Chapter 159 The Hero's End

Whenever Guo Jia mentioned the name Lü Bu, Yuan Xi's head would ache three times as much.

He had used deception and trickery, along with a pseudonym, to barely manage to use Lü Bu to change the situation slightly. Even if he wanted to use Lü Bu to occupy the Hejian commandery afterward, he had no intention of cooperating with Lü Bu openly and honestly.

Firstly, Lü Bu was fickle and unreliable, and he didn't want to be stabbed in the back. Secondly, given Lü Bu's temper, he probably wouldn't accept being deceived.

Yuan Xi found it hard to imagine whether Lü Bu would tear him apart if his identity were exposed.

Guo Jia, unaware of Yuan Xi's 'Hidden Tiger' pseudonym, asked curiously, "What's wrong with Lü Bu?"

"There are many people more abnormal than Lü Bu, what are you afraid of?"

Yuan Xi smiled wryly, "But I can't figure out this Lü Bu."

Guo Jia sneered, "The thoughts of the warriors from Bing and Liang provinces are easy to fathom."

"They are looked down upon by the aristocratic clans, so they want to prove themselves and surpass them."

"The only way to achieve this is, of course, to rely on the Emperor."

"Even someone as crazy as Dong Zhuo, a warrior from Bing and Liang, would not betray the Han Emperor."

Yuan Xi said, "Didn't Dong Zhuo depose and install emperors?"

Guo Jia sneered, "Dong Zhuo was merely being used. He seemed crude and reckless, but he was actually very shrewd. In the end, he just didn't escape that circle."

"He was willing to be used, but he didn't understand that when he became so reckless that he left himself no way out, he was destined for a bad end."

"In Luoyang at that time, standing on the side of the weak Han court would never end well. Wang Yun died that way."

"Lü Bu was smart and took the opportunity to escape, saving his life."

Yuan Xi pondered. So, Guo Jia also had this idea?

What Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu faced was the entire class of aristocratic clans, eunuchs, and warriors who wanted to control the Emperor. The more they tried to loyally serve the Han Emperor, the more isolated they became, and then they were abandoned.

Guo Jia picked up the wine pot, tilted his head back, and took a big gulp. He started coughing, and the wine sprayed out, spilling all over his clothes.

Guo Jia's concubines hurried forward to pat his back. It took a while for Guo Jia to calm down before he waved them away.

Yuan Xi frowned and asked, "What's wrong with your body?"

Guo Jia waved his hand dismissively, "I was up all night playing last night, and I drank some cold wine. I might have caught a chill, it's nothing."

Yuan Xi said, "Why are you so reckless with your health?"

"If you keep doing this, you won't get any wine every day, and I'll take your concubines away too."

"You dare!" Guo Jia jumped three feet high, "Taking away the concubines is fine, but you want to cut my wine supply?"

"Do you believe I'll smash my head against the door and die?"

"Alright, alright," Yuan Xi said helplessly, "I give up. Take care of yourself."

He couldn't understand Guo Jia. What was so good about wine? It made him dizzy, his stomach churned, and every time he drank, nothing good ever happened!

After Yuan Xi returned, he thought for several days but couldn't figure out how to use Lü Bu to fight the Black Mountain bandits. When he asked Guo Jia again, he found that he was also vague. Only then did he realize that even though Guo Jia was capable, he was just a person, not a god. He couldn't solve all his problems.

Moreover, Guo Jia was also in a situation of being a clever cook unable to make a meal without rice. Although Yuan Xi's starting point wasn't low, he was currently just a commandery administrator and couldn't compare with other warlords. How could he compete with Lü Bu?

Although Lü Bu was down on his luck, in terms of marquess rank, he was the highest-ranking county marquess. Looking at the world today, apart from a few people, he already stood at the top. Just in terms of status, he already crushed the vast majority of aristocratic clans.

At that time, the highest noble rank in the Han Dynasty was the Liehou, divided into county, township, and pavilion levels, decreasing in order. Liu Bei and Guan Yu in later generations were only pavilion marquesses, but it had already made Guan Yu cherish it so much that he added 'Hanshou Pavilion Marquess' before his name for the rest of his life, which shows how highly he valued it.

While Yuan Xi and Guo Jia were bickering, Youzhou welcomed an uninvited guest. He found Zhao Yun, left a letter and a carriage, saying it was a gift from Yanzhou, and then left.

Zhao Yun opened the carriage and looked, shaking his head helplessly, and then went to see Yuan Xi.

Yuan Xi came to the front of the carriage and saw that there were actually two beautiful concubines inside. He asked them, and the two women said that they were both from poor backgrounds and were bought by Cao Cao and sent over.

Yuan Xi then opened the letter and saw that it was actually a letter from Cao Cao making overtures to befriend him.

He knew that he had done many things in secret in Ye City to hinder Cao Cao, and Cao Cao certainly knew the inside story. But now, Cao Cao was actually condescending to befriend him, a son of a concubine. This was offering courtesy for no good reason, so there must be a hidden agenda.

Yuan Xi felt a sense of urgency. Cao Cao clearly wanted to stabilize him. It was likely that the entire world would be uneasy in the next six months!

Days passed, and it was time for the partial harvest of spring wheat.

Compared to winter wheat, which took more than two hundred days to mature, spring wheat only took about a hundred days from sowing to harvest and was commonly planted north of the Great Wall.

Although the yield and taste of spring wheat were generally worse, in times of war, the time saved was very valuable.

While Yuan Xi was urging the three cities to harvest wheat, news gradually came in.

Because Chang'an was far away, it took some time for the news to arrive, but when it reached Youzhou, it still shocked many people.

Li Jue and Guo Si attacked each other. One side detained Emperor Liu Xie, and the other side detained civil and military officials. The Han court almost completely collapsed, let alone issuing orders to the world.

The current Han court was almost dead in name only.

Among the civil and military officials who were detained, there was Grand Commandant Zhu Jun, who was upright and died of illness.

After several months, Huangfu Song also died inexplicably of illness.

Including Lu Zhi, who had died of illness before, the lives of these three heroes of the late Han Dynasty quietly came to an end.

Unlike their magnificent lives, their deeds were so grand that they left a strong mark on the history of the late Han Dynasty, the deaths of the three were like ripples in the water, mercilessly swallowed by the turbulent waves of the world, without causing the slightest ripple.

Qu Yi got drunk after learning of Huangfu Song's death. Yuan Xi went to inquire and learned that Huangfu Song was Qu Yi's fellow townsman and recommender.

Yuan Xi knew that the deaths of Zhu Jun and Huangfu Song were very suspicious, but it was impossible to investigate anything anymore.

After Li Jue and Guo Si fought for more than a hundred days, the people died or fled, and they went to Jingzhou and Yizhou to take refuge. Guanzhong was almost uninhabited. It is said that Chang'an was left with only a few thousand households.

At this time, Zhang Ji returned from Hongnong to mediate, and finally, the parties reached an agreement. Li Jue still guarded Chang'an, and Guo Si, Zhang Ji, Yang Feng, Dong Cheng, and others took Emperor Liu Xie away from Chang'an and returned to Luoyang.

So, in July of the second year of Xingping, Liu Xie, after staying in Chang'an for six years, embarked on the road back to his hometown.

When Youzhou received this news, many people, including Zhao Yun, felt that the situation seemed to be developing in a good direction. If he could return to Luoyang, the Han court would re-establish its rule over the world.

Only Yuan Xi knew that Liu Xie's long and arduous journey home had just begun.

The distance from Chang'an to Luoyang was about eight hundred miles. If Yuan Xi were to travel lightly on horseback, it would take at most ten days to half a month.

However, Emperor Xian would take a whole year.

On the way, he would suffer six major calamities, and finally, he would overcome them one by one with his judgment and mediation skills.

Yuan Xi thought to himself that he might not do better than Liu Xie, and at this time, Liu Xie was only fourteen years old.

He stood on the city wall, looking west as the setting sun was about to go down. Thousands of miles away, Liu Xie should be chased by pursuers under the same sunset, desperately trying to survive.

Yuan Xi stretched lazily. He also had to hurry. This was an era of great contention, where opportunities and dangers coexisted. It depended on whether he could get ahead.

Currently, Zhuo Commandery was still relatively peaceful. It seemed that killing Liu Bao wasn't a big deal to the Southern Xiongnu, and as Yuan Shao's son, the Southern Xiongnu had to consider the pros and cons.

The Black Mountain Army hadn't sent anyone since that attack.

Yuan Xi guessed that although the Black Mountain Army had hundreds of thousands of people, more than half of them should be women, children, and the elderly. They had to farm in the Taihang Mountains, and it was now the autumn harvest season, so they might not be able to spare the manpower.

The spring wheat harvest on Yuan Xi's side was in June and July, two months earlier than the autumn harvest. This was an opportunity window that Yuan Xi had deliberately left, so he could prepare his army two months earlier than others.

But what Yuan Xi didn't understand was why there was still no news of Ye City attacking Yijing. Could there be any unexpected complications?

He felt a faint unease in his heart. After discussing it with Guo Jia, he sent a letter to Ye City.

Yuan Xi's premonition was correct. Ye City had been arguing about attacking Yijing for several months. Every time they were about to reach a consensus, they were interrupted by sudden accidents.

Either when Ye City was conscripting soldiers, news came that Cao Cao was coveting Xuzhou and wanted to attack Liu Bei.

Or it was rumored that Cao Cao had already allied with Yuan Shu and could cross the Yellow River at any time.

There were even rumors that Lü Bu had recruited soldiers from Hejian and was preparing to attack Jizhou.

It was unknown where these rumors came from. They seemed to have appeared in Ye City overnight and spread throughout Ye City within a few days, causing panic.

The counselors were also arguing endlessly about this. Was someone sowing discord, or did Cao Cao really have the idea of betraying the Yuan family?

What was even more alarming to everyone was that the rapid rise of these rumors reminded them of the precedent of the Yellow Turban Army spreading rumors in the past.

How many people with ulterior motives were there in Ye City?

In this situation, what if all the soldiers of Jizhou were mobilized and Ye City was empty, and someone took advantage of it?

No one could be sure whether the chaos of Ye City would happen again!

Now, seeing the counselors arguing endlessly, Yuan Shao stopped everyone and said to Yuan Shang, "Xianfu, what do you think?"

As soon as these words came out, the counselors of Yuan Tan's faction sighed. Now Yuan Shao's attention to Yuan Shang had far exceeded Yuan Tan!

Yuan Shang respectfully said, "I believe that it is not suitable to attack Yijing now."

"According to previous calculations, attacking Yijing requires 100,000 soldiers and at least 10,000 cavalry."

"This requires collecting food and fodder from all over Jizhou and Qingzhou. The required amount is huge. If Yijing cannot be taken within three months, Jizhou's food reserves for the past three years will be exhausted."

"Not to mention that Cao Cao's movements in the south are unclear, and the eldest brother is forcibly conscripting in Qingzhou, causing several civil uprisings. If we conscript soldiers and collect food again, I'm afraid there will be great chaos in Qingzhou."

The counselors under Yuan Tan thought that Yuan Shang would not let go of this opportunity. The key was that Yuan Tan was good at fighting wars, but internal affairs were not his forte, so it was his own fault for leaving an opening.

Yuan Shao remained noncommittal, raised a roll of silk, "This is Xianyi's letter, which is somewhat different from Xianfu's view. You can listen to it."