Cao Cao is both civil and military in history, and he is not without shortcomings, among which the shortcomings of diplomacy are very obvious, and how bad is Cao Cao's diplomacy in history? Much worse than most people think.

[Bad Diplomacy]

There are many princes who have been associated with him in Cao Cao's life, among which the relatively important ones are Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Lu Bu, Tao Qian, Liu Bei, Liu Biao, Zhang Xiu, Sun Quan, Liu Zhang, Ma Chao, Han Sui, Zhang Lu and other princes.

Before Jian'an, Yuan Shao and Liu Biao were actually Cao Cao's allies, especially Yuan Shao, who could be said to be benevolent and righteous to Cao Cao in the early stage, but in the end, Cao Cao had a grudge with the two one after another.

The relationship between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao was originally very good, and later Cao Cao rushed to welcome the Son of Heaven before Yuan Shao, moved the capital to Xuchang, Yuan Shao missed it and hoped that Cao Cao could move the Son of Heaven to Cao Cao's original base camp Juancheng, closer to himself, but Cao Cao bluntly rejected Yuan Shao's request, and once criticized Yuan Shao in the name of the Son of Heaven, Yuan Shao was half angry, and the relationship between the two changed from good to bad, and later Cao Cao ate turtles in Wancheng, Yuan Shao mocked Cao Cao very much as revenge.

Moreover, after Cao Cao controlled the imperial court, he first prepared to appoint himself as a general and let Yuan Shao serve as a lieutenant, which aroused Yuan Shao's anger, and in order to appease Yuan Shao, Cao Cao not only did not give up the position of general to Yuan Shao, but also let Yuan Shao supervise the four northern states, giving Yuan Shao the green light to unify the north.

As for Liu Biao, in fact, the relationship between Liu Biao and Cao Cao is average, and the two of them can become allies mainly because of Yuan Shao, so Cao Cao regarded Liu Biao as an enemy after the relationship with Yuan Shao deteriorated. Because the distance between Xuchang and Nanyang County in Jingzhou was too close, Cao Cao was determined to win Nanyang, and then Cao Cao simply and rudely crusaded against Nanyang, so he had a grudge with Liu Biao.

At that time, Nanyang County was handed over by Liu Biao to Zhang Xiu to guard, as the gateway to the north of Jingzhou, and Zhang Xiu and his main adviser Jia Xu were pro-Cao faction, on the contrary, Zhang Xiu's uncle Zhang Ji died on the way to crusade against Nanyang County, if Cao Cao sent someone to Wancheng to talk about it, it is likely that Zhang Xiu could easily surrender and control Nanyang without a single soldier, Cao Cao did not do this, but personally led the army to crusade against Zhang Xiu.

The result was that Zhang Xiu also surrendered, and then Cao Cao robbed the widow and forced him to rebel, Cao Cao made a disgraced face under Wancheng, Zhang Xiu and Liu Biao united again, and then Cao Cao spent more than a year in Nanyang, and did not get anything. In the end, Yuan Shao knew that he would send someone to win over Zhang Xiu, if it wasn't for Jia Xu, Zhang Xiu would give Xu Chang a moment when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao Guandu confronted each other, and Cao Cao might not have suffered it.

Yuan Shu, Tao Qian, Lu Bu and others were Cao Cao's main opponents in the early stage.

The relationship between Yuan Shu and Cao Cao has always been very poor, and after Yuan Shu became emperor, Cao Cao had no need to have a good relationship with him.

Before Cao Song's death, Tao Qian and Cao Cao actually did not have a big grudge, but after Cao Song's death, Cao Cao avenged his father and washed Xuzhou in a big bloodbath, and there is no information showing that Cao Cao and Tao Qian negotiated.

Taking advantage of Cao Cao's crusade against Xuzhou, Lü Bu entered Yanzhou at the invitation of Zhang Miao, Chen Gong and others, creating the biggest crisis in Cao Cao's history, and Cao Cao finally drove him out of Yanzhou.

Later, under the inducement of Chen Deng's father and son, Lu Bu and Yuan Shu turned against each other, and Lu Bu began to take the initiative to move closer to Cao Cao, but how did Cao Cao treat Lu Bu? did not give Xuzhou pastor, let Liu Bei, who had a grudge with Lu Bu, serve as Yuzhou pastor, watched Lu Bu in Peicheng, and sent Chen Deng and others to do internal response, so later Lu Bu and Yuan Shu reconciled.

Cao Cao's situation of facing enemies on all sides for a period of time is inseparable from his "excellent" level of foreign engagement.

Liu Bei and Sun Quan were Cao Cao's main enemies in the later period.

Cao Cao can be said to be very good to Liu Bei, but Liu Bei has his own ambitions, so there is nothing to say.

And Sun Quan, in fact, Cao Cao can avoid it. At the beginning of Cao Cao's southward march to Jingzhou, Cao Cao almost succeeded in controlling Jingzhou, but Cao Cao was indifferent when Liu Bei and Sun Quan were in traffic, thinking that Sun Quan and Gongsun Kang would give Liu Bei's head to himself, and as a result, he watched Zhuge Liang pull Sun Quan down Liu Bei's side and pull down his hostile opponent. If Cao Cao also sent an envoy to Sun Quan's place, even if Sun Quan could not surrender directly, it would still make the alliance between Sun Quan and Liu Bei produce a lot of variables.

In the later period, Sun Quan once turned to Cao Cao, but in fact he had little to do with Cao Cao, and Cao Cao did not make much use of this opportunity before his death.

As for Liu Zhang, Zhang Lu, Ma Chao, Han Sui and other princes, Ma and Han were Cao Cao's efforts, but Liu and Zhang Cao Cao could actually do better.

In the fourth year of Jian'an (199), Cao Cao sent Zhong Xuan as a servant and acting lieutenant of Si Li, and supervised the troops in Guanzhong, Zhong Xuan successfully persuaded Ma Teng, Han Sui and other Guanxi princes to submit to the imperial court, but still maintained their independence.

Later, Cao Cao adopted a policy of wooing them, Ma Teng entered the court as an official under the persuasion of Zhang Ji, and Han Sui said that after a few years, Ma Chao was clearly unwilling to be transferred to Xuzhou Assassin Shi, and then he couldn't do it.

However, Cao Cao sent Zhong Xuan and Xiahou Yuan to lead the army out of Hedong and tried to attack Zhang Lu in Hanzhong through the territory of Ma Chao and other Liangzhou warlords.

Due to Zhang Lu's background, although Cao Cao was forced to appoint him as the Taishou of Hanning, he had actually adopted a policy of exclusion from him and was ready to march to crusade many times, but after Cao Cao defeated Ma and Han, Zhang Lu was like an arrow to the imperial court, and Cao Cao probably didn't need to use swords and soldiers if he sent a messenger at that time.

Liu Zhang sent envoys to see Cao Cao three times when Cao Cao crusaded against Jingzhou, and took the initiative to attach, the first time he went to Cao Cao only to crown Liu Zhang as the general of Zhenwei, the second time Cao Cao appointed Liu Zhang's envoy Zhang Su as the Guanghan Taishou, and the third time Liu Zhang sent Zhang Song as an envoy, Cao Cao did not say anything, so Liu Zhang was extremely disappointed in Cao Cao, and later turned to Liu Bei.

In Cao Cao's diplomatic history, enemies basically cannot become friends, friends can basically become enemies, of course, Cao Cao's goal is to dominate the world, then other princes will eventually be his enemies, but this timing is very important, grasp this point in time, you can get twice the result with half the effort.

Although Cao Cao is very good in history, it cannot hide the historical fact that he showed a scumbag level of diplomacy.

Of course, the reason why Cao Cao is not interested in diplomacy is also because of the strength of Cao Cao's group, and Cao Cao is very confident in his military level, so he disdains to use soft means such as diplomacy, and prefers to directly use force, but this result will often make things more complicated, resulting in a lot of unnecessary twists and turns, and even make things develop in the opposite direction.

Therefore, although Cao Cao's diplomatic ability is not good, it is not necessarily that he can't do it, but that he doesn't do his best, or that he doesn't care at all.

Historically, Cao Cao failed to dominate the world despite his advantage, ignoring the diplomatic factor is one of the main reasons.