Because Yan Xiang persuaded Yuan Shu to make all preparations before taking action, the result was that Yuan Shu's camp was obviously the closest prince to Luoyang, but it was the last to send envoys to Luoyang to pay condolences.

Many of the other princes arrived before New Year's Eve in 196, which was considered to have handled these sad affairs before the New Year. Only Yan Xiang, who arrived in Luoyang on the day of Shangyuan Festival in 197.

The wheel of history finally turned to the third year of Jian'an - perhaps it was the last year of Jian'an's reign.

Nanyang County is so close to Henan Yin, but Yuan Shu's envoy has been away for so long, which naturally aroused the dissatisfaction and suspicion of some ministers in the court.

Cai Yong, one of the three ministers in the court who has been presiding on Zhu Jun’s memorial ceremony recently, personally summoned Yan Xiang and asked the reason: “The general died, and the whole country is sad. Why is the general of the guard late?”

Yan Xiang didn't dare to be arrogant at this moment and explained sincerely: "Please forgive me, and report to Your Majesty: General Wei had sent his ministers to Beijing to pay his respects twenty days ago, and he was sincere.

I was just because I was eager to rush to get a shortcut and tried to cross the valley of Songshan Mountain in the twelfth lunar month. Unexpectedly, the wind and snow were getting worse and I was trapped in Shaoshi Mountain and could not move forward or retreat. After a month of sleepiness, my General Guard thought that I didn’t know that I was trapped in Songshan, so I did not send a second batch of mourning envoys.”

Cai Yong nodded: "It turns out that haste is not achieved. In the cold winter, it is too dangerous to go over Songshan by small roads and short roads. There are no casualties in the mission, right?"

Yan Xiang: "Meng Sikong cares for him, but fortunately everyone is safe."

Cai Yong: "That's good, you go in and pay your condolences."

All the red tape on that day is not needed.

The next morning, it was not the day for the court to discuss, but because Yuan Shu's envoy came to meet, Liu Xie specially went to the court to meet in Deyang Hall to meet with foreign ministers. Some ministers and officials from the Honglu Temple and Guangluxun in the court also accompanied him to the court to meet.

Liu Xie sat down on the imperial throne and glanced at the left and right. Before he could ask Yan Xiang, he suddenly noticed the young ministers who should attend and asked kindly: "Why didn't Zeisk see me?"

Miao Si, who also served as the Central Constable, was also helpless. The Chaohui fell into a short-term cold situation. Fortunately, Miao Si reacted quickly and advised Liu Xie to comfort the envoy first, and then investigate Zhai Sikong's affairs, so that he could cover up.

After asking Yan Xiang some things, the little yellow gate who was sent out to ask about the situation also came back and whispered to Miao Si.

After Miao Si and other Koreans finished talking about the topic, they took the opportunity to find a gap to report to Liu Xie:

"Your Majesty, Zeissk seems to have suddenly felt a cold last night and his illness is not bad. He originally wanted to force the sick to participate in the court meeting this morning, but he really couldn't support it, so he couldn't take a leave in advance.

I vaguely expected it and sent an imperial physician to go with Xiao Huangmen. Zeisk did not ask the imperial physician to take the pulse, but just stated his condition. After the imperial physician observed it, he said that Sikong might have been working hard recently and became ill. Yesterday, he received the envoy from the last generals of the Outer Town. He breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly lay down."

Liu Xie was a little nervous: "Zeiskong and the general are not far apart. This year is 64. It's 65 after the New Year. This is my fault. How can he be so old that he can work hard to supervise the general's ritual? If there is something else... After the court breaks apart, go to Zeiskong's mansion to visit."

Miao Si dissuaded: "Your Majesty, it is extremely difficult for you to visit a sick minister for the emperor. Zeisk is not as good as a general, but he just feels cold... I'd better wait for him to submit his leave and see what the situation is."

Liu Xie nodded, feeling that he could not act rashly, so the matter was temporarily over.

Liu Xie didn't have much thought in the second half of the court discussion. After finally getting the memorial sent by Cai Yong, Liu Xie was shocked again.

"Zeiskong feels old and weak, would he beg for bones?"

Of course, begging for the bones is asking for retirement. However, it is reasonable for the elderly who are 65 years old to retire and not to become officials. Even if they are in the 21st century, senior talents can retire until they are 65 years old.

In the commentary, Cai Yong said that he was not very sick this time and could recover, but he was also thinking about it after this. Especially recently, he was very touched by Zhu Jun's ritual recently. After he suddenly let go of the matter, he became tired.

Liu Xie did not dare to make a decision immediately, so he came to Yang Biao and Zhao Wen to discuss it, and finally decided to agree to Cai Yong retire as well.

However, Cai Yong was quite proud of his face. He did not leave Luoyang immediately after obtaining a retirement permit. Instead, he lived for seven or eight days, recuperating his cold and cold body. He asked his servants to pack their luggage and books while he was recuperating. Anyway, he was alone and his daughter and son-in-law were not around. There was no burden to take care of his family, so it was quite convenient to leave.

He was infected with cold wind on the 17th day of the first lunar month, begged for bones on the 18th, and was approved by the emperor on the 20th. He lived until the 25th day of the first lunar month before leaving Luoyang City. The convoy slowly headed north and took a boat to cross the Yellow River north at the Xiaopingjin Ferry.

Cai Yong did not choose to go on land to Chang'an via Hongnong, because in the late first lunar month, the mountain was covered with heavy snow. The Yellow River had already thawed and the waterway was not bumpy.

Even if there is a barrier between Sanmenxia, ​​he can cross from Xiaopingjin first to Dongyuan County, Hedong County, and then take a land route to Anyi County in the Fengshui River Basin, and then change the boat from Fengshui to Pubanjin to Chang'an.

As mentioned earlier, Hedong County is actually divided into two parts. Several counties south of Zhongtiao Mountain and in the narrow area on the north bank of the Yellow River were defended by the Anbei General Han Xian, the court.

The area north of Zhongtiao Mountain and the area with the county’s Anyi as the core is Zhang Fei’s garrison (Guan Yu will be recalled soon)

But since the world is still in a state of peace, Han Xian, who was born in Baibo, dared not take the retired three imperial court officials.

When Cai Yong passed by Dongyuan County, Han Xian was afraid of any conspiracy and encountering Tao Qian's experience. If Cai Yong had something unexpected while transiting, he would definitely have to be buried with him. So Han Xian respectfully led his troops to escort Cai Yong outside Anyi City, confirming that Zhang Fei's troops had taken Cai Yong away, and then returned, fearing that there would be a Zhang Kai under his tent.

Poor Zhang Fei was not good at politics, so Liu Bei was very sensible and didn't say much to him in advance. Therefore, when he received Cai Yong, Zhang Fei thought that Cai Yong was really just "after occasionally feeling cold, his physique became weak and discouraged and wanted to retire."

In view of Cai Yong being Li Su's father-in-law, Zhang Fei also sent troops to protect Cai Yong to Chang'an and reunite with his daughter, grandson and granddaughter.

However, just a few days after Cai Yong left Anyi and continued westward, a new incident occurred in Luoyang. When Cai Yong arrived in Chang'an, the news of the incident also reached Zhang Fei's ears.

...

Yan Xiang successfully paid homage to the emperor and mourned Zhu Jun. In late January, in the area where Yin, Nanyang County and Yingchuan County in Henan Province, the busyness of Che and Ma Xiaoxiao became increasingly intense.

Ji Ling, a general under Yuan Shu, had already brought his troops and several other generals transferred to him by Yuan Shu, with a total of more than 70,000 people stationed in Luyang County, Nanyang County.

Liu Xun also brought several groups of people, totaling 60,000 people, and was stationed in Xiangcheng County, Yingchuan County.

The number of troops used shows that Yuan Shu was also prepared and did his best like a lion fighting a rabbit. After all, Dong Cheng's direct troops were 10,000 or 20,000. In addition, the 20,000 to 30,000 "New Taipei Army Five Schools" that Zhu Jun had trained for many years during his tenure in Henan. It was no problem to use 40,000 people in total.

There are nearly 40,000 people in Duan Wei in Hongnong to the west. However, I heard that because Duan Wei's chassis is too small, most of the land production in Hongnong County is in the mountainous areas of Wushan, and it is impossible to support too many people. Therefore, many of Duan Wei's troops have been converted into military farm soldiers, and their combat effectiveness has decreased.

No matter what, if there is no absolute military advantage, it would be useless for Yuan Shu to capture the title of Dayi.

The attacking party was not sure if it was 130,000, and the attacking party was not sure, so what Yuan Shu expected was Duan Wei to remain neutral and not to trek in muddy waters. In this way, it would be very sure to only deal with Dong Cheng's 40,000 people.

In order to force Duan Wei to be neutral, Yuan Shu's camp has basically brought in all mobile offensive troops that can be mobilized in other directions, except for the necessary troops to guard the local area. On the western front, Qiao Rui, who was responsible for blocking Liu Bei and threatening Duan Wei, had more than 20,000 mobile troops.

On the one hand, these men should supervise the militia to guard the Shiguan, and on the other hand, they should sneak attack Tongguan in a peaceful state before the news leaked. They asked Qiao Rui to restrain Duan Wei, and made Duan Wei realize that "Dong Cheng is a traitor to the king and the country" and did not help each other.

After ensuring Duan Wei is stable, Ji Ling and Liu Xun, the two men, could copy the offensive route that Sun Jian had attacked Dong when he arrived in Liangxian and Yangcheng, in Yin, Henan. There were ready-made homeworks to copy, of course, there was no need to be used.

Dong Cheng's evil is comparable to Dong Zhuo! Dong Cheng is originally a remnant of Dong Zhuo! He helped deal with Li Jue and Guo Si, not because he was loyal to the emperor! It was just because the thieves in Xiliang competed for power and profit and shared the spoils without evenly sharing the spoils!

All the troops on the third line are in place, and the matter of creating excuses can begin.

On the third day of the second month, the mourning mission led by Yan Xiang left Luoyang and headed south to return to the vicinity of Zhuyuan Pass. Before leaving, some female relatives in the mission, who seemed to be Yuan Shu's relatives, begged to enter the palace to visit Yuan Shu's daughter Yuan Guiren.

It was originally difficult for foreign ministers and female relatives to visit the imperial concubines, but now it is a special period. Liu Xie did not dare to offend the concubines' family members at all, so he was a little more relaxed in his control and allowed the visitors to give some specialties from his hometown to nobles.

A few days later, Liu Xie suddenly heard that there were many cases of the imperial concubine's emergency illness in the harem. Yuan Guiren was unwell, had abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, bleeding from the lower body, and had a miscarriage. There were also some palace maids who had been walking with her, and some other concubines, who also had abnormalities.

Even Cao Guiren, the daughter of Cao Cao, the general of the East, also had a miscarriage. The symptoms were quite serious. Because the month was older, she died of blood collapse - but this should be a real accident. Maybe she was not in a good position to walk around and eat.

Liu Xie felt his scalp numb and his spine became cold, and suddenly realized some terrible possibilities.

However, before he could confirm the situation, the sound of the king suddenly came from the south.

"The traitor Dong Cheng, the remnant of Dong Zhuo, holds the emperor hostage, invades the harem, is extremely chaotic, is extremely cruel and evil: poisons the concubines, destroys the dragon seeds..."

Ji Ling and Liu Xun held oaths near Liang County and Yangcheng, and then launched a sneak attack to capture the two border towns:

"Dong Chengdog thief, since his daughter was killed, His Majesty has not allowed him to have a descendant with the concubines of other families! He wants their grandson of Dong to inherit the throne for generations!
Chapter completed!