Three Kingdoms Mythology World.

"Since Lin Mu has promised to resign from his post as Minister of the Secretariat and return to the border of Youzhou, why not just follow his wishes?" Dong Zhuo said in a deep voice.

After reading the letter, Li Ru passed it to others to read. After reading it, they were all slightly surprised. General Wei Lin Mu actually took the initiative to deliver such a handle to the door. Is there a conspiracy?

"Wenyou, according to rumors, Lin Mu has always been very respectful of the court and doesn't want to deal with those hypocritical guys, so he often goes on expeditions and his family and relatives keep them away from the court. His current plan is to implement the previous strategy. There should be no problem, right?" Niu Fu said.

"That's true. Lin Mu seems to be very afraid of the court. I don't know whether he is afraid of the tricks of the great aristocratic families or something else. However, he can be stabilized and given a small official position." Li Ru nodded.

"Yes, if he did anything excessive, those official positions would just be dismissed." Guo Si said.

"Okay then, let's deal with Lin Mu first and let him withdraw from Luoyang and return to the border." Dong Zhuo was very happy as he easily solved another major worry.

The same goes for the others. As long as they clear all the obstacles one by one, their lord Dong Zhuo will be able to become the powerful minister, and they can also follow behind to eat some soup, titles and so on, for sure.

"My lord, I'm afraid of letting the tiger go back to the mountain." Li Ru thought more and said unwillingly. What he wanted more was to get rid of Lin Mu directly.

"Are you afraid that he will return to the border and lead his troops south to threaten us? Impossible. He already has troops outside the city, but he has not made any move. As long as we don't go too far, he won't say anything."

"To put it bluntly, he is a selfish and cowardly person. Although he is very good at military strategy, he is very lacking in being a human being." Li Jue also spoke up. But he spoke up to belittle Lin Mu.

"Yes, as long as we proceed step by step according to the plan, when we succeed in the end, it will be useless even if Lin Mu raises an army." Dong Min said loudly.

Li Ru heard this, thought about it, and felt that there was no big problem.

Compared to letting Lin Mu return to the mountains, it is more dangerous for him to stay in Luoyang City.

"In this case, our biggest opponent is Ding Yuan!" Dong Zhuo said with a gleam of light in his eyes and murderous intent.

He always had a feeling that Ding Yuan was his destined enemy.

"My lord, our biggest enemy right now is not Ding Yuan, but the Red Dragon!!" Li Ru said with a stern look flashing in his deep eyes.

"If you want to enter the court and control power, you must pass the test of Chilong." Li Ru said in a serious voice.

"Then let's start the action after the court meeting tomorrow." Dong Zhuo licked the corner of his mouth, his eyes flashing with greed.

After that, after some discussion, everyone started to hold the banquet.

The expenses of the banquet were all paid by the court, and they did not refuse.

The next day, the court meeting was held as scheduled.

The first thing is to praise the contributions of civil and military officials so that the emperor can return safely.

Then they began to reward people, and the first person to be rewarded was Dong Zhuo, who was indeed the Sikong, one of the Three Dukes.

After him was Min Gong, who was promoted to Langzhong and granted the title of Marquis of Duting.

Although Min Gong did not rescue Liu Bian and Liu Xie as he did in reality, he was after all searching in accordance with the order of Empress Dowager He, and he was also Empress Dowager He's man, so of course he should be rewarded greatly. This was also to set a benchmark, that is, to be loyal to Empress Dowager He and would certainly not let her down.

Then came Ding Yuan. This guy originally wanted to become the Grand Marshal and rise to prominence in one fell swoop, but he was snatched away by Cui Lie. The only reason was that Cui Lie offered him too much money.

Although he was still the Prefect of the Guards, he was given the title of Marquis of the County, which satisfied him. As for the Flying General Lu Bu, he did not receive any substantial reward, as if it was just a temporary event...

Afterwards, all the generals under Dong Zhuo were rewarded.

Niu Fu was promoted to General of the Left, Duan Wei to General of the Right, Hu Zhen to Governor of Dongjun, Xu Rong to General of Guangwu, Li Jue and Guo Si to Cavalry Commandant…

In short, all the people under Dong Zhuo were given official titles.

As for the foreigners who followed Dong Zhuo, most of them were just there for show and were not rewarded by Empress Dowager He. Not even a single gold coin was given. She was only given some resources such as brocade.

In fact, there was no other way. Although Yuan Shao had to pay 100 million gold coins and 10 million Red Dragon Chapters as compensation for his disturbance, it was still not enough to restore the imperial palace.

The national treasury is now empty and there are no resources to distribute. Ding Yuan and others have to raise their own food and wages.

The food for the banquet that was held to appease Dong Zhuo’s army was the final expense.

As for Jiang Chenglong and others, because they spent money behind the scenes, although they did not get promoted, they got the title, although it was only a Tinghou. But this also means that they are gradually catching up with Lin Mu.

This made the top lord players in the Huaxia region very satisfied.

Of course, Jiang Chenglong and others are still secretly vying for the position of governor, but unfortunately to no avail.

After the rewards were given, the court was at peace. Without the eunuchs' troubles and the sharp conflicts between the Yuan family and other aristocratic families, everything seemed to be thriving, which made veteran generals such as Lu Zhi and Huangfu Song very happy.

The scene of revival is about to come.

However, beneath the calm, the turbulence hidden is even more terrifying.

After a period of harmony, discord began to set in. The first target was none other than Lin Mu.

Because Lin Mulu's affairs as Shangshu blocked the interests of many people, they had to deal with him.

The first point of attack was the matter of Hanba. He had accepted the imperial edict, but had not completed it yet, so he made things difficult.

Lin Mu had no way to deal with this. Because Hanba had been captured by him, but the celestial phenomena had not changed at all. Could he really break the formation of the Temple of Heaven? That would affect Dong Zhuo's fundamental interests. If he really did it, the first person Dong Zhuo would deal with might not be Chilong, but him.

Lin Mu stood in front of all the officials, upright and unyielding. No matter how the officials below slandered him, he did not say a word, as if he were a coward.

However, for the sake of stability, Empress Dowager He did not do anything to Lin Mu. She only criticized him verbally and urged him to complete the task as soon as possible.

Seeing that they couldn't bite Lin Mu, the officials began to attack and defend other places, such as the city defense and the imperial palace defense.

After this chaos in Luoyang, many affairs were in disarray.

There is a serious shortage of palace maids and eunuchs in the imperial palace, and the imperial guards are currently temporarily served by Ding Yuanjun, which is also a problem.

The city gate guards are currently staffed by Xiyuan Colonel Gongsun Zan, Wang Yun and others, which is also against the rules.

The positions of officials in these places were all lucrative, and many people wanted to be in them. Even Jiang Chenglong and Liu Feng were eager to be in these positions.

Empress Dowager He actually wanted to recruit soldiers and bring in fresh blood, but the ministers would not let her do as she wished. She allowed the recruitment of soldiers, but she had to use old generals.

Empress Dowager He currently had no outstanding talents to rely on, so she could only agree.

After a quarrel, the court meeting lasted for two hours before it ended.

After that, there were several more court meetings, but there were still problems in the coordination between Dong Zhuo and Ding Yuan, Wang Yun and others, and sharp conflicts of interest began to emerge.

From the initial harmony to the later arguments, even shouting for fighting and killing. The court discussion was relatively peaceful in the first few days, but then it started to change.

With the support of Dong Zhuo, Lin Mu implemented his plan step by step during several court meetings and began to arrange Huang Zhong, Zhou Tai, Zang Ba, Le Jin and others.

The children of the Xun family, the Cai family, the Yang family, the Zhongli family, the Xie family, as well as Guo Jia's people, the talents cultivated by the Great Wilderness Territory, as well as Le Yin, Xu Xiang, Fan Ling, etc., all began to be arranged on a large scale. In this process, Lin Mu also paid a lot of money, which at one point exceeded five times the money that Cui Lie spent to buy the Taiwei. However, the wealthy Great Wilderness Territory was not stingy at all and arranged everything one by one.

After this operation, Yangzhou was completely stabilized, most of Youzhou was also stabilized, and Qingzhou and Xuzhou also began to intervene.

In this process, it is worth mentioning Liu Yu. Under the manipulation of Lin Mu and Dong Zhuo, he was pulled back to the capital Luoyang to serve as a tutor.

As for Yuan Wei and others, they were marginalized.

Lin Mu was concentrating on building his own power. He did not participate in the fight between Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo, nor did he go out of his way to instigate anything. Instead, he just watched quietly.

After observing from a bystander's perspective, Lin Mu knew that Gongsun Zan was not the kind of person who completely surrendered to Dong Zhuo and was willing to be a younger brother, but was a temporary dependent who would not be swallowed up by Ding Yuan or Dong Zhuo. This guy's ambition gradually became apparent.

In order to avoid suspicion, Lin Mu did not go to greet Gongsun Zan, and did not dare to meet him in private. However, the two met several times in secret, and Lin Mu advised him not to get involved in the struggle in the Dragon Court and to leave as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, Gongsun Zan was stubborn and refused to repent, and continued to seek personal gain in the Dragon Court.

As for Zhao Yun, he had gradually become dissatisfied with Gongsun Zan because Gongsun Zan was planning to surround and kill Lu Bu, and wanted to save his previous face without caring about the lives of his soldiers.

At this moment, the stubbornness in Gongsun Zan's heart was aroused, and he gradually became as self-willed and stubborn as He Jin.

In this regard, Lin Mu did not dissuade too much, but just acted as a gentleman who made friends in a plain and simple manner.

General Wei's Mansion.

After Lin Mu finished the court meeting, he dragged his tired body back to his mansion.

Huang Zhong, Zhou Tai and others had already received orders and left Luoyang. Currently, only Dian Wei and the Si Li Xiao Wei were still in the city.

Just as Li Ru had discovered, all the troops in General Wei's mansion had been transferred out.

Currently in Luoyang City, the only soldiers Lin Mu can use are three thousand personal guards.

Of course, the 300,000 soldiers under Dian Wei's command can still be used.

"Lord." Just as Lin Mu was rubbing his forehead, worried about something, Xu Ying's familiar voice came.

"Still haven't found it?" Lin Mu asked without even raising his head.

"No, I don't know whether he has left Luoyang or is hiding in an official's residence. I can't find out any information for the time being."

"What a pity..." Lin Mu sighed.

He asked Xu Ying to find out the news about Chen Lin and others, but after the chaos, they disappeared.

Lin Mu suspected that Chen Lin had already defected to the Yuan family and was currently lying in wait.

But Xu Ying and others in the Yuan Mansion did not dare to investigate. Although they were currently marginalized, no one in the court dared to look down on the Yuan family. Even Empress Dowager He was polite to them.

People broke into your house, killed most of the servants, burned, looted, and trampled on your dignity, but in the end you didn't dare to touch them. This shows how sad it is.

"Forget it, let's not worry about that for now. What we need to focus on next is the situation in each county. Our business is getting bigger and bigger, so we have to run it well." Lin Mu waved his hand.

Xu Ying nodded when he heard this, and disappeared in a flash.

On the next day, August 189, 8, after a series of twists and turns, the Ding Yuan army and the Dong Zhuo army brought their most elite troops to challenge each other outside the city. (End of this chapter)