Introduction: In 193 AD, the battle for territory among the princes of the world became more intense. Liu Yan became emperor behind closed doors in Shudi, comparing Antai. Yuan Shu sent Sun Jian to capture Jingzhou, and as a result, Sun Jian was smashed to the point of bursting his brain. Yuan Shu was forced by Liu Biao's pressure to develop in the direction of the Huai River. Yuan Shao used Lü Bu's strength to consolidate Jizhou and marched towards Qingzhou and Hezhou. Cao Cao also took advantage of his father's death to attack Xuzhou. Naturally, Gongsun Zhan of Youzhou also accelerated the pace of seizing the supreme command of Youzhou.
However, Liu Yu's prestige in Youzhou was extremely high, and he had more than 100,000 soldiers and horses under his command. Gongsun Zhan only had tens of thousands of people in his hands, and because of his blind plundering, the people's resentment was extremely great. So why did Liu Yu lose to Gongsun Zhan?
Liu Yu was a loyal vassal at the end of the Han Dynasty, and during his tenure as the Assassin of Youzhou and the Pastor of Youzhou, he did a lot of good things for the common people. At that time, the civil officials of Youzhou were headed by Liu Yu, and the military generals were headed by Gongsun Zhan. Gongsun Zhan was under Liu Yu's control, especially Gongsun Zhan's military supplies depended on Liu Yu. Therefore, in the first few years, the two were relatively peaceful.
However, with the strength of Gongsun Zhan, Liu Yu felt that Gongsun Zhan was like a fish, getting bigger and bigger, more and more slippery, more and more uncontrollable. In particular, in 191 AD, Gongsun Zhan defeated and invaded Youzhou with 20,000 Youzhou soldiers and horses, 300,000 Yellow Turbans, and successfully collected 70,000 pawns. Gongsun Zhan's soldiers pointed out that even Yuan Shao, who had received Jizhou, was also looking at it. Yuan Shao took the initiative to give the Bohai Taishou Seal he wore to Gongsun Zhan's brother to curry favor with Gongsun Zhan. Although, in the second year, in the Battle of Jieqiao in 192 AD, Gongsun Zhan Baima Yicong was defeated by Yuan Shao's crossbowmen, most of Qingzhou, the whole territory of Youzhou, was still under Gongsun Zhan's control.
Gongsun Zhan's power grew, and naturally he did not pay attention to Liu Yu, who was serving as the pastor of Youzhou. In Gongsun Zhan's view, if Youzhou had not had him, Liu Yu would have long ago become a ghost under the sword of others.
Liu Yu was also increasingly dissatisfied with Gongsun Zhan. Liu Yu governed Youzhou, treated the people kindly, tolerated Yidi, and there was praise inside and outside Youzhou, and in the past few years, there have been more than one million people taking refuge in Youzhou from the surrounding areas. Liu Yu believes that to govern the people, we must first reassure the people and love the people. However, Gongsun Zhan always emphasized that force is the king of survival in a chaotic world.
Gongsun Zhan repeatedly disobeyed Liu Yu's instructions. Liu Yu went to the imperial court and impeached Gongsun Zhan. Not to be left behind, Gongsun Zhan impeached Liu Yu in the table, saying that Liu Yu often withheld military food, and in case of a mutiny, the consequences would be unimaginable. In fact, at that time, Dong Zhuo was already dead, and the imperial court was controlled by Dong Zhuo's generals Guo Feng, Li Yi and others, and both of them were busy competing for the highest control over what you cared about.
Since the imperial court could not mediate, the contradiction between Gongsun Zhan and Liu Yu could only be resolved by itself.
Gongsun Zhan had long been ready to fight with Liu Yu. Gongsun Zhan secretly built castles, consolidated defenses, and prepared grain and grass. Liu Yu also held meetings with Gongsun Zhan many times, hoping to take the opportunity to get rid of Gongsun Zhan. But Gongsun Zhan also saw that the wind direction was not right, and did not go to the banquet at all. Liu Yu was worried that Gongsun Zhan would eventually rebel, so he decided to preemptively take the initiative and clean up Gongsun Zhan.
Liu Yu had absolute popularity in Youzhou, and although Gongsun Zhan had controlled the military in Youzhou for many years, Liu Yu gathered 100,000 soldiers and horses as soon as he gave the order. The army swung towards Gongsun Zhan's camp. It was autumn, and Gongsun Zhan sent all his troops to rob the people of grain, and there were only a few hundred soldiers and horses left in the camp.
What to do? Surrender, a dead end! Gongsun Zhan wouldn't be so stupid. Gongsun Zhan immediately responded, sending people to break through, informing the troops outside to rush back quickly, leaving the rest of the men and horses to defend the city tower.
Liu Yu's 100,000-strong army surrounded Gongsun Zhan's city layer by layer. The defenders of the city were terrified, waiting for Liu Yu to attack and wait for death to come.
Gongsun Zhan was also very uneasy in his heart, although he had been fighting for many years and had been on the battlefield for a long time, but now the disparity in strength between the two sides was huge, and he did not know whether he could persist until the reinforcements rushed back. However, after Gongsun Zhan walked up to the city tower and watched the enemy situation, he laughed and relaxed his heart.
The subordinates did not understand why Gongsun Zhan could still laugh at this time.
Gongsun Zhan summoned his confidant generals to a meeting. Gongsun Zhan believes that our army will win this battle.
Why?
It turned out that Gongsun Zhan climbed the city tower and saw that under the city, there were indeed a sea of people, and more than 100,000 people surrounded the city in a dense circle. However, Liu Yu was a good hand at handling civil affairs, and it was not good to lead the troops at all. More than 100,000 people, without uniform moderation, basically according to the past belonging, three thousand people, five thousand people stationed together. In fact, if Liu Yu sent a general to lead three or five thousand people to attack Gongsun Zhan, Gongsun Zhan would be very dangerous. Now Liu Yu has many people and horses, and his orders are different, and once the commotion starts, the front army will not see the rear army, and it is very likely that he will trample on each other.
Gongsun Zhan's analysis is good. When Liu Yu issued the offensive order, he said: "No injury to the rest of the people, just kill Yi Bogui." Liu Yu went so far as to demand that all the soldiers should not burn down people's houses and injure innocent people when setting fires and shooting arrows. The soldiers under Liu Yu and Liu Yu had rarely fought in groups, and with Liu Yu's orders, the attack was even more shrank. After a day of fighting, the city was not taken.
In the evening, Liu Yu ordered a rest. Since it had been seen that Gongsun Zhan's main force was not in the city, Liu Yu should have strengthened his attack and taken the city with a single blow. However, Liu Yu thought that the soldiers were too hard to march and fight for a day, and even if it was dawn anyway, Gongsun Zhan's reinforcements might not be able to rush back. Just try to take it tomorrow morning.
Late at night, Gongsun Zhan saw that the time had come, so he led his carefully selected two or three hundred cavalry to open the city gate and suddenly rushed into Liu Yu's camp. Gongsun Zhan's cavalrymen each held torches, rushed into the enemy camp and threw torches into the enemy tents. Liu Yu's troops had no actual combat experience, and most of them were asleep after a tiring day. At this time, I woke up from the dream, saw the fire everywhere, and thought that the main force of Gongsun Zhan had arrived, and everyone was terrified and had no fighting spirit.
Liu Yu's 100,000 people were beaten by two or three hundred people, looking for teeth all over the place. Gongsun Zhan took advantage of the victory to pursue, and even successfully captured Liu Yu.
Originally, even if Gongsun Zhan was victorious, he did not dare to kill Liu Yu without authorization. After all, Liu Yu has been in Youzhou for many years and has a great reputation. Just at this time, the Imperial Court's Chincha came to Youzhou. When Qin Cha arrived in Youzhou, he was originally rewarded by Liu Yu, the mu of Youzhou, but as soon as he entered the territory of Youzhou, he was controlled by Gongsun Zhan.
Gongsun Zhan then ordered Chincha to correct Liu Yu's rebellion, and the emperor ordered Liu Yu's family to be killed. He then appointed Gongsun Zhan as a former general and formally took over the military and political power of Youzhou.
Liu Yu was originally a sage and loyal minister at the end of the Han Dynasty. In the chaotic era at the end of the Han Dynasty, the governance of Youzhou was almost a happy land. Yuan Shao wanted to proclaim Liu Yu emperor, but Liu Yu resolutely refused to comply and threatened to leave the Xiongnu to show his heart. However, in a chaotic world, while promoting benevolent government, we must also pay attention to force and trickery. Blindly benevolent, even it is difficult to protect oneself, let alone protect the people and defend the imperial court.