Chapter 32 Chapter Four

Taking the Battle of Guandu as an opportunity, Cao Cao went all out to take advantage of the victory and attack, which can be described as high-spirited and high-spirited.He quelled Yuan Tan, went on an expedition to Wuhuan, eliminated Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi, and unified the north; he also issued an order to reduce land rent, order to tidy up customs, and an order to seal meritorious officials to consolidate and stabilize the order in the north; To pacify the world and complete the great cause of unifying China. In July 208 AD, Cao Cao personally led an army to the south.As pointed out by the sharp point, Liu Bei was caught off guard and fled in a hurry. Liu Cong, the governor of Jingzhou, surrendered in anticipation. He occupied Jingzhou almost without bloodshed, and also obtained a large number of talents from Jingzhou and others who took refuge in Jingzhou.For a time, Cao Cao's strength increased greatly, and he was as powerful as the sun, and his power shook the world. It can be said that he reached the pinnacle of his career.

At this time, Cao Cao couldn't help but become ecstatic, his mind was often in a state of impulsiveness and fanaticism, and he completely lost his former calmness and rigor.He became proud and complacent, overestimating his own strength and underestimating his opponent's ability; at the same time, he believed that his rule of the world was not only just around the corner, but also the destiny of destiny.Think about it, he has grown from a small person who was born with the "stain" of eunuch's background, step by step, to today's prime minister of Wei who threatens the emperor, destroys all heroes, and looks down upon the world. With his own strength, can he become the most powerful man in the world?How many times, he was caught in a predicament and danger, and if he didn't pay attention, all his previous achievements would be wasted and ruined: he was chased by Dong Zhuo to nowhere, and was captured by a pavilion chief on the way to escape and sent to the county to be imprisoned; He was defeated in the Battle of Bianshui and was almost captured; he was suddenly besieged by Zhangxiu during the Southern Expedition, and was shot by an arrow in his right arm, and was almost hacked to death by random knives; during the Battle of Guandu, Sun Ce planned to take the opportunity to attack Xuchang. "Fire in the Backyard" suffered from enemies on both sides, and fell into a state of collapse... However, it seems that there is a miracle in every emergency, and a miracle can always appear to make him turn the crisis into safety, and he has become stronger day by day because of this.Since the destiny belongs to him, why should he fear Cao Cao?

As a result, his head swelled and became arrogant.He didn't listen to the counselor Jia Xu's persuasion and moved forward rashly, which made Sun and Liu, who were originally in conflict, form a tenacious anti-Cao alliance; A rare talent, he even lost the opportunity to contact Liu Zhang and advance in Yizhou. Later, Liu Bei used tricks to earn Yizhou to own a piece of land of his own; ", in the letter to Sun Quan, he was even more ambitious, intending to win: "Those who are close to him will be punished for crimes, and Liu Cong will be tied up. Now the 800,000 sailors will be ruled, and Fang and the general will hunt in Wu"; Jingzhou is newly attached, and the hearts of the people are unstable. The morale of the army is unstable. He seems to have never even thought of doing "political and ideological" work in this area in order to achieve stability and unity, and to jointly fight against the enemy; Cao Cao is suspicious by nature, but he believes in Huang Gai's surrender. Even the minimum preventive measures were not taken... Cao Cao did not have the upper hand in terms of weather, location, and harmony, and there were many mistakes in tactical command, which resulted in a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Chibi.

It seems that no matter how intelligent a person is, or how much "capital" he has, as long as his head is hot and forgetful, he may suddenly fall from a towering peak to an abyss.Keeping a calm mind and a normal state of mind at all times is really very important to tiny human beings. The disastrous defeat in the Battle of Chibi was the biggest unforgivable mistake Cao Cao made in his life.Although the number of troops under his command is not as many as 800,000 as claimed, its actual strength is at least not less than the 200,000 that Zhou Yu estimated. , has an obvious absolute advantage, as long as you "work hard" a little bit, with Cao Cao's excellent military wisdom and the ability of the northern soldiers to conquer and fight well, the end of the war should not end in a disastrous defeat.

In the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao not only lost a war, but also made his ambition of unifying the world come to naught. What's more, he also got the eternal infamy of a "treacherous hero" because of this. If Cao Cao wins the Battle of Chibi, the entire south of the Yangtze River will be able to conquer immediately, and the territory of the world will be included in his pocket.Then, he would not play the role of King Wen of Zhou obliquely, but "cut to the chase" and directly replaced Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and ascended the throne of emperor.Once the world is unified, he will definitely restrict freedom of speech like the emperors of all dynasties, there will be no independent Shu and Wu countries, and no one will dare to call him a "traitor" or "traitor", at least not so A lot of untrue words piled up on him.As for his comments, what people can see can only be blindly singing praises and flattering horses, passing on from generation to generation. Cao Cao is not the Cao Cao in people's minds today. His image and comments are likely to be compared with Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Sun Quan and others replaced each other.

Even if he lost the Battle of Chibi, it doesn't matter, as long as he does things a little bit more extreme, later generations' comments on him will definitely not drop to zero.He pushed the palace every step of the way, and became the king of Wei. Che Yu's clothes were no different from those of the emperor, but he just refused to move his ass to the emperor's throne.In the winter of 219 A.D., Sun Quan once wrote a letter to Cao Cao, urging him to become emperor, and he was willing to be a minister.After Cao Cao read the letter, he showed his officials and said, "It's my son who wants to live on the stove!" He also said, "If fate is my destiny, I will be King Wen of Zhou." All of them are inflated to the extreme. It can be said that "every family wants to be an emperor, and everyone wants to be a prince", but most of them don't have this kind of ability.Cao Cao can kick Han Xiandi away with one kick and taste what it's like to be an emperor.However, he doesn't seem to value fame very much and is willing to live under others.In this regard, he must have had a fierce and repeated conflict in his heart. He has suffered from "black pot" since he was a child, and he has a deeper understanding of the "national conditions" of "if the name is not correct, the words will not go well" than others. As long as he has the opportunity, he will not hesitate to ascend the throne; however, he has to worry about it. He has repeatedly "self-evident" and stated that he has no desire to stand on his own in the Han Dynasty. He has acted for ten years. If there is a sudden change of mind, after all, the world is not unified. Once ascended to the throne, he will be politically passive, and there will be some unforeseen internal and external disputes.Therefore, he chose an ambiguous plan, without the name of the emperor, and acting as the emperor.This really corresponds to a folk saying - to be a bitch, but also to set up a memorial archway.This cannot but be said to be Cao Cao's miscalculation. If he simply did everything to the end and became a real emperor worthy of the name, later generations may have different comments on him.In fact, the title of his biography in "Three Kingdoms" is "Wu Di Ji", and Mao Zedong also called him Wei Wudi when he wrote about Cao Cao.

Until his death, Cao Cao had not even had a moment of being an emperor, and he must have had great regrets in his heart. The words that he compared himself to "King Wen of Zhou" clearly revealed his earnest expectations for future generations.He has two thirds of the world, laying a solid foundation for Wei to replace the Han Dynasty. To a certain extent, his political achievements surpass King Wen of Zhou.However, the descendants of King Wen of Zhou were very competitive, not only destroying King Zhou of Shang, but also making the Zhou Dynasty last for more than 800 years, becoming the longest ruling dynasty in Chinese history.Although Cao Cao's descendants usurped the Han throne, and after his death, he also won the "title" of Emperor Wu of Wei, but his descendants are far less capable and promising than the descendants of King Wen of Zhou. Not only did they fail to fulfill their ancestors' will to unify China , Even if the Wei State he established could not be kept, Sima soon changed his "color" by using his own way and treating him like a person.

If Cao Cao won the Battle of Chibi and ruled the world, if he publicly usurped Han and became emperor, if Cao Wei lasted a little longer, the evaluation of Cao Cao would be greatly improved, and he would definitely not end up as a treacherous villain. ".In this regard, Lu Xun said in his speech "Wei Jin Manners and the Relationship between Articles, Medicine and Wine": Due to the particularity of the Three Kingdoms, not only later historians wanted to say bad things about Cao Cao, that is, at that time, the historians of the hostile countries Dongwu and Shuhan had arranged and degraded Cao Cao in a mess.