Let the country have no orphans, and do not know when several people are called emperors and several people are called kings.
This sentence came from the mouth of Cao Cao, the number one tyrant in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, although as a courtier, it was inappropriate to say such a thing, but it was very reasonable. When Cao Cao was alive, no one was able to gain a firm foothold in the title of empress, not that Cao Cao vigorously defended the Han Dynasty, but that people who had any intentions were jealous of Cao Cao's strength. In 197 AD, Yuan Shu braved the world's great disobedience and resolutely decided to claim the title of emperor, but after only 2 years of emperor addiction, he died of hastily illness under the repeated blows of Cao Cao and Lü Bu. Yuan Shu's idea of being emperor had already germinated in 195 AD, but due to the opposition of his subordinates, its implementation was postponed.
Yuan Shu
Four years before Yuan Shu began his dream of becoming emperor, in 191 AD, the chancellor Dong Zhuo proclaimed himself Taishi, and Yuan Shao and others tried to make Liu Yu emperor but were rejected. As far away as Yizhou, there was a Han dynasty relative who did not try the Qing jun side and thought of going to the Kuangfu Han room, but instead dreamed of being an emperor. This person was Liu Yan (劉焉), the patriarch of Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han, and Liu Zhang's father. For Liu Yan, everyone is more familiar with the suggestion that during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he suggested to the Han Ling Emperor the suggestion of "abolishing Shi Limu". Restore the state pastoral system at the local level, let the state pastor take over the military power, and deal with the problems caused by the Yellow Turban Army on their own. This practice can reduce the pressure of the imperial court, but it allows the localities to have the conditions for self-reliance, coupled with the decline of imperial power and the lack of control over the localities, which led to the chaos of the warlords who later supported the army and stood on their own.
Emperor Xian of Han
At that time, Liu Yan used the non-local Dongzhou forces to suppress the local powerful, consolidated his rule, and let Zhang Lu and others cut off the boardwalk, did not listen to the orders of the imperial court, and looked like a posture of dividing up the territory and becoming the emperor of the earth. According to the Zizhi Tongjian, in 191 AD, Liu Yan built more than a thousand imperial cars and other vehicles that could only be used by the emperor.
Liu Yan plotted a different plan in Yizhou.
(Liu) Yan Yi gradually flourished, and he took more than a thousand rides on public opinion vehicles.
At this time, Liu Yan's intentions had been revealed. Next door to the Jingzhou Assassination History, the "honest man" Liu Biao learned of it, and made a small report to Emperor Xian of Han, saying that Liu Yan had the idea of not being a subject. The imperial court then asked Liu Yan's son, Liu Zhang, to persuade his father, but Liu Yan directly left Liu Zhang behind and did not allow him to return to the imperial court. At this point, Liu Yan's dream of being an emperor had become clear.
Liu Zhang
If Liu Yan was allowed to develop, as a relative of the Han Dynasty, he was likely to claim the title of emperor before Yuan Shu. But 3 years later, a fire made his dream of emperor come to naught. In 194 AD, a fire broke out in Mianzhu, the seat of Yizhou' rule, which was caused by natural disasters according to historical records. The fire caused Liu Yan's house to be destroyed by fire, and the frame and other utensils he prepared were also destroyed. Before that, his two sons who were still in the court had been killed. At this point, Liu Yan's two sons were gone, his family was gone, and his dream of being an emperor was shattered, and this series of bad news caused a great blow to Liu Yan. After moving the Yizhou administration to Chengdu, Liu Yan died of illness.
Earlier, Liu Yan heard that Yizhou had the qi of the Son of Heaven, so he applied to the imperial court to become a pastor of Yizhou;
Liu Yan heard that Wu Yi's sister had the appearance of great wealth and nobility, so he asked his son Liu Mao to marry her.
Liu Bei
What Liu Yan couldn't imagine was that he had done so many things, and the dream of the emperor he wanted to realize was finally destroyed by a fire. But what he did not expect was that 27 years later, another Han dynasty relative, it was in This Yizhou, known as the "Qi of the Son of Heaven", that he married Wu Shi, who had the appearance of "great wealth and nobility", and realized his dream, and when he really called himself emperor, this person was Liu Bei.
(References, Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zizhi Tongjian.) ）