The imperial court was engaged to the son and second son of Gao Shun, and sent two envoys one after another, the first was Dong Cheng and the second was Fu Wan.

Dong Cheng's heart is on Li Ru's side, while Fu Wan is on the emperor's side, and the two of them have different tasks in addition to serving as envoys, and they need to have an interview with Gao Shun.

Gao Shun was busy with the affairs of the expedition and didn't take care of them all the time, and only after half a month did he have time to receive them.

First of all, I met with Dong Cheng.

Dong Cheng's aunt is the Empress Dowager Dong, the mother of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, and her daughter is Dong Guiren, the concubine of the current Emperor Liu Xie; Dong Zhuo admitted that he had a family relationship with Dong Cheng in order to raise his net worth, and avenged the Empress Dowager Dong and killed the Empress Dowager He; Dong admits that he can have a family relationship with Dong Zhuo, also for self-preservation; Now continue to cling to Li Ru because Li Ru is powerful.

Now they are also very conflicted, even if Gao Shun defeats Li Ru, the emperor has nowhere to go; Even if Gao Shun recognizes the emperor and returns power to the imperial court, can Gao Shun's subordinates agree? The talents of the imperial court are withering, can they manage the world well? Therefore, it is also a good option to maintain the status quo.

The purpose of his interview with Gao Shun this time, Li Ru has already explained clearly, that is, to consult Gao Shun's opinion.

In Gao Shun's study, after the two sides finished saluting and sat down, Dong Cheng first asked, "When will Duke Wei send troops to Jingnan?" ”

Gao Shun was stunned for a moment, and asked rhetorically: "Why did I say that I would send troops to Jingnan?" Because in informal occasions, Gao Shun calls himself "I", not "Lonely", and he also deliberately narrows the psychological distance with Dong Cheng.

Dong Chengchang sighed and said: "There is no turning back arrow when you open the bow, and since you have been called a prince, are you far from being called a king?" ”

Gao Shun also sighed: "The form of persecution, not the wish of Shun, when Shun promised the first emperor, he was determined to be on the frontier, not to interfere in the affairs of the imperial court, not to interfere in the affairs of the Central Plains, but the world is in chaos, the princes are fighting, the people are not living, thousands of miles of red land, how can I bear it?" ”

Dong Cheng thought to himself, it is true that he is aiming at the frontier, the current situation of the imperial court is surrounded by it, and only a few counties in Jingnan are left, and the rest are lies.

Gao Shun continued: "I want to send a large army in the Western Regions and Mobei to restore the glory of the Han Dynasty, and everything will be said after I return, if the court is interested, I can return to the mountains and forests." ”

Dong Cheng's face turned sallow, and he thought to himself, when Gao Shun pacifies the Western Regions and sets foot on the desert north, it will surely shock the world, and then he will bring the power of a great victory to coerce the imperial court, so what can I do? Then they will fall to the ground.

Seeing his expression, Gao Shun estimated that he was thinking badly, so he promised: "I will never take the initiative to attack the imperial court, please rest assured Wen You and Your Majesty." ”

Dong Cheng listened to what Gao Shun said, and put Li Ru in front of His Majesty, his heart settled down a little, and he went back to tell Li Ru for the time being.

Subsequently, Gao Shun met with Fu Wan again, and he also came with the order of Emperor Liu Xie.

Liu Xie is very smart, the world has been decided, the Han court has no power to return to the sky, his life and death are between Gao Shun's thoughts, the reason why Gao Shun did not attack the imperial court is that he thinks of the grace of the first emperor; the second is that I don't know how to place him Liu Xie; But Liu Xie is unwilling to continue to live the life of being treated as a puppet and bullied by Li Ru at will, rather than this, it is better to live the life of an ordinary person.

Therefore, he sent Fu Wan to inform Gao Shun that as long as Li Ru was eliminated and Dong Zhuo was exterminated, he would give up the throne.

Liu Xie's will in history was very tenacious, even if Dong Zhuo killed Dong Guiren, killed the queen, and killed the prince, he still did not give in, and continued to fight against the operation, that is because the operation did not unify the world, and the Jiangdong and Bashu forces, as well as the Liangzhou forces, he still had illusions; In this world, Gao Shun has unified the world, leaving only a corner of Jingnan, which can be lowered overnight, which is not the same as the situation in history, and his mentality has also changed.

After the Hou Fu Fu finished speaking, he asked directly: "After Duke Wei wins the world, how do you want to settle His Majesty today?" ”

Gao Shun was very surprised by these words, pondered for a while, and asked rhetorically: "How does the prince think it is appropriate?" Now that the other party has made it clear, Gao Shun no longer hides it.

For Gao Shun's directness, he was also shocked after Fu Wan, and conveyed His Majesty's intentions, as long as Dong Zhuo and Li Ru's forces were eliminated, His Majesty was willing to give up the throne.

Gao Shun shook his head and vetoed this meaning, now is not the time, he wants to delay it for a few more years and gradually deal with it coldly.

Fu Wan pleaded: "Li Ru's forces bully Your Majesty in every way, and their despicable behavior is outrageous, Your Majesty wants to be an ordinary person but can't, please Duke Wei to maintain the dignity of the court, this is also for the sake of your future generations, don't let future generations of rebellious ministers and thieves follow suit." ”

Gao Shun didn't expect that Fu Wan would take such a long-term view, he was worried that he would be imitated by the rebellious ministers of later generations, so he kept hesitating.

Gao Shun was in a very low mood, and with his IQ, he couldn't think of a reasonable solution.

So the negotiations between the two sides broke up unhappily and left it for later.

On the second day, there was an exciting thing for Gao Shun, someone came forward to recommend himself, claiming to be the descendant of Ban Dinghou, so Gao Shun immediately summoned him.

The person who came was eight feet tall, burly, and had a dark complexion, which was completely unrelated to the image of Ban Dinghou.

"Ban Zhi meets Wei Gong!"

"Haha, no need to be polite, sit here!" Gao Shun was very polite.

"Xie Weigong!"

After waiting for someone to serve tea and exiting, Gao Shun said, "Can you please introduce yourself?" ”

Come to the humane: "The ancestor Dingyuan Marquis has two sons, the eldest son inherits the title, the second son is the chief official of the Western Regions, and then because of the matter of the princess of Yincheng, the Ban family was destroyed; Our branch is the one left by the second son of the Marquis of Dingyuan, who escaped the disaster of killing, and later settled in the border county, and has been low-key; After the imperial court abandoned the Western Regions, we lost the opportunity; Now the Duke of Wei is aiming to pacify the Western Regions, and the family specially sent Zhi to serve the Duke of Wei. ”

Gao Shun asked, "What are you good at?" ”

"The descendants of the Ban family, passed down with martial arts, otherwise they would not be able to gain a foothold in the border county, the customs and regions of the Western Regions, passed down from generation to generation, the art of war and tactics, and never forgotten from generation to generation; Wu Ke can carry a knife and charge into battle, and can command thousands of troops and horses to attack the city; Wen Ke can give advice and win thousands of miles away. ”

Gao Shun smiled secretly in his heart, is there such a boast? Check out its attributes immediately, intelligence 86, force 89, politics 75, commander 82, sure enough, it is not bad, there are three attributes more than 80, very comprehensive and balanced talents.

Gao Shun was overjoyed in his heart, with this person, Ma Gui's trip to the Western Regions would be much easier.

The two sides discussed some details, and Gao Shun was even more satisfied, so he set up a banquet that night to entertain him, and ordered Ma Gui, Li Qiang, Xi Zhicai and others to accompany him.

While eating and drinking, everyone discussed, and Ban Zhi's performance was very eye-catching, such as knowing the route of the march in his chest, and he was even meticulous down to the mileage of the daily march, the location of the camp, the food and water sources of the logistics baggage, etc.

Afterwards, Gao Shun negotiated with Xi Zhicai, Ma Gui and others, and decided to make Ban Zhi form an army with family guards, named the Dingyuan Army, and set off with the army.

Ban Zhi gladly accepted the order, but suggested to Gao Shun that he should first take 10,000 soldiers and horses to temporarily occupy Yihe Duweicheng (Hami), Wuji Xiaoweicheng (Turpan), Xubu Houcheng (Qitai County) and Dongjimi City (Urumqi), so as to lay a good foundation for the army to explore the road to the west and raise the ground.

Gao Shun was very moved, and immediately approved his suggestion, and ordered Ban Zhi to be the governor of the Western Regions and the captain of Wuji, and led Cao Ren and Han Sui into the Western Regions; His headquarters was 5,000 men, plus his Dingyuan army composed of 1,000 family soldiers, a total of 12,000 men.

The affairs of the Western Regions are temporarily under the responsibility of Xu Rong and Cheng Wu, and they are responsible for the logistics affairs of the Western Regions Army, and fully assist Ban Zhi; Ma Chao was stationed in Dunhuang County as a response.