The Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui (曹叡), the eldest son of Emperor Wen of Wei and the second emperor of Cao Wei, on May 17, 226, after the death of his father Emperor Wen, the twenty-four-year-old Cao Rui took the throne in Luoyang, and began his short twelve-year reign with the assistance of the zhenjun general Chen Qun, the Chinese general Cao Zhen, the general Cao Xiu of the Eastern Expedition, and the fujun general Sima Yi. "Emperor Ming was resolute and decisive, acted with his heart, and covered with the supreme generality of the king", but the evaluation of Cao Rui all the time was that he was "not very talented", "extravagant and unscrupulous, contrary to reason and contempt", and the controversy over him was obviously greater than that of his grandfather Cao Cao and his father Cao Pi. However, such an arrogant and fierce "king of the subjugated country" was able to resist the attacks of Zhuge Liang of Shu and Sun Quan of Wu on many occasions, and Sima Yi did not dare to have any disobedience.
1. Monopolize power and submit to each other
At the beginning of his reign, Cao Rui was about to face a big problem, the four ministers of his father Cao Pi's will were not idle people, although the Chinese general Cao Zhen was the nominal adopted son of his grandfather Cao Cao, the relationship between the two was like that of his father and son; the general Cao Xiu was praised by Cao Cao as "my family's thousand-mile colt", and he once ate and lived with his father Cao Pi; Sima Yi and Chen Qun were also Cao Wei's heavy ministers during the Cao Pi period, and the most important thing was that Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, and Sima Yi were veritable "great generals". Each of them had heavy soldiers in their hands, and if they didn't handle Cao Rui's newly arrived throne, they might not be able to keep it.
It is likely that the others would recall the three men to their side for various reasons, cut off their military power by adding officers to the knighthood, and then send their own cronies to take control of the army. However, in the face of shu han and eastern Wu, Cao Rui did not adopt this method of drawing salaries from the bottom of the barrel, but let the three continue to lead troops and negotiate with hostile forces. Although this move left hidden dangers for the courtiers who later planned to become emperors plotting to seize power, it also played a great role in maintaining the Cao Wei regime at that time: the Eastern Wu generals Zhuge Jin and Zhang Ba led their troops to attack, the Fujun general Sima Yi broke through and beheaded Zhang Ba, and the eastern general Cao Xiu also defeated the invading Wu army; The first Northern Expedition of Shu Xiang Zhuge Liang, the officials and people of the three counties of Tianshui, Nan'an, and Anding all rebelled against Wei and returned to Shu, Cao Zhen and Zhang Hao led the troops, Cao Zhen saw through Zhuge Liang's intentions, and the shu army was greatly broken, and the rebellious three counties were put down Zhuge Liang repeatedly marched north, but was blocked by Sima Yi, and eventually a generation of famous ministers was dragged to death by Sima Yi with the strategy of "resisting the wall and waiting for work".
Cao Rui was well aware that Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, and Sima Yi, who had heavy troops, would pose a great threat to him, but he did not directly take the next strategy of cutting the military power, but through the war, let the three exert their military talents, and sent the three to continue to be active in the front, with the intention of successfully weakening the influence of the three in the center. Chen Qun, the only of the four ministers who often accompanied Cao Rui, had a very limited influence on the power of the young emperor, and Cao Rui cleverly became the uninhibited supreme decision-maker of Cao Wei, and even in some decision-making, even if Chen Qun and other ministers strongly opposed it, he could not shake Cao Rui's arbitrariness and arbitrariness, and it can be said that until his death Cao Rui firmly held the supreme power of the State of Wei.
2. Select the talents and abilities and cultivate the law and the law
Cao Rui inherited his grandfather Cao Cao and his father Cao Pi's excellent skills of understanding people and controlling people, and even more than that, but he did not adopt Cao Cao's "meritocracy", but repeatedly ordered all localities to strictly select virtuous officials and remove incompetent people. In view of the turmoil at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Rui vigorously advocated Confucianism, "respecting Confucianism and noble learning, the foundation of Wang Jiao", and personally ordered the local government to "Shen Shu County, Gong Shi takes the study of scripture as the first", and revived Confucianism while selecting people who can govern the world. In addition, Cao Rui also ordered that "one of the close ministers of the Zhao Gongqing should be juliang", which provided a guarantee for the stabilization of the Cao Wei regime.
Cao Rui also attached great importance to the formulation and maintenance of laws, and once set up the post of "Doctor of Law" under Cao Wei's highest judicial organ, "Ting Wei", who was specifically responsible for teaching legal knowledge, increasing the professional quality and case-handling level of judicial officers, and cultivating judicial talents. In order to avoid the judicial officers' use of beatings into confessions when adjudicating cases and the occurrence of misjudgments in major cases, Cao Rui often said: "Prison prisoners, the lives of the world are also", and even whenever there is a major case, Cao Rui must observe, "Every time a big prison is broken, it is often fortunate to come and listen to it." In addition, Cao Rui also ordered the deletion of the death penalty clause to reduce the number of capital crimes, and the people called him a sage.
3. The overall situation will be determined
During Cao Rui's reign, there were two main internal worries, the first was the threat from the heavy-armed ministers, but they were cleverly defused by Cao Rui; the second was the influence of the harem on imperial power. During the reign of Emperor Cao Pi of Wei, in order to eliminate the influence of his brother Cao Zhi and some other clan forces, he weakened the power of the princes of the clan many times, and often changed the fiefs of the kings of the clan, who had neither the power of governance nor the power of the army, and their actions were strictly monitored, which was like a prison, and even the opportunity to go to the capital to show their sincerity. At the same time, Cao Pi also strictly forbade the harem to interfere in politics, saying: "Husband and wife and government, the root of chaos." Henceforth, the descendants shall not be allowed to serve as auxiliary government officials, nor shall they be subject to the title of Thatched Earth." Cao Rui inherited his father's practice during his reign, but still made some changes, although he did not give the princes of the clan greater autonomy, but abolished the ban on the kings of the clan not entering the capital, not only allowing the princes to enter the capital to meet and participate in the government, but also summoned "the princes to change the titles, all of which are based on the county as the country", intending to establish a stable clan system.
For the repeated invasions of Shu Han and Eastern Wu, Cao Rui reused famous generals such as Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, and Sima Yi, and did not suspect the people because they held military power, so the generals were able to continue to be active on the front-line battlefield and help Cao Wei win frequent victories in foreign wars. When Gongsun Yuan, the Taishou of Liaodong, chose to rebel and proclaimed himself the King of Yan at the time of the rebellion in Wei and Wu, Sima Yi of Cao Rui ordered the official Ju Taiwei to strike decisively and put out the rebellion. Faced with the increasingly powerful and ill-intentioned Xianbei regime, Cao Rui "insidiously" sent the assassin Han Long to assassinate its leader Kebineng, and the Xianbei regime collapsed, which destroyed the original attempt of Shu Han and Xianbei to join forces to cut down Wei, and the northern side of Wei was peaceful for decades, reducing the military and political pressure of the Wei state. The death of Zhuge Liang, the shu chancellor, also eased the tension on the Wei-Shu border, and the day of reunification was approaching.
After surviving the death of Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen, seeing that Shu Han and Eastern Wu were weakening day by day and Cao Wei was getting stronger and stronger, just when the overall situation was about to happen, Cao Rui was actually ill, and he urgently summoned Sima Yi, the eunuch, into the dynasty, and took Sima Yi's hand to appoint him as the minister of gu orders, "I am very ill, and things will belong to Jun, Junqi and Shuangfu Shaozi." I have to see the king, and I have nothing to hate! But what Cao Rui did not expect was that the two ministers he appointed, Cao Shuang and Sima Yi, were also people with dictatorial power, but Cao Shuang lost the battle with Sima Yi, and the Sima family usurped Wei with Jin, but Cao Rui died at the age of thirty-six, and if it were not for his untimely death, Sima Yi and Cao Shuang would not have been able to monopolize the government.