In the early morning, the Weishui River was quietly immersed in a solemn area, the thin mist floated peacefully and gently on the clear river water, and the crystal rain and dew lie lazily on the green grass on both sides of the river, and the soft breeze quietly sprinkled the faint fragrance into the fresh air.

Dong Zhuo walked slowly on the river bank with his hands on his back. From time to time, he looked at the flowing water of the Wei River beside him, smelled the refreshing fragrance in the air, and listened to the melodious singing of unknown insects. His irritable and restless heart suddenly calmed down.

Yesterday, Li Ru, who stayed in Huaili Camp in Fufeng, sent someone to swim across the river to deliver a letter to him. The news sent surprised Dong Zhuo. Li Hong suddenly sent troops to arrest Xiliang bureaucrats in Chang'an, Sanfu area, saying that they would rectify the administration of Xiliang and punish corruption. Li Ru told Dong Zhuo in the letter that this must be the idea of ​​the Grand Marshal Zhang Wen. Now that the war in Xiliang is about to end, Zhang Wen suddenly attacked while everyone's attention was still on the battlefield. The timing was very good, and the corrupt officials in Xiliang were caught off guard. Li Hong's subordinates killed Zuo Chang's family in Chang'an, captured Qingwu in Maoling, and arrested more than 50 people in various places. The momentum of corruption was very fierce. Zhang Wen's intention was too obvious, and he wanted to raise a butcher's knife to kill the traitor, and there was no room for negotiation.

Li Ru advised Dong Zhuo not to expect reinforcements to rescue the siege, and it would be better to find a way to get out of trouble as soon as possible. Now, Zhang Wen and Li Hong are all paying attention to corruption, looking for evidence of the corruption and abuse of power in Xiliang, and are unintentional to help Dong Zhuo. Li Zhonglang left only 6,000 cavalrymen used for rescue, and faced the 30,000 Qiang and Hu army, which had no effect at all. Zhou Shen took his troops back to Pingxiang Camp a few days ago. Zhou Shen himself was seriously injured. The Northern Army and the Xiliang army suffered great losses in the early battles. Although Li Zhonglang's infantry was not damaged at all, Zhang Wen had not ordered them to rush to Wangyuan for rescue. Zhang Wen seemed to have forgotten Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhuo and his 30,000 Xiliang soldiers.

This is not Zhang Wen's usual style of behavior. Could it be that Zhang Wen also has evidence of his corruption and abuse of power? Dong Zhuo was uneasy. If the Taiwei Mansion seized his own handle, Zhang Wen was not sure of releasing his military power, the greatest possibility was to find an opportunity to let the enemy defeat him. In this way, he had no strength and could only be tied up. Does Zhang Wen want to capture him?

Is Zhang Wen so confident to defeat the eunuch party in the court?

Dong Zhuo sighed silently.

The traitors in the court were indeed not things. Since they formed a relationship with the Zhongchangshi Cao Jie, for more than ten years, they have not only given them a lot of wealth and treasures, but also colluded with them, doing many things that violated the rules and helped them accumulate huge wealth. Although they had made enough money and promoted their official positions, whenever they saw the whole truck of money and silk rush out of their own fortress, they still had to curse them viciously. Those people were greedy, just like bottomless pits, and they were not content.

A few years ago, when Cao Jie died and Zhao Zhong took the position of Da Changqiu, the traitors led by Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang became even more unscrupulous. They became more and more aggressive in searching for people's wealth and ointment, and stealing hooks and stealing the country, almost to the point of being crazy. If the Yellow Turban Ant Thief had not been rebelled suddenly, the Han Dynasty might have been eaten into an empty shell by these eunuchs and their disciples.

"General..."

Dong Zhuo woke up when he heard the sound and turned to see that it was Li Su and Guo Si.

"General, why don't you call us when you go out to patrol? It's too dangerous here." Li Su said respectfully.

Dong Zhuo frowned and looked at the clear river water beneath his feet, silently.

"General, Li Zhonglang's cavalry harassed the Qiang and Hu camp for a night, and made a fuss." Guo Si smiled, "The Qiang and Hu people should be wary of Li Zhonglang's cavalry raiding at night. If they can't sleep well, they should be wary of us breaking through during the day and have no time to sleep. If this continues, the enemy will not be able to support it in a few days. General, are we preparing to break through?"

Dong Zhuo turned around slowly and shook his head.

Li Su bowed and said, "General, although we have repeatedly reduced our food, the food is still gone. The soldiers have been relying on cofferdam fishing these days. Now that reinforcements have not arrived for a long time, how many days can we support if we don't break through?"

"General, we may suffer heavy losses now, but the entire army will not be destroyed." Guo Si said: "If we wait a few more days and the feed for the war horses is gone, it will be difficult for us to break through again."

Dong Zhuo closed his mouth tightly, stood by the river like a small hill, looking into the distance of the Weishui River.

"June Jinglei probably knew the news that the rebels were defeated and fled in Xiaoniu Mountain. He should have thought that if General Zhou's troops quickly came over, his troops would be in a situation of being attacked from both sides. But he was unmoved and did not retreat yet. It was obvious that we had no reinforcements." Li Su thought for a moment, and then took a careful step forward, put it behind Dong Zhuo, and whispered, "June Jinglei knew that we had discarded food and grass during the retreat, so he wanted to pick a bargain and trap us to death. It would be very unfavorable for us to continue like this. General, should we break through earlier, right?"

A trace of resentment flashed across Dong Zhuo's face, and a little murderous aura surged in his eyes.

Guo Si sneered: "Zhang Wen is a villain, a villain who will definitely retaliate. We didn't help him defeat the rebels last year, so he will take revenge on us now. His move is enough to kill people without blood."

Li Su looked at Dong Zhuo's face and knew that he was angry, so he quickly pushed back.

"Brothers are so hungry, they came out to fish so early." Guo Si pointed to the soldiers who came from the direction of the camp and smiled bitterly.

The soldiers of Xiliang were holding simple fishing tools in their hands, and while talking loudly, they hurried towards the river.

Dong Zhuo looked up, his expression moved, and suddenly clapped his hands hard and said loudly: "We will withdraw our troops tonight."

Li Su and Guo Si looked excited, smiled, and bowed together and said, "General, we will go back and prepare now."

Dong Zhuo smiled and said, "What are you preparing for? There is nothing to prepare for. Except for the cavalry, let everyone come to the river to catch fish."

Li Su and Guo Si were stunned. I wonder if Dong Zhuo was joking or to be honest, and they looked at Dong Zhuo blankly.

＝＝＝

The emperor took Zhang Wen's memorial, glanced at it twice, and threw it on the desk.

Zhang Wen suddenly stopped delivering memorials these days. Recently, Zhang Wen has been writing two or even three memorials a day, almost crazy about begging the emperor to give him some money to overcome difficulties. But since Zhang Wen sent a letter to the emperor that day, reporting that Li Zhonglang had taken action to ward off corruption and searched the family resources of corrupt officials in Xiliang, these urgent memorials suddenly disappeared. The emperor was still a little uncomfortable for a moment.

These days, the court has been quarreling every day, and the emperor is full of joy.

The Central Constables sued the bureaucrats headed by Zhang Wen, who used the excuse of Western Liang to suppress corruption and plotting against the country; the ministers headed by the Three Dukes and Censors immediately fought back, and brought out various evidence, accusing the eunuchs of condoning the children of the royal family to endanger the country and harming the people in the local area; the foreign relatives and powerful people, led by General He Jin, resolutely stood on the side of the aristocratic bureaucrats, accusing the eunuchs of autocracy and disrupting the court.

In order to show his loyalty and to fight back against He Jin's accusations, Zhao Zhong resigned from the position of General Cheqi to the emperor and offered to donate 100 million yuan to the emperor's Wanjintang. The emperor was very happy.

Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang immediately wrote a letter to impeach Zhang Wen, Yuan Pang, and Gai Xun, accusing them of arresting Xiliang bureaucrats without the approval of the emperor, and openly confiscating the family of the arrested bureaucrats. Without the trial of the Tingwei Mansion, they violated the law to kill the family of the former Liangzhou governor Zuo Chang and the streets (read qu), which shocked the three servants. What was particularly bad was that they actually attacked the Qingwu of King Wuyang and massacred more than a thousand innocent people in the fort.

The emperor was shocked and angry, and then prepared to issue an order to punish Zhang Wen and others. At this moment, Zhang Wen's memorial arrived.

Dong Zhuo led his troops to break through, and the Qiang and Hu army immediately evacuated. At this point, the suppression of the rebellion in Xiliang was basically over. Zhang Wen said in the memorial that if Bian Zhang and Han Sui can be successfully recruited in the short term, the remnants of the rebels would no longer exist, and Xiliang would be stable from then on.

The emperor was quite hesitant. Zhang Wen and his subordinates had just made great contributions. Not only did they not reward them, but they also issued orders to punish them. It was unreasonable to be reasonable.

At this time, Zhou Wang, the commander of Zhongzang Prefecture, came. Zhou Wang was not tall, had a round face, and was not very good-looking, and had no similarity to his father. He was often summoned by the emperor because the emperor was very concerned about his wealth being increased. Zhou Wang didn't talk much, and after reporting his recent income and expenditure, he immediately took out a black satin brocade box from his arms.

"Your Majesty, these are all the land and mansions that Li Zhonglang confiscated from the home of corrupt officials in Xiliang. Please check it out."

The emperor opened the brocade box with a cold expression and looked at the things inside, and suddenly looked surprised.

"The people of Xiliang are indeed rich. In such a poor place, if you just catch a few minor officials, you will get such a great gain, which is incredible." The emperor said lightly, "Li Zhonglang is very sensible."

Zhou Wang smiled and said, "It's rumored that he is an idiot, and I don't look like him at all."

"Is it sent by General Zhou?"

Zhou Wang nodded and said, "My father said that Li Zhonglang can fight wars and has good character, and is a talent."

"I think so." The emperor shook his slender neck, shook his little head, and squeezed out a smile and said, "He has sent so many, so generous enough."

"It's not that he is generous, but that the people of Xiliang are too rich." Zhou Wang said, "Does the people of Xiliang have more money than those of Jizhou, Yanzhou, and Yuzhou?"

The emperor's face darkened, his little eyes turned a few times, and he sneered: "The thin man only gave me 100 million yuan to make me happy. They always lied to me, always lied to me. A small general of the Central Army arrested dozens of small officials and sent me so much. You can imagine how much money they have."

The thin man is Zhao Zhong. The emperor has been with them since he was a child. When he saw Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang were tall and thin, he thought it was fun, so he called Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang Fat.

Zhou Wang secretly glanced at the emperor, lowered his head and said nothing, feeling happy.

"Zhengxing, the fat man said Zhang Wen, oh, no, it was Li Zhonglang who attacked Qingwu and said that Qingwu was the property of King Wuyang. Is that true?"

"No. Qingwu is the property of Mr. Zhang." Zhou Wang replied respectfully, "People who don't know the inside story think it belongs to King Wuyang, but it is not."

The emperor's face turned ugly. He licked his lips and asked, "What's the inside story?"

Zhou Wang smiled and said, "The King of Wuyang owed Marquis Zhang a lot of money, but the prince kept dragging him and refused to pay it back. The prince had no choice. That year, the marquis wanted to buy Qingwu, but was afraid that others would report it to His Majesty, so he found the King of Wuyang and prepared to buy it in the name of the prince. The prince owed him a lot of money, so of course he agreed readily. I heard that he took the opportunity to knock the Marquis a sum of money."

The emperor slapped the table angrily and muttered and cursed a few words.

"It turns out that they are all pretending to be poor." The emperor said indignantly, "I thought they were just building a mansion in Luoyang. I didn't expect that he could buy Qingwu, this bastard."

Zhou Wang laughed proudly, "Hehe...".

"Your Majesty, let Li Zhonglang be responsible for the corruption in Xiliang. Li Zhonglang is young and knows how to fight, and is loyal to Your Majesty. Although he is a little idiot, he is now a brainless person. If he gets his favor, he will definitely be loyal to His Majesty. Your Majesty asked Li Zhonglang to squeeze the corrupt officials in Xiliang hard and completely drain the oil and water. Then this year, Your Majesty not only pacified the Yellow Turbans and Xiliang, but also won the hearts of the people of the world, especially the harvest of Your Majesty this year..."

The emperor nodded repeatedly. He flipped through the things in the brocade box again and said excitedly: "Zhengxing makes sense. I immediately issued an edict asking Li Zhonglang to be more cruel, arrest all the corrupt officials in Xiliang, and send all the money, fields and houses that were squeezed out to me."

Zhou Wang's face changed and he hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, you can't catch too much, as it will be messed up if you catch too much. Several factions of forces in the court have all flowed through the Xiliang trip..."

The emperor waved his hand vigorously and interrupted Zhou Wang's words.

"What do you know?" the emperor sneered, his lips curled up, and his face was sarcastic, "What do you know?"

Zhou Wang was startled and hurriedly knelt down.

"Catch them all, kill them all." The emperor kept waving his hand and said excitedly, "Everyone is lying to me? Okay, if they dare to lie to me, I dare to kill them. They are all richer than me, but they wrote to me to advise me that the land in the world is my, the people in the world are my, and the money in the world is my, and I told me not to talk about public and private matters, put all the money in the treasury, and everyone uses it. What's the bullshit. So, I asked the bureaucrats in the world to put the money in the treasury. Is it okay? No. Why can't it? Your people, your money, your houses, and your fields are my, why can't it? Why don't you take it out, but ask me to take it out. A group of bastards..."

The emperor slapped the table hard and cursed with unsatisfactory feelings: "A group of bastards should be killed. They beat the ant thieves and fought against Xiliang. The treasury had no money. I ordered the rich and powerful people in Guandong, Guanzhong and Guandong to donate a little, but they donated a little, which was not enough for my day's expense. If I donated again, I would be gone. I asked me to borrow it from them. At this time, I would not say that the world's money is my money, let alone the world's land."
Chapter completed!