We all know the saying "say Cao Cao, Cao Cao to", generally when we are talking about a certain person, when this person appears, we will use "say Cao Cao, Cao Cao to" to describe. But at the beginning of this sentence, there was a second half of the sentence, at that time everyone knew, but did not dare to say it casually, over time, only the first half of the sentence has been passed down to this day. Why?
Let's first understand the origin of this sentence. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos, the Yellow Turban Army revolted and rebelled, and the imperial court hurriedly sent people and horses from all walks of life to fight the Yellow Turban Army. Cao Cao was credited with the battle against the Yellow Turban Army, and was sent to Shandong, where Cao Cao recruited troops and became more and more powerful.
At that time, the princes often fought with each other, and although the Han Dynasty was still barely surviving, it was already an empty shelf, and even the emperor was often held hostage. After the famous traitor dong zhuo entered the capital, he controlled the government of the dynasty, brutally killed the ministers, controlled the emperor, and endangered the people, only to be killed by a minister named Wang Yun.
After Dong Zhuo's death, two of his generals, Li Dai and Guo Feng, fled to Dong Zhuo's hometown of Xiliang, gathered hundreds of thousands of horses, killed The Jingshi, and claimed to avenge Dong Zhuo. They successfully killed Wang Yun, took the place of Dong Zhuo in controlling the government, firmly grasped the emperor in their hands, bullied the emperor every day, and slaughtered the ministers.
At that time, there was a minister named Yang Biao, who saw that Li Dai and Guo Feng were so cruel, so he first used a counter-plot to provoke these two people to turn against each other, and then secretly told the emperor that Cao Cao was strong in Shandong and could find him to come to the rescue. However, after Li Dai and Guo Feng turned against each other, while holding the emperor hostage, they fought a war every day, and the chaos became a mess, and the emperor's letter could not be sent at all.
On this day, the emperor was discussing with Yang Biao and others how to send someone to find Cao Cao to rescue the driver, who knew that he heard the news, saying that Cao Cao had come. Sure enough, Cao Cao killed Li Dai and Guo Feng and saved the emperor's life. This story is "say Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrived", and as for the story of its next sentence, it happened before Cao Cao saved the car.
It turned out that when Cao Cao was in Gunzhou, Shandong, in order to avenge his father's killing, he led his troops out of Gunzhou to fight Xuzhou. Unexpectedly, Lü Bu took advantage of Cao Cao's absence and led his troops to occupy Gunzhou. When Cao Cao learned of this, he was horrified and rushed back to the rescue. Lü Bu listened to the advice of the counselor Chen Gong and decided to deceive Cao Cao.
Lü Bu asked a large household in the city to send a letter to Cao Cao, saying that Lü Bu was cruel and that he was willing to surrender to General Cao, and that tonight you came to attack the city, and I would make an internal response to you and open the city gate to take you into the city. Cao Cao believed it to be true, and led his troops into the city that night, only to be ambushed by Lü Bu, and hurriedly led his men all the way to kill, trying to escape from the city.
When Cao Cao was looking for a way to escape in the city, he collided with Lü Bu. The funny thing is that Lü Bu didn't know Cao Cao, thought he was a small soldier, and knocked on his head and asked, "Where is Cao Cao?" Cao Cao casually pointed forward, and suddenly Lü Bu said, "He is the one riding the yellow horse in front." ”
As soon as Lü Bu heard this, he left the real Cao Cao and rushed to chase after the non-existent "Cao Cao". This matter was later passed out, and everyone laughed at Lü Bu's stupidity, and Cao Cao missed it in front of his eyes. Thus, these two stories add up to produce a common saying: "Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrives, and I don't know it in front of my eyes." Later, Lü Bu killed a number of people who spread these words, and everyone did not dare to say the second half of the sentence, only the first half of the sentence.