In August, Luoyang.

After the news of the former general Dong Zhuo's troops forcing a letter to Guguan reached Luoyang, the lieutenant officials were very frightened, and Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang sent people to bribe Dong Zhuo with heavy money, and sent people to contact Cao Cao, the captain of the military academy, and at the same time gathered in the Changqiu Palace to beg the queen mother.

Empress Dowager He listened to the opinions of Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang and others, and issued an order to worship the former general Dong Zhuo and lead the pastor of Liangzhou, who was in charge of the military administration of Xiliang, and ordered him to return to Liangzhou immediately after receiving the order.

Sili Captain Fan Ling personally rushed to Hangu Pass to meet Cao Cao.

Fan Ling and Cao Cao's father Cao Song have been old friends for many years, he grew up watching Cao Cao, and the relationship between the two families is very close.

Fan Ling said to Cao Cao: "Your grandfather used to be the Marquis of Da Changqiu and Fei Ting, who was in charge of the palace, and Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang were all former officials of your grandfather. It is a fact that I and many ministers of the DPRK and China were recommended and promoted by your grandfather to become officials in the court that day, and they were also your grandfather's former officials, so we and Zhao Zhong, as well as your father, all belong to the line of Zhongguan, which is a fact. ”

"Now the general He Jin and a group of ministers in the court are going to put the lieutenant to death, if the lieutenant falls, how long can we people live? Can the general He Jin and Taifu Yuan Kui trust you and reuse you? Now that you are firmly grasping the military power of the Xiyuan Army, aren't you just worried about your own life? ”

"The marquis in the palace trusts you very much, and they even handed over the actual military power of the Xiyuan Army to you." Fan Ling said, "Now that the hussar general's army is all stranded in the steppe, and there is no threat north of the Yellow River, what should you do?" You won't help He Jin deal with Master Hou, Lord Xu and me, as well as some of your grandfather's former officials, and your father's group of old friends, right? ”

"Uncle, don't worry, I will catch the Xiyuan Army, of course, it won't be to deal with the Hou Ye and a few uncles in the palace." Cao Cao said with a smile, "After returning to the city, my uncle told a few marquis that as long as a few marquis can persuade the empress dowager to resolutely resist the pressure of the general, the prince and some ministers of the court, the situation in Luoyang will change immediately." ”

Fan Ling asked in surprise, "Meng De." Are you saying that Yuan Kui's old bastard is going to do something to the general? ”

"Yes, since my uncle has seen it, the general naturally knows it in his heart." Cao Cao stroked his beard and smiled, "But Taifu will not do anything to the general before the lieutenant is removed." Taifu acted steadily, and at this time he was at a critical time to purge the palace officials, so he would not do anything that would make the general feel that his life was seriously threatened. If the general feels that the scholars threaten him, the general is bound to compromise with the lieutenants to deal with the scholars, and the scholars will be destroyed. ”

"Taifu recently met secretly with Dong Zhuo at Hangu Pass, and then quietly rushed to Mengjin to talk with Zhijin Wu Ding Yuan and Hanoi Taishou Wang Kuang for a long time." Cao Cao said in a low voice, "Ding Yuan's father used to be the former official of Yuan Valve. Wang Kuang is a relative of Yuan Valve, and Dongjun Taishou Qiao Mao is the son of the former Taiwei Qiao Xuan, you know the relationship between Qiao Xuan and Yuan Kui, it is not an ordinary friendship. There is also Bao Xin, the cavalry captain who recruited troops from Mount Tai and returned, and his father was also a former official of Yuan Valve. Four of the Seven Route soldiers who returned to the Beijing Division were inextricably linked with Yuan Valve, which was the real reason why General He Jin was reluctant to merge these armies into the Northern Army. ”

"Ding Yuan has been the ruling Jinwu for almost a month, but he has not yet led the Northern Army, and his army has been stranded in Mengjin, and he has no intention of going to the camp of the Northern Army in Pingchang. Wang Kuang is already too shou in Hanoi. The imperial court did not urge him to take up a post in Hanoi, and he had no intention of crossing the Yellow River north. Qiao Mao too, Luoyang was fine some time ago, and he should go back to Dongjun. But he insisted on staying in Luoyang under the pretext of His Majesty's wedding. Cao Cao whispered, "On the surface, these people are all the people of the great general He Jin, but in fact, they are all the power in the hands of Taifu, and he has been secretly preparing to deal with the great general He Jin." ”

"General He Jin must know all this. He wants to be in power alone. To control Luoyang, he first had to firmly control all the troops in the Gyeonggi area. The Northern Army, the Southern Army, the Xiyuan Army, Dong Zhuo's Xiliang Army, and the soldiers and horses of the Seven Routes returned to the Beijing Division. He had to be in full control. ”

Cao Cao stroked his thick beard, blinked a pair of capable eyes, and said softly: "Uncle, you see, now the great general He Jin only has 10,000 northern troops and Hou Cheng, Zhang Yang, and Wu Qiu Yi's three-way soldiers and horses, and the southern army's Huben Yulin is the elite of guarding the palace, so the general and Taifu each control half of it, and at present, the Xiyuan Army and Dong Zhuo's Xiliang Army are still in contention. As long as the general stabilizes Dong Zhuo and controls the Xiyuan Army, he will be able to control the situation in Luoyang and completely control the authority of the country. ”

"So......" Cao Cao looked at Fan Ling and said word by word, "Today's crisis in Luoyang is completely deliberately created by the general. ”

Fan Ling's thick eyebrows were furrowed, and his face was shocked.

Cao Cao sneered: "Taifu Yuan Kui, Yuan Shao, Wang Yun and others in order to force the general to kill the lieutenant official, in the name of the general, they ordered the state and county governments to hunt down and kill the lieutenant officials' relatives, and on the other hand, they wantonly hunted and killed the lieutenant officials in the cities of Yin and Luoyang in Henan, why did the general not respond?" Why didn't he respond to the scholars and kill the lieutenant by thunder? Why did he turn a blind eye to Yuan Kui and Yuan Shao's deception of him? Why did he connive at Yuan Kui and Yuan Shao to arrest and kill the lieutenant under the pretense of various crimes? ”

The connivance of the general and the killing of the scholars angered the queen mother, and she summoned the lieutenant back to the palace. After the lieutenant entered the palace again, what did the general do? He ordered Hu Ben Zhonglang to take Yuan Shu and Hu Ben Yulin to block the palace, and he followed Yuan Shao's advice and secretly ordered Dong Zhuo to lead his army to approach Hangu Pass. The general first had the opportunity to kill the lieutenant, but he didn't kill it, and now that the lieutenant has entered the palace, he doesn't hesitate to turn his face with the queen mother and insists on killing the lieutenant, why? The general and the queen mother turned against each other, is this any good for the general? Isn't the general too stupid? ”

Fan Ling Huo Ran woke up and said, "The general is forcing Taifu to make concessions so that he can fully control the Xiyuan Army. ”

"Yes, Uncle is right." Cao Cao smirked, "The Empress Dowager and the Marquis of Zhao have always been pawns in the hands of the general, and the Taifu and the ministers in the court thought that they were very remarkable, and thought that the general would not be able to govern the country without their scholars." They looked down on the generals at all, and as a result, the generals showed weakness step by step and lured them all into a trap. ”

Cao Cao laughed and said: "The stability of Luoyang is not actually the one who controls the 110,000 army in Gyeonggi, but the balance of power in the court, which can be seen by anyone who is not an idiot. As soon as the lieutenant died, there were two powerful forces left in the court, the general and the scholar, and the two sides were bound to fight-for-tat for the authority of the country. This is just like the more than ten years after the death of the great general Dou Wu, the lieutenant officials and scholars fought against each other. ”

But at that time, neither the lieutenant nor the non-commissioned officers controlled the army, and no one could help anyone. Now it is different, now both sides control the army, once the power dispute in the court cannot be resolved, both sides will definitely use the army, so this chaos is inevitable. ”

"The general is not an idiot, of course he knows the desire for authority of the scholars, and he knows the importance of maintaining the balance of power in the court for the stability of the country. Therefore, he will not kill the lieutenant, he will use the lieutenant to contain the scholars, and use the lieutenant to achieve his goal of completely controlling the Gyeonggi army and seizing power.

"The general Taoguang has been in obscurity for many years, deliberately hiding his strength, and as a result, the magnates in the court regard him as a mediocre butcher. In fact, if you think about it carefully, he was able to send the queen mother to the palace back then, and he also helped the queen to the throne, how could this kind of person be a mediocre butcher? ”

Cao Cao shook his head and smiled: "This time, the scholars recklessly killed the unarmed lieutenant officials, which has completely angered the Queen Mother, and the Queen Mother will not give in no matter what." As long as the Queen Mother resolutely refuses to give in, as time goes by, the situation in Luoyang will become more and more unfavorable to the scholars, but it will become more and more favorable to the generals. ”

"Dong Zhuo is entering Hangu Pass, the Xiyuan Army, the soldiers and horses returning to Beijing on the seventh road and the troops of the Northern Army are threatening the capital within the eighth pass, and the chaos in Luoyang is about to break out. Who is most anxious now? ”

Cao Cao pointed to the north, and Zhizhu said in his hand: "It's the hussar general Li Yi, and it's Kou Zhun of the hussar general's mansion Jinyang Xingyuan." If nothing else, Kou Zhun will immediately raise another 100,000 Tuntian soldiers to approach the Yellow River. ”

Fan Ling had already figured out the situation in Luoyang from Cao Cao's words, so he smiled lightly: "It's a little more than 100,000, isn't Kou Zhun just a pose and threaten Yuan Kui and those ill-intentioned scholars, 10,000 people are enough." ”

"What matters is not how many people Kou Zhun threatens Gyeonggi, but his attitude towards the Luoyang crisis." Cao Cao said, "In order to ensure the food and salary of the army in Northern Xinjiang, Luoyang must not be chaotic now, and Kou Zhun must do everything possible to quickly end today's chaos in Luoyang, so Kou Zhun will not write to the Son of Heaven and the Queen Mother to ask for the expulsion of the lieutenant officials." On the contrary, in order not to provoke the Empress Dowager, he will also obey the Empress Dowager's decree, that is, he supports the Son of Heaven and the Empress Dowager to re-summon the Zhongguan into the palace. ”

"Kou Zhun is in charge of the Hussar General's Mansion Jinyang Xingyuan, and he is Li Yi's absolute confidant, and he can fully represent the Hussar General to make all the measures that are most beneficial to the Hussar General's Mansion. Therefore, his performance will help the general He Jin get rid of the persecution of the scholars and quickly restore relations with the empress dowager and the lieutenant officials. ”

"But Taifu Yuan Kui and the ministers in the court who were shouting to kill the Zhongguan were in a predicament, especially when they killed the Zhongguan and the Tiger Ben Zhonglang General Yuan Shu led the Tiger Ben Yulin Army to block the palace in the name of the general, which would directly push Yuan Valve to a dead end. As soon as the Yuan valve fell, the power of the gate valve in Luoyang was greatly reduced, and the general could participate in the affairs of Shangshu to temporarily manage the state affairs and take sole control of the country. ”

"Uncle, do you think that in this case, should the Taifu give in?"

Fan Ling smiled and nodded. (To be continued.) )