Chapter 16 Chapter 4 Three points in the world

After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao's ambitions grew. It seems incredible. How can there be such a reason in the world after losing a battle and expanding one's ambition? It's a pity that Cao Cao is not only a reasonable person.Or rather, he has his reasons.His reasoning is: if you don't get it on the battlefield, you have to get it back in the officialdom.Of course, every step of the way in the officialdom depends on victories on the battlefield.So Cao Cao had three more military operations, and each time he gained something else in the officialdom. The three harvests are: the return of Ma Chao and Han Sui from the Western Expedition, no name in praise, and no tendency to enter the court, and the sword is on the palace, just like the story of Xiao He; He was promoted from Duke Wei to King Wei.

By April of the 22nd year of Jian'an (AD 217), Cao Cao's political treatment reached its peak, and his etiquette and guard of honor were on an equal footing with the emperor. As a result, Daihan's voice rose loudly. It was Chen Qun and Xiahou Dun (read Rudun) who took the lead in persuading them to advance.Chen Qun said that the Han Dynasty had already existed in name only, so why not replace it?Xiahou Dun said that eliminating harm for the people is the lord of the people, so why should the King of Wei hesitate to proclaim himself emperor? Cao Cao flatly refused. He said: If the destiny is mine, then I will be King Wen of Zhou.

Cao Pi listened to this.A few months after Cao Cao's death, he forced the Han emperor to give up his throne.However, the posthumous title he gave Cao Cao was Emperor Wu. So, why did Cao Cao only call himself king, not emperor? There may be many reasons, both big and small.The big truth is: the heart of repayment is still there after receiving Han's kindness in the world;The little truth is: bad background, bad image, afraid of being laughed at. Is Cao Cao's image bad? possible.In the book "Three Kingdoms", Yuan Shao, Liu Biao, Zhou Yu, and Zhuge Liang are all outstanding talents, but Cao Cao's height and appearance are not mentioned, which shows that he is not flattering.When the envoys of the Huns came to the court, Cao Cao asked Cui Yan to be a substitute, which also showed that he was ashamed.The Eastern Han Dynasty judged people by appearance, so Cao Cao had to be scruples.

Liu Bei and Sun Quan are also obstacles.Cao Cao knew very well that as long as he proclaimed himself emperor openly, these two people would follow him immediately, but he, Cao, would have to bear the charge of "usurping the Han".What's more, if they all proclaim themselves emperors, there will be no "central government", and Liu Bei and Sun Quan will change from "local" to "opposite". Isn't it cheaper for them? Therefore, when Sun Quan professed himself as a minister in the 24th year of Jian'an (219 AD) and tried his best to persuade him to come in, Cao Cao took Sun Quan's letter and said to everyone: This boy is going to put the old man on the stove to roast presumptuously!

However, there must be one of them who can be named a duke, establish a country, and become a king. The turning point was Feng Wei Gong.On the surface, from marquis to duke, the title is just higher.However, conferring a marquis is just bestowing a title, while conferring a duke is to establish a country, and you can have your own community and ancestral temple.Cao Cao's title of Wei Gong means that he can justifiably establish an independent principality in Wei County. It is also logical to become king in the future. Later, Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor, and it was a matter of course.

So, who helped Cao Cao take such an important step? Dong Zhao.This person always comes out at critical moments.It was he who helped Cao Cao welcome the emperor back then, and he is also the one who plans to make Wei the king of Wei.For this reason, Dong Zhao ran around, jumped up and down, created enough public opinion, made enough articles, and finally formed a proposal, which was approved by the emperor. However, Dong Zhao also hit a snag in front of one person. This person is Xun Yu. Xun Yu was born in a famous family, his grandfather was a county magistrate, his father was a state minister, and his uncle was a third prince.He himself is both a celebrity and an important minister. He has a high prestige among scholars and has received rave reviews. He is an official in the imperial court, Shang Shuling (the secretary-general of the court), and his status in the Cao Cao Group is equivalent to that of Xiao He and Zhang Liang.

Obviously, if Xun Yu took the lead in proposing the proposal of feuding the public and establishing the country, it would have much more weight and a much more appropriate status than Dong Zhao and others. Therefore, Dong Zhao wanted to meet Xun Yu by secretly asking for opinions. Xun Yu poured cold water on it.He told Dong Zhao that the original purpose of Cao Gong's righteous soldiers to eliminate riots and pacify the world was to help the court and stabilize the country.What he upholds is loyalty and what he insists on is humility.A gentleman loves others with virtue.If you really love Mr. Cao, you should help him stay late.I'm afraid it's not suitable to be named Wei Gong.

Cao Cao was deeply disappointed and furious, so he transferred Xun Yu to Sun Quan's army in the name of Lao Jun.When Xun Yu walked to Shouchun (now Shouxian County, Anhui Province), he fell ill and died mysteriously soon at the age of fifty. There are two versions of Xun Yu's cause of death: he died of depression, and he was forced to commit suicide.It is said that Cao Cao sent someone to deliver a food box to him.Xun Yu opened it and saw that it was empty.So Xun Yu took poison.At that time, there was a lot of trouble, and rumors spread everywhere, and it is still an unsolved and mysterious case that cannot be solved.

In fact, Xun Yu died because of the disillusionment of his ideals. Xun Yu, Lu Su, and Zhuge Liang may be the most important figures in the three major groups of Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei.They all have their own political ideas, programs of action, and strategies, and they all have influenced their respective monarchs.Therefore, they should not be called "counselors", but politicians. However, the situation of the three is different. Lu Su is the simplest.He is not a celebrity, and Sun Quan is not a gentleman, so he doesn't have so much burden.Therefore, Lu Su can bluntly say that "the Han Dynasty cannot be revived", and Sun Quan can also rebel against Cao for a while and surrender Cao for a while.Because in Sun Quan's view, there is no contradiction between opposing Cao and supporting Han, and there is no contradiction between surrendering Cao and supporting Han.If you want to deal with Liu Bei, you can say that Cao Cao is the Prime Minister of Han; if you want to unite with Liu Bei, you can say that Cao Cao is a traitor.

This is typical pragmatism.However, considering the weakness of Soochow and the difficulty of survival, I am afraid it can only be so.It is impossible for Sun Quan to dedicate himself to his ideals, not to mention that he has no ideals in the first place. Zhuge Liang is a little more troublesome.He has ideals himself, but Liu Bei does not.Therefore, after the Battle of Chibi, Zhuge Liang was put on the shelf, and it was the utilitarians Pang Tong and Fazheng who were really reused.But Zhuge Liang's greatest tragedy was that his Shu Kingdom was the best governed and the earliest to perish, which will be discussed later.

In comparison, Xun Yu is even sadder. Xun Yu left Yuan Shao, who was favored by everyone, to follow and assist Cao Cao nine years before the Battle of Guandu.Because he saw through Yuan Shao's "ultimately unable to achieve great things", only Cao Cao can realize his wish: revive the Han Dynasty. This is the same idea as Zhuge Liang. It cannot be said that Xun Yu was wrong.When he came to Cao Cao's side, Cao Cao, the thirty-seven-year-old Dongjun prefect, was indeed a passionate patriotic general.When he advocated welcoming the emperor, the forty-two-year-old Yanzhou Mu Cao Cao was still a prince with a heart for the royal family.In the future, Cao Cao conquered Yuan Shu, killed Lu Bu, surrendered Zhang Xiu, destroyed Yuan Shao, and pacified the north. In Xun Yu's view, it should and must be done. However, more than ten years have passed, and Cao Cao no longer "has all his heart in the royal family", nor is he "serving the emperor to order him not to be a minister", but "coercing the emperor to order the princes", he wants to establish himself as a duke and build a country.This is really a dangerous signal.The next step of development will definitely deviate from Xun Yu's ideal and original intention. Therefore, Xun Yu had to stop him, and knew that it would not be effective.Cao Cao had already boarded his own pirate ship and could only go to the dark one way.Xun Yu could only part ways with Cao Cao and choose to die.Perhaps, he will use his own life to sacrifice his ideals and give Cao Cao the last advice. What's more, Xun Yu has no choice, he can't go to Liu Bei, can he?What's more, for a person with ideals, there is nothing more painful than the disillusionment of ideals.At a loss, he can only die, even though he will not die. Cao Cao finally did not stand on his own on behalf of the Han Dynasty.Very likely, he really couldn't face Xun Yu's melancholy eyes in the kingdom of heaven. Those are also wise and determined eyes. Of course, Liu Bei is invisible to these eyes.