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Among the brilliant minds who shaped the Three Kingdoms era, none captured Cao Cao’s trust – or foresaw the future with such uncanny precision – as Guo Jia, styled Fengxiao.
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Even as Cao Cao consolidated control over northern China in 204 CE, Yuan Tan, the eldest son of Yuan Shao, remained fixated not on survival – but on destroying his younger brother, Yuan Shang.
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In Chapter 33 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, two pivotal threads unfold in the wake of Cao Cao’s conquest of Ji Province: a dramatic personal episode involving his heir Cao Pi and the beautiful Lady Zhen, and a decisive military campaign against the last remnants of the Yuan clan in the distant northeast.
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The collapse of Yuan Shao’s once-mighty coalition – ruler of four northern provinces and commander of over 100,000 troops – was not sealed by his defeat at the Battle of Guandu alone, but by the self-destructive infighting among his sons after his death.
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“Kill with a borrowed knife” (“Kill with a borrowed sword”, or “Borrow one’s hand to kill”) is a famous Chinese idiom and also the third stratagem of thirty-six. It means to convince others or even your enemies that your enemies are theirs, and make them believe they will be defeated, betrayed or otherwise end…