Tao Kan was a famous general in the Two Jin Dynasties and an accomplished politician. During the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang, Tao Kan was one of the sixty-four generals of the Wucheng King Temple. During the reign of Emperor Huizong of song, Tao Kan was ranked as one of the seventy-two generals of the Wumiao Temple, and ranked first among the five selected generals of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which shows his remarkable achievements. Although he was famous for his military achievements, Tao Kan did not lead the army to fight for the first time until he was more than forty years old, which can be described as a late success. Tao Kan's origin is largely the care of the times, of course, he has not lived up to this care.
Tao Kan
1. The first half of a life of frustration
Tao Kan, Zi Shixing, was born in 259. At this time, there were still four years left in the Shu Han Dynasty and twenty-one years left in the Eastern Wu Dynasty, and the saying "Sima Zhao's heart, known to passers-by" was circulating among the people of Cao Wei as a popular phrase, in short, when Tao Kan was born, the times were brewing great changes.
Tao Kan was originally from Poyang, Eastern Wu, and later moved to Xunyang County, Lujiang County, belonging to the ethnic minority Xi ethnic group.
Before the Yongjia Rebellion, the Han Chinese in the north moved southward, and ethnic minorities accounted for a considerable proportion of the population in Jiangnan. The Jiangnan ethnic minority to which Tao Kan belongs is called the Yu People, also known as the Huan People. The Huan people are also called xi people because they live in Wuxi in Lujiang County.
The history books call Tao Kan "vulgar and different from Zhuhua", which means that Tao Kan's customs and customs are different from those of the Han People. Moreover, Tao Kan's appearance is also very different from that of the Han people, and he is often discriminated against and scolded as a "brook dog". Later, when Tao Kan was thirty or forty years old, when he was an official in the imperial court, some people still openly called him a "creek dog".
Tao Kan did not have a prominent family background, and when his father Tao Dan was sent by Eastern Wu to serve in the border, he served as a grass-roots military attaché because of his outstanding performance, and the official was general Yang Wu, "Yang Wu" was a miscellaneous name, had no actual status, and could not bring practical benefits to the family. When Tao Dan died, Tao Kanshang was still young, and the Tao family immediately fell into extreme poverty.
Sun quan
Due to the early death of his father, the heavy responsibility of raising and educating Tao Kan fell on his mother, Zhan. In fact, Tao Kan's success is largely the result of Cham's education, and Tao Kan's positive and enterprising character is also inherited from Cham's.
Zhan's nature is strong, and in order to make his son stand out, he has strict requirements for Tao Kan since he was a child. When Tao Kan was a little older, Zhan used the money saved by the textile to let his son make friends and expand his network. Later, Tao Kan became acquainted with gong cao (equivalent to the secretary of the county order) in the county. On the recommendation of Zhou Guan, Tao Kan became the county chief bookkeeper (equivalent to a clerk in the clerical category).
Tao Kan experienced the fall of Eastern Wu at the age of twenty-one. In this unification war, the Western Jin Dynasty's war in Eastern Wu was generally smooth, and the war did not have much impact on the grass-roots clerk Tao Kan.
After the fall of Eastern Wu, the old officials, nobles, and literati of Eastern Wu once set off a wave of going to the capital Luoyang to "drift north" and seek development. However, in the Western Jin Dynasty, which pays attention to the origin of the mendi, there is a prerequisite for the origin, and people without a prominent family background are basically impossible to develop.
From this point of view, even without the Rebellion of the Eight Kings and the Five Hu Chaos, the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty was sooner or later, because the hierarchical social system caused the Han people to rise without a way, the social class division would continue to intensify, the gap between the rich and the poor would continue to widen, and the wave of uprisings similar to the late Han, Tang, and Ming dynasties would sooner or later set off and flood the Western Jin Dynasty.
Tao Kan is a person with a clear goal, he knows that what he lacks is opportunity, so he always seizes every opportunity to please his superiors. After the fall of Eastern Wu, one day Xiaolian Fan Kui of Poyang County passed by Tao Kan's house for a night. It was winter, and it was snowy. In order to entertain Fan Kui, Tao Kan's mother and son dismantled the beams of the house and used them as firewood to cook. Zhan's hair was cut in exchange for wine and meat to entertain Fan Kui. When sending Fan Kui on the road the next day, Tao Kan pestered and chased him for a long distance, and later Fan Kui assured Tao Kan that he would recommend him. Tao Kan waited for this sentence, and then returned home with confidence.
Later, Fan Kui did indeed recommend Tao Kan to Lujiang Taishou Zhang Kui. Zhang Kui summoned Tao Kan to be the postmaster, received the Fengyang Order, and later promoted to the main book. Tao Kan also wholeheartedly repaid Zhang Kui. Once Zhang Kui's wife was sick and wanted to go hundreds of miles away to pick up doctors, it was winter, and all the bureaucrats were unwilling to serve, only Tao Kan asked alone.
After Tao Kan's perseverance and dedication, around 296, he was finally promoted by Zhang Kui as a filial piety. Before the birth of the imperial examination system, "filial piety and honesty" was an important means for the central government to select and promote talents. Tao Kan finally had the opportunity to go to Luoyang to get acquainted with the upper echelons of the ruling clique, when he was thirty-seven years old.
When Tao Kan arrived in Luoyang, the prosperity of the capital opened his eyes, but the prosperity and bustle had nothing to do with Tao Kan, a foreign han tribe. At that time, the Western Jin Dynasty implemented the nine-pin Zhongzheng system, and the officials in important positions were inherited from their fathers or grandfathers, and these people did not think of making progress or doing the right thing by virtue of their ancestors. In particular, after Emperor Hui of Jin succeeded to the throne, the political discipline of the dynasty became more and more corrupt, bribing the public and loyal to the virtuous. On the court, "there is no cold door in the upper product, and no power in the lower product".
In order to gain a foothold in Luoyang, Tao Kan cheekily met with the famous minister Zhang Hua three times and twice, and finally was received by Zhang Hua and recommended as Lang Zhong. Lang Zhong is a candidate official, and there is no specific responsibility for the time being, of course, it is impossible for him to take the turn of an important official. In this case, Tao Kan served as an aide to the Fubo general Sun Xiu. Sun Xiu was an old official of the State of Wu, and the People of the Central Plains were ashamed to serve in the residence of such a subjugated minister.
Tao Kan stayed in Luoyang for five or six years and did not turn around, but was always ridiculed because he looked different from the Han people. Once, Tao Kan and Yuzhang Guolang zhongling Yang Of the same prefecture sat in the same car to see Gu Rong, a fellow scholar. On the way, he met the official Lang Wenya. Wen Ya asked Yang Han, "How can I sit in the same car with the little man?" Later, a celebrity named Le Guang wanted to gather the Jing Yang people and run a hometown meeting, and someone recommended Tao Kan, but he was criticized.
During Tao Kan's stay in Luoyang, the Western Jin Dynasty was in decline. After the death of Sima Yan, emperor of the Jin Dynasty in 290, the idiot prince Sima Zheng succeeded to the throne as Emperor Hui of Jin. Emperor Hui of Jin was unable to control the imperial government, Empress Jia Nanfeng launched a coup d'état to take sole power, and the kings of the Sima clan were dissatisfied and wanted to move. Because of the famous ministers Zhang Hua and Jia Mo who did their best to assist the government and suppress Jia Nanfeng, the Western Jin Dynasty maintained a superficial calm for seven or eight years. Later, Jia Mo died and the balance of power was broken. Sima Lun, the King of Zhao, staged a coup d'état in 300, deposing Jia Nanfeng and deposing Emperor Hui of Jin in 301 to establish himself. Another wave of bloody rain and bloody winds in the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty kicked off.
Due to the expansion of the scale of turmoil in the upper echelons of the Western Jin Dynasty, from within the court to outside the palace, and affecting the people, the Jiangnan Shi clans who "floated" in Luoyang returned to their hometowns to take refuge. Influenced by this trend, Tao Kan planned to return to his hometown, and later, on the recommendation of a friend, Tao Kan was able to make up for the wugang county order.
Wugang was in the south of Jingzhou, far from the political center of the Western Jin Dynasty. Normally, only officials who make mistakes and are degraded go there.
This is the result of Tao Kan's many years of hard work in the capital, at this time he is more than forty years old, and his depressed state of mind can be imagined. After Tao Kan arrived in Wugang, he was disheartened and had a tense relationship with Taishou Lüyue, so he simply resigned his official post and returned home and became the zhongzheng of the county.
2. Originated in a troubled world
The "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" is the prelude to the great chaos of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, and the chaos is like dominoes, one link is buckled. At that time, the ethnic minorities in the northwest of Qinzhou and other places took advantage of Sima Shi's infighting and launched an uprising. Qinzhou and Yongzhou thus produced a large number of victims. The victims took refuge in Liangzhou and Yizhou, but were bullied and oppressed by local bureaucrats. The victims, who had no way to survive, then also launched an uprising. The Western Jin Dynasty court was busy mobilizing Soldiers and Horses from Jingzhou to Yizhou to suppress the uprising of the victims. The Jingzhou soldiers did not want to go to Yizhou to die, so they killed the officials and gathered a crowd to revolt.
The chaotic situation gave Tao Kan the opportunity to display his talents. In 303, zhang Chang, a Hanhua barbarian, rebelled in Jiangxia, and many soldiers who did not want to go to the Yizhou front came to defect. After Zhang Chang captured Jiangxia County, his strength soon reached 30,000 people. The Western Jin court was busy sending Liu Hong, the assassin of Jingzhou, to suppress Zhang Chang's rebellion. The Western Jin Dynasty had not been a soldier for many years and lacked generals, so Liu Hong temporarily recruited people, found Tao Kan, and appointed him as the Long History of southern Man. Because Tao Kan was a cold door and had no background, Liu Hong drove the ducks to the shelves, let Tao Kan be the vanguard, and led the troops to Xiangyang. This was the first time in Tao Kan's life that he had led an army to fight, and he was already forty-four years old.
After Tao Kan entered Xiangyang, Zhang Chang bypassed Xiangyang and went straight to Wancheng, defeating the main general Liu Hongbu and turning around to attack Xiangyang without success. Zhang Changsui gave up attacking Xiangyang and followed the Han River into the Yangtze River, quickly capturing most of the cities of Jingzhou, Jiangzhou, and Yangzhou. Liu Hong hurriedly ordered Tao Kan to take the initiative. Tao Kan then sent troops out of Xiangyang and won consecutive battles with Zhang Chang, eventually suppressing the uprising.
Liu Hong greatly appreciated Tao Kan's military talents and compared them to Yang Hu. Yang Hu was a famous general of the Western Jin Dynasty, who had guarded Jingzhou for twenty years and made great contributions to the unification war of the Western Jin Dynasty against Wu. Later, in order to commemorate YangHu, the people of Jingzhou specially carved a "Falling Tears Monument", which is now stored on Da Nang Mountain in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province. When Liu Hong was young, he joined the army as a yanghu.
After Tao Kan suppressed Zhang Chang's rebellion, he was rewarded by the imperial court, but the chaos in the imperial court was also intensifying. Chen Min, the minister of Guangling, saw that the imperial court was unable to control Jiangdong, so he raised an army to occupy Yangzhou. Chen Min's younger brother Chen Hui led an army to attack Wuchang. The Chen brothers' intention to emulate Sun Ce in dividing Jiangdong was clear.
Chen Min and Tao Kan were fellow townsmen and became officials in the same year. As a Han ethnic group, Tao Kan has always attached importance to personal connections and loves to make friends, so he has a friendship with Chen Min. After Chen Min's uprising, many people were worried that Tao Kan would raise troops to respond to Chen Min. In order to dispel Liu Hong's concerns, Tao Kan let his son and nephew go to Liu Hong's account to serve, in fact, he took the initiative to let his son and nephew be held hostage.
Liu Hong did not doubt the use of personnel, appointed Tao Kanzi and nephew as a member of the army, and sent to the front. Tao Kan had no worries and quickly suppressed the chen brothers' uprising. The two suppressions of the military rebellion made Tao Kan a powerful local general in the Jingzhou region.
In 306, Tao Kan's Bole Liu Hong died of illness. Soon after, Tao Kan's mother died of illness. At that time, the official's parents died, and the official had to leave his post and return to his hometown to keep filial piety for three years, otherwise it was a felony. In the three years of Tao Kan's filial piety, the political pattern in Jiangnan has undergone considerable changes.
In 307, the political speculator Sima Rui and Wang Dao, a member of the Northern Langya clan, came to Jianye and waited for an opportunity to divide Jiangdong. At this time, the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" in the north had come to an end, and the final victor was Sima Yue, the king of the East Sea. Sima Rui was Sima Yue's close confidant.
Jian Ye is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and without a solid upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Jian Ye would not be safe. In order to control the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Sima Rui ordered Wang Dun, a brother of the Wang Dao clan, to lead an army to the west, so he met Hua Yi, who was stationed in Jiangzhou.
Hua Yi was also a close confidant of Sima Yue and was in the same camp as Sima Rui, but at this time, the interests of the two had a conflict, and the relationship was naturally on fire.
In 309, Tao Kan was filial to Man, and he went to join Sima Yue, who was in power. Sima Yue appointed Tao Kan as a soldier to protect Jiangzhou. Hua Yibiao Tao Kan was the general of Yang Wu, leading 3,000 troops to garrison Xiakou and defending Sima Rui.
Tao Kan originally had his duty to assist Hua Yi. However, Tao Kan's nephew Tao Zhen came to Tao Kan one day and said: "Hua Yikong has ambitions, but he has no ability, sooner or later he will be defeated by Sima Rui and the Langya Wang clan, we might as well turn to Sima Rui." ”
Tao Zhen joined the army under Hua Yi at that time and often contacted Hua Yi, so he knew him better. Tao Kan was very angry when he heard this, scolded Tao Zhen, and asked him to go back to work well. As a result, Tao Zhen secretly ran to Jianye and defected to Sima Rui. Sima Rui was very happy and appointed Tao Zhen to join the army, and at the same time appointed Tao Kan as the general of Fenwei.
In this way, Tao Kan was re-sided and had to go to Sima Rui's camp. In 311, Hua Yi was defeated and killed. Jiangzhou was occupied by Sima Rui. Tao Kan was promoted to general of Long Jun and Taishou of Wuchang.
After Sima Rui took control of Jiangzhou, Tao Kan, Zhou Guan, and others were ordered to attack Du Tao in the upper reaches of Jiangzhou. The displaced rebel army led by Du Tao at that time occupied most of Jingzhou and Xiangzhou. Tao Kan finally surprised the army and forced du Han's remnants to Changsha. Tao Kan was then appointed as a lieutenant of the Southern Barbarians and the Assassin of Jingzhou.
After Tao Kan became the Assassin of Jingzhou, he couldn't help but think of Liu Hong's prediction more than a decade ago--he did succeed Yang Hu and Liu Hong as the Assassin of Jingzhou. However, due to the rebellion of his subordinate Wang Gong, Tao Kan was not happy for a few days in Jingzhou.
After Wang Gong rebelled, he joined forces with Du Han's remnants to defeat Tao Kan and almost captured Tao Kan alive. Tao Kan was dismissed from his post for this reason. After Wang Dun exchanged several battles with the displaced people's army, he found that if he wanted to eliminate the exile army, he could not do without Tao Kan, so he reactivated Tao Kan and asked him to "lead the post in white clothes" and make meritorious deeds. Later, Tao Kan and Zhou Guan regrouped, and finally suppressed the Du Tao rebellion in 315.
After several years of conquest, Tao Kan had a good record, and Jingzhou, Xiangzhou, and Jiangzhou in the upper reaches of Jianye were all under his control. Wang Dun was worried that Tao Kangong would not be able to cover the lord and tail, and planned to cross the river and destroy the bridge, so he transferred Tao Kan to take up a post in remote Guangzhou, and let his brother Wang Shu serve as the assassin of Jingzhou.
When Tao Kan received the appointment, he was reporting in the capital, and he was very surprised, and his subordinates in Jingzhou were even more surprised. His subordinates even rebelled against the order. It can be seen that Tao Kan's leading soldiers are very good at winning people's hearts and minds.
Wang Dun thought that Tao Kan secretly ordered his subordinates to rebel, so he planned to kill Tao Kan, and even the armor and weapons were ready. Later, Wang Dun's staff reminded Tao Kan's relative Zhou Guantun Bing Yuzhang that if Tao Kan was killed, Zhou Guan and Tao Kan's subordinates would not give up. Wang Dun then set up a banquet to send off Tao Kan.
After Tao Kan saw Zhou's visit, he said with tears in his eyes: "If you hadn't been outside with your troops, I would have died." ”
Before Tao Kan arrived in Guangzhou, du Hong, Wen Shao, and other remnants of Du Tao occupied Guangzhou. Tao Kan used his tactics to easily repel the displaced people's army, after which he stayed in Guangzhou for ten years, until he was in his sixties, and he had the opportunity to return to the Yangtze River Basin again.
3. Second time by the times
When Tao Kan gave up Wugang County and returned to his hometown in his forties, he thought that he would spend the second half of his life in his hometown, but he did not expect that the tide of the times gave him the opportunity to stand at the head of the tide. Later, when Tao Kan was transferred to Guangzhou by Wang Dunyuan, he thought that he would serve in this remote and remote area of Guangzhou until his death, but he did not expect that ten years later, the times would take care of him for the second time.
In 316, shortly after Tao Kan was transferred by Wang Dun to the remote city of Guangzhou, the political situation in the north underwent earth-shaking changes. In August of that year, Former Zhao Liu Yao sent troops to attack Chang'an. Sima Rui, who was the main force of the Jin army, refused to send troops to the rescue in Jiangnan. However, rather than saying that Sima Rui did not want to send troops to save Chang'an, it was better to say that very few people in the entire Jiangdong political clique wanted to save Chang'an.
In December of the same year, the 17-year-old Sima Yi, the 17-year-old Emperor of Jin, left the city and surrendered to Liu Yao, and was killed the following year, and the Western Jin Dynasty fell. Sima Rui, who was in Jiangdong, was ostensibly grieving over the fall of the country, but in fact he was very happy, because as a member of the imperial family, he now had a legitimate reason to establish a political power and claim the title of emperor. This is also the reason why Sima Rui and Wang Dao deliberately went to Jianye that year.
In 317, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was established, and Sima Rui was proclaimed emperor, which was the capital Jiankang (建邺 changed its name to Jiankang) for the Jin Yuan Emperor. The establishment of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Sima Rui's claim to the emperor were the result of political speculation, and this speculative chess game was the result of the planning of Wang Dao, a member of the Langya Wang clan. Sima Rui is more like a tool person who listens to commands in front of the stage.
After the establishment of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the internal affairs were controlled by Wang Dao, and the military was controlled by Wang Dao's brother Wang Dun. At that time, the rumor in the city that "the king and the horse share the world" reflected the great power of the Wang family at that time. Soon after Sima Rui sat on the throne, he became more and more dissatisfied with the Wang clan's unauthorized power, and tried to cultivate Han loyalists and gradually deprive Wang Dun and Wang Dao of their real power, which naturally caused dissatisfaction among the members of the Wang clan.
In 324, dissatisfied with Sima Rui's exclusion of the Wang clan, Wang Dun launched a rebellion in the name of the Qing emperor, which is known as the Wang Dun Rebellion. Wang Dun held the military power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and soon entered the capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Sima Rui's confidant Liu Kui and others died, and Sima Rui himself was frightened out of illness, and soon after died of fear, and Sima Shao, the emperor of JinMing, succeeded to the throne.
In 325, Wang Dun's rebellion was put down by the Jin Ming Emperor. In order to avoid another situation in which a certain family held the power alone, the Jin Ming Emperor decided to arrange a political structure in which the powers of all parties were balanced again: he promoted Yu Liang and Xi Jian to restrain Wang Dao; he promoted the local clans in Jiangdong to restrain the northern clans; and divided the four prefectures of Jingzhou and Jiangzhou in the upper reaches of the capital city to four power groups, so that they could contain each other. Under such circumstances, Tao Kan, a native of Jiangdong, although he did not make a neutral contribution to the rebellion of Wang Dun, was appointed by the Jin Ming Emperor as the assassin of the military town of Jingzhou.
Several times to quell the rebellion showed Tao Kan's military ability, and the Jingzhou presidency showed his political talent. During the Two Jin Dynasties, the literati advocated metaphysics and regarded debauchery as masters. The official legal system was lax, and officials often indulged in drinking and playing, and abandoned their ministries. After Tao Kan arrived in Jingzhou, he "sat on his knees all day long, and there were many things outside the temple, and there were many things, and there were no omissions." Books near and far are sparse, do not answer by hand, the pen is like a stream, and it has not been delayed. The connection is estranged, and the door is not stopped. This style of work was rare in the Eastern Jin Dynasty officialdom. In addition, Tao Kan inherited the policy of Yang Hu and Liu Hong in Jingzhou to persuade them to teach farming, which was very popular with the people.
Tao Kan's work was extremely meticulous, from the sawdust left over from the sawn wood to the deployment of troops to build the city, which he personally deployed. He presided over shipbuilding and ordered that all wood chips and scraps be collected and stored. When the snow was heavy in the winter and the roads were muddy when the snow melted, Tao Kan ordered the sawdust of the warehouse to be used to pave the road. Later, when huan wen, a famous general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, overhauled his warships during his crusade against the Chenghan regime in Sichuan, the wooden nails used were all bamboo head scraps saved by Tao Kan more than twenty years ago.
When Tao Kan inspected Wuchang along the Yangtze River, someone suggested that troops be stationed in Yicheng in the north of the Yangtze River. Tao Kan, who was nearly seventy years old, personally led people across the river to reconnoiter the terrain, and pointed out that The city was backed by the dangerous Yangtze River, facing foreign enemies, and there was no barrier left and right, so it was a strategic dead ground, so he did not agree to fortify the city. More than a decade later, the next Jingzhou assassin Shi Yuliang sent tens of thousands of elite soldiers and fierce general Mao Bao to garrison the city, but was besieged by Later Zhao, so that the entire army was destroyed.
Because Tao Kan was both diligent and prudent in his work, and decisive, he was praised by people: "Tao Gongji is like Wei Wu, loyal and industrious is like Kong Ming, and Lu Kang is unable to reach it." ”
4. Two kinds of evaluations
Jingzhou is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and has been a place of contention for soldiers since ancient times. During the Three Kingdoms period, the conflict between the Shu and Wu states was in Jingzhou. During the Western Jin Dynasty and the Pingwu War, Jingzhou was also at the forefront of the battlefield. After the establishment of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Dun, who held military power, also garrisoned the capital of Jingzhou. Therefore, unless the people who guarded Jingzhou were absolutely trustworthy in the power center of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, they would definitely be wary of the imperial court. Tao Kan thus had a period of seeming separation from the central part of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
In 325, Emperor Ming of Jin, who gave Tao Kan a second chance, died prematurely, and was succeeded by sima Yan, the four-year-old emperor of Jincheng. Emperor Cheng's uncle Yu Liang squeezed out Wang Dao and others and seized the power of the imperial government. Yu Liang was an overseas Chinese who crossed south during the Yongjia Rebellion, and he did not trust Tao Kan, a native of Jiangdong, so he built a stone city outside Jiankang City as a precaution, and also appointed Wen Yu as the Assassin of Jiangzhou. Jiangzhou is located between Jingzhou and Jiankang, and has the role of regulating the relationship between Jingzhou and the central government.
Before Wen Zhao, Jiangzhou Assassin Shi was Ying Zhan appointed by emperor Ming of Jin. Ying Zhan and Tao Kan were both former generals of Liu Hong's department and had a deep friendship. Ying Zhan also attacked Wang Dun and was very trusted by Emperor Ming of Jin. Therefore, when Ying Zhan was there, the central government of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was still assured of Tao Kan. However, Ying Zhan fell ill and died a year later than Emperor Ming of Jin, in 326. The Eastern Jin Dynasty Court naturally guarded against Tao Kan.
On the other hand, Tao Kan heard that the capital had built a stone city, obviously defending himself, and his heart was very unhappy. Moreover, Tao Kan suspected that Yu Liang had done something in the will of Emperor Ming of Jin, so he did not trust Yu Liang.
Before Tao Kan and the Eastern Jin Dynasty's power center, The Maung-he-Shen,had developed into a substantial conflict, in 327, Liyang Taishou Sujun joined forces with Zu Di, the younger brother of the famous Northern Expedition general Zu Di, to rebel, known in history as the Rebellion of Su Jun.
The rebels soon invaded jiankang city and held Emperor Jincheng hostage. Yu Liang, along with several younger brothers, fled to Jiangzhou and defected to Wen Jiao. Wen Yuliang knew that his troops were insufficient and not Su Jun's opponents, so he went upstream to ask Tao Kan for help.
Because Su Jun's rebellion was caused by Yu Liang's insistence on depriving Su Jun of his military power, coupled with Tao Kan's old hatred for Yu Liang, he was reluctant to send troops at first. The excuse is that he is a "general outside the battlefield, and he does not dare to cross the situation", and even has the intention of taking the opportunity to kill Yu Liang.
Later, Yu Liang risked his life to meet Tao Kan, and Tao Kan was very surprised, so he let go of his old hatred for Yu Liang. Coupled with the fact that Tao Kan's son Tao Zhan was killed by the rebels, Tao Kan then coordinated with various armies to fight the rebels and was elected as the leader of the alliance.
In 329, Su Jun's rebellion was put down. Tao Kan was the most meritorious, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commandery, the Governor of the Seven Prefectures, and the Duke of Changsha County, still stationed in Jingzhou.
After 330 years, the general Guo Mo and Jiangzhou assassinated Liu Yinhuo, and Liu Yin was killed. In order to co-opt Guo Mo and restrain Tao Kan, the ruling Wang Dao at that time simply appointed Guo Mo as the Assassin of Jiangzhou.
Tao Kan said: "The rear general Guo Momu was lawless, rebelled, and killed the imperial court officials without authorization, but was instead rewarded by Wang Dao. So he joined forces with Yu Liang and quickly destroyed Guo Mo. Behind this incident, it is actually the power contest between Tao Kan and Wang Dao.
At this point, Tao Kan controlled Jiangzhou again, so he oversaw the military of eight prefectures, and at the same time controlled the two important military towns of Jingzhou and Jiangzhou, and his power reached the peak of his political career, and few people in the entire Eastern Jin Dynasty achieved this level. The negative evaluation of Tao Kan in history also began at this time.
At that time, with Tao Kan's military strength, merit, and prestige, he overthrew the Sima clan of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and established himself as a political power. But why didn't Tao Kan do this? Those who praised him believed that he "stopped at self-restraint" and "had the distinction of stopping at his feet and not with the power of the dynasty." In addition, there are also views that Tao Kan is not without ambition, but self-aware. First of all, Tao Kan was from the Han Gate, and he understood that the deep-rooted door valve politics of the Eastern Jin Dynasty did not allow a Han without a background to take power; then, when Xuzhou Assassin Xi Jian supported heavy troops in Jingkou, not far downstream of Jiankang, Tao Kan had to worry about Xi Jian's attitude. Tao Kan had planned to depose Wang Dao, who was in charge of the central government, and had already planned to send troops from Jiangzhou, but he gave up because Xi Jian did not agree. But in any case, Tao Kan did not have serious trespasses in fact.
In his later years, Tao Kan's enterprising spirit did not diminish, and he wanted to make a difference in the cause of the Northern Expedition, and once sent his troops to run Padang and recover Xiangyang occupied by Later Zhao, but when he was about to carry out a military deployment, he fell seriously ill and the Northern Expedition plan had to be suspended.
In June 334, Tao Kan abdicated on the table and returned the official seals, runes, military account books, warehouse keys, boats, carriages, and horses to the imperial court, or handed them over to a special person for safekeeping. For a while, the imperial court spread it as a beautiful talk.
The day after Tao Kan left office, he died of illness in Fan Huan on the way back to his hometown at the age of seventy-six, and according to his will, he was buried twenty miles south of Changsha.