At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty declined, and the crowds chased after the Central Plains, and finally only Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei were left. In this process, many princes bid farewell to the big stage of history, such as the Gongsun Zhan that the author wants to talk about today, which is a typical example. As a classmate of Liu Bei, Gongsun Zhan once gained the power of the governor of the Four Prefectures, that is, his strength even exceeded that of Yuan Shao. However, his final fate was forced to commit suicide, which was naturally rather bleak.
One
Specifically, Gongsun Zhan came from the land of Youzhou. Gongsun Zhan was the son of an aristocrat, but because of his mother's humble origins, he could only serve as a shuzuo. Because of his beauty, loud voice and intellect, he was appreciated by the Taishou and was invited to be his son-in-law. With the help of his father-in-law, he studied with Liu Bei and Liu Deran in Lu Zhi. He also worshiped liu kuan as a protégé, and was in the same door as Wang Yi, Fu Xie, Wei Jie (Later Han Shu, Book of Continuation Han, etc.).
After completing his studies, Gongsun Zhan came to the Liaodong region to hold an official position. Once, Gongsun Zhan went out on patrol with dozens of cavalrymen and saw hundreds of Xianbei cavalrymen. Although the enemy was outnumbered, Gongsun Zhan led his men to take the initiative to attack, but still repelled the humble cavalry. After this battle, Gongsun Zhan not only left a big name among the Xianbei tribes, but was also promoted by the imperial court to Zhuo County. It is worth noting that Liu Bei was from zhuo county, which prompted him to have a closer relationship with Gongsun Zhan. Therefore, when there was no place to stand, Liu Bei once attached himself to Gongsun Zhan, an old classmate.
During the Reign of Guanghe (178-184), When Bian Zhang and Han Sui rebelled, the imperial court sent three thousand elite cavalry from Youzhou (southwest of present-day Beijing) and gave Gongsun Zhan the title of Governor of The Imperial Household to command the three thousand cavalry. When Gongsun Zhan led his army to Jizhong, Zhang Chun, a native of Yuyang (present-day southwest of Miyun, Beijing), lured Qiu Liju, the leader of Wuhuan in Western Liaoning, and other rebels to capture the cities of Youbeiping Commandery (右北平郡, in modern southeastern Fengrun, Hebei) and Liaoxi Commandery. After learning of this news, Gongsun Zhan chased Zhang Chun and other traitors with 3,000 cavalry, made battle merits, and was promoted to knight lieutenant. At this time, the leader of the vassal state of Wuhuan was greedy to the king and led the people to surrender to Gongsun Zan. Gongsun Zhan was promoted to the rank of Zhonglang general, made the Marquis of Duting, and stationed in the vassal state, and for the next five or six years, Gongsun Zhan fought with the northern nomads.
Two
After the Outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Youzhou, like other prefectures and counties, was attacked by rebels, and the imperial court made Liu Yu, a descendant of the Han Dynasty, serve as the pastor of Youzhou. From then on, Liu Yu became Gongsun Zhan's immediate superior. In 189, Liu Yu was able to obtain the official positions of Tai wei and Sima Da because he quelled the rebellion and appeased the nomadic people in the north. As far as Gongsun Zhan was concerned, he was also crowned as a fenwu general. For general Fenwu, he was a relatively common miscellaneous general during the Three Kingdoms period, such as Cao Cao and Lü Bu, who also obtained this official position.
In 191 AD, Yuan Shao seized the land of Jizhou. Because Jizhou and Youzhou were dependent on each other, this prompted Yuan Shao to become an important opponent of Gongsun Zhan. At the same time, Gongsun Zhan advocated a tough approach to the nomads, which in turn contradicted Liu Yu, the mu of Youzhou. In 192 AD, Gongsun Zhan and Yuan Shao broke out the Battle of Jieqiao. In this battle, although Gongsun Zhan had the advantage in troop strength, he still suffered a defeat. After the Battle of Jieqiao, Liu Yu, the mu of Youzhou, wanted to restrain Gongsun Zhan's behavior, so he led an army to recruit Gongsun Zhan.
It is worth noting that although Liu Yu mobilized an army of 100,000, he was generous and his subordinates were not as fierce as Gongsun Zhan's side, so he not only did not defeat Gongsun Zhan, but was captured by the other side. According to the Book of Later Han and other historical records, after Gongsun Zhan captured Liu Yu, the Eastern Han court sent emissaries to Youzhou. Therefore, he took the opportunity to gain the power of the governors Youzhou, Qingzhou, Hezhou, and Jizhou. After Liu Yu lost his usefulness, Gongsun Zhan did not hesitate to kill him. And this also caused Gongsun Zhan to gradually lose the hearts of the people in Youzhou.
After obtaining the entire youzhou, Gongsun Zhan expanded his power to Qingzhou, Hezhou, Jizhou and other places, which prompted him and Yuan Shao to start a long-term contest. At that time, Gongsun Zhan chose to ally with Tao Qian and Yuan Shu, while Yuan Shao chose to ally with Cao Cao. In the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the confrontation between these two major alliances was undoubtedly an important historical event.
Three
Finally, in 195 AD, Xianyufu, Qi Zhou, and other old subordinates of Liu Yu chose to unite with the nomadic peoples such as Xianbei and Karasuma and launched an attack on Gongsun Zhan. In this regard, in the author's opinion, because Liu Yu has a high prestige in Youzhou, this led to Gongsun Zhan's failure to win over the former's subordinates. To a certain extent, it is precisely because of the internal instability of Youzhou that it laid the groundwork for the defeat of Gongsun Zhan.
When Xian Yufu, Qi Zhou, and others counterattacked Gongsun Zhan, Yuan Shao also sent Ju Yi and others to support. Under the enemy in his belly, Gongsun Zhan could only hold out in the city of Yijing. In 198, Yuan Shao sent someone to contact Gongsun Zhan and expressed the intention of shaking hands and making peace. However, Gongsun Zhan did not reply, but instead strengthened his defenses. Therefore, Yuan Shao mobilized the main force and once again surrounded Yijing.
By March 199, zhang yan, the leader of the Montenegrin army, and Gongsun Xu (gongsun zhan's son) led an army of 100,000 to rescue gongsun zhan. In this regard, in the author's opinion, if Gongsun Zhan and his reinforcements were allowed to join, Yuan Shao would obviously miss the opportunity to eliminate Gongsun Zhan. However, what Gongsun Zhan did not expect was that Yuan Shao intercepted their letters in advance, so Yuan Shao made a plan and disguised his soldiers as reinforcements in advance, thus successfully ambushing Gongsun Zhan.
After another defeat, Gongsun Zhan returned to the city to hold firm. Because the people rebelled and ran out of food, Gongsun Zhan knew that he would definitely be captured by Yuan Shao. So, he finally chose to commit suicide. In addition, after eliminating Gongsun Zhan, Yuan Shao completely occupied the territory of four states, thus becoming the most powerful prince at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Of course, the good times did not last long, and in the Battle of Guandu that broke out a year later, Yuan Shao lost to Cao Cao and died of illness in 202 AD.