Why did Cao Cao kill the Xiongnu emissary in the article "Catch the Knife" by Cao Cao and Wei Wu?

Why did Cao Cao kill the Hun emissary in Wei Wu's Catch the Knife? This story comes from Shi Shuo Xin Yu Rong Zhi.

Wei Wu will meet the Xiongnu envoy, who is ugly, but not far from the country, so Cui Jigui will take his place and the emperor will stand on his own bed. After that, the spy asked, "Where's Wang Wei?" The Xiongnu envoy replied: "Wang Wei looks very elegant, but grasping at the knife by the bed is a hero." Wei Wu heard about it and came to the envoy. Wang Cao felt that he was shorter and darker than himself, so when he received the Xiongnu emissary, he was not looking for himself, but Cui Yan, who was very good-looking, while Cao Cao retired to Cui Yan and dressed up as a bodyguard with a knife. Afterwards, Cao Cao sent someone to inquire about the impression of the Xiongnu messenger on Wang Wei. The messenger casually said that Wang Wei's appearance is of course extraordinary, but the knife catcher around Wang Wei is the real hero. As soon as Cao Cao heard this, he sent someone to kill the Xiongnu messenger, because it can be seen that Cao Cao is a hero messenger and naturally a clever man, although it is not clear that he inquired about Cao Cao's true appearance in advance and deliberately did not tell the truth. Or he didn't know anything in advance, but after seeing Cao Cao's disguised guards, he had a very keen eye. In either case, Cao Cao must kill it quickly. If it is the first kind, then the messenger is deliberately playing dumb, which belongs to watching Cao Cao's jokes, and then poor Cao Cao's move of taking a knife afterwards is smart. If it is the second case, then this emissary must be an able person on the Xiongnu side. Such people are hidden dangers of ethnic unrest in border areas. The purpose of his visit to the big fellow Wang Wei in Yecheng is worthy of scrutiny, so Cao Cao wanted to kill him. What's the story between Cao Cao and Liu Bei? Of course, Cao Cao's childhood cooking is the hero. ...

Shortly before Yuan Shu's death, a wonderful heroic story happened between Cao Cao and Liu Bei. Halfway through the wine, the two men looked at the changing wind and clouds in the sky, as wonderful as the dragons in myths and legends. Cao Cao sighed and said, "The dragon is like a hero in the world. Tell me, your majesty, who can be called a hero in the world today? " Liu Bei asked, "Is Yuan Shu a hero because he owns Huainan and has plenty of soldiers and food?" Cao Cao shook his head. Liu Bei asked again, "Are Liu Biao in Jingzhou, Liu Zhang in Yizhou, Sun Ce, Zhang Xiu, Zhang Lu and Han Sui in Jiangdong heroes?" Cao Cao kept shaking his head. Liu Bei asked again, "Yuan Shu's cousin Yuan Shao lives in Hebei and has many talented people. Should he be regarded as a hero? " Cao Cao said, "Yuan Shao looks fierce, but he is actually very timid. Although he has many clever advisers, he lacks the decisive ability that a leader should have. People like him are always unwilling to pay for doing great things. Seeing profit and forgetting righteousness is not a real hero. " So, who can be called a contemporary hero? Cao Cao pointed to Liu Bei with his finger, then pointed to himself, and said something inexplicable and surprising, saying, "The only heroes in the world today are the monarch and Cao Er!" He said, "The only heroes in the world today are you, Liu Shijun and Cao Cao." How did Cao Cao develop? Cao Cao, alias Meng De, was born in Qiao County (now Bo County, Anhui Province) and a feudal country. His father, Cao Song, was originally named Xiahou Song. Later, he adopted Cao Teng, a big eunuch and constant attendant, as his adopted son, and changed his surname to Cao. He used to be a captain and an old farmer in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Cao Cao received feudal education since childhood. However, he prefers to drive eagles and dogs and ride horses and shoot arrows. He loved to write poems since he was a child, expressing his ambition to govern the country and his courage to fight against it. He has read many books, especially the Art of War by Sun Tzu. He compiled all kinds of art of war into a book "Abstract", and also annotated China's famous Art of War. The very young Cao Cao soon became famous. Even Qiao Xuan, a famous star at the end of the Han Dynasty, praised him face to face as "an artist who can set the world".

When Cao Cao was 20 years old, he was promoted to Lian Xiao and served as a retinue of the palace. Soon, he was transferred to the northern commandant of Luoyang, responsible for the public security work in northern Luoyang. Wei's official position is quite small, but Cao Cao is determined to rectify the order in Kyoto. At that time, in Luoyang, the consorts' eunuchs bullied others, which made them angry. Cao Cao ordered his men to hang more than 20 wooden sticks painted with five colors around the entrance of Yamen, and publicly stated that anyone who violated his "night ban" would be punished with five-color wooden sticks.

One night, Cao Cao personally took a group of soldiers out to inspect the implementation of the "night ban". It's late and the air is quiet. Cao Cao patrolled for a while and met the eunuch's uncle Jian Shuo, a bully known as Uncle Jian Shuo. He usually relies on his nephew's influence to do evil. That night, he tried to do something bad again, and Cao Cao met him. Cao Cao has long wanted to punish the bully, but now he has an excuse. He shouted, "Somebody! Catch these gangsters! " The patrol swarmed and took the gang back to the yamen. They knocked Uncle Jian to the ground and gave him a good beating with a five-color stick. The news spread like the wind in all directions, and those bad guys never dared to run amok in Cao Cao's territory again. Cao Cao's reputation also grew. The eunuch bears a grudge against Cao Cao and always tries to cure him. It happened that Cao Cao's cousin offended the eunuch. They took advantage of this incident to recall Cao Cao. But Cao Cao never gave in and insisted on fighting them. Later, he was reinstated and became a negotiator. When the Yellow Scarf Uprising, Cao Cao was a captain. Because of his meritorious service, he was also named Jinan Xiang (equivalent to Jinan county magistrate), so Cao Cao took office in Jinan again.

Jinan is a big county, with more than a dozen counties under its jurisdiction. Most county magistrates rely on eunuchs, collude with local strongmen, and take bribes and pervert the law. In addition, they built many temples to cheat people of their money. As soon as Cao Cao took office, he removed eight county magistrates and then ordered the demolition of all ancestral temples. In this way, the number of corrupt officials in Jinan has been greatly reduced, and feudal superstitious activities have also been curbed.

When Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang, Cao Cao was serving as a captain of the Canon Army. Dong Zhuo wants to bring him in and appoint him as the captain of Xiaoqi. Dong trusted Cao Cao, and Cao Cao was even more uneasy. Cao Cao, who has a political mind, has long seen Dong Zhuo's face. Although Dong Zhuo's current officials dare not offend him, his perverse behavior will inevitably make him fail. Cao Cao not only didn't want to take refuge in Dong Zhuo, but made up his mind to oppose Dong Zhuo. So, Cao Cao changed his clothes, changed his name, and ran out of Luoyang on a fast horse with several followers.

After Cao Cao left Luoyang, he traveled more than 500 miles day and night until Chen Liu stayed. Liu Chen area is against Dong Zhuo from top to bottom. Moreover, Cao Song has a certain foundation here and accumulated some property. Soon, Cao Cao recruited 5000 volunteers. He began to have his own team, and he publicly played the banner of cracking down on Dong Zhuo. Cao Cao's prestige made many talented people take refuge in him. Such as Coss, Cao Hong, Xiahou Chun and Xia. Coss and Cao Hong are uncles of Cao Cao, and both of them have good martial arts. Xiahou Chun and Xia are not only fellow villagers of Cao Cao, but also brothers. Cao Cao's team is getting bigger and bigger.

In A.D. 190, he led the troops to join the Kwantung Army led by Yuan Shao and marched to Dong Zhuo. Although the Kwantung Army was under the banner of opposing Dong, it actually held its ground and did not stop Dong Zhuo from moving the capital. Cao Cao was very angry about this. At a meeting of Kwantung Army generals, he made a speech and analyzed the benefits of marching at this time. Although he spoke righteously and well-founded, Yuan Shao ignored him, and other generals were even more indifferent. Cao Cao had no choice but to lead his troops westward from Zizyphus jujuba.

After Dong Zhuo moved to Chang 'an, he was still stationed in Luoyang. He heard that Cao Cao had gone out alone and didn't care at all. He sent general Xu Rong to stop the attack in Bianshui (now north of Xingyang County, Henan Province). By the time Cao Cao led his troops to Bianshui, Xu Rong was ready for the position. Cao Cao fought with the enemy until dark, but he was no match. Cao Cao turned his horse and ran, followed by Xu Rong. Arrows rained down and Cao Cao was shot in the shoulder.

When he returned to the camp with an arrow wound, the other generals were drinking and having fun. Cao Cao said excitedly, "Aren't you afraid of jokes from all over the world?" Everyone ignored him and still ate and drank. Only the satrap Liu Chen and Zhang Miao said, "Meng De! Deal with your arrow wound first! "

After this crusade, Cao Cao felt that these men could not achieve great things at all, so he led his troops to Yanzhou, assisted by a large number of Coss, Cao Hong and Xiahou Chunfu. His influence in Yanzhou has developed rapidly. Cao Cao got a great counselor, Xun Yu. Hey? Help Cao Cao advise: "Dong Zhuo's tyranny is extreme and he will surely die in turmoil." He suggested that Cao Cao concentrate on expanding in Yanzhou. Cao Cao accepted his suggestion. At this time, the Yellow Scarf Army in Qingzhou has made great progress. They flooded into Yanzhou from Qingzhou and killed Liu Dai, the secretariat of Yanzhou. The yellow turban insurrectionary army can only move and fight, but it doesn't know how to take Yanzhou as its base. After Liu Dai's death, Yanzhou was leaderless. The news reached Puyang, and Cao Cao, the satrap of the East County, sent Chen Gong, an adviser, to persuade Yanzhou officials. In this way, Cao Cao easily became a Yanzhou shepherd without a single soldier. Cao Cao knew that the most important thing to dominate the Quartet was to have a strong military force. He sent troops to fight the Qingzhou Yellow Scarf Army and won several battles. When the Yellow Scarf Army encountered setbacks, he wrote a letter to Cao Cao. The letter said: "When you were in Jinan in the past, you destroyed more than 600 Baal temples and won the support of the people. You have to see that the fate of the Han Dynasty has been exhausted, and it is God's will that you can't save it. " Cao Cao saw from the letter of the Yellow Scarf Army that they had no fighting spirit and admired themselves. So he gave priority to military strikes, supplemented by induced surrender. Qingzhou Yellow Scarf Army lacked an effective commander, so it laid down its arms and surrendered. Cao Cao selected 300,000 young and middle-aged people from this peasant army and called it "Qingzhou Army". Since then, Qingzhou soldiers have become the backbone of Cao Jun.

From Dongfu to Yanzhou pastoral, from serenading to recruiting 300,000 Qingzhou soldiers, Cao Cao became a great warlord with superior strength. More and more advisers have taken refuge in him. He not only broke away from Yuan Shao and became an independent force, but also gradually dared to compete with Yuan Shao.

Summary of Cao Cao's personality characteristics? 1, extreme egoist: Cao Cao failed to assassinate Dong Zhuo. He escaped from Luoyang alone and flew to Qiaoxian County. He was caught passing through zhongmou county City. Chen Gong, the county magistrate, admired Cao Cao's loyalty and abandoned his official position and fled with him. When they went to Gaoping, they lived in their home in Lv Boshe and were warmly received. Lv Boshe and his relatives went to the West Village to sell wine. But Cao Cao heard the voice of sharpening his knife after the lecture, suspecting that they wanted to kill all eight people in the Lv family with Chen Gong. In fact, the Lv family sharpened their knives and did not miss the woodcutter. Cao Cao and Chen Gong had no choice but to escape. On the way, they met Lv Boshe, a wine seller. Cao Cao was afraid of exposing the truth and simply killed Lv Boshe. Chen Gong was surprised and asked why. Cao Cao said, "I would rather teach the world to fail me than teach the world to fail me!" " Luo Guanzhong also wrote two poems as comments on this matter: "Cao Zhuo was a fellow traveler when he was extremely vicious."

2. Cute: Cao Cao is very cute. In life, Cao Cao often wears thin silk clothes, hangs a leather purse around his waist to hold towels and other odds and ends, and sometimes brings a silk hat to meet guests. I have no scruples when talking to people. I can say whatever I want, and I can say whatever I want. Speaking of happiness, he bent down with laughter and plunged into the cups and plates, leaving soup and water all over his hat. These details were told to us by Cao Zang, a book that was not very friendly to Cao Cao. Its original intention is to label Cao Cao as "easy to lose but not strong" (easy to catch). However, what I read from it is Cao Cao's frankness, humor and free and easy. 3. Tolerance: Before the battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao Guandu, Yuan Shao's counselor Chen Lin wrote an essay against Cao Cao. The article Wang Yang is wanton and eloquent, from cursing Grandpa Cao to cursing Cao Cao himself. In Chen Lin's works, Cao Teng, the grandfather of Cao Cao, became an immoral and tyrannical official. Father Cao Song is greedy for money and does not hesitate to bribe powerful people in order to be an official; Cao Cao himself became the first greedy and cruel courtier in ancient and modern times. It is said that when Cao Cao had a headache, he received this essay and asked his subordinates to read it to himself. The men read and read, because the words in the article were particularly sharp, and they were afraid to continue reading. Cao Cao waved his hand to show that it doesn't matter. Hearing the important place, Cao Cao let out a cry and broke out in a cold sweat. His head stopped hurting. After the battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao was defeated, and Chen Lin took refuge in Cao Cao. Deeply worried about this abusive article, Cao Cao asked Chen Lin, "Why did you scold my grandfather and father?" Chen Lin replied: "The arrow is on the string and I have to send it." Cao Cao laughed after hearing this, and never cared about it again. 4. Revenge must be avenged: One of them, Chen Gong, left Cao Cao for this reason and wanted to help Lu Bu fight Cao Cao. Later, when Lu Bu was defeated, Chen Gong became a prisoner, and Cao Cao didn't want to kill him. Cao Cao told Chen Gong that as long as he surrendered, let bygones be bygones. Because Cao Cao at this time, he also felt that the previous practice was wrong. He also felt that the prime minister could punt in his stomach, and the general didn't kill Chen Gong if he wanted to be a general. Chen Gong resolutely refused to surrender, and Cao Cao had no choice but to kill him. Before trying to kill him, Cao Cao asked this question. Chen Gong's word is Gong Tai, and he said Gong Tai. What will your mother do if you die? Chen Gong said, I heard that people who govern the world with filial piety will not kill other people's parents. How is my mother? It depends on Zuo Zongtang. Cao Cao said yes, bus stop, bus stop, what about your wife and children after you die? Chen Gong said, I heard that people who govern the world with benevolence will not hurt other people's children. What about my wife and children? Please let Zuo Zongtang decide. Ah, Cao Cao said yes, then I'll send you on your way. Then he began to cry, sent Chen Gong to the execution ground and cried and died, and then took Chen Gong's family to his home, treating Chen Gong's family better than before Chen Gong turned against him. How did Cao Cao die? Cao Cao died of illness.

In the 25th year of Jian 'an (220), Cao Cao returned to Luoyang. That month, he died in Luoyang at the age of 66, known as King Wu. He left a legacy before he died.

According to Cao Cao's will, he was buried in Gaoling in the western suburb of Yecheng on February 21st (1 1). In October, Wang usurped the Han Dynasty, established himself as emperor, and took the title of Wei. Cao Cao was honored as Emperor Wu, and the temple was named Mao.

Extended data

Cao Cao's main achievements:

1, elite management

When selecting officials in the Han Dynasty, the candidates should not only have feudal moral qualities such as benevolence, righteousness and filial piety, but also have noble family background. Cao Cao does not pay attention to false reputation in employing people. He chooses officials because he knows the law and can govern the country according to law.

2. Respect the ceremony and respect the law.

Cao Cao's thought is influenced by Confucianism, and its foundation belongs to the category of Confucianism. He advocates benevolence, righteousness and propriety, and tries to educate the people and the administration with benevolence, morality and propriety, that is, "governing propriety first".