General Suppressing the Rebellion, Governor of Youfufeng, Dong Zhuo.
Governor of Bingzhou, Cavalry Commandant, Ding Yuan.
General of the North, Governor of Hedong, Liu Zhuang.
First of all, there is no problem with Dong Zhuo. Dong Zhuo, a native of Liangzhou, has already defected to a noble family. He is a disciple and former official of Yuan Wei. The Yuan family is his second monarch and second sun. This man from Xiliang is definitely under the control of our Yuan family.
The second is Ding Yuan. Ding Yuan is also okay. After all, he is from the circle of aristocratic families. We are all on the same front. He is just an ordinary small aristocratic family and cannot beat our Yuan family.
Finally, Liu Zhuang... He was Lu Zhi's apprentice, and he married the legitimate daughter of Yangqu Guo. So, he should be considered a member of our family, right?
However, this man was born a commoner and worked his way up from the bottom of society. He is very close to the eunuchs and has recently been giving gifts and buying official positions for the eunuchs, so his stance is somewhat ambiguous.
Yuan Wei hesitated for a moment, and thought carefully. In fact, it didn't matter whether Ding Yuan came or not. As long as his disciple Dong Zhuo brought the murderous Guanxi army over, it would be fine. It didn't matter whether Liu Zhuang came or not.
Therefore, Yuan Wei did not include Liu Zhuang in the end, and then wrote two new imperial edicts in the Secretariat. Two carrier pigeons trained in Luoyang soared into the sky and delivered the two imperial edicts to Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour.
When they saw the imperial edict ordering them to go to Beijing to suppress the bandits, their reactions were very different.
Ding Yuan, who was located in Henei, the closest to Luoyang, did not hesitate to lead the five battalions of border troops from Yanmen and a large number of peasant soldiers he had recruited in Henei County, crossed the Yellow River in a mighty force, and directly entered the territory of Mengjin. He headed straight for Luoyang and intimidated the imperial capital.
Dong Zhuo was still in Youfufeng, fighting endlessly with the Xiliang rebels Ma Teng and Han Sui. He was stunned when he received the letter.
As the imperial general, she received an imperial edict from the court ordering her to lead the Guanxi Army into Luoyang, kill the eunuchs, and purge the court.
As Yuan Wei's disciple and former official, and his most trusted confidant, Dong Zhuo also received an order written by Yuan Wei himself, asking her to rush to Luoyang and instigate an all-out war between the eunuchs and the relatives of the emperor. Then our Yuan family will reap the benefits, and as my most trusted confidant, you will naturally be able to profit from it as well.
Not only that, as the elder sister of Dong Min, the then Commandant of the Imperial Chariots and an officer of the Imperial Guards, Dong Zhuo received the third letter from her brother Dong Min - Sister, you have to be careful. Luoyang is in chaos right now, and the Yuan family is up to no good. Yuan Shao is frantically trying to win over He Jin's civil servants, and Yuan Shu is frantically trying to win over all the officers of the Imperial Guards. I heard that the Grand Tutor has recruited you to Luoyang at this critical juncture. You have to be careful in everything. The Yuan family cannot be trusted.
Dong Zhuo was overwhelmed when he saw the three letters from the imperial court, his benefactor, and his younger brother. As the chief think tank of Dong Zhuo's team, Li Ru was also very conflicted at the moment. According to the intelligence at hand, the Yuan family was definitely up to something and was making a bigger one. Luoyang was now a huge quagmire and everyone might get stuck in it and die without a trace.
But the imperial edict had been issued, and he had no better solution. He could only take it one step at a time. The battle in Guanxi was in full swing, Ma Teng and Han Sui were becoming more and more rampant, and Dong Zhuo had no way to withdraw his army to Luoyang.
There was no other way, so she had to order her son-in-law Niu Fu to take charge of the Guanxi battlefield on her behalf and control most of the troops. She herself only took two battalions and 5,000 elite soldiers to march into Luoyang. The army marched along the Wei River and into the Yellow River, and then temporarily stopped in Hedong County, which was very close to Luoyang.
Damn it, maybe I'm going to Luoyang this time to fight the eunuchs' West Garden Eighth Battalion. If something goes wrong, I might have to fight with the vicious Northern Army Five Battalions. Are my five thousand Guanxi troops enough? Should I borrow some from Liu Zhuang? Or should I ask him to go to Luoyang with me? ? ?
Thinking of this, Dong Zhuo immediately wrote a letter to Liu Zhuang who was far away in Yanmen.
When Liu Zhuang received the letter, he was very confused when he saw that Dong Zhuo invited him to lead the army into Luoyang with him and strangle the eunuch. Huh? Lead troops into Luoyang? Me? !
According to the knowledge he had before traveling through time, He Jin would die together with the eunuchs in just a few months, creating a huge power vacuum throughout the empire, and the entire imperial guards would be leaderless!
It was at this time that Dong Zhuo, relying on his good fortune of picking up the emperor in Mangshan, the military threat of the Western Liang Army in his hands, and the expansion of his power by annexing Ding Yuan's troops, quickly incorporated the five battalions of the Northern Army, as well as the Yulin and Huben, and thus directly controlled the entire Luoyang. From a small warlord, he jumped to the supreme leader of the entire empire!
In history, Dong Zhuo had already placed a perfect answer to the test paper in front of him. After entering Luoyang, he only needed to copy the answer, and the power above everyone else and not less than that of the young emperor would belong to him!
This is truly a one-step success!!!
At this moment, Liu Zhuang's mind was filled with the standard answer of how Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang to seize the highest power; his heart beat faster and his breathing became rapid. The four words "move troops to Luoyang" haunted Liu Zhuang like a nightmare and made him unable to sleep. He was like a worker with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan who suddenly knew that he had the opportunity to get rid of his current identity and become the chairman of his own company worth hundreds of millions, tossing and turning in excitement.
Now, there were only four words in his mind: Lead the troops to Luoyang! This temptation was too great to refuse.
The next day, Liu Zhuang immediately handed over the task of guarding the Yanmen Fortress to Guo Huai's Yangqu Camp, and he himself led 2,500 personal soldiers to the south overnight and returned to Hedong. At the same time, he urgently dispatched Lu Bu to lead the White Horse Camp to withdraw from Xihe County to Hedong, preparing to take the guards and the White Horse Camp, also with 5,000 people, to join forces with Dong Zhuo and rush to Luoyang.
Chapter 207: Jia Xu's Prophecy
Seeing that Liu Zhuang chose to accept Dong Zhuo's request for help and led his troops to march into Luoyang, Dong Zhuo, who had been nervous and unsure about entering Luoyang, now breathed a sigh of relief.
Compared to the Yuan family, who were as cunning as foxes and completely unpredictable, Dong Zhuo trusted Liu Zhuang, his battlefield brother who had been through life and death with him and even saved his life.
Seeing that Liu Zhuang was about to lead his troops to Luoyang, Liu Zhuang's other officials and lieutenants did not react at all. Everyone did not know what the situation was in Luoyang and what the outcome would be. Some people felt that it was okay to go, but others felt that it was a serious crime, treason. Dong Zhuo led his troops to Luoyang under the protection of an imperial decree, but we did not have an imperial decree, so why should we go to Luoyang? If something went wrong, our entire clan would be implicated!
All the ministers under Liu Zhuang didn't know that they were so deeply bound to Dong Zhuo this time. They were discussing whether it was a blessing or a curse. Only Jia Xu was sweating profusely and was fidgeting. She finally understood why the nightmare prophecy that had troubled her for the first half of her life, that Dong Zhuo's entire team would have a miserable future, had happened.
Jia Xu closed her eyes and used her gift of prophecy. With the key information that Dong Zhuo led his troops into Luoyang, she could finally see those phantoms hiding in the shadows and under the water.
In the first scene, the conflict between Guandong and Guanxi is extremely fierce. The Guandong families look down on Dong Zhuo, a Guanxi native, and are unwilling to cooperate with him to jointly govern the Han Dynasty and get it back on track. Dong Zhuo's series of moves to win over the Guandong families all ended in failure. Many Guandong families even directly launched an army to fight against Dong, which eventually led to Dong Zhuo launching a massacre in Luoyang, killing many people and completely breaking off with the Guandong families.
In the second scene, the illusory Mandate of Heaven of the Han Dynasty was completely shattered because of Dong Zhuo's usurpation of power. Before, everyone obeyed the Han emperor and was loyal to the Liu family because everyone in the world believed that the Han emperors of all dynasties were the Son of Heaven, the orthodox one, that there was a connection between heaven and man, and that the power of kings was granted by God. All emperors of all dynasties were sent by heaven to govern the world. The emperor was the representative of God on earth, and the people could only follow the emperor's instructions and could not resist.
Although it is unpleasant to hear that foreign relatives are in power, everyone can accept it. After all, you are the wife of the late emperor and the mother of the young emperor. No matter how you argue, it is barely acceptable for the empress dowager to rule the country. The power of foreign relatives is a characteristic of the Han Dynasty and must be experienced.
But who are you, Dong Zhuo? Not the Mandate of Heaven, nor a relative of the emperor, but a lowly man from Liangzhou. Just because you led troops into Luoyang and had a strong army, you could seize the supreme power of the empire? You could bully the emperor at will and monopolize power? Then, wouldn't the theories of the connection between heaven and man and the divine right of the emperor that we believed in before be bullshit?
Since a lowly Liangzhou man can rule the entire empire because of his strong military forces, why can't we, the great scholars of Guandong, replace him? If I can't replace the emperor, can I replace you, the Grand Master?
Since you, Dong Zhuo, can become the Grand Master by leading troops into Luoyang, then why can’t I become the Prime Minister by leading troops into Luoyang?
All of a sudden, princes from all over the country rose up in arms. After Dong Zhuo tore apart the illusory "Mandate of Heaven" that Confucianism had desperately defended for more than four hundred years, everyone saw the truth - if even Dong Zhuo, a man from Xiliang who was at the lowest end of the contempt chain, could bully the emperor, then why can't we?
It is not the one who possesses the Mandate of Heaven who can rule the entire empire, but the one who has strong soldiers and horses who possesses the Mandate of Heaven!
"Hu-hu-"
Jia Xu stopped predicting the great chaos in the coming decades, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, gasped for breath, and then found that his official robe was soaked with sweat from his body, and he looked as disheveled as if he had just crawled out of the river.
Oh my god, no wonder Dong Zhuo and his gang were all dead. Their trip to Luoyang directly broke the theoretical basis of the Han Dynasty's rule of heaven and man! It made everyone in the world no longer believe in the so-called destiny, but only believe in their own soldiers and military force.
All Confucian scholars had vaguely predicted the chaotic times, but at this moment only Jia Xu discovered that this was not just a chaotic times in the physical sense, but also a major collapse of the thoughts and systems of the people of the world!
After Jia Xu made a prediction, she found that the tall and handsome Dong Zhuo in the prediction suddenly turned into the tall and handsome Liu Zhuang. Before she could react, Liu Zhuang with double pupils turned into the mature and beautiful Dong Zhuo. The scene of the two of them once again presented a strange quantum superposition state in her prediction.
Not only that, Zhang Xiu, the close guard beside Dong Zhuo, suddenly turned into Lu Bu, Li Jue and Guo Si turned into Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun, Hua Xiong holding two huge axes suddenly turned into Xu Huang, and teams of bloodthirsty and terrifying Guanxi troops turned into Liu Zhuang's newly emerged Hedong army, with their troops, green-skinned personal soldiers, and the Dong Zhuo group that entered Luoyang was strangely replaced by Liu Zhuang's all-star team!
And the Li Ru in his prophecy, after flashing a few times, actually turned into himself.
Jia Xu only felt his heart and lungs stop responding. After this horrifying change lasted for a few seconds, Liu Zhuang's All-Star Group turned into Dong Zhuo's Guanxi Army in history. The two predicted states were in a weird quantum superposition state and were switching rapidly.
All of this shows that everything that I predicted would happen when Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang, along with Liu Zhuang's move south, is likely to become Liu Zhuang!!!
Jia Xu could no longer sit still. He thought that he had run away because he did not want to die with Dong Zhuo. He thought that if he stayed with you, Liu Zhuang, he could live a life without illness or disaster, enjoy his old age, and finally die peacefully surrounded by his family.
How come when Dong Zhuo's damn letter for help came, the whole of Liuzhuang became so extreme and dangerous? How about I run away first?
Wait, calm down, calm down. The Lord is not Dong Zhuo. He is a very obedient person and respects me very much. He also gave me an extremely important official position. He can still be saved. He should be able to be saved. Let me think about how to tell the Lord about this.
Jia Xu predicted the future again, trying to figure out Liu Zhuang's thoughts, and then summed up a set of rhetoric. He rushed out in the middle of the night to persuade the lord that at this critical juncture, he must not enter the super quagmire and vortex of Luoyang.
The author says:
Author's words: 3250 monthly tickets plus more~
Chapter 208: Late-night Conspiracy
"Fu Jun! Fu Jun!"
Liu Zhuang was tossing and turning in the marching tent, unable to fall asleep because of the plan to lead the army into Luoyang. At this moment, Jia Xu rushed over in a panic. After getting Liu Zhuang's nod, Zhao Yun let her into the tent.
"Wenhe, why are you looking for me so late? Is there an emergency? Why are you soaked?"
Liu Zhuang looked at Jia Xu in confusion. She was as miserable as a drowned chicken at the moment. Her slightly messy black hair was stuck to her listless face by sweat. The whole black silk robe was also wet by sweat, tightly sticking to her weak and delicate body and her two proud snow-capped breasts, outlining a series of seductive arcs in the air.
Large areas of snow-white, soft skin and enchanting spring scenery were all wet, and were faintly visible under the long robe that stuck to the delicate body.
Liu Zhuang quickly untied his cloak and put it on Jia Xu, which made her nervous expression relax a little.
"My Lord, Xu has worked diligently with you to govern Hedong and conquer Bingzhou. This year is already the fifth year. It took us five years to finally make the Hedong and Bingzhou families bow down to us. This journey has not been easy."
Jia Xu did not directly state his purpose, but first evoked Liu Zhuang's memories.
"Yes, thanks to Wenhe's assistance, my work is progressing so smoothly."
Liu Zhuang recalled the hardships he had experienced over the past five years. It was because he relied on the power of the prefect appointed by the emperor himself and the overwhelming military force in his hands that those aristocratic families did not dare to oppose him openly. Even so, they still came up with such tricks as diverting the destiny of heaven and playing tricks.
Later, he had to acknowledge and protect the land and population held by the Hedong families, and also granted them a large number of official titles and made promises, before he reached a reconciliation with them.
In the end, the Hedong family only joined him because they were forced to find a big tree to provide shade under the coercion of the turbulent situation following the death of the Han Emperor some time ago.
The situation was similar for the Bingzhou family, but the difference was that after marrying Guo Huai, she became a member of the Bingzhou family. This series of processes was simple and went very smoothly, so a large number of Bingzhou family came directly to join her.
"I've been to Luoyang once. The power of the noble families there is a hundred or even a thousand times greater than that of Hedong and Bingzhou. Moreover, the noble families in Luoyang all have two bases. For example, the Yuan family of Runan has extensive connections in Luoyang and is also very powerful in Runan. There are also super families at the level of the Three Dukes, such as the Yang family of Hongnong and the Cao family of Pei. Whether in the court or in their hometowns, their resources, property, and private armed forces are not inferior to yours, and are even more powerful than yours."
Jia Xu gritted his teeth, making sure that Liu Zhuang and Zhao Yun were the only two people he could trust here, and directly spoke out the words of usurpation.
"My Lord, now that the late emperor who was truly in charge of the government has passed away, the one sitting on the throne is a young emperor in name only, and all the imperial edicts are issued by the imperial relatives. Are you leading your troops into the capital now, do you want to be like Huo Guang?!
Compared to the Hedong family, you have the emperor's supreme authority to appoint you and have an overwhelming military advantage.
But for the Luoyang family, you are only appointed by your relatives, and no one will obey your official position, and your military strength and power are not inferior to your political enemies. At that time, you will face the ultimate behemoths that far exceed the Hedong and Bingzhou families, and the two foreign armies of Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo, whose strength is not inferior to yours! And the five battalions of the notorious Northern Army in Luoyang!
In this case, you can't be like Huo Guang! I know these people from Guandong too well. They are all arrogant and will not treat you, a prefect of common origin, as a human being.
I am from Guanxi. Dong Zhuo is willing to share the hardships with you in leading troops into Luoyang. But once you have harvested the highest power together, will you be willing to share the highest power with Dong Zhuo? Is Dong Zhuo really willing to share the wealth with you? There is only one position for the general, and there are too many people who are going there and staying in Luoyang.
Lord, you are about to embark on an extremely dangerous and life-threatening journey!"
Jia Xu gave a very earnest advice, gradually analyzing the strength comparison between the Hedong family and the Luoyang family.
"My Lord, you now have fifteen battalions of troops under your command, and you command 10,000 men and 14,000 orcs. With such a force, no one dares to treat you like a dog, and no one will believe that you are not a threat. As long as you enter Luoyang, there will be only two outcomes - win everything, or lose everything."
Liu Zhuang was silent. What Jia Xu said made sense. His decision to lead an army into Luoyang was a path with extremely high risks but also extremely rich rewards.
Jia Xu advised himself not to enter Luoyang, choosing another safe path with low risk but also low return.
"So, what does Wenhe mean?"
Liu Zhuang was struggling at this moment. I naturally knew the risks of leading an army into Luoyang, but the reward was too tempting.
"My Lord, our base is still in Hedong and Taiyuan counties. You should continue to strengthen the walls of Yanmen and Jingxing, so that the Xianbei and Xiongnu cannot interfere with our march southward. At the same time, you should store more food and fodder, accumulate strength here, and wait for the great changes in the world.
We now occupy Bingzhou, which is known as the roof of the Central Plains. Whether we go east to Jizhou, west to Guanzhong, or south to Luoyang, we are always attacking from high to low, showing a momentum of building a towering tower and crushing withering trees and rotten wood! Now we should be sitting on the east bank of the river, overlooking the world, waiting for the times to change, instead of being the first to take action and becoming the target of the world.
"You see, my Lord, Dong Zhuo and Ding Yuan have both led foreign troops into Luoyang. In my opinion, there are only a few months left before the world goes into chaos! Now is not the best time. A few months later, when the world really goes into chaos, that will be the best opportunity for you to realize your ambitions!"
Liu Zhuang looked at Jia Xu in surprise. She was obviously a native, but her insight into the future was the same as mine, who had read the script. She judged that the world was about to fall into chaos, and even made strategic suggestions such as building high walls, storing up grain, and slowly becoming king.
If I ignore Dong Zhuo at this moment and do not enter Luoyang, then according to the development of history, Dong Zhuo will indeed be completely ruined within a year of being in power, and the eighteen princes will come one after another to fight against the Han thieves - oh, Ding Yuan no longer has Lu Bu, and he might be directly defeated by Dong Zhuo's Khorne Guanxi Army, and the collapse will be even faster.
Liu Zhuang took two deep breaths, and his obsession with leading his troops into Luoyang and seizing the world slowly disappeared from his mind.
Indeed, I was a little impatient before. I only saw the thief eating meat but didn't see the thief being beaten. The next scenario after Dong Zhuo gained power was that the eighteen princes would come to fight against him.
Thinking carefully, I have too little foundation now. Even if I can seize the highest power like Dong Zhuo, with the basic base of Hedong and Taiyuan, can I hold on to the highest power from the empire under the covetousness of more than a hundred counties in the world? ? ?
"Thanks for Wenhe's teachings. I understand now. Now is not the best time. We should be patient for a few months and wait for the eighteen princes to get along with Dong Zhuo. Only then will we have a real chance. Wenhe's words are as good as Zhang Liang's in ancient times."
Liu Zhuang's mentality has completely calmed down at this moment. He is no longer obsessed with raising an army to march into Luoyang. After thinking about it for several rounds, he came to a very discouraging answer. With his current status, it is indeed impossible for him to suppress those four generations of three officials.
The best outcome for me is to become the second Dong Zhuo. By then, the world will not be able to submit to a commoner like me. I still have to use Bingzhou and Luoyang as my base to start wars on all sides and defeat them. Maybe Dong Zhuo will become one of the 18 alliances to fight against Liu.
Is this any different from me conquering the world with Bingzhou as my base? If I stay in Bingzhou, I won't be considered the first to come forward. Wait a few months and let Dong Zhuo become the first to come forward.
Jia Xu looked at Liu Zhuang in surprise. He had prepared a lot of words, but he didn't expect that he could persuade him with just the first paragraph? Was he really going to let the Lord give up such a huge temptation to send troops to Luoyang?
Wait, he just said that eighteen princes went to fight against Dong Zhuo, how did he know there were eighteen? ? ?
Jia Xu closed her eyes and made a prediction. She had been watching Liu Zhuang before, but she had not predicted what would happen to Dong Zhuo. Counting carefully, one, two, three... In addition to Liu Zhuang, there were really eighteen princes.
For a moment, Jia Xu found Liu Zhuang's face strange. Could it be that the Lord of the Mansion could predict the future like me? Otherwise, there was really no way to explain where these extremely advanced policies such as military farms, mansion soldiers, and military households came from.
Last year, Liu Zhuang, without much money, took out a loan without hesitation to buy the position of a prefect and two county magistrates. Everyone thought that this was giving money to the eunuchs for free. If he couldn't pay back enough money in the second year, these three official positions would be lost immediately.
Only Liu Zhuang didn't care at all. Now it seems that these eunuchs can only collect a down payment, and they will not live until this autumn.
On the other hand, Dong Zhuo waited for several days in Hedong, and finally waited for Liu Zhuang's reinforcements, but he did not see Liu Zhuang or Lu Bu himself. He only saw two large flags, one embroidered with "Yangqu Lieutenant, Guo" and the other embroidered with "Laishui Lieutenant, Zhang".
Dong Zhuo was stunned for a moment and found two young generals walking towards him. They were Liu Zhuang's wife Guo Huai and Liu Zhuang's concubine Zhang Liao.
"General Dong."
Guo Huai, dressed in military uniform, walked up to Dong Zhuo with neither arrogance nor servility and saluted.
"Xianbei, the Xiongnu launched a second attack. The Lord of the Palace and General Lü Zhonglang cannot leave Yanmen and Xihe, so they specifically ordered me and Wenyuan to lead two battalions of 5,000 soldiers and horses to help General Dong enter Luoyang."
"Thank you, Bogie."
Dong Zhuo respectfully returned the gift and said, "Okay, even though Liu Zhuang was held back by the Hu people and couldn't come, he still mobilized 5,000 soldiers to help me. That's very kind of you. I will definitely repay you when I enter Luoyang."
Chapter 209: Luoyang shocking change
The next day, Liu Zhuang left Gao Huan to lead his Wuyuan Camp and cooperate with the nearby aristocratic soldiers to guard Yanmen and resist the Xianbei.
Guo Pei and Wang Yan were left to guard Jingxing and guard against the Black Mountain Army.
He left Lü Bu to guard Xihe and intimidate the four Huns in the Hetao area.
Afterwards, after guarding the gates of the four families, Liu Zhuang immediately brought all the senior generals including Tuoba Yun, Zhao Yun, Zhang He, Xu Huang, Yuwen Tai, etc., and gathered them in Hedong, waiting for major changes in the world.
The reason why Guo Huai, Zhang Liao and Dong Zhuo were sent to the capital was because Guo Huai's Dragon Blood Heavenly Questions allowed him to contact Liu Zhuang regularly every day even though he was thousands of miles away, so that he could be the first to know all the news in Luoyang, while Zhang Liao was responsible for the backup. I don't need you to do anything when you go to Luoyang this time, just report the news to me in real time.
Even if the worst happens and I don't want both battalions, you just need to turn into lightning and bring Guo Huai and yourself back to me safely at the speed of light.
