Chapter 24 As an Advisor

  Hua Xiong's back point has not ended yet, the distance from Guandu to Luoyang is not far, and it will take only half a day to arrive by fast horse. After Li Su's letter was delivered to Dong Zhuo's hands in the Golden Palace, the tragedy occurred;

  "Damn it! This group of Easterners!" Dong Zhuo slammed the bamboo slips to the ground in anger, Li Ru picked them up and took a look, his face not looking good. He gestured to Dong Zhuo, who understood and dispersed the officials and the young emperor who were present but not really on his side, leaving only his trusted confidants behind.

  "Prime Minister, Hua Xiong disobeyed orders and insisted on defending the Tong Pass, but he was captured by the allied forces. More than half of his 30,000 soldiers were lost. Although Li Su managed to rally the defeated troops, he only had 35,000 soldiers left. The soldiers are newly defeated and their morale is low. If the allied forces attack the pass now, it will be breached in just one day, and they will be able to threaten Luoyang. The situation will be unimaginable then!"

  "What should I do?" Dong Zhuo was somewhat flustered, after all the allied army had nearly six hundred thousand troops, more than twice as many as his own, and no matter how incompetent Dong Zhuo was, he still understood the obvious military strength comparison.

  Whenever Dong Zhuo had something difficult to deal with, he would ask Li Ru for advice.

  No matter whether it was his old subordinate Li Jue, Guo Si, or his current adopted son Lü Bu, in his heart, none of them were as reliable as Li Ru; when Dong Zhuo first rose to prominence, Li Ru had already defected to him, and in order to win him over, he even gave his own daughter to him in marriage.

  Li Ru did not disappoint him, Ping Qiang was ill, the war against the Yellow Turbans, the dominance of Xiliang, and the tiger's gaze at Zhongyuan. Until now, he has been following Li Ru's plan to mouth the heavenly constitution and dominate the imperial court alone. However, Dong Zhuo increasingly disappointed Li Ru, as he was eroded by the corrupt life in Luoyang, his ambition had long since dissipated.

  According to Li Ru's original idea, it was to develop his own strength slowly under the surveillance of the imperial court. After Emperor Ling of Han Liu Hong died, he would instigate the eunuchs and the external relatives to attack each other, then take advantage of the situation to seize power, control the emperor and order the vassals, with Liangzhou and Hedong as his base, swallow Pingzhou, sweep across Cizhou, and then plot against Yan, Ji, and You.

  By the time half of the world had fallen into their hands, wouldn't it have been easy to seize power? Unfortunately, although the previous plan was well executed, the great opportunity that followed was easily squandered by Dong Zhuo, who prematurely revealed his ambition.

  No matter what, Li Ru, who was loyal to Dong Zhuo, continued to support him in this precarious situation, hoping that he would come to his senses and make a strong comeback.

  "For now, the only plan is to fight a decisive battle with the Allied Army! If we retreat back to Xiliang now, we will gain nothing and instead become the public enemy of the world; The cavalry of Xiliang are good at fighting in the wilderness, and all the troops will be deployed to Ziwu Pass and Tiger Trap Pass, forming a pincer movement, and defeat the Allied Army of the vassals in one battle!" Li Ru said fiercely.

  He hopes to see his future through this war, whether Dong Zhuo will dominate the world or become the master of the world, or...

  "There's also the need for speed, by this time tomorrow, the army must set out to the front line. The Allied forces are in disarray and can't reach a unified opinion at present, they won't attack Xishui Pass for the time being, but once they come to an agreement, Xishui Pass will be in danger!" Li Ru reminded.

  "If I leave, and someone in Luoyang rises up against me, won't I be attacked from both sides?" Dong Zhuo hesitated;

  "Take the young emperor directly to Xiang Guo's side! Then behead Yuan Huan, the leader of the Shi clan! This will intimidate those people and they won't dare to make a move!" It was as if he was chatting about trivial matters, but it decided the life and death of hundreds of people. Li Ru, who was decisive in his killings, would not leave any future troubles behind;

  "Good! Lü Bu obeys orders!" Dong Zhuo made up his mind and immediately issued orders;

  Lü Bu stepped forward: "I am the last general!"

  "Order you to lead the vanguard with 30,000 troops and head to Tiger Trap Pass! To meet and defeat the lords of Guandong!"

  "Hello!"

  "Zhang Ji! Fan Chou! Li Li!", "The last general is here!"

  "You three lead an army of 50,000 to reinforce the pass at Ze Water! Remember! Do not engage in battle, just defend and wait for me to go and decide the outcome with the allied forces!"

  "Alright!", the three of them said in unison and went off to prepare.

  "Li Ru!", "Your subject is here!", "Prepare the troops and horses! We will depart at noon tomorrow! Decisive battle against the Allied Forces of the East!"

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  As Hua Xiong was being taken away, Cao Ren couldn't help but ask: "Sir, why do you want to capture Hua Xiong alive? Just behead him!", This is also what Cao Cao wondered, he too stared intently at Li Yu, wanting to know why.

  "Hoo-hoo!", the weather was cold, Li Yu blew two mouthfuls of air to warm up his hands. "I am also a subordinate of the master, naturally I have to think for the master. This Hua Xiong is not doing well, but he is still a fierce general. The master has said: the success of a great undertaking depends on the talents; I don't look good at the allied army, nor do I look good at Dong Zhuo's army. This war will be nothing more than a draw. What I'm thinking about now is... if we were to fight against the Western Liang army! Hua Xiong's role would be huge!"

  Wow! This is someone who thinks several steps ahead!

  "Sir, your vision is far-reaching, I am not as good as you!" Cao Ren sighed.

  "Haha! So you can only be a good general, but not a strategist!", Cao Cao smiled, but it was clearly a forced smile;

  "Has Master been hungry again?" Li Yu asked with a smile;

  "Only Li Hui knows me!" Cao Cao sat down on the ground, dejected, and pounded the ground in anger: "A group of wine bags! Can the Han dynasty rely on them to save it? What a great opportunity, if only the allied army could unite and work together, with siege equipment ready, they would surely break through the Tongguan Pass within half a day!"

  "My lord, you are mistaken!" Li Yu shook his head: "You overestimate them! Although the eighteen vassals claim to have more than 500,000 troops, most of them are just mobs that can't be used in a big way;"

  "The most elite troops are the White Horse Volunteers of Gongsun Zan, the Iron Cavalry of Ma Teng, and the Jiangdong Army of Sun Jian. However, the troops of Gongsun Zan and Ma Teng are cavalry and cannot bear the heavy responsibility of attacking cities, while Sun Jian has already been deeply hurt by the Yuan brothers and will not be able to exert himself again!"

  "We'll have to rely on the remaining troops to attack the city... Not only will we fail to break through, but it will also dampen the morale of the allied army. It's better to continue putting pressure on Dong Zhuo and force him into a decisive battle. Given his excellent field warfare capabilities, I think he'll choose to fight in the open fields. And perhaps the allied army can take advantage of their numerical superiority... to win! They didn't agree with your opinion, but it's also not a bad choice!"

  "Haha! Mr. Cao is right! I was too obsessed!", Li Yu's words of persuasion had the opposite effect, and instead made Cao Cao even more pleased. He patted the dust off his clothes and laughed: "I'm starving! Let's go eat! I've been holding my breath for a while, now it's time to make up for it!"

  At this time, there were still two people among the eighteen vassals who were very depressed. They also withdrew from the celebration banquet with Cao Cao. One was Bao Xin, the magistrate of Jibei, and the other was Zhang Miao, the governor of Chenliu.

  Both of them have connections with Cao Cao. Bao Xin is also a man of insight, he once advised Yuan Shao to eliminate Dong Zhuo when he first arrived in Luoyang and was still weak, but it was not adopted, which led to disaster. He has known Cao Cao since childhood and has some friendship with him.

  His depression was due to the death of his brother Bao Zhong, and he had been in low spirits for several days. The man who killed his brother, Hua Xiong, was still in Cao Cao's camp, and he wanted to ask Cao Cao to kill Hua Xiong, but he didn't dare to speak out, so he was depressed and unhappy.

  Zhang Fei was depressed because today he saw Dian Wei capture Hua Xiong, and felt that Dian Wei seemed very familiar. Upon closer inspection, wasn't that his own Tooth-Taking Flag? When he returned to the camp, he saw several fine horses tied up at the entrance of his large tent. That yellow general proudly told him: just a rough and unrefined fellow was exchanged for ten fine horses;

  Zhang Yan was so angry that he wanted to behead him, but fortunately, he still remembered that he was the one who helped him start his army, so he could only swallow his anger and hold it in his stomach.