Cao Cao was not incapable of unifying the whole country, but he was born at the wrong time, and the general environment at that time was not good. He could not shake the situation of the Three Kingdoms in a short period of time, and finally when the countries were in decline, the Sima family pacified it and established a unified dynasty of Jin.
In 209 BC, Liu Bang responded to the uprising in Pei County, and finally in 202 AD, he came to the throne and established a unified Han Dynasty, and it took him less than 7 years from the uprising to the establishment of the dynasty. The founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan, rebelled against the Sui in Taiyuan in 617 AD, and the following year he destroyed the Sui Dynasty and established the Tang, and then swept away the masses and unified the world, which took less than 5 years. On the other hand, Cao Cao spent his life only laying the northern half of the country, and in the end it was only three points of the world, was Cao Cao inferior to Liu Bang and Li Yuan? This is not the case, and it needs to be seen from the background in which they are located.
On military ability, governing ability, Cao Cao is not worse than the emperors in Chinese history, he ultimately failed to unify the world, can only say that the birth is not timely, the talents of the Three Kingdoms, placed in any dynasty may be a powerful country that dominates the world, Cao Cao, Sun Quan and Liu Bei are all rare heroes in history, let's take a look at why Cao Cao spent his whole life failing to achieve reunification, where he and Liu Bang and Li Yuan are.
The strategic environment is too harsh
Liu Bang of Han Gaozu and Li Yuan of Tang Gaozu both have one thing in common, they are both people who reap the benefits of fishermen, and to a large extent they inherit the inheritance of their predecessors or the previous dynasty. When Liu Bang rebelled, the foundation of the Qin Dynasty had already been shaken, the peasant revolt, the resurgence of the Six Kingdoms, etc. all caused the Qin Dynasty a headache, and the relatively weak Liu Bang was not taken seriously by others at all, he took the opportunity to occupy Xianyang when Xiang Yu and the Qin army fought fiercely, and continued to grow ever since. Xiang Yu had already paved the way and helped Liu Bang eliminate many enemies, which was like a boxer, who did not have to duel with everyone to prove himself to be the first, as long as he fought against the first place, the victory could be called the first.
Liu Bang's battle in Pengcheng was enough to show his strength, behind the sneak attack, but also was beaten miserably, and finally by scheming to win, Liu Bang although the victory is not glorious, but the king defeated Kou, as long as the victory is a wonderful history.
Li Yuan's situation was better than Liu Bang's, and he was ready to go, waiting for uprisings everywhere, and finally defeating the enemy with one move, accepting the foundation of the Sui Dynasty, and sweeping away the masses to establish the Tang Dynasty. The two of them are like yellow finches, waiting for the praying mantis to catch cicadas, and finally collecting all the results, from the general environment, Liu Bang and Li Yuan's luck is still very good.
On the other hand, Cao Cao's situation, the Eastern Han Dynasty fell apart, from the beginning of Dong Zhuo's entry into Beijing, he was not a powerful person, there were many local warlords at that time, Cao Cao basically failed to establish his own territory, and later just established the foundation, found that there were too many enemies, he wanted to eliminate opponents one by one, such as Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Lü Bu, Ma Teng, Tao Qian, etc. In the war to unify the north, Cao Cao spent too much effort.
After the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao basically took most of the northern region, if the south was successful, there would be a chance of the same whole country, but he eventually planted a heel in the Battle of Chibi, the northern army was not good at water warfare, and Cao Cao also had too many mistakes in strategy.
Cao Cao is a person who completely fights the world by himself, in the era of the rise of the masses, being able to unify the north is actually very strong, how to meet the fierce enemies of life, Liu Bei and Sun Quan, as well as Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu and other people's assistance, it is really difficult to unify. Cao Cao already had the ambition to dominate the world, but the times did not allow it, and the enemy was too powerful.
People's hearts turned their backs, and the usurpers caused dissatisfaction
In the last years of the Qin Dynasty, the people were dissatisfied with the tyranny of Qin Shi Huang and rebelled one after another, and Liu Bang's uprising was famous, holding the banner of righteousness to rebel and win the hearts of the people. When Li Yuan raised his army, the people of the world also hated the tyranny of the Sui Dynasty, abused the people's power, frequent wars, and the people suffered for a long time, and after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, it was also justified. The dynasties they established were all supported by the people, even if they did not support, they did not oppose, in contrast, Cao Cao was very miserable.
In the Alliance of the White Horse, it has been clearly stated: "Those who are not the king of the Liu clan, the whole world strikes together, and if there is no merit and does not pay attention, the world will condemn it." "After hundreds of years of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Liu surnamed Liu has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and Cao Cao, as a person with a different surname, dared to invade the Liu Dynasty, and would definitely be attacked by the heroes of the world. Cao Cao did not call himself emperor all his life, not that he did not want to, but considered too many factors, when he threatened tianzi to order the princes, it showed that he was still jealous of the Han dynasty, the status of the orthodox dynasty was really unshakable, using the Han Emperor to attack other warlords and divisions famous, if the Han Dynasty was self-reliant, it is likely that Cao Cao would become the enemy of everyone, even Cao Cao's confidant Xun Yu was bent on Han, and finally was murdered by Cao Cao.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, even if the Han Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, the people's hearts were still towards the Han, so Liu Bei was able to establish the Shu Han without being opposed by the people, Liu Shi and the emperor could be accepted by the people, and Cao Cao was still said to be a Han thief by posterity even if he did not usurp han himself, which is enough to show how deep the foundation of the Han Dynasty is, and how embarrassing the situation faced by Cao Cao is.
The opponents are strong, and the strength of Sun Liu and Liu is too strong
In the process of Liu Bang's unification, his biggest enemy was to worship his brother Xiang Yu, and Xiang Yu was a general, but not a handsome talent, maybe he would be an outstanding general, but he would never be a good emperor, in terms of strategy, he was far better than Liu Bang, and was eventually defeated by Liu Bang through strategy and tactics. Li Yuan did not have much resistance in the process of unification, his main enemies were Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande's personality was more similar to Xiang Yu, advocating heroes and morality, such a person was difficult to become an emperor in ancient times, they could only divide one side at the highest, and finally he was defeated by Li Shimin and executed. Wang Shichong was a villain, a person who could not win the hearts and minds of the people, and was eventually defeated.
On the other hand, Cao Cao's opponent, Liu Bei is good at winning people's hearts, he is deeply loved by the people, when he escapes, he still has to take the people with him, such a person is the most difficult, even if a benevolent jun is defeated, it is difficult for you to occupy the city he once ruled, Liu Bei is deeply popular with the people, and there are civilian and military generals to help, such as Zhuge Liang, Fazheng, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and others, are rare talents.
Sun Quan dominated Jiangdong, relying on natural dangers, the strength of the water army was strong, and the unity of Jiangdong was up and down, and Cao Cao was also helpless. Although Liu Bei and Sun Quan were also difficult to unify the country, no one on their side could do anything with them. It was not easy for Cao Cao to unify the north, and when he met people like Liu Bei, Sun Jian, and Sun Quan in the chaotic world, it was impossible for Liu Bang and Li Yuan to unify the whole country.