As mentioned above, Sun Jian is willing to attach himself to Yuan Shu, and this article will talk about the reasons for this.
"The rear general Yuan Shutun Luyang each had tens of thousands of troops."
"Jiangnan Sect Thief Sheng, Yuan Shu Tun Luyang, all nanyang crowd."
These two sentences show that Yuan Shu is very powerful, and if Sun Jian wants to kill him, it is definitely not an easy task, not to mention that behind Yuan Shu, there is the entire coalition army.
Therefore, what is said about Sun Jian's soldiers, many generals, strong soldiers, and sufficient food... There is no need, Sun Jian is a hero, but he may not be able to eat Yuan Shu, and he will fire with him before he gains power, I am afraid that fools will not do it.
If this consensus is reached, it is only necessary to clarify the pros and cons of Sun Jian's "dependence on people" and "neutrality".
Let's analyze from the three aspects of money, fame and fortune, and career to see what Sun Jian's best choice is.
First, money and food
The most direct reason for Sun Jian's alliance with Yuan Shu was to obtain money, food and materials.
After forcing Wang Rui to die, Sun Jian absorbed his troops, although the strength increased greatly, but the huge expenditure obviously made him powerless, which was a headache for countless people, since Sun Jian chose to accept, he had to rely on others to help, and when he encountered Zhang Zhi, who was unwilling to provide grain and grass, he simply became a bandit.
Killing Zhang Zhi made the officials near Nanyang fearful, which was indeed a quick profit, but it was not a long-term solution, and i was impressed by a sentence in the "Langya List": Any transaction that violates sincerity and is forced has uncontrollable variables.
Sun Jian was the same, his base was far away in Changsha, after going north to attack Dong Zhuo, Jingzhou, which was "robbed", was sandwiched in the middle, and if there was no trustworthy person to stabilize the rear, let alone transport grain, it would be Amitabha Buddha if it was not attacked from both sides.
Who is the "trustworthy" one? Obviously, it was Yuan Shu.
At that time, Yuan Shu was in Luyang, with soldiers and food, and was the best candidate for Sun Jian, and it could even be said that he was the only choice.
Eh? Isn't Liu Biao the Assassin of Jingzhou? He was a relative of the emperor and the state, so why didn't Sun Jian unite with him?
In other words, the relationship between Liu Biao and Yuan Shu was really too bad, and with Sun Jian's identity and prestige, it was impossible to be a peacemaker between the two.
As mentioned above, due to Yuan Shu's obstruction, Liu Biao was forced to "ride a horse into Jingzhou", and then, Liu Biao played the imperial court and appointed Yuan Shu as the Taishou of Nanyang, seemingly to reconcile with Yuan Shu, but in fact, Nanyang was a county in Jingzhou, and Liu Biao's approach was undoubtedly disgusting him and provoking him.
Sun Jian abandoned Liu Biao and chose Yuan Shu for two important reasons:
First, Liu Biao was assigned by Dong Zhuo, and he went to crusade against Dong Zhuo, and there was no way to determine whether Liu Biao and himself had the same heart;
Second, Yuan Shu was sandwiched between himself and Liu Biao, and once he made friends with Liu Biao, he might be able to succeed in attacking Yuan Shu, but at this time, the Yuan brothers had not completely turned their faces, and Sun Jian did this, which was equivalent to making enemies with the entire Kwantung rebel army.
Except for Yuan Shu and Liu Biao, it was impossible for others to help, and the "Sour Jujube Gang" at this time had already lost all the grain and grass and fell apart, as for Yuzhou, if there was no Yuan Shu, the identity of Yuzhou's assassin history did not belong to Sun Jian.
So, can we ignore Yuan and Liu? Obviously, no.
As just said, Sun Jian crusaded against Dong Zhuo, jingzhou was sandwiched between himself and Changsha, even if yuan shu and Liu Biao were ignored, then the way to obtain military food was no longer as simple as killing Zhang Zhi. Going back to Changsha to transport grain? First, the distance is too far, and second, whether Liu Biao will obstruct is still a problem, after all, he is going to crusade against Dong Zhuo, who appointed Liu Biao.
Therefore, Sun Jian had no other choice but to use Nanyang as a chip, rely on, and even turn to Yuan Shu.
This chip is big enough, Nanyang is a piece of fat land, how fat is it? "There are still tens of millions of hukou", and after Liu Biao entered Jingzhou, almost all the territory was submitted to him, only Nanyang was not controlled, but Liu Biao did not have half a temper towards it, of course, this is not only the deterrent power of Nanyang County, but also one of the main reasons.
In addition, eleven of the twenty-eight generals under Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, were from Nanyang County, which was a treasure land of outstanding people.
Second, fame and fortune
Sun Jian was born, not a famous person, although he had been an official in Wudi for generations, but his official position was pitifully small, and from this point of view, he and Ma Teng still had a little a bit of a resemblance.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the chain of contempt was very obvious, as Sun Jian's identity, it was difficult to make people look up, even if he fought rebellion everywhere and made great achievements in battle, he could not be respected, and he was despised by Wang Rui, which is the best proof that Wang Rui was from the Langya Wang clan, and the Wang family was not a top-class family at that time.
Zhu Juan's origin is similar to Sun Jian's, he can become a lieutenant all the way, he is respected by the scholars, and he has the help of countless nobles. Among them was Emperor Fusong, who blamed Zhu Juan for the "Ping Yellow Turban Rebellion", otherwise Zhu Juan would have lost the battle and burned high incense without being deposed.
In short, most of the family families look at the door inheritance, not military merit and upstarts, or even power.
Wu Zetian's father, Wu Shiyan, was a founding hero and a rich man, what was such an identity in the eyes of the Yang family? Even if Tang Gaozu Li Yuan was found to help, the Yang family only promised to marry a forty-four-year-old girl, otherwise, the women of the Yang family would not marry in death.
Regarding this history, it is recorded that "The samurai proposed to find a girl of similar age, and Li Yuan thought of Yang Da's daughter Yang Shi, who agreed to the marriage after several resignations on the grounds of "believing in Buddhism". I didn't quite believe it, at that time, the marriage was not up to me, even if the parents were deceased, it was up to the elders or elders to decide, and the younger generations who had no status had no right to speak.
Take Xun Yu, for example, because his father Xun Yu was jealous of the eunuch's power and actually let Xun Yu marry the daughter of Tang Heng, the servant of Zhongchang, and Xun Yu could not refuse, nor did he have the right to refuse. Men are still like this, not to mention women in "feudal society". This incident also represents another part of the clan that is willing to "bow their heads", and they do not care about family honor.
Then again, if you want people to be able to look at it, relying on battle merit alone, it is still too slow, Sun Jian does not have Zhu Juan's luck, does not have the height of the samurai, and does not have tang Heng's power, then the only shortcut is to find a patron and forcibly relate to the family clan.
Sun Jian's patron was naturally after the "Fourth Dynasty and Three Dukes" of the Runan," Yuan Shu, whose yuan family at that time was on a par with the Hongnong Yang clan of the "Fourth Taiwei", whose protégés were all over the world, and with the help of Yuan Shu, Sun Jian might be among the "famous scholars", at least to be able to build up the relationship of the clan.
It is too important to make friends with celebrities, especially as a prince of the party, Liu Bei has provided Xu Jing all the way, which is the truth.
On the contrary, ignoring Yuan Shu, although he would not be an enemy of the clan, he would be isolated by him, and Sun Jian's men did not have people from famous origins or celebrities.
Of course, there is still a case, such as Zhou Yu befriending Sun Ce, I think it can not be determined that Sun Jian "surrendered" to Yuan Shu's "credit", Zhou Yu is different from Zhang Zhao and Chen Qun, if Sun Ce has a loud reputation and is similar to his own will, he will still form a rebellion with him.
Heroes are mostly not "scholars" who are imprisoned by "tradition".
3. Treatment
Judging from historical facts, Sun Jian's alliance, or attachment to Yuan Shu, was represented as a general of the Broken Guard and the Assassin of Yuzhou, if he did not do so, could he still get these identities?
I can't say that it is completely impossible, because "everything is not absolute", there are also individual cases, such as Tao Qian, his father was a county magistrate before he died, but unfortunately he died early, Tao Qian became a child king, did not expect luck to burst, was Cang Wu too guarded, and also married his daughter to him, since then Tao Qian "washed his heart", grew all the way to become a general of Andong, leading Xuzhou Mu.
Leaving aside this possibility, let's look at the historical facts:
After Sun Jian forced Wang Rui to die, he only absorbed the troops and did not lead the Jingzhou Assassin History himself, not because he did not want to, but because he did not have this ability.
Taking the history of Jingzhou assassination is equivalent to declaring that he has rebelled in Jingzhou, and the consequences are very serious, not only with Dong Zhuo as an enemy, but also with the world, which is completely different from "the enemy's enemy is a friend".
Dong Zhuozi needless to say, he still nominally represented the imperial court, and the Kwantung Rebel Army was an alliance, although it was essentially a rebel, but from the moral and numerical point of view, he was not afraid of this "hat".
This is also why Yuan Shao can self-proclaim himself a general, but Sun Jian can't, to put it bluntly, Sun Jian has no capital, which is back to "fame and fortune", without the support of the powerful faction, how long can it last?
When the world is falling apart, there is strength, of course, can stand on its own, no one will care, there is no time to care, but there is still a "world", "identity" is still very important, Yang Feng, Li Le, Hu Cai, Zhang Yan, Han Xian ... These rebels squeezed their heads to fight for the officials of the imperial court in order to have a reasonable and legal identity.
Taking a step back, sun Jian suddenly changed sex and was content in Jingzhou, what would happen?
Jingzhou is the land of four wars, and its importance Friends who have seen the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" know that Sun Jian can hold it? Even if Sun Jian is wise and divine, and the iron barrel built in Jingzhou is similar, and even becomes the earth emperor of Jingzhou, but he is disturbed by war every year, such a "future" may not be bright.
Think about Tao Qian again, although he married Taishou's daughter, but "official" and "clan" can not be equated after all, not to mention that even his mother-in-law did not like this wild child in her heart, and later provoked Cao Cao, was beaten by Cao Cao fat, only Liu Bei ken to save him, how can this not be a kind of sadness?
Well, after analyzing so much, let's finally click on the topic:
When Sun Jian came to Luyang and prepared to attack Dong Zhuo, he chose to ally with Yuan Shu and even defected to Yuan Shu, from his own point of view, there was a hundred benefits and no harm.
Sun Jian could not see what was going on: Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao turned their faces, Liu Biao allied with Yuan Shao across Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao appointed Zhou Ang as the Assassin of Yuzhou, and Zhou Ang took advantage of his own crusade against Dong Zhuo to attack his own seat in Yangcheng...
Of course, he couldn't have imagined that he would die so badly.
But it is precisely because of this that the good story of "Sun Ce sweeping Jiangdong" has been left behind, and there has been a beautiful talk of "three legs standing tall".