next »

[Nick]

Since most members come here after playing the games, few of the new ones know much about the history behind the games.  I would like to take the time to create a nice and easy way to introduce someone to the world beyond the games and the novel.

In the early 180's, China was ruled by the Han dynasty, though it was quickly becoming apperent that the rule was in name only.  Individual warlords held the real power, and when a religious leader named Zhang Jiao turned his followers into warriors and rebelled against the Han, a call went out to those warlords to stop them.  This is where the DW games start, but lets take a step back and examine how the Han became so weak.

When Emperor Huan was first put on the throne, he was only a child. Liang Ji, who's sister had been the wife of the Emperor before Huan, took control of court affairs since the Emperor was obviously too young.  However, once Huan grew, Liang refused to relenquse any of his power.  Huan wanted to rid himself of Liang and his family, and so he asked his most trusted assistants, the Regular Palace Attadants (who were Eunuchs) to help him to over throw his oppresser.  To repay them, Huan increased their power, and when Huan died the next Emperor was forced to rely on them as his main advisors.  This allowed them to dominate court affairs and matters that were important to the nation were ignored in favor of those that the Eunuchs wanted dealt with instead.

People were growing more and more angry with the Han government as a result, and because of floods and other natural disators, many felt that the time of the Han was almost up.  This general dissent among the population allowed Zhang Jiao capture the attention of thousands, but he wasn't the only one who tried to start a rebellion.  In Liang (the north-western most province), there was a rebellion in 185, led by Han Sui and Bian Zhang.  Yes, this is the same Han Sui that you may remember helping Ma Teng, who is the father of Ma Chao.  A man named Zhang Wen led the imperial troops, which included Dong Zhuo and Sun Jian, amongst others.  These imperial forces saw mixed success against the rebels, and there was truely no clear winner.  However, the rebels for the most part stopped causing trouble, and even though the Han forces lost a great deal of their own men (some suggest 5/6's of the army was lost), they retreated and considered it a victory.

The Yellow Turban rebellion went a little better.  Many leaders, including Cao Cao and Liu Bei (though he only played a small role in Zou Jing's army), gathered togeather and fought the Turbans.  The rebellion didn't occur until 184, when a plot to have some of the Eunuchs betray the Emperor to the turbans came to light.  When that happened he Jin and others gathered men and fought against the turbans with considerably less difficulty than they had seen against the Liang rebels.  The only rebel to do much damage was a turban named Bo Cai, but he was defeated by the combined armies of Cao Cao,Zhu Jun, and Huangfu Song.  Zhang Jiao died due to sickness while defending against a seige, and then his brother Zhang Liang took command.  Zhang Bao had died earlier, and it should be noted here that Dong Zhuo, though he had seen the most success in the north, faired very poorly during this rebellion.  Eventually Huangfu Song was able to break the turbans defenses and destroy the bulk of their army.

For more information on the Liang rebellion, check out my bio of Dong Zhuo's role here:
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=11272&view=findpost&p=4805267
For more information on the yellew turban rebellion, check out my bio of Zhang Jiao in my read along thread, here:
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=10298
Also, if you are just starting to look at the history and havn't read the novel yet, check out www.threekingdoms.com for the online book.  While reading it, you may find my read along helpful to keep the history and the fiction seperate.  You can find that here:
http://www.koei.com/community/index.php?topic=537.0
I will be restarting it soon, so keep an eye on it.

Next, we will look at Dong Zhuo's rise and fall.

[Nick]

Once the trubans fell, He Jin sought to remove the Eunuchs in an effort to both cleanse the government from curroption, but also to establish his own power.  To do so, he called in Dong Zhuo, who was one of the few Han loyalists who still held a sizeable army.  He Jin was killed by the regular palace attendents however, and this left a power void that Dong Zhuo was all too willing to fill.  A riot against the Eunuchs began, and Dong brought his army in to settle the disturbance.

While in power, Dong did as he wanted.  He replaced the Emperor, gave his family offices, took control of armies, and killed those who disagreed with him.  During this period of time, he and Ding Yuan fell out with one another, and LU Bu killed him to join Dong Zhuo.  Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and many others fled from the capital to avoid Dong's wrath, and after a brief period they planned to launch a "loyal rebellion".  Cao Cao did much of the work, but Yuan Shao was elected as the leader mostly do to his promonence.  They gathered to the east of Luoyang, while Sun Jian and Yuan Shu (among others) began to move up from the south.

Of all the coalition leaders in the east, only Cao Cao dared to launch a large scale attack, but he was beaten back by Dong's Xu Rong.  Dong then went on the offensive, attacking and destroying Wang Kuang, and surrounding Sun Jian.  This all occured in 190.

By 191, Dong Zhuo had already began shifting the capital to the west, and the coalition was debating whether or not to give the throne to Liu Yu, though he refused the position.  Sun Jian did not get involved with the political situation, and instead moved to the offensive.  Xu Rong beat him once, but Sun came again, this time against Lu Bu, Hu Zhen, and Hua Xiong.  He smashed through them, killing Hua Xiong in the process.  Yuan Shu feared that Sun Jian would rebel against him, and so he did not provide him with food.  However, Jian convinced him that he was loyal, and was able to push into the capital and deeat Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu.  Those two retreated, and Jian retook the capital.
At this point, the coalition completely fell apart, and many turned against one another.

One example of this is Yuan Shao's trickery against Gongsun Zan and Han Fu.  Shao asked Zan to attack Han Fu with him, and suggested that the two of them split Ji province.  When Zan attacked, however, Yuan suggested to Han Fu to turn the territory over to him so that it would be protected from Zan, and Han Fu agreed.  Zan and Shao thus came to bad terms.  Shao also sent his Zhou Ang to attack Sun Jian and take his recently aquired Yangcheng, and so Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu grew apart.  Yuan Shu and Gongsun Zan allied, and so Yuan Shao teamed up with Liu Biao.

Next time, we will look at the state of China's other warlords. 

[Nick]

At the time where the alliance against Dong Zhuo fell apart, China was divided up between many warlords.  In the northeast, we have the warlord Gongsun Du.  He and his family ruled Liaodong, and play a very small role in the three kingdoms history.  To the Northwest, we see the area that Ma Tang and Han Sui will build up as their own, though at this moment in time it is in a bit of disorder from the rebellions.  In the northern center, we see Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao fighting each other for dominance.  One important thing to remember is that the Gongsun Zan in the novel and the games is far from the Gongsun Zan in history.  The historical Zan was not the friendly, good natured man that he is portrayed as.  He was harsh and self serving, and his own people rebelled against him.

In the west, Zhang Lu is ruling hanzhong in both the political and religious arena.  He and Liu Yan fight periodically, and when Liu Yan is replaced by his son, Liu Zhang, they continue fighting as well.  Liu Zhang and his family rule Yi, which is the area that Liu Bei will eventually come and take from him.  Zhang Lu will be taken out by Cao cao.

In the south, a warlord named Shi Xie takes over Jiao province, but plays a very little role in the history.  Basically, he and his family take over the province, and then stay out of everything.  They trade with Wu, and that's about it.  To the southeast, we see the area that Yuan Shu will be pushed to after his defeats, and below that, the area that Sun Ce will begin taking shortly.  In the center of china proper is Jing province, a large and resource-filled area that is ruled by Liu Biao and his satellites, Zhang Xiu to the north and Huang Zu to the east.  Liu Biao is also shown to be a better man in the novel than he was historically.  He, like Yuan Shu, wished to call himself emperor, but never went through with it.  He takes in Liu Bei as an officer, but dies before engaging in too many battles himself.  Zhang Xiu will fight, surrender, and then rebel against Cao Cao, while Huang Zu will fight repeatedly against the forces of Wu.

Finally, we get to the "Central plains", which is the social center of China during this time.  Here, things are confusing because everyone keeps shifting alliances, moving to different areas, and dying off.  Basically, here you will see Tao Qian, a man who is also shown to be much more "goodly" in the novel than he actually was, fight against Cao cao and enlist Liu Bei.  Lu Bu, Cao Cao, Zhang Miao, and many more will fight in this area, but eventually it is Cao Cao who will take it all.  Just to the west of this, but not quite getting into the territory held by Ma Chao, is where Dong Zhuo shifts the capital to, and is where he will remain.

Next, we will look at the death of Sun Jian and the fall out of Dong Zhuo's assassination.

[Nick]

Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao had drifted apart, and Yuan Shu had insulted Yuan Shaom because Yuan Shao had been born from a different mother than the rest of the Yuan clan.  When Shao allied with Liu Biao, Yuan Shu decided to send Sun Jian to attack him.  Liu Biao sent his general Huang Zu to meet Jian between the cities of Fan and Deng.  Jian beat him once, followed him across and river and then hit him again with a night raid while Huang Zu was trying to gather more men.  During this route, Sun Jian was killed by either a stray arrow, a rock thrown down from above, or by a single man hiding in a bamboo grove.  There are many different records, and none of them really have much more credibility than the others.  Sun Ben, Sun Jian's nephew, took over the army and retreated back to Yuan Shu.  Some belive that had Jian lived, he would have conquered Liu Biao and Jing because of his military skill and Liu Biao's lack of military ability.  Whether or not this is true is the subject of debate though.

Zhu Jun had been acting under Dong Zhuo for this period of time, but he rebelled against him and asked for help from the other leaders.  Tao Qian was the only one to answer the call vehemontly, and Zhu Jun was given 3,000 men by him.  Zhu jun was able to take Henan breifly, but Dong Zhuo sent Niu Fu, Li Jue, Guo Si, and Zhang Ji to beat him back.

Back in the newly established capital, Dong Zhuo was making a lot of people mad.  He would execute those who were wealthy so that he could in turn take their money, and he treated those around him poorly.  He knew that people resented him, and so he asked Lu Bu to act as his bodyguard.  Lu Bu accepted this, and eventually they took an oath of father and son.  However, one day Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu had a slight disagreement, and Dong threw a hand-axe at Lu Bu.  Bu apologized and Zhuo let go of his anger, but Lu Bu held that grudge against him.  Bu also was in charge of guarding the doors to the palace, and Lu Bu had used that as an oppurtunity to sleep with one of Dong's maids.  Because of this, Lu Bu lived in fear of Dong Zhuo.  When Wang Yun and others started conspiring to kil Dong Zhuo, they asked Lu Bu to act as an inside agent, and Lu Bu agreed.  Dong Zhuo was murdered, and Wang Yun took his place.

In the chaos that followed, many were confused and killed.  Wang Yun acted arrogently, and refused to listen to advice.  He refused to offer a pardon to those who had followed Dong Zhuo, because he felt that to do so would acknowledge that they had done something wrong.  He wanted to simply let things move on, but there had been rumors that all the followers would be killed.  This caused the followers to worry for their own wellbeing, but Wang Yun failed to see that.  Instead, he asked to disband all the armies so that the leaders in the East would see that they no longer had to worry about the Emperor, but this confused those in power even more.  In their minds, they were not being pardoned for something that they thought they would be killed for, and now they were being asked to give up their armies.  Understandably, they refused to do so.  However, Niu Fu, who had been the primairy leader of Dong's troops, was killed by his own men, and Li Jue and Guo Si took over.  They asked Wang Yun for a pardon, but Yun refused, and so Li Jue and Guo Si thought that he would have them killed.  Their advisor, Jia Xu, told them that the best course would be to attack Changan.  Lu Bu was resentful towards Wang Yun at this time, and Jia Xu assured them that they would be able to beat Lu Bu and Wang Yun because of this.  They agreed, forced Lu Bu out, and killed Wang Yun.

During all of this, Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao were intermintently fighting each other, and Cao Cao was taking soldiers from a re-emergence of the yellow turbans, and taking over the lands that were unable to hold out against the turbans on their own.

[Nick]

Lu Bu turned to Yuan Shu for help, but because his men acted without constraint and robbed the people, Lu Bu was forced to leave.  He went to Zhang Yang next, but then Li Jue and the others offered a huge reward for Lu Bu, and Bu feared that Zhang Yang would turn him in or kill him, and so he left again, this time to join with Yuan Shao.  The two of them attacked Zhang yan, and Lu Bu performed very well, but Yuan Shao decided to have Lu Bu murdered.  Bu escaped, this time settling with Zhang Miao.

Li Jue and his cohorts made allies out of Ma Teng, Han Sui, Liu Biao, and many others in the court.  Tao Qian tried to form another alliance against them, and he sent a memorial to Zhu Jun asking for his help again.  At the same time, Li Jue offered him a promotion, and Zhu Jun agreed to take it.  They then offered to appoint Yuan Shu as a marquis, and he accepted.  Ma Teng asked Li Jue for a personal favor, and for whatever reason, Li Jue denied him.  In response, Ma Teng attacked the capital, but was beaten back.  Li Jue offered him another promotion to settle the argument, and Ma Teng agreed.

When the Inspector of Yang Province died, Yuan Shao sent Yuan Yi to take it over, but Yuan Shu intercepted and killed him, then took Yang for himself.  Yuan Shao did see some success in the north though; Gongsun Zan attacked him,but Shao utterly crushed him, and Zan retreated, declaring that he wouldn't leave You Province until this time of chaos was over.  Yuan Shao made use of the temporary reprieve and settled many of the bandits and barbarians on his boarders.

Yuan Shu's success at Yang was short-lived.  Cao Cao attacked and defeated him twice in a row, forcing him into the Yang Province that he had just recently taken.  Cao Cao's father was killed shortly afterwords, and because Tao Qian's men may or may not have been involved, he blamed Tao Qian and went to war against him.  He began what was described by all accounts to be a massacre against the people of Xu.  Tao Qian bought Liu Bei away from Gongsun Zan's services, and the two tried to think of a way to stop Cao Cao, but fortunately for them, Zhang Miao and Lu Bu decided to use the opportunity to attack Cao Cao's home.  Chen Gong, who had been serving Cao Cao, opened city gates for Lu Bu before Cao's forces knew what was happening.  Xun Yu was able to get Xiahou Dun to come with a force quickly enough to save three cities and prevent a complete rebellion from other troops within Cao Cao's army.  Because of the speed of those two, and the brilliant moves by Cheng Yu, they were able to hold those three cities until Cao Cao's main force arrived.

[scholar]

is there anymore? its great that your doing this

[Nick]

I wasn't sure how many people were actually finding this useful, so I stopped, but I will continue if people want me to.

When Cao Cao returned, he discovered that Lu Bu had the oppurtunity to divid Cao Cao and his loyal supporters by cutting off the routes that Cao Cao could have taken to meet with them.  However, Lu Bu had only thought of a direct attack against the loyal cities, and since that had failed and Lu Bu retreated, Cao Cao declared that Lu Bu was incompatent.  Cao Cao attacked Lu Bu's outposts in the west, and he destroyed them without much incident until Lu Bu himself showed up.  Cao Cao's personal force became surrounded by a contigment of Lu Bu's archers and crossbowmen.  Dian Wei grapped a halbred and charged into the line, and it is written that his feriousity forced Lu Bu's troops to retreat.  Cao Cao made him his personal guard after the event.
In another city, the family of Tian betrayed Lu Bu and allowed Cao Cao into the city.  He attacked the city and commited his full army to it, but the tide quickly began to change, and before he knew it Cao Cao was captured.  However, Lu Bu's officers did not realize that they held Cao cao, and so they let him go after he told them where "Cao Cao" was.
For the next three months the two fought, until locusts came and caused a great famine.  The two forces retreated and tried to build up supplies, but both faced incredible difficulty.  Yuan Shao offered Cao Cao a position in his army, both as a gesture of respect and also to eliminate a potential threat.  He nearly accepted it because he was in such a poor situation, but Cheng Yu talked him out of it.

At this time, Liu Yan died and his son Liu Zhang took over in Shu.  Many of the officers who were previously under Liu Yan didn't respect Liu Zhang, and rebelled against him.  He beat them though, and then went to attack Liu Biao.

Tao Qian got seriously ill, and he asked Liu Bei to take over Xu.  He refused initially, possibly because Bei was in no postion to defend the entire territory, and having such a large amount of land would have made him a target.  It is also possible that he simply did it because it was what was proper, but in the end, Kong Rong, Mi Zhu, and others "convinced" to take it.

Sun Ce requested to take control of the men that had served under his father, but Yuan Shu refused, possibly because he didn't trust Ce, or because he felt that Ce was not ready for such a task.  Ce was only 17 at the time, so Shu suggested that he go build an army using the troops under his uncle.  Ce left and built up a small army, but then he got attacked out of no where by a chieftain named Zu Lang and was almost killed.  Shu finally gave him control of the men at this point, possibily because he felt that Ce was too valuable to lose.  He even promised him a promotion, but instead gave control of the territory to a Chen Ji.  Later, Shu asked his ally Lu Kang for supplies, but Lu Kang refused. Yuan Shu ordered Sun Ce to attack him, and offered him Lu Kang's position if he succeded.  When Ce beat him, Yuan Shu gave the position to someone else.  Understandably, Sun Ce was beginning to get mad at Yuan Shu.

[Ninjaoctopus]

I wasn't sure how many people were actually finding this useful, so I stopped, but I will continue if people want me to.

When Cao Cao returned, he discovered that Lu Bu had the oppurtunity to divid Cao Cao and his loyal supporters by cutting off the routes that Cao Cao could have taken to meet with them.  However, Lu Bu had only thought of a direct attack against the loyal cities, and since that had failed and Lu Bu retreated, Cao Cao declared that Lu Bu was incompatent.  Cao Cao attacked Lu Bu's outposts in the west, and he destroyed them without much incident until Lu Bu himself showed up.  Cao Cao's personal force became surrounded by a contigment of Lu Bu's archers and crossbowmen.  Dian Wei grapped a halbred and charged into the line, and it is written that his feriousity forced Lu Bu's troops to retreat.  Cao Cao made him his personal guard after the event.
In another city, the family of Tian betrayed Lu Bu and allowed Cao Cao into the city.  He attacked the city and commited his full army to it, but the tide quickly began to change, and before he knew it Cao Cao was captured.  However, Lu Bu's officers did not realize that they held Cao cao, and so they let him go after he told them where "Cao Cao" was.
For the next three months the two fought, until locusts came and caused a great famine.  The two forces retreated and tried to build up supplies, but both faced incredible difficulty.  Yuan Shao offered Cao Cao a position in his army, both as a gesture of respect and also to eliminate a potential threat.  He nearly accepted it because he was in such a poor situation, but Cheng Yu talked him out of it.

At this time, Liu Yan died and his son Liu Zhang took over in Shu.  Many of the officers who were previously under Liu Yan didn't respect Liu Zhang, and rebelled against him.  He beat them though, and then went to attack Liu Biao.

Tao Qian got seriously ill, and he asked Liu Bei to take over Xu.  He refused initially, possibly because Bei was in no postion to defend the entire territory, and having such a large amount of land would have made him a target.  It is also possible that he simply did it because it was what was proper, but in the end, Kong Rong, Mi Zhu, and others "convinced" to take it.

Sun Ce requested to take control of the men that had served under his father, but Yuan Shu refused, possibly because he didn't trust Ce, or because he felt that Ce was not ready for such a task.  Ce was only 17 at the time, so Shu suggested that he go build an army using the troops under his uncle.  Ce left and built up a small army, but then he got attacked out of no where by a chieftain named Zu Lang and was almost killed.  Shu finally gave him control of the men at this point, possibily because he felt that Ce was too valuable to lose.  He even promised him a promotion, but instead gave control of the territory to a Chen Ji.  Later, Shu asked his ally Lu Kang for supplies, but Lu Kang refused. Yuan Shu ordered Sun Ce to attack him, and offered him Lu Kang's position if he succeded.  When Ce beat him, Yuan Shu gave the position to someone else.  Understandably, Sun Ce was beginning to get mad at Yuan Shu.

I didn't know about things like the bit where Lu Bu's officers had Cao Cao but didn't know..aha. Thanks for taking the time to type all this 

[James]

is there anymore?

Nick's usually very busy but I'm sure he will update it soon enough.

[Yu Jin]

lol thanks nick i didnt know about half the stuff that was in all olf that. hopefully you go on. it always suprises  me how i always think i know alot about the TK era, then i get proved wrong. i remember when i  played DW3 at first, and then 4, and i read all the bios and everything, and i thought i knew everything, of course i was only in grade 4 then. then in grade 7 i read the books...and wow i was amazed at how much i didnt know:p since then, ive still learned alot more about it all

[DW6]

I need him to continue

[Yu Jin]

dont think nick comes on anymore, really. never seen him post anywhere anyways..

[scholar]

Last Active: January 14, 2008, 01:02:07 am

[Nick]

I apologize to those of you who have been waiting for an update to this, and for those who have been waiting for the read along.  I've become very involved in the martial arts recently and joined the Detroit MMA.  I have also been having some health issues (unrelated to the fighting), and am still going to college.  I do intend to come back and finish this up some time, but not in the near future.

[scholar]

We understand. Graduate College already! Which martial Art?