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

"Xu Rong is a veteran general under Dong Zhuo, a genuine commander of a large army. He is in charge of defending Luoyang, which is filled with Dong Zhuo's elite troops. This city will not be easy to take."

Cao Cao summoned his strategists to discuss how to capture the fortified city of Luoyang at the lowest possible cost.

"The best strategy is to attack the enemy's plans; the next best is to disrupt their alliances; the next best is to attack their army; and the worst is to besiege their cities."

"Luoyang was once the heartland of the Han Dynasty, second only to Chang'an. It was home to a large number of aristocratic families. Although Dong Zhuo slaughtered them all, there must still be many remnants thanks to the resources of these families."

"These people must hate Dong Zhuo to the core, and they can become our ally in attacking the city."

Guo Jia was skilled in ingenious strategies and was most opposed to using military force to build up this fortified city.

With Luoyang's thick, high walls, if one wanted to fight with their own troops, they would have to sacrifice at least hundreds of thousands of lives.

This is an almost impossible task.

"This bunch of good-for-nothings? They've been slaughtered by Dong Zhuo, do they even have the guts to contact us?"

"Even if they still have backbone, do they have the ability to back it up?"

"If they were truly powerful, how could they have been bullied to this extent by Dong Zhuo?"

Xiahou Dun scoffed.

Several strategists from prominent families in the room couldn't help but frown.

"Yuan Rang, you must not speak recklessly."

Cao Cao quickly reprimanded him.

"General Yuanrang, don't underestimate those powerful families. If it weren't for them, Dong Zhuo would have already launched a full-scale eastward campaign."

"Even though Dong Zhuo killed so many people, he was still able to hinder Dong Zhuo's expansion, which shows how strong he was and how deep his foundation was."

"I believe there must be countless hidden forces left behind by powerful families in Luoyang."

Guo Jia smiled. Although he was not a direct descendant of a powerful family, he had some understanding of their resources. A cunning rabbit has three burrows, let alone those powerful families.

"Chen Qun, in the name of your Chen family, you should be able to summon them all, right?"

I will try my best.

Chen Qun did not take on too much responsibility; he was well aware of how cautious the powerful families under Dong Zhuo were.

Everything these aristocratic families did was for the sake of their lineage. Helping Cao Cao would certainly have been beneficial in overthrowing Dong Zhuo, but it also had a greater chance of provoking Dong Zhuo's furious retaliation.

The last embers of their family's spirit might be extinguished by this revenge.

This is something they absolutely cannot accept.

Even the Chen family might not be able to summon everyone, but Chen Qun was confident that with their reputation, they could persuade most of the aristocratic families in Luoyang.

That very night, Chen Qun contacted the members of the aristocratic families who had been stationed in Luoyang and remained outside the city through the Chen family's channels.

Through these individuals, they then made contact with people in the city using their family's secret methods.

Several of the most prominent families in Luoyang responded to Chen Qun's call. Their entire families had been slaughtered by Dong Zhuo, and they hated him to the core. Moreover, they had left enough backup plans in Luoyang. Even if they provided some to Cao Cao, they could still preserve their strength after being exposed and wait for the day when Dong Zhuo was eliminated.

Among them, the Zheng, Wei, and Du families contributed the most, using tunnels to send out some information from Chang'an.

However, their strength in the city has been weakened to its lowest point in history. With the troops that have been absorbed, they can obtain a lot of information about Dong Jun's movements, but they cannot access the real core secrets.

This was already a rare achievement for Cao Cao, as it prevented him from being completely clueless during battles.

With this intelligence, Cao Cao gained a general understanding of the number and quality of the troops stationed in the city.

The more I looked at it, the more troublesome it seemed. The veteran general Xu Rong was leading an army of this size to defend a fortified city. It could only be taken by strategy, not by force.

On the surface, Cao Cao was preparing for the siege in an orderly manner, but in secret, he was preparing to sow discord.

It's a very simple strategy, but it has worked well throughout history.

Of the four city gates of Luoyang, three were guarded by the Xiliang army along with the original Luoyang troops, while only one was guarded by the original Luoyang troops alone.

It's obviously a decoy, a trap.

Intelligence coming back from Luoyang City also confirmed this; Xu Rong had already set up many traps at this city gate, which was guarded solely by the Luoyang army.

If the troops stationed at this city gate defect, Xu Rong's trap will be able to encircle and kill both this army and the Cao army that comes in.

Knowing this, Cao Cao realized that Xu Rong still did not trust the garrison in Luoyang.

However, Xu Rong did not do anything wrong. Although the garrison in Luoyang surrendered, it was still not completely clean after Dong Zhuo's repeated purges.

There are also a large number of scions of powerful families inside. If those families in the city are determined to help Cao Cao, they could really persuade a large number of troops to defect.

This was good news for Cao Cao, as he could take advantage of any gaps in the relationship between the two armies.

After Cao Cao arranged for his men to probe the four city gates, he pretended to have discovered this and then launched a full-scale attack on the other three gates.

In the fierce battle, both the Xiliang army and the Luoyang army suffered heavy losses at these three city gates, while the garrison at the remaining gate remained intact.

Both the Xiliang army and the Luoyang army at these three city gates felt uneasy. They were fighting to the death here, while the surrendered soldiers were able to stay there peacefully.

Left with no other choice, Xu Rong had to arrange for a rotation of guards. The guards at each city gate would be rotated constantly, and everyone would have a chance to be rotated to that gate.

This strategy was good, but it had a flaw: the soldiers might not be familiar with the city gates they belonged to.

If the defenses are suddenly switched to a new city gate, the defensive strength of that gate will naturally be greatly reduced.

After receiving news from inside the city, Cao Cao began to attack one of the city gates according to plan, while letting the other three pass.

Cao Cao's all-out attack on the city put Xu Rong under great pressure, and he began to constantly redeploy troops to maintain the fighting strength of the front line.

Relying on the tunnels used by powerful clans, Cao Cao managed to send in 3 troops in just one month.

These 3 troops, combined with the city gate garrison, were enough to control the city gates before Xu Rong's reinforcements arrived, allowing Cao Cao's main army to reach the city.

When Cao Cao officially took action, Xu Rong noticed that troops were rushing towards that gate. He immediately realized Cao Cao's plan and sent troops to help.

At this moment, the offensive on the main battlefield also intensified, with shouts of battle filling the air. Xu Rong began to concentrate on dealing with the attack in front of him.

With the help of both inside and outside forces, the area around the city gate was quickly occupied by Cao Cao's army. Xiahou Yuan led the vanguard to arrive quickly and took advantage of this brief moment to rush in.

However, Xu Rong's reinforcements arrived at the same time, and the two sides began a tug-of-war around the city gate.