Every day, the Coalition Army and Dong Zhuo’s Army engaged in a routine battle of attack and defense, where the Coalition Army couldn’t break through, and Dong Zhuo’s forces didn’t want to fight; so they just dragged on aimlessly, neither alive nor dead. It seemed that Yuan Shao had already completely forgotten his previous declaration of irreconcilable hostility towards Dong Zhuo. He had now earned enough reputation, of course, if he could take Hulao Pass and march his troops to Luoyang, his fame would truly spread throughout the land.
Chen Xi gazed at the blood-stained Hulao Pass, knowing that sieges were this brutal, with people falling every day.
"Zichuan, how long do you think it will take us to reach Luoyang at this rate?" Zhang Fei asked gloomily, his serious injuries from last time now 90% healed. Moreover, according to Zhang Fei himself and the feedback from Guan Yu and Zhao Yun, his strength had actually increased by a notch.
"Soon. Dong Zhuo, who used to sit atop the city gates, hasn’t been seen for several days. It’s likely that Dong Zhuo’s Army will abandon the pass and flee," Chen Xi said with a calm demeanor. "By the way, Third Brother, what do you think of Lyu Bu?"
"Lyu Bu?" Disgust crossed Zhang Fei’s face, but then he scratched his head. "To be honest, he is indeed a master, but I really don’t like his character. Why do you ask, Zichuan?"
"I’m going to put together a fantasy faction of military generals. The basic requirement is your level," said Chen Xi expressionlessly.
"Huh? That might be difficult. After all, I am top-notch myself, counting heads on my fingers!" Zhang Fei raised his head with the expression of a lonely expert.
"Almost killed by Lyu Bu…" Chen Xi rolled his eyes as he spoke.
"Zichuan, setting aside Lyu Bu’s character for now, just his own power will make it difficult for us to recruit him," Zhao Yun said appearing silently behind Chen Xi.
"That means you don’t mind us trying to recruit him," Chen Xi turned his head to find not only Zhao Yun but also Guan Yu and Liu Bei there.
"Indeed, Lyu Bu is a peerless hero. Zichuan, if you’d like to attempt to recruit him, you can give it a shot," Liu Bei said, granting a cautious approval. He felt that if the matter didn’t have too much impact, as long as Chen Xi was willing, he didn’t mind wasting a bit of time on it.
Meanwhile, Li Ru was amending documents according to Dong Zhuo’s instructions. After finishing this batch, by his estimates, the tung oil should also be about properly arranged. What remained was to take away all the treasures and riches, then leak some information to lure all the rats from Guandong into the trap and burn them to a half-death.
"Eh?" Li Ru looked at the memorial, thought for a moment, then took a blank Imperial Edict from the side, filled in some stuff casually, and stamped it with the Jade Seal. He then tossed the memorial aside carelessly and continued to review the following ones, truly holding great power.
Under the lamplight, the memorial was clearly written with a recommendation from Kong Rong, Governor of North Sea Commandery, and Tao Qian, Governor of Xuzhou, suggesting Han Imperial Kinsman, Liu Xuande, as the Governor of Mount Tai Commandery, followed by a lot of flattery.
With his intelligence network, Li Ru knew that Guan, Zhang, and Zhao were all Liu Bei’s men, and naturally, he was interested in recruiting such capable military generals. Now, with the regent delegating great authority to his hands, he had to be diligent for the regent’s sake. Perhaps he wouldn’t need this connection now, but several years later, when the time came to gather the world’s momentum and march from Hangu Pass, many of these idle pieces could become useful. And Liu Bei was exactly the chess piece he was betting on.
"Who are you?" Lyu Bu asked the old man sitting in his house drinking wine curiously.
"I’m just a messenger. Someone asked me to deliver a letter to you, saying it’s to thank General Lyu for your deeds in Bingzhou, so they entrusted this letter to you," the old man stood up and took out a letter from his bosom to give to Lyu Bu.
Lyu Bu’s face was expressionless, but the struggle in his eyes was difficult to conceal. He took a deep breath, snatched the letter from the old man’s hand, and said to his servant behind him, "Give him some money and send him out of Luoyang."
"Thank you." The old man bowed and quickly walked out.
Opening the envelope, Lyu Bu quickly scanned the letter, then closed it in shock, the turmoil in his heart clearly written across his face. He turned the entire letter into dust with a flick of his hand and called to another servant, "Ask Wen Yuan to come over for a discussion!"
The next day, Li Ru ordered someone to inform Lyu Bu to excavate the Imperial Mausoleum of Luoyang and to seize its treasures. Claiming that his injuries had not yet healed, Lyu Bu did not agree.
Li Ru frowned slightly upon hearing this but did not press Lyu Bu further. Instead, he ordered Li Que to go and excavate the Imperial Mausoleum, which was an undeniably lucrative task for Li Que!
"Li Wenyou, you actually dare treat me !" Lyu Bu locked himself in the inner room, roaring with fury. He remembered the letter’s warning that once he excavated the Imperial Mausoleum, he would be permanently branded as a traitor and would never be truly accepted by the Han Dynasty again!
He also thought about the letter’s mention of Li Ru planning to set the entire city of Luoyang ablaze. Even Lyu Bu was terrified at the thought. He dared not imagine how many people would be left homeless — wasn’t the whole point of fighting against the Hu People in Bingzhou to keep peace in our lands? With one fire, the millions of people in Luoyang would be doomed!
"General!" Zhang Liao shouted from the door.
"Wen Yuan, how goes the investigation I entrusted you with?" Lyu Bu asked with a gloomy expression.
"The entire city of Luoyang has been rigged with tung oil. If I hadn’t gone to investigate personally, we might all still be in the dark," Zhang Liao said with a face full of indignation. "What is Li Ru trying to do!"
"He wants to burn down Luoyang and move the capital to Chang’an," Lyu Bu said calmly.
"What?" Zhang Liao exclaimed, then all the pieces seemed to come together like a thread, "Fengxian, what should we do?"
"There’s not much we can do. I expect that if we show any strong reaction, the soldiers from Bingzhou will be doomed in Luoyang. Xu Rong has already been recalled," said Lyu Bu, his face grim. "For now, we can only take things one step at a time. I’ve just turned down the task of excavating the Imperial Mausoleum. Li Ru is always suspicious of us."
"Fengxian, after this, let’s return to Bingzhou. The boys are all waiting for us there. Once we’re back, we won’t concern ourselves with this mess. We’ll fight our Hu People; they can fight over their Emperor," Zhang Liao said, looking at Lyu Bu with a hopeful face.
Lyu Bu remained silent. Bingzhou, he longed to return there, but he dared not.
Ever since Ding Yuan brought him, who had no desire to come to Luoyang, to support the King; ever since Ding Yuan left home with most of Bingzhou’s soldiers; ever since the lack of sufficient soldiers to guard the border led to the Hu People from the Northern Frontier descending to graze their horses, he, facing the Hu People of the Northern Frontier, didn’t have the courage to return.
"Fengxian!" Zhang Liao interrupted Lyu Bu’s contemplation.
"We cannot return," Lyu Bu said coldly, preparing for the battle to come. There would be a fierce fight, and keeping our Bingzhou sons safe is far more important than chasing after these shadows!