The great era of the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty can be divided into two major periods, that is, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era, which can be divided into several hours of periods.

【Late Eastern Han Dynasty】

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, I personally think that it was from the sixth year of Zhongping (189) when Dong Zhuo abolished the king, and Liu Xie was established as Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty until the twenty-fifth year of Jian'an (220) when Cao Pi changed the dynasty and established the Wei Dynasty. It can be roughly divided into four stages: the period of the coalition army against Dong (189-191), the period of the rise of the heroes (191-199), the period of Yuan Cao's struggle for hegemony (199|200-207), and the period of the beginning of the three divisions (207|209-219).

After checking the information, I found that many people think that Dong Zhuo's relocation of the capital to Chang'an is the standard for the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but I don't see it that way, because before Dong Zhuo moved the capital, the Kwantung coalition army had been formed, and the situation was already very chaotic. Personally, I think it is better to take Dong Zhuo's abolition of the king as this standard, because in fact, after Dong Zhuo abolished Liu Wei, heroes from all over the country rose up, and Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and Cao Cao and other talents fled from Luoyang.

After Cao Pi forced Liu Xiexan to give in, the Eastern Han Dynasty perished, which was naturally the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

During the period of the coalition army to attack Dong, from the first year of Yonghan (189), Qiao Mao wig the edict of the three dukes made the Kwantung princes rise up against Dong, which eventually led to a direct confrontation between the two camps of Dong Zhuo and anti-Dong, until the second year of Chuping (191) Yuan Shao sent Zhou Ang to attack Sun Jian's Yangcheng in Yuzhou.

The earliest record in history of the army to attack Dong was Cao Cao at that time, but Cao Cao's army was not influential enough to further unite others, and Qiao Mao's fake transmission of the Sangong document directly led to the formation of the Kwantung Coalition Army, so I personally think that this is the starting point of the coalition army's attack on Dong.

And Sun Jian did stop after conquering Luoyang, but this cannot be regarded as the end of the anti-Dong coalition army, because Sun Jian did not continue to march not because Yuan Shu did not let it, nor did he himself want to, but because Yuan Shao sent people to attack Sun Jian's base camp in Yuzhou, which caused Sun Jian's westward expedition to abandon halfway, and also made Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu completely break with the two brothers, so Zhou Ang's attack on Yangcheng can really mark the end of the coalition army's attack on Dong.

In fact, the period of the combination of heroes began with Zhou Ang's attack on Yangcheng in the second year of Chuping (191), and ended with the successive collapse of Gongsun Zhan's forces and Yuan Shu's forces in the fourth year of Jian'an (199).

Zhou Ang's attack on Yangcheng not only made the two Yuan completely rupture, but also marked the complete dissolution of the anti-Dong coalition army, when Yuan Shao, as the leader of the anti-Dong coalition army, sent troops to attack his own brother and ally Yuan Shu's sphere of influence without a lower limit, resulting in the forced termination of the front-line battle, Yuan Shao also had no face to serve as the leader of the coalition army, and the anti-Dong coalition army naturally had no possibility of existing.

Yuan Shao, Liu Yu, Gongsun Zhan, Cao Cao, Tao Qian, Liu Bei, Lu Bu, Liu Biao, Yuan Shu, Sun Ce, Liu Yan, Liu Zhang and others all had at least one state in this period, until Yuan Shao eliminated Gongsun Zhan to complete the unification of the four northern states, Cao Cao eliminated Lu Bu, besieged Yuan Shu, subdued Zhang Xiu, and stood firm in the Central Plains, forming a pattern of confrontation between the two powers.

The period of Yuan Cao's struggle for hegemony can also be called Cao Cao's Pingbei period, and the theme of this period is Cao Cao's defeat of Yuan and pacification of the four northern states. Probably from the fourth year of Jian'an (199) or the fifth year of Jian'an (200), after Yuan Shao and Cao Cao respectively solved the internal troubles, they began to carry out confrontation along the Yellow River, until the twelfth year of Jian'an (207) Cao Cao successfully made a northern expedition to pacify Wuheng, and Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi were killed by Gongsun Kang of Liaodong.

Originally, Yuan Shao had the intention to crusade against Cao Cao under the advice of Tian Feng and others, but he took the initiative to ask Gongsun Chan for peace but was refused, Yuan Shao had no choice but to concentrate his forces to pacify Gongsun Chan first, and then Yuan Shao freed his hands to clean up Cao Cao, but Cao Cao also solved most of the internal hidden dangers during this period, so the two strongest princes at that time were on the verge of a confrontation.

Although Cao Cao defeated Gao Gan in the eleventh year of Jian'an (206), pacified the annexation of the state, and occupied the four northern states, Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi still escaped, and with the help of Wuheng for chaos, so Cao Cao's Northern Expedition defeated Wuheng in the following year, and after Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi were also killed, Yuan Cao's struggle for hegemony ended with Cao Cao's complete victory.

This period can be started with Zhuge Liang coming out of the mountain in the twelfth year of Jian'an (207) and proposing the "Longzhong Pair" or the fourteenth year of Jian'an (209) when Zhou Yu, Liu Bei and others defeated Cao Ren and won the victory in the Battle of Jiangling, until the first year of Yankang (220) Cao Pi Dynasty Han.

Zhuge Liang first put forward the idea of Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan dividing the world into three parts in Longzhong, and later Cao Cao's southward march to Jingzhou and the Battle of Chibi soon happened, which can be used as a starting point in a sense. The real formation of the three-point world began after the end of the Battle of Jiangling, not the Battle of Chibi, here does not deny the great significance of the Battle of Chibi, but the Battle of Jiangling is a very key supplement to the Battle of Chibi, the Battle of Jiangling in essence ensured and expanded the results of the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei really began to obtain his own territory is after the Battle of Jiangling, and Cao Wei's real defeat of Jingzhou was also after the Battle of Jiangling, and the Battle of Chibi could not change the overall situation of the world in one battle.

Although the Eastern Han Dynasty officially fell after the Han Dynasty of Cao Pi, after Sun Quan seized Jingzhou in the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219), Sun Quan and Liu Bei had already completely broken.

[Four pairs of camps in the late Eastern Han Dynasty]

The confrontation between the four camps in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was the confrontation between Dong Zhuo's court and the anti-Dong coalition army at the beginning, and then the confrontation between the Yuan Shao alliance and the Yuan Shu alliance, followed by the confrontation between Cao Cao and the northern Yuan clan, and finally the Sun-Liu alliance against Cao. This four-pair faction confrontation basically coincided with the four eras at that time.

The main body of the coalition army to attack Dong is the confrontation between Dong Zhuo's court and the anti-Dong coalition army, there is no need to talk about this, and the period of the rise of the heroes can also be called the period of confrontation between the two Yuan, this period almost began with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's alliance against Yuan Shu and Gongsun Zhan, and finally ended with Yuan Shao's destruction of Gongsun Zan and Cao Cao's destruction of Yuan Shu.

The period of Yuan Cao's hegemony was also the confrontation between Cao Cao and the two major forces of the Yuan clan in the north, when Liu Biao belonged to the allies of the Yuan clan, and Sun Quan, Zhang Jin and others were at least nominally subordinate to the Xuchang court, and the confrontation between the two and Liu Biao can also be classified as this camp confrontation.

The last three points of the initial period and the Sun-Liu alliance against Cao were more obvious tacit understanding, but unfortunately, the alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan suffered many setbacks, and the two even broke completely for a time.

Ps: The period of the beginning of the three-point period (207|209-219) is 219, not 220, and the big period does not fit perfectly with the small period.