Emperor Xian of Han was the last emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and he suffered a lot through the rebellions of Dong Zhuo, Li Dai, and Guo Feng. In the end, Emperor Xian of Han was fortunately taken in by Cao Cao, and he settled down. However, as Cao Cao gradually unified the north, his heart of the Han Dynasty was also revealed. Therefore, Emperor Xian of Han conspired with his cousin Dong Cheng and Fu Quan to try to kill Cao Cao twice.
First of all, in 199 AD, Dong Cheng, who was the brother of Dong Guiren, the favorite concubine of Emperor Xian of Han, received a letter written in blood by Emperor Xian of Han and prepared to kill Cao Cao. In order to achieve this goal, Dong Cheng also secretly contacted Liu Bei, who was then serving as a left general in the imperial court. However, Liu Bei believed that Dong Cheng's lack of strategy was not enough to accomplish anything, so he took the opportunity of going out to fight Yuan Shu and broke away from Cao Cao's grasp.
Due to poor planning, Dong Cheng's plan to murder Cao Cao was exposed, and Dong Cheng, along with his fellow party members Zhongji, Wu Zilan, Wang Zifu, and Dong Cheng's daughter Dong Guiren, were all killed by Cao Cao. With Cao Cao's wisdom, he naturally knew who was behind this great conspiracy. However, Cao Cao not only did not blame, but also made an unexpected decision later, sending the three of them to the harem to become the wives of Emperor Xian of Han.
In this regard, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty records that:
"In the eighteenth year of Jian'an (213 AD), he was appointed to the Three Daughters' Festival, Xian, and Lady Huawei, and was hired with 50,000 horses, and the younger ones stayed in the country. Nineteen years, and worship as a nobleman. ”
Cao Cao knew that Emperor Xian of Han was a puppet emperor and had no power. In addition, Emperor Xian of Han also took revenge and made enemies of himself. So why did Cao Cao repay his grievances with virtue and marry his three daughters to Emperor Xian of Han?
On the surface, Cao Cao married his daughter to Emperor Xian of Han in return for making him the Duke of Wei. In the eighteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao ascended the throne as the Duke of Wei, received the Jiu Xi, and set up the Civil and Military Hundred Officials of the Duchy of Wei. As a result, Cao Cao distinguished between Han chen and Wei chen and established two imperial courts. Institutionally, the Han Xiandi was completely overthrown. In order to calm the dissatisfaction of Emperor Xian of Han, Cao Cao must make a gesture to repay Emperor Xian of Han and bring him closer.
In this regard, Liu Bei's subordinate Xu Jingdong looked at the fire and commented:
"What will be desired will be strengthened; He who will take what he wants will be fixed with it." Its Mengde is called!
The simple translation is that if you want to take it first, you must give it first. Marrying his daughter to Emperor Xian of Han undoubtedly made his position as Duke of Wei more legitimate, and was used to block the mouth of the world.
As for why he married three daughters to Emperor Xian of Han, there are actually allusions to follow. In the Han Dynasty, there are still retained
The custom of working together as a husband and wife. That is, after the sister gets married, the younger sister should accompany the marriage together.
It can be said that Cao Cao lowered his posture and gave enough face to the Emperor of Han.
Of course, there was another hidden reason why Cao Cao married three daughters, that is, to monitor Emperor Xian of Han. There were three Cao family daughters in the harem, and even if Emperor Xian of Han had made a mistake, he could not set off a big storm.
Sure enough, in the nineteenth year of Jian'an, Emperor Xian of Han really made a big mess. It turned out that Emperor Yuan of Han had witnessed the tragic death of Dong Guiren, and it was inevitable that the rabbit would die and be sad. Therefore, she wrote a letter to her father, telling cao cao about the fierceness of cao cao's cruel persecution, and asked her father to secretly map cao cao to eliminate cao cao. However, Fu Quan was afraid of Cao Cao's obscenity and did not dare to move. In the fourteenth year of Jian'an, he died after fu finished.
However, after five years, Cao Cao learned of the conspiracy that Empress Fu had formulated in a few years. The history books only record this:
"By the nineteenth year, things were revealed."
But how this secret was leaked, the history books do not elaborate. But Cao Cao's three daughters had just entered the palace, and this kind of thing happened, which was too coincidental. Therefore, in the author's opinion, the three daughters at this time became the eyes and ears of Cao Cao's placement next to Emperor Xiandi of Han, and finally discovered the news that Empress Fu wanted to murder herself.
Upon learning of this, Cao Cao was furious and sent Hua Xin to lead people into the palace and take out Empress Fu, who was hiding inside the wall. Subsequently, Hua Xin pulled the empress's hair and forced Emperor Xian of Han to write an edict after the abolition. In desperation, Emperor Xiandi of Han was forced to divorce his wife, and at the same time sent Empress Fu and her family to a dead end. In the end, Empress Fu and the two princes born to her were killed, and more than a hundred members of the Fu family were killed.
After Empress Fu's death, Cao Cao's daughter Cao Jie naturally ascended the throne and became the right-elected empress of Emperor Xian of Han. As a result, Cao Cao's usurpation of the throne of Emperor Xian of Han was already unstoppable.
Sure enough, in the twenty-second year of Jian'an, Cao Cao was crowned the King of Wei, and the crown of Wang Had Two, riding a Jingen car, driving six horses, and setting up a five-hour auxiliary car, which was no different from Tianzi. Usurpation of the throne is only one step away.
But what is ironic is that Empress Cao, who was originally Cao Cao's wife, was actually rebelled by Emperor Xian of Han. In the face of Cao Cao and Cao Pi's step-by-step pressure on Emperor Xian of Han, Empress Cao firmly stood on the opposite side of her father and brother. Although Emperor Xian of Han was a puppet emperor, he was his husband after all. Although the Han Dynasty existed in name only, she was still nominally an empress of unspeakable nobility. Once Emperor Xian of Han was deposed, what was Empress Cao?
In the first year of the Huang Dynasty (220), Cao Pi the Prince of Wei completed the last step of the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Xian of Han was deposed as the Duke of Shanyang. Although Emperor Xian of Han surrendered the throne, Empress Cao refused to hand over the Imperial Jade Seal. Even if the elder brother sent someone to persuade him repeatedly, he resolutely refused to give it. But Empress Cao also understood that Han Zuo could not be revived, and as a woman, she could not resist the tide of history. Therefore, she angrily threw the jade seal on the ground and angrily scolded:
"Heaven forbid!"
In Empress Cao's view, her brother would never have a good ending. Sure enough, Cao Wei only enjoyed the kingdom for 45 years, and was usurped by Sima Shi, which can be said to be "the reincarnation of the Heavenly Dao, and the retribution is not happy".
In the end, Cao Jie followed Liu Xie, the Duke of Shanyang, back to the Principality of Shanyang and spent his last days. In the second year of Qinglong (234), Liu Xie died and was still buried as an emperor, with the title of Emperor Xiaoxian. In 260 AD, Cao Jie, who had been widowed for 26 years, died and was still buried in the Chan Mausoleum of Emperor Xiandi with Han Dynasty rites, with the posthumous title of Empress Xianmu.