Cao Cao wrote to Hua tuo many times to urge him to go back, and even asked the local county magistrate to find Hua tuo and let him go back to Cao Cao, but Hua tuo refused on the grounds that his wife was in poor health. Cao Cao became angry from embarrassment and sent someone to Hua Tuo's hometown to catch him back.
Hua tuo was tortured after his arrest. Cao Cao insisted that Hua Tuo work for him, but Hua Tuo remained steadfast and refused to give in. In the end, Cao Cao ordered Hua Tuo to be executed. Many people pleaded for Hua Tuo, thinking that his medical skill was high and it was a pity to be executed, but Cao Cao ignored it and Hua Tuo was executed by Cao Cao.
It is widely circulated in history that after Hua Tuo cured Cao Cao's headache, Cao Cao was worried that it would recur in the future, so he forced Hua Tuo to stay with him, and Hua Tuo would rather die than be executed. However, the interpretation of Hua Tuo's death in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is that Hua Tuo thought that to cure Cao Cao's headache, he had to cut his head open and turn around to get rid of the wind saliva, so as to cure it. But Cao Cao thought that Hua Tuo wanted to kill him, so he put Hua Tuo in prison and later killed him.
How did Hua tuo die? So far there is no clear answer. Some people say that Hua Tuo was treating Cao Cao's headache and was poisoned when he tried poison.
It is recorded in the History of the Three Kingdoms that when Hua Tuo was treating Cao Cao, he didn't go back after the agreed time limit, which led to Cao Cao's great anger and ordered Hua Tuo to be executed. It can be seen that no matter how Hua Tuo died, he had a lot to do with Cao Cao.