In the history of ancient China, the Three Kingdoms belonged to a very special period, the war and chaos were not happy, but it was an era of talents, heroes gathered together, of which Cao Cao was the representative of comprehensive talents. Cao Cao was a veritable poet, writer and calligrapher, as well as an outstanding politician and military figure.
Cao Cao in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is described as a traitor to the Usurper of Han, while Liu Bei is a Han orthodox, and for Cao Cao, he is simply more resentful than Dou'e. In the history of Cao Cao, who was a man of great wisdom and courage, always regarded himself as a Han Chen, although he elevated emperor Of Han and had the strength to claim the title of emperor, he did not do so until his death. Even if it cannot be said that he had a bold loyalty to the Han Dynasty, at least he did not usurp the throne.
The tyrant of the chaotic world and the able subject of ruling the world is perhaps the most objective evaluation of Cao Cao. After Cao Cao's plan to assassinate Dong Zhuo failed, he fled the capital overnight, returned to his hometown and sold his property, recruited many soldiers, and raised the banner of revenge against Dong Zhuo. After Dong Zhuo's death, Cao Cao's strength was not the same as that of the day, and the fame of the soldiers was greatly increased, but he still had a big gap compared with Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu of the Fourth Dynasty and the Third Duke.
If you want to survive in the chaotic world, you must go forward bravely, and the truth of becoming a king and defeating a king is unchanged. In the following years, Cao Cao successively destroyed Yuan Shao, Lü Bu, Liu Biao and other fierce enemies, unified northern China, and the Xiongnu and Wuhuan also bowed down to their subjects, which can be said to be proud of themselves. Looking back at Cao Cao's successful path, he has two outstanding advantages, one is his own talent is excellent, and the other is to know people and make good use of them.
As the saying goes, those who do great things are informal, and can endure things that ordinary people can't tolerate, and Cao Cao is like this. At that time, Jia Xu offered a plan and took advantage of the night to launch a surprise attack on Cao Ying, and Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang and the ai general Dianwei were all killed. The revenge of killing his son does not share the heavens, and Cao Cao is eager to slash Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu with a thousand knives. However, later Zhang Xiu surrendered with Jia Xu, and Cao Cao did not embarrass the two, and used Jia Xu heavily, listening to Jia Xu's advice and passing it on to Cao Pi.
It can be seen from this that Cao Cao is by no means a person with a small belly and a chicken intestine, and the amount of tolerance is admired by the world. Although "there is no doubt about the use of people, and there is no doubt about people", Cao Cao's suspicions are very heavy, and he is afraid that someone will be unfavorable to him. Around Cao Cao, there were two people with extremely high IQs, namely Yang Xiu and Sima Yi. Yang Xiu was born into a family of official eunuchs, and the history books record: "He was studious, handsome, responsible for internal and external affairs, and was in line with Taizu (Cao Cao's) wishes, and since prince Wei had descended, he had fought for friendship." ”
With a prominent origin, outstanding talent and learning, hundreds of officials competed to associate with Yang Xiu, and even Cao Pi had great respect for Yang Xiu. As mentioned earlier, Cao Cao is also very powerful in literature, but Cao Cao greatly admires Yang Xiu and once said that he is ashamed of himself, which shows how high Yang Xiu's IQ is.
Speaking of Sima Yi, his father Sima Fangguan lived in Jing Zhaoyin, and his family lineage was not simple. When Cao Cao was alive, he saw that Sima Yi had the appearance of a wolf, and said to his son Cao Pi: "Sima Yi is not a human subject, and he will predict ru family affairs." Therefore, Cao Cao was always on guard against him and did not let him hold real power. Objectively speaking, compared with Yang Xiu, Sima Yi was more threatening, so why did Cao Cao kill Yang Xiu and instead spare Sima Yi? In my opinion, there are two important reasons.
First, Yang Xiu did things in a high profile and never relented; Sima Yi knew how to be patient and wait patiently
The highest state of intelligence is not to let others see that you are smart, but to be wise and foolish, otherwise it is easy to cause trouble. Ancients Cloud: Wood shows in the forest, the wind will destroy it! Yang Xiu, who was extremely intelligent, did not understand this truth until his death. Cao Cao ordered people to build a gate, and after the completion, Cao Cao personally came to check it out, only wrote a "living" word on the door, and then left without looking back.
The courtiers did not know what it meant, and looked at each other, only Yang Xiu guessed Cao Cao's thoughts and let people tear down the door and rebuild it. He smiled and explained to the crowd that adding a "live" to the word "door" was the word "wide", and Cao Cao was telling them that the door was too big. There are more than one thing like this, which shows that Yang Xiu is good at speculating on Cao Cao's thoughts, and Cao Cao, who is suspicious by nature, definitely does not want his ideas to be seen through.
Sima Yi is completely different, he is rich in strategy, but he is not good at words, always reminding himself that more words will be lost, especially in Cao Cao's eyes, it is the dragon that has to coil, it is the tiger that has to lie down, and the most correct choice is not to attract the attention of others. Cao Cao always stared at Sima Yi, sima Yi was careful, put the bet on Cao Pi, and gradually dispelled Cao Cao's doubts, moreover, he was indeed talented, and Cao Cao, who had offered ideas and suggestions many times, cherished talents, and could not bear to kill the talents.
Second, Yang Xiu committed a great taboo and participated in the dispute between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi
Since ancient times, the most taboo thing for emperors is for ministers to participate in open and secret struggles between princes. The crown prince can fight you to the death, for the emperor, it is just a family affair, and outsiders cannot be mixed. Although Cao Cao was not an emperor, he was more like an emperor, and he was crowned the King of Wei and held the power of the imperial court, and he was afraid that the ministers would get too close to their sons. Both Cao Pi and Cao Zhi co-opted Yang Xiu, after all, Yang Xiu was deeply trusted by Cao Cao at that time, and was considered his confidant minister, who could get his help and go further from the throne.
Yang Xiu weighed the pros and cons and chose Cao Zhi, who was like-minded with him, because Cao Zhi was also a big talent. On the other hand, Cao Pi's literary level is not as good as Cao Zhi's and does not occupy any advantage. Did Sima Yi really not participate in the battle for the concubine? Non-ye, he advised Cao Pi and made the most favorable countermeasures for Cao Pi. However, Sima Yi only supported Cao Pi behind his back, never shot head-on, and his technique was very clever, and even deceived Cao Cao.
In addition, Yang Xiu also had an identity, he was Yuan Shu's nephew, and his political views were contrary to Cao Cao's. Sima Yi was different, he and Cao Cao's pace were the same, even if there was opposition, he did not say anything. Therefore, Cao Cao executed Yang Xiu, who was clever and had different political views from his own, and spared Sima Yi, who had great wisdom and was extremely hidden. What do you think about that?