Chapter 234 Returning East to Luoyang
At this time, Henan Yin was really miserable. The road was deserted, bones were exposed, ruins were everywhere, and the countryside was full of urban foxes and rats, and jackals and wild dogs did not avoid people. , and even dared to attack the scouts in groups.
It wasn't until we approached Luoyang City that people finally began to appear.
Arrived in Luoyang City half a year ago, Dong Cheng, who was in charge of renovating the palace, went out of the city to greet him with hundreds of troops under his command.
Dong Cheng is a very upright person, with a Chinese character face, not angry but powerful, medium stature, but very strong, and looks quite like a loyal minister and filial son.
But Liu Feng knew that this guy was not a good thing.
Although Dong Cheng rebelled against Cao Cao in history, he did not rebel against the powerful ministers, but against the powerful ministers who did not allow him to be a powerful minister.
Liu Feng, Cao Cao and Yang Feng took the lead and crossed the river first to summon Dong Cheng.
Liu Feng was followed by Guan Ping, Jia Kui, Gao Shun, and Pan Zhang. Cao Cao was accompanied by Dian Wei and Cao Hong, and Yang Feng was followed by his nephew Yang Wei and his beloved general Xu. shake.
Liu Feng did not respond directly to Yang Feng's request to surrender, but only used an excuse to ask Liu Bei for instructions.
However, although the two parties have not become a family, they have become much closer both emotionally and physically.
Cao Cao was quite worried about the changes between the Xuzhou Army and the Hedong Army, but he had no good solution at the moment, so he just tried to win over Zhang Yang.
But Zhang Yang is not easy to fool. He maintains a good relationship with Liu Feng, and the two sides have agreed to continue trade. Cao Cao's wooing at this time seems a bit ridiculous.
Besides, Zhang Yang had two right and left men, Yang Chou and Sui Gu, who were at odds with each other, but on this point they all unanimously suggested that Zhang Yang choose Xuzhou.
The reason is very simple. As a local force, Yang Chou should actually turn to Cao Cao, because Cao Cao is closer to Hanoi than Xuzhou.
But who said Cao Cao couldn't benefit from it?
Whether it is the exchange of grain for horses, or the frost sugar and snow salt business, the profits brought to Yang Chou are far beyond what Cao Cao can give.
As for Sui Gu, he has a deep hatred with Cao Cao, which is obviously not easy to resolve.
"General Dong, the Emperor Luanjia has landed and will be stationed in Pingyin this afternoon."
After seeing Dong Cheng, Liu Feng dismounted and took the initiative to greet him. Cao Cao followed suit, and Yang Feng Ze was somewhat reluctant.
In Yang Feng's view, Dong Cheng was just a loser. He had tried to cause trouble in Hedong before, but was beaten up by Han Xian and sent to Luoyang to repair the palace in advance for the emperor.
For such a defeated general, how could Yang Feng take him seriously?
However, Liu Feng and Cao Cao had already taken the initiative to dismount to greet them. He hesitated for a moment, and finally followed after Xu Huang's persuasion.
Dong Cheng was General Anji at this time, so Liu Feng deserved the title "General".
The Eastern Han Dynasty's general number is extremely precious, even in the late Eastern Han Dynasty it is still very important.
Regardless of the internal strife among the Xiliang warriors, the hostage of the emperor and his officials, all kinds of excessive favors, and the reputation of generals everywhere, it was still limited to the Xiliang warrior group.
Outside, the General is completely different. Even the General, with a different number, is still very popular in the Kanto region.
Yuan Shao, Liu Bei, and Cao Cao can be regarded as the top five princes, but most of their close and beloved generals are also captains, and only a few of them have outstanding achievements. I have to pay homage to General Zhonglang.
There is a long way between a general and a general. It is equivalent to the distance between a brigadier general and an admiral.
It can be seen how valuable General Zahao is.
Therefore, Dong Cheng, who has only a thousand soldiers and horses, can be worshiped by General Anji. This is also his capital and luck, and he is theoretically qualified to serve.
Xuzhou has a large number of soldiers and is the food owner of King Qin's army in Guandong. Dong Cheng certainly cannot show off his reputation as a general.
Although he knew that the young man in front of him was just a local captain, Dong Cheng still said politely and politely: "I am guilty. I am suffering from a shortage of manpower and a severe shortage of food and materials. I have tried my best to only do this. It is possible to repair several large houses in the inner city. Although these places are not as good as the palace, they are spacious and clean, and can be used as a temporary residence for His Majesty. "
Liu Feng has no idea about this. Accident.
Dong Cheng also did this in history, and to be honest, the results of what he did were really good, at least it gave the emperor a foothold.
Therefore, Liu Feng wanted to praise the other party, but he didn't want Yang Feng to interrupt first.
"What use are you to the incompetent rat."
Yang Feng cursed loudly: "You have been in Luoyang for half a year, and you have only cleared out a few courtyards. You are as stupid as a pig. , You still have the nerve to ask for credit and reward here?"
Yang Feng suddenly attacked, and neither Liu Feng nor Cao Cao expected it.
Although Dong Cheng was prepared and guessed that Yang Feng might make things difficult for him, he also did not expect that Yang Feng would humiliate him so unscrupulously.
Dong Cheng's face suddenly turned red, as if he could ooze blood, but in the end, he did not dare to sneer back, but explained: "Yuan Shu has subdued the remnants of the Yellow Turbans in the southeast of Luoyang, and they have repeatedly raised troops to come. Harassing Luoyang. With only a few officers and soldiers, Luoyang is not lost, but it is unable to expel the enemy. "
"Humph, Luoyang is at the feet of the emperor. Where did the remnants of the Yellow Turban come from? I think you are clever in your words. "Deceive the Emperor."
Yang Feng was still not satisfied. He chased and beat Dong Cheng fiercely, and he had the momentum to kill him.
In response, Liu Feng said that I would just watch the show and not speak.
Yang Feng obviously sided with Xuzhou, and Dong Cheng was not a good guy, let alone something Liu Feng could regain with a few nice words, so why should he stand up for Dong Cheng.
Cao Cao was also watching, his little eyes rolled twice, and he first comforted Yang Feng, and then asked Dong Cheng: "The remnants of the Yellow Turbans are disturbing the emperor's feet. This matter is extremely important. I wonder if General Anji has any more information." To report specific information to the emperor?"
Dong Cheng looked at Cao Cao gratefully and quickly replied: "The leader of this group of yellow scarf thieves is named Chang Nu, who has been entrenched in Funiu Mountain for a long time, and later became General Zuo. He recruited troops to invade Shenjing many times and harassed Shenjing. There were only a thousand people under his command, while Qiannu had four or five thousand people. "
Liu Feng heard this and said. I suddenly felt happy.
This Changnu was indeed recruited by Yuan Shu in history, but this guy was originally an ally of Dong Cheng, and worked with him to prevent Cao Cao from entering Luoyang.
Now Cao Cao followed him to Hedong Yingfeng Emperor, but Chang Nu ended up fighting Dong Cheng instead.
This can be regarded as the butterfly effect brought by myself.
Now that Cao Cao has opened his mouth to ease the situation between Yang Feng and Dong Cheng, Liu Feng also opened his mouth to ask.
After inquiries by Liu Feng and Cao Cao, it turned out that the Qiannu troops had actually been entrenched in Funiu Mountain. They were only recruited by Yuan Shu in the second half of last year.
Yuan Shu heard that Liu Bei of Xuzhou had raised troops to serve the king and wanted to welcome the emperor back east to Luoyang.
He felt like a cat's claw in his heart, and he had to jump out and feel disgusted before he would be willing to do it.
After much thought and searching, I finally found the Changnu tribe in Funiu Mountain, so I spent a lot of money to recruit him and asked him to go north to Luoyang. It would be best to defeat Luoyang. If not, he would have to burn it more thoroughly.
In short, Yuan Shu's main focus is on disgusting people. Even if it harms himself or others, he will never tire of it.
Channu's army has about 10,000 people, including 4,000 or 5,000 young men. It is indeed not something Dong Cheng can deal with.
That is to say, this group of people is poorly equipped and has no training. They are more like mobs than soldiers. Otherwise, Dong Cheng's army of more than a thousand numbers will really not be able to stop Chang Nu.
Liu Feng's eyes lit up when he heard that there were young and strong laborers.
It's not that he really lacks more than 10,000 people and 4,000 to 5,000 young men. The main reason is that he doesn't want Cao Cao to get them.
Don't look at the time when the cake was divided, he gave up Yingchuan and Hanoi to Cao Cao in a very angry manner.
But in fact, Hanoi's territory was originally small, and one-third of the territory was taken away by Yuan Shao, and this one-third of the territory contained more than half of Hanoi's population.
Yingchuan County suddenly changed from a large population county to a barren land with a population of less than 100,000. Otherwise, Cao Cao would not have established large-scale farming in Yingchuan so easily in history.
It’s really because there are really no people in those lands in Yingchuan.
As for Sili, it was also miserable. The situation in Henan Yin was exactly the same as that in Yingchuan, or even worse.
The situation in Chang'an, Guanzhong, was originally the best, but after the wave of internal strife among the Liangzhou warriors, it was also torn apart. The remaining population was not sure whether it could survive. survive the next two years of drought.
As a result, the only population that Cao Cao really hopes to eat is Hedong and half of Hanoi. These two counties have never been famous for their prosperous population. It can provide him with four to five million manpower. But both Hedong and Guanzhong will still face the invasion of the barbarians. At that time, in order to defend Hedong and Guanzhong, Cao Cao will probably have to use manpower to go there.
Cao Cao doesn't know it yet, but he will understand the pain of lack of population as soon as next year or as late as the year after.
So even though Cao Cao took a lot from the territory and seemed to have taken advantage of it, in fact he lost everything.
However, Cao Cao was not aware of these situations at this time. He was still immersed in the victory of the negotiations.
Liu Feng then said to Cao Cao: "Uncle Shi, many of my troops are new recruits and lack battle experience. Chang Nu is a thieves like this. Even the thousand-man troops under General Anji Qu is also invincible, but it can be used by our troops to train troops. I also asked Uncle Shi to help."
Cao Cao was a little surprised, but he couldn't think of the benefits of suppressing the bandits for a while. He wanted to get involved, but Cao's army was running out of food, so he nodded in agreement.
Liu Feng then turned back to Jia Kui and said, "Liang Dao, this battle is yours, do you dare to issue a military order?"
When Jia Kui heard this, he was overjoyed and immediately turned over and prostrated: "Why don't you dare! I only ask the young master to mobilize three thousand men and horses. Kui will behead the slaves and present them in front of the young master's horse."
"Okay." "
Liu Feng was very impressed and said: "Thousands of guards will go to war with you, and Deng Yong's troops, Guan Ping's troops, Jia Bin's troops, and Liu Fu's troops will be assigned to you to command together."
Liu Feng's thousand-man army was built with the help of Jia Kui and has always been under the command of the latter. It can be regarded as a smooth command of the troops.
In addition, Liu Feng also specially strengthened a group of two hundred armored soldiers, which were Deng Yong's troops under Pan Zhang. This group of iron warriors alone is enough to tear apart all of Changnu's front lines in a head-on confrontation.
Finally, Liu Feng handed over Guan Ping's command, Jia Bin's command, and Liu Fu's command to Jia Kui. This not only gave his brother Guan Ping some credit, but also allowed Jia Bin and Liu Fu to test the waters and see. How to arrange it in the future.
Jia Kui felt very excited when he heard that Liu Feng, Deng Yong and other troops were handed over to him for command.
Deng Yong's troops greatly increased Jia Kui's combat power, Guan Ping reflected the Lord's kindness to him, and as for Jia Bin and Liu Fu's troops, they were full of trust. .
Jia Kui only felt that it would be worthwhile to meet the Ming Lord, even if he died immediately.
At the end of the day, Liu Feng warned: "Liang Dao, I have always known your abilities. I am only worried that you are eager to make meritorious deeds and will be taken advantage of by villains. Do you understand?"
Jia Kui suppressed the joy and excitement in his heart and bowed respectfully: "Please rest assured, young master, Kui must be careful and be lenient to the enemy!"
"Shan, go."
With Liu Feng's consent, Jia Kui immediately handed over and left.
After Jia Kui left, Liu Feng said to Gao Shun: "Gao Xiaowei, this is the first time that Liang Dao has led an army alone. I am still a little worried. You have always been cautious and steady, and you are both wise and brave." , I want you to support the rear army. If Jia Kui wins, you don't have to take care of it. If Jia Kui's troops fail, you can adapt to the situation and support his troops. "
"You must obey the orders of the young master!"
Gao Shun immediately responded: "Why dare you say "hard work"? Young Master, please rest assured, Shun will act according to the orders of the young master. If the front army goes well, Shun will watch from the sidelines. If there is a mistake, Shun will rescue in time. "< br>
"Great kindness!"
Liu Feng couldn't help but praise him. He liked loyal subordinates like Gao Shun.
After Gao Shun obeyed the order, he immediately left with his troops.
Cao Cao and Yang Feng watched Liu Feng give orders, and they had completely different thoughts in their minds.
Cao Cao was shocked that Liu Feng's prestige in the army was so high. He gave orders like an old commander. The whole set of actions included words of encouragement, reinforcement of stability, and finally Qi Jun's secrets. It can be said that there is no leakage.
Cao Cao thought that he was not so prudent when he started his army, let alone his eldest son Cao Ang.
Yang Feng was quite excited when he saw it. He felt that although Liu Feng was young, he had the demeanor of a general. He was worthy of being the Qilin son of Liu Shijun's family in Xuzhou.
Xu Huang, who was behind Yang Feng, was also moved by the sight and even felt a lot of envy towards Jia Kui.
As generals, there are some people who do not want to gain power in certain aspects and implement the strategies of generals.
Seeing that Jia Kui was only twenty years old, Liu Feng had to cultivate him with such great attention, and even worked harder to eliminate his worries.
No wonder Jia Kui is so excited. I, Xu Gongming, also want such a master.
Subsequently, under the guidance of Dong Cheng, the three troops entered the city together, controlled various city gates, and set up camp in the city.
Yes, we set up camp in the city.
At this time, only the city wall was left in Luoyang City. All the residential and official houses in the city were destroyed by the fire, leaving only large ruins and a few surviving buildings.
A large number of troops were stationed in Luoyang, and they could only clear out the plains in the city and set up camp, otherwise they would not even have a place to sleep.
After entering the city, Dong Cheng took the initiative to lead Liu Feng and others to the inner city.
What he prepared for the emperor was the original residence of Dachangqiu, the assistant of the ten constant servants, and the "eldest mother" of Liu Xie, Zhao Zhong.
This mansion is adjacent to the imperial palace and miraculously survived. It has a grand layout and luxurious architecture. Although it has experienced war, it has been repaired by Dong Cheng and has been restored to 60-70% of its original state. The scenery is also a very good place to stay.
To be fair, it is not easy for Dong Cheng to achieve this step.
However, Yang Feng still refused to let go of the other party. He made sarcastic remarks and sarcasm throughout the whole process. He didn't know where the deep resentment came from.
For different purposes, Liu Feng and Cao Cao turned a blind eye to this and allowed Yang Feng to make things difficult for Dong Cheng.
Dong Cheng was indeed a bit cunning, but he turned his back on him and allowed the other party to humiliate him without resisting.
Who doesn’t have as many moves as the other party, and is not as good at fighting as the other party?
The emperor only spent one night in Pingyin. Early the next morning, he couldn't wait to continue his journey south, and arrived outside Luoyang City in the evening.
After more than a year of hardships, bloody battles, dozens of officials who lost more than two thousand shi and suffered from hunger and wild vegetables for food, the emperor finally returned east to Luoyang under the escort of King Qin's army in Guandong.
That night, the emperor entered Luoyang City and stayed at the home of his "eldest mother" Zhao Zhong.
That night, the emperor once again issued an edict to comfort Liu Feng, Cao Cao, Yang Feng, Guo Gong, Zhang Yang, and Dong Cheng. If the emperor hadn't really been short of money and food, he would have probably given a large reward to the three armies based on his joy.
The emperor also asked his ministers to hint, but none of Liu Feng and others paid attention.
There is a lot of money and food these days. I will give you the emperor money to win the hearts of my subordinates. This is a beautiful gift. You can have everything in your dreams.
The next day, the emperor finally no longer had to crowd in a small room or summon officials in a fenced yard.
The apparent obedience of Liu Feng, Cao Cao and others also gave the emperor great confidence, feeling that he was a hidden dragon emerging from the abyss.
On that day, the emperor issued an edict to canonize Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Zhang Yang, Guo Gong, Yang Feng, Dong Cheng and others, except Yuan Shao.
This is not because Liu Feng and Cao Cao did not report it, but because the emperor took it away alone.
In this regard, Liu Feng and Cao Cao said that we have tried our best, and there is nothing we can do if the emperor does not allow it.
As for Yuan Shao's reaction, let's wait until the time comes.
As long as Cao Cao and Xuzhou stand together, Yuan Shao's threat will instantly drop by one or two levels.
Xuzhou needs Cao Cao to stand up to the thunder and catch the negative effects of Feng Tianzi's order to make Buchen and the huge pressure from Yuan Shao, so as to buy time for Xuzhou to go south to Yangzhou and act as Yuzhou.
Similarly, Cao Cao also needed the local support of a powerful vassal like Xuzhou to help him gain reasonable control over the government. While resisting Yuan Shao's huge pressure, he could calmly expand westward.
This is the cornerstone of the Cao-Liu alliance.
Both sides can have their own small moves, but they must coordinate well on the surface, otherwise it will be a situation where both sides lose.
(End of this chapter)