"The moon is thin and the black magpie flies south. Turn around the tree three times and you can rely on any branch. " It's a poem in Cao Cao's short song. According to legend, this poem was written on the eve of Chibi War. In fact, when and where this poem was written is still inconclusive. Therefore, there are no so-called "wounding and killing" and "unlucky words", which are fictional details describing Cao Cao's cruel self-use in the novel.
Based solely on the understanding of romance, in order to render the result of Cao Cao's fiasco in Chibi in the future, a mysterious karma was created here-Cao Cao himself made an ominous prophecy and predicted the future defeat-and this literary creation technique has the traditional characteristics of China: karma and prophecy.
So, what is the explanation of "unlucky words"? I think it is based on a simple literal understanding. "Three turns around the tree, what branch to rely on" embodies "homelessness" and is equivalent to "a lost dog". "Lost dogs" are often used in China literature to describe people's depravity and inability to escape, such as "running like a lost dog, running like a fish escaping from the net" and so on. In fact, in the Romance, Cao Cao did so after his failure. He was intercepted by Wu Dong and Liu Bei several times and dared not go to Nanjun and Jiangling. Lost soldiers lost soldiers, really like a "lost dog", fulfilled his "prophecy". There are many "prophecies" of this nature in romance, which can be regarded as a literary style dominated by it.