Comrade | Guevara
In the process of Emperor Liu Bang of Han Gao's destruction of the masses and the unification of the world, a large number of talented generals emerged, of which the bravest and most meritorious one was None other than Cao Shan, who was the number one fierce general under Liu Bang (Note: Although Han Xin had the greatest merit, he played the role of commander of the Han army and could not be classified as a general in the ordinary sense). So, who is Cao Ginseng? What are his impressive achievements?
01 Founding Fathers
Friends who are familiar with the history of the Han Dynasty know that most of the heroes under Liu Bang came from humble backgrounds, and the occupations they engaged in were often difficult to say. For example, Fan Duo was engaged in slaughtering dogs, Zhou Bo made a living by weaving silkworm utensils and playing elegy in people's funerals, and douccing babies by selling silk fabrics. However, Cao San's situation was very different from theirs, and this Jun studied criminal names and laws in his early years, passed the examination and became a prison guard (equivalent to the warden of later generations) in his hometown pei county, and belonged to the state cadres who "ate imperial food".
During cao's tenure, he had close contacts with the chief official Xiao He, and through him he became acquainted with Liu Bang, who was then the governor of Surabaya Pavilion. Although Cao San's position was higher than Liu Bang's, he did not rely on official prestige to bully the other party, but because of his similar intentions, he became friends with the latter. After Chen Sheng launched an uprising in Daze Township, he called on Shandong Haojie to resist the qin, and the people of Pei County, inspired by this, killed the county order and prepared to support Xiao He and Cao Shan as leaders. However, Xiao and Cao feared that the failure of the uprising would be wiped out by the Qin Dynasty, so they resolutely refused to take the lead, but instead tried their best to recommend Liu Bang as their leader.
Among the generals who followed Liu Bang to start the army, Fan Duo's personality was the most popular, and his individual combat ability was also the strongest, but this Jun was only a reckless man, and it was difficult to play a role in being alone. On the other hand, although Cao San, although he was born as a civilian official, he was self-taught in military terms, not only brave in battle, but also full of strategy, and he would be able to defeat the enemy whenever he went out in battle. During the Chu-Han War, Cao Shan followed Liu Bang in pacifying the Three Qins, and assisted Han Xin in destroying the (Western) States of Wei, Dai, Zhao, and Qi, and made great achievements in the establishment of the Han Dynasty.
In the sixth year of Han Gaozu (201 BC), Liu Bang, who had eliminated Xiang Yu and declared himself emperor the year before, rewarded the meritorious heroes on a large scale, and ordered people to publicize their merits and rank them. As a result, Cao Shan, because he destroyed 2 princely states and captured 122 counties, was the most meritorious among the generals, so he was crowned as the Marquis of Pingyang and served as a million households. From his outstanding deeds, it can be seen that Cao Shan's performance on the battlefield was extremely brave and excellent, surpassing all other generals, and could be called the number one fierce general under Liu Bang.
02 Xiao Gui Cao Sui
After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Cao Zan was sent by Liu Bang to Shandong to serve as the Xiangguo of Liu Fei, the Prince of Qi, for 9 years. Liu Fei was the eldest son of Liu Bang, and treated Cao Gan as an uncle in the folk, coupled with his warm temperament, so the two got along very well. During this period, due to the political instability of the empire, Cao Zan repeatedly accepted Liu Bang's summons to participate in the campaign against the rebel general Chen Feng and against Wang Yingbu (king of Jiujiang), and also made great achievements in battle, and his courage and bravery were not reduced.
In the more than one hundred years after the founding of the Han Dynasty, out of the need to stabilize the political situation, the system of the emperor and the military merit group jointly ruling the world was implemented, and the minister (XiangGuo), who was the head of the hundred officials, was always served by the meritorious minister or his descendants, until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty appointed Gongsun Hong, a Confucian, as the minister, to completely break this situation. As the first chancellor of the Han Dynasty (Xiangguo), Xiao He ruled for 10 years until emperor Hui of Han died of illness in office in the second year (193 BC). Before Xiao He died, he recommended his old friend Cao Shan to Empress Lü and Emperor Hui of Han to take over the position of Xiangguo, and they agreed.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the people's livelihood was withered and a hundred wastes were waiting to be rebuilt, and in view of this, Xiao He pragmatically implemented the "rule of inaction" after formulating the various systems of the empire, so that the empire could recuperate and restore its national strength. Cao San's governing philosophy was roughly the same as Xiao He's, so he completely copied the various decrees formulated by his predecessors, and did not make any changes except to belittle the officials in the Xiangguo Mansion who liked to dance and ink, and to promote the simple and uneducated subordinates. This historical fact is praised by later generations, and is also the source of the allusion to the idiom "Xiao Gui Cao Sui".
Because of copying Xiao He's laws and policies to govern the country, Cao Gan basically had no major things to do, and he did not care about dealing with trivial government affairs, so he often felt bored. In order to understand the boredom, Cao Shen entrusted all the affairs of the big and small to the subordinate officials to deal with, and he himself drank a lot of wine and listened to music in the Xiang Mansion, which was the case every day. Colleagues or subordinates felt that he was undignified in doing so, so they advised him one after another, and whenever this happened, Cao Shen would inevitably drag them to drink together until the other party was drunk and could not open his mouth to persuade him.
03 Benefiting the descendants
The young Emperor Hui of Han was greatly dissatisfied with Cao San's indulgence, so he gave the imperial master Cao Shu (Cao San's eldest son) a task, asking him to go home and persuade his father to know how to maintain the dignity of the prime minister and not to drink and indulge. Unexpectedly, Cao San did not listen to Cao Zhen's persuasion at all, and ordered someone to beat his son fiercely and told him to get out of the egg immediately. When the emperor heard the news, he couldn't help but be furious, so when Cao Went to court, he scolded him in the court for drinking and wasting, which was really unworthy of being a xiangguo.
Cao San seemed to have been mentally prepared, and now when he saw the emperor turn his face, he did not show surprise and fear, but just took off his hat and prostrated his head to apologize, and said without hesitation: "After Emperor Gao and Xiao Xiangguo pacified the world, the laws and policies formulated have been clarified, and there are reasonable and detailed ways to deal with the affairs of the country and the outside world. ”
When Emperor Hui of Han heard this, he felt that it was very reasonable, so he solemnly apologized to him and let him continue to serve as Xiangguo. Cao Zan sat on the throne of Xiangguo for 3 years until Emperor Hui died in office in the sixth year (189 BC). Although Cao San's work was passive and there was no institutional innovation during his tenure, he did not act arbitrarily, so that the people could recuperate and resume production, and their achievements were still not small. Because of this, the people were very fond of Cao Shan, and later generations also praised him as a good man throughout the ages.
Because cao's legacy is deep and deeply respected by successive emperors or people, except for a few periods, his descendants can generally inherit the marquis, until the establishment of the Jin Dynasty, and his lineage was severed for more than 400 years. From ancient times to the present, there have been many people who claim to be descendants of Cao Shan, the most well-known of which is the Wei Wu Emperor Cao Cao ("Emperor Taizu Wu, Pei Guo Ren Ye, surname Cao, Zhen Cao, Zi Mengde, Han Xiang Guo Shen Hou). See Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, Vol. 1), which of course includes the 5 official emperors of the Cao Wei Dynasty.
bibliography
Sima Qian (Western Han Dynasty): Records of History, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1982.
Bangu (Eastern Han): Book of Han, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1999.
Chen Shou (Western Jin Dynasty): Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2007.
Sima Guang (Song): Zizhi Tongjian, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2015.