On May 17, 226, a generation of male lords Cao Rui succeeded to the throne in Luoyang, with Empress Dowager Bian as Empress Dowager And Empress Guo as Empress Dowager, posthumously honoring his mother Empress Zhen as Empress Dowager Wenzhao and her younger brother Cao Rui as the Prince of Yangping.
Before the Wei Emperor Cao Pi left the young emperor or the foundation of the State of Wei, four auxiliary ministers, namely, the Chinese general Cao Zhen, the Zhenjun general Chen Qun, the Zhengdong general Cao Xiu, and the Fujun general Sima Yi. This is a particularly luxurious configuration, two texts and two weapons, Sima Yi and Chen Qun are members of the four friends of the prince at that time, and the relationship with Cao Pi is far better than that of ordinary people, while Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen are clan generals, whether in the army or the imperial court have a very high majesty, and loyal and reliable, such auxiliary ministers are a kind of happiness for the country, but for the monarch who should have all the power, this is the sand in the eyes.
And look at the Ming Dynasty Zhang Juzheng, The Western Han Dynasty Huo Guang, once there is such a heavy subject to assist the government, the monarch often takes back the power is very difficult, the news spread to the State of Wu, Sun Quan very contempt for Cao Rui, thinking that Cao Rui is not as good as one-tenth of Cao Cao, Cao Pi left to assist him is either the emperor's relatives or scholars, how can this convince the people of the world? The reason why Chen Qun, Cao Zhen and others were able to do their best before was because they were afraid of Cao Cao's majesty, and Cao Pi was using emotional grace to envelop them, and now that Cao Rui is young and weak, they will definitely seize power, do not think of making progress, and form parties for personal gain, I see that the great chaos of the Wei state is coming soon. (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wushu, Zhang Gu Zhuge Bu Biography VII) However, Lu Xun believed that Cao Rui was very powerful and appointed loyal soldiers, (Wen All chose Zhongliang, Lenient Punishment, Bu Favor, and Bo Fu Provincial Servant to please the people's hearts, and his suffering was even deeper than that of the exercises. As it turned out, Lu Xun was right, and during Cao Rui's reign, nothing happened that Sun Quan had hoped for.
Soon, Cao Rui got rid of the four auxiliary ministers, and really sat on the peak of power, Cao Rui attached great importance to agriculture, before each spring ploughing, he had to put down the emperor's shelf, personally go to the field, cultivate and work like a commoner, and when he encountered a great drought and other needs to be sacrificed, Cao Rui also personally came to the scene and personally presided over various large and small ceremonies, because he often studied the law when he was young, so after he took the throne, he paid great attention to jurisprudence, and said: Prison is related to the lives of everyone in the world. Every time a major case appeared in the imperial court, he had to go to observe it, and he decreed the establishment of a doctor of law, the reform of the Han law, and the formulation of new laws. He also ordered that the death penalty clause be reduced to reduce the number of capital offenses; in addition to the death penalty, the sins could be atonened with money; and the punishment of whipping and cane should be reduced so as not to be bitterly beaten. Cao Rui also did a very good job in employing people, deposing many incompetent people who could only talk on paper, such as He Yan, Bi Rail and others, some of whom were even deprived of their political rights for life, and then selected many virtuous people to enter the imperial court, comparable to Emperor Cao Cao.
Cao Rui generally accepted the suggestions of the ministers with an open mind, even if he felt that the other party was very absurd (Cao Rui's own point of view), he would not punish these ministers who dared to speak out, but was very tolerant of them, and once Yang Fu often saw the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui wearing embroidered hats and half-sleeved silk clothes. He asked The Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui, "What kind of etiquette is this?" Cao Rui did not answer silently, but later did not dare to see Yang Fu again without wearing the imperial dress according to the etiquette. Once, when Cao Rui rode to the front of the Shang Shutai Gate, Chen Jiao, seeing Emperor Ming's presence, went out and knelt down to greet him, and asked Cao Rui what he had seen. Cao Rui said, "I just want to check the documents." Chen Jiao replied, "These documents are the duties of the courtiers, not the things that Your Majesty should know." If the minister is incompetent, please ask His Majesty to remove the minister from his post. Your Majesty had better go back. After Cao Rui heard Chen Jiao's words, he felt ashamed and drove back to the palace. Since Zhuge Liang's death, the Northern Expedition of Wu and Shu was terminated at the same time, since Cao Rui began to build a large number of civil engineering, extravagant waste, and built a large number of palaces and terraces, which caused extreme dissatisfaction among the ministers, Tai wei Sima Yi, Sikong Chen Qun, Ting Wei Gao Rou, Wei Wei Xin Bi, Shaofu Yang Fu, And others wrote to hope that Cao Rui would change the status quo, but Cao Rui accepted it with an open mind, in fact, the left ear went in, the right ear came out, and still went his own way.
Although Cao Rui did not fight everywhere like Cao Cao, but his military level was very high, in the same year that Cao Rui took the throne, Sun Quan led a large army of 50,000 to attack Jiangxia County, Jiangxia Taishou Wenping hurriedly asked the imperial court for help, the news reached Luoyang, the ministers panicked, thinking that heavy troops should be allowed to come to support, but Cao Rui was stable and self-assured, thinking that our army was already in a state of confrontation with the enemy, Sun Quan would definitely withdraw first. (Now that he had fought with the hired, the husband attacked and defended the situation, and finally did not dare to stay long) Just let the Zhishu attendant Yu Shi Xunyu take more than a thousand people to comfort the soldiers in the front, at night, this small unit was seen by Sun Quan with torches, mistakenly thinking that Cao Rui's army was coming, and hurriedly withdrew (Yu Jiang Xiafa's county soldiers and the thousand people who rode from the foot to the mountain to raise fire, Quan retreated).
Only 4 months later, Sun Quan made a comeback, only this time to send the left generals Zhuge Jin and Zhang Ba to attack Xiangyang, at this time Wen Ping had died, the imperial court urgently needed to send a new fierce general to go, Cao Rui looked around and chose an unexpected candidate, Sima Yi, and Sima Yi, as a civilian official, began his legendary military career, and sure enough, Zhang Ba was beheaded, zhuge Jin was defeated and retreated (Wu generals Zhuge Jin, Zhang Ba, and other Kou Xiangyang, Fujun general Sima Xuanwang broke it and beheaded him).
In 228 AD, The Han chancellor Zhuge Liang led an army to take the Qishan Road and sent troops to Longyou, because the State of Wei looked down on the State of Shu, so there was no defense, for a time the three counties of Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding were unable to resist, Tianshui, Nan'an Taishou even gave up the defense of the city and fled eastward, the Wei state of Tianshui defended Jiang Wei, Liang Xu, Yin Xiang, Shangguan Yan and others surrendered to Zhuge Liang, and the Yongzhou assassin Shi Guohuai retreated to Shangyi to wait for help. Three of the five counties of Longxi (Longxi, Nan'an, Tianshui, Guangwei, and Anding) surrendered to Zhuge Liang, but only Guangwei Andong and Longxi refused to surrender. Longxi Commandery Taishou Youchu resolutely resisted. The entire court of Cao Wei was shaken, and the courtiers were stunned. In order to appease the group of subjects, Cao Rui looked like no one on the surface, as if dealing with Zhuge Liang was very simple, but in fact, he immediately asked the general Cao Zhen to go to replace the incompetent Xiahou Shu, and let Zhang Gao lead 50,000 infantry cavalry to support, but these were far from enough, Cao Rui personally drove to Chang'an, commanded the front line, and finally Zhang Gao defeated Ma Chen at the street pavilion, and Zhuge Liang could only be forced to retreat.
In 233 AD, Bu DuGen and Ke Bi Neng colluded with each other, intending to rebel, and the state stabbed Shi Bi Rail immediately led his troops north, hoping to shock Ke Bi Neng externally, warned Cao Rui of the effect of Bu Du Gen internally, and gave Cao Rui a table, Cao Rui read it and hurriedly ordered Bi Rail to return to Hezhou, if he had reached the border of the Wei state, he would not advance any further, stop on the spot, why? Because Cao Rui believes that BuDugen must be uncertain about rebellion, if he is kind and comforting, maybe he will not rebel, on the contrary, if he uses force, he will definitely oppose! They will surely unite against the imperial court in horror, and where are there any threats and warnings? However, Bi Lu had already marched into Tunyinguan and sent the generals Su Shang and Dong Bi to pursue them, and sure enough, Su Shang and Dong Bi fought with them in Lou Lou, and were defeated, the two generals were killed in battle, and the tribes of Budugen also defected out of the country, and Qibi was able to harass the border of the Wei state, plunder the people, and rob the finances, seeing this situation, Cao Rui immediately sent the general Qin Lang to lead a large army to the border, and Kebineng and others did not dare to be enemies, and could only defeat the desert north.
In order to cooperate with Zhuge Liang's Fifth Northern Expedition, in 234 AD, Wu Sunquan led an army of 100,000 to attack Hefei for the sixth time, and Wu Bing marched north in three ways. On the west road, Lu Xun and Zhuge Jin went to Xiangyang, and on the east road, Sun Shao and Zhang Cheng went to Guangling and Huaiyang, and Sun Quan led a large army out of the middle road to besiege Hefei. The General Of the Expeditionary Forces suggested abandoning the city of Hefei and luring the Wu army to Shouchun to annihilate it, but Cao Rui disagreed, believing that the city of Hefei in the east, the fort of Qishan in the west, and the city of Xiangyang on the middle road were the most important strategic defensive fortresses of the Wei state, so how could they give up without a fight? Then Cao Rui again rode in person, personally going south, once thought that as long as he arrived, Sun Quan would be afraid to withdraw and flee, the facts once again proved that there was nothing wrong with Cao Rui's judgment, Sun Quan saw Cao Rui going south, and indeed retreated, at this time someone suggested that Cao Rui change his car to Chang'an to supervise the battle, and Cao Rui thought that Sima Yi had no problem with consumption, enough to deal with Zhuge Liang. In the same year, Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the Han Dynasty, fell ill and died, and the Shu army retreated from civil unrest.
During Cao Rui's reign, whether it was the Northern Expedition of Shu Han, or the northward march of Sun Wu, or the Gongsun Yuan of Liaodong, as well as Budugen in the north, Kebineng and others, Cao Rui was able to attack and defend freely, and Cao Rui did not doubt that he should not depose the public privately, his political ability and imperial skills were simply full of points, even if he was blocked by many ministers, he could be smoothly executed, Chen Shou commented on him: calm and resolute, able to do things according to his own heart without interference, and had the style of a generation of ming lords. However, at that time, the people were poor and the country was divided, and without first practicing virtue to show tradition and open up the foundation of the emperor, they rushed to learn from Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of han, and built a large number of civil engineering projects, putting their long-term plans aside (Emperor Ming was determined to judge his knowledge, acted at will, and covered with the supreme generality of the king. At that time, the people were deceitful, the four seas fell apart, and they did not first show their ancestors and expound Tuo Hongji, but chased after the Qin Emperor and Han Wu, and the palace was a camp, and the ge was far away, and it was very sick! Liu Ye commented: "Qin Shi Huang and Han Xiaowu are only insignificant. This means that Cao Rui and Emperor Wudi of Qin Shi Huang are one kind of people, but they are only a little worse than Emperor Qin Shi Huang of Han Wu, Cao Rui also attaches great importance to law and attaches great importance to Nongsang, and the 12 years of his reign are the 12 years of the most powerful state of Wei, and Cao Rui is the lord of great talent.