Cao Cao had twenty-five sons, and in addition to the death of his eldest son Cao Ang, one of his sons was also killed, and he was forced to commit suicide. It is reasonable to say that after Cao Pi established the Cao Wei regime, his younger brothers were all given the title of princes, although politically restricted, but after all, they were still clans, who dared to attack them? It turned out that this son of Cao Cao was very backbone and wanted to save the Cao Wei regime, but he ended up in failure and was killed! So what's going on here?
Cao Zhi once wrote a poem called "Gift to the White Horse King Biao", and the protagonist of this article is this "White Horse King Biao". Cao Biao is Cao Cao's son, the ranking is not clear, but from the information born in 195, it should be relatively high. In 216, Cao Biao was made the Marquis of Shouchun, six years later the Duke of Ruyang, and later the Prince of Yiyang. During the reign of Cao Pi, Cao Biao's fiefdom changed many times, successively in Yiyang, Shouchun, Baima and other places.
In May 223, the kings went to the court to see the Son of Heaven. But it didn't take long. Cao Zhang, the king of Rencheng, died violently in Luoyang, and the kings were very saddened. In July, the kings wanted to return to their fiefdoms, when Cao Zhi's fief was in Yongqiu, and he had planned to return to the east with his younger brother Cao Biao, but even such a simple request was rejected, and the relevant authorities believed that "the two kings returned to the domain, and the road should stop differently." Cao Zhi was very angry and "hated it", so he wrote "Giving the White Horse wang Biao" before leaving.
Cao Biao also replied with a poem called "Reply to the Poem of King Dong'a", and the two brothers separated, and this parting became a farewell. After Cao Pi's death, Cao Biao was renamed King of Chu. However, for violating the law, he was once stripped of the fiefs of three counties and 1,500 households, but it was restored two years later. All in all, during the reign of Emperor Ming of Wei, the living conditions of the clan improved, and Cao Biao also received five hundred additional fiefs.
However, in 249, there was a drastic coup d'état within Cao Wei. Sima Yi, the grand general Cao Shuang and the Wei lord Cao Fang, who had been pretending to be ill, took advantage of the opportunity of the general Cao Shuang and the Wei lord Cao Fang to go out of the city to pay homage to the imperial tomb and control the entire city of Luoyang. The ignorant Cao Shuang actually gave up resistance and obediently conceded defeat, and as a result, sima Yi exterminated the three tribes. Through the gaopingling rebellion, Sima Yi took control of the entire cao wei court in one fell swoop, becoming cao wei's number one vassal.
Sima Yi's actions caused resentment among those ministers loyal to Cao Wei, including Wang Ling , the taiwei who was guarding Huainan. Wang Ling believed that Cao Fang had become a puppet of Sima Yi and that he had to re-establish the crown prince to oppose Sima Yi and save Cao Wei's Jiangshan, so he sent someone to contact Cao Biao, the king of Chu. At this time, Cao Biao was more than fifty years old, but after all, he was Cao Cao's son and cao Wei's clan, and he was also very dissatisfied with Sima Yi's dictatorship.
The Yanzhou assassin Ling Huyu was Wang Ling's nephew, and he sent his close associate Zhang Shi to Baima to exchange information with Cao Biao, the king of Chu. At that time, their plan was to set up Cao Biao, and then set the capital Xuchang to confront Sima Yi. However, in the process, Yanzhou Stabbing Shi Made Fox Yu suddenly fall ill and die, resulting in the plan not going smoothly. In 251, Eastern Wu blockaded Tushui, and Wang Ling used this as a pretext to ask for troops against Eastern Wu, but Sima Yi refused.
Originally, Sima Yi knew something about Wang Ling's actions, and the new Yanzhou Assassin Shi Huanghua informed Sima Yi of the news. So Sima Yi personally led a large army to attack Wang Ling. Wang Ling knew that he could not resist, so he "took a boat out to meet King Xuan, sent Wang Yu to apologize for his sins, and sent him a seal and a festival." In the end, Wang Ling was forced to commit suicide by taking poison. Sima Yi continued to pursue responsibility, and Cao Biao, the king of Chu, was forced to commit suicide. Cao Biao was the only Cao Wei emperor who participated in the rebellion against Sima Shi's dictatorship.
References: 1. Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms; 2. Zizhi Tongjian