During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of Han Dynasty, a war broke out along the Yellow River, which happened shortly after the Battle of White Horse, and it was also one of a series of battles that triggered the decisive battle between rival warlords Yuan Shao and Cao Cao in Guandu for 200 years. This is called "Battle of Yanjin" in history. After Yan Liang, a general of the Yuan Dynasty, was killed in the Battle of White Horse, the death of Wen Chou, another general of the Yuan Dynasty, dealt a great blow to Yuan's morale before the Battle of Guandu.
background
/kloc-at the end of 0/90, there were signs of confrontation between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and they started a war in the Battle of White Horse at the beginning of 2000. Cao Cao tricked Yuan Shao, who gathered in Liyang, into attacking the White Horse, solved the siege of the White Horse and killed Yan Liang, the general in charge of Yuan Shao's attack. Cao Cao thought that Baima was not suitable for defense, so he voluntarily gave up Baima stronghold and moved population and materials westward along the river.
Yuan Shao crossed the river to pursue Cao Cao's transport convoy. But Cao Cao was unwilling to leave all the land between Guandu and the Yellow River to the enemy. He had to resist the enemy's March and make the enemy pay a heavy price before returning to Guandu.
Romantic description
The Battle of Yanjin was a battle that took place at the beginning of chapter 26 of Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Before Cao Cao ordered the attack on Wen Chou Army, the fighting process was very close to the official history. Zhang Liao and Huang Xu, two top talents of Cao Cao, are behind Wen Chou's army. Wen Chou immediately shot two arrows, one at Zhang Liao's helmet tassel and the other at Zhang Liao's horse face. Huang Xu fought Wen Chou with an axe, and Wen Chou stepped forward to help him, so he had to retreat.
Guan Yu led 12 to cut off Wen Chou's retreat and fight Wen Chou one-on-one. Wen Chou failed and tried to escape. However, Guan Yu's red hare was very cultured and soon caught up with him and killed Wen Chou from behind.
At present, there are three theories about the cause of Wen Chou's death: one is that he died in a disorderly army, mainly because Wen Chou's cause of death is not clearly recorded and can only be classified as a disorderly army; Secondly, he was killed by Huang Xu, because it was mentioned in Biography of Zhang Xu in Zhang Le, Shu Wei that the battle of White Horse before Huang Xu was "self-defeating Yan Liang", while the battle of Yanjin was "self-defeating Wen Chou", not subordinate, and then "worshipping generals", so Wen Chou was probably beheaded for meritorious service.
The problem with this statement is that if Wen Chou was really killed by Huang Xu, it should be clearly pointed out. Moreover, the original materials of Biography of Huang Xuzhuan were considered as "detailed" by Chen Shou, and such great achievements could not be ignored in ancient times. Third, he was killed by Guan Yu. This statement comes from the Collection of Letters from Two Kings written by Wang Xianzhi, the father and son of Wang Xizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which is a calligraphy collection of Zhang Biao's letters and articles copied by two kings.
Among them, there is a farewell letter written by later generations to Cao Cao in the name of Guan Yu, which says: "Yan Liang stabbed the white horse and Wen Chou killed the south slope." The problem with this statement is that this letter can only prove that the statement of "Guan Yu beheaded Wen Chou" began to spread as early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but it cannot directly prove the certainty of Guan Yu beheading Wen Chou.
In addition, the imperial edict of the two kings was originally lost, and the existing publication was relatively perfect in the Northern Song Dynasty. Another possibility is that this calligraphy was artificially added between the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty. However, later historians also believe this statement. For example, in Hong Mai's "Rong Zhai Essays: Late Mistakes by Famous Officials" in Song Dynasty, Guan Yu commented that "Guan Yu killed two generals of Yuan Shao, Yan Liang and Wen Chou, in the crowd". This is also a sentence used in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.