Chapter 672: The general trend of the world

Chapter 672 The general trend of the world

Chapter 670: The general trend of the world

Shortly after Lu Bu left, the eighteen princes also dispersed.

 Eighteen princes allied forces gathered because of Xiang Yu alone.

Now that Xiang Yu is dead, all the princes have naturally returned to their respective families. From then on, the war against Ming Dynasty has completely come to an end.

From June of the fourth year of Zhongping, when the Five Han armies attacked the Ming Dynasty, until December of the fifth year of Zhongping, Xiang Yu was executed by Qin Hao.

The Battle of Ming Dynasty lasted for a total of one and a half years. The war spread throughout the entire Kanto region and involved nearly a million troops. It can be said to be another peerless battle after the Yellow Turban War.

The Ming Empire, whose territory spanned the five states of Yan, Xu, Qing, Hebei, and Yu, was besieged on all sides and its troops were dispersed. It persisted for a year and a half and was finally defeated.

As for the remaining forces of the Ming Dynasty, they retreated to the Taihang Mountains and the Dabie Mountains to defend themselves and continue to resist the rule of the Han Dynasty.

 The victory of the Battle of Ming Dynasty allowed many loyal ministers who still had hope for the Han Dynasty to once again see the hope of the revival of the Han Dynasty, but this was destined to become a luxury hope.

After this battle, the Ming Dynasty was indeed destroyed, but the Han princes who occupied many Ming Dynasty territories became stronger and stronger, but the weak situation of the Han court did not change at all.

One thing is going down, the other is going up, the court is weak and the princes are strong. If things continue like this, sooner or later, mergers and melees among the princes will inevitably break out.

 The war will still not stop.

In this battle against the Ming Dynasty, all the major princes benefited to some extent, but the six major princes who benefited the most were Tao Qian, Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Liu Yao and Dong Zhuo.

Although Tao Qian was defeated miserably at the hands of Zhu Yuanzhang, he successfully regained Xuzhou and became the only prince besides Dong Zhuo to control the entire state.

Of course, Tao Qian's army was very weak, so his neighbors all coveted his Xuzhou.

Yuan Shu controlled almost all of Yuzhou, and his forces had also entered Jianghuai. He was the second prince to benefit from this.

It was originally a happy event for Liu Yao to occupy most of Jianghuai, but Yuan Shu's ambition for Jianghuai gave him a headache. The two parties had constant conflicts in private.

Yuan Shao occupied nearly half of the Jizhou land abandoned by the Ming Dynasty, and Yuan Shao also took away a county from Qingzhou, becoming a prince whose income was second only to Yuan Shu.

Cao Cao's contribution this time was second only to Li Shimin, but due to the main battle in the early stage he neglected to capture the city, so he did not occupy much land in Yuzhou. In the later period, he occupied Chenliu, Jiyin, Taishan and Rencheng in Yanzhou. The land of the county also gained greatly.

As for Dong Zhuo, he took control of the military power of Sizhou with the help of Yang Jian and Li Yuan. This was equivalent to completely bypassing Lu Zhi and taking Sizhou under his command.

Although the imperial court initiated the Battle of the Ming Dynasty, apart from sending Hou Yi to surround and kill Xiang Yu, the Chang'an imperial court played almost no role.

The imperial court sent out very few troops and provided not much food and grass. It mainly relied on various princes to start the war. Therefore, after the war, it could only compensate the princes with heavy rewards.

Yuan Shu was granted the title of Mu of Yuzhou and Marquis of Yu.

 Cao Cao was appointed as the shepherd of Yanzhou and became the Marquis of Wei.

Yuan Shao was granted the title of Qingzhou Mu and Zhaohou.

Since then, except for Liu Dai, the pastor of Jiaozhou, who died in the battle, all the state pastors of the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty have returned to their posts.

Such a war will certainly not enfeoff only these few people.

Sun Jian, who had made great contributions, was granted the titles of Jiaozhou Mu and Wuhou this time.

The three sworn brothers Qin Wen, Sun Jian, and Cao Cao were all granted the title of princes, and this incident became a legend.

Liu Bei and Song Jiang, who also captured a county in Qingzhou, were named Pingyuan Marquis and Liangshan Marquis respectively. Zhao Kuangyin and Kong Min under Yuan Shu also made great military exploits this time, so they were named the Grand Administrator of Runan and the Grand Administrator of Liang respectively.

Gongsun Xuanyuan under Gongsun Zan was also named the governor of Western Liaoning.

Bao Xin, Zhang Miao, and Qiao Mao, three men under Lu Zhi, later followed Li Shimin and made great achievements in defeating Chen Liu, so they were all named prefects.

Zhang Miao was the prefect of Dongping, Qiao Mao was the prefect of Dongjun, and Bao Xin was the prefect of Jibei.

In addition, Yuan Yi, who was guarding Wuguan, was also among the reward recipients this time because of the Yuan family's efforts and was named Shanyang Prefect.

Since then, except for one Zhang Yao, all the major governors in Yanzhou have returned to their positions in the original history.

As for Li Shimin, the biggest hero in this battle, he was named the Grand Administrator of Hanzhong and the Champion.

From this award, it is not difficult to see that the Chang'an court was fully aware of the power of the princes and wanted to check and balance the major princes through enfeoffment.

Yuan Shao obviously had most of his territory in Jizhou, but he was granted the title of Mu in Qingzhou. There were four other princes in Qingzhou: Liu Bei, Song Jiang, Kong Rong and Huang Chao.

Sun Jian's territory was clearly in Yangzhou, but he was granted the title of Jiaozhou Mu. However, Jiaozhou was still in the hands of Hong Xiuquan. Sun Jian had to take it himself if he wanted it.

Although Yuan Shu was granted the title of Mu of Yuzhou, he was granted the title of two more prefects under his command. From then on, in addition to Li Mi, Yuzhou had two more princes, Zhao Kuangyin and Kong Min.

Cao Cao was the worst. Not only did he not receive a commensurate reward for his great achievements, he was also surrounded by four other princes: Bao Xin, Zhang Miao, Qiao Mao and Yuan Yi.

You must know that Yanzhou was the center of this war, and the losses were naturally the most severe. So many princes naturally dispersed Yanzhou's power.

Although Li Shimin made the first contribution to defeating the Ming Dynasty, due to his low qualifications, he was just a general before, and coupled with his status as Dong Zhuo's son-in-law, he was destined not to be generously rewarded by the court.

 So the imperial court granted Li Shimin the title of Hanzhong County, far away from Liangzhou, and added a very meaningful champion to offset Li Shimin's great achievements.

 Since then, Li Shimin has also inherited the glorious title of Champion Marquis after Qin Hao.

After Li Shimin became the prefect of Hanzhong, there were two princes, Liu Ji and Li Shimin, under the command of Liu Yan, the pastor of Yizhou.

 So far, the imperial court has carried out a total of 4 enfeoffments, and each time it enfeoffs a state pastor, it will entrust several more prefects.

 Bingzhou, the governor of the state is Qin Wen, and the princes include Wang Shichong, Wang Kuang, Zhang Yang and Zhang Chao.

 Jingzhou, the governor of Dingyuan, has six princes: Qin Hao, Huang Zu, Han Xuan, Zhao Fan, Jin Xuan and Liu Du.

Jizhou, the state herder Huangfu Song, the princes include Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, Han Fu, and Yuan Shao who was named Qingzhou herder.

Yangzhou, Liu Yao, the state pastor, the princes include Lu Kang, Wang Lang, and Sun Jian, who was named the Jiaozhou pastor.

 …

As for Liangzhou, Dong Zhuo's control was too high. Liu Biao, the former governor of Jincheng, was completely ignored and has now become a civil servant under Dong Zhuo, so the court did not continue to enfeoff.

It is not difficult to see from this that the Chang'an court wanted to use this method of drinking poison to quench thirst and maintain the balance among the princes.

However, those who drink poison to quench their thirst are destined to be poisoned to death, and this balance is destined to be broken. At that time, it will be a great era of feudal princes competing for hegemony.

 (End of this chapter)