As one of the most outstanding politicians and military strategists in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao once ruled the north with his extraordinary wisdom and insight, and his majesty shocked the world. However, even this powerful overlord is inevitably guilty of several major mistakes in life. What mistake cast a shadow over Cao Cao's century-old achievements? Which beautiful woman did you sleep with and get into trouble? Is it to kill the wrong person and lose combat power? Who is left behind that will make the descendants powerless? Who did you trust and suffer the heavy blow? Or did you let go of a fierce general and regretted it? All kinds of mysteries make people can't help but get to the bottom of it.
The crown prince mistakenly recruited the root cause
Cao Pi has been smart and clever since he was a child, and his ancestral home is from a famous family in Liangzhou, and he has received a good education and is well-educated. As he grew older, Cao Pi's outstanding talent became more and more apparent. At the age of 16, he was favored by his father Cao Cao for his outstanding talent, and worshiped as the chief of the Zhiyang Pavilion. Shortly thereafter, he was personally awarded the post of prime minister by Cao Cao, and from the beginning to the end, it can be seen that Cao Cao repeatedly reused it and added importance to it.
However, at the critical moment of establishing the great cause of the prince, Cao Cao gave up the position of the crown prince to the Sima Yi family. It is said that the Sima family was an important minister of Yulin back then, and they were eunuchs for generations, and they had a dazzling reputation among the government and the opposition. Among them, Sima Yi is particularly alert and has no last resort. In view of this, in order to consolidate the foundation of his rule, Cao Cao appeased the world, weighed it repeatedly, and finally ceded the position of crown prince to the Sima family.
This move immediately caused an uproar in the government and the opposition, the old ministers hated it, and even the concubines in the palace were sincerely worried about the future of the Cao family's heirs. Although Cao Cao repeatedly explained that this was a "Yin" move, it was for the mainstay and the country's century-old plan, but he could not calm the suspicion of the government and the opposition.
Subsequently, Sima Yi's two sons, Sima Shi and Sima Ang, were canonized as princes and paid homage to the prime minister one after another. On the surface, the Sima faction seems to have unlimited scenery, but in fact, the dark tide is surging, and the power struggle is intensifying. The elder Sima Shi is upright and upright, while the younger brother Sima Ang is alert and cunning, and will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. Due to their personalities, the brothers also have disagreements in private.
The situation was out of control, and finally under the mutual tilting of the brothers, Cao Pi took the opportunity to counterattack and regain the crown prince in one fell swoop. But the root of all this started with Cao Cao's thoughts, disregarding his heirs, and giving up the position of the crown prince to Sima's family. This decision not only attracted the criticism of the government and the opposition, but also caused the descendants of later generations to suffer from the brutal political struggle, which can be said to have caused the root cause of the Cao Wei Dynasty's prosperity and decline.
Iron egg masters have their own
Cao Cao was a heroic young man, and when he was in his early twenties, he followed his father into the turbulent military formation. This year, the Yellow Turban Army rebelled, and the government and the opposition were shocked. Faced with such a grim situation, the imperial court had to worship Dong Zhuo as a general to resist the rebellion.
Dong Zhuo came from a humble background, but he became the prime minister of the current dynasty, and his power leaned towards the government and the opposition. He saw that Cao Cao was alert and brave, so he kept him by his side. Cao Cao also sniffed out the hope of reuse, was grateful, and served diligently. It's just that no one expected that Dong Zhuo would be so vicious and vicious.
Once, Cao Cao went to see Dong Zhuo because of something, but Dong Zhuo was angry and beat him alive with eighty whips. This kind of abuse made Cao Cao hold a grudge and hate Dong Zhuo's actions even more. However, Zhiyong is as good as him, but he can only suppress his anger and swallow his anger.
Unexpectedly, Cao Cao later unexpectedly witnessed an even more shocking crime. It turned out that at that time, the government and the opposition were already deeply entrenched, and Dong Zhuo actually gave birth to a plan to imprison the prince to force the court to submit. Seeing the innocent prince imprisoned, Cao Cao was furious and changed color. However, as Dong Zhuo's little general, how can he resist? I can only hold back my anger and silently watch all this happen.
All these experiences raised a huge question in Cao Cao's heart: the court is so arrogant and domineering, and the clan is so humiliated, where will the country go in the future? The existence of this contradiction doomed him to have a determination to turn the tide in the future. Sure enough, Cao Cao, after all kinds of hardships, finally became the ruler of the orthodox side.
However, even after taking power, Cao Cao's shadow on Dong Zhuo was entangled all the time. He tends to be instinctively wary of power and counsellors, often guarding against anyone secretly overthrowing him. The root of all this can be traced back to the experience of suffering all kinds of shame under Dong Zhuo.
Even Cao Cao's most important adviser, Guo Jia, was cautious about him. It is said that Cao Cao asked Guo Jia several times whether he would still serve him in the future, and wanted to make sure that he was loyal. It can be seen that the shadow of that year has been deeply rooted in Cao Cao's inner world, making him cautious and always wary of power and people's hearts.
The battle of Wancheng ignited
Cao Cao is a vigilant person, and he has always acted steadily and cautiously. Especially in terms of personnel arrangements, he has always been unsuspicious in employing people, and he has a very high degree of love for his cronies. However, even this scheming general inevitably made a big mistake in this battle of Wancheng.
It all started with Cao Cao's attack on Zhang Xiu's brother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Zhang Xiunai was a famous family in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Cao Cao treated him with great courtesy. Who knows, Cao Cao actually fell in love with Zhang Xiu's brother-in-law Zou, and was confused for a while, so he stayed with her privately. Such absurd behavior caused an uproar in the government and the opposition at the time, questioning Cao Cao's discipline.
Zhang Xiu was hit hard by this and was greatly furious. He thinks that as a powerful minister in the court, Cao Cao is so extravagant, isn't it the anger of people and gods? He left Cao Ying in anger and returned to his hometown to make trouble. At this time, Cao Cao saw that the matter had come to an end and had to personally conquer it.
Cao's army surrounded the city of Wancheng, which Zhang Xiu had been holding on to for a long time. Although Zhang Xiu was killed all over the field, he never gave up resistance. The two sides are deadlocked, and the fighting has not been settled and has broken out again and again. Finally, in a certain breakthrough, Cao Jun fought bravely and gave Zhang Xiu's troops a blow to the head. At this moment, Cao Ren, the leading general in Cao Cao's army, was deeply ashamed, and openly brushed his sleeves away, betraying Zhang Xiu's side.
The situation plummeted, and Cao Ying's position was in chaos. Cao Cao ordered other generals to pursue Cao Ren bravely, but who knew that it was none other than Dian Wei, the world's first brave general. As soon as the two of them fight, the two sides are equal, you come and go, and it is difficult to distinguish between them. Just as the two sides were fighting, Cao Ren's subordinates took the opportunity to shoot an arrow at Dian Wei, causing Dian Wei to die heroically.
As soon as Dian Wei went, Cao Ying wept and cried bitterly. This fierce general of the world once fell, and the hairpin clan was all sad, and Cao Cao himself was extremely remorseful. Immediately afterwards, in order to take revenge on Cao Cao's mother, they were also implicated, and they rose up to serve Zhang Xiu's side.
In this way, Cao Cao caused such a huge disaster because of his confusion for a while, which can be said to have caused a catastrophe. In this battle of Wancheng, he not only lost tens of thousands of troops, but more importantly, he lost a good general Dian Wei and several famous advisers. This is undoubtedly a huge blow to his later career in the world, and the root cause is inexhaustible.
Sima's black hand stretched
Cao Cao dominated for a while, and the scene of his power leaning towards the government and the opposition really made the world look sideways. However, who would have thought that behind his great achievements, there was a secret conspiracy and calculation of the Sima family's black hand?
Things have to start with Cao Pi being made the crown prince. At that time, Cao Pi was only twenty years old, still immature, and far from being in power. However, relying on Cao Cao's pincers for a while, he became arrogant and arrogant, acting recklessly. Soon there were rumors that Gao Yang Taishou Yuan Shao died by fraud, and Cao Pi personally hijacked his bones to show the public, intending to deter the government and the opposition.
This behavior caused an uproar in the government and the opposition, and they all condemned Cao Pi for being unreasonable. However, all these schemes were actually carried out by Sima's black hands. It turned out that Sima had always been jealous of Cao Pi, worried that he was too heroic and difficult to control. So he secretly sowed discord, hijacked the government, caused trouble, took the opportunity to eradicate dissidents, and monopolized power.
Take the difficulty of the high sun as an example, it is also the result of a contest of forces. At that time, Cao Pi was too rampant, and Sima hinted that Cao Cao would lower his morale. So, taking advantage of Yuan Shao's fraudulent death, Cao Pi took out his body to show the public, intending to deter the princes. Later, he cited the scandal of this incident, and then took the opportunity to seize power from Cao Pi, as if he had controlled the royal family in the palm of his hand.
Then, an even more terrifying scene happened. Yuan Jiang, who was the princess of the palace at the time, was once sought after by the royal relatives and nobles. She is smart, shrewd, and dignified and generous, which can be called a generation of beauties. However, Sima was afraid that she would be reused by Cao Pi in the future, so he secretly conspired and framed her for colluding with her relatives.
For a while, rumors were flying all over the sky, and Yuan Jiang was accused of being discredited. Poor Yuan Jiang was unjustly imprisoned, tortured, and finally poisoned to death. The bane of all this stems from the power struggle of the Sima clan in Cao's harem.
In the face of all this, what should Cao Cao do? He wanted to support his own heirs, but the Sima family had secretly monopolized power. He relied heavily on eunuchs, and the eunuchs were framed and killed. It can be said that the black hand of the Sima clan has controlled his Cao family to the death, making it difficult for his children and grandchildren to guarantee even the most basic safety and dignity.
The defeat of Huarong caused the army's heart to collapse
Cao Cao is eloquent, wise and brave, and has made countless meritorious achievements in his life. However, even this heroic hero will inevitably take a hit on Huarong Road. This battle was complacent, and almost all his previous achievements were wasted.
That year, the Battle of Chibi had just passed, and Cao Cao was losing in the Yangtze River area. The troops returned in disarray, exhausted from the march. At this moment, a strong army suddenly blocked the road that Cao's army had to pass. It turned out that Liu Bei occupied the dangerous place Huarong Dao and sought a showdown.
In the face of this crisis, Cao Cao decided to move forward bravely. He dispatched heavy troops and ordered his generals to fight each other. The two sides fought a fierce battle on the narrow road. Cao's army fought bravely in front of the enemy's position, while Liu's army resisted stubbornly by virtue of its advantageous location and strong position. The two armies are deadlocked, you come and go, and the battle situation is stalemate.
Just when the two sides were inseparable, there was a sudden internal response. Liu Bei had already prepared and secretly arranged an ambush. I saw a small slinger, holding a heavy stone, quietly approaching Cao Cao's camp. When the time came, he suddenly threw it fiercely, hitting the main army that was going to transport grain.
For a time, Cao's army was in chaos. Just as Cao Cao was about to personally supervise the formation, another raiding force came from behind, and the Cao camp was in chaos. The defeat has been achieved, there is no way to retreat, Cao Cao had to fight in person and break through to the Huarong crossing.
However, Liu Jun had been planning for a long time, and first leaked a patio, causing Cao Jun to retreat. When Cao Cao was in chaos, he threw a sharp blade from behind his back and went straight to Cao Cao's life. Fortunately, his soldiers were strong and reluctantly saved Cao Cao's life.
All this made Cao Cao fall into a very passive situation on Huarong Road. The troops were crushed, and the officers and men under their command lost their combat effectiveness. In the end, he had no choice but to take Xiangyang resolutely to avoid its sharpness. However, when it came to Xiangyang, it was even worse.
It turned out that Liu Chen, the Taishou of Xiangyang, had always respected Cao Cao, and after hearing the news, he specially greeted him on the side of the road. Who knew that Cao Cao actually hurt his poisonous hand, kicked him at the door, and complained that "the calf gall came when the cow was lying down". This move not only hurt the loyalty of the Xiangyang soldiers, but also shocked the generals under his command, and they all deviated from morality.
end
Since then, Cao Cao's invincible pace has completely stopped. Xiliang, Jiangxia and other strongholds were lost one after another. And Cao Jun itself was also due to heavy casualties, the army's morale was shattered, and its vitality was greatly damaged. The entire northern army was once on the verge of disintegration. All of this is due to the failure on Huarong Road that year.