Chapter 4 3. Gongsun Du became the emperor of Tu

After talking about Gongsundu's entrustment, let's talk about Gongsundu. Gongsun Du (150-204 A.D.), courtesy name Shengji, from Xiangping, was born and raised in Liaodong.Gongsun Du has two sons, the eldest son Gongsun Kang, and the second son Gongsun Gong.Gongsun Kang also has two sons, the eldest son Gongsun Huang and the second son Gongsun Yuan.Their branch is the authentic Liaodong Gongsun family. Let's take a look at the resume of the first emperor of Liaodong: In 167 AD, 18-year-old Gongsun Du and his father Gongsun Yan moved to Xuantu County (now Jilin Province and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula), and Gongsun Du also served as a county official.Xuantu prefect Gongsunyu is a good leader. He not only reused Gongsundu, arranged for him to study, but also arranged a marriage for him.

In 169 A.D., the 20-year-old Gongsun Du achieved success in his studies and was appointed as Shang Shulang. In 170 AD, the 21-year-old Gongsun Du had a chance to become a candidate for the governor of Jizhou, but for some reason (probably falsely accused) he was dismissed. In 189 AD, the 40-year-old Gongsun Du finally ushered in the most important turning point in his life - he was recommended by Xu Rong, a fierce general under Dong Zhuo's command, as the prefect of Liaodong. In 190 AD, the 41-year-old Gongsun Du divided Liaodong into Liaoxi and Zhongliao prefectures, crossed the sea to occupy the counties of Donglai, set up Yingzhou governor, and established himself as Liaodong Marquis and Pingzhou Mu.

In 191 AD, Beihai Guanning, Bing Yuan, and Wang Lie went to seek refuge with the 42-year-old Gongsun Du. In 204 AD, Cao Cao recommended the 55-year-old Gongsun Du as General Wuwei and Marquis of Yongning Township.Soon, Gongsun Du died, Gongsun Kang inherited his official position, and Gongsun Gong inherited his title. From Gongsundu's resume, we can see that before the age of 40, he basically did nothing. It is estimated that he used his family's name to wander around the capital, find a few friends to brag about, and engage in interpersonal relationships, and it was not very good. , was secretly "killed" on the eve of becoming a candidate for the governor.

In 189 A.D., so many things happened in the Central Plains: Dong Zhuo's chaos, Cao Cao's rebellion, the political structure of the entire Eastern Han Dynasty was overturned, and Gongsun Du also turned around.Gongsundu's great benefactor is Xu Rong, a fellow villager. This Xu Rong has very low settings in the Three Kingdoms game, and is basically a third-rate general. But in reality, Xu Rong, who was born in Liaodong but made his fortune in the Xiliang Army, is an out-and-out fierce man.Xu Rong's record can be summed up in twelve words: defeated Cao Cao, defeated Sun Jian, and killed Xinfeng.

OK, that's enough.Those who can do Cao Cao and Sun Jian must not be cowards. However, one of the most influential things Xu Rong did in his life was recommending his fellow villager Gongsun Du to Dong Zhuo.Soon, Gongsun Du was appointed by Dong Zhuo as the prefect of Liaodong.The fate of Gongsundu has changed, and the fate of Liaodong has also changed.However, Gongsun Du was not the first person to manage Liaodong in Chinese history. The Han regime in the Central Plains first established an administrative agency in Liaodong in the Warring States Period.Since then, Xiangping has been the political, military and economic center of Liaodong.After Emperor Wu of the Han conquered Wei's Korea, he established the famous four prefectures of Xuantu, Lelang, Zhenfan, and Lintun on the Korean Peninsula outside Liaodong, and placed the Korean Peninsula under the rule of the Western Han Dynasty.

Regarding the contents of Jizi North Korea, Weishi North Korea, and the four counties of the Western Han Dynasty, I will describe in detail in the following chapters. Now, it's Gongsundu's turn to flex his muscles. However, when he rushed to Liaodong to take office in high spirits, he found that he was facing an extremely complicated situation, with various problems complicated and the situation quite chaotic. We can look at it from the following aspects: First, politically, the Eastern Han government had almost zero control over the Liaodong region.Some people may ask, isn't Gongsundu himself an official appointed by the Eastern Han government?Could he not represent the Eastern Han government?Really can not represent.Who appointed Gongsundu?Dong Zhuo.Who is Dong Zhuo?Han thief.Why did Dong Zhuo appoint Gongsun Du?In order to place their own people on the northeast border.Did Gongsundu get the opportunity to be released through legitimate channels?No, he left because of his fellow villager Xu Rong's relationship—a fellow villager can be regarded as a kind of nepotism.What did Gongsundu do in Liaodong? Did he buy or sell it for the government?He went to Liaodong, at best, to expand his ambitions, at worst, to establish his own family.Well, now that we understand the ins and outs and motivations, we know that Gongsun Du is just doing a separatist regime in the name of the Eastern Han government.Can he still represent the government?He represents himself and the interests of the Gongsun family.

There are advantages and disadvantages of zero government control.The advantage is that the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and no one will take care of it; the disadvantage is also obvious, without any support from the government, everything can only be relied on by oneself. Second, economically, Liaodong was still an underdeveloped area at that time.Despite hundreds of years of development in the Han Dynasty, the economic development of Liaodong is still very slow, and the degree of prosperity and development is far less than that of the Central Plains.If you want to separate yourself, you need to raise soldiers; if you want to raise soldiers, you need money.But Gongsundu has no money.

Third, culturally, Liaodong is a land of "uncivilized outside Germany".Who are the people who went to Liaodong?One is the one who went to war, the soldier; Fourth, in terms of composition, the composition of Liaodong is too complicated.The Wuhuan tribes are entrenched in the northwest of Liaodong, and they will go south from time to time to fight the autumn wind. In the east and outside Xuantu County, there is a newly formed Goguryeo nation, and in the north, Xianbei is also rising rapidly. The forces of various ethnic groups were divided and surrounded, and the situation was not very good.

No matter who comes to be the chief of Liaodong, a little carelessness will lead to chaos. what to do? Swing your arms and do it!Dry with care. In the next few years, Gongsundu began to drastically rectify Liaodong.His measures, in a nutshell, are: internally, settle the people, develop the economy, recruit talents, and accumulate strength; externally, use Gongsun Zan to attack Wuhuan in the west and Goguryeo in the east to expand maritime influence. The most critical point of these two measures is to make good use of Gongsun Zan's natural good "trust" to obtain a relatively safe external environment for Liaodong.Although the history books do not clearly record whether Gongsun Du took the initiative to send people to befriend Gongsun Zan, judging from the fact that these two neighboring forces have not had large-scale armed conflicts for more than ten years, Gongsun Du, as the weaker party, must have made diplomatic efforts .And Gongsun Zan didn't take the little Liaodong seriously, he was busy quelling rebellions in various places, fighting with Liu Yu, Yuan Shao and others, and basically had no time to look east.With such an extremely "aggressive" force "escorting" in the west, Liaodong was very lucky to escape the war at the end of the Han Dynasty.

With Gongsun Zan as a barrier, Gongsun Du was able to carry out his "plan to govern the Liao Dynasty" with ease.So, is Gongsundu's "grand plan for governing Liao Dynasty" intended to use Liaodong as a base, gradually increase his strength, and then go west to fight for hegemony in the world?Hundreds of years later, the Murong family of Xianbei took the road of gaining a foothold in Liaodong and going to the world. In troubled times, everyone has the desire to strive for hegemony. There are people like Yuan Shu who are overconfident, and of course there are people like Gongsun Du who are sober-minded and live within their capabilities.Gongsun Du knew very well that with Liaodong's own strength alone, it is impossible to compete with the princes of the Central Plains for the world. Even Liaodong itself is still a mess, so how can we compete for the world?He knows better that his talent can only be a local emperor (much better than his grandson) at best.

Therefore, Gongsun Du has a very low position for himself. The first thing he can do is to protect the environment and the people, and the second is to seek development. To fight against the outside world, we must first settle down inside. After Gongsundu took office, he soon discovered that the local work was not easy to do: Liaodong was located in the border area, the people were tough, disobedient to discipline, the local power was huge, and local officials at all levels were basically just decorations.Especially the local noble families, they didn't take him seriously at all.We know that local people generally have two tactics to deal with newly appointed officials. First, they do what they like and use various methods to buy them; until.Gongsun Du is not so easy to buy, he is a native of Liaodong, if he does not do well at the door of his house, he will be ashamed of the three generations of his ancestors.Heavy codes are used in troubled times, and Gongsun Du is no exception. He decided to deal with those who don't know the severity. The first thing Gongsundu did was to build a reliable team, install cronies in the government and eliminate dissidents; then he punished the powerful with all his strength, and executed Liaodong Yangguo Lieutenant Gongsun Zhao and the local lawless family Tian Zhao, let those local snakes taste his power, established his prestige in Liaodong in one fell swoop, and made the common people think that he is a good official who "loves the people like a son".After clearing away the governance obstacles, Gongsundu dealt with a large number of backlogged government affairs, which made the government orders in the whole Liaodong smooth and the atmosphere invigorated. After pacifying the territory of Liaodong, Gongsundu began to deal with the ethnic minority forces around Liaodong.He first used troops to the east, and his first goal was Goguryeo.At this time, the ruler of Goguryeo was the new king Bogu (126-191 AD).During Bogu's reign, he harassed Lelang, Xuantu, Liaodong and other places many times.When Gongsundu was under Gongsunyu, he had experienced the hatefulness of the Goguryeo people, so he concentrated his forces and defeated Bogu. Gongsun Du defeated Bogu, and Goguryeo surrendered; hundreds of years later, the Tang Dynasty defeated Japan, and Japan surrendered, and they continued to send people to study.It can be seen that only diplomacy based on strength and strikes is real diplomacy. Perhaps Bogu was really scared of being beaten by Gongsun Du. Not only did he submit obediently, but he also sent people to assist Gongsun Du in the second year to wipe out the bandits entrenched in Fushan.Soon, Gongsun Du sent Liu Yi across the Bohai Sea, occupied Donglai and other counties along the Qingzhou coast, and appointed him as the governor of Yingzhou, completely controlling the sea traffic between the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea.After that, Gongsun Du further expanded eastward, annexing the two counties of Xuantu and Lelang.After pacifying the east, Gongsundu turned around and went west, defeating the Wuhuan tribe in western Liaoning and other places in succession, and took the entire eastern Liaoning into his pocket. Gongsun Du also understood that beating alone was not enough.He chose a beautiful clan woman to marry King Fuyu, and through the marriage, he made Buyeo his foreign aid and contained Goguryeo from behind.For a while, Gongsun Du seemed to be the overlord of Northeast Asia, and officially started the process of dominating Liaohai. After the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising, the Central Plains continued to fight, and Liaodong became a refuge for the Central Plains, especially Hebei scholars and common people.Gongsundu took a tolerant and welcoming attitude towards these refugees—the scholars brought advanced culture to the Liaodong area, and the exiled people brought sufficient labor and advanced production technology to the development of the Liaodong area. Among the scholars who defected to Liaodong, the more famous ones were Guan Ning and Tai Shici.Guan Ning was a scholar at the time, and his arrival made Gongsun Du very happy - for Gongsun Du, being able to recruit talents like Guan Ning would not only enrich his staff team, but also form a good reputation , Attract more talents to come and join us. However, virtuous talents are matched with heroic masters, enlightened masters and talents are a two-way selection process-the powerful want to recruit talents who can help them achieve great achievements, and the scholars are also selecting enlightened masters who can show what they have learned.Governing one side, Gongsun Du is competent; but compared to discussing Mingzhu and Xiongzhu, Gongsundu is still far behind. He is at most a small local warlord.In other words, the first choice of scholars is often famous scholars like Yuan Shao and potential stocks like Cao Cao, while those left to Gongsun Du are often only some literati with the purpose of avoiding the world and writing books.Guan Ning is just such a great talent who is knowledgeable and talented, but unable to make a career in troubled times.Therefore, despite opening its arms, there are not many talents that Liaodong can recruit and retain. Tai Shici is a good example. The reason why Cao Cao was able to conquer the north and achieve hegemony is that his subordinates are full of talents and know how to employ them.The quantity, pros and cons, and use of talents determine the trend of a certain force to a large extent.The embarrassment of not being able to retain talents allowed the Gongsun family to separate Liaodong for half a century, but it was difficult to do much. "Since it is difficult to expand, then we should honestly manage our own one-acre three-point land." Gongsun Du has self-knowledge and does the same.During the years when Gongsun Zan, Liu Yu, Yuan Shao, Zhang Yan, Cao Cao and other princes wrestled with each other in the north, Gongsun Du guarded the land to protect himself, accumulated strength, and was a good bystander for more than ten years. Under the management of Gongsun Du, the society in Liaodong was peaceful, and the economy and culture developed to a greater extent.After more than ten years of hard work, Gongsun Du has become a veritable "King of Liaodong". He once said to his cronies: "The Han Dynasty will die, and I will be the king's ear with the princes." The "king" here does not mean going west to the Central Plains to compete with the heroes for the world, but to establish a small independent country belonging to the Gongsun family in Liaodong outside the Central Plains.Gongsun Du cautiously realized his ambitions. First, he divided Liaodong County into three counties, and outside Liaodong County, he established Liaoxi County and Zhongliao County. and "Liaodong Marquis".The so-called Pingzhou is to separate Liaoxi, Liaodong, and North Korea, which were originally under the jurisdiction of Youzhou, into a state of its own. After Cao Cao coerced the emperor to make the princes, in order to win the support of the princes of the world, he also worshiped Gongsundu as "General Wuwei" and "Lord of Yongning Township" in the name of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty.On the surface, Gongsun Du accepted the court's award, but he didn't take it seriously in his heart-compared with the real king of Liaodong, the little "Yongning Township" is nothing.Cao Cao was also very aware of Gongsundu's small calculations, but he was busy fighting in the Central Plains at the time, so he had to turn a blind eye and let Gongsundu take the lead in Liaodong. In 204 A.D. (the ninth year of Jian'an of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty), Gongsun Du passed away, and his eldest son, Gongsun Kang, came to the throne and became the new king of Liaodong.