Tao Qian ( Han Dynasty ) Tao Qian ( 132 - 194 ) , Gongzu , was a warlord and the governor of Xu Province in the late Eastern Han Dynasty . Early life and career . Born in the Danyang ( 丹阳 ) region , Tao was known as a young man for his integrity and for being just . Also , at a young age he had an affinity to learning . In the service of the Han Dynasty , he led the Danyang armies in many regions to suppress rebellions . When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out he was appointed governor of Xu Province and he succeeded in clearing the area of rebels . He was sent to the northwestern frontiers during the Liang Province Rebellion , where Tao was serving under Zhang Wen . During the expedition he insulted Zhang and made him very angry . However , Sun Jian and Dong Zhuo served on the same campaign , and both of them also were unhappy with Zhang Wen ' s leadership as well . In the chaos of Dong Zhuo ' s coup d ' état and the battles that followed , Tao , having returned to Xu Province , gained control of the neighboring Yang Province . However , after that he showed no ambition to expand his territory any further . Tao was responsible for starting the careers of Wang Lang , Zhu Zhi , and Chen Deng , all of whom would play fairly important roles in politics of that time later . However , at the same time he was prone to joining forces with unscrupulous characters , such as Ze Rong , Cao Hong ( 曹宏 ) , and Que Xuan ( 闕宣 ) , and on the other hand not appointing Zhao Yu ( 趙昱 ) , who was a very loyal and able servant , to a position of trust . Those who did not respond to his requests to serve him , such as Zhang Zhao and Lü Fan , he had imprisoned , and he also attempted to harm the family of Sun Ce , who was serving Yuan Shu at the time . Cao Cao ' s invasion of Xu Province . In 193 , Cao Cao ' s father Cao Song was killed while travelling through Tao ' s territory . Tao had assigned Zhang Kai ( 張闓 ) to guard Cao Song , and it was said that Zhang killed him in order to steal the riches that he was carrying with him . The death of his father prompted Cao Cao to personally lead an army into Xu Province . As a result , a very large number of common people living there were massacred by Cao ' s army . Rebellion by Zhang Miao within Cao ' s own territory forced him to retreat before he could do conclusive battle with Tao . Tao was instrumental in the rise of Liu Bei in that when Liu came to his help , Tao provided Liu with several thousand troops of Danyang ( 丹阳兵 ) , the crack troop among all warlords . Danyang troops were famous for their fighting capabilities and it was due to this exceptional capability , Tao was able to maintain a stalemate with Cao Cao . Most of these troops remained loyal to Liu Bei and followed him for years until he finally established himself , a rather rare occurrence at the time when loyalty was not honored to the extreme when warlords came and went . This is especially remarkable since Liu was the loser on the run for most of time in his early years in the power struggle against other warlords . Tao had offered Liu Bei the governorship of Xu province many times , but Liu Bei , with his kind heart , declined the offer . He once quoted , " I shall never take advantage of one ' s situation , especially when he is so close to passing over " . Tao had suffered a great shock , because of his recent stalemate with Cao Cao . In 194 , on his death bed , Tao attempted one last time to ask Liu to take over , luckily for him , Liu accepted it as Tao ' s last wish . Tao Qian died peacefully a few moments later .