Cao Cao has been fighting for many years, how did he get so many soldiers?

1. Conscription, since ancient times, conscription is indispensable when princes go to war;

2, the Yellow Turban Army was co-opted, because Cao Cao had conquered the Yellow Turban Army and the God of War was finally incorporated by him;

3. The private soldiers raised by the famous families themselves, these famous families naturally belong to Cao Cao after they defect to Cao Cao;

4. Co-opt ethnic minorities.

After Cao Cao pacified the million-strong Yellow Turban Army in Yanzhou, he selected and incorporated them one by one, and accepted 300,000 of them as his own army and organized them as the "Qingzhou Army".

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when there were years of war, people's living standards were very low, and some people went to serve as soldiers in order not to starve to death, after all, they could have food to eat, so Cao Cao was able to recruit so many soldiers.

The main reason is that Cao Cao is more capable of winning people's hearts, and he really respects talented people and is willing to humbly ask for advice.

Historically, Cao Cao's soldiers can be broadly divided into these three ways to obtain:

Cao Cao's soldiers have another channel, that is, to recruit wealthy people, such as Xu Chu, Xu Chu before taking refuge in Cao Cao, he was a local hero, and he had a team with good combat effectiveness, after Cao Cao subdued Xu Chu, Xu Chu's team naturally belonged to Cao Cao, which was really a great help to Cao Cao, so that the combat effectiveness of his army rose a lot, and the growing Cao Cao also fought all the way, all the way to collect the surrendered soldiers and prisoners, for his use, and continue to grow his army. Slowly, Cao Cao also began to dominate the north, becoming the most powerful of the princes at that time.

The place of the conquest. Every time he captured a city, he would recruit and expand his army there.

There are those who are directly recruited through money, and secondly, he also has the Yellow Turban Army, and there is also a kind of army that belongs to Cao Cao after leading the army, plus many years of war, and his prisoners have also been incorporated into his own army

Some of them were recruited and purchased, the Qingzhou soldiers were obtained by the Yellow Turban Army who surrendered to prisoners of the battlefield, and some were forcibly recruited.

As one of the four ancient civilizations, China has witnessed the establishment and demise of countless dynasties in the course of its development. I believe that many people are very interested in the history of the Three Kingdoms, during this period of time our country is divided into Cao Wei, Shu Han, Eastern Wu three regimes, in the situation of the three powers, the country is also constantly in turmoil, many heroes and heroes in this troubled era wrote their own legendary stories.

Of course, the start of a war is a great disaster for the people at any time. Therefore, when Cao Cao pacified the north, the population of the Central Plains also decreased a lot compared with the Eastern Han Dynasty. So Cao Cao has fought for so many years, what is the source of his troops?

Recruitment was one of the most common methods of recruiting soldiers at the time, which meant that as long as you had enough money, you could recruit a large number of soldiers. However, it is often difficult for soldiers recruited through this method to ensure combat effectiveness. At that time, after Cao Cao saw Dong Zhuo's dictatorship, he immediately returned to Chenliu County to recruit troops to kill Dong Zhuo, and Cao Cao found 5,000 soldiers in Chenliu County alone.

However, these soldiers had poor military literacy, and it didn't take long for them to be wiped out on the battlefield.

The captured Yellow Turban Army was also the main force of the Three Kingdoms period**, because these Yellow Turban Army were basically ordinary people from rebellion, although their combat effectiveness was relatively weak, but most of them had experience on the battlefield, and it was better to save a lot of energy than to bring new recruits again. The Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army is the most important force in the world to help Cao Cao.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the country was in turmoil, and many wealthy clans would unite and form a powerful private army in order to avoid being drawn into the war. Cao Cao had a general named Xu Chu, he was from a wealthy family, and when Xu Chu defected to Cao Cao, he also took away all the private soldiers in the Xu family's camp. These private soldiers have super combat effectiveness, and they have also made a lot of military exploits under the leadership of Xu Chu.

After Cao Cao pacified the north, he reformulated the military source system, and he established a separate household registration for all soldiers and their families, and named them "Tujia". The "Tujia" people must all live together in accordance with the regulations in order to supervise each other, and after all soldiers are divided into "Tujia", all family members must serve in the army, all males are soldiers**, and "Tujia" people can only intermarry with "Tujia" people.

Of course, in addition to the conventional troops** we mentioned above, there are other ways to obtain sufficient troops. For example, if you marry other ethnic minorities, you can borrow troops from them.

Regardless of how they were recruited, these soldiers would go to the battlefield, and after decades of war, there were often very few who survived. I have to say that war is really cruel for the people.

The earliest was recruitment, and as long as there was enough money, you could recruit troops. The second is the private soldiers of the captives and the wealthy clans. Later, after Cao Cao pacified the north, he reformulated the military source system, and all soldiers and their families were registered separately, all family members must serve the army, and all men were soldiers.

Finally, it is possible to marry ethnic minorities to borrow troops.

Cao Cao's troops were mainly through the annexation of the troops of the various princes, while Sun Quan's troops were generally his Jiangdong fathers, and Liu Bei was the refuge of the so-called righteous army of these princes.

Through the use of money to recruit soldiers, the captured Yellow Turban Army, the private soldiers of the Hao family, the soldier families formulated by Cao Cao, and the borrowed soldiers. In the end, it is the common people who suffer.

Cao Cao's soldiers mainly have three major **, one is to directly recruit soldiers, many people are poor and can't eat, so they naturally follow Cao Cao, the second is to capture the Yellow Turban Army, and the third is the private soldiers of the Hao family.

Many of the soldiers came from the common people, because Cao Cao could feed them and give them food, so these soldiers would follow Cao Cao.

His soldiers were all recruited from the state army under his jurisdiction, and some of them were Han Dynasty troops.

When Cao Cao conquered Jingzhou, Jingzhou General Cai Mao gave Jingzhou to Cao Cao, so Cao Cao harvested Jingzhou without spending a single soldier, and got more than 300,000 terracotta warriors.

In the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao made a surprise attack when he attracted the attention of Yuan Shao's 300,000-strong army head-on.

Because Cao Cao listened to Xu You's advice, he attacked Wuchao at night and burned all Yuan Shao's grain and grass, causing Yuan Shao's troops to be defeated.

First of all, Liu Bei understands military charm, so most generals will obey him. Then, after Liu Bei arrived in Xuzhou, he killed the Xuzhou assassin who was loyal to Cao Cao. In the end, some disobedient generals were also killed, and the rest naturally turned to Liu Bei.

It was through the culture of the gods that he controlled the army, and the army at that time especially believed in the gods, so he created a god to control the army.

The person who stole Cao Cao's 50,000 elite soldiers was Liu Bei, Liu Bei had a talisman to command them, and the ancient soldiers only recognized the talisman but did not recognize people, and Liu Bei could command them if he had a talisman.

300,000.

The number of Cao Cao's troops has always been controversial, saying that he is small, and there are 300,000 Qingzhou troops when they are included; said that he had a lot, and in the battle of Guandu, which was related to fate, he could only gather 20,000 or 30,000 people to meet the enemy.

Let me make a statistic for Cao Cao, Cao Cao received Qingzhou Yellow Turbans "300,000 casualties, 1 million men and women". Bao Xin said: "The thieves are all with each other, and the army has no baggage."

However, the so-called "300,000 surrendered deaths" are actually the men in the "million mouths", we can calculate, excluding women, children, and sick people, the remaining thirty percent of the men in a family have this so-called "300,000 surrendered deaths", and in fact, according to the proportion, these 300,000 men include men who are "up to 63 and down to 14 years old", and there are very few young and middle-aged people.

The core of Cao Cao's rule was still the army led by the group of people he started, and He Ziquan's General History of China also says that the basic force at this stage was still his landlord army. And the number of this force is simply not large, at best.

1. 20,000 people, and after Lu Bu attacked Yanzhou, he lost everything, "Although Yanzhou is ruined today, there are still three cities." There are no less than 10,000 people who can fight", Cao Cao is left after this stage.

1. 20,000 troops.

It's just that Cao Cao successively supported the Han Emperor, collected Zhang Xiu, Dingguanzhong, and destroyed Lu Bu, and the strength of the army continued to expand, such as Lu Qian, "Jian Qi is strong to supplement the soldiers, and Mount Tai has elite soldiers and is named the state and county."

Before the Guandu war, Cao Cao said: "Today, there is a lonely bear, riding 100,000 horses, and resigning from the crime, who dares to disagree?" As soon as I heard this, I knew that it was an exaggeration, and Cao Cao was at most in the army at this time.

70,000 or 80,000 people. It's just that according to the combat effectiveness of the army units, Cao's army is invincible in the world.

After the Guandu War, Cao Cao occupied Jizhou: "Yesterday's household registration can get 300,000 people, so it is a big state", this "300,000 armor soldiers" is actually the same as the "more than 300,000 surrendered soldiers" of the Qingzhou Yellow Turban, which refers to the men in the county who are up to 60 and 14 years old, and they are not really conscripted like this.

Yuan Shao, who ruled Jizhou as the basis, gathered 100,000 "elite soldiers" in the Battle of Guandu, and the whole army was wiped out, but his remnants were still not under Cao Cao, so Cao Cao spent another seven years pacifying him after the victory in Guandu.

After Cao Cao pacified Hebei, the total strength of the army should be more than 200,000, plus Liu Biao's 80,000 troops have more than 300,000 people, so "Three Kingdoms. Zhuge Ke's Biography said: "After the northern capital is decided, Cao led 300,000 people to Jingzhou", in fact, this is Cao Cao's total strength, and Zhou Yu's 230,000 attacks on Jiangnan are more in line with reality.

Authoritative historical sources explain the Battle of Guandu in 200 A.D. Cao Jun 2w

In the Battle of Chibi in 208, Cao Cao's troops were 20w, and most of the Jingzhou soldiers were killed.

In March of the twentieth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao led an army of 100,000 to conquer Zhang Lu in Hanzhong.