In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao is not a positive character, he is sinister and cunning, ruthless and ruthless, but Luo Guanzhong still retains one advantage for him: he is thirsty for talent. Cao Cao once wrote the poem "Short Song Line" and said, "Qingqing ZiYuan, leisurely my heart." But for the sake of the king, he has meditated to this day", to express his desire for talents.
Yang Xiu in the rendition is also a very clever figure, and Luo Guanzhong praised him: "The clever Yang Dezu, the generations of miao." The dragon and snake walk in the pen, and the chest is made of cotton. Talk about the four seats, the victory against the champion. It is enough to see that Yang Xiu is indeed talented. However, the strange thing is that Cao Cao, who is thirsty for talents and a corporal of Lixian, meets the talented Yang Xiu, but there is no chemical reaction, and in the end Cao Cao even kills Yang Xiu. So, what happened that made Cao Cao so disgusted with Yang Xiu?
In fact, it is inaccurate to say that Cao Cao dislikes Yang Xiu, and strictly speaking, Cao Cao still trusted and appreciated Yang Xiu at the beginning. Yang Xiu initially served as the head of the chancellor, this position can be described as Cao Cao's confidant, Cao Cao let him sit in this position, enough to show that he still valued and trusted Yang Xiu at the beginning. And Yang Xiu's ability is indeed outstanding, he is able to do things, and everything is done without leaks. It is reasonable to say that such a talent should be Cao Cao's dream, so why did he kill Yang Xiu? The reason why Yang Xiu in the interpretation has come to this step can be said to be seeking his own death.
Yang Xiu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms can be described as amazingly talented, and his mind is comparable to Zhuge Liang's when he speculates on Cao Cao's mind alone. Cao Cao's interests and hobbies and the thoughts in his heart, Yang Xiu could guess. For example, in the rendition, when Cao Cao crossed the Lantian, he went to Cai Wenji's house and saw the Cao E monument, and the back of the stele was engraved with the words "Yellow Silk Young Woman, Grandson Ying usu", and Cao Cao turned to Yang Xiu and asked: "Can't you solve it?" Yang Xiu immediately replied confidently, "Solution." Cao Cao asked Yang Xiu not to say the answer first, he thought for himself first. Thirty miles later, Cao Cao asked Yang Xiu to write out the answer, then compared it with himself, and finally found that the answer was consistent. Cao Cao sighed, "My talent is far inferior to yours." ”
In fact, there are many such stories in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", such as "Broad Word Anagram". During Yang Xiu's tenure as the master bookkeeper, the Xiangguo Gate was built in the palace, and Cao Cao ordered people to write "living" characters on the door after watching it, and then left. Everyone was puzzled, but Yang Xiu saw Cao Cao's meaning and said, "The word 'live' and 'wide' in the door." Wang Zheng suspected that Men Daiya. So Yang Xiu ordered the door to be destroyed and rebuilt.
Of course, if you want to mention Yang Xiu's speculation on Cao Cao's thoughts, you have to mention the classic bridge section in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: one person and one bite. In the novel, it is written: Another day, Saibei sent a box of crisps to it. Fu wrote the words "one in one crisp" on the box and placed it on the desk. Cultivating into the seeing, he even took the spoon and shared the food with the multitude. why. Xiu replied, "The ming written on the box is 'one person and one bite of crisp', how dare you disobey the orders of the Prime Minister?" Although laughs, but the heart is evil.
Luo Guanzhong used the phrase "Although Cao is happy to laugh, but his heart is evil" to show Cao Cao's inner gloom and his dislike for Yang Xiu. So the question is, why should Cao Cao hate the extremely clever Yang Xiu, isn't his favorite talent?
Cao Cao likes talents, but he likes people who can use them for themselves and are not a threat to themselves. Cao Cao in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has a fierce and ruthless personality, Luo Guanzhong portrays him as an ungrateful person, he killed Lü Bohao's family, and said to Chen Gong: "It is better to make me bear the people of the world, and to teach the people of the world to bear me!" When Cao Cao invited Liu Bei to cook wine on heroes, he used the dragon as a metaphor for the real hero in his mind, saying: "The dragon can be powerful and small, and it can rise and hide: the big one spits out the fog and clouds, turns over the river and stirs the sea; the small one buries his head and claws, and hides himself; the rise soars between the universes, and the hidden ones lurk within the autumn waves." This dragon yang thing also, can change at any time. This shows that the hero in Cao Cao's mind is not a man who stands tall in the sky, nor is he a gentleman who is bright and upright, but a tyrant who can bend and stretch and overturn the river and the sea.
Cao Cao is this kind of tyrant, and the most taboo thing about the tyrant is that he has no secrets, and there are many things and thoughts hidden in their hearts that they do not want others to know, and these are their anti-scales. However, Yang Xiu repeatedly violated Cao Cao's anti-scales, in fact, cao cao's advisers could figure out Cao Cao's thoughts, Xun Yu, Guo Jia, Jia Xu, they were all people with near-genius, and it was not difficult to guess Cao Cao's thoughts. However, Xun Yu and others knew convergence, and they would not take the initiative to show off their cleverness and embarrass Cao Cao.
However, Yang Xiu was different, he was called a death in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", obviously entrusted by Cao Cao with heavy responsibilities, but he was frivolous and proud, and repeatedly let Cao Cao not come to the stage, which made Cao Cao very unhappy. When Cao Cao and Liu Bei were unable to stand each other and were in a dilemma, Cao Cao sighed: "Chicken ribs are just." No one knew the meaning of Cao Cao's words, but Yang Xiu said: "If you eat chicken ribs, you will have no gain, and if you abandon it, it will be a pity. Yang Xiu told everyone to prepare to retreat, and when Cao Cao learned of this, he was furious and immediately beheaded Yang Xiu on the grounds of disturbing the hearts of the army.
In fact, Cao Cao killed Yang Xiu of course not only because of this sentence, although Cao Cao in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was fierce and ruthless, but in the end he was still a pity, many of the sages of the previous hostile forces he could treat with respect, not to mention Yang Xiu, who had not yet had any practical impact? In fact, Cao Cao's idea of killing Yang Xiu had long been there, and the "chicken rib" incident was just his excuse. Cao Cao's regard for the sages is true regardless of the previous suspicions, but looking at the sages that Cao Cao likes, Guan Yu under Liu Bei, loyal and righteous, benevolent and unmatched, and Changshan Zhao Zilong is brave and fierce, although they are Liu Bei's subordinates and are hostile to Cao Cao, Cao Cao appreciates their loyalty and righteousness, so Cao Cao will try his best to recruit them.
However, Yang Xiu was different, he was arrogant, pondering Cao Cao's thoughts, and also participating in the seizure of concubines, such a threat for Cao Cao can be described as making him sleep and eat. It can be said that Yang Xiu used his little cleverness to make Cao Cao hate him more and more, and eventually killed him.
Luo Guanzhong believed that Cao Cao killed Yang Xiu out of jealousy, but even in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao killed Yang Xiu for another reason, that is, Yang Xiu violated his reverse scales. Such a person, whether he has talent or not, Cao Cao will kill him, otherwise he would not be Cao Cao.
Of course, there should be two more causes of Yang Xiu's death in the main history: one is that he supported Cao Zhi, the other is that his father is Yang Biao, and his maternal grandfather is Yuan Shu, and these people are Cao Cao's sworn enemies. However, whether it is the history of Zhengshi or the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Yang Xiu's death should be attributed to his little cleverness, if he knows how to be introverted, I am afraid that the final result will be different.