Originally posted by chanjk:
Hmm...I will try to write out those events that I know about during that period.
Please correct me if it's wrong. Thanks. (My English is not very good so forgive my grammar and spelling errors)
During the late Eastern Han Dynasty, there are alot of corruption within the central government (Chao Ting) and so, peasants suffered alot during the those years.
Because of the sufferings, Zhang Jiao who hold the 'The Way of Peace' easily convert peasants into his sect (another reason is that the central government has positive views on 'The Way of Peace' and allow it to spread and did not stop him) So, with enough support he started the Yellow Turban Rebellion. But the rebellion ended when Zhang Jiao died.
Although the rebellion ended, the chaos brought by the rebellion, together with the natural disasters that strike China during that time, had already weaken the dynasty.
Moreover, because of the rebellion, the local government have gained more military power as the local government need the troops to end the rebellion too.
Soon, the emperor (Ling) passed away (leaving his 2 young sons, aged 14 and 9, and his wife) and the central government broke into 2 major factions. One consist of eunuchs and the other consist of court officials.
During that time, chief general was He Jin and he sided with the court officials. He ordered Dong Zhuo to enter Luoyang(Capital) but before Dong Zhuo arrive, he was assassinated by eunuchs.
His ally, Yuan Shao, led troops into Luoyang and try to kill all the eunuchs. In the chaos, the remaining eunuchs fled the capital together with the 2 sons but along the way they met Dong Zhuo and Dong Zhuo bring the 2 sons back to the palace.
But when Dong Zhuo enter the capital, he turn it into a living hell as he massacre court officials and peasants. He also replace the current emperor with the younger one which make Yuan Shao fled as he diagree with Dong Zhuo's decision.
The doings that Dong Zhuo did led to a coaltion force formed by the different lords with Yuan Shao as the leader. Dong Zhuo, who know of the coalition, move everyone in the capital to Chang An and razed the capital. His troops and him remain in Luoyang to stop the coalition forces
Although alot of people are in the coalition force, none of them are willing to attack. Only Cao Cao attacked but he lost. In the end it was Sun Jian who defeated Dong Zhuo and Dong Zhuo fled. Eventually Dong Zhuo died under his own fellow subordinates, namely Li Su and Lu Bu.
As for Sun Jian, while he was on his way to remove Dong Zhuo, he already killed Hua Xiong but he was stopped by Yuan Shu as Yuan Shu stopped his food supplies. Eventually, Yuan Shu continue the food supply due to very good reasons that Sun Jian has given.
I will continue the story next time. Hope what I wrote is true...
Yup. The reason that Sun Jian give is that he is trying to help Yuan Shu to take revenge on Dong Zhuo as his family/relatives were killed by Dong Zhuo. So in the end Sun Jian managed to win Dong Zhuo but he died when he was attacking JingZhuo who was under Liu Biao's charge.
After Dong Zhuo died, Lu Bu went into exile. He tried following Yuan Shu but he got rejected. He joined Yuan Shao but only for a while as Yuan Shao see him as a threat after that. In the end, Lu Bu was executed by Cao Cao when Cao Cao capture Xiapi.
So now, in the north, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao begins to expand their territories while Yuan Shu in the south declared himself emperor. Eventually, many people under Yuan Shu left him, including Sun Ce(Sun Jian's eldest son) as at that time he was seen as a traitor( I think) as the current emperor is still around at Cao Cao's side at that time.
Sun Ce, in the south, begin to build up his base while Yuan Shu died soon after he declare himself emperor.
As for the north, everything went well for Yuan Shao and Cao Cao until when Yuan Shao delcare war on Cao Cao. Cao Cao, at that time, was thought that he will lose to Yuan Shao due to the HUGE difference in troop's size. But in the end at the Battle of Guandu he defeated Yuan Shao and from then onwards north part of china was controlled by Cao Cao. This makes him turn attention to the south. Jingzhou then was controlled by Liu Biao and Liu Bei was under him.
But when Cao Cao attacked Jingzhou, Liu Biao died and his 2 sons Liu Qi and Liu Cong take over. Liu Cong on hearing that Cao Cao is attacking JingZhou, surrendered to Cao Cao without informing Liu Bei who was in the north confronting Cao Cao soon.
So when Liu Bei knows of the news, he quickly fled south with the peasants to meet Liu Qi. But Cao Cao's troops managed to catch up with Liu Bei at Changban Slope. Liu Bei, though defeated, managed to escape and meet Liu Qi. He also try to make an alliance with Sun Quan (he took over Sun Ce when Sun Ce died). With the help of Zhuge Liang(who joined Liu Bei when he was in JingZhou), the alliance against Cao Cao was formed.
The Battle of Red Cliff was fought next when Cao Cao tried to conquer furthur. But, he was defeated although he was superior in numbers. Some of the reasons(that I think/read) for his defeat was that
1)his troops are not used to living in boats and so Cao Cao had the boats chained up. But this prove fatal as fire was easily spread around due to the close proximity of the ships and the south eastern wind(unforeseen) which happens to blow during that time.
2)Huang Gai make a 'fake surrender' to Cao Cao and Cao Cao accepts it. But what was Huang Gai doing is that he is trying to make a surprise attack on Cao Cao by sending ships that were set on fire to ram Cao Cao's boats.
3) Epidemic was spreading in Cao Cao's troops and so his troops cannot perform well.
After Cao Cao's defeat, he stopped his conquest at the south for a while. Soon after this battle, Liu Qi died and Liu Bei took over the remaining Jing Zhou.
Cao Cao then turned his attention to Zhang Lu who was at Hanzhong (Western part of China). This was also a motive to allow Cao Cao to attack Ma Chao and Han Sui at Guanzhong as Cao Cao needs to cross over their territory to attack Zhang Lu.
Of course, Ma Chao and Han Sui refused Cao Cao's entry and they formed an alliance against Cao Cao but in the end Cao Cao defeated them and take control of Hanzhong and Guanzhong.
Hmm...after much writing i begin to feel that I post this in the wrong thread as what I was trying to write out here is the actual history of the Three Kingdoms Period(San Guo Zhi). I will continue next time