Human flesh is used as food, tombs are robbed in search of gold, a new imperial examination is held, and Yuan Shu is supported...
Nothing Cao Cao did was trivial, but Cao Cao's reputation among the people was not one-sided scorn, but polarization.
There are some people who say good things about Cao Cao, and there are also people who call him a devil. In short, each has his own reasons.
Everything Cao Cao did was highly controversial. He used human flesh to feed himself and robbed tombs in search of gold in order to suppress the Ming thief Li Zicheng. Although the methods were a bit extreme, the purpose was good.
As for the new imperial examination system, Cao Cao was not the first to propose it. He secretly supported Yuan Shu in order to govern the broken Yanzhou...
All in all, although Cao Cao did a lot of things to seek scolding, the strange thing is that the world's tolerance for him is extremely high.
Not even Qin Hao dared to touch any of the things Cao Cao did. If any other princes took advantage of it, they would definitely be scolded to death.
But as for Cao Cao, not only was everything done, but nothing happened. On the contrary, his title became higher and higher, and his overall strength became stronger and stronger.
I have to say that this is definitely one of the wonders of this era.
Although the bad things Cao Cao did caused him a lot of infamy, his achievements cannot be erased. After all, he killed Li Zicheng.
Li Zicheng is a powerful bandit who has been active since the Yellow Turban period and is one of the three giants of the Ming Dynasty.
It is precisely because of this foundation of merit that the people have such a high level of tolerance for Cao Cao. After all, his flaws do not hide his faults.
When Yuan Shu rebelled, Qin Hao's court was not recognized by the princes. In order to contain Yuan Shu, he even directly made Zhao Kuangyin the Duke of Song Dynasty.
Nowadays, it is naturally not that easy for the major princes to become princes. They must have sufficient merits.
Cao Cao led and killed Li Zicheng and unified Yanzhou. If there were not those ruinous things, his merits for making him a prince would actually be enough.
But after things such as human flesh as food, Cao Cao became too controversial. With the merits and demerits balanced, it was naturally not difficult or easy to make him an official.
Although there were numerous voices in the court opposing Cao Cao's granting him a crown, Qin Hao still granted Cao Cao the title.
After all, Cao Cao stole the tombs of the Liu family kings. As long as he was not punished for a day, it would be a blow to the imperial power of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, Qin Hao not only did not suppress him, but also gave him a title.
Shortly after Cao Cao unified Yanzhou, Qin Hao made him the Duke of Wei, a general of chariots and cavalry, and granted him the title of 100,000 households.
Since then, in addition to Zhao Kuangyin's Song Dynasty, there was another Wei Kingdom under Cao Cao in the Central Plains.
Cao Cao was the third prince conferred by the orthodox court represented by Qin Hao. However, there are more than two feudal states in the world, and the camps can be divided into two, namely: the Han camp, the rebel camp, and the neutral camp.
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Although Liu Ji in Shu proclaimed himself the King of Shu, he produced the imperial edict from the late emperor, and the court had to recognize his legitimacy;
In order to confront Liu Ji, Liu Yu claimed to be the King of Chengdu without the permission of the court. However, his title was not recognized by the court, so it is not an exaggeration to say that he was rebellious.
Li Shimin, king of the Tang Dynasty in Guanzhong, and Yang Guang, king of the Sui Dynasty in Liangzhou, were the pseudo-kings left over from the pseudo-dynasty represented by Dong Zhuo.
Zhu Tianpeng, King of Qi in Qingzhou, inherited Huang Chao's position, and Huang Chao accepted Dong Zhuo's canonization.
Therefore, Li Shimin, Yang Guang, and Zhu Tianpeng are all false kings who cannot be recognized by the orthodox court and belong to the rebel camp.
Hong Xiuquan of Jiaozhou was a Yellow Turban rebel, but he established himself as the King of Heaven and became a thorn in the side of the imperial court.
Although Yuan Shu of Jianghuai was proclaimed king, he raised troops to threaten the imperial capital, so he was naturally classified into the rebel camp.
To sum up, King Liu Yu of Chengdu, King Zhu Tianpeng of Qi, King Li Shimin of Tang, King Yang Guang of Sui, King Hong Xiuquan of Heaven, Marquis Yuan Shu of Yu, and the Ming Dynasty who suffered from cholera in Jizhou and Xuzhou all belong to the rebellious camp.
The princes belonging to the Han camp include: Qin Gong Qin Hao, Shu King Liu Ji, Song Gong Zhao Kuangyin, Wei Gong Cao Cao, Wu Hou Sun Jian, Liang Hou Song Jiang, and Liao Hou Gongsun Xuanyuan.
Of course, many of the princes ostensibly agreed with the imperial court, but in fact they listened to the instructions but not the propaganda, and the imperial court had no binding force on them.
As for the neutral camp, it is neither biased towards the Han camp nor the rebel camp, it is only for itself.
The princes belonging to the neutral camp include: Yuan Shao, Marquis of Zhao, Han Fu, Marquis of Han, Liu Che, Marquis of Yan, Liu Xiu, Marquis of Chu, Ma Teng and Han Sui of Liangzhou, and Shi Xie of Jiaozhou.
Chu Hou Liu Xiuben also belonged to the Han camp. After all, he was also one of the thirty-six princes who fought against Dong. However, Qin Gong Qin Hao suppressed him too hard. He could not develop at all in the Han camp. Instead, he was restrained everywhere.
, so that he was forcefully forced into the neutral camp.
Of course, this was also the fundamental purpose of Qin Hao's malicious suppression of Liu Xiu. Qin Hao even wanted to force Liu Xiu into the rebellious camp, but Liu Xiu was not fooled.
The Han camp, the rebel camp, and the neutral camp are the three major groups in the world right now.
Among the three major groups, the Han camp is the strongest, occupying more than 50% of the land and population in the world. The neutral and rebellious camps are equally powerful and divide the other 50% of the land and population.
In the future, the game between the major princes will also revolve around the three major groups.
Shortly after Cao Cao was granted the title of Duke, Liu Che, the Marquis of Yan from the neutral camp, wanted to move closer to the Han camp, so he applied to the imperial court for the title of King of Yan, taking advantage of his achievements in repelling the Manchus.
Youzhou is Qin Hao's target for the next round of expansion, so it is naturally impossible for him to let Liu Che join his camp like this.
The Luoyang court, headed by Qin Hao, believed that the person who had the greatest credit for repelling the Manchu invasion was Gongsun Xuanyuan, and Liu Che only played a supporting role. However, considering that Liu Che was a clan member of the Han Dynasty and inherited Liu Yu's political legacy, so
He was renamed Duke of Yan, and Gongsun Xuanyuan was granted the title of Duke of Liao.
Liu Che's request to be crowned king failed, which meant that Qin Hao's Han camp refused him to join. Of course, what made him even more annoyed was that Qin Hao attributed the main credit for repelling the Manchus to Gongsun Xuanyuan.
If he hadn't led the Yan army to support him, Gongsun Xuanyuan would have been defeated by Wanyan Agu long ago.
Although Liu Che was extremely angry, he had nothing to do with Qin Hao, who had great righteousness, so he wanted to take back the title of orthodoxy from Qin Hao's hands. At the worst, it would destroy the legitimacy of the Luoyang court.
Under the banner of Qin Hao's threat, Liu Che secretly contacted other neutral princes and Han clan clan members in various places, hoping to break Qin Hao's monopoly on the Han camp and achieve the purpose of splitting the Han camp.
Of course, there are many difficulties in this. Qin Hao's threat has not yet appeared. All the major princes only care about themselves and cannot care about Qin Hao's potential threat for the time being.
It was not until Qin Hao used troops against Hebei that the princes in the neutral camps felt threatened, and Liu Che completed his goal of splitting the Han camp.