Speaking of Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, most people think of events such as the Blackmail of the Son of Heaven to order the princes and the Battle of Guandu, which reflect Cao Cao's outstanding political means and military talents. Indeed, in a troubled world, the political means and military talents of a warlord on one side determined his rise and fall. However, in addition to the well-known events, Cao Cao's achievements in other aspects have also performed well, such as economic policies, agricultural policies, population policies and other policies related to people's livelihood. The implementation of these policies also greatly helped him to unify the North in the future.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty declined and Dong Zhuo rebelled. After the defeat of the Dong allies with Yuan Shao as the leader, Cao Cao led the remnants of the army to defeat the generals, and after several conquests, he finally gained a foothold in Yanzhou. However, Cao Cao's situation was still not optimistic, because Yanzhou was located in the land of four wars, with Yuan Shao occupying the four prefectures of Ji, He, Qing, and You in the north, many separatist forces in the west, Dong Zhuo's nephew Zhang Ji's nephew Zhang Xiu in the southwest, Liu Biao who occupied Jingzhou in the south, and Yuan Shu who occupied Yangzhou in the south, and Lü Bu who occupied Xuzhou in the southeast. Later, due to the change of Dong Zhuo's regime in Chang'an, Emperor Xian of Han fled east to Luoyang, and Cao Cao seized the opportunity in time to personally pay homage to Emperor Xian in August of the first year of Jian'an and welcome Emperor Xian to move the capital to Xu County. From then on, Cao Cao began to blackmail tianzi to order the princes, and no one in the world dared to easily use troops against Cao Cao. Cao Cao also used Tianzi to gain self-respect, and wantonly occupied a large area of Henan land, subduing many small separatist forces in Guanzhong.
At that time, the Central Plains was in turmoil, social production was greatly damaged, arable land was deserted on a large scale, food supply was insufficient, and many warlords were self-defeating because of insufficient food. Cao Cao realized the seriousness of this problem, and in the first year of Jian'an, he adopted the suggestion of Zaoyuan Deng Jian and used the materials captured by the Yellow Turban Army to recruit people from Tun tian under his promise, which achieved great results and obtained millions of grains. Cao Cao ordered other states and counties to follow suit, and the army's food problem was solved.
While solving agricultural problems, Cao Cao actively supported the self-employed peasant economy, recruited displaced people, migrated the population, persuaded peasants to teach mulberry, built water conservancy, and checked household registration, so that the population was gradually enriched, and agricultural production and economic activities gradually resumed. Cao Cao also issued decrees to prevent the powerful from annexing small farmers, stipulating a rent adjustment system, and reducing the peasants' burdens. In the fifth year of Jian'an (200), Cao Cao promulgated a new expropriation system, and in the ninth year of Jian'an, he also stipulated: "He collects four liters of land and rents, and the household produces two horses and two pounds of cotton, and he must not be unauthorized." Since then, agricultural production and economic activities in Cao Cao's rule areas have been rapidly restored and developed, laying a solid foundation for Cao Cao to unify the north.
Cao Cao was able to implement new agricultural, economic, and demographic policies in his own areas of rule, and the external stable political and military environment was extremely important, especially for Henan, which was located in the land of four wars. This stable external environment was largely due to the important decision made by Cao Cao before, that is, to welcome Emperor Xian of Han and move the capital to Xu County. With Emperor Xian of Han in Cao Cao's area, it was difficult for the princes of the world to find a legal excuse to use troops against Cao Cao. Cao Cao was also able to promulgate and implement various policies in the name of Tianzi to expand his own strength and strengthen his control over Emperor Xian of Han. It can be seen from this that the two important decisions of welcoming the emperor, moving the capital to Xu, and resuming agricultural production were not two isolated correct decisions, but two decisions that promoted each other, influenced each other, and formed a virtuous circle. This is probably the "winner-take-all" phenomenon as the saying goes.
Edit/Genichi