In the first year of Jiaping (249), the Wei emperor Cao Fang saw that his confidant Sima Yi was terminally ill, so he relieved to leave the capital Luoyang with the general Cao Shuang and others, and went to Gaoping Tomb to pay homage to Emperor Wei Ming, who died young. However, Cao Fangwan did not expect that Sima Yi, who was scheming and calculating, had actually been pretending to be ill. As soon as he left Luoyang City on his front foot, Sima Yi took action on his side.
Previously, Cao Shuang was afraid that Sima Yi was pretending to be ill, and he also specially sent his confidant Li Sheng to visit Sima Yi's palace. After Sima Yi saw Li Sheng, he immediately guessed Cao Shuang's intentions and knew that this was to examine his acting skills. So, he trembled and ordered someone to meet Li Sheng, and then, struggling to get up. Li Sheng saw that he was already sick like this, and quickly said good words to appease him.
After a while, Sima Yi said that he was thirsty and wanted to drink porridge. The servants brought a bowl of porridge and fed it to Sima Yi with their own hands. However, Sima Yi even made it difficult to drink porridge. Watching the porridge slide down from the corner of Sima Yi's mouth, Li Sheng couldn't bear it in his heart, hurriedly said a conversation and then left. Moreover, it was these few casual idle words that Sima Yi was responding weakly.
After returning home, Li Sheng carefully reported Sima Yi's reaction. In this way, both Cao Fang and Cao Shuang believed the fact that Sima Yi was seriously ill.
However, after Cao Fang and his party left, Sima Yi quickly got up from his sickbed, and he changed his previous listlessness and was full of exuberant vitality all over his body. Before the servants in the house could be surprised, he ordered Sima Zhao and Sima Shi's two sons to follow him to the empress's palace. When Empress Guo saw sima Yi, who was seriously ill, suddenly appear in front of her, she couldn't help but be shocked.
However, Sima Yi did not give her time to sort out her thoughts at all, and immediately forced her to issue an edict to abolish the general Cao Shuang and the central leader Cao Xi. Although Empress Guo lived in the deep palace for a long time, she was also a person with a clear mind. She knew in her heart that Sima Yi's usurpation of power was imperative, and now asking herself for an edict was only to legitimize the usurpation. In desperation, she had to do as Sima Yi said.
With the empress dowager's edict, coupled with careful planning in advance, Sima Yi swept away Cao Shuang's forces in Luoyang with lightning speed. Sima Yi then promised Cao Shuang that he would never threaten his life, but only dismiss him from his official position. Under such circumstances, the stupid Cao Shuang did not listen to the advice of the Grand Si Nong Huan Fan and insisted on reconciling with Sima Yi.
Therefore, he cleverly said to his subordinates: "Sima Yi just wants to take away the power in my hands, and I agree." Although I can no longer take charge of the army when I return to Luoyang, I can be a rich man! ”
But how could Sima Yi, who had the upper hand, keep his promise? As soon as Cao Shuang returned to his home in Luoyang, the soldiers sent by Sima Yi arrived later. In the end, in order to prevent Cao Shuang's residual forces from making waves again, Sima Yi exterminated all three of Cao Shuang's clans, and only then did he stop. Since then, the naïve Cao Shuang not only gave up his own life in vain, but even his family suffered because of him.
After Cao Shuang's death, the power of the court was returned to Sima Yi. Although Cao Fang was still the nominal emperor, the clear-eyed people could see that the next emperor was none other than the Sima family. In this case, many people believe that there must be a fight between Sima Zhao and Sima Shi. Just like Cao Pi and Cao Zhi at that time, on the road to imperial power, only one person could win.
However, the relationship between Sima Zhao and Sima Shi has always been very good. Even after Cao Shuang was killed, the two did not have any competition for the position. While later generations lamented that the two people had a broad heart, they could not help but wonder about this matter. Because, in the face of imperial power, brotherhood is a common thing. In fact, Sima Zhao and Sima Shi did not have the heart to fight, but simply did not have the energy to fight.
Why?
Many people believe that after Sima Yi killed Cao Shuang, everything was worry-free, but it was not the same thing at all. After Sima Yi exterminated the three tribes of Cao Shuang, he feared that killing too much would cause unrest. Therefore, only Cao Shuang's henchmen were punished, but Lu Zhi, Wang Shen and others, who were far away from Cao Shuang, were open to the net. In this way, although the situation was stabilized, many forces were formed in the imperial court.
Although Sima Yi was both powerful and powerful, it was still difficult to twist his men into a rope. On the one hand, Lu Zhi, Wang Shen, and others put on a look of gratitude to Sima Yi, and on the other hand, they continued to expand their own power and wanted to act according to the opportunity. As soon as the situation changed, they would quickly overthrow the Sima family on the grounds that Cao Shuang had been rehabilitated.
Because Sima Zhao and Sima Shi were well aware of this delicate situation, they would not fight with each other at all, and do such things that the relatives were painful and the enemies were happy. In addition, at that time, although the Shu and Wu states were weak, they were still not to be underestimated. In 238 AD and 262 AD, in just four years, the Shu general Jiang Wei became more and more courageous in the war, and even launched eleven consecutive Northern Expeditions against the Wei state.
At the moment of the great enemy, it is impossible for the Sima Zhao brothers not to know what to focus on.
Finally, due to Sima Shi's heirs, Sima Zhao would not fight with his brother. Because Sima Shi had only five daughters in his lifetime, an adopted son, and this adopted son was also Sima Zhao's son. Therefore, sima Zhao had no need to fight for this throne.
In addition, after Sima Shi's death, Sima Zhao controlled the entire center of power. As the saying goes, Sima Zhao's heart is well known to passers-by, but until Sima Zhao's death, he was unable to claim the title of emperor. And his title of emperor was posthumously awarded by his son Sima Yan. It can be seen that Sima Yi, Sima Shi, and Sima Zhao all paved the way for Sima Yan, making him establish a new dynasty in one fell swoop and become the emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty.
Resources:
[Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Chronicle of the Three Young Emperors, Chronicle of the Book of Jin, Emperor Xuan of Jin, Chronicle of Emperor Wen of Jin]