preface
In 192 AD, Wang Yun, Shi Sun Rui and other anti-Dong Zhuo ministers in the dynasty united with Dong Zhuo's close associate and bodyguard Lü Bu, taking advantage of the opportunity to congratulate the 12-year-old young emperor Liu Xie on the initial recovery of his serious illness, assassinated Dong Zhuo, dong Zhuo died, and his three clans were immediately exterminated, up to Dong Zhuo's ninety-year-old mother, down to the baby in his arms, all were killed, for a while, the government and the opposition were shaken, the world was in chaos, and it was not long before Wang Yun did not completely pardon Dong Zhuo's Western Liang army for the death penalty, and rumors spread for a while, Li Dai, Guo Feng, Fan Chou and a group of old generals of Dong Zhuo, at the suggestion of Jia Xu, who was also a lieutenant, gathered the Western Liang army and attacked Chang'an, and in just one month, Li Dai and Guo Feng defeated Lü Bu, invaded Chang'an City, beheaded Wang Yun, and once again held Liu Xie hostage.
Logically speaking, Dong Zhuo was dead, the dragons were leaderless, Wang Yun, Lü Bu and others could control the world again as long as they had absorbed Dong Zhuo's Yu Party, how could such a major reversal occur in just one month? It should be known that when Dong Zhuo first entered Luoyang, there were only 3,000 people, Dong Zhuo co-opted Lü Bu to kill Jin Wu Dingyuan, and integrated Ding Yuan's troops, Dong Zhuo's younger brother Dong Min joined forces with He Jin's subordinate Wu Kuang to attack and kill the Cheqi general He Miao, Dong Zhuo then absorbed He Miao and He Jin's troops, and then forced away the lieutenant Yuan Shao and the tiger Ben Zhonglang general Yuan Shu, Dong Zhuo did not take much effort to control all the troops of the entire capital Luoyang.
Dong Zhuo
Second, the situation in the world before and after Dong Zhuo was killed and the deployment of Dong Zhuo's army
Soon after Dong Zhuo took control of the capital Luoyang through a series of means in 189 AD, he did a lot of evil things and bad things, which caused unanimous opposition from the world, first Dong Zhuo deposed the emperor, deposed the Han Shao Emperor Liu Xie, lihan Xiandi Liu Xie, poisoned Empress He and Liu Xian, monopolized power, brutally killed the people's officials, and acted arbitrarily, causing the warlords of the Kwantung to rise up and attack them.
First the Yellow Turban Yu Dang Guo Tai and others rebelled in the Baibo Valley in Hexi, attacking Taiyuan all the way to the south, and then gradually approaching Luoyang to the south, Dong Zhuo sent his son-in-law Zhonglang to lead an army to attack Niu Fu, but did not succeed in defeating the other side. Then the Kwantung warlords led by Yuan Shao gathered in the name of attacking Dong Zhuo, which was southwest of today's Yanjin City in Henan Province, east of Luoyang, only 400 miles from Luoyang. Dong Zhuo, under the crisis on all sides, decided to move the capital, from Luoyang to Chang'an, first, because Luoyang had no danger to defend, and was threatened and attacked from all sides, and second, because the combined forces of the Kwantung princes opposed Dong and constantly attacked Luoyang, before Cao Cao was defeated, then Sun Jian defeated Hu Yi and Lü Bu, and even personally defeated Dong Zhuo after the break, and entered luoyang city. Third, Chang'an City is closer to Liangzhou, Dong Zhuo's old lair.
Dong Zhuo blackmailed Tianzi
In other words, Dong Zhuo's behavior has already aroused public indignation, and all kinds of forces in the whole world, no matter what their purpose, are under the banner of "Qing Jun's side, curse Dong Zhuo", Dong Zhuo has become a negative teaching material, and the relocation of the capital is also forced, so Dong Zhuo has also imposed this force on all the officials and people in Luoyang City, forcibly moving the capital, regardless of the lives of the people, Dong Zhuo himself personally led his elite troops to break off, after the completion of the relocation of the capital, Dong Zhuo also made a series of military arrangements:
The Book of Later Han(後汉書) Dong Zhuo Biography:乃使東中郎將東越屯渑池, 中郎將段煨屯华yin, 中郎將牛助屯安邑, and the rest of the Zhonglang generals and lieutenants in zhu county to yu Shandong.
Shichi is the present-day Sanmenxia City of Henan Province, Huayin is in present-day Huayin County, Weinan City, Shaanxi Province, an Yi is in present-day Xia County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, spreading the map, you will find that these three places are the main traffic routes from Luoyang to Chang'an, of which Huayin is closest to Chang'an, about 200 miles, and the other two places are farther away, the three places are guarded by the three Dong Zhuo generals Dong Yue, Duan Sheng, and Niu Fu, and at that time Li Dai, Guo Feng, and Zhang Ji were niu fu's lieutenants, stationed in Anyi with Niu Fu.
From Dong Zhuo's military deployment, it can be seen that he pursued a strategy of resisting the enemy on the periphery, Dong Zhuo deployed almost all his troops to the east of Chang'an, that is, near and to the east of Tongguan, in addition to the three zhonglang generals mentioned above, there were also two lieutenant generals Hu Yi and Xu Rong who were also in the east, and only Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu's army remained in Chang'an, and the west of Chang'an was Longyou and Liangzhou, which was Dong Zhuo's territory, and the south and north were lofty mountains, so it can be seen that Dong Zhuo was fully defensive against the east of Tongguan.
The Kwantung Coalition forces crusaded against Dong Zhuo
Third, the reason why Dong Zhuo was killed
Although the reason for Dong Zhuo's killing was due to his many evil deeds, but the fundamental reason was because of Dong Zhuo's military deployment, Dong Zhuo put his main army in the Kwantung region far away from Chang'an, so that the troops in Chang'an and nearby were empty, which also gave Wang Yun and Lü Bu the courage and opportunity to dare to kill Dong Zhuo, as long as they killed the chief evil Dong Zhuo, there was no Dong Zhuo's concubine army in the Chang'an area to avenge Dong Zhuo, and it was easily solved by Lü Bu and Wang Yun, and it can be seen from the later situation that Dong Zhuo died. The Chang'an region basically defected to Wang Yun and Lü Bu, and only Dong Zhuo's old lair, Yu County, was attacked by Emperor Fusong, and the three tribes were cursed.
On the contrary, if Dong Zhuo placed heavy troops in Chang'an City and the surrounding areas, if Lü Bu and Wang Yun wanted to assassinate Dong Zhuo, they would have to consider many situations, and they would have to find a way to solve Dong Zhuo's garrison in Chang'an, or win over these generals, or send people to assassinate these generals, which invisibly gave Lü Bu and Wang Yun a lot of difficulties, and whether they could successfully assassinate Dong Zhuo at that time was a problem.
Why did Dong Zhuo make such a military deployment?
The root cause of Dong Zhuo's killing was because of Dong Zhuo's blind self-confidence and the early stage was too smooth. When Dong Zhuo first entered the capital Luoyang, there were only three thousand troops, and after a series of dazzling operations, he merged all the armies of Ding Yuan, He Miao, He Jin, Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shu, and a dominant, successful Dong Zhuo made his self-confidence expand infinitely, not only daring to depose the emperor, but also daring to kill political opponents, even empresses and princes.
Death of Dong Zhuo
After Dong Zhuo controlled the imperial court, he thought that he controlled all the civil and military ministers in the imperial court, such as Wang Yun, who on the surface deliberately courted Dong Zhuo, but in fact opposed Dong Zhuo, obviously Dong Zhuo's improper use of people, Wang Yun, as a heavy minister connecting Dong Zhuo and the emperor, was the same as Xun Yu of Cao Cao's dynasty, but he actually opposed Dong Zhuo behind his back, which also showed that Dong Zhuo was wrong, and then there was Lü Bu, Dong Zhuo took Lü Bu as a bodyguard, but Lü Bu only wanted to take Dong Zhuo as a patron, and as soon as the patron was in danger, Lü Bu naturally looked for the next patron, and would only turn to Wang Yun. The same Dong Zhuo recognized the unknown person.
Dong Zhuo was the first person to control Tianzi in a different place, and "to hold Tianzi hostage to order the princes", Dong Zhuo set up his base in Yu County, and at the same time built a solid "Wu Fort" for himself, called "Wu Wu", which stored grain that could be eaten for 30 years, countless gold and silver jewelry, as well as his most core relatives and personal bodyguards, rarely went to Chang'an City to worship the emperor, on the one hand, to reduce unnecessary trouble, on the other hand, for his own absolute safety, Dong Zhuo thought he was perfect. Therefore, he sent all the main forces of his army to the Kwantung, because Dong Zhuo believed that all the threats came from the Kwantung, and as long as his army blocked the enemy army on the front line, Chang'an would be absolutely safe.
Fourth, Dong Zhuo's death caused unrest
It was precisely because of Dong Zhuo's deployment that a big problem arose, after Dong Zhuo was killed, his main army did not have any losses, but was still deployed in the strategic routes from the Kwantung to Chang'an, such as Shichi, Huayin, Anyi and other places, when Dong Zhuo was killed, Niu Fu's lieutenants Li Dai, Guo Feng, Guo Ji and others were still engaged in battle with Zhu Juan in Zhongmu County, Henan, and also defeated the famous general Zhu Juan at the end of the Han Dynasty. How Lü Bu and Wang Yun handled Dong Zhuo's army would affect whether Lü Bu and Wang Yun could enjoy the fruits of victory after the successful assassination of Dong Zhuo.
Wang Yun killed Dong Zhuo
It is a pity that Wang Yun and Lü Bu did not make the right choice, only a pardon order was needed to solve the problem, but It was handled so complicated by Wang Yun, and the respective performances of Dong Zhuo's generals also determined their respective fates, Zhonglang surrendered Xu Rong, Hu Yi, and Duan Sheng to Wang Yun, and Zhonglang killed Niu Fu Dong Yue and was killed by his subordinates, that is to say, Dong Zhuo's zhonglang generals were completely destroyed, and the highest military position in the army was a lieutenant-level general, and all the soldiers under Dong Zhuo were suddenly leaderless.
Li Dai, Guo Feng, Zhang Ji, and Jia Xu were all generals under the General Niu Fu of Zhonglang, in this case, everyone wanted to save their lives, including Jia Xu, if the situation continued to develop, these Western Liang troops would basically face the situation of being killed, so under the persuasion of Jia Xu, it was decided to gather and gather all the remnants of the army to attack Chang'an, Li Dai and Guo Feng in the process of marching to Chang'an, gathered most of the original Dong Zhuo's soldiers, which also became the main force attacking Chang'an City, and there were already more than 100,000 people when they arrived in Chang'an. The number of personnel in this part of the army exceeded that of the defenders of Chang'an City, and the most difficult problem after stabbing Dong Zhuo was successfully handled by Wang Yun and Lü Bu and others as the last thing they wanted to see.
The main reason why Wang Yun was reluctant to pardon Dong Zhuo's army was because he felt that after taking in the Western Liang Army, it would make the Kwantung princes resentful, after all, this was Dong Zhuo's subordinates, who had done a lot of bad things, Wang Yun did not know how to work around, and at the same time could not see the criticality of the situation, and a large number of Western Liang troops would become a force affecting the safety of the imperial court if they were not dealt with, Wang Yun ignored it, so he failed.
Li Dai and Guo Feng
V. How was Chang'an breached?
In the process of attacking Chang'an, Wang Yun sent Dong Zhuo to attack Xu Rong and Hu Yi to attack Li Dai and Guo Feng, which was another serious mistake, Xu Rong and Hu Yi were originally surrendered generals, and not long after they surrendered, at least the loyalty was not formed, and it was not a huge hidden danger for them to attack Li Dai and Guo Feng? Sure enough, Hu Yi counterattacked and surrendered to Li Dai and Guo Feng, and Xu Rong was weak and died in battle.
Chang'an City is high walls, even if Li Dai, Guo Feng and other troops exceed the number of Chang'an defenders, as long as Chang'an City is single-minded and sticks to the city, it was not so easy to capture Chang'an City, moreover, Lü Bu was such a fierce general to defend the city, the reason why Chang'an City was breached was that someone in the city opened the city gate to surrender to Li Daoguo's army, as soon as the city gate was opened, Lü Bu could not block several times the enemy army even if he had the talent to reach heaven, and could only flee from Chang'an City in defeat, which eventually led to the destruction of Chang'an City, Wang Yun was killed, and Emperor Xian of Han was controlled again.
"Later Han Shu Dong Zhuo Biography": Dai Sui Dao collected troops, compared to Chang'an, has more than 100,000, and Zhuo's former qu Fan Chou, Li Meng, etc., surrounded Chang'an. The city was unexcusable, and on the eighth day of its defense, Lü Bu's army had a rebellion from within, attracting the crowd to enter.
Originally, Chang'an City was very difficult to attack, and Li Dai and Guo Feng's more than 100,000 troops attacked for 8 days without progress, until Lü Bu's soldiers rebelled and opened the city gate into Li Dai's army, which eventually led to Lü Bu's defeat, in other words, Chang'an City was breached because there was a shu army in Chang'an City that betrayed Lü Bu, and it was because the people in Chang'an City were not united, and finally failed.
Lü Bu fled in defeat
In the Han Dynasty, it refers to Yizhou, which is today's Sichuan, and the Shu people are actually Yi people who are Sinicized in Yizhou, that is, ethnic minorities, where this army came from, the history books do not record, only that it is the Shu soldiers who caused Lü Bu's defeat and the breach of Chang'an City, which is an important reason why Li Dai and Guo Feng were able to capture Chang'an.
summary
Li Dai and Guo Feng were able to successfully defeat Lü Bu, capture Chang'an, and blackmail Tianzi to order the princes after Zhonglang had overthrown the officers of the first rank in Dong Zhuo's army, which was an occasional incident caused by a series of accidents, and under Wang Yun's continuous mistakes, it became an inevitable event, and the premise of Li Dai and Guo Feng's success was that Dong Zhuo's military deployment in the periphery was to retain and incorporate dong Zhuo's main army, and the reason for the success of Li Dai and Guo Feng was that Wang Yun did not correctly handle the political attributes of Dong Zhuo's subordinates. Forcing Li Dai, Guo Feng and others to be forced to raise troops to save their lives, but they did not expect to create a huge victory, Li Dai and Guo Feng were able to break through Chang'an City but it was the accidental defection of the soldiers, opening the city gates, a series of unexpected events, so that Li Dai and Guo Feng, such middle-ranking officers in the army, became the rulers who controlled the imperial court and the emperor, and it has to be said that it was the sadness of the scattered hearts and political infighting at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.