There are righteous people in the Kanto region, and they raise troops to fight against the murderers. In the early days, the alliance was in Jin, and the heart was in Xianyang.
The forces of the army were uneven, and they hesitated and walked wildly. Snobbery makes people fight, and heirs fight each other.
The title of Huainan brother is engraved in the north. The armor is full of lice, and all surnames die.
The white bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no rooster crowing for thousands of miles. The people are left behind, and the thought breaks people's intestines.
This poem, entitled "Artemisia Li Xing", was written by Cao Cao, a prince in the late Han Dynasty, and vividly describes the tragic situation of the people struggling in the chaotic times after the dissolution of the Dong coalition army. If you just look at this poem, I am afraid that many people will think that Cao Cao is a big hero who worries about the country and the people, but unfortunately Cao Cao himself is also one of the promoters of the sharp decline in population at the end of the Han Dynasty, and can be said to be the first murderous demon king in the late Han Dynasty.
So, why is Cao Cao, who once wrote "Artemisia Lixing", so murderous?What caused him to be so frequent among the people?
Before discussing this issue, we should first look at Cao Cao's record of slaughtering cities, so that we can more effectively analyze Cao Cao's motives for frequently taking ** measures.
Cao Cao's first recorded massacre took place in 193 AD. "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Biography of Tao Qian" records: In the fourth year of the first peace, Cao Cao attacked Qian and broke Fuyang in Pengcheng. Surrender Tan, the attack can not be overcome, but returned. Pulling out and worrying, Juling, and Xia Qiu were all slaughtered. Where hundreds of thousands of men and women are killed, there are no chickens and dogs, and Surabaya does not flow, and it is the five county county protection, and there is no trace of repetition.
As a contrasting record, it exists in the "Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Tao Qian": In the fourth year of the first peace, Taizu conquered Qian, conquered more than ten cities, and fought in Pengcheng. The humble soldiers were defeated and left, and the dead were tens of thousands, and Surabaya did not flow. Humility retreats to Tan. Taizu led the army back with less food.
This is not the end, and then Cao Cao came to Xuzhou again in the second year to do a big **. It is recorded in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: Emperor Wu: In the summer, Xun Yu and Cheng Yu guarded Juancheng, reconquered Tao Qian, pulled out five cities, and then slightly went to the East China Sea. returned to Tan, and Qian sent Cao Bao and Liu Bei to Tandong, and asked for Taizu. Taizu broke it, and then attacked Xiangben, and killed too much.
From the short text, we can smell a smell of blood, and the terrible thing is that Cao Cao's ** behavior is by no means limited to the enemy's land, and he is also merciless in his own land. In the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", it is recorded how Cao Cao ** his own people when he quelled the rebellion of Lu Bu and Zhang Miao: in two years, Taizu recovered all the cities and broke the cloth in Juye. Bu Dongben Liu Bei. Miao Congbu, Liuchao's family Tun Yongqiu. Taizu besieged for several months, slaughtered him, and beheaded his family. Miao Yi Yuan Shu asked for help, but before he arrived, he was killed by his soldiers.
Cao Cao was still merciless to the people under his rule, so he could not expect Cao Cao to be merciful to the people under the rule of others. In the third year of Jian'an, that is, in 198 A.D., Cao Cao attacked Lü Bu in Xuzhou in this year, and the "Three Kingdoms Chronicles of Emperor Wu" was recorded as: in winter and October, he slaughtered Pengcheng and obtained the ...... of his prime ministerShi Gong fought continuously, the soldiers stopped, and wanted to return, so they used Xun Yu and Guo Jia's plan to decide Si and Yishui to irrigate the city.
In other words, Cao Cao slaughtered Pengcheng once in the process of conquering Lü Bu, and in order to defeat Lü Bu who was holding on to Xiapi, Cao Cao ordered people to dig the river and release water to flood Xiapi, as we know, Lü Bu in Xiapi was finally captured by Cao Cao, and the people of Xiapi City were naturally unable to get half a cent when the river poured into the city.
When he captured Yecheng in the ninth year of Jian'an (204 AD), Cao Cao once again adopted the method of diverting water from the river to pour water into the city. It is recorded in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: Emperor Wu Ji": In May, the earth mountain and tunnel were destroyed, and the city was surrounded by water, and more than half of the people in the city starved to death.
In the twelfth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao's nature of slaughtering the city occurred again when he conquered Wuhuan, and the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" recorded as: In the twelfth year, Taizu conquered the three counties of Karasuma and slaughtered Liucheng. And in the twentieth year of Jian'an, when Cao Cao conquered the Di people, he did not change his true colors, and the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, Emperor Wu Ji" recorded: Dou Mao, the king of Di, had more than 10,000 people, and refused to accept the danger, and in May, the public attacked and slaughtered him.
Looking at these records of Cao Cao's slaughter of cities, it is not difficult for us to find a problem, that is, the slaughter of cities under Cao Cao's own leadership has a common characteristic, that is, it occurred in difficult fighting conditions. For example, when the first slaughter of Xuzhou was made, Cao Cao could not attack it for a long time before he began to slaughter the city, and it was accompanied by the objective condition of insufficient grain and grass. Therefore, we can draw a very basic conclusion, that is, Cao Cao's massacre of the city was accompanied by a strong purpose, which was to plunder the common people to obtain military supplies, and there was an element of deterrence of the enemy army.
The lack of grain and grass was a major problem that plagued Cao Cao for a long time, and Cao Cao's command lacked internal affairs talents who could take charge of the affairs independently, and even if the tuntian system was adopted and high taxes were levied, the barren Sili and Yanzhou could not provide Cao Cao with enough military rations. Therefore, Cao Cao often faced the dilemma of a shortage of food and grass during his conquests, and the corresponding solution was to plunder the people. Plundering is often accompanied by very fierce massacres, especially when the enemy resistance is very fierce, Cao Cao's massacre will be even more brutal. In other words, ** was a military means for Cao Cao, the purpose of which was to feed the war and deter and weaken the enemy army by plundering and fighting.
In addition, Cao Cao also has a clear rule on surrender and massacre, which is used to decide whether to start **. It is recorded in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms as: Jizhou Ping. Chang Feng rebelled and sent him to be prohibited. It is forbidden to rush to attack the pigs;There is an old ban with a ban, and a ban is lowered. All the generals thought that the pig had descended, and they should send it to the Taizu, and forbidden: The monarchs don't know the public orders!Those who surround and surrender will not be forgiven. The husband obeys the law and orders, and the festival of things is also. Although old friends, forbidden can be lost!Coming to the end of the game, sobbing and beheading. It was the time when the Taizu army was pure, and when he heard it, he sighed and said: If you don't surrender to me and return to the ban, wouldn't it be fate!It is forbidden to be heavy. Dong Haiping, worship the forbidden General Huwei.
The point of this passage is that "those who surrender after a siege are not forgiven", which means that those who surrender after a siege cannot be pardoned. Through this sentence, we can clearly understand Cao Cao's slaughter indicators, before the enemy's city was not surrounded, the enemy had the capital to negotiate with Cao Cao, and Cao Cao was also willing to accept the surrender of these people, such as Zhang Xiu is a significant example. Chang Xuan, on the other hand, is one of those who has lost his bargaining capital, so instead of being pardoned, he will be killed if he surrenders.
Such examples are not uncommon in Cao Wei's records of the massacre of cities, such as the Taiyuan Shangyao rebellion in the twelfth year of Jian'an, and the slaughter of Taiyuan City by Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang while quelling the rebellion. In the nineteenth year of Jian'an, Xiahou Yuanping Han Sui and Song Jianshi not only defeated the two, but also slaughtered the two cities of Xingguo and Caohan. In the twenty-third year of Jian'an, Cao Ren quelled the rebel general Hou Yin, and as a result, he also led the army to slaughter Wancheng. These records of the massacre of the city can basically be regarded as in line with Cao Cao's "those who surround and surrender will not be pardoned", and they are of a deterrent nature, obviously to warn those who are about to act in the dark.
In this way, we can figure out Cao Cao's idea of slaughtering the city, he may not be a brutal and murderous person, but he is also ruthless and disregards human life like a mustard. He unilaterally believes that ** is a very effective means of deterrence, which can create opportunities for him to quickly subdue various places. This may be the limitation of Cao Cao's times, but this in itself cannot be a reason to excuse Cao Cao, and the frequent ** did not allow Cao Wei to complete the great cause of dominating the world, but strengthened the determination of others to resist. Wei Wu whipped and the people suffered, which may have been caused by the limitations of Cao Cao's times, but in the final analysis, this was Cao Cao's atrocity and responsibility, and it was also one of the main reasons why Cao Cao could not dominate the world in the future.
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