Until now, Dong Min still remembers his surprise when King Chen Liu found him just now.
Unlike his second brother, he has been living as an eunuch in Kyoto and can be regarded as a hostage to a certain extent. It's just that no one would point out such a thing, and he didn't have the freedom of a hostage. Instead, he achieved the position of Captain Fengche.
This position is in charge of the emperor's chariot and the ministers who are always with him. In other words, in terms of closeness, Liu Hong trusts him much more than his second brother.
But this still does not change the fact that Dong Min is a hostage. Especially the second brother's hesitation between the east and west capitals makes this essence more prominent.
Therefore, Dong Min has always been a good gentleman in Beijing and tried to reduce his sense of existence as much as possible.
He didn't understand why Liu Association was looking for him.
But the first words Liu Xie found him made his heart tremble:
"The captain's surname is Dong? He is from our Qi family. I lost my mother's health at a young age and was raised by the Queen Mother. The queen mother often said that she wanted to get closer to her clan members. This is the first time that I saw the captain. I feel close to you, and I heard someone say that you are a member of the Queen Mother's clan, so I took the liberty to disturb the captain. "
What Liu Xie said here was that he had lost his mother since childhood, and Dong Min knew that.
This talks about a secret matter in the palace, that is, when Liu Xie was still in Luoyang Palace, Wang Meiren, Liu Xie's biological mother.
Wang Meiren is smart, talented, and can write accounting. She is a rare virtuous and virtuous person in the palace.
Later, Wang Meiren became pregnant and was supposed to have a child with He Meimei. But unfortunately, she was in the palace and she met Queen He.
There is a strange thing about the harem of this dynasty, that is, the emperor's heirs are not prosperous. Even the previous Emperor Huan had 5,000 women in the harem, but he did not have a son. After his death, the throne of the emperor was suspended, so Liu Hong entered the palace.
The underlying reason behind this is the intensification of the intrauterine struggle.
Everyone knows that mother is more valuable than child, so if you meet a cruel queen, all those who are pregnant in the palace will suffer.
Even if you are born, you will not grow up.
And Liu Hong also understood this truth. When He, who was not yet the queen, gave birth to Liu Bian, he sent him out of the palace to raise him, and he grew up in the family of a Taoist priest named Shi Zixuan.
But now that He has become the queen, not only does she not empathize with others, she even attacks harder as a vested interest.
She ordered in the palace that all pregnant women in the palace should be aborted.
So when Beauty Wang knew she was pregnant, she didn't even need Queen He to deal with her. She drank the abortion pill herself.
But I don’t know if it was because Beauty Wang was pretending to be Queen He, but nothing happened after drinking the medicine.
She told people that she dreamed of walking against the sun.
Empress He couldn't tolerate him now. When she found out that Beauty Wang had secretly given birth to the child, Lei Lei was so angry that she ordered someone to kill her.
But that year, the country was furious and almost deposed the queen. If it weren't for the eunuchs to protect her, there would have been nothing to do with the queen.
From then on, Liu Xie was raised by Empress Dowager Dong and was also called Dong Hou.
These things are secrets to others, but to internal court officials like Dong Min, they are things that they cannot understand very well.
To be honest, he didn't sympathize with Beauty Wang. After all, there was no risk in doing such a thing. But he still has some sympathy for Liu Xie, who has been motherless since childhood.
But when he wrote this matter to his second brother from another county, he was scolded by his second brother:
"When a person is born into an emperor's family, it is your turn to sympathize with me?"
I have to admit that the second brother is right.
So, this matter was forgotten by Dong Min until this time King Chenliu came to him.
Dong Min is a person with great political acumen, and he immediately heard a different meaning from Liu Xie's words.
What did he say? Are you saying that we and Empress Dowager Dong are from the same clan? That's really not something I dare to do.
The Empress Dowager Dong is from Hebei, and our Dong family is from Longxi, which is a relationship that cannot be reached with eight poles. But in Liu Xie's words, they became a family.
Liu Xie obviously wants to win over himself, or in other words, wants to win over the second brother behind him.
Could it be that Liu Xie has seen the complexity of the current situation and started to make preparations? Who taught him all this? Empress Dowager Dong?
But no matter whose intention it was, the other party had already stated the conditions for winning over the Dong family, which was to recognize Dong Zhuo as a clan member of the Queen Mother Dong. Then when Liu Xie ascended the throne, the Dong family would become relatives.
Although it is too dangerous to be a foreign relative in my big man, no one is willing to do it.
So Dong Min was moved, but he didn't dare to act. He just hesitated and said:
"Go back to your Majesty, the Queen Mother and I are not from the same family, and we dare not pretend to be so."
But Liu Xie refused to admit it. He grabbed Dong Min's hand and said:
"My uncle He Qian and the Queen Mother said yes, so what else can I do? Come, let's find a place for our nephew and uncle to get close to each other."
In this way, Dong Min was dragged into the announcement room in a daze.
When did this conversation take place? It was when His Majesty was lying ill in the front hall, and at that time Liu Xie attacked.
After arriving at the announcement room, Dong Min knew what Liu Xie wanted him to do.
In short, it's two things.
The first thing is to ask him to protect Liu Xie to Changle Palace.
The second thing is to ask his second brother to stabilize the situation outside after he enters Beijing.
Of course Dong Min didn't understand the meaning of these two things, but Liu Xie didn't explain much and just replied:
"There will be big changes in the palace tonight."
After that, things developed just as Liu Xie said. The front hall was filled with blood, but Liu Xie sneaked back to the announcement room while no one was paying attention.
Until now, Dong Min still can't believe it. Could this be all expected by the boy in front of him?
Really a little wiser.
Dong Min only had to think about it for a moment and guessed that the biggest beneficiary of this incident was Liu Xie in front of him.
The first one is that the eunuchs actually do not support Liu Xie very much, and even have hatred to a certain extent. Because Queen He who killed his mother was saved by Zhang Rang and others. Almost all of these people supported the prince debate.
In addition, the ministers of foreign dynasties generally looked down upon Liu Xie and regarded him only as a brat. At this time, the two factions were fighting, and the ones who benefited were Liu Xie and his Chenliu Wang Party.
Dong Min knew that the prince Liu Xie was granted the title of Queen Chenliu last year and had to open a palace. Many prominent figures in the court gathered under his command, such as the famous scholar Hu Qian, the admirer Fazheng, Sheyuan, Wu Kuang, Lai Min, etc., who were all great figures at that time.
These people are all called the Chenliu King Party, and it is possible that the person who made the plan this time is among them.
In addition to Liu Xie benefiting, their Dong family is not bad either.
He didn't know where Liu Xie got the news. He knew that his second brother had come to Beijing with troops. Originally, the second brother wanted to take the side of the eunuchs, but now that you have the skin of your foreign relative, who cares about the three melons and two dates that the eunuchs gave you.
The wealth that belongs to their Dong family has arrived.
But there is no time to think about this anymore, Dong Min still has to guard Changle Palace. He used his brain power to know how the eunuchs would go crazy once they knew Liu Xie was in Changle Palace.
Thinking of this, he looked at the northern sky, hoping that his second brother would come faster.
……
Both Zhao Zhong and Dong Min were hoping that Dong Zhuo would come quickly with his troops, but contrary to everyone's expectations, Dong Zhuo, who had now become a former general of Kansai and was granted the title of Wugonghou, had just crossed the river. At this time, in the wilderness of Linjin, four hundred miles away from Chang'an, a group of up to 20,000 elite soldiers and horses were stationed.
Just from the flags and the Qiang flutes of Qin and Hu, we knew that this army was Dong Zhuo's group of former generals.
In fact, Dong Zhuo had arrived here five days ago and then began to stand still. This is the strategy proposed by his new staff, Jia Xu.
After Li Ru first went to Chang'an as an envoy, he told Dong Zhuo that Jia Xu was a rare talent. Then Dong Zhuo used the most brutal method and directly had Jia Xu plundered to the east of the river in the middle of the night.
Faced with Dong Zhuo's coercion, Jia Xu agreed to join the Hedong shogunate without any hesitation, and he did not dare to have second thoughts and devoted himself to the counselor's plan.
This time, what Jia Xu offered Dong Zhuo was to sit on a mountain and watch the tiger fight.
At first, after Dong Zhuo received Zhang Rang's letter, he didn't think much about it and crossed the river from Pu Ban with his troops. But when he arrived at Linjin, Jia Xu suggested to him that he could stop here to observe the changes in Chang'an.
Dong Zhuo was such an eye-catching person. He patted his thigh and said that this was a good suggestion.
Now that the internal and external parties are fighting, why is he so anxious? Fight, first let both sides fight to the last breath, then it is time for Dong Zhuo to clean up the mess.
Therefore, Dong Zhuo really stopped in Linjin and set up his old camp on a plain ten miles east of Luoshui. Then he dispersed all his troops and stationed them in different places.
After Dong Zhuo stopped in Linjin, he used the former general's talisman to ask Linjin County to provide his army with food for a month.
Dong Zhuo had 20,000 people, not to mention the army, horses and other animals. Just food for people cost 40,000 dan a month.
Such a huge amount of military rations is simply going to be the order of the Jin Dynasty. But he didn't dare not give it, because the eunuchs gave Dong Zhuo an edict, asking the counties along the road to supply the needs of the army.
In addition to this, the Linjin Order was even more afraid of Dong Zhuo. This person's subordinates are all Yi Cong of Qin and Hu. If they don't provide military rations, these people will directly come to rob him.
So Lin Jinling had no choice but to bite the bullet and find the big families in the county to share the military rations.
How many of these wealthy families have never heard of Dong Zhuo’s evil reputation? He could only accept his bad luck and donate food to Dong Zhuo's army.
Of course, there were also stubborn people among them, who believed that there was someone in the court and did not take Dong Zhuo seriously. Then Dong Zhuo retaliated, and the entire wall of the dock was looted.
Now, no one dared to disobey Dong Zhuo's wishes.
In this way, relying on the continuous input from the local area, Dong Zhuo's former general group stayed in Linjin, always observing the situation in Chang'an.
At this time, Dong Zhuo was talking privately to Li Ru in the tent:
"Wen You, you are from Heyang, right. If you are not busy now, why don't you allow you to take a rest for a few days and let you go back to your hometown in fine clothes?"
Northwest soldiers like Dong Zhuo were such honest men, and the most glorious thing in life was returning home in glory.
But Li Ru shook his head:
"My lord, Confucianism and Beijing will undergo major changes in the past few days. We must always observe the situation and determine the outcome with one blow."
Dong Zhuo smiled and did not insist anymore, but asked about the current situation:
"If you tell me more about this situation now, it will always be a little unreliable."
So Li Rudao:
"The current situation is indeed quite strange, but from the perspective of the whole world, it can be said that the two capitals are in opposition and the heroes are vying for the throne. Needless to say, the two capitals are in opposition. There have been three large-scale wars in Kanto and Kansai. I'm afraid No one can open up the situation for a while, and the situation among the heroes is Hebei and Guandong.”
Dong Zhuo nodded, meaning Li Ru continued:
"Since Commander Lu overthrew Zuoren Pavilion, all the forces south of Yanshan and north of Dahe have become the power of Taishan Army. Once they have digested Hebei, they will be able to command a huge force of 10,000 cavalry and more than 100,000 armored men. This kind of military strength, The world cannot compete with them. As for Yuan Shao of Ruying, Yuan Shu of Nanyang, and Liu Yu of Qingzhou, they can all be regarded as heroes for a while, but they may not be able to stop the Taishan bandits."
Even though it was not the first time he heard this sentence, Dong Zhuo still stood up and paced anxiously. He looked at the north fiercely and cursed:
"I expected Lu Ziqian to be a famous general in the world, but I didn't expect that he would be defeated by hungry local bandits."
But as he said this, he was glad that he had seen the opportunity quickly and found that the situation was not right, so he crossed the Taihang Mountains and returned to Hedong. Otherwise, if he stays in Hebei any longer, Dong Zhuo will also fall into the hands of Zhang Chong's son.
In fact, Dong Zhuo's current actions are exactly a reaction to Zhang Chong's capture of Hebei.
Why did he take the huge risk to raise troops to Beijing? It was because Zhang Chong put too much pressure on him. The Taishan Army, which now occupies the entire eastern foothills of Taihang Mountain and northern Hanoi, may encircle Hedong from the north and east at any time.
If Dong Zhuo fails to take action, he will not be able to hold off the Taishan Army.
The action he and Li Ru discussed was to take advantage of this opportunity to control the center of Guanxi and use the dangers of the four fortresses in Guanzhong to stop the Taishan Army.
But one of the difficulties is that Dong Zhuo's military strength is not dominant. Nowadays, Chang'an adopts the strategy of strong branches and weak branches. There are no less than 70,000 or 80,000 troops in Beijing alone. If they go head-to-head, the Hedong Army may not be able to hold back this situation.
So they still have to rely on righteousness, but so far the two of them still can't think of any good name. This may be one of the reasons why they have stayed in Linjin.
The two of them did not discuss this matter with other staff under the curtain. After all, important matters must be serious and must be confined to the privacy of two or three people.
From this point of view, this Xizhou Laoge is indeed much better than Yang Biao, the disciple of Gaoliang.
However, this headache for the two of them will soon be out of the question, and the wealth and wealth falling from the sky will soon fall on his head.
……
Zhang Chong, who was far away in Yecheng, Hebei Province, never imagined that he would be the cause of the bloody massacre in Chang'an, thousands of miles away.
In fact, this is not surprising. When the Taishan Army expanded to its current size, which major event in the world could not be influenced by Zhang?
But there are also big difficulties. At least Zhang Chong has to deal with more government affairs than before.
At this time, he was in the front hall of Taiping Palace, reading important information compiled by the ministers, all about the current situation in the world.
The news of the uprising of the colonists in Liangzhou has not yet reached Hebei, so all that will be sent here is some information from Guandong.
Such as this one:
"Jiangxia soldiers Zhao Ci rebelled and killed Qin Jie, the governor of Nanyang."
Zhang Chong circled Zhao Ci and Qin Jie with a red pen, and wrote Yuan Shu's name beside them. He instinctively felt that this matter had something to do with Yuan Shu.
Then I saw another one:
"The stars in Changsha District of Jingzhou rebelled, Lingling and Guiyang responded one after another, and the four counties of Jingnan were in chaos."
Zhang Chong has memories of this news. Historically, it seems that Sun Jian was the one who pacified it. Now Sun Jian is still in Qingzhou and doesn't know how to solve this matter.
After thinking about it, Zhang Chong commented:
"Focus on the movements of Liu Biao and the wealthy families in Jingzhou."
The next few articles are about the remnants of the Yellow Turban Army in other places, such as the resurgence of the Yellow Turban in Baibo Valley and Kou Taiyuan.
Zhang Chongpi:
"Please Guo Tai enter the palace tomorrow."
Guo Tai is the leader of the White Wave Yellow Turbans, and you can learn about the corresponding situation from him.
Then there was news about the Runan Yellow Turbans. They rejected the olive branch offered by Zhang Chong and still wanted to stay in the Runan area.
Their reply to Zhang Chong was:
"They have put down their swords and picked up their plows, and are living a normal life again. They no longer want to fight or kill."
Zhang Chong was quite helpless about this and sighed:
"Why don't I want the world to melt swords and make plowshares, but it's a pity that the world does not allow it."
After all, Zhang Chong missed his comradeship and wanted Guan Yu, who was stationed in Fenggao, to pay more attention to the situation in Runan.
Thinking of Guan Yu, Zhang Chong casually rummaged through the pile of documents on the right, but after rummaging several times, he found the Feng'an document on the bottom layer.
I blame Shang Shulang and the young people in my heart for being unreliable. As an important external town, Fenggao has such a high priority, how can it be placed at the bottom?
Then Zhang Chong read the document and became furious.
Why?
It turned out that this document turned out to be an urgent report from Fenggao District to impeach Marshal Guan Yu of the Left Army.
Is this okay?
Return to Hebei, so stay tuned.