A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

He always felt that Wang Yun controlled the government and sidelined Liu Xie.

But in reality, this was not the case at all. Because Liu Bian's Luoyang court suddenly appeared, Liu Xie trusted Dong Xiangguo, who had helped him ascend the throne, held military power, and kept the eighteen princes tightly outside Hangu Pass.

The two were deeply in love, and Wang Yun never understood what had happened until his death. How could his plans suddenly fall apart?

Forget about being granted power and becoming a king; he couldn't even save his own life.

After taking away the bystanders, Liu Xie forced a tense expression and went to the bronze cauldron.

Dong Zhuo walked up the steps one by one, while Lü Bu remained at the bottom of the steps, with Dong Zhuo going up alone.

Dong Zhuo walked to the opposite side of Liu Xie, and the two stood one behind the other. Liu Xie lit three incense sticks and began to read the imperial edict.

After the imperial edict was read aloud, a backup copy of the edict, prepared in advance, was thrown into the blazing bronze cauldron.

He then personally handed the imperial seal, crafted by court artisans, and a handful of soil from Chang'an to Dong Zhuo.

Dong Zhuo solemnly accepted the royal seal and sacrificial soil, held them high, and had a palace maid remove his marquis's robes and put on a royal robe for him.

From this day forward, he is yet another king of the Han Dynasty.

……

The news of Dong Zhuo's enfeoffment as a king spread throughout dozens of states across the land in the following days, and even reached many foreign kingdoms.

This sparked the ambitions of the feudal lords across the land, and even a mere prefect dared to petition the court to be granted the title of king.

Not to mention those governors and prefects who controlled multiple prefectures and counties, among whom the prefects who were relatives of Hai were the most active.

Among them, Liu Yan of Yizhou was the most radical. He had already begun to have dragon robes made for him. Merely being made a king was not enough for him. He wanted to become the emperor and rule the world.

However, these requests were rejected by both the Luoyang and Chang'an courts, who worked together to forcefully suppress this trend of bestowing titles of nobility.

If everyone in the world were granted the title of king, what would be the point of them being emperors?

With just this small plot of land under his control, he's not much different from a king.

However, this idea of ​​many feudal lords has already been stirred up, and it won't be long before it erupts again.

The more intense the suppression, the more violent the eruption, until both courts can no longer control it.

In order to appease these feudal lords, the court refused their offer of titles of kings and instead promoted them to higher ranks.

The Luoyang court appointed Yuan Shao as the governor of Ji Province, while the Chang'an court continued to support Han Fu as the governor of Ji Province.

The two sides continued to fight over official positions, which gave the feudal lords an excuse to go to war. Whoever offered the most favorable position would be the one to accept the investiture.

Then, with the official title, he began to wage war, conquering the surrounding territories and becoming a true governor or prefect.

Cao Cao was not to be outdone. Relying on the substantial wealth accumulated by his grandfather and father, he managed to subdue the entire Yellow Turban Rebellion, but they still couldn't drain his resources.

Taking advantage of this opportunity and having the resources to advance, they prepared to send troops to take Taishan County.

Taishan Commandery connects four provinces: Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yanzhou, and Yuzhou, making it a veritable battleground.

Once Taishan Commandery was captured, it would mean that Cao Cao had the ability to conquer the other three provinces at the same time.

Yuzhou, as the largest continent in the world, is the essence of the Central Plains. One province here is worth several provinces elsewhere. Even though Yuan Shu has the support of the entire Yuan family of Runan, he has only occupied two counties so far.

Liu Dai, the governor of Yan Province, suffered heavy losses during the Cao Cao-Dong Zhuo coalition. He lost most of his resources there. In the final battle, all the other warlords fled, leaving only a few weak ones who were defeated by Lü Bu. When he returned to Yan Province, he had almost no troops left.

The entire Yanzhou region is now extremely vulnerable, and Mount Tai has fallen into the hands of bandits and is no longer under Liu Dai's control.

Tao Qian of Xuzhou, having preserved much of his strength at the end of the campaign against Dong Zhuo, is slowly rebuilding his fighting power by taking advantage of Xuzhou's wealth.

But now he would never dare to lay a hand on him for the sake of Mount Tai in Yanzhou.

As for the local bandits of Mount Tai, Cao Cao did not take them seriously. In just a few months, the entire Mount Tai was easily captured by Cao Cao, and Zang Ba, a bandit leader of Mount Tai, was also brought under Cao Cao's control.

This battle also exposed the weakness of Yanzhou. The bandits within Yanzhou, not wanting to be left out, began to rebel under the guise of the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

This infuriated Liu Dai. He couldn't defeat Dong Zhuo, and he didn't dare to fight Cao Cao head-on, so why didn't he dare to wipe out these bandits?

So he led his newly conquered army to personally lead the campaign against these bandits.

Liu Dai rushed forward, and then typed "GG".

No one in the world could have imagined that Liu Dai, a member of the Han imperial family and governor of Yanzhou, would be beheaded while attacking bandits. What kind of useless person could do that!

The entire Yan Province was left vulnerable, Yu Province was not yet unified, and Xu Province wanted to extend its reach but was blocked by Mount Tai. Cao Cao did not let go of this great opportunity. He ordered Wei Xue and Xun Yu to guard the home base, and personally led Guo Jia, Xi Zhicai, Xu Chu, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Guan Hai, Zang Ba and other generals, with 500,000 Qing Province troops to enter Yan Province under the pretext of suppressing the Yellow Turbans.

The local bandits had caused considerable damage to the power of the aristocratic families, and the families of Yanzhou were eager for someone to come and quell the bandits.

Cao Cao had once served as the governor of Dongjun in Yanzhou and had interacted with these powerful families. Seeing that other warlords were unwilling to help, they chose to accept Cao Cao's rule over Yanzhou.

With the assistance of local powerful families, Cao Cao easily wiped out the bandits in Yan Province. He then submitted a memorial requesting Xun Yu to be appointed as the governor of Qing Province. Cao Cao was reassigned as the governor of Yan Province and at the same time, Wei Xue was transferred to Yan Province.

Cao Cao also became the first warlord to control two ancient provinces.

Although some border lords control more than one province, these are newly established provinces and counties, and their wealth and war potential are far inferior to the ancient Nine Provinces.

Only those who control the ancient Nine Provinces are qualified to rule the world, not only because the ancient Nine Provinces are the legitimate rulers, but also because the ancient Nine Provinces are the essence of the entire Han Dynasty, possessing more than two-thirds of the Han Dynasty's resources and talents.

In an instant, Cao Cao, also known as Cao Mengde, became famous throughout the land, and the various warlords accelerated their expansion.

Yuan Shao did not yet hold a clear advantage among the warlords of the land. In this state, Yuan Shao was still considered wise and capable, and he had Wei Wu by his side to assist him. Wei Wu's presence greatly offset Yuan Shao's character flaws.

With Wei Wu around, he doesn't need to agonize over the advice of numerous strategists; if there's a conflict, he can simply choose the option supported by Wei Wu.

Yuan Shao, who was always on the front line, easily defeated Liu Bei and Han Fu's army.

Liu Bei lost the Zhao Kingdom, and he didn't even last a few months as the governor of a prefecture.

"I regret not heeding the advice of the scholar!"

Liu Bei said bitterly that he had been blinded by the high position of a prefectural governor and even rejected Wei Shu's advice, determined to follow Han Fu northward.

They had initially made a considerable investment in the allied forces of the feudal lords, but they lost it all.

The Zhongshan Kingdom, ruled by Tian Feng, was also conquered, leaving only Changshan Commandery in the entire Ji Province, which was not yet under Yuan Shao's control.

Seeing that his childhood friend Cao Cao had already occupied two provinces, Yuan Shao, spurred on, became even more shrewd and powerful. He suppressed all voices within his forces, united all the counties of Ji Province into one, and assembled an army of 40 to attack Changshan County.