Whenever there are troubled times, there will always be some heroes who stir up the storm, and Cao Cao and Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms period are undoubtedly the best of the heroes in the same period. We all know that one of these two people is often called a thief and a traitor, and the other is regarded as a great hero of the revival of the Han Dynasty. So, is Cao Cao really a thief, and Liu Bei really a hero? Not necessarily. 
claimed to be going to restore the Han family, but later Liu Bei claimed to be a relative of the Han family, and won the favor of many people in this capacity. Everyone believed that Liu Bei was the orthodox bloodline of the Han royal family, and later he was also called Uncle Liu Huang by many people. From this point of view, Liu Bei should be the most loyal leader of the Han Dynasty among the princes, but in fact, he raised trouble and recruited talents under the banner of reviving the Han Dynasty. However, in fact, Liu Bei did not really help the Eastern Han Dynasty after he had his own power, but continued to expand his power and concentrate on his own career. Even after Cao Pi abolished Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei didn't say anything, and he called himself emperor, you know, Cao Cao didn't claim the emperor. Therefore, although Liu Bei said that he was rejuvenating the Han dynasty and serving the imperial court, he was actually buying people's hearts under a name, so that he could justifiably do a great career on his own. 
Looking at it this way, don't you think that Liu Bei is actually not loyal to the Han family, so is he the real thief? Not really. Although Liu Bei did not really work for the Eastern Han Dynasty, this does not mean that he is not loyal to the Han family and the Liu family. Throughout the Chinese dynasties, there were countless people within the upper class who wanted to compete for power and profit. For example, the Yuwen family of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yuwen Hu has controlled the government for so many years, controlled several puppet emperors, and even murdered the emperor himself, but is he not loyal to the Yuwen family and the Northern Zhou Dynasty? This is not the case, in fact, Yuwen Hu just wants to monopolize power, and does not want to be restrained and controlled by the emperor, but he can't be the emperor, so he acts like this. If you can't be the nominal emperor, you can't live a power addiction? Moreover, the Northern Zhou Dynasty was able to have later development, and Yuwen Hu also had a certain amount of credit. And Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty forcibly seized the throne from his father after the Xuanwumen Rebellion, so Li Shimin was not loyal to the Tang Dynasty? Of course not, we can only say that he was not loyal to the emperor Li Yuan at that time, he was conscientious after becoming emperor, and the Tang Dynasty also appeared under his management. Both examples illustrate that faithfulness is a division of people and occasions. In the same way, Liu Bei was only disloyal to the Eastern Han Dynasty, not completely disloyal to the "Han family" and the Liu family. 
In fact, this is not difficult to understand, after all, the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time was already crumbling, and Liu Bei's own career was getting better and better. What's more, the future trend of the situation is not something that Liu Bei can decide alone, he still has countless civil ministers and military generals under him, he also has to consider these people, and these people will also restrict Liu Bei's thoughts and behaviors. In general, Liu Bei was just disloyal to the Eastern Han Dynasty and Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, but he was not a "Han thief" either. Everyone in the world calls him "Cao Thief", who knows that his heart has really said "Han Thief", most people will think of Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao first. Cao Cao is not like Liu Bei in the first place, nominally related to the Han family, so his incident will more or less cause controversy. In addition, Cao Cao's behavior of stealing the Han tomb and holding the Son of Heaven hostage also attracted a lot of blackmail, and the act of "blackmailing the Son of Heaven" actually had enough weight to brand him as a "Han thief". However, in fact, Cao Cao also had a time when he really worked hard for the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the early years, when Dong Zhuo controlled the government and "coerced the Son of Heaven to order the princes", Cao Cao was one of the few princes who really worked hard with Dong Zhuo and wanted to support the Han family. At that time, he did have a pure heart to save the country and become a minister of the humerus. 
However, Cao Cao was a very ambitious person, in the process of crusading against Dong Zhuo and fighting everywhere, he gradually discovered that the Eastern Han Dynasty was already terminally ill, and at the same time he felt the pleasure of having power, and his original intention was slowly corrupted by desire. Later, he set up his own door, and with his outstanding ability, he quickly expanded his sphere of influence, becoming a tyrant. At this time, he already has enough ability and power, and it is undoubtedly a fantasy for him to give up his efforts at this time to help the Eastern Han Dynasty, which has long been decayed. In fact, strictly speaking, Cao Cao was not loyal to the Han family, he was only loyal to the world and the strong. It is not so much that he was loyal to the Han family, but that he just had a strong mentality, which may also be a reason why he cherishes his talents and loves them. And when he finds that the strong man in his mind has changed beyond recognition and is no longer strong, he will immediately find another way. 
So after the decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao decided to become the kind of strong man in his mind and establish the world he wanted. Later, it was his son Cao Pi who forced Emperor Xian of Han to abdicate and replace him, and therefore his name of "Han thief" was confirmed, and to this day, many people who know a little about the history of the Three Kingdoms, especially those who have read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", will think that Cao Cao is an out-and-out "traitor". One side is a hero, talking about "Han thieves", whether it is Cao Cao or Liu Bei, they are all shipped out at the right time. And at that time, people like them were not uncommon, but most of them didn't get their level of achievement, so they were often singled out for evaluation. 
Cao Cao and Liu Bei were both heroes who stood at the top of the Three Kingdoms period, each with their own forces, and there is no need to carefully discuss which of them is more loyal to the Han family. After all, if you want to say that Cao Cao was loyal to Han, he did later set up his own door and held Emperor Xian of Han hostage; Let's say that Liu Bei is loyal to Han, except for his surname Liu, he actually has little to do with the Han family, after all, when he claimed to be the king, he was actually no different from Cao Cao. If you have to say who is a "Han thief", in fact, Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan are all "Han thieves", and no one is much better than the other. The Eastern Han Dynasty has long been in decline due to the influence of the system, rulers, social forms and other factors, and it is a matter of time before it is divided and destroyed, but Cao Liu and others have stood in the largest and most conspicuous position. At the same time, these two were born in the Han Dynasty but both set up their own doors and no longer served the Han family, which can also be said to be disloyal. Therefore, Cao and Liu are not considered "Han thieves", but they can also be said to be "Han thieves".