Chapter 123: Proclamation against the Bandits
The Hedong Wei family has maintained contact with Leping ever since Wei Ji asked Qiao Yan for reinforcements. Wei Ji also promised to send two members of the Wei family to teach in Leping.
If the future head of the Wei family has nothing to do, he will occasionally stay in Leping for a few days.
After Qiao Yan became the governor of Bingzhou, his relationship with the Bingzhou aristocratic families became closer, which seemed to have aroused a sense of crisis on the other side, so he simply sent his younger brother Wei Zhongdao to study here.
However, in Qiao Yan's view, the connection formed around the teaching business of Leping Academy is just a matter of coming today and ending tomorrow.
In today's situation where Dong Zhuo's rule is chaotic and the dignity of the Han Dynasty has been completely destroyed, the scene of warlords dividing the country is not far away. Therefore, verbal support and oaths are far from meeting Qiao Yan's needs.
It’s okay to say that this is a cold-blooded weighing of political creatures. The Hedong Wei family must take an either-or position!
It also serves as a bargaining chip for our side to show to Dong Zhuo.
Lu Yuan stood up and said to Qiao Yan, "Mr. Wenhe's role this time is to analyze the scholars and generals of Liangzhou, and Fengxiaoyi is in charge of the battle strategy. Let me handle the contact with the Hedong clans."
During the years in Bingzhou, Lu Yuan had always been with Qiao Yan, and naturally he was infected with her shrewd and capable aura.
Even if she didn't make any promises at this moment, Qiao Yan believed what she had said in the past - the audience stood straight because of the confidence given by the Lord, and it would never change today.
Her goal was to make the Hedong Wei clan show goodwill towards the Bingzhou governor by sending troops, rather than for both sides to play the emotional card and establish some friendly exchanges.
Qiao Yan's slightly cold brows softened a little because of the order to send troops. "Go ahead. Bingzhou will be your backup."
She looked at the people sitting there again. Except for Jia Xu, who was prudent and measured, everyone else seemed to be excited about the upcoming battle of Luoyang.
There is no need to talk about Lu Bu. Previously, Qiao Yan asked him to guard Suiyuan City and manage the military settlements. It was probably because of the sense of honor of being famous among the Xianbei and the fruitful harvests from the military settlements. With the assistance of Jia Xu, Lu Bu did a pretty good job.
But such things as farming and guarding the border are not as exciting as going to war with the rebellious bandits in Luoyang.
Even though Guo Jia is a man of strategy, he is still young after all, and there is a hint of eagerness to try in his eyes.
After all, it is the capital city of Luoyang...
In order to show his importance to this expedition and to demonstrate the justice of denouncing Dong Zhuo, Qiao Yan sent another manifesto to Luoyang before leaving Bingzhou.
This manifesto was written by Cai Yong at the request of Qiao Yan, and is also known as the "Manifesto on behalf of Qiao Bingzhou to Punish the Traitor Dong".
Qiao Yan knew Dong Zhuo's character very well, so he did not choose anyone to pass the message through so as to avoid him having someone to vent his anger on. Instead, he gave Lu Bu a task.
"With your arm strength that can shoot a three-stone bow, it should be no problem for you to shoot the arrow with the manifesto on it and hit the city wall outside the range of the Luoyang guards."
Qiao Yan handed the white feather arrow, which had almost become her trademark, and the silk with the inscription to Lu Bu, "You are riding my red sandalwood horse this time. Make sure to let people know that we are justified in denouncing the traitor Dong, and that our Bingzhou soldiers are not afraid of his Xiliang tiger soldiers. Can you do it?"
When Qiao Yan handed him such a ostentatious move, Lu Bu's eyes lit up.
"Don't worry, my lord. I will do it for you!"
Lu Bu set off immediately with dozens of cavalrymen, and naturally left the responsibility of reorganizing the army entirely to Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun.
But he obviously didn't realize Qiao Yan's intention in this action. To him, the attitude shown by Qiao Hou was that no one could accomplish the task except him, and that was enough!
Qiao Yan watched Lu Bu go away and asked Guo Jia another question: "Is General Du Liao still sick?"
When Qiao Yan announced the decision to fight the bandits in all the counties of Bingzhou and began to adjust the border defense deployment, the county governors had no objection to her decision except Han Fu, who suddenly said he was sick, as if he was afraid that Qiao Yan would arrest him and take him to Luoyang to fight the bandits because he was a military officer.
Guo Jia replied, "Your Highness's control over Bingzhou is obviously beyond his imagination. He really thought that his correspondence with Yuan Shao had not been discovered by you. The two Yuan brothers escaped from Luoyang and seemed to have the intention of recruiting soldiers to form an alliance to attack Dong Zhuo. Han Fu naturally could not respond to the rebellion of the Marquis Qiao."
"But you have an unexpected surprise. The edict to punish Dong Zhuo was sent to all the counties in Bingzhou. Not to mention those who are interested in enlisting, Qu Yi, who is under Han Fu's command, has some complaints about his feigning illness."
The base of the wall is loose, so it will be easier to dig later.
Like Lu Bu, Qu Yi is a rebellious and unrestrained person who can be a strong ally at a critical moment, but before that, he must be given a place to perform.
In this regard, Han Fu did very poorly compared to Qiao Yan.
Guo Jia turned to Qiao Yan and said, "If you can recruit Qu Yi, you can let the two horses fight each other to see who is better. It would be a waste to give them to Han Du Liao."
"You can just say this here," Qiao Yan shook his head, "Let's wait and see how Lu Bu performs."
In fact, what Lu Bu did was much more exciting than Qiao Yan expected.
This man grew up in Bingzhou until he was thirty years old. He developed unparalleled martial arts skills, but also a professional and provocative temper.
Since Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang, although he has become increasingly arrogant, relying on his power to impose heavy taxes and plunder, he has never slackened in the defense of Luoyang.
Especially those Xiliang soldiers who were roaming outside "searching prisons" also played the role of patrolling invisibly.
But today, the team that was heading towards Hanoi to plunder was attacked halfway.
These Xiliang soldiers were already accustomed to turning their butcher knives on the weak, so the formation of the team this time was somewhat chaotic.
If this happened on an ordinary day, it would be fine, but what attacked them were the real Bingzhou Wolf Riders.
Although Lu Bu didn't know any battle formation theory, he knew one thing, and that was to make sure that none of these people would survive his hands!
This is an almost intuitive way of fighting.
The horses they rode were the fine horses from outside the Great Wall that were provided to them by Marquis Qiao, and the weapons they used were the sharp weapons made from the iron ore in Bingzhou. They had only targeted this group of Xiliang bandits after a night's rest. If they could let them escape even after this, what would happen!
So the defenders who were originally still on the northern city of Luoyang were not waiting for their colleagues who had returned from looting in the north, but a group of dozens of riders galloping towards them.
Judging from the situation from a distance, it was clear that those were not their men.
What made them judge more clearly that the approaching people were enemies rather than friends was that this line of cavalry stopped outside the range of their shots. Each cavalryman quickly threw the three or two human heads he was carrying in front of him, forming an extremely shocking display in front of them.
Before the people on the city wall could react to the identity of the people below, a white feather arrow came through the air, broke the big flag with the word "Dong" on the city wall, and then nailed it to the watchtower.
The second feather arrow came at him without stopping, and pierced the place less than three inches from the previous arrow. The only difference was that this arrow was tied with a piece of silk.
The Xiliang soldiers on the city wall couldn't help but gasp.
The leader of this city has superb archery skills and an amazing range!
Seeing that man drawing his bow and drawing his arrow, as if he was looking for a target while wandering on the top of the city wall, they couldn't help but pause when they saw him rushing down from the city wall to chase him.
This reaction obviously did not escape the other party's eyes, and also made the young general on the red horse laugh out loud.
Amid the other party's laughter, the fifty cavalrymen behind him shouted in unison: "Marquis Qiao, the governor of Bingzhou, ordered us to present gifts to the thief Dong and sent him a letter to punish him. We are going!"
Lu Bu led his men to kill the bandits like the wind, and the two arrows he shot were also incredibly fast. He and his men retreated at an astonishing speed, with no intention of staying with this place at all.
When the Xiliang army took the city and discovered that the heads really belonged to their comrades who were heading north today, it was already too late to chase after the Bingzhou cavalry who had left without saying goodbye.
They could only report what happened here and the letter that came with the feather arrow to Dong Zhuo.
When Li Ru stepped into the study of the Taiwei Mansion, he saw the mess left by the storm and Dong Zhuo sitting behind the desk with a rage on his face.
This is completely different from the high-spirited look he showed when he carried a sword to the classroom a few days ago.
"General, why are you so angry?" Li Ru walked up to Dong Zhuo and asked, "I have heard about the situation in Luoyang Beiguo today. The Bingzhou army defeated our 100 cavalry with only 50 cavalry. It is not difficult to win if they are careful and unintentional. If the two armies are really fighting, how can they let the other side enter and exit so easily?"
"What do you think I'm angry about?" Dong Zhuo replied coldly.
He had experienced many small-scale cavalry confrontations when he was in Liang Province.
Even though there was a provocation from Lu Bu, he had already sent people to check the location of his own corpses and remains, so he could roughly know how the other side succeeded.
This victory is even more understandable when there is a sharpshooter among the opposing team.
He pointed at the silk spread out on the table in front of him, "I'm angry about this! Look at what she had someone write on it!"
What a great guy Qiao Yeshu!
What a good anti-enemy manifesto!
He originally thought that the other party had not made any moves in the twenty days after returning to Bingzhou because she had already accepted the various changes in the situation in Luoyang during her absence. He never expected that she was holding back a big move at this time!
Seeing that Dong Zhuo was furious at the manifesto, Li Ru took the manifesto from the table and saw at a glance that there was beautiful handwriting on the silk.
Thinking about it, he should take Dong Zhuo's thoughts into consideration, so Li Ru did not say the compliment out loud.
He thought about it and determined that this was probably the work of the great scholar Cai Yong.
This person was on the list he had drawn up for Dong Zhuo at first, but he gave up the idea of recruiting him because he was the academician of Bingzhou. However, he did not expect that Qiao Yan would not hesitate to use him in this way.
Cai Yong's Feibai style is indeed easy to recognize.
However, after Li Ru carefully examined the writing style of this anti-enemy manifesto, he felt that its style was different from that of several inscriptions written by Cai Yong and the travelogue, but it was very similar to the practical style of Qiao Yeshu of Bingzhou.
This is the opening -
[In the early years of the Han Dynasty, Chanlu was monopolizing power and making arbitrary decisions. The lower class bullied the upper class. Then Ping Bo rose up, punished the rebellious barbarians and restored the kingly way. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang usurped the throne, insulted heaven and earth, poisoned Emperor Xiaoping, and rebelled against Emperor Wen. His crimes are too numerous to list. Then Emperor Guangwu raised his army, and the country was prosperous and at peace. 】
[Looking through historical records, those who are tyrannical, rebellious, greedy, cruel and brutal usually cannot last long. Taiwei Dong Zhuo claimed to be loyal and good, but a closer look shows that he is not so. This is the reason. 】1
Seeing this, Li Ru glanced at Dong Zhuo's face.
This Marquis Qiao started by comparing Dong Zhuo with Lü Chan, Lü Lu and Wang Mang, really not leaving him any face at all.
He said that Qiao Yan's article was a pragmatic manifesto precisely because of these two sentences.
The disaster caused by Lü Chan and Lü Lu was quelled by Grand Marshal Zhou Bo and Prime Minister Chen Ping. Wang Mang's usurpation of power was restored by Emperor Guangwu. In the end, these treacherous ministers and villains did not have a good end. Dong Zhuo, who claimed to be loyal but was actually a traitor to the Han Dynasty, also obviously followed this rule.
This is the tone of morale!
Looking further ahead, he understood why Dong Zhuo was so angry.
Because Qiao Yan used the reason that he claimed to be loyal but was actually treacherous, along with a series of personal attacks on Dong Zhuo, and then launched a firepower attack.
Compared with the "On the Feudalism of Provincial Governors" she wrote back then, her level of insults has improved greatly.
Li Ru's recent advice to Dong Zhuo to be more restrained was often ignored by Dong Zhuo, so much so that he diverted his thoughts and thought that as the first person to be scolded by Qiao Yan in this way, his general was treated quite uniquely.
However, as the one being scolded, you probably won't feel very happy.
[Dong Zhuo, the Prime Minister, has the heart of a viper and the nature of a jackal. He was highly regarded by the late Emperor and was promoted to the position of general to lead an expedition to Liang Province. However, the rebellion of Ma Teng and Han Sui did not abate, and it was obvious that they had colluded with the powerful and influential and had high positions. They became arrogant and violent, greedy and tyrannical, and harmed the people. They even had golden chariots and jades, and sent goods to powerful families. They sat in charge of the three ministries and monopolized the government.
[If Dong Zhuo's actions were allowed to run wild, he could open Wenling Mausoleum today to plunder treasures for his own use and force the Queen Mother to death. Tomorrow he would use the tomb-raiding lieutenants to break into coffins and kill corpses of ancient sages. The disaster of the Han Dynasty's downfall would be imminent. His intention to spy on the sacred artifacts and destroy the pillars of the country is already evident. The Emperor is already complaining and every word of his complaints can be heard on the border. How sad! How sad! 】
"..." Li Ru glanced at Dong Zhuo again in silence.
In a sense, Qiao Bingzhou's way of cursing is different from that of ordinary people, and she really did not exaggerate the facts.
Things like what she wrote in the manifesto, such as Dong Zhuo's position as general but his failure to put an end to the rebellion in Liang Province, his making friends with the powerful and wealthy, his traveling in and out of the imperial carriage beyond the rules, the theft of Wenling's treasures, his forcing the Queen Mother to death, and his extortion of people's property, were indeed what General Dong had done recently.
And it was precisely because of these reasons that she was able to make such an impassioned speech at the end:
[Dong Zhuo's crimes were so severe that he is not fit to be entrusted with the responsibility of assisting in governing the country. How can we not mobilize powerful soldiers with long spears and display strong bows and crossbows, reorganize the troops, support the country, and perform extraordinary deeds! 】
[This manifesto is announced to the world to let people know that the holy dynasty is in trouble. It is expected that the one who can save the country from the water and fire will not be just Qiao Bingzhou. By then, the prefectures and counties will be connected, and soldiers with lofty ideals from all directions will enter Luoyang and show off their power——】
[Looking at Dong Zhuo again, he is just a common man from Xiliang! As the law commands! 】2
"Have you finished reading it?" Dong Zhuo was still not calm at this moment, and there was a knife in his eyes when he looked at Li Ru.
He had put down the manifesto for a long time, and the last sentence "Looking at Dong Zhuo again, he is just a common man from Xiliang" was still fluttering in front of him again and again. When he thought that Qiao Yan, who asked Cai Yong to copy the manifesto, was only sixteen years old this year, he wanted to send someone to lead the troops to attack Bingzhou directly to fight with Qiao Yan.
But perhaps it was not enough for Dong Zhuo to just suffer today.
Three days later, he received the news that Qiao Yan had issued an edict to Bingzhou and Hedong, ordering the 30,000 troops to march out from Chenguanxing, along the Fen River, and enter Hedong County from Taiyuan County.
It is clearly as stated in the anti-bandit manifesto, that we must use good bows, powerful crossbows, long spears and strong soldiers to achieve this extraordinary feat!
"Bingzhou still has border threats. How can that kid Qiao Yan have 30,000 soldiers!" Dong Zhuo shouted gritting his teeth.
But considering that Qiao Yan had swallowed up the Black Mountain bandits and the White Wave bandits, if they were counted as logistics soldiers, it would be about this number.
When he compared the miserable number of 3,000 people when he first came to Luoyang, he felt that he was living an old life.
"General, it's not the soldiers under Qiao Bingzhou that you should worry about," Li Ru said in a serious tone, "As soon as Qiao Bingzhou's vanguard army left Xingkou, the Anyi Wei family, Wenxi Pei family, and Xiangling Jia family came to welcome the Bingzhou army with food and drink. She was in Bingzhou before, but she was able to gain the support of the Hedong noble families. She really should not be underestimated."
This was indeed what Dong Zhuo was worried about.
The Hedong noble families had never treated him well when he led his troops to station there, but when Qiao Yan sent out his troops, they treated him very differently. When he thought about how he had to act in Luoyang City, he had to recruit a group of celebrities who could only give suggestions every day and assign them a lot of powerful positions, and he became furious.
Without waiting for Li Ru to come up with any strategy to fight the enemy, he immediately slammed the table and stood up.
The words "a heart of a viper, a nature of a jackal" and "a mere man from Xiliang" kept flashing before his eyes. Now with the other party's grand deployment to Hedong, if he remained indifferent, he would be truly underestimating the courage of this self-proclaimed prime minister!
"Who dares to attack Qiao Yan's camp and force him to retreat while his troops are still stationed?"
As soon as he finished speaking, someone replied, "I am willing to go!"
Dong Zhuo looked in the direction of the voice and saw that the person who stood out was none other than Niu Fu.
Niu Fu... is not a bad general, but he was put in his current position because he is one of their own.
Seeing that it was him who volunteered to fight, Dong Zhuo thought about Qiao Yan's battle record and couldn't help but hesitate.
But the next moment he thought of Qiao Yan's scolding of him for being unworthy of being a former general but failing to quell the rebellion of Ma Teng and Han Sui.
Since Niu Fu was his son-in-law, his going to the battle at this time could just represent him to prove that Dong Zhuo was not a person who was not good at fighting.
"General—"
Dong Zhuo interrupted Li Ru and said, "Wenyou, there is no need to say more. I have made up my mind. I will send my son-in-law to fight, and Aduo as my deputy general. While the Bingzhou army has not yet been fully organized in Hedong, we will kill them first!"
"No," Li Ru shook his head. "I'm not saying that we can't use General Niu to attack Qiao Bingzhou. I'm just thinking that her words in the letter are fierce, like a young person full of vigor and enthusiasm. Why don't we encourage her arrogance and use courtesy before force?"
Dong Zhuo asked, "What does Wenyou mean by that?"
Li Ru: "I heard that there is a Bingzhou man named Li Su under your command. Please send him as an envoy with a valuable gift to present to Qiao Bingzhou."
"This is a method of showing weakness to the enemy."
When Qiao Yan heard that Li Su, a subordinate of Dong Zhuo, was coming to visit, he was quite surprised.
After inviting the person into the tent, she saw him bowing to her and then said, "Since entering Luoyang, Prime Minister Dong has first dealt with the traitors of the Yuan family, and then took charge of military affairs and promoted talented people. If there is anything he did that caused Marquis Qiao to misunderstand, it was not the Prime Minister's original intention. I heard that Marquis Qiao was marching to Hedong with his brave generals and soldiers who had pacified the Xianbei and wanted to attack Luoyang. The Prime Minister was terrified and wanted to have a chat with Marquis Qiao to discuss the way to govern the country."
"I heard that Marquis Qiao likes to ride a red horse. When the Prime Minister was conquering Xiliang, he happened to get a horse named Red Hare. He wanted to give it to Marquis Qiao as a gift to establish a friendly relationship. I wonder what Marquis Qiao thinks?"
Qiao Yan frowned.
Red Hare?
What? Did she follow Lu Bu's script? 3
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