Speak of the devil.

In AD 175, the banner of righteousness was raised to win Dong Zhuo's fame, that is, in the fourth year of Emperor Gaozu Liu Hongping, Cao Cao raised his filial piety and made him the representative. Later, he took part in suppressing the Yellow Scarf Uprising (this is a historical fact, and we can't criticize Cao Cao severely) and moved to Jinan. After Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, he dominated the state affairs and was overbearing, especially the outrageous move of Emperor Ling Fei (Liu Hong) to establish Xian Di (Liu Xie), which made people angry and angered heroes all over the world. Like Jing Ke, a famous assassin in history, Cao Cao tried to assassinate Dong Zhuo with his sword, but failed. He escaped to Hulao Pass and was almost killed. Fortunately, he was released by Chen Gongyi. After Cao Cao failed to assassinate Dong Zhuo and fled back to his hometown in Peiguoqiao County, Anhui Province, he erected a white flag of "loyalty and righteousness" and recruited soldiers everywhere to form an armed force. In AD 190, the first year of Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty (Liu Xie), Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Liu Biao, Sun Jian and other governors elected Yuan Shao to hold high the banner of righteousness as their leader and launched a massive attack on Dong Zhuo. After Dong Zhuo's death, the remnants of the Yellow Scarf Army made a comeback. Cao Cao took advantage of the suppression of the Yellow turban insurrectionary uprising to recruit talented people all over Shandong, and civil servants and military commanders joined in one after another, so Cao Cao's military strength expanded rapidly. It is precisely because Cao Cao seized the opportunity of major military actions such as crusade against Dong Zhuo and suppression of the Yellow turban insurrectionary uprising that he developed and strengthened his military strength rapidly. This is a crucial step, which laid a solid military foundation and talent guarantee for Cao Cao's invincible in the subsequent wars, and also laid a solid foundation for Cao Cao's great achievements in politics, military affairs and literature. Second, loyal traitors and traitors, recruiting talents. Among the many factors that Cao dominated the north, the most active and effective one was the employment mechanism he implemented, such as recruiting talents, seeking talents if thirsty, recruiting literary talents, appointing people on their merits and so on. Of course, his principle of cherishing talents and recruiting talents is also very strong, that is, putting the moral character of talents first. This must pass, he must be absolutely loyal to himself, and there can be no rebellion. Long-term officialdom politics and years of military action have made Cao Cao rich and famous, and at the same time, he has accumulated rich and valuable experience in distinguishing right from wrong and good from evil. Cao Cao deeply studied the mechanism of meritocracy and put it into practice. He has a steelyard in his heart, who should use it and who shouldn't, who can reuse it and who can't. Although "Xu Shu entered Cao Cao's camp without saying a word", Cao Cao still recognized his loyalty and still regarded Xu Shu as a distinguished guest. Even though Guan Yu said that he would not surrender to Cao Cao (in fact, this was just a word game played by Guan Yu, because in the final analysis, its essence was "surrender", and as far as the situation at that time was concerned, "Han" and "Cao Cao" were basically the same thing), Cao Cao expressed appreciation and recognition for his loyalty, and he still loved him. On the contrary, what Cao Cao hates most are those snobs who are greedy for money and beauty, abandon their principles, seek fame and seek fame, and are capricious. Although they helped Cao Cao accomplish the great cause of reunification to a certain extent and even played an important role, Cao Cao not only regarded them as shameless villains, but often simply killed them. Therefore, when Lu Bu, with the highest martial arts and extraordinary bravery, was invincible in the world, he expressed his willingness to surrender to Cao Cao after being bound by his subordinate Hou Cheng and others in the White Gate Tower, and stated to Cao Cao that "although the public has a heart, there is not much cloth, and the cloth has been served today." As a general, it is not difficult to decide the world. "Realistically speaking, Cao Cao, who was eager for talents, did not immediately express his position, but asked Liu Bei, who stood on the side," how ".It can be seen that Cao Cao has a special liking for Lu Bu, a warrior with superb martial arts. He even imagined that once he had such a warrior, he would be stronger, so he was ready to accept Lu Bu. However, with Liu Bei's ulterior motives and fanning the flames, Cao Cao thought that Lu Bu cut off the head of Ding Jianyang (that is, Ding Yuan), the first adoptive father, for money, and once stabbed Dong Zhuo, the second adoptive father, in order to lose the beauty of Sim's story, and realized that Lu Bu was indeed a capricious, selfish and greedy bastard. Although Lu Bu was pregnant with the peerless martial arts that Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei could not be combined into one, which was exactly what Cao Cao really needed at that time, based on his consistent principle of employing people, Cao Cao decisively ordered Lu Bu to be hanged first and then beheaded, in order to avoid the worry of inviting wolves into the room and raising tigers, and of course to give Liu Bei a face. This also illustrates Cao Cao's principle of employing people. There are many other examples, such as: Huang Kui colluded with Marten in secret, and Huang Kui's brother-in-law Miao Ze told Cao Cao to get Huang Kui's concubine Li Chunxiang, which made Cao Cao put down the rebellion easily. Afterwards, instead of rewarding Miao Ze, Cao Cao said that he "killed his brother-in-law's family for a woman", was an "unjust man" and even ordered Miao Ze to be killed. Another example is: Xu You, an old friend of Cao Cao, resolutely defected to Cao Cao, the sworn enemy of his master Yuan Shao, in the famous battle of Guandu, which can be said to be a move to abandon the dark and turn to the bright. Moreover, Xu You also contributed a series of tricks: First, "sneak attack on Wu Chao, burning Yuan Jun's grain and grass", so that Cao Cao won the battle of Guandu with less and turned defeat into victory; Later, when Cao Cao personally led a large army to attack Jizhou, he presented a coup of "breaking the water and building a river" to help Cao Cao win again. Xu You has made amazing achievements in his two miracles and is proud of it. He even arrogantly called Cao Cao "aunt", so that Cao Cao, who was "below one person and above ten thousand people", could not step down. He is angry, but it is inconvenient to have an attack. He just laughed it off. However, Xu You didn't know how to converge at all, and still went his own way. Finally, he was beheaded by Chu Xu, Cao Cao's confidant and personal bodyguard. There must be Cao Cao's acquiescence. Another example: Song Yang is the number one corrupt official in The Romance of Three Kingdoms. He betrayed his master Zhang Lu, alienated the relationship between Zhang Lu and Ma Chao, and forced Ma Chao to defect to Liu Bei. It also alienated the relationship between Zhang Lu and Pound, so that Pound was captured by Cao Cao. He also wrote a secret letter to Cao Cao, expressing his willingness to be an insider to help Cao Cao pacify Zhang Lu. Zhang Lu went out to fight in person after being drafted, and was rejected by Song Yang. After Zhang Lu was captured, Cao Cao still named him General Zhennan, and all other generals were rewarded. Only Song Yang was ordered by Cao Cao to be "beheaded by the city Cao". There are many such positive and negative figures and examples in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The reason why Cao Cao particularly emphasizes personal loyalty is that rebellious behavior is absolutely not allowed. In the event of hellish pay, it is necessary to use these positive and negative examples to alert his subordinates, educate and remind them often, and never have second thoughts on Cao Cao at any time, anywhere and under any circumstances. Throughout the whole process of Cao Cao's great political and military achievements, it is not difficult to find that Cao Cao paid special attention to recruiting talents at that time. At that time, all kinds of talents can be said to be all rivers run into sea, and they went to Cao Cao's command in succession. In fact, counselors at that time included Yu Xun, Xun You, Cheng Yu, Guo Jia, Ye Liu, Man Pang, Lv Qian and Mao Jie. Military leaders who advised him, such as Xia, Dian Wei, Li Jue, Cao Hong, Cao Ren, and even worse, Zhang, known as the "son of Cao Cao", always adhered to such an extremely important principle in the process of recruiting talents: absolute loyalty to himself. The political situation in the Eastern Han Dynasty was even more chaotic after Xian Di wiped out the heroes and unified Emperor Liu Hong of the Northern Han Dynasty. The vassal regimes fought for the Central Plains. In such a turbulent era, Cao Cao, with weak strength, low official position and low qualifications, was able to get rid of Yuan Shu, Lu Bu, Yuan Shao and Liu Biao successively, and finally stood out, unified the Central Plains and dominated the political situation, becoming the most powerful figure in China at that time. It can be said that it is closely related to the major political and military actions it has taken. The first is to welcome Xian Di, move the capital to Xuchang and change its name to Xudu. In this way, Cao Cao, who was inferior to other princes in many aspects, won the political initiative, that is, the great advantage of "relying on the emperor to make princes"; Later, in a short period of time, Cao Cao gradually eliminated Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and other warlords who occupied the north, unified the Central Plains and became the actual ruler of northern China. The recruitment policy of "not sticking to one pattern and selecting talents", the correct strategy of "being a grandson first, then being a grandfather", and the philosophy of life of "teaching me to be ashamed of the world, not to teach the world to be good to me", etc., how much profound knowledge is worth summarizing and learning! Cao Cao was able to achieve great political and military achievements quickly, in addition to his political and talent advantages mentioned above, more importantly, he attached importance to strict enforcement of military discipline, with clear rewards and punishments. Every time there is a military action, he always takes the lead, takes the lead, rushes to the front, survives many times, and wins the sincere admiration and support of his subordinates. The army he commanded was very disciplined, but Cao Cao was always strict with himself, set an example, never specialized, and never "never did it again." For example, on one March, Cao Cao had just issued a military order not to damage and trample on the crops of ordinary people, but suddenly a bird flew out of nowhere, scaring Cao Cao's mount to run wild and even trampling on the crops of ordinary people. Cao Cao immediately called the military judge and asked him what punishment he should receive. The military judge replied that he should be beheaded. Cao Cao immediately drew his sword and tried to commit suicide. Fortunately, I was desperately dissuaded by my subordinates. Cao Cao saw that suicide failed, so he cut off his hair instead of his head, which made the three armed forces respect each other. This is the story of Cao Cao's famous haircut. Perhaps some readers will say that this is the insidious place of Cao Cao. I beg to differ. The ancients said, "Parents with physical problems should not be hurt." It should be noted that our ancestors attached great importance to their hair and skin, and they should never be easily damaged and cut off. It is precisely because of the strict discipline of Cao Cao's army that he did not hurt the people in autumn, so the people welcomed and supported Cao Cao's army very much. This is probably another important reason why Cao Cao's army can be invincible. 5. In addition to the above, there is another thing that Cao Cao pays more attention to developing production. Starting from safeguarding the interests of the ruling class, he adopted a policy of restraining the powerful and developing production, which was objectively beneficial to the people. He carried out a series of policies such as land reclamation and reclamation, which were conducive to the resumption of production, and promoted the economic development of northern China at that time. Coupled with various more enlightened political measures, such as seeing off Xian Di and Xuchang, and vigorously recruiting all kinds of talents, the northern part of China was finally unified. An extraordinary person, official to prime minister, general, Wang Wei. When his son Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor, he was honored as Emperor Wu. At this point, Cao Cao's life as an outstanding politician and strategist in the Three Kingdoms period has finally come to a satisfactory end. Cao Cao, who wrote six Yuefu poems, not only made great achievements in politics and military affairs, but also became an outstanding politician and strategist in the Three Kingdoms period. More importantly, he also made outstanding achievements in literature. There are still more than twenty of his poems handed down from generation to generation. Among them, Hao, Short, A Journey to Bitter Cold and Walking Out of the Summer Gate (one is the East Boundary Stone, and the other is the Ghost Blows the Lamp) are all Yuefu songs, but they are very creative. These poems often express new ideas and new contents with old themes, mainly reflecting the war in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the sufferings of ordinary people, and expressing the author's political ideal of unifying China, including the anguish when the ideal cannot be realized, full of positive optimism and heroism. Its style is magnificent, especially the four-character poems. There are many excellent works in the five-character poems, which are the generous and sad voice of the times and the forerunner of the achievements, characteristics and great influence of Jian' an literature. Some famous sentences in his poems, such as: "White bones are exposed in the wild, there are no crows in a thousand miles", "Reading breaks people's intestines" and "Singing to wine, what is life like?" ",why worry? Only in Du Kang, the moon stars are scarce, the mountains are not too high, the water is not too deep, the world is returning to the heart, the autumn wind is bleak, the waves are rough, the stars are bright, the turtles have a long life, but it is too late, the old horse crouches in the tiger, and the martyrs are full of courage in their twilight years. Besides poetry, Cao Cao's achievements in prose are also worth mentioning. But his prose achievement is slightly inferior to his poetry achievement. And "Wei Wudi Collection" (also known as "Cao Cao Collection").