I will be the master of Xuande

Chapter 644: Just force you to cut off your arms
Zhou Tai protected Yuan Shao and rushed back and forth among the Hebei cavalry camp. His whole body was covered with sweat.

Now Zhou Tai had been hit by four spears and suffered five knife wounds. Although these wounds did not hit his vital points, they still caused him great trauma.

And Zhou Tai was indeed very brave. Even though he was so seriously injured, he was still not afraid. He protected Yuan Shao and fought desperately in the formation, vowing to lead Yuan Shao out of this encirclement.

Yan Liang and Xu Huang's troops continued to kill the soldiers around Zhou Tai from the side. However, even if they killed many of the guards around Zhou Tai, Yuan Jun's soldiers would still rush out from the main formation to defend Zhou Taihe. Yuan Shao, help them escape.

In the end, Yuan Shao escaped under the protection of Zhou Tai, who was seriously injured.

However, this battle was an unprecedented failure for him.

After damaging Sun Jian before, Yuan Shao still felt that Sun Jian was careless and allowed Liu Jian to take advantage of him.

Only now did he understand that the Hebei Army's combat power was much stronger than he had imagined.

After Liu Jian won, he was not complacent.

After expelling Yuan Shao, he officially sent troops to Hangu Pass.

Previously, Yuan Shao wanted to capture Hangu Pass and take advantage of the geographical location.

But now Yuan Shao no longer has the ability to continue driving troops to Hangu Pass. He can only lead his troops back to the north bank of Luoshui to station, and once again confront Liu Jian's army.

Since Yuan Shao no longer has the ability to take Hangu Pass, Liu Jian will naturally not miss this opportunity.

Hangu Pass is related to the connection between Sizhou and Yongzhou, and is the only way to enter Luoyang.

Moreover, if he can be stationed at this pass, he can also completely block the army to the east from Qinchuan, and use the danger of Hangu to make the Guanzhong Plain a blockaded area for Liu Jian himself.

At present, the strategic location of Hangu Pass is in the hands of Dong Zhuo's general Li Jue, but now Li Jue's main troops are in Yongzhou to quell the rebel rebellion, and he has no time to take care of Hanguan for the time being.

Therefore, the number of defenders in Hangu Pass is currently relatively small.

This also gave Liu Jian a good opportunity.

News of the war between Liu Jian and Yuan Shao naturally spread to Hangu Pass quickly, but this time the two sides broke out in a relatively large-scale battle, so Hangu's guard Linghu mistakenly thought that this was just a battle between Yuan Shao and Yuan Shao. Liu Jian's war to capture Sizhou did not involve Hangu Pass, so he did not report to Li Jue in time.

It is precisely because of this that within less than two hours after defeating Yuan Shao, Liu Jian immediately ordered Yan Liang and Wen Chou to be the vanguard and directed the infantry led by Zhao Rui, Lu Weihuang and others to march towards Hangu Pass.

Xun Yu, who was at the rear, calculated the time and sent people to transport the catapults, rams, ladders and other siege equipment to the front of the formation on time.

A sudden siege started at this important pass between Guanzhong and Sizhou.

Because Hangu Pass is not heavily guarded. , the Hebei Army almost swept away the autumn leaves with a swift wind, and defeated Hangu Pass.

And soon, Linghu Cuo, the guard of Hangu Pass, was escorted by Wen Chou to Liu Jian who was coming to Hangu Pass.

Linghu Cuo was a fierce general under Li Jue. He had the bravery and courage of Xiliang people who were not afraid of death. After meeting Liu Jian, instead of begging for mercy, he cursed and refused to surrender.

Liu Jian was too lazy to talk nonsense with him and directly ordered his men to behead Linghu Cuo.

Finally, Liu Jian took over Hangu Pass completely. He sent Xu Huang to lead a heavy army to garrison at Hangu Pass.

As a result, the chokepoints of Guanzhong and Sizhou were completely controlled by Liu Jian.

However, although Liu Jian's attack on Yuan Shao was justified, Hangu Pass was still in the hands of the imperial court. Isn't this a bit rash to capture Hangu Pass with a large army?

In response to this, Liu Jian had actually made plans in advance.

After taking Hangu Pass, he ordered people to send Linghu Cuo's head to the court, and at the same time he began to count the amount of civilian property and grain and grass that Li Jue and Guo Si had robbed at Hangu Pass.

According to Jia Xu's description of Liu Jian, Li Jue and Guo Si were very greedy. Even among the Xiliang army, they were among the best in greed and cruelty.

Hangu Pass is far away from Chang'an and close to Sizhou. It is now an important garrison place for Li Jue and Guo Si.

According to Jia Xu's inference, the large amount of wealth and food hijacked by Li Jue and Guo Si must have been hidden in Hangu Pass.

After rushing into Hangu Pass, Liu Jian immediately sent people to count the grain and fodder at Hangu Pass, and compared it with the original grain, grass and goods in Hangu Pass.

In this way, the extra grain can be known to be private goods plundered by Li Jue and Guo Si.

Although Liu Jian knew that this time he would be able to find out the goods and food hidden by Li Jue and Guo Si among the people, when the real amount was counted, the Hebei army was still shocked.

Not to mention the huge wealth, the grain and fodder counted alone is enough to feed an army of [-] for two years.

Moreover, Li Jue and Guo Bang did not have long troops at Hangu Pass, which shows that this is what they have accumulated in a short period of time.

The huge wealth and food they had plundered previously were squandered to unknown places, or they had been secretly hidden elsewhere.

However, just the amount of food and grass currently stored in Hangu Pass is enough to make these two people unable to argue.

Liu Jian immediately ordered people to write a memorial with the actual quantity of grain and grass in Hangu Pass, as well as the excess goods and grain that they had found, and ordered people to hurriedly forward it to Chang'an and report it to the Chancellor.

Of course, in order to completely establish the evidence of the two men's crimes, Liu Jian also spread the news.

He asked the school affairs office to spread the news widely in Sizhou and Guanzhong, and completely confirmed the charges against Li Jue and Guo Si.

After Liu Jian's memorial arrived in Chang'an, it immediately caused an uproar.

The behavior of Li Jue and Guo Si was really too much.

They robbed ordinary people of so much money, food and goods, so you can imagine what a large-scale massacre they carried out on ordinary civilians when they robbed these goods!

He deserves to be punished for his crime!

Moreover, in Liu Jian's memorial, he also stated the story of his capture of Hangu Pass in a high-sounding way.

After receiving reports from local counties, he led his troops into Hangu Pass in order to search for evidence that Li Jue and Guo Si had plundered private wealth, stored grain, and intended to rebel.

……

In the Situ Mansion.

"Li Jue, Guo Si...these two losers really ruined my big business."

Wang Yun slapped the table heavily and shouted angrily.

The other noble ministers around him were a little surprised when they saw Wang Yun's expression.After all, they had never seen Wang Yun like this before.

It's not surprising that Wang Yun lost such a temper. After all, the trouble Li Jue and Guo Si caused this time was really too big, and it also involved the court and their distinguished officials, making it impossible for them to directly fight back against Liu Jian politically. .

Originally, the imperial court was currently engaged in a political confrontation with Liu Jian. The imperial court caught Liu Jian for disobeying the imperial court's orders and marched to Sizhou without authorization to discredit him.

But Liu Jian escorted Sizhou's rebel leader Li Xiang to Chang'an, which made people all over the world have a very certain understanding of Liu Jian's ability to enter Sizhou to quell the rebellion.

Many people now believe that if Liu Jian had not entered Sizhou to stabilize grain prices and put down Li Xiang's rebellion, Sizhou might have been in chaos by now, and he might even have broken away from the imperial court and become a rebel. base area.

On this matter, the imperial court and Liu Jian have been pulling political opinions from each other, refusing to give in to each other...

Now Liu Jian suddenly captured Hangu Pass and had an absolute military advantage, which made the court very worried.

What the court can do now is to use Liu Jian to attack Hangu Pass privately, accuse Liu Jian of his behavior, and even push him to the rebellious side.

But the problem is that Liu Jian is now using the money and grain accumulated by Li Jue and Guo Si in Hangu Pass to make a fuss. Not only did he not make any political mistakes or cause damage to his reputation by capturing Hangu Pass, he actually It was because he exposed the actions of Li Jue and Guo Si that he became a hero in the hearts of people in Guanzhong and Sizhou.

And the imperial court also has prominent ministers headed by Wang Yun, Yang Biao, etc., but now they have become the target of public criticism. I don't know what to do?

Wang Yun has been sending people to recruit Lu Bu and Zhang Liao during this period, but has received no response. No matter what promises he made and how many benefits he gave to the other party, the other party would not give a positive reply.

Until the imperial court learned that Dong Zhuo was almost recovered from his illness and was training the three armies in the school field, Wang Yun and Yang Biao were heartbroken.

If this matter is indeed true, then it is almost impossible to expect Lu Bu and Zhang Liao to defect to them in a short time.

But Wang Yun still did not give up, and he continued to send people to recruit Lu Bu.

But whether this matter will be successful or not, he no longer has high expectations, at least for now.

If the Bingzhou clan headed by Lu Bu and Zhang Liao could not come to surrender in the short term, then Wang Yun and the others would not have many available troops.

Only Li Jue and Guo Si still nominally belong to the imperial court. Although they are not directly controlled by Wang Yun and Yang Biao, at least they still serve the imperial court.

But now these two bastards have caused such a big trouble and put themselves in the spotlight.

Now that Liu Jian has captured Hangu Pass, he has enough evidence to convict them. If the court does not deal with these two people, they may not be able to explain themselves in front of the people of the world.

Moreover, Liu Jian's intentions were very vicious. Li Jue and Guo Si hijacked people's goods and food.

What Liu Jian wrote in his memorial was: These two men wanted to rely on their wealth and food to support themselves and rebel against the imperial court.

If anything involves rebellion, it will be difficult to resolve.

Especially from the perspective of the imperial court, this matter is even more sensitive.

Moreover, Liu Jian really worked hard and thought hard this time. He not only found out where Li Jue and Guo Bang were storing grain in Hangu Pass, but also the goods and goods they had hoarded in other places in Guanzhong. He can also roughly provide the location of the food.

According to the locations provided by these, Liu Jian told the imperial court that Li Jue and Guo Si dispersed these supplies throughout Guanzhong, making it clear that they would respond to local rebels and rebel at any time to overthrow the imperial court.

This is a naked act of rebellion, please let the court take a closer look!

If someone stands in the way of this, they must have bad intentions and be in league with the traitors!
But Wang Yun knew best whether Li Jue and Guo Si had turned against each other.

Do you think these two people are good people?They are definitely not good people. Do you think these two people are greedy?They must be greedy and cruel, but if you say these two people want to rebel against the imperial court, is that possible?Wang Yun dared to pat his chest and said, "It's definitely impossible now."

Since they had no intention of overthrowing the imperial court, what was the purpose of robbing so much food, grass and supplies?
All I can say is that these two people are too greedy!

They have no other ideas, they just want to rob, they just want to line their own pockets, they just want to expand their army!But they have absolutely no intention of rebelling against the imperial court, at least not yet.

But their behavior has been linked to Liu Jian and rebellion, especially now, which is a sensitive period when people everywhere are rebelling. Since Liu Jian raised this matter, the court must take action. Otherwise, the chain reaction will be huge.

Therefore, Wang Yuncai scolded Li Jue and Guo Si vigorously.

"Everyone, what should we do about the current situation? Are we really going to let Lao Fuzhi and others, Li Jue and Guo Si, be punished?"

Sikong Chunyujia said hurriedly: "No, we don't have many troops in our hands now, and Lu Bu and Zhang Liao have not come to surrender. The Northern and Southern armies are basically controlled by Dong Zhuo, and most of them have been brought to Liangzhou. At present, the only ones who can serve as peripheral aid to the capital are The troops of Li Jue and Guo Si, even though they are somewhat suspicious of the imperial court, at least they are members of the imperial court now! The imperial court needs to use their troops to resist the coveting of the Kwantung officials from the imperial court."

Zhao Qi sighed: "Sikong Zhi's words are true. Li Jue and Guo Si are indeed useful to the imperial court at present. If the imperial court does not punish them, I am afraid it will be difficult to win over the people of the world."

Yang Biao sighed: "Yes, now the evidence that these two people want to rebel on the spot has been confirmed by Liu Jian. If the court doesn't even give any attitude, then if it spreads to the world, wouldn't it encourage the world?" Everyone can increase troops at will, collect grain at will, and expand weapons at will, and the imperial court will not care about it?"

"This is Liu Deran forcing us to cut off our arms!"

Wang Yun said angrily: "Otherwise, I would say that these two Liangzhou dogs are really useless, and Liu Deran caught such a big deal, they will not die unjustly!"

Chun Yujia said: "Liu Deran's naked conspiracy is really good. Now the court is in a dilemma. If the decree is really issued to punish these two thieves, or to seize the military power in their hands, who knows what will happen to these two Liangzhou officials?" What will a common man do? If they rebel again... there are not many soldiers and horses in the imperial city at the moment, then everything will be over."

When Wang Yun heard this, he couldn't help but rub his eyebrows with a headache.

"Li Jue and Guo Si must not force them to go against the imperial court..."

Yang Biao said: "If we write a secret letter to Li and Guo, let them report to the court to show their loyalty, and at the same time state that these villages gathered at Hangu Pass and the grain, grass and property from various places in Guanzhong are for the purpose of building an army for the court." Let the two of them voluntarily give up these materials and give all these materials to the imperial court to build the army, so that they can be exempted from their guilt and the imperial court's reputation will not be ruined."

When Wang Yun heard this, he clapped his hands heavily and said: "This method is wonderful, just do it like this! I will write a secret letter to Li Jue myself!"

……

……

However, just when these noble ministers headed by Wang Yun wanted to write secret letters to Li Jue and Guo Si, asking them to donate all their hoarded goods to express their loyalty to the court, Xun You, Ma Rixi, The Qingliu faction headed by Liu Biao, Dong Zhao, Zhang Ji and others also gathered in Ma Rixi's house to discuss this matter...

After all, Ma Rixi is also a famous figure in Kansai, and he can guess the thoughts of Wang Yun and others.

He said: "The final result of this matter must be that Wang Yunhui secretly sent someone to notify Li Jue and Guo Si, asking them to voluntarily give up their food, grass and belongings. This would not only give the court a step down, but also preserve their reputation."

But as soon as he said this, Zhang Ji smiled.

"Ma Gong's words are true, and Wang Yun's thoughts must be like this, but according to Zhang's understanding of Li and Guo, I am afraid that they will never give up the goods and luggage that they finally robbed. Even if they don’t want fame or the position of general, they will never give up.”

"This is the difference between the Liangzhou people and the Central Plains people. Wang Yun asked them to donate what they had already obtained, haha, I'm afraid it is absolutely impossible."

"Let's just sit back and watch the show."

(End of this chapter)