"Sima Zhao's heart is well known to passers-by", this is a historical allusion known to women and children, in the late Cao Wei period, Sima Zhao obviously had ambitions to ascend the throne and become emperor, which is no secret. As early as 249 CE, Sima Yi launched the Gaopingling Rebellion, and after killing Cao Shuang and his henchmen, Sima Yi usurped cao Wei's power. In 251, after Sima Yi's death, Sima Shi continued to hold power. During Sima Shi's reign, he deposed Emperor Cao Fang and replaced Him with Cao Fu as emperor, and Sima Shi also quelled the rebellion and resisted the attacks of Eastern Wu and Shu Han, which undoubtedly consolidated the position of the Sima Yi family.
In 255, after Sima Shi's death, he handed over power to Sima Zhao. Correspondingly, Sima Shi's emperor Cao Xian was not willing to become a puppet emperor. Therefore, in 260, Cao Huan gathered his ministers and wanted to fight back against Sima Zhao. However, because of the betrayal of Wang Shen, Wang Ye and others, the plan was leaked in advance. On this basis, Sima Zhao's confidant Jia Chong instructed Cheng Ji and others to kill Cao Xi.
In this regard, in the view of many historians, Sima Zhao's assassination of the Emperor meant that Emperor Cao Wei's efforts to restore power were completely unsuccessful, which allowed the Sima Yi family to further grasp the power of Cao Wei. However, Sima Zhao did not directly become emperor, but established Cao Yi as emperor instead.
One
Specifically, before killing Emperor Cao, Sima Yi's father and son had already quelled the "Three Rebellions in Huainan" and basically eliminated the military generals loyal to Cao Wei. Therefore, Sima Zhao did have the ability to replace him. However, in ancient history, killing the emperor was a very serious thing, for example, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao and Cao Pi were also in power, but they did not dare to oppose the Han Emperor, because they were worried that the killing of the emperor would bring a very bad impact. For example, in 200 AD, the Yidai Edict planned by Emperor Xian of Han was learned by Cao Cao. In this regard, although Cao Cao was very angry and personally led an army to recruit Liu Bei, who participated in the edict of the cloth belt, he did not dare to kill Emperor Xian of Han, let alone depose the puppet emperor.
Correspondingly, after Sima Zhaojun killed the king, Wang Shen, who betrayed Cao Xian, was criticized, and it can even be said that he was referred to by a thousand husbands. As for Sima Zhao's confidant Jia Chong, after the establishment of the Western Jin Dynasty, he was also questioned about "where is the noble township prince". In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, according to the records of the "New Language of the World", when the Jin Ming Emperor heard others talk about Sima Zhaojun and other things, he could not help but say: "If it is as the word is said, Zuo An will be long!" ”
Further, even the ministers who supported Sima Zhao could not accept the killing of the king. After Cao Fu was killed, Sima Fu, the Grand Master, ran over, rested Cao Fu's head on his lap, and cried very sadly, saying, "It is my sin that Your Majesty was killed!" As for Chen Qun, the son of Cao Wei's retainer Chen Qun, he was too saddened by Cao Huan's killing and died shortly after.
Two
Moreover, after Cao Xian was killed, both Sima Fu and Chen Tai demanded that Sima Zhao severely punish the murderer. And this also reflects the attitude of many Cao Wei ministers, that is, we can tolerate your usurpation of power, but you Sima Zhao cannot do too much. Therefore, killing the emperor obviously meant that Sima Zhao had broken the rules. In this context, under the pressure of public opinion above and below Cao Wei, Sima Zhao naturally did not want to forcibly ascend the throne as emperor, and he also had to behead Cheng Ji and others. Of course, for Jia Chong, who commanded Chengji, he was able to escape the disaster because of Sima Zhao's protection.
On the other hand, Sima Zhao changed Cao Yan to emperor because he wanted to learn from Emperor Cao Pi of Wei and follow the path of Zen To become emperor. In 220, Emperor Liu Xie of han ceded the emperor's throne, Zen, to Cao Pi, who ascended the throne and established Cao Wei. In ancient history, Zen Rang was a reasonable way to obtain the emperor's throne, such as Yao Shunyu in the pre-Qin period, who adopted the way of Zen Rang. Now, Sima Zhao had killed the very tough Cao Huan and replaced him with Cao Huan, who was easy to control, naturally wanting to wait until the time was ripe for Cao Zhao to cede the throne to himself.
Three
Of course, compared to Cao Pi, Sima Zhao wanted to claim the title of emperor, or lack of confidence, because Cao Pi's father, Cao Cao, single-handedly laid down Cao Wei's Jiangshan, so in 200 AD, Cao Pi usurped Han, which can be said to be justified. For Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han Xian, if Cao Cao took him in, he probably would not even be able to save his life. It was under Cao Cao's courtesy that Emperor Xiandi of Han was able to maintain the face of the Son of Heaven. From this point of view, If Cao Cao was not afraid of carrying the name of infamy, he could have replaced it.
However, neither Sima Zhao nor Sima Yi or Sima Shi had such achievements. Therefore, after Cao Huan was killed, Sima Zhao did not ascend the throne as emperor, but instead established Cao Huan as emperor, that is, Cao Yi was only a transition. During this period, Sima Zhao needed to make meritorious contributions. In this context, Sima Zhao decided to target Shu Han. For Sima Zhao, if he could make greater military achievements, he could not only resolve the criticism brought about by the killing of the emperor, but even force Cao Yichan to give up the emperor's throne.
In 263, Sima Zhao mobilized an army of 180,000 and officially launched the Battle of Wei and Shu. Compared with Eastern Wu, shu Han's strength was even weaker. Because there was only one prefecture in Yizhou, Shu Han's military strength was only 100,000 people, that is, there was a huge gap with Cao Wei. Moreover, if you attack the Shu Han, you only need to mobilize infantry and cavalry, and you don't need to prepare ships. On the other hand, if Sima Zhao wanted to destroy Eastern Wu, the preparatory work in the early stage was relatively long, and the probability of victory was relatively low, which was an important reason for his use of troops against Shu Han.
Four
Finally, in the Battle of Wei and Shu, although the main force led by Zhong Hui was blocked by Jiang Wei in the area of The Sword Pavilion. However, taking advantage of this opportunity, Deng Ai smuggled into Yinping and his soldiers came to Chengdu. After Zhuge Zhan and the others were killed, the later lord Liu Chan, persuaded by Tan Zhou and others, opened the city gates and surrendered to Deng Ai.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wang Yiqiu Zhuge Deng Zhong Biography XxVIII": Ai father and son are imprisoned, Chung will go to Chengdu, first send Ai, and then make trouble. The meeting was dead, and the soldiers of the Ai ben camp chased out the Ai sill and returned. He waited for Ai, met Mianzhu Xi, and beheaded him.
It is worth noting that after the fall of the Shu Han Dynasty, Deng Ai was wrongfully killed, and Zhong Hui attempted to divide Yizhou and thus compete with Sima Zhao. In this regard, Sima Zhao's confidant Wei Ou eliminated Zhong Hui and others, which increased Sima Zhao's control over Cao Wei's soldiers and horses. In 264, Cao Huan made Sima Zhao the King of Jin. In this regard, in the author's opinion, at this time, with the prestige brought by the elimination of Shu Han, Sima Zhao not only defused the negative impact of the emperor, but even ascended the throne as emperor.
Book of Jin: In the autumn of August, the emperor collapsed in Lu's bed, when he was fifty-five. In September, he was buried in Chongyang Mausoleum, and king Wen of Yu was buried. Emperor Wu was enthroned as Emperor Yuwen and was called Taizu in the temple.
However, because Sima Zhao died of illness in 265 AD, this prompted him not to rush to become emperor. After Sima Zhao's death, his son Sima Yan, like Cao Pi before him, did not hesitate and directly forced Cao Yichan to give up the emperor's throne. Eventually, the Western Jin Dynasty replaced Cao Wei and opened a new chapter in history. For Sima Zhao, he was given the temple title of Taizu, which shows that he played the most critical role in the establishment of the Western Jin Dynasty.