Although Zang Ba's fame was not high, he was also a famous general of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. In 199, Zang Ba began to defect to Cao Cao, and made many military achievements for the Cao family's southern conquest of the northern war, but more than twenty years later, he was deprived of military power by Cao Pi, exempted from idle duties, and lived his life in obscurity. It was not until 243 that Zang Ba was mentioned again, and his spiritual tablet was able to be enshrined in Cao Cao's temple. Since Zang Ba had such a great achievement, why was cao Pi deprived of his military power?
This has to start from Zang Ba's origin! According to historical records, Zang Ba was a native of Taishanhua County, and his father was originally a county jailer and was imprisoned for offending the county sheriff. Zang Ba, who was only 18 years old, led dozens of doormen to set up an ambush in the middle of the road to rescue his father, and since then he has been out of the country. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, Zang Ba also pulled up a team and followed Shi Taoqian of Xuzhou to fight the rebel army. After that, Zang Ba was given the title of Knight Lieutenant, "and gathered with Sun Guan, Wu Dun, Yin Li, etc., ba as a marshal, tun in Kaiyang".
At that time, the court of the Eastern Han Dynasty was in decline, and Zang Ba nominally belonged to Tao Qian, but in fact dominated one side. In 197, Zang Ba and Lü Bu had a bad fight, and Lü Bu personally led an army to fight, but was repelled by Zang Ba, so the two sides shook hands and made peace. In 198, Cao Cao led an army against Lü Bu, and Zang Ba personally led troops to help Lü Bu. After Lü Bu's demise, Cao Cao was very happy to see Zang Ba, and asked him to surrender Wu Dun, Yin Li, Sun Guan, and others. After that, Cao Cao appointed Zang Ba and others to official positions, "cutting Qing and Xu Erzhou, entrusting them to Ba".
That is to say, although Cao Cao occupied Xuzhou at that time, his rule was not stable, so he handed over Qingzhou and Xuzhou to Zang Ba and others. In other words, Zang Ba and others were nominally subordinate to Cao Cao, but in fact they were still powerful on the divided side. Since Zang Ba and others were all from Taishan County, the history books referred to Zang Ba and others as the "Generals of Taishan", and their army was called "Taishan Soldiers".
After defecting to Cao Cao, Zang Ba did play a certain role. In the Battle of Guandu, Zang Ba repeatedly led elite troops into the Qingzhou region occupied by Yuan Shao, and the policy was cao Cao on the battlefield of Guandu, "so Taizu had to specialize in Shao, and did not think of the East." In the years that followed, Zang Ba also participated in the conquest of Mei Cheng, Chen Lan, and the military campaign against Sun Quan. During this period, Zang Ba's officials also became larger and larger, and by the time Cao Wei was established, they had become "envoys, governors of xingdu, assassins of Xuzhou, generals of Zhendong, and marquises of Wu'an Township".
In 222, Zang Ba was fighting with the Wu army on the front line, and also achieved certain achievements, "Zang Ba attacked Xuling with five hundred light ships and dared to die, burned siege vehicles, and killed thousands of people", but it was not long before Zang Ba was stripped of his military power and adopted the form of Ming sheng and secret descent, "conscription for Jinwu, special advance". After that, Zang Ba was unknown, and the history books did not even leave the time of his death.
Through the above historical data, in fact, we can already draw the reason why Zang Ba was deprived of military power. This was mainly because Zang Ba did not have Cao Cao's concubines, and he formed a group of his own forces. That is to say, when Cao Cao was alive, Zang Ba was always in a semi-independent state, and he even disobeyed Cao Cao's orders many times. After Cao Cao's death, Zang Ba's army was in chaos for a time, and "the troops of Basuo and the Soldiers of Qingzhou thought that the world would be in chaos, and they all sounded drums and went away."
In this case, Cao Pi naturally wanted to solve the Taishan Haoqiang clique represented by Zang Ba, so he sent Cao Xiudu to oversee Qing and Xu Erzhou. And Zang Ba, the population, was unobstructed, and said to Cao Xiu: "The country is not willing to listen to the bully! If the false hegemony rides ten thousand people, it will be able to run rampant on the river. Cao Xiu reported this to Cao Pi, and Emperor Wen of Wei thought that Zang Ba might have two hearts, so he used Zang Ba's opportunity to come to the court and took away his military power.
References: 1. Romance of the Three Kingdoms; 2. Qingxu Haoba at the Time of the Han and Wei Dynasties