Dong Zhuo was in turmoil

In order to seize power, Dong Zhuo began to eradicate his opponents, and his methods were brutal, which caused a lot of dissatisfaction. He urged Lü Bu to kill Ding Yuan, who was in charge of the capital's guards, and to seize his army, and Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, among other generals who had previously held military power, fled the capital Luoyang. In the end, Dong Zhuo abolished and killed Emperor Shao of the Han Dynasty, and renamed Liu Xie as the emperor, known as Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, so that Dong Zhuo completely controlled the imperial court.

In 190, Dongjun Taishou Qiaomao fraudulently claimed to send a document to various places in the name of the three princes of Beijing, stating Dong Zhuo's evil deeds, and contacting local governors, assassins and Taishou to crusade against Dong Zhuo, a total of 11 local armies joined, and Yuan Shao was promoted as the leader of the alliance, known as the "Kwantung Army" in history. In order to avoid its edge, Dong Zhuo kidnapped Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, forcibly relocated the residents, moved the capital to Chang'an, and burned the old capital Luoyang. During this period, only Sun Jian and Cao Cao of the Kwantung Coalition Army really sent troops to fight against Dong Zhuo, but they retreated due to lack of staying power, and the Kwantung Army was disbanded. Since then, the heroes have divided one side and attacked each other. After Dong Zhuo moved the capital, he proclaimed himself the Taishi and continued to control the government.

In 192, Dong Zhuo was finally assassinated by Situ Wang Yun and his subordinate Lu Bu, and his people were also slaughtered. Soon, Dong Zhuo's subordinates Li Dao, Guo Yan and others led troops to attack Chang'an, killing Wang Yun, Lu Bu's troops were defeated and fled, and Li Dao and others held Emperor Xian of Han hostage and ruled for four years. During this period, Liangzhou Ma Teng and Han Sui also led the army to approach Chang'an. Li Dao sent Guo Yan, Fan Chou, and his nephew Li Li to defeat Ma Teng and others in Changpingguan. In 195, due to the internal discord between Li Dao and Guo Yan and others, there was an internal fight, and the emperor and the ministers were held hostage, and Chang'an fell into a war. In July, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty left Chang'an and began to return to Luoyang. Li Dao, Guo Yan and others joined forces again to pursue Emperor Xian. Later, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty sent people to make peace with Li Dao and Guo Yan before stopping the pursuit. In 196, Emperor Xian went into exile and returned to the old capital Luoyang, which had become a ruin, and was then welcomed to Xudu by Cao Cao. The following year, Guo Yan was killed by his own subordinate Wu Xi. In 198, Cao Cao sent Pei Mao to lead Duan Xuan and other generals in Guanzhong to crusade against Li Dao, and Li Dao was killed.

The heroes are divided

After the end of the crusade against Dong Zhuo, the local warlords ignored the Eastern Han Emperor's regime and turned to develop their own forces. Zhang Ji, the former subordinate of Dong Zhuo, was due to a lack of food in the army, plundered through Nanyang, Jingzhou, and was killed in battle during the attack on the city. After his army was inherited by his nephew Zhang Xiu, he was placed in Wancheng by Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao to join forces to resist Cao Cao. Sun Jian was killed in battle during the attack on Xiangyang, which was owned by Liu Biao, and his son Sun Ce defected to Yuan and borrowed troops from him to lead Sun Jian's old army to fight in Jiangdong from 196 to 199. In the end, Sun Ce led Jiangdong alone, confronted Liu Biao, and waited for the opportunity to go north to the Central Plains. In 197, Yuan Shu was proclaimed emperor in Shouchun, and the country name was "Cheng", and was finally defeated by Cao Cao and Liu Bei. In 194, Yizhou Mu Liu Yan died of illness, and his son Liu Zhang took over, breaking with Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, and the two sides confronted each other. Ma Teng, Han Sui and others developed their own forces in Liangzhou and Yongzhou. After Gongsun Zhan defeated Liu Yu, he dominated Youzhou, and was finally destroyed by Yuan Shao. Lü Bu, who moved eastward, first captured Cao Cao's Yanzhou, was defeated and attached to Liu Bei, and then his territory Xuzhou, and was finally captured and executed by Cao Cao in Xiapi. Liu Bei succeeded Tao Qian, who died of illness, as the pastor of Xuzhou, but lost Xuzhou to Lü Bu and Cao Cao, and had to rely on Yuan Shao in Hebei, and later fled to Runan to try to establish power.

In this period, the most outstanding achievements of the various forces were Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, Yuan Shao first used a plan to occupy Han Fu's Jizhou, and then defeated Tian Kai, Zang Hong, Gongsun Zan and others, mastered the four states of Qing, Hebei, You, and dominated, and the momentum was strong. Cao Cao fought everywhere, incorporated about 100,000 men, women and children from the rest of the Yellow Turban Army, and selected its elite to form the famous "Qingzhou Army", which took control of Yanzhou after several turns. After Cao Cao set up the emperor who fled eastward to Xuchang, he used the name of the imperial court to crusade against the heroes of various places; He successively broke Yuan Shu, destroyed Lu Bu, lowered Zhang Xiu, and chased Liu Bei. The influence developed into Yan, Henan, Xu Sanzhou, part of Sili, Yongzhou and other Central Plains regions. As the power of Yuan and Cao continued to grow, a decisive battle finally took place. In 200 AD, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao through the Battle of Guandu, and in a few years, he eliminated the forces of Yuan Shao's three sons, Yuan Tan, Yuan Xi, and Yuan Shang. Through his northern expedition to Karasuma and the pacification of Gongsun Kang in Liaodong, Cao Cao essentially unified the north.

The Three Kingdoms stand together

In 208, after Cao Cao unified the north, he took advantage of Liu Biao's illness and death to lead his army south, and his son Liu Cong surrendered to Cao Cao, Liu Bei left Xinye and went south to Jiangling, where he was chased and defeated by Cao's army on the way and fled to Xiakou. At this time, Lu Su went to the reserve to inquire about the situation, and Liu Bei also sent Zhuge Liang to Jiangdong, and the two sides formed an alliance to resist Cao's army. The combined forces of Sun and Liu defeated Cao's army at Chibi and forced Cao's army to retreat to the Central Plains. Scholars have different views on the time that led to the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period. Sun Quan and Liu Bei also began to compete for Jingzhou separately. Liu Bei successfully forced the surrender of the four counties of Jingnan; And Zhou Yu, the general of Sun Quan's department, also sent troops to the southern county of Jingzhou, and successfully took the northwest area as a territory.