As we have said many times in previous columns, Liu Bei has the identity of a royal family. Whenever this fact is raised, many people raise another question: there are many clans in the Three Kingdoms period, which is also the bloodline of the Liu family, why did only one Liu Bei appear, but not the second and third?
The image of Liu Dai in the game
Liu Dai Liu Xuan, the brothers have both moral integrity and ability
Liu Dai and Liu You, the father of the two brothers Liu You, were not particularly famous, but only achieved shanyang taishou. However, one thing is worth noting, this family belongs to the bloodline of Liu Bang, the eldest son of Han Gaozu and Liu Fei, the King of Qi, and is a very noble branch in the entire clan system. From the perspective of growth trajectory, the two brothers Liu Dai and Liu Sui are not the same as those royal bloodlines who do not want to make progress, and their performance in acting for people is indeed good.
As far as the current historical data is concerned, there are not many records about Liu Dai, but he was recommended by the assassin history before his younger brother Liu Sui. The Western Jin Dynasty historian Sima Biao gave Liu Dai the evaluation of "having a talent" in the Book of Continuation of the Han Dynasty, saying that he was talented. The "Hero's Record" compiled by our fellow villager Wang Yue also gives the evaluation of "Dai Filial Piety, Compassion and Forgiveness, and Accepting Others with Humility", which roughly means that Liu Dai is a filial piety to his parents, a friendly brother, benevolent, broad-minded, and humble person. Of course, it can also be seen from this that no matter what era he was born in, Liu Dai should be a popular person.
The elder brother Liu Dai was not an ordinary person, and the younger brother Liu Xuan could not be underestimated, because he was not only capable and moral, but also had a bloody nature that ordinary clans did not have.
When Liu Xuan was nineteen years old, his cousin Liu Yun was kidnapped, perhaps because of the relatively good relationship between him and his cousin, Liu Xuan simply found more than a dozen people to mix into the thieves' den and found an opportunity to kill the leader of the robbers. When the other bandits saw that the boss had been cut off, they immediately panicked, and Liu Xuan also took the opportunity to return home with his cousin. This incident made Liu Xuan famous in one fell swoop, and also laid a certain foundation for him to be held up as filial piety in the future. The clan who was promoted as a filial piety was easily given the opportunity to enter the official field, and soon After, Liu Xuan was given the title of Langzhong,000 and soon after transferred to the post of County Commander of Xiayi (下邑; present-day Yanshan County, Anhui).
Liu Xuan was a man of good moral character, because after he took office, he did not want to make money, but wanted to do things for the imperial court and the people in a proper manner. However, the tree wanted to be quiet and the wind was not stopping, and the official atmosphere at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was not very good, so when all the forces, especially the powerful and powerful, came to win him over and wanted to do things through him, Liu Xuan could not sit still. Soon, Liu Xuan, who was unwilling to join these people, did not even give the resignation report to the above, and directly wandered the world. Later, Liu Xuan was requisitioned by the imperial court and continued to serve as an official. So, at this time, did he know that he had a good relationship with the forces of all sides? Not really. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" tells such a story: Once, when Liu Xuan was passing by Jinan to conduct research, he found that the minister of state of Jinan was actually a corrupt person, and although this minister of state was the son of a constant attendant at that time, Liu Sui unceremoniously dismissed this corrupt official.
The growing fame of the brothers Liu Dai and Liu Sui would naturally attract the attention of the imperial court and get the opportunity to show their fists. Soon, the brothers were successively promoted by the imperial court and became feudal officials who held great power.
Sitting on one side, there is a good beginning but no good end
After Dong Zhuo became the actual ruler of the Eastern Han Dynasty, he did a lot of perverse things, but he also did some good things because of the consideration of buying people's hearts. For example, he recruited and promoted a large number of celebrities and clansmen to serve as feudal officials such as Taishou and Assassin Shi. Of course, Dong Zhuo probably regretted it after a long time, because many of the people he promoted later became enemies of his own crusade, including Liu Dai, who was appointed as the Assassin of Yanzhou.
Although Liu Xuan did not "progress" as fast as his brother, he did not slow down too long. In the first year of Xingping (193 AD), Chen Wen, the Yangzhou Assassin Who helped recruit troops for Cao Cao, was killed by Yuan Shu, so who would sit in the position of this Thorn History? At this time, the imperial court was li dai and Guo Feng in power, so Liu Sui, who was originally idle at home, inexplicably became the assassin of Yangzhou.
Although Liu Dai and Liu Sui's brothers became feudal officials on the side of the town, their lives also entered the countdown.
In 192 AD, the Yellow Turban Army of Qingzhou attacked Yanzhou, and Liu Dai was ready to personally lead his soldiers and horses to meet the battle. At this time, Bao Xin, the minister of Jibei, hurried over to dissuade him, saying: "There are more than 1 million people in this group of Yellow Turban Army, and the common people have long been frightened after hearing the news, and the soldiers have no fighting spirit." We might as well settle down and hold out without fighting, because if we see us not moving, these thieves will not dare to act rashly. When their morale is low, we will select some soldiers with strong combat effectiveness to fight, and they will definitely be able to win a big victory! For a unit with low military attainments, bao Xin's suggestion was still very targeted, but Liu Dai just did not listen, insisting on sending troops to suppress this group of Yellow Turban troops, he was soon attacked head-on, and he was also killed in battle.
Compared with his brother Liu Dai, Liu Xuan's "lifeline" seems to be much longer, of course, he encounters more troubles in his work. Although he became the assassin of Yangzhou, Liu Xuan was unable to go to Shouchun, the seat of yangzhou, to take office, because Yuan Shu had become the real controller of the Huainan area at that time. In desperation, Liu Xuan had to be forced to go to Qu'a County, which made the title of "Yangzhou Assassin History" not completely fall into name only. For Liu Xuan, the next time is even more difficult. Because Yuan Shu, who had long had the intention of usurpation, was constantly expanding his sphere of influence, and he also had a Sun Ce under him. Although Liu Sui worked very hard against Yuan Shu, and was once given the title of General of Yangzhou Mu and Zhenwu, and also had tens of thousands of horses under his command, in front of Yuan Shu, who was full of people and brave, sun Ce, who was brave and good at war, he did not have much strength to fight back after all. In 197 AD, perhaps because of too many conquests, Liu Sui, who was only 42 years old, died of illness.
Liu Sui's ending may have been better than that of his brother Liu Dai, at least his son was taken to Jiangdong by Sun Ce, and the eldest son Liu Ji eventually became a heavy vassal under Sun Quan.
Failure has a reason, and the ability to survive has not been mastered
As the same royal family, why can Liu Bei create the foundation of Shu Han, but the brothers Liu Dai and Liu Xuan can't? In my opinion, the following three reasons are very critical.
First, insufficient preparations. If a prince wants to make a difference in the Three Kingdoms period, he needs to do a good job in many key preparations such as soldiers and horses, food, talent teams, and personal connections, and if these tasks are not done well, it will be difficult to gain a foothold. Of course, it takes a lot of time to do these things well, however, Liu Dai and Liu Xuan have almost no time. The brothers Liu Dai and Liu Sui were basically suddenly appointed as magistrates by the imperial court, and before that, one held a civilian position in the imperial court, and the other was idle at home to cultivate himself.
To put it bluntly, whether it was Liu Dai or Liu Sui, when they came to their office, the situation was not much stronger than a light rod commander, and the resources that could be dispatched in their hands were even more limited. Of course, it also needs to be pointed out that Liu Dai and the Liu Brothers are also capable. First of all, Liu Dai, when he was appointed by Dong Zhuo as the Assassin of Yanzhou, it should have been around October 189 AD, and Liu Dai played the banner of crusading against Dong Zhuo in the first month of the following year, which fully shows that his growth rate is not slow. Liu Xuan's ability was also very strong, because he went to Yangzhou almost single-handedly, and when he fought with Yuan Shu, he once had tens of thousands of troops.
Second, the influence of the clan declined. If it was a peacetime period, if a clan like Liu Dai and Liu Sui were to be appointed as local assassins and state pastors, it would be very convenient to want to do something big. Because as the supreme governor of a state, the officials below generally did not dare to disobey orders easily, after all, the clan was to some extent the spokesperson of the emperor. However, in the period of the Three Kingdoms, the Eastern Han Dynasty court has long existed in name only, not to mention the influence of the clan, many princes do not even pay attention to the emperor, will take the clan office seriously?
Third, there are too many strong enemies. Liu Dai served as the History of the Yanzhou Thorn, and Liu Dai served as the Yangzhou Thorn History, what kind of situation were the brothers facing? Yanzhou, where Liu Dai is located, is in the northern region where all forces coexist, and it is also the main area of the Activities of the Yellow Turban Army, and serving as an assassin in such a place will be targeted sooner or later, even if it does not take the initiative to attack others but is in a defensive state, it is difficult to support for too long.
The older brother's situation is not optimistic, and the younger brother's life is not easy. Although Liu Xuan's Yangzhou was far from the political center of the north and did not face many opponents like his brother Liu Dai, he had to face Yuan Shu. Although Liu Xuan worked very hard to consolidate his position in Yangzhou, Yuan Shu always wanted to annex the entire region. Moreover, in order to prevent Liu Biao, Cao Cao and others from sneaking up on him, Yuan Shu had to solve Liu Shu's big problem as soon as possible. Therefore, although Liu Xuan only faced Yuan Shu alone, this also meant that he could find fewer helpers.
Text/Song Yankun