The late Han was an age where natural disasters and human calamities arrived together. Since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, there had been the chaos of the Ten Eunuchs, Dong Zhuo's entry into the capital, the coalition against Dong Zhuo, and Yuan Shu proclaiming himself emperor.
More than twenty years of warfare had produced heroes and revealed capable ministers and fierce generals, yet it had also trampled countless common lives into the mud.
Selling children, bartering daughters, scraping bark for food, plagues of locusts, even cannibalism. These were things the people of Jingzhou had, to varying degrees, seen or at least heard of over the years. But what Cheng Yu had done.
"Cheng Zhongde could be this ruthless?" Liu Bei was astonished.
"No wonder people in Xuchang spoke of Cheng Yu as harsh and difficult, constantly at odds with others. So he is truly such a petty villain." Guan Yu shook his head, his disdain evident.
"To be blindly loyal to Cao Mengde to such an extent," Zhuge Liang sighed as well.
Even if Cao Cao were to gain the empire, what would Cheng Yu truly obtain? Even if he rose to the highest offices, his hometown would forever remember him as the butcher who turned the flesh of his own people into military rations.
Looking back four hundred years, even Xiang Yu had refused to cross the river out of shame before the elders of Jiangdong and chose instead to end his own life.
"Then why would later generations slander my elder brother?" Zhang Fei was indignant.
Liu Bei, however, remained composed. "Falsehood cannot become truth, and truth cannot be concealed as falsehood. Even across one thousand seven hundred years, they will know this is nothing more than a rumor."
Such bearing caused Huang Zhong to feel a quiet admiration, thinking that Liu Jingzhou truly lived up to his reputation.
Only Zhang Fei remained resentful, already planning to find a couple of storytellers later and have them compose tales about Cao Mengde. Since he liked married women so much, then give him five… no, eight, ten of them!
[Lightscreen]
["Of course, the Romance does not merely turn a blind eye in the case of Cheng Yu. A casual look reveals several typical examples.
The Records of the Three Kingdoms records that in the tenth month, Cao Cao campaigned against Lü Bu, slaughtered Pengcheng, and captured its Chancellor Hou Xie. The Romance simply omits this entirely.
It also records that Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao rebelled against Cao Cao. Cao Cao besieged Yongqiu for months, and after taking the city, slaughtered it and executed Zhang Chao along with his entire family. In the Romance, the massacre is omitted, and Zhang Chao's death is changed to self-immolation.
The Book of the Later Han records that during the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao buried alive eighty thousand surrendered soldiers of Yuan Shao. The Romance changes this to deaths in battle.
The Book of the Later Han clearly records that Cao Cao slaughtered Ye City and seized the women of the Yuan clan. The Romance changes this to strict discipline forbidding harassment of civilians. This is an obvious attempt to preserve Cao Cao's reputation, especially since after the fall of Ye, he took Yuan Shao's daughter-in-law Zhen Mi, who later became the wife of Emperor Wen of Wei and the mother of Emperor Ming.
The Records of the Three Kingdoms repeatedly notes Cao Cao's military order that those who surrendered after a siege would not be spared. The Romance omits this entirely.
It also records that under Cao Cao's rule, forced labor was heavy, causing great suffering and even uprisings among the people. The Romance again omits this.
These embellishments lead viewers to feel that Cao Cao's misdeeds were not so severe, and some even call it true temperament, while turning around to criticize Liu Bei's tears as hypocrisy. Truly laughable."]
"Elder brother loves to cry?" Zhang Fei perked up immediately.
"That must be nothing more than later rumor," Guan Yu laughed. "The last time I recall elder brother weeping was when Tian Guorang took his leave, and he lamented that they could not accomplish great things together. I believe that was the only time. It can hardly be called a habit."
"It is fortunate Tian Guorang left quickly. Later, when we were defeated by Lü Bu at Xiaopei and then encountered Cao Cao, we fled from place to place. Had Tian Guorang remained, he might not have endured such hardships," Zhang Fei added faintly.
Liu Bei said nothing, merely casting Zhang Fei a sharp glance, as if to remind him to consider why Lü Bu had been able to seize control in the first place.
Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun continued to transcribe, yet as he wrote, Zhuge Liang's eyes shone.
"It seems that in later times, there are those who specifically compile histories for us."
To have one's deeds recorded in history was no ordinary honor. He could not help but wonder what position he would hold in such records, and how later generations would judge him.
Only Huang Zhong sat there in confusion. As a martial man who had only become a General of the Household at forty under Liu Biao, he had spent years outside the center of power, drifting in mediocrity. After finally resolving to offer his aging strength to Liu Jingzhou, he had not expected that within two days he would witness such extraordinary matters.
Yet the events listed one by one on the light screen were clear enough, and from what the lord had said, these were accounts from descendants more than a thousand years in the future. A vague and unrealistic hope stirred within Huang Zhong's heart.
"Then this Cao A'man later became Emperor Wen of Wei? Shameless!" Zhang Fei exclaimed, missing entirely the killing intent in Liu Bei's gaze as he shifted to a new topic.
"Perhaps Emperor Wen of Wei is Cao A'man's son," Guan Yu offered a different view.
"Everyone knows Cao Cao likes married women. Did not his eldest son die because of that?" Zhang Fei argued confidently. "After capturing a city, he plunders, and this time it is Yuan Shao's daughter-in-law. That fits perfectly with his tastes."
Guan Yu was at a loss for words and reminded him, "Cao A'man and Yuan Shao were of the same generation. To take another man's daughter-in-law would violate propriety."
"When has Cao Cao ever cared about propriety? Though what second brother says is reasonable. If Emperor Wen of Wei is his son, that would not be surprising. Father and son both favor married women. Is that the Cao family tradition?" Zhang Fei burst into laughter.
The hall fell into brief silence. His words were crude, yet uncomfortably plausible.
"Cao Cao is truly a butcher," Zhao Yun remarked as he continued writing. The term had once been used for Bai Qi, who buried alive four hundred thousand surrendered soldiers in a single battle. While Cao Cao did not match that number, his repeated massacres of cities made the title fitting, and none present objected.
[Lightscreen]
["Having discussed Cao Cao's true historical image, let us now address today's topic: when did the Cao clan lose the world?
Again, the Romance gives a misleading impression. Since Sima Yi becomes half a protagonist in the later sections, it feels as though the Cao emperors were ruling peacefully, enjoying life, when suddenly the Sima clan seized power.
If we summarize it simply, Cao Wei fell on the surface to the Sima clan, but in reality, it fell to internal strife.
If Sun Wu failed to unify the realm because the ruler was weak and the ministers strong, then Cao Wei's problem was the struggle between two tigers.
The most obvious example of internal conflict can be seen in Cao Zhi's Seven-Step Poem, which gave rise to the famous line: born of the same root, why press each other so harshly?"]
"Why press each other so harshly…" Liu Bei felt an unexpected resonance. In earlier years, when Cao Cao was still nominally a Han subject, he had repeatedly sought Liu Bei's death.
To think that later, Cao Cao's own sons would struggle even more fiercely. Liu Bei lifted his teacup and drained it in one gulp, feeling an odd sense of satisfaction.
[Lightscreen]
["Within Cao Wei, there were traditionally two major factions.
One was the Runan-Yingchuan scholar gentry faction, represented by strategists such as Guo Jia and the Xun clan.
The other was the Qiao-Pei military faction, centered around the Cao and Xiahou clans.
In Cao Cao's early years as a warlord, warfare occupied far more time than governance, so military authority largely rested in the hands of the Qiao-Pei faction.
However, after the Battle of Red Cliffs, Cao Wei's territory was largely established, military campaigns decreased, and as Cao Cao aged, the matter of succession came to the forefront. Friction between the two factions intensified.
The conflict truly ignited in 219, when a man named Wei Feng launched a rebellion: I defect to Han!"]
Liu Bei: ???
Fun Fact: In Extreme Famines, Families "Exchanged Children" to Survive
During the collapse of the Han Dynasty, famine conditions became so severe that a practice known as "yi zi er shi" (易子而食) emerged—literally meaning "exchange children and eat them."
This sounds shocking, but it reflects a grim form of survival logic under total societal breakdown:
Parents avoided the psychological trauma of consuming their own child.
By exchanging children with another family, the act became emotionally and socially "distanced"
It shows that even in extreme desperation, people still tried to preserve a sense of moral boundary
Why did it happen?
This wasn't caused by hunger alone—it required multiple systems collapsing at once:
Agriculture failed → farms abandoned due to war
Government failed → no grain relief or distribution
Military pressure → armies seized remaining food supplies
When all three broke down simultaneously, famine escalated into what historians call "catastrophic subsistence crisis"—where normal food sources disappear entirely.
Educational Insight
This phenomenon is important for understanding history:
It shows how human behavior adapts under extreme conditions, not just through chaos, but through grim forms of reasoning
It demonstrates that the fall of a dynasty is not just political, it is also a humanitarian collapse at the lowest level of society
In short:
What looks like unimaginable cruelty is often a sign that every structure supporting human life has already failed.