Strictly speaking, the curtain of the Three Kingdoms era was opened by Dong Zhuo, and Dong Zhuo was also the source of the division of the Central Plains continent, but in fact, before Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, the Eastern Han Dynasty had already had a tendency to secession, the earliest was of course Liangzhou, and the second was Yizhou.

The secession of Yizhou originated from Liu Yan, who was not only the proponent of the restoration of the state pastoral system in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, but also one of the first group of state pastors.

【Initial Planning】

Liu Yan is a descendant of King Lu Gong, the word Junlang, a native of Jiangxia Jingling (now Tianmen, Hubei).

Liu Yan studied under Zhu Tian, who was promoted from Guanglu Dafu to Situ in the Three Dukes in the second year of Yanxi (159), and was one of the absolute core officials of the Han Dynasty. Liu Yan's own talent is not low, coupled with Zhu Tian's support and teaching and royal status, his career has been smooth sailing, and he has held important official positions in the local and central governments, including Luoyang Ling, Jizhou Assassin History, Nanyang Taishou, Zongzheng, Taichang and other officials.

In the fifth year of Zhongping (188), Liu Yan was deeply worried about the imperial court at that time because of the political chaos and decay during the period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty and the turmoil ~ chaos in other places, and he also wanted to stay away from the central government to avoid possible storms, so he suggested to Emperor Ling: "Rebellions occurred everywhere throughout the country, because the assassination of Shiquan was light, there were too many restrictions, and there was no way to manage effectively, and because of improper employment, it caused the rebellion of the people." Therefore, the state pastor should be replaced, and an important minister with a reputation for honesty should be selected, so as to stabilize the party. ”

Liu Yan's proposal was partly out of public intentions, but in fact he was also planning for himself, at that time he was going to serve as the Jiaozhi pastor (that is, the later Jiaozhou pastor), far away from the imperial court, intending to avoid possible world chaos and observe the overall situation of the world.

However, when Dong Fu, a servant and a native of Guanghan, knew about it, he persuaded Liu Yan to give up Jiaozhi and pursue Yizhou instead, and said to Liu Yan in private: "There will be a great chaos in the capital Luoyang, and according to the celestial phenomena, a new emperor will appear in the Yizhou region." ”

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, although Yizhou and Jiaozhou were both states, in fact, the two could not be equated at all, and the gap was huge, whether it was population, area, geographical environment and historical status, Jiaozhou was far inferior to Yizhou.

At that time, Yizhou mainly consisted of present-day Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality, as well as the southern part of Shaanxi Province and the northern part of Yunnan Province. It has a vast area and is one of the three largest states in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period; The population is huge, with a population of millions or even millions; The economy is developed, the products are abundant, and it has the reputation of the land of abundance; Yizhou is also one of the ancient Kyushu, and it can be ranked among the top five in the Thirteen Thorn History Department of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

In contrast, Jiaozhou is far behind. Jiaozhou included present-day northern and central Vietnam, Guangxi and Guangdong in China. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, southern China was not fully developed, especially in the Liangguang area, which was basically a wilderness land, and Jiaozhou was also the southernmost territory of the Han Dynasty, and the location was very remote.

Jiaozhou has a small population and a partial location, and it is undoubtedly at the bottom of the thirteen states in the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, the position of Jiaozhou pastor was not even as powerful as the county guard (national minister) of some large counties (countries), and Yizhou could basically be used as a place for Longxing.

The difference between the two is so obvious, Dong Fu's words undoubtedly spoke to Liu Yan's heart.

And Dong Fu was a famous prophet (that is, a prophet and a diviner) at that time, Liu Yan was convinced of his words, before listening to Dong Fu's proposal, Liu Yan may not have much ambition, maybe he wants to be on the side of Jiaozhou, but after discussing with Dong Fu, Liu Yan, as a member of the Han clan, also has ideas that should not be there. So Liu Yan decisively gave up the Jiaozhou pastor and pursued the Yizhou pastor, which also made the Jiaozhou pastor nearly ten years late, until the second year of Jian'an (197) Jiaozhi Taishou Shixie was the last to set up the state pastor, and later Zhang Jin became the first Jiaozhou pastor in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

And the heavens follow the wishes of the people, when Liu Yan proposed to Emperor Ling, it happened that Zhang Yi, the assassin of Liangzhou, and Geng Contempt, were killed in this state, and the news of the Yizhou assassin Shi Xi Jian's administration and disturbing the people also reached Luoyang, so Emperor Ling adopted Liu Yan's proposal, named him the Marquis of Yangcheng, served as the envoy of the supervising army, led the Yizhou pastor, went to Yizhou to arrest Xi Jian, and rectified the rule of officials. In addition to Liu Yan, there is also the servant Huang Wan as the pastor of Yuzhou, and Zongzheng Liu Yu as the pastor of Youzhou, both of them are the state pastor of the original position of Yulu.

Since then, the state pastor has replaced the assassin history as the most important official position in the local area, controlling the local military and political power, and anyone who can become a state pastor is basically a powerful prince who can dominate one side.

Before Liu Yan went to Yizhou, he had already clearly had the idea of separating one side and even becoming the emperor, and later he immediately took action with this goal after he became the pastor of Yizhou.

After Liu Yan was appointed as the pastor of Yizhou, Dong Fu and Taicang ordered Zhao Wei to resign from their official positions and go to Yizhou with Liu Yan to clean up Xi Jian and seize the territory.

These two later became Liu Yan's right-hand men, especially Zhao Wei, whose status was second only to the state pastor in Yizhou.

【Ma Zhao Rebellion】

But the original Yizhou assassin Shi Xijian did not fall into the hands of Liu Yan in the end, because Liu Yan had not yet arrived in Yizhou, and he had already been killed by the rebels.

During the period of managing Yizhou, Xi Jian was ineffective in governance, collected private wealth, and used more labor, which caused public resentment. At this time, Yizhou traitors Ma Xiang, Zhao Yi and others took the opportunity to raise the Yellow Turban banner in Mianzhu County to gather the people who were suffering from labor, due to the oppression of the local government, coupled with the huge appeal of the Yellow Turban Banner among the people, the two gathered thousands of people in a day or two.

Ma Xiang and Zhao Yi immediately attacked Mianzhu County and killed the county commander Li Sheng, which greatly increased his prestige, and won the refuge of many people, and even people in the government.

After gathering more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, the two marched into the state and conquered it, and also killed the Yizhou assassin Shi Xijian, and then transferred to Shu County and Qianwei area. In just one month, the Yellow Turban Army led by Ma Xiang broke through the three counties in a row, conquered the prefecture and killed the assassin Shi, and its momentum has reached its peak.

At this time, Ma Xiang was carried away by the successive huge victories, he simply proclaimed himself the Son of Heaven, and there were tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops under his command, and later sent his subordinates to attack Ba County, conquered Ba County, and killed Ba County Taishou Zhao Department.

Ma Xiang claimed to be the Son of Heaven and then became the target of the public, Yizhou engaged in Jia Long led hundreds of soldiers to collect officials and people in the east of Qianwei County, got more than 1,000 horses, attacked Ma Xiang, although Ma Xiang had many soldiers and horses, but it was not Jia Long's opponent at all, a few days later Ma Xiang was defeated and retreated, Ma Xiang and Zhao Yi came to no record, and the rebellion of Ma Zhao Yizhou was pacified by Jia Long.

After stabilizing the situation in Yizhou, Jia Long sent people to welcome Liu Yan into Yizhou, after which Liu Yan gradually took control of Yizhou and became semi-independent of the imperial court.