Cao Cao's invasion of Xu Province was a punitive invasion launched by the warlord Cao Cao against Tao Qian, the Governor of Xu Province, in the late Eastern Han dynasty. The casus belli for the invasion was the murder of Cao Cao's father, Cao Song, in Xu Province. Although Tao Qian's culpability was questionable, Cao Cao nonetheless held him responsible. The invasion took place in two separate waves in 193 and 194, during each of which Cao Cao captured a number of towns and engaged in collective punishment of the civilian populace.
Cao Cao's father Cao Song was living in his hometown Qiao (譙; present-day Bozhou, Anhui) after retirement until it became a battlefield during the Campaign against Dong Zhuo. So Cao Song along with the rest of his family moved to Langya (琅邪; present-day Linyi, Shandong) in Xu Province. By 193, Cao Cao had established a base in Yan Province (covering present-day southwestern Shandong and eastern Henan), and invited his father over to his territory. Cao Song was very wealthy, and had brought with him a baggage train consisting of more than 100 covered carts full of his effects. In or near Hua County (near Mount Tai), on the border of Xu Province and Yan Province, Cao Song and his son Cao De (曹德) were ambushed and killed. There were two accounts of how they were murdered. According to the Book of the Later Han and Zizhi Tongjian, Tao Qian had garrisoned men nearby at Yinping, who were tempted by greed for Cao Song's riches and murdered him for his wealth en route to his destination.[1][2] According to Wei Zhao's Book of Wu – the official history of Eastern Wu – Tao Qian despatched 200 bodyguards led by Commandant of the Capital Zhang Kai (張闓) to escort Cao Song, but Zhang instead murdered Cao and made off with his riches.[3] Regardless of Tao Qian's culpability, Cao Cao intended to hold him responsible for the murder of his father.[4]
The first invasion
In the summer or autumn[1] of 193, Cao Cao invaded Xu Province with an unspecified number of troops and easily captured over ten cities.[5][6][7] After conquering Pengcheng (彭城; present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu), Cao Cao killed possibly more than 10,000 defenders.[2] Tao Qian fled to Tan (剡; present-day Tancheng County, Linyi, Shandong), he was joined by Tian Kai, with the reinforcements Tao Qian was able to resist Cao Cao. Cao Cao's forces eventually ran out of supplies and had to withdraw back to Yan Province.[5][6][8]
Thwarted and low on rations[9] Cao Cao turned his army around, in the process sacking the counties of Qulü (取慮), Suiling (睢陵), and Xiaqiu (夏丘).[3][10] The local population was swollen with refugees from the violence of the capital regions. Cao Cao's army killed over 100,000 civilians, including both men and women, such that the Si River was stoppered up with their corpses. His army took the chickens and dogs for food and tore down the villages into ruins.[11][12]
The second invasion
In the spring of 194, Cao Cao's army returned to Xu Province, and Tao Qian begged aid from Tian Kai in the nearby Qing Province (青州). Tian Kai sent Tao Qian a force of some thousand men commanded by Liu Bei. Tao Qian, seeking to open a southern front against Cao Cao,[13] appointed Liu Bei as the Inspector of Yu Province, and transferred 4,000 soldiers into his service.[14][15] Along with Tao Qian's officer Cao Bao, Liu Bei encamped east of Tan (郯).[16][17]
Cao Cao's army plundered Langya and Donghai (東海; near present-day Tancheng, Shandong), destroying all in its path. Returning west, Cao Cao engaged and defeated Tao Qian's forces led by Liu Bei.[16][17] According to one source, Cao Cao conquered the nearby city of Xiangben (襄賁) after this.[18]
Xu Province was only granted reprieve when Zhang Miao betrayed Cao Cao and invited Lü Bu to take over Cao Cao's home base in Yan Province (兗州). Cao Cao broke off his vengeance against Tao Qian and turned his army back to attack Lü Bu.[19]
Aftermath
Liu Bei characterisctically shifted his alliance from Tian Kai towards Tao Qian and he remained in Xu Province after Cao Cao left. When Tao Qian died of illness later in 194, his sons Tao Shang (陶商) and Tao Ying (陶應)[20] were passed over for governorship by the local elite in favour of Liu Bei. Thus Liu Bei gained his first territory as a result of Cao Cao's campaign.[21]
In popular culture
Cao Cao's invasion of Xu Province is featured as playable stages in the seventh and eighth instalments of Koei's Dynasty Warriors video game series.
Notes and References
Notes
^ The Zizhi Tongjian (60.1945) has "autumn", while the Records of the Three Kingdoms (1.11) has "summer". History of Chinese Warfare specifies "the sixth month" (vol. 4, p 67), which would have been around August.
^ This casualty statistic, which appears in Tao Qian's biography in Records of the Three Kingdoms (8.249), is attached to a phrase describing the Si River being dammed with the bodies of the dead. According to Rafe de Crespigny (To Establish Peace, volume 1, internet edition (2004), p. 68 note 24 [internet pagination]), this is unsupported by geography and probably happened during Cao Cao's massacre of civilians somewhat farther south, not during his battle at Pengcheng. Thus, the casualty figure is most probably not reliable.
^ The Book of the Later Han (73.2367) also includes Pengcheng and Fuyang (傅陽; in present-day Linyi, Shandong) among Cao Cao's ravages.
Wu Guoqing (武國卿); Mu Zhongyue (慕中岳). History of Chinese Warfare中國戰爭史. Vol.4. Beijing: Gold Wall Press.
Related Research Articles
Cao Cao, courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power towards the end of the Eastern Han dynasty and became the effective head of the Han central government during that period. He laid the foundation for what was to become the state of Cao Wei (220–265), established by his son and successor Cao Pi, who ended the Eastern Han dynasty and inaugurated the Three Kingdoms period (220–280). Beginning in his own lifetime, a corpus of legends developed around Cao Cao which built upon his talent, his cruelty, and his perceived eccentricities.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion, alternatively translated as the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, was a peasant revolt during the late Eastern Han dynasty of ancient China. The uprising broke out in c. March 184 CE, during the reign of Emperor Ling. Although the main rebellion was suppressed by 185 CE, it took 21 years for full suppression of resistant areas and emerging rebellions by 205 CE. The weakening of the imperial court and the rising political influence of ultra-autonomous regional military-governors, who helped suppress the rebellion, eventually led to rampant warlord dominance and the resultant Three Kingdoms period.
Zhang Liao, courtesy name Wenyuan, was a Chinese military general serving under the warlord Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He served briefly in the state of Cao Wei, founded by Cao Cao's successor Cao Pi, in the early Three Kingdoms period before his death. Formerly a subordinate of other warlords such as Ding Yuan, Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu, Zhang Liao joined Cao Cao around 198 after Lü Bu's downfall at the Battle of Xiapi. Since then, he participated in many of Cao Cao's military campaigns, including those against Yuan Shao's heirs and the Wuhuan tribes from 201 to 207. He is best known for his pivotal role in the Battle of Xiaoyao Ford in 214–215, in which he successfully defended Hefei from the forces of the warlord Sun Quan.
The Battle of Xiaoting (猇亭之戰), also known as the Battle of Yiling and the Battle of Yiling and Xiaoting, was fought between the state of Shu and the state of Wu, between the years 221 and 222 in the early Three Kingdoms period of China. The battle is significant because Wu was able to turn the situation from a series of initial losses into a defensive stalemate, before proceeding to win a decisive victory over Shu. The Wu victory halted the Shu invasion and preceded the death of Liu Bei, Shu's founding emperor.
Liu Bei, courtesy name Xuande (玄德), was a Chinese warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who later became the founding emperor of Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms of China.
Lü Bu, courtesy name Fengxian, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of Imperial China. Originally a subordinate of a minor warlord Ding Yuan, he betrayed and murdered Ding Yuan and defected to Dong Zhuo, the warlord who controlled the Han central government in the early 190s. In 192, he turned against Dong Zhuo and killed him after being instigated by Wang Yun and Shisun Rui, but was later defeated and driven away by Dong Zhuo's followers.
Xiahou Yuan, courtesy name Miaocai, was a Chinese military general and politician serving under the warlord Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He is known for his exploits in western China in the 210s, during which he defeated Cao Cao's rivals Ma Chao and Han Sui in Liang Province and the surrounding areas, and forced several Di and Qiang tribal peoples into submission. He was killed in action at the Battle of Mount Dingjun while defending Hanzhong Commandery from attacks by a rival warlord Liu Bei. Xiahou Yuan's death was highly dramatised in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which he was slain by Liu Bei's general Huang Zhong during a surprise raid.
Cao Ren, courtesy name Zixiao, was a military general serving during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China under the warlord Cao Cao, who was also his older second cousin. He continued serving in the state of Cao Wei – founded by Cao Cao's son and successor, Cao Pi – during the Three Kingdoms period. He played a significant part in assisting Cao Cao in the civil wars leading to the end of the Han dynasty. He was appointed as the Grand Marshal (大司馬) when Cao Pi ascended the throne, and was also credited by the latter for the establishment of Wei. However, Cao Ren was also once derided as a mediocre commander by Zhu Huan, a general from Wei's rival state Eastern Wu.
Yu Jin, courtesy name Wenze, was a Chinese military general serving under the warlord Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He joined Cao Cao in 192 around the start of the civil wars leading to the collapse of the dynasty, and fought in many of the campaigns which established the warlord's position as a central figure in that period. In 219, Yu Jin was tasked with leading forces to relief Cao Cao's general Cao Ren, who was being besieged in Fancheng by Liu Bei's general Guan Yu, but his armies were destroyed in a flood due to heavy rains. Yu Jin surrendered to Guan Yu and became a prisoner-of-war, but was transferred to the custody of another warlord, Sun Quan, after Sun Quan's forces captured Guan Yu's bases in late 219. Sun Quan treated Yu Jin like a guest and in 221 sent him back to the state of Cao Wei, which was founded in late 220 by Cao Cao's successor, Cao Pi, who ended the Eastern Han dynasty. Cao Pi pardoned Yu Jin and restored him to the position of a general. However, Yu Jin died later that year in regret after visiting Cao Cao's tomb, where he saw illustrations of the Battle of Fancheng depicting his surrender to Guan Yu.
Zang Ba, courtesy name Xuangao, was a military general who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period of China. He served the warlord Tao Qian initially, followed by Lü Bu and finally Cao Cao and his successors, but for the most part of his career, he remained semi-autonomous over his troops and eastern China. The years of his birth and death are not recorded, but he served the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period until the reign of the second Wei emperor, Cao Rui.
The Empty Fort Strategy involves using reverse psychology to deceive the enemy into thinking that an empty location is full of traps and ambushes, and therefore induce the enemy to retreat. It is listed as the 32nd of the Thirty-Six Stratagems. Some examples are listed in the following sections.
Tao Qian (132–194), courtesy name Gongzu, was a government official and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He is best known for serving as the governor of Xu Province.
Chen Deng, courtesy name Yuanlong, was a Chinese military general and politician who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Born in a family of government officials in Xu Province, he started his career as a county chief at the age of 24 and later became an agriculture official under Tao Qian, the Governor of Xu Province. After Tao Qian's death in 194, Chen Deng supported Liu Bei to be the new Governor. However, in 196, he was forced to become a subordinate of the warlord Lü Bu after the latter seized control of Xu Province from Liu Bei. During this time, Chen Deng and his father Chen Gui pretended to be loyal towards Lü Bu, while secretly undermining his influence by dissuading him from allying with another warlord Yuan Shu. Chen Deng also secretly agreed to serve as a mole in Xu Province for the warlord Cao Cao, who controlled the Han central government. Chen Deng was then appointed as the Administrator of Guangling Commandery. During the Battle of Xiapi of 198–199, Chen Deng led his troops to join Cao Cao and assisted him in defeating Lü Bu. After the victory, Chen Deng was given an additional appointment as General Who Calms the Waves. During his tenure in Guangling Commandery, he gained high popularity among the people for good and benevolent governance – to the point where the people even wanted to follow him after learning that he had been reassigned to another commandery. He also resisted two invasions by the forces of Sun Ce, a warlord who controlled territories in the Jiangnan region. He died in an unknown year at the age of 38 due to an illness caused by intestinal parasites.
Cao Song, courtesy name Jugao, was an official who lived during the Eastern Han dynasty of China. He was the foster son of the eunuch Cao Teng and the father of the warlord Cao Cao, who rose to prominence in the final years of Eastern Han and laid the foundation of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period. Cao Song was posthumously honoured as "Emperor Tai" by his grandson Cao Pi in 220 when the latter ended the Han dynasty and founded the Cao Wei regime.
Cao Bao was a military officer serving under Tao Qian, the Governor of Xu Province, during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He became a subordinate of Tao Qian's successor, Liu Bei, after Tao's death in 194. He was killed by Zhang Fei in 196 after a quarrel.
Zhang Miao, courtesy name Mengzhuo, was a Chinese politician and warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China.
The war between Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu was fought between the warlords Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu between 197 and 199 in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. It concluded with Zhang Xiu's surrender to Cao Cao.
The Hanzhong Campaign was a military campaign launched by the warlord Liu Bei to seize control of Hanzhong Commandery from his rival, Cao Cao. The campaign took place between December 217 and August 219 during the prelude to the Three Kingdoms period. Although Cao Cao's forces had settled in Hanzhong Commandery two years prior after the Battle of Yangping, they were worn out by an overall Fabian strategy employed by Liu Bei's forces, who used targeted attacks to capture strategic locations from the enemy. One of these attacks resulted in the death of Xiahou Yuan, one of Cao Cao's top generals, delivering a huge blow to the morale of Cao Cao's forces. Due to logistical and other issues, Cao Cao was eventually forced to abandon Hanzhong Commandery and order a retreat in June 219. Liu Bei emerged victorious in the campaign and occupied Hanzhong Commandery, after which he declared himself "King of Hanzhong" in August of that year.
Tao Bao, courtesy name Anbu, was a military general of Later Zhao during China's Sixteen Kingdoms period. Being one of Shi Le's Eighteen Riders, his most notable activities were his battles with Zu Ti, in which he defended the city of Pengguan and also helping Shi Le during his final push against Liu Yao in 328. He served up to Shi Hu's reign before dying in 340. His name can be rendered as Yao Bao.
Guo Ma was a military general of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period. In 279, Guo and his colleagues rebelled in Guangzhou following the death of their superior, Xiu Yun. His rebellion later coincided with the Conquest of Wu by Jin, and was one of the last conflicts of the Three Kingdoms.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
