【Attack of the Thieves】

A sudden coup d'état, the political situation within the Eastern Han Dynasty has been turbulent, He Jin was killed by the eunuchs, and the eunuchs were also eliminated by Yuan Shao. After the coup d'état, Dong Zhuo took the opportunity to lead the army into the capital, because he had just entered the capital, the foundation was not stable, so in order to deter these bureaucrats and doctors, Dong Zhuo let his three thousand soldiers and horses secretly go out at night, and swaggered into the city, with this illusion, successfully deterred Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and others, according to the cavalry captain Bao Xin heard Dong Zhuo enter Beijing, and hurriedly found Yuan Shao, let him lead the army to drive Dong Zhuo and Ding Yuan out of these barbarians, but Yuan Shao was afraid of Dong Zhuo's "many soldiers and generals", and never dared to carry out a counteroffensive.

Then Dong Zhuo took over He Jin and He Miao's old department with official position and money, and initially strengthened his strength. How to deal with Ding Yuan, a strong enemy? This became another problem that Dong Zhuo needed to solve in Luoyang, Kyoto at this time.

At that time, Ding Yuan had a cavalry captain named Lu Bu, who won Ding Yuan's attention for his courage and good fighting, and then repeatedly made military exploits, and also became the most trusted general under Ding Yuan because of Ding Yuan's favor.

Dong Zhuo then used a discordant strategy, with a lot of money to induce Lu Bu to kill Ding Yuan, when Lu Bu came to vote, Dong Zhuo still appointed Lu Bu as a cavalry captain, and swore to Lu Bu as a father and son, and Lu Bu was very dependent on Lu Bu, not long after, Dong Zhuo promoted Lu Bu to be the general of Zhonglang, Fengdu Tinghou, Dong Zhuo to reuse Lu Bu as a means, easily incorporated Ding Yuan's army and state, since then, Dong Zhuo with his own armed forces, has become the only person with the right to control the Eastern Han government.

However, Guangguang controlled the military power, and if he wanted to firmly control the entire Eastern Han Dynasty, this was far from enough, and if he wanted to gain a permanent foothold in the imperial court, he had to win the support of the bureaucratic scholar class, so how to win the support of the scholar class became another difficult problem that Dong Zhuo urgently needed to solve.

Dong Zhuo's first step was to work with Situ Huang Wan and Sikong Yang Biao to overturn the case for Chen Fan, Dou Wu and other party members, restore Chen Fan's past titles, and appoint Chen Fan's descendants.

The second is to win over the talented people at that time, that is, the so-called "celebrities", which may be a more important issue for Dong Zhuolai. Dong Zhuo has been in Liangzhou for a long time and has held a military position for a long time, so it is impossible to have close ties with the "celebrities", and it is extremely difficult for the Liangzhou generals, who are "accustomed to Yifeng", and Dong Zhuo himself, to win their favor. Therefore, how to win celebrities, what is urgently needed is a person who can match the bridge, and at this time, Zhou Bi became the person selected by Dong Zhuo.

There are two reasons for this, one is that Zhou Zhuo is also from Liangzhou, he and Dong Zhuo are fellow countrymen, and the other is that Zhou Zhuo's father Zhou Shen was Dong Zhuo's old comrade-in-arms back then, so Dong Zhuo has long been familiar with Zhou Zhuo, based on these two points, Zhou Zhuo has become the "matchmaker" in Dong Zhuo's eyes.

Dong Zhuo appointed Zhou Zhuo as the secretary of the ministry, and at his suggestion, Dong Zhuo selected all the famous and capable people, appointed them, and dismissed those filthy and corrupt figures. Of course, Dong Zhuo also appointed Xun Shuang, Cai Yong and other celebrities, for the officials who were suppressed by the eunuchs that year, Dong Zhuo had many promotions and appointments, he appointed Han Fu as the assassin of Jizhou, Liu Dai as the assassin of Yanzhou, Kong Ling as the assassin of Yuzhou, and Zhang Zhi as the Taishou of Nanyang.

In order to win the support of the scholar class, Dong Zhuo can be said to spare no effort, no matter who it is, as long as it is a person from the scholar class, Dong Zhuo will give high-ranking officials generous benefits, and for his cronies, he did not give a prominent position, they only served as a lieutenant general and a lieutenant.

The control of the army is in control, and the scholar class is also co-opted, what Dong Zhuo has to do next is to see if his words count, how to calculate, the most direct way is to abolish the emperor, a person who can even change the emperor, doesn't his words count; Moreover, wouldn't it be better to be the emperor with a younger person, just like that, poor Liu Wei was used as an experiment by Dong Zhuo and stepped down forever.

At this time, Liu Bei called his cronies and was discussing what to do next.

"Dong thief deposes the emperor without authorization, and he will be punished!" Liu Bei was resentful of Dong Zhuo's wanton behavior and disturbing the court.

"I can't imagine that Dong Thief dares to be so unpopular, the emperor is young, and he has not done anything to hurt reason, and how can Dong Thief be compared with Yi Yin and Huo Guang, he will depose the emperor, he will definitely lose the hearts of the people and isolate himself from his subordinates." Jian Yong said at this time.

Zhang Fei listened and said resentfully: "Oh, the officials of this court are really rice buckets, and they can't even keep an emperor, they are really a bunch of wretched." ”

Liu Deran listened to Zhang Fei's words, and continued: "It's not all waste, Dong Zhuo intends to depose the young emperor Liu Wei, and when he supported Liu Xie, the king of Chen Liu, as the emperor, he summoned hundreds of civil and military officials to discuss, at that time, everyone was afraid of Dong Zhuo's atrocities, and no one dared to speak, but the teacher Lu Zhi bravely stood up and objected on the spot, Dong Zhuo saw that the teacher was disobedient to himself, and was very annoyed, so he ordered the teacher to be executed, fortunately, Cai Yong saw this and quickly interceded for the teacher, and at the same time, Dong Zhuo was afraid that the teacher was a great Confucian in the sea, and his prestige among the scholars was very good, if he killed the teacher, everyone will be shocked and disappointed, so Dong Zhuo gave up and only dismissed the teacher, and did not dare to touch a single hair of the teacher from beginning to end. ”

"Lu Shangshu is really a model for a scholar, and a good man for the country." Guan Yu appreciated.

"Yes, the teacher's style of doing things in officialdom has always maintained his high demeanor...... Later, the teacher was unwilling to work for Dong Thief, so he fled Luoyang on foot, Dong Zhuo immediately sent someone to chase and kill the teacher, but fortunately he did not catch up, and now the teacher lives in seclusion in Shanggu County, Youzhou. Liu Bei said: "If you have a chance in the future, you should go and see him!" ”

"Hey~ I thought that the harm of the eunuchs' relatives was eliminated, and the next could be stable, and the people would be able to live a good life, but I didn't expect this Xiliang warlord to take the opportunity to steal power and do mischief in the court.

"Report!" As soon as Liu Bei's words fell, he saw a soldier running over in a hurry.

"What's going on?" Liu Bei asked.

"Lord Qiyu, the Yellow Turban Thief General Xu ...... Xu He led an army of 20,000 from Jinan to the plain...... Killing and running, the marching route pointed directly to Gaotang County. Maybe he was running too fast, maybe he was frightened, and the soldier kept stammering.

"What, twenty thousand!" Jian Yong said in shock.

"Brother, now we only have 1,000 soldiers and horses, the city of Gaotang County is dilapidated, and the defense facilities are outdated, even if these local forces contribute their troops and grain and grass, they will add up to 5,000 soldiers and horses." Liu Deran said in a low voice.

"No, it is more difficult to let them hand over their own army than to kill them, they regard these armies as their lifeblood, where will there be a reason to hand them over, they are afraid that once the thief army is driven away by us, we will turn against them, and when the time comes, they will be unarmed, will they not be slaughtered, therefore, they will definitely not hand it over, even if they send the army out, at most they will make a show, and they will not fight hard." At this time, Jian Yong said with a frown.

"Yun Chang, Yide, what do you think." Liu Bei said at this time.

"This ...... Big brother, I listen to you, big brother! ”

"Me too! Listen to Big Brother! ”

"Brother, Xianhe is right, the only one who is really willing to fight is our 1,000 descendants, 1,000 against 20,000, it's really like hitting a stone with an egg, it's better for us to withdraw." At this time, Liu Deran was embarrassed.

"We withdrew, so what should the people do?" Liu Bei said expressionlessly.

"Xuande, even if we stay here, it will only delay the time in the end, and this Gaotang County will be attacked sooner or later." Jian Yong was a little pleading at this time.

At this time, Liu Bei's heart remembered the teacher and Xue'er's previous teachings to him, people's hearts are in danger, and Taoism is only weak; Only the only one, Yun Zhizhong, you must stick to your original ideals and beliefs, never give up on yourself, never give up on the people, give up the people again and again, the people will eventually give up on you, the fate of the second emperor of Huan Ling is a typical example of close at hand, at this time Liu Bei looked up into the distance, and said firmly: "I want to stay, defend Gaotang County, and protect the people here." ”

【Exploring the Fire Core】

"Squeak~" Early in the morning, Su Xue opened the doors and windows of the school, she has been here for a while.

When I came to Songshan that day, the former school had lost its former style, the yard was full of weeds, pushed open the door and entered the house, the eaves, the corners were also covered with cobwebs, and there would be insects crawling in the house from time to time, except for some furniture and tools that had been used before, other books and everything in the house had been taken away.

Su Xue personally cleaned up the house, the filthy place, the dirty place, she washed it with clean water, the door was old, she replaced it with a new one, and the weeds in the yard, she also cleaned them all, and after some efforts, the school gradually returned to its former appearance.

Maybe it's because things are wrong, the scenes of the past are still there, but the people here have changed, the once kind and benevolent teacher, after experiencing the dangers of officialdom and deceit, finally withdrew from officialdom and lived in seclusion in Shanggu; Gongsun Zhan, who used to be kind to others, finally became a murderous and bloodthirsty person after experiencing the washing of the world, and through his senior brother, he knew that Gongsun Chan was the core of the fire left by the karmic demons in the world; Liu Bei, who used to be with him day and night, is still a magistrate, and it is gratifying that he still maintains his original perseverance and responsibility, and I hope that he and Liu Deran will always be like this.

She walked out of the school and walked up the mountain road, which was the one thing she always did, which was to go to the place where she was born.

Go see the scene there and reminisce about the time you spent with Liu Bei.

She stood on the side of the stream, looking at the burned and ruined trees, more than two hundred years later, it was still desolate, even if she stood in the distance, she could feel its deep anger.

Evil ghosts gnawed at the life here everywhere, and every time a new life was born, they would rush at it with bared teeth, devouring its flesh and corroding its soul, and this poor life would be destroyed in an instant.

"Fairy Qingshui, after a long absence from Songshan, are you still used to coming here again?" Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.

Su Xue turned around and saw that it was Taixuan Boy.

"Senior brother, you're here! It's a good time here, but now things are wrong, and sometimes it's a little sad! ”

"Yes, there will indeed be sentimentality, just like myself, although I have been away from the world for hundreds of years, but looking at today's big man, I still can't help but feel a little sad in my heart!"

"Senior brother, is there anything important to come here this time?"

"Zuo Ci found a shocking phenomenon, he ripped off the clothes of those dead eunuchs, and there will be a flame birthmark on their backs, Zhao Zhong has it, Zhang Rang also has it, I don't know if you found that Gongsun Zhan's back also has such a birthmark when you were in Songshan!"

"Birthmarks, I didn't notice this, they sometimes show their chests and arms, but I haven't looked at them carefully!" Su Xue came here, her expression was a little embarrassed.

"Oh, that's it!" Taixuan Boy also realized that it was inconvenient for him to ask this question, so he changed his words and said, "But in this way, we may have a clue to find the karmic demon fire core!" ”

"What do you mean?"

"I want you to spy on the clues of the human fire core, the eunuch has been eliminated, and there are still seven fire cores left, as long as we find them all, we can make the next plan with a goal and eliminate them one by one!" Taixuan Tongzi turned his head to Su Xue and said, "Our first target is Dong Zhuo, he is full of anger, he is very likely to be!" ”

"I understand, senior brother!" Su Xue comprehended the authentic way.

"Then I'll leave everything to you, if you need help, you can let Zuo Ci help you!" The Taixuan boy disappeared into the air, leaving only the sound of the volley.

"Understood, senior brother, don't worry!" Su Xue faced the empty road.