During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a military general who had experienced hundreds of battles and joined the army for more than 40 years without defeat, but in the end he was ostracized by the civilian official clique.
After his death, this person shared the title of "Wu Mu" with Yue Fei, and he was Cao Wei of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Cao Wei (曹玮字宝臣), a native of Zhending Lingshou (真定靈寿; present-day Zhengding, Hebei). His father was Cao Bin, known as the first general of the early Song Dynasty.
Although Cao Bin was criticized for the defeat of the Yongxi Northern Expedition, he pacified Later Shu, destroyed the Southern Tang, and Dingbei Han, and made great contributions to the Northern Song Dynasty in cutting down various divided forces, and his merits could not be erased, and indeed worthy of the title of the first general of the early Song Dynasty.
During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song to Dao (995-997), Li Jiqian, the leader of the Xiang clan in the northwest, rebelled against the Song.
The Taizong sect sent Li Jilong, the first general of the Song army at that time, to go to the conquest, but it was fruitless. In desperation, Emperor Taizong had no choice but to ask the old general Cao Bin to recommend a man to deal with Li Jiqian. Cao Bin did not shy away from suspicion at all, and bluntly said, "My son is very reliable."
Therefore, at the recommendation of his father, Cao Wei, who was only 19 years old, took up his post as an envoy to Zhiwei Prefecture (知渭州, in present-day Pingliang, Gansu) and a soldier and horse patrol envoy, and began his career as a horseman.
Cao Wei's army was strictly deployed, rewarding and punishing people, and never lenient those who violated the order. Cao Wei recruited foreign tribes, broke Li Jiqian, broke the chapter to bury the clan, suppressed Zang, broke tubo, and made many military achievements.
In the Battle of Sandu Valley, Cao Wei led his army to defeat the Tubo army, pursued for twenty miles and returned, beheading more than a thousand people, capturing 33,000 horses, cattle, miscellaneous animals, and weapons, and only more than 200 casualties of the Song army.
After this battle, Cao Weiwei shook the world. Cao Wei guarded the northwest for nearly forty years and made great contributions to strengthening the northwestern border defense of the Northern Song Dynasty.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, there were twenty-four meritorious men in the Zhaoxun Pavilion, most of whom were famous courtiers, and there were only 5 military generals, namely Cao Bin, Pan Mei, Cao Wei, Li Jilong and Han Shizhong, and Cao Wei was able to rank twenty-four meritorious men with his father Cao Bin, which showed his merits.
In the "political tradition" of the Northern Song Dynasty, Cao Wei, who had distinguished himself in battle, of course, often became a thorn in the eyes of civilian officials.
Defeating a strong enemy, he led the army for forty years, and it became common for him to be falsely accused and framed, and he was once demoted to Laizhou Zhizhou.
Fortunately, he was resourceful, and he also knew how to protect himself every time, and there was always a way to make the emperor dispel his doubts, so although he said ups and downs, he still had no danger, and at the age of fifty-eight, he died in the Zhangwu Army Festival.
When Cao Wei was guarding the northwest, the Western Xia Party was still quite honest. But Cao Wei, who had a brilliant vision, had long known the ambitions of this group of people.
He once proposed a shock strategy: taking advantage of the internal instability in Western Xia, the Great Song launched a military operation in advance to completely cut off this strong enemy and control the Hetao grassland.
However, after this well-planned strategy was sent up, it was scolded by the Northern Song Dynasty's courtiers, saying that Cao Wei "caused trouble" and was so wasted.
Cao Wei, as a rare famous general of the Great Song Dynasty, can be said to have courage, insight and courage, but it is a pity that the Northern Song Dynasty emphasized literature and light weapons, and missed the opportunity to expand its territory and enhance its strength.