Cao Cao was famous for his treachery, so a large number of treacherous stories, true or false, piled up on him.
Luo Guanzhong wrote "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he portrayed Cao Cao, but also picked interesting bad things to write. For example, the details of Cao Cao's murder of Lü Bohao's entire family and saying, "I'd rather bear the people of the world, and the people of the world should bear me", this was particularly shocking when I heard it. He was not interested in describing some of the atrocities that Cao Cao had committed.
When modern people read that history, they are most shocked by the ferocity of Cao Cao's methods when he killed civilians. In Xuzhou, "who kills hundreds of thousands of men and women, chickens and dogs, Surabaya does not flow" is the most famous, in addition to the slaughter of the city, killing and descending there are many records. And it is certain that the historical records are far less than the actual number of massacres, because Cao Cao formulated the following rule: "Those who surround and then surrender will not be forgiven." Therefore, once there was no massacre after the siege was breached, and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was deliberately recorded as a positive case. In other words, Cao Jun's slaughter of the city is a matter of going through the process, and often does not have to leave traces.
However, when it comes to paper, not only does these things not talk about in the "New Language of the World", but the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" writes about Cao Cao slaughtering the city, which is also very perfunctory. Therefore, the fierceness of Cao Cao in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" actually gives people a far less impressive impression than the history.
Excerpt from | "Leadership Digest" October 2021
Source of the manuscript | Special Attention
This article is written by | Liu Bo
Responsible Editor | Zhang Feng
WeChat Editor | Late note