The great man will live forever

Chapter 313 The Death of the Spiritual Emperor

The Han Dynasty was so corrupt that he naturally had no time to deal with rebellion.

In 186 AD, Zhang Wen commanded more than infantry and cavalry troops from various counties to be stationed in Meiyang.

Bian Zhang and Han Sui also marched into Meiyang, and Zhang Wen lost the battle with them for the first time.

One night in November, a meteor shone into the enemy camp. The meteor was like fire and was more than ten feet long. It illuminated the Bianzhang camp and made the donkeys and horses bray.

"General, the demon star has entered the camp, so we will not surrender!" Bian Zhang's men looked at him and Han Sui.

"Temporarily withdraw the troops." Han Sui and Bian Zhangjun looked at each other and both thought this was an ominous omen and wanted to retreat to Jincheng.

The next day, Dong Zhuo learned about this and was overjoyed, "Haha, God help me, chase!"

Then he joined forces with Bao Hong and others from Fufeng on the right to attack Bian Zhang and Han Sui.

"Kill!"

After a chase, the rebels were eager to return to the city and naturally did not want to fight.

I am willing to lead 10,000 people to cut off the enemy's food transport routes, and will lead the army to support them. The rebels will inevitably be too tired and hungry to fight and retreat to the hinterland of the Qiang people.

When famous generals in ancient times were ordered to lead their armies on an expedition, they all succeeded by decisively killing them.

Sun Jian stepped forward and whispered in Zhang Wen's ear: "Dong Zhuo is not afraid of being punished. Instead, he is arrogant and speaks loudly. He should be executed in accordance with the military law's article 'Failure to arrive in time when called upon'."

"General, what should we do now?"

Zhang Wen couldn't bear to do anything, so he said, "You go back first. As time goes by, Dong Zhuo will become suspicious."

But even though he was cautious, this was the territory of the rebels and the Qiang people. Dong Zhuo's army was surrounded by the Qiang and Huns in the north of Wangyuan County. The army was short of food and the situation was critical.

"Wen Tai!" Sun Jian, the last general, also stood up. He was joining the military this time.

"The general is here!"

I observed Dong Zhuo's speech and behavior, and I found that disrespecting you, despising the superior, and behaving rudely were the first charges;

Bian Zhang and Han Sui rebelled for more than a year and should be conquered in time, but Dong Zhuo said no. Shaking the morale of the army is the second crime;

Dong Zhuo accepted the assignment but returned without success. He was late when summoned by his superiors and had an arrogant and arrogant attitude. This was the third crime.

"I now order you to lead thirty thousand people in pursuit!"

"General!" Dong Zhuo wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by Zhang Wen's wave of his hand. "I am a chariot and cavalry general. Why can't I command you?"

So Dong Zhuo chased them and they fled.

Zhang Wen shook his head and said: "Dong Zhuo has always had prestige between the Yellow River and Longshan. If I kill him today, there will be no support for the Western Expedition."

As soon as he saw that the enemy army was retreating, Zhang Wen immediately sent Zhou Shen and Sun Jian to lead 30,000 people to pursue him. This was to pick Dong Zhuo's peaches.

Dong Zhuo was very cautious. He first sent another commander, Liu Jing, with 4,000 men to garrison troops in Anding County, and then marched.

At this time, Zhou Shen panicked and abandoned his baggage and withdrew his troops.

Sun Jian then said goodbye and went out. This was another good opportunity to kill Dong Zhuo, but it was a pity that he missed it.

However, Bian Zhang and Han Sui divided their troops to garrison at Kuiyuan Gorge, but instead cut off the grain transportation road for the officers and soldiers.

"Don't dare!" Dong Zhuo had no choice but to attack the Xianling tribe of the Qiang people.

He asked his soldiers to pretend to block the water and build embankments in the Wei River, claiming that they were fishing, but in fact they allowed the troops to quickly pass under the embankments.

Here, at Zhang Wen's request, Dong Zhuo led 30,000 people to attack the Xianling tribe of the Qiang people.

Sun Jian, who joined the army, suggested to Zhou Shen: "General Zhou, there is a shortage of food in the city held by the rebels, and it will be brought in from outside.

Zhang Wen learned that Dong Zhuo had withdrawn his troops and summoned Dong Zhuo with the emperor's edict. Dong Zhuo delayed for a long time before going to see Zhang Wen.

Zhang Wen scolded Dong Zhuo, but Dong Zhuo responded with no respect.

"This... the Xianling tribe of the Qiang tribe is also the main force in the rebel army. General Polu, I now order you to lead an army of 30,000 to attack them."

Zhang Wen was very happy when he learned about it.

"The bandit general Zhou Shen!"

"Wentai, now that the rebels have retreated to Yuzhong City, they are already frightened. We should surround them instead of letting them go back to their base."

On the other side, Zhou Shen led 30,000 people to pursue Bian Zhang and Han Sui.

"General, you should deal with Han Sui and Bian Zhang's rebels first."

"No!" The two of them were overjoyed.

"General!" Sun Jian wanted to persuade, but Zhou Shen stopped him with his eyes.

"Send people to block the water and build dams in the Wei River. We will tell the outside world that we are short of food and rely on fishing to satisfy our hunger." Dong Zhuo was not in a hurry and issued the order quickly.

Zhou Shen did not follow his advice and directly led his army to surround Yuzhong City.

Sun Jian probably saw Dong Zhuo's ambition, so he said: "The general personally leads the royal army and is powerful in the world, so why rely on Dong Zhuo?

If the general tried to win over Dong Zhuo and did not kill him immediately, then this would be a mistake that would damage the dignity of the commander and the military regulations. "

"The general is here!"

By then, if we work together to encircle and suppress them, we can pacify Liangzhou. "

Dong Zhuo naturally refused, left and said, "General, I also ask for a fight to pursue the rebels."

By the time the Qiang people noticed and pursued, Dong Zhuo had already opened the dike and the river was already deep, making it impossible for the Qiang people to cross the river and pursue them.

"They have been defeated, so there is nothing to worry about. Your first priority now is to defeat the Qiang Xianling tribe."

In the end, Dong Zhuo won a great victory and beheaded thousands of people. Bian Zhang and Han Sui were defeated and retreated to Yuzhong.

Zhang Wen sent six groups of troops, five of which, including Zhou Shen, ended in failure. Only Dong Zhuo's army was fully mobilized and stationed in Youfufeng.

The imperial court granted Dong Zhuo the title of Marquis of Zhuxiang due to his meritorious service, granting him a fief of 1,000 households.

At this time, Dong Zhuo's power became more and more powerful.

As time went by, rebellions continued in various places, and the court could only suppress them reluctantly, very reluctantly.

At this time, the Eastern Han Dynasty court was like a 100-year-old man lying on the bed with breath coming in and out, feeling that he might ascend to heaven at any time.

In the fifth year of Emperor Zhongping's reign (Wuchen, 188 AD), Liu Yan witnessed the chaos and decline of the royal family under Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty.

He suggested to Emperor Ling: "Rebellions occurred everywhere because the governor had little power and was weak in power. He could not restrain them and appointed people improperly, which caused the people to rebel against the imperial court.

The state pastor should be replaced by an important minister with a reputation for integrity. "

Liu Yan secretly wanted to be the shepherd of Jiaozhi, but Dong Fu, a Guanghan native, told Liu Yan privately: "There will be great chaos in Luoyang, the capital. According to the celestial phenomena, a new emperor will appear in the Yizhou area."

So Liu Yan changed his mind and asked to go to Yizhou.

It happened that Jian, the governor of Yizhou, imposed excessive taxes and excessive taxes, and folk songs about his tyranny were widely circulated;

In addition, both Geng Bi and Zhang Yi were killed by thieves, so the imperial court adopted Liu Yan's suggestion and selected Lie Qing and Shangshu as state shepherds, each with their original official rank.

Liu Yan was appointed as the shepherd of Yizhou, Huang Wan, the imperial servant, as the shepherd of Yuzhou, and Liu Yu, a native of Zongzheng Donghai, as the shepherd of Youzhou.

This began the increase in the power of state governors.

Liu Yan is a descendant of Liu Yu, King Gong of Lu in the Western Han Dynasty. He served in prefectures and counties when he was young, and was awarded the position of Zhonglang because of his clan status. In the third year of Yanxi (160), he resigned due to the death of his teacher Zhu Tian (Situ during the reign of Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty) and gave lectures in Yangchengshan.

Later, he was elected as a virtuous and upright person and was conquered by Situ Mansion.

He successively served as the magistrate of Luoyang County, the governor of Jizhou, the prefect of Nanyang County, Zongzheng, Taichang and other officials...

Liu Yan's suggestion seemed to stabilize the Eastern Han Dynasty, but in fact it exacerbated its collapse and the emergence of feudal princes fighting for hegemony.

Before this, the most powerful person in a state was the governor, but now he became the state shepherd.

Of course, this does not mean that the state pastor has not appeared before. Whether it is the governor or the state pastor, they all revolve around three powers, namely supervisory power, administrative power, and military power.

The governor is an official who supervises the local area. During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, a separate governor was appointed based on the failure of the censor at that time, and the prime minister appointed him to perform the duties of the censor.

By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to strengthen centralization of power, the governors of the capital were no longer subject to the control of the prime minister and were directly responsible to the emperor, similar to an imperial envoy.

This invisibly strengthened the power of the governor. In fact, this was an effective measure taken by Emperor Wu to solve the feudal issue in the Western Han Dynasty.

However, the governor at that time was still mainly responsible for supervision, and the position of Zhou Mu was even more legendary.

Because the governor's authority was great, his salary was very low, only 600 shi, which was much lower than the 2000 shi of the prefect.

However, it doesn't feel very reasonable to supervise the prefect.

In addition, the governors at this time also handled some matters that were not within their scope of authority, such as resettling refugees, suppressing rebellions, and handling the affairs of ethnic minorities...

In the first year of Suihe, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty (8 BC), the governor was changed to Zhou Mu. The power of Zhou Mu was greater, administrative and military powers were increased, and the salary was also increased from 600 shi to 2000 shi.

In the second year of Emperor Jianping's reign, Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty dismissed the governor and established a governor, but at this time the governor still retained some of the rights of the governor.

After Wang Mang proclaimed himself emperor, he changed the name of the governor to the governor of the state.

In the 18th year of Emperor Guangwu's reign in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu believed that the power of the Zhou Mu was too great and was not conducive to rule, so he changed the status of the Zhou Mu to the governor.

After that, the Eastern Han Dynasty almost never engaged in state animal husbandry, except in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

To put it simply, the state pastor at that time had higher military power than the governor and did not need to go through the court.

Now, Zhou Mu has appeared again, so at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, warlords separated.

This year, the Liangzhou rebels re-entered Youfufeng and besieged Chencang County.

In November, the imperial court appointed Huangfu Song as General Zuo and General Dong Zhuo, the former general in charge, and each led 20,000 people to rescue Chencang.

Dong Zhuo suggested to Huangfu Song to march quickly. Huangfu Song believed: "Chencang County is well-defended and the Liangzhou rebels will definitely be unable to capture it. Our army can achieve complete victory as long as we stand still and wait for work." So he did not follow Dong Zhuo's suggestion.

In fact, at this time, Dong Zhuo had more and more soldiers and more and more power. Some ambitious people in the court also saw something.

Time came to the spring and February of the sixth year of Zhongping (189). The Liangzhou rebels besieged Chencang County for more than days without success and retreated exhausted.

Everything was as expected by Huangfu Song. He was overjoyed and immediately ordered a pursuit. Dong Zhuo also wanted to pursue.

At this time, the two counselors next to him began to persuade him.

A man is around 30 years old and very handsome.

A man is 45 years old and has a Chinese character face.

They are the two most famous counselors under Dong Zhuo, one is Li Ru and the other is Jia Xu.

Li Ru was the first to speak, "My lord, in the current situation, we should preserve our strength first. As the old saying goes, if the rebels are wiped out, the imperial court will definitely take back your military power."

Jia Xu also agreed, "Yes, His Majesty's health is getting worse and worse. We can deal with the rebels more slowly. It is best to wait until His Majesty dies.

Now His Majesty's only children are Shi Hou and Dong Hou. They are very young. Then it will be our opportunity. "

Emperor Ling lost several sons in succession. Therefore, after Empress He gave birth to her son Liu Bian, she was sent to the Taoist Shi Zixuan's family to raise him, so he was called "Shihou".

Wang Mei gave birth to a son, Liu Xie, who was raised by Empress Dowager Dong herself and was called "Dong Hou".

Dong Zhuo nodded after hearing this and did not pursue the enemy. Instead, he persuaded Huangfu Song. The reason was, "Don't chase the poor invaders, and don't force them if they return to the masses."

Huangfu Song believed: "The rebels are tired troops who have lost their fighting spirit, rather than returning to the masses and becoming poor bandits."

At this time, Dong Zhuo's status was actually not much lower than that of Huangfu Song. Huangfu Song also saw that Dong Zhuo did not want to pursue him and wanted to retain his strength, but there was nothing he could do.

Later, Huangfu Song put Dong Zhuo in charge of the rear, and he led his army to pursue him. He won consecutive battles and beheaded more than ten thousand people. The rebel leader Guo Guo died of illness soon after he escaped.

"This old man ruined my life!"

Originally, he wanted to support the bandits' self-respect and delay them until Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty died, but Huangfu Song almost wiped them out. What would Dong Zhuo do?

Therefore, he hated Huangfu Song very much.

Sure enough, it didn't take long before what he least wanted to happen happened.

Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was seriously ill and couldn't help it. He issued an edict to appoint Dong Zhuo as the pastor of Bingzhou, and transferred his subordinate troops to Huangfu Song.

"What should we do now? Are we resisting the edict?" Dong Zhuo received the imperial edict and looked at Li Ru and Jia Xu worriedly.

Jia Xu immediately shook his head, "My lord, resisting this decree is absolutely impossible. Your Majesty has not died yet. He has ruled the world for so many years.

If you disobey, it is tantamount to open rebellion, and powerful people in the world will attack you. "

Li Ru nodded, "Yes, now we can only obey His Majesty's edict. I guess Your Majesty may not be able to survive. This time, all we have to do is wait slowly."

"Your Majesty's edict can be obeyed, but military power cannot be handed over easily."

"Yes, just delay it for a little longer."

So Dong Zhuo accepted the appointment, but refused to hand over the army. He wrote a letter to defend himself: "I have been in charge of the army for ten years. The soldiers have a good relationship with me and they all work for me. I beg to take these soldiers to Bingzhou to serve on the border. Hang."

Huangfu Li persuaded his father Huangfu Song to take the opportunity to get rid of Dong Zhuo, but Huangfu Song refused and only reported Dong Zhuo's unwillingness to hand over military power to the court.

Therefore, Emperor Ling issued an edict to blame Dong Zhuo, and Dong Zhuo became even more resentful towards Huangfu Song.

In the end, Dong Zhuo had no choice but to take 5,000 people to Bingzhou, but he stayed in Hedong County and did not leave. He obviously wanted to observe the situation in Luoyang.

Seeing that Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was seriously ill, all the officials asked him to establish a prince.

Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty believed that Liu Bian was frivolous and lacked dignity, so he wanted to appoint Liu Xie, but he was hesitant because Liu Xie was younger.

At this time, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was seriously ill, so he entrusted Liu Xie to Jian Shuo.

On Bingchen (the eleventh day), Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty passed away in Jiade Hall.

A mediocre emperor who repeatedly struggled with money and loved money finally died.

I think he became emperor at the age of 12 and reigned for 21 years. He was also a very smart man, but he brought endless disasters and pain to the big man.

He was going further and further on the road of selling his official position. If he had lived a few more years, the big man might have died directly in his hands.

Now that he is finally dead, all the people of the Han Dynasty are not sad at all, but rejoiced. They pray that a good emperor will lead the Han Dynasty to prosperity.

Unfortunately, what the people expect is often beyond their imagination!

(End of this chapter)