For thousands of years, China's feudal dynasties have revered the Confucian idea of loyalty to the monarch, so Cao Cao blackmailed the son of heaven to order the princes to repeatedly do things disloyal to the monarch, and was repeatedly reprimanded by Confucianism, which made Cao Cao bear the name of adulterous male and Han thief, but Cao Cao can become a hegemon, and there are also his superiority.
Cao Cao's biggest advantage is that he is talented and cherishes talents, in order to recruit talents, he is eclectic and talented, pays attention to the ability of talents, but does not pay attention to the morality of talents, even if a person's character is not good, as long as the talent is good, in Cao Cao's view, it is a usable talent, and because of this, Cao Cao has gathered a large number of talents under his account.
Cao Cao also left a lot of talents for Cao Pi, but Cao Pi did not make good use of them, especially the 5 fierce generals left by Cao Cao, all of whom were killed by Cao Pi, otherwise Sima Yi would not have dared to usurp Wei.
1. Cao Zhen
He was Cao Cao's adopted son. Cao Zhen's biological father died while recruiting soldiers, so Cao Cao felt ashamed and adopted him as an adopted son. And because Cao Zhen fought bravely, he was allowed to join the Tiger and Panther Riding. Later, he participated in the Battle of Hanzhong and had a good performance in the battle. Cao Zhen was later made a general of Zhenxi and the military governor of Yongliang and Liangzhou. He also led an army to defeat the Qiang-Hu alliance and defeated the Wu general Sun Sheng to resist the Northern Expedition of the Shu army. He was known as a recorder, and later died prematurely due to illness.
After Cao Pi's death, Cao Zhen repeatedly led the Wei army to resist Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition. Cao Zhen commanded Zhang Gao to go to the street pavilion to defeat Ma Chen, and later deployed Hao Zhao's defense at Chen Cang, making it difficult for Zhuge Liang to advance. Unfortunately, Cao Zhen died of illness in 231, and Cao Zhen did not die, and it was not Sima Yi's turn to take charge of the army.
2. Cao Xiu
The general of Cao Wei was Cao Zhen, and Cao Wei's "Great Sima " was Cao Xiu. When Cao Xiu was young, he was greatly appreciated by Cao Cao and was praised by Cao Cao as the "Thousand Mile Horse of the Cao Family".
Taizu said, "This is my family's thousand miles of colts." "Let him stop with Emperor Wen and treat him like a son." Often from the conquest, so that the lead tiger and leopard ride the guard. - Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Cao Cao asked Cao Xiu to accompany Cao Pi, and he looked at Cao Xiu as if he were his own son. Later, Cao Xiu was also promoted to the general of the "Tiger and Panther Rider". During the Battle of Hanzhong, Cao Xiu led an army to defeat the Shu general Wu Lan, leaving the follow-up Zhang Fei and Ma Chao to return without success.
After Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, Cao Xiu, because of his good relationship with Cao Pi and the fact that he was a clan relative, he would naturally be entrusted with a heavy responsibility, and Cao Pi even made Zhang Liao and Zang Ba the deputy generals of Cao Xiu. Cao Xiu did not live up to Cao Pi's trust, repeatedly defeating Eastern Wu, and many Eastern Wu generals surrendered to Cao Xiu.
However, in 228, Cao Xiu was hanged by Lu Xun at the Battle of Wei Wu Shiting, and the Wei army was defeated, and Cao Xiu himself was seriously wounded and died soon after.
3. Zhang Gao
Zhang Gao, after three generations of emperors Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and Cao Rui, was the last "five sons of liang general".
Zhang Gao surrendered to Cao Cao after the Battle of Guandu, and was immediately promoted by Cao Cao to general, which was highly valued. Zhang Gao also made many military achievements for Cao Wei and held a very high position in Cao Wei's army.
In the Battle of Hanzhong, Xiahou Yuan was beheaded by Huang Zhong, and Cao Wei's army was in great turmoil, and it was Zhang Gao who resisted the pressure and led the Wei army to retreat steadily. After Cao Rui ascended the throne, Zhang Gao defeated Ma Mo at the street pavilion and asked Zhuge Liang's army to return to Shu Han. Zhang Gao was also added by Cao Rui to a thousand households this time, becoming the highest of the five sons of Liang.
Zhang Gao's death has become a mystery for eternity, and when Zhang Gao died, Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu had already died, and Zhang Guo, a veteran general who had gone through the Three Emperors, seemed to have become the last stumbling block for Sima to seize Wei.
During Zhuge Liang's Fourth Northern Expedition, Sima Yi held firm and did not fight, and the Shu army retreated after running out of food. However, Sima Yi ordered Zhang Gao to go after the Shu army, and when Zhang Gao pursued him to the Mumen Valley, he was killed by a random arrow from the Shu army.
4th person
Prohibited. Yu Ban was one of Cao Wei's five sons, and his personal ability was outstanding in Cao Ying, and he was introduced by Wang Lang very early on and surrendered to Cao Cao's account. Subsequent major battles of Cao Cao, such as the Battle of Pi, the Battle of Guandu, and the Battle of Tianzhu Mountain, yu ban participated in it, and performed well, establishing outstanding military achievements and winning Cao Cao's trust, and Cao Cao often let Yu Ban lead troops for himself.
Yu Ban lived a prominent life, but he was late because he surrendered to Guan Yu. At that time, Guan Yu attacked Fancheng, and Cao Cao sent Ban to lead troops to rescue Cao Ren, but guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army and captured Yu Ban. After being captured by Guan Yu, Yu Ban chose to surrender to Guan Yu, and it was not until Guan Yu was captured and killed by Eastern Wu that Yu Ban was rescued by Eastern Wu and returned to Cao Wei. After Yu Ban returned to Cao Wei, he was already a thing and a man, Cao Cao had died, and Cao Pi became the new monarch of Cao Wei.
Because of the stain of Yu Ban's surrender of Guan Yu, he was very unpopular with Cao Pi, and Cao Pi's attitude also affected Cao Wei's ministers, who often pointed out and ridiculed Yu Ban after the ban. The most fatal thing is that Cao Pi let Yu Ban go to guard the Taimiao Temple, but let people paint murals in the Taimiao Temple, and after Yu Ban saw this scene, he was immediately ashamed and sad, and soon ended up depressed.
5th person
It's Cao Zhang. Cao Zhang's younger brother, Cao Pi, was also a general with both wisdom and courage, and he joined the army very early, following Zhang Liao and other famous generals to fight everywhere, and his ability to lead troops to fight independently was also quite good. Since Cao Zhang's ambition was to be a great general, Cao Cao excluded him from the selection of Shizi, and he had no intention of competing with Cao Pi for the throne, but there was a younger brother with heavy troops, which was a threat to Cao Pi in itself, so Cao Pi recalled Cao Zhang to the capital and killed Cao Zhang.
Cao Zhang was also a very young general, if Cao Pi did not kill him, he would certainly become the most important minister of Cao Rui and Cao Fang, and they would also let Cao Zhang command the army for himself, so that they could prevent Sima Yi from growing, and with Cao Zhang's presence, Sima Yi did not dare to do anything rebellious, but unfortunately, Cao Zhang was killed by Cao Pi, and at the same time left Cao Wei Jiangshan a huge hidden danger, which eventually led to Sima Yi stealing Cao Wei Jiangshan.