[Dong Cheng, Emperor Xian and Cao Cao]

Dong Cheng has a very close relationship with Emperor Liu Xie of the Han Dynasty in history, he is the only one who has been following the Emperor of the Han Dynasty from Chang'an to Luoyang and then to Xuchang when he moved to the Middle East.

Later, Emperor Xian also took Dong Cheng's daughter, who was Dong Guiren, so the relationship between Dong Cheng and Emperor Xian was very close, and Dong Cheng himself was undoubtedly the leader of the royalist party.

In later generations, Dong Cheng was considered Cao Cao's enemy because of the edict incident, but the relationship between Dong Cheng and Cao Cao was actually not so simple, in history, Dong Cheng first took refuge in Zhang Yang, and once prevented Cao Cao's army from entering Luoyang, but later it was Dong Cheng who wrote a secret edict to Cao Cao to let Cao Cao go to Luoyang, and finally made Cao Cao successfully coerce the Son of Heaven and order the princes.

Therefore, Dong Cheng and Cao Cao had a honeymoon period, after Cao Cao took power, Dong Cheng was gradually promoted to the rank of general of the chariot cavalry, and was able to open the government, and in the sequence of generals, his status has been second only to the general Yuan Shao at that time.

At this time, Dong Cheng was already one of the undoubted leaders of the imperial party.

【Dong Cheng's life experience】

There are three theories about Dong Cheng's life history in history, the first one is that he is a relative of the former Empress Dowager Dong, this statement is mainly from Pei Songzhi, he wrote directly in the note "Chen Song's case: Dong Cheng, the nephew of the Empress Dowager Dong, the mother of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, Yu Xian Emperor is the father-in-law." Gaigu has no name, so he is called his uncle. ”

However, there is no other specific material to support this.

The second theory believes that Dong Cheng is Dong Zhuo's relative, after all, Dong Cheng is from the Xiliang Army, and his surname is Dong, so it is difficult not to think of the relationship between him and Dong Zhuo.

But this point is also mostly speculative and not supported by historical materials.

The third is that Dong Cheng has little to do with Dong Zhuo and Empress Dowager Dong.

Regarding these three statements, Mo Waiyi is inconclusive.

["Cloth and Belt Edict" Incident]

Although the "Edict of Clothes and Belts" incident was very famous in later generations because of the emperor's uncle, in fact, Liu Bei was really just a supporting role at that time, and the protagonists were Dong Chenghe and Emperor Xian.

The cause of this event in history was the seizure of power by Emperor Xian and Dong Cheng and others. Since Cao Cao moved the capital, the power of the court was controlled by Cao Cao, he deposed the Taiwei Yang Biao, Sikong Zhang Xi, Emperor Xian became a puppet again, and at that time Emperor Xian was already an adult, no longer a teenager, but a hot-blooded young man about twenty years old, so Emperor Xian no longer wanted to be someone else's pawn and puppet, he wanted to regain his due power.

But Xuchang is Cao Cao's Xuchang, where Emperor Xian lacked strength, until the fourth year of Jian'an (199) Dong Cheng became a general of Che Cai and obtained the power to open the palace, and then Emperor Liu Xie had the possibility of confronting Cao Cao.

And for Dong Cheng, eliminating Cao Cao was a temptation that he couldn't refuse, Dong Cheng was already a general at the time, and at the same time a relative, if he went further, he would be a general, and what did this mean, it meant that as long as Dong Cheng succeeded, he would be the next Liang Ji, Dou Wu, and He Jin! will be a very human minister, standing under one person and above ten thousand.

So after Emperor Xian handed over the secret edict hidden in his pocket to Dong Cheng, he did it without hesitation!

Although Dong Cheng had already opened the mansion at that time, he alone still couldn't deal with Cao Cao, so he began to win over other people, including Liu Bei, the general of the left, the prince of the partial general, the captain of Changshui, and Wu Shuo, the Lang Wu Shuo and others. Among them, Liu Bei and Wang Zifu are the key figures.

At that time, Dong Cheng pulled the prince into suit and said: "Guo Yan has defeated tens of thousands of Li Dao with hundreds of troops, so now it depends on whether you and I are of the same heart!" Lu Buwei became rich after having Zichu, and now you and I can do the same. ”

And the prince was afraid, so he hurriedly excused himself: "I am too frightened to do it, and my troops are insufficient." Dong Cheng responded: "If you succeed in killing Cao Cao, you can get his abundant troops, isn't it enough?" Wang Zifu asked again: "Is there anyone who works in Beijing?" Dong Cheng replied: "Captain Changshui and Wu Shuo are all my confidants. The two sides then conspired.

And Liu Bei didn't agree to this at first, but then Cao Cao said that only Liu Bei and him were heroes in the world, Liu Bei was frightened and immediately joined them, and then before he could launch Liu Bei, he was sent by Cao Cao to deal with Yuan Shu, so he betrayed Cao Cao and captured Xuzhou.

After Liu Bei took Xuzhou, Cao Cao sent people to crusade against Liu Bei and failed, and there were threats from Yuan Shao and Liu Bei and others, and the situation was more favorable to Dong Cheng and others.

However, in the first month of the fifth year of Jian'an (200), Dong Cheng and others conspired to kill Cao Cao, and Dong Cheng, Chongji, Wu Zilan, Wang Zifu and Dong Cheng's daughter Dong Guiren were all killed by Cao Cao. At that time, Dong Guiren was already pregnant, and Emperor Han Xian pleaded with Cao Cao several times for her, but in the end Cao Cao still ordered her to be killed.

[Impact of the "Edict of Clothes" Incident]

Cao Cao was faced with internal and external troubles at that time, with Yuan Shao and Liu Bei threatening from the outside, and Dong Cheng and others conspiring to make trouble internally, and Cao Cao made a decision immediately after knowing about it, cutting off a major internal worry, otherwise Dong Cheng launched a rebellion when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao confronted each other, which was very likely to make Cao Cao's success.

But this matter still has a very bad impact, this matter marks the public deterioration of the relationship between Cao Cao and Emperor Xian, before this incident, although Cao Cao actually used the Son of Heaven as a puppet, but the Son of Heaven has no opinion, and everyone can not say anything, and after this incident, the bad relationship between Cao Cao and the Son of Heaven was exposed in front of the world, so that everyone knew that the Son of Heaven wanted to regain his power, and did not like Cao Cao.

This was a major blow to Cao Cao's prestige, and in a sense, Cao Cao's image in the hearts of the people of the world directly changed from a great hero to a careerist who coerced the Son of Heaven, arousing the dissatisfaction of many orthodox people against Cao Cao.

On the other hand, this incident also made Liu Xie have a clear understanding of his current situation, and Liu Xie has been a lot more honest for a long time.

After the "Edict of the Cloth and Belt" incident, Cao Cao knew that Liu Bei was also involved, so he made up his mind to crusade against Liu Bei, and finally defeated Liu Bei in Xuzhou, captured Liu Bei's family, Liu Bei and Zhang Fei fled to the north to join Yuan Shao, and Guan Yu chose to surrender to Cao Cao.

Then Yuan Shao's army pressed the border, and the two most powerful princes on the Central Plains Continent were about to usher in a decisive battle.