This page features the men who have ruled the Kingdom of Wei.
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Considered a villian, Cao Cao was the minister of the cavalry during the later Han Dynasty. He lost his post and became a fugitive after he failed in his assasination attempt on the tyrant Dong Zhuo who seized the court power.There are three main reasons why Cao Cao is cast as a villian. He became a wanted man after he failed to assasinate Dong Zhuo. He decided to put up for a night at his uncle's lodging during fleeing back to his hometown. Due to a misunderstanding or misinterpretation on Cao Cao's part upon hearing the sharpening/clapping of knives he thought they were preparing to kill him and so launched a pre-emptive strike and rushed into the room and killed all of them. In fact his host were preparing to slaughter a pig to prepare a feast for their guests.
Secondly due to the fact that the Emperor sought Cao Cao's protection not long after the dismise of Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao was able to use the Emperor as his puppet to order the dukes and princes about the country. Thus Cao Cao is perceived as not much difference from the tyrant Dong Zhuo. Last of all, Cao Cao caused the death of the famous physician, Hua Tuo. Due to Cao Cao's suspicious nature he thought Hua Tuo was out to harm him when the great physician suggested the remedy of operating on the head to cure Cao Cao's head ailments. Hua Tuo was locked up in jail and died soon after.
Cao Cao established the foundation for the Wei Kingdom when he defeated Yuan Shao, a rival stronger than him. Cao Cao's territories stretch as far to the edge of the Mongolian desert and was able to control the central plains after defeating Yuan Shao in the decisive battle of Guandu. Other contributing factors to this victory include the burning of Yuan Shao's grain depot at WuChao, Guan Yu's slaying of Yuan Shao's top generals Yan Liang and Wen Chou along with the advice of Xu You who defected over to Cao Cao's side from Yuan Shao.
With Yuan Shao and his sons out of the way, Cao Cao turned his attention to the south where Liu Bei has escaped to as well the the Wu Kingdom. Cao Cao gained control of much of Jingzhou effortless when Liu Zong surrender upon the approach of the Cao army after Liu Biao's death. Having settled Jingzhou, Cao Cao focused his attention to Liu Bei who has escaped to Jiang Xia. Being wary of the Wu Kingdom, Cao Cao proposed an alliance with Wu to jointly eliminate Liu Bei together but it turned out otherwise with Wu kingdom allying with Liu Bei!
Furious over the Wu's rejection of his alliance, Cao Cao began to consolidate his forces for a one fell swop to eliminate both Liu Bei and Sun Quan to conquer the south. The final decisive battle took place at Chibi and the Cao Cao suffered the worst defeat of his life. Cao Cao would have perished if not for Guan Yu. Cao Cao managed to escape to Fancheng which is held by Cao Ren and later returned back to the capital Xuchang to rebuild his army. During this period, Liu Bei and Sun Quan's alliance fell apart due to Jingzhou. With relations scoured, Cao Cao managed to ally with Sun Quan and launched a joint attack on Jingzhou. Thereafter Cao Cao also launched an assault on Hanzhong but did not push on the attack into Yizhou though Sima Yi is in favour of pushing on. It will only be a matter of time before Liu Bei built up his forces and repelled Cao Cao from Hanzhong. Cao Cao retreated back to Xuchang and soon after suffer pains in his head and died.
