Wolong(2)
"The Han chamber is in a state of decay, the traitors steal their lives, and the Lord is covered in dust." Loneliness does not measure the strength of virtue, and desires to believe in righteousness in the world, and the wisdom is shallow, so it is rampant, as for today. However, the king is still unsatisfied, and the king will be safe? (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Biography of Zhuge Liang)
Liu Bei said this around the twelfth year of Jian'an (207 AD), when Liu Bei (born in 161 AD) was already 46 years old, and in an era when the average life expectancy was less than 30 years old, he was already an old man. But from the first half of his life, he is synonymous with a loser, which can be summed up as "five changes of masters, four loss of wives". Moreover, this person seems to be "hindering the lord" just like the Lu Ma on his mount: among the lords he has followed successively, Gongsun Zhan, Tao Qian, Yuan Shao, and Liu Biao have all died and died in the end, and even Cao Cao did not finally complete the great cause of reunification because of him. Such a death god-level figure who can be comparable to the famous detective Conan style (where to go, where to finish), was also a well-known hero in the country at that time, and even Cao Cao said, "Today's hero, only the king and the ear." ”
The first three sentences of Liu Bei's passage are lamenting this era: "The Han chamber is in decline, the traitors steal their lives, and the Lord is covered in dust." Liu Bei used this era to embark on the historical stage, but unfortunately the era at that time did not belong to him.
Because the protagonist on the historical stage during the period from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms is the Shi clique represented by Yuan Shao. The most prominent feature of this group and the society of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time was the spelling of daddy - how you Lao Tzu decided how you were, and Liu Bei had no father to fight, and the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" clearly said that he was "less lonely", which means that his father died and his mother was still alive, and his life was also very bad: before the Yellow Turban Uprising, Liu Beishang was an ordinary person who had to rely on "selling mats for his business" ("Romance of the Three Kingdoms • The Legend of the Ancestors"). But Liu Bei is a smart man, and he can't spell his father but others can also spell his ancestors: Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan Jing, the Emperor of Hanjing, is my ancestor. This ancestor recognized it very wisely! Because Liu Sheng is not famous in the long river of history, but there is one thing he does in particular, that is, to give birth to a son: there are more than 120 clear records in his son's history books! And the geographical location is correct, Liu Sheng's tomb is not far from Zhuo County, the birthplace of today's Baoding and Liu Bei in Hebei Province. Therefore, Chen Shou, the author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, classified Liu Bei as a descendant of Liu Zhen, the Marquis of Luchengting, Zhuo County, Liu Sheng's son. By liu bei's generation, almost three hundred years had passed, and who was the ancestor could only figure it out for himself.
Leaving aside the aura of this Han room, Liu Bei's life is actually very clear: "Ancestor ZuXiong, Father Hong, Shishi Prefecture County." Heroic filial piety, official to the Eastern Commandery Fan Ling" (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Biography of the Ancestors). From this point of view, Liu Bei's life is similar to that of the later Jiang Wei, which can be interpreted as a local powerful branch in Zhuo county, and there are often people in the family who serve in the yamen at the prefecture and county level, so he is qualified to know such a big figure as Gongsun Zhan and Lu Zhi; so he can get the support of Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang, a merchant of the Zhongshan State, and begin to pull poles and form teams after the Yellow Turban Army uprising. But Liu Bei was not famous at that time, so the first people who surrendered to him were also very bad at that time. For example, Guan Yu is a fugitive: "Guan Yu character Cloud Chief, the original character changsheng, Hedong Xie County people also." Outlaws run to Zhuo County. ("Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Biography of Guan Yu"), so now the worship of Guan Gong basically belongs to the category of the underworld. Liu Bei's team was also first treated as a mercenary by various great warlords.
The Eastern Han Dynasty had thirteen prefectures (Northwest Yongzhou, Liangzhou; South: Yizhou, Jingzhou, Yangzhou; Hebei: Jizhou, Youzhou, and Hezhou; Central Plains: Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, and Si li xueweibu, for a total of thirteen prefectures. ）。 At that time, Dong Zhuo occupied the Yongzhou and Liangzhou areas, burning Luoyang and destroying the Sili region; Yangzhou, Jingzhou, and Yizhou in the south were ruled by three prefectures surnamed Liu: Yangzhou Mu Liu Miao, Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao, and Yizhou Mu Liu Zhang, these places were relatively calm, and the real chaos was Hebei and the Central Plains, that is, the gang that raised an army against Dong Zhuo to tossed their own fate. And the real opposition in these tosses is actually the brothers Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu.
Yuan Shao's territory was centered on Jizhou in Hebei, and Cao Cao, the mu of Yanzhou, was only a horse boy under his command who resisted Yuan Shu. Yuan Shu's territory was concentrated in huainan and Yuzhou in the north of Yangzhou, because the Yuan family was from Runan County, so Yuan Shu's territory was the ancestral property of the Yuan family and had deep roots. The most powerful horse boys under Yuan Shu were Sun Jian and Sun Ce's father and son. Yuan Shu also wanted Gongsun Zhan to be his own horseman, but Gongsun Zhan was very strong in occupying Youzhou and Hezhou and infiltrating his forces south into the Qingzhou area, and his military strength was the strongest, with the elite "Youzhou Karasuma Zahu Riding" and the "White Horse Yicong" he had formed, and wanted to do it alone.
Liu Bei's earliest employer was Gongsun Zan.
After mingling with Gongsun Zhan for a while, Liu was ordered to rescue Xuzhou Mutaoqian, who was devastated by Yuan Shao's subordinate Ma Zai Cao Cao. Liu Bei had very few troops at this time, but his desire to save the people left a deep impact on the minds of Mu Taoqian of Xuzhou and the people of Xuzhou (Zhuge Liang was a native of Langya County, Xuzhou!). So say it again: Liu Bei was already a hero in Zhuge Liang's mind to save the people, and Cao Cao was the horse boy who killed people indiscriminately. ）
So Tao Qian passed the position to Liu Bei before he died, and Liu Bei suddenly changed from a mercenary leader to the commander of the Eight Hundred Serious Military Regions of the Eastern Han Dynasty! As a fighter among mercenaries, Liu Bei's combat effectiveness was recognized by almost all employers. But although Liu Bei had the opportunity, he could never become a local warlord who divided the side, what was the problem?
We'll talk about that in the next chapter.
This article is written by Professor Sun "Sunnyshine", the special author of "The Heroic Dream of famous generals throughout the ages", and it is forbidden to reprint it without the author's authorization