"Li Fugui Ren" reveals the great hero Cao Cao and why he cannot dominate the world?

The reason why Cao Cao failed to unify the country: Cao Cao was from Bo County, Anhui. His father, Cao Song, was the adopted son of the eunuch Cao Teng. Cao Cao became famous for his honesty and filial piety at the age of 20. Successive commanders in Luoyang in the north suppressed the Yellow Turban Uprising and helped Dong Zhuo join the coalition. In 192 AD, more than 100,000 people from the Huangta Army in Qingzhou were killed, and the elite soldiers were selected into the Qingzhou Army. Cao Cao became more powerful militarily. In 1996, he got acquainted with Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty in Xudu and gained the political advantage of "holding the emperor to command the princes" and quelled the separatist forces of Lu Bu and others. The Battle of Guandu in 200 AD eliminated Yuan Shao's main force and laid the foundation for unifying the Central Plains.

By 207 AD, the north was unified except for Guanzhong and Liaodong. The next year, he went south, but was defeated by Sun Quan and Liu Bei in the Battle of Chibi. Later, he led his army northward and devoted himself to stabilizing society, restoring the economy, and consolidating and developing the unification of the Central Plains.

In July 211 AD, Cao Cao led his troops to the west and defeated the Guanzhong armies led by Ma Chao, laying the foundation for the entire Wei state. In 213 AD, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty sent the ancient emperor Lu Chi to envoy Cao Cao to Wei, and ten counties including Jizhou and Bingzhou were fiefdoms of Wei. Established Wei Gongtong Que Terrace in Yecheng, enjoyed the emperor system, and obtained the supreme power of "worshiping Wuming, carrying a sword to the Temple of Heaven".

In 215 AD, he occupied Yangping Pass, defeated and conquered Lu. In 216 AD, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty appointed Cao as a guard. On March 15, 220 AD, Cao Cao died of illness in Luoyang at the age of 66. After his death, he was named "King Wu" and buried in Gaoling. Shortly after he ascended the throne, Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor. He took "Prince" as his temple title and called Cao Cao "Emperor Wu", as it is known in history.

When he was alive, his name was Wang Wei. After his death, Cao Pi took Han's place and pursued him as a new man. When Cao Cao was alive, the Eastern Han Dynasty was actually destroyed and the country was in chaos. Cao Cao restored the unity of the north by reclaiming farmland, building water conservancy projects, reducing the people's burdens, rectifying internal affairs, advocating meritocracy, restraining powerful forces, and rebuilding a centralized government, thus laying the foundation for subsequent national unification.

Cao Cao is a good soldier. He is the author of "The Art of War", "The Art of War", "The New Book of Meng De" and other books. Good poems, such as "Hai Xing", etc., express their political demands and reflect the miserable life of the people in the late Han Dynasty. They are magnificent, generous and sad; the prose is also clean and tidy, and later generations have "Guan Hai".

Politically and militarily, Cao Cao eliminated many separatist forces, unified most of the north and south of China, and implemented a series of policies to restore economic production and social order, laying the foundation for the establishment of Cao Wei. In literature, under the promotion of Cao Cao and his son, Jian'an literature represented by "Three Cao" was formed, which is known as "Jian'an style" in history. His poems are famous for their generosity and tragedy, leaving a brilliant mark on the history of literature.

Cao Cao began his career as a conqueror of the Yellow Turban Army when he was in his twenties. He believes that the state has a great contribution to thieves. Since then, he has been in the industry for nearly forty years, and almost no one has been on the battlefield. It's a pity that he failed to unify the country in the end.

If you consider the reasons, the most direct one is to look at the army. After defeating Yuan Shao, Cao Cao had at least two opportunities to unify the country - the Battle of Chibi and the Battle of Hanzhong. Among them, the eve of the Battle of Chibi was the moment when he was closest to reunification. At that time, the North initially decided to surrender Jingzhou. Liu Bei, whom he considered a threat, fled in various directions, leaving only the crumbling Jiangdong regime. Judging from Cao Cao's letter to Sun Quan, he was very arrogant and regarded Jiangdong as his own.

But in fact, he immediately attacked Jiangdong after conquering Jingzhou. This was a mistake because he entered rashly. Jia Xu also advised him: "If you take advantage of Lao Chu's generosity, pay tribute to the officials, comfort the people, and make the land live and work in peace and contentment, you can take care of the people in vain.". Cao Cao didn't listen because he regarded Sun Quan as a joke and underestimated Jiang Dong's determination and ability. Unexpectedly, Sun Quan's ambition was no less than that of Yuan Shao and others. Lu Su once publicly said to Sun Quan: "May the Supreme Wade join the world, summarize the nine states, and proclaim himself emperor." Sun Quan laughed and said that he had not admitted his ambition to be emperor, so how could he surrender easily. Liu Congzhi inherited Liu Biao's ideas of not seeking advancement and self-protection, while Sun Jia and his son were pioneering and ambitious people, so Cao Cao's ideas were too simple.

In Lu Simian's words, he was "politically clear and good at fighting" to attract talents and expand his sphere of influence.

On the other hand, because Cao Cao was Yingfengzi, he took the responsibility of the Han Dynasty for himself and became the target of public criticism. When Zhou Yu called Han Xiang a Chinese thief, Xun_ also expected him to revitalize the Han Gang. China's three unified emperors have never faced such complex and contradictory political situations and legal issues. As Cao Cao's power increased, there were more and more political opponents, and he had to free his hands to solve these problems, such as sacrificing his three daughters, killing the Fu family, and killing Kong Rong. How to balance the relationship between the Han Dynasty and himself cost Cao Cao a lot of energy. Comparing the two opponents: in the Battle of Chibi, Jiangdong did not care about the court, and Liu Bei considered himself orthodox. There is little internal struggle between them, so they can unite the outside world and consolidate themselves.

The resistance of the gentry against Cao Cao should not be underestimated. Chen Yinke told Kou that Cao Cao's regime was called the "Legalist Leng's Cao Wei regime". Cao Cao was born in a eunuch family, which was the most discriminated against by the gentry, and began his military career. He used elite rule, did not believe in destiny, enforced the rule of law, and suppressed annexations, all of which violated the concept of the gentry. Xun_'s death is also related to his cremation background. It was not until Cao Cao's death that Cao Pi appointed Chen Qun to implement the "nine-grade Zhongzheng" system.

The gentry monopolized official power and distributed official positions according to the gentry's prestige, upper and lower thresholds, and power, which truly eliminated the gentry's doubts and gained Cao Pi's recognition as representing the Han Dynasty. Therefore, in Cao Cao's life, he never had strong cohesion with the gentry across the country. Although the Central Plains gentry was inextricably linked to local orthodoxy, the gentry in Jingxiang, Yizhou, Jiangdong and other places did not buy it. On the other hand, the regimes of Liu Bei and Sun Quan received strong support from the gentry. Zhuge Liang was born in the Langya clan and married into the Jingxiang clan. As an outsider, Liu Bei's stable position in Jingxiang relied largely on the support of local gentry such as Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Ma Liang, etc., and he suddenly turned around, which was different from the previous situation.

As the saying goes, if you are busy externally, you must first solve it internally. He was worried about internal and external troubles and his lungs were sick, while Sun was busy for a while. Cao Cao is the oldest of the three. Even if he takes a few days off, I'm afraid he won't be able to unify.