Guo Jia repeatedly offered ingenious strategies: At that time, various princes were fighting for the world. In this situation, Guo Jia's accurate judgment of the psychological state of each opponent often became the key to Cao Cao's victory.
In the second year of Jian'an (197), Cao Cao was defeated in his campaign against Zhang Xiu, and Yuan Shao wrote a letter to humiliate him. When Cao Cao was worried that he did not have the ability to compete with Yuan Shao, Guo Jia proposed the famous "ten wins and ten losses" theory. He cited ten reasons in a row to prove that "Gong had ten wins and Shao had ten losses." Guo Jia's analysis was very convincing, which not only boosted the morale of Cao's soldiers, but also helped Cao Cao formulate long-term and short-term combat goals. At the same time, Guo Jia also formally established his core position in Cao Cao's military intelligence group.
In the third year of Jian'an (198), Liu Bei was defeated by Lu Bu and attached himself to Cao Cao. The counselor Cheng Yu suggested to Cao Cao to kill Liu Bei to eliminate future troubles. Cao Cao asked Guo Jia what he thought. Guo Jia thought: "Indeed. But Cao Gong raised the sword to raise the righteous army, eliminated violence for the people, and promoted integrity to recruit heroes and talents, but I am afraid he has not yet done it. Now Liu Bei has a heroic reputation. He turned to us when he was at the end of his rope and we killed him. This is the bad reputation of killing a wise man. Then the wise men and soldiers will doubt themselves and think about who to choose as the master again. Then who will Cao Gong pacify the world with? Therefore, eliminating the trouble of one person will endanger the reputation of the world. The choice of safety must be clear!" Cao Cao also felt this and did not kill Liu Bei. However, Guo Jia also believed that Liu Bei had Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who were ten thousand enemies, following him, and Liu Bei was popular and would not be inferior to others. So he advised Cao Cao: "The ancients said: 'If you indulge the enemy for one day, it will cause calamity for several generations.' It is better to establish the appropriate position as soon as possible." This meant that he should put Liu Bei under house arrest, but Cao Cao did not accept the plan of putting Liu Bei under house arrest. In order to make him submit to him, he became closer to Liu Bei.
In September of the same year, Cao Cao sent troops to attack Lü Bu, who was occupying Xuzhou. Cao's army first broke through Pengcheng, then defeated Lü Bu, and finally besieged Xiapi. Lü Bu held his ground. The battle lasted for more than half a year. Seeing that his soldiers were exhausted, Cao Cao was ready to give up. At this time, Guo Jia saw an opportunity to win. He used Xiang Yu as an example to persuade Cao Cao, and put forward the view that "if a man with courage but no strategy is exhausted, he will soon be defeated", and urged Cao Cao to attack quickly. Cao Cao followed Guo Jia's strategy, attacking the city while breaking the dike to cover Xiapi with water. As expected, in the same month of the same year, he conquered Xiapi and captured and killed Lü Bu.
In the fourth year of Jian'an (199), Liu Bei took the opportunity of Yuan Shu's surrender to Yuan Shao and asked Cao Cao to intercept him. At this time, Guo Jia and Cheng Yu were not around, so Cao Cao agreed to Liu Bei's request. When Guo Jia and Cheng Yu came back and learned about this, they tried to dissuade Cao Cao: "Letting Liu Bei go will cause changes!" But Liu Bei had already left, and he had seized Xiapi and raised troops to fight against Cao Cao. Cao Cao regretted not listening to Guo Jia.
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