During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, many important figures were descendants of famous ministers of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, social turmoil, social order collapsed and reorganized, and these figures had more opportunities to make meritorious achievements than their predecessors. The Following Xiaobian to introduce Du Raid is such a character. He was the grandson of Du Gen, a famous minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who first attached himself to Liu Biao during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, and then defected to Cao Cao, becoming an important figure in Cao Cao's clique or Cao Wei on the western front, assisting Cao Zhen and Sima Yi in opposing Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition. Let's talk about this character.
<h1>Du Raid's early experience</h1>
Du Xian's great-grandfather Du An and grandfather Du Gen were both celebrities and officials of the Eastern Han Dynasty. At the age of thirteen, Duan entered taixue and was known as a "prodigy", and eventually became an official in Bajun Taishou; Dugan was probably more famous than Duan, and he was killed by Empress Deng for persuading Empress Dowager Deng to return to the emperor. Because the executor sympathized with Dugan, he did not exert particular force. In order to survive, Dugan pretended to be dead for three days and even escaped the disaster until he "saw maggots in his eyes".
Although Du An and DuGan were both famous courtiers, especially DuGan risked his life to persuade Empress Deng to return to the government, this did not bring much convenience to Du Zhen's career. Because by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the localities were divided by warlords, and the central imperial court was in a precarious situation and could not take care of itself. The destruction of the original order destroyed the advantages of du raid itself, and at the same time brought greater opportunities and greater risks to Du raid.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, thieves were everywhere, and many people had to consider their own safety. Some people choose to seek refuge in relatively stable areas, such as Yizhou, Jingzhou, Liaodong and other places; some people use their resources to develop military strength to become powerful, such as Lu Su, Xu Chu, Li Tong and others. Du Raid took into account both methods. Du Was originally a native of Yingchuan, Yuzhou, and in the early days of the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, Yingchuan was a relatively chaotic region. Du Xun and Zhao Yu and Fan Qin of the same county joined a family and relied on each other, and took refuge in the relatively stable Jingzhou.
<h1>Du Xun abandoned Liu Biao and chose Cao Cao</h1>
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, whether a region was stable or not was largely based on whether the region had a strong power control. The stability of Jingzhou was also due to the rule of Liu Biao, the mu of Jingzhou, and it was also very chaotic before Liu Biao. Because of Liu Biao's control, Jingzhou tended to be stable, and the traffic in Jingzhou was very developed, so a large number of soldiers took refuge in Jingzhou from all over the country. Coupled with the support of Liu Biao himself, the academic atmosphere in Jingzhou is very strong.
Although Liu Biao provided a shelter for many scholars, in the era of the rise of the masses at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Biao, as one of the more powerful warlords, appeared somewhat conservative. Guo Jia commented on Liu Biao as a "sitter"; Jia Xu commented that Liu Biao was a "three dukes of the pingshi world", who could be ranked as the third duke in the ordinary world, and seemed out of place in the chaotic world. Among the scholars who took refuge in Jingzhou, there were many ambitious figures who hoped to become Wang Zuo's talents. Liu Biao, who is slightly conservative, is not a candidate for their assistance. That's what Du Raid is all about.
Liu Biao attaches great importance to scholars, and he is a celebrity himself. Liu Biao treated Du Raid with courtesy and showed his sincerity in co-opting, but Du Raid was not moved. Fan Qin, who was close to Du Zhan, had the idea of turning to Liu Biao, and Du Qin reminded Fan Qin to seek out the chaos rather than the generous elders. Du Xian even proposed that if Fan Qin defected to Liu Biao, he would break off relations with him. So Du Xun, Fan Qin, Zhao Yu and others continued south to Changsha County.
It is worth mentioning that although Changsha County, including the counties of Jingnan, was nominally under the jurisdiction of Jingzhou, Liu Biao's control over them was not solid in the early days, and a large-scale rebellion broke out in the fifth year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty (that is, in 200 AD). It was not until after the suppression of the Jingnan rebellion that Liu Biao completely controlled the entire territory of Jingzhou. That is to say, Du Xian and others chose a more remote place in order to avoid Liu Biao.
In the first year of Jian'an (i.e., 196 AD), Cao Cao snatched Emperor Xian of Han from Yang Feng, Han Xian, and others, and began to implement the strategy of "holding the son of heaven hostage to order the princes" emphasized by Mao Jiu, Dong Zhao, Ding Chong, and others. This incident is a major signal for many onlookers: first, Cao Cao's rise may be difficult to contain; second, the officials who assisted the Eastern Han court were more authoritative, even if they were controlled by the Eastern Han court.
For Du Xian and others, Cao Cao placed the Eastern Han court in Xu County, Yingchuan County, which meant that Yingchuan County ended the situation of unrest and instead became the Gyeonggi region of the Eastern Han Court. Therefore, in the second year of Jian'an in the following year (that is, in 197 AD), Du Xun, Zhao Yu, Fan Qin and others returned to Yingchuan County with their families and joined the Cao Cao clique. Cao Cao, with Zhao Yu as the commander of Langling and Du Xun as the chief of Western Hubei, were both in the communication area between Yuzhou and Jingzhou, facing a military threat from Liu Biao.
<h1>Du Raid's performance in the Cao Cao clique</h1>
Du Xun was appointed governor of Xi'e, and at that time, Xi'e County was facing the threat of Liu Biao, and the county strengthened its military garrison, leaving the people in the city to resist Liu Biao, and abandoning agricultural production outside the city. After Du attacked Xi'e County, he ordered the old and weak people to go out of the city to resume production, leaving only the more robust young and middle-aged people to stay. Xi'e County was originally a relatively small county, and after experiencing the wars and chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty, its population was sharply reduced. Du Raid sent the people out of the city to cultivate, weakening the military garrison of Xi'e County, and at the same time winning the hearts and minds of the officials in Xi'e County.
In the sixth year of Jian'an (i.e., 201 AD), the war between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao came to a temporary end, and Liu Biao launched tens of thousands of troops to attack Xi'e County. Du Raid had only a few fifty soldiers available. With these defenders, Du Xun persisted in resisting for at least four or five days, and finally successfully broke through to Mopi. Because Du Raid's decrees in Xi'e County were deeply popular, a large number of officials followed Du Raid. To be fair, the significance of Du Raid against Liu Biao is not great, because the gap is too large, but Du Raid attracted the people of Xi'e to surrender, or reduced the loss to a certain extent.
Two important figures in Cao Cao's clique, Zhong Xuan and Xun Yu (both of whom were Yingchuan people), recommended Du Raid to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao used Du Raid as a military sacrifice (Guo Jia had served in this position); by the eighteenth year of Jian'an (i.e., 213 AD), Cao Cao had ascended to the throne as the Duke of Wei and had his own fief, and Du Raid had become a close vassal of the State of Wei, a close vassal of Cao Cao; in the twentieth year of Jian'an (i.e., 215 AD), Cao Cao sent an army to attack Zhang Lu, and Du Raid became the governor of The Cheng Commandery Shi and stayed in Hanzhong after the war. Since then, Du Xun has become a general on the Western Front.
From the 20th year of Jian'an to the 24th year of Jian'an (that is, from 215 to 219 AD), Du Raid moved 80,000 people from Hanzhong to Luoyang, Yicheng and other important cities in the north through Huairou; in the later stages of the "Battle of Hanzhong", Liu Bei's group raided and killed Xiahou Yuan, the main general of the western front, causing the morale of Cao Cao's group to collapse, Du Raid, Guo Huai, Zhang Jaw and others stabilized the situation, elected Zhang Jaw as the main general, curbed Liu Bei's offensive, and waited for Cao Cao's rescue.
During the reign of Emperor Cao Rui of Wei, Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the Shu Han Dynasty, conducted frequent northern expeditions against Cao Wei. Earlier, Cao Wei made Cao Zhen the governor of Yongzhou and Liangzhou, and opposed Zhuge Liang, and Du Zhen became Cao Zhen's military division; later, Cao Zhen was seriously ill and had difficulty leaving The town of Yong and Liang, and the Cao Wei court replaced Cao Zhen with Sima Yi, and Du Xun continued to serve as Sima Yi's military division. Cao Zhen and Sima Yi were the main opponents of Zhuge Liang's five Northern Expeditions, and Du Xun, as the military division of the two, could also be regarded as one of the Cao Wei generals who fought against Zhuge Liang, and cooperated with Cao Zhen and Sima Yi to thwart Zhuge Liang's offensive.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of the Later Han Dynasty