Jianghuxing

Cao Cao.

This is the person I have ever heard the highest evaluation in Lu Bu's mouth.

Cao Cao's family rank has reached an unimaginable level, he seems to be destined to be a person who wants to do great things, so God gave him such an extraordinary background. Cao Cao's ancestor, Cao Shen, was the second minister of the Han Dynasty, and he was only the one behind the founding father Xiao He. Of course, this Cao Shen is also one of the founding heroes, it can be said that he has made many military exploits after a hundred battles, but he was ranked behind Xiao He when he was rewarded for meritorious deeds, and he only worshiped the prime minister when he was Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, and strictly abided by the rules formulated by Xiao He when he was in office, so later generations had the title of "Xiao Gui Cao Sui".

In recent years, Cao Teng, the eldest emperor who served four generations of emperors, accepted Cao Cao's father Cao Song as his adopted son. This Cao Teng has been in the palace for more than 30 years, acting cautiously and cautiously, never making significant mistakes, and often promoting meritocracy and treating grievances with virtue, so he was quite famous at the time. Later, Cao Teng single-handedly planned to welcome Emperor Huan and defeated the Li Gu group that supported King Qinghe as the emperor, so he was named Fei Tinghou. When Cao Cao's father Cao Song came to his generation, he rightfully inherited the title of Marquis of Feiting.

Cao Song is not as honest and straightforward as Cao Teng, because he has been immersed in officialdom for many years, he is very alert and tactful, and because of his power and profit, he can be described as a rich party. He has successively paid homage to the high-ranking and powerful positions such as Sili Lieutenant, Da Honglu, and Da Si Nong, which can be said to be infinitely beautiful.

However, Lu Bu's high evaluation of Cao Cao is not because of his background and family background. At that time, Cao Cao's family background was far worse than that of the Hongnong Yang clan and the Runan Yuan clan, who were also the third princes of the fourth dynasty, but Lu Bu was sidelined by Cao Cao's difference from other high-ranking officials, and his deeds spread all over the country at a young age.

Cao Cao was promoted to filial piety that year, and at the age of twenty, he was appointed lieutenant of northern Luoyang. Luoyang is the place where the imperial capital is located, and there are four lieutenants in the east, west, south and north, who are responsible for the coordination of security prevention and control in the four regions. Luoyang is big, the Quartet gathers in the five miscellaneous places, up to the powerful and pro-Ding to bully people and do whatever they want, down to the gentry and ruffians walking the streets and alleys to do all kinds of evil, Cao Cao has long seen all this in his eyes, relying on his youth and family background, he wants to take office and immediately see immediate results for the people to eliminate harm and benefit one party.

Filial piety is one of the subjects of electing officials nowadays, which means that filial sons and honest people are elected to become officials. According to Lü Bu, this kind of atmosphere was already popular during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when Dong Zhongshu, a university scholar, proposed a solution to the shortcomings of the "Ren Zi Ling". It is said that at that time, if the official was more than 2,000 stone and had served for three years, no matter what the ability of his family was, he could obtain the qualification to be an official. This kind of hereditary system of officials was well curbed after the birth of filial piety and honesty, but I don't know why it slowly changed its flavor later and became a disguised system of appointments.

When Zhang Liao heard this, he couldn't help but scold: "It's not because the recommendation system is now controlled by the bureaucrats and the big families! Where do we, the ordinary people, have the qualifications and luck to be promoted? Seeing that batch after batch of officials are being promoted by the wealthy and high-ranking families, you praise me and I will brag about yours, and all the chickens, dogs, stinky fish, and rotten shrimp are all recommended as filial piety, and with the relationship and foundation of the family, we have all been on the rise from now on, damn, damn!"

It's no wonder that Zhang Liao scolded him, he and Lu Bu are both amazing attainments, but they were born at the wrong time, one family is from a poor background, and they haven't caught up with the good years, so even if they are capable, they can only nest in Jinyang City now. It means that the literati recommended by the upper class do not know a single character, and the so-called filial piety does not live with their parents, but the relationship is particularly estranged, but despite this, this kind of thing is still floating high in the circle of those high-ranking officials and nobles, like a cloud that can be seen in the sky but cannot be caught, and it will never fall on us ordinary people.

Speaking of poverty, how poor is Lu Bu's background, once I asked him what the meaning of his name is, why is it called Lu Bu and not called Lu Meng, Lu Wei, Lu Zhuang or something, after all, every strong word is very appropriate to him, but this cloth word is not touched. Who would have thought that Lu Bu replied to me lightly: "Because I was born on cloth." "I was speechless.

A lieutenant is an official in charge of military affairs or a prison, and there are county lieutenants in the county, and there are county lieutenants in the county, all of whom are officials who maintain local law and order. Generally speaking, the larger counties will have two lieutenants, and the smaller counties will have one, and the level of Luoyang will naturally be divided into four lieutenants, all of whom are filial piety, that is to say, they are all descendants of those big families in the capital. Lu Bu said that Cao Cao originally wanted to be the commander of Luoyang, but Liang Hu, the chief of the electoral department, and the Shangshu Youcheng and Jingzhao Yin Sima Fang, who recommended him, ignored Cao Cao's request, and Cao Cao had no choice but to temporarily restrain his political ambitions.

In our opinion, the northern lieutenant of Luoyang is a very great position, in charge of the security of the northern city of Luoyang City, which is not known to be many times more majestic than the petty official of Jinyang's thorn history master. But after all, it was Luoyang, and there were princes and nobles everywhere, and the other three lieutenants were all tyrants and powerful people who were clinging to power after they arrived, but Cao Cao immediately rectified the atmosphere, and others thought he was pretending, but Cao Cao ordered to create more than a dozen five-color killing rods to hang near the city gate, and there was a clear order that no matter who or what the origin is, as long as the prohibition is violated, they will be beaten to death. Many people or rich people said that Cao Cao was just pretending, but no one dared to provoke his system, and the result was so good that he could not die, and the uncle of the emperor's most favored eunuch Jian Shuo drank too much and violated the forbidden night walk, and was caught by Cao Cao. Cao Cao thought that he couldn't hear Jian Tu's words, turned his head and asked his subordinates, "What should the offender be?" The next group of people didn't say a word, tied up the picture and beat him to death on the spot.

Not to mention that this incident caused a sensation in Beijing and shook the government and the opposition at that time, even we had heard about it in remote and southern states, and Lu Bu pulled Zhang Liao to drink until the middle of the night that day, and repeatedly said that he would relieve his hatred and relieve his hatred. It is said that the current situation is turbulent and unstable, all because of the emperor's favor and trust in the ten permanent servants, and the dictatorship of the eunuchs plays with power, no matter who says it, it is a grit of teeth. Although Cao Cao's stick offended a group of eunuch parties led by Jian Shuo, because of his family background to mediate for him, and because he had already stated his big stick system, the ugly words were said in front: As long as you don't violate the ban, what do you do, as long as you violate the ban, no matter who you are, you will definitely die!

Cao Cao's stick dealt a severe blow to the arrogance of the eunuchs, and at the same time made his reputation in the officialdom and the rivers and lakes. In fact, this kind of thing is not the first time it has happened, it is said that Cao Cao was fifteen or sixteen years ago when he assassinated Zhang Rang, the middle servant Zhang Rang alone, after the matter was revealed, he did not hurry to fight and retreat, and killed fifty or sixty people before he went over the wall, this matter was covered by the Cao family's force at that time, and it was not spread on the rivers and lakes until the stick killed the picture. It is also said that Cao Cao was swimming in the river when he was ten years old, and encountered a huge crocodile, and he was scared to death if he was scared to death, but Cao Cao was not afraid, calmly wrestled with the crocodile, and finally retreated. Since then, some of Cao Cao's flying eagle lackeys and willful chivalry have gradually spread and become the talk of many people after dinner.

However, that group of eunuchs was not easy to provoke, they knew that they could not take advantage of Cao Cao, so they killed Cao Cao by retreating, and recommended Cao Cao as Dunqiu Ling, saying that this person was very capable and very good, and he should be promoted, so Cao Cao was driven out of Luoyang and went to the southwest of Qingfeng County, Yanzhou, not far from Puyang. Dunqiu is located at the junction of Yanzhou and Jizhou, not far from Luoyang, but 108,000 miles away from the political center.

Although he was promoted and degraded, Cao Cao was not depressed at all, after all, he was only twenty-three years old that year. Just when he was about to show his strength in Dunqiu County, the first year of Guanghe happened that the Song Empress was abolished, after the Song Empress was deposed, his father and brother were killed, Cao Cao's brother-in-law happened to be the brother of the Song Queen, this time the eunuchs grabbed the handle, and dismissed his official on the charge of "dismissal from the seat", Cao Cao had to temporarily return to his hometown of Qian County.

In the third year of Guanghe, the emperor asked the ministers to recommend one person who could pass the "Shangshu", "Mao Shi", "Zuo's", and "Guliang Chunqiu" as the Lang, Cao Cao was at home at this time, and he was no longer the dissolute boy of the past, he became a learned person known to everyone, so he was worshiped as the Lang again, returned to the capital, and entered the political core.

But the speaker is a vacant position with little power, usually the emperor has something to call you to chat, the speaker can express his opinions at this time, and when the emperor is not summoned, he has nothing serious to do, and he is idle all day long. It's just that this Spirit Emperor is lazier than other emperors, so Cao Cao's councillor should be extraordinarily idle. But despite this, Cao Cao still seized the opportunity to do two earth-shattering things: one was to avenge the grievances of the generals Dou Wu and Taifu Chen Fan, and the other was to bluntly say that the recommendation of the three dukes was improper.

Dou Wu, Liu Shu, and Chen Fan were collectively known as the Three Monarchs, and they were very famous people at that time. Dou Wu and Chen Fan plotted to kill the eunuchs, but they were unexpectedly harmed by the eunuchs. Cao Cao attacked the eunuch forces again, trying to overturn the case for the party, and later wrote many times to admonish, saying that honest officials like Dou Wu Chen Fan were tragically framed, resulting in traitors all over the country, but loyal people could not be reused, Emperor Ling was very moved when he heard it, but ruthlessly rejected him.

This incident made Cao Cao negative for a while, he probably didn't understand why some things were clearly in front of him, something that everyone knew, but he couldn't reverse it anyway. In the fifth year of Guanghe, the emperor issued an edict saying that all officials who were not well governed, as soon as there were ordinary people who made up songs and satirical songs in the jurisdiction, they would be immediately dismissed. So the ministers of the three dukes took the opportunity to reap the benefits, the following officials bribed in order to keep their official positions, and the three dukes were corrupt and did not act impartially, which were all seen by Cao Cao, and wrote to the emperor three or four times, although he was approved by the emperor, but it had little effect, and even caused a counterattack by the eunuch forces, resulting in Situ Chen Tan being framed and dying in prison, Cao Cao once again hid under the protection of the family to escape a difficulty, but this time he was very depressed and depressed for a long time, and there was no news of Cao Cao in Beijing at that time, as if the northern lieutenant who killed the magnates vigorously and resolutely overnight never appeared, and the court became increasingly corrupt, to the point where there is no justice at all.

Perhaps at that time, Cao Cao suddenly understood that the Han family's chronic illness had reached a hopeless state, and the Han dynasty had reached the point where it could not be corrected.