Being able to get one side is certainly one's own cleverness. But is this enough? Obviously this is impossible. Cao Cao, one of the most complicated characters in history, is also a counselor. There are also the top five strategists and the last three strategists.
1. Guo Jia, who can be regarded as the first adviser of the Three Kingdoms and the former four great advisers:
One of the core figures of Cao Cao’s early military think tanks, with extraordinary strategic vision and three-pointers Observe people's eyesight. Because of its outstanding overall view, it often has incisive and unique suggestions for success in the selection of combat objectives and the grasp of the combat period. In the process that Cao Cao thoroughly smashed several powerful warlords such as Yuan Shao and Lu Bu, and achieved great success in the northern hegemony. Guo Jiada's love for the world and his mutual appreciation with Cao Cao were also passed down as a good story. It's a pity that Tian is jealous of talents. After the Beizheng Karasuma cleared out Yuan Shi's remaining troubles, he died of illness and was only thirty-eight years old.
Repeated Qimou
In 197 (the second year of Jian’an), Cao Cao challenged Zhang Xiu’s defeat, and Yuan Shao and Xin humiliated him. When Cao Cao was worried that he would not have the ability to compete with Yuan Shao, Guo Jia put forward the famous "ten wins and ten loses" theory. He cited ten reasons in a row to prove that "the public has ten victories, but Shao has ten defeats." Guo Jia's analysis is very convincing. It not only cheered up the fighting spirit of Cao's soldiers, but also helped Cao Cao formulate long-term and short-term combat goals. At the same time, Guo Jia also formally established his core position in Cao Cao's military intelligence group.
In 198 AD (the third year of Jian'an), Liu Bei was broken by Lu Bu and attached to Cao Cao. The counselor Cheng Yu suggested to Cao Cao to kill Liu Bei in order to avoid future troubles. Cao Cao asked Guo Jia’s opinion. Guo Jia thought: "Yes. But Cao Gong raised a sword to rebel to eliminate violence for the people, and promoted integrity to attract heroes and heroes. I’m afraid it’s still not done. Now Liu Bei has a reputation as a hero. He took refuge in us when he was dead and we killed him. This is a notoriety for killing the wise men. Those wise men and soldiers will doubt themselves. Once again, they want to choose who will be the master. Who will settle the world with whom? Therefore, we must eliminate the danger of one person, and endanger the reputation of the world, and the safety of the choice must not be unconscious!" Cao Cao also felt this, so he did not kill Liu Bei. However, Guo Jia also believes that Liu Bei has 10,000 enemies Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to follow, and Liu Bei won the hearts of the people and will not be inferior. So I told Cao Cao: "The ancients said:'Indulge the enemy in one day, it will become a disaster for several generations.' It is better to establish a proper position earlier." This means that Liu Bei is to be placed under house arrest, but Cao Cao does not accept Liu Bei's strategy of house arrest. In order to convince him to convince himself, on the contrary, he got closer to Liu Bei.
In September of the same year, Cao Cao sent troops to attack Lv Bu in Xuzhou. Cao Jun broke Pengcheng first, then defeated Lu Bu, and finally besieged Xiapi. Lu Bu couldn't hold on. The battle lasted for more than half a year, and Cao Cao saw that the soldiers were tired and prepared to give up. At this time, Guo Jia saw the chance of victory. He used Xiang Yu as an example to persuade Cao Cao and put forward the view that "the courageous and inexhaustible will soon be defeated when they are exhausted", and persuade Cao Cao to attack quickly. Cao Cao followed Guo Jia's strategy, attacking the city while breaking the embankment to cover the Pi. Sure enough, in the same year, he conquered Xia Pi and sacked Lu Bu.
大放出异彩
In 200 AD (the fifth year of Jian'an), Cao Cao decided to eliminate Liu Bei, who had an unstable foothold in Xuzhou, in order to avoid encountering enemies before and after fighting Yuan Shao in the future. At that time, all the generals were afraid that Yuan Shao would take the opportunity to attack Xudu, and then he could not fight forward and retreated and lost his stronghold. Cao Cao was also suspicious, so he asked Guo Jia's advice. Guo Jia analyzed: "Yuan Shao has always been indecisive and will not react quickly. Liu Bei has not returned to his heart, has an unstable footing, and attacks quickly. He will undoubtedly lose. Then he will return to his teacher to deal with it. Yuan Shao, this is the best opportunity to change the enemy's stomach and back. It must not be lost." So Cao Cao tried to fight Liu Bei, captured Liu Bei's wife, captured Guan Yu, and then defeated the Eastern Pirates who were united with Liu Bei. The situation was just as Guo Jia had expected, and Yuan Shao did not respond before Liu Bei was defeated.
At the time when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were squatting on Guandu, another disturbing news came to Cao Ying: Jiangdong hero Sun Ce was about to send troops to attack Cao Cao's base in Xudu. Cao Cao, who was already at a disadvantage in the stalemate with Yuan Shao, could no longer dedicate his troops to defend Xu Du. Once Xu Du fell, Cao Cao's camp would immediately fall apart. This was the most turbulent period in Cao Ying, and many people startedSecretly flatter Yuan Shao, ready to leave a way for himself.
At that time, Cao Junzhong and Yuan Shao had a lot of correspondence in private. After the Battle of Guandu, many bamboo slips from Yuanying were found in Yuanying. At this critical juncture, Guo Jia predicted: "Sun Ce just annexed Jiangdong, and he killed some heroes and heroes. He is a person who can serve the life. But Sun Ce is a person who is rash and not good at defending, although he has There are millions of people, but he is no different from coming to the Central Plains alone. If an assassin ambushes, then he is just an enemy of one person. In my opinion, Sun Ce must die by the hands of the assassin." Sun Ce went to the river. Before crossing the river, he was killed by the enemy Xu Gong's doormen. This may be a coincidence, but it does add to Guo Jia's magical calculations.
In 202 AD (the seventh year of Jian'an), Yuan Shao, who was defeated in the Battle of Guandu, died of illness. Cao Cao attacked his two sons, Lien Chan and Lianjie. All the generals of Cao Jun wanted to take advantage of the victory to break through the two Yuans, but at this moment, Guo Jia, who had previously advocated the northward advance, resisted all opinions and made a unique strategy, suggesting to retreat. He analyzed the contradictions between the two Yuan brothers for Cao Cao, saying: "Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang have never agreed with each other, and there are advisers such as Guo Tu and Feng Ji who are in the middle, and they must turn against each other. It is better to fight against Liu Biao first. Waiting for it to change, and then hitting it later, it can be determined in one fell swoop."
Guo Jia suggested that Cao Cao pretend to attack Liu Biao to the south, "waiting for it to change." Sure enough, as soon as Cao Jun returned to Xuchang, news of Yuan Junsheng's change came. Cao Cao took the opportunity to return to the army and headed north, defeating Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang each, two Yuan fleeing one death. Because of Guo Jia's clever plan, this battle was won both easily and smoothly.
In 204 AD (the 9th year of Jian'an), Guo Jia was named Weiyang Pavilion.
In the year 205 (the tenth year of Jian'an), Guo Jia suggested that Cao Cao recruit and re-use celebrities from Qing, Ji, You, and the four prefectures in order to embrace the hearts of the people and thoroughly consolidate control and resist. Cao Cao adopted his opinion, and even reused Chen Lin, who had vilified himself. It really had the effect of being a daughter.
2. Xun Yu (yù) of the first four great counsellors:
In fact, if you are familiar with the Three Kingdoms, you will find that the real Cao Ying decision maker is Wang Zuozhi and Xun Yu, although he does not He often appeared on the front line, but Cao Cao's early major moves were planned by him, such as the grand strategy of suppressing the yellow turban, taking the emperor to order the princes and so on to determine the direction of Cao Ying. He has always guarded the rear and laid a good strategic source foundation for Cao Cao's front operations. Cao Cao's main planner of several battles was him.
People say that Xun Yu is Cao Cao’s chief adviser, just like Zhuge Liang’s position in the Liu Bei Group. In fact, this statement can be discussed. It is about this definition of counselors. Those counselors in history generally say that their professional ethics is to serve their masters and monarchs. What the monarch does is to make suggestions. This is a general counselor. Just like the current lawyers, what does a lawyer do? To serve the client, the client has to fight the lawsuit, and I will help you win it. This is my professional ethics as a lawyer. As for who your lawsuit is, I don’t care about it, so there are lawyers for you. As for the defense of the underworld, there are lawyers like this. As a lawyer, as a profession, they are also blameless. You must make it clear and blameless. Counselor, he advises his monarch, regardless of whether the monarch does good or bad things, he advises him, and he is blameless in terms of his profession. But among counselors and lawyers, there are some people, a very small number of people, they have their own ideals, their own political ideals and moral bottom line. On Liu Bei's side is Zhuge Liang, on Cao Cao's side is Xun Yu. The two of them are higher than ordinary counsellors, and they are ideal people.
Let’s look at the three outlines Xun Yu proposed to Cao Cao at that time: Serving the Lord, upholding justice, and supporting Hongyi. What do these three outlines emphasize? The emphasis is on the need to uphold morality and justice. Emphasize this. Therefore, Xun Yu's Three Programs is not a strategy, not a strategy, but an ideal, but a program. In the final analysis, it is to maintain the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty. Moreover, Xun Yu had high hopes for Cao Cao, and he believed that Cao Cao had this ability. Cao Cao also had this ideal, because during Dong Zhuo’s rebellion, Cao Cao first advocated volunteers. During the Kwantung Allied Forces, only Cao Cao and Sun Jian went to fight Dong Zhuo. He was a patriotic hero in troubled times.Xun Yu's ideal is to assist such a hero to restore the country's peace and allow the Han Dynasty to continue. This is Xun Yu's ideal.
But Xun Yu didn’t expect that people would change. As Cao Cao’s credit grew, his power became greater; as his power grew, his ambitions also grew. Bigger. When he was determined to make Wei Gong and establish Wei State, the politically sensitive Xun Yu immediately realized the seriousness of the problem. He believed that at this time the relationship between Cao Cao and the emperor would undergo fundamental changes, because once he sealed Wei Gong, he is about to establish an independent duchy. The relationship between this independent duchy and the Han Dynasty will be the relationship between the state and the state. It is not the relationship between the central and local governments. It is the relationship between the state and the state. Cao Cao and the emperor are dukes and The relationship of the emperor. Of course, there is still a subtle point here. At this time, the Han Dynasty was the sovereign state, and the Wei Principality was a state canonized by the sovereign state, but the relationship between counties and the central government was very different. If this is not done well, it will change, because at this time the Han Dynasty is empty, there is nothing, Cao Cao can destroy the Han Dynasty with a single effort, so Xun Yu is unacceptable.
In such an unacceptable situation, he is faced with the choice of his own destiny and path. What should I do? But there is no choice. What's wrong with him? He now realizes that Cao Cao is not someone he can have high hopes for. Who is? Liu Bei is? Even if Liu Bei is, can he go to Liu Bei? Can he still go to Liu Bei at this time? No. Then follow Cao Cao and continue to work, the more he helps Cao Cao, the more he moves towards the opposite of his desires, the more he helps Cao Cao, the more he does it right. Now he can't help Cao Cao, he can't help Cao Cao, he can't betray Cao Cao, and he has to betray Cao Cao. Moreover, we can imagine that Xun Yu’s heart is very painful at this time, because for an ideal person like him, there is nothing in the world that makes him more painful than the disillusionment of his ideals, so no matter if he is melancholy and To die, or to commit suicide by taking poison, he must have been very painful before his death. I even suspect that he himself committed suicide. It is possible that Cao Cao sent this empty food box, because Cao Cao likes to do this kind of thing, it is entirely possible to send a box to Xun Yu and open it to see that it is empty; but being empty does not mean that you are dead. It can be understood as don’t talk, close your mouth, as long as you don’t talk, you can still eat. You can make many explanations, but if Xun Yu got this food box and he chose to die immediately, he would use his own death to tell Cao Cao: I absolutely can't approve of you doing this! That's an attitude.
So I think there may be another reason why Cao Cao didn't call emperor at the end of his life, that is, he can't forget Xun Yu's melancholy eyes. Xun Yu's spirit in the sky is looking at him. This is the power of morality and the power of justice. So I think if Xun Yu is a contemporary of us, he might sing a song to Cao Cao before he died: "I am looking for you for thousands of miles, but you don't care." He is indeed thousands of miles away. In pursuit of Cao Cao, he came to Cao Cao when he was in his twenties and worked until he was fifty. He followed Cao Cao to his death for more than two decades. He walked through a rough and tortuous road, but when the last two people turned their faces, his heart It's also ruthless. But Xun Yu had no choice. He had no other choice. He could not find his comrades, because inside and outside the court, those who advocated the maintenance of the Han Dynasty were anti-Cao Cao; those who supported Cao Cao almost all agreed. Cao Cao went to fend off Wei Gong and establish the Wei state, and even later advocated that he should be the emperor; he belonged to the Cao Cao camp and had a very good relationship with Cao Cao, and he was the only one who opposed Cao Cao's doing so, so the song below him should also be normal:" It seems that I am destined to walk alone in this life, and your enthusiasm has long been exhausted." Although in the dream, Cao Cao was once his only one. But at this moment Xun Yu could only ask himself over and over again: "Where are you so good? What is so good?" He could only ask again and again, where are you so good? Why should I follow you? Of course Xun Yu didn't ask. Xun Yu asked Cao Cao and couldn't answer, because like Xun Yu, Cao Cao was in a dilemma, and Cao Cao was more difficult than Xun Yu. Why? Because Xun Yu is a person, when his ideals are shattered, he can choose to commit suicide, he can even choose to retreat, he can withdraw from this political struggle. At this time, Cao Cao already represents a huge interest group. Even if Cao Cao himself wants to retire, others will not.He promised to retreat, so Cao Cao also had no retreat. What's more, Cao Cao has gone into the devil at this moment. The ghost has sold his soul to the devil. What is this devil? It is the highest power that is unrestricted, unsupervised, and unrestricted. In order to obtain and retain this highest power, Cao Cao Can only bite the bullet and walk to the black on the blood-stained road. So Xun Yu chose to die, and Cao Cao chose to kill.
3, Jia Xu
of the first four great advisers: Wei Taiwei. The famous advisor of Wei in the Three Kingdoms period. First from Dong Zhuo, then became Zhang Xiu's counselor. Zhang Xiu used his strategy to defeat Cao Cao twice. Before the Battle of Guandu, he persuaded Zhang Xiu to return to Cao Cao. Cao Cao used his tricks in the Guandu battle, Yuan Shao, Tongguan defeated Xiliang Ma Chao, and Han Sui. Cao Cao seized Jingzhou and wanted to take the opportunity to travel down the river to dissuade Jia Xu from waiting for the opportunity to appease the people. Cao Cao refused, and ended up in a defeat in the Battle of Chibi. Jia Xu secretly assisted Cao Pi on the issue of Cao Cao's successor. Cao Pi later called his emperor and appointed his officials Taiwei and Wei Shoutinghou. Cao Pi asked whether to destroy Shu or Wu first, and Jia Xu suggested that the country should be governed first before using force. Cao Pi didn't listen, and it turned out that Wu did nothing. Jia Xu thought that he was not Cao Cao's former minister, but had a good plan, so he was afraid of Cao Cao's guess, so he adopted a strategy of self-protection, kept the door behind him, and did not communicate privately with others, and his children did not marry the powerful. He was seventy-seven years old when he died.
Hou Jia Xu is Zuo Fengyi. Li Nuo and others wanted to make him a marquise based on Jia Xu's merits. Jia Xu said: "This life-saving strategy, what merit is there" ("Three Kingdoms·Wei Shu·Jia Xu Biography")! Resolutely not. Li Yu and others asked Jia Xu to shoot for Shang Shupu. Jia Xu said: "Shang Shupu shoots, the teacher of the official, the world looks forward to, the reputation is not so important, so it is not so convincing. If you are ignorant of Rongli, Nai Guochao "He" ("Three Kingdoms·Wei Shu·Jia Xu Biography")! So he worshiped Jia Xu as the Shangshu. Even so, Li Yu and his peers Jia Xu are always "close to him" ("Three Kingdoms·Wei Shu·Jia Xu"). When Jia Xu's mother died, Jia Xu resigned from the official position and was worshipped as Doctor Guanglu.
4, Xunyou
of the first four great strategists
Among Cao Cao's many counsellors, Xun You's position is second only to Xun Yu, and is also one of the greatest contributions. In the process of assisting Cao Cao, he devoted a total of 12 major strategies, each time he was able to survive Cao Jun's survival or unexpectedly win, and became an important adviser Cao Cao must seek.
