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

Compared to the other battlefields, this one was significantly more brutal.

Corpses lay strewn across the fields, and blood stained the grassland.

Yuan Shao was well aware of the importance of this battle, and the immense pressure also brought out his exemplary character in the face of adversity.

He was brave and decisive, willing to risk his life for great things, and never forgot righteousness for small gains. He entrusted all the troop deployments to Shen Pei without hesitation, doubt, or entanglement, and personally led the troops to supervise the battle.

In the name of the Yuan family, which had held high office for four generations, they promised to handle all the affairs of these soldiers after their deaths, and at great cost, they accomplished some of these tasks ahead of schedule, establishing schools, allocating land to them, and paying them military salaries.

Soldiers were dealt with one by one, their problems were addressed, and their families were personally comforted and given letters.

The brilliance Yuan Shao displayed at this moment was among the most remarkable in the 400-year history of the Han Dynasty.

With the assistance of such a wise and powerful lord, Shen Pei also exerted 120% of his ability, and his moves were as graceful as a gazelle hanging its horns, which was wonderful.

Dong Zhuo, on the other side, was no pushover either. He handed over command of his army to Li Ru and personally led his troops to the front line.

The Xiliang soldiers were easily swayed by his tactics. Back then, they fought alongside Dong Zhuo on the battlefield to carve out a bright future and achieve everything they had now. Dong Zhuo hadn't fought alongside them for many years.

Now, being able to relive that feeling, every Xiliang soldier went berserk, fearless of death, even if it meant dying, they would still bite off a piece of flesh from their enemy.

The opposing Yuan Shao army was equally ruthless. Yuan Shao had done everything a lord could do, especially the move of sending letters home, which allowed these soldiers to truly understand why they were fighting and what they could gain from the battle.

It's just death. With the martial spirit of the Han Dynasty for 400 years, no one is afraid of death!

……

Chang'an City.

The remaining forces of many powerful families in the Guanzhong region also erupted.

The 300 million troops have already drained everyone dry; the remaining resources are barely enough for them to survive.

These powerful families have already made their plans: if they cannot win this battle, they will immediately flee abroad, seek refuge with those vassal states, and then use the power of those states to fight their way back.

They might stay there, as the Central Plains are surrounded by monsters, and the living environment is too harsh.

No wonder some foreign states call this place the "monster house" of the Central Plains, where all sorts of monsters emerge. In the history of those Western empires, where have so many monsters appeared in the history of the Han Dynasty?

Not to mention the Wei family, which produced more prodigies generation after generation; the number of prodigies produced by this family exceeded the total number produced by the other empires combined throughout their entire history.

It's absolutely terrifying.

Now, these powerful families have finally realized that those mediocre people overseas really can withstand the Wei family.

fart!

If they were really that powerful, they would have attacked long ago.

According to intelligence from these powerful families, the border war had long since ended.

The conflict is only ongoing in the far west; manpower can definitely be freed up here to return home and quell the rebellion.

None of the feudal lords in the world could rival him.

They would surrender without hesitation.

But the Wei family didn't do that, so there's only one explanation: it was all done deliberately by the Wei family, and everyone was just a pawn of the Wei family.

Although they didn't understand what the Wei family wanted to do, did they want to completely wipe out the aristocratic families?

But if the powerful families are completely wiped out, who will govern the country?

It's not that they look down on ordinary people, it's that ordinary people really don't have that ability nowadays.

This is not in the Wei family's interest either, although they don't know exactly what the Wei family's interests are.

This family is always eccentric, unlike any other aristocratic family.

Sometimes they felt that this family had become immortals, and that each member was a great saint.

One generation is a great sage, and every generation will be a great sage.

The probability of that is not much different from that of becoming an immortal.

That's outrageous.

Logically speaking, everyone here is from a prominent family. Even if they are not as powerful as the Wei family, the Yuan family of Runan, which has produced four generations of high-ranking officials, and the Yang family of Hongnong, are already among the most elite groups below the Wei family.

Even the head of such a prestigious family couldn't figure out the Wei family's actions at all, and had no idea which path they were taking.

Is this scientific? No, it's not.

This world naturally has its own rules, but there is one family that transcends these rules.

This is like playing a game. Everyone follows the rules, but some people do things their own way and don't follow the rules. And the game doesn't report an error and judges it as valid.

These powerful families unleashed their final strength, plunging the entire Guanzhong region into chaos.

Especially along the grain transport routes, they dug pits, cut off roads, and demolished bridges—they used every trick in the book.

This means hindering the delivery of supplies to the front lines.

Even though Jia Xu was prepared, he was still overwhelmed.

These powerful families used so many underhanded tricks that even someone as cunning as Jia Xu almost couldn't withstand them.

This fully demonstrates just how formidable Jia Xu, the most cunning strategist of the Three Kingdoms period; his treachery alone was comparable to the combined might of so many powerful families.

In terms of intrigue and scheming, he was undoubtedly number one in his time, a fact proven by the lives of many powerful families.

……

At the Hangu Pass battlefield, powerful families contributed manpower and resources to build a large number of catapults.

They pounded stones on Hangu Pass day and night for months, until the entire pass was filled with stones. The pass was no longer recognizable as a fortress; all that could be seen was a pile of stones.

Xu Rong had no choice but to order a retreat, otherwise they would be crushed to death.

However, so many stones completely destroyed the pass, turning this once formidable pass into ruins.

Soldiers from both sides began a forced landing, seizing the high ground of the ruins and establishing archer suppression.

Cao Cao's side gained the upper hand, and as soon as the army was about to reach the climbing point, they immediately stopped throwing stones.

The army began climbing the rocks, while Xu Rong only started at that time, lagging far behind Cao Cao in progress.

Cao Cao's archers were the first to occupy the high ground and began to use their superior position to fire at those below.

The remaining soldiers also began to grab any stone they could find and throw it down, causing heavy losses to Dong's army.

Xu Rong led his troops in retreat, and Hangu Pass was declared lost.

After passing through Hangu Pass, Chang'an City was almost indefensible, and there were no strong cities in between that could stop Cao Cao. Xu Rong had no choice but to retreat back to Chang'an City.

This retreat signaled Dong Zhuo's defeat, greatly boosting the morale of the aristocratic alliance.

When a wall falls, everyone pushes it down. As soon as they saw signs of Dong Zhuo's downfall, many people's minds began to waver.

Upon receiving the message, Dong Zhuo closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Although I had expected it, in the end, I couldn't defy fate. Even though I put myself in the game, I couldn't win against it."

"So be it, let me make one last contribution to this great Han dynasty!"