Chapter 33 chapter Five

Cao Cao's defeat in the Battle of Chibi was so miserable that it was almost horrible. It was not only a heavy blow to his established political and military strategies, but also left an indelible pain in his heart.Although he was not very convinced by Chibi's disastrous defeat verbally, he wrote a letter to Sun Quan after the war, and instead of reviewing himself subjectively, he said, "The Battle of Chibi was worthy of illness. He got this name.” He also said, “The difficulty of Chibi, passing through Yunmengze, there was heavy fog, and he lost his way.” But since the First World War in Chibi, he never conquered Jiangnan again, as long as he thought of the mighty Yangtze The surging river water may form a conditioned reflex, and a dull pain and fear will arise in my heart.

After suffering a serious setback in the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao returned to the north and regained his senses.He understood that he did not yet have the conditions to annex Sun and Liu. Not only was it impractical to attack on a large scale, but it was also quite difficult to defend alone.With the lessons learned from last time, he no longer dared to take risks and advance lightly, but adopted a strategy of steady and steady, step by step.The battle of Chibi seemed to have broken his heroism and romanticism, which was overwhelming in the past, and turned into a reality and a conservative one.He voluntarily gave up Jiangling and retreated to Xiangfan, and took a comprehensive defense against Wu and Shu on the long front from Xiangfan in the west to Hefei in the east.Although some local attacks are sometimes carried out, there is no defensive strategy based on offense.With this solid southern defensive front, he turned his attention to internal adjustments to strengthen his strength, and then looked for opportunities to seize Hanzhong and enter Tubashu.

After the Chibi War, although Cao Cao did not lose his former enterprising spirit, he won some large and small victories against Soochow and Shu Han, and made achievements in politics, military affairs, and economics, but he never appeared again. The breakthrough progress and good times of "the world belongs to me".Good times never come again, once an opportunity slips away from you, it will never reappear again. The three-legged confrontation has become a stalemate that is difficult to break and cannot be reversed for a while; in addition to the passage of time and the gradual arrival of old age, although Cao Cao can still maintain the majesty and heroism of "an old man with a strong ambition; a martyr with great ambitions in his old age", but there is also a This kind of vicissitudes and desolation of human beings are small and helpless.He understood that it might be difficult to accomplish the great cause of China's unification in his hands, so he had to pin his hopes on future generations, so he sighed like "If the destiny is my destiny, I will be King Wen of Zhou".What is commendable is that he did not seek immortality and medicine in order to live forever like the emperors of the past dynasties such as Qin Shihuang and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Instead, he took some measures to maintain health and happiness with an optimistic attitude.

In the twenty-fifth year of Jian'an (220 A.D.), Cao Cao was already sixty-six years old, but he still couldn't forget the great cause of reunification, and he ran to the south to discuss Guan Yu with his thin and aging body.After returning to Luoyang, he finally suffered from the exhaustion of the pommel horse and suddenly fell ill.As soon as he got sick, he became bedridden. In a trance, he gently recited the poem he created, "Although the tortoise lives long, it still has its time; the snake turns into fog, and finally turns into ashes." legacy.He made a brief and objective review of his life's merits and demerits, and requested that the funeral be kept simple; he also arranged for maids, concubines, song and dance artists, and dealt with some relics, which has a sense of love for children.In this regard, Lu Ji wrote in "Essays on Hanging Wei Wudi": "The love is tired of foreign things, and the music is left in the boudoir." Another complicated and real Cao Cao.Sometimes, Cao Cao's frankness, straightforwardness and authenticity seem to have reached an amiable, lovable, and respectable level.

If you leave aside the complex and changeable personality factors and the judgment of good and evil on the moral level, Cao Cao can really be regarded as an awe-inspiring hero. In politics, Cao Cao is a wise and wise monarch in ancient Chinese history; The policy first started in civilian villages and then extended to military villages, which not only solved the problem of food and grass supply for the army, but also enabled the rapid recovery and development of the economy and production in the north; The environment formed a good cultural atmosphere and created a fresh and vigorous Jian'an literature style, which made the literary creation, literary criticism, and literary theory obtain a comprehensive harvest at that time, and became a golden age in the history of Chinese literature...

That is to say, in terms of personal intelligence, Cao Cao can almost be regarded as an "all-round champion": he has outstanding martial arts skills, and can often kill many people with a sword in the face of powerful enemies; Dead Jiaolong (a kind of crocodile); not only did he write well in his poems and essays, he was ranked among the top ten people in China by Zheng Banqiao, he also raised his sons Cao Zhi and Cao Pi, who were hailed as the "Three Caos" by later generations; His musical talent was comparable to that of Huan Tan and Cai Yong who were proficient in temperament at that time; he had a deep knowledge of calligraphy, especially cursive script; He is also quite good at making equipment, "as well as making palaces and repairing equipment, there are no rules for doing everything, and everything is done according to his intention"; he knows Go, and his skills have reached the level of "national players"; he also has a certain degree of research on food culture , once wrote the article "Four Seasons Food System"... Cao Cao has extensive knowledge and various skills, which are inseparable from his rich social practice and hard study in adulthood.When he was a child, he was fond of flying eagles and lackeys. Although he didn't make much progress, he was exposed to social reality extensively since he was a child.Ever since he was determined to become a politician, he overcame his childhood shortcomings and began to study seriously. According to the "Book of Wei", Cao Cao "has been in the army for more than 30 years, and he never let go of books. He talks about martial arts during the day and thinks about the classics at night. ", read a lot of books, it has reached the level of hard work.

Cao Cao had struggled all his life, and he was still running back and forth in the army before his death. He never imagined that the career he started with great difficulty would soon be ruined by his unworthy children and grandchildren, and he would be notorious for a long time.Whenever we read the relevant chapters, or hear the attacks and insults against Cao Cao by the people, or see the facial makeup of Cao Cao painted all white on the stage, with only a little pen and ink on the corner of his eye to show his vigilance, we can't help it. I thought to myself, if Cao Cao could have expected such slander and criticism from later generations, would he still maintain the frankness, straightforwardness and authenticity that he revealed from time to time?Will you deliberately change yourself, shape yourself, be pure-minded and ascetic, in order to achieve the image of a "sage" who does not eat the fireworks of the world?If Cao Cao did that, he would really become a "mask" and no longer a colorful person.Compared with those "gods" who have undergone a facelift based on the standard of "taboo for the venerable, taboo for the relatives, and taboo for the sage", we prefer those heroes with flesh and blood.

Once Cao Cao was identified as a villain and recognized by the public, even his death was branded treacherous and treacherous, and there was the third mystery of his life-the mystery of the tomb. Cao Cao once clearly wrote down his burial place in the "Last Order": "Buried on the Xigang of Ye, which is close to Ximen Leopard Temple." This will has also been earnestly implemented. "describes the funeral process in detail and indicates the topography of the burial site.It may be that the tomb robbers did not dig Cao Cao's tomb, so they made up a widely circulated theory that Cao Cao set up seventy-two suspicious tombs on the Zhanghe River.Some people even imagined Cao Cao's treachery to the point where it could not be added, and wrote a poem in his tone: "I don't doubt what people say, but I don't know the law. If a tomb is buried seventy-two years away, where is it?" Looking for the emperor's corpse?" Even if you dig up all the seventy-two tombs, you still can't find Cao Cao's bones, because his real tomb is outside the seventy-two suspected tombs.In this regard, we have to "admire" the rich and strange imagination of some descendants who are able to derogate Cao Cao. If Cao Cao is reborn, I am afraid that he will bow down for it.

In fact, Cao Cao was frugal all his life, he was not greedy for property, he did not accumulate private property, and he opposed heavy burials.Since there is no gold or silver treasure in the tomb, we are not afraid of other people robbing the tomb. Then, why is it necessary to set up a suspicious tomb to play a childlike "hide and seek" game with future generations?