Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 183: The Fierce Tiger of Shuofang, Yu Becomes the Emperor

"Be good!"

Reading the memorial sent from Chang'an, Dong Zhuo stroked his forehead to the back of his head with a look of shock.

"How can Zhang Ji'an be so fierce?"

Dong Zhuo pointed at the memorial and exclaimed, "When Sun Jian led his army to the north, I was able to resist him. However, within a month, Zhang Yu defeated Li Jun, subdued Zhang An, and successively captured Taiyuan and Dingxiang counties. The bravery of the Shuofang tiger is even better than that of the Jiangdong tiger!"

When Dong Zhuo learned that Zhang Yu had sent troops to Taiyuan, he actually planned to appoint a governor of Bingzhou to help Li Jun resist Zhang Yu. However, before he could send a governor of Bingzhou, Zhang Yu took Taiyuan. Now he has subdued Zhang An, which makes Dong Zhuo have to admire him.

Dong Zhuo then said to Lu Bu beside him, "Fengxian, Zhang Yu's courage and strategy far surpass your comments. If you have 70% of Zhang Yu's courage and strategy, the heroes in Guandong will not be a concern!"

Although Lu Bu was angry that Dong Zhuo looked down on him, he could only bow and agree because of his power.

Lü Bu's dissatisfaction with Dong Zhuo was not something that happened overnight. He killed Ding Yuan and surrendered to Dong Zhuo. Although Dong Zhuo treated him as a confidant, he rarely let him lead troops, and even if he did, he could only be subordinate to others.

For example, last month, Sun Jian received support from Yuan Shu and led his troops to make a comeback, while Lu Bu was only given the title of Cavalry Commander, waiting for Hu Zhen's orders. Hu Zhen's bad attitude made Lu Bu and other generals dissatisfied, so they deliberately exposed a flaw, causing Hu Zhen to be defeated miserably by Sun Jian.

Of course, Dong Zhuo could not know about this. He just thought that Hu Zhen was too weak and was defeated by Sun Jian.

Because of this, although Dong Zhuo's words were encouraging, Lu Bu felt that he was being wasted. He was angry that Dong Zhuo did not recognize his talent, but used Zhang Yu to blame him.

It turns out that only the country people are reliable~
Lu Bu tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword at his waist, his expression slightly gloomy.

Dong Zhuo naturally didn't know that Lü Bu was lamenting that he had no place to use his talents. In Dong Zhuo's view, he treated Lü Bu as his son or nephew, and followed him wherever he went. He valued Lü Bu far more than Li Jue and Guo Si, who had followed him for many years, and was second only to relatives like Niu Fu and Dong Min.

With his eyes fixed on the official documents and thinking about the current situation, Dong Zhuo rubbed his temples and felt a headache.

Seeing this, Li Ru asked cautiously, "Prime Minister, are you worried about Zhang Yu and Sun Jian?"

Dong Zhuo got up from the couch and said, "The troops from Guandong have been defeated by me many times. Wang Kuang, Liu Dai, Zhang Miao and others are all afraid of me. Only Sun Jian is not afraid of my army. He dared to lead his troops to the north and defeated my army. Now he has led his troops to Yangrenju."

"Zhang Yu defeated the Baibo army at the beginning of this year and captured their troops. This autumn and winter, he sent troops and captured two bandits in less than a month, and took over two counties. His use of troops is truly formidable!"

Li Ru pondered for a moment and said, "Although Sun Jian has some ingenious strategies in using troops, I think he is not as good as Li Jue and Guo Si. At the beginning, he led a thousand infantry and cavalry to fight against two generals in the north of Meiyang Pavilion. His troops were defeated and fled. He almost died in our army. How can he be called strong?"

"Zhang Yu defeated Bai Bo because of Fu Luo's rebellion. Now he has taken over Taiyuan and Dingxiang counties. From the perspective of Confucian scholars, he may have relied more on his familiarity with geographical advantages."

"He is good at writing and planning, but he doesn't know how to fight!"

Hearing this, Dong Zhuo walked to the window with his hands behind his back, looked at the snow outside, and said with emotion: "Sun Jian and I met in Guanzhong. At that time, Sun Jian was the assistant military commander, and I was the general."

"In the past, Zhou Shen and I fought against Bian Zhang and Han Sui together. Sun Jian asked for 10,000 men to lead the army to cut off the enemy's food and grass, but Zhou Shen did not accept Sun Jian's advice, which led to the defeat. If Zhou Shen had accepted Sun Jian's advice, the rebellion in Longyou would have been quelled. Unfortunately, Zhou Shen did not accept Sun Jian's advice, and Zhang Wen did not accept my advice, which led to the disaster in Longyou until now."

"At that time, Sun Jian had the same view as me, which shows how far-reaching his strategy was. As for the defeat at Meiyang, the troops led by Sun Jian at that time were mostly a motley crowd, their weapons and armor were not as good as ours, and their troops were not as numerous as ours. How could they be a match for our army?"

Dong Zhuo looked at the snow and chanted, "Although I am not a colleague of Zhang Yu, I have seen his military strategy and it is enough to prove that he is extraordinary. When the Bingzhou army was defeated, Zhang Yu was in charge of the defeated army. He drove the enemy away in the face of danger and killed the Xiongnu Chanyu. I was powerless in this battle!"

"Zhang Yu used a brilliant strategy to defeat Baibo. What is shameful about that? It is only when the army is defeated by the enemy that it is shameful."

Dong Zhuo was able to fight his way up from a wealthy and powerful family to become a great general of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In terms of military ability, he was considered the best in the world, so he was proud of it.

The fact that he could say the above words shows that he was afraid of Zhang Yu and Sun Jian. Especially Zhang Yu, whose troops were stationed in Bingzhou, only away from Hedong from Guanzhong, made Dong Zhuo most afraid.

Li Ru consoled him, saying, "The Prime Minister is in charge of the imperial court's forbidden troops, and the Guandong heroes have mobilized the people to serve as soldiers. Their sharpness is not as good as the Prime Minister's, and their armor and weapons are not as good as the Prime Minister's. How can they be the Prime Minister's enemy?"

"As for Zhang Yu, Bingzhou is poor. The combined three prefectures of Shangdang, Yanmen and Taiyuan are not as prosperous as the Hedong prefecture. If he becomes an enemy of the Prime Minister, Zhang Yu will surely perish!"

Dong Zhuo smiled without commenting, and said confidently: "If I kill the two Yuans, Sun Jian, and Zhang Yu, the whole world will obey me!"

Among the heroes who fought against Dong Zhuo in history, perhaps the only one whom Dong Zhuo feared was Sun Jian, who fought all the way from Nanyang into Luoyang City.

As for Renqi Cao, due to his lack of experience in leading troops, he was defeated miserably by Xu Rong and was regarded by Dong Zhuo as a mediocre prince like Liu Dai, Zhang Miao and Wang Kuang.

"So what should we do now?" Li Ru asked.

Dong Zhuo thought for a long time and asked, "Wen You think it would be a good idea to marry Sun Jian and Zhang Yu?"

"A good marriage?" Li Ru stroked his beard and thought, and said, "Sun Jian was Yuan Shu's vanguard. If we marry him, Sun Jian might be able to be used by the prime minister, but I'm afraid Sun Jian won't agree. And Zhang Yu is very young, and if he marries Wang Hong, there is no one of the right age in his clan."

Dong Zhuo waved his hand and said, "You can have someone try to persuade Sun Jian. Whether it will succeed or not is another matter. As for Zhang Yu being Wang's son-in-law, it doesn't matter. If Zhang Yu is interested, he can divorce Wang Hong's daughter or make Wang's daughter his concubine."

"This~"

Li Ru hesitated and said, "Prime Minister, Zhang Yu has been married to Wang's daughter for many years. If we force his wife to be a concubine, it will probably cause criticism. If we cause dissatisfaction among Zhang Yu, Wang Yun and Wang Hong, it will be more trouble than gain."

"Criticism?"

Dong Zhuo sneered and said, "When have I ever been afraid of rumors?"

"If we can form a marriage alliance with Zhang Yu, he will control all the counties in Bingzhou, and with the help of Shangdang's terrain, he can overlook Henei. Yuan Shao will be in a state of panic three times a day!"

Just kidding, Dong Zhuo was never a so-called rule-abiding person. From the moment he betrayed the Yuan family and stabbed them in the back, his actions were destined to go against social values.

Moreover, Dong Zhuo not only stabbed the Yuan family in the back, but now that the whole country was in chaos, the states of Bing, Ji, Yi, Yu, and Yan did not provide taxes, and the Guanzhong court in Dong Zhuo's hands was in financial shortage. In order to supplement the finances, Dong Zhuo simply ordered his men to dig up the Luoyang Imperial Tomb to replenish the military supplies.

Of course, if society had not forced him, Dong Zhuo would not have embarked on the path of making enemies with the world.

Seeing that Dong Zhuo had made up his mind, Li Ru said, "Zhang Yu recommended Li Song as the governor of Taiyuan County and Zhong Yao as the governor of Dingxiang County. I wonder if the prime minister is willing to do so? Or will he use his in-laws as a threat?"

"Be generous. It is a foregone conclusion that Zhang Yu will control Taiyuan and Dingxiang. Now that he is showing his merits to the court, it means that he still remembers the court. Why does he need to threaten the court?" Dong Zhuo said, "Order someone to confer the title on Zhang Yu and send the seal to Jinyang."

"promise!"

Not to mention that Dong Zhuo intended to form a marriage alliance with Zhang Yu, the news that Zhang Yu had captured Taiyuan and Dingxiang in more than a month had also reached Yuan Shao who was stationed in Henei.

Mengjin, Hanoi Allied Forces.

Inside the big tent, Yuan Shao was discussing the situation with Cao Cao, Xu You, Feng Ji and others.

"Zhang Yu is indeed brave. He was able to capture Li Jun, subdue Zhang An, and take over Taiyuan and Dingxiang counties within a month. Now he is about to occupy Bingzhou, making him a formidable enemy of ours," Yuan Shao said to everyone.

Xu You sneered and said, "Zhang Yu took advantage of the general's expedition against Dong Zhuo to lead his troops to attack Taiyuan and show off his power for a while. When Dong Zhuo dies, you are just a herder, and we can get rid of you!"

Yuan Shao nodded and said, "Zhang Yu is stationed in Shangdang. We can be friends for now. We should tolerate him for now. Our primary enemy is Dong Zhuo."

Yuan Shao looked around and said, "Dong Zhuo has relocated a young emperor to the west, but the young emperor is not a descendant of the previous emperor. The officials in the court are all flattering Dong Zhuo, so they are not trustworthy. I want to establish a sage emperor in the east with Han Fu and welcome the governor of Youzhou as the emperor. What do you think?"

Seeing that Zhang Yu and Yuan Shu were about to take control of a state one after another, Yuan Shao became more and more impatient and wanted to accomplish something big as soon as possible in order to make a name for himself.

As for his plan to take over Jizhou from Han Fu, Yuan Shao did not want to bring Gongsun Zan and Zhang Yu into Jizhou. Now he planned to play political tactics, that is, to welcome Liu Yu as the emperor, and then move Han Fu to the court to be an official, and he would be able to rule Jizhou legitimately.

He could even use his power to slowly annex Hebei's You and Qing states, and even drive Zhang Yu to fight for him, so that he could control all the states in Hebei and emulate Liu Xiu to unify the world.

Feng Ji hesitated for a moment and said, "General's plan is feasible. We can contact Yuan Gonglu and Zhang Ji'an and send an envoy to persuade Lord Liu to ascend the throne."

"Where is Meng De?" Yuan Shao asked when he saw Cao Cao remained silent.

Cao Cao suppressed his dissatisfaction and said, "Brother Benchu, Dong Zhuo's crimes have caused the people of the world to be in turmoil. The masses have raised an army of righteousness, and people from far and near have responded, all because of loyalty and righteousness. Now the young lord is weak and is controlled by treacherous officials, but he has not caused the country to perish. If you follow Dong Zhuo's example, the world will have two rulers at the same time, and I am afraid there will be no peace!"

Yuan Shao laughed a few times and said to Cao Cao on his left: "How can Meng De be so short-sighted? Dong Zhuo supported the emperor, and ambitious people in the world have risen up. Unless we follow the example of Emperor Shizu and rule the world, we can't revive the Han Dynasty."

"Mr. Liu is the descendant of Emperor Taizu. Today, the world is in chaos. We should support him as the king and follow the example of Emperor Taizu. With Hebei as the foundation, we can rebuild the Han Dynasty."

After a pause, Yuan Shao picked up the jade seal on his desk, threw it to Cao Cao, and said with a smile: "When the mission is accomplished, Meng De will wear the jade seal as a pendant. Wouldn't it be a pleasure?"

Cao Cao took the jade seal with one hand. Although he was unhappy, he could only laugh along with Yuan Shao.

Xu You laughed along with the two men, raised his eyebrows and said, "Wang Ding, a man from Jiyin, got a jade seal with the words 'Yu is the emperor' written on it. Also, two suns were seen rising from Dai County, which means 'Yu' is the emperor of the day."

"Yu is the emperor?"

In a corner of the big tent, Xin Pi was muttering in his heart, thinking: "Grand Marshal Liu Yu is named Yu, and General Zhang Yu is also named Yu. If the Grand Marshal is not the emperor, is it possible that the one who received the Mandate of Heaven is Zhang Yu?"

(End of this chapter)