Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

At odds— In fact, there is no need for Guo's wife to play with such a strategy. Sooner or later, Guo Si and Li Jue will be in the same situation.However, because of Guo's wife's tricks, the battle between the two heroes started ahead of schedule. ——It is more beneficial to own the Son of Heaven. This is a point that comes to everyone's mind. Emperor Xian completed his adult coronation ceremony at the age of thirteen last year (194 AD), and planned to marry Fu Wan's daughter as the queen in the near future. The two heroes seem to have the idea of ​​abducting the emperor at the same time.Everyone has the same idea about the way of fighting for power struggle, right?

Li Jue arranged for undercover agents to stay in the mansion of his political opponent Guo Si.The agent sent back this information: ——Guo Bang intends to welcome the emperor to his mansion. "To flatter the emperor" is just a nice word, but it is essentially "abduction". "That guy thinks the same strategy as me. After all, we were all trained by Grand Master Dong (Dong Zhuo)." Li Jue smiled wryly when he heard the spy's report. Knowing that the opponent is already making preparations, of course he can't delay. "Call Siam over here!" Li Jue ordered.

Li Xian was his nephew, and it was most appropriate for this quick and bold man to engage in the important task of abducting the emperor. Li Xian commanded thousands of soldiers to surround the palace and brought Emperor Xian out. When he heard the news, Guo Bang was of course regretful that he was robbed of the opportunity by Li Jue.However, he is not someone who is willing to be at a disadvantage because of this. Because the young emperor was worried about the struggle between the two important ministers, he ordered the public minister to mediate and reconcile the two.However, Guo Si detained the Gongqing who came as an envoy in his mansion.This is also a form of abduction.

After Li Jue and Guo Si took the Son of Heaven and Gongqing as hostages respectively, they started a struggle on the stage of Chang'an. After Li Jue abducted the emperor, he simply set fire to the palace.He wants the emperor to have a home but not to return. Although there were brave Tibetan soldiers in Li's army, Guo Si bought one of Li's subordinates named Zhang Bao and asked him to act as an internal response during the attack. Li was in crisis due to Guo Bang's surprise attack.Fortunately, Zhang Bao's fire did not expand, and with the great assistance of Yang Feng, the Baibo Yellow Turban Army who had taken refuge in him, he was able to repel Guo Si's army.

Yang Feng, who helped Li Jue, instead attempted to murder Li Jue—whom he intended to replace.After his deeds were revealed, he fled to Zhongnan Mountain. Chaos and chaos.The battle in Chang'an Market lasted for two months, and tens of thousands of people died. In the chaos, Emperor Xian appointed Fu Wan's daughter as the queen.The ceremony was of course held at Li Jue's mansion. The marriage of the emperor is a national event, but there is no atmosphere of celebration in Chang'an.Small battles in the east today, arson in the west the next day—this was the scene at the time.

The unrelenting battle continued for a period of time, and both heroes fell into a state of exhaustion. There was a person who had been watching the situation outside for a long time—this person was Zhendong General Zhang Ji. He had expected such a day long ago, so after occupying Chang'an, he voluntarily went to Hongnong. Li Jue and Guo Si, who stayed in Chang'an to succumb to the power struggle, have reached the point of exhaustion. Neither of them can stop now. Once they stop, the other party will attack immediately.So they gritted their teeth and continued to fight.If someone mediates at this time, they will definitely be willing to accept peace negotiations.

The opportunity is ripe! Zhang Jisui led the soldiers and returned from Hongnong to Chang'an, the imperial capital. ——Urge the two generals Li and Guo to reconcile, so that the emperor can feel at ease. He made it his name. In fact, the two people who were confronting each other let out a big sigh of relief.But accepting mediation immediately would lose face, so both of them put forward some conditions.For this point, Zhang Ji, who is good at diplomacy, of course thought it over and over again, and finally made the peace agreement come to fruition under conditions acceptable to both parties.

One of the conditions for the truce was that both Li Jue and Guo Si would take their own daughters as hostages and at the same time release the Son of Heaven and Gongqing who had been held hostage earlier. "I want to go back to Luoyang." After the armistice, Emperor Xian said such words.In fact, it's no wonder that the fourteen-year-old Emperor Xian and the young Empress Fu were both born in Luoyang, and they were really not used to the turbulent life in Chang'an. Because the emperor was in Chang'an, Li Jue and Guo Si, who held real power here, had a dispute.If the emperor is not there, the dispute will naturally subside.

"I respectfully invite the emperor to the land of Hongnong in the east, how about it?" said the mediator Zhang Ji. "You mean what you said..." Li Gang was interrupted by Zhang Ji after he said this, because Hongnong was Zhang Ji's stronghold.After taking the emperor from Li and Guo, and moving it to his own land-isn't this equal to robbery? "No, I don't have any ambitions." Zhang Ji said, "If I had ambitions, I would have stayed in Chang'an instead of going to Hongnong. Like you..." Li Jue felt that Zhang Ji's words were indeed reasonable.

"Ask the emperor to go to Hongnong, but I don't go by myself—is that okay? The three of us stay in Chang'an, and only send the emperor and Gongqing to the east. It should be fair, right?" Zhang Ji's proposal is quite convincing. "Can." Both Li and Guo eventually agreed, but they still seemed suspicious of each other. Although this matter depended on Zhang Jizhi's mediation, the decisive factor was that Emperor Xian insisted on leaving Chang'an at the age of fourteen.For him, Chang'an is the capital of devils.First, Dong Zhuo was domineering, and then he became Li Xie's hostage. During the period when Chang'an never stopped bleeding, even the rush-built palace was burned down by Li Xian.

Emperor Xian cursed this land of Chang'an, and what he sincerely hoped was to get as close to his hometown Luoyang as possible.And Luoyang has been burned to the ground by Dong Zhuo, and what is currently presenting is a scene of broken rubble.It is impossible to live in Luoyang, at least you have to go to a place close to Luoyang. "I want to go back to the east, no matter what." Knowing that he is just a puppet, Emperor Xian seldom makes special demands, but this time, he became willful and insisted. Guo Bang originally opposed the emperor's return to the east, but Emperor Xian fought against it with a hunger strike. "If I can't go back to the east, I'd rather die." Unable to resist the fourteen-year-old boy's hunger strike to protest, Guo Si finally had to say: "Your Majesty, please go back to the East!" Even so, Guo Si did not really give up the idea of ​​retaining the emperor. The emperor's chariot drove out from the Xuanping Gate in the northeast of Chang'an. This happened on Jiazi Day (the first day) in the second year of Xingping (AD 195).The queue did not arrive at Xinfeng until Jiachen Day (the sixth day) in August.Xinfeng is only more than forty kilometers away from Chang'an, which shows the slow speed of Tianzi and his party.A team of hundreds of court ladies had to try to collect food on the way to Hongnong, and the Imperial Forest Army serving as guards was only about 500. "If you don't speed up the schedule, maybe Guo Si will come after me and bring me back." Emperor Xian was quite anxious. At this time, Li Jue had disbanded the elite of the army, the Tibetan army, and allowed them to return to their hometowns, but their military strength was not as good as before.At this time, what Emperor Xian was afraid of was the pursuit of Guo Si's troops. When they passed Ba Ling, a large army of thousands of people suddenly appeared, raising sand and dust, approaching the formation of the Son of Heaven. "Guo Bang really came to bring me back..." Emperor Xian was greatly frustrated.But after a while, I knew it was not Guo Si's army.It was the troops of Yang Feng, the Baibo Yellow Turban Army who had intended to replace Li Jue but fled to Zhongnan Mountain because of his deeds. "Report to the emperor. The minister came here to protect the holy car." Yang Feng knelt down and kowtowed.Emperor Xian breathed a sigh of relief and gave him the title of "General Xingyi".If Guo Si came in pursuit, the 500 Imperial Forest Army would definitely be no match for him.Although Yang Feng belonged to the Baibo refugee group with a problematic background, the emperor had nowhere to go, so he had to accommodate them. Soon, thousands of troops led by Dong Cheng also came to join.This was the army of Dong Zhuo's son-in-law Niu Fu. Niu Fu was later killed by a follower. The army that lost its master was led by Dong Cheng and wandered in this area.This wandering army came here on a special trip to find an official career after hearing about the emperor's return to the east. Dong Cheng is the nephew of Empress Dowager Dong, who is roughly equivalent to Emperor Xian's grandmother. For Emperor Xian, it was meeting his uncle in a different place. Of course, Emperor Xian was more happy to see him than Yang Feng.Dong Cheng was awarded the title of "General Anji". "Down with the big and useless!" Guo Si used this as a code word and went to retake the emperor. "Big and useless" means the Imperial Forest Army.Most of the guard regiments were in the nature of honor guards. The members of the Royal Forest Army were all selected tall and handsome young men. Their clothes were very gorgeous, so they were ridiculed by ordinary soldiers as child soldiers or big and useless people. Guo Si originally thought that five hundred "baby soldiers" could be defeated at once.Unexpectedly, there was an army led by Yang Feng and Dong Cheng beside the emperor.As a result, it was Guo Bang's side that was defeated. "Let's wait and see!" Guo Bang, who had retreated for a while, caught up with the emperor's queue again after making full preparations.The Son of Heaven team with a large group of women moved very slowly. ——What is the wild dog army! Although Guo Bang was once defeated, he still held an attitude of belittling the opponent.In his eyes, troops wandering around the banks of the Weishui River and the foothills of Zhongnan Mountain hungry without a master are no different from a group of wild dogs.But just because it is a wild dog, it is very powerful - Guo Bang did not expect this.The members of the wild dog unit are about to get official careers due to their meritorious service, so they are all very excited and ready to fight bravely to the death.Of course, such a force will exert more than its strength. Guo Si's troops were repelled again.It's October 1st. However, the emperor's team, which swelled to become a "big army", actually had internal strife. General Ning Ji Duan Yan was in charge of financial and supply matters.Since the march was during a famine period, it was quite difficult to collect food.In order to obtain sufficient food supply, the officials who are used to living a luxurious life often treat Duan Yan with a fawning attitude, and Duan Yan becomes very arrogant. "There are more and more soldiers eating, and I, who is in charge of food, can't breathe! If I don't try to reduce the number of soldiers, I will no longer be in charge of supplies!" He even said it openly. --what?Say we are eating troops!If it weren't for us, the emperor would have been taken back to Chang'an by Guo Si long ago!Can such people be forgiven for saying that we, who have worked hard and made great achievements, are food troops! Yang Feng, Dong Cheng and others were extremely indignant when they heard Duan Yan's words. —kill him! Field generals are generally short-tempered.They then shot arrows at Duan Yao's team. They fought for more than ten days.Emperor Xian didn't know what to do, so he could only worry on the sidelines.Even so, the fourteen-year-old emperor summoned the principal figures of both sides in turn and begged them to reconcile. Internal strife at the important moment of the emperor's return to the east is simply unacceptable.As the young emperor tried his best to mediate, the two parties agreed to a settlement. The intelligence of the internal strife in the emperor's army quickly spread to Chang'an.Guo Bang, who had lost his second attack and was depressed, now had hope: ——There is still hope! At this time, he heard the following rumors: ——The emperor has issued a secret edict to Cao Cao in Yanzhou, asking him to come to Luoyang to meet him. Speaking of Cao Cao, this person was the vanguard of the anti-Dong Zhuo faction in previous years. Among the generals in the East, he is the only powerful figure who can compete with Yuan Shao.Once the Son of Heaven falls into the hands of Cao Cao, it is not impossible to issue an edict to "conquer Chang'an" against the general. Guo Si and Li Jue had indeed taken the emperor and ministers as hostages. Therefore, it is not surprising that they would be punished whenever they had the opportunity. "How about we work together to regain the Son of Heaven before Cao Cao captured it? Fortunately, the Son of Heaven's team is in conflict. This should be an excellent opportunity. Let's put aside the past and work together, shall we?" Guo Si knew from his two combat experiences that although the Son of Heaven's troops had internal strife, the escorting troops were extremely brave and difficult to deal with.Going forward with his own troops, he would definitely not be able to beat him - he thought so, so he appealed to Li Jue and Zhang Ji, who were incompatible in the past, to cooperate. These three people are not willing to see the emperor fall into the hands of Cao Cao, that is to say, their interests are exactly the same. "Hurry up!" This is a matter of urgency.If Cao Cao had already set off from Yanzhou to the west to meet Shengjia, the situation would be very bad. "We can't wait until the whole army is ready to set off, otherwise it will be too late. Whichever unit is ready, set off first, and leave in batches, and there must be no delay!" In the army, Dong Zhuo's former Liangzhou soldiers are mostly soldiers, and they are all good at riding horses.Compared with the slow-moving emperor's army, the army of the three generals in Chang'an was far superior in mobility. The Liangzhou Light Cavalry Regiment raised billowing dust in the yellow land on the south bank of the Weishui River, galloping all the way to the east...