Over the years, Cao Mao had used Sima Shi's old personnel, soothing the Sima Family's veterans in Sima Zhao's name and bringing them under his command one by one.
And he himself had also styled himself the Grand General's son-in-law.
Yet this had indirectly inflated Sima Shi's reputation.
It had even earned Sima Shi a reputation for loyalty and virtue.
This was something Cao Mao did not want to see.
How many loyal and worthy men had Sima Shi killed? He was highly capable, but ability had nothing to do with character.
Sima Shi had governed the realm only because he regarded it as something already in his own pocket. Though that made him considerably better than those other curs, it did not change the conclusion that Sima Shi was a cur himself.
Cao Mao's method of exterminating three clans targeted hateful men who treated the common people as fish and meat to be carved up, whereas Sima Shi's method of exterminating three clans often targeted men who held the welfare of the state in their hearts!
These were entirely different things.
This was a vicious, heartless man who would poison his wife and use his grandson as leverage for the sake of power.
Cao Mao certainly did not want later generations to put him alongside Zhuge Liang and consider them the two great loyal ministers of their age.
That would be utterly laughable.
And there was Sima Yi. Sooner or later, Cao Mao would drag out his fart of an oath by the Luo River and condemn it fiercely.
Wei had no shortage of loyal and worthy men. Cao Mao, too, had men like Guanqiu Jian, Jiao Bo, Li Zhao, Wang Jing, and Yin Damu. If anyone deserved praise, it was them!
This was both to set the moral