During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao can be described as a generation of tyrants, he was dictatorial and powerful, cunning and fierce, and rich in talent and strategy, and achieved a great cause. Historically, there is a person who is very similar to Cao Cao, many people call him "Little Cao Cao", he is the Northern Qi Divine Emperor Gao Huan.
I have to admit that Gao Huan and Cao Cao have too many similarities. Cao Cao was born into a family of eunuchs and was despised by people, but he rose to the peak of power step by step with his courage and wisdom, Gao Huan was also from a humble background, crawling in the military, and became a powerful minister who was in power and opposition, Cao Cao held the official position of chancellor when he was in charge of the government, and Gao Huan was the same; Cao Cao used power and dictatorship all his life, but in the end there was no rebellion, Gao Huan also did not rebel before his death, and his son usurped the throne and established the dynasty after his death.
Like Cao Cao, Gao Huan's life was also an inspirational life, a life full of controversy.
Gao Huan was originally a Han Chinese from the Bohai Sea, but because he had lived in the north for generations, he had become a "humble Han Chinese". Gao Huan's ancestors had been officials, but by his father's generation, the family had completely fallen, his father was a rogue who did not produce and was idle, and his mother died when gao Huan was born. Therefore, Gao Huan is actually equivalent to having no father and no mother, he was raised by his sister and brother-in-law.
Gao Huan lives in a border town, surrounded by a large number of Xianbei soldiers, so Gao Huan's living habits have been completely humbled. Gao Huan's family was poor when he was a teenager, until he married lou Zhaojun, a humble woman, and got a horse in the woman's dowry, which became the leader of the border town team and gradually got rid of the identity of the poor.
In the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and rebel armies rose up in various places. In the chaotic world, Gao Huan adhered to the principle of choosing a good tree and living, and successively turned to Du Luozhou, Ge Rong, and Erzhu Rong.
Erzhu Rong saw that Gao Huan's speech and demeanor were unusual and strategic, so he admired him and appointed him as a close governor. In this way, Gao Huan became Erzhu Rong's minions.
However, in Gao Huan's heart, the pawns of a warlord are far from the end, he wants a higher status, more power. Therefore, after Gao Huan launched a coup d'état in Erzhu Rong, he persuaded Erzhu Rong to claim the title of emperor, but Erzhu Rong did not listen and almost killed Gao Huan.
Under Erzhu Rong, Gao Huan made a lot of merit, and with his help, Erzhu Rong defeated Ge Rong, who had hundreds of thousands of troops, with fewer victories and more.
However, Gao Huan did not intend to be a slave of the Erzhu family for the rest of his life. After Emperor Xiaozhuang killed Erzhu Rong, the Erzhu family killed Emperor Xiaozhuang and took control of the imperial government. Gao Huan did not participate in this process the whole time, and he already saw that the Erzhu family was not accepted by the people of the world, so he returned to Hebei to accumulate strength.
Gao Huan is a power strategist who is very good at acting. When Erzhu Zhao, the nephew of Erzhu Rong, who controlled the government, asked who should be allowed to command the rebels in the six towns, He Bayun, who was drinking from the side, suggested that Gao Huan go. When Gao Huan heard this, he pretended to be angry, punched He Bayun with a fist full of blood, and said sharply: "When he was on the Pillar of Heaven, the slaves were punished like eagle dogs, and today the world is placed in the king, and Ah Ju Mud dares to slander him, please kill him." (Book of Northern Qi)
Gao Huan compared himself to the slaves, making Erzhu Zhao very happy, completely let go of his guard against Gao Huan, and appointed Gao Huan to command the rebels in the six towns. Gao Huan immediately led the soldiers of the six towns to Shandong and became a warlord on the divided side.
Under Gao Huan's rule, the army had strict military discipline and did not commit any crimes against the people, winning the hearts and minds of the people. Erzhu Zhao planned to get rid of Gao Huan and lead an army of 200,000 to attack Gao Huan, who had only 30,000 men. Gao Huan was outnumbered, but he had no fear, and ordered his men to tie up the oxen and donkey, cut off the retreat of the army, and himself was a pioneer. The soldiers saw that the retreat was broken, and the commander led by example, fighting bravely and defeating Erzhu Zhao.
At this point, Gao Huan eliminated the Erzhu family that he had served, and the officials worshiped the Grand Chancellor and the King of Bohai, and took control of the power. Gao Huan was a cunning man, but he was also very broad-minded, and when Murong Shaozong, who had persuaded Erzhu Zhao to kill Gao Huan, came to him with Erzhu Rong's wife, Gao Huan treated him with courtesy and did not retaliate. In this regard, Gao Huan is very similar to Cao Cao.
Gao Huan's attitude toward the emperor was also very consistent with Cao Cao's, and he respected and did not listen. After Gao Huan became the grand chancellor to control the government, he did not usurp the throne to establish a new dynasty, and he still respected the emperor as the son of heaven. However, the emperor could only be a puppet, and Emperor Xiaowu was forced away by Gao Huan because he wanted to control real power. Gao Huan set up a new emperor, moved the capital to Yecheng, and played the game of blackmailing the Son of Heaven to order the princes.
Of course, Gao Huan's opponents were not Liu Bei and Sun Quan, but Western Wei. Cao Cao did not unify the world in his lifetime, and in his later years he suffered a fiasco, as did Gao Huan. Moreover, compared with Cao Chengxiang, Gao Chengxiang's military use level was obviously a little worse.
In October of the fourth year of Wuding (546), Gao Huan led an army to attack Yubi, and he was unable to conquer it for fifty days. The roof leaked during the overnight rain, and at this time, gao Huan's army broke out again, and as many as 80,000 people died of the plague. At this moment, a meteorite descended from heaven and smashed into Gao Huan's army. Gao Huan had no choice but to order the withdrawal of his troops. The defeat in this battle left Gao Huan depressed and he died the following year.
Gao Huan's life is wonderful, he was born in the late, rose from the grass, and became a powerful minister in the world. Although Gao Huan did not usurp the throne, like Cao Cao, Gao Huan laid the foundation for his son's usurpation of the throne, and the team of Northern Qi's founding was left by Gao Huan.
It is a pity that Gao Huan did not unify the north in the end, and the Northern Qi established by his son Gao Yang has always flowed with a tyrannical bloodline, and the emperors of all generations have been brutal and ruthless, the brothers and brothers are fratricidal, and the ethical principles are often completely confused, resulting in the northern Qi state not long.
Resources:
Book of Northern Qi