Cao Cao Cao was born in an official family. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, the ancestor of Cao Cao was Cao Can, the prime minister in the early Han Dynasty. Cao Cao's adoptive father was eunuch Cao Teng, who served four generations of emperors. When Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty was emperor, he was given a fee. Cao Song, Cao Cao's father, is Cao Teng's adopted son, and Emperor Han Ling is Qiu's courtier. Because Chen Shou, the author of The Three Kingdoms, has different opinions about Cao Song's family background. There is a saying that Cao Song's real name is Xiahou. Later, because he became Cao Teng's adopted son, he changed his surname to Cao, so many people in Xiahou's family are related to Cao Cao. According to this statement, Xia and Cao Cao are cousins. There is also a saying that Cao Song is the son of Cao Tengtang's brothers, but this statement does not explain the kinship between Xiahou and Cao Shi. Some people think that Cao Shi was a local aristocrat after Xiahou's meritorious service in Qiaoxian County (Cao participated) in the early Han Dynasty, and there may be a marriage relationship between them. It can be inferred that Cao Shi, who is not directly related to the Xia Hou Shi family, and Cao Cao himself are cousins. However, there is no clear textual research evidence to support this statement.
one's early years
When Cao Cao was young, he was alert, resourceful, chivalrous and bohemian, so the world thought that Cao Cao was nothing strange. Only Qiao Xuan of Liang and He Qing of Nanyang think that Cao Cao is an extraordinary man. Qiao Xuan once said to Cao Cao, "The world will be in chaos, and people who are doomed can't help it. He who can be safe is in the king! " It can be seen that Qiao Xuan has high expectations of Cao Cao. (When Cao was prominent, Qiao Xuan had passed away. In 2002, Cao Cao marched north, passed by the tomb, ordered a sacrifice with the ceremony of prison, and wrote a eulogy, which was quite different from the style of writing at that time. Cao Cao wrote in his eulogy that Qiao Xuan had agreed with him that if Cao Cao passed by his grave in the future, he would have a stomachache if he walked three steps without preparing a pot of wine to pay homage. Now he has prepared a gift from the prison to pay homage, so he should not have a stomachache. The eulogy is free and easy, which highlights Cao Cao's frank character. At that time, Cao Cao was still unknown. In order to improve his reputation, Qiao Xuan suggested that Cao Cao make friends with Xu Shao, a celebrity at that time. So Cao Cao went to visit Xu Shao and was accepted by Xu Shao, and Cao Cao gradually became famous. According to legend, one day Cao Cao asked himself "what kind of person", and Xu Shao said: "Zi can rule the world, and traitors in troubled times." It is said that Cao Cao laughed his head off after hearing this.
Cao Cao showed interest in martial arts in his early years. He has great skills. He once sneaked into Zhang Rang's house. When Zhang Rang found out, he jumped over the wall with a halberd in his hand and escaped. He also reads widely, especially Sun Tzu's The Art of War. He copied the strategies of various ancient art of war and annotated the works of Sun Tzu's Art of War from generation to generation. These activities laid the foundation for his later military career.
174, Cao Cao was twenty years old, and became a Langguan by inspecting Lian Xiao. The so-called Langguan was nominally an outstanding person who was selected by the imperial court from the children of aristocratic ministers and served as a court bodyguard. In fact, it is to learn to be an official, to be familiar with court affairs, to increase experience, and to grant official positions after a period of time according to the situation. Therefore, Cao Cao was later appointed as the northern commander of Luoyang. Luoyang Beiwei was the first administrative post after Cao Cao became an official. After Cao Cao took office, he put more than ten five-color sticks at the entrance of the mansion. Within a few months of taking office, the eunuch Jian Shuo's uncle was forbidden to walk at night and was executed by Cao Cao according to law. This made Cao Cao offend the eunuch group, but Cao Cao acted according to law. These people can't slander Cao Cao, so they have to praise him for his good work and recommend him as a local official. 177, Cao Cao was appointed as Dunqiuling. The following year, in the first year of Guanghe (A.D. 178), Cao Cao was dismissed because of his involvement in the eunuch killing his cousin Chu Song Qi. After Cao Cao was dismissed from office, he had nothing to do in Luoyang and returned to his hometown Qiao County to settle down.
/kloc-in 0/80, Cao Cao was called by the imperial court and appointed as a negotiator. The work of so-called negotiators is similar to that of researchers today. Previously, General Dou Wu and Chen Fan, a teacher, plotted to kill eunuchs, only to be harmed by eunuchs. Cao Cao wrote a letter, saying that Dou Wu and others were framed for their official virtue, which led to the situation that treacherous court officials were full, but loyal officials were not reused. His words were sincere, but they were not adopted by Emperor Han Ling. Later, Cao Cao wrote to remonstrate many times, although occasionally effective, but the politics of the Eastern Han Dynasty became increasingly corrupt, and Cao Cao knew that he could not correct it.
Liu Chen formed his army.
/kloc-in 0/84, the yellow turban insurrectionary army rebelled, and the imperial court appointed Cao Cao as the riding captain and went to Yingchuan to suppress it. He was promoted to Jinan for his meritorious service in suppressing the Yellow Scarf Army. After taking office, he dismissed nearly 80% of senior officials who were corrupt and dereliction of duty, and strictly prohibited religious superstitions that prevailed at that time. Because Cao Cao was in power, he was famous for his strict laws and regulations. When the rebels in Jinan heard that Cao Cao was coming, they all fled to other counties. After a long time, Cao Cao was appointed as the prefect of the East County, but Cao Cao did not take office, just saying that he was ill and went back to his hometown. At that time, the world had begun to be chaotic. First of all, Wang Fen, the secretariat of Jizhou, combined with Nanyang Xu You, Guo Pei Zhou Jing and other local strongmen to plan the waste mausoleum incident. Wang Fen and others had hoped that Cao Cao would join in, but Cao Cao refused (at that time, Cao Cao said to Xu You, a good friend who came to persuade him to join in: "It is extremely ominous to abolish the world." ); Later, Wang Fen committed suicide. Then came the frontier fortress in Jincheng County (now Lanzhou) in the northwest. Han Sui killed the secretariat and the chief, and led more than 100,000 soldiers to rebel against the imperial court.
At this time, Cao Cao was used as a captain of the standard army. Unfortunately, it was at this time (189) that the Emperor Ling died, and the young Bian succeeded to the throne, and the Empress Dowager was in charge. General blades tried to take advantage of the death of the Emperor Ling and the loss of the eunuch campaign to catch all the eunuchs, but he didn't get the support of the Queen Mother. So blades wanted to call Dong Zhuo, then the secretariat of Bing, to Beijing and coerce the Queen Mother to agree. Don't want to startle this move, before Dong Zhuo arrived in Beijing, blades was murdered by eunuchs. 1891February, Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, abolishing the Emperor Shao of Han Dynasty as the King of Hongnong and making his brother Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty. Later, they sent people to poison the mother and son of Hongnong Wang. As a result, the capital also fell into chaos. In order to stabilize the situation, Dong Zhuo wanted to win over Cao Cao, who was called a captain in the above table. However, Cao Cao did not accept the official position given to him by Dong Zhuo, but changed his name and surname and fled Luoyang.
It is said that Cao Cao passed by Gaoping on his way home to visit his old friend Lv Boshe. Because he suspected that Lv Boshe's son was plotting to kill himself, he killed each other first. After that, he said sadly, "I would rather let others down than let others down!" " "In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, this plot was greatly exaggerated by the author of the novel. Through Chen Gong's testimony, he expressed doubts about Cao Cao's character and achieved the purpose of belittling Cao Cao. In fact, there is no record in the history books that Chen Gong walked with Cao Cao, nor did Chen Gong serve as the county magistrate of zhongmou county, nor did he catch Cao Cao and let him go. The history books only recorded the murder of Lv Boshe's son.
After Cao Cao returned to Chen Liu's hometown, he devoted all his resources to recruiting volunteers and took the lead in uncovering the uprising and punishing Dong Zhuo. In the first month of the following year (190), local forces such as the late general Yuan Shu, Jizhou Muhanfu, Yuzhou secretariat Kong Zhou, Hanoi satrap Wang Kuang, Yanzhou secretariat Liu Dai, Bohai satrap Yuan Shao, satrap Qiao Huan, satrap, and Hebei North Phase Bao Xin joined forces to send troops to crusade against Dong. The heroes elected Yuan Shao as their leader. Cao Cao exercised the post of General Fenwu. But Dong is so powerful that Yuan Shao and others dare not send troops first. Cao Cao thought that Dong Zhuo burned the palace, hijacked the emperor and moved the capital to Chang 'an, which was a good time to fight him. So he led the troops westward alone, and as a result, Xu Rong was defeated by Dong Zhuo at Bianshui. Cao Cao was shot with an arrow, so his mount could not afford to be seriously injured. Later, Cao Hong had to sell his mount to survive. At this time, there were only 5,000 soldiers led by Cao Cao himself [3], while the soldiers of other armies were over 100,000, but they only knew how to drink and have fun every day and made no progress. Cao Cao's advice to the allied forces was not adopted. Cao Cao had to go to Yangzhou with Xia Houdun to recruit soldiers, but it didn't go well.
When the situation reached a deadlock, changes took place within the Coalition forces. First, Liu Dai killed Qiao Huan, and Wang Arm became the prefect of East County. Then Yuan Shao and Han Fu considered establishing Liu Yu as emperor, but Cao Cao said that he still supported Xian Di in Chang 'an. "You are North and I am West." . From then on, Cao Cao became more convinced that Yuan Shao had acted improperly, which laid the groundwork for the subsequent battle of Guandu. Liu Yu finally didn't dare to accept it, and the matter went away. The establishment of the new emperor failed, and Yuan Shao took the opportunity to intimidate Han Fu and seize Jizhou. 19 1 year, Cao Cao crusaded against the Black Mountain army that invaded the East County, and Yuan Shao elected Cao as the East County satrap. /kloc-in April, 1992, Dong Zhuo was killed by Stuart Wang Yun and Lu Bu.
Fight for control of the country
192, Qingzhou million yellow scarf army invaded Yanzhou. Liu Dai, the secretariat of Yanzhou, did not listen to Bao Xin's dissuasion. He went out of northern Hebei and fought with the Yellow Scarf Army, and was killed as a result. Bao Xin and others secretly sent people to the East County to meet Cao Cao and chose him as Yanzhou Pastoral. Later, he fought with the Yellow Scarf Army to the east of Shouzhang. After a bitter battle, Bao Xin died and finally defeated the enemy. Cao Cao pursued all the way to northern Hebei, and finally forced the Yellow Scarf Army to surrender. He recruited more than 300,000 soldiers, more than one million men and women, and selected elite soldiers from them, known as "Qingzhou soldiers" in history. By this time, as a local power, Cao Cao gradually became a climate.
Yuan Shao joined forces with Liu Biao in Jingzhou, and Yuan Shu fought with Gongsun Zan in Youzhou and Tao Qian in Xuzhou. At this time, Cao Cao was a general under Yuan Shao, and Liu Bei and Sun Jian were also sent by Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shu. Just as Cao Cao helped Liu Biao destroy Yuan Shu in various places, Tao Qian took the opportunity to attack Taishan County east of Yanzhou, which led to the killing of Cao Cao's father Cao Song. . In response to this incident, Cao Cao made a second crusade against Tao Qian from 193 to 194, and launched a shoot-to-kill massacre in Xuzhou. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty recorded that "hundreds of thousands of men and women were killed, even chickens and dogs were spared, and Surabaya was blocked." In this incident, Cao Cao showed his cruel and bloodthirsty character, which was also criticized by later generations. On the other hand, according to what Pei quoted in Biography of the Three Kingdoms and Cheng Yu, it was also a last resort, which was in line with the wartime law at that time. For the same story, you can refer to a record of Jian 'an in 10 in the History of the Three Kingdoms Emperor Wudi.
194 to 195, Cao Cao fought with Lu Bu and Zhang Miao in Yanzhou, and the two sides won and lost, and the land of Yanzhou changed hands repeatedly. Cao Cao ordered Yu Xun and Cheng Yu to defend Juancheng firmly, and took this as a base area, finally defeating Lu Bu and pacifying Yanzhou. At this time, the court officially recognized Cao Cao's pastoral duties in Yanzhou.
Dai Feng Tian Zi
/kloc-in 0/95, Emperor Xian of Han moved out of Chang 'an and settled in Anyi. The following year, Cao Cao followed the advice of Yu Xun, a counselor, and planned to visit the emperor and send Cao Hong to the Western Regions. But at this time, the emperor (or the ruler) still had doubts about Cao Cao. However, Cao Cao was powerful. Within a few months, he defeated the Yellow Scarf Army in Runan and Yingchuan, and the court named Cao Cao General Jiande. Soon, he was promoted to the position of general in the town east and was appointed as Fei. Fei Houting was the title of Cao Cao's grandfather Cao Teng, which shows that the court had high hopes for Cao Cao. In the autumn of the same year, Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty settled in Luoyang. Later, Cao Cao also marched into Luoyang to defend the capital, and the emperor gave Cao Cao a holiday lottery, which indicated that Cao Cao actually controlled the affairs of the central government, and the situation of "serving heaven to make him not a minister" was formed. Luoyang was destroyed by Dong Zhuo, and Dong Zhao and others advised Cao Cao to make its capital.
Two months later, the Eastern Han Dynasty established its capital. The emperor appointed Cao Cao as general and Wu Pinghou. Also named Yuan Shao Qiu, Yuan Shao was ashamed to live under Cao Cao and refused to accept it. At this time, Yuan Shao's power was stronger than that of Cao Cao, who insisted on giving Yuan Shao the position of general, and he only served as general.
After years of war, people's livelihood was depressed. Cao Cao described in Hao Li Xing: "Bones are exposed in the wild, and there are no crows in a thousand miles." There have also been cases of eating people because of the extreme lack of food. After Cao Cao made Xuchang his capital, in order to develop the economy and restore people's livelihood, he adopted Zhao Zuo's and Han Hao's suggestions and implemented the system of reclaiming farmland. To some extent, Cao Cao was honored as the emperor, which promoted the reconstruction of the "ancestral temple state system" in the Han Dynasty and attracted many talents who supported the Eastern Han Dynasty. In addition, Cao Cao is good at employing people, constantly holding the emperor's banner to explore the east and the west, and his strength is getting stronger and stronger.
/kloc-in 0/97, Zhang Xiu was conquered and Zhang Xiu surrendered. Later, Cao's wife hated this matter, so she attacked Cao. Cao fled to the back of the house of his eldest son Cao Ang and a captain Dian Wei, but Cao Ang and Dian Wei were also killed. After that, Cao Cao attacked Zhang Xiu twice, but neither was completely defeated. Later, Zhang Xiu accepted Jia Xu's suggestion and surrendered to Cao Cao. Cao Caocai gained control of the northern part of Jingzhou and eliminated the threat to the south of Xudu. /kloc-in 0/98, Cao Cao used the strategies of Xun You and Guo Jia to open the floodgates of Surabaya and Yishui to Xiapi, and finally captured Lu Bu and Chen Gong alive and brought Xuzhou into the sphere of influence. 199, Cao Cao sent Shi Huan and Coss to break JASON ZHANG's old self-defense and gain Hanoi County, expanding its sphere of influence to the north of the Yellow River.
At this time, Cao Cao had actually controlled Yanzhou, Yuzhou and Xuzhou south of the Yellow River, and extended south to the north of Jingzhou and north to Hanoi. At this time, Yuan Shao has also annexed Gongsun Zan's forces and occupied Qingzhou, Jizhou, Youzhou and Bing, north of the Yellow River, with more than 100,000 troops, trying to send troops to attack Xudu. At that time, many generals in Cao Jun thought that they could not resist Yuan Shao's attack, but Cao Cao confidently said, "I know Yuan Shao's character, which is ambitious, short-minded, harsh on the surface, timid, afraid of war and victory, lacking prestige, arrogant generals, different decrees, vast territory and abundant food and grass, just as a gift for me."
Assemble troops to the south
In June of the 13th year of Jian 'an (2008), he served as Prime Minister. In July, Cao Cao's pro-unification army 100000 yuan invaded Jingzhou in the south, in an attempt to destroy Liu Biao first, and then advance eastward along the river to defeat Sun Quan in order to unify the world. In August, Liu Biao died in Jingzhou, and his second son, Liu Cong, was asked to surrender. In September, Liu Bei was hit hard by Cao Jun in Changbanpo and had to unite with Sun Quan. In December, Cao Cao was defeated by Liu Bei and Sun Quan in Battle of Red Cliffs (after Battle of Red Cliffs, Cao Cao fled to the north. I once sighed: "If Guo Fengxiao were here, I wouldn't have lost so badly!" )。 Cao Cao suffered heavy losses and lost the opportunity to unify the world in one fell swoop. In the history of China, the tripartite confrontation between Wei Shuwu and China began to take shape.
Promote sb. to a higher position and rank
In 2 12, Dong Zhao and others elected Cao Cao as "Wang Wei", while Yu Xun objected on the grounds of loyalty to Han. Cao Cao promised that Yu Xun would never become Wang Wei, but therefore Cao Cao was very dissatisfied with Xun. Soon after, Cao Cao presented the food to Yu Xun, who opened the food container, but it was empty, so he forced himself to take poison. Cao went to ruxu, stayed in Shouchun (now Shouxian County, Anhui Province) due to illness, and died of anxiety. In 2 13, Cao Cao called himself "Duke Wei", covering ten counties and countries, including Wei County, Hedong County and Hanoi County, even exceeding the kingdom of Liu in the early Western Han Dynasty, and even violating the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" and the Han system in which vassal fiefs could not exceed one county.
Cao Cao's death
In the winter of the twenty-fourth year of Jian 'an, Sun Quan wrote to become a vassal, and the history books said that Sun Quan's "Chen said his destiny" was to persuade Cao Cao to be emperor. Cao Cao said, "This boy wants to roast me on the fire!" " "Cao Cao showed Sun Quan's book to his ministers. At this time, Chen Qun, Xia Houdun, Sima Yi and others advised Cao Cao to reign. Cao Cao did not want to abolish Han independence. He said, "If fate belongs to me, I will be Zhou Wenwang." (Before Zhou Wenwang was still under Zhou Wang, his son Zhou Wuwang destroyed the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and unified the world. Some people think that this is Cao Cao's suggestion to let his son Cao Pi finish his unfinished business. )
Cao Cao died of illness in Luoyang on 23rd (15, March 220) in the 25th year of Jian 'an, at the age of 66. Shu Yue Wu Wang. Before he died, he left a suicide note, which read: "I was buried in Xigang, Ye Zhi, close to Ximen Bao Temple, and there was nothing to hide. The remaining fragrance can be shared with the ladies, not sacrificed. My ladies-in-waiting, concubines and geisha are all diligent, and they are also very good to the Bronze Quetai. There is a six-foot bed on the stage, a tassel tent under the bed and pickled wine in front of it. On the fifteenth day of every month, geisha music is performed in front of the tent from morning to noon. You always climb the bronze sparrow terrace and see the tomb of Xiling. The remaining fragrance can be shared with the ladies, not sacrificed. If you do nothing in the house, you can learn to sell in groups. All the money I get from my official career belongs to me. I don't want to hide the rest of my clothes If I can't, my brothers can divide them. " According to Cao Cao's will, he was buried in Gaoling in the western suburb of Yecheng on February 21st (1 1).
In 220, the eldest sons Cao Pi and Wei usurped the Han Dynasty, and respected Cao Cao as Mao Zuwu. Cao Cao is the founder of Wei State. He has written military works such as Sun Tzu's Brief Explanation of the Art of War, as well as poems such as Good, Looking at the Sea, Ghost Fox Head and Short Song. Later generations also compiled Cao Cao Ji.
Wei Gaoling
Cao Cao was buried in Gaoling after his death. In 2005, Gaoling was discovered in the south of Xigaoxue Village, Anyang County, Anyang City, Henan Province. On February 27th, 65438, Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau announced to the news media in Beijing that Cao Cao Gaoling had been confirmed in Henan archaeology. However, some scholars say that there is still no strong evidence for this statement. For example, Yuan Jixi, vice president of the Institute of National Studies of Renmin University of China, said that the evidence published by relevant parties is not first-hand material and is not a very strong proof. Publishing relevant news without direct evidence goes against the serious spirit of academic research.