Since then, Li Jue and Guo Si, warlords worse than Dong Zhuo, have soon perished. It was not until Cao Cao took control of Liu Xie, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, that he really knew how to use the emperor to command the princes, and then used the emperor to unify the whole north step by step and successfully established his own political power. Half of Cao Cao's success comes from "holding the emperor to make the princes".
So, do you know what is the real advantage of holding the emperor as a vassal? What are the advantages?
1, well-founded and absolutely politically correct.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world was in troubled times, and the emperor could not command the princes of the world at all, and no one wanted to listen to the emperor's orders. Otherwise, Xian Di could not have been controlled by Dong Zhuo, Li Jue and Guo Si for nearly seven years. The key to "relying on the emperor to command the princes" is not to command the princes in the world with the emperor's orders, but to win absolute political correctness and legitimacy for yourself with the emperor's orders.
For example, if you control the emperor and then punish a vassal with the emperor's orders, it is equivalent to punishing him with the orders of the Han court in the name of the emperor. No matter what you do, you are a teacher of justice and are famous for starting a career. This is the biggest role of "relying on the emperor to make the princes".
2. Recruit talents from all over the world for our use.
Scholars and all kinds of talents in the world are thriving in order to enter the official career one day, because the status of scholars in feudal society is the highest. Whoever controls the emperor can recruit talents for his own use in the name of the emperor, and all kinds of talents are still welcome.
Everyone who does great things knows that if you want to win the world, you must recruit a large number of talents. Cao Can succeeded Cao. In a sense, he recruited a large number of talents in the name of the emperor. Cao Cao issued several orders to seek talents in the name of the emperor. This is a typical case of doing things for private people in the name of the public, which is justified. Cao Cao used the imperial court composed of Yu Xun and Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty to recruit a large number of talents from all over the world and formed a centripetal force for talents from all over the world. This is also a reason for Cao Cao's success.
3. Establish a "spiritual and political center" to attract a large number of people interested in Korea.
Cao Cao's way of "holding the emperor to make the princes" is definitely not disrespectful to the emperor as seen on TV, but respectful to the emperor like ordinary courtiers. Cao Cao really treated the emperor as an emperor, not as a puppet controlled by him, at least not as a show in the first few years, and not as a puppet like Dong Zhuo, Li Jue and Guo Si.
Although the Han dynasty at that time declined, it still had a large number of followers. After all, the Han Dynasty has existed for hundreds of years, and there are still a group of people and people at the bottom who support the Han Dynasty. "Holding the emperor to make the princes" can attract a group of people loyal to the Han Dynasty. After all, this group of people is quite large. When Cao Cao's power was not strong, wooing these people was conducive to Cao Cao's war to unify the world, and there were also important reasons for Cao Cao's success. Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty was the "spiritual government" in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Cao Cao succeeded by "relying on the emperor to make the princes". If Liu Bei is a person who relies on the emperor to be a minister, Liu Canbei will rule the country? Can the Han Dynasty be revived? How will Liu Bei treat Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty? There are two important reasons for the success of "relying on the emperor to make the princes":
1, knowing that "holding the emperor to make the princes" are the three factors mentioned above.
You must have the ability and strength.
The first reason is that Liu Bei's ability should be understandable. Liu Bei was called by Cao Cao as a hero who "only set up a monarch and fuck him". As the saying goes, great minds think alike. Unlike Dong, Guo Si, Liu Bei knew exactly how to "support the emperor and make ministers" correctly. Besides, Dong Zhuo and others have already made negative teaching materials, and Liu Bei will certainly understand this truth.
The third reason is whether Liu Bei himself has the ability and strength. If Liu Bei "holds the emperor to make the princes", it will be meaningless if he is robbed of the emperor by other princes because of his poor strength. This is the crux of the problem now. If historically, Liu Bei did not have the strength to keep the emperor when he was in the whole north in his early years, even if he occupied the whole Xuzhou, his strength was insufficient.
Why do you say that?
In fact, Liu Bei lacks talents. When Liu Bei occupied Xuzhou, it was a state, and the whole Eastern Han Dynasty was thirteen states. Liu Bei occupied one of them, and Xuzhou was relatively stable in the hands of Tao Qian. As a result, Liu Bei occupied Xuzhou for less than two years, Yuan Shu attacked Xuzhou, Liu Bei took Guan Yu to fight, and Zhang Fei stayed behind. As a result, Yuan Shu colluded with Lu Bu to seize Xuzhou, which was easily lost.
Liu Bei took in Lu Bu, but he couldn't prevent Lu Bu. Liu Bei could have let Guan Yu fight in the front, he and Zhang Fei were in the rear, and Lu Bu could not have succeeded in attacking. In addition, Liu Bei is extremely short of military advisers, counselors and others to formulate correct and clear strategies, which is one of the reasons for Liu Bei's failure.
Therefore, it is impossible for Liu Bei to unify the world, let alone revive the Han Dynasty, because he is not strong enough. He started from scratch, and his own hardware conditions are many times worse than those of Cao Cao and Sun Quan. It's hard to be successful. Liu Bei's final success was very difficult. Among the three countries, I admire Liu Bei the most, because he is the only model who started from scratch.
Unless Liu Bei has the strength of Cao Cao, he can "hold the emperor to make the princes." In that case, Liu Bei will be as successful as Cao Cao and unify the whole northern China, because he has the strength to ensure the conditions of Liu Bei's foreign war. "Holding the emperor to make the princes" can attract a large number of talents for Liu Bei, and then talents like Chen Qun, Jia Xu, Yu Xun and Guo Jia can take refuge in Liu Bei. In that case, Liu Bei can unify the world.
If Liu Bei unified heaven, would he return to Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty?
The answer is no, I will never go back to the Han Dynasty to offer sacrifices to the emperor, because Liu Bei's lifelong wish is not to fight for the Han Dynasty, but to fight for himself. Although the regime established by Liu Bei was Han, Han was the title only to establish the legitimacy of the regime. If Liu Bei establishes the Liu Dynasty, no one wants to follow him.
If Liu Bei succeeds in unifying the world, the first thing he has to do is to use his ministers to force Emperor Han Xian to give up the throne. At this time, Liu Bei will, like Cao Pi later, force Emperor Han Xian to his own place, and then give Emperor Han Xian a fief to enjoy his old age there and never leave.
Liu Bei's resurrected Han is not Xian Di's Han, but his own Han. Although the regime he established enshrined the memorial tablets of all the emperors in the Han Dynasty, its significance was completely different.