Text丨Rumeng History Museum
Editor丨Rumeng History Museum
preface
The end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was the beginning of the troubled times, and the princes of all parties began to fight in order to dominate one side, and all of this was actually controlled and laid out by the Yuan family alone.
In 190 AD, Dong Zhuo led his troops into Beijing, but what the Yuan family did not expect was that all his efforts made a wedding dress for others.
So, who is the Yuan family in this layout? Why did all my efforts make wedding dresses for others?
The Yuan family of the fourth and third dukes
When it comes to the Yuan family during the Three Kingdoms period, the first thing that comes to many people's minds is the "Four Worlds and Three Princes", and the Yuan family was a powerful family at that time.
And the Yuan family can be called the "Four Worlds and Three Princes" by the world, you can imagine how influential the Yuan family is. The first person in the Yuan family to enter the third duke was Yuan Kui's great-grandfather - Yuan An. With his ingenuity, Yuan An once became the leader of the clan.
Later, when the Dou clan was in charge of the government, he led the clans to confront the Dou clan and kept the throne of the Han and Emperor He, and the Yuan family became famous and was reused by the emperor.
After Yuan An's death, the emperor remembered Yuan An's previous contributions to the country, so he reused Yuan An's descendants. By the third generation of the Yuan family, a very special person appeared, and this person was Yuan Kui's father, Yuan Tang.
We know that people in ancient times were affected by diet, medical treatment, hygiene and other reasons, and everyone's life expectancy was very short. But Yuan Kui's father, Yuan Tang, was indeed an accident, and Yuan Tang lived until he was eighty-six years old, which was very surprising at that time.
As the third generation of the Yuan family, Yuan Tang lived to the end, so all the political resources of the Yuan family were concentrated on Yuan Tang. After that, with the blessing of many resources, Yuan Tang successfully became a Sangong official.
Therefore, since Yuan Kui was born, he has enjoyed the most extensive resources of the Yuan family, so his career has always been relatively smooth. But in fact, Yuan Kui was not the most valued person in the Yuan family at that time.
In most primogeniture systems in ancient times, Yuan Kui actually had an elder brother Yuan Cheng, Yuan Cheng, as the original family successor, has been very good since he was a child, and his popularity is also very good.
But God is jealous of talents, Yuan Cheng died very early, and there are no descendants. So the responsibility of the successor of the family fell on Yuan Kui and Yuan Xiao.
Because considering that Yuan Cheng had no descendants, Yuan Xiao passed his concubine, Yuan Shao, to Yuan Cheng's name. Although Yuan Xiao is older than Yuan Kui, he does not have as much power and political resources as Yuan Kui, and Yuan Xiao's life is relatively short.
So after Yuan Xiao's death, Yuan Kui naturally became the leader of the Yuan family. Yuan Kui has been a smart and clever person since he was a child, so after he became the leader of the Yuan family, he began to do his own thing.
Yuan Kui realized that the world was going to be in chaos long before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising, so Yuan Kui gathered the power in his hands on the one hand, developed and maintained the relationship network of the Yuan family, and increased the influence of the Yuan family, and on the other hand, placed the Yuan family's people in the army.
Because in the troubled times, only the army and food are the most reliable, and the so-called glory and wealth are just a passing cloud, and in the face of the inhumane war, the glory and wealth are simply not worth mentioning.
For the Yuan family, they are not short of money, and naturally they are not short of food, so their only deficiency is the army. Therefore, on the one hand, Yuan Kui installed the Yuan family in the army, and on the other hand, he tried his best to win over the generals who had no backers in the army.
Yuan Kui reused a general who had been dismissed from his official position for committing a crime at this time, and it was precisely because of this general that Yuan Kui's final defeat was caused.
Yuan Kui was in power
In order to strengthen the army of the Yuan family, Yuan Kui reused Dong Zhuo, but Yuan Kui would never have thought that he had been carefully arranging and making all the efforts to make a wedding dress for Dong Zhuo.
Since Yuan Kui became the leader of the Yuan family, he has continued to make various efforts for the development and expansion of the Yuan family. Before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising, Yuan Kui met a very important person - He Jin.
The He family was born at the bottom, but because the women in the family married into the palace, the He family was able to rise, but the high-level families of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time looked down on the He family very much, because the He family was from a low background, so they were looked down upon by everyone.
Therefore, the He family wants to make themselves strong by looking for allies. And at the same time, Yuan Kui also needed a suitable assistant, so the two sang and harmonized to achieve the purpose of cooperation. In this regard, many descendants of the Yuan family, under the recommendation of He Jin, have entered the court as officials, especially in the military camp.
Yuan Kui claimed that everything he did was for the good of the Yuan family, but some young people in the family did not buy Yuan Kui's account. As the leader of the family, Yuan Kui naturally wanted to respond to every call and make everyone in the family obey him.
But Yuan Kui wanted to think about it, in fact, he couldn't make everyone in the family obey him, just like Yuan Shao, the concubine who passed on to Yuan Cheng, and he was not convinced by Yuan Kui's constant expression.
Yuan Shao is young and vigorous, so he doesn't approve of many of Yuan Kui's ideas and practices, and Yuan Shao sometimes doesn't listen to Yuan Kui's words, so Yuan Shao ignores He Jin's ally.
After Yuan Kui learned the news, he scolded Yuan Shao, and Yuan Kui, as the head of the Yuan family, said everything to the surface, Yuan Shao naturally still had to listen, so Yuan Shao went to He Jin's command.
Yuan Shao has always been an ambitious person, so Yuan Shao has always had his own plan, after Yuan Shao entered He Jin's subordinates, with his clever mind, he once became He Jin's number one staff, and at the same time, he also became the eighth lieutenant of Xiyuan.
The alliance between the Yuan family and the He family has always been to take what they need, and both sides want to use the strength of the other to realize their ambitions. He Jin regarded the Yuan family as a stepping stone on his way to success, but what Yuan Kui wanted was to use He Jin's hand to provoke infighting among high-level nobles, and finally the Yuan family reaped the profits and took sole power.
In 189 AD, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty died, and under the arrangement of Empress He, Yuan Kui became the Taifu, and together with He Jin, he was in charge of the decision-making power of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
After that, the most turbulent period of the Han Dynasty began, at this time Yuan Kui first instigated He Jin and executed the eunuch leader Jian Shuo, and then instigated He Jin to execute all the eunuchs in power in the palace.
Yuan Kui was like this, borrowing He Jin's hand, and easily provoked the hatred of the eunuchs, and the eunuchs were not to be outdone, and began to fight back, so Yuan Shao began to blow the wind in his ears beside He Jin at this time.
said that he would transfer troops from outside to the capital, purge the army in the capital, and replace all the military strength in the capital with his own army, under Yuan Shao's instigation, He Jin quickly agreed to this plan.
But by the time He Jin reacted, it was too late, because all the troops that Yuan Shao transferred to Beijing were the Yuan family's troops, and at the same time, when He Jin ordered the transfer of troops, the Yuan family also spread the news.
In this way, the eunuchs became more and more nervous and frightened, and they directly joined forces to kill He Jin when He Jin entered the palace. After He Jin's death, Yuan Kui naturally became the biggest winner at that time.
Woe to the wall
Just when everyone thought it was a foregone conclusion, the unexpected happened. Dong Zhuo, who had been reused by Yuan Kui, heard the news and also led troops into Beijing.
Dong Zhuo's troops are very strong and have a great advantage, so for the arrival of Dong Zhuo's troops, there is a lot of controversy within the Yuan family, Yuan Shao and other young factions think that they should fight Dong Zhuo head-on, but Yuan Kui and others want to continue to cooperate with Dong Zhuo.
Because of the disagreement within the Yuan family, Yuan Shao and others left home at this time. After Yuan Shao and others fled to a relatively safe place, they gathered their forces and began to raise troops against Dong.
After Dong Zhuo got the news, he was furious, so he directly ordered the arrest of all the members of the Yuan family and directly executed them. In this way, Yuan Kui's achievements in planning and working hard all his life were easily obtained by Dong Zhuo.
epilogue
Yuan Kui conspired all his life, and the only thing that missed the calculation may be Dong Zhuo, but the demise of the Yuan family is actually reasonable, because the Yuan family is not united enough, if the Yuan family can unite internally and work together with the outside world, the world in the late Eastern Han Dynasty would have been the Yuan family long ago.