The territory is a little big, although it doesn't belong entirely to me
Speaking of Yuan Shu, fans of the Three Kingdoms must be no stranger to him, especially this brother's farce of calling the emperor is simply the first major "death show" at the end of the Han Dynasty!
So the question is, Cao Cao, the first person at the end of the Han Dynasty, did not want to be called emperor until his death, so why did Yuan Shu do it? Is his claim to the emperor arrogant, or does he really have the money?
If you look at the results of Yuan Shu's defeat and death, Yuan Shu's title of emperor is a proper and self-defeating farce!
However, if we seriously analyze the situation that Yuan Shu was facing at that time, it really means a little.
This is a crucial point.
After more than 160 years of rule, the Eastern Han Empire has gone from prosperity to decline, especially the Eastern Han Emperors seem to have been hit by the curse of short-lived - almost all of them are minor emperors, foreign relatives, eunuchs, scholars and doctors of all kinds of chaotic struggles, has tossed the Eastern Han Dynasty to the west, precarious, coupled with the blood baptism of the great plague and the golden uprising, the Eastern Han Empire has been dying.
It is precisely because the Eastern Han Empire itself is not contentious, the imperial authority has long fallen, in the eyes of the princes of the world - since the emperor cannot be relied on, then everything depends on himself!
The most obvious example is the Battle of Dong Zhuo of the Kwantung Alliance, which seems to be menacing and strong, except for Sun Jian and Cao Cao, the others really fight one by one, not only can not work, but also always drop the chain at a critical moment, and play a just battle into a family.
In this case, it is natural that yuan Shu is not the only one who has the title of emperor's mind. In fact, as early as 187 AD, Taishan Taishou Zhangju had already passed an emperor's addiction. Even Yuan Shu's elder brother Yuan Shao had also moved the mind of the emperor, but he dispelled his thoughts in a wave of opposition.
The so-called slander is somewhat similar to today's prophecy, and we ancients believed in this thing very much, such as Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who was convinced of the secret. It is said that long before Liu Xiu became emperor, there was a rumor that "Liu Xiu is the son of heaven".
And in the folk very early on, there is such a popular saying - the Han Dynasty should be Tu Gaoye. At that time, it was too mysterious, almost the whole world was reading this proverb, who was the "koi" who replaced the Han Dynasty?
Eh, Comrade Yuan Shu jumped out - this is me!
His logic is this: Tu is the way, that is, the road. And my Yuan Shu's technique is the meaning of the road (shu, which in ancient times had the meaning of the road in the city), plus, I Yuan Shu word highway, which is highly suitable for "Dang Tu"! In addition, Yuan Shu has always believed that the surname Yuan came from Chen, and Chen was after Shun, and it was very reasonable to bear the fire with earth. Besides, I still have the treasure I need to be an emperor in my hand, the jade seal.
To sum up, I Yuan Shu is the lucky one who replaced the Han Room!
Looking at Yuan Shu's explanation, today we may say: Old Yuan, your illness is not light! But at that time, Yuan Shu was completely able to convince himself in his heart!
Yuan Shu's approach is to interpret: if you want to make yourself crazy, first learn to deceive yourself!
In our impression, Yuan Shu's base area seems to be only such a place as Huainan, how to see that is, the level of "Xiao Ba", why does he feel that he has "vast territory"?
That's because, in Yuan Shu's heart, his territory is very large! Yuan Shu defined his territory as follows:
The first is Yangzhou, which he himself dominates, which is the land reserved by the old Yuan family.
The second is the three counties of Yuzhou, the Yuan family was born in Runan (now Zhumadian), which was originally the existence of the local wind and rain, and taking advantage of the gap in Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shu took the four counties of Yingchuan, Runan, Peiguo, and Liang in Yuzhou successively, although later Liang was taken by Cao Cao, but the rest of the three counties of Yuzhou were really in his hands.
The third is Guangling County in the south of Xuzhou, which is also basically in the hands of Yuan Shu.
The fourth is Jiangdong under Sun Ce. After all, in Yuan Shu's view, Sun Ce's father Sun Jian used to be his own horse boy, and the army that you Sun Ce made was also supplied by Yuan Shu, so the Jiangdong you fought down was not also my territory!
If you do this, then Yuan Shu's paper strength is naturally the first in the world compared to Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Lü Bu, Liu Biao and others. Not only is the territory large, but also the population is large - the southeast area he occupies is originally a small area affected by the Yellow Turban Uprising, where the people are rich and rich, and there is no shortage of population, grain and grass.
From the territory to the population, these are naturally the biggest "capital" that Yuan Shu considers himself to be the emperor!
At this time, Yuan Shu must have thought so: My old Yuan family is the fourth and third duke, the protégés are all over the world, and the reputation in the late Han Dynasty is also the loudest, since the Han court has already existed in name only, sooner or later someone will come out to be the emperor, why can't it be me Yuan Shu?
Calculating his own "capital", in 196 AD, the "powerful" Yuan Shu resolutely claimed the title of emperor, but Yuan Shu's imperial title was very strange - "Zhongjia"!
As we all know, "Zhong" means "two", since he is called the emperor, he is the boss of the whole world, but Yuan Shu calls himself "the second oldest". This may be a manifestation of Yuan Shu's lack of self-confidence, or it may be doomed to be a "second-goods emperor".
However, with Yuan Shu's title of emperor, he himself quickly ushered in a major turning point in his life:
The first was a sharp shrinkage in territory: Yuan Shu originally thought that as soon as he wore his dragon robe and ascended the throne as emperor, he would immediately be annexed on all sides and surrounded by the new regime centered on Yuan Shu, but in fact it was just the opposite--not only did his "subordinate" Sun Ce immediately turn his face and draw a line with Yuan Shu, announcing that Jiangdong was completely out of Yuan Shu's control; even lü Bu, the "pro-family", kept a distance from Yuan Shu. His original dream of connecting Jiangdong, Xuzhou, and Yangzhou, thus controlling the entire southeast region, was completely in vain.
The second is the rebellion: yuan shu's title of emperor was opposed by many subordinates, such as Yang Hong, Yan Xiang and others. And after Yuan Shu became emperor, some people even began a "victorious escape" in order to avoid disasters, among them there was a person named Jin Shang, who was originally a Yanzhou assassin officially appointed by the Eastern Han government, but when he took office, he was beaten by Cao Cao, who sat in Yanzhou, and beat him out, and there was no place to go to Yuan Shu, but he was such a person, as soon as he heard that Yuan Shu wanted to be called emperor, he also wanted to name himself "Shangshu", and immediately opened the escape mode, but his luck was really bad, unfortunately he was caught by Yuan Shu and executed. In addition, there was also an old friend Chen Jue, who heard that Yuan Shu was called emperor, and directly broke his mouth and scolded, announcing that he would not be friends.
Again, the "pro-founders" are basically a bunch of wall-headed grass: just like Yuan Shu thought about addicting the emperor, many "pro-founders" just want to be addicted to high-ranking officials, these people are typical wall-head grass, and they have no loyalty to Yuan Shu at all. For example, Chen Lan, Lei Bo and others, as soon as they saw that Yuan Shu had lost the battle, immediately rebelled "anyway".
In the face of the scolding situation, the weak "Emperor of the Second Goods" Yuan Shu originally had another trick to save himself, that is, to immediately announce the removal of the imperial trumpet - I Yuan Shu joked, everyone must not be serious.
But Yuan Shu, who has already touched the tiger's ass, is determined to play with fire to the end: You don't play with me, do you? I'm not going to play with you yet!" I myself crowned the marquis and worshipped the chancellor, and I chose the harem beauties myself, and I just wanted to make the emperor "decent"!
Not enough money? Then raise my taxes!
Yuan Shu claimed that the empress dowager was so manipulative and profligate that the huainan area, which was originally rich, even fell to the point of cannibalism.
And in Yuan Shu's drunken dream of death, Cao Cao, who was under the banner of "Feng Tianzi to order not to be subordinate", was already on the road, and the end of Yuan Shu was also coming.
The "Erzhu Emperor" Yuan Shu's career as emperor lasted only about a year, and it completely came to an end, which eventually led to his own starvation. Yuan Shu's farce perfectly interprets "the fish sees the bait without the hook, and the people see the benefits and do not see the harm."
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of the Later Han Dynasty
Author: Our guest author: Qian Qiuyuan