AD 198

AD 198 is a turning point in the account of Cao Cao’s ascendancy: after coordinating against Yuan Shu and suppressing his own army’s dissent, Cao Cao returns to Xuchang to find Li Jue and Guo Si dead. The year is presented not as a settled restoration of order, but as a moment when power is strengthened through alliances, executions, and the continuing struggle over who may claim the authority of the Han.

Political Context

The larger conflict is the fragmentation of the Han empire into the Three Kingdoms. As the Han weakened, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Quan emerged as leaders whose power would eventually be organized into rival kingdoms. The account of AD 198 belongs to this process: Cao Cao’s alliances and campaigns expand his influence, even as the old imperial order remains formally in place.

Cao Cao’s political position is defined by his control of the emperor and the court. Later, Kong Ming would describe Cao Cao as possessing the allegiance that came from control of the Son of Heaven, while advising Liu Bei to regard Sun Quan as a potential ally rather than an enemy. That later strategic assessment clarifies the significance of the political landscape taking shape around AD 198: power is accumulating around military leaders, while Han legitimacy remains a prize and a justification for competing claims.

Campaigns and Consolidation

Cao Cao coordinates an attack on Yuan Shu with Lü Bu and Sun Ce. Sun Ce is especially eager to move against Yuan Shu because Yuan Shu possesses the Imperial Seal, which Sun Ce considers his, and has ambitions to become emperor. During the siege of Shouchun, dissent breaks out among Cao Cao’s troops. Cao Cao suppresses it by executing an innocent officer and attributing the army’s difficulties to him, then punishing soldiers who fail to press the assault. The city falls; Cao Cao executes captured members of Yuan Shu’s court and destroys the newly built imperial palace.

The campaign produces formal partnerships with Liu Bei, Sun Ce, and Lü Bu, confirmed through titles and honours. Yet Cao Cao privately warns Liu Bei to keep watch on Lü Bu and be ready to help defeat him later. The contrast between public alliance and private suspicion makes the settlement provisional: recognition and cooperation do not erase rival ambitions.

The Return to Xuchang

On returning to Xuchang, Cao Cao learns that loyal officers have taken action against Li Jue and Guo Si, the two rebels who had previously threatened the court. They have been killed, and their families have been rounded up and imprisoned. Cao Cao then orders the execution of two hundred members of the Li family outside the city gates and has their heads displayed above the gates.

The account sets this reprisal beside its public reception. Ordinary people rejoice, and Emperor Xian holds a large celebration. These reactions frame the episode as both a demonstration of Cao Cao’s authority and a claimed restoration of security. But the scale of the punishment also reveals that the stability associated with his return is enforced through collective retribution, not simply secured by the removal of political opponents.

Significance in the Wider Narrative

The year’s account places political consolidation alongside the unsettled question of legitimate rule. Yuan Shu’s imperial ambition, the court’s dependence on powerful commanders, and Cao Cao’s possession of the emperor all point toward a world in which authority is asserted through both military success and appeals to dynastic right. Later, Cao Pi will receive the throne through an abdication framed as a transfer of Heaven’s favour to the Cao family; Liu Bei, in turn, will be urged to claim the imperial title as a continuation of the Han line.

AD 198 therefore functions as an early marker of Cao Cao’s growing power, not as the resolution of the Han crisis. Its alliances are strategic, its victories accompanied by exemplary punishments, and its return to the capital celebrated under an emperor whose court depends on the strongman who commands it. The subsequent founding claims of Wei and Shu give this year’s consolidation its larger historical direction: the weakened Han is being displaced by rival regimes, even while its legitimacy remains central to their language of rule.