[In 155 AD, the ninth year of Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a child named Cao Cao was born in the ancestral home of the Cao family in Qiao County, Pei State.]

[Unlike the great men in history who had strange phenomena appear before they were born, when Cao Cao was born, his mother did not dream of a big dragon, a big snake, or a big sun. After he was born, he did not glow or heat up, which was a sign that he would become a sun god. Everything seemed very normal.]

……

Liu Bang’s face turned red. Why did he feel like the sky was pointing at him?

Don’t you have any shame?

Yang Jian was also a little ashamed.

After all, it is said that when he was born, there was purple air lingering in the delivery room and five beams of light shot straight into the sky above his head, just like a real dragon reincarnated into the world!
……

[However, when we talk about ordinary here, we are not talking about Cao Cao’s family, because Cao Cao’s family background can be said to be very prominent. ]

[Cao Cao’s grandfather was named Cao Teng. He entered the palace as a eunuch in his early years and stayed in the palace for a full 30 years.]

[Cao Teng served five emperors in his lifetime: Emperor An, Emperor Shun, Emperor Chong, Emperor Zhi and Emperor Huan. During the reign of Emperor An, he was just a small eunuch, but when Emperor Shun was young, Cao Teng became famous. ]

[At that time, Empress Dowager Zheng wanted to select a young eunuch of similar age to Emperor Shun from among the many eunuchs to take care of Emperor Shun. The lucky gear chose Cao Teng. ]

[At that time, Cao Teng was not only about the same age as Emperor Shun, but also cautious, sensible, well-behaved and docile, so he was chosen by Empress Dowager Zheng, and Cao Teng began to serve Emperor Shun. ]

[After Emperor Shun ascended the throne, Cao Teng was naturally promoted to become a palace attendant.]

[Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Emperor Shun met with an unexpected accident and died at the age of 30. The cause of death was not recorded in history, only that he died in the Yutang Palace.]

[The next emperor, Chong, was only three years old when he succeeded to the throne because his father died early. The power of the country was directly controlled by eunuchs and relatives. Moreover, Chong was also a short-lived child, dying at the age of three.]

[History does not record the cause of his death, except that, like his father, he died in the Jade Hall.]

……

“Why did the emperor of the Han Dynasty die so young? Is it God’s will to destroy the Han Dynasty?”

In the Han Dynasty dimension, in the Weiyang Palace, the expressions of Zhang Liang, Xiao He, Fan Kuai and others changed slightly.

After watching the sky curtain for such a long time, they were too familiar with the young emperor and the eunuchs and relatives of the emperor’s wife controlling the government, so they immediately smelled something wrong.

Noticing the expressions of these old friends, Liu Bang waved his hand nonchalantly while drinking his wine: “The foundation for eternity is so vague!”

“In this world, there is no such thing as an eternal foundation!”

Liu Bang finished drinking the wine in his hand, stood up and looked at the old friends around him.

“Think about how much of a hero Xiang Yu was, everyone called him the God of War, but he was still defeated by me.”

“Don’t you think this is incredible?”

Liu Bang said self-deprecatingly: “It’s not me who beat him. I, Liu Bang, don’t have the ability to do that.”

“It was God who made me win against him!”

Looking at the ministers with different expressions, Liu Bang said in a rather dignified manner: “The tyrannical Qin Dynasty fell. I didn’t contribute much, but I was the one who benefited the most. Isn’t this God’s will to make me win?”

Liu Bang was a man who was optimistic and content with his fate.

Over the years, through Tianmu, he has seen too many dynasties rise and fall, too many conspiracies and intrigues, and has long since become indifferent to many things in the world.

There is no such thing as an eternal foundation; it is just the obsession of some people.

Liu Bang was already very satisfied that the Han Dynasty had Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wei, and many heroes who performed their last dance for him.

Even when Tianmu talked about the so-called Han traitor Cao Cao, Liu Bang did not feel any strange emotion in his heart.

He was not like some of the guys in later generations who claimed to be the Celestial Empire and could not tolerate any “sand” in their eyes – they did not allow the people to see anything that was not beneficial to them.

There has never been a shortage of heroes or ambitious people in this land.

If the Han Dynasty was corrupt, unable to allow talented people to display their talents and unable to make the common people survive, then Liu Bang felt that a hero should emerge to change all this!
Just like myself back then!
Eliminate the tyrannical Qin and bring peace to the world!
……

[Emperor Chong was only 3 years old, so naturally there would be no heir, so Liang Ji, a relative of the emperor at the time, supported Emperor Zhi, who was only 9 years old. ]

[Although the young Emperor Zhi of Han was supported by others, he was very smart. He understood that Liang Ji was using him to steal state power, so he stood up and scolded Liang Ji to his face, saying that Liang Ji was an arrogant person.]

……

“Could it be…”

Seeing this, Liu Che had a bad feeling in his heart!

……

[Sure enough, after a few days, Emperor Hanzhi’s body became as hard as his mouth.]

……

“What a pity.” “A little cleverness, but not much.” Cao Cao commented.

……

[Four generations of emperors changed in just a dozen years, all of which Cao Teng saw. So when Emperor Zhi of Han died and his relative Liang Ji was preparing to establish a new emperor, Cao Teng took decisive action, found Liang Ji, and persuaded Liang Ji to establish the later Emperor Huan as the emperor.]

[When Liang Ji used high-handed tactics to oppress other officials, Cao Teng also fanned the flames behind the scenes. Later, Emperor Huan successfully became emperor. Cao Teng was granted the title of Marquis of Feiting for his contribution in supporting him.]

[Cao Teng was a veteran of the five dynasties of the Han Dynasty. Secondly, he had the merit of supporting the throne and held a high position in the court of the Han Dynasty. It can be said that he was extremely valuable. ]

[To what extent is this invaluable? Let us give an example to illustrate. In the Han Dynasty, the eunuch group and the bureaucratic group generally targeted each other, but Cao Teng was an exception. Not only did he not hate the bureaucrats, he also actively helped those talented people.]

[For example, he had openly or secretly recommended officials such as Yu Fang, Bian Shao, and Zhang Wen from Chenliu.]

[These officials were recommended by Cao Teng and later became high officials and became wealthy and powerful.]

[Although Cao Teng recommended so many people, what he was doing was actually a very presumptuous act in the Han Dynasty.]

【As we all know, the Han Dynasty implemented the system of selecting officials through recommendation, which is to let officials recommend talented and virtuous people to serve as officials. Note that this sentence says that officials recommend, but Cao Teng was recommended as a eunuch at this time, which is obviously an act of usurpation.】

【Everyone think about it, if you are an emperor, and you have a eunuch who follows you around every day, knows what you are thinking, and the officials he recommends are all over the court, then I want to ask a question, what does this person want to do? This is why we say that what Cao Teng did was usurpation. 】

[At that time, many officials were dissatisfied with Cao Teng. For example, Zhong Hao, the governor of Yizhou, once wrote to the emperor, saying that Cao Teng had colluded with officials and had evil intentions, and asked the emperor to punish him.]

[For such a thing that would have been too much of a crime for anyone else, the emperor chose to forgive Cao Teng.]

【Let’s take a look at how the emperor responded in history. The emperor said that the book came from outside, and it was not Teng’s fault. 】

[What it probably means is that it was these ministers who took the initiative to provoke Cao Teng, so how can Cao Teng be blamed? ]

Barrage:

——If you don’t mind, I’d like to be your adoptive father!

——Is there a possibility that Cao Teng forgave Emperor Huan (witty).

……

Liu Bei was extremely envious of Cao Teng’s power.

Even though he was quite unhappy with the traitors in the Cao family, he had to admit that he envied Cao Cao from the bottom of his heart!
If he had such a godfather… and such a family background, would he still have to work so hard to build his empire like he does now?
Why worry about not achieving your great cause?
……

[Zhong Hao just can’t handle this. 】

[Since he failed to bring the case against Cao Teng, Zhong Hong thought Cao Teng would definitely retaliate against him, so he returned home to wait for death. However, he never expected that Cao Teng would not only not retaliate, but instead praised Zhong Hong as a capable minister and personally recommended Zhong Hong, ensuring that Zhong Hong would have a smooth journey to the position of Minister of the Interior.]

[In this situation, it is not an exaggeration to say that Cao Teng was extremely powerful in the court, right? ]

[Other friends may be very curious. Although Cao Teng was extremely powerful, how could a eunuch have a child? Not to mention how did Cao Cao, the grandson of Cao Cao, come about? ]

[This is because the title of nobility in the Han Dynasty was hereditary, and Cao Teng had already been granted the title of Marquis at this time, so Cao Teng adopted a child from the Xiahou family as his own son, and this child was Cao Cao’s father, Cao Song.]

[Cao Teng treated his adopted son very well.]

[He used his own resources to ensure that Cao Song was promoted along the way. For example, when Emperor Lingdi later sold official positions to build gardens, Cao Teng spent a full 100 million to bribe the eunuchs in power at the time in order to allow his son to become the Grand Marshal.]

【One hundred million! 】

[As we have seen in various books, corrupt officials in ancient times only embezzled tens of millions at most.]

[The word “billion” was rarely mentioned in ancient times, but Cao Teng could easily take out 100 million to help his son buy an official position. We can probably use this to guess how rich Cao Cao’s family was at that time.]

[Moreover, Cao Cao’s grandfather Cao Teng was not the only powerful person in Cao Cao’s family. For example, Cao Teng’s brother Cao Bao was appointed as the prefect of Yingzhou, his nephew Cao Chi was appointed as the minister of the court, and Cao Teng’s nephew was the prefect of Wujun. There were also many other members of the Cao family who held various important positions in the Han Dynasty.

[It can be said that the whole court is either Cao’s relatives or former students of the Cao family.]

……

“Born in such a family, if you have great ambitions and some talent, if the world is in chaos, even if you can’t become a local tyrant, you will at least become a wealthy man.”

“This Cao Cao has the appearance of being rich and noble.”

Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu sighed and felt sorry for his grandson named Liu Bei.

Everyone became poor because of the favor, so they were in the same boat and had a lot in common.

It’s just that Liu Xiu had a very smooth journey, and was blessed with good luck all the way, including meteorites falling from the sky.

And as for Liu Bei…it was too difficult!

After repeated defeats, people still have no place to stand…

Compared with Cao Cao, Liu Bei’s starting point was not at the same level at all. It is easy to imagine how hard it was for him to achieve success with his own abilities. (End of this chapter)