Chen Gong was not the magistrate who put Cao Cao in history, and Chen Gong did not follow Cao Cao in this way. This incident is recorded in the reflection and Shi Yu, and the content is basically the same, but Shi Yu is a detailed one.
The former said: Cao Cao passed through zhongmou county and was suspected by the director of the pavilion, so he was tied up and escorted to the county seat. The latter said: At this time, the county has received the official document of Dong Zhuo's arrest of Cao Cao, but no one knows Cao Cao.
Only Gong Cao knew it was Cao Cao in his heart, and thought that there was chaos in the world and he should not catch heroes in the world, so he persuaded the county magistrate to let Cao Cao go. Judging from the two books, it is not that the county magistrate is Chen Gong, nor that the county magistrate walks with Cao Cao.
Extended data:
In the second year of Chuping (A.D. 19 1), Cao Cao defeated the Yellow Scarf Army in Dongjun, and Yuan Shao made Cao Cao the prefect of Dongjun. The following year, Qingzhou Yellow Scarf Army invaded Yanzhou, and Liu Dai, the secretariat of Yanzhou, was killed. Bao Xin, Minister of Jibei, greeted Cao Caoling (concurrently) as a shepherd in Yanzhou.
According to Shi Yu, Cao Cao was appointed as Yanzhou Pastoral, and Chen Gong played a big role in it. It seems that before this, Chen Gong had followed Cao Cao.
After Cao Cao escaped from Luoyang, he set out in Wu Ji County and Chenliu County. It has been three years now, from six years (A.D. 189) to the third year of Chuping (A.D. 192). It was also during this period that Chen Gong followed Cao Cao.
In the spring of the first year of Xingping (AD 194), during Cao Cao's expedition to Xuzhou, Chen Gong and Zhang Miao, the satrap, rebelled against Lu Bu and became Lu Bu's counselors.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Chen Gong