The famous episode of Tao Qian’s Three Cessions of Xuzhou is not a historical fact, but a fictional narrative created in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In this dramatized account, the aging governor Tao Qian, offers the governorship of Xu Province (Xuzhou) to Liu Bei repeatedly, who in turn humbly…
In 188 AD, Liu Yan, a member of the Han imperial clan and former Governor of Nanyang, was appointed Inspector of Yizhou (modern Sichuan and Chongqing). Upon his arrival, he implemented a policy of leniency and benevolence, offering refuge and stability to a population ravaged by war elsewhere.
January 193: Cao Cao counters Yuan Shu’s advance In January 193 AD, Yuan Shu launched a northern campaign against Chenliu, preparing to attack Cao Cao in the northwestern part of Yan Province(Yanzhou).
In January 192 AD, Yuan Shao achieved a decisive victory over Gongsun Zan at the Battle of Jieqiao, a turning point that established Yuan Shao’s dominance in northern China. Despite Gongsun Zan’s elite cavalry, Yuan Shao’s general Qu Yi led a disciplined infantry force to break the charge, crippling Gongsun Zan’s ambitions and securing…
In the first month of 191, Yuan Shao and Han Fu, arguing that Emperor Xian was too young and under Dong Zhuo’s control, proposed proclaiming Liu Yu, the Governor of Youzhou and a respected member of the imperial clan, as the new emperor. However, both Cao Cao and Yuan Shu strongly opposed the move,…
In 193 AD, though the main wave of the Yellow Turban Rebellion had been suppressed, scattered remnants continued to wreak havoc across the Han Empire. Kong Rong, serving as the Chancellor of Beihai Commandery (in modern-day Shandong), found himself at the center of a dire crisis.
In a previous article, we discussed why Chen Gong betrayed Cao Cao. Today, let’s explore why Zhang Miao was also persuaded to join the rebellion and betray Cao Cao.
Chen Gong played a crucial role in Cao Cao’s early rise to power. When Liu Dai, the Inspector of Yan Province(Yanzhou), was killed in battle against the Yellow Turban rebels in 192 AD, a power vacuum emerged. Chen Gong, a native scholar-official of Yan Province and a man of high moral standing, took decisive…
In the treacherous world of the Three Kingdoms, where brilliant minds often met tragic ends, Jia Xu stands as a singular anomaly—a strategist famed not for grand visions of empire, but for ruthless pragmatism and cold calculation, yet he emerged as one of the very few who lived to a ripe old age and…