Cao Cao's Ten Lectures
Chapter 3 The Hegemony and Hegemony Theory of Young Politicians
Chapter 3 The Hegemony and Hegemony Theory of Young Politicians
Hegemony and power politics are not exclusive products of any social system.The feudal dynasties in Chinese history all advocated the kingly way, but who knew that they were all dressed in the sheep's clothing of the "kingly way" and engaged in "dominant" tiger-wolf behavior.
Kingship of the Sunset Empire
Dominance and dominance have always been topics that rulers and thinkers of all ages have been talking about.Domineering and domineering, simply put, are the difference between "convincing others with virtue" and "convincing others with strength".The first person who systematically established the "Way of Kings" was Duke Zhou of the Western Zhou Dynasty. This famous statesman in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, who was highly respected by the later Confucian masters, combined the etiquette system of the Xia and Shang Dynasties with the etiquette of the Zhou nation and established a The whole set of moral norms, and the unification of this set of norms and legal norms, have been cast into the civil and martial arts in the form of "rituals, music, punishment, and politics". This is the origin of the Chinese kingly way.
With the weakening of the Zhou regime, the "rites and music" respected by the Zhou people were replaced by the chaotic situation of "the war of righteousness in the Spring and Autumn Period".At this time, the Confucian school headed by Confucius and Mencius picked up the banner of the "kingly way" abandoned by the princes of the Spring and Autumn Period, established a more complete set of norms, and became an important branch of the contention among a hundred schools of thought.
By the time of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu, who claimed to be an "outstanding representative" of the Confucian school, mixed Confucianism, Taoism, and Yin-Yang ideas with each other, and established a set of "three cardinal principles and five constant principles" that fully catered to the feudal kingship. In the supreme position, he won the favor of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, thereby establishing the exclusive status of Confucianism, and also established the "kingly way" with "virtue and etiquette" as the main content, which has become the "self-cultivation, family harmony, The main strategy of governing the country and pacifying the world".
However, although the rulers and their politicians try their best to advocate the "kingly way" and advocate "conquering people with virtue", the real Chinese history is a looming "hegemonic" history.
The Xia Dynasty, the head of the three dynasties, was actually built on the basis of bloody "hegemony".Legend has it that Dayu, who came to power by "abdication", originally wanted to "abide" the position of leader of the clan alliance to Boyi, but Xia Qi blatantly seized the power of the leader of the clan alliance by virtue of his powerful clan power, becoming the first in Chinese history. The government of the world.This blatant violation of "tradition" was opposed by some tribes. The Youhu clan once blatantly opposed it, leading to several battles between the two sides. The earliest "military order" in China is said to be issued by Xia Qi before the decisive battle.
At the end of the Xia Dynasty, the Shang tribes who surrendered to the Xia regime and located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River saw that the Xia regime was becoming increasingly unpopular, so they raised the banner of "elimination of violence and peace" and fought against Xia's main force in the Mingtiao battle, making the last ruler of the Xia Dynasty The exiled exiles caused them to die as a guest, and the Shang tribe established the Shang Dynasty from then on.At the end of the Shang Dynasty, King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty promoted the "Jiuchi Meat Forest", which sharply intensified social conflicts.At this time, the Zhou people, a small tribe located in the Weihe River Basin in Guanzhong, were secretly accumulating strength and encroaching on the merchant's territory.King Wen of Zhou reigned for more than 40 years. On the surface, he was humble and submissive, but secretly he kept recruiting troops to expand his strength, and finally formed a situation of "three parts of the world, Zhou has the second" before his death.Once King Wen of Zhou died and King Wu ascended the throne for two years, he continued to raise troops to defeat Zhou. In the battle of Muye in Shang and Zhou, the Shang army composed of slaves turned against each other, allowing the Zhou people to easily establish a new home world.
This is the history of mutual replacement between Xia, Shang and Zhou in history. It is no different from the bloody history of regime replacement in later generations. It is nothing more than a history of "dominant" and "deceitful ways".
As for the "five tyrants" that Confucianism denigrates, of course there is the rude behavior of King Zhuang of Chu "asking for the Central Plains", but there is also the naked "hegemony" of Wu and Yue contending for hegemony to rule the Central Plains.And Duke Huan of Qi's "nine princes unite, govern the world under one roof" is certainly domineering, but is it not a means of mediating disputes among countries and easing conflicts?Therefore, the ancients strongly praised the kingly way and condemned the high-handed way, as if the two were diametrically opposed things, but in fact they were brothers.
Entering the Eastern Han Dynasty, where will the "kingly way" and "overbearing" go?What impact does it have on our protagonist Cao Cao?
The regime of the Eastern Han Dynasty was established on the basis that a large number of landlords and bureaucrats were not fundamentally attacked. Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty was a powerful man, and most of the so-called "28 Yuntai Generals" and "360 Five Heroes" who followed him to conquer the world were nobles , bureaucrats, landlords.After the establishment of the regime, these aristocratic landlords were granted marquis titles, and their strength further expanded, forming a powerful group with Nanyang tyrants as the backbone.These tyrants scattered all over the country must protect the interests of themselves and their small groups. That is to say, from the very beginning of the Eastern Han regime, there were many contradictions between the central and local, local and local, big and small tyrants.In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, although the imperial court, as the embodiment of centralized power, had high prestige, it could only exercise a certain degree of control over the whole country within the limit of not hindering the interests of the powerful. Can live in peace.However, after Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Han Zhang, the successors were all baby emperors, and the power of the central government was held by eunuchs and relatives in turn. The control of the local government became weaker and weaker, while the local spying on the central government became stronger and stronger.With the deepening of conflicts between different power groups and the intensification of struggles, the exploitation of the common people has become increasingly serious, and the lives of the majority of farmers have fallen into dire straits, which eventually led to the Yellow Turban Army uprising in 184 AD.Local tyrants took this opportunity to expand their strength and separated from the central government, and the unified empire has essentially fallen apart.
Looking at the history before Cao Cao entered the historical stage, China is a history of "hegemonic" process under the cover of "kingly way", and the special founding foundation and specific development history of the Eastern Han regime made any politician who entered a chaotic era No matter what their goals are, military strategists and careerists, they can only follow the "hegemonic" line boldly, embark on power politics, and seek survival and development in turbulent times.In this way, after seeking to achieve political unification, they will come to Yanwu Xiuwen, and use "virtue and etiquette" to achieve long-term stability of the country.
stormy hegemony
It is precisely because the history of China is a history of "hegemonic" hegemony, and because of the special founding experience of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the entire Eastern Han Dynasty was built on the basis of the support of big landlords and big bureaucrats, and because the emperor was young, the central government The royal power has not been in the hands of the supreme ruler for a long time, but has been held by foreign relatives and eunuchs in turn, which further fueled the ambition of the separatist forces.As Cao Cao, a son of an aristocratic family who is well aware of the history and shortcomings of this dynasty, he never thought of adopting "kingly ways" such as "education" and "virtue and etiquette" since he entered the political arena. great” policy.
The Eastern Han Dynasty was one of the dynasties where eunuchs were most harmful. Although Cao Cao came to power by following the route of eunuchs, he "betrayed" his own group, and he spared no effort to attack eunuchs. "Miscellaneous Yu" once recorded that when Cao Cao was young, he sneaked to the house of Zhang Rang, the great eunuch at that time, to try to assassinate him. Unfortunately, Zhang Rang found out and asked his family to arrest him.Unexpectedly, Cao Cao actually held a long halberd, killed the general, and then escaped calmly from the back wall.His courage and courage are indeed beyond compare. In "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Luo Guanzhong fabricated the plot of Cao Cao assassinating Dong Zhuo with a short blade. Although it is a fiction, it is estimated that he saw Cao Cao's courage from this story, and then grafted others' stories onto Cao Cao's head.From Cao Cao's assassination of the eunuch Zhang Rang, we can see his hatred of the most corrupt power group at that time and his extraordinary courage.
Probably Cao Cao became a masked assassin, so this kind of "attempted murder" of blatant entry into the house did not suffer from the disaster of killing himself.When he was 20 years old, he promoted Xiaolian as a man because of his nepotism, and was appointed as Luoyang North Captain.After Cao Cao took office, he wantonly rectified social order.He first repaired the city gate and fixed the hardware facilities in his jurisdiction, presumably to make it easier for him to "close the door and beat the dog".What's interesting is that Cao Cao "invented" the "five-color stick".The Chinese are no strangers to sticks. Sticks were not only a necessary item for "family education" in ancient families, but also a tool of violence in courts.Even at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the big stick was still a must-have item for the yamen.But no one can tell when the big stick policy originated. However, it was Emperor Han Jing of the Western Han Dynasty who first "improved" the stick in the Han Dynasty.During Emperor Jing's period, when the punishment was carried out with sticks, the "thugs" set up the torture tools themselves, and frequently changed people during the execution process. Often the punishment was not completed, and the victim died.Therefore, the emperor, known as "people-oriented" in history, specially promulgated the "Chui Order", which clearly stipulated the materials used for the stick, as well as the length, width, and thickness, and stipulated that no substitutions could be made during the execution of the punishment.This is the first improvement and "standardization" of torture instruments organized by the emperor in Chinese history.Compared with Emperor Han Jing's efforts on quality, Cao Cao's stick reform seems a bit inexplicable. What he changed was the color of the stick. the meaning of.It is estimated that Cao Cao's painstaking efforts were mainly for the purpose of propaganda and deterrence. Its true connotation may be similar to Shang Yang's "city gate pillars", which is to send a certain signal to the public: I want to play the real game, everyone is the best. Be careful!
Cao Cao used sticks to publicize his security policy, and acted more decisively and resolutely in actual actions, and the target of attack was directed at the rich and powerful.At that time, as long as the law of the court was violated, Cao Cao would "do not shy away from the powerful, and would kill them all with sticks."Because it was the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, the imperial court was extremely corrupt, and Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty even publicly sold his officials. A great storm of resistance was brewing in the whole society, and the uprising of the Yellow Turban Army, which is well known to the world, was actively preparing.As a court official who was familiar with the situation at that time, Cao Cao wanted to turn the tide and rectify it. This objectively also met the objective needs of easing the contradiction between nobles, bureaucrats and civilians.During his tenure, one of the most memorable things Cao Cao did was defying violence and killing the uncle of the eunuch Jian Shuo who was favored by Emperor Ling at that time.Relying on his backing in the imperial court, this person blatantly violated Cao Cao's "curfew order", but was "clicked" by Cao Cao without hesitation.
Although Cao Cao's dominance greatly pleased the hearts of the people, what greeted him was not flowers and applause, but it was not a sea of swords and swords, but a series of blows.He was quickly "promoted" as Dunqiu Ling, far away from the "happy land" of eunuchs.Then he was removed from office because of his brother-in-law, and was soon re-appointed.At this time, the Eastern Han Dynasty was the time when the struggle between eunuchs and bureaucrats was the most intense, but the result of the struggle was the disaster of two "party bans". A large number of bureaucrats and their family members were banned from being officials for life. The leading general Dou Wu and the Taifu Chen Fan were also killed by eunuchs.Seeing all this, Cao Cao, who hoped that the imperial court would revive and make the people live and work in peace, was heartbroken. He used every opportunity to write a letter, pointing out that the upright people were framed, the court was full of treacherous people, and the kind-hearted people had nothing to do with their lofty ambitions. The opportunity to display.However, the mediocre Han Lingdi still blindly appointed treacherous villains, and the court politics became increasingly corrupt. Faced with this situation where the building was about to collapse, Cao Cao could only keep silent and protect himself wisely.
At the same time when the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty became increasingly corrupt and the suffering of the people continued to deepen, Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Taiping Taoism that is widely spread among the people, used preaching as a means to develop 10 believers in eight states in more than ten years.In order to launch the uprising, he organized believers, and the whole country was divided into 36 parties, with more than 7000 people in the big party, and 184 people in the small party. "Slogan, used to agitate the broad masses of peasants to revolutionize.He also sent people to Luoyang, the capital, and various prefectures and counties to write "Jiazi" with white clay on the gates of the government buildings as targets of attack.In [-] AD, the famous Yellow Turban Uprising broke out in history.
In the face of the massive uprising of the Yellow Turban Army, the ruling group was in a mess. The so-called "emergency seeks medical treatment". It began to have a bright future.Similarly, being in power in troubled times is undoubtedly an opportunity for Cao Cao, who is rich in martial arts strategy and dedicated to making contributions. He was named a riding captain by the court, and he suppressed the Yellow Turban Uprising in the Yingchuan area (now Yu County, Henan).Although the Yellow Turban Army was mighty, they acted independently, and were finally defeated by the ruling group one by one.During the suppression process, Cao Cao was promoted to Prime Minister of Jinan because of his military merits.
Cao Cao, who had regained his ambition, seemed to see the opportunity to reborn the Han Dynasty and revive it again, trying to govern the place as a model for other regions, and once again implemented his "big stick" policy. bureaucrats and landlords.Cao Cao served as Prime Minister of Jinan for three years mainly to crack down on the corruption and enjoyment of landlords and bureaucrats.When the Eastern Han Dynasty founded the country, it also followed the example of Liu Bang in the Western Han Dynasty to "feud the state and build the country".However, with the weakening of the centralization of power, the control of the local area has also been relaxed, and the powerful princes took the opportunity to collude with local forces and become the local overlord.With the recovery of the feudal economy, a group of landlords also emerged through business operations. They were richer than princes. Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty once called them "Sufeng", which meant that although they did not have titles, their wealth was not below that of princes.After possessing strong economic strength, these landlords bought official titles by paying taxes to the feudal regime.Especially during the reign of Emperor Lingling of the Han Dynasty, official titles were publicly auctioned, and they could even be bought and sold on "credit", making dignitaries with titles bestowed by the court abound.Relying on their political status and economic strength, these people live extravagantly and enjoy themselves, compare with each other, plunder financially, and bully the people, causing the whole society to be ruled by wolves, the people weep, and the atmosphere is corrupted.
Jinan Chengyang under the rule of Cao Cao was the feudal state of King Jing Liuzhang. Because of his contribution to the Han Dynasty, a sacrificial ancestral hall was built in the feudal state for sacrifices at four seasons to highlight his special status.But at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the whole Qingzhou followed suit, and Jinan became more popular. There were more than 600 ancestral halls of various sizes.These ancestral halls not only waste a lot of money, but also become a tool for nobles and landlords to pretend to be gods and ghosts in the name of sacrificing ancestors, extorting their own poor and their tenants. This kind of random construction of ancestral halls is obviously against the law in the era of strict feudal hierarchy. of.What's more serious is that many businessmen and landlords who "purchased" titles from the imperial court took advantage of their political and economic status to "promote entertainment and increase luxury", while the people became increasingly impoverished.Frightened by the strength of the local forces, the officials of all dynasties turned a blind eye to these phenomena.However, Cao Cao, who had been tempered by the war, did the opposite.As soon as he took office, he destroyed all the ancestral halls in the government office, and prohibited bureaucratic landlords from building and offering sacrifices. Then he changed customs and cracked down on all kinds of acts of pretending to be gods and ghosts and amassing money. The extravagant social atmosphere suddenly changed.For officials who were unwilling or afraid to implement their own policies, Cao Cao mercilessly dismissed them one by one and replaced them with shrewd and capable officials.Cao Cao used his power to show no mercy to the forces that dared to resist. In addition, he had a solid backer in the court, so that he served as Prime Minister of Jinan for three years, and those bully landlords who deceived the people fled in embarrassment. stay inside.According to historical records, under his governance, "politics and religion are popular, and a county is peaceful."
However, Cao Cao was not reused because of his outstanding achievements. On the contrary, he was once again promoted secretly to serve as the titular prefect of Dongjun.Realizing that "working" under the hands of others, he would be in danger if he did not have the final decision-making power. Cao Cao simply excused his illness and went home, devoting himself to reading and hunting, studying literature and martial arts, and waiting for opportunities.At this time, he has realized that he is in troubled times and can only turn things around by relying on military power and power.
The creed of contending for hegemony: I would rather blame others than others
In 188 A.D., because Bian Zhang and Han Sui assassinated the governor of Liangzhou and the prefect of Jincheng in the northwest of Jincheng, they launched a rebellion, gathered more than [-] people, and once again threatened the capital. .For this "fat vacancy" that controls a certain amount of military power, Cao Cao readily accepted it and immediately took office.But at this precarious time, the licentious Emperor Ling of Han came to the end of his life, the prince succeeded to the throne, and the Empress Dowager He took charge of state affairs. After that, the Eastern Han regime performed the last battle between relatives and eunuchs.Empress Dowager He appointed her elder brother He Jin as the general to hold the power of the government, but unfortunately, this man is an idiot with great ambition and little talent.He saw that the eunuchs threatened his own power group, but he couldn't tell the priority, and advocated killing all the eunuchs, but Empress Dowager He was indecisive, and finally the eunuch, who was all-pervasive, learned the news.Just as the stupid He Jin adopted the suggestion of Yuan Shao, who was as short-sighted as he was, he ordered Dong Zhuo to lead the army into Beijing to kill the eunuchs in the name of the court, but he was killed by the eunuchs.Then the Yuan Shao brothers and Cao Cao led the imperial army defending the capital to kill all the eunuchs, and then Dong Zhuo entered the capital and took control of the central power.
Dong Zhuo was actually quite self-aware. He knew that what he brought from Gansu was just a group of warriors who could only fight but had no experience in governing the country and no social status.Therefore, on the one hand, in the name of the imperial court, he appointed the sons of many aristocratic families as the governors of important local counties and counties, and on the other hand, he tried to win over scholars and celebrities in the imperial court to serve him.But although Yuan Shao was proud and arrogant, he was also cowardly, so he fled every day.Cao Cao knew that although Dong Zhuo was a warrior, he was ambitious and would turn the Han Dynasty upside down, so he absconded.Dong Zhuo ordered him to be wanted in the name of the court, so Cao Cao changed from an army commander to a key criminal of the court, and he had to escape in embarrassment without food and drink.According to legend, he fled to the home of Lu Boshe, an old man in Chenggao, Henan Province. The old man let him rest first, and then slaughtered pigs and made wine to entertain him graciously.But Cao Cao, who had been terrified all day long, woke up from his sleep, heard the sound of sharpening knives towards pigs and sheep, and heard his friends and family members whispering about "killing". His hands and feet were cold and he was frightened. Killed cleanly.After realizing that he had killed the wrong person, Cao Cao cried out sadly: "It is better for me to blame others than to be blamed for me!" Since then, this has become his creed in fighting for hegemony.
In the first month of 190, Yuan Shu, Han Fu, Kong Xian, Liu Dai, Wang Kuang, Yuan Shao, Zhang Miao, Qiao Mao, Yuan Yi, and Bao Xin responded to the call to attack Dong Zhuo at the same time, and promoted Yuan Shao as the leader.What's interesting is that most of these people's positions and sites were given by Dong Zhuo in the name of the court, but they opposed Dong Zhuo in the name of "saving" the court.Cao Cao recruited thousands of people to participate in it and act as General Fenwu.But in the face of Xiliang's strong army, the allied forces of the princes waited and watched, but Cao Cao fought alone and was defeated by Dong Zhuo's general Xu Rong. Cao Cao was injured by an arrow and managed to escape.After the allied forces of the princes fell apart, Cao Cao saw through the faces of these "boys and brothers", so he refused Yuan Shao's solicitation and began to develop independently.
In fact, after the Yellow Turban Army’s uprising in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the central government’s control over the localities seemed powerless; when Dong Zhuo took over the power and the princes conquered it, the central government existed in name only, and the princes from all walks of life officially began to compete for the Central Plains and dominate the Central Plains.In this chaotic world where wolves coexisted, although Cao Cao's initial strength was weak and the struggle for hegemony was not smooth sailing, he adopted a domineering strategy from beginning to end, but the implementation of this strategy had gains and losses, which ensured his unification of the north. , but the excessive slaughter also made him lose the chance to dominate the world in a sense.
At the beginning, Cao Cao's capital was not strong, so he has been mopping up the weaker Yellow Turban Army.In 192, he was sent to Yanzhou to suppress the Yellow Turban Army. Cao Cao surrendered hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban Army, selected the best of them, organized them into Qingzhou soldiers, established his own prestige, and occupied the territory of Yanzhou without bloodshed. The situation is very good .But in 193 AD, because his father Cao Song was killed by Xuzhou Tao Qian's subordinates on the way to Cao Cao's territory, Cao Cao went on a killing spree, painted a sinful stroke on his history, and made himself His career once fell into a trough.When he learned that his father and his party had been killed, Cao Cao was furious, and immediately sent troops to attack Tao Qian, taking several cities in succession.Tao was defeated and fled to Tancheng without fighting behind closed doors. Cao Cao was unable to attack, so he became brutal, and "killed hundreds of thousands of men and women in the city of Xuzhou he occupied, and put them in Surabaya, so that the water would not flow."At that time, many people in Xuzhou were fleeing from the Guanzhong area to avoid Dong Zhuo's chaos. They never expected that after fleeing to the relatively peaceful Xuzhou, what awaited them was an even more terrifying massacre!Cao Cao failed to capture Tancheng, and captured the other three counties, but also "slaughtered them all, the chickens and dogs were all gone, and there were no pedestrians in the ruins."Cao Cao also used crazy massacres to create "no man's land" in several counties.In the second year, Cao Cao's lingering anger was still there, and he attacked Tao Qian again.In fact, the common people in Xuzhou had nothing to do with the murder of Cao Cao's father.Cao Cao's massacre in such a large scale certainly meant revenge for his father, but it may also have the meaning of "using heavy codes in troubled times" to kill and establish power.Because Tao Qian is relatively popular in Xuzhou, Cao Cao's murder may still be an attempt to create a psychological deterrent pressure.Later, the principles formulated by Cao Cao were still adhered to after the siege, and the policy of massacring the city was implemented. This method continued until the north was basically pacified.
Facts have proved that Cao Cao's policy of implementing "hegemony" over the people and creating "no man's land" was quite a failure.Cao Cao's massacre in Xuzhou was in stark contrast to Liu Bei's behavior of implementing benevolence and righteousness in Xuzhou, which earned Liu Bei a good reputation. After Tao Qian died, Xuzhou was handed over to Liu Bei for governance, and Xuzhou once became Liu Bei's base for contending for supremacy.This evil result even affected the battle of Chibi, which decided to divide the world into three parts. When Cao Cao attacked Jingzhou, Liu Cong surrendered. I also vowed to fight Cao Jun to the end. These are the sequelae of Cao Cao's policy of massacring the people.At the same time, Cao Cao's massacre disappointed the Yanzhou forces that actively attached to him. Zhang Miao and Chen Gong, who once supported him, felt chilled. They responded one after another, and only three county towns fell into the hands of the Cao Cao Group.This sudden change made Cao Cao stalemate with Lu Bu in Yanzhou for nearly two years before regaining the territory and consolidating it.
Cao Cao's large-scale massacre of the people was basically the first battle in Xuzhou, but in future wars, the method of massacring the city to intimidate opponents appeared frequently.In the battle with Lv Bu to regain Yanzhou, the brave and intrepid Lv Bu was finally defeated by Cao Cao and fled, taking Zhang Miao and Chen Gong to Liu Bei in Xuzhou.Zhang Miao asked his younger brother Zhang Chao to guard his family in Yongqiu.Cao Cao besieged the city from August to December. After the city was broken, he not only wiped out Zhang Miao's three clans, but also slaughtered all the people in the city.This way of massacring the city will appear from time to time in future wars, which shows that Cao Cao's massacre of the city was by no means impulsive like the Xuzhou massacre, but a planned way to deter opponents.In addition, Cao Cao was equally ruthless to his opponents on the battlefield.In 8 AD, the Battle of Guandu took place.Cao Cao's victory over the many with the few and the strong with the weak have become famous battles in history, but in this battle, Cao Cao once again demonstrated his cruelty.After successfully attacking Wuchao, he cut off the noses of more than a thousand captives (in other words, cut off after killing), the lips and tongues of cattle and horses, and used such bloody methods to scare Yuan Shao's soldiers.After the Battle of Guandu, for the prisoners of war, "fuck it all, and kill more than 12 people before and after."It can be seen that Cao Cao's massacre of soldiers and civilians was planned and purposeful, and it was all a strategy for him to use domineering methods to compete for territory and power.
Cao Cao not only slaughtered the people and soldiers at the bottom of the society to shock his opponents, make them surrender and "live up" himself, but he also did the same for the trump card in his hand-Han Xiandi. , No one will blame me."
Cao Cao was the first warlord to realize the value of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty. In 196 AD, Cao Cao found Emperor Xian of Han and his party in Luoyang, and then hijacked the last emperor to his lair - Xuchang. Since then, this emperor has been Cao Cao's most valuable The golden puppet.Cao Cao was once loyal to the Han Dynasty, but his repeated setbacks as a "loyal minister" in the early stage have made him lose confidence in the Han Dynasty.Therefore, when Cao Cao hijacked Han Xiandi to Xuchang, the "Han Dynasty" in his mind was already dead.Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian not to "rebuild the Han Dynasty", but to use the signboard of Emperor Xian of Han to grow and develop his own power and realize his ambitions. Therefore, he will never tolerate the small group of Emperor Xian of Han against his wishes.
In fact, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty was not a foolish king, but was born at an untimely time.Judging from the vague historical records, he had at least two contests with Cao Cao.In the fourth year of Jian'an, that is, in 199 A.D., Dong Cheng, the uncle of the country, received the clothes belt edict of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, and conspired against Cao with Zhong Ji, Wu Zilan, Wang Zifu, and Liu Bei. Dong Cheng and others wiped out the clan.At that time, Dong Cheng's daughter was a nobleman of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, and she was pregnant. Emperor Xian pleaded for mercy several times, but Cao Cao was also merciless and slaughtered her.After that, Empress Fu, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, saw Cao Cao's ferocious face, and felt that sooner or later she would not be spared. She wrote a letter to her father, hoping to find a chance to get rid of Cao Cao.It is impossible for Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty not to know about such a major event of eradicating heroes, at least through his acquiescence and cooperation.However, deterred by the growing strength of Cao Cao, until Jian'an 14 years, he died after he died, and he never did anything.In the 19th year of Jian'an, the matter finally leaked. Cao Cao not only forced Han Xiandi to abolish the queen, but also ordered Hua Xin to lead troops into the palace, find the queen hiding in the wall, and drag her away.At this time, Emperor Xian and the doctor of imperial history were sitting in the court hall, and the empress with disheveled hair staggered past him. The empress held Emperor Xian's hand and said, "Can't you save me again?" Emperor Xian said, "I don't know either. When will I die!" Emperor Xian turned his head and said to the doctor, "Xi Gong, is there such a thing in the world?" In just two sentences, Emperor Xian's desolation, helplessness and extreme anger were expressed.Cao Cao not only killed Empress Fu, but also poisoned his two princes and several hundred members of his clan.His overbearing methods and cruel methods have always been criticized by later generations.
These behaviors of Cao Cao, in the feudal society, were to kill the king with his ministers, and offend the superiors, which is a big treasonous move. Although this gave the opponent an excuse, it was actually a kind of domineering means for Cao Cao to consolidate his authority and prevent his confidants.But his "I would rather blame others than others blame me" undoubtedly went to extremes in these aspects, and became strong evidence that later generations "poisoned" Cao Cao.
The characteristics of Cao's centralization
Although Cao Cao's hegemony method brought many disasters to the emperor and the soldiers, it was a relatively practical method at that time.Because from the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han regime began to gradually decay and fester. The entire Eastern Han regime lost its value of existence due to eunuchs and foreign relatives who were fish and meat people for more than 100 years. The result of "Wang Gang undoing the knot" is that the local forces are growing, and careerists emerge in endlessly. At this time, whoever has the ability to protect the suffering country or a part of the people is qualified to replace the Han Dynasty, or to separate one side and watch the world quietly. Change.Therefore, in troubled times, the so-called "benevolence and righteousness" and "kingly way" will not work at all.
Although Cao Cao was cruel, through coercive means, at least most of the Central Plains were reunified under the banner of the Han government headed by Han Xiandi in name, forming a centralized power in some areas.He took the displaced Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to Xu County, built a palace for Emperor Xian, established a court, arranged daily life, and planned court funds.Through decades of conquests from east to west, Cao Cao unified most of the territory of the Han Dynasty and seven of the thirteen prefectures under the Han court in Xu County, so that these prefectures were no longer There are small warlords, bandits, or barbarians who make trouble, and there are no more obvious corrupt officials. Let the people live and work in peace and contentment, and at least give the people a chance to survive.
The greatest achievement of Cao Cao's hegemony lies in the attack and suppression of the local tyrants and aristocratic families at that time, and a powerful blow to the local separatist forces that have endangered the centralization of power for more than 100 years since the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty.From what Cao Cao did in his early career, we can see that Cao Cao tried to use stricter laws to change the situation of power and arrogance from the very beginning, but because the root of the disaster was in the central government, Cao Cao, as a middle-level official, could not do anything about it. To change a corrupt court, he cannot compete with the corrupt forces of the entire court, so he cannot realize his ambition at all.Whether he was in Luoyang or Jinan, although he had made impressive achievements, he still ended up ending his official position. It was this kind of encounter that made him no longer pin his hopes on the court. Instead, establish the "Cao family" court that "holds the emperor to order the princes", so that one's will can be thoroughly implemented.
After Cao Cao took power, he vigorously promoted the rule of law, and the policy of suppressing the rule of law could be truly and comprehensively implemented.He said: "Punishment is the order of the common people";He used Wang Xiu, Sima Zhi, Yang Pei, Lu Qian, Man Chong, Jia Kui and other local officials to restrain the lawless and powerful. Facts have proved that this kind of attack against the nobles and bureaucrats is a great "magic weapon" for Cao Cao to win the hearts of the people and win the victory. ".
If we compare the governance techniques implemented by Yuan Shao and Cao Cao successively in Jizhou, we can see that the two different policies of "Huairou" and "Overbearing" have produced two completely different results: Wide, so don't shoot."Under Yuan Shao's leniency policy, "the strong and the powerful do whatever they want, the relatives annex, the poor and the poor, rent the tax on behalf of them, and show off the family wealth, which is not enough to meet their orders."
What Yuan Shao catered to and maintained was the interests of the upper-middle-class bureaucratic landlords. This only allowed a small group of middle- and upper-class people to cruelly exploit the vast number of lower-class officials and civilians. Some people occupied most of the resources of the entire society. Naturally, such tolerance cannot be tolerated. So that "the people are attached to each other, and the armored soldiers are strong."Therefore, although Yuan Shao has a larger territory, more troops, and more food, but the ruling group has many internal contradictions, strong centrifugal force, low-level soldiers have little supplies, and their combat effectiveness is not strong. Once the battle situation is unfavorable, those who flee will flee, and those who surrender will be defeated by Cao Cao in the end.
After Cao Cao acquired Jizhou, he immediately "emphasized the law of annexation by tyrants and powerful forces" and focused his attack on local tyrants. Although its subjective purpose is for oneself, it still meets the needs of social development objectively, so it has the effect of "people's joy".
While cracking down on local powerful families, Cao Cao strengthened prevention and supervision of bureaucratic officials who belonged to him, entered the central government and joined the Cao Group.In view of the fact that the eunuchs, relatives, and bureaucrats of the Eastern Han Dynasty formed a team and formed a party for personal gain, Cao Cao did not allow his ministers to form a party.
He ordered: "In the Qing Dynasty today, you should be loyal to the country and serve the king's affairs. Although you are better than others in private, it is useless to use thousands of pieces of silk and ten thousand stones." The supervision system, set up "school affairs".This move was opposed by many ministers. Their reasons seemed to be "high-sounding", and they believed that "it was not the purpose of trusting the subordinates".
In the face of opposition from his officials, Cao Cao did not back down, and his explanation was plausible: "If you want to be able to assassinate and do many things, and make a virtuous gentleman do it, you can't." Those who serve the public, you "sages and gentlemen" cannot do this.The so-called "sages and gentlemen" here mainly refer to ministers of aristocratic families. They have been officials for many generations, attached to each other, and have great reputation and influence.
In view of this fact, on the one hand, Cao Cao had no choice but to win over them, so that they could occupy the upper position without giving them real power; on the other hand, they also used the school affairs of humble origins to check their actions. Officials, the establishment of Yushitai, which holds real power, and the removal of the "Three Dukes", so as to consolidate the imperial power are consistent.How effective is this system?We can use Sun Quan's words to answer in the future.Sun Quan said: "The disciples of Changwen (Chen Qun's characters) were able to guard the good in the past. They used to control their heads. They feared that they would become strict, so they did their best' and did not dare to do wrong." It means like Chen Qun. The reason why such aristocrats were able to work conscientiously for Cao Cao was because Cao Cao set up a steel knife on their heads. As long as they acted "for personal gain", they would suffer the consequences of death and extermination.
It is under this high-pressure policy that Cao Cao's regime can continue to develop and flourish.In fact, it was not Cao Cao's actions alone to strengthen the supervision and suppression of officials. Sun Quan also followed Cao Cao's example and set up a school office. Aristocratic bureaucrats maintained the small court of Shu Han.It can be seen that setting up school affairs to monitor the actions of ministers to prevent the recurrence of the long-term prevalence of ministers forming cliques and pulling factions in the Eastern Han Dynasty is a necessary measure to ensure the consolidation of the regime.
In fact, judging from the internal structure of the Cao Wei regime, among the talent groups attached to the Cao Cao Group, the family ministers are the most, and the potential dangers are relatively serious.For the sake of himself and his descendants, Cao Cao set up school affairs to supervise the ministers. Although it was a bit harsh, it would be difficult to subdue them otherwise.It is said in history: "Duke Cao is strict in nature, he is a public official, and he often adds a stick." They had to rely on violence to maintain their authority and implement their will.
Cao Cao's promotion of hegemony, consolidation of his authority and centralization of power went the furthest by trying to restore the "corporal punishment" system that had been interrupted for nearly 400 years, in order to increase the deterrent and intimidating effect of the regime.Corporal punishment itself originated from ancient wars. Later, the rulers introduced the injury of human limbs and lives on the battlefield into the judicial field and established systematic punishment.In the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, there was a complex and systematic corporal punishment system. The so-called "Xia had chaos in politics, and it was punished by Yu; Shang had chaos in politics, and it was soup books; Zhou had chaos in politics, and it was nine punishments." In fact, it is all systematic corporal punishment.The ancient corporal punishment is a punishment of "breaking limbs, carving skin, and continuing for life".Specific punishments generally include tattooing (engraving marks or words on the face and painting them with ink), cutting off the nose, cutting off the feet, and destroying the genitals. Hundreds of articles, thousands of articles in total.Due to the abuse of corporal punishment by the rulers, it even caused a situation of "the humble and the noble". One of the important measures why Liu Bang was able to win power in the Western Han Dynasty was to abolish the cruel punishment of the Qin Dynasty.At the time of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Chunyu Yi, the former magistrate of Taicang County in Qidi, committed a crime and should be sentenced to corporal punishment and escorted to Chang'an.His daughter, Tiying, wrote a letter, arguing that the implementation of corporal punishment will make those who want to reform themselves have no chance.Emperor Wen was deeply moved and ordered the abolition of corporal punishment. After that, Emperor Jing further improved it and finally abolished the system of corporal punishment that had existed for thousands of years.In 213 AD, with the support of some officials, Cao Cao planned to restore corporal punishment in criminal matters.After 440 years since the abolition of corporal punishment, it was restored again. Both at that time and later generations aroused many criticisms, thinking that this was a huge retrogression.But if you look at it from another perspective, in a country where privileges are extremely prevalent, in a country where the laws have been despised by nobles, landlords and bureaucrats for nearly 100 years, the restoration of corporal punishment may suffer the most from the common people, but in a country that hates corruption and breaking the law Under the rule of powerful figures, the sharpness of corporal punishment also pointed to those upper-level figures within the ruling group who viciously exploited the people. Therefore, advocating the restoration of corporal punishment is only an extreme manifestation of Cao Cao's hegemony.
Cao Cao is cruel by nature, which not only has his vicious side, but also the objective needs of surviving in troubled times and striving for hegemony. Under the governance, politics at the end of the Han Dynasty became clear to a certain extent, the economy gradually recovered, and the political outlook and social atmosphere from the central to local governments were different from before.Not only did the number of ministers who fought against each other and formed cliques for private interests in the court decrease; local officials and tyrants who acted recklessly without punishment were also restrained to a certain extent.Sima Guang's statement that Cao Cao "turned chaos into order" is not unfounded.Subsequent facts also proved that the Cao Wei regime laid the foundation by Cao Cao was the most powerful local regime, with strong political and economic strength, so this regime finally completed the task of reunifying the country.The facts before and after Cao Cao's death also show that hegemony was the only way and way out to achieve hegemony and strive for unification at that time.
(End of this chapter)
Hegemony and power politics are not exclusive products of any social system.The feudal dynasties in Chinese history all advocated the kingly way, but who knew that they were all dressed in the sheep's clothing of the "kingly way" and engaged in "dominant" tiger-wolf behavior.
Kingship of the Sunset Empire
Dominance and dominance have always been topics that rulers and thinkers of all ages have been talking about.Domineering and domineering, simply put, are the difference between "convincing others with virtue" and "convincing others with strength".The first person who systematically established the "Way of Kings" was Duke Zhou of the Western Zhou Dynasty. This famous statesman in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, who was highly respected by the later Confucian masters, combined the etiquette system of the Xia and Shang Dynasties with the etiquette of the Zhou nation and established a The whole set of moral norms, and the unification of this set of norms and legal norms, have been cast into the civil and martial arts in the form of "rituals, music, punishment, and politics". This is the origin of the Chinese kingly way.
With the weakening of the Zhou regime, the "rites and music" respected by the Zhou people were replaced by the chaotic situation of "the war of righteousness in the Spring and Autumn Period".At this time, the Confucian school headed by Confucius and Mencius picked up the banner of the "kingly way" abandoned by the princes of the Spring and Autumn Period, established a more complete set of norms, and became an important branch of the contention among a hundred schools of thought.
By the time of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu, who claimed to be an "outstanding representative" of the Confucian school, mixed Confucianism, Taoism, and Yin-Yang ideas with each other, and established a set of "three cardinal principles and five constant principles" that fully catered to the feudal kingship. In the supreme position, he won the favor of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, thereby establishing the exclusive status of Confucianism, and also established the "kingly way" with "virtue and etiquette" as the main content, which has become the "self-cultivation, family harmony, The main strategy of governing the country and pacifying the world".
However, although the rulers and their politicians try their best to advocate the "kingly way" and advocate "conquering people with virtue", the real Chinese history is a looming "hegemonic" history.
The Xia Dynasty, the head of the three dynasties, was actually built on the basis of bloody "hegemony".Legend has it that Dayu, who came to power by "abdication", originally wanted to "abide" the position of leader of the clan alliance to Boyi, but Xia Qi blatantly seized the power of the leader of the clan alliance by virtue of his powerful clan power, becoming the first in Chinese history. The government of the world.This blatant violation of "tradition" was opposed by some tribes. The Youhu clan once blatantly opposed it, leading to several battles between the two sides. The earliest "military order" in China is said to be issued by Xia Qi before the decisive battle.
At the end of the Xia Dynasty, the Shang tribes who surrendered to the Xia regime and located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River saw that the Xia regime was becoming increasingly unpopular, so they raised the banner of "elimination of violence and peace" and fought against Xia's main force in the Mingtiao battle, making the last ruler of the Xia Dynasty The exiled exiles caused them to die as a guest, and the Shang tribe established the Shang Dynasty from then on.At the end of the Shang Dynasty, King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty promoted the "Jiuchi Meat Forest", which sharply intensified social conflicts.At this time, the Zhou people, a small tribe located in the Weihe River Basin in Guanzhong, were secretly accumulating strength and encroaching on the merchant's territory.King Wen of Zhou reigned for more than 40 years. On the surface, he was humble and submissive, but secretly he kept recruiting troops to expand his strength, and finally formed a situation of "three parts of the world, Zhou has the second" before his death.Once King Wen of Zhou died and King Wu ascended the throne for two years, he continued to raise troops to defeat Zhou. In the battle of Muye in Shang and Zhou, the Shang army composed of slaves turned against each other, allowing the Zhou people to easily establish a new home world.
This is the history of mutual replacement between Xia, Shang and Zhou in history. It is no different from the bloody history of regime replacement in later generations. It is nothing more than a history of "dominant" and "deceitful ways".
As for the "five tyrants" that Confucianism denigrates, of course there is the rude behavior of King Zhuang of Chu "asking for the Central Plains", but there is also the naked "hegemony" of Wu and Yue contending for hegemony to rule the Central Plains.And Duke Huan of Qi's "nine princes unite, govern the world under one roof" is certainly domineering, but is it not a means of mediating disputes among countries and easing conflicts?Therefore, the ancients strongly praised the kingly way and condemned the high-handed way, as if the two were diametrically opposed things, but in fact they were brothers.
Entering the Eastern Han Dynasty, where will the "kingly way" and "overbearing" go?What impact does it have on our protagonist Cao Cao?
The regime of the Eastern Han Dynasty was established on the basis that a large number of landlords and bureaucrats were not fundamentally attacked. Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty was a powerful man, and most of the so-called "28 Yuntai Generals" and "360 Five Heroes" who followed him to conquer the world were nobles , bureaucrats, landlords.After the establishment of the regime, these aristocratic landlords were granted marquis titles, and their strength further expanded, forming a powerful group with Nanyang tyrants as the backbone.These tyrants scattered all over the country must protect the interests of themselves and their small groups. That is to say, from the very beginning of the Eastern Han regime, there were many contradictions between the central and local, local and local, big and small tyrants.In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, although the imperial court, as the embodiment of centralized power, had high prestige, it could only exercise a certain degree of control over the whole country within the limit of not hindering the interests of the powerful. Can live in peace.However, after Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Han Zhang, the successors were all baby emperors, and the power of the central government was held by eunuchs and relatives in turn. The control of the local government became weaker and weaker, while the local spying on the central government became stronger and stronger.With the deepening of conflicts between different power groups and the intensification of struggles, the exploitation of the common people has become increasingly serious, and the lives of the majority of farmers have fallen into dire straits, which eventually led to the Yellow Turban Army uprising in 184 AD.Local tyrants took this opportunity to expand their strength and separated from the central government, and the unified empire has essentially fallen apart.
Looking at the history before Cao Cao entered the historical stage, China is a history of "hegemonic" process under the cover of "kingly way", and the special founding foundation and specific development history of the Eastern Han regime made any politician who entered a chaotic era No matter what their goals are, military strategists and careerists, they can only follow the "hegemonic" line boldly, embark on power politics, and seek survival and development in turbulent times.In this way, after seeking to achieve political unification, they will come to Yanwu Xiuwen, and use "virtue and etiquette" to achieve long-term stability of the country.
stormy hegemony
It is precisely because the history of China is a history of "hegemonic" hegemony, and because of the special founding experience of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the entire Eastern Han Dynasty was built on the basis of the support of big landlords and big bureaucrats, and because the emperor was young, the central government The royal power has not been in the hands of the supreme ruler for a long time, but has been held by foreign relatives and eunuchs in turn, which further fueled the ambition of the separatist forces.As Cao Cao, a son of an aristocratic family who is well aware of the history and shortcomings of this dynasty, he never thought of adopting "kingly ways" such as "education" and "virtue and etiquette" since he entered the political arena. great” policy.
The Eastern Han Dynasty was one of the dynasties where eunuchs were most harmful. Although Cao Cao came to power by following the route of eunuchs, he "betrayed" his own group, and he spared no effort to attack eunuchs. "Miscellaneous Yu" once recorded that when Cao Cao was young, he sneaked to the house of Zhang Rang, the great eunuch at that time, to try to assassinate him. Unfortunately, Zhang Rang found out and asked his family to arrest him.Unexpectedly, Cao Cao actually held a long halberd, killed the general, and then escaped calmly from the back wall.His courage and courage are indeed beyond compare. In "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Luo Guanzhong fabricated the plot of Cao Cao assassinating Dong Zhuo with a short blade. Although it is a fiction, it is estimated that he saw Cao Cao's courage from this story, and then grafted others' stories onto Cao Cao's head.From Cao Cao's assassination of the eunuch Zhang Rang, we can see his hatred of the most corrupt power group at that time and his extraordinary courage.
Probably Cao Cao became a masked assassin, so this kind of "attempted murder" of blatant entry into the house did not suffer from the disaster of killing himself.When he was 20 years old, he promoted Xiaolian as a man because of his nepotism, and was appointed as Luoyang North Captain.After Cao Cao took office, he wantonly rectified social order.He first repaired the city gate and fixed the hardware facilities in his jurisdiction, presumably to make it easier for him to "close the door and beat the dog".What's interesting is that Cao Cao "invented" the "five-color stick".The Chinese are no strangers to sticks. Sticks were not only a necessary item for "family education" in ancient families, but also a tool of violence in courts.Even at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the big stick was still a must-have item for the yamen.But no one can tell when the big stick policy originated. However, it was Emperor Han Jing of the Western Han Dynasty who first "improved" the stick in the Han Dynasty.During Emperor Jing's period, when the punishment was carried out with sticks, the "thugs" set up the torture tools themselves, and frequently changed people during the execution process. Often the punishment was not completed, and the victim died.Therefore, the emperor, known as "people-oriented" in history, specially promulgated the "Chui Order", which clearly stipulated the materials used for the stick, as well as the length, width, and thickness, and stipulated that no substitutions could be made during the execution of the punishment.This is the first improvement and "standardization" of torture instruments organized by the emperor in Chinese history.Compared with Emperor Han Jing's efforts on quality, Cao Cao's stick reform seems a bit inexplicable. What he changed was the color of the stick. the meaning of.It is estimated that Cao Cao's painstaking efforts were mainly for the purpose of propaganda and deterrence. Its true connotation may be similar to Shang Yang's "city gate pillars", which is to send a certain signal to the public: I want to play the real game, everyone is the best. Be careful!
Cao Cao used sticks to publicize his security policy, and acted more decisively and resolutely in actual actions, and the target of attack was directed at the rich and powerful.At that time, as long as the law of the court was violated, Cao Cao would "do not shy away from the powerful, and would kill them all with sticks."Because it was the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, the imperial court was extremely corrupt, and Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty even publicly sold his officials. A great storm of resistance was brewing in the whole society, and the uprising of the Yellow Turban Army, which is well known to the world, was actively preparing.As a court official who was familiar with the situation at that time, Cao Cao wanted to turn the tide and rectify it. This objectively also met the objective needs of easing the contradiction between nobles, bureaucrats and civilians.During his tenure, one of the most memorable things Cao Cao did was defying violence and killing the uncle of the eunuch Jian Shuo who was favored by Emperor Ling at that time.Relying on his backing in the imperial court, this person blatantly violated Cao Cao's "curfew order", but was "clicked" by Cao Cao without hesitation.
Although Cao Cao's dominance greatly pleased the hearts of the people, what greeted him was not flowers and applause, but it was not a sea of swords and swords, but a series of blows.He was quickly "promoted" as Dunqiu Ling, far away from the "happy land" of eunuchs.Then he was removed from office because of his brother-in-law, and was soon re-appointed.At this time, the Eastern Han Dynasty was the time when the struggle between eunuchs and bureaucrats was the most intense, but the result of the struggle was the disaster of two "party bans". A large number of bureaucrats and their family members were banned from being officials for life. The leading general Dou Wu and the Taifu Chen Fan were also killed by eunuchs.Seeing all this, Cao Cao, who hoped that the imperial court would revive and make the people live and work in peace, was heartbroken. He used every opportunity to write a letter, pointing out that the upright people were framed, the court was full of treacherous people, and the kind-hearted people had nothing to do with their lofty ambitions. The opportunity to display.However, the mediocre Han Lingdi still blindly appointed treacherous villains, and the court politics became increasingly corrupt. Faced with this situation where the building was about to collapse, Cao Cao could only keep silent and protect himself wisely.
At the same time when the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty became increasingly corrupt and the suffering of the people continued to deepen, Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Taiping Taoism that is widely spread among the people, used preaching as a means to develop 10 believers in eight states in more than ten years.In order to launch the uprising, he organized believers, and the whole country was divided into 36 parties, with more than 7000 people in the big party, and 184 people in the small party. "Slogan, used to agitate the broad masses of peasants to revolutionize.He also sent people to Luoyang, the capital, and various prefectures and counties to write "Jiazi" with white clay on the gates of the government buildings as targets of attack.In [-] AD, the famous Yellow Turban Uprising broke out in history.
In the face of the massive uprising of the Yellow Turban Army, the ruling group was in a mess. The so-called "emergency seeks medical treatment". It began to have a bright future.Similarly, being in power in troubled times is undoubtedly an opportunity for Cao Cao, who is rich in martial arts strategy and dedicated to making contributions. He was named a riding captain by the court, and he suppressed the Yellow Turban Uprising in the Yingchuan area (now Yu County, Henan).Although the Yellow Turban Army was mighty, they acted independently, and were finally defeated by the ruling group one by one.During the suppression process, Cao Cao was promoted to Prime Minister of Jinan because of his military merits.
Cao Cao, who had regained his ambition, seemed to see the opportunity to reborn the Han Dynasty and revive it again, trying to govern the place as a model for other regions, and once again implemented his "big stick" policy. bureaucrats and landlords.Cao Cao served as Prime Minister of Jinan for three years mainly to crack down on the corruption and enjoyment of landlords and bureaucrats.When the Eastern Han Dynasty founded the country, it also followed the example of Liu Bang in the Western Han Dynasty to "feud the state and build the country".However, with the weakening of the centralization of power, the control of the local area has also been relaxed, and the powerful princes took the opportunity to collude with local forces and become the local overlord.With the recovery of the feudal economy, a group of landlords also emerged through business operations. They were richer than princes. Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty once called them "Sufeng", which meant that although they did not have titles, their wealth was not below that of princes.After possessing strong economic strength, these landlords bought official titles by paying taxes to the feudal regime.Especially during the reign of Emperor Lingling of the Han Dynasty, official titles were publicly auctioned, and they could even be bought and sold on "credit", making dignitaries with titles bestowed by the court abound.Relying on their political status and economic strength, these people live extravagantly and enjoy themselves, compare with each other, plunder financially, and bully the people, causing the whole society to be ruled by wolves, the people weep, and the atmosphere is corrupted.
Jinan Chengyang under the rule of Cao Cao was the feudal state of King Jing Liuzhang. Because of his contribution to the Han Dynasty, a sacrificial ancestral hall was built in the feudal state for sacrifices at four seasons to highlight his special status.But at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the whole Qingzhou followed suit, and Jinan became more popular. There were more than 600 ancestral halls of various sizes.These ancestral halls not only waste a lot of money, but also become a tool for nobles and landlords to pretend to be gods and ghosts in the name of sacrificing ancestors, extorting their own poor and their tenants. This kind of random construction of ancestral halls is obviously against the law in the era of strict feudal hierarchy. of.What's more serious is that many businessmen and landlords who "purchased" titles from the imperial court took advantage of their political and economic status to "promote entertainment and increase luxury", while the people became increasingly impoverished.Frightened by the strength of the local forces, the officials of all dynasties turned a blind eye to these phenomena.However, Cao Cao, who had been tempered by the war, did the opposite.As soon as he took office, he destroyed all the ancestral halls in the government office, and prohibited bureaucratic landlords from building and offering sacrifices. Then he changed customs and cracked down on all kinds of acts of pretending to be gods and ghosts and amassing money. The extravagant social atmosphere suddenly changed.For officials who were unwilling or afraid to implement their own policies, Cao Cao mercilessly dismissed them one by one and replaced them with shrewd and capable officials.Cao Cao used his power to show no mercy to the forces that dared to resist. In addition, he had a solid backer in the court, so that he served as Prime Minister of Jinan for three years, and those bully landlords who deceived the people fled in embarrassment. stay inside.According to historical records, under his governance, "politics and religion are popular, and a county is peaceful."
However, Cao Cao was not reused because of his outstanding achievements. On the contrary, he was once again promoted secretly to serve as the titular prefect of Dongjun.Realizing that "working" under the hands of others, he would be in danger if he did not have the final decision-making power. Cao Cao simply excused his illness and went home, devoting himself to reading and hunting, studying literature and martial arts, and waiting for opportunities.At this time, he has realized that he is in troubled times and can only turn things around by relying on military power and power.
The creed of contending for hegemony: I would rather blame others than others
In 188 A.D., because Bian Zhang and Han Sui assassinated the governor of Liangzhou and the prefect of Jincheng in the northwest of Jincheng, they launched a rebellion, gathered more than [-] people, and once again threatened the capital. .For this "fat vacancy" that controls a certain amount of military power, Cao Cao readily accepted it and immediately took office.But at this precarious time, the licentious Emperor Ling of Han came to the end of his life, the prince succeeded to the throne, and the Empress Dowager He took charge of state affairs. After that, the Eastern Han regime performed the last battle between relatives and eunuchs.Empress Dowager He appointed her elder brother He Jin as the general to hold the power of the government, but unfortunately, this man is an idiot with great ambition and little talent.He saw that the eunuchs threatened his own power group, but he couldn't tell the priority, and advocated killing all the eunuchs, but Empress Dowager He was indecisive, and finally the eunuch, who was all-pervasive, learned the news.Just as the stupid He Jin adopted the suggestion of Yuan Shao, who was as short-sighted as he was, he ordered Dong Zhuo to lead the army into Beijing to kill the eunuchs in the name of the court, but he was killed by the eunuchs.Then the Yuan Shao brothers and Cao Cao led the imperial army defending the capital to kill all the eunuchs, and then Dong Zhuo entered the capital and took control of the central power.
Dong Zhuo was actually quite self-aware. He knew that what he brought from Gansu was just a group of warriors who could only fight but had no experience in governing the country and no social status.Therefore, on the one hand, in the name of the imperial court, he appointed the sons of many aristocratic families as the governors of important local counties and counties, and on the other hand, he tried to win over scholars and celebrities in the imperial court to serve him.But although Yuan Shao was proud and arrogant, he was also cowardly, so he fled every day.Cao Cao knew that although Dong Zhuo was a warrior, he was ambitious and would turn the Han Dynasty upside down, so he absconded.Dong Zhuo ordered him to be wanted in the name of the court, so Cao Cao changed from an army commander to a key criminal of the court, and he had to escape in embarrassment without food and drink.According to legend, he fled to the home of Lu Boshe, an old man in Chenggao, Henan Province. The old man let him rest first, and then slaughtered pigs and made wine to entertain him graciously.But Cao Cao, who had been terrified all day long, woke up from his sleep, heard the sound of sharpening knives towards pigs and sheep, and heard his friends and family members whispering about "killing". His hands and feet were cold and he was frightened. Killed cleanly.After realizing that he had killed the wrong person, Cao Cao cried out sadly: "It is better for me to blame others than to be blamed for me!" Since then, this has become his creed in fighting for hegemony.
In the first month of 190, Yuan Shu, Han Fu, Kong Xian, Liu Dai, Wang Kuang, Yuan Shao, Zhang Miao, Qiao Mao, Yuan Yi, and Bao Xin responded to the call to attack Dong Zhuo at the same time, and promoted Yuan Shao as the leader.What's interesting is that most of these people's positions and sites were given by Dong Zhuo in the name of the court, but they opposed Dong Zhuo in the name of "saving" the court.Cao Cao recruited thousands of people to participate in it and act as General Fenwu.But in the face of Xiliang's strong army, the allied forces of the princes waited and watched, but Cao Cao fought alone and was defeated by Dong Zhuo's general Xu Rong. Cao Cao was injured by an arrow and managed to escape.After the allied forces of the princes fell apart, Cao Cao saw through the faces of these "boys and brothers", so he refused Yuan Shao's solicitation and began to develop independently.
In fact, after the Yellow Turban Army’s uprising in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the central government’s control over the localities seemed powerless; when Dong Zhuo took over the power and the princes conquered it, the central government existed in name only, and the princes from all walks of life officially began to compete for the Central Plains and dominate the Central Plains.In this chaotic world where wolves coexisted, although Cao Cao's initial strength was weak and the struggle for hegemony was not smooth sailing, he adopted a domineering strategy from beginning to end, but the implementation of this strategy had gains and losses, which ensured his unification of the north. , but the excessive slaughter also made him lose the chance to dominate the world in a sense.
At the beginning, Cao Cao's capital was not strong, so he has been mopping up the weaker Yellow Turban Army.In 192, he was sent to Yanzhou to suppress the Yellow Turban Army. Cao Cao surrendered hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban Army, selected the best of them, organized them into Qingzhou soldiers, established his own prestige, and occupied the territory of Yanzhou without bloodshed. The situation is very good .But in 193 AD, because his father Cao Song was killed by Xuzhou Tao Qian's subordinates on the way to Cao Cao's territory, Cao Cao went on a killing spree, painted a sinful stroke on his history, and made himself His career once fell into a trough.When he learned that his father and his party had been killed, Cao Cao was furious, and immediately sent troops to attack Tao Qian, taking several cities in succession.Tao was defeated and fled to Tancheng without fighting behind closed doors. Cao Cao was unable to attack, so he became brutal, and "killed hundreds of thousands of men and women in the city of Xuzhou he occupied, and put them in Surabaya, so that the water would not flow."At that time, many people in Xuzhou were fleeing from the Guanzhong area to avoid Dong Zhuo's chaos. They never expected that after fleeing to the relatively peaceful Xuzhou, what awaited them was an even more terrifying massacre!Cao Cao failed to capture Tancheng, and captured the other three counties, but also "slaughtered them all, the chickens and dogs were all gone, and there were no pedestrians in the ruins."Cao Cao also used crazy massacres to create "no man's land" in several counties.In the second year, Cao Cao's lingering anger was still there, and he attacked Tao Qian again.In fact, the common people in Xuzhou had nothing to do with the murder of Cao Cao's father.Cao Cao's massacre in such a large scale certainly meant revenge for his father, but it may also have the meaning of "using heavy codes in troubled times" to kill and establish power.Because Tao Qian is relatively popular in Xuzhou, Cao Cao's murder may still be an attempt to create a psychological deterrent pressure.Later, the principles formulated by Cao Cao were still adhered to after the siege, and the policy of massacring the city was implemented. This method continued until the north was basically pacified.
Facts have proved that Cao Cao's policy of implementing "hegemony" over the people and creating "no man's land" was quite a failure.Cao Cao's massacre in Xuzhou was in stark contrast to Liu Bei's behavior of implementing benevolence and righteousness in Xuzhou, which earned Liu Bei a good reputation. After Tao Qian died, Xuzhou was handed over to Liu Bei for governance, and Xuzhou once became Liu Bei's base for contending for supremacy.This evil result even affected the battle of Chibi, which decided to divide the world into three parts. When Cao Cao attacked Jingzhou, Liu Cong surrendered. I also vowed to fight Cao Jun to the end. These are the sequelae of Cao Cao's policy of massacring the people.At the same time, Cao Cao's massacre disappointed the Yanzhou forces that actively attached to him. Zhang Miao and Chen Gong, who once supported him, felt chilled. They responded one after another, and only three county towns fell into the hands of the Cao Cao Group.This sudden change made Cao Cao stalemate with Lu Bu in Yanzhou for nearly two years before regaining the territory and consolidating it.
Cao Cao's large-scale massacre of the people was basically the first battle in Xuzhou, but in future wars, the method of massacring the city to intimidate opponents appeared frequently.In the battle with Lv Bu to regain Yanzhou, the brave and intrepid Lv Bu was finally defeated by Cao Cao and fled, taking Zhang Miao and Chen Gong to Liu Bei in Xuzhou.Zhang Miao asked his younger brother Zhang Chao to guard his family in Yongqiu.Cao Cao besieged the city from August to December. After the city was broken, he not only wiped out Zhang Miao's three clans, but also slaughtered all the people in the city.This way of massacring the city will appear from time to time in future wars, which shows that Cao Cao's massacre of the city was by no means impulsive like the Xuzhou massacre, but a planned way to deter opponents.In addition, Cao Cao was equally ruthless to his opponents on the battlefield.In 8 AD, the Battle of Guandu took place.Cao Cao's victory over the many with the few and the strong with the weak have become famous battles in history, but in this battle, Cao Cao once again demonstrated his cruelty.After successfully attacking Wuchao, he cut off the noses of more than a thousand captives (in other words, cut off after killing), the lips and tongues of cattle and horses, and used such bloody methods to scare Yuan Shao's soldiers.After the Battle of Guandu, for the prisoners of war, "fuck it all, and kill more than 12 people before and after."It can be seen that Cao Cao's massacre of soldiers and civilians was planned and purposeful, and it was all a strategy for him to use domineering methods to compete for territory and power.
Cao Cao not only slaughtered the people and soldiers at the bottom of the society to shock his opponents, make them surrender and "live up" himself, but he also did the same for the trump card in his hand-Han Xiandi. , No one will blame me."
Cao Cao was the first warlord to realize the value of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty. In 196 AD, Cao Cao found Emperor Xian of Han and his party in Luoyang, and then hijacked the last emperor to his lair - Xuchang. Since then, this emperor has been Cao Cao's most valuable The golden puppet.Cao Cao was once loyal to the Han Dynasty, but his repeated setbacks as a "loyal minister" in the early stage have made him lose confidence in the Han Dynasty.Therefore, when Cao Cao hijacked Han Xiandi to Xuchang, the "Han Dynasty" in his mind was already dead.Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian not to "rebuild the Han Dynasty", but to use the signboard of Emperor Xian of Han to grow and develop his own power and realize his ambitions. Therefore, he will never tolerate the small group of Emperor Xian of Han against his wishes.
In fact, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty was not a foolish king, but was born at an untimely time.Judging from the vague historical records, he had at least two contests with Cao Cao.In the fourth year of Jian'an, that is, in 199 A.D., Dong Cheng, the uncle of the country, received the clothes belt edict of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, and conspired against Cao with Zhong Ji, Wu Zilan, Wang Zifu, and Liu Bei. Dong Cheng and others wiped out the clan.At that time, Dong Cheng's daughter was a nobleman of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, and she was pregnant. Emperor Xian pleaded for mercy several times, but Cao Cao was also merciless and slaughtered her.After that, Empress Fu, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, saw Cao Cao's ferocious face, and felt that sooner or later she would not be spared. She wrote a letter to her father, hoping to find a chance to get rid of Cao Cao.It is impossible for Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty not to know about such a major event of eradicating heroes, at least through his acquiescence and cooperation.However, deterred by the growing strength of Cao Cao, until Jian'an 14 years, he died after he died, and he never did anything.In the 19th year of Jian'an, the matter finally leaked. Cao Cao not only forced Han Xiandi to abolish the queen, but also ordered Hua Xin to lead troops into the palace, find the queen hiding in the wall, and drag her away.At this time, Emperor Xian and the doctor of imperial history were sitting in the court hall, and the empress with disheveled hair staggered past him. The empress held Emperor Xian's hand and said, "Can't you save me again?" Emperor Xian said, "I don't know either. When will I die!" Emperor Xian turned his head and said to the doctor, "Xi Gong, is there such a thing in the world?" In just two sentences, Emperor Xian's desolation, helplessness and extreme anger were expressed.Cao Cao not only killed Empress Fu, but also poisoned his two princes and several hundred members of his clan.His overbearing methods and cruel methods have always been criticized by later generations.
These behaviors of Cao Cao, in the feudal society, were to kill the king with his ministers, and offend the superiors, which is a big treasonous move. Although this gave the opponent an excuse, it was actually a kind of domineering means for Cao Cao to consolidate his authority and prevent his confidants.But his "I would rather blame others than others blame me" undoubtedly went to extremes in these aspects, and became strong evidence that later generations "poisoned" Cao Cao.
The characteristics of Cao's centralization
Although Cao Cao's hegemony method brought many disasters to the emperor and the soldiers, it was a relatively practical method at that time.Because from the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han regime began to gradually decay and fester. The entire Eastern Han regime lost its value of existence due to eunuchs and foreign relatives who were fish and meat people for more than 100 years. The result of "Wang Gang undoing the knot" is that the local forces are growing, and careerists emerge in endlessly. At this time, whoever has the ability to protect the suffering country or a part of the people is qualified to replace the Han Dynasty, or to separate one side and watch the world quietly. Change.Therefore, in troubled times, the so-called "benevolence and righteousness" and "kingly way" will not work at all.
Although Cao Cao was cruel, through coercive means, at least most of the Central Plains were reunified under the banner of the Han government headed by Han Xiandi in name, forming a centralized power in some areas.He took the displaced Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to Xu County, built a palace for Emperor Xian, established a court, arranged daily life, and planned court funds.Through decades of conquests from east to west, Cao Cao unified most of the territory of the Han Dynasty and seven of the thirteen prefectures under the Han court in Xu County, so that these prefectures were no longer There are small warlords, bandits, or barbarians who make trouble, and there are no more obvious corrupt officials. Let the people live and work in peace and contentment, and at least give the people a chance to survive.
The greatest achievement of Cao Cao's hegemony lies in the attack and suppression of the local tyrants and aristocratic families at that time, and a powerful blow to the local separatist forces that have endangered the centralization of power for more than 100 years since the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty.From what Cao Cao did in his early career, we can see that Cao Cao tried to use stricter laws to change the situation of power and arrogance from the very beginning, but because the root of the disaster was in the central government, Cao Cao, as a middle-level official, could not do anything about it. To change a corrupt court, he cannot compete with the corrupt forces of the entire court, so he cannot realize his ambition at all.Whether he was in Luoyang or Jinan, although he had made impressive achievements, he still ended up ending his official position. It was this kind of encounter that made him no longer pin his hopes on the court. Instead, establish the "Cao family" court that "holds the emperor to order the princes", so that one's will can be thoroughly implemented.
After Cao Cao took power, he vigorously promoted the rule of law, and the policy of suppressing the rule of law could be truly and comprehensively implemented.He said: "Punishment is the order of the common people";He used Wang Xiu, Sima Zhi, Yang Pei, Lu Qian, Man Chong, Jia Kui and other local officials to restrain the lawless and powerful. Facts have proved that this kind of attack against the nobles and bureaucrats is a great "magic weapon" for Cao Cao to win the hearts of the people and win the victory. ".
If we compare the governance techniques implemented by Yuan Shao and Cao Cao successively in Jizhou, we can see that the two different policies of "Huairou" and "Overbearing" have produced two completely different results: Wide, so don't shoot."Under Yuan Shao's leniency policy, "the strong and the powerful do whatever they want, the relatives annex, the poor and the poor, rent the tax on behalf of them, and show off the family wealth, which is not enough to meet their orders."
What Yuan Shao catered to and maintained was the interests of the upper-middle-class bureaucratic landlords. This only allowed a small group of middle- and upper-class people to cruelly exploit the vast number of lower-class officials and civilians. Some people occupied most of the resources of the entire society. Naturally, such tolerance cannot be tolerated. So that "the people are attached to each other, and the armored soldiers are strong."Therefore, although Yuan Shao has a larger territory, more troops, and more food, but the ruling group has many internal contradictions, strong centrifugal force, low-level soldiers have little supplies, and their combat effectiveness is not strong. Once the battle situation is unfavorable, those who flee will flee, and those who surrender will be defeated by Cao Cao in the end.
After Cao Cao acquired Jizhou, he immediately "emphasized the law of annexation by tyrants and powerful forces" and focused his attack on local tyrants. Although its subjective purpose is for oneself, it still meets the needs of social development objectively, so it has the effect of "people's joy".
While cracking down on local powerful families, Cao Cao strengthened prevention and supervision of bureaucratic officials who belonged to him, entered the central government and joined the Cao Group.In view of the fact that the eunuchs, relatives, and bureaucrats of the Eastern Han Dynasty formed a team and formed a party for personal gain, Cao Cao did not allow his ministers to form a party.
He ordered: "In the Qing Dynasty today, you should be loyal to the country and serve the king's affairs. Although you are better than others in private, it is useless to use thousands of pieces of silk and ten thousand stones." The supervision system, set up "school affairs".This move was opposed by many ministers. Their reasons seemed to be "high-sounding", and they believed that "it was not the purpose of trusting the subordinates".
In the face of opposition from his officials, Cao Cao did not back down, and his explanation was plausible: "If you want to be able to assassinate and do many things, and make a virtuous gentleman do it, you can't." Those who serve the public, you "sages and gentlemen" cannot do this.The so-called "sages and gentlemen" here mainly refer to ministers of aristocratic families. They have been officials for many generations, attached to each other, and have great reputation and influence.
In view of this fact, on the one hand, Cao Cao had no choice but to win over them, so that they could occupy the upper position without giving them real power; on the other hand, they also used the school affairs of humble origins to check their actions. Officials, the establishment of Yushitai, which holds real power, and the removal of the "Three Dukes", so as to consolidate the imperial power are consistent.How effective is this system?We can use Sun Quan's words to answer in the future.Sun Quan said: "The disciples of Changwen (Chen Qun's characters) were able to guard the good in the past. They used to control their heads. They feared that they would become strict, so they did their best' and did not dare to do wrong." It means like Chen Qun. The reason why such aristocrats were able to work conscientiously for Cao Cao was because Cao Cao set up a steel knife on their heads. As long as they acted "for personal gain", they would suffer the consequences of death and extermination.
It is under this high-pressure policy that Cao Cao's regime can continue to develop and flourish.In fact, it was not Cao Cao's actions alone to strengthen the supervision and suppression of officials. Sun Quan also followed Cao Cao's example and set up a school office. Aristocratic bureaucrats maintained the small court of Shu Han.It can be seen that setting up school affairs to monitor the actions of ministers to prevent the recurrence of the long-term prevalence of ministers forming cliques and pulling factions in the Eastern Han Dynasty is a necessary measure to ensure the consolidation of the regime.
In fact, judging from the internal structure of the Cao Wei regime, among the talent groups attached to the Cao Cao Group, the family ministers are the most, and the potential dangers are relatively serious.For the sake of himself and his descendants, Cao Cao set up school affairs to supervise the ministers. Although it was a bit harsh, it would be difficult to subdue them otherwise.It is said in history: "Duke Cao is strict in nature, he is a public official, and he often adds a stick." They had to rely on violence to maintain their authority and implement their will.
Cao Cao's promotion of hegemony, consolidation of his authority and centralization of power went the furthest by trying to restore the "corporal punishment" system that had been interrupted for nearly 400 years, in order to increase the deterrent and intimidating effect of the regime.Corporal punishment itself originated from ancient wars. Later, the rulers introduced the injury of human limbs and lives on the battlefield into the judicial field and established systematic punishment.In the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, there was a complex and systematic corporal punishment system. The so-called "Xia had chaos in politics, and it was punished by Yu; Shang had chaos in politics, and it was soup books; Zhou had chaos in politics, and it was nine punishments." In fact, it is all systematic corporal punishment.The ancient corporal punishment is a punishment of "breaking limbs, carving skin, and continuing for life".Specific punishments generally include tattooing (engraving marks or words on the face and painting them with ink), cutting off the nose, cutting off the feet, and destroying the genitals. Hundreds of articles, thousands of articles in total.Due to the abuse of corporal punishment by the rulers, it even caused a situation of "the humble and the noble". One of the important measures why Liu Bang was able to win power in the Western Han Dynasty was to abolish the cruel punishment of the Qin Dynasty.At the time of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Chunyu Yi, the former magistrate of Taicang County in Qidi, committed a crime and should be sentenced to corporal punishment and escorted to Chang'an.His daughter, Tiying, wrote a letter, arguing that the implementation of corporal punishment will make those who want to reform themselves have no chance.Emperor Wen was deeply moved and ordered the abolition of corporal punishment. After that, Emperor Jing further improved it and finally abolished the system of corporal punishment that had existed for thousands of years.In 213 AD, with the support of some officials, Cao Cao planned to restore corporal punishment in criminal matters.After 440 years since the abolition of corporal punishment, it was restored again. Both at that time and later generations aroused many criticisms, thinking that this was a huge retrogression.But if you look at it from another perspective, in a country where privileges are extremely prevalent, in a country where the laws have been despised by nobles, landlords and bureaucrats for nearly 100 years, the restoration of corporal punishment may suffer the most from the common people, but in a country that hates corruption and breaking the law Under the rule of powerful figures, the sharpness of corporal punishment also pointed to those upper-level figures within the ruling group who viciously exploited the people. Therefore, advocating the restoration of corporal punishment is only an extreme manifestation of Cao Cao's hegemony.
Cao Cao is cruel by nature, which not only has his vicious side, but also the objective needs of surviving in troubled times and striving for hegemony. Under the governance, politics at the end of the Han Dynasty became clear to a certain extent, the economy gradually recovered, and the political outlook and social atmosphere from the central to local governments were different from before.Not only did the number of ministers who fought against each other and formed cliques for private interests in the court decrease; local officials and tyrants who acted recklessly without punishment were also restrained to a certain extent.Sima Guang's statement that Cao Cao "turned chaos into order" is not unfounded.Subsequent facts also proved that the Cao Wei regime laid the foundation by Cao Cao was the most powerful local regime, with strong political and economic strength, so this regime finally completed the task of reunifying the country.The facts before and after Cao Cao's death also show that hegemony was the only way and way out to achieve hegemony and strive for unification at that time.
(End of this chapter)
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