For the Cao Cao family, the existence of Sima Yi is undoubtedly the greatest misfortune, because Sima Yi has survived three generations of the Cao Cao family, and finally can monopolize power and realize his ambitions, it can be said that if the three generations of the Cao Cao family lived longer, perhaps Sima Yi would not dare to usurp power.
Cao Cao had already discovered Sima Yi's ambitions, so Cao Cao had always been wary of Sima Yi, and before his death, Cao Cao not only warned his son Cao Pi to be careful of Sima Yi in the future, but also left Cao Pi with four famous generals.
The four fierce generals left by Cao Cao
There were actually many fierce generals who followed Cao Cao, especially Xiahou Yuan, Xiahou Huan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Chun, Zhang Gao, Zhang Liao, Xu Zhu, etc., these ministers were Cao Cao's confidants, and they had always trusted them during Cao Cao's lifetime, especially several people of Xiahou's clan, and they were one of Cao Cao's most trusted people.
However, it is a pity that Xiahou Yuan died before Cao Cao, so in the Xiahou family, Cao Cao's most trusted should be Xiahou Huan, who was a military and political leader left by Cao Cao in Hefei, mainly responsible for the affairs of Cao Wei's regime in Hefei.
When Xiahou Huan was at his most powerful, he commanded the Twenty-sixth Army in Juchao, at that time each army had about 3,000 people, and the Twenty-sixth Army was about 78,000 people, in Cao Cao's time, the soldiers and horses controlled by Xiahou Huan were basically one-third of the total number of soldiers and horses controlled by All of Cao Cao's men, which was enough to see Cao Cao's trust and importance to Xiahou Huan.
Of course, Xiahou Huan never failed to live up to Cao Cao's trust in his life, and Xiahou Huan was one of the most loyal courtiers to Cao Cao, and when Cao Cao was alive, he had extreme trust in him and allowed Xiahou Huan to enter Cao Cao's palace directly without being informed.
Xiahou Huan followed Cao Cao in the southern conquest of the northern war, and made great achievements, he was not only good at leading troops to fight, but also good at the management of internal affairs, such a talent, of course, Sima Yi's ambitions are also relatively clear understanding, but unfortunately Xiahou Huan did not survive Sima Yi, and followed Cao Cao a few months after Cao Cao's death.
In the Xiahou family, Cao Cao left such a fierce general as Xiahou Huan for Cao Pi, and in the Cao family, Cao Cao left more generals for Cao Pi, the most representative of which was Cao Ren. Cao Ren was Cao Cao's brother of the same ethnic group, and from the day Cao Cao started his business, he had been following Cao Cao and making great achievements.
Cao Ren can be regarded as Cao Cao's best assistant, in the process of following Cao Cao in battle, it is generally Cao Cao who fights a frontal battle, Cao Ren is responsible for assisting the side, the two cooperate with each other, always can catch the enemy off guard, for example, in several key battles of Cao Cao, Cao Ren is very well assisted.
When Cao Cao attacked Lü Bu, Cao Ren was responsible for cleaning up Lü Bu's subordinates around Lü Bu, and when Cao Cao beat Zhang Xiu, Cao Ren was responsible for cleaning up the cities around Zhang Xiu, and the two always divided their work and cooperated, just right, and the enemy was completely caught off guard by Cao Cao.
Cao Ren participated in many wars, and the combat effectiveness was very strong, it can be regarded as the force value left by Cao Cao to Cao Pi, with Cao Ren's assistance, at least on the battlefield, Cao Pi did not need to worry too much, but unfortunately, Cao Ren did not survive Sima Yi, and after Cao Cao's death, Cao Ren also died soon after.
The Xiahou clan and the Cao family must have been the most trusted backbone of Cao Cao's life, so before Cao Cao's death, they would find ways to leave Cao Pi with powerful generals such as Xiahou Huan and Cao Ren, who must be the most trustworthy people for the Cao Cao family.
Of course, in addition to the Xiahou clan and the Cao family's capable generals, Cao Cao also left Cao Pi with two cadres with foreign surnames, namely Zhang Liao and Xu Zhu. Presumably, people familiar with the history of the Three Kingdoms are not strangers to Zhang Liao and Xu Zhu, and it can even be said that they are also very familiar with them.
In the Cao Wei regime, Zhang Liao's status and power were inferior to those of Xiahou Huan and Cao Ren, but Zhang Liao's military ability was still very remarkable, and Zhang Liao, like Xiahou Wei and Cao Ren, was absolutely loyal to Cao Cao, and this character must be the most important thing for Cao Cao, so he left it to his son Cao Pi.
Zhang Liao only began to follow Cao Cao after the Battle of Guandu, and in all subsequent wars, Zhang Liao participated with Cao Cao, and the ability shown in the war was absolutely not negligible, such as Zhang Liao's direct killing of WuHuan Shan Yu Ta Dun in the Battle of White Wolf Mountain, in the Battle of Tianzhu Mountain, Zhang Liao personally led the army to break through and kill Chen Lan and Mei Cheng, in the Battle of Hefei, Zhang Liao led 800 warriors to raid Sun Quan's 100,000 troops, and also beat Sun Quan to flee, such a record is enough to prove Zhang Liao's ability.
Cao Cao left Zhang Liao to Cao Pi in the hope that in the military field, he could leave Cao Pi with some available talents, so that even if he encountered some dangerous situations, Cao Pi could use the assistance of his capable generals to turn the danger into a disaster, and it had to be said that Cao Cao was also well-intentioned, but it was a pity that Zhang Liao died in the second year after Cao Cao's death.
Zhang Liao was a military talent left by Cao Cao to Cao Pi, xu Zhu was left by Cao Cao to Cao Pi to specifically protect Cao Pi, an important person responsible for the safety of Cao Pi's life, Xu Zhu mainly played a loyal guard chief when Cao Cao was alive, specifically responsible for Cao Cao's life safety, as long as Xu Zhu felt that the people around Cao Cao would pose a threat to Cao Cao, he would quickly get rid of it to avoid future troubles.
There were many such things, for example, before the Battle of Guandu, Xu Zhu felt that someone wanted to assassinate Cao Cao, so he quickly went to find Cao Cao, only to find that Xu he was preparing to assassinate Cao Cao, Xu Zhu quickly rushed forward, sparing no effort to kill Xu Cao, saving Cao Cao's life; in the Battle of Tongguan, Ma Chao led a large army to surround Cao Cao, Xu Zhu escorted Cao Cao to retreat, while rowing a boat, while blocking the arrows with a saddle, and finally rescued Cao Cao.
It can be said that Xu Zhu's loyalty to Cao Cao and the role he played were beyond the reach of the rest of the generals, and even when Cao Cao died, Xu Zhu was the saddest of all the generals, and he directly cried until he vomited blood, so loyal, it was simply touching, and had to be moved.
With a loyal guard like Xu Zhu guarding Cao Pi's safety, not only Cao Cao was assured, Cao Pi could also put a hundred hearts, but it was a pity that Xu Zhu did not survive Sima Yi, and soon after Cao Cao's death, he also died and followed Cao Cao.
If the four of them were alive, would Sima Yi still dare to rebel?
There is no doubt that if all four of them were alive, Sima Yi would never dare to rebel, and even if he did, he would have no chance of winning. We continue with an in-depth study and analysis.
Cao Cao died in 220 AD, when Sima Yi was only 42 years old, Cao Pi died in 226 AD, Sima Yi was only 48 years old, Cao Rui died in 239 AD, Sima Yi was only 61 years old, and ten years after Cao Rui's death, that is, when Sima Yi was 71 years old, he launched the Gaopingling Revolution, which shows that Sima Yi actually did not have the strength to rebel at the beginning, and one of the most important reasons why he was able to rebel successfully was that he lived a long time and killed too many outstanding talents of Cao Wei.
From this point of view, in fact, the answer is already very obvious, if the four generals left by Cao Cao are still alive, Xiahou Huan is in charge of internal affairs, Cao Ren and Zhang Liao are responsible for military affairs, and Xu Zhu is responsible for protecting the king, so that even if Sima Yi really launches a coup, he will soon be counter-rebelled by Cao Ren and Zhang Liao's army, and may not even have time to launch a coup, he has already been discovered by Xiahou Huan, and if he wants to kill or threaten Cao Wei's Tianzi, Sima Yi will have no chance at all, because Xu Zhu will stubbornly guard the safety of Tianzi. Sima Yi did not have a chance to get closer.
However, all this is just a hypothesis, the real situation is that history has long since ceased to have ifs, so Sima Yi had the opportunity to survive Cao Pi, and then to die Cao Rui, and finally waited for ten years, so that his son Sima Shi could have the opportunity to raise three thousand dead soldiers, and finally successfully launched the Gaopingling Rebellion to seize power, laying the foundation for the Sima family to later usurp power.
It can be said that even if Cao Pi lived for a few more years, or even as long as Cao Rui had a biological son to succeed to the throne, Sima Yi did not dare to rebel, and Sima Yi's rebellion was entirely because Cao Wei's later successor Cao Fang was too young, and Cao Rui let someone like Cao Shuang serve as an important position as an auxiliary chancellor, and after Cao Shuang's random operation, Sima Yi had the opportunity to come forward.
If we look back at the gaopingling change initiated by Sima Yi, we will find a more interesting phenomenon, that is, Sima Yi was actually very afraid and afraid at the beginning, so that he did not dare to launch a coup, and later because of some of Cao Shuang's misdeeds, many ministers in the Cao Wei regime began to support Sima Yi, the elder of the three dynasties.
epilogue
Although Cao Cao left Cao Pi with four capable generals, unfortunately, in that era when the average age of people was thirty or forty years old, Sima Yi had to live for 73 years, survived generation after generation, and also survived one outstanding talent after another, when he launched the coup, in fact, the outstanding talents in the Cao Wei regime were almost dead, although Cao Shuang was a representative figure in the Cao clan, but compared with his father Cao Xiu and others, the difference in ability was not so simple!
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