In the ancient marriage of large families, the woman was always just a tool, a chip in exchange for profit. Cao Cao married three daughters to Emperor Xian of Han only for his own political interests.
Historically, Cao Cao had six daughters, of whom Cao Xian, Cao Jie, and Cao Hua were married by Cao Cao to Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han.
In the eighteenth year of Jian'an, he was appointed to the three female xian, Jie, and Huawei's wives, and hired 50,000 horses with bundles of xuan, and the younger ones stayed in the country. Nineteen years, and worship as a nobleman. And the empress dowager was killed, and the next year, the festival was established as empress. (Book of the Later Han Dynasty)
Eighteen years of Jian'an, when is it? It was already after the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao gave up the southern expedition, concentrated on the management of the north, chased the horse chao, broke the Han Sui, the north was basically fixed, in the dprk its momentum reached its peak, when the dynasty "visited the nameless, the sword walked to the temple". At this time, Cao Cao's need for Emperor Xian of Han was obviously not as important as when he conquered the world before, and Emperor Xian of Han was already more than thirty years old, and Cao Cao chose to marry three daughters to a husband at this time, what kind of benefit was it for? As the title says, one is enough, the meaning is enough, and it is a bit exaggerated to marry three at once.
Because from the perspective of promoting status, there is no difference between marrying one and marrying three, both are state fathers, and the Cao family is a foreign relative. Even if Cao Cao wanted to use this to pave the way for himself or his son to be called emperor, it was enough.
However, if you look deeper into the things behind, in fact, you can find that Cao Cao's move is actually quite reasonable.
The first and most important reason is the "unstable" factor of stabilizing the Han Xiandi.
As we all know, although Emperor Xiandi of Han was quite cowardly, he was limited by the times, but in fact, he was very ambitious. After becoming a puppet of Cao Cao, he has always been unwilling and deliberately wants to escape the cage, such as the Dong Cheng's "clothes belt edict" incident and the Fu Quan Secret Letter incident. And these all point directly to one place - the harem of the Han Xian Emperor.
First of all, the leader of the "Yi belt edict" incident was the che general Dong Cheng, Liu Bei was only a nominal accomplice, and he fled early, and did not have the same righteousness as in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Dong Cheng, on the other hand, was the eldest brother-in-law of Emperor Xian of Han, and his sister Dong Guiren was Emperor Xiandi's favorite concubine. So this is a foreign affair!
The fu completed the secret letter incident, after Dong Cheng's failure and was killed, Empress Fu wrote a secret letter to her father in order to help her husband overturn the disk. At that time, Fu Quan was also a big man, highly respected, and could be said to be the leader of the Hanchen clique under Cao Cao's control. This person is very clever, he knows that he will definitely not be able to fight Cao Cao, although he has the intention to kill thieves, but for the sake of the overall situation, he can't bear it. Because once it fails, it must be the scourge of extinction.
However, although he did not move, it did not mean that Cao Cao did not know, but at that time, Cao Cao was still fighting everywhere and would not easily tear his face. Therefore, Fu Spent His Old Age, and Empress Fu was not so lucky, and was subjected to Cao Cao's autumn accounting, and she and her children were killed.
And the root of all this is actually in the Han Xiandi, if he has no intention of resisting, the women around him will certainly not give up their lives for him.
Speaking of which, we can actually draw conclusions. Cao Cao's marriage to his daughter was actually to replace the harem of the Han Xiandi Emperor.
In this way, they are all their own daughters, and Emperor Xian of Han will not be able to provoke them to murder their father. And Emperor Xian of Han is an emperor, although it is not good to talk about three thousand, then how can there be more wives. So marrying one obviously doesn't work, so marry three.
So we see in the back that after Cao Cao liquidated Empress Fu, his daughter Cao Jie became empress, and the other two daughters were also nobles. Emperor Xian of Han had six women in his lifetime, in addition to the three daughters of the Cao family, there was also Dong Gui and Empress Fu who were killed because Emperor Xian of Han engaged in things, as for Song Guiren, there are not many records in history, his father was only Changshan Taishou, there was no family power, and he could not turn over the storm. Therefore, the harem of the Han XianDi became a hall of words for the Cao family, and the Han XianDi naturally could not make any moths.
But then again, why did Cao Cao use this seemingly appeased way to treat Emperor Xian of Han, he could have been rougher, there was no need to sacrifice his daughter's happiness. This was actually quite normal in the context of the times at that time.
First of all, in ancient times, it was a patriarchal society, women's status was low, and even it was a political tool, cao Cao did not need to think too much about the happiness of his daughter.
And then again, it was reasonable and legal for multiple women to marry a husband at that time, and you still married the emperor. Although this emperor was a puppet, he was still the titular lord of the world and was revered by all the people. Even their father, Cao Cao, had to pay homage to Emperor Xian of Han in public.
Therefore, Cao Cao definitely did not treat his daughters badly.
For Cao Cao, Emperor Xian of Han was still the one he needed to take advantage of. Externally, the division was famous, and at that time, Cao Cao almost completely pacified the north, and the next round of planning was to pacify Sun Liu. Therefore, there was the later Southern Expedition to Sun Quan, and the fateful battle with Liu Bei in Hanzhong.
Before these wars are waged, they all need to be prepared and mobilized, and the grain and grass, the soldiers, and even the invisible morale are all important factors that determine the outcome of the war. Then at this time, it is the work of Emperor Xian of Han, to collect grain for tianzi, to serve as a soldier for tianzi, and to fight for tianzi. The power that Cao Cao could mobilize would definitely increase significantly because of this, and with Emperor Xian of Han, Cao Cao and Liu Beisun Quan scolding the street before the battle seemed more reasonable.
Therefore, it was necessary for him to appease Emperor Xian of Han. Even if the Han XianDi's heart is like a mirror, the people of the world do not know it. They will only see that Emperor Xian of Han married Cao Cao's three daughters, and from then on Cao Cao was the father-in-law of the people, a proper family. He would naturally get more support, but Emperor Xian of Han didn't care, he couldn't speak anyway.
This is the political show, Cao Cao is the best at it, and Cao Cao has done a lot of similar things. For example, Cao Cao vs Guan Yu, whether in the rendition or in the history, it is surprisingly good. During the time when Guan Yu was in Cao Ying, he added officials to the knighthood, sent money to horses and women, asked for warmth everywhere, and even finally let the tiger return to the mountain.
Why? Is it really because Cao Cao likes Guan Yu? As a generation of tyrants, Cao Cao should not be so pretentious! He actually did this just to show the military generals around him how much I cherished talents. Of course, it is best that Guan Yu can be subdued because of this, even if not, then I Cao Cao will not lose, at least the military generals around me will be more dead set on me, and this purpose will be achieved.
The same is true for The Han Xian Emperor Cao Cao, if the Han Xian Emperor treats me sincerely, of course, it is best, if he is still dissatisfied, it does not matter, at least the people of the world and those Han courtiers have seen how I Cao Cao treated the master, and the word "loyal subject" absolutely cannot run.
So this trick, whether external or internal, is blood to earn.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that although Emperor Xiandi of Han was killed by Cao Cao, Dong Gui and Empress Fu, his son also died. However, the three women that Cao Cao had compensated him were actually not thin for Emperor Xian of Han. Later, Cao Pi was proclaimed emperor, and Emperor Xian of Han was able to spend his old age in Shanyang County, largely because of these ladies. After all, he and Cao Pi were blood relatives, and when Emperor Xian of Han lost his threat, Cao Pi, a black man with a belly, did not have a secret killer.