The three kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu all hoped to unify China by themselves, but none of them had the strength to destroy the other, and eventually perished one after another, and returned to the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty.
The first to perish was Shu. After Guan Yu, the general of Shu, was killed by Eastern Wu, and Jingzhou was occupied by Eastern Wu, Liu Bei was extremely angry and declared war on Eastern Wu. He was defeated by Lu Xun, a rising star of Eastern Wu, and finally died in the White Emperor City. His son Liu Chan succeeded to the throne and appointed Zhuge Liang as his father. Zhuge Liang wanted to invade Wei in the north, and his strategy was to stabilize the rear first, capture Meng Shu seven times, and conquer the four southern counties - Yuenan County (Xichang, Sichuan), Yongchang County (Baoshan, Yunnan), Yizhou County (Jinning, Yunnan), and Qiqi County (Fuquan, Guizhou), accounting for about half of the area of Shu. After solving his worries, he began to launch 5 attacks on Wei, but lost 4 times.
The first set out in 227 and was defeated in the Battle of Jieting (Zhuanglang, Gansu) the next year (228). Wei Yan, the general of this battle, once suggested: Attack Chang'an from the Meridian Valley (one of the Qinling Gorges). However, this kind of risky military action was beyond Zhuge Liang's cautious and steady character, and he did not dare to try.
The second time was still in 228, after Zhuge Liang failed in Jieting, he gathered troops and attacked Chencang (Baoji, Shaanxi), but could not conquer it, and the food was exhausted, so he had to retreat.
In the third 229 years, this battle moved all the people of Wudu (Chengxian County, Gansu) and Yinping (Wenxian County, Gansu) to which Wei belonged to Shu, which was a great help to the sparsely populated Shu State.
In the fourth 231 year, he attacked Shangbang (Tianshui, Gansu), and the food was exhausted, so he had to withdraw his troops.
In the fifth 234 years, Zhuge Liang summed up the experience of the Northern Expedition, and the biggest difficulty was that there were many valleys, and it was difficult to transport grain for a long distance. Therefore, he decided to switch to the policy of reclamation, and after occupying Meixian County in present-day Shaanxi, he cultivated along the south bank of Weishui for long-term planning. It's a pity that he died of illness in Wuzhangyuan, a suburb of Meixian County.
His military duties were taken over by the general Jiang Wei, but the eunuch Huang Hao held great power beside Liu Chan, and although Jiang Wei's ability was very strong, the rear was not good, and it was already difficult to maintain the endgame. In 262, the Wei general Zhong Hui made a major expedition to the south. General Jiang Wei guarded Jianmen Pass (north of Jiange, Sichuan), and the battle was stalemate. Another general of Wei, Deng Ai, went from Yinping County (Wenxian County, Gansu) to Wanshan and opened a bird road to Jiangyou (Jiangyou, Sichuan), an important town on the border of Shu. This is the primitive mountainous area, in addition to the poisonous snake beast, the traces of people are hearty, Deng Ai led the strange soldiers to dig the mountain to open a hole, encountered the cliff cliff, that is, the body is wrapped in felt, tumbling down, twists and turns, where one hundred and fifty kilometers. After occupying Jiangyou, it entered the Chengdu Plain. When Emperor Liu Chan heard that the enemy army was not far from Chengdu, he did not think of resisting at all, nor did he think that Jiang Wei's army was still intact in front, so he couldn't wait to surrender. The state of Shu was only 43 years from Liu Bei's founding to its demise.
Secondly, the destroyed Wei State, Cao Wei occupied the Central Plains region in the Three Kingdoms, and its national strength was far superior to that of Shu Han and Eastern Wu. After Wei destroyed Shu, he attacked Eastern Wu several times, but he was unable to cross the Yangtze River in the end. After Cao Pi's death, his son Cao Rui succeeded to the throne, and in the later period of his reign, he built a large number of buildings, abused the people's power, and was on his deathbed, which led to political turmoil. After Cao Rui's death, his nephew Cao Fang succeeded to the throne by Sima Yi and Cao Shuang, Cao Shuang was arrogant and domineering, specializing in court politics and suppressing dissidents; Since then, the power has fallen to the Sima clan.
Emperor Cao Fang and Emperor Cao Chao had successively planned to eradicate the Sima clan, but both ended in failure. After Sima Yi's death, his two sons, Sima Shi and Sima Zhao, came to power one after another, and the Cao Wei empire came to an end. The long-term rule and long-term slaughter of the Sima family made the emperor like an egg erected on a glass ball, and any small shock would fall to the ground. The second year after the conquest of Shu Han (265). When Prime Minister Sima Zhao died, his son Sima Yan immediately ordered the last emperor, Cao Huan, to teach him Zen Rang. Cao Wei was only 46 years from the establishment of Cao Pi to its demise.
Sun Quan, the founding emperor of Eastern Wu, was in power for the longest time, and was 71 years old in the year of his death (252), 52 years after he took over the position of his elder brother Sun Ce. After many coups d'état in Eastern Wu, the last emperor, Sun Hao, was a standard type of monarch of the dead country. His happiest thing is to skin people alive and brush their faces with an iron brush. One of his ministers, who had suffered a stroke and could not speak, thought he was pretending to burn him with a fire on his head, all the while burning the sick to death. He once traveled in winter, and the angry escort soldiers shouted: "As soon as the enemy comes, we will defect." Under the rule of the villain emperor Sun Hao, everyone knew that he had to die, only Sun Hao did not know, and he also had the ambition to destroy the emerging Western Jin Dynasty. As a result, Jin captured Jianye (Nanjing, Jiangsu) in 280 and captured Sun Hao alive. Soochow was founded for 59 years and has the longest life span among the three countries.
The Three Kingdoms were temporarily unified by the Western Jin Dynasty.
A new regime is bound to have a higher level of political capacity than the old one. However, the Jin Dynasty was an exception. Because in fact, when the power came into the hands of Sima Yan, it had been passed to the third generation, and Sima Yan was a wine bag and meat bag through and through. Emperor Sima Yan's palace had more than 10,000 concubines, so that he was worried every day, and he didn't know who to sleep in, so he took a sheep cart, and wherever the sheep stopped, he stayed there. Prime Minister He once told his son: "The country has just started a business, and it should be vigorous and vigorous." However, every time I attended a royal meeting or a royal banquet, I never heard a word related to the state, but only about daily trivial matters. This is not a good sign, you may be spared, and your grandchildren will not be able to escape the disaster. ”
What's even more unfortunate is that Sima Yan's sister-in-law, the legitimate heir to the throne, Sima Zhen, is very incompetent. One summer, Sima Zhen and his entourage went to Hualin Garden to play. They walked to a pond and heard the sound of cooing frogs coming from inside. Sima Zhen thought it was very strange, so he asked his followers whether these babbling things were for officials or for private purposes, and the attendants said: "What is called in an official's house is an official's family, and if it is called in a private house, it is private." "Another year there was a famine, the people had nothing to eat, and people starved to death everywhere. Someone reported the situation to Sima Zhen, but Sima Zhen said to the reporter: "If there is no food to eat, why don't they eat meat porridge?" When the people who reported the report heard this, they couldn't laugh or cry, and the victims couldn't even eat, so where did they get the meat porridge? This shows how stupid and confused Sima Zhen is.
In the next year (291), when Sima Zhen came to power, the Eight Kings Rebellion broke out.
Sima Zhen's wife, Jia Nanfeng, is a smart and talented woman. Her husband's incompetence was a frustrating blow to her, so she turned her interest to politics, relying on her henchmen: the Jia family and a large group of followers. Sima Zhen in her hands, not only a rubber stamp, but also a highest-value scribe, when Jia Nanfeng wrote the edict, he ordered Sima Zhen to copy it on the royal paper, this kind of imperial pen handwriting, has the highest effect. Jia Nanfeng's attempts to interfere in politics were initially thwarted by Prime Minister Yang Jun, the father of Empress Dowager Yang and the maternal grandfather of Emperor Sima Zhen, who held military power. But Jia Nanfeng has her own set, the year after Sima Zhen came to power, she obtained the cooperation of her husband's younger brother, Prince Sima Wei, and issued an edict declaring that Yang Jun had rebelled, and ordered Sima Wei to send troops to fight the thieves and kill Yang Jun. Yang Jun's place was replaced by Sima Zhen's grandfather, Prince Sima Liang.
Under the administration of Uncle Zu, Jia Nanfeng, a nephew and daughter-in-law, intervened in the government, and difficulties occurred. So she concocted the same method again, three months after Yang Jun was killed, she still used Sima Wei, issued an edict claiming that Sima Liang also rebelled, and ordered Sima Wei to send troops to fight the thief, and then kill Sima Liang. Eradicating Sima Liang is the same as the means used to eradicate Yang Jun - false rebellion, but Sima Liang is the most respected member of the royal family, Jia Nanfeng found that it may cause a strong political storm, and there is no proper position for Sima Wei to appease, so in an instant she turned her face ruthlessly, put all the responsibility on Sima Wei's head, and issued an edict claiming that Sima Wei was "overbearing", that is, falsely preaching the holy decree and killing the minister without authorization. Sima Wei, who was playing with his fingers, was arrested in a hurry and tied to the execution ground.
The Rebellion of the Eight Kings, from the killing of the first prince Sima Liang in 291 to the death of the eighth prince Sima Yue in 311, lasted 21 years, leading to the end of the unification situation that had just been established by the Jin Dynasty and gradually entering an era of division.