Dong Zhuo's death is not the end, the fragile balance is broken: the catastrophe of the late Han Dynasty was a process of continuous loss of imperial authority

Although the wonderful review of "Three Heroes vs. Lu Bu" in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is fictional, Dong Zhuo retreated from Luoyang to Chang'an, and this result is certain.

Dong Zhuo arrived in Chang'an in April of the second year of Chuping (191), and a year later, in April of the third year of Chuping (192), Dong Zhuo was killed by Lu Bu. Later generations of folk made up the story of Lu Bu and Diao Chan.

Why did Lu Bu kill Dong Zhuo

Let's talk about the history first.

Why did Lu Bu kill Dong Zhuo?

The first is the geographical contradiction, and the relationship between the people of Liangzhou and Bingzhou is not easy to get along.

Lu Bu is a native of Jiuyuan County, Wuyuan County, Bingzhou, and Dong Zhuo's descendant is a native of Liangzhou. The Liangzhou Legion and the Bingzhou Legion were both the most heroic and warlike elite soldiers in the Han Dynasty, and were called "Liangjin Soldiers", and they have been holding back their rivalry with each other. Now the troops led by Lu Bu have taken refuge under the command of Dong Zhuo, a native of Liangzhou, and the generals of Liangzhou look down on him. And everyone is a soldier, straight to the point, and a lot of things are on the face.

Hu Zhen, as a big man in Liangzhou, threatened to kill Lu Bu, which is a performance; After Lu Bu killed Dong Zhuo, the reaction of Li Dao and Guo Yan, who were from Liangzhou, was to immediately kill all the people in their army, which was the outbreak of this hostile feeling.

Second, Dong Zhuo's emotional instability.

Dong Zhuo is a very complicated person, he has the attributes of a crazy and bloodthirsty beast, and he also has the attribute of forbearance and hypocrisy.

When Dong Zhuo's traitorous attribute prevailed, he knew very well that he could not only rely on the Liangzhou Army, but also win over the famous men of the Kwantung region, and also encircle non-descendant military forces like Lu Bu.

But when the beast attribute prevails, then how cool it is, it will not restrain itself.

After the Kwantung heroes raised troops, Dong Zhuo moved the capital to Chang'an, and then built a tall and sturdy Yiwu, accumulated a large amount of grain, and declared: "It will be done, it will dominate the world, and it will not be successful, and it will be enough to keep this to finish the old age." "Spending so much effort to manage the retreat, people can clearly feel that Dong Zhuo is already quite discouraged, and the dream of enterprising the world can't go on.

When people lose their dreams, they become more indulgent. Dong Zhuo knew that there were many people who wanted to kill him, so he used the brave Lu Bu as his bodyguard. Rationally, he knew that he must be kind to Lu Bu; But when the anger came up, he would use a halberd - a throwing weapon commonly used at that time - to throw Lu Bu because of a trivial matter, if it wasn't for Lu Bu's skill, he would be nailed to death.

Third, it was an affair between Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo.

The history books do not mention the name of this maid, and her existence is not involved in any conspiracy.

Lu Bu, a heroic and powerful man, had to go in and out of Dong Zhuo's backyard all the time, and it was not surprising that such a thing happened.

At this time, Situ Wang Yun and others began to plot against Dong Zhuo. Wang Yun was born in the famous Taiyuan Wang family, that is, he is also from Bingzhou, and he can have a little relationship with Lu Bu. Although Wang Yun actually looked down on Lu Bu's humble background, he was still willing to condescend to Lu Bu at this time, and he was very good to Lu Bu. Such a noble scholar was willing to associate with him, Lu Bu was quickly moved, and took the initiative to tell Wang Yun that Dong Zhuo was almost going to kill him.

Wang Yun felt that this was a godsend, and immediately suggested: Then you can help us kill Dong Zhuo.

Lu Bu was a little hesitant considering the relationship between father and son. Wang Yun said: "Your surname is Lu, and he is not a relative. Now that life is in danger, what is that godfather-son relationship? ”

So Lu Bu agreed.

Therefore, in the matter of killing Dong Zhuo, Wang Yun's plan is actually very simple. At that time, he wanted to find a breakthrough by Dong Zhuo's side, and it was likely that there was more than one object of investigation by Lu Bu. found that Lu Bu was a person who could be used, so he made a clean and direct suggestion, and then acted immediately, and succeeded in one fell swoop.

After all, the more complex the conspiracy, the more links involved, and the more links involved, the greater the likelihood of being exposed. A domino-like super complicated game may look good in novels, movies and television, but it is often stupid in reality.

In recognition of Lü Bu's exploits in killing Dong Zhuo, Wang Yun transferred his title of "Marquis Wen" to Lü Bu, and since then there has been the name of "Marquis Wenhou". In the miscellaneous drama and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", before Dong Zhuo's death, many people called Lu Bu Wen Hou, which is a manifestation of popular literature and art willfully handling historical information.

The interpretation of the folk Three Kingdoms: Diao Chan Lu Bu is husband and wife

Let's talk about the civil Three Kingdoms.

In the tile shop of the Song Dynasty, "saying three points" was very popular. Imagine, if you were a storyteller in Lin'an, Hangzhou, when you were in the Southern Song Dynasty, how should you tell the story of Lu Bu's assassination of Dong Zhuo?

The contradictions between the people of Liangzhou and Bingzhou will definitely not be talked about much, these are all places outside my territory of the Great Song Dynasty. In particular, Lu Bu's hometown of Jiuyuan, Wuyuan County, is on the northern edge of Bingzhou, that is, in the area of Baotou in today's Inner Mongolia, and it is better to tell the people of the Great Song Dynasty that Lu Bu is from Mongolia, so it is better to talk about "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".

So some geographical concepts, vague as well. It is obvious that the average audience has little interest in geography. There are so many geographical errors in all kinds of plain words and novels, who cares?

Therefore, the key point is that the plot of Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo's maid fornicating is the most popular among the people.

It's not very clear how the people of the Song Dynasty told this peachy story, but there must have been a lot of creation, and in the Yuan Dynasty, the story of Lu Bu and Diao Chan was already full of plot twists and turns.

There is a miscellaneous drama called "Jinyuntang's Secret Serial Plan", which talks about this.

First of all, explain why Lu Bu betrayed Ding Yuan and defected to Dong Zhuo in the miscellaneous drama. When Lu Bu was Ding Yuan's godson, he washed Ding Yuan's feet once and found that there was a black tumor on Ding Yuan's feet. Ding Yuan was still very proud, saying that this tumor was not ordinary, which meant that "there are five hegemonic princes". Lu Bu thought, in fact, I have a black tumor on each of my feet, and one tumor is divided into five hegemonic princes, and two tumors can't be crowned a prince? It seems that your little godfather can't bear my big future, so he picked up the footbasin and slapped Ding Yuan to death, and rode a red rabbit horse to Dong Zhuo.

Later, Dong Zhuo was dictatorial and wanted to usurp the throne, and the heavens were also alarmed, so he sent Tai Bai Xing to ignite him, the one who took Sun Wukong to heaven in "Journey to the West". This busiest old man in the world turned into a Taoist priest and ran to the door of Dong Zhuo's mansion, laughed three times, cried three times, and then threw down a piece of cloth and left.

At both ends of the cloth, write a "mouth", and the middle two lines of the cloth read: "Thousands of miles of grass is green, and Bu says ten long lives." ”

Dong Zhuo couldn't understand it, so he asked Cai Yong, a university scholar.

Cai Yong explained that at each end of the cloth, a "mouth" is written, and the two mouths are Lu, isn't this Lu Bu?

Cai Yong also said: Qianlicao is a Dong character, and Bu Yue Ten is a Zhuo character. Therefore, this means that Lu Bu wants to ensure that you achieve great things.

Dong Zhuo was very happy.

But Cai Yong turned around and went to Wang Yun to tell him about it, saying that this was a prompt from heaven that Lu Bu could be used to kill Dong Zhuo.

But how can you win over Lu Bu? Wang Yun was very confused, went home to the back garden, and saw his goddaughter Diao Chan, where she burned incense and prayed.

So Wang Yun interrogated Diao Chan, what are you praying for?

Diao Chan said that he was a native of Muer Village, Xinzhou, surnamed Ren, with the small character Hongchang, and was once selected as a palace maid by Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, holding a Diao Chan crown, so he was called Diao Chan.

Later, Emperor Ling gave Diao Chan to Ding Yuan, and Ding Yuan married her to his godson Lu Bu as his wife. During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the husband and wife were separated, and Diao Chan fell in Wang Yun's mansion and was accepted as a righteous daughter. On this day, Diao Chan saw Lu Bu riding a red rabbit horse down the street upstairs, so he had this prayer.

Wang Yun then came to his senses, "It's not a serial scheme, but it's on this Nizi?" He told Diao Chan a bunch of stories about ancient women who sacrificed for men's careers, and then said, son, don't care about chastity, I will dedicate you to Dong Zhuo, "Bo a savior Wandai Mingxiang." "Of course, maybe after the promise is fulfilled, let Lu Bu and Diao Chan reunite as a couple.

Wang Yun first arranged for Lu Bu and Diao Chan to meet, and the couple had mixed joys and sorrows. Wang Yun said, although you are husband and wife, since Diao Chan is my daughter, you have to follow the process of marrying a daughter, you wait for two more days, I will invite Mrs. Dong first, and the parents of both sides will meet.

So Wang Yun invited Dong Zhuo to be a guest and entered the Diao Chan color temptation link. Writing about the ugly state of the dead fat man's lustful state, the author, who is well versed in the psychology of the audience, is obviously also very excited, and that scene is depicted meticulously and vividly, which is not inferior to today's film and television drama adaptations.

Wang Yun sent Diao Chan to Dong Zhuo's mansion, and Lu Bu called the door after hearing the news, and Wang Yun said that Diao Chan was snatched away by Dong Zhuo. So Lu Bu went to Dong Zhuo to settle accounts, and after defeating Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu ran to Wang Yun again.

Dong Zhuo sent Li Su to arrest Lu Bu. Wang Yun explained to him that Diao Chan was Lu Bu's wife, so Dong Zhuo was wrong, and told Li Su that your ancestor was Li Tong and the founder of the Eastern Han Dynasty, so you should also oppose Dong. Li Su was moved, so everyone joined forces and killed Dong Zhuo, with a happy ending.

The miscellaneous drama is like this, the setting of "Tales of the Three Kingdoms" is similar but simpler, Lu Bu heard that Diao Chan was taken into the house by Dong Zhuo, and directly went over and slaughtered Dong Zhuo with a sword.

The treatment of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": Diao Chan is a beautiful spy

Let's take a look at "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", there is no Diao Chan's life experience, and Diao Chan is not Lu Bu's wife.

Luo Guanzhong abandoned the traditional setting, probably because he has a stronger sense of morality than the writers of Yuan miscellaneous dramas.

In the miscellaneous drama, the husband and wife relationship between Lu Bu and Diao Chan is very deep and sincere, and Wang Yun used their desire for reunion to force Diao Chan to provoke the relationship between Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo, which can be said to be quite despicable and dirty.

Luo Guanzhong still respects Wang Yun as a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty and doesn't want him to be like this. took away the old relationship between Diao Chan and Lu Bu, and only kept the setting that Diao Chan was Wang Yungan's daughter, so that she took the initiative to be loyal to the country and filial piety to her father, Diao Chan appeared more noble, and Wang Yun was completely whitewashed.

But this change brings another problem, Lu Bu rebelled against Dong Zhuo for Diao Chan, and his motivation was insufficient, so he had to amplify Diao Chan's charm and skill. So "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" added a lot of scenes, talking about how Diao Chan stirred up fire between Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo. Diao Chan was portrayed as a particularly clever female spy. Of course, modern readers may be dissatisfied with Diao Chan in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", thinking that she is a beautiful and sexy tool, and they can't see her own appeal as a woman, which is not as flesh and blood as the Diao Chan in the miscellaneous drama.

Indeed, because the miscellaneous drama doesn't care about history at all, sometimes it really creates some particularly moving settings.

There is a miscellaneous drama "Guan Yunchang Splitting Four Kou with a Single Knife", which arranged such an ending for Lu Bu and Diao Chan: After Dong Zhuo's death, Li Dao and Guo Yan opposed Chang'an, and Lu Bu fought with them, and suddenly had a nosebleed, and they were defeated.

So Diao Chan persuaded Lu Bu, what's the point of fighting this kind of battle, even if you win, it's boring, the emperor will make you the "King of Jiaoliao", let's go to your own country.

This story is actually the same idea as CCTV's TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" "Diao Chan has gone with the breeze", the difference is whether Diao Chan is alone, but Lu Bu and Diao Chan together.

The so-called Jiaoliao is the area of Jiaodong Peninsula and Liaodong Peninsula, which went to the seaside. Let Lu Bu stay away from the strife in the Central Plains from now on and become the man known as the One Piece, which is quite emotional.

Unfortunately, the reality is not so rosy. Wang Yun in history, the image is not as noble as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and many deeds are more outrageous than miscellaneous dramas. And Dong Zhuo's death is actually the beginning of an even greater disaster.

Wang Yun: How a loyal servant messes up everything

What happened after Dong Zhuo's death? Let's briefly introduce the plot of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and then talk about the history behind it.

The story of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is more clear about good and evil.

The righteous Wang Yun designed to kill the murderous and tyrannical Dong Zhuo, and then Chang'an City began a national carnival.

Suddenly, someone reported that someone was lying on Dong Zhuo's corpse and crying, and at a glance, it turned out to be Cai Yong, the father of Cai Wenji, a university scholar.

Wang Yun said, Dong Zhuo is a traitor, how can you cry for him? Cai Yong said, I also know that he is a traitor, but he has the grace of knowing me, so he is a little emotional, but my heart is still towards the Han Dynasty.

Wang Yun ignored this and decided to execute Cai Yong. Cai Yong said, I am writing a history book, you can impose other punishments on me, spare my life, and let me finish writing history.

Wang Yun said that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not kill Sima Qian, and Sima Qian wrote the "Historical Records", which was a "slanderous book", which was full of slanderous words against Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. I can't keep Cai Yong and let him write another slanderous book.

At this time, Dong Zhuo's four subordinates, Li Dao, Guo Yan, Fan Chou, and Zhang Ji, heard that Dong Zhuo had been killed, and "went to Liangzhou overnight". They begged Wang Yun to pardon themselves, but Wang Yun disagreed, thinking that Dong Zhuo's subordinates had committed the greatest sin against these four people, and it was okay to pardon others, but it was not okay to pardon them.

Li Dao and they decided to flee. Beside Li Dao, there was a strategist named Jia Xu, who said, if you abandon the army and flee alone, a pavilion chief can take you down, so it is better to raise an army and rebel. If it is done, it will control the court, and it will not be too late to escape.

Li Dao and the others agreed, so they spread rumors that Wang Yun was going to kill all the people of Liangzhou. The panic was very successful, so the Liangzhou soldiers followed them to rebel and kill Chang'an City.

Wang Yun naturally sent Lu Bu to meet the enemy, and Lu Bu was naturally invincible, but when Li Dao and their tiger left the mountain, Li Dao and others still succeeded in attacking Chang'an.

Seeing that the defeat was doomed, Lu Bu called Wang Yun to flee with him, but Wang Yun disagreed, so Lu Bu left by himself.

Li Wei's army surrounded Emperor Xian of Han and said that if you kill Wang Yun, I will withdraw my troops.

At this time, the value of Wang Yun's failure to escape was reflected, and he jumped off the city tower and said that I was here. So Li Dao and others killed Wang Yun.

In the story of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Wang Yun was a great loyal minister, and he stood up to protect the lord at the last moment and died a very heroic death. So the historian has a poem to praise and say:

Wang Yun is strategic, and the traitor Dong Zhuoxiu is a traitor.

With hatred for the family and country, the eyebrows are worried about the temple.

Heroic and loyal.

So far, the soul and spirit are still around the Phoenix Tower.

Wang Yun's behavior was only to kill Cai Yong, which made people feel a bit excessive. However, Cai Yong went to Dong Zhuo's corpse to cry bitterly after Dong Zhuo's death, when the whole people were carnivaling, it was a bit excessive, do you think Dong Zhuo is good to you, even if you cry quietly? It seems to be a bit of a pompous desire to perform. Classical literati commented on "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and probably recognized Wang Yun's behavior.

Another eye-catching figure is Jia Xu. If it weren't for Jia Xu's words, Li Dao and Guo Yan would have fled, and there would be nothing left, and he would have created a catastrophe with one sentence. Jia Xu, a strategist, is a bit evil, but he is really smart, far-sighted and has a superior IQ, no wonder he still has important roles in the later plots.

Overall, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" tells an exciting and tragic story.

The real history is darker and crueler

The real history is much darker and more cruel.

Let's take a look at Wang Yun's early resume in history.

He was born in the Taiyuan Wang family, during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and even the Tang Dynasty, this family has always had great influence, and at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, they were already a big family. Therefore, Wang Yun is a typical scholar from a family, and his life path is also a typical celebrity path: when he was a teenager, there were famous people to promote him and build momentum; The high-ranking officials at the level of the three princes rushed to ask Wang Yun to work in their own departments; Fight against the eunuch group all the way, and so on.

One of the more eye-catching things is that Wang Yun participated in the pacification of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and found a letter that Zhang Rang, the chief eunuch and the head of the Ten Standing Attendants, colluded with the Yellow Turban Army. Wang Yun reported Zhang Rang, but as a result, Emperor Han Ling did not deal with Zhang Rang, but threw Wang Yun into prison.

This can be understood in two ways:

First, Zhang Rang was too treacherous, and Emperor Han Ling was too confused, so Emperor Han Ling was unwilling to punish Zhang Rang.

One, Wang Yun is falsely accused, and Zhang Rang proved his innocence: I colluded with the Yellow Turban, do I have any benefit? It's too easy for them to forge a letter, Wang Yun just wants to harm me.

In the struggle between celebrities and eunuchs at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, celebrities and scholars always believed that they were absolutely just, and for the goal of absolute justice, that is, any despicable and shameless means could be used. It would not be surprising if Wang Yun did this.

Because he was the enemy of the eunuchs, during the era of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, Wang Yun's situation had always been not good. Emperor Ling of Han died, and Wang Yun turned over, but Wang Yun really became a particularly important figure in the era when Dong Zhuo was in power.

Wang Yun was appointed as Situ and concurrently served as Shang Shuling.

Mr. Zhu Zongbin of Peking University has a classic conclusion: If an official has the power to lead hundreds of officials and participate in decision-making at the same time, no matter what his official official name is, he is the real prime minister. The system of the Eastern Han Dynasty tended to separate the power of the prime minister, that is, to avoid the emergence of a real prime minister: the head of the hundred officials was Situ, and the decision-making organ of the state was Shang Shutai. However, now that Wang Yun is both Situ and Shang Shuling, he is the real prime minister.

Moreover, Dong Zhuo's strategy was to let Wang Yun take Emperor Han Xian to Chang'an first, and he would lead his troops to stay in Luoyang and fight with the Kwantung heroes who had attacked him. This is really a great trust in Wang Yun, so it can also be inferred that Dong Zhuo's various actions, Wang Yun at least in public statements, are also supportive.

Later, Dong Zhuo himself withdrew to Chang'an, and at first he was still very good to Wang Yun, but then a contradiction slowly occurred, and I don't know what it is. A year later, Wang Yun and others contacted Lu Bu and killed Dong Zhuo.

The Book of the Later Han Dynasty says that after killing Dong Zhuo, Wang Yun's temper became very bad. In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Wang Yun killed Cai Yong, which is a historical fact, but paying attention to the details is also very different.

Cai Yong is a typical intellectual. The knowledge is really good, the overall situation is good, the situation in the world, the vision is very accurate, but the ability to act is very poor.

Dong Zhuo was authoritarian and wanted to use Cai Yong's reputation to ask Cai Yong to be an official, but Cai Yong was evasive. But Dong Zhuo said that if you don't come, I will kill your whole family, and Cai Yong will also come. Then Dong Zhuo had some particularly excessive things, Cai Yong was discouraged, and occasionally succeeded, but most of the time he said it in vain. So Cai Yong wanted to escape, Cai Yong's younger brother said, you look very strange, wherever you go, you will attract onlookers, how can you escape ("The gentleman is a different Heng person, and every line of spectators gathers. Isn't it difficult to hide oneself in this way? ”）。 So Cai Yong gave up.

But in any case, in Dong Zhuo's era, Cai Yong's cooperation with Dong Zhuo was obviously far inferior to Wang Yun's. The following is a quote from the original text of the history book:

He Zhuo was punished, and Yong sat in Situ Wang Yun, but he sighed without words, and he was moved. Yun said angrily: "Dong Zhuoguo's thief, a few Han rooms. The king is the king's minister, so it is appropriate to be angry, and cherish his private encounter, in order to forget the big festival! Isn't it a common thing to condemn the guilty today, but to hurt each other? That is, to pay the court lieutenant for punishment. (The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Biography of Cai Yong)

Note that after Wang Yun killed Dong Zhuo, Cai Yong did not lie on Dong Zhuo's corpse and cry bitterly. It's just that at a party held by Wang Yun, Cai Yong didn't rejoice, and sighed. So Wang Yun was angry and insisted on killing Cai Yong.

Wang Yun said that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not kill Sima Qian, which led to the slander of the book staying, so Cai Yong could not be allowed to write the history of the Han Dynasty. This was said by Wang Yunzhen in history, and he particularly emphasized that letting Cai Yong write history "will not benefit the saintly virtue, and will make our party be criticized by him." Contacting Wang Yun's previous actions, I am afraid that during his cooperation with Dong Zhuo, there are some things that he is really afraid of being written down.

Also, Cai Yong just sighed, and the sigh was not necessarily sad for Dong Zhuo's death, but also worried about the conflict that was about to break out. The conflict that was about to occur was exactly what Wang Yun couldn't face, so Wang Yun was angered.

The situation after Dong Zhuo's death: the balance is broken

What was the situation after Dong Zhuo's death?

Originally, Dong Zhuo rehabilitated the party members and gave them to famous non-commissioned officers, but on the contrary, he did not give special positions to his soldiers, and he was also supported by some famous soldiers, and at the same time, the army in Liangzhou, of course, supported Dong Zhuo, so although the situation was bad enough, it could be regarded as maintaining a fragile balance.

Now that Dong Zhuo is killed, the balance is broken.

And "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" got one thing wrong (of course, this is the traditional mistake of the folk Three Kingdoms), Li Dao and Guo Yan have not returned to their hometown in Liangzhou. Dong Zhuo originally arranged them on the eastern front line to deal with Yuan Shao's people, specifically "Shaanxi", which is the place in today's Sanmenxia, Henan.

In other words, these Liangzhou soldiers were in the east, to the west was Chang'an, where Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty were located at this time, and further west was their hometown of Liangzhou. They are in an unfamiliar environment far from home.

In this environment, these people suddenly heard that their backers in the court had been killed, can you imagine that they could easily fall into panic? Like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" said that they have returned to their hometown, spreading rumors that they are going to kill all the people in Liangzhou, in fact, it is very difficult to be effective, what ability does your court have to come to Liangzhou to carry out a massacre; But now they are in this situation, it is easy to believe: this army has become a lone army between the imperial court and the eastern heroes, and the imperial court and the eastern heroes are obviously trying to reconcile, and there is no need for people to deliberately spread them, and this kind of rumor will arise spontaneously in the army.

At this time, the best way for Wang Yun is to send a person with sufficient prestige, who can be trusted by the imperial court, and who can be accepted by the Liangzhou soldiers, to lead the army in Liangzhou. Is there a suitable candidate? Lu Bu is definitely not good, his prestige is not enough, he is the murderer of Dong Zhuo, and he is a native of Bingzhou, and the soldiers of Liangzhou look down on him. But it should be said that there are still candidates, that is, Huangfu Song, who pacified the Yellow Turban Army that year. Someone made this suggestion to Wang Yun, but Wang Yun refused, on the grounds that if the Liangzhou soldiers were not disarmed, they would not be able to reassure Yuan Shao and them in the east, so they would not be able to negotiate with Yuan Shao and them.

Cultural people often do things like this: they think too far ahead, and they are unwilling to solve the problems in front of them.

If you want to disarm them, you must give them a pardon and declare the Liangzhou soldiers innocent. To be honest, the pardon may not be effective if it is given, because everyone knows that it is easy to regret it, but Wang Yun is unwilling to give it because of all kinds of concerns. Then it is too easy to give people a psychological hint that if the armament is to be disarmed, and the pardon is not given, you just want our lives.

Also, the relationship between Wang Yun and Lu Bu also began to deteriorate. He is a famous person, and he has a good relationship with a person from a humble background like Lu Bu, he is estimated to be a little aggrieved in his heart, there is no way before killing Dong Zhuo, after killing Dong Zhuo, he can't hide it if he can't look down on it, and he doesn't listen to Lu Bu's advice. Lu Bu's suggestion was actually quite insightful, and he advised Wang Yun to distribute Dong Zhuo's property to the officials and generals in the imperial court, so as to give everyone some benefits, so let's strengthen internal unity. But Wang Yun just didn't accept it.

In short, Wang Yun rejected all suggestions that might improve the situation. At this time, on Li Wei's side, Jia Xu put forward that fateful suggestion, rebel.

The difference with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is that the situation of the soldiers in Liangzhou at that time was simply a powder keg, and if Jia Xu did not make this suggestion, someone else would mention it; If Li Dao does not oppose it, there will be others who oppose it. Jia Xu is indeed smart, but this kind of intelligence is not magical, fear leads to aggressive behavior, which is a natural reaction. So it was not Jia Xu's words that created the catastrophe, but that the catastrophe was basically destined to happen.

Li Dao's status under Dong Zhuo is actually not high, there are thousands of people under him, and he leads thousands of people to Chang'an to kill. But the frightened people of Liangzhou all came to join Li Dao, and this army rolled bigger and bigger like a snowball, and then became as overwhelming as a big avalanche. So Chang'an fell, Lu Bu fled, and Wang Yun committed suicide. Speaking of Wang Yun's death, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" basically copied historical materials, and it was indeed very heroic and heroic.

Therefore, history is gray, and many things are not a simple struggle between good and evil. The most breathtaking thing about reading this history is that you will feel a devouring force, the collapse is approaching little by little, and the person who cannot be said to be a bad person, what he does, is constantly fanning the flames for the collapse to come soon.

Whether it is the official history or the wild history notes or "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", they all describe the scene of the carnival of the people in Chang'an City after Dong Zhuo was killed. What they thought was the end of the catastrophe was actually the beginning of an even greater catastrophe. The carnival after killing Dong Zhuo was the last happiness in the lives of many Chang'an people.

The Catastrophe of the Late Han Dynasty: Power and Authority

After Dong Zhuo was killed, Dong Zhuo's Li Dao, Guo Yan and others raised troops, entered Chang'an City, killed Wang Yun, and took control of the imperial court. What's next?

Let's talk about the folk Three Kingdoms first.

There is a meta miscellaneous drama called "Guan Yunchang Splitting Four Kou with a Single Knife".

In this play, Li Dao, Guo Yan, Fan Chou, and Zhang Ji are called the four Kou of Liangzhou Mansion, and last time I said "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", I didn't know that Li Dao and others raised troops from the east, but thought that they raised troops from Liangzhou, and this mistake has been committed. The lack of attention to geography is an essential feature of folklore.

According to the setting of the miscellaneous drama, the martial arts of Xiliang Sikou are very strong. Of course, he couldn't beat Lu Bu, but Lu Bu suddenly had a nosebleed, so he ran away with Diao Chan and went to the area of Bohai Bay to be the One Piece.

Emperor Han Xian fell into the hands of these four, they wanted to bring Emperor Han Xian to Xiliang, and his uncle Dong Cheng knew about it, so he quickly fled with Emperor Han Xian and went to Luoyang.

Sikou chased after him, and it just so happened that Cao Cao led his army and met Emperor Xian of Han. So Cao Cao escorted and fought with Sikou.

Cao Cao's generals are Cao Ren, Xu Chu, Cao Zhang, Cao Ba ,—— as usual, here can not be more serious, Cao Zhang was only four or five years old at this time, Cao Ba does not know where he came from, presumably not the Tang Dynasty painter who is good at painting horses.

Anyway, the result is that the generals of Cao Ying are not the opponents of Sikou at all.

Seeing that Cao Cao was going to finish with Emperor Han Xian, the savior had arrived.

Guan Yu returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors and happened to pass by here. So Guan Yu made a righteous move, "one knife is more ancient than the present, and the four Kou are chopped one by one."

Guan Yu slashed the four Kou with a knife and made a great contribution, even with the absence of Liu Bei and Zhang Fei, Liu Bei was originally a county commander and was promoted to the Taishou of Texas, Guan Yu was the general of Dangkou, and Zhang Fei was the general of the chariot. Of course, this is a case where the writer of the miscellaneous play did not know anything about the official system of the Han Dynasty.

The geographical concept of Texas, the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty did not have, Liu Bei did the plain county order, the Yuan Dynasty Pingyuan County belonged to Dezhou, then the plain county order was promoted, just do the Texas Taishou.

said that Guan Yu was a general of Dangkou and Zhang Fei was a general of the chariot cavalry, and the two generals were very far apart in rank.

The generals of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order from high to low, are: Great General - Hussar General - Che Cavalry General - Wei General - Front, Right, Left, and Rear General - Various miscellaneous generals. In other words, the Che Cavalry General is one of the highest-ranking generals, while the Dangkou General is a miscellaneous general.

Historically, Guan Yu was a general of Dangkou, and Liu Bei himself was only a general of the left at that time, so he was crowned a miscellaneous general at most. When Liu Bei was called the king of Hanzhong, Guan Yu was a former general, Zhang Feiyou's general, at the same level, Guan Yu was ranked first. Liu Bei became the emperor, Guan Yu was dead, and Zhang Fei worshiped the general of the chariot cavalry, which was the highest military position Zhang Fei had done in his life.

But the author of the miscellaneous drama probably thinks that the former general and the right general don't sound powerful enough, and the general of Dangkou and the general of the chariot are quite imposing, as for the two generals are not of the same magnitude, this is none of their business, and the audience will not care anyway. The story is told in a lively and good way.

Folk Three Kingdoms, this section is a legend of a ranger hero with a happy ending.

When I read books, I often have a feeling that in the stories that ordinary people love to hear, the suffering of ordinary people is told the least. Because the life of the common people in ancient times was really too hard, look around you from a distance, everywhere is suffering, why should I listen to you tell the story of the suffering of the common people? Telling the story of the suffering and suffering of the emperor's general Miss Xiangzi is easy to arouse sympathy, but it is about the suffering of the common people themselves, and the common people don't like to hear it the most. This is a psychological defense mechanism, and it is difficult enough for me to bear the hardships of life, so I will not work hard to add another straw to literary and artistic works, you can let me enjoy the vulgar pleasures.

Back to the real history, then there is nothing to do with Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei in this history, Emperor Han Xian's situation is critical, and Cao Cao came to the rescue, which is also more than three years after Li Dao Guo Yan took power.

A lot has happened in the last three years.

These things, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has a narrative that is generally faithful to history, and if there is a difference, that is, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" still adds a little moral aura to some people, and covers up the cruelest side of history. Although the scene in the past few years written in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has been very tragic, the real situation is much more terrifying and tragic.

It takes a lot of time to explain the relationship between the characters at that time and the specific causes of each war. I'll just summarize it simply: anyway, all kinds of people with a small number of troops will go to war for a trivial reason, so you fight me and I fight you endlessly, and normal agricultural production cannot, of course, be carried out at all.

At the same time, natural disasters also continued to occur, earthquakes, locust plagues, floods in the fourth year of the first year of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty (193), and the next year was the first year of Xingping (194), from April to July, God did not have a drop of rain.

The entire Guanzhong area was full of flashing murder weapons, the cruel laughter of the butcher, the cries of women and children, and the blood of the newly dead flowing into a river, on which the white bones of the dead were floating...... In many places, not a single grain of rice is visible.

When Dong Zhuo was killed, there were still hundreds of thousands of families in the Guanzhong area, and in the second year of Xingping (195), that is, just over two years later, the people here died and fled, and it was almost deserted.

In the face of such a scene, it is easy to think of a poem in the Book of Songs:

Those who know me say that I am worried;

Those who do not know me say what I want.

Who is this?

This is almost a thousand years before the end of the Han Dynasty, after another great destruction of the Guanzhong region, that is, after the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty, a poet left a poem, who caused this catastrophe?

This question is almost an eternal question that will be asked when reading ancient Chinese history. The same is true for Westerners, who speak of the destruction of the Roman Empire with the same confusion.

In the past, the answer often tends to be attributed to a certain person's reason, such as the Eastern Han Dynasty, it comes down to Dong Zhuo, "Three Kingdoms" and "Book of the Later Han" are understood in this way, they scolded Dong Zhuo as the biggest disaster since the existence of human beings ("Dong Zhuo is a wolf and a thief, tyrannical and unkind, since the book deed has come, there is no more. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" wants to follow the official history, which is also understood in this way. And then Li Dao and Guo Yan are some small disaster stars.

Modern people may not understand the problem that way. It's not about washing the floor for some bad guy, it's about looking at things that shouldn't be so simplistic.

The history of the late Han Dynasty can be clearly felt that it was a process of continuous loss of imperial authority.

Late Han Dynasty: The authority of a court is constantly being lost

Authority is not power, power is tangible, and it is easier to explain clearly; Authority is intangible, a somewhat inexplicable force that makes people voluntarily obey and support you.

In modern sociology and political science, the government should have three capacities: reward, punishment, and authority.

Rewards and punishments are power, and through rewards to make people obey, the real money has to be spent; To make people obey through punishment, it is necessary to build the army, the police, the prison...... It's also a lot of money to spend.

Make people obey through authority, and when you speak, he obeys.

Therefore, if a government does not have authority, it means that the administrative cost will be infinitely higher. Therefore, authority is the most core resource for rulers. The opening paragraph of the book on "reputation" is, in the words of modern political science, how to maintain authority.

The difficulty lies in the problem of authority, which can hardly skip the process of long-term accumulation, that is, authority is inseparable from the blessing of tradition.

Let's sort out how the authority of the court in the late Han Dynasty continued to lose -

After the death of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, it was originally a situation in which the great general He Jin was in power, if He Jin did not have to force the eunuchs to a dead end, this situation would have been acceptable to some extent, because the power of the relatives was a tradition for the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there was corresponding authority.

But He Jin died, and at that time, in Luoyang City, there were two candidates who had the opportunity to take power, one was Yuan Shao and the other was Dong Zhuo. Both are not authoritative enough.

Yuan Shao can only represent the eastern region, Dong Zhuo can only represent the western region, and the society of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the tear between the east and the west is already very serious. The economy and culture of the eastern region are absolute advantages; The western region is militarily superior, who obeys whom?

In the eyes of celebrities in the east, what are you, Dong Zhuo? The history books say that Dong Zhuo is a "good son of six counties", a child from a very good family in the western part of the country, and if you want to put aside the Western Han Dynasty, this is the same as the flying general Li Guang, who is very respected. But in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Eastern celebrities just look down on you, you are an outlier, whether you are Han or Hu, it doesn't matter at all, you are from the west, I can't look down on you.

In the eyes of the soldiers of Liangzhou and Bingzhou in the west, can you celebrities talk all day long, can you solve any real problems? If we hadn't protected you through the days of licking blood with knives, how could you have a quiet life! As for the significance of the social order dominated by the nobles to economic prosperity, they certainly did not understand it. Yuan Shao felt that Dong Zhuo had worked under their Yuan family, and according to the values of the eastern region, you were my protégé and former official, so you had to be loyal to me. Dong Zhuo said that we Liangzhou people don't eat this set.

A book called "Offering the Emperor Spring and Autumn" says: When Dong Zhuo proposed to abolish Emperor Shao of the Han Dynasty, Yuan Shao stepped forward and made a generous statement, believing that this would never be feasible. Dong Zhuo roared: "Shaft, isn't it up to me to decide the affairs of the world?" I'm going to do this now, who dares not to obey? Do you think Dong Zhuo's knife is not sharp? Yuan Shao replied: "The healthy people in the world, how can it be only Dong Gong?" "Don't think that you Dong Zhuo is amazing, so he pulled out his saber, made a swing, and walked away. This scene is full of dramatic conflicts, and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" naturally cites it. This picture can also be seen as a sign of the rupture between the east and west at the end of the Han Dynasty.

Then there is the competition between two people who lack authority.

According to "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Dong Zhuo kept making stupid decisions, and as a result, the situation was messed up. The actual situation is even more desperate, because Dong Zhuo lacks authority, and there will be many people who oppose what he does, and as long as there are enough people who are mischievous, rampling, and messing around, it is enough to make any decision stupid. If the ability is insufficient, you can try to improve the ability; The problem of insufficient authority is often unsolvable in a short period of time.

However, as we said earlier, Dong Zhuo's ability is actually okay, and his lack of authority is somewhat insufficient, so a fragile balance has been formed. But Wang Yun killed Dong Zhuo, and then all kinds of contradictions broke out further.

After Li Dao Guo Yan took power, the biggest problem was that these people not only had no status in the eyes of the scholar class, but also had no status in the eyes of the Liangzhou soldiers. They are not the four most important accomplices under Dong Zhuo as written in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but some originally unimportant characters, Dong Zhuo died, and then several relatively important people in the Liangzhou soldiers also died.

So others will naturally think, your grandson has become such a big official, why can't I? Or your grandson has become such a big official, so you want to give me the material benefits, right? What if you don't give it? Let's do it.

Under a great authority, people will be more inclined to negotiate to solve problems. If there is no authority, then force will solve the problem. Therefore, the Guanzhong area around Chang'an soon fell into a bottomless frenzy of killing.

• (This article is the author's personal opinion and does not represent the position of this newspaper)

Liu Bo

Editor-in-charge: Chen Bin