The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a well-known ancient masterpiece, and while the story in it is fascinating, it is important to note that it is not a completely accurate historical record. In fact, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a fourth independent regime, the Gongsun family, who seized Liaodong.
However, Luo Guanzhong, the author of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", erased the Gongsun family, an independent regime that once existed, from the book for a rather complex reason. Next, let's take this fourth regime independent of the Three Kingdoms.
Gongsun Du: The Growth Story of a Second Generation of Officials Gongsun Du, a second generation of officials, his growth process is full of legends. He is from Liaodong, but his family was able to divide Liaodong for three generations in troubled times, thanks to his father Gongsun Yan.
Gongsun Du's father broke the law, in order to escape legal punishment, the family moved to Xuansu County, so Gongsun Du grew up in Xuansu County since he was a child. When he became an adult, Gongsun Du became a local official.
At this time, the name of the Taishou of Xuansu County was Gongsun Chen, and his son Gongsun Leopard died young at the age of 19. Because Gongsun Leopard and Gongsun Du look very similar, after Gongsun Du saw Gongsun Du, he treated him as his own son, loved him very much, and later recognized him as a righteous son.
After Gongsun Chen accepted Gongsun Du as his adopted son, he treated him even better, took him into his home for adoption, spent money for him to study, and also spent money to marry the daughter of a famous nobleman as a wife.
In this way, Gongsun Du went from a commoner to a second-generation official. Gongsun Du is a very smart person, he cherishes the opportunity given to him by Gongsun Chen, he is diligent in his studies, and at the same time he knows how to use Gongsun Chen's relationship to expand his network.
After several years of hard work, Gongsun Du gradually emerged and eventually became an influential **. His success is inseparable from his ingenuity and the help of Gongsun Chen.
Gongsun Du was quite famous in the northeast region and was recommended to serve as an official in the Eastern Han court. Although he is only the righteous son of Gongsun Chen, and his family background is not prominent, he was quickly promoted to the Jizhou Assassin History and became a local ** with his diligence and intelligence.
However, due to the jealousy and slander of the local famous families, he was dismissed by the Eastern Han court. Still, he didn't give up and looked for an opportunity to rise again.
Finally, in 189, the Eastern Han Dynasty was about to fall, and the Western Liang warlord Dong Zhuo took control of the government, and his opportunity came. His Northeast fellow and classmate Xu Rong was a general under Dong Zhuo, and after learning that Gongsun Dufu was idle at home, he recommended him to Dong Zhuo to serve as the Taishou of Liaodong.
Dong Zhuo approved this request, so the Eastern Han court appointed Gongsun Du as the Taishou of Liaodong. With his intelligence and courage, Gongsun Du successfully established his own power in the Liaodong region.
His story tells us that no matter how difficult it is, as long as we have strong faith and indomitable spirit, we will be able to rise again.
Gongsun Du was a native of Xiangping, Liaodong County, and although he became the Taishou of Liaodong, he was given a cold reception among the locals. This is because his family is not a famous family in Xiangping, and he relied on being a righteous son for others and holding Dong Zhuo's thigh.
In order to gain a foothold in Liaodong, he followed Dong Zhuo's example and used force against his opponents, even brutally purging the local noble clans, fabricating charges and imposing death sentences on hundreds of disobedient people, and thousands of people died as a result.
Although Gongsun Du had gained a foothold in Liaodong, he found that the Eastern Han court had undergone drastic changes, his old classmate Xu Rong had also been killed in the rebellion, and warlords elsewhere had also supported themselves, and the Eastern Han regime had fallen into a state of fragmentation.
Seeing the opportunity, Gongsun Du decided to privately break with the Eastern Han court and establish his own rule in Liaodong. He used force to suppress the disobedient **, established a regime that those who obeyed me prospered, and those who opposed me perished, and captured Xuansu County and controlled the Liaodong region.
Although his power is growing stronger, he does not blindly expand, but knows his strength. At that time, the Eastern Han court was chaotic, and the Central Plains and Hebei regions were constantly in turmoil, and he knew that he could not compete with powerful warlords such as Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, and Gongsun Zhan, so he decided to expand into the Korean Peninsula.
He conquered the Korean Peninsula by force, subjugated Buyeo and Goguryeo, and then attacked the nomadic regime of Oowan to the west. Although he failed to completely conquer the Uhuan, he succeeded in stopping their harassment.
The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms records that he "attacked Goguryeo in the east and Wuhuan in the west", showing his strong military strength. He has a tough personality, advocates force, and is good at conquering opponents by force, so "Three Kingdoms" evaluates him as "brutal and unkind".
Gongsun Du was ambitious, he dominated Liaodong, made Korea submit and repelled Wuhuan, and then had the idea of entering the Central Plains. He did not dare to directly confront Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and others, but took the opportunity to send troops to capture Donglai and other Linhai counties in Shandong, and set up Yingzhou, and sent heavy troops to defend it, using this as a springboard to plot against the Central Plains.
Gongsun Du's strategy is to occupy Yingzhou, enter the Central Plains, retreat to divide Liaodong, no matter who unifies the world, must acquiesce to him to divide Liaodong. He proclaimed himself the Marquis of Liaodong and the pastor of Pingzhou, and followed the example of the royal family to build the Taimiao, posthumously crowned his father and grandfather as the marquis, and added nine jade strings to his official hats, and the guards wore hats, called the Yulin Army.
His guard of honor and travel attire were almost the same as those of the emperor, and these ceremonies almost became the emperor's companion.
In that era, Gongsun Du's arrogant behavior was unparalleled, and even Yuan Shu, who was the emperor, was slightly inferior to Gongsun Du. Although Gongsun Du did not openly claim the title of emperor, he already exercised the power of the emperor and enjoyed the treatment of the emperor in his own territory.
He knew what he was doing, unlike Yuan Shu, who was stupidly claiming to be the emperor and finally putting himself in the crosshairs. Gongsun Du was very low-key, and he maintained good relations with other warlords except for the attack on Wuhuan and Korea.
His aim was to avoid conflict with other warlords and leave them to fight each other, while he waited for an opportunity to fish in troubled waters in Liaodong. After Cao Cao coerced the princes of the Son of Heaven, Gongsun Du began to test his intentions, and Cao Cao recruited Gongsun Du to Xuchang in the name of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to serve as the Marquis of Yongning and the general of Wuwei, trying to see if Gongsun Du was willing to submit to him.
Gongsun Du naturally would not accept Cao Cao's call. When Cao Cao sent someone to send the marquis's seal, he didn't even look at it, and directly asked others to seal the seal and store it in the warehouse, and said unceremoniously: "I am the king of Liaodong, and I will never give in!" ”
When Cao Cao saw this scene, he understood that Gongsun Du's ambition was not small, but he was busy unifying Henan at the time and had no time to pay attention to Gongsun Du, so he acquiesced to him continuing to dominate Liaodong.
Gongsun Du later worked to increase the power of Liaodong, but he was not able to enjoy it for long. In 204 A.D., he died. After his death, his eldest son, Gongsun Kang, succeeded him, and the Gongsun family began to divide the Liaodong region for a long time.
Although the Gongsun Du family was not a famous nobleman, he succeeded in turning his family into the de facto ruler of Liaodong with his own efforts. This is indeed the opportunity for him to seize the turbulent times in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which is commendable.
Three generations of the Gongsun family continued to run Liaodong, and they were far from convinced of the Eastern Han Dynasty controlled by Cao Cao. However, after Gongsun Kang succeeded to the throne, he encountered trouble. Yuan Shao died of depression after being defeated by Cao Cao in the Battle of Guandu, leaving behind two sons, Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, who were vying for supremacy in Hebei.
Cao Cao took advantage of their civil war to send troops to Hebei, and soon defeated the Yuan brothers. Cao Cao occupied Yecheng, the old nest of the Yuan Shao family, and took a fancy to Yingzhou, Shandong, which was occupied by the Gongsun family, so he sent the general Zhang Liao Shundao to capture Yingzhou, blocking the road for the Gongsun family to enter the Central Plains.
Gongsun Kang was furious about this, and he planned to personally lead 40,000 cavalry to capture Yecheng while Cao Cao's foothold was still unstable. However, his thoughts were stopped by his subordinates, otherwise his fate might be worse than that of Lu Bu who attacked Cao Cao's old nest in Yanzhou, and the Gongsun family might be finished at his hands.
Yuan Shao's two sons, Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang, were forced to flee Cao Cao's pursuit and flee to Wuhuan. However, Cao Cao launched the Battle of White Wolf Mountain, Zhang Liao personally killed the Wuhuan leader Bun Dun Shan Yu, Wuhuan was defeated, and the Yuan brothers had no choice but to defect to Gongsun Kang in Liaodong.
Cao Cao's generals advised him to take the opportunity to attack Liaodong, but Cao Cao listened to the advice of his advisor Guo Jia, who believed that continuous conquest would cause Cao Cao's internal losses, and that Gongsun Kang did not dare to confront Cao Cao head-on.
Guo Jia's judgment was confirmed that the Yuan brothers had a conflict with Gongsun Kang, and Gongsun Kang preemptively killed the second Yuan and offered their heads to Cao Cao, expressing his willingness to submit to the imperial court.
Cao Cao accepted the surrender of Gongsun Kang and canonized him as the Marquis of Xiangping and General Zuo in the name of Emperor Xian of Han. Although Gongsun Kang was nominally subordinate to Cao Cao, Cao Cao did not really rule the Liaodong region.
Before the Battle of Chibi, Gongsun Kang decisively rejected Sun Quan's request for an alliance and beheaded Sun Quan's envoy as a sign of loyalty to Cao Cao. Cao Cao was satisfied with this and believed that the Liaodong region would not become a threat to him.
After the death of Gongsun Kang, his younger brother Gongsun Gong took his place, and after Cao Cao's death, he actively supported Cao Pi as emperor, and was named the general of the chariot cavalry, the marquis of Pingguo, and enjoyed the treatment of fake Jieyue.
In order to show his submission, Gongsun Gong also sent Gongsun Kang's eldest son, Gongsun Huang, to Wei as a proton. In the period that followed, Gongsun Gong maintained good relations with the Cao Wei family, but as Gongsun Kang's second son, Gongsun Yuan, grew up, he suddenly staged a mutiny to imprison Gongsun Gong and proclaimed himself the ruler of the Liaodong region.