The rise of Cao Cao: Cao Cao was born in 155, the first year of Emperor Huan's eternal life. The Eastern Han Dynasty was completely deserted, and Sun Jian, a hero of the Three Kingdoms, was born in the same year as Cao Cao. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, his father, Cao Song, was the adopted son of Cao Teng, a great eunuch at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Cao Cao was the second generation of officials with a certain background. Therefore, when Cao Cao was 19 years old, he was promoted to filial piety and qualified as an official. Later, in the process of suppressing the Yellow turban insurrectionary, Cao Cao gradually showed his political and military talents. In the sixth year of Zhong Ping (189), Dong Zhuo fell into chaos. At the age of 34, Cao Cao escaped from Luoyang and returned to Liu Chen. He began to amass wealth, recruited soldiers in the name of crusade against Dong Zhuo, formed his own team, and completed the transformation from scratch. Since then, Cao Cao's team has continued to grow and develop. By the end of the 12th year of Jian 'an (2007), 52-year-old Cao Cao had successfully unified northern China. Cao Cao * * * completed the transformation from weak to strong in 18 years, and became the most accomplished political figure in the late Han Dynasty.
Cao Cao's political talent: Cao Cao's political talent is superb. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was chaos in the world, and various political figures appeared in the imperial court and local governments. First, Dong Zhuo, Li Jue, Guo Si and other disorderly ministers, then Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Lu Bu, Liu Bei, Sun Quan and other heroes appeared one after another. These people used to be Cao Cao's political competitors. In order to take the lead, in the first year of Jian 'an (196), Cao Cao welcomed Liu Xie, Emperor of the Han Dynasty, and moved the capital to Xuchang. Cao Cao was appointed as an official minister by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and was soon promoted to be a commonplace, riding a car and a general, and all officials always listened to him. On this basis, Cao Cao gained a more legitimate political position than any other political forces, and could crusade against political enemies at any time in the name of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
In addition to setting an example at the central level, Cao Cao also has his own set of practical methods in local governance. After the defeat of Yuan Shao, Wang Xiu, Sima Zhi, Yang Pei, Lv Qian, Man Chong, Jia Kui and others were appointed to take charge of all localities, and they were asked to crack down on lawless strongmen in all localities, which led to the situation of "people living in poverty" in some places. Sima Guang, the author of "Learning from Mutual Resources", commented that Cao Cao's local governance is "turning chaos into governance". It is difficult for Cao Cao to get such an evaluation from historians hundreds of years later.
To say who was the most adept political leader in employing people from the late Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period, it was Cao Cao. The most important thing for Cao Cao to gain the inheritance of Cao Wei is that he is good at employing people and selecting talents. Cao Cao basically only looks at one thing when employing people, that is, whether there are real materials. If there is real material, he won't care about his family background or even a flaw in his moral quality. Therefore, most of the outstanding talents in the world gathered around him at that time, which is also an important reason why Cao Wei was stronger than Shu Wu. Early Cao Cao wrote Guo Jia, Yu Xun, Cheng Yu, Xun You, Jia Xu and so on. And his military commanders are Zhang Liao, Xia Houdun, Huang Xu, Zhang He, Coss, etc. The most rare talent of Cao Wei is the successor, and so are Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, Sima Yi, Man Chong and Wargo.
Cao Cao's military talent: Cao Cao used countless soldiers in his life, participated in or personally commanded countless military operations, and most of them were able to win, especially when his early career just began, and Cao Cao won many key wars. Most of Cao Cao's military achievements were honed in actual military actions. Of course, in his spare time during each war, he never forgot to read the works of military strategists such as Sun Tzu and Woods intensively. It is through constant practice and study that Cao Cao formed his own military theoretical opinions, wrote military works such as Sun Tzu's Art of War and Meng De's New Book, and became an outstanding strategist with comprehensive military theory.
Cao Cao's most brilliant military action was the battle of Guandu, which established his position as the overlord in northern China. In addition, Cao Cao's northern expedition to Wuhuan was also a rare successful northern expedition of the Central Plains regime. Of course, Cao Cao also failed, precisely because the failure of Chibi World War I prevented him from unifying the world. If there were no great men like Zhou Yu, Sun Quan, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, no one could stop Cao Cao's soldiers at that time. But in any case, Cao Cao was a first-class talent in the ancient military history of China.
Cao Cao's economic policy: the world was in chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty, people's lives were displaced, and natural and man-made disasters were concurrent. At that time, the problem of eating became a top priority for people all over the world. After Cao Cao had his own territory, he paid more attention to economic recovery and solved the food production problem of the people under his rule. To this end, Cao Cao chose some places to build water conservancy and cultivate land. He adopted the advice of Zao Zuo and Han Hao and forced labor to cultivate land in some grain-producing areas. In fact, it is a militarized management of agricultural labor force, which soon received results. It is said to be the first year of Jian 'an (196).
With the continuous improvement of the reclamation system, Cao Cao divided the reclamation into two villages, military and civilian, with 50 people in each village, Sima as the manager, and gradually set up a captain, a captain and a corps commander of standard farmers, generally implementing the method of sharing 46 points or 55 points between the government and the people. The military camp is a camp of 60 people, while farming and being guarded. Cao Cao's system of reclaiming farmland enabled Cao Wei to effectively solve the problem of grain production and accumulated a relatively solid economic foundation, which is also an important reason why Cao Wei's strength has always been superior to that of Wu Shu.
Cao Cao's other abilities: Apart from his remarkable achievements in politics, military affairs and economy, Cao Cao also has considerable research in literature, calligraphy and temperament, with profound literary skills, first-class momentum and knowledge, and profound calligraphy skills. The poems written by Cao Cao are full of charm and deep feelings, including male sentences expressing political ambitions and quips reflecting people's suffering. Although there are only more than twenty works handed down from ancient times, they are praised by Lu Xun as "the founder of transforming articles". Although Cao Cao's calligraphy works are rarely handed down from generation to generation, they are highly praised by masters of all ages.