In October 202 BC, Dou Bao led troops into Pengcheng and captured many areas of Chu at the same time, thus beginning the Battle of Xiaxia. At that time, Liu Bang used embattled tactics to disintegrate the hearts of the Chu army, and finally Xiang Yu was cornered, and he felt that he had no face to see Jiangdong's father and elder, so he had to kill himself on the edge of the Wu River. It was precisely because this nearly five-year-long chu-Han dispute ended with Liu Bang unifying the world and Xiang Yu completely defeated, so in the first month of 202 BC, Liu Bang posthumously honored his eldest brother Liu Bo as the Marquis of Wu'ai, and in the name of Emperor Wuyi of Chu, under the advice of his courtiers, he ascended the throne as emperor, and subsequently, Liu Bang established the capital Luoyang and established the Great Han.
But in fact, Liu Bang was born in a peasant family in Zhongyangli, Fengyi, Pei County, and when he was young, he did not love to read, only loved to drink, and even if he later entered the army, he was only the chief of the Surabaya Pavilion in Surabaya County. In contrast, Cao Cao at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was far superior to Liu Bang in both birth and later development, but Cao Cao did not complete the great unification. In 208 AD, after Cao Cao led an army to the south and took Jingzhou without bloodshed, he had the opportunity to unify the world, after all, at this time, Ma Teng, the largest prince of Western Liang, led his people to Yicheng as a hostage, the north was basically pacified, Liu Zhang of Yizhou continued to send people to show goodwill to Cao Cao, and Liu Bei was beaten by Cao Cao to flee to Xiakou, as long as Sun Quan, who was living in Jiangdong, surrendered, he could unify the world. Unfortunately, in the Battle of Chibi, Sun Liu's allied forces defeated Cao Cao, and Cao Cao lost the possibility of dominating the world, and from the Battle of Chibi until Cao Cao's death in 220 AD, Cao Cao had no possibility of dominating the world. Why can Liu Bang unify the world, but Cao Cao can't?
In fact, Cao Cao's failure to unify the world may be related to the blackmail of the Son of Heaven to order the princes. It seems that after Cao Cao held Emperor Xian of Han hostage, he gave Cao Cao a great name of righteousness, allowing Cao Cao to gain a huge advantage at that time, at the same time, holding Emperor Xian of Han hostage also brought Cao Cao a very embarrassing state, that is, there were always two central governments in Cao Wei's forces. Although Cao Cao's central government was extremely powerful, under his control, Xu Du's Han Xiandi forces could not raise their heads at all, and they had no power to speak of, but there were always a few people in the dprk who hoped to restore the Han Dynasty, so they supported Emperor Han Xiandi without hesitation, hoping to eliminate Cao Cao through rebellion and other means, thus occupying Cao Cao's territory, and they themselves became powerful subjects, such as Dong Cheng, who claimed to have a robe in his hands at that time.
Moreover, at that time, Cao Cao also made a mistake, that is, he was talking about meritocracy, but in fact he was nepotistic, so that he not only offended the Door Valve Clan, but also did not put the right people in the right position, and from the beginning to the end, there was no local military commander who could sit on one side. For example, Xiahou Huan was indeed loyal to Cao Cao, but he not only lost many battles and defeats, successively defeated by Lü Bu, Liu Bei and others, and in the later period, he was of little use and could only retire in Luoyang; Xiahou Yuan did have a period of time when he was a tiger step in Jianghuai, but eventually he was killed by Huang Zhong at Dingjun Mountain, so that Cao Cao lost Hanzhong.
The result of this was that Cao Cao's radius of fighting was too short. It should be known that Liu Bang led his troops out on a campaign, never worried about the rear, and the grain and grass were also a steady supply, and there was never a situation where half of the fight went back to counterinsurgency, and then came out to continue to fight, and Liu Bang swept the world, and there was no problem in the territory he laid, even if he was chased by Xiang Yu, Liu Bang's logistics were still guaranteed well. But Cao Cao could not do it, he had plans to attack Zhang Lu after the Battle of Chibi, but was blocked by the Western Liang coalition forces, and after Cao Cao defeated Hanzhong, someone advised Cao Cao to take this opportunity to take Shuchuan, Cao Cao also hesitated, even after the Battle of Hanzhong, Cao Cao was also deeply affected by the rebellion in the rear, it can be seen that since Cao Cao threatened Tianzi to order the princes, many people loyal to the Han room and hated Cao Cao have been making trouble in the rear, so that Cao Cao could not concentrate on the outside world.
The author believes that Cao Cao's abduction of Emperor Xian of Han has advantages and disadvantages, but the drawbacks eventually led to Cao Cao's inability to dominate the world, which is really regrettable.