Chapter 33 Five, Dong Zhuo's chestnuts from the fire

Dong Zhuo, the "old official of the Yuan family" in Yuan Shao's eyes, is a person with a very poor historical evaluation. Even Chen Shou, who has always been gentle and tactful, has the same evaluation of him: "Fierce, cruel, tyrannical and heartless, since written records, there has never been a There have been such villains." Chen Shou has a comment for everyone who has records and biographies in "Three Kingdoms", and this one for Dong Zhuo, I am afraid that it will be listed as the first villain list. This comment is a bit of a total negative meaning, and it does not conform to the point of view of historical materialism and the point of view of dividing the problem into two parts.Speaking of which, Dong Zhuo also did a lot of things for the Han Dynasty, at least before he led his troops to Luoyang, he still focused on his contribution to the court.He joined the army very early and gave full play to his military expertise to help the court fight against the Qiang people. Although he is not (nor can be called) a national hero, he at least guarded the west gate for the court. Because of his bravery in battle, his military rank has risen steadily .This must not attract jealousy, this is what people risked their lives for.

Later, he helped the imperial court fight against the Yellow Turban Army. Although he had no record, he did not miss major events.Even in the face of unfavorable battle conditions, he still has self-knowledge, and giving up leadership positions to more capable people is not a high-spirited one, but a sense of the overall situation.However, he was a bit selfish when he started the war. He liked to set up small hills and form cliques.This problem became more and more serious. In the end, he didn't even implement the orders of the court. He refused to come when he was transferred to work in the central government.

Based on the above, so far, it cannot be said how bad this person is. He is not a good comrade but he is not a big villain either.Dong Zhuo's notoriety in history comes from what he did afterwards. This comrade has a problem, he likes to be self-righteous, Yuan Shao suffers from him, and he suffers from it. According to Yuan Shao's logic, anyone who has worked for the Yuan family is an "old official of the Yuan family", and no matter where they go in the future, they must listen to the Yuan family's greetings.This matter can be done on Bie Shang, but not on Dong Zhuo.

If Yuan Shao's logic holds true, Dong Zhuo is not only an "old official of the Yuan family", but also an "old official of the Zhang family" (Zhang Huan, Zhang Wen), an "old official of the Zhong family" (Zhong Song), and an "old official of the Huangfu family" (Huangfugui, Huangfusong)...... Dong Zhuo is required to listen to hello, can Dong Zhuo listen?What's more, Dong Zhuo didn't intend to listen at all. Dong Zhuo only believed in himself, besides himself, he also believed in strength.Different from other warlords in Liangzhou, Dong Zhuo was recommended to Luoyang to take up some low-level civil positions in his early years, so he knew something about the internal situation of the imperial court.

What Dong Zhuo wants to accomplish is self-struggle and self-salvation, and he relies on his own strength. Dong Zhuo, who led three thousand Liangzhou elites all the way to the east, "met unexpectedly" with Shaodi and others who were fleeing, which made Dong Zhuo firmly believe that it was God's will. In the early morning of August 28, all the officials and people in Luoyang, who had been terrified all night, ran outside the north gate to greet them when they heard that the emperor and King Chen Liu and his party were about to return to the city safely.The main entrance of the north gate is Gumen, and there are people on both sides of the avenue. Hundreds of officials and people headed by Taifu Yuan Kai are here to welcome the return of the emperor.

They didn't see the guard of honor of the emperor, but the Liangzhou iron cavalry in heavy armor. These soldiers were different from the Northern Army, Huben, and Habayashi guards that Luoyang officials and people usually saw. They looked stronger and cold-blooded. Walking in the front of the Liangzhou cavalry was the majestic Dong Zhuo, who was a little fat and looked very strong.With the help of three thousand soldiers behind him, he looked even more rebellious. Yuan Shao who was standing by the road saw this situation, did he feel some kind of uneasiness? The emperor was welcomed into Nangong by everyone, and Empress Dowager He also recuperated in Nangong after being injured.The important affairs of the court now depend on how the Tai Fu Yuan Wei and others arrange it.

Yuan Kai was unprepared for the presidency of state affairs. He was already the Shanggong above the three lords. If he wanted to retire honorably in this position, how to govern the entire country was not in his consideration. He may not know that in less than three years, he will be beheaded in the name of the family members of the rebels, and he is the only one in the history of the Yuan family. Now, thanks to the support of his nephew Yuan Shao, Yuan Kai is not too flustered.Yuan Shao seemed to have made up his mind a long time ago. He asked his uncle to come forward to hold a meeting, inviting the minister and all the important people in Luoyang to attend, including Dong Zhuo.

As for how to arrange Dong Zhuo in the next step, Yuan Shao has not yet made up his mind, so let's wait until the meeting to see. At this time, there was a person who saw it more clearly than Yuan Shao, and he was Bao Xin who had just returned from recruiting troops from Chenliu County (now Kaifeng, Henan).As one of the first recruiting teams to arrive in Luoyang, Bao Xin suggested to Yuan Shao to capture Dong Zhuo in one fell swoop when he had few troops to avoid future troubles. Sun Jian said something similar to Zhang Wen many years ago.But the result was the same, Yuan Shao's reaction was not much different from Zhang Wen's (Shao was afraid of Zhuo, so he didn't dare to post).Disappointed, Bao Xin returned to Chenliu County under the pretext of going back to recruit some more troops.

If Bao Xin's suggestion is adopted, the chances of winning Dong Zhuo are relatively high, but a large number of troops from Dong Zhuo's corps will arrive later. They will not give up this excuse of using troops, and will take the opportunity to capture Guanzhong and even the area west of Luoyang. It will turn to join hands with newly rising rebel forces such as Han Sui and Ma Teng, and the entire western part of the empire will be lost. Then it depends on whether Yuan Shao and others have the ability to regain the dominance of these areas.Although this result is not good, it is much better than what will happen later.

Due to Yuan Shao's lack of courage, he lost his only chance to eliminate Dong Zhuo.At the meeting held later, Dong Zhuo had the power to speak because he was backed by 3,000 extremely powerful Liangzhou soldiers. Sikong Liu Hong was dismissed on the spot because he wanted to make room for Dong Zhuo.Dong Zhuo was appointed as Sikong and became one of the three princes. Within two days, Dong Zhuo wanted to be a Taiwei again, so Emperor Shaodi issued an edict to appoint him as Taiwei. Under the leadership of Dong Zhuo, the personnel arrangement has been greatly adjusted.Yuan Kui still served as Taifu, but Lu Shang Shu Shi (presiding over the daily work of the court) was no longer mentioned.Yang Biao served as Situ.

Yuan Shao was still the captain of Sili.Yuan Shu's position has been changed, from Huben Zhonglang General to Rear General, from Brigadier General to Lieutenant General, it looks pretty, but in fact it is a secret promotion. Huben Zhonglang directly commanded the emperor's Imperial Forest Army, and then the general was just a title, meaningless, and Yuan Shu's military power was deprived.This was a dangerous signal. Both Yuan Wei and Yuan Shao understood that the Taiwei Dong in front of him was no longer the little Dong who had looked up to Yuan's family. They had to have full plans for the worst outcome. Cao Cao's position has also changed. Before that, he was a captain and was responsible for training new infantry troops.Dong Zhuo appointed Cao Cao to serve in another cavalry unit.Some people think that this is also an act of ascending and descending secretly, with the purpose of taking away the military power in Cao Cao's hands.But some people think that Dong Zhuo thinks highly of Cao Cao, and he intends to win him over when he is employing people. Yuan Kai and Yuan Shao did not completely fail in this personnel change. After all, Dong Zhuo's foothold is not stable at this time, and he still needs to consider cooperation.In this way, Xun Shuang, Wang Yun, Ding Yuan and others who were pro-Yuan's faction entered the ranks of Jiuqing, and He, Zheng Tai, Zhou Wei, Wu Qiong, Zheng Tai and others became Dong Zhuo's staff. It is not clear how such a person won Dong Zhuo's trust, this is a rather unimaginable thing.If he had to explain, he could only say that He Haoren was an excellent underground worker. He had been hiding it very deeply before, and Dong Zhuo didn't quite know their true relationship with Yuan Shao. Judging from the development of things in the future, whoever came to Dong Zhuo's side to help make suggestions was more like a well-designed latent plan. Now is not the time to tear yourself apart, you can't do it to Dong Zhuo, and you can't do it to Yuan Shao.Next, the two sides launched their respective layouts, and raced against time under the condition that everything was peaceful on the surface.