The allusion of "cooking wine to discuss heroes" in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is very famous. It refers to the fact that before Yuan Cao's Guandu battle in the fourth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao, who was in control of the court, used a banquet to test whether Liu Bei had the ability to dominate. The story of how the world's ambition was finally concealed by Liu Bei's clever words. However, this only existed in romance. Historically, the two of them did not have such an opportunity to sit down and drink together. So, why didn't Cao Cao kill Liu Bei while they were drinking and discussing heroes? First, Liu Bei hid very well. Second, Liu Bei is not a threat for the time being. Third, Cao Cao did not want to kill Liu Bei.

First

Liu Bei was just a minor figure under Cao Cao at the time, not the leader of one of the Three Kingdoms that we know. Cao Cao did this as a test, but Liu Bei behaved very well. When Cao Cao said, "The only heroes in the world are your envoys and Cao Er," Liu Bei's chopsticks were frightened. When there was thunder, Liu Bei also behaved. Very scared. Cao Cao believed that Liu Bei had no ambitions and did not even have the courage to compete for the world.

Second

In terms of strength, Liu Bei is very weak and is not Cao Cao's opponent at all. He is far from being a threat to Cao Cao. Although the two were not of the same mind, Liu Bei was not the main conflict at the time.

Third

We cannot use subsequent developments to define a series of previous behaviors. If Cao Cao knew that Liu Bei would become his strong enemy in his future life, then he would not have to consider anything. When discussing heroes over wine, he would definitely get rid of him no matter what the reason. But no one knows what the future will be like, so we can only look at it based on the special environment at that time. Liu Bei was nominally under Cao Cao and had a relatively good reputation. At that time, Cao Cao was not so arrogant as to be invincible, and there were many enemies outside. Especially the war between him and Yuan Shao at that time made him need to unite all forces. Killing Liu Bei, a person who surrendered to him, would do him no harm at all. So while they were drinking and discussing heroes, Cao Cao never thought about it at all. Otherwise, what would a person like Cao Cao care about the opinions of outsiders?