(1) "Submission to the Emperor" in a major event

The late Eastern Han Dynasty was a chaotic era that was different from the last years of other dynasties. Although the Han Dynasty declined, its political influence of "the common ruler of the world" was still huge, so the saying that "although the Han Dynasty declined, the destiny of heaven was not changed" was familiar. There were many people who claimed to be kings and emperors in the troubled times, but they were unanimously abandoned by scholars and officials, which caused everyone to be betrayal and divorced, and ended up with miserable consequences.

Before you can replace it, the best way is to put it under your own control.

It is precisely because of this particularity of the times that "Senging the Emperor" has become a dream of countless separatist forces.

Some of them were restrained and put the guise of "submitting the emperor to order the emperor to order the princes", some were ambitious and shouted the slogan "supporting the emperor to order the princes", and some did not shout slogans, but they were not vague at all when they started, and they started to make a fortune in silence.

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Yuan Shao" records: "Ju Su said: 'The city of the state is rough and stable, and the strong soldiers are attached to him. He welcomes the great lords in the west, and then he is in Yedu. He takes the emperor and orders the princes to seize the soldiers and horses to fight against the court. Who can control it?"

"The Three Kingdoms: Biography of Mao Jie" "It is advisable to obey the emperor to order the emperor to rebel, cultivate farming, and live in military resources. In this way, the overlord's career can be accomplished."

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Dong Zhuo" "On that day, Jue moved the emperor to his Beiwu, and only the empress and nobles of Song were all there. Jue sent the lieutenant to supervise the gate to isolate the inside and outside. He wanted to move the emperor to Huangbai City, Chiyang, and the king and his ministers were frightened."

"Zhang Ji came from Shaanxi to reconcile the two, but he still wanted to move the emperor's Quan to Hongnong. The emperor also thought about the old capital, so he sent an envoy Guo to ask Jue to return to the east, and then he agreed to the tenth rebellion."

"Guo Sifu wants to threaten the emperor and still be the only one who is still a man."

"Zizhi Tongjian·Han Ji Fifty-Four" "Dong Cheng, Zhang Yang wanted to return to Luoyang with the emperor, Yang Feng and Li Le did not want to, so the generals became the same."

"The Three Kingdoms: Biography of Zhang Yang": "Yang wanted to welcome the emperor to return to Luo, but the generals refused to listen; Yang returned to the wild king."

"The Three Kingdoms: Biography of Sun Ce": In the fifth year of Jian'an, Cao Gong and Yuan Shao refused to go to Guandu. Ce Yin wanted to attack Xu, welcomed Emperor Han, secretly managed troops, and deployed generals.

The actions of all forces listed above are to prove that "Feng Emperor" is not a far-sighted strategy. Objective restrictions and subjective needs have prompted heroes in troubled times to tirelessly seek the shortcut of "Feng Emperor" that coexist with high risks and high returns.

Since it is not a far-sighted strategy, and all the heroes want to "supremember the emperor", why was Cao Cao welcomed it in history?

Here, we need to list the forces that control the emperor internally and externally: Dong Cheng, Yang Feng, Han Xian, Zhang Yang, and Cao Cao's powerful competitors of "Feng Emperor": Yuan Shao, Liu Biao.

In history, Cao Cao had obtained a large amount of food, supplies and supplies because of pacifying the Yellow Turbans in Yingchuan and Runan, and his military supplies were greatly alleviated, so he had the material conditions to welcome the emperor at that time.

But the process of "supremembering the emperor" is still very tortuous:

"Cao Cao was in Xu and planned to welcome the emperor. Everyone thought that "Shandong has not yet been decided, Han Xian and Yang Feng are responsible for their merits and are unable to be controlled."

"Cao sent Cao Hong, the general of Yangwu, to the west to welcome the emperor. Dong Cheng and others were almost refused, and Hong was not allowed to enter."

Dong Zhao, the counselor, said to Feng, "The general should be the master of the internal army, and I am the foreign aid. Now I have food and the general has troops. If there is no connection, it is enough to help each other, and live and die together, and share them with each other."

"Han Xian is proud of his merits and is arrogant. Dong Cheng is worried about it, so Qian summoned Cao. Cao then led his troops to Luoyang. After he arrived, he reported Han Xian to Zhang Yang for his crime. Xian was afraid of being executed and ran to Yang Feng alone."

(Dong) Zhao said: "I am the young party to help me, and I rely on my heart to make a living. The matters of the east and Feiting are all decided by it. It is advisable to send envoys to express their gratitude to calm their intentions. "I have no food in the capital, so I want to drive a car to Luyang for a while. Luyang is close to Xu. The transfer is a little easier, so I will not worry about the lack of county.'."

"When the car moved east, Yang Feng wanted to invite him from Liang, but it was not enough. In the winter, in October, Cao Cao conquered Feng, Feng fled south to Yuan Shu, and then attacked Liangtun and pulled him away."

Throughout the whole process, we can see that at first Cao Cao was not going well to welcome the emperor and had no advantage in the army. However, with the help of Dong Zhao, he relied on the advantages of food to win over the enemy generals, divided and disintegrated, and joined forces with Yang Feng. Dong Cheng excluded Han Xian and Zhang Yang. Then he successfully migrated to the court with food as a temptation. Finally, he sent troops to defeat Yang Feng and completely solved the hidden danger of moving the capital.

What are the two powerful competitors, Yuan Shao and Liu Biao, doing the whole process? It’s nothing but waiting and watching.

The reason why Yuan Shao waited and watched is quite complicated.

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Yuan Shao" records that as early as when the emperor was heading to Hedong, Yecheng sent Guo Tu to visit. After returning, Guo Tu persuaded Yuan Shao to welcome the emperor.

In the Biography of Emperor Xian, it is recorded that Ju Su advised the emperor to welcome the emperor, Guo Tu and Chun Yu Qiong said: "The Han Dynasty has been late, and it has been a long time. Isn't it difficult to promote it now? Now the heroes occupy the prefectures and counties, and the crowds are moving. The so-called Qin loses its deer, and the king will get it first. If the emperor is welcomed to come, he will always report it. If he follows it, his power will be light, and if he violates it, he will refuse his orders. It is not a good person who thinks."

If you think about it carefully, it is too reluctant to use the reasons recorded in historical books to explain that Yuan Shao did not welcome the emperor. As a strong local separatist force, welcoming the emperor to Yecheng may become Huo Guang and Dong Zhuo. With Yuan Shao's strength and reputation, he became the former, but it is unlikely that this embarrassing situation of "if you follow it, you will be light, and if you violate it, you will be refused."

I would rather believe that Yuan Shao, who was in the four states at this time, had already become unjust, and only by waiting for the emperor to fall into trouble can he gain greater benefits.

When we were considering that Yuan Shao was unwilling to welcome the emperor, we often overlooked one thing, that is, Yuan Shao was still the leader of Kanto.

The identity of this leader has the power to command Guandong prefectures and counties in name. On the premise that the emperor moved far away to Guanxi, Yuan Shao often exercised the functions of the court. He could often issue orders to other prefectures and counties, and appointed a governor and prefect when the prefectures and counties are vacant.

If you instruct Wang Kuang to kill Hu's mother-band, Zhang Miao to kill Han Fu (Han Fu speculated), Cao Cao to kill Zhang Miao (Zhang Miao speculated), Cao Cao to be the prefect of Dongjun, Yuan Yi to be the governor of Yangzhou, and Zhou Yi to be the governor of Yuzhou.

These things that seemed not to be done by the ministers were, when Yuan Shao, who was the leader of the alliance, became righteous and unreasonable. Occasionally, some heroes of the prefectures and counties were dissatisfied and often did not dare to publicly oppose them. So much so that during the Battle of Guandu, Liu Biao also openly regarded the prefectures and the governors not to confront the leader while fulfilling their responsibilities to the court, as a matter of correct political stance.

"The Spring and Autumn Annals of Han, Jin, and the Spring and Autumn Annals" says: "If you do not lose your tribute within and do not defeat your leader outside, this is the world's righteousness. What's the strange thing about governing the country?"

We can imagine that Yuan Shao, who was strong and served as the leader of the alliance and exercised the power of the court in Guandong, dreamed of re-taking the old path of Liu Xiu's re-appointment of emperor, stayed in Hebei and watched Emperor Gengshi (Liu Xie) be killed by the Red Eyebrow Army (Bai Bo Army). Then, the entire army was falsely disguised and continued to use his identity as the leader to fight against each other, and finally achieved the goal of having no master in the world and persuading himself to ascend the throne.

It is precisely because of this that he, who was selfish, pretended to be deaf and dumb when he took the initiative, and ignored the emperor who returned to Kanto, and thus missed the opportunity to welcome the emperor.

This also triggered the first time that the Yuan and Cao families fought in the book after "Feng the Emperor", and at the end, the alliance leader bowed to the court and wrote a letter to himself; Cao Cao bowed to Yuan Shao and gave up the position of general.

As for Liu Biao, historical books do not record his actions at that time, but judging from his future treatment of Deng Xi, Han Song and his refusal to Liu Bei to attack Xu Du, Liu Biao, who had many internal conflicts, only wanted to defend the people and wait for an opportunity to embezzle the small forces around him. He seemed not very interested in high-risk and high-reward events such as "submitting the emperor to order the emperor to order him to refuse to be a minister."

In addition, there is another Hanoi prefect, Zhang Yang, who has to be said. Although Zhang Yang is only a Hanoi prefect, under the special geographical location bonus, his influence is far beyond the scope of Hanoi and has entered the Shangdang area of ​​Sanhe and Bingzhou.

This can be seen from the fact that Cao Cao had to borrow a way from Zhang Yang to send envoys to Chang'an, and Zhang Yang sent troops to plunder Shangdang.

During the emperor's return to the east, Zhang Yang was also the one who had the lead, but he did not have the advantage when facing the joint efforts of Dong Cheng and the generals of Bai Bo. Later, when facing the internal conflict between the generals of Bai Bo and Dong Cheng, he did not seize the opportunity in time, so that Cao Cao, who came from afar, succeeded in the end, finally welcomed the emperor.

However, because of the special location of Hanoi, Zhong Yao and others who were polite Sanhe and conquer Guanzhong did not attack Zhang Yang in Hanoi, which made him, who was originally a buffer force in the east and west, become a buffer force in the north and south. Only when Cao Cao decided to completely turn against Yuan Shao, Cao Cao took the lead in sending troops to capture Hanoi.

(2) "Promote military farming" in major events

Since Zhongping, the world was chaotic and the people abandoned agriculture. All the troops rose up, and they were short of grain and grain. There was no plan to end the year. When hunger, the enemy plundered, and when full, they abandoned the remaining robberies. If they were full, they would collapse and destruction. There were countless people who were invincible. Yuan Shao was in Hebei. The soldiers were raising mulberry trees to eat, and Yuan Shu was in Jianghuai and took them to Puying. The people were mostly fed, and the state was depressed. Zao Zhi, the Yulin Supervisor, asked to build military fields. Cao Cao followed it and appointed Zhi as the military field commander, and the cavalry commander Ren Jun as the general of the Dianyuan. He recruited the people to military fields and granted them a million hu of grain. Therefore, the prefectures and counties established land officials, and the grain was accumulated and the granaries were full. Therefore, the conquests and conquered all directions, without the labor of transporting grain, so they were able to merge all the heroes. The military and country's prosperity started from Zhi and formed from Jun.

According to the historical records excerpted above, Cao Cao's military farming in Xudu in the first year of Jian'an was a major event that affected the troubled times.

In the chaotic era of "leading grain and grain, and destroying itself invincible", Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, the two strongest forces in the north and south, also had a dilemma of "eating mulberries on their backs and taking them to Pu Ying" when the military rations were urgent. Cao Cao, who was in a military farming market in Daxing, "conquering all directions, without any effort to transport grain, so he was able to annex the heroes."

So, is the military farm founded by Cao Wei in the chaotic times at the end of the Han Dynasty really so powerful?

The answer is yes.

What I want to argue here is the difference between Cao Wei's military farming and other previous forces.

"At that time, the people of the world were hungry. The governor of the state Tao Qian (Chen) Deng was the Diannong School. He inspected the land fields and made full use of irrigation to accumulate rice."

"Zan then protected Yijing and opened military farms, and was slightly supported. After more than a year, the army was exhausted, and the soldiers were hungry and hungry, and thousands of people retreated. Zan defeated it and all the cars were heavy."

"At that time, drought, locusts, grains are precious, and people eat each other. Zan relies on his talents and strength, does not care about the people, remembers his demerits and forgets good deeds, and will revenge his grudges. Those who have the reputation of good men in the state are right will harm him by law."

It can be seen that the problem of food shortage in troubled times affected various separatist forces, and farming was by no means the method that Cao Cao's camp thought of. However, there is no doubt that the farming effect of Cao Cao's camp was the best. Compared with Tao Qian's "abundance of japonica rice" military farming, the situation is undoubtedly much better than Gongsun Zan, who can only "slightly support himself".

So what is unique about the military farming in Cao Cao's camp? There is no too much introspection in history books. I think that only by returning to the original text of Cao Cao's evaluation of Zao Zhi, the founder of Cao Wei's military farming, can we find the special place of the military farming in Cao Wei.

"When the Yellow Turbans were broken, they would obtain the thief's capital, and they should build military farms. At that time, the people who discussed the matter said that they should plan to save the cattle and save the grain, and then the tenants should make the decision. After the implementation, they thought that the cattle would save the grain, and the large harvest would not increase the grain, and there would be floods and droughts to eliminate it, which was very inconvenient. Repeatedly, I still thought that it should be the same, and the large harvest could not be changed again. I just held it, and I didn't know where to follow it, so I asked the king to discuss it with Xun Ling."

"At that time, the army sacrificed the marquis and said, "If you take official cattle, you will make plans for official fields. If you only discuss it, it will be convenient for the officials, but it will be inconvenient for guests." The voice was like this, and it was doubtful to make the king. He only disturbed his confidence and returned to the plan to waste his fields. He followed the plan and took the technique of dividing the fields. He was the solitary and ordered him to be the chief commander of the military farm and provide the land industry."

Here, after sorting out, we found that there are two ways to farm. The military sacrifices of Hou Sheng and other people insisted on the original "plan to save the cattle and save the grain, and to decide on the stake." Zao Zhi advocated the innovative "art of dividing the field".

So what is the difference between these two? Collect some information to verify, and the situation is roughly like this.

The original method of farming was that the prefectures and counties collected the landless fields into the government, and then recruited landless refugees to farm, and lend ox seeds. The households who borrowed oxes needed to pay a certain amount of grain, and then the harvest was collected according to the tax system of the Han Dynasty, "thirty taxes and one" plus various harsh and complicated taxes.

Zaozhi's method of farming is to use whether to borrow official cattle as the measurement standard for the "55-5 share" or "4-6 share" of officials and citizens. It has been mentioned in the book that it changed the situation in the tax system at the end of the Han Dynasty, which "big harvests do not increase grain, and there will be floods and droughts to eliminate them, and there will be great inconvenience."

In essence, Zaozhi's innovation method is not the military farming system, but the tax system after military farming.

This "55-5 share" or "46 share" tax method only collects grains in the fields. On the one hand, while abolishing the harsh and miscellaneous taxes in the late Han Dynasty and reducing the burden on households, on the other hand, it can also collect a large amount of grains as military rations through this high tax rate method, ensuring the logistics supply of Cao Cao's army.

Therefore, Zaozhi's military farming has a lofty status of "the prosperity of the military and the country starts from the stern and becomes steep".

However, we need to note that this system is actually to learn and apply the relationship between the powerful and the tenants and improve it, and move it into the relationship between the government and the township households.

For example, in "Biography of Wang Mang": "The rich and powerful people invaded the tombs, divided the land and robbed the fake one, and the name was thirty taxes, and the actual tax was five."

Because of this, although the military farming system has great benefits for the sufficient food of the regime in troubled times, the people under the Cao Wei rule may not empathize with it. They are even afraid and uneasy about this new distribution method that seems to be very disparate.

"Biography of Yuan Huan" records: At that time, people recruited new people and opened military farms. The people were not happy and fled, and they often fled. Taizu Huanbai said: "If the people are safe and move, they should not change suddenly. It is easy to move according to the situation and it is difficult to move against the situation. It is better to follow the wishes. Those who are happy will take them, and those who do not want to do so." Taizu followed it and the people were very happy.

For this new way of farming, those self-cultivated farmers who have sufficient land, have relatively clean governments in counties and counties, and have fewer taxes, they probably do not agree with the use of this "55-5 share" and "4-6 share" tax system to replace the "30-tax and one" old land tax system. Only refugees without a place will tend to become the garrison households theoretically managed by the government.

Therefore, we can also understand why the military farm system that can make "rich military and country" popular in troubled times will be replaced by the "rental system" that leads to light taxes and stable taxes, and gradually disappears from people's vision during the peace period.

Those views that simply emphasize that the powerful families occupied the land caused the destruction of the military farm system were obviously only one-sidedly seen the "evil" of the powerful families, but did not realize that they wanted to continue to implement the "evil" carried by the military farm system regime itself.

Ultimately, the military farming system protected farmers in troubled times, restored agricultural production, and protected national income. However, because of its huge exploitative nature, it was destined to be a wartime system that was only implemented in frontier areas in troubled times,

(III) The "regulation policy" of the generals of Guanxi and Cao Cao

The generals of Guanxi, Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Ji, Duan Wei and others mentioned in the early stage, and later the ten generals of Guanzhong led by Han Sui and Ma Teng.

In the first year of Jian'an, after Cao Cao welcomed the emperor to establish his capital in Xuchang, many novels and even historical books would regard Henan Yin and other areas as territory controlled by Cao Cao. However, the actual situation was that Cao Cao had not been involved in the west of Chenggao for a long time, and most of the Sili areas were still in a chaotic situation.

As generals of Guanxi in the early stages, Li Jue, Guo Si and others were "rebellious ministers" and were also targets for Cao Cao who "supreme emperors". However, due to the constraints of his own strength and surrounding forces, it was not until the third year of Jian'an that when the surrounding areas of Xudu court became stable, Cao Cao sent his eunuch Pei Mao to summon Guanxi troops to fight against Li Jue, Guo Si and other "rebellious ministers".

The main force of the attack was Duan Wei, and a group of powerful soldiers and horses in Guanzhong led by Liang Xing and Zhang Heng. Perhaps there were Cheng Yin, candidates, Li Kan and others who crossed the river from the east to Guanzhong and wanted to get a share of the pie.

Li Jue and Guo Si were defeated by the coalition forces before they could resist for long.

After this, Pei Mao, who was nominally commanding the army, and Duan Weidu, who was actually commanding the army, was recalled by Cao Cao to Xu Du one after another. However, without a powerful separatist force, Guanzhong, which was nominally unowned, was worse than expected and soon became a hotbed of warlords' separatist rule.

Chaos and disorder continued until mid-4th year of Jian'an, on the eve of the Battle of Guandu, the arrival of a person with a special mission led to the "restraint policy" that has lasted for many years in Kansai.

This person is Wei Ji, a native of Hedong.

Because Liu Biao's head and rat were swaying between Yuan and Cao's families, in order to avoid a fire in the backyard, Cao Cao sent Wei Ji, who was the imperial censor, to Yizhou to join forces with Liu Zhang, to use the troops of Yizhou to flow eastward and restrain Liu Biao from Jingzhou.

However, the Guanxi warlords were separatist and the road to entering Shu was blocked. Wei Ji had no choice but to stay in Guanzhong for the time being. While staying in Guanzhong, he was ambitious and wrote a letter to Xun Yu, who was the Shangshu Order, based on the situation in Guanzhong, raising his concerns about the current situation in Guanzhong, and expounded his policy of "buying cattle by official salt, raising farmers to feed, pursuing Guanzhong, and weakening the generals". He wanted to win the strong support of the court so that he could make great efforts in Guanzhong.

Cao Cao, who had just wiped out Li Jue and Guo Si, recruited Duan Wei and Pei Mao to Beijing, soon discovered that a group of warlords who were more threatening than Li Jue, Guo Si and Duan Wei emerged in Guanzhong.

Cao Cao's camp is obviously worried about the rapid iteration of new and old forces in Kansai area.

This can be seen from the conversation between Cao Cao and his confidant counselor Guo Jia.

Cao said, "However, what I am confused about is that Shao invades Guanzhong, the west will turmoil Qiang, Hu, and Shu, and Han. I am the only one who uses Yan and Yu to resist five-sixths of the world. What should I do if I do?" (Guo Jia) said, "There are only ten generals in Guanzhong, and no one can match each other. Only Han Sui and Ma Teng are the strongest. When they see Shandong fighting, they must support themselves. Now if they are kind and sent to join forces, they will be able to reconcile themselves. Even if they cannot be safe for a long time, they will be as stable as the public. The Minister of State, Zhong Yao, is wise and has no worries if they are in the west."
To be continued...