Chapter 978: The coalition forces disperse and the war rages on
In Dong Zhuo's view, among the princes not named Liu, only Qin Wen is qualified to be ranked as a king with him. All other princes, including Qin Hao, are not qualified to be ranked with him.
Everything must be done step by step, and the same goes for becoming king and emperor.
With the exception of Dong Zhuo, all the princes not named Liu were previously marquises. Directly conferring the title of king would be equivalent to ascending to the throne in one step, which is more unconvincing.
Although Feng Gong has taken a big step forward, it is not so big that it will break the egg, and it is still acceptable.
In addition to the three titles of king, prince, and duke, Dong Zhuo also awarded the title of lord, and the targets were not small princes like Zhao Kuangyin and Gongsun Xuanyuan who were attached to the big princes, but Wang Lang, Huang Zu, and Han Xuan
This kind of small princes with less strength.
Those who were conferred the title of Marquis by Dong Zhuo include: Marquis of Song Zhao Kuangyin, Marquis of Ji Gongsun Xuanyuan, Marquis of Yue Wang Lang, Marquis of Shu Lu Kang, Marquis of E Huang Zu, Marquis of Xiang Han Xuan, Daihou Zhang Yang, Chen Marquis Chen Youliang, Ji Marquis Zhang Shicheng...
Of course, while Dong Zhuo was entrusting himself with enfeoffments, he did not forget his subordinates.
Tang Marquis Li Yuan was granted the title of Duke of Tang, and Marquis of Sui Yang Jian was granted the title of Duke of Sui. Hua Xiong, Li Jue and other generals were also granted the title of marquis, but none of them had fiefs. After all, Dong Zhuo could not allow the territory of the Liang army to be occupied.
Split.
In short, except for Hong Xiuquan of Jiaozhou, Ren Hongchang, Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Zicheng and other rebels who escaped to Sanshan, almost all the princes were enfeoffed by Dong Zhuo, and the lowest titles were all princes, and those above were princes.
Duke, county king, one word king.
At this point, the Han Dynasty was officially divided among the princes in name, and the world officially entered a new Warring States era.
After receiving Dong Zhuo's enfeoffment, all the princes staying in Luoyang had a unified reaction, that is, they decisively rejected the enfeoffment.
They had been scolding Dong Zhuo as a traitor to the country before, but now they accepted his canonization. Isn't that a slap in the face to themselves?
What's more, the princes all came to challenge Dong. Although the temptation brought by the title of king and duke was great, once accepted, it would mean betraying the alliance. If the surrounding princes were to siege, it would not be worth it.
Already.
Therefore, canonization is absolutely unacceptable before leaving the alliance.
On the surface, all the princes rejected the canonization, but secretly they were actively preparing to leave the coalition, and then waited and watched the changes in the world before deciding whether to accept the canonization.
Most of the princes want to leave the alliance, but no one has proposed it. After all, the leader is the leader, and all the princes are very clever, so no one wants to be the leader.
In this strange balance, the coalition of princes remained stable for more than ten days.
All the princes were waiting quietly for the first person to accept the canonization to appear. They all knew that this day would definitely not last long, but no one expected that what they were waiting for was the news that Liu He of Youzhou would be crowned King of Yan.
This also broke the fragile balance of the coalition forces.
Liu He was the son of Liu Yu and did not have much ambition. The reason why he accepted Dong Zhuo's canonization this time was because he was bewitched by Dong Zhuo's envoy Li Su.
Liu Che naturally couldn't sit still after learning about it. After all, his position had not been consolidated yet, and he was now thousands of miles away from Youzhou. With the power he had in his hands, he might not be able to win against Liu He.
As soon as he thought about this, Liu Che immediately came to resign in person. Qin Hao tried his best to persuade him to stay, but Liu Che had already decided to leave, so Qin Hao had no choice but to let Liu Che lead the army and leave.
In this way, Liu Che became the first prince to leave, and his departure not only meant that the civil strife in Youzhou was about to begin, but also meant that the war in the world was about to be rekindled.
As soon as Liu Che left, Gongsun Zan came to ask for his resignation. After all, his territory was also in Youzhou.
With Liu Che and Gongsun Zan taking the lead, all the princes naturally had no worries and all came to ask for Qin Hao's resignation, including even the Yuan family brothers who had just taken over Dong Zhuo's blood feud.
In the original history, Dong Zhuo also wiped out the entire Yuan family, but as the leader of the alliance, Yuan Shao still chose to stop the advance, which shows his cold temperament.
Facing these princes who asked to resign, Qin Hao tried to dissuade them one by one, but these people were also determined to leave. Even though Qin Hao's mouth went dry, he still insisted on leaving.
It was impossible for Qin Hao to force them to stay. If he did, he would offend all the princes in the world, so he had to gather them up and let them go.
In just half a month, nearly thirty princes, including Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Liu Xiu, Liu Xie, Liu Yao, etc., withdrew from the alliance, and the departure of these princes also caused a rapid decline in the strength of the coalition forces.
Of course, there were also some princes who were persuaded by Qin Hao to stay because of interests or favors, such as Tao Qian, Kong Rong, Cao Cao, and Sun Jian. However, they also left one after another for various reasons.
.
As the sworn brother of Qin and Wen, Sun Jian left in a hurry because of his neighbor Wang Lang.
Although Wang Lang, the prefect of Kuaiji, was conferred the title of Marquis of Yue, he did not dare to accept it at first. However, when he learned that Liu He accepted the position of King of Yan, Wang Lang accepted Dong Zhuo's canonization of the position of Marquis of Yue.
Wang Lang's acceptance of the canonization had little to do with Sun Jian, but this gave Sun Jian an excuse to attack Wang Lang. After all, under Sun Jian's governance, Wu Commandery's overall strength was much stronger than Wang Lang's Kuaiji, and Sun Jian had already occupied Kuaiji.
Sincerely, I will not let go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Shortly after Sun Jian left, Cao Cao, Tao Qian and Kong Rong also left one after another.
This time when the princes challenged Dong, Cao Cao's performance was extremely eye-catching, which also aroused the fear of all the princes in Yanzhou, and there was a vague tendency to unite. When Cao Cao learned about it, he was shocked and quickly led his army back to Yanzhou to take charge.
In addition, Huang Chao, who occupied the state of Qi and most of Donglai, not only accepted the title of Duke of Qi conferred by Dong Zhuo, but also personally led an army of 30,000 to attack Beihai before Kong Rong returned. Naturally, Kong Rong did not dare
Stayed in Luoyang for a long time.
In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang, who hid in the Dabie Mountains, finally led his army out of the Dabie Mountains after enduring for several years, and chose to attack Danyang County in Xuzhou at this time.
In the battle that destroyed the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang defeated Tao Qian's 36,000 army head-on with 6,000 cavalry.
That battle left a shadow in Tao Qian's heart. He even had nightmares about Zhu Yuanzhang for several months. Now that the nightmare has come back again, Tao Qian naturally does not dare to relax at all.
With the departure of Sun Jian, Cao Cao, Tao Qian and Kong Rong, only Qin Hao and Qin Wen were left in Luoyang, and the Kwantung Allied Forces were completely disbanded.