Where was Yanzhou in the Three Kingdoms Period?

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was divided into three countries. The geographical environment of the Three Kingdoms is the same as that of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the administrative units of the Eastern Han Dynasty generally followed the Three Kingdoms period.

During the Three Kingdoms period, as the rear area of Cao Cao, many great events also happened in Yanzhou, which can even be said to be a small microcosm of the troubled times of the Three Kingdoms. What are the origins and differences between Yanzhou in this miniature and Yanzhou now? Let's take a look at past lives in Yanzhou.

After the Han dynasty won the world, it turned the world into fourteen States and set up fourteen secretariat departments. Yanzhou secretariat department is one of them, and its office is located in Puyang. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yanzhou Prefecture moved to Changyi. In the process from Puyang to Changyi, the area under the jurisdiction of Yanzhou has not changed much from six counties and three countries to eight counties. Yanzhou in this period is roughly equivalent to the northeastern part of Henan and the marginal area of Shanxi today.

When we arrived in the Three Kingdoms, the situation changed a lot. As we all know, during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao was born in a noble family. After seeking the disintegration of Dong Meng, Yuan Shao, the leader at that time, chose to go to Hebei to seek Jizhou, and Yuan Shao won Jizhou with no effort. Since then, there have been many frictions between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan in Youzhou. It is known that Youzhou is in the North China Plain, so Jizhou, where Yuan Shao is located, must also be in the North China Plain, and then pass Yuan Shao. Then there was an earth-shattering battle of Guandu, from which we can see that during the Three Kingdoms period, Yanzhou's territory must be close to Jizhou, so Yanzhou should include Shanxi and Shandong on today's map. The specific location is probably in the south of Shanxi and the east of Henan.

In addition, we can find that during the Three Kingdoms period, Yanzhou was actually a place of four wars with a large number of troops, and it was attacked by other warlords from the north and south, east and west many times. Of course, only today's Henan area conforms to this impression, but obviously, Yanzhou is not the center of the Central Plains, so it should only include some areas in Henan.

However, Cao Cao quickly made a fortune in Yanzhou, and after Cao Cao unified Hebei after Guandu, Cao Cao did not forget the former stronghold of Yanzhou and merged many northern States into Yanzhou. During this period, Yanzhou's power expanded rapidly, from the original eight counties and two countries to eight counties and three countries, and Rencheng country was added. According to authoritative data, Rencheng country is in Jining, Shandong today, so it can be seen that during this period, the direction of Yanzhou's territory expansion is Shandong.

During the period of Cao, Wei, Han and the Three Kingdoms, Yanzhou, as an old big country, disintegrated: because Cao Pi, the newly proclaimed emperor, was in urgent need of a face project. Cao Pi insisted that his great Wei should not be much lower than the administrative area of the elderly. Therefore, Cao Pi divided the world of Wei into twelve states, which made a big state like Yanzhou have to spit out some places.

The best record of Yanzhou in this period is that it moved to Xu Qiu, Dong Jun (today's Yuncheng County), which is undoubtedly the central part of Shandong. It can be seen that Yanzhou continues to move south, so what jurisdiction does Yanzhou have at this time? At present, it has eight counties: Jin Dong, Yin Ji, Yang Shan, Shandong, Rencheng, Taishan, Dongping and Jibei, and there is also a country called Liu Chen. It is worth mentioning that, after Cao Wei's abdication, Sima Shi once again enfeoffed Liu Chen to the descendants of Cao Shi. It seems that Yanzhou really has something to do with the Cao family.

Generally speaking, the geographical scope of Yanzhou during the Three Kingdoms period was extremely broad, including most parts of Shandong Province and some parts of Henan Province today. As for Shanxi, there are fewer and fewer areas, and there is almost no Shanxi area in the late Three Kingdoms.