The word was passed on in orders. When First Secretary Yang Xiu saw the order that the watchword was “chicken tendon,” he told all his people to pack up their belongings ready for the march. One who saw this went and told Xiahou Dun, who sent for Yang Xiu and asked why he had packed up.
Yang Xiu replied, “By tonight's orders I see that the Prince of Wei is soon going to retire. 'Chicken tendons' are tasteless things to eat, and yet it is a pity to waste them. Now if we advance, we cannot conquer; and if we retire, we fear we shall look ridiculous. There being no advantage here, the best course is to retire. You will certainly see the Prince of Wei retreat before long. I have made my preparations so as not to be hurried and confused at the last moment.”
“You seem to know the Prince's inmost heart,” said Xiahou Dun, and he bade his servants pack. The other generals seeing this, also made preparations for departure.
Cao Cao's mind was too perturbed for sleep. In the night he got up, took a steel battle-ax in his hand, and wandered privily through the camp. When he got to Xiahou Dun's tents, he saw everything packed and ready for a move. Much surprised, he made his way back to his own tent and sent for that officer.
“Why is everything in your camp packed as if ready for the march?”
“Yang Xiu, the First Secretary, seems to have private knowledge of the Prince's design to retire,” said Xiahou Dun.
Cao Cao summoned Yang Xiu and questioned him, and Yang Xiu replied with the chicken tendon incident.
“How dare you invent such a story and disturb the hearts of my army?”
Cao Cao called in his lictors and told them to take Yang Xiu away and behead him and hang his head at the camp gate.
Yang Xiu was a man of acute and ingenious mind, but inclined to show off. His lack of restraint over his tongue had often wounded Cao Cao's susceptibilities. Once Cao Cao was having a pleasance laid out, and when it was completed, he went to inspect the work. He uttered no word of praise or blame; he just wrote the word “alive” on the gate and left. Nobody could guess what he meant till Yang Xiu heard of it.
“'Gate' with 'alive' inside it makes the word for 'wide,'“ said he. “The Prime Minister thinks the gates are too wide.”
Thereupon they rebuilt the outer walls on an altered plan. When complete, Cao Cao was asked to go and see it. And he was then delighted.
“But who guessed what I meant?” said he.
“Yang Xiu,” replied his people.
Cao Cao thereafter lauded Yang Xiu's ingenuity, but in his heart he feared.
Another time Cao Cao received a box of cream cheese from Mongolia. Cao Cao just scribbled three words “One Cream Box” on the top and left it on the table. The words seemed to have no meaning. But Yang Xiu happened to come in, saw the box and at once handed a spoonful of the contents to each guest in the room. When Cao Cao asked why he did this, he explained that that was the interpretation of the words on the box, which, resolved into primary symbols, read, “Each person a mouthful.”
“Could I possibly disobey your orders?” said he.
Cao Cao laughed with the others, but hatred was in his heart.
Cao Cao lived in constant fear of assassination, and said to his attendants, “Let none of you come near me when I am sleeping, for I am likely to slay people in my dreams.”
One day he was enjoying a siesta, and his quilt fell off. One of the attendants saw it and hastened to cover him again. Cao Cao suddenly leaped from the couch, cut down the intruder with his sword, and lay down again to sleep. Some time after he awoke, simulated surprise and asked who had killed his attendant. When they told him, Cao Cao wept aloud for the dead man and had him buried in a fine grave. Most people thought that Cao Cao had slain the man while asleep, but Yang Xiu knew better, and at the funeral of the victim Yang Xiu remarked, “The Prime Minister was in no dream, but only you were asleep.” This only increased the hatred.
Cao Cao's third son, Cao Zhi, took great delight in Yang Xiu's cleverness and often invited him, when they would talk the whole night.
When Cao Cao was considering the nomination of his heir and desired to name Cao Zhi, Cao Pi got to hear of the proposal to set him aside in favor of his younger brother, so he secretly requested the Master of the Court Singers, Wu Zhi, to come and discuss this matter. Then fearing that someone might see his visitor, Cao Pi got a large basket made, in which his friend was smuggled into the Palace. Cao Pi gave out that the basket contained rolls of silk. Yang Xiu heard the truth and informed Cao Cao, who sent guards to watch at the gates. Cao Pi, in alarm, told Wu Zhi, who said, “Be not afraid, but to fill a basket actually with rolls of silk on the morrow and have it carried in as before.”
The searchers peeped into the basket and found the rolls of silk. They told Cao Cao the result of their search, and Cao Cao began to think Yang Xiu was plotting against his son. This also added to his hatred.
