Chapter 64 2. The death of Cang Shu

Cao Cao lost his beloved counselor, but the blow he had to endure was far more than that. At this time, his son Cao Chong, whom he also placed high hopes on, died of illness at the age of thirteen. Cao Chong was born to Mrs. Huan, and Mrs. Huan gave birth to this son.Cao Chong was born in the first year of Jian'an, that is, before and after Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian to Xu County.Cao Chong is younger than Cao Pi, Cao Zhang, and Cao Zhi. "Three Kingdoms" said that Cao Chong was named Cangshu, which is not accurate.The ancients did not have characters until the age of the weak crown, that is, after the age of twenty. Cao Chong died at the age of thirteen, before he had time to have characters.Cao Cao's eldest son, Cao Ang, was named Zixiu, Cao Pi was named Zihuan, Cao Zhi was named Zijian, in addition to Zizheng, Ziqin, Zicheng, Zijing, Zi'an, etc. Among Cao Cao's sons, those who knew characters were "Zizi Generation". ", it is impossible for Cao Chong to name Cangshu.Cang Shu should be Cao Chong's nickname.The grandson of the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu Emperor Gaoyang, one of the Five Emperors, had eight sons named "Bakai", and the eldest son was named Cangshu.Cao Cao gave Cao Chong this name, which means hopeful son Jackie Chan.

Among all his sons, Cao Cao's favorite is Cao Chong.This child has been likable since he was a child. "Three Kingdoms Cao Chong Biography" says that he is characterized by "Congcha Qiyi". Cong means good ears, Cha means good eyes, and Cong Cha means smart.Qiyi comes from, and it also means being very smart since childhood.In a word, Cao Chong has a high IQ since he was a child, and he is a child prodigy. In this regard, there is a well-known story about Cao Chong calling an elephant.This story is true, and it is recorded in "Three Kingdoms". When Cao Chong was five or six years old, his intelligence level was almost the same as that of an adult.Sun Quan sent an elephant from Jiangdong, which was a rare item. Out of curiosity, Cao Cao wanted to see how heavy the elephant was.

When Cao Chong was five or six years old, it was the fifth to sixth year of Jian'an. The Battle of Guandu had just ended, and Sun Quan surrendered on the surface. It was possible to send elephants and other things to show his loyalty. The weight of an elephant is usually about two to three tons, equivalent to nearly ten thousand catties in the Han Dynasty. At that time, there were no scales, and there was nothing to measure its weight.This kind of giant elephant is rare in the north. Cao Cao wanted to find out how heavy this elephant was, which stumped his advisers (the interviewer, Xian Mo couldn't figure it out).

At this time, Cao Chong, who was only equivalent to the age of the first class in the kindergarten, came over and said, "I can weigh it." Everyone was so surprised that they thought the child was just joking. Unexpectedly, Cao Chong stated his method in a serious manner: "Put the elephant on the big boat, make a mark on the water mark on the side of the boat, and then replace it with other things that can be weighed in batches, and compare their scales. That's it." Specifically, Cao Chong's method uses the principle of buoyancy.Now, if we are given an elephant, we will also weigh it, but the method is basically derived from listening to the story of Cao Chong weighing an elephant when he was a child.

Cao Cao was very happy, so he did it right away, and he really weighed the elephant.Cao Chong is really smart, you know he is only five or six years old. What if there is no boat, for example, if you are only given a spring scale that can only weigh a few catties, can you weigh an elephant?Inspired by Cao Chong's weighing of elephants, CCTV's "Fantasy" program held a competition to weigh an elephant with a spring scale, which attracted many people to come to the challenge. As a result, a family of three came up with a method that was similar to Cao Chong's weighing an elephant. Got the top spot.

They first made a weighing pan with a spring balance, let the elephant's front foot step on the weighing pan, and then let the elephant's back foot step on it, and the weights obtained were 3 kilograms and 3.5 kilograms respectively.They have a formula that adds up the weight of the front and back feet of an elephant, multiplies it by two and then doubles it one hundred and sixty times to get the weight of the elephant. The real weight of this elephant is 2.08 tons. They measured the weight by this method to be 2.1 tons. Because it was the closest to the actual weight, they won the championship.

Unfortunately, how the formula they invented was derived, and whether it can be used for all elephants or other animals has not been disclosed, so it is unknown. Another thing about Cao Chong is recorded in "Three Kingdoms", which is that he was full of love at a young age.Cao Cao has always been very strict in governing his subordinates, and the punishment for those who violate the system is quite heavy.Cao Cao's saddle was stored in the warehouse, but it was bitten by a mouse. The warehouse manager (the warehouse official) was frightened and wanted to surrender himself to Cao Cao for leniency, but he was also afraid that Cao Cao would not forgive him.

After Cao Chong learned about this, he said to the warehouse director: "Don't worry, wait for three days." Cao Chong cut his clothes with a knife, made it look like he had been bitten by a mouse, and then came to see his father with a sad face on purpose. Cao Cao was very surprised and asked him what happened.Cao Chong replied: "Everyone thinks that it is unlucky for a mouse to bite your clothes. Now my clothes have been bitten by a mouse. I don't know what bad things are going to happen, so I can't be happy." Cao Cao said with a smile: "These are all nonsense, don't care."

After a while, the director of the warehouse came to report that the saddle had been bitten by a mouse. Cao Cao didn't get angry, and said with a smile, "my son's clothes were bitten by the mouse, let alone the saddle in the warehouse." pursue. "Three Kingdoms" said that there are many other things like this. Cao Chong saved dozens of lives with his benevolence and wit Dozens before and after). Cao Cao liked Cao Chong so much, he often praised him in front of his subordinates, and even wanted to make him his successor (Taizu described it to his officials several times, intending to pass it on).But unexpectedly, the sky was so unruly, Cao Chong still fell ill and died.

During Cao Chong's illness, Cao Cao personally presided over the blessing ceremony and pleaded for his life.After Cao Chong died, Cao Cao was very sad.Cao Pi and others came to comfort Cao Cao, Cao Cao sighed: "This is my misfortune, but your brothers' luck!" What Cao Cao meant was that if Cang Shuruo is here, there will be nothing for you to succeed in the future. There is a book called "Biography of the Xianxian" about a child named Zhou Buyi, who is three or four years older than Cao Chong, who is also a child prodigy. I like him very much and think he is comparable to Cao Chong.Cao Cao even wanted to recruit Zhou Buyi as his son-in-law, but Zhou Buyi was very assertive and refused.

After Cao Chong's death, Cao Cao secretly ordered Zhou Buyi to be killed. After Cao Pi knew about it, he hurried to persuade his father, thinking that this should not be done.Cao Cao said: "This person is not something you can control in the future." He still sent someone to kill Zhou Buyu. There is no record of Zhou Buyi's life experience in other places. "Biography of Xianxian" likes to record some sensational things, and it is not a rigorous history book. The above incident may be just hearsay. Cao Chong died when he was underage. Cao Cao wanted to find a suitable deceased daughter to be buried with him, which was regarded as a ghost marriage. Coincidentally, Bing Yuan, a famous scholar who had returned from Liaodong, died of his daughter. Cao Cao sent someone to express his willingness to be buried together with Bing's family.Although the children are not alive, the ghost marriage is also equivalent to a formal marriage relationship. In this way, he and Cao Cao became the relatives of the sons and daughters. Others would be very happy if such a good thing was exchanged, but Bing Yuan refused. Bing Yuan, Guan Ning, Hua Xin and others are well-known in the world, and the three are known as a dragon.Cao Cao hit a snag and lost face, but he still treated Bing Yuan kindly and respected him as always. When Cao Pi's newly married wife, Zhen Mi, found out about this incident, she felt it was an opportunity. Her natal family just died of a daughter, and her seniority and age were just right, so she offered to ask for a joint burial. Zhen Mi is Cao Chong's sister-in-law, and the one who will be buried with Cao Chong must be Zhen Mi's sister.Zhen Mi is older than Cao Pi, and the one buried together should be Zhen Mi's younger sister.There are eight brothers and sisters in Zhen Mi, five of them are sisters. It is impossible to verify which one was buried with Cao Chong. In this way, the Zhen family and the Cao family became "increasingly close". In the name of the imperial court, Cao Cao posthumously bestowed on his beloved son Cao Chong the official position of cavalry captain, issued a seal and ribbon, and later adopted his son Cao Cong, the son of Cao Ju, as Cao Chong's successor.After Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui succeeded to the throne, he named his uncle King Deng Ai, and Cao Chong was called King Deng Ai in history. In the matter of Cao Chong's death, Cao Pi did become the biggest beneficiary, and what Cao Cao said was correct at all.Later, Cao Cao hesitated on the issue of choosing an heir. If Cao Chong did not die, it would be hard to say what the outcome would be. There is another beneficiary of this incident, that is Cao Pi's wife Zhen's family.Cao Cao was very satisfied with the joint burial proposed by the Zhen family, and the family, whose status was precarious, gradually felt a sense of security. There is another thing that makes the Zhen family feel safe. It was three years ago, in the tenth year of Jian'an (205), Zhen Mi gave birth to a son for Cao Pi, named Cao Rui, which will be the future Wei Emperor Ming, this is the eldest grandson of Cao Cao. However, according to the records of "Three Kingdoms Ming Emperor Ji", Cao Rui died in the first month of the third year of Jingchu (239), "at the age of thirty-six". According to this calculation, Cao Rui should be born in the ninth year of Jian'an (204), if If that's the case, you're in big trouble. If you still remember, Ye County was captured in August of the ninth year of Jian'an (204), and Zhen Mi, Yuan Xi's wife, became a prisoner and was regarded by Cao Pi as his wife.If Cao Rui was born in this year, doesn't it mean that he is not Cao Pi's son?Could it be that his father was Yuan Xi? The strokes of "Thirty-six" and "Thirty-five" are obviously different, and it is impossible to accidentally copy them wrong during the process of compiling and publishing the book.Chen Shou made the joke bigger, Cao Cao's grandson became Yuan Shao's grandson! Some people believe that this is true. Lu Bi, the author of "The Collection of Romance of the Three Kingdoms", holds this view. He believes that Chen Shou used a quiz here, and he dared not say clearly about Cao Rui's life experience, so he had to express it in a tactful way. During his lifetime, Cao Rui was not made his heir for a long time, Cao Rui was not made until the end, and Zhen Mi was suddenly given to death by Cao Pi. Lu Bi thought that all these things showed that there were ulterior motives inside. There are also people who hold different views, such as Pei Songzhi, who believes that Chen Shou's thirty-six-year-old is an imaginary age, and his full age should be thirty-five years old. Cao Rui was born in the tenth year of Jian'an (205). According to records, Cao Cao loves this eldest grandson very much, and "always keeps him by his side".It is impossible to know whether Cao Rui is Cao Pi's son and grandfather. If Zhen Shi was pregnant when she married Cao Pi, Cao Cao would not even agree to accept Cao Pi as his wife.When Cao Rui was fifteen years old, he was enshrined as a Marquis together with his uncles, and he was the first group of Cao Cao's descendants to be enshrined as a Marquis.These signs indicate that Cao Rui cannot be a descendant of the Yuan family. However, the age of Chen Shouji is generally real age.Did Chen Shou remember it wrong, or did he want to make a joke?Other people's age is also wrong, but Cao Rui's age must not be wrong. This is related to the reputation of the Cao family, and it is also related to whether the surname of Cao Wei's country is Cao or Yuan.If Cao Cao struggled all his life, but in the end he laid down the country for the descendants of the Yuan family, wouldn't it be too dark and humorous? In "Three Kingdoms", Chen Shou quietly dug two holes for the Cao family. One is about Cao Song's life experience, saying "you can't tell the truth", and the other is Cao Rui's birth year, giving the A puzzling and curious answer. So some people say that the pen in the hands of historians is a more powerful knife, which can kill without blood.