After Dong Zhuo was dismissed from his post after the failure of the "Battle of Guangzong" that year, he made a lot of achievements through years of fighting with the Qiang rebel army, and once again got a higher military position than the original. With the rise of the official position and the expansion of the scale of his subordinates, as a human being, Dong Zhuo's ambition has also expanded.

Originally, Dong Zhuo had always been loyal to the Han court. As a veteran who has been in office for nearly 30 years, Dong Zhuo has always been obedient to the orders of the imperial court.

However, after an incident that was not well known to the world, Dong Zhuo's attitude towards the imperial court suddenly changed dramatically.

In the fourth year of Zhongping, there was a huge change in the power struggle within the Liangzhou rebels.

In this fierce and short-lived mutiny, Han Sui, a well-known scholar in Liangzhou, successfully killed Bian Zhang, who was also a famous man, and Beigong Boyu, Li Wenhou and others, the leaders of the Qiang people. Subsequently, Han Sui used superb military management methods to successfully integrate the more than 100,000 Qiang and Han coalition troops that originally belonged to different leaders into a whole.

For the first time, the Liangzhou rebel army with unified command increased its strength greatly, and easily forced down Li Xiangru, the Taishou of Longxi, and the soldiers directly threatened the three auxiliary counties in the west of Sili. In the face of the Liangzhou rebels who had risen in power, Cui Lie, a famous man who served as Situ at that time, actually wrote to the imperial court, asking to give up Liangzhou in order to save the military expenses of the imperial court!

This incident gave Dong Zhuo, who was fighting on the front line, a great stimulus.

- Lao Tzu fought for life and death on the front line, defending the frontier for the Han Dynasty. But in the court, as soon as someone opened his mouth, he wanted to discard the entire Liangzhou!?

- Without Liangzhou, Lao Tzu, a native of Liangzhou, still has a home?

- Without Liangzhou, Lao Tzu, a native of Liangzhou, is still a Han person?

- Without Liangzhou, Lao Tzu, a native of Liangzhou. Can you still get fame?

Although, Situ Cuilie's opinion was soon said by Fu Xie, a famous man in Liangzhou, who served as the arranger: "Kill Situ, the world is safe!" "I pushed it back. But in Dong Zhuo's heart, the imperial court, which could actually make people make such brainless suggestions, suddenly became no longer reliable.

- How can the imperial court no longer have the idea of giving up Liangzhou?

Dong Zhuo, who is full of fire. Take this question and ask Li Ru, a cronie and son-in-law's think tank. Li Ru listened to his question, first retreated the attendants on the left and right, and then carefully checked the surroundings, and after making sure that there was no problem, he quietly said in Dong Zhuo's ear:

"If the Adult (1) controls the Imperial Court, won't it be ......?"

Li Ru's words made Dong Zhuo suddenly realize, and he almost got up from the case.

But. Dong Zhuo then immediately sat down dejectedly. He was just a warrior in the borderlands. In today's era when background is more important than talent, and scholars are more noble than martial artists, it is really difficult for Dong Zhuo, a martial artist, to enter the ranks of important ministers of the imperial court.

Moreover, even if Dong Zhuo can successfully enter the ranks of important ministers of the court, he is not confident that he can control the group of treacherous eunuchs and families in the court. These are not unfounded. Before Dong Zhuo, there was already a lesson from the past. That's it:

——One of the "Liangzhou Sanming". Former Tai Lieutenant Duan Cheng.

Dong Zhuo thinks that he can't compare to the exploits of the former lieutenant Duan Cheng, and he doesn't think that his political ability can surpass this old-timer. Thinking of an outstanding martial artist like Duan Cheng. In the struggle for power in the imperial court, they all ended up in "death in prison". Dong Zhuo really didn't think that he was really going to enter the court, and the end would be better than Duan Cheng.

However, the subsequent explanation of his son-in-law Li Ru helped Dong Zhuo determine the goal of his future struggle.

Li Ru's character is excellent. He was also one of the victims of the "disaster of the party" that year. Because he married Dong Zhuo's daughter as his wife when he took refuge in Liangzhou, his household registration was counted in Liangzhou, and he could not be recommended elsewhere, let alone be a scholar. So. Li Ru had no choice but to follow his father-in-law with all his heart.

Faced with the concerns of his father-in-law, Li Ru analyzed for Dong Zhuo:

"The border areas of Liangzhou, as well as the Kansai prefectures, are not prosperous in culture and education, so there are few scholars who have learned the scriptures, which is not enough to compete with the Kanto. However, the world is saying that 'Kanto is out of the prime minister, and Kansai is out of the general'. It can be seen that the strength of Kansai lies in the martial arts. ”

"Now the Han court, although controlled by the eunuchs of the family, but due to years of war, the treasury is empty, and it is unable to effectively rule the world. Since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the authority of the court has been slowly delegated to local states and counties. At present, the power of local states and counties already has the ability to resist the central court. The officials of Weizhou County followed the old customs and did not dare to take a step beyond the Lei Chi, so they did not take this as their intention above the court. ”

"However, once the local state and county break out, the weakness of the court will be exposed. At that time, it would be common for states and counties to go their own way. ”

"The lord holds the power of the army, and the tiger power under his command is enough to deter the state and county. If you can take advantage of the fact that the forces of the court are crushing each other, command the army into Beijing, and deter the court with soldiers, you may not be able to control the court. When the time comes, the adults will order the princes to serve the Son of Heaven, and the matter of Wei Qing and Huo Guang will also be done! ”

Dong Zhuo is rough on the surface, which is a problem of the habit of bringing old soldiers. If you want to say that his writing level is not bad. After all, when Dong Zhuo was young, he also served as a Peng official under Yuan Kui, who was Situ at the time. He naturally understood his son-in-law's words. Moreover, after careful consideration, Dong Zhuo found that the idea proposed by Li Ru was really likely to work.

Although, in this idea, there is some disrespect for the Han family. However, thinking that Li Ru was also one of the deposed party members, Dong Zhuo did not feel strange because of this.

Since then, Dong Zhuo's mind has changed greatly, and he began to cautiously try to work in that direction.

As a general with ten thousand armies in his hands, once Dong Zhuo begins to try to support the army and respect himself, all kinds of signs naturally cannot be completely covered. The first person to discover Dong Zhuo's approach was his old colleague and old comrade-in-arms, General Zuo Huangfu Song.

Huangfu Song is a pure minister who has read poetry and books since he was a child and is determined to leave a reputation of "loyalty" in the green history. Regarding Dong Zhuo's behavior, Huangfu Song privately advised on the one hand, and on the other hand, he also wrote to the imperial court, asking the imperial court to deal with Dong Zhuo to show vigilance.

Huangfu Song's behavior naturally did not make Dong Zhuo happy. As a result, the two famous Han generals who had worked together for many years and fought side by side on the battlefield against the rebels in Liangzhou gradually drifted apart, parted ways, and finally became hostile to each other.

The Han court wanted to support the self-respecting behavior of its subordinate officials. In fact, it is quite vigilant. For example, in the army of the imperial court, the highest level of permanent military attaché is only up to the rank of captain. General-level military attachés who rank above the rank of lieutenant are basically temporarily established and removed afterwards.

The reason for such a prescribation. It is to avoid generals holding heavy troops at the level of generals, and after a long time, the control in the army is too strong, which may lead to the possibility of confrontation against the imperial court.

Therefore, soon after Huangfu Song wrote the book, the imperial court issued an order to recruit Dong Zhuo as the "Shaofu" who managed the finances. If Dong Zhuo accepts this appointment, he will be promoted and demoted secretly, and the real power in the army will be removed.

For this appointment. Dong Zhuo decided to take a gamble after discussing with his son-in-law Niu Fu, Li Ru, and brother Dong Min. After the arrival of the imperial envoy, he deliberately pretended to be ill, politely refused, and refused to take office. At that time, Dong Zhuo's palms were pinching a handful of boss sweat. For fear that the court would severely reprimand him and ask him to hand over his military power.

If the imperial court did so. Dong Zhuo's ambition ended here. At that time, Dong Zhuo was really not sure that he would be able to resist the orders of the imperial court under the prestige of the imperial court and the prying eyes of Huangfu Song.

However, Dong Zhuo's gamble this time was successful in the end!

According to the information obtained after the fact. At that time, in view of the lessons of Sima Mateng, who was contemptuous and forced to rebel by Shi Geng, the assassin of Liangzhou, the imperial court was afraid that Dong Zhuo would also turn around and launch a rebellion like Sima Mateng of the Liangzhou Prefecture Division, and unite with the Han Sui rebels. This did not continue to forcibly remove Dong Zhuo.

From this news, Li Ru deduced that as long as the Liangzhou rebels were not defeated, the imperial court would not dare to take Dong Zhuo under the knife. Since then, Dong Zhuo no longer takes the orders of the imperial court too seriously. If the orders of the imperial court did not benefit Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhuo would do it his own.

Of course, Dong Zhuo did not dare to ignore the orders of the imperial court. After all, Dong Zhuo's army, which numbered as much as 30,000, needed the imperial court to provide enough supplies and food to sustain it. In case the imperial court really turned against Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhuo didn't dare to guarantee that a few soldiers would be willing to continue to follow him hungry.

In view of this uncomfortable situation where money and food are under control, his son-in-law Niu Fu gave Dong Zhuo an idea. That is, with the military forces in hand, in fact, secretly controlling the finances of the state and county.

In other places, Dong Zhuo's military strength can be said to be beyond the reach of the whip. However, in Hedong County, where Dong Zhuo served as the Taishou, it was Dong Zhuo's right to collect money and grain. In order to effectively ensure the supply of his 30,000 men, Dong Zhuo adopted Niu Fu's advice and directly asked Niu Fu to take on the task of collecting taxes in Hedong County.

Hedong County is a big county in the world, rich in wealth, not only iron ore smelting, but also the benefits of salt ponds. Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor of that year, relied on the resources of the treasure land of Hedong to support his great cause of the Zhongxing Han dynasty and finally dominated the world.

The county has 20 counties, counted: Anyi, Wenxi, Yishi, Dayang, Hebei, Puban, Fenyin, Pishi, Jiangyi, Linfen, Xiangling, Yangxian, Pingyang, Yongan, Beiqu, Puzi, Duanshi, Huize, Dongyuan, and Xie County. However, not all counties can collect taxes on cattle and auxiliaries. For example, in Xiangling, Yangxian, and Yong'an counties, taxes have not been paid for many years.

Why can't the taxes in these counties be paid? It's not that they can't afford to pay, but that a large part of the taxes in these counties have been intercepted by the Taiping Dao forces in Baibo Valley.

The terrain of Baibo Valley is dangerous, and the dock forts established by Taiping Road in it are all extremely strong, which can be said to be easy to defend and difficult to attack. The local county officials, as long as these half-revellent "remnants of moth thieves" do not really rise up to rebel, it can be regarded as thankful. Where do they dare to come to collect taxes from the Baibo Valley?

Of course, the local forces in Baibo Valley can suppress the officials in the county, but they will not be looked at by Niu Fu, the captain of the Liangzhou Counterinsurgency Army. For Niu Fu, if the thieves in Baibo Valley dare to rebel, he will dare to lead his troops to kill all these thieves!

Therefore, in order to collect the tax money, Niu Fu personally led hundreds of his subordinates to Baibo Valley in March of the sixth year of Zhongping, and asked to meet with Guo Tai, the leader of the Baibo Valley forces. Next, as expected, there was a fierce conflict between Niu Fu and the "rebel army" in the White Wave Valley.

This modest conflict ended up with two extremely serious consequences:

First, Guo Tai, the leader of Taiping Province in Bingzhou, was seriously injured in the conflict.

Second, Dong Zhuojun had a fierce confrontation with the "righteous army" in Baibo Valley, and the forces in Baibo Valley had a great possibility of raising the flag of rebellion.

No matter which of the above factors, it is necessary for Zhang Qiang to go to Baibo Valley to clarify the next direction of Baibo Valley's forces.

After all, today's Taixing Army, the only decent ally in the world is Baibo Valley. (To be continued......)

PS: PS: The image of Li Ru in this section takes the statement of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and interprets it on its own.

(1) In the Han Dynasty, "adult" specifically referred to parents or parents-in-law.