After Dong Cheng and Ji Ping's plan to poison Cao Cao was revealed, Cao Cao was already extremely angry with them, and then he began to kill cao! One killed Ji Ping, two killed Dong Cheng, and three killed Dong Guifei; at this time, Cao Cao seemed to have lost his humanity and entered a state of madness.
Therefore, Mr. Luo calls Cao Cao a national thief in the text, but this is not what Mr. Luo wants to express. Let me break it down.
Cao Cao did not want to kill these people.
Previously, Cao Cao had forgiven Tao Xie, Liu Bei, and Zhang Xiu, and appointed Lü Bu regardless of their previous suspicions; the entanglement between these people and Cao Cao was much greater than that of Dong Cheng and others. By the 22nd time, Cao Cao hadn't even remembered it, the move that should have been surrendered, the one who should have been wooed, but now he turned the spearhead to kill Dong Cheng's gang of insignificant people? This is a counterintuitive thing, and it is also contrary to Cao Cao's banner of justice!
Previously, Cao Cao did not kill Liu Bei and others, for the sake of the overall situation, he was afraid of losing people's hearts and minds because of this; then, now he is not afraid? It can be seen that Cao Cao's killing of Dong Cheng is false, still for the sake of people's hearts!
This was Cao Cao's real purpose in killing these people, because these people were insignificant, but they posed a great threat to Cao Cao's banner of justice!
From the perspective of interests, Cao Cao killed Dong Cheng and others, and did not get any tangible benefits, but got the insult of "national thief"!
This is the fundamental reason why Cao Cao did not kill Dong Cheng, Liu Bei and others all along--because they could not pose too much of an obstacle to Cao Cao's ideals for a while. In this way, although Cao Cao could not get the sincerity of these people, he could get the support of the vast number of heroes Hao Jie and the support of many Li Min!
So, why did Cao Cao kill these people? Because they are despicable to the extreme.
Dong Cheng and others
The purpose is not pure, on the surface to save the country and save the people, but in fact there are other plans; it can neither solve the sorrow of Emperor Xian of Han, nor can it do anything meaningful for Li Min, but can only add a little more stain to this world that is already chaotic and can no longer be chaotic!
This is the terrible thing about them - while pretending to save the Eastern Han Dynasty, they are pregnant with ghost fetuses.
Cao Cao let them go at this time, then it was possible not only to bring great danger to himself, but also to add another dark force to the Eastern Han Dynasty. Therefore, Cao Cao chose to kill them all and take down Dong Cheng's gang one by one.
Such cruel methods are certainly heinous and frightening, but there are also Cao Cao's own reasons.
If we recall the external contradictions in the great man's "Theory of Contradictions", we will find Cao Cao's truth.
For external contradictions, that is equivalent to our enemy; we should never make any sense with them, nor can we be friends with them. At the moment when the contradiction arises, we can only choose to defeat them and knock them down, there is no second way to find!
Then, let's look at Cao Cao, and then look at Dong Cheng and others; there is no doubt that what Cao Cao did was just, and Dong Cheng and others only remained superficially foolish. The contradiction between the two is also an internal and external contradiction and is irreconcilable. In order to free Li Min from the war as soon as possible and realize the great cause of the unification of the three kingdoms as soon as possible, Cao Cao could only choose to kill Dong Cheng's people. In fact, a hypothesis can give Cao Cao a perfect explanation: if Dong Cheng and others poisoned Cao Cao, then the Eastern Han Dynasty would be too peaceful, or would Emperor Xian of Han be able to truly ascend to the throne?
Therefore, I think that people like Dong Cheng should be killed, because they are Cao Cao's enemies, and they are very sinister and cunning enemies!
In summary,
When we read the twenty-third time, we cannot understand Cao Cao's atrocities from the superficial text, and we must think about why Cao Cao killed Dong Cheng and others.
The same is true in life, we must distinguish between the inside and the outside, and we must not regard our enemies as friends because of morality, fairness, human nature, etc.; because these belong only to ourselves, to our true friends!