The historical anecdotes to be told today are a life stain that a generation of famous generals Tao Kan had in the early stage of his achievements. The name Tao Kan is usually not well known, mainly because he lived in the Two Jin Dynasty, a period of chaotic history that few people paid attention to. However, during the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang and Emperor Huizong of Song, Tao Kan was ranked among the sixty-four generals of the Wucheng Wang Temple and the seventy-two generals of the Wumiao Temple, which shows the high historical status of Tao Kan as a military general.
Tao Kan was born during the Cao Wei period, but originated in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty. He was born at the bottom of Jiangnan society, and when the Eastern Wu regime collapsed, he was twenty-one years old and witnessed the process of national subjugation. Tao Kan was determined to make a difference in his early years, and his mother's diet shrank for him to study and socialize. Later, Tao Kan finally became the county master, and he worked in this position until he was thirty-six or seven years old, before going north to the capital to seek development. Because Tao Kan was born in a humble background and had no patron, and the other was an ethnic minority, who looked different from the Han people and was very discriminated against, Tao Kan was in Luoyang for five or six years, and only ended up with an official position in Langzhong. At that time, it was the middle of the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings", and Sima Lun usurped the throne, causing the kings to fight in the capital. Jiangnan people living in Luoyang have gone south and returned home to take refuge. Tao Kan then obtained the position of Wugang County Commander and ended his "North Drift" career.
After Tao Kan arrived in Wugang, because of his disagreement with his superiors, he abandoned the official and returned home to become a small Zhongzheng. Due to fate, fate gave Tao Kan, who was nearly half a hundred years old, the opportunity to make a mark.
In 303 AD, Zhang Chang rebelled in Jiangxia, and the displaced people fleeing from the south and the Zhuangding who could not bear the oppression and expedition defected to Zhang Chang. In less than a month, the insurgents grew to thirty thousand. The imperial court was extremely uneasy and ordered Liu Hong to suppress Jingzhou's assassination. After Liu Hong took office, tao kan was made the southern barbarian long history, and the town guarded Xiangyang.
Tao Kan, who was nearly fifty years old and had only led his troops to fight for the first time, showed outstanding military talent, and he insisted on Xiangyang and resisted Zhang Chang's attack. Liu Hong's army was defeated by Zhang Chang. Tao Kan was ordered to take the initiative to attack, defeated Zhang Chang one after another, and finally suppressed the uprising.
Liu Hong praised Tao Kan's talent and publicly praised Tao Kan for his future achievements. Soon after, when The Guangling chancellor Chen Min saw that the imperial court was powerless to control Jiangdong, he planned to divide and establish himself, and raised an army to occupy Yangzhou, allowing his younger brother Chen Hui to attack Wuchang along jiangxi. Tao Kan was ordered by Liu Hong to make another contribution in the battle to pacify Chen Hui.
The two meritorious deeds established Tao Kan's military position in the Jingzhou region, and he swept away the haze of the first half of his life and became a powerful local general. In 306, Liu Hong died of illness, and soon after, Tao Kan's mother also died of illness. Tao Kan therefore left his post and went home to guard the funeral, and during his mourning period, the political situation in Jiangnan underwent major changes.
In 307 AD, Sima Yue, the last victor of the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings", Sima Rui, the sworn enemy of Sima Yue, and Wang Dao of the Northern Clan, entered Jiankang and gradually became the spokesmen of imperial power in Jiangnan. Sima Rui had a tendency to divide Jiangdong. But if you want to keep Jiangdong safe, the upstream must also be under control. In the fifth year of Yongjia, Sima Rui made Wang Dun the governor of the capital to conquer various military forces, and commanded Ganzhuo and Zhou to visit along the jiangxi. To Jiangzhou, he met Hua Yi's forces.
Hua Yi was also a close confidant of Sima Yue, and it was reasonable to say that Hua Yi and Sima Rui were on the same front, but the world changed, and the current stakes made the two intolerable. Hua Yi was appointed as the Assassin of Jiangzhou in the middle of Yongjia, and the history books say that he was extremely majestic, sympathetic to his subordinates, and received Haojie from all sides with the way of a friend, so he won the hearts of the people and gathered many talents under his command. Moreover, Hua Yi's position was given by the imperial court and occupied the legal principle, and at that time, the Western Jin Dynasty had not yet fallen into the country, so it can be seen that it was not easy for Sima Rui to seize Jiangzhou.
After The end of Tao Kan's mourning period, he also established relations with Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea. Sima Yue was in charge of the imperial government at that time, and he did not want Sima Rui to divide Jiangdong and stand on his own, so he appointed Tao Kan as a member of the army to supervise the military forces of Jiangzhou to help Hua Yi suppress Sima Rui.
With Sima Yue's relationship, coupled with Tao Kan's own prestige, Hua Yi then made Tao Kan a general of Yangwu, leading three thousand troops and Tunxiakou. Tao Kan's nephew Tao Zhen joined Hua Yi's army.
Later, the contradiction between Hua Yi and Sima Rui became more and more acute, and it had reached the point of sword tension. Tao Zhen believed that although Hua Yi had ambitions, he lacked talent and was destroyed by Sima Rui sooner or later, so he used the excuse of illness and ran back to Tao Kan's side, and persuaded Tao Kan to go to Sima Rui.
Tao Kan was very angry at his nephew's treacherous behavior, reprimanded him for violating his loyalty, and ordered Tao Zhen to quickly return to Hua Yi's side and stick to his post.
Tao Zhen did not listen to Tao Kan's words, secretly ran to Jiankang, and defected to Sima Rui. Sima Rui was very happy, so he pushed the boat along the water, and together with Tao Kan, he was rewarded, and ordered Tao Zhen to join the army, and Tao Kan to be the general of Fenwei, and the fake chi building was curved to cover the car and advocate.
Although Tao Kan shouted, "Be loyal! He wanted to be loyal to Hua Yi, but since he had already been rewarded by Hua Yi's rival Sima Rui, Tao Kan had no choice but to blush and break off friendship with Hua Yi. Hua Yi was also seriously injured because of this, and finally the soldiers were defeated and killed.