In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao is a proper traitor, he coerced the Son of Heaven to order the princes, he tortured Emperor Han Xian in every way, and even in the TV series, he killed the pregnant Dong Guiren in front of the emperor.
All in all, Cao Cao's behavior was extremely bad, he treated the emperor of a country as a puppet, and Emperor Han Xian could only survive in fear and despair. Of course, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty also thought about resisting, such as the edict incident launched by Dong Cheng and him.
But in the end, in exchange for a tragedy, the emperor was almost frightened to tears.
In this regard, some people can't help but ask, why didn't Emperor Han Xian directly kill Cao Cao in court, but instead engaged in so many false tricks? Regarding this issue, we have to go back to the history of the time, the meticulous ** Han Xian Emperor and Cao Cao's past.
First of all, turn the clock back to the first year of Jian'an, this year Emperor Han Xian returned to Luoyang with the help of Dong Cheng and others, and Dong Zhuo, who once brought endless fear to the emperor, has been assassinated by Lu Bu, and the emperor seems to have escaped from life.
But in fact, Luoyang at that time was devastated by a fire, and the emperor could only live in a shack.
The ministers of the Manchu Dynasty experienced several blows and almost died, and Emperor Han Xian had no ministers or generals by his side, leaving only a group of eunuchs and embarrassed entourages who wept at him.
And at that time, what was the distribution of power among the warlords?
Yuan Shao occupied Jiqing and Sanzhou, Cao Cao occupied Yanzhou and Yuzhou, Gongsun Zhan occupied Youzhou, Tao Qian occupied Xuzhou, Yuan Shu occupied Yangzhou, Liu Biao occupied Jingzhou, Liu Yan occupied Yizhou, Sun Ce occupied Jiangdong, Han Sui and Ma Teng occupied Liangzhou, and Gongsun Du occupied Liaodong.
In short, a good man, the world has been completely shattered, and the territory that belongs to the emperor is only the shack that is still smoking.
It stands to reason that the emperor represents the legitimacy and authority of the world, and the princes of the world should be courteous to the emperor no matter how they are, so what is the truth?
According to historical records, Yuan Shao and others were ready to support Youzhou Mu Liu Yu as emperor, but they directly denied Dong Zhuoli's Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty.
- And Yuan Shu wanted to be emperor himself, so he refused to recognize Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, and later became emperor.
Liu Yan and Liu Biao were both children of the imperial family and were originally the emperor's most loyal allies, but in fact, Liu Yan monopolized power and prepared to be the emperor of the soil in Sichuan, but he was destroyed by lightning and destroyed the forbidden things, and he himself died in fear.
Liu Biao respected Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty in the early stage, and directly refused to recognize Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty in the later period, but later he also died of illness.
Of course, there are also people among the princes who are very supportive of Emperor Han Xian, one is the aforementioned Youzhou Mu Liu Yu, and the other is Xuzhou Mu Taoqian.
Although Liu Yu was elected as the emperor, he was absolutely loyal to the emperor all his life, and he always advocated benevolent government, but unfortunately the good people did not live long and were killed by Gongsun Zhan. And Tao Qian is also an absolute royalist, but his strength is not enough, so he was scared to death by Cao Cao.
This was the background at that time, the emperor who was extremely down, the emperor who was almost ignored by the world.
But in this extremely bad situation, Cao Cao stepped forward, and under the guidance of Xun Yu and others, he greeted the Son of Heaven.
At that time, the emperor was also controlled by Yang Feng and others, and Cao Cao wittily exploited the loophole, not only helping the emperor get rid of the control of others, but also ceremoniously welcoming him to Xuchang.
It must be mentioned here that at that time, the emperor was so depressed that he didn't even have food to eat, and Cao Cao still insisted on using the royal gifts to serve food for the emperor and maintain etiquette for the emperor.
Moreover, he also built a palace and set up a temple design, so that Emperor Han Xian finally found the feeling of home. At that time, Cao Cao was the home of Emperor Han Xian, and Cao Cao was Zhuge Liang of Emperor Han Xian.
Therefore, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty appointed Cao Cao as a general and named him the Marquis of Wuping, and the famous regime of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty in history was truly established.
So the question is, why do we say that the regime of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty was not established until this moment?
The reason is very simple, during the previous period when Dong Zhuo was in power, the regime of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty was chaotic, and the world was also moving towards the first place.
- And the combination of Cao Cao and Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty is to cooperate with orthodox strength and force to regain the unity of the world. It was a great combination that represented advanced productivity and a bright path at the time.
At that time, Cao Cao provided absolute force, and Emperor Xian of Han provided absolute orthodoxy, and they worked together and did a lot of great things. For example, the Son of Heaven ordered Liu Bei to kill Lü Bu, and the Son of Heaven ordered Liu Bei to attack Yuan Shu. The edict of the Son of Heaven forced Jia Xu to persuade Zhang Xiu to surrender to Cao Cao.
During that time, the Han regime, which was originally not valued by people, once again exerted its authority, and had a fairly broad territory, and even powerful forces such as Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu were finally eliminated.
It's just that with the expansion of the territory, Cao Cao has a large group of interest groups around him, and Cao Cao himself has begun to have conflicts with Emperor Han Xian with the expansion of power.
For example, in 197 AD, Cao Cao sent troops to recruit Zhang Xiu and went to the palace to see Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty.
Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty was already dissatisfied with Cao Cao, so he said: "If you can complement each other, you will be thick, not good, and fortunate to give up your kindness." This was said quite seriously, Cao Cao was frightened into a cold sweat, and he pitched up.
This is the first time that the two have really had a conflict, but out of consideration for the general direction at that time, the two are still cooperating well, planning to prosper the Han dynasty in the world.
However, as Cao Cao's territory expanded, he began to worry about the influence of Emperor Han Xian on him, and even wanted to turn Emperor Han Xian into a puppet for security reasons.
- According to historical records, Cao Cao first served as prime minister, and was later named the Duke of Wei, and later became the King of Wei. With the improvement of strength, Cao Cao grasped the military and political power of the country step by step, cultivated cronies, and filled his own people around the Son of Heaven.
For example, the person in charge of Shangshutai, who was nominally the embodiment of imperial power, was Xun Yu, who was regarded by Cao Cao as the best representative of controlling all the emperor's power; For another example, Cao Cao personally arranged that the guards around the emperor were all people who were married to the Cao family's henchmen.
In this context, Emperor Han Xian was basically reduced to a puppet, and he no longer dared to express his dissatisfaction as before.
But the retreat of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty made Cao Cao more bold, which is not entirely Cao Cao's wolf ambition, but because he no longer has to care about the dignity of imperial power.
So something like this happened, Cao Cao directly dismissed the Taiwei Yang Biao and Sikong Zhang Xi without any reason, and Zhang Yan, the speaker Lang, was killed by Cao Cao just because he was close to Emperor Han Xian.
Because of Cao Cao's autocracy, he was rebelled by the Han Dynasty imperial physician Ling Jiben and Shaofu Geng Ji and others, and afterwards Cao Cao resolved the rebellion, but he pressed the hundred officials in front of the emperor, whether good or bad, all of them were killed, and blood was splashed on the emperor's face.
Seeing this, we all understand that Emperor Han Xian's situation has actually fallen into a dead cycle again, because Cao Cao has changed. This is completely powerless for Emperor Han Xian, so how should he face this dilemma?
- According to our thoughts, it must be Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty who directly set up a Hongmen banquet and killed Cao Cao in public.
However, let's not forget that Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty is the Son of Heaven, and although Cao Cao is ambitious, he gives him the best treatment, so the Son of Heaven cannot take risks, and everything must be done without leakage.
Moreover, at that time, the combination of Cao Cao and Emperor Han Xian was to unify the world, whether it was for security or for this supreme goal, Emperor Han Xian needed to be carried out safely.
Therefore, the rebellion of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty came step by step.
The first step was to express his dissatisfaction with Cao Cao.
For example, the aforementioned Emperor Han Xian lost his temper, and Cao Cao was indeed taken aback. But Cao Cao is not Zhuge Liang, he will not change his behavior and apologize, but because he is afraid, he strengthens his control over Emperor Han Xian.
So Emperor Xian of Han began the second step, contacting the ministers of the court to restrain Cao Cao.
It should be said that this is the emperor's instinct and the most reasonable means.
According to historical records, there were many people in the regime of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty who supported him, the most famous of which was Xun Yu, the head of Shangshutai, and Kong Rong, a lonely brave man who later had a very bad reputation.
Xun Yu was a true patriot, and in troubled times he wanted to maintain the rule of the Han Dynasty, so he fully supported Cao Cao, and eventually led to the combination of Emperor Xian of Han and Cao Cao, who also almost dominated the world.
However, Cao Cao and Xun Yu eventually went to the opposite side, and Xun Yu also became the last hole card of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, but unfortunately, Cao Cao proved with his death that many traitors in this world evolved from loyal ministers.
As for Kong Rong, he is an excellent Confucian student, he is an excellent educator, but he is also a pure scholar with little talent.
All in all, he had all kinds of problems, but he still stood tenaciously at the forefront when everyone abandoned the Han Dynasty, and despite Cao Cao's intimidation, he always fought against it.
In the end, as a descendant of Confucius, he was beheaded by all over the house.
Seeing that conventional political means could not be stopped, Emperor Han Xian adopted a military confrontation, of course, Emperor Han Xian did not have an army, but he still had orthodoxy, so he and Dong Cheng launched an edict.
The result is self-evident, Dong Cheng died tragically, and Dong Guiren was pregnant and dragged to the emperor to be brutally killed. At that moment, Emperor Han Xian cried, and he was also desperate.
By this time, what to maintain the stability of this system, what to maintain the safety of the Son of Heaven, and to act prudently, everything has been pierced, and he and Cao Cao have long been fighting against each other.
Therefore, the next step is the important assassination link.
However, is it too late for Emperor Han Xian? Of course it's too late.
In the early days, when Cao Cao was still extremely dependent on Emperor Han Xian, Cao Cao had to sit opposite Emperor Han Xian's monarchs and ministers, but at that time, Emperor Han Xian could only take soft measures because of careful consideration, and did not dare to break the boat.
Later, Cao Cao had already left Xuchang and went to Yecheng, when Emperor Han Xian wanted to draw a knife, he and Cao Cao were separated by hundreds of thousands of miles, how to assassinate?
Of course, after that, Cao Cao's descendant Cao Chao demonstrated to everyone the Jedi counterattack of the Son of Heaven; However, at that time, Emperor Han Xian accepted his fate, he no longer resisted, but honestly became a "rich man".
This can refer to his attitude towards Cao Pi later, he is tired, destroy, hurry up, whoever wants to be the emperor, who will come.
Therefore, it is okay for Emperor Han Xian to cut Cao Cao with a knife, but we ignore the situation of Emperor Han Xian and the emperor's final choice.