5. Can the emperor really command the princes? (Part 2)
PS: Please pay attention to the high-energy reaction ahead!
Some people may want to ask, why was Cao Cao able to achieve hegemony by coercing the emperor and finally breaking out from Yanzhou, the place where the Four Wars were fought, and the surrounding princes who were eyeing him?
This is indeed a very interesting question, and maybe we can explore a little bit about what may be right or wrong.
For Cao Cao's strategy of coercing the emperor to make the princes succeed, the first person he needs to thank is our Dong Zhuo.
Yes, the emergence of Dong Zhuo was not just as simple as completely trampling the majesty of the Han Dynasty under his feet. After all, neither Liang Ji, Cao Jie, Wang Fu, nor even the ten ministers did anything that had any impact on the Han Dynasty.
How many benefits? After all, the emperor relied on the dynasty to exist and not the other way around. So for the people, it was enough for them to know that the Han Dynasty was not good to them. After all, the emperor was too far away from them, and the aristocratic family
I simply never paid much attention to the emperor.
In fact, Dong Zhuo's greatest contribution to Cao Cao was that he dealt a huge blow to those who, although they could not be called vested interests, were the largest political group after the death of the Ten Ministers and General He Jin - the gentry.
Yes, it seems that many people have ignored these old people who had to call it quits for various reasons before they had time to perform on the stage. Although due to the disaster of the party and various other natural disasters, this group of
The noble leaders also
He didn't show any outstanding martial arts skills, but all the old masters who could survive in the maelstrom were all cunning and cunning old masters. If he fought with them in the fields they were good at, Dong Zhuo would have set an example.
Although Cao Cao has outstanding wisdom and an excellent team, his background has been a drag that has restricted him from reaching a higher level in politics for a long time. Cao Cao cannot be saved after all the money and gold are destroyed.
He will not become the second Dong Zhuo. After all, Dong Zhuo's military strength after annexing the Luoyang Northern Army can be said to be the best in the world.
Even within Cao Cao, will there be internal strife under the control of these old guys? After all, in addition to the interdependent families of Cao and Xiahou, the source of Cao Cao's generals is so complicated that there are really many loopholes.
a lot of.
After all, in this era, the saying "the interests of the family are above all else" is no joke. The gentry, who have been suppressed by the country's ruling class for too long, have actually begun to become indifferent to the concept of the country. The gentry can't wait to take control of the political power themselves.
Therefore, Cao Cao should be grateful to Dong Zhuo and Li Jue and Guo Si, who were Dong Zhuo's successors. It was their "efforts" that completely brought down a large number of elite old foxes in the gentry, and ultimately delayed the gentry's takeover of power by dozens of times.
Year.
It is for this reason that Dong Zhuo became one of the ten most traitorous officials in Chinese history. In fact, what he did was only the same as that of Yu Wenhua, An Lushan and others.
And even so, Cao Cao still issued recruitment orders many times. On the one hand, Cao Cao was really thirsty for talents, hoping to find enough talents to quickly restore and consolidate the territory under his rule, but on the other hand, he was not
Do you hope that this can break the gentry’s monopoly on the bureaucracy and thus the gentry’s monopoly on knowledge?
By the way, Liu Bei and Sun Quan actually did the same thing. In order to ensure the consolidation of imperial power, they had to eliminate the powerful local powerful families, and at the same time, they could take the opportunity to free up more resources to reward their loyal men.
.
The second person who needs to thank Cao Cao for his strategy of coercing the emperor to make the princes succeed is definitely his good friends Yuan Shao and Yuan Shanshan.
The gratitude mentioned here by Cao Cao does not mean that Yuan Shao gave up the opportunity to become emperor, or it should be said that it is not just.
As a son of a noble family, Yuan Shao should have considered the pros and cons of getting the emperor very clearly. Even if he didn't think carefully enough, the level of his group of counselors was enough to knead a matter into powder and feed it to him with various attachments.
kind of suggestions.
In the end, Yuan Shao chose to give up the opportunity to hold the emperor hostage and finally took advantage of Cao Cao.
Is it really that simple?
I'm afraid it's not necessarily true. The feud between two good friends, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, obviously can't be that simple.
Thinking back on the history of the feudal princes fighting against Dong, Cao Cao had the smallest military strength, and even the princes seemed not to be on the same level. He mostly followed his other good friend Zhang Miao, and relied mostly on him for military supplies.
.This situation is actually the same as between Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan, except that Cao Cao's reputation is much greater than Liu Bei's, and he is very familiar with the senior leaders of the coalition forces.
But with such a small amount of wealth, Cao Cao's passionate desire to make meritorious service and rectify his reputation when he was young ended up almost all accompanying him on the battlefield to pursue Dong Zhuo alone. At the same time, the Chenliu family sent by Zhang Miao to help Cao Cao fight was also compensated.
The younger brother Wei Zi.
However, Cao Cao's unlucky days were obviously not over. Then he asked for a document from Yuan Shao and took his cronies Xiahou Dun and others to Danyang to recruit troops. The then governor of Yangzhou, Chen Wen and Zhou Xin, had no relationship with Yuan Shao.
Wrong, Zhou Xin was one of the sponsors who was able to raise the troops after Cao Cao escaped from Luoyang. He had allocated some troops to Cao Cao at the beginning, so the process of recruiting troops from Danyang was quite smooth, and Cao Cao finally obtained four thousand Danyang.
soldiers.
But something happened when Cao Cao led his troops back north.
I have said before that although the Danyang soldiers are elite, they worship the strong and have relatively average discipline. There were Danyang soldiers in Cao Cao's previous team, but they were completely wiped out by Cao Cao in one battle, so Cao Cao must have been there at that time.
The Danyang soldiers had a reputation of indifference, if not hatred. It is estimated that the Danyang soldiers felt that Cao Cao led them not to make achievements but to die. As a result, a fierce rebellion broke out in Longkang of Pei State.
Perhaps a small number of Danyang soldiers might have deserted before, so Cao Cao, an admirer of Legalism, used heavy codes in the military camp. This made the Danyang soldiers who were not convinced by him even more dissatisfied, and finally led to
This rebellion.
However, perhaps it was also because he knew that Danyang soldiers were emotionally unstable and Cao Cao did not dare to sleep well at night, so he was able to rush out to kill people as soon as his camp was on fire and finally put down the rebellion.
This incident may also support Cao Cao's classic saying "I like to kill people in my dreams" (smile).
In the end, whether it is "more than a thousand soldiers were recovered" in "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: Emperor Wu" or "more than 500 people who did not rebel" in "Book of Wei", anyway, we can know that Cao Cao's losses this time were quite tragic. In the end
I had to go back in despair
Arriving at Hanoi where Yuan Shao was stationed (this shows how important Hanoi is to the coalition forces - Yuan Shao is in the north, Yuan Shu is in the south, Zhang Miao, Bao Xin, Liu Dai and others are in the east. Attacks from three sides forced Dong Zhuo to move the capital to avoid the coalition forces.
sharp).
It can be said that Cao Cao has basically lost his foundation as an independent force - he has no territory and not many troops.
So Cao Cao had to become a guest general under Yuan Shao like Liu Bei later, with a few loyal subordinates around him doing nothing. He also had to participate in some actions of Yuan Shao and Han Fu that Cao Cao was afraid of, such as supporting Liu Yuwei.
emperor.
Look, who said Yuan Shao didn’t want to coerce the emperor to control the princes? In fact, he knew better than anyone else the benefits of having the emperor in his hands. It’s just that after Liu Yu became the emperor, he had no name and no authority. Yuan Shao had to rely on him for everything, and Liu Xie was surrounded by not only
There is a group of "patriotic and loyal ministers" and more importantly
At that time, a group of miscellaneous military "nobles" such as Zhang Yang, Dong Cheng, Yang Feng, and Han Xian gathered around him. Yuan Shao finally drove away Lu Bu, and there was also Qu Yi under his command who also made him uncomfortable. So what?
Maybe invite a bunch of more uncles?
Okay, let’s put the above aside for now and let’s continue talking about Cao Cao... and the stories that have to be told between him and Yuan Shao.
Cao Cao was able to think that he and Liu Bei were the only heroes in the world when he and Liu Bei were having a drink and discussing heroes. In fact, it was not just because he saw Liu Bei's ability. After all, Cao Cao's words were loud and clear, but in the face of Yuan Shao, Sun Ce, etc.
The fact that people still look worried proves that Cao Cao definitely regards these people as very troublesome opponents. What he really feels is the similarity between him and Liu Bei.
They both have poor backgrounds (one is a descendant of eunuchs and the other is a commoner), they are both good at forbearing (Cao Cao was second to Yuan Shao, and Liu Bei, let alone Liu Bei, has been wandering for half his life), he also has a different kind of personality charm, and he is also a scheming scholar.
A master-level figure.
Cao Cao looked at Liu Bei as if he saw another version of himself, so when he praised Liu Bei, he also affirmed himself.
Well, it was originally going to be a story about the love affair between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, but it turned out to be a secret story that had to be told between Cao Cao and Liu Bei.
Cao Cao, who had been staying with Yuan Shao for a long time, finally got an opportunity, that is, the new Dongjun prefect Wang Gong, who succeeded Qiao Mao, the prefect of Dongjun who was killed by Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou, obviously had no good way to face the powerful Black Mountain Army.
He was beaten to pieces.
It was also from this moment on that Cao Cao's luck became better again. No, it could even be said that it was surprisingly good.
One thing that needs to be explained is that the time when the Montenegrin army led by Yu Du and Bai Rao invaded was basically the same time as the time when Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan had the Battle of the Boundary Bridge, although it cannot be said that this was the time when Gongsun Zan and Gongsun Zan fought.
The tacit understanding between the Montenegrin Army and the Black Mountain Army was due to the fact that Gongsun Zan had defeated the Yellow Turban Army in the Bohai Sea. However, this obviously meant that at the critical moment of the battle for Jizhou, Yuan Shao had to face a two-front battle or even a three-front battle.
The predicament of the war (Tian Kai, the governor of Qingzhou appointed by Gongsun Zan, and the eastern front where Liu Bei was stationed in Pingyuan), so until this time, Cao Cao finally had the opportunity to lead the army again. At this time, the soldiers under Cao Cao's command were estimated to be
The plan was either given to him by Yuan Shao or he recruited him under Yuan Shao's instruction or tacit approval. It is estimated that Zhu Ling from Qinghe, who originally belonged to Yuan Shao but had a very bad relationship with Yuan Shao, came to Cao Cao's command at this time.
So Cao Cao defeated Bai and surrounded Puyang, and in the spring of the third year of Chuping, he forced Yu Du away, and defeated Suigu and Yu Fuluo. Then he gradually became the shepherd of Yanzhou with the help of Chen Gong and Bao Xin from the prefect of Dongjun.
And annexed the power of the late Bao Xin, which finally stabilized the position.
By the way, Cao Cao's series of beautiful combination punches from the original downtrodden general to Dongjun opened up the situation. I am afraid that one or two people are indispensable, that is Liuxiang Xunyu and the mysterious
The drama Zhicai.
Especially for Xun Yu, it is difficult to say whether Cao Cao was able to get the opportunity to send troops to Dongjun with the help of this person. After all, although Xun Yu came from the Xun family of Yingchuan, his wife was the daughter of Tang Heng, the former Zhongchang Shishi.
, although the disciple who made Xun Yu famous as a young man will not be swayed by politics.
He was destroyed by the vortex, but it is hard to say whether those envious and jealous people would maliciously slander him because of this. At least Xun Yu did not get along well with Yuan Shao, who liked celebrities. Maybe he could hit it off with Cao Cao based on his status.
The sense of identity also played a big plus role.
At this time, Xun You was probably still wasting his time in Jingzhou, Guo Jia was still refining elixirs at home, and Cheng Yu had just been conquered by Cao Cao. Among Cao Cao's core model teams, these two people were the oldest and most accomplished, so Xun Yu's status
Being the best among all civil servants and playing Zhicai has become one of Cao Cao's beautiful memories (and his successor Guo Jia has also become a beautiful memory, these two...).
It can be seen that Cao Cao's identity in the era of melee between princes at the beginning was not that of an independent prince, but that he was subordinate to Yuan Shao but had a slightly stronger personality. This was just because of his relationship with Yuan Shao and Yuan Shao's main goal.
The biggest enemies are Gongsun Zan and Zhang Yan’s Black Mountain Army (the former is troublesome,
The latter is hated because the latter once conquered Yecheng. If there were not traitors in the team, Yuan Shao and his family members would probably be taken hostage), so in order to ensure that Cao Cao has the ability to fight against Yuan Shu in the south and Tao Qian in the east
Therefore, he tacitly approved his various actions to expand his power and expand his power.
In the third year of Chuping, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao joined forces to attack Liu Bei who was stationed in Gaotang. Shanjing was stationed in Pingyuan and Tao Qian was stationed in Faqian. In the spring of the fourth year of Chuping, they were defeated consecutively. Sun Jian died in battle and they were completely at a disadvantage.
Yuan Shu, who lost to Liu Biao, drove him to Yangzhou. It can be seen from these two things that the existence of Cao Cao was indeed a coup for Yuan Shao to suppress Yuan Shu.
When Cao Cao was defeated by Lu Bu and Yanzhou was basically completely defeated, Yuan Shao immediately expressed the hope that Cao Cao would come back and follow him. Cao Cao had no intention of resisting this, but gave up because of Cheng Yu's dissuasion. Although it was not
No
It is ruled out that this is a decadent manifestation of the hero Cao Cao's frustration, but Yuan Shao, who can make Cao Cao willing to follow him, obviously has considerable weight in Cao Cao's heart, or it is possible that Cao Cao has the ambition to make a comeback with the help of Yuan Shao.
The reason why the above mentioned so much about the dispute between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao is to lead to the following topic, which is why Yuan Shao made such a decision in his attitude towards Han Emperor Liu Xie.
In addition to the worries mentioned above that vested interest groups will encroach on one's power and eventually successfully counterattack, another reason is that the emperor did not fall into the hands of others, but fell into the hands of Cao Cao!
Why do you say that?
The biggest advantage of coercing the emperor is to use the emperor's brand to attract talents, and secondly to use the emperor's name to persuade other princes.
Yuan Shao had little need for the first benefit at that time. To a certain extent, as the leader of a family with the greatest hope of becoming the world leader among the children of aristocratic families, Yuan Shao was not worried about the lack of talents at all, but was worried about how to deal with his subordinates.
He was already worried about the internal strife among the talented people. Yuan Shao was not a person without opinions, otherwise he would not have grown from a bastard
He developed into the most powerful prince in the world at that time, but the problem was that the talents under him were not weak, and every word he said sounded very reasonable. So when Yuan Shao had neither an absolutely trusted adviser nor a clear strategic goal, he still wanted to
Tragedy will only happen to Yuan Shao when he chooses the best among the best. But no one has ever said that Yuan Shao lacks talents around him.
Yes, even beings like Xun Yu and Guo Jia have not been reused, which shows how fierce the internal competition is.
As for the second point... Well, for Yuan Shao, is there any difference between the emperor in his hands and the emperor in the hands of Cao Cao, who is his subsidiary existence?
Well, maybe there is a difference, that is, in the hands of Cao Cao, Yuan Shao not only does not have to bear the disadvantages brought by the emperor, but can also enjoy the advantages brought by the emperor. After all, in his eyes, whoever he wants to fight can be automatically sent to him as long as he tells Cao Cao that the imperial edict is not
Already?
Not to mention that Yuan Shao had no fundamental conflict of interest with Cao Cao before completing the unification of the four states in Hebei, and the two major temptations (requiring food and grass and dissatisfaction with the official position) received relatively good responses, so Yuan Shao was naturally happy and relaxed.
As for the rumor that Tian Feng admonished Yuan Shao, saying "attack Xu early, if the emperor is held hostage to command the princes, the four seas can be commanded to decide" will definitely not be to Yuan Shao's appetite - yes, maybe the speed of unification will be faster, but those people
Was it Yuan Shao who surrendered or Emperor Han? It is easy to overeat if you eat too much too fast. Think of our Fu Jian and President Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China.
In fact, Yuan Shao's chances of winning were still not small until the Battle of Guandu - even if Zhang Xiu surrendered in the south, Cao Cao would still have to face the attacks of Liu Bei in Runan and other forces that were inextricably linked to the Yuan family; in the west, although Zhong Yao
Ma Teng and Han Sui were stabilized, but they still needed to maintain a certain amount of troops. After all, "Han Jiuqu" was too famous; to the east, because of the Qingzhou Army's
Military discipline was so poor that it was probably left to Zang Ba, who had great autonomy in Qingxu. Although Zang Ba blocked Yuan Tan's offensive, if Cao Cao lost on the main battlefield, he would never be loyal to the Cao family. Yes.
It is said that only Southeast Sun Ce's unexpected death was really good news for Cao Cao, but several other aspects still involved a lot of Cao Cao's energy.
As for Cao Cao's internal affairs, Yuan Shao had penetrated them to a great extent. Even if many of them were just habitual gestures of goodwill from powerful families, they could still bring a lot of benefits to Yuan Shao if they could be used effectively.
It's just the final result... Yuan Shao's knowledge of Houheixue is obviously only at the bachelor's level, or even if he was once a doctor of Houheixue, his too smooth career caused his knowledge to degrade from the doctorate level to the bachelor's level.
Not only did Cao Cao not take advantage of all of his own advantages, he gradually eroded them away. In the end, all the straight-minded generals in Yuan Shao's Guandu camp were dead, and the remaining two more flexible ones finally couldn't stand the individuals in Yuan Shao's camp.
The celebrities habitually fought against each other and chose to protect themselves, which brought the final end to the Battle of Guandu.
At least at the level of his subordinates, Cao Cao really surpassed Yuan Shao.
Therefore, Cao Cao was able to coerce the emperor to control the princes and succeeded not only because coercing the emperor could bring a lot of benefits to Cao Cao, but also benefited from the Xiliang Army's help in filtering out the interest groups around the emperor. At the same time, as he developed
During this important period, the North not only
He is not an enemy but a friend. In the west, Luoyang is a scorched land and few people care about it. The only two directions left are for Cao Cao to use the emperor's tactics to control Yanzhou, which is surrounded by enemies on all sides.
of the Great Wei State.
Of course, when the Cao family's territory was large enough, they no longer needed the emperor's name as a shackle above their heads. As a result, Cao Pi completely kicked the emperor away without any surprise, ending this long-memorable history.
This is the truth that Li Shushi believed that Cao Cao was able to coerce the emperor to control the princes and succeed.
Note: The above is purely Li Shushi’s personal opinion. Any similarity is purely coincidental.
PS2: When I think about the Chinese New Year, I feel like I’m about to slack off, especially after drinking Hot Fruit Jane, I always have the urge to go back to the warm bed...
PS3: Today’s chapter should be considered to be full of integrity. It won’t be a problem even if there is no update tomorrow...
