In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it is said that Dong Zhuo, in order to win lü Bu over, adopted Li Su's strategy, gave the red rabbit horse to Lü Bu, and then sent gold and silver treasures to Lü Bu, and then wooed Lü Bu and killed Ding Yuan, lü Bu turned to Dong Zhuo, knowing that the horse at that time was an indispensable thing for a military general, the military general could not pay attention to money and did not want beautiful women, but no one could refuse the thousand-mile horse, and the same was true of Guan Yu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and it was not difficult to understand Lü Bu's behavior.
However, this is only a fiction in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the real history of Lü Bu killing Ding Yuan, is not so at all, it is not a problem of the red rabbit horse at all, and how the red rabbit horse came from, there is no record in history, only know that this is Lü Bu's mount, as for where it came from, there is no record, maybe Dong Zhuo sent it, maybe not.
Ding Yuan
So in real history, why did Lü Bu kill Ding Yuan?
Ding Yuan was a native of Hezhou, born poor, relying on strategy and bravery to become the history of the Hu State Assassins, and the prefecture was the border at that time, often fighting with the Hu people, Ding Yuan rode and shoot the art are more skilled, and later Ding Yuan was appointed as the Knight Lieutenant, stationed in Hanoi County, the Riding Lieutenant was in charge of the capital Yulin cavalry during the Two Han Dynasties, and later Cao Cao, Gongsun Zhan, and Lü Bu all held this position, that is, at this time, Ding Yuan appointed Lü Bu as his master.
The main bo is the official in charge of the clerical, equivalent to the secretary, Lü Bu's first official position is actually a civilian official, the reason why Ding Yuan appreciated Lü Bu is because Lü Bu's personal martial arts, riding and archery skills, Lü Bu can serve as a civilian official, certainly he is educated, that is, both culture and martial arts, and at that time, those who could have the conditions to study were either the family family or the rich family.
Lü Bu and Ding Yuan
In 188 AD, in order to balance the general He Jin, the Han Ling Emperor formed the Eight Lieutenants of Xiyuan and appointed the eunuch Jian Shuo as a lieutenant of the Shang military academy, and even He Jin was subject to the control of Jian Shuo, who recruited troops from the local areas in order to strengthen his military strength, of which Ding Yuan sent his own Zhang Liao and Zhang Yang and some soldiers to Jian Shuo.
Not long after, Emperor Ling of Han died, and the Han Shao Emperor Liu Jie took the throne, He Jin, as a general with military power, was also Liu Zheng's uncle, who had great power in the dynasty, He Jin killed Jian Shuo in the political struggle with eunuchs, and then He Jin listened to Yuan Shao's advice in order to kill all the eunuchs, and recruited Dong Zhuo and Ding Yuan to lead an army into Beijing.
Ding Yuan then entered the capital Luoyang with Lü Bu and his army as a knight lieutenant, and was then appointed by He Jin as the commander of the capital garrison, and Dong Zhuo in the process of marching, He Jin repented, and He Jin also sent a counselor to persuade the doctor Tosshao to dissuade Dong Zhuo from entering the capital, and Dong Zhuo, under the pressure of He Jin, led the army to retreat and was stationed at sunset pavilion only twenty miles from Luoyang.
Dong Zhuo
He Jin treated Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo with two completely different attitudes, Ding Yuan entered Beijing very early and was appointed as the executive Jinwu, while Dong Zhuo was prevented from entering Beijing by He Jin, which can only show that He Jin trusted Ding Yuan and doubted Dong Zhuo.
What happened next changed history, the eunuchs, under the pressure of He Jin, chose to break the net and trickEd He Jin into the palace to kill, and then Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and He Jin's general Wu Kuang led an army into the palace, killing all the eunuchs, a small number of eunuchs blackmailed the emperor and Chen Liu Wang Liu Xie fled, only to encounter Dong Zhuo's army on the way, Dong Zhuo also heard the news about Luoyang, led the army to prepare to enter, just met the emperor again, so they welcomed the emperor and entered Luoyang together.
During the time when He Jin was killed, what Ding Yuan and Lü Bu were doing is not recorded in the history books, only that after Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, he began a series of operations.
He Jin
Dong Zhuo first took over He Jin's old department, because He Jin was a great general with military power in his hands, and because He Jin was killed and the dragons were leaderless, He Jin's generals Wu Kuang, Zhang Zhang, and Dong Yu, the governor of Fengche, all defected to Dong Zhuo, Dong Yu was originally Dong Zhuo's younger brother, and after He Jin was killed, he killed eunuchs with Wu Kuang and Zhang Zhang, and also killed He Jin's younger brother Che Riding General He Miao, and then Dong Yu instigated Wu Kuang to join Zhang Zhang in joining Dong Zhuo, so Dong Zhuo's power quickly expanded.
In this way, Dong Zhuo became the biggest force in Luoyang, not only that, Dong Zhuo also played tricks, letting the army out of the city at night, and then letting the army enter Beijing during the day, in order to create an illusion that there was a steady stream of his own army entering the city, which temporarily frightened all the forces, including his absorption of He Jin's old department, there was also a reason for this, so Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao, Bao Xin and other forces could not compete with Dong Zhuo and fled Luoyang.
After that, Dong Zhuo coerced the imperial court to appoint him sikong, and then Dong Zhuo began to deal with Ding Yuan, who used the method of luring Lü Bu to kill Ding Yuan, and eventually Lü Bu killed Ding Yuan and defected to Dong Zhuo.
Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu
Ding Yuan was kind to Lü Bu and pulled Lü Bu with one hand, why did Lü Bu kill Ding Yuan so cruelly and turn to Dong Zhuo?
There are three main reasons:
First, Dong Zhuo's forces are strong.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms Dong Er Yuan Liu Biography": Shi Jin's brother Che riding the general Miao was killed by the Jin people, and the Jin and Miao Buqu had no belonging, and they were all outstanding. Zhuo also made Lü Bu kill Jin Wu Dingyuan and his people, so the military power in Kyoto was only in Zhuo.
The meaning of this is that He Jin's younger brother He Miao, the che general, was killed by He Jin's subordinates during the war because he was suspected of colluding with Zhang Rang and others, so He Jin and He Miao's troops had no generals and were all included in Dong Zhuo's troops. Dong Zhuo also sent Lü Bu to kill Jin Wudingyuan, the commander in charge of defending the Beijing Division, and to absorb his army under his own hands, so the military power in Kyoto was in Dong Zhuo's hands.
Dong Zhuo blackmailed Tianzi
Dong Zhuo first absorbed he jin and He Miao's army, and then instructed Lü Bu to kill Ding Yuan, who was already a loner at that time, and his power was weak, even if he had a state army under his command, and there were generals such as Lü Bu, Zhang Liao, and Zhang Yang, but his strength was obviously inferior to Dong Zhuo.
If the two sides fight, Ding Yuan is definitely not an opponent, the strength is already here, but Dong Zhuo did not raise an army to eliminate Ding Yuan, but instructed Lü Bu to kill Ding Yuan, at this time the situation in Luoyang is already very obvious, Lü Bu if he does not kill Ding Yuan, first Lü Bu will be killed, and then Ding Yuan will still be destroyed, because Dong Zhuo's forces are too strong, this is the first reason.
2. Dong Zhuo was forced by the order of his superiors.
Dong Zhuo was already an official of The Prefecture Before entering Beijing, after entering Luoyang, he served as Sikong, and at the same time welcomed back the emperor, controlled the imperial court, and prepared to depose the emperor, according to the official position, Dong Zhuo was already Ding Yuan's superior, from the historical records, Dong Zhuo instructed Lü Bu to kill Ding Yuan, Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu did not intersect before, why did he instruct Lü Bu?
Ding Yuan and Lü Bu
Just by virtue of the strength and power in his hands, Dong Zhuo didn't even need to take money or any thousand horses to ask Lü Bu, he only needed to give a next order, did Lü Bu dare not kill Ding Yuan? Lü Bu knew very well that if he did not kill Lü Bu, he would have to die, which was a very simple principle of survival of the fittest, although Ding Yuan was his benefactor, but Lü Bu could only act according to Dong Zhuo's orders when his life was threatened.
Third, Lü Bu did not want to die, he still had ambitions.
Lü Bu was not without choice, at least he had two choices: one was to flee, and the other was to join Ding Yuan in rebelling against Dong Zhuo. People like Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao and others could escape, so why didn't Lü Bu flee? Because Lü Bu understood that if he escaped, he would be far away from power and status, and there would be no chance to turn over, Lü Bu was promoted by Ding Yuan, without Ding Yuan, Lü Bu was nothing.
Therefore, Lü Bu is ambitious, he wants to stay and surrender to Dong Zhuo, so that there will be a promising future, in fact, it proves that Lü Bu's move to kill Ding Yuan and turn to Dong Zhuo has put him on the stage of history, all because Lü Bu has ambitions and will be directed by Dong Zhuo.
And the second choice, to fight against Dong Zhuo, means the end of Lü Bu's life, Lü Bu obviously does not want to die, in such a chaotic world of the weak and the strong, if you do not kill people, you have to be killed by others, Lü Bu can only choose to survive, although this choice will make him wear a hat against morality, but he still did it.
In history, Lü Bu was not Ding Yuan's righteous son, but only his subordinates, and the incidents of his subordinates killing their superiors during the Three Kingdoms period abounded, such as Guo Feng's general Wu Xi killed Guo Feng, Zhang Yang's general Yang Ugly killed Zhang Yang, and Yang Ugly's general Xiao Gu killed Yang Ugly, this kind of thing is too common, but Lü Bu is too famous, and his killing of Ding Yuan has attracted much attention.