When studying the history of the Three Kingdoms, we often vaguely compare the relationship between some of the generals around Cao Cao and Cao Cao, especially the descendants of the Cao surname, we are even more unclear, in the history of Cao Wei, there have been too many people with the surname of Cao, such as Cao Hong, Cao Ren, Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, Cao Shuang, Cao Zhang, and so on.
These people are all very powerful characters, and there is an intricate relationship with Cao Cao, so what is the accurate relationship between these people and Cao Cao? Among these people, who was Cao Cao's most trusted person? With these questions in mind, let's take a look at Cao Cao's family history.
The founder of the Cao Cao family
The source of cao cao's family, according to the current historical records, the earliest person with a relatively clear record is Cao Cao's grandfather Cao Teng, Cao Teng is the fifth oldest in the family, and there are four older brothers in front of him, namely Cao Boxing, Cao Zhongxing, Cao Shuxing and Cao Zhen. Because Cao Teng was a eunuch, it was obvious that Cao Teng could not have given birth to a child, but in ancient times, it was a common normal thing to adopt a son to inherit the family business, so Cao Teng adopted an adopted son, Cao Song.
Cao Song is also Cao Cao's father, as for who Cao Song's biological father is, there is no more detailed record in the historical records, so we have no way of knowing, but Cao Song still has other brothers in the clan after becoming Cao Teng's adopted son, such as Cao Ding, Cao Chi and others who are Cao Song's brothers.
Cao Chi was the son of Cao Zhao, and later Cao Chi gave birth to two more powerful sons, namely Cao Ren and Cao Chun. In other words, Cao Cao, Cao Hong, Cao Ren, and Cao Chun are actually brothers of the same clan, similar to the relationship between ourselves and the son of the Great Uncle's family, which is still very close.
Of course, in some historical materials, there are also said that Cao Cao was Cao Song's adopted son, the main reason is that Cao Cao's brothers are too vague in the historical records, basically only the second brother Cao Bin, the fifth brother Cao Yu and the sixth brother Cao De, Cao Cao and the two younger brothers' names and life deeds are not recorded.
Even the 3 brothers who have been recorded are almost all in one stroke, such as the sixth brother Cao De, who has very few life deeds, almost only knows that he was killed by Tao Qian's people with his father Cao Song, and the rest of the information is rarely recorded, and it is too difficult for us to know more.
There are very few records of Cao Cao's brothers, but there are many records of Cao Cao's brothers of the same ethnic group, which makes people more suspicious of whether Cao Cao was cao Song's own child in the end, but because there is not enough evidence to show that he was not Cao Song's own child, this is also more difficult to determine.
However, we can clearly see that Cao Cao's influence among his brothers of the same ethnic group was also very large, and after Cao Cao began to start a business, his brothers Cao Ren, Cao Hong, and Cao Chun all joined Cao Cao's ranks and became the key figures who laid the foundation for Cao Cao's later career.
Cao Ren is the most trusted by Cao Cao among the three brothers, and the strongest, the most helpful to Cao Cao, when he first joined Cao Cao, in fact, he already had a part of the people, after he joined Cao Cao, whether it was the initial stage of the attack on Xuzhou, Lü Bu, Zheng Zhangxiu, or the later Battle of Guandu, the Battle of Chibi, the Battle of Xiangfan, etc., there was Cao Ren's figure, he gave Cao Cao too much help, Cao Cao's trust in him, has reached the point where he can allow Cao Ren to directly enter his own palace, It is enough to show that the two brothers have a harmonious relationship, and Cao Cao has great trust in Cao Ren.
In addition to Cao Ren, it should be regarded as Cao Hong, Cao Hong had already joined Cao Cao's team in the first war that Cao Cao began to fight in the world, in this battle, Cao Cao was defeated by Dong Zhuo's general Xu Rong, and almost lost his life in a hurry, fortunately Cao Hong gave up his war horse to Cao Cao, Cao Cao only picked up a small life, which shows that Cao Hong has a life-saving grace for Cao Cao, and Cao Cao of course trusts Cao Hong.
However, Cao Hong's ability is still different from Cao Ren's, which can be seen from some of the war performances behind him. Cao Chun was slightly less capable than Cao Hong, he began to follow Cao Cao at the age of 20, and later became the most elite tiger and leopard cavalry commander under Cao Cao, defeated Yuan Tan in the Battle of Nanpi, laying the foundation for Cao Cao to unify the north, and later Cao Chun also participated in the Battle of White Wolf Mountain, defeating Wuheng with fewer victories in the war, but unfortunately Cao Chun died relatively early, and died in 210 AD, hindering his pace of continuing to advance and make meritorious achievements.
In summary, in the process of laying the foundation of Cao Wei, the most critical figures are Cao Cao, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Chun, these four belong to the same ethnic brothers, in terms of the degree of trust, Cao Ren ranked first, Cao Hong second, Cao Chun because of the early death can only be ranked third, if you live longer, the situation may change.
Stabilizer of the Cao Wei regime
After Cao Cao's death, Jiangshan was handed over to Cao Pi, the second generation of Cao Wei's head, and the stability and development of Cao Wei's regime could only be completed by Cao Pi's generation. Cao Pi was Cao Cao's eldest son, and he also had three brothers namely Cao Zhi, Cao Zhang, and Cao Xiong, among these three, Cao Zhi was a great talent of seven steps into poetry, but unfortunately he died young, And Cao Zhang, Cao Xiong did not have much influence at that time.
In the second generation of the Cao Wei regime, the most influential figures, in addition to Cao Pi, should be regarded as Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen. Cao Xiu was Cao Hong's nephew, as for who his father was, there is no clear record, he had no father since he was a child, he had been living with his mother in Jiangdong for refuge, and after Cao Cao raised an army, Cao Xiu went to Cao Cao.
Cao Cao was also good to this nephew, and after Cao Xiu defected to Cao Cao, Cao Cao appointed him as one of the guards of the Tiger and Leopard Riders, giving Cao Xiu the opportunity to make a meritorious career. During Cao Xiu's lifetime, he made many great achievements, including the initial stage of seeing zhang Fei's tricks in the Battle of Hanzhong and winning victories, and later after Cao Cao's death, he followed Cao Pi in his southern conquest of Sun Quan, achieving good results and winning Cao Pi's trust.
After Cao Pi's death, Cao Xiu became the grand sima and at that time, Cao Xiu was already the supreme commander of the Cao Wei regime, but Cao Xiu did not lose himself and continued to unite with Cao Zhen and others to fight for the stability of the Cao Wei regime.
Cao Zhen was Cao Cao's adopted son, and his biological father was a subordinate of Cao Cao, and after his father's death in battle, Cao Cao looked at the young Cao Zhen and took him as an adopted son for training, and as a result, Cao Zhen lived up to Cao Cao's expectations and served Cao Wei's stability in the country.
Cao Zhen's initial cultivation was almost the same as Cao Xiu's, but later Cao Cao made a clear division of labor, Cao Zhen was responsible for defending the western region, crusading against Hexi, becoming Cao Wei's supreme military commander in the western region, and later successfully resisting Zhuge Liang's first two Northern Expeditions, but unfortunately during Zhuge Liang's fourth Northern Expedition, Cao Zhen fell ill and died.
Judging from the comprehensive situation of the second generation of the Cao Wei regime in all aspects, in terms of ability, Cao Xiu is better than Cao Zhen, and in terms of trust, Cao Cao definitely trusts his son Cao Pi, as for Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen, it is impossible to talk about Cao Cao's trust in them, but Cao Pi has great trust in them, especially Cao Xiu, and Cao Pi has high hopes for them.
The demise of the Cao Wei regime
The Three Kingdoms are so miserable, whether it is Shu Han, Eastern Wu or Cao Wei, they all have a similar fate, from the beginning of the conscientious struggle, to have a certain foundation, calm down to stabilize the country, the result is that all efforts are finally fleeting in the hands of a generation or a person, making people sigh sadly.
The Cao Wei regime grew up and stabilized in the hands of the second generation of Cao Pi, and by the time of the third generation of Cao Rui, it basically began to decline, especially some of Cao Shuang's actions, which completely pushed the Cao Wei regime into the abyss.
In the third generation of the Cao Wei regime, the most representative figures were Cao Rui and Cao Shuang, of which Cao Rui was the eldest son of Cao Pi, after Cao Pi's death, let him inherit the great cause, Cao Pi told Cao Pi before his death that he should be careful to guard against Sima Yi, but later because of the war and the problem of employing people, Cao Rui still went through a process of gradual trust to suspicion and then trust to Sima Yi.
That is, in the end, Cao Rui listened to the advice of his favorite ministers Sun Zi and Liu Fang, and before his death, appointed Sima Yi and Cao Shuang as auxiliary ministers, a move that directly accelerated the demise of cao Wei's regime.
Cao Shuang was the eldest son of Cao Zhen and was supposed to have no bloodline of Cao Cao's family, but thanks to the struggle of his father Cao Zhen, Cao Shuang was able to have a higher status in Cao Wei, so he would only appoint him as an auxiliary chancellor before Cao Rui's death.
However, cao shuang and his fathers, the difference in ability is too far, he obviously holds the supreme military command of Cao Wei, and has already put Sima Yi in the air, a good hand is about to successfully declare the king bombed, but it was done by Sima Yi and Sima Shi and others to launch a coup d'état in Gaopingling, which is simply sad and lamentable.
If he had not acted recklessly to offend the officials of the Sergeant class when he was in power, presumably the Sima Yi family would not have had a chance to rebel, and simply raising three thousand dead soldiers from yin would be enough to explain everything, if Cao Shuang had not completely lost the hearts of the people, Sima Shi yin raised three thousand dead soldiers, someone would definitely find revenge, so that Sima Yi would be powerless to launch a coup d'état in Gaopingling, and the Cao Wei regime would naturally not be stolen by the Sima family.
epilogue
The accurate relationship between these people in the Cao Cao family, we finally comb and summarize it, Cao Cao, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Chun are brothers of the same ethnic group, not brothers, Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, Cao Zhang are also considered brothers, Cao Xiu is Cao Hong's nephew, Cao Zhen is Cao Cao's adopted son, Cao Zhang is Cao Cao's biological son, Cao Shuang is Cao Zhen's biological son, in the legal sense, it should be called Cao Cao's grandfather, but they are not related by blood.
The development history of the Cao Cao family is the history of the rise and fall of the Cao Wei regime, when the talents are abundant, Cao Wei is constantly developing and growing, such as the first generation of Cao Cao, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Chun period, brothers together, and force to break the gold, Cao Wei quickly established, when the talent is lost, Cao Wei will gradually go downhill and even perish, such as the third generation of Cao Rui, Cao Shuang era, the real talent is getting less and less, Cao Wei will perish quickly!
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