Empress Dong is not a fool, how can he not hear the meaning of Yuan Shao's words, it is nothing more than telling him one thing, that is, the Son of Heaven must go to Hangu Pass with him.

Although it was said that Empress Dowager Dong did not report much hope at the beginning, after all, she also wanted to give it a try, in case Yuan Shao agreed to let the Son of Heaven stay in Chang'an City.

It's a pity that the result is a big disappointment for her, just as Lu Zhi expected, Yuan Shao can't keep the Son of Heaven in Chang'an City at all, even if Chang'an City is still under his control.

From this point, it can also be seen that Yuan Shao attaches great importance to the Son of Heaven, but unfortunately this kind of importance is not the kind of importance that Empress Dowager Dong and the Son of Heaven imagined.

With a somewhat gloomy look on her face, Empress Dowager Dong waved her hand at Yuan Shao and said, "That's it, since the general has decided, then the mourning family will no longer say anything, I just hope that the general can take care of the safety of the Son of Heaven." ”

Yuan Shao immediately assured the Empress Dowager Dong: "The minister guarantees the Empress Dowager with the head of the Empress Dowager that as long as the minister does not die, the Son of Heaven will be safe and sound." ”

And Liu Xie didn't speak at all when Yuan Shao came in, just sat there like a puppet watching the conversation between Empress Dowager Dong and Yuan Shao.

When Yuan Shao bowed down to Liu Xie, a little hatred flashed in Liu Xie's eyes, but when Yuan Shao raised his head, Liu Xie returned to a calm appearance.

"The minister retired, and asked the Queen Mother and His Majesty to prepare early and be ready to go on the road at any time."

Seeing Yuan Shao leave the palace, until Yuan Shao's figure disappeared into the distance, Liu Xie threw himself into the arms of the Empress Dowager Dong, and cried with horror: "Queen Mother, Yuan Shao, this traitor wants to take me to Hangu Pass, he wants to keep me in his hands." ”

Empress Dowager Dong flicked Liu Xie's head, and a little tiredness appeared on her slightly old face, and she comforted: "Xie'er don't need to panic, as long as Yuan Benchu still has a place where he can use His Majesty, he will definitely not dare to treat His Majesty, and he may not have the opportunity to take down Yuan Benchu, a traitor, in the future." ”

Hundreds of thousands of troops gathered outside Chang'an City, this time Yuan Shao has the title of general, nominally commanding hundreds of thousands of troops, although some of the hundreds of thousands of troops are not his direct subordinates, but compared with the previous time when the princes joined forces, Yuan Shao's soldiers and horses this time have skyrocketed several times.

You must know that in a short period of time, the Chang'an Imperial Court was stunned and frantically gathered more than 400,000 soldiers and horses, almost half of which belonged to Yuan Shao, not to mention the rest, just the remnants of the Yellow Turban Army who were recruited by Zhang Yan provided Yuan Shao with 100,000 soldiers who had experienced the war.

Although these Yellow Turban soldiers are not elite, they are much stronger than those farmers who were directly recruited, you must know that the Yellow Turban Army that was recruited this time is no less than hundreds of thousands, if Yuan Shao is crazy to expand the army, at least he can pull out a direct army of no less than four or five hundred thousand.

It's just that with Yuan Shao's current strength, it is simply not enough to feed hundreds of thousands of troops, you must know that the consumption of hundreds of thousands of troops every day alone is extremely amazing, if you don't have enough strength and heritage, crazy expansion of the army is simply looking for death.

Even if Yuan Shao had some family support, he didn't dare to let go of the army, so he could only carefully select 100,000 elites from the Yellow Turban Army.

Coupled with a part of the good family that Yuan Shao had collected and a part of the manpower that the family had supported him, Yuan Shao once again had an army of 200,000 directly under him since the First Battle of Tiger Prison.

In addition, needless to say, it is the soldiers and horses belonging to some princes such as Gongsun Zan and Han Fu, but the Chang'an Imperial Court has also played a banner, coupled with the influence of the Yuan family, and Chu Yi's reputation, a considerable number of Han officials are actually a little disgusted with Chu Yi, who was born as a eunuch, these people dare not fight against the Luoyang Imperial Court on the surface, but it does not mean that they will not make some small moves.

It is precisely because of this reason that several princes who suffered heavy losses in the first battle of Tiger Prison Pass, with the secret support of these officials, their strength swelled up like a balloon, and in a short period of time, they each pulled up tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, adding up to 200,000.

Even Sun Ce, whose father died in battle, was supported by his relatives and pulled up a team of no less than 20,000 people at the age of a weak crown.

The most important thing is that Sun Ce's best friend, Zhou Yu, who is just a weak crown age, also came from Jiangdong, not only bringing Sun Ce a shortage of grain, but also recruiting Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai for Sun Ce.

It can be said that under the signboard of the Chang'an Imperial Court, the strength of several princes who chose to stay with Yuan Shao after the break has skyrocketed, and now they are all named generals one by one.

On the high point of the platform, Yuan Shao was surrounded by several princes, his eyes looked down, and at a glance, there was no end in sight to the black oppression, and they were all ready to go.

Looking at the black soldiers and horses, Yuan Shao's heart could be described as full of spirit, and he couldn't help but pull out the sword at his waist, raise it high, and shout at the same time: "Send troops!" ”

Suddenly, the officers and soldiers of the three armies shouted, and the mighty army went straight to the direction of Hangu Pass like a torrent.

Sun Ce volunteered to lead his soldiers and horses as the vanguard of the army, while Yuan Shao did not need to say that leading the army to sit in the middle army was the core of the army.

A huge carriage that can be called luxurious drove out of the imperial city surrounded by the army, out of Chang'an City, and into the Chinese army, needless to say that this carriage carried the Son of Heaven Liu Xie.

Regardless of whether the hundred officials have opinions or not, at least in Chang'an City, no one can compete with Yuan Shao head-on, and the decision made by Yuan Shao, as long as Yuan Shao insists, then no one can oppose it, not even the Son of Heaven.

Hangu Pass

On the high city wall, teams of soldiers and horses are patrolling, and just looking at these soldiers and horses, you can see that these soldiers can definitely be called elite.

The guard general of Hangu Pass is none other than Yuan Shao's nephew Gao Gan, Yuan Shao did not appoint Zhang He, who had already shown his prominence, or appointed experienced generals such as Li Dao, Guo Yan, and Xu Rong, but chose Gao Gan, which needless to say is because the relationship between Gao Gan and Yuan Shao is extraordinary.

Of course, Yuan Shao is not a fool, he knows better than anyone how important Hangu Pass is to Chang'an City, so he appointed Gao Gan as the main general of Hangu Pass to guard the city, but he transferred Xu Rong to Gao Gan as Gao Gan's deputy general to assist Gao Gan to defend the city.

Coupled with the tens of thousands of elite troops stationed in Hangu Pass, there are Xu Rong, Gao Gan and some generals, it can be said that the huge Hangu Pass is absolutely impregnable.

Besides, Chang'an City is not too far from Hangu Pass, if the Luoyang Imperial Court raises a large army to attack Hangu Pass, Yuan Shao can naturally send troops and horses to Hangu Pass to support as soon as possible, so don't look at Gao Gan and Xu Rong sitting in Hangu Pass, it seems that Yuan Shao doesn't care so much about Hangu Pass, but this is not the case.

Gao Gan, as the main general of Hangu Guan, seems to be because of his close relationship with Yuan Shao, but Gao Gan's own talent is not bad, and it can be said that he is both civil and military.

Of course, it is a little worse than Zhang He and Li Dao, who are born generals, but if you want to say that you still have the ability to defend the city, so since Gao Gan sat in Hangu Pass, Gao Gan handed over the power to Xu Rong, knew how to make good use of people, and built Hangu Pass like an iron wall.

At this time, Gao Gan was dressed in armor, and the whole person looked heroic, and the demeanor of a general next to him was not under Gao Gan, it was Xu Rong, the general of the Xiliang Army who defected to Yuan Shao.

Xu Rong was standing beside Gao Gan at this moment, pointing to the wide area in front of Hangu Pass and said: "General, around Hangu Pass, within a radius of several miles, what should be cleaned up has been cleared, although it does not have much effect, but it can more or less cause some trouble to the invading enemy." ”

Gao Gan nodded slightly, if he could, he wanted to clear all the forests within a radius of more than ten miles from Hangu Pass, but unfortunately there were many mountains and rivers near Hangu Pass, even if he sent all his soldiers out, I am afraid that he would not be able to do this.

Taking a deep breath, Gao Gan looked at Xu Rong and said, "But there is General Lao." ”

Xu Rong hurriedly said: "The general is right, this is just a matter of the last general's responsibility." ”

To be honest, for Xu Rong's ability, Gao Gan couldn't admire it in his heart, he really didn't expect Xu Rong's ability to be so good at first, the huge Tiger Prison Pass, tens of thousands of troops in his hands are not chaotic at all, and the affairs are handled in an orderly manner, you must know that even if it is him who starts, I am afraid that he may not be able to deal with many affairs in the Tiger Prison Pass if he is in a hurry.

Although Xu Rong is not as famous as Li Dao and Guo Yan under Dong Zhuo, but when it comes to ability, it may not be worse than the two, you must know that without Chu Yi's indiscriminate involvement, Xu Rong has defeated Cao Cao and defeated Sun Jian twice, and he must not be taken lightly.

If it weren't for Xu Rong's early death, he might not have been able to achieve a good story in the troubled times of the Three Kingdoms.

Glancing at Xu Rong, Gao Gan said slowly: "The army led by the general has already left Chang'an City, or it will not take a long time to arrive at Hangu Pass, and the army of the Chu thief is still two days away from Hangu Pass. ”

However, Xu Rong looked at Gao Gan with a solemn expression and said: "General, don't be careless, under normal circumstances, the general can indeed arrive at Hangu Pass before the Chu thief, but don't forget, if the Chu thief sends cavalry, he can reach Hangu Pass in half a day." ”

Gao Gan subconsciously said: "Cavalry? Even before the cavalry arrived at Hangu Pass, could he still use the cavalry to attack the city? ”

Xu Rong said solemnly: "No matter what, before the arrival of the general, you and I must not have the slightest negligence, not afraid of ten thousand, just in case!" ”

Hearing Xu Rong say this, Gao Gan took a deep breath, bowed to Xu Rong and said: "A certain person has been taught, this letter to Guguan is not lost, and the general should be the first to remember!" ”

On the road from Luoyang to Hangu Pass, the smoke and dust rolled in, the earth rumbled and shook, and as far as the eye could see, you could see the black and oppressive soldiers and horses roaring, and it was a team of cavalry.

This cavalry team couldn't see the end at a glance, the number of soldiers and horses was no less than 10,000 people, and the first general was holding a Fang Tian painting halberd, and riding a red rabbit horse under him, it was Lu Bu.

Lu Bu galloped on his horse, and several generals beside him followed Lu Bu, but he did not lag much behind.

Lu Bu looked back at Tai Shici behind him and said, "Ziyi, how long will it take to reach Hangu Pass?" ”

Tai Shi Ci groaned slightly, looked around and said, "If nothing else, it will take more than an hour at most to reach Hangu Pass!" ”

Lu Bu's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Okay, pass on my order, order everyone to work non-stop, I will arrive under Hangu Pass within an hour." ”

Chu Yi conquered the Chang'an Imperial Court and sent 200,000 troops, including tens of thousands of cavalry in hand, as a pioneer, Lu Bu was not the kind of person who followed the rules.

However, Lu Bu's move was also expected by Chu Yi, Chu Yi knew Lu Bu very well, and naturally could think of the possibility of Lu Bu leading the vanguard army to Hangu Pass first.

Sure enough, as soon as Lu Bu sent out his troops, he was like a wild horse in Sahuan, and sent a herald to the Chinese army to make a sound, and he led tens of thousands of cavalry straight to the Tiger Pass.

Under normal circumstances, the vanguard army and the Chinese army have to maintain a certain distance, on the one hand, to open the way for the army, and on the other hand, to prevent the army from being attacked, but as a result, Lu Bu simply ignored it, and tens of thousands of cavalry suddenly opened the distance between the army and the army, completely forgetting that he was the vanguard of the army.

There is a checkpoint a few miles in front of Hangu Pass, and this checkpoint is just a beacon tower, plus a fortress, and more than 100 people are stationed.

This checkpoint is not to block the enemy, but mainly to detect the incoming enemy in advance, and to set up a warning for Hangu Pass.

There are several checkpoints like this, almost one or two miles away, so it is absolutely impossible for any enemy to attack, no matter how fast they are, to appear in front of Hangu Pass without alarming this checkpoint.

There are so many checkpoints, but if one place is alarmed, the wolf smoke can be used to warn the soldiers of the Hangu Pass in an instant.

At this time, at the front checkpoint, more than 100 soldiers were resting in the fortress, and some were maintaining sufficient vigilance to patrol.

Suddenly, the earth shook, smoke and dust rolled in, and in the middle of the fortress, a chief shouted with a frightened face: "Hurry up and raise the wolf smoke to warn you, there is an enemy attacking." ”

However, as soon as he rode through the air, it was Lu Bu who was holding a halberd, and he saw the Heavenly Painting Halberd in Lu Bu's hand falling down in the air, with a bang, just under one blow, the fortress exploded, and more than 100 soldiers died on the spot, and even the beacon fire did not have time to ignite.

Lu Bu rode over, looking at the level that had become a ruin, his eyes showed a bit of solemnity, since he chose to march quickly, he naturally knew something about the level in front of Hangu Pass, so he destroyed this level as soon as he made a move.

However, Lu Bu also knew that it was quite difficult for him to reach Hangu Pass unknowingly, not to mention the others, just these few levels, he didn't dare to guarantee that he would be able to destroy them so smoothly every time.

Especially the movement of tens of thousands of cavalry is too big, the billowing smoke and dust and the shaking of the earth, even if it is several miles away, he can be detected in this level, maybe the next level has already noticed the movement.

Of course, since Lu Bu chose to march quickly, he expected all this, so with the speed of the red rabbit horse, Lu Bu was stunned to go out of the army for more than ten miles, and took the first step to clear the obstacles for the army.