Sima Yi's eagle-eyed wolf-eyed appearance doomed him to an extraordinary life, but what attracted most people was never his ups and downs of the "Three Kingdoms Film Emperor" life, but the half-century of waiting he paid for the so-called "usurpation".
So why did Sima Yi wait until he was 70 years old before he risked launching this usurpation campaign?
The beginning of the wait - only to survive
Although Sima Yi had a literary name when he was young, it was at the time of the chaos of the Three Kingdoms, the court was uneven, and Sima Yi did not take the initiative to pursue a career path, even if Cao Cao's invitation was also declined, not to mention what ruled the country and the world, but relied on the prestige of his father's generation and the family's property to live a peaceful life at home.
But at a time when there was a shortage of talents and Cao Cao was thirsty for talents, Sima Yi could not escape.
If in his early 20s, Cao Cao's status was not enough to shake his out of the mountains, then a few years later, in 208 AD, when Cao Cao officially became the prime minister under one person and above ten thousand people, cao Cao could no longer accept Sima Yi's excuse of "wind paralysis", and the thirty-year-old said that he could not become an official, who would believe it? Therefore, without saying a word, Sima Yi was forcibly recruited as a literary warrior.
It was just that literature was not an important official position, and Cao Cao did not take Sima Yi too seriously, and at this time, Sima Yi was more of an official for the sake of his own survival and preservation of the family, rather than the ambition to usurp the throne. But he also never thought that if he compromised like this, he would have to pay half a century of hard work and waiting for the supreme position.
Waiting – Ambition has to wait
In the end, when Sima Yi had the idea of getting rid of the coercion of others and plotting to usurp the throne is naturally untestable, perhaps when Cao Cao began to be jealous of Sima Yi and had the heart to get rid of him; perhaps it was a certain moment after Cao Pi officially ascended the throne, accompanied by the king like a companion of the tiger; or three generations of subjects, but still unwilling to do so. But there is no doubt that no matter when Sima Yi has such a "great rebellion", he must wait for the final drama.
So, what exactly is he waiting for? This question can also be found in the Cao family.
It is easy to fight the world and defend the world, and the same is true for a tyrant like Cao Cao, if you want to gain a firm foothold in the chaotic world, you must win the support of the majority of the people participating in the government, and at that time, the majority of this political participation was the Yingchuan Shi clan.
The most representative of the Yingchuan Shi clan is the four major families of Xun, Chen, Zhong, and Han, and the family members consolidate their interests by marriage, although the family members are not able to be born from generation to generation but are not in the minority of officials in the dynasty, and the protégés and former officials are all over the world, it can be said that it is with such a large number of powerful families as the backing of power, Cao Cao can complete the feat of "holding the son of heaven to make the princes", Cao Pi can depose the emperor and stand on his own in the most peaceful way, and Cao Rui can rule the country in peace.
With the three generations of the Cao clan firmly in power and the Yingchuan Clan sparing no effort to support them, although Sima Yi was not helpless, he would definitely not have much room to play, large enough for him to shake the foundation of the entire court. Therefore, Sima Yi needed to wait, and he had to wait, until the Yingchuan Shi clan was no longer the backbone of the court, or whether the Yingchuan Shi clan voluntarily supported Sima Yi.
At the peak of the Yingchuan Shi Clan's power, the latter was obviously easier to achieve.
The end of the waiting - the end of the year is almost ancient and rare to finally come to power
In 239, Cao Rui died young, and Cao Fang, who was only 8 years old, ascended the throne as emperor, and Cao Rui specified in his will that Sima Yinai and the general Cao Shuang assisted Emperor You.
At this time, Sima Yi, who had experienced many wars, gradually grasped military power, and had been a subject for three generations, knew that he had waited for nearly half a century for the opportunity to come. But even so, in order to determine whether the Yingchuan Clan could support him, he still chose to wait a little longer. This wait is another ten years.
In 249 AD, when the young emperor Cao Fang and the general Cao Shuang left Luoyang together to worship at Gaoping Mausoleum, Sima Yi finally launched a coup d'état, quickly took control of Kyoto, and personally counted Cao Shuang's crimes to the young emperor on the Luoshui pontoon bridge, and then Cao Shuang also took the initiative to surrender and confess, known in history as the "Change of Gaopingling". Since then, Sima Yi has officially become the so-called "under one person, above ten thousand people".
After the Gaopingling Incident, Sima Yi, who had already gained the support of the Yingchuan Clan and had already held military power, set out to realize his "ambitions" for many years- "usurping the throne": first of all, he eliminated political enemies, that is, colleagues in the court who had different political views from himself, and the relatives of the Young Emperor in the Cao clan who would block their own power. Then there was the power of the imperial family, so that every time the young emperor encountered a major matter, he had to consult with Sima Yi first and obtain Sima Yi's consent.
With such an arbitrary power unhindered, Sima Yi's "usurpation" that did not change the dynasty but had actually shaken the foundation of the Cao Wei dynasty was extremely successful, and it seemed to prove that Sima Yi's half-century-long wait was correct.
It also proves to us in disguise that the one who can survive to the end is the ultimate victor...