Chapter 122 The decision to dispatch troops...
This is a special edict.
When Liu Hong had no one else available, even though he, the governor of Bingzhou, was still too young and even though introducing a too strong foreign aid might bring other troubles, Liu Hong still made this decision before his death.
But if there is any mistake, this imperial edict ordering him to protect the emperor and eliminate the bandits may not be delivered to Qiao Yan.
So she had already prepared herself for the possibility that she didn't have this thing in her hands.
But with this edict granted by the late emperor, she now had a more legitimate reason to advance!
It was a joy that Bao Hong came with his troops to surrender, but it was another joy that he came with this imperial edict!
She reached out and took hold of the edict that was presented to her.
Of course, from what Bao Hong could feel, there was first a force of virtual grip applied to the edict, and then it was firmly grasped in the other party's hand.
She hesitated for just a moment before taking over this thing that seemed like a hot potato to Bao Hong.
"Captain Bao, please stand up. This is to announce the imperial decree, not to deliver a battle report. You are now a personal witness to the chaos in the capital. As a captain of the army directly under the late emperor, you are not just a messenger."
Bao Hong realized belatedly that his posture really looked like a soldier delivering a letter to a general.
He immediately jumped up and smiled awkwardly: "I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Lord Qiao."
Qiao Yan obviously didn't care much about this matter. He just gestured for them to take a seat and said, "Please tell me the rest of the situation in Luoyang."
"I already know that Dong Zhuo entered the capital, took advantage of the Yuan family's power and then turned against them, and used the military to help the prince ascend the throne. The emperor issued an edict to all states after ascending the throne. Although the official documents have not yet been delivered to me, Luoyang is not too far from Bingzhou. If I still don't know anything about this, I would be really sorry for the position of Bingzhou Governor, and even more sorry for the trust of the late emperor. I just want to know some news that will not appear in external intelligence, such as-"
"What instructions did His Majesty leave behind? What roles did these people play in this drama of a king who is neither a king nor a subject?"
As soon as Qiao Yanfang sat down, he slapped the table with his palm.
Perhaps it was because of the young governor's military experience, or perhaps it was because of the crimson cloak she was wearing at the moment, which made her look particularly like a ball of unruly and unruly fire, especially the resolute look between her eyebrows, which strengthened this impression.
This made her subsequent question full of questioning and condemnation, "How dare Yuan Shu set fire to the palace and disregard the dignity of the royal family!"
In this performance where one party takes the stage after the other, Dong Zhuo, who is still waving the banner of "justice", is not even the party who should be blamed the most.
Without Yuan Shao's instigation and He Jin's permission, although he had recruited many good men in Liang Province, he was still under the control of Huangfu Song and had no chance to enter the capital.
If it weren't for Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao and others burning the Nan Palace in Luoyang, why did Zhang Rang and others take Liu Xie and Liu Bian and flee to Beimang Mountain, giving Dong Zhuo the opportunity to mediate and win?
Qiao Yan was well aware of this. In this process of power transfer, it was normal for everyone to have their own little thoughts. And some of them had what perhaps should not be called little thoughts, but ambitions.
But now she had to ask this question!
Zheng Tai seemed to have found a kindred spirit. He told He Jin what happened that day in his residence in detail, and added: "The general originally thought that with the soldiers recruited in the east by Ding Yuan, the Chief of the Imperial Guards, and Bao Xin, the Prime Minister of Jibei, he could form a coordinated force with Dong Zhuo. However, before they could recruit soldiers and return, Dong Zhuo had already marched eastward. From what I saw in Hedong County before I entered Bingzhou, there was no check and balance at all."
"What Chen Kongzhang said is absolutely right. There aren't that many frauds in this world. Important national affairs cannot be established by fraud. But the bitter consequences we are experiencing now are..."
Yuan did see it.
"Mr. Gongye, please be careful with your words." Qiao Yan interrupted him.
Zheng Tai realized that Qiao Yan's words were not meant to stop him from expressing his dissatisfaction with the Yuan family. Rather, if he followed the statement that pretense was inappropriate, then Liu Hong's plan to kill Dong Chong to lure He Jin into the palace before his death would also be blamed by him.
He coughed lightly and then said, "I made a mistake. Please don't take it as an offense, Lord Qiao. It's just that the change in Luoyang happened suddenly, and I feel very upset."
Now, Yuan Wei and Yuan Ji, two of the Yuan family members who were in Luoyang, were under strict surveillance by Dong Zhuo. Dong Zhuo accused them of being traitors in order to raise his own status, so Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao fled, one to Nanyang and the other to Jizhou. This was a typical case of letting the wolf in and then being bitten by it.
But this is obviously not enough to compensate them for the guilt they should bear for starting this chaos.
Qiao Yan stroked the jade bracelet on his fingertips and listened to Bi Lan and Bao Hong talking about the arrangements made by the late emperor.
Liu Hong's legacy...
If Liu Yu and Lu Zhi could really take control of the situation, with He Jin dead and Dong Zhuo not yet entering the capital, it would be possible for Liu Xie to successfully ascend the throne.
It’s a pity that there are no ifs in this world.
If Liu Hong's plan is to succeed, it can only be done in an environment where the authority of the Han Dynasty has not yet weakened to this extent.
But under the current circumstances, it has become a situation where there are variables everywhere.
The proposer of this plan, Liu Hong himself, almost ended up with his body destroyed in the Nangong fire.
It was because Zhang Rang remembered to take his body with him that they were saved from disaster. After Dong Zhuo received them, he put Liu Hong's body in a carriage and sent it to Wenling for burial.
The two regents -
It was perfectly normal for Qiao Yan to see Lu Zhi being at a disadvantage in the military battle with Dong Zhuo in Luoyang City.
Fortunately, he is fine and has now fled to Jizhou.
As for why it is Jizhou and not Youzhou?
During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Liu Bei was appointed as the Bingcao of Qinghe County due to his military achievements. Perhaps it was because he was in harmony with the feng shui of this place. When Liu Hong gradually took back the official positions of those who had made contributions during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he did not dismiss him because of his good performance in office. Now he is the magistrate of Qinghe County, just under the prefect of this county.
Lu Zhi also intended to save the situation in Luoyang, so he naturally would not run too far, so he went to stay with Liu Bei temporarily.
Cao Cao, who assisted Lu Zhi in the battle, also returned to his hometown at this time and recruited new soldiers between Qiao and Pei.
As for Liu Yu, he did not confront Dong Zhuo and was at most intercepted halfway.
Dong Zhuo naturally did not want Liu Yu to come to the capital, but when he had just established a foothold in the capital, he also did not want to offend these royal relatives.
So he made a decision to appoint Liu Yu as the Grand Marshal, ranking above the Three Dukes, but he did not hold a position in the court. Instead, he accepted this position remotely in Youzhou while serving as the Governor of Youzhou.
Of course, Dong Zhuo was not willing to be inferior to other ministers. Liu Yu was both the Grand Marshal and the Governor of Youzhou, and it was obvious that his status was higher than his.
Therefore, the decision he made on the same day was that, while serving as the Grand Marshal and the former general, he raised his status by adding more military honors, granting him axes and tiger guards, and conferring the title of Marquis of Mei.
Compared with Liu Hong's plan that hoped that no accidents would happen, every step Dong Zhuo had taken since Luoyang was usurpatory but also had ways to stabilize the situation. Even if Qiao Yan was in his position, judging from his actions in the past ten days, he could not have done better than him.
When hearing Bao Hong asking when Marquis Qiao would raise an army to obey the late emperor's will, Qiao Yan pondered for a long time and asked, "The emperor who now sits on the throne is the successor that the late emperor wanted, and the only thing he lacks is the title of assistant. If we raise an army at this time, will it be suspected of repeating what the Yuan family did?"
This question was not only asked by Bao Hong, but also by Zheng Tai.
He can be considered a hero of Xingyang and a member of the noble family. In her opinion, his ideas on evaluating Dong Zhuo's actions are more representative than those of Qiao Yan's subordinates.
Qiao Yan raised his hand, signaling Xu Fu to hand the message received today to Zheng Tai.
Dong Zhuo could still be considered a smart man now, or rather, he had a smart man under his command who he relied on very much, and he gave him another suggestion.
Since Dong Zhuo and the Yuan family had completely broken off relations, it was almost impossible for him to get much help from the Yuan family, so it was natural for him to turn to other aristocratic families.
In terms of winning over scholars, the previous action of rehabilitating Chen Fan and Dou Wu was one of them, and what is being done now is to go a step further on this basis.
He employed Zhou Shen's son Zhou Bi, Wu Qiong, a scholar from Runan and the then Shizhong, and He Yong, the former Chief Clerk of the Three Dukes' Palace. He then recruited Xun Shuang, Han Rong, Chen Ji and others to serve as officials in the court. If Cai Yong had not been in Leping at the moment, he would have become one of his followers at this time.
This is internal.
As for external affairs, he appointed Liu Dai as the governor of Yanzhou, Kong Rong as the governor of Yuzhou, Zhang Zi as the prefect of Nanyang, Ying Shao as the prefect of Taishan, and Zhang Miao as the prefect of Chenliu.
This move was enough for him to win the hearts of the scholars to his side at this moment!
Qiao Yan looked at Zheng Tai and asked, "If Gongye were in Luoyang at this time, would he have the intention to punish Dong Zhuo because he obtained the position of Grand Commandant illegitimately?"
This is a somewhat difficult question to answer.
Since Zheng Tai was still a guest, he was not suitable to answer this question.
But what is strange is that, perhaps because the scenes he saw on the way to Bingzhou provincial capital, from agriculture to people's livelihood, seemed to form a particularly sharp contrast with the other side south of Taihang Mountain, when he heard this question, he did not feel offended, but instead began to think about this issue seriously.
There was absolutely no question of Dong Zhuo's rise to power being due to enduring humiliation, as anyone with a bit of common sense would be able to see.
But if it was true as the news Qiao Yan showed him, that General Dong was targeting only the Yuan family, the culprit of the chaos in Luoyang, then this reckless man also respected the scholar group, especially Xun Shuang, one of the Eight Dragons of the Xun family, who was summoned by Dong Zhuo. Then, if he did not come here out of curiosity about the situation in Bingzhou, and simply left the General's Mansion after resigning, he would probably be summoned by Dong Zhuo as well.
Will he accept this invitation then?
Maybe.
"The people Dong Zhongying has driven out are all military opponents, but he values scholars. If Marquis Qiao raises an army at this time, even if he has the late emperor's will in hand, he intends to send Lu Gong, the minister entrusted by the late emperor, back to the position of regent, which is also unreasonable." Zheng Tai thought for a while and replied, "So Marquis Qiao cannot send troops at this time. In the end, that General Dong should be very worried about how to arrange you."
Dong Zhuo was indeed particularly troubled about how to arrange for Qiao Yan.
When Zhang Rang handed the decree to purge the imperial court to Bao Hong, he was only addressing Bao Hong and Cao Cao. When Bao Hong led his troops away, the eunuchs who were unaware of the inside story only thought that he was going to ask for help like Cao Cao, so Dong Zhuo did not know that Qiao Yan had such a killing weapon in his hand.
But after he appointed Liu Dai, Kong Jun, Zhang Zi, Ying Shao and Zhang Miao, and even Kong Rong, whom he sent to Beihai on the grounds that out of sight, out of mind, as prefects and governors, it was difficult for him not to focus on Bingzhou, which was closely connected with Sili.
Bingzhou Mu Qiao Yan...
If the enemy had not previously crossed the border and swept across the Xianbei, his garrison in Hedong County would never have been so relaxed.
And now she is back!
Should she be dismissed? No, at a time when Dong Zhuo is still facing many internal and external troubles, he has to be courteous even to scholars. How could he possibly do such a thing to Qiao Yan?
If she could be promoted, she had already reached the position of county marquis by her own ability, and in terms of official position, she was already a governor of a province, and even the title of general was bestowed by Liu Hong. She truly had no more to offer.
Unless Dong Zhuo is willing to give her the position of General Zheng Bei.
But the situation of these enemies and scholars is different, and it is even more different from the situation of Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou, who took a year and a half to quell the Yuyang Rebellion.
If she is allowed to hold greater power, she will only aid the enemy!
Li Ru's advice to Dong Zhuo was to leave the other party out for the time being. As long as the Grand Marshal could hold on to all the power that should be in his hands in the central government, especially by using the shield of the scholars' hearts, he would not have to worry about Qiao Bingzhou.
This seems to be an extremely reasonable suggestion, but almost at the same time, after settling Zheng Tai, Bi Lan, Bao Hong and others, Qiao Yan, Xi Zhicai, Cheng Yu and others gathered together, and the strategy they decided on was also a word.
wait.
Qiao Yan was not so loyal to Liu Hong that he was willing to die for him. After receiving the news of Liu Hong's death and the news of his uprising to protect the emperor, he would not be inspired to fight with Dong Zhuo and replace him immediately.
April is the busy farming season in Bingzhou. Qiao Yan has been away from the border for nearly a month. Although she is sure that her subordinates will take care of the situation, there are still some things that she needs to take care of personally.
Her mentality is surprisingly stable.
But what about Dong Zhuo?
He jumped from being the second-in-command general of Xiliang to the most powerful person under the emperor. The violent and murderous side of his temperament was exposed in the following twenty days.
When Liu Xie came to power, although Liu Bian returned to her side, for Empress Dowager He, the deaths of He Jin and He Miao and Liu Bian's loss of the opportunity to inherit the throne were all heavy blows. For this reason, she repeatedly tried to use her power as the empress dowager to denounce Dong Zhuo's actions.
This kind of unwarranted behavior will do nothing but anger Dong Zhuo, who is now in power.
Dong Zhuo ordered that Empress Dowager He be moved to Yong'an Palace and then executed on the grounds that she had been disrespectful to Empress Dowager Yongle, Liu Hong's biological mother, in her early years.
According to etiquette, Empress Dowager He should be buried with Liu Hong. However, on the day when Wenling was reopened, Dong Zhuo had already coveted many of the burial objects there. Now, it has been nearly a month since he entered Luoyang, and he openly plundered all the treasures there without even giving Liu Hong any face.
The nobles in Luoyang had wealthy properties, so Dong Zhuo allowed his soldiers to break into their homes, plunder their wealth, and do whatever they wanted.
At this time, these wealthy people in Luoyang had become the back garden of the Xiliang soldiers, so how could Dong Zhuo not regard the imperial palace as his own property?
If Fu Shou had not suggested to Princess Yang'an to quietly take out the underage princesses from the palace on the day Liu Hong died, they would have become victims of Dong Zhuo's brutality. 2
With the military power in Luoyang completely in his own hands, Dong Zhuo's inflated ambition made him make a decision that no one could dissuade him from.
The emperor was young, and he had the same surname as the emperor's "in-law", so he should take the position of prime minister. He did not bow when entering the court, and went into the palace with a sword and shoes!
Just when this news reached Bingzhou, Zheng Taigang and Bao Hong were about to come together to persuade Qiao Yan to send troops, but they saw that Lord Qiao had already drawn his sword with a murderous look on his face.
"You two don't need to say more. Dong Zhuo's true colors were exposed in Luoyang after just one month. The greedy and cunning nature of this Xiliang villain is obvious. He is truly unworthy of being a minister to the country!"
"I have decided to march out of Hedong and take Luoyang directly to clear the emperor's side!"
The three words "clear the court" sounded powerful when she said them, and were really inspiring to hear.
She immediately appointed Zhang Yang and Guo Xun to guard the Yanmen line, Linghu Shao to guard Liangzhou, Xu Huang and Chu Yan to stay in Bingzhou, and Cheng Yu and Xi Zhicai to preside over the affairs of the state.
The rest of you, gather your troops and follow her into battle!
Qiao Yan stood in front of the hall with his hands behind his back. Behind him was the map of Bingzhou and Sili. All the things that had been filled in on this map over the past few years had made it many times more detailed than an ordinary map.
In front of her, there are Jia Xu, Guo Jia, Lu Yuan and others in terms of civil affairs, and Zhang Liao, Lu Bu, Zhao Yun, Dian Wei and other powerful generals in terms of military affairs. They are both civil and military, and their morale is overwhelming.
But if we want to send troops out from Hedong, we have to use some methods.
She opened her mouth slowly and asked, "Who is willing to go to the Wei family in Hedong for me? When we march out of Hedong, we will let that Xiliang man see the scene of the nobles welcoming us with open arms, to shock him!"
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