During the Three Kingdoms period, many talented people emerged. All three of them were influential figures in the Three Kingdoms and could be called heroes. Many people around me like Cao Cao, Sun Quan has fewer fans, and there are many who like Liu Bei. To borrow a sentence from Mr. Yi Zhongtian to evaluate Cao Cao, it is called “a real villain, a great hero”. Cao Cao was a famous historical figure, a famous military strategist, and a politician in the late Han Dynasty and even in Chinese history. He was famous in his time and in later generations. Cao Cao’s literary and military strategies were rarely matched by military and political figures in later generations.
When Cao Cao first entered the political arena, he cleared up the bureaucracy within his ability and achieved remarkable results. However, he gradually saw through the hopelessness of the corruption of the Eastern Han Dynasty and resolutely took up the military and established his own military group. Cao Cao’s strategic vision was far superior to that of other powerful people, such as the Yuan brothers, not only in terms of respecting the wise and humble and strategic planning. At that time, warlords were fighting each other, and other separatist groups only knew how to plunder, and even used people as military rations. Cao Cao created a system of military farming, summoned refugees, issued farming tools and cattle, reclaimed wasteland for production, and even implemented military farming for the army, which laid the foundation for his long-term combat and the realization of strategic goals.
- Only talents are selected.
Cao Cao loved talents, cherished talents, sought talents, used talents, and rewarded talents throughout Cao Cao’s political career, especially during the entrepreneurial period. The talents here mainly refer to the large number of talents he discovered and selected from the grassroots, the people, and the grass. For example, among the civil officials, Xun Yu, Guo Jia, Man Chong and others were all from county officials. Many of these people were originally from Yuan Shao’s camp, and later switched to Cao Cao. For example, when Guan Yu was in Cao’s camp, Cao Cao always treated him well and did not threaten him or force him to work for him. This led to Guan Yu’s later release of Cao Mengde at Huarong Road.
It can be said that not all people are fools. If Cao Cao did not have these advantages, these people would die if they surrendered, and they would die if they did not surrender. If they could not show their talents after surrendering, they would not surrender to Cao Cao.
Second, excellent ability.
Cao Cao was both civil and military. The three fathers and sons of the Cao family were unique in the history of Chinese literature. Cao Cao had extremely high literary attainments. In addition to less than 20 poems and a small number of fu and letters in “Cao Cao Collection”, most of them were official documents such as strategies, orders, books, and tables drafted by him personally. These official documents systematically expounded his political propositions, governance concepts, military strategies, and ideas on employing people.
In “Suppressing Merger Order”, he criticized the land annexation of powerful landlords, ordered the taxation of the people, and prohibited the exploitation of powerful people. The existence of these official documents gave Cao Cao’s thoughts a longer life. Cao Cao constantly pacified separatism, unified the north, and built water conservancy projects. He made contributions to the construction of the north. A capable person will never lack followers.
Third, leadership.
Although Liu Bei sounds benevolent and virtuous, and he is the uncle of the Han emperor and assists the Han Dynasty, in fact, he also has evil intentions. He either throws children or cries to win people’s hearts. What about Liu Bei? Do you think he doesn’t want to be emperor? Cao Cao at least helped Emperor Xian of Han to manage the government for 30 years, which made the Han Dynasty last for 30 years. I think readers know it better than anyone else, but the two leaders express it in different ways.
Liu Bei and others’ command ability, that is, leadership ability, is not as good as Cao Cao. Cao Cao is step by step to the pinnacle of power. He has accumulated experience. He knows what soldiers, generals, and counselors want. On the other hand, Cao Cao kills people in his dreams, treats Guan Yu well, and puts aside past grudges. He reuses capable generals who surrender. Everyone wants a high position and a high salary, and wants to be a minister of the dragon.
Cao Cao’s own ability is outstanding, and he has a decisive mind when encountering things. Liu Bei mostly relies on Zhuge Liang, and feels like a person without a backbone. So as a wage earner, I still like to follow capable people like Cao Cao.
In fact, when we comment on Cao Cao, we can’t help but compare him with Liu Bei and Sun Quan of the same period. However, it is undeniable that compared with the simple separatism of Sun and Liu, the situation Cao Cao faced was more complicated, involving politics, military, economy, culture, and even official administration, imperial power, and many other aspects. Moreover, the policies formulated by Cao Cao were revolutionary in many aspects and changed the direction of Chinese history to a great extent.
Politically, Cao Cao improved the aristocratic regime that had lasted for thousands of years in China and pioneered the aristocratic regime. Internally, he used cruel officials, rectified official administration, and punished corruption. Externally, he recruited talents based on their talents. As a result, Cao Wei was able to gather all the wise men in the world and recruit brave men in a short period of time. However, it is not difficult for people who know a little history to conclude that the policies implemented by Cao Cao and his own personal charm were decisive.
The reason why Cao Wei had so many capable civil and military officials was due to its policies. Moreover, Cao Cao’s core team was basically determined before he welcomed the emperor, and it was not until he welcomed the emperor that people from all directions came to him. On the contrary, after he welcomed the emperor, those who came to him were cultural hooligans like Kong Rong and Ni Heng, who were not only useless, but also had negative effects in a sense. Therefore, Cao Cao’s personal charm and the policies he implemented were the decisive factors, and had little to do with whether he threatened the emperor.