Dong Zhuojun made such a big move in Luoyang City, and the state and county officials in the eastern part of the country would certainly not be unaware. They are neither blind nor foolish, and they are each in Luoyang City, and they also bury a lot of eyeliner. Regarding Dong Zhuo's bad behavior, the Kwantung princes all knew it very well in their hearts.

It's just that the reaction of the Kwantung princes seems to be quite slow in the eyes of the world. In fact, this cannot be entirely blamed on the unwillingness of the officials of the Kanto Prefecture to act. The reason for this is really not humane.

First, the army was hastily raised, the troops were not well trained, the weapons were not repaired, and the army was still very frightening in numbers, but its real combat effectiveness was quite suspicious.

Second, people such as Liu Dai and Kong Ling are either very good at playing tricks and have sparse subordinates, or they don't know much about military affairs and lack the ability to command operations.

Thirdly, everyone was afraid of the Liangzhou army, which was good at fighting and ferocious, and hoped that others would take the lead so that they could take advantage of it.

Fourth, after breaking away from the control of the central court, these state and county officials not only had the name of the princes, but also the reality of the princes. Having enjoyed the supreme power that they had never had before, how could the Kwantung princes not have any thoughts about it?

So, in their hearts, the desire to preserve their strength and try to maintain the current state of being free and doing whatever they want is much higher than the desire to win. Hope.

As a result, after a not too heated discussion, a number of state and county officials stationed in Sujube quickly reached a consensus. They decided to train their army first, lay a good foundation for their own side, and then use a dignified army to drive the army to Luoyang and recover Kyoto.

In addition, everyone is a local celebrity, and they are usually scattered all over the place. It's rare to get together. In this gap between military training and recuperation, why don't you have a wine meeting, deepen some friendship, or leave a romantic name in the history?

So, when Dong Zhuo's department in the west was happily in front of the demolition workers. When the wealth of the wealthy households in Luoyang was shipped to Chang'an; When Yuan Shao in the north was unwilling to guard the county town of Hanoi, looking forward to the arrival of reinforcements, so that the soldiers could reach the city of Luoyang, in the camp of the Kwantung Coalition Army in sour dates, he was calling friends every day and drinking high.

Of course, not every prince in attendance. It's so unreliable.

Cao Cao, Bao Xin and others, the "military experts" in the coalition army, were not used to such an important moment, and the state and county officials did not lead the troops, but held a wine meeting together. The two tried many times to encourage these state and county officials to send troops as soon as possible, but to no avail.

As a last resort, Cao Cao went berserk in public at a party, proposed a strategy to deal with Dong Zhuo, and then brought his own troops. Led his troops westward alone.

Among the state and county officials who attended the meeting, there were good writings. Cao Cao's words were recorded, and later became a piece of material for historians to revise history. Cao Cao's speech, recorded by the attaché, is as follows:

"Raise volunteers to punish the riots, the public has been united, what are the doubts? Xiang made Dong Zhuo hear that the Shandong soldiers rose, relying on the weight of the royal family, according to the risk of two weeks. to the east to face the world; Although they do not do the way, they are still enough. Now the palace is burned, the Son of Heaven is robbed, the sea is shaken, and I don't know where to go. This day is also the time of death. The world is determined by a war, and it cannot be lost. ”

Seeing that Cao Cao decided to go west alone, among the Kwantung princes who attended the meeting, those who had friendships with Cao Cao provided Cao Cao with some weapons and armor; If you don't have a relationship, send a little food and money, even if it's a send.

Only Chen Liutaishou Zhang Miao had a good relationship with Cao Cao, and he couldn't go away, so he specially selected a thousand people from his subordinates to give Cao Cao to strengthen his military strength. Although Bao Xin, the prime minister of Jibei, did not send troops with Cao Cao, he sent his brother Bao Tao to lead 3,000 elite soldiers to meet Cao Cao in the rear.

Bao Tao's response is obviously extremely crucial. Without this force, Cao Cao would have ended up in a crushing defeat. Even whether his own life can be saved will be a question. Because, Cao Cao didn't go far west, and he met Dong Zhuo's general, who was best at positional warfare:

- Zhonglang General Xu Rong.

The battle between "General Xingfenwu" Cao Cao and "General Zhonglang" Xu Rong can be regarded as a fair head-on battle. Cao Cao had more than 6,000 men under his command, most of whom were recruits; There are only more than 4,000 people under Xu Rong's command, but they are all veterans of a hundred battles from Liangzhou. The two sides lined up on a flat land next to the Bianshui in Xingyang, fighting soldier against soldier and general against general.

In the historical records of later generations, Cao Cao's military talent is undoubtedly quite good. However, when he was fighting with Xu Rong, he had only experienced the rebellion to exterminate the Yellow Turban Army, and his experience was far inferior to Xu Rong, who had experienced a hundred battles and had no mistakes in using soldiers.

And the elite of Liangzhou under Xu Rong's department not only has a lot of personal strength, but also the battle formation is extremely skillful. Cao Cao relied on Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, and Cao Ren, who were the first level powerhouses of the "Thousand People Break", but in the battle array, after killing and injuring a few Liangzhou soldiers, they were immediately targeted.

Xu Rong himself is also a fierce general at the level of "Thousand People Broken". But under his command, the Liangzhou army would never play alone with these fierce generals under Cao Cao. On the contrary, as soon as Xiahoudun and the others appeared, they would be attacked by a group of "hundred-person beheading" level Liangzhou warriors, who joined forces to form an army formation and launch a group attack on them.

Cao Cao's tactics were effectively restrained, resulting in the situation of Cao's army never gaining an advantage. Even if Cao Cao personally rushed to the front line to boost morale, he could only barely resist the attack of the Liangzhou army.

When the two sides fought fiercely for more than an hour, the physical strength of the soldiers decreased, and they fell into a stalemate, Xu Rong finally released his killer weapon.

The outcome of the battle was decided.

A thousand-strong cavalry ambushed nearby suddenly struck out from the flank of Cao Cao's army, plunging Cao's army into a brief period of confusion. With the help of the new equipment "bilateral stirrups", this cavalry broke through the thin flank defense of Cao Cao's army in one fell swoop.

Poor Chen Liuyishi Weizi was hit by this sudden cavalry, and was killed by the fierce Liangzhou knight in one face. Then, Wei Zi's death triggered the collapse of more than 3,000 people under his direct jurisdiction, which in turn shook Cao Cao's headquarters, and finally the army was completely defeated.

Fortunately, Cao Cao and his brothers are all masters of martial arts. His core subordinates were not directly impacted by the cavalry of the Liangzhou Army, and the overall losses were not large. In addition, the 3,000 people led by Bao Tao appeared in time to meet Cao Cao's army and repelled the pursuit of Xu Rongjun. In the end, Cao Cao still led the troops safely. Evacuated from the battlefield.

In hindsight, Cao Cao lost a total of about 2,000 troops in this battle. Of the 2,000 men, ninety percent belonged to Wesz's tribe. Seeing Cao Cao's embarrassed return to the sour dates, the rest of the Kwantung princes did not take the initiative to attack. The plan to attack Dong Zhuo is over.

You know, they're not without self-knowledge. In the entire sour jujube coalition army, the most capable of fighting is Cao Cao and Bao Xin's department. Now that Cao Cao's vitality has been greatly damaged, it is even more impossible to deal with Dong Zhuojun with just one Bao Xin.

After suffering this defeat, Cao Cao was not discouraged, and once again persuaded the princes of Sour Zao to send troops to attack. Of course, his words still went unanswered. Cao Cao, who was depressed, wrote a letter to Yuan Shao, the titular leader of the alliance. To vent your frustration with the situation:

"If you listen to my plan, my brother [Yuan Shao] will lead the people of Hanoi to Mengjin, and the sour jujube generals will guard Chenggao, according to Aocang, Saiyuyuan, Taigu, and all their risks; So that General Yuan [Yuan Shu] led the army of Nanyang to Dan, analyze, enter the Wuguan, and shock the three auxiliaries: all high bases and deep walls. Don't fight, it's better to be a suspicious soldier. Show the situation of the world, and if you are obedient and disobedient, you can also set up. Today's soldiers move with righteousness, hold doubts and do not advance, lose the hope of the world, and steal for the shame of the generals! ”

No matter how big Cao Cao's complaint is. Nor can it change the results. After receiving the letter from his younger brother, Yuan Shao was also helpless, so he had to think of ways to comfort Cao Cao.

The words of Yuan Shao, the "leader of the alliance", are sometimes easy to use. But if the officials of other states and counties are bent on shirking, he is helpless. It's hard to do it. Can Yuan Shao still remove a disobedient prince?

After listening to the complaints of his little brother Cao Cao, Yuan Shao had to scrape together a sum of money from the military supplies and send it to Cao Cao, asking Cao Cao to go to Danyang County in Yangzhou to recruit some "Danyang soldiers" to replenish the lost troops.

The so-called "Danyang soldiers" are the best soldiers of the Han Dynasty except for the Bingzhou soldiers, Liangzhou soldiers and Youzhou soldiers in the border areas, and they have always been as famous as "Taishan soldiers" and "Three Rivers Knights".

Cao Cao received financial compensation from Yuan Shao, and barely suppressed his dissatisfaction with the sour jujube princes. He also didn't want to continue to stay in Suojube and see the boring behavior of those princes, so he took his brothers Cao Ren, Xiahoudun, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Hong and others to Yangzhou in the south to recruit warriors in order to fight again in the future.

Dong Zhuo, who was in Luoyang and had not yet left for Chang'an, was naturally extremely happy after getting the news that Xu Rong had defeated Cao Cao's army. It just so happened that at this time, his younger brother Dong Min also came with the good news that Huangfu Song had accepted the position of captain of the city gate and came to the Han family to accompany the emperor.

Under the double happiness, Dong Zhuo was not carried away by these good news. Before the integration of 30,000 Huangfu troops and the completion of moving the capital to Chang'an, he still needs a short period of time. Therefore, at the suggestion of Li Ru, Dong Zhuo, with the power of Xinsheng, sent several ministers of the court and China, who were found to be secretly inclined to the Kwantung princes, to Hanoi to negotiate with Yuan Shao.

However, the few ministers who were sent out did not even see the faces of the Kwantung princes, so they were forcibly sent back to the territory of Luoyang by Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao's move undoubtedly announced that he was unwilling to reconcile with Dong Zhuo.

Dong Zhuo, who got the news, knew through Yuan Shao's reaction that there was no possibility of reconciliation between his side and the Kwantung coalition army. Therefore, he was annoyed for a while, thinking that Yuan Kui was useless, so he executed more than 50 Yuan relatives such as Taifu Yuan Kui and Taifu Yuan Ji to warn Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, and by the way, make a memorial to the migration of the imperial court.

Dong Zhuo, who was full of enemies, couldn't help but have a good impression of the neighbor in the north who had never come to find trouble at this time.

After Zhang Qi went to the court again and expressed his willingness to send troops from Taihang Mountain to contain the forces of Yuan Shao, Han Fu and others, Dong Zhuo was finally embarrassed to continue to be stingy. He was very generous, and officially appointed the position of "making the Xiongnu Zhonglang General", who had been planning for a long time, to Zhang Qiang.

At the same time, Dong Zhuo, who had no time to take care of the affairs of the state, also complied with Zhang Yan's request and appointed Zhang Yan's teacher and military advisor Cheng Yu as the "History of the Bingzhou Assassin", and the long history Guo Yi was appointed as Shuo Fang Taishou.

In this way, the Shangdang, who was hostile to Dong Zhuo, was too protective of Zhang Yang, but he had no intention of going south to join forces with Yuan Shao. And Yuan Shao must always be careful of the enemy from the north, unable to fight against Dong Zhuojun wholeheartedly. Although this has little impact on Dong Zhuo's military posture, it is a good thing after all. (To be continued......)