It is even more difficult to produce noble sons in the cold door, which is even more difficult in the feudal era, especially in the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the Zhang Jiao brothers originally from the Han clan tried to overthrow the Eastern Han Dynasty by means of the Yellow Turban Uprising, and as a result, they were jointly suppressed by the Eastern Han government and the local Hao clans, and the forces that divided the side at that time basically did not come from the Han clan, and all of them came from the Shi clan or the Hao clan, such as Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao, Gongsun Zhan, Liu Bei, Liu Zhang, Liu Biao, Ma Chao and others.
There are many separatist forces, but the last to unify northern China is Cao Cao, in addition to Cao Cao's super ability, the strength of his family is the basis of Cao Cao's success, without the support of these strengths, Cao Cao's ability, even if it is strong, may not be able to defeat Yuan Shao, let alone unify the entire north of China.
So where does Cao Cao's strength come from?
Cao Cao
1. Cao Cao's family
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms says that Cao Cao was the founder of the Western Han Dynasty, Cao San, but also said that no one knows from whom Cao Cao's father Cao Song passed on to Cao Teng, which is tantamount to inconsistencies, Pei Songzhi said in the Notes of the Three Kingdoms that Cao Cao's father Cao Song was Xiahou Huan's uncle, then Cao Cao and Xiahou Huan were brothers of the same clan, which is equivalent to saying that Cao Cao's surname was Xiahou.
According to the DNA test of the remains excavated from the Eastern Han Tomb no. 1 of Yuanbaokeng and compared with Cao Cao's descendants, Cao Cao is not related to Xiahou and Cao Ginseng, which also indirectly proves that Cao Teng is not a descendant of Cao Ginseng.
However, these results did not affect the strength of Cao Cao's family, as we all know, Cao Cao's father Cao Song was adopted by the eunuch Cao Teng, a famous eunuch at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who was named the Marquis of Feiting, the official to the great Changqiu, the chief eunuch in the empress's palace, and also supported the Han Huan Emperor Liu Zhi as emperor, influencing the political situation at that time, with a high position of authority.
Cao Cao's adoptive grandfather, Cao Teng
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the government has always been controlled by eunuchs and foreign relatives, eunuchs have formed a powerful political force, Cao Teng is one of them, because of this relationship, Cao Cao's father Cao Song official Yun Hengtong, has served as a lieutenant, a big Hongqi, a great si nong, etc., da sinong is equivalent to the minister of economy, controls the national economy, and also served as one of the three dukes.
It is precisely because of the relationship between his grandfather and his father that Cao Cao was able to enter the imperial court at a very young age to hold an official position, even if Cao Cao killed the uncle of the emperor's favored eunuch Jian Shuo, he could actually be exempted from punishment, which is an example of a doctor who cannot be punished, and the reason behind it is nothing more than that the power of cao Cao's family in the imperial court played a role, without this layer of relationship, others would have been killed by eunuchs long ago.
This is the power of the Cao Cao family, in addition to the power, the Cao Cao family also has countless wealth, take Cao Cao's father, he was a famous rich man at that time, Cao Song spent a hundred million dollars in order to become one of the three dukes, on the one hand, bribed the relevant officials, on the other hand, to buy officials.
Cao Cao's father Cao Song
The grain of the Eastern Han Dynasty is 3,000 yuan a stone, a stone of grain is 100 pounds, Cao Song's 100 million yuan can buy 33,333 stone grain, in other words, 100 million yuan can buy 1666 tons of grain, to a person eat 3 kilograms of grain a day, these grains can be eaten by 10,000 people for 100 days at that time, Cao Cao's family is rich enough, this is the strength of Cao Cao's army.
According to the current grain price of 2.5 yuan a catty, 100 million yuan can be worth 8.33 million yuan, the Cao family is also super rich today, the key is not the entire wealth of the Cao Cao family. Cao Cao's father, Cao Song, later lived in seclusion in Xuzhou's LangXian County, and when Cao Cao was ready to take his father to Yanzhou, the heavy loads his father carried with him were loaded with more than a hundred cars. This money is enough for Cao Cao's family to feed tens of thousands of troops, which is also the strength of Cao Cao's army.
Cao Cao was Cao Song's eldest son, at that time they were all the eldest son inheritance system, Cao Cao could inherit most of his father's property, Cao Cao relied on these properties to recruit soldiers at the beginning of the army, his life starting point was many times higher than Liu Bei did not know, aside from ability, in today's words, Cao Cao won at the starting line.
The Cao Cao family was powerful
The same was true of Cao Cao's greatest enemy, Yuan Shao's family, although the fourth and third dukes, protégés and former officials all over the world, his family had great influence in the imperial court, and in the local area, it was the Rich and Powerful Yuan Clan of Runan, which had great strength.
Therefore, as soon as Yuan Shao came out to start a business, there were immediately many few people who responded to the big response, not only could become the ally of the crusade against Dong Zhuo's coalition army, but also quickly occupied the four states of Hebei and became the most powerful prince in the world, in the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao almost defeated Cao Cao with his strength, if it were not for Xu You's defection and informing, the outcome of the Battle of Guandu is still difficult to say, which is the reason for the strength.
2. Relatives of Cao Cao
1. Relatives of xiahou
Xiahou's relatives mainly include Xiahou Huan and Xiahou Yuan. Xiahou Huan and Xiahou Yuan are two clan brothers, the history books say that they are the descendants of the famous founding general Xiahou Bao of the Western Han Dynasty, if true, Xiahou Huan's family is a rich family that has lasted for four hundred years, and there are 143 people who have been crowned marquises of the Founding Heroes of the Western Han Dynasty, which has become the main noble family in the two Han Dynasties, as long as they do not stop and do not break the law, they can inherit the title for generations, and they can also receive priority education and enter the career path, and people from cold doors cannot be compared.
Xiahou Huan
After four hundred years of development, his clan was numerous and leafy, and then married with different clans of scholars, forming a huge interest group, which was a powerful force in the local and imperial court, for example: when Xiahou Huan was 14 years old, he killed the person who insulted his teacher, which was a crime at the time, but Xiahou Huan was able to be fine, thanks to the family strength behind it.
For example, Xiahou Yuan once took the place of Cao Cao and went to prison, cao Cao tried to save Xiahou Yuan from prison, which must rely on power and money to do, Xiahou Huan and Xiahou Yuan when Cao Cao first started the army, they led their people to support Cao Cao in battle, both of them participated in Cao Cao's war against Dong Zhuo, and were strong supporters of Cao Cao.
2. Relatives of the Cao clan
Cao's relatives mainly include Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Chun, Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen and others. Cao Ren, Cao Hong, and Cao Chun were Cao Cao's brothers, of whom Cao Ren and Cao Chun were brothers, Cao Ren had pulled a team of thousands of people in the Huaisi area long before Cao Cao raised an army, and later heard that Cao Cao had raised an army, and Cao Ren took this group of people directly to Cao Cao, which greatly increased Cao Cao's strength.
Cao Ren
In the chaotic world at that time, how did Cao Ren pull up an army?
Cao Ren's family is also a noble family, his grandfather Cao Zhen served as the Taishou of Yingchuan, and his father Cao Chi served as a lieutenant of Shizhong and Changshui, these official positions are not small, they are all high-ranking officials with a rank of 2,000 stones, it can be said that his family has been an official for generations, and there are some similarities with the families of Yuan Shao and Yang Biao, but there is no official size of these two families.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the shi clan was also very powerful in the local area, they had land, they had a manor economy, there was a hidden population, and there were many guests and tenants who lived together with the shi clan, Cao Ren could take over a team, first of all, his family had money, and secondly, there were people who had money to provide grain to feed people, and many people in the chaotic world only wanted to survive and eat a full meal.
Cao Ren's team must be composed of Cao Ren people + servants + guests + tenants + recruited displaced people, from the history books of Cao Chun can also see how strong Cao Ren's family is, Cao Chun is Cao Ren's younger brother, his father died at the age of 14, so the two brothers separated the family, Cao Chun inherited the father's family business, there are hundreds of servants and guests in the family, can feed so many people, the family is of course very rich.
Cao Chun
Cao Ren, as the elder brother, will not be less than Cao Chun, and as soon as the servants and guests in the family are gathered, there will be a team of hundreds of people, plus some displaced people and clansmen, the team will be easy to pull up, as long as there are people with money.
Another one is Cao Hong, who once had a sentence to comment on Cao Hong: "My family is as good as a son Lianye!" "It means that my family's property is as much as Cao Hong's!" Cao Cao's own family was already very rich, but Cao Hong's family was even richer, and Cao Hong turned to Cao Cao at the beginning of Cao Cao's business, and did not take less money to support Cao Cao's entrepreneurship.
Cao Cao was defeated by Dong Zhuobu's general Xu Rong in the Battle of Bishui, Cao Hong also gave up his horse to Cao Cao, after Cao Cao's defeat, recruiting soldiers, feeding soldiers needs money, Cao Hong for Cao Cao, in fact, is equivalent to Mi Zhu for Liu Bei, are the angel investors behind the leader.
Cao Hong
The history books record that Cao Cao was a "scattered family wealth and righteous soldiers" when Chen Liu raised troops, in addition to Cao Cao to spend his own money, but also need to spend other people's money, fighting is a money burning campaign, without the support of the funds behind, Cao Cao is difficult to rise in the crowd of hegemony, which is one of the reasons for Cao Cao's success.
Third, the warriors who supported Cao Cao were strong and powerful
In addition, there are also some warriors who support Cao Cao's army, for example, when Cao Cao first raised troops in Chen Liu, there was a local man named Wei Zi who took out his family wealth to support Cao Cao's recruitment and recruited five thousand soldiers for Cao Cao, which was Cao Cao's first time to raise troops, why was Wei Zi willing to fund Cao Cao? Because Wei Zi believed that Cao Cao had the ability to make a big cause, Wei Zi once commented on Cao Cao in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Biography of Wei Zhen", saying that the person who calmed the world must be Cao Cao.
Therefore, Wei Zi donated his family wealth, which is equivalent to investing in Cao Cao, paying for people, and later Wei Zi was killed in the Battle of Beishui, and his son continued to follow Cao Cao, Wei Zi's investment was right, and later developments proved this.
Cao Cao's success is inseparable from his strength
In addition to Wei Zi, there were also many warriors who supported Cao Cao, such as the Yingchuan Xun clan represented by Xun Yu and Xun You brothers, the Yingchuan Chen clan represented by Chen Qun, the Yingchuan Zhong clan represented by Zhong Xuan and Zhong Yu, as well as Cheng Yu, Cui Yan, Mao Jiu, Wang Lang, Li Dian, and others, Li Dian, and Li Dian even led thousands of his own people and diners to Cao Cao, which was equivalent to leading an army to Cao Cao and giving Cao Cao a lot of support.
Looking back, what did Cao Cao's rise depend on? In addition to ability, rely on strength, fight is strength, consume money, food and materials, this requires money and people, needs constantly someone to pay people to support Cao Cao's foreign expansion, look at Cao Cao's relatives who have money and people, you know, there are people who have money, some people are out, and they help Cao Cao unify the whole of northern China.