The eighteen princes attacked Dong, which not only shocked the world, but also made many officials in Luoyang look happy.

They and the emperor had been tortured by Dong Zhuo, and now that the princes from all walks of life were fighting, there was finally hope of escaping the suffering.

For a time, many ministers met privately, and their remarks gradually became more and more outrageous. Many people joined together and began to plan some things secretly.

Among all the officials, only Grand Tutor Yuan Wei was the most low-key person.

On weekdays, not only was he obedient to Dong Zhuo and ignored everything, but even in court, he was like a clay puppet, fawning over Dong Zhuo.

Yuan Wei is not stupid, on the contrary, as an old fox, he is very smart.

The power of the Yuan family spread over half of the court, and now there are three other princes outside: Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and Yuan Yi. The combination of internal and external forces will inevitably become a thorn in Dong Zhuo's side and a thorn in his flesh.

So if he jumps out to oppose Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhuo's tyranny will definitely be detrimental to the Yuan family in Luoyang.

Therefore, Yuan Wei wanted to be flattered, but in fact he was just submissive. On the surface, he was submissive to Dong Zhuo, but secretly he struck hard and let his nephew come to challenge Dong.

In the future, whether Dong Zhuo wins or the various princes win, the Yuan family's power will not be much worse.

It's a pity that Yuan Wei still underestimated Dong Zhuo's cruelty.

He thought that as long as he showed obedience, Dong Zhuo, as his former boss, would be embarrassed to attack him.

However, he forgot that Dong Zhuo also needed to kill a heavyweight to establish his authority and ensure the smooth transfer of the capital.

Soon, the next day, Yuan Wei received an order from Dong Zhuo, asking him to order Yuan Shao and others to retreat.

After receiving this order, Yuan Wei was actually mentally prepared. After all, the Yuan family had three princes in the alliance to fight against Dong, and among the various princes, there were several former disciples of the Yuan family.

For example, Zhang Yang, the governor of Shangdang, Han Fu, the governor of Julu, Zhang Chao, the governor of Guangling, etc. It can be said that among the eighteen princes, the Yuan family's power accounted for almost one-third.

The combined strength of these people totaled 70,000 to 80,000, which was slightly stronger than Liu Bei's. Dong Zhuo could not turn a blind eye.

Therefore, it is only a matter of time to find him and ask him to give orders to Yuan Shao and others.

After hearing the order sent by Dong Zhuo, Yuan Ji, the eldest son of the Yuan family, frowned at the Taifu's residence in Yuan Wei and said: "Uncle, are you really planning to let Benchu ​​and Gongdao withdraw their troops? Once our Yuan family withdraws, I'm afraid it will harm the world.

So laugh at you.”

"well."

Yuan Wei sighed: "How could I not know that once Benchu ​​Highway retreats, people all over the world will accuse our Yuan family of currying favor with Dong's thieves. However, if they do not retreat, our Yuan family's foundation will be destroyed by Dong's thieves."

"That....."

Yuan Ji hesitated. If the Yuan family really withdrew their troops, wouldn't the people in the world say that they had taken refuge with the Dong thief?

With Dong Zhuo's reputation in the streets, being known as a traitor to Dong would probably make him scorned by the world, even if he had the reputation of being the fourth generation and the third prince.

Don't you see, Wang Yun had a reputation for being upright because he offended Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong. Now, because he always tries to please Dong Zhuo, his reputation is so bad that many people are ashamed to associate with him.

Although Yuan Ji didn't know that Wang Yun was hiding his power and biding his time, he was working with Dong Zhuoxu to find the right opportunity to get rid of Dong Zhuo.

But this also proves that people's hearts are actually very easy to change. When the world sees what you are doing now, your reputation will soon change.

Yuan Wei knew his nephew's doubts, so he smiled slyly and said: "So I asked them to pretend to retreat, but in fact they followed Liu Bei secretly to provide support."

"this......"

Yuan Ji hesitated and said: "Dong's thieves move people and property to Guanzhong every day. I am afraid that if they move the capital to Chang'an, we will also be forcibly moved by Dong's thieves. If they had followed Liu Bei into Luoyang, wouldn't we still be here?"

Are you going to be poisoned by Thief Dong?"

"So I'm thinking of ways to delay the move of the capital, and at the same time arrange manpower. Once Liu Bei and the others break through, as long as we are still in Luoyang, we can immediately start an uprising in the city and coordinate with the Kwantung Allied Forces both internally and externally."

There was a hint of fierceness on Yuan Wei's face. Originally, after the deaths of Empress Dowager Dong and Empress Dowager He, he was the head of the officials who took charge of the government and became the unparalleled powerful official in the world.

In the end, Dong Zhuo appeared out of nowhere and picked the peaches.

Yuan Wei always remembered this.

Therefore, he had already secretly arranged manpower. Once the Kwantung Allied Forces invaded, he would immediately unite with them and eliminate Dong Zhuo.

In the manor economy of the Eastern Han Dynasty, many powerful locals kept slaves and dead soldiers, not to mention the Yuan family.

Although there were not many dead soldiers in Luoyang, only one or two thousand, it was still possible to stab Dong Zhuo at a critical moment.

"So that's it."

Yuan Ji felt relieved and said, "My uncle has already made arrangements."

Yuan Wei said again: "I will ask Dong Zhuo later and send you to talk to Benchu ​​Highway and the others, asking them to go to the table and ask for withdrawal."

"I'm just afraid that Thief Dong won't let me leave the capital."

Yuan Ji smiled bitterly.

Now, Dong Zhuo's soldiers are all outside the Yuan family's mansion, and they are being monitored like prisoners, especially Yuan Wei and Yuan Ji. There are people watching them even when they go out. In name, they are protecting them, but in fact, no one knows what it means.

clear.

"It doesn't matter, I'll go talk to Dong Zhuo then."

Yuan Wei waved his hand.

Now the current generation of the Yuan family is basically supported by their own family. The leader of the next generation is not Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, but actually Yuan Ji, who has already served as one of the nine ministers.

Yuan Ji is the eldest son of Yuan Feng, and the biological brother of Yuan Shu's mother. The two of them are the mainstay of the Yuan family in the court.

Therefore, Yuan Wei knew very well that in order to ensure the strength of the Yuan family, neither he nor Yuan Ji could get into trouble, and they had to stay alive.

If you lose a little reputation, let Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu withdraw their troops for the time being, and cater to Dong Zhuo first.

Anyway, the Yuan family had withdrawn their troops, so Dong Zhuo had no excuse to deal with them.

You can't blame the Yuan family for Liu Bei's failure to withdraw his troops.

The Yuan family has nothing to do with Liu Bei.

Therefore, Yuan Kui's idea was actually to let Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu retreat their troops back to Yuzhou, pretending to be retreating.

Once Liu Bei invaded Luoyang, they immediately followed him.

When the time comes, the Yuan family will raise another army to rebel against Dong, and they will join forces with the three Yuan Li Yingwai to get rid of Dong Zhuo.

As long as the great contribution of removing Dong belongs to the Yuan family, plus the military power they now control, then will the right to speak in the court in the future belong to the Yuan family?

Considering that Liu Bei, a member of his clan, has only been established for four or five years, is he qualified to take charge of the central government and serve as an important minister in charge of the government?

hehe.

After confirming the current policy of the Yuan family, Yuan Wei was going to go to Dong Zhuo and ask Yuan Ji to go to Yuan Shao and the others to discuss the matter.

But Dong Zhuo was very busy over there.

Since taking power for half a year, he has been very busy every day.

In the first few months, he plundered property, robbed tombs, killed innocent people indiscriminately, and caused trouble in the palace. Many maids and even princesses were murdered by him.

Then when the Kwantung Allied Forces came over, he began to prepare intensively for moving the capital.

The first was the population of Luoyang. Under his strong authority, a large number of people began to move to Guanzhong. On the official road from Luoyang to Chang'an, a steady stream of people dragged their families and left their hometowns towards Guanzhong.

With most of the soldiers resisting the Kwantung Allied Forces, Dong Zhuo only had around 20,000 soldiers at his disposal, so he used his money to recruit another 100,000 auxiliary soldiers.

The task of these auxiliary soldiers is actually to escort the people along the way and escort gold, silver and jewelry. Since they are all from the surrounding areas of Luoyang, many of them are elders in their hometown, the auxiliary soldiers do not dare to go too far, which makes the movement forward very slow.

The end is as far as the eye can see.

Horse-drawn carriages, human-powered wheelbarrows, and carts carrying their belongings left the hometown where they relied for survival and headed for unknown places. Many people were crying and begging the soldiers not to drive them away. They wanted to stay.

But under the supervision of the soldiers, the auxiliary soldiers had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue to drive away the people.

Countless people begged and begged, but what they received in return was brutal suppression.

"General, I beg you, I'm over sixty and I really can't stand this kind of trouble, just let me stay in my hometown."

"No, these are all my properties. General, you can't take them away."

"My dear relatives, Thief Dong is cruel and cruel, killing people wantonly, and now he forces us to move, leaving our hometown and the land we live on. If we leave, we will die, and if we stay, we will die. We might as well fight with them!"

In Ping County, a clan was unwilling to leave their hometown and resisted with force. The entire clan was massacred by the brutal Dong Zhuo soldiers.

In Gong County, it has been raining lightly in Luoyang these past few days, and the people had to walk in the mud. Many old people fell into the rain because their bodies were overwhelmed, and died in this summer.

In Yanshi, some soldiers with bad military discipline not only plundered the people's property, but also wantonly insulted women and killed the people.

Things like this happen all the time.

There is no airtight wall in the world, and the news of Luoyang quickly spread to the Kwantung Allied Forces.

A few days later, Liu Bei learned that several counties around Luoyang were suffering from Dong Zhuo's devastation. He was very anxious and walked around the camp, very anxious.

"Brother, please be quiet for a moment, I almost fainted from you."

Chen Mu reluctantly advised.

Liu Bei was like a dynamite barrel that was ready to go. He almost roared: "The traitor Dong is going to move the capital. The people of Luoyang will suffer along with it, and the emperor will also be taken away by him. How can I calm down!"

"But Hulao Pass has not yet been broken, and Dong's army still has the strength to fight. If we forcefully attack the city, we will lose our troops and generals. I'm afraid the gain will not be worth the loss."

Chen Mu persuaded him earnestly.

Although the troops in Hulao Pass were disorganized, as one of the most powerful passes in the world, Hulao Pass was indeed indestructible. Even if the catapults bombed it every day, it would at most make Dong's soldiers panic, and they would not be able to blow open the city gate like a missile.
To be continued...