Chapter 330 Lack of Ambition

"My lord asked me to bring you a message."

"Does Wenhou want to do something according to his own ideas?"

After hearing this, Lu Bu was about to refute, but suddenly found that he had nothing to say.

He was born in a peasant family in Bingzhou, and was lucky to be alive. Fortunately, he was gifted, and after joining the border army, he slowly climbed up.

After becoming a general, he found himself at a loss and had no idea what to do for the future.

Moreover, as a general from Bingzhou, he had always gone with the flow in the Bingliang border army which was filled with generals from Liangzhou. He did whatever everyone else did.

When someone asked him for help, he could not distinguish between the glory of the Khan and the future of a military man, so he killed one sponsor after another in a confused manner. In the end, he realized that there was no turning back.

Even though he was later supported by the Yanzhou gentry, a large part of the reason was that in their eyes, he was much easier to control than Cao Cao.

As for his real thoughts, no one seemed to care, and it seemed that Lu Bu himself had never thought about this question.

Lu Bu fell into deep thought, which was rare.

Yuan Xi stood on the hillside, carefully observing the scene in the distance through a telescope.

The Black Mountain, later known as the Taihang Mountains, was extremely difficult to travel. Crossing the mountains was a great test of the soldiers' physical strength, but the most worrying thing was that no one knew when the enemy would appear.

Most of the Black Mountain bandits were locals and were very familiar with the terrain. Naturally, the Youzhou army lacked confidence as they were fighting away from home.

Although Yuan Xi also recruited a large number of soldiers who escaped from Black Mountain to serve as scouts, no one could guarantee that there were no spies sent by the other side among them.

If you point the wrong way in some unnoticeable places, it can cause considerable trouble.

But it is also the best approach at present. When Wei Qing and Huo Qubing went deep into the heartland of the Xiongnu, they not only did not get lost, but also were able to directly attack the Xiongnu king's tent, all thanks to the help of a large number of Xiongnu scouts leading the way.

Leave professional matters to professionals, otherwise you will be using your own weaknesses to attack the enemy's strengths.

What Yuan Xi is observing right now are the places mentioned by the Black Mountain surrendered soldiers, which are difficult to travel to and easy to be ambushed.

Although Yuan Xi saw nothing unusual on those hilltops through the telescope, he was only taking with him about a thousand infantrymen. If the enemy ambushed him with several thousand people, he would not be able to escape.

After hesitating for a long time, he said to Sun Li, "Send the order down, bypass those mountains and go northeast."

After receiving the order, the soldiers began to get up one by one, pulling the weeds and trees on the hillside with difficulty and turning north.

Half an hour after Yuan Xi's army left, in the dense forest on a distant hill, Yang Feng stood up from the grass in frustration and cursed in a low voice.

After lying in ambush for most of the day and feeding dozens of mosquitoes in vain, the other party did not fall for it.

She has been secretly following Yuan Xi for a few days, and the other party is too cautious!

Yang Feng turned around and said to the hundreds of soldiers in the bushes behind him, "Follow them."

Not thousands, but hundreds, in order to conceal their tracks as much as possible.

And in Yang Feng's opinion, these people are enough.

These hundreds of soldiers were her most elite personal guards, who had followed her almost since childhood. Now, in order to kill Yuan Xi, Yang Feng used this trump card in order to achieve success in one blow.

As long as Yuan Xi is killed, the Youzhou army will inevitably fall into chaos, thus opening up a passage to Youzhou for the main force of the Black Mountain Army!

When she got the news that Yuan Xi had left the military camp and was heading over the mountains towards Jizhou, Yang Feng immediately gathered her men and took a shortcut to catch up with Yuan Xi.

Yang Feng decided to kill Yuan Xi at all costs. Once this fierce tiger of the Yuan family died, the Youzhou army would be leaderless and would no longer be able to stop the offensive of the Black Mountain Army!

The last time she failed was because she underestimated the cunning of the ferocious tiger. After suffering a loss, Yang Feng was filled with anger and vowed to avenge herself.

Thinking of this, she sighed. Zhang Yan was still too conservative. If he had listened to her strategy at that time and mobilized all his troops to march at full speed, they might have already rushed out of the Black Mountain North Pass and even captured Beixin City.

Once Beixin City is captured and the situation in Zhuo County is opened up, the entire Youzhou will be an undefended fat sheep. I heard that Youzhou has been doing very well in the past few years, with water conservancy roads built, abundant food, and happy people. It is much better than Heishan.

If the other party wants Montenegro, just give it to them. Wouldn't it be good to exchange Montenegro for Youzhou?

Unfortunately, this proposal was not accepted by Zhang Yan. Yang Feng also didn't know whether Zhang Yan was nostalgic for his hometown Zhending or had other ideas?

Perhaps it was because he was defeated by Yuan several times that he lost his ambition and fighting spirit?

Zhang Yan's strategy was conservative. He learned from spies that the Youzhou army was divided into three routes, so he did not deploy heavy troops at several passes to guard against enemy sneak attacks.

Yang Feng was very disdainful of this arrangement. What was the point of placing tens of thousands of people in each place?

What if the other party doesn't come?

For Montenegro, which adopts the tribal system, if this kind of consumption happens a few times, they will probably be dragged down!

Yang Feng's premonition was very accurate. A group of elite troops from the Youzhou army recently went to the South Pass, but not to attack Heishan, but to head south again.

This army, led by Ju Shou and Zhao Yun, passed through the border of Bingzhou and Weijun of Jizhou and was about to enter Henei.

No one expected that the Youzhou army's massive attack on Heishan was actually just a cover, and heading towards Hanoi was the real purpose of this military operation!

Openly repairing the plank road, secretly marching through Chencang, and going to Anyi to welcome the emperor in advance, instead of waiting until the emperor's convoy returns to Luoyang!

When Zhao Yun heard that Ju Shou was also involved in this plan, he rarely raised an objection.

He understood that Yuan Xi's plan could not fail, but Ju Su had only been in Youzhou for a short time and was not even Yuan Xi's man. Could he be trusted to participate in this matter?

He said to Yuan Xi: "Although you proposed the strategy of welcoming the emperor to command the princes, what if he has other ideas..."

Yuan Xi said: "Brother, what you said does make sense."

"But in this matter, I think he should still be reliable."

"Zilong, do you know that a few years ago, Li Jue attacked the emperor's carriage and killed the archery lieutenant Ju Jun?"

Zhao Yun recalled and suddenly realized, "My lord, are you saying that Ju Jun is related to you, Mr. Gong?"

Emperor Liu Xie actually had very few armed forces under his control.

If there are any, they are the Huben Army and the Yulin Army. These people directly obey Liu Xie and are the most loyal to him.

When the emperor's carriage left Chang'an, this group of people numbered about several hundred people, and their leader was the Archery Captain Ju Jun.

Under the leadership of Ju Jun, these people had been trying their best to protect Liu Xie. However, around the New Year, the emperor's carriage was traveling in Dongjian, Hongnong County, Hongnong Commandery, when he was caught up by the coalition forces of Li Jue, Guo Si and Zhang Ji.

Yang Feng had betrayed Li Jue and Guo Si successively and had no way to retreat, so he and Ju Jun fought desperately to stop them, but were ultimately defeated. Yang Feng escaped, but Ju Jun was seriously injured and captured.

Li Jue and Guo Si wanted him to beg for mercy, but Ju Jun started cursing. Li Jue and Guo Si were furious, so they killed Ju Jun and Shi Sun Rui and others who had previously reprimanded Guo Si.

The Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Biography of Dong Zhuo, says: Ju Jun, the archer commander, was wounded and fell off his horse. Li Jue asked his attendants, "Can he still live?" Ju Jun cursed him, saying, "You are vicious and rebellious. You have persecuted the emperor. You are traitors and traitors. There is no one like you!" Li Jue ordered him to be killed.

Yuan Xi said to Zhao Yun, "The news that the emperor's carriage was attacked and Ju Jun and others were killed quickly spread throughout the world. At that time, Ju Su was in Youzhou and sent three urgent reports to Yecheng, urging Jizhou to send troops to welcome the emperor."

"After I learned about it, I felt there was some connection, so I wrote to Mr. Gong and asked him about it."

"Mr. Gong Yu was quite frank. He admitted that Ju Jun was the nephew of the Ju family, so Ju Shou was inclined to the emperor's side from the beginning."

After Yuan Xi explained the whole cause and effect, Zhao Yun suddenly realized that there is no such thing as giving without reason in the world, and behind Ju Su, he also had his own motives for his actions.

At that time, in order to continue their family, the noble families placed their children under the command of various princes, a typical example being the Xun family.

Judging from Ju Jun's position, Ju Shou obviously had his own ideas, and his goal was most likely to tie the emperor and the Yuan family together.

Regardless of whether his idea is feasible, Yuan Shao's other advisers are not fools. They are familiar with the background of major families and naturally know the relationship between Ju Shou and Ju Jun.

The Yuan family is about to establish their own kingdom, so why would they care about an emperor who is already useless?

Isn't this just asking for trouble?

Therefore, their opposition to welcoming the emperor was not just out of selfishness, but simply because of their different positions.

After all, the ultimate goal of most of Yuan Shao's advisers is to help the Yuan family come to power so that they can gain the greatest benefits.

In their view, Ju Su's behavior was clearly contrary to the opinions of everyone else.

Zhao Yun sighed, "Young Master convinced Mr. Gong and Mr. Gong. Is it because Young Master's current position is consistent with Mr. Gong and Mr. Gong?"

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Indeed."

"My father doesn't need to rely on the emperor's prestige, but for me now, if I can get the emperor's endorsement, it will be much more legitimate."

When Zhao Yun heard Yuan Xi unconsciously call Yuan Shao "father", the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

Yuan Xi was completely unaware and said, "Although the Black Mountain Army has been cut off from their financial support by us, they will inevitably suffer from famine in the next two years, but the best time to deal with them is two years later, not now."

"But the reason why I am so anxious is that the emperor will return to Luoyang in a few months. At that time, there will be a melee among the warlords surrounding him. In the end, some will fail and some will become the final winner."

"If that's the case, why don't we strike first and join hands with Lu Bu to seize the emperor."

"The emperor should be better off under his protection than in the hands of others."

Zhao Yun said, "Sir, your battle strategy is far superior to mine. Since you trust me, I will obey your orders."

"But Yun still has one thing unclear, why did he join forces with Lu Bu?"

"Is it because Hanoi is the closest to Hedong?"

"But Lu Bu has a history of betrayal. What if he betrays us at a critical moment?"

Seeing that Zhao Yun asked so many detailed questions, Yuan Xi felt relieved. This meant that Zhao Yun was not just doing things perfunctorily, but was trying to understand the interpersonal relationships between everyone and working hard to get things done.

To be fair, Zhao Yun was not the best among all people in the world in terms of either martial arts or strategy, but he had one quality that no one else could match.

When Zhao Yun wants to do something, he will definitely go all out. In this regard, he is the most reliable and trustworthy.

This is why Yuan Xi entrusted the most important matter concerning his future to Zhao Yun.

He said to Zhao Yun: "Lü Bu is now in Hanoi. Naturally, I planned it in advance."

"As for why I chose him, there is only one reason."

"Among all the princes in the world today, he has the least ambition."

Yuan Xi had reasons to say this.

Everyone has ambition, and the higher the position, the greater the ambition.

But when it comes to Lu Bu, it seems to have no effect.

From the perspective of later generations, he had no ambition to support the Han Dynasty or unify the world. After capturing Xuzhou, he and his wives and concubines spent all day drinking and having fun, to the point that he neglected his martial arts. He behaved like a farmer who only cared about his wife, children and a warm bed.

The fact that he murdered his leaders several times only shows that he is not clear-headed and has low moral standards, but it does not mean that he has great ambitions.

His so-called ambition was more like revenge after he felt he had been treated unfairly. After killing his sponsors several times, he did not become independent, but was willing to serve as a deputy to others.

Can a person who always claims that he will not be inferior to others, but always chooses to be inferior to others and is unwilling to even take on the responsibility of serving his lord be considered ambitious?

Yuan Xi felt that if Lu Bu had half of his ambition, he would not have fallen to this point.