Chapter Fifteen: Yuan Caobao, Yuan Benchu!

  What made Cao Cao so angry?

  He suggested that while the alliance was newly formed, morale was high, and Dong Zhuo was not yet prepared, they should immediately divide their troops into five routes: one to attack Bomaoguan, one to feign an attack on Huilao Pass, one to sneak up behind Luoyang City, one to ambush at Hangu Pass to prevent reinforcements from Dong Zhuo's old home in Xiliang, and one to attack Rongyangguan to cut off Dong Zhuo's retreat.

  "Hmm!" Li Yu thought to himself, if the plan is implemented, even if they can't break through Luoyang or behead Dong Zhuo, it will still severely damage Dong Zhuo's Western Liang army. The allied forces will firmly grasp the initiative and killing Dong Zhuo will just be a matter of time.

  Cao Cao's suggestion was not adopted. These lords gathered together, eating and drinking extravagantly, boasting shamelessly! No wonder Cao Cao was so angry.

  "Your Excellency, Wei Hong has already sent over the grain and fodder!" Cao Ren came in to report, but seeing that the atmosphere was not very good, his originally loud voice gradually became softer.

  "My lord, please be at ease! Although they are not successful, we cannot retreat. As I said before, my lord must make peace with the other lords, otherwise the internal strife among the vassals will give Dong Zhuo an opportunity to seize power and no one will be able to stop him!" Li Yu advised.

  "Hmm!" Cao Cao wiped his face with force and put on a smiling face to Cao Ren: "Quickly invite him in!" Truly worthy of being a heroic figure!

  Before arriving at the sour jujube, Wei Hong had come once, representing Chen Liu Taishou Zhang Mai, to investigate Cao Cao's military situation. This time it was different, he represented the Shi family, which was his own family.

  Li Yu nodded and fell asleep after eating his fill, but Cao Cao didn't mind Li Yu's impolite behavior and explained to Wei Hong: "Huaide's body is not good..."

  The next day, Li Yu was woken up early by the sound of drums. While putting on his clothes, he cursed: "What's wrong with you! What time is it?"

  "Sir! The lord is calling for you to go together!" Xiahou Yuan lifted the door curtain and said, "Ah! Got it, General Cao, I'll be right there. It must be that Yuan Shao again, isn't he just a nominal leader? How arrogant!"

  When Li Yu scolded, Xia Houyuan couldn't help but flow a brain full of black lines. This lord's mouth was always unkind to those he disliked! The few from the Yuan family were all scolded by him until they were ruined.

  On one side, Li Yu observed the oath-taking platform, which was at least two meters high, divided into three layers, with five-colored flags lined up, topped with white feathers and yellow pennants, military symbols and commander's seal, majestic and awe-inspiring.

  "Please welcome Yuan Shu onto the stage!" The host Cao Cao shouted loudly.

  Yuan Shao adjusted his clothes and wore his sword, sighed and went up. He burned incense again and read the oath loudly: "The Han dynasty was unfortunate, and the imperial power was lost. The treacherous minister Dong Zhuo took advantage of the chaos to harm, and the disaster reached the emperor, cruelly flowing among the people. Shao and others feared that the country would be lost, so they gathered righteous troops and responded to the national crisis. All those who joined this alliance will unite their hearts and work together to achieve loyalty and righteousness, and there must be no second thoughts. If anyone betrays this oath, he will die without a place to rest. The heavens, the earth, the ancestors' spirits are all witnessing!"

  Many of the vassals were either moved by Yuan Shao's eloquent reading of the oath, or because they were forced by circumstances and pretended to be sincere; in any case, all the vassals below the platform were overcome with emotion, their faces streaming with tears.

  Next is the blood oath, in short, Yuan Shao drew out his own sword and placed it on top of the blade, each big boss grasped their hand on it, dripping blood into a large wine urn, then each person drank a cup.

  It hurts so much! Li Yu thought secretly, just as he turned his head around, he saw Liu Bei looking at him with a face full of envy and admiration in his eyes.

  After the oath of blood was completed, all the vassals surrounded Yuan Shao and ascended to the tent to sit down. The two rows were seated in order of rank and age.

  Cao Cao saw that the leader of the allied forces had been established and the alliance treaty had been read. All the superficial work that needed to be done for the sake of appearances had been completed, so he led the way in saying to Yuan Shao: "Now that we have established our leader, we must obey his commands, support the state together, and not consider who is strong or weak."

  Yuan Shao said: "Although I am not talented, since I have been promoted to the position of alliance leader by the crowd, there must be rewards for merits and punishments for crimes. The country has its laws, the army has its discipline. Everyone should follow them, do not violate." All the vassals responded with thunderous applause.

  "But our teacher has no fame! Entering the capital to defend the king requires an imperial edict, and without an imperial edict it would be against etiquette!" As soon as he heard this, Li Yu knew that it was Kong Rong, the governor of Beihai, who was too pedantic.

  "Right!" The eighteen vassals were in an uproar, Li Yu pulled Cao Cao's sleeve: "Your Excellency, it's your turn to perform!"

  "Haha! Gentlemen, do not worry, I have brought the imperial edict with me. All of you, receive the decree!" The vassals hastily knelt down on the ground, and Cao Cao took out a piece of cloth to read: "Now that the great Han is in decline...", roughly meaning to get rid of Dong Zhuo and rescue the emperor.

  "Huh? Impossible! The Emperor is not even ten years old, how can he issue such a majestic imperial edict!" This Yuan Shu is just too big-mouthed, if he doesn't speak everyone will take him for a mute.

  "Haha!" Cao Cao laughed loudly: "Of course, this is what I did for the Emperor."

  "Rectify the appointment!" The feudal lords dissatisfied rose from the ground.

  "People say that Cao Cao is a capable minister in times of peace and a treacherous hero in times of chaos! Is this really true?" Yuan Shu began to squeeze Cao Cao again.

  "What's wrong with fake?" Cao Cao said loudly, not caring about Yuan Shu at all. "Sometimes the fake is better than the real! Isn't this exactly what we need? Every word here, isn't it what the Emperor wants to say? Ah?"

  When Cao Cao questioned, the vassals also fell silent. "Cough! Everyone please take a seat!" Yuan Shao, although not very capable, did well on the surface, seeing the awkward atmosphere, hastily mediated: "Since everything we need is ready, we should discuss how to fight against Dong Zhuo!"

  Yuan Shao sat in the position of the alliance leader, proudly scanning around, when he saw Yuan Shu and Yuan Huan shrinking in the corner, Yuan Shao involuntarily furrowed his brow.

  Yuan Shu was the eldest son of Yuan Feng, the Minister over the Masses. Since Yuan Shao was adopted by his uncle Yuan Cheng as a son, historical records generally refer to Yuan Shu as Yuan Shao's cousin, but in fact they were biological brothers with different mothers. However, Yuan Shao's mother was only a servant girl, and Yuan Shao held a relatively low position in the family when he was young.

  Yuan Shu had always looked down on his younger half-brother, but when they were young, Yuan Shu had helped Yuan Shao many times when he was bullied by their relatives. Therefore, although Yuan Shao knew that Yuan Shu was very dissatisfied with him inheriting the position of head of the Yuan family, he still felt grateful to Yuan Shu.

  Now Yuan Shao saw that Yuan Shu was discontented because he did not get the position of alliance leader, so after a brief moment of consideration, Yuan Shao said: "Since we lords are willing to unite and cooperate to attack Dong Zhuo together, then our follow-up grain, grass and military equipment must also have a unified management. As the saying goes 'to promote the virtuous without avoiding relatives', I recommend that General-in-Chief Yuan Shu be in charge of the overall supervision of the alliance army's grain and grass, what do you gentlemen think?"

  The various lords looked at each other, and the grain and fodder were their most important lifeline. It was quite inappropriate to hand over this lifeline entirely to an outsider, but since this order was the first deployment by the new alliance leader, they could not oppose it and had no choice but to reluctantly agree with Yuan Shao's opinion.

  Yuan Shu was overjoyed to have obtained the "fat job" of Governor of the Imperial Army's grain supplies, but Cao Cao knew that Yuan Shu was a man who forgot righteousness when he saw profit, so he was still worried about Yuan Shao's somewhat hasty appointment.

  As for Yuan Shao, Li Yu's definition of him is that he is showy on the outside but useless inside. It's clear that Yuan Shu is a narrow-minded guy, and yet he entrusted such an important matter to him. These two brothers are really not worth anything!

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  "Boom!" In the Prime Minister's mansion in the west of Luoyang City, Dong Fei was violently smashing all kinds of precious utensils. This guy was young and brave, able to shoot arrows with both hands! Now trapped in wealth and glory, his body began to expand horizontally, getting fatter day by day.

  "Our family is really blinded by greed, and we actually believed that those officials from the east would work for us! Cao Cao, this traitor, in his proclamation, said such evil things about our family. Is he, this ungrateful and treacherous person, better than us? We valued him so much! He actually assassinated my brother and colluded with the great army to attack our family! You see, if one day Cao Cao takes our current position, I'm afraid he will do even more outrageous things than we have!" Dong Fei vented her grievances and sat on the ground, panting heavily.

  What he said was indeed the truth, he did value Cao Cao's talent highly, and even allowed him to enter his bedroom without reporting, otherwise Cao Cao would not have had the opportunity to assassinate him!

  Li Ru carefully stepped over the broken porcelain pieces on the ground, went forward and helped Dong Zhuo up, saying: "Your Excellency! The most important thing now is not to say how treacherous Cao Cao is. Now we must consider how to respond to the coalition forces of the Eastern Han dynasty. According to the scouts' report, the coalition forces of the Eastern Han dynasty have grown to nearly 500,000, and as long as those lords are willing, they can still gather tens of thousands of elite soldiers."