Yang Xiu was a talented person, an elite among ancient intellectuals, and his position and occupation were similar to those of Chen Bulei around Chiang Kai-shek. His talents are wit, intelligence and eloquence, and he relies on his own talents. He was deeply appreciated by Cao Cao and was entrusted with the post of "knowing what is common and what is outside". He has become a spin doctor counselor around Prime Minister Cao Cao and should be regarded as an important official. After Guangmen incident, a box of cakes incident, Cao Cao's dream murder incident and Wu Zhi incident, Cao Cao hid his ill feelings in Yang Xiu's heart and secretly avoided them. Until later, Yang Xiu secretly stepped in to abolish the prince, which caused Cao Cao's extreme dissatisfaction and jealousy. "The History of the Three Kingdoms" recorded how Cao Cao handled it: "Taizu was worried about change all day, and he was quite talented. Yuan's nephew also punished him with sin." During the Hanzhong War, Cao Cao found an excuse casually, accusing him of killing Yang Xiu, and then gave him a heavy funeral and many items to show his comfort to his relatives. Cao Cao, a white-faced traitor, has always been very clever in using the method of killing and then burying, so that outsiders can't see a trace of selfishness and personal grievances, giving outsiders the impression that Cao Cao had to bite the bullet and not kill. Cao Cao's performance was really brilliant. Although it was like a cat crying a mouse, it was ten times more cloudy than when Kong Ming beheaded Ma Su with tears in his eyes. The details of Yang Xiuzhi's death are the most detailed and vivid in Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Although it is a romantic novel, there are no clues about Cao Cao's murder of Yang Xiu. Instead, he handled the "chicken rib incident" impartially, exercised serious military discipline, and beheaded Yang Xiu in accordance with the law, which was flawless, eliminating a hidden danger in his heart and relieving the worries after a hundred years. In Cao Cao's eyes, why kill a Yang Xiu for the sake of the stability of Cao Jia's great cause in the future? In fact, in the relationship between Cao Cao and Yang Xiu, the essence of the relationship between rulers and intellectuals in ancient feudal society in China has been the most intuitive and concentrated display. The feudal rulers of past dynasties had great doubts about intellectuals and had to use them to maintain the operation of the ruling system. Someone once compared this relationship vividly to the relationship between skin and hair. What will hair do if the skin doesn't exist? The feudal rulers looked down on intellectuals outside their families in their bones. They regard themselves as skins and intellectuals as hairs. As long as the skin is intact, it doesn't matter if you pull out a few hairs. Even if you take off a layer of hair, you will naturally grow new hairs. So on the land of China, there have been bloody historical tragedies such as Qin Shihuang burning books to bury Confucianism, killing three scholars with two peaches, and Zhu Yuanzhang plotting to kill his ministers. The ancient intellectuals in China, whose hair was attached to the cowhide of imperial power, naturally could not dominate their own destiny, thus demonstrating endless personal struggles. The long river of history has swallowed up the aspirations of countless literati elites, such as Qu Yuan, Du Fu, Lu You, Han Yu and Li Si. , both magnificent and sad!
Yang Xiu, as an adviser in feudal times, was a typical figure among the ancient intellectuals in China. If objectively evaluated, this gentleman's talent and knowledge are outstanding, and the judgment, analysis, judgment and prediction of the psychological activities of Prime Minister Cao Cao are also quite accurate, rapid and agile, with certain foresight. It is precisely because of the accuracy of this foresight that Yang Xiu lost his mind and his own life. Cao Cao killed Yang Xiu, and several ancient intellectuals were persecuted, which is the most typical vicious unjust case. When Yang Xiu goes to the underworld, he will still feel uneasy, and his ghost will not disperse easily.