When he entered the General's Mansion with his head in his hand, Dong Zhuo still secretly sighed that his pursuit of Jiuqing's position was too strong, so strong that he even lost his mind a little.

If you can think about the gains and losses a little rationally, you will not realize that you have lost all your freedom and choice when things are irretrievable.

Right now, he has no way out but to apologize.

So he gave up his dignity in front of Liu Bei, bowed to Liu Bei in a rather humble manner, and presented Li Dao's head as a sign of submission.

"Li Dao is the culprit of everything, the lower official has already executed him, and I ask the general to forgive the lower official for his previous mistakes and give the lower official a chance to mend his ways."

Liu Bei looked at Dong Zhuo's low posture, and the corners of his mouth slowly hooked.

After a moment of silence, he stood up, walked in front of Dong Zhuo, leaned over and helped him up.

"Why does Zhong Ying have to do this? This matter is a disaster for you and me, it is a flying disaster, everyone doesn't want to come to this point, but for the sake of the long run, for your position as Jiuqing, this is a necessary sacrifice, and there is no need to blame yourself.

But Zhong Ying, you have to learn a lesson from this matter, this is not Bingzhou, not Liangzhou, not Xuzhou, but Luoyang, the world's magnates are all in Luoyang, and the power of each of them cannot be underestimated, and they are far above you.

You can be powerful in other places, but in Luoyang, even I don't dare to be powerful, let alone you? This time, you dismissed the army and got their understanding, and the position of the Great Honglu was retained, but if you do it again later, things may not be the same.

So, the further back. The more you have to be cautious in your words and deeds, and be cautious, I was also ambitious when I first came to Luoyang, but these years of polishing have also made me lose my sharpness, and now it is just a corpse vegetarian meal, barely maintaining this court. ”

Dong Zhuo nodded with a sad face, and secretly said in his heart I believe you are a ghost, bastard boy, what you say is better than what you sing, if I believe you, I will be your grandson!

Are you still cautious?

Are you still out of energy?

Do you still have a vegetarian meal?

How many local tyrants and rich families have been killed by a mother's slave restriction order?

It's a national policy!

With this national policy in place, how many people have died and how many have been scared to death?

I don't think I know anything?!

Dong Zhuo really wanted to slap Liu Bei hard - he used to treat me as an envoy and a general, but now it's good, one Zhong Ying at a time.

I'm over 20 years older than you! I can be your father!

Of course, Dong Zhuo only dared to think about this kind of thing in his heart, and he would never dare to really say it, unless he wanted to die.

In the face of Liu Bei's appeasement, Dong Zhuo showed the appearance of a good student who knew his mistakes and corrected his mistakes, and sincerely admitted his mistakes to Liu Bei, saying that he would be absolutely cautious in his words and deeds in the future, and he would never violate any laws and regulations.

As long as he can continue to be this great Honglu.

Of course, Dong Zhuo has now lost the army and lost his biggest reliance, so he more or less feels that he should be able to get some compensation.

He is somewhat in the embarrassing situation of the position of Da Honglu until now, and he is still more concerned about the situation without diplomacy, and he doesn't want to be a middle 2,000 stone who only takes money and does not work.

Of course, this is very cool for people who lie flat, but Dong Zhuo doesn't want to lie flat now, even if he wants to lie flat, it will be after doing the third public, isn't it?

"General, about the affairs of Da Honglu, Zhuo is still the first time to take office, I don't know much about it, and I ask the general to solve Zhuo's doubts, what should I do about the position of Da Honglu?"

Of course, Liu Bei could hear the subtext in these words.

So he smiled.

"Da Honglu is one of the nine kings, the position is very important, the power is also very important, the world was chaotic before, and the exchanges between the Han and foreign countries were gradually interrupted, and there was no news, but sooner or later the Han will recover, and the exchanges that were interrupted before must continue.

I thought, just from the beginning of Zhong Ying's performance of the Great Honglu, the Han will start to run the Western Regions again, the exchanges between the countries of the Western Regions and the Great Han have been broken for many years, after Zhong Ying serves as the Great Honglu, he should focus on dealing with these things, so that the countries of the Western Regions can resume their tribute to the Great Han. ”

"...... of the Western Regions"

Dong Zhuo pondered for a moment, feeling that this was really a problem.

Because when he was young, he served as a military captain in the Western Regions, participated in the operation and rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the Western Regions, and had some understanding of the Western Regions.

However, with the gradual decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the Yellow Turban Army Rebellion as the starting point, the Eastern Han Dynasty gradually lost its management of the Western Regions, and Dong Zhuo never returned to the Western Regions.

Especially during the Liangzhou Rebellion, the communication channels between the Luoyang court and the Western Regions were cut off, thus ending the rule and influence on the Western Regions, although Liu Bei later stabilized Liangzhou, revived Liangzhou, and subdued the Qiang, but did not restore his rule over the Western Regions.

His energy and all his resources were devoted to rebuilding the mountains and rivers.

The Western Regions is a good place, but the operation of the Western Regions needs to be based on the premise of internal stability, and when the internal stability is achieved, the Han Empire can resume its rule over the Western Regions.

The conquest, development, and domination of new territories are essentially manifestations of the overflow of a strong country's national strength, and if the national strength is insufficient, it cannot overflow, and there is no point in slapping a swollen face and becoming fat.

From the beginning of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the sixth year of Guanghe to the present day, for a full decade, the Han Empire essentially did not have the ability to resume its management of the Western Regions.

But at this moment, in July of the fourth year of Jian'an, the Han Empire has gradually recovered under Liu Bei's control, and there are signs of recovering its national strength, so the early management of the Western Regions can actually be restarted.

Not just to make Dong Zhuo feel a little more at ease, in fact, Liu Bei really wanted to restore his rule over the Western Regions.

Not only can he expand foreign markets, earn more profits, and restore his rule over the Western Regions, but it will indeed facilitate him to launch a final extermination blow against the remnants of the Central Xianbei and the Western Xianbei in the future.

He will never let go of this group of Xianbei people, no matter what, he will wipe them out, sweep the entire grassland clean, and lay the foundation for the stability of the northern border for the next few hundred years.

At the same time, if they were able to continue to extend their territory westward to Central Asia, they would be able to reach the Sabbatical and Kushan empires, and even further west to Rome.

That's a lot of fun.

It is precisely because of such expectations that Liu Bei maintained a trade situation with the Western Regions during his reign in Liangzhou.

(End of chapter)