan Shao as the prefect of Yanzhou East County because of his meritorious service in conquering the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans. After taking office, he made friends with powerful and prominent local families, such as Chen Gong, Wang Si, Xue Ti, Que Jia and others. These people also
After Liu Dai's death, when people in Yanzhou were in panic, he lobbied everywhere for Cao Cao and praised Cao Cao's martial arts.
Finally, Chen Gong, Bao Xin and others convinced Yanzhou Haoqiang to jointly recommend Cao Cao as the shepherd of Yanzhou.
When Cao Cao was in danger, he took charge. He organized his troops and prepared for a decisive battle with the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans. Within a few months, he made repeated surprise attacks and fought day and night. Finally, he was about to fulfill his promise to the powerful Yanzhou and drive the Yellow Turban thieves out of Yanzhou.
These are all things that happened in the third year of Chuping. It is now Mengdong in October, and the Yellow Turban Army has retreated to Jibei, the easternmost county in Yanzhou. After more than a month of suppressing the Yellow Turbans
At the same time, Cao Cao saw that food and grass were cut off in winter, the enemy troops had been fleeing for many days, and everyone was exhausted, so he sent his envoys to surrender.
In this battle, a total of more than 300,000 Yellow Turban soldiers and more than a million men and women were surrendered. Cao Cao selected elite soldiers from the surrendered soldiers and named them Qingzhou soldiers.
Yanzhou, Jibei Kingdom.
After several consecutive torrential rains since the beginning of autumn, when the weather cleared up, people in Jibei Kingdom woke up and were surprised to find that not only was the day getting colder, but the north wind was blowing, and even the yellow turban moth thieves entrenched outside the city were killed by Xinzhou.
Mu surrendered.
Cao Cao slowly walked out of the old and dilapidated Jibei Palace and returned to his own camp.
At this time, there were three scribes in the camp, standing and sitting, talking about something.
Among the people sitting there was a middle-aged man with a pale face. Although his body looked extremely frail, his eyes were very sharp. Opposite him was a man who was close to his age and stood tall and dignified.
The only person standing was the oldest one, about fifty years old, with a tall build, eight feet three inches tall, a thick beard, small and narrow eyes, and a strong temperament.
These three people are Cao Cao's counselor Xi Zhicai, his subordinate Sima Xunyu, and Shou Zhangling Cheng Yu.
Cao Cao greeted the three of them, sat down on the main seat, and said: "The King of Jibei just called me, saying that winter is approaching, and asked me to allocate some grain and grass for national use."
Xun Yu pondered for a moment and then said: "Yanzhou has just been destroyed by war and is in ruins. Our army's food and grass supplies are insufficient. Sometimes we have to rely on Jizhou to allocate food and grass to the Jibei royal family."
"If the moth thieves hadn't invaded Jibei and looted it, the king of Jibei wouldn't have had a problem surviving the winter, and he would have asked me, a foreign minister, to help him." As Cao Cao spoke, he suddenly smiled: "I
He has been sent to look for Tian Fen."
Xi Zhicai coughed a few times and said, "Tian Fen may not be willing to deal with it."
"Then it has nothing to do with me." Cao Cao spread his hands and smiled: "When Liu Shijun died in the battle, his reputation in Yanzhou was better than mine. There are countless people who are more suitable to serve as temporary governor of Yanzhou than me. But I
I really didn’t expect that I, the prefect of Dongjun, who was so good, elected me as the shepherd of Yanzhou? Isn’t this a mess of fate? If it weren’t for Wan Qian, the state official at that time, who said that the states and counties were listed as officials, and the powerful surnames had already been decided,
Yanzhou is indeed in a state of survival, so I have no choice but to take over this post."
He smiled proudly and said: "Now that we are here, the official governor has arrived. I am not greedy for power. I can just relinquish it to him. So now I am just the Prime Minister of Dongping and General Xingfenwu. I am responsible for the affairs of Jibei Kingdom."
But it’s not my turn to take care of it. If our land envoy refuses to negotiate, we will have no choice but to let the King of Jibei fend for himself.”
Cao Cao was originally the governor of the state supported by Yanzhou celebrities in times of crisis. He originally planned to defeat the Yellow Turbans and regard Yanzhou as the foundation for his success. Unexpectedly, he managed to defeat the Yellow Turbans with great difficulty, and the court appointed a new
The governor came to pick the fruits.
If it were other unrelated characters, Cao Cao might even have some thoughts in private, such as having someone pretend to be a bandit, or directly convincing the bandit to ambush the new governor.
But the person who came to snatch his position was Tian Fen. Whether it was because he was a relative of Tian Feng, Yuan Shao's trusted adviser, or because he was one of the most powerful people in Jizhou, he was someone Cao Cao did not dare to offend at the moment. After all, he still needs to be there at the moment.
Relying on Yuan Shao's power to a certain extent, he could not offend the local scholars in Jizhou because of Tian Fen.
Therefore, the arrival of Tian Fen, the official governor of Yanzhou who was personally worshiped by the imperial court, suddenly made Cao Cao's identity as a pastor in Yanzhou very embarrassing.
Fortunately, Yuan Shao still cared about Cao Cao's face and intended to suppress the local gentry forces in Jizhou, so he acquiesced to Cao Cao's move to gradually sideline Tian Fen. Even as compensation, on the basis that Xiahou Dun was still the prefect of Dongjun, he also represented Cao Cao as Dongping.
Mutually.
In addition to Zhang Miao, the prefect of Chenliu who had a close relationship with him, as well as Mao Jie, Lu Qian, Man Chong and other state officials, if Cao Cao and others controlled half of the power in Yanzhou from top to bottom, there would be no name for the state pastor.
, and there is the reality of state pastoralism.
Yuan Shao was very satisfied with this check and balance method. Cao Cao was inferior to others and had nothing to say about it. Tian Fen, who was only one of the parties involved, was dissatisfied with being the governor in name only.
Because Cao Cao's food and fodder for the Yellow Turbans expedition, in addition to donations from local powerful men in Yanzhou, part of it also came from Yuan Shao's support in Jizhou.
Therefore, in order to subdue Cao Cao and establish his authority as governor, Tian Fen often used his power as governor and his relationship with Tian Feng to intervene in the supply of military supplies. Although it would not make Cao Cao's people deprived of food and clothing, it would not make them suffer.
Cao Cao was too satisfied during the campaign.
After Cao Cao learned about this, he felt greatly constrained, so he took advantage of the King of Jibei's request for winter grain and grass. Now, in addition to supplying Cao Cao with grain and grass, he also had to deal with Yuan Shao's war against Gongsun Zan. How could there be any surplus grain for him?
An unknown feudal king?
But if he did not give it, if the King of Jibei starved to death or froze to death, Tian Fen would most likely fall on the knife edge of the imperial court that was trying to regain its authority.
"Now the world is in chaos, the counties are in ruins, and the countries have no money to pay. Since the Yellow Turban bandits usurped the throne, vassal kings have been robbed by thieves many times, and many people have died in the ravines." Xun Yu spoke very slowly, with an expression on his face.
There is a hint of silence and pity in the middle: "The King of Jibei is the current elder brother. It is not a trivial matter for the vassal king to suffer from cold, hunger and poverty. The winter needs of hundreds of members of the royal family can be handled by entrusting them to take care of it."