introduction
Later in 189 AD, the eunuchs fled to the Yellow River with Emperor Shao of Han and King Liu of Chen after experiencing the turmoil in Luoyang, but this was already the limit of Zhang Rang, Duan Jue, and others, because the nearby area along the Yellow River had been controlled by Ding Yuan and Lü Bu, and Zhang Rang and the last dozen eunuchs bid farewell to Emperor Shao of Han and Queen Chen Liu at the head of the button, and jumped into the Yellow River with tears to commit suicide.
With the death of Zhang Rang and the last batch of eunuchs, the eunuch clique that had been committing wrongdoing in the Eastern Han Court for many years completely disappeared.
However, although the presence of eunuchs contributed to social contradictions, however. For the feudal monarchy, without the support of eunuchs, the emperor became a lonely man, and in Chinese history, any powerful centralized power could not be separated from the assistance of eunuch forces. In the cleverly conceived political framework of the Eastern Han Empire, eunuchs played an extremely important role, and even became the masters of balancing the political forces of all sides.
01
Without eunuchs, Emperor Shao of Han and King Chen Liu could only shiver on the edge of the Yellow River, but they did not wait long, and soon they were discovered by Wang Yun's troops, and just as they were being taken back to Luoyang by the party, they encountered a group of Western Liang cavalry, and these fierce Andying Western Liang people were of course Dong Zhuo's troops.
Why did Dong Zhuo not go to Luoyang, but appeared on the only way for the Northern Han Emperor and Chen Liu to return to the capital? In fact, this is related to the fire in the Luoyang Palace, in the early morning after He Jin's death, Dong Zhuo had already learned of the events in Luoyang, so he temporarily changed the plan, originally under the banner of "entering the capital Qin Wang", he knew that going to Luoyang at this time had lost its meaning, since Luoyang had become the world of the party, Emperor Shao of Han and King Chen Liu were taken hostage by Zhang Rang and ran north, Dong Zhuo, who had a keen sense of smell, immediately led the cavalry from the western suburbs of Luoyang to the north of Luoyang, which led to a meeting between Dong Zhuo and Emperor Shao of Han and King Chen Liu.
However, Dong Zhuo took such great pains to catch up with Emperor Shao of Han and King Liu of Chen, not because he cared much about the personal safety of the two princes, but because the northern side of Luoyang at that time was already controlled by Ding Yuan, and Dong Zhuo was worried that Ding Zhuo would find the traces of Emperor Shao of Han and King Chen Liu in one step.
Dong Zhuo, who had come from afar, was certainly not willing to rob Ding Yuan of this Qin Wangtou Gong. However, after all, Emperor Shao of Han and King Liu of Chen had already been discovered by Wang Yun before Dong Zhuo, and in addition, the imperial court official had already issued a letter requesting Dong Zhuo to retire, at this time, Dong Zhuo's appearance in front of everyone would naturally cause Wang Yun's dissatisfaction, and Dong Zhuo was obviously very unconvinced under the questioning of The Lieutenant Cui Lie. He thought that he would not hesitate to travel long distances for the safety of the emperor, but it was really unpleasant to be treated like this by the imperial court. Then, following Dong Zhuo and Cui Lie, Emperor Shao of Han and King Liu of Chen eventually returned to Luoyang safely.
02
After returning to Luoyang, Dong Zhuo regarded himself as the "first meritorious servant of the Qin King", Yuan Shao's brothers had already controlled Luoyang at this time, Dong Zhuo was originally a staff member of Yuan Kui, and had no interest entanglement with the Yuan family, plus Yuan Shao had always been friendly to Foreign tribes such as Qianghu, which was very attractive to Dong Zhuo, who had a Qianghu background. Therefore, at this time, the relationship between Yuan Shao and Dong Zhuo was still superior and inferior, and it did not develop to the point of breaking up.
After Emperor Shao of Han returned to Luoyang, three more groups of men and horses came one after another, namely Ding Yuan, Lü Bu's and Lü Bu's thousands of cavalry, Ding Yuan's Hebei soldiers under Zhang Liao, and Bao Xin's thousands of Taishan archers. These people also came to Luoyang in the name of "King Qin", but at this time, it was not so much "King Qin" as "grabbing merit". Yuan Shao, who had been in the Luoyang official field for many years, soon sensed that a new crisis was quietly coming.
Although Emperor Shao of Han returned to Luoyang and rewarded the warlord leaders such as Dong Zhuo, Ding Yuan, and Bao Xin, and gave amnesty to the world, the situation in Luoyang at this time would not change in the slightest because of the attitude of Emperor Shao of Han alone. At that time, Luoyang had formed several forces: the Northern Army and the Western Garden Janissaries controlled by Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, and finally Yuan Shao's Bao Xin and other external men, totaling about 20,000 people. The Liangzhou Legion led by Dong Zhuo had 3,000 men, and the Hezhou Soldiers and Horses led by Ding Yuan, Lü Bu, and Zhang Liao were 10,000 men.
Judging from the book strength, although the Yuan family's power was the largest, the Janissaries and Bao Xin's Taishan archers could not be compared with the fierce Liangzhou cavalry and the well-equipped Hezhou cavalry in terms of combat effectiveness. However, as an old colleague of Yuan Shao, Ding Yuan's attitude towards Yuan Shao was obviously friendlier than that of Dong Zhuo. And Yuan Shao knew very well that Ding Yuan's role was to help him balance Dong Zhuo's forces in Luoyang, but not everyone was willing to cooperate with Yuan Shao like Ding Yuan, and Lü Bu was one of them.
During his stay in Luoyang, Lü Bu accepted the persuasion of Li Su under Dong Zhuo's account, and at Dong Zhuo's instigation, Lü Bu killed Ding Yuan and annexed the prefecture and defected to Dong Zhuo, while Lü Bu was followed by Zhang Liao and his Hebei soldiers. In this way, Lü Bu's killing of Ding Yuan invisibly broke the military pattern of Luoyang, and also destroyed Yuan Shao's plan to use Ding Yuan to balance Dong Zhuo.
03
Overnight, the situation in Luoyang underwent earth-shaking changes, and after having the fierce general Lü Bu and the Hezhou Army, which were "unparalleled in the world", Dong Zhuo finally had the political capital to "hold the Son of Heaven hostage to order the world", but this was bound to offend Yuan Shao. In order to appease the Yuan family and the party clique, Dong Zhuo vigorously elected party members to become officials in the DPRK, and the party members who were recommended by Dong Zhuo during this period were: Liu Biao, Zheng Tai, Zhou Yi... Without exception, these people were all friends with Yuan Shao, and after these people entered the palace, they again recommended many opposition party members, and Dong Zhuo also agreed to these people's requests, so more and more party members entered Luoyang to become Dong Zhuo's staff.
Under Dong Zhuo's personnel arrangements, the relationship between Yuan Shao's clique and the liangzhou warlords gradually stabilized, and at the same time, Dong Zhuo's compromise with the party also won the favor of the latter, Dong Zhuo single-handedly created a pattern of party rule, and the various armies of the Qin King were also praised and rewarded, on the surface, Dong Zhuo eased the political situation in Luoyang since the eunuchs were in turmoil, but this was just the calm before the storm, because Dong Zhuo's behavior caused dissatisfaction among one person, he was the Han Shao Emperor Liu Wei.