In The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Yang Xiu is a very clever and talented person, but Cao Cao is not a positive image. He is a cruel, cunning and heartless man. At first, Cao Cao also appreciated and trusted Yang Xiu very much, and appointed him as the Prime Minister. Thus, he used to be Cao Cao's confidant, and Yang Xiu's ability is really outstanding. No matter what he did, he came to his senses.
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, once Cao Cao went to Cai Wenji's house, he saw the words of the young woman's grandson mortar engraved on the back of the tablet. Cao Cao asked Yang Xiu if he could solve this problem. Later, Cao Cao himself came up with the answer first, and then compared it with Yang Xiu's answer. The answer of two people is the same. Cao Cao sighed and said that his talent was inferior to that of Yang Xiu. It happened several times later. Although Cao Cao likes talents very much, he likes people who can be used by himself and will not pose a threat to himself. He has many ideas of his own, so Yang Xiu can always guess his ideas, which is also regarded as his lamella.
There are many people who can read minds under Cao Cao, but they all know how to converge and will not show off their cleverness on their own initiative. However, Yang Xiu is different. He is a little frivolous and proud, and always makes Cao Cao humiliating. Finally, he was killed by Cao Cao on the grounds of disturbing the morale of the people.