Wen | Guo Yemin
Although the "Yellow Turban Uprising" failed, peasant uprisings continued to rise and fall everywhere. In order to suppress the people's resistance, the Court of the Eastern Han Dynasty delegated power to the history of the prefectures; in the fifth year of Zhongping (188), the history of the assassination of the prefecture was changed to the state pastor, and he was in charge of the military and political power of a prefecture. Since then, Wang Gang has dissolved the button, and the local guards have become more and more authoritative, and they have become princes who are chasing deer in the Central Plains.
Gongsun Zhan
Gongsun Zhan (Zi Bogui) is such a figure. Although this person still has a name in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" novel, to a large extent, it exists as a "background board" for Liu Bei and Zhao Yun. This is actually Luo Guanzhong's small "black" Gongsun Zhan. Officials should know that Wang Cang in the "Seven Sons of Jian'an" has a lot of ink on Gongsun Zhan in the "Heroes of the Late Han Dynasty". What is a "hero", Liu Shao, who is about the same era as Wang Cang, commented in his "Character History" that the smart show is "Ying" and can be a phase; the courage is "Xiong", which can be a general. Those who have courage and strategy, courage and insight, and who are also literate and martial are naturally called "heroes".
Gongsun Zhan did not get this false name. This person was born in Lingzhi, Liaoning (present-day Qian'an, Hebei), and for several generations in the family he served as a high-ranking official of the county rank (稿禄). It is said that with such a prominent family background, the children generally rely on the network of relationships woven by their fathers, so that Taishou can put on the names of "filial piety" and "Maocai" for themselves, and smoothly embark on the career path. For Gongsun Zhan, this road is not feasible. Although he was born with a "big surname", it is a pity that his mother came from a humble origin and had no place among his wives and concubines. Under the constraint of the feudal etiquette of "the son is precious to the mother" at that time, Gongsun Zhan himself was not looked at by his father and brother. After all, "filial piety" and the like were scarce resources (at that time, each county had only a maximum of 2 places a year), of course, it was not the turn of Gongsun Zhan. As a result, he could only serve as a "county official", specifically, a "county clerk", in charge of the drafting and copying of documents.
In this ordinary post, Gongsun Zhan's performance is quite impressive. The daily affairs of the Taishou Mansion were busy, and when Gongsun Zhan reported, he often did not even have to bring the manuscript, and came one by one in an orderly manner, and none of them was forgotten, which made The Taishou could not help but secretly marvel. At that time, the position of "Shu zuo" was only selected for people who were familiar with "schoolchildren" textbooks such as "Cangjie Chapters", and the level of education was not high. Therefore, Juntaishou also sent Gongsun Zhan to the Mountains of the Miao Clan to read the scriptures from Da Ru Lu Zhi, and among his classmates and friends at that time was a later figure of the storm, Liu Bei Liu Xuande. After returning to Western Liaoning from the "gilding" of the Jiaoshi Mountains, Gongsun Zhan began to start his career. At first, he became a scrooge. This position was responsible for representing the county sheriff to the imperial court to play the county's household registration, taxes, etc., and had more contact with the central government, and the opportunity for promotion was also great. Later, Gongsun Zhan "raised filial piety as a lang" and served as the governor of Liaodong Province, Shi, and the county commander of Zhuo County (涿县, in present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei Province).
Being able to slowly rise from a small official naturally shows that Gongsun Zhan is quite wise and talented. And his real ability lies in his conquest of the Wuhuan War that harassed the frontiers of the Han Dynasty. Gongsun Zhan was good at fighting, brave and invincible, and once rushed into the enemy army with two spears and killed dozens of enemies. In order to establish a distinctive prestige, he also selected dozens of sharpshooters from his command, each equipped with a white horse, divided into left and right wings, named "White Horse Yicong", which is probably the meaning of the White Horse Guards or the White Horse Death Squad. Whenever the drums and horns sounded, Gongsun Zhan was full of energy and murderous spirits, stepped on his white horse, led the death squad as a forward, and the army followed. As long as the Wuhuan army saw this "white horse long history", they retreated one after another, and no one dared to touch his front. Since then, Gongsun Zhan's name has been shocked outside.
After Wu Huan and the Han Dynasty boycotted the army, Gongsun Zhan commanded the infantry and cavalry to garrison Youbeiping Commandery (右北平郡, in modern Southwest lingyuan, Liaoning), and then took zhonglang as the general and led the liaodong subordinate state governor Shi, fengdu Tinghou, and mastered considerable military power, and finally Ren Fenwu,a former general, feng jihou and Yihou.) After many years of military service, Gongsun Zhan was in Hebei, with more and more troops and higher positions, and finally became incompatible with his superior, Youzhou Mu Liu Yu.
Liu Yu was a member of the Eastern Han Dynasty and a famous figure in the clan at that time. Although he held a high position of power, his military power was not as great as that of Gongsun Zhan, who had been operating in Youzhou for many years. The combat effectiveness of the soldiers in youzhou was second to none at that time. Cai Yong said, "Youzhou sudden horse, Jizhou strong crossbow, for the world's elite soldiers, the country to fight." In the winter of 191 AD, more than 300,000 Yellow Turban troops from Qingzhou and Xuzhou entered Kou Bohai County, and Gongsun Zhan attacked with 20,000 troops, beheaded tens of thousands of people, weighed tens of thousands of vehicles, and captured more than 70,000 Yellow Turban troops. This battle greatly shocked Gongsun Zhan's prestige and increased his strength dramatically. In contrast, Liu Yu's military talent was almost nothing. In the winter of 193, he launched a war against Gongsun Zhan with a crowd of 100,000 people, threatening to "kill no more than a man, just kill a Bogui." As a result, Gongsun Zhan only used a few hundred elite soldiers, and because of the wind and arson, he defeated Liu Yu's army in one fell swoop. Liu Yu himself became a prisoner of Gongsun Zhan and eventually lost his life. Most of the local officials who supported Liu Yu (all of whom were representatives of the Hao clan) were killed, resulting in the "exhaustion of the well-dressed and virtuous soldiers". After the destruction of Liu Yu, Gongsun Zhan, a former grassroots official, became the lord of a state in Tangtang Youzhou.