Great Han Empire

Chapter 461
The first month of the sixth year of Zhongping in the Han Dynasty (AD 189).

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The Han Dynasty was full of wars and winds and rains, but Luoyang, the capital, still spent a happy and peaceful New Year.

From the middle of the twelfth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the emperor and all the officials are busy celebrating the new year, participating in various sacrifices and celebrations. It was Dong Hou who began to appear frequently beside the emperor.Although Xiao Donghou is only ten years old, he is smart, witty, well-behaved, steady in manner, and courteous in dealing with others, so he has been unanimously praised by all officials. Compared with him, Shihou, who is 14 years old, is much more handsome , but Shi Hou's arrogance and willfulness disappointed the ministers.When the emperor hosted the ministers on the first day of the first lunar month, he said with emotion that Shi Hou not only looked like his mother, but also had the same temperament as his mother, while Dong Hou looked like Zhen, but his temperament was very similar to his mother. , Wen Wenya, knowledgeable about books and etiquette, very likable, if his mother is still alive to see Dong Hou so sensible, she must be very pleased.

The ministers knew it well and did not dare to echo it.The Son of Heaven dotes on Wang Meiren, and he is still brooding over Wang Meiren's death. He wholeheartedly wants Dong Hou to inherit the Datong, and the main reason is because of his nostalgia and guilt for Wang Meiren.As the emperor of the Great Han Kingdom, he couldn't protect the woman he loved deeply, which stimulated him too much.He wanted Dong Hou to inherit the Datong, but he wanted to make up for his guilt and continue his love for Wang Meiren.

After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the emperor summoned Zhao Zhong, the chief minister, Zhang Rang, the Zhongchang servant, and Jian Shuo, the little Huangmen, to discuss the establishment of the imperial line.The emperor wanted to take advantage of the fact that there was no war in northern Xinjiang, and when the generals of Zhenbei stationed troops and merged the state, he wanted to settle this matter as soon as possible, so as to avoid long nights and dreams.Zhao Zhong said, His Majesty is not easy to act too hastily.Now the ant thief rebellion in the Qingxu area has not yet been put down, and the suppression of the rebellion in Xiliang is still going on, if your majesty pushes too hard, it may backfire.The general has no way out, if he rebels together with the ant thief, then the army of General Zhenbei is bound to go south, and the trouble will be big.Zhang Rang said that although the general and the northern army have gone out, the general still has an army and will pose a threat to His Majesty, so we have to wait until the general has very few troops left and there is no threat. It's best to do it by hand, and there will be no worries in the future.

The Son of Heaven said: "Then when will it be? Do we have to wait until He Jin defeats the ant thief and loses his soldiers and generals?"

Jian Shuo said: "The northern army has no food support, how can the general defeat the ant thief?"

The emperor sneered and said: "We don't pay for food, why do you think there is no food for him? There are too many people who don't want him to die. This must be done quickly, until He Jin is cornered. Either he rebels, commits suicide or is killed." I killed him, there is no third way for him to go."

Zhao Zhong asked in a low voice: "Your Majesty, if you push He Jin back, you will be in great trouble. General Zhenbei has an army of 10,000+, including barbarians and Yellow Turbans. If..."

"Hmph..." The Son of Heaven smiled disdainfully, "You guys look too high on He Jin. General Zhenbei can kill him with only 10,000 cavalry. How can he have an army of [-]+?"

"Does Your Majesty have to force He Jin?"

"If he doesn't rebel, then wait for the beheading." The emperor pointed to Zhao Zhong and the others, and said in a cold voice, "You guys add up and see what reason you can depose the queen."

After the emperor finished speaking, he left for Yongle Palace without looking back.Ever since General He Jin left Beijing, the safety of little Marquis Dong has become the top priority in the palace.The emperor asked Guang Luxun Liu Bo and Huben Captain Yuan Shu to take the guards to strengthen the vigilance of Yongle Palace, but even so, the emperor was still worried. He was worried that Xiao Donghou would encounter unexpected accidents, so he moved his bedroom to Yongle Palace. In the Jiade Hall near the palace.

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Zhao Zhong, Zhang Rang and others looked at the back of the emperor gradually going away, they couldn't help but looked at each other in blank dismay, and their hearts jumped.

"Abolish the Queen?" Zhao Zhong smiled wryly, "Why did Your Majesty insist on forcing that butcher back? Why didn't you think about it for us? There are many ways to kill He Jin, why do you have to add to the chaos?"

Zhang Rang frowned and said: "If you force He Jin back, all He Jin's henchmen will jump out, including those who His Majesty and we don't know, so that His Majesty can catch them all and kill them all. From then on, His Majesty and Xiao Dong Hou can rest easy. But this way, we are in danger. When He Jin rebels, the leopard will lead his army south. If He Jin and those party members want to kill us, the leopard will even kill us."

Jian Shuo hesitated for a moment, then asked: "General Zhenbei wants to kill us? Doesn't he also rebel? Your Majesty will let General Zhenbei kill us? He Jin only has 1 people. Can you still enter the capital? He Jin can’t enter the capital, how could General Zhenbei’s army enter the capital? General Zhenbei can’t enter the capital, how can he kill us?”

"What do you know?" Zhao Zhong scolded, "Those scholars want to kill us as well as He Jin, do you know that as long as He Jin rebels, the Xiyuan Army stationed at the Eight Passes of Gyeonggi will definitely respond with troops. You Do you think that the Xiyuan Army really has the final say on you? At that time, He Jin would no longer be a rebel, but marched into the capital with the banner of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty to eliminate traitors and sycophants. Do you think He Jin escaped from the capital because he wanted to avoid disaster? What? You are so stupid. His Majesty has driven him to a dead end. Why is he leading troops out of Beijing? Isn’t he just waiting for the right time to raise his troops to rebel? Why did he dare to rebel? Because the capital has internal support and soldiers who support him People and partisans. Your Majesty knew that He Jin would rebel, so why did you force him out of the capital? Because Your Majesty wanted to kill all those who were disloyal to him. If these people are not loyal to His Majesty now, they will not be loyal to Xiao Donghou in the future , as long as these people are alive, Xiao Donghou's country will be unstable, do you know?"

Jian Shuo was extremely shocked, he never thought that things would be like this.The Son of Heaven never told him the truth.

"Your Majesty still wants to kill us? When we helped the queen kill Wang Meiren, he didn't want to pursue it, but he was worried that we would kill him too, so he endured it until now. He was just an adult at that time, He doesn't understand many things, so he has to rely on us to help him make suggestions. But it's different now, he understands everything now, and has already left us aside. Zuo Feng, Bi Lan and Xia Yun, they all died like leopards It is relevant, but His Majesty always avoids the important and ignores the minor, and is unwilling to pursue the leopard's crimes at all. We should have been on guard against this, but we all ignored it. Now it seems that His Majesty has already started planning today's incident from the day he knew about the leopard. It's all over." Zhang Rang said with lingering fear, "Your Majesty is no longer the kid in the past."

Zhao Zhong said with a smile: "You are suspicious. Your Majesty wants to kill us. It is not a matter of saying a word. How could you wait until today? Don't think about it. Your Majesty relies on our help in many things for the sake of the emperor. How could you deliberately kill us? ?" He patted Zhang Rang's skinny shoulders, and continued, "Your Majesty is not that smart. If Your Majesty is smart, you shouldn't trust leopards. Who was He Jin in the past? What is he now? The current He Jin is deceived by those partisans Even the ancestors are forgotten. Once the leopard enters the capital, it is very likely that he will listen to the slander of other scholars and kill us all."

"Your Majesty will definitely stop the leopard." Jian Shuo said without hesitation.

Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang glanced at Jian Shuo contemptuously.Zhang Rang let out a sneer from his nose and ignored him.Zhao Zhong said mockingly: "My lord Jian, in order to invite the leopard and his cavalry back to the northern border, what conditions would your majesty not agree to? Isn't it just dozens of heads? Eunuchs like you and me are good in the palace." Thousands, does His Majesty care about our dozens of heads?"

There was a trace of fear in Jian Shuo's eyes.

"Then what should we do about this?" Zhang Rang asked, "Should we delay it for a while?"

"Delay." Zhao Zhong said, "There are many ways to kill He Jin, and it doesn't have to be forced to turn him back. Even if forced to turn back, it doesn't have to be forced to go south. In short, we can't let the leopard go south no matter what. Let him go out to fight, the sooner the better. When He Jin is dead and the emperor is established, if we don’t do it, His Majesty will kill him. Leopards now command 10,000+ troops, and there are tens of thousands of Huqi under them. The great power has already endangered the great Han society, and if you don't kill it, you have to kill it."

"It doesn't have to be the leopard going south?" Zhang Rang thought for a while, and suddenly asked: "You mean, let Dong Zhuo go to Hedong?"

"Once the leopards go out to fight, there will be no garrison troops in Hedong. At this time, we ask Your Majesty to let Dong Zhuo lead the army to Hedong, and let him go south instead of the leopards." Zhao Zhong rubbed his chubby chin, hesitantly said, "What method should we use? How can His Majesty promise that Leopard will go out to fight immediately?"

Zhang Rang sighed: "It's too difficult, unless the ant thief is suppressed, the barbarian invades, and the general's strength increases greatly."

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At dusk, He Yong hurried into Yuan Mansion, accompanied by Xu You and He Jin.He Jin is a famous scholar in Nanyang, and he has been recruited by He Jin to the General's Mansion for many years.He is He Jin's confidant, and he has been staying in the mansion as a guest minister to advise He Jin and act very low-key.Several people walked into the study and exchanged pleasantries with Yuan Kui and Yuan Shao, and immediately got to the point.

After listening to He Jin's narration, Yuan Kui looked at He Yong, who was frowning, and asked in a low voice, "So, Xubu Guduhou has already agreed? He believes in the promise of the general?"

He Yong said: "Li Hong has returned to Bingzhou. After two or three months, he can gather at least 20 troops to go out to fight. In this case, he has to believe it. It is not a trivial matter to recognize him as the great chanyu of the Xiongnu. At present, Li Hong’s army is not ready to go out of the fortress, and he can only defend the pass in the face of the counterattack of the Huns and Xianbei.”

Yuan Shao shook his head and said, "Defending the pass is not enough to contain Li Hong's troops. The key is to drive the disaster victims to Bingzhou, so that Li Hong has no time to look south. Ziyuan, have you reached an agreement with the ant thief?"

"I have reached an agreement with the Yellow Turban leaders of Bairaoku Chieftain and several Black Mountains. They promised to drive hundreds of thousands of disaster victims to Bingzhou, and they are willing to be comforted, but the conditions they put forward are too harsh." Xu You said worriedly. , "I don't think they have any sincerity to be appeased, they are just defrauding us of money and food, and maybe they have other ideas."

"Hmph, as long as they are willing to be comforted, the 10,000+ Yellow Turban Army will be ours sooner or later." Yuan Shao sneered, "What about Zhang Rao and Xu He from Xuzhou, Sima Ju and Guan Cheng from Qingzhou? Are they willing to be comforted?"

"Zheng Tai has already found Zhang Rao, the leader of the Yellow Turban Army. They know each other and have had several contacts in the past. Zhang Rao is one of Zhang Jiao's eight great disciples. He has been lurking in Mount Tai for many years. He is responsible for this riot. He planned it. This person is very powerful. He never talked to Zheng Tai about being appeased. Instead, he tried his best to win Zheng Tai to join the Yellow Turban Army. Zheng Tai's persuasion was ineffective, so he had to come back." Xu You sighed, "This young man from the four prefectures of Xu, Xu, Yan and Hebei It seems that the disaster of the Yellow Turban will not be settled in a few years. It is simply a joke to want them to be appeased and obey the command of the general."

"The Yellow Turban Army from Montenegro is enough." Yuan Kai waved his hand and said, "We will send troops to kill them after the Huangtong matter is resolved. We have [-] Northern Army and [-] Western Garden Army. It is not enough to deal with these ant thieves More than enough. The key issue at present is to prevent Li Hong from going south, and another issue is to remove Dong Zhuo's military power and control his [-] Xiliang army to prevent accidents."

"To remove Dong Zhuo's military power, His Majesty must know that he is in the same line as the Great General." He Jin said, "All along, the relationship between the traitor and Dong Zhuo has been very close, and they don't know that Dong Zhuo is double-faced. This person is trying to please. The general, who later came to win over the gentry, has ulterior motives, so it's better to be careful. I think His Majesty can recruit him to the capital as a minister first, and then let General Huangfu control his army."

"Your Majesty doesn't trust us now." Yuan Shao said, "If this matter is brought up by the Minister of the Three Dukes, it may be counterproductive."

"The chariot general He Miao and the hussar general Dong Zhong have always had a good relationship." He Yong smiled and said, "Let He Miao find a chance to reveal it. He Miao is afraid of death, and has been hiding in the mansion recently. He has lost weight." After a lap, it’s time to come out and get some air.”

"How to prevent Li Hong from going south?" Yuan Kai asked, "If Li Hong's threat is not resolved, the general will not be able to lead his army back to Beijing, and we will not be able to clean up the emperor's side and revive the big man. What can you do? "

He Yong smiled wryly and said: "Although Xubugudu Hou will fight back and the victims will flood into Bingzhou, these two problems will be solved by Li Hong soon, and they won't hinder him for a few months. We can only find a way to get him out of the fortress." fight."

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(End of this chapter)