WI: Cao Rui lives longer?

So, reading up on the history of the Three Kingdoms period, one of the main reasons the Sima clan overthrew the Caos and established the Jin dynasty were the power plays between the regents of Cao Fang after the untimely death of Cao Rui, who were Cao Shuang, Empress Dowager Guo, and Sima Yi. In the chaos, Sima Yi and his sons eventually triumphed with the help of the aristocratic families.

Cao Rui continued the meritocratic practices of his father and grandfather before him, while the Sima clan seems to have based its power in the leading families. What if Cao Rui had lived to see his adopted son to maturity?
 
It depends can they actually make any headway against Shu or Wu. I don't know how far you can take Romance of the Three Kingdoms on it's own, but Shu was basically committing suicide with each Northern Campaign. While Wu I think still had Sun Quan alive and didn't devolve into chaos yet.

The thing is if Wei doesn't do what Jin did and put it's family members as regional governors than it may last longer, how that plays out in the long run is anyone's guess.
 
With how large the Cao family was (Blame good ol' Cao Cao for that), there was inevitably going to be someone that the Sima family, or a family in a similar position, will put on the throne should the ruler be weak enough. While it might be alright if Cao Rui lives longer, there's no guarantee his heir will still be competent. If perhaps a different Cao is made his heir after Cao Fang dies, should he die first, it might make more sense for things to move smoothly.
 
Hopefully Cao's successors are weak and stupid, so Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions succeed past his wildest expectations.

Unfortunately, that might take an ASB.
 
So, reading up on the history of the Three Kingdoms period, one of the main reasons the Sima clan overthrew the Caos and established the Jin dynasty were the power plays between the regents of Cao Fang after the untimely death of Cao Rui, who were Cao Shuang, Empress Dowager Guo, and Sima Yi. In the chaos, Sima Yi and his sons eventually triumphed with the help of the aristocratic families.

Cao Rui continued the meritocratic practices of his father and grandfather before him, while the Sima clan seems to have based its power in the leading families. What if Cao Rui had lived to see his adopted son to maturity?

Cal Rui manages to father a living biological son and then have his adopted son executed--so when he does die,a regency is established again!By all means,Cao Rui wasn't infertile.He had a good number of children who are either female or just didn't survive childhood.
 
Cal Rui manages to father a living biological son and then have his adopted son executed--so when he does die,a regency is established again!By all means,Cao Rui wasn't infertile.He had a good number of children who are either female or just didn't survive childhood.

So let's just say he manages to have a mature and capable heir at the time of his death. What would happen then?
 
Nooooooo bu-bu-but my Zhuge Liang!

Don't worry, he'd still be a Marty Tzu in the books. ;)

If there can be an actual stable succession to the Wei Dynasty, then the Sima clan would probably remain their faithful services. The problem being that, much like Tsao Tsao, someone in a position of power at that period probably won't remain faithful for long, especially with the Wei overthrowing the Han as a precedent.
 
So let's just say he manages to have a mature and capable heir at the time of his death. What would happen then?

Well theoretically Shu Han should be in dire straits if Huang Hao is still alive, and Jiang Wei is pissing Shu's resources down the drain with campaign after campaign.
 
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