Bronze door through time and space

Chapter 627: The Firstborn Rebellion
Dong Zhuo hurried all the way to Xingyang, and the prefect Xu Rong stationed there hurriedly led his troops to support him. He stopped for a while, and Li Ru immediately stepped forward and said.

"The Prime Minister needs to be on guard against pursuers. You can instruct Xu Rong to ambush the troops outside the mountain valley of Xingyang City. If any pursuers come, you can let them go and defeat them here, then intercept and kill them, so that those who come later will not dare to pursue us again."

Although he was no longer as brave as he used to be, Dong Zhuo was not so foolish as to not be able to distinguish right from wrong. Upon hearing this, he immediately followed his plan and ordered Lu Bu to lead elite troops to cover the retreat.

The eight princes joined together, and although their power was great, it was difficult to mobilize them. Cao Cao volunteered to be the vanguard, intending to stop Dong Zhuo's army first, and wait for the princes to come and kill them together. However, he didn't know that Li Ru had already made a plan.

Cao Cao led Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Li Dian, Le Jin and other generals to chase Dong Zhuo at night. They happened to run into Lu Bu who was left behind. He immediately cried out in pain and dared not fight him. He ordered his generals to surround Lu Bu, then sent troops to kill him, causing a chaotic battle and delaying time as much as possible.

Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Li Dian and Le Jin had all seen how powerful Lu Bu was, and they took turns to attack him like a wheel, barely avoiding being defeated, but it was only a matter of time.

But Li Ru's plans never left any room for maneuver. Not long after, Li Jue led an army and attacked from the left. Before Cao Cao could respond, shouts came from the right again, and Guo Si led his army to attack.

The three armies were unstoppable. Seeing that Cao Cao's army was about to be wiped out, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Huang Zhong each led a group of troops to fight with them.

Relying on his youth and strength, Lu Bu managed to hold off the experienced Huang Zhong, but when facing Guan and Zhang, Li Jue and Guo Si would have died if they had run slower. So the good situation took a sharp turn for the worse and they were defeated.

Xu Rong originally wanted to set up an ambush, but when he saw that things were not going well, he quickly sent out his troops to cover their retreat, which allowed the two men to escape with their lives.

Seeing that he was about to be surrounded, Lu Bu no longer had the will to fight. He fought hard to force Huang Zhong back and fled on his Red Hare. Liu and Cao won a great victory, capturing more than 20,000 people and seizing countless treasures.

Liu Bei was regarded as the leader by everyone. He made the decision to select 10,000 elite captured soldiers to supply Cao Cao, and divided the property into eight parts and distributed them according to work. Everyone was convinced, after all, there was Yuan Shao as a comparison.

Although Liu and Cao won a great victory, they were troubled by the countless refugees they rescued. If they were to ignore them, there would be countless casualties. So after some discussion, they escorted the refugees to Zhuo County for resettlement.

The princes on Yuan Shao's side were stationed in Luoyang and each sent troops to enter the city through different gates to put out the fire.

It's called firefighting, but everyone knows what the plan is.

Sun Jian took the initiative and was the first to put out the remaining fire in the palace. He stationed troops in the city and set up tents on the foundation of the Jianzhang Palace. His intention was to say that I have occupied this place, and if you want to take advantage of it, go somewhere else.

That night, the stars and the moon shone together. Sun Jianlu sat in the courtyard, looked up at the sky, and saw white mist in the Purple Palace. He sighed secretly.

"The Emperor's star is not clear, traitorous ministers are causing chaos in the country, the people are suffering, and the capital is empty!"

After saying this, he was so moved that he shed tears. Until a soldier came to report that there was a five-colored light rising from the well in the south of the hall.

Sun Jian's mind moved and he immediately called for his soldiers, who lit torches and went down the well to fish out the body. They pulled out the corpse of a woman. Although it had been a long time, the body was not rotten. She was dressed in palace attire and had a brocade bag around her neck. When they took out the box, they found a jade seal in a vermilion box with five intertwined dragons engraved on it. There was a corner missing, inlaid with gold, and on it were eight characters in seal script: "Yun".

"Mandated by Heaven, may you live long and prosper!" Sun Jian took a breath after reading it, and his arms, which were as strong as thousands of pounds, could not help but tremble, because he knew what it meant, not to mention that Cheng Pu was explaining it to him.

Sun Jian was not interested in those historical rumors, but the last sentence touched him deeply. He felt relaxed all over and his head felt like it had an extra bone. This is called "standing out in the corners of the world." "My lord, who is granted by heaven, will surely ascend to the throne one day. You cannot stay here for long. You should return to Jiangdong as soon as possible and do not plan for big things." Cheng Jin said this after reciting a large section in one breath.

"That's exactly what I want." The surprise was so great that facing the irresistible temptation, Sun Jian didn't even bother to hide his ambition. The sigh he just made in the courtyard was just like a fart. He made the decision immediately, but secretly ordered the soldiers not to leak it.

Who knew that Sun Jian was destined to suffer such a disaster? There was a soldier nearby who was from the same village as Yuan Shao. He had an idea and sneaked out of the camp at night to report to Yuan Shao, and the matter was thus leaked.

The next day, Sun Jian excused himself from the matter due to illness, but was exposed by Yuan Shao on the spot. He had no choice but to swear an oath, but he did not expect that the other party had a witness.

Sun Jian was reluctant to give up the imperial seal and the destiny that he had obtained, so he refused to acknowledge it. He was also furious and humiliated by Yuan Shao's aggressiveness, and the two sides almost fought on the spot. Fortunately, they were persuaded by the princes and the two sides parted unhappily.

Although Sun Jian was stubborn, in fact all the princes knew that this was true. It was just that Yuan Shao was already powerful, and if he got the imperial seal, it would be a disaster. So they opened their eyes and pretended to be confused and let Sun Jian go.

But after this incident, this broken alliance was in name only, and although Yuan Shao was reluctant, he had to declare it over.

The alliance of eighteen princes to fight against Dong ended here, but the seeds for chaos in the world had already been sown.

There is no way. Although the new emperor is the descendant of the previous emperor, he was enthroned by a traitor who murdered the emperor. He has no legitimate reason and is like a puppet. How can he have any dignity?

That would be fine, as there were more than one or two emperors who were treated as puppets throughout history. Otherwise, why did Liu Hong make such a fuss during his lifetime? Wasn't it to regain the imperial power?

The question is, after burning the capital Luoyang, killing all civil and military officials, and losing the imperial seal, what was left of the Han Dynasty?

Otherwise, no matter how ambitious Sun Jian was, he would not dare to keep the imperial seal privately, because the prestige of the Han Dynasty was completely destroyed and it was no longer able to intimidate the local people.

After the alliance was dissolved, Liu Bei, who had been in the limelight, returned to Zhuo County and was caught up in busy affairs, because there were millions of refugees from Luoyang who needed him to settle. Even when he learned that Sun Jian, who was also one of the three best generals, had died, he did not even raise his head to look at him. He just sighed, and the world was in complete chaos.

Chen Gong paused for a moment when he heard this, and then continued writing smoothly.

Although the current situation is bad, it is very similar to when Wang Mang usurped the throne. The most important thing is that he found "Liu Xiu".

Dong Zhuo, who had luckily escaped the disaster, became comfortable again after arriving in Chang'an. Upon hearing that Sun Jian was dead, he laughed and said, "I have eliminated a great threat to my heart!"
From then on, he became more and more arrogant, calling himself Shangfu. He used the emperor's ceremonial guards when he went in and out. He appointed his brother Dong Min as the Left General and Marquis of Hu, and his nephew Dong Huang as the Palace Attendant, in charge of the imperial guards. All members of the Dong clan, regardless of age, were granted the title of marquis, which was even more exaggerated than Liu Hong's appointment of the Ten Eunuchs.

In addition, the insecure Dong Zhuo also forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to build Meiwu 250 miles away from Chang'an City. The city was as high and thick as Chang'an, with palaces built inside and warehouses storing twenty years of grain. He selected 800 young beauties from the people to fill the city, and piled up countless gold, jade, colorful silk, and pearls. To put it bluntly, this was the doomsday fortress that Dong Zhuo built for himself.

However, Dong Zhuo did not know how to restrain himself, and became more and more arrogant and tyrannical. He would kill people if he was not satisfied. The officials were often frightened and their lives were miserable. They no longer had the demeanor of an official, and the resentment in their hearts kept piling up.

(End of this chapter)