The formation of the Three Kingdoms is a complex process, with political reasons, such as imperial court corruption, political darkness, treachery, power struggles, and social reasons, such as the lack of livelihood, wars, land annexation, and natural causes, such as plague epidemics and frequent natural disasters, which lead to no harvest, but the narrow sense of the formation of the Three Kingdoms began with the killing of He Jin shortly after the death of Emperor Hanling.
He Jin was the half-brother of Empress Hanling, as a foreign relative, an official to the great general, holding the power of the world, was a real power figure in the imperial court in the later years of The Hanling Emperor, He Jin originated in the Yellow Turban Uprising, before the Yellow Turban Uprising, Zhang Jiao's subordinate Ma Yuanyi plotted to lead the Yellow Turban Army to raise an army in Luoyang (Luoyang), it was He Jin who first discovered and quelled the rebellion, and He Jin was also promoted to great general because of his merits.
He Jin
In the late Han ling emperor, in order to balance the power of He Jin, the Han Ling Emperor set up the eight lieutenants of the West Garden, with the eunuch Jian Shuo as the head of the eight lieutenants, and Jian Shuo was also a trusted eunuch of the Han Ling Emperor, and the eight lieutenants of the West Garden included Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and other powerful sons, which was obviously the Han Ling Emperor in order to balance the power of the great general He Jin, but after the death of the Han Ling Emperor, due to improper power arrangements and the power struggle between He Jin and the eunuchs, He Jin killed the eunuch Jian Shuo and further tilted his power to the opposition.
After the death of Emperor Hanling, the main power of the state was in the hands of the great general He Jin, if He Jin correctly handled the power struggle within the imperial court, especially the power struggle with the eunuchs, and the imperial court remained stable, the world would not be in chaos, Dong Zhuo would not enter the capital, and the Han Shao Emperor Liu Jian established by He Jin would not be killed by Dong Zhuo, and there would be no later Han Xiandi Liu Xie.
Cao Cao
The root cause of all this is that He Jin was killed, the power of the imperial court was out of control, there was no one who stabilized the overall situation, fighting and killing each other, then the question is, why was He Jin killed?
The reason why He Jin was killed was that he wanted to kill all the eunuchs, whether good or bad, so he forced the eunuchs to be anxious, and the dogs would jump the wall when they were anxious, not to mention the eunuchs who had some power, so all the eunuchs united to lure He Jin into the palace, and then killed He Jin, he Jin died, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, the two brothers and He Jin's old troops led the army into the palace, and when they saw the eunuchs, they killed, which caused a catastrophe, causing the internal strength of the imperial court to weaken rapidly, and as a result, Dong Zhuo from the local warlord took the fruits of victory.
Dong Zhuo
So why did He Jin kill all the eunuchs? People are divided into good and bad, eunuchs are also good and bad, moreover, the eunuch class existed in the two Han Dynasties for four hundred years, existence is a reasonable pearl, since there was an emperor, eunuchs have always existed, especially in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the power of eunuchs gradually grew because of the emperor, became a powerful political force in the Eastern Han court at that time, and also became one of the pillars of the arch to defend the imperial power, without eunuchs, the imperial power will no longer exist.
And all these ideas of He Jin were given to him by Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao not only suggested that He Jin kill all eunuchs, but also suggested that He Jin recruit local troops into Beijing in the name of a great general, and use military means to coerce Empress He to agree to kill all eunuchs, and as a result, the eunuchs did not kill, He Jin was killed first, and then dong Zhuo of the local warlord entered Beijing and controlled the imperial court, which triggered the Kwantung allied forces to jointly attack Dong Zhuo, followed by the chaos of the world, the weak forces were constantly annexed, and the powerful forces continued to become stronger.
The eunuch behind the emperor
Then after the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao unified the north, the southern region after the Battle of Chibi, by Sun Quan and Liu Bei divided Jingzhou, followed by liu bei's rapid development of power, annexed Yizhou and Hanzhong, and then after the Battle of Xiangfan and the Battle of Yiling, and finally laid the situation of three divisions of the world, so the formation of the Three Kingdoms, all major political events and major battles are linked to each other, and the root of all this is that He Jin was killed.
And the biggest suspect in He Jin's murder was Yuan Shao, who instigated He Jin to kill eunuchs and recruit foreign troops into Beijing, so Yuan Shao caused the culprit of the chaotic years at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but unintentionally led to the establishment of the Three Kingdoms, because Yuan Shao's original intention was to unite all the warrior clans to enter the political arena, why did Yuan Shao do this?
Yuan Shao
Because although the Shi clan was a powerful political force at that time, at the same time, at the local level, the Shi clan held absolute economic power, the right of public opinion, controlled the passage into the career path, as well as a large number of land and landless peasants who relied on land to survive, but they were in a weak and suppressed position politically, in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the Han Huan Emperor and the Han Ling Emperor period, were heavy use of eunuchs, against the Shi clan and foreign relatives, in order to suppress the Shi clan, the eunuch suggested that the emperor implement the disaster of the shi clan, that is, in the name of the shi clan to form a party. Artificially demanding that these gentry be convicted and then unable to enter politics for life.
In this way, the political power of the shi clan will be deprived, without political power, there will be no political action, which is unacceptable to the shi clan, which of course triggers the hatred of the shi clan for the eunuchs, the shi clan headed by Yuan Shao wants to kill all the eunuchs, completely drive the eunuchs out of the eastern Han court, and then the shi clan will take over, obtain political power, govern the world, the leader elected by the shi clan is Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao's highest ideal is to replace the Han Dynasty as emperor.
Yuan Shao was the leader of the Shi clan
Therefore, the formation of the Three Kingdoms can be understood as follows, because the mainstream shi clique at that time, represented by Yuan Shao, provoked a war between foreign relatives and eunuchs, in a vain attempt to eliminate the two major political forces of foreign relatives and eunuchs, and then dominated the government with the shi clan as the only political force, but this strategic goal was destroyed by Dong Zhuo, who was summoned by Yuan Shao's suggestion, Dong Zhuo relied on personal force to control the capital, robbed the shi clan of the fruits of victory, and then the tianxia shi clan united against Dong Zhuo, but because the shi clan was not united, Coupled with the loss of leadership in the world, local warlords began to fight their own battles.
All the powerful warlords at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the vast majority of them were local government troops from the Eastern Han Dynasty, except for Liu Bei, but also inextricably linked to the Eastern Han government, so the formation of the Three Kingdoms is actually a history of internal struggle in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and in the end, only three families successfully survived, which is Cao Cao's Wei regime, Liu Bei's Han regime, Sun Quan's Wu regime, which is the reason for the formation of the Three Kingdoms.
Although He Jin's death led to a chaotic world and thus to the formation of the Three Kingdoms, even if He Jin did not die, the forces of the Tianxia Shi clan after the death of the Han Ling Emperor were already quite powerful, and they would still use all the situations to cause a firefight between foreign relatives and eunuchs, and then control the government and establish a political power dominated by the Shi clan.