In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao was an insidious, heartless and suspicious person, but in fact, Cao Cao was indeed an outstanding politician, strategist and writer in the Three Kingdoms period. Born into a eunuch family, he showed great wisdom when he was young. At the age of 20, he was promoted to Lian Xiao, became a lieutenant in northern Luoyang, and began to be an official. In A.D. 189, Cao Cao scattered his wealth and recruited volunteers to join various governors in the crusade against Dong Zhuo. Since then, Cao Cao has continuously expanded his private armed forces in the process of suppressing the Yellow Scarf Army. Then, he fought against Lu Bu, Zhang Miao and other warlords, took control of Yizhou's territory and established a base area. In A.D. 196, he took Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty to Xuchang, achieved the status of "relying on the emperor to make the princes" and started the campaign to unify the north.

Cao Cao wiped out the heroes and achieved brilliant results in the south of the Yellow River. He attacked and killed Lu Bu in Xuzhou, forced Yuan Shu in Yangzhou, drove Liu Bei away, surrendered to Zhang Xiu in Wanxian County, and became the biggest force south of the Yellow River. In the year 200, in the famous battle of Guandu, the main force of Yuan Shao, the most powerful man north of the Yellow River, was wiped out. Since then, after several years of campaigns, Cao Cao has eliminated the remnants of Yuan Shao and occupied the four states of Qing, Ji, You and He. In 2007, he led a large army out of xifengkou, Hebei Province, and settled the five rings and three counties; Then beat Ma Chao and Han Sui in Tongguan and pacify the northwest. Destroy Zhang Lu in Hanzhong and surrender to Xianbei Kou. In 208 AD, Cao Cao completed the great cause of reunifying the north and sent his troops south to prepare for the unification of the south. However, in Battle of Red Cliffs, he was defeated by the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei, and the world was divided into three parts.

At the same time, Cao Cao is also one of the representatives of Jian 'an literature.