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Why was the Cao Wei regime that Cao Cao had worked so hard to build be taken away by Sima Yi? "At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the three kingdoms were divided into three kingdoms, and the flames were endless..." During the Three Kingdoms period, the famous chaotic world, when it was said to be the three-legged three-legged wei, Shu, and Wu, but Cao Wei, who sat in the Central Plains and occupied nine of the thirteen states under the heavens, was far stronger than shu han and eastern Wu.
Although Cao Cao was during his lifetime, he failed to complete the great cause of unifying the world, but with the solid foundation he laid, as long as there was no major deviation, Cao Wei became the co-lord of the world sooner or later, however, to everyone's surprise, it was finally replaced by the Western Jin Dynasty established by Sima Yan.
Some people have analyzed that the reason for this situation is mainly because Sima Yi is too tolerant, and when Cao Cao was alive, he could still suppress him, but when Cao Cao died, there was no one within Cao Wei who could restrain him, and the power of the Sima family began to grow day by day, gradually surpassing the Cao clan, so it became inevitable that the Sima clan would replace the Cao clan.
On the surface, there is nothing wrong with this statement, but if you look closely at the cause, there is a factor that many people ignore is Cao Wei's fatal injury, and this factor can be summed up in two words - "life span", that is, Cao Wei's eventual failure to become a century-old powerful dynasty has a lot to do with the premature death of the supreme ruler after Cao Cao.
Some people may say that the length of life of several historical figures and the inevitability of the historical process can obviously only be regarded as an accident and cannot change the existing ending, but on the other hand, if the life span of several key figures can be extended, will it really not have a decisive impact on the historical process?
Let's not talk about others, just talk about Cao Pi and Cao Rui, two important figures of Cao Wei, among them, Cao Pi, as the father, died at the age of forty, and his son Cao Rui was even worse, only living to the age of thirty-five, although the average life expectancy of the ancients was generally not high, but this age was mostly considered to be "untimely death", and Cao Cao's sixty-six years old was even more incomparable.
Suppose, if Cao Pi and Cao Rui also lived to be sixty-six years old, what would be the situation? It is said that Cao Pi was born in 187, and when he was sixty-six years old, it was 253 years, at this time Sima Yi, who was seventy-two years old, had been dead for two years, and Cao Rui was born in 204, and at the age of sixty-six was in 270, at this time Sima Shi and Sima Zhao were no longer there.
Although Cao Pi was not a political strongman, and his military ability was also average, he was a wise man, not only wrote well articles and poems, but also had some skills in politics, coupled with the foundation laid by Cao Cao, after the Zen Dynasty, he maintained absolute control over the political situation, and during his reign, there were few open opponents within him, which was even stronger than Cao Cao, and all ethnic groups in the north and northwest came to the dynasty, except for the undecided Liaodong.
As for Cao Rui, although he rarely appeared in his early years and was somewhat mysterious, his talent was extremely talented, and he was by no means a mediocre person, and Pei Songzhi called him "a temporary lord", which may be a bit exaggerated, but it is generally good, and no one dared to jump out to challenge the imperial power when Cao Rui was in power.
Although Sima Yi's power was growing at that time, it was also under cao Rui's control, and with his edict, Sima Yi would have to leave Jingzhou for many years to go to Guanzhong, and if in time, Cao Rui cultivated his own concubines in the army, Sima Yi would probably have to fade out of the military.
It can be said that during the reign of the father and son, Cao Wei's "qi number" was very sufficient, there was no dilemma of any river decline, and there was no sign of being surpassed by potential opponents, but it was precisely because their control over the political situation could not be replaced, which highlighted that their early death was a very fatal blow to Cao Wei's political power.
Who would have thought that Cao Cao had a total of twenty-five sons, but when Cao Pi came here, there was only one son of Cao Rui, and Cao Rui was even more "remarkable", and he did not even have a son, and the lack of succession to Cao Wei's career caused Cao Wei to lack succession, although Cao Rui could find someone else to take care of it later, but the legitimacy and appeal had been greatly reduced.
When the newcomers came to power, they basically lost the ability to control power, and the political situation began to fall into a passive situation of vicious fighting among the auxiliary ministers, at this time Cao Wei's political power became extinct in name only, and it is not difficult to see from the above analysis that Cao Wei was replaced by the Western Jin Dynasty, and one of the most fatal factors was that the life expectancy of the two heirs after Cao Cao was too short, and even if one person could live longer, it was very likely that such an outcome would be avoided.
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