At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after Dong Zhuo, the forces led by Li Dai controlled the Eastern Han court, but Li Dai did not achieve control, and in May of the third year of Chuping (192), Li Dai led his troops to attack Chang'an, and in September of the same year, he began to formally control the Eastern Han Dynasty, but 3 years later, in 195, Emperor Xian of Han went east, and Li Dai also rapidly declined.
It can be said that in the chaotic world, who controls the Son of Heaven can get the greatest benefits for himself, but Li Dai is playing around step by step, and finally ends up in a situation of defeat, so how did Li Dai go to defeat? Personally, I think it is mainly 4 reasons.
First, Li Dai was not from a high birth and did not have enough support from the forces behind him.
Li Dai was originally a general of Dong Zhuo's army, and he did not have a strong background of warriors in Liangzhou, and he did not have enough support in Guanzhong, he was able to do things, but he was the first person to eat crabs.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Jia Xuchuan was defeated, Fu died again, and the crowd was afraid, and the lieutenants Li Dai, Guo Feng, Zhang Ji, and others wanted to disband, and returned to their hometowns. "Wen Chang'an deliberately wanted to curse the people of Liangzhou, and the kings abandoned the crowd and went alone, that is, a pavilion long could bind the king." It is better to lead the people to the west, collect troops where they are, attack Chang'an, avenge Dong Gong, and fortunately, serve the country to conquer the world, and if they do not help, they will not be able to go after they have left." Everybody thinks so.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Dong Zhuo's biography uses Jia Xuce, so he will gather his troops to the west, and the troops where he is located will be more than 100,000 in Chang'an.
When Dong Zhuo was assassinated, Li Dai was leading the army outside, he ordered dong to go out to attack Zhu Jun, after defeating Zhu Jun, he led his army to plunder along the road, but after learning that Dong Zhuo was killed, he was ignorant, and for a time like many Dong Zhuo's generals, he planned to break up and go back to be a rich man.
At this time, Jia Xu sent a poisonous plan, which can be called a vicious plan to bring about chaos in the Eastern Han Dynasty, for the Eastern Han Court, which had just killed Dong Zhuo and had a little bit of revitalization, it was afraid that a powerful military force would appear again, Jia Xu's simple words moved Li Dai, and Li Dai directly led the soldiers to Kill Chang'an.
It can be seen here that there are not many soldiers and horses in Li Dai's headquarters, but the various departments along the way have chosen to join Li Dai's camp, most of which are Dong Zhuo's old troops, Liangzhou soldiers and horses, and Li Dai are only the alliance lords who have been temporarily elected by everyone, and everyone also has their own calculations.
Presumably, they were all thinking about their own interests, with Li Dai openly leading troops to attack Chang'an, once the siege failed, or something else happened, they could also cut off Li Dai's head, ask Emperor Xian of Han to surrender, and attack Chang'an, and they could also take advantage of the opportunity to catch a hand.
Therefore, the interest group led by Li Dai seems to be powerful, but Li Dai is not able to control all the soldiers and horses, he is just a spokesman who has been elected, and the internal strength is ultimately complicated, at least in the early days of the reign, "Dai, Feng, and Chou are good at government", Li Dai, Guo Feng, and Fan Chou are the strongest, and the three of them represent their respective strengths and control each other.
This also leads to Li Dai not having enough ability to control the overall situation alone, coupled with Li Dai's personal vision is not long-term, frequent tricks, coveting immediate interests, and it is not unusual for him to perish.
Second, Li Dai was in Guanzhong, but he did not have a strategy based in Guanzhong.
What did Li Dai and others do in the first step of breaking into Chang'an, that is, killing hundreds of officials and plundering Chang'an, you just started an incident, you can't control the overall situation for the time being, it can be understood, but after that? Li Dai's subordinates were in the stocking mode, so that the forces dominated by Li Dai became the root cause of the disaster.
Book of the Later Han Dynasty. At the time of Dong Zhuo's biography, the thieves in Chang'an could not help but plunder in the daytime, and the dao, the feng, and the thick nai were divided into cities, each with its own boundaries, and it was still impossible to control, and its sons were rampant and invaded the people. At that time, Gu Yihu was half a million, beans and wheat were 200,000, people were cannibalizing, white bones were accumulated, and the smell was full of dirt.
At the beginning, the emperor entered the pass, the three auxiliary households were still hundreds of thousands, since the dao, the enemy attacked, after the return of the son of heaven to the east, Chang'an City was empty for more than forty days, the strong scattered, the cannibalism of the people, in two or three years, there was no trace of guanzhong.
After killing Dong Zhuo, Guanzhong can be used as a foundation to operate, but Li Dai, as the leader of the mixed forces of all sides, he must understand a truth, that is, since he has planned to base himself in Guanzhong and control the Son of Heaven to order the world, then he cannot carry out the robbery of Guanzhong, but must recuperate the people, stabilize Guanzhong, and compete for the world.
The result? Guanzhong was in the hands of Li Dai, the people were plundered, a large number of people fled, without the people there is no manpower and material resources to support the army, without the army, Li Dai may be killed at any time, but Li Dai can not do this, which is related to Li Dai's lack of background and influence.
It can be guessed that Li Dai became the main leader, but how did he reward the soldiers who surrendered to him? If he had so much wealth, he could only indulge his subordinates to rob him, so that the soldiers could fight for his life, and Li Dai did so, and the others were not much better, and the result was that Guanzhong, which could have been used as the foundation, became a purgatory on earth, Guanzhong was hollowed out, and it was difficult for Li Dai to maintain his power based on Guanzhong for a long time.
Third, Li Dai's greatest help, Emperor Xian of Han, would not be used at all, and at the same time he lost jia Xu, who had the most strategic strategy.
Li Dai's mind and mind were far worse than Cao Cao's, knowing that when he entered guanzhong, his roots were not deep, and at the same time, Guo Feng, Fan Chou and others were not the same heart, he was only the strongest person on the surface, he urgently needed to win over Emperor Han Xian, consolidate his position, gradually realize the snowball, and make himself the most powerful person, but Li Dai did not.
The "Chronicle of the Emperor Xian" is when the capital is newly moved, the palace people are dying of clothes, the emperor wants to send the imperial palace to it, Li Daofu wants, "There are clothes in the palace, Hu Wei is evil?" The edict sold more than a hundred stables and horses, and the imperial government's grand master produced 20,000 horses, and the stables sold were straight, and gave the princes below and the poor who could not survive. Li Dai said, "My mansion is a young man", but he was put into his camp. Jia Xu said, "This intention cannot be rejected", and he did not follow it.
Wait and argue with each other, and welcome the Son of Heaven into his camp. He said, "No. Heavenly Son, unrighteousness." Don't listen.
If Li Dai wants to use Emperor Xian of Han to consolidate his position and suppress others, then he must really be Emperor Xian of Han as an emperor, he needs to put himself in the right position, do great things, you will be strong in the future, then you can be casual, no longer related to the idea of Emperor Xian of Han, but for Li Dai at that time, not taking Emperor Xian of Han seriously, it is very fatal.
Since Li Dai did not take Emperor Xian's edict seriously, who else would care about Emperor Xian's opinion? As the prestige of Emperor Xian of Han suffered a further blow, the influence of Emperor Xian of Han was almost gone, so Emperor Xian of Han became a tool person of no use in the hands of Li Dai, except that there was nothing to seal Li Daijin, and it was useless.
At the same time, Jia Xu, as a key figure in persuading Li Dai to invade Chang'an, may have seen the misdeeds of Li Dai and others, and he still persuaded Li Dai many times around Li Dai not to do those things that should not be dared, but the result? "Dai and other relatives and fear", this is Li Dai's attitude towards Jia Xu, and there are more elements of jealousy.
Jia Xu is such a smart person, knowing that in such a way and Li Dai back to go, it is easy to put himself in, so he decisively chose to leave, Li Dai originally did not have a long-term vision, Jia Xu's departure also put him in a more unfavorable situation.
Fourth, Li Dai was very suspicious, which intensified the mutual suspicion and attack of various forces in Guanzhong, and eventually led to self-defeat.
Previously wrote ma teng Han Sui against Li Dai article, in which in the Battle of Changpingguan, Li Dai defeated Ma Teng Han Sui, Fan Chou led the troops to pursue, but Fan Chou was persuaded by Han Sui to release Ma Teng Han Sui, this matter was known to Li Dai, he began to guard against Fan Chou, and then Fan Chou claimed to lead his troops out of the east, let Li Dai give him more troops, Li Dai refused, Li Dai also put down the Hongmen banquet, assassinated Fan Chou, and annexed his people.
After Fan Chou was killed, it directly caused Guo Feng to start protecting himself.
The "Canon" set up a number of wine please, or stay and stay overnight. The wife is afraid of the concubine and the concubine and takes away her love, and thinks of it with separation. The wife will take the soy sauce as medicine, and the wife will eat, and the wife will say: "Food from outside, if there is a reason!" 」 So he picked up the medicine and showed it, saying, "I firmly suspect the general's letter, Li Gongye." He begged again and again, drunk. If you are suspicious of the medicine, you will drink the juice of the hanging dung.
It is recorded in the "Canon" that Guo Feng was jealous of Li Dai, coupled with the discord between his own concubines, once Guo Feng was drunk by Li Dai and thought that Li Dai was going to poison him, Guo Feng once drank dung juice to induce vomiting, and then it was a well-known thing, and Li Dai Guo Feng attacked each other in Guanzhong.
This directly led to the complete disintegration of the power group that Li Dai once led, and without the threat of foreign enemies, the forces entered the stage of internal friction, it can be said that even if Li Dai finally won the war and completely controlled Guanzhong, what happened? He was not facing a broken pass, let alone competing for the world, and he couldn't even protect himself.
On the whole, the defeat of Li Dai lies in the fact that he was not born high, did not have enough influence, and at the same time did not take Guanzhong as the foundation to operate, there is a great sense of wine today and drunkenness, there is no long-term strategic vision, plus the prestige of the Han Xian Emperor is almost gone for him, the strategists leave, and the people are suspicious of each other, which in turn triggers infighting, and defeat is the inevitable end.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Jia Xu Biography", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Dong Zhuo's biography" Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Dong Zhuo's biography" "Xiandi Ji", "Canon Strategy"