In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there is a Wei Guowu who is written as a nester, in fact, this person not only broke Zhuge Liang and defeated Zhao Yun, but even suppressed Sima Yi in the Wei Dynasty hall and defended Cao Wei Jiangshan, Sima Yi did not even dare to act rashly when he was alive, he was Cao Zhen. Many people may not be familiar with Cao Zhen, he is Cao Cao's adopted son, Cao Zhen's original name is Qin Zhen, is Qin Shao's son, Qin Shao was originally Cao Cao's most powerful military general, once helped Cao Cao recruit troops and buy horses.
Cao Cao was chased and killed by Yuan Shu during a campaign, and in order to protect Cao Cao, Qin Shao pretended to be Cao Cao to cover Cao Cao's retreat, and was eventually killed by Yuan Shu's subordinates, and Cao Cao, in gratitude for Qin Shao's life-saving grace, adopted Qin Shao's son Qin Zhen as his adopted son and changed his name to Cao Zhen. Cao Zhen did not have much military merit during Cao Cao's time, Cao Zhen and Cao Pi had a good relationship, after Cao Pi took the throne, Cao Zhen was appointed as the general of Zhenxi, and then promoted all the way, and finally sat on the shangjun general, one of the supreme commanders of the State of Wei. Many people may think that Cao Zhen's position is completely based on cao Pi's relationship, but in fact, Cao Zhen has extremely high achievements in both military and political affairs, and it can be said that the most versatile military general of the Cao family at that time was Cao Zhen.
In 222 AD, Cao Pi personally enlisted Sun Quan, Cao Zhen and Xiahou Shang, Zhang Guo, and Xu Huang led the Chinese army to attack Wu's Jiangling County, Cao Zhen broke the Wu army in this battle, defeated the Wu state Sun Sheng, and captured Jiangling, sun Quan killed in this battle was powerless, and even later Sun Quan, in order to make the State of Wei retreat, paid tribute to the State of Wei, and the State of Wei only withdrew. After Cao Pi's death, Cao Zhen was appointed as one of the four auxiliary ministers, along with Chen Qun, Cao Xiu, and Sima Yi. At the imperial court, Cao Zhen vigorously suppressed Sima Yi's power and maintained Cao Wei's power, so that while Cao Zhen was alive, Sima Yi could not intervene in the affairs of the State of Wei at all.
During Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, he had conquered the three counties of the State of Wei, and during this Northern Expedition, Jiang Wei also defected to the State of Shu, and originally thought that the Northern Expedition must be full of loads. Who knew that Cao Rui personally marched and appointed Cao Zhen as the overseer of this battle, and in this battle, Cao Zhen broke Zhao Yun in Jigu valley, killing the Shu army and holding its head, and even Zhao Yun had to avoid its sharp edge. Cao Zhen's general Zhang Guo also defeated Ma Chen at Jieting, forcing the Shu army to temporarily retreat.
Cao Zhen expected that Zhuge Liang would naturally not give up easily, and expected that Zhuge Liang would definitely attack Chen Cang, fortifying Chen Cang in advance, and the next year Zhuge Liang did attack Chen Cang, and as a result, he was defeated by Cao Zhen. Cao Zhen also regained the three counties he had lost in this campaign, and the morale of the Wei state was greatly increased. In the rendition, in order to highlight Sima Yi's strength, the author deliberately belittled Cao Zhen's strength, but let people think that Cao Zhen was a nest, in fact, in the main history, Cao Zhen was brave and good at fighting, and many battles were won by Cao Zhen's wise command, it can be said that Cao Zhen was the most underrated Wei general.