preface
Many reasons, such as the monopoly of eunuchs and the interference of foreign relatives in politics, led to the turmoil in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and in order to protect their own interests, the family had to elect a well-known person within the clan to form a new force to counter the eunuch forces and foreign forces. After some discussion, the person they elected was Cao Cao. Cao Cao's leadership ability is indeed very strong, and the Three Kingdoms period formed a situation in which the Three Kingdoms were established, but the general trend of the world, for a long time, must be united, and a country must always be unified by a certain regime. Among the three regimes at that time, Cao Cao's Cao Wei regime had the greatest chance of unifying the world, because Cao Cao's military power was very strong, and he himself was brave and good at war, brave and strategic, and had a big mind, but despite this, it was not Cao Cao who finally unified the world. There are subjective reasons and objective reasons.
The development of the Cao Wei regime
When it comes to the establishment of the Cao Wei regime, it is necessary to mention the situation of the three kingdoms, because the Cao Wei regime was one of the three regimes in the Three Kingdoms period. The three regimes of the Three Kingdoms period were: Eastern Wu, Shu Han, and Cao Wei.
1. Introduction to Cao Cao
Cao Cao was evaluated by Xu Shao as "the able minister of ruling the world, the tyrant of the chaotic world", he was able to write and fight, Cao Cao's poetry was very famous, and his literary attainments were very deep. Cao Cao's father was Cao Song, and Cao Song's father was the eunuch Cao Teng, and Cao Teng's power was relatively large in the Han Dynasty, but because he was the adopted son of a eunuch, the family clan in the imperial court did not attach great importance to Cao Cao's father and son. However, Cao Cao's personal ability was outstanding, in the last years of the Han Dynasty, the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, and in the suppression troops sent by the imperial court, Cao Cao was outstanding in battle, and later in many wars, he performed very well. As a result, he gradually gained the support of the insiders of the Shi clan.
▲Cao Cao Image
As we all know, in the last years of the Han Dynasty, the separatist forces in various places were very rampant, and Cao Cao not only made military achievements in quelling the Neutrality of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, but also achieved outstanding results in pacifying other separatist forces. In history, the famous Lü Bu and Yuan Shu were all defeated generals under his command, and gradually only Yuan Shao could match him, and after defeating Yuan Shao's army at the Battle of Guandu, and after several years of conquest, Cao Cao basically completed unification in the north. However, Cao Cao's Battle of Chibi was secretly attacked, and after the defeat, there was some resistance to Sun Liu's regime, so although many wars were fought later, they were all far away from the Jiangnan region, so there was no opportunity to unify Jiangnan.
▲ Portrait of Yuan Shao
2. The development of the Cao Wei regime
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Dong Zhuo wanted to usurp the power of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao's crusade against Dong Zhuo was the beginning of the establishment of the Cao Wei regime, and after a series of conquests, he defeated powerful opponents, Lü Bu, Yuan Shao, etc., to unify the north. Originally, cao Cao was about to dominate the world, but in the Battle of Chibi, Zhou Yuqiao took advantage of the east wind and occupied the advantages of heaven and place, and defeated Cao Cao. After the war, Cao Cao's military strength was much worse than before, and although he fought several major victories after that, he was unable to return to heaven, and the opportunity to dominate the world was fleeting. Later, Cao Pi became emperor, and the Cao Wei regime was officially established.
▲Zhou Rui Image
Cao Cao had no reason to rule the world
Cao Cao, as a generation of tyrants, originally had the best chance of unifying the world and ending the situation of the Three Kingdoms, but the success of any one person was not something that his personal efforts could achieve, and only when the heavens and places were favorable and all of them had the opportunity to succeed. Cao Cao did not have a reason for unifying the world, there were subjective reasons and there were also objective reasons.
1. Cao Cao did not have an objective reason to unify the world
First of all, Cao Cao is not a real family family, his origin is not good, his grandfather is a eunuch, will not win the real respect of others, so Cao Cao wants to usurp power can not get the support of the family clan, but Liu Bei is different, although he is not an orthodox royal family, but it is after all a royal family. Secondly, in the very beginning, Cao Cao did unify the northern region by virtue of his own strength. However, after the defeat at the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao's losses were not only greatly weakened in military strength, but more losses were that the defeat at the Battle of Chibi represented that Cao Cao did not have the opportunity to enter the Jiangnan region, and if the southern region could not be unified, then after the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao had already lost the opportunity to dominate the world. Finally, the leaders of the other two regimes in the Three Kingdoms, Sun Quan and Liu Bei, were on par with Cao Cao, so the strength of their opponents was one of the reasons why Cao Cao did not have him to dominate the world.
▲Portrait of Liu Bei
After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao originally had the opportunity to attack the Jiangnan region again, but because of the chaos within the Shi clan, Cao Cao did not dare to go too far.
▲Portrait of Sun Quan
2. Cao Cao did not have a subjective reason for dominating the world
In fact, no amount of objective reasons can hinder a person's success, and the reason why Cao Cao did not dominate the world is more due to his own subjective reasons. First of all, Cao Cao did not pay much attention to talent, but blindly believed in his relatives, which was Cao Cao's fatal shortcoming. The military acumen of the relatives he appointed could almost be omitted. For example, Xiahou Yuan, his wife is a sister of Cao Cao's wife, although they are related, but Xiahou Yuan really has no military talent to speak of, but Xiahou Yuan still became the highest army commander in the western theater because of his kinship, and Xiahou Chun's number of troops was the largest among Cao Cao's men, which can be said to have mastered military power. However, after Xiahou Chun was killed on the battlefield, Cao Cao said with great emotion: "This kind of war only needs to be commanded, and it is not necessary to personally come forward at all." This shows that Cao Cao simply knew Xiahou Chun, not a person with military talent, but he still reused him, and it seemed that there was a benefit but it was actually harmful to others and himself.
▲Jun Xia Image
If xiahou chun is a relative, but after all, he is not a clan brother, Cao Cao also uses a clan brother Cao Ren, Cao Ren is not a person with military talent, but he still holds a lot of military power. Cao Cao actually understood that these people's military strength was not strong, but Cao Cao wanted them not to defect. Cao Cao famously said, "If you are not of my race, your heart will be different." "But this will not do any good for the development of the entire regime, but will only greatly weaken its military strength." Secondly, Cao Cao himself had a deep sense of the clan, and the leaders he had were basically people from the family lineage, such as the Sima Yi family.
▲Portrait of Sima Yi
No one from the cold door will be reused. That is to say, the employment of people only looks at the family origin, and does not value his talent and strength. This will only make the Cao Wei regime unable to find a truly talented person, and over time, it will regress. This made Cao Cao lose the opportunity to unify the world, because it was impossible to unify the world by relying only on the strength of the family clan. In this way, there will be no benevolent people who will take the initiative to come to the rescue, so there is no opportunity to know talents. The most hateful thing is that Cao Cao often slaughters the people of the cities he has conquered, and it is to kill them all, Cao Cao is not only suspicious, but also fierce, which is not very good, if you want to unify the world, you still have to subdue people with virtue, be kind from the heart, and truly think about the people, and only then will you get the submission and support of the people. The most important thing is that Cao Cao killed and surrendered, and for the soldiers who surrendered and came to defect to Cao Cao, Cao Cao killed them all. This is the last thing an emperor can do. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, hated killing and surrendering the most, because it would lose people's hearts. Cao Cao really loved to kill people, and he also killed talented people under him, such as Hua Tuo and Kong Rong.
▲Portrait of Hua Tuo
If we say that it is the people's hearts that are lost by killing the people and killing the people. Then the talented people under the killer lose the maintenance of the family family. In this way, not only did no one support him in unifying the world, but even the later Usurpation of power by the Sima family gained support, which can be seen that Cao Cao was greatly disappointed. Moreover, Cao Cao's own personality is also arrogant, suspicious, and does not listen to the advice of others, insisting on going his own way. These subjective reasons were that Cao Cao did not have the opportunity to unify the world, and the important reason for ending the situation of the Three Kingdoms was also Cao Cao's greatest shortcomings and failures as a general. Because the general must be open-minded, he cannot monopolize all the rights in the hands of one person.
summary
Although Cao Cao had courage and strategy, and his military talent was outstanding, Cao Cao ultimately did not dominate the world, because in addition to objective reasons, Cao Cao's own subjective reasons were his fatal shortcomings. Cao Cao only used his own people to discourage the talented people in the world, and turned around and ran to Sun Liu's camp, which was already a great loss; However, Cao Cao preferred to use the people of the family clan, which made the talented people from the Cold Gate even more respectful of Cao Cao's Cao Wei regime; Cao Cao killed and surrendered, killing the people and making Cao Cao lose the hearts of the people; The people who killed the Shijia clan made Cao Cao lose the real support of the Shijia clan. There was also the Battle of Chibi, which led to Cao Cao's lack of opportunity to unify the south, so it was impossible to unify the world. It can also be said that Cao Cao did not occupy the advantages of heaven, place, and people, and the subjective and objective aspects were heavily hindered. But just because Cao Cao did not dominate the world, we should not deny his wisdom and military ability, he himself is very intelligent, and his military talent is also outstanding, and his personality is too stubborn, too suspicious, and does not have the tolerance and benevolence that an emperor should have.
Bibliography:
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Zizhi Tongjian
Book of Jin
Book of the Later Han Dynasty