From the battles before the situation of the Three Kingdoms was formed such as Dong Quan, Ho Lao Quan to the battles that divided the world such as Quan Do, Xich Bich, and Di Lang, they entered the history books, both in terms of scale, intelligence as well as the extraordinary bravery of the legendary brave generals of the time. All have created a rare heroic and glorious era.
The Battle of Hu Lao Quan was a war between Dong Zhuo – La Bo and the alliance of 18 vassals of Quan Dong led by Vien Thieu in 190. It was a battle that portrayed the heroic image of the generals. Especially the famous direct match between Lu Bu against the three brothers Luu Be, Quan Vu, Truong Phi, also known as the Three Brothers War , has gone down in Chinese history and culture.
After Quan Vu cut Hoa Hung, Dong Trac’s army lost and ran for a long time. Dong Zhuo personally led 150,000 troops to hold Ho Lao Quan. Particularly, La Bo led 30,000 troops to the front of the gate, set up a large camp as a front for troops, and Dong Trac stationed a post at the gate.
Dong Zhuo and his son-in-law Ly Nho on the citadel looked down at the battle that was about to happen.
On the other side, Vien Thieu gathered the generals to discuss, sent troops close to the door of Ho Lao to besiege. Cao Cao also led the army to respond. The vassals were present. Lu Bu brought 5000 armored cavalry troops to challenge, defeating Vuong Khuong’s advance troops, successively defeating famous generals of the alliance such as Phuong Duyet, Muc Thuan, Vu An Quoc…
Lu Bu, known as the “god of war”, was unusually brave.
La Bo again brought his troops to challenge him. The generals and vassals were all terrified by Lu Bu’s arrogance. Cong Ton Toan took the spear and jumped out to fight La Bo, after only a few rounds, he lost and ran. Lu Bu spurred the chained horse to chase again, this horse ran as fast as flying. Lu Bo was about to catch up to Toan, when at the side of the road, Truong Phi shouted: “That servant of the third family, stop running! There is Truong Phi from Yen land!” Seeing this, La Bo left Cong Ton Toan and fought with Truong Phi.
Truong Phi went to war against La Bo.
Zhang Fei enthusiastically tried to beat Lu Bu. The two men fought for more than 50 rounds, it was not clear which side could lose. Guan Yu stood outside and saw the situation, holding the dragon fruit and flying the horse to fight. The 3 horses stood in a nail pattern, and after another 30 rounds, the two still couldn’t defeat Lu Bu. Liu Bei at that time also held two swords and spurred his horse to run in and help his two brothers. The three of them surrounded Lu Bu and fought like a lampoon.
Lu Bu tried his best to resist, so he aimed in the middle of Liu Bei’s face and pretended to launch a halberd, Being dodged, Father opened the corner of the battle, took the knife against the halberd, and rode back. The three men spurred their horses on, and the eight-country knights all shouted and rushed out to fight. Army Lu Bu ran back to the Hu Lao gate, the three of them chased after him forever.
3 brothers Luu – Quan – Truong and La Bo in the battle of Ho Lao Quan. (Photo: Internet).
The story “Three brothers and wars of La Bo” in the novel “Three Kingdoms” is considered as one of the legendary stories, making the “god of war” La Bo famous in the world.
However, not many people know that, during the battle of Ho Lao Quan, Lu Bo said : “Fighting fiercely without victory or defeat, before the battle, there was only sadness in front of Quan Van Truong. Thanh Long Bao Dao was brilliant in the snow, Anh Vu’s battle robes fly like butterfly wings”. Quan Van Truong is described as having a face as red as gac, phoenix eyes with silkworm eyebrows, a beard two meters long, holding the Thanh Long Yen Nguyet Dao in his hand riding on a Red Horse, that majestic appearance has gone deep into his heart. so many people.
Guan Yu is known as the “sacred martial arts” in Chinese history. (Photo: Internet).
After this battle, the vassals of 8 countries invited 3 brothers, Luu – Quan – Truong to celebrate the merits and then sent people to Vien Thieu camp to report the good news.
The Battle of Guandu was a battle that took place in Chinese history in the year 200 at Guandu on the southern bank of the Yellow River between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, the two most powerful military forces in the pre-Three Kingdoms period. Cao Cao borrowed the name of the Son of Heaven to autocratize and took over the entire Trung Nguyen area. The opposing forces were all crushed, only Vien Thieu was Cao Cao’s biggest and most formidable enemy. Vien Thieu not only has a large army, but also a very high reputation in society with the name “Three generations make the Three Dukes”.
Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, the two most powerful forces at that time.
The Battle of Guandu in 220, which decided the fate of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, also opened a new era. In a position of reluctance, Cao Cao had to use the strategy of “taking less and more enemies” , using 70,000 elite troops to be able to resist Yuan Thieu’s 70,000 great troops.
Initially, with a large army, Vien Thieu made a preemptive strike. In February of the fifth year of Kien An, Emperor Han Hien (200 AD), Thieu sent troops to Le Duong, ordered General Nhan Luong to attack Bach Ma citadel, and then ordered General Van Xu to attack Dien Tan, but The decisive battle point is still at Bach Ma. In March, Liu Yan’s army was too weak to resist and delivered Cao Cao’s emergency letter. Cao immediately reinforces Bach Ma, but Tuan Du advises Cao to reinforce Dien Tan. Cao immediately understood Tuan Du’s meaning, implemented the strategy of “stretching east and west” , pretending to be ready to cross the Yellow River and attack Vien Thieu’s rear.
Quan Vu went to battle with a knife to kill Nhan Luong in a crowded place.
In April 200, Cao Cao led two generals Truong Lieu and Quan Vu to save Bach Ma and also divided his army to Dien Tan to distract Thieu’s attention. Sure enough, Thieu hit the plan, adding more troops to Dien Tan without paying attention to Bach Ma. That man Cao Cao suddenly urged his army to fight hard at Bach Ma, sent Quan Vu to the battle to kill Thieu’s strong general, Nhan Luong, to relieve the siege of Bach Ma.
After liberating Bach Ma, Cao Cao was afraid that Yuan Shao would vent his anger on the people, so he led them along the Yellow River to the west to take refuge. In the past, we only knew about Liu Bei when he withdrew with 10 thousand Kinh – Tuong people and left, but we didn’t know that Cao Cao was also a person like that.
In May 200, Cao Cao, Quan Vu and Truong Lieu followed the Yellow River to the west to save Yan Tan. Marching to the south of Dien Tan, they encountered Thieu troops who had just crossed the river, Vien Thieu and Luu Bei and Van Xu brought troops, a bloody battle was inevitable. At that time, the Cao army was on the high hill, and the Thieu army attacked. Xiao soldier reported: “About five hundred of Thieu’s cavalry have arrived.” After a while it was reported: “The cavalry has increased, the infantry is too numerous to count”. Cao Cao said: “No need to report anymore”. Immediately ordered the soldiers to remove the saddle and rest in place. The generals were dumbfounded, saying that the enemy army was too large, please transport the military equipment to the barracks first and then let’s fight.
Only Tuan Du understood Cao Cao’s meaning, smiled and said: “That’s bait, why move?” Cao also smiled, very confident. Moments later, Van Xu and Luu Bei (who was following Vien Thieu at that time) led five thousand troops. The generals asked, “Can we get on the horse now?” – Cao Cao said not to hurry. Sure enough, Van Xu and Luu Bei’s cavalry saw their military equipment in disarray, so they got off their horses and fought to rob them. At this time, Cao Cao ordered the firecrackers, gongs and drums to be set in the sky, and Cao’s 600 armored cavalrymen came down from the high hill, and Thieu’s army was broken.
After a few months of stopping to deploy troops, the two sides fought again in the epic battle at Quan Do in August of that year, lasting more than 100 days. Losing and losing two generals, Vien Thieu sent a large army to Duong Vu, northwest of Trung Mau, followed the sand dunes along the river, set up several dozen barracks extending from east to west, intending to deploy two wings to surround the army. Tear and destroy.
Cao Cao did not retreat, and also divided his army into several groups to resist, but because his troops were much smaller, it was not enough to separate enemy positions. Vien Thieu brought his army out of the ramparts and fought with Cao’s army. The Cao army lost the battle and had to retreat several times. Cao Cao ordered his generals to try to keep the battlefield, the enemy troops challenged many times but did not come out to fight.
Vien Thieu with overwhelming force, day and night challenged Cao Cao.
Vien Thieu then set up a battle on the mountain range, built many wooden huts, stood on it and shot down at the Cao army camp. The Cao army each had to use a wooden shield to shield the shot. Then Cao Cao used a catapult, with the power to shoot dozens of pounds of stones that flew three hundred meters away, destroying the enemy’s wooden huts.
Vien Thieu ordered his troops to dig many tunnels into the Cao army camp. He discovered that he sent his troops to dig a tunnel horizontally lying down, and when the Vien army came, they shot and killed. The two sides kept each other for a long time, Cao Cao was about to run out of salary, wanted to withdraw, so he consulted with Xun Yu who was defending Xu Xuong. Xun Yu wrote a reply, advising Cao Cao to persevere, and definitely not to withdraw, otherwise the consequences would be very bad.
He wrote: “Although the food supply in the army is now inadequate, it is not as good as the shortage of food in the two armies of Chu and Han fighting at Huynh Duong and Thanh Cao. At that time, neither Luu Bang nor Xiang Vo refused to retreat. Because whoever retreats first will suffer great damage. Now you, with a weaker army, have divided the land to hold the ground, grabbing the opponent’s throat so that they cannot advance. that situation has been going on for half a year already, so once the situation gets to the extreme, of course there’s going to be ups and downs. “. Cao Cao obeyed and ordered the generals to try their best to maintain the position.
After fighting for a long time, he could not defeat, Vien Thieu could not think of any other plan. Vien Thieu’s internal affairs revealed contradictions. Thieu sai Thuan Vu Quynh brought 10,000 troops back to receive wages to transport to the front. Conspiracy Hua Du offered a plan to Yuan Shao so that he could take advantage of Hua Do’s lax defenses, sending a wing of troops around Quan Do to attack Hua Do. Yuan Shao did not listen. At that time, Hua Du had a family member who was convicted of a crime, and asked Vien Thieu for forgiveness, so he was dissatisfied and left to Cao Cao’s line. Hua Du’s dissatisfaction is also partly due to reminding Vien Thieu not to use Thuan Vu Quynh who is a hot-tempered person, an alcoholic. Vien Thieu was skeptical and did not believe in Hua Du.
Being informed by Hua Du about Thuan Vu Quynh, Cao Cao personally brought 5,000 soldiers to chase Vien Thieu’s food warehouse in O Sao. In the middle of the night, Cao’s army suddenly ambushed, and Nhac Tien slashed Quynh to death. Cao Cao burned Yuan Shao’s food warehouse. Of Quynh’s more than 10,000 troops, more than 1,000 were killed, the rest surrendered. Cao Cao ordered to cut off the dead body’s nose, the tongue of the cow and horse was delivered to the surrendering army and brought back to the Vien Thieu barracks to threaten morale and weaken the enemy’s will.
Cao Cao burned Vien Thieu’s largest food warehouse at Wu Chao, officially turning the tide of the battle 180 degrees.
Vien Thieu saw the fire burning from afar, learned that O Sao was beaten, on the one hand sent troops to save Quynh, on the other hand sent Truong Cap and Cao Lam to rob Cao’s barracks. But Cao Cao arranged the defense first, as expected by Cap and Lam. Cap and Lam could not defeat Cao’s camp, and when they heard that Cao Cao had destroyed O Sao and returned, they decided to surrender to Cao.
Vien Thieu continuously heard the news of the defeat, the warehouse was lost, the generals were in a riot, pulling each other to flee. Cao Cao took the opportunity to lead an ambush, causing the Thieu army to be defeated. Thieu panicked, and his son, Vien Dam, led 800 cavalrymen to run in a row, crossing the Yellow River before daring to stop and rest.
Cao Cao stood in front of Vien Thieu’s grave recounting the war between the two sides, constantly praising Thieu.
The Battle of Quan Do marked the weakening and since then came to a complete end of the power of the Yuan Shao group, paving the way for Cao Cao to master the whole of North China, gaining the upper hand in the situation of “real war heroism”. “ then.
Vien Thieu later continued to fail at Thuong Dinh, 2 years later he died. Vien Thieu’s 3 children, Vien Thuong, Vien Hy, and Vien Tan competed for power to fight each other, in turn, Cao Cao destroyed them. The Battle of Guandu also showed Cao Cao’s great military talent and Yuan Shao’s weakness in leadership and military capabilities. At the same time, it leaves a great lesson about taking less antifreeze, using weak to win strong.
The Book of the Three Kingdoms and the Wei Wu Emperor records:
“During the reign of King Hoan De, the Yellow Star rose brightly between the two countries of Song and Chu. An Quy, an astronomer in Liaodong, guessed that after fifty years, there would be Chan Nhan starting a business in the Luong Bai area. , the power is like thunder. Sure enough, after 50 years, Cao broke Vien Thieu, and no one else is equal.”
The elders in the area heard the voice of Cao Cao breaking Vien Thieu, brought wine to the top of the mountain to congratulate Cao and tell about the prophecy 50 years ago, now fulfilled, Cao is very happy.
So according to the evolution of the historical wheel and of the times, Cao Cao will become a rising star in the night sky as a predetermined fate. There’s a reason why Yuan Shao couldn’t marry the world but Cao Cao au!