A new threat emerges on Wei’s northeastern borders, and he is just as bad at battle strategy as Jon Snow.

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Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 136.

Last time, we had a rare year of peace after Zhuge Liang died. None of the three kingdoms were at war. But while there was peace on the frontiers, the Wei emperor Cao Rui was fighting a war on the homefront. He engaged in lavish palace construction projects that drained his kingdom of men and wealth and executed officials who dared to speak up against it. Also, he was stirring up trouble in his harem. He was enamored with a concubine named Lady Guo (1), causing him to neglect his empress, Empress Mao (2). When Empress Mao made a somewhat snide remark about him touring the gardens with Lady Guo  the day before, Cao Rui became incensed, because he had specifically ordered the palace attendants that no one was to mention a word of it to the empress, and yet it looked like somebody had snitched.

So, in a fit of anger, he ordered all his attendants be put to death. This shocked Empress Mao, and she quickly returned to her palace. But by the time she got back, a decree from Cao Rui had arrived, ordering her to commit suicide, which she dutifully did. Once that was done, Cao Rui named Lady Guo his new empress. Nobody at court dared to say a word about this, since they had all seen what happens to those who speak up against their lord. And remember that Cao Rui’s father, the previous emperor Cao Pi, had done the exact same thing to Cao Rui’s mother, first neglecting her for another woman, and then ordering her death when he got annoyed with her. Like father like son, I guess.

 

So Cao Rui was not-so-subtly running down the road to ruins, ticking every box in the cliché despot’s checklist to self-destruction. But before he could run himself into the ground, an external threat arose that tried to do it for him. One day, an urgent message arrived from You (1) Province, informing him that Gongsun Yuan (1) had declared himself a king and was busy building an imperial palace and invading other territories in the north. So yeah, this was rebellion.

So who was this Gongsun Yuan (1) that’s causing trouble in the north? His father, Gongsun Kang (1), was a warlord who reigned over the region of Liaodong (2,1), which lay in the northeastern corner of the empire. In the year 207, Cao Cao defeated the sons of Yuan Shao, and two of them fled to seek refuge with Gongsun Kang (1). Gongsun Kang took one look at the situation and decided that there would be more trouble than it’s worth to keep them around, so he ambushed them at a banquet and killed them. When he sent their heads to Cao Cao, Cao Cao was delighted and gave him a marquiship and allowed him to stay in control in the region of Liaodong. All of this was covered back in episode 42 if you need a refresher.

So Gongsun Kang had two sons, and the younger one was our latest rebel, Gongsun Yuan (1). When Gongsun Kang died, both of his sons were still young, so their uncle assumed Gongsun Kang’s position and was later promoted by Cao Rui’s father Cao Pi to General of Chariots and Cavalry. By the year 228, Gongsun Yuan (1) had grown to adulthood. He was well-versed in literary and martial skills, but he also had a stubborn, aggressive personality. He put all those traits to use in wrestling control of the region from ...