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

More and more Cao troops arrived, and seeing that Cao troops had the upper hand, more Luoyang troops began to defect.

Xu Rong's side was also tightly bound by many of Cao Cao's generals, making it difficult for him to concentrate.

Xu Rong sighed inwardly when the news arrived from the garrison at the breached West Gate.

"The power and resources of these aristocratic families are indeed immeasurable. He guarded Luoyang for several years but failed to discover the secret passages left behind by these families."

"To think that they could send tens of thousands of troops into the city, how terrifying that must be."

"These are just the aristocratic families of Luoyang. At most, there are only two or three first-tier aristocratic families. The rest are second- or third-tier aristocratic families."

"As the capital of the Han Dynasty, Chang'an has been home to countless powerful families for 400 years. Many of the top and first-tier families have left behind countless backup plans there."

"Could it be that the entire area beneath Luoyang has been hollowed out?"

Xu Rong slowly realized that he must inform the Prime Minister as soon as possible and be careful of the secret passage.

Upon receiving this news, losing Luoyang wouldn't be such a huge loss.

"We're retreating."

After the city gates fell, Xu Rong decisively withdrew his troops. Relying on the morale boost from breaching the city gates and the defection of a large number of soldiers, it was no longer possible for him to hold Luoyang.

It would be better to retreat to Hangu Pass. With its strong defenses, Hangu Pass is home to genuine Xiliang troops, which would prevent Cao Cao from advancing even a single step.

After recapturing Luoyang, Cao Cao did not rush to pursue the enemy. Instead, he sent troops to recapture all the areas surrounding Luoyang before marching towards Hangu Pass.

Hangu Pass is the most formidable pass in the world. Even the allied forces of the feudal lords fought for a year but failed to capture it. Now, it is even more impossible for him to do so alone.

Fortunately, it wasn't his army attacking Dong Zhuo; Yuan Shao was also on the other side.

Hopefully, Yuan Shao can advance south and achieve results, allowing them to attack Hangu Pass from both sides. Otherwise, the success rate of this campaign against Dong Zhuo will plummet.

With Hangu Pass to the east, it was almost impossible to breach. Dong Zhuo also gathered a large number of troops in the north, preparing to first defeat Yuan Shao, then go to support Hangu Pass and destroy Cao Cao.

Losing Luoyang is no big deal; it won't significantly impact Dong Zhuo's strategy.

The vast terrain of the north led to several direct clashes between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao.

Both sides deployed a large number of cavalry. Dong Zhuo's troops were elite, while Yuan Shao's troops were numerous, so to some extent they were evenly matched.

Seeing that Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were both blocked by Dong Zhuo, a third warlord broke in.

Liu Bei led his troops out of Shu and launched a surprise attack on Guanzhong.

Numerous rebellions broke out under Sun Jian's rule, forcing him to retreat and quell the rebellions, abandoning his continued attack on Jingzhou.

Undoubtedly, this was also the work of a powerful family. Compared to his son Sun Quan and his eldest son Sun Ce, who was more like him, Sun Jian had a more fiery temper.

He found it difficult to accept the control of the powerful clans over his territory, did not want to be manipulated by them, rejected their requests, and was unwilling to launch this campaign against Dong Zhuo.

So the powerful families caused trouble under his command, allowing Liu Bei to free up his hands to attack, and the previous battles were more to confuse Dong Zhuo.

Liu Bei's troops sent to Jingzhou also went from overt to covert operations, and began to leave the Shu Road ahead of schedule.

Shu Road is difficult, and it is difficult to ascend to the sky.

In order to successfully leave Shu, planning began at that time, and the army has finally managed to leave Yizhou.

Before the rest of the country was in chaos, Shu was in chaos; when the rest of the country was at peace, Shu was not at peace. This is the unique geographical and political environment of Yizhou.

Liu Bei's attack took Dong Zhuo by surprise. The battle between the two warlords in the north and south should not end so quickly. This time, the powerful families used a lot of resources and concealed it very well.

Even Li Ru, Jia Xu, and Wei Ya were deceived.

Liu Bei set out from Hanzhong, passed Jieting, went out of Qishan, and his army reached Longyou and Tianshui.

This was Dong Zhuo's stronghold, his base and foundation.

Two other minor warlords were persuaded by powerful families to join forces with Liu Bei in attacking Liangzhou.

These two minor warlords were Han Sui and Ma Teng. They occupied the small Qiangzhou, but the land was too barren. If Dong Zhuo were to take it over, he would have to spend a lot of resources to govern it, and the resources consumed would be far less than the resources gained.

The effort and the reward were completely disproportionate. Just think about the Han Dynasty back then; it cost a lot of money to quell the Qiang rebellion.

Three emperors in succession, each reigning several times during the reign of the Qiang people, each of which required a huge military expenditure to quell.

Li Ru and Dong Zhuo also planned to deal with him after they had pacified the world. If they were defeated, then they would not need to worry about him and would simply lead their troops westward.

This resulted in Qiangzhou and Liangzhou being separated by only a narrow strip of land, yet neither was taken over by Dong Zhuo and remained under the control of the original forces of Qiangzhou.

Although Qiangzhou was poor, it was precisely because of its poverty that the people were extremely fierce, and it could be said that the whole nation was a soldier.

In exchange for the benefits promised by the powerful families, Han Sui and Ma Teng brought out all their wealth and even conscripted a large number of troops.

Anyway, a lot of people will die on the battlefield, and with more deaths, they will have enough resources.

They managed to muster 40 cavalry from the small Qiangzhou region. The entire Qiangzhou region had less than 80 able-bodied men, and half of them were taken to the front lines.

The people Dong Zhuo sent to guard his hometown were his son-in-law Niu Fu and his trusted general Zhang Ji.

Seeing that Liangzhou was under attack from two directions, Niu Fu and Zhang Ji discussed it and each led 20 cavalry to the two routes to annihilate the enemy.

Niu Fu led 200,000 Xiliang cavalry to Jincheng to resist Ma Teng and Han Sui, while Zhang Ji led 200,000 Xiliang cavalry to Jinshui to resist Liu Bei, along with his nephew, Zhang Xiu, the Spear King of the North.

Ma Teng and Han Sui were alright. Although they had 40 cavalrymen and the entire Qiangzhou was indeed a military force, they were ultimately scattered and could not compare to elite troops.

Facing Niu Fu's 20-strong army, they were chased and attacked by Niu Fu in a head-on battle.

If it weren't for the innate talent of speed passed down through his bloodline, he probably wouldn't have been able to resist and would have been killed by Niu Fu long ago.

Taking advantage of the mobility of their cavalry and the vast terrain of Liangzhou and Jiangzhou, Ma Teng and Han Sui sought only to contain the enemy, not to kill them. This kept Niu Fu tied up, unable to move or kill anyone.

In this battle, Ma Teng's son, Ma Chaosheng, rose to fame. At a young age, he made outstanding contributions on the battlefield.

Zhang Ji, on the other hand, didn't receive such good treatment; he was facing Liu Bei's elite team.

Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Tian Feng, Fa Zheng, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Wei Yan, Zhang He, Zhang Ren, Yan Yan.

With this lineup, it would be a stretch to directly attack Dong Zhuo's main force, but it could hold off Dong Zhuo's main force for a period of time.

Zhang Ji and his nephew Zhang Xiu alone are far from sufficient.

Zhang Xiu immediately wanted to show off his spear skills as the King of Spears, but two people rushed up from the opposite side, one who was no less skilled than him and the other who was even more skilled.

And their moves all look so familiar.