The protagonists of this book are Cao Cao and Dong Zhuo before the third year of Chuping (192). The theme is "The True Face of the Usurper." It tells the story of Cao Cao and Dong Zhuo, two powerful officials in the late Han Dynasty who manipulated the emperor and the court. They faced different choices in the troubled times of the late Han Dynasty, as well as the complex faces of heroes such as He Jin, Wang Yun, Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shu in the context of the great turning point.
Dong Zhuo went to Beijing, deposed the Young Emperor and established the Xian Emperor, taking the power of the court into his own hands and trying to solve the ruling crisis of the Han Dynasty. However, Dong Zhuo's manipulation of power led to social unrest, and the Han Dynasty entered a period of division among heroes and warlords. Cao Cao took advantage of the situation and used the war against Dong to establish his prestige in the army and among the people. After that, Cao Cao "held the emperor hostage to order the princes" and portrayed himself as the "guardian of the imperial court", hiding the true face of the usurper, and the Han Dynasty existed in name only.
In the troubled times of the late Han Dynasty, not only were there profiteers who had no bottom line and were duplicitous, but there were also scholar-bureaucrats who claimed to be loyal to the Han Dynasty and follow the destiny of the emperor, disrupting the imperial court. Their loyalty, treachery, virtue and foolishness are all hidden in the cracks of history books.
A good book that clears up the fog of history