The Three Kingdoms era was not only the era of Cao Cao Liu Bei's three great tyrants, but also the era of talent competition. There has never been a historical period like the Three Kingdoms, where the importance of talent has received unprecedented attention. Whether it was Cao Cao Liu Bei or Sun Quan, they were known for their discernment and knowledge of people, and they all brought together a group of elites at that time, and those who obtained talents won the world, becoming the consensus of all the powerful people in the Three Kingdoms era.
The monarchs of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu all profoundly realized that the competition between countries was not only a competition of comprehensive national strength, but also a competition between talent reserves and thickness. Whoever controls more talents in their hands and who has higher quality and stronger ability in their hands will be one step closer to the ultimate goal of unifying the world, and who will have a greater certainty of destroying all kinds of competitors. Therefore, the monarchs of the three countries have spared no effort in the excavation and reuse of talents.
At the beginning of Liu Bei's family, the soldiers were less than a thousand, they would stop the pass, there was no place to stand under the tiles, they were beaten all day long, they ran all over the streets, they didn't even have a decent base area, it was just a guerrilla posture, and there was no hope for the future. However, after Liu Bei invited Gao Sheng Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong and others, he quickly reborn and entered the fast lane of development, seizing Jingzhou in the south, Zhanyi Prefecture in the west, and Hanzhong in the north, and successfully ranked among the three strongest of the Three Kingdoms.
Sun Quan's talent thickness of Wu Guo was no less than That of Liu Bei. After Zhou Yu there was Lu Su, after Lu Su there was Lü Meng, after Lü Meng there was Lu Xun, after Lu Xun there was Zhuge Ke, all of whom were the first-class talents at that time, which can be described as "talented people in the Jiangshan Generation, each leading the way for decades." Eastern Wu became the longest-lasting of the three kingdoms, inseparable from Sun Quan's emphasis on talent.
Among the Three Kingdoms, the overall strength of talents is of course Cao Cao. Cao Cao's thirst for talent was even worse than Liu Bei's Sun Quan. Liu Bei left behind the good story of "Three Gu Maolu", and Cao Cao's "barefoot greeting Xu You" in the Battle of Guandu was also recorded in history textbooks. Cao Cao captured Liu Bei's general Guan Yu alive, Guan Yu refused to surrender, insisting on returning to Liu Bei, Cao Cao, out of pity for talent, actually agreed to Guan Yu's request and was willing to let the tiger return to the mountain. Looking through the entire Twenty-Four Histories, attaching importance to talents to the point of Cao Cao, it is impossible to find the second one.
In the area around Jingzhou in the early Three Kingdoms period, because it was far from the battlefield of the Central Plains, the situation was relatively stable, and many intelligent people lived there in seclusion to avoid war. The "New Language of the World" records that in the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208 AD), Cao Cao waved his division south and pointed his troops directly at Jingzhou. Liu Chun, the pastor of Jingzhou, was a scumbag, and seeing that Cao Cao's soldiers were besieging the city, Kaicheng surrendered immediately, and Cao Cao's soldiers occupied the Jingzhou area without bloodshed.
Cao Cao knew that there were many high-ranking people living in seclusion around Jingzhou, and sent people everywhere to pay attention to it, and finally let him find a high-ranking person. This person's compound surname Sima single name a "emblem" character, the Road name "Mr. Water Mirror", is the most famous wizard in the world during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty. Sima Hui was knowledgeable and talented, and his sons and sons were all-knowing, especially good at Qimen, the art of war, and the study of scriptures, and was an elite talent that all the princes of all walks of life dreamed of.
However, Sima Hui was indifferent to fame and fortune, poor and happy, rich and famous, and had no interest in all the dirt. In the chaotic era at the end of the Han Dynasty, he lived in seclusion in the mountains around Jingxiang to entertain himself by cultivating and reading. At that time, many young people, admiring Sima Hui's talent and prestige, worshiped him one after another, and followed him to learn the art of war and the way of governing the country, and Mr. Zhuge Liang of Wolong and Mr. Pang Tong, who were his proud protégés.
The two not only learned the real skills from Sima Hui, but it was precisely under the full promotion of Sima Hui that they were able to become famous and known to the world. The "Xiangyang Chronicle" records that before Liu Bei met Zhuge Liang, the first person he wanted to invite was Sima Hui, but Sima Hui did not want to go out of the mountain, but only told Liu Bei: "Confucian laymen, do you know current affairs?" Time-conscious people care about Junjie. There were Fulong and Fengchi in this period", and introduced his disciples to Liu Bei.
When Cao Cao learned that Sima Hui was in Jingzhou, he hurriedly sent someone to carry heavy gifts, soft and hard, and invited Sima Hui to the military camp with great difficulty, sincerely "wanting to be of great use", wanting him to be his own military division and help him unify the rivers and mountains. However, Cao Cao was only half happy, Sima Hui had already seen through the red dust and was desperate to make a career, which greatly violated Sima Hui's wishes, and soon he became depressed and died. Cao Cao "regretted his illness and died" and was greatly saddened. In this way, although he invited Zhuge Liang's master to the army, the people fell ill and died, did not give Cao Cao half a point, Cao Cao's bamboo basket was empty, it may also be that the two did not have a chance.
References: "Xiangyang Chronicle", "The New Language of the World"