Cao Cao's practice of blackmailing Tianzi to make the princes and Zhuge Liang control the government in Shu Han was the same, both were of the same nature, treating the emperor as a puppet, and actually being the real ruler. It can be said that Zhuge Liang is actually the same kind of person as Cao Cao, not being an emperor himself, but exercising the power of the emperor and being the controller behind the scenes.
Cao Cao blackmailed Tianzi for the purpose of ordering the princes: although Cao Cao was one of the eighteen princes, he lacked its legitimacy, and although the Han Dynasty had fallen, its legitimacy was still there, and the appeal of this banner of the Han Dynasty was still there. As long as there is this banner, everything Cao Cao does has its legitimacy, and it can block the mouth of the world, and Cao Cao is not a traitor to the usurper.
There is also the fact that if Cao Cao wants to achieve a career, he must have capable people and different people under his hands, and he must have talents, otherwise how to do it. And under the banner of the Han Dynasty Tianzi, there are talented people in the world, as long as you get the Han Dynasty Tianzi, it is equivalent to getting the world's elites for their own use.
With legitimacy and talent, there is another important reason, holding the Han Dynasty Tianzi is also equivalent to getting the legal right to harm other princes. Cao Cao could use the mouth of the Han Dynasty Tianzi to legally reward and punish other princes, and he could command the world, and Cao Cao was equivalent to directly controlling public opinion and controlling the direction of public opinion.
In order to build prestige, Cao Cao had to release that kind of domineering spirit of solipsism in the world, one was to deter those who were loyal to the Han Dynasty inside, and the other was to deter other princes, and at the same time, it was also a means of attracting talents: those who dared to follow me Cao Cao were not of the same breed, they were all heroes and heroes.
It is precisely because of these that Cao Cao went to the peak step by step, but at the same time, these trapped Cao Cao as emperors. Because Cao Cao borrowed the people and forces of the Han Dynasty, most of the people who supported Cao Cao's Wei forces were the former Han Dynasty's subjects, and many of them were loyal to the Han Dynasty. Xun Yu was a typical example of this, although these people knew that Cao Cao was using the power of the Han Dynasty to develop his own power, but Cao Cao did not claim the title of emperor for a day, and Cao Cao was still a courtier of the Han Dynasty. It can only be said that Cao Cao was the actual controller of the Han Dynasty, that although Emperor Xian of Han was a puppet, he was still the emperor of the Han Dynasty after all, and Cao Cao was only an ambitious and powerful minister.
Zhuge Liang, on the other hand, was different, Zhuge Liang presided over the government because Liu Bei was entrusted with orphans on his deathbed and let Zhuge Liang assist the young emperor. Zhuge Liang's regime in the Shu Han Dynasty had a natural legitimacy, and he was entrusted by the former emperor to assist the young emperor and govern on his behalf.
It is precisely because Zhuge Liang has a natural legitimacy, although he did the same thing as Cao Cao, blackmailing the Son of Heaven to order the subjects (princes), but its legitimacy and nature are completely different. Cao Cao is considered to have come over, Zhuge Liang is playing secretly, if Zhuge Liang is playing on the table like Cao Cao, future generations will say that Zhuge Liang blackmailed the Son of Heaven to make Shu Han.