kingnovel Chapter 682: The Alliance of Princes Breaks Down
Chapter 682: The Alliance of Princes Breaks Down
In Luoyang City, when Dong Zhuo's 5,000 Xiliang cavalry swept through those wealthy and powerful families, Lu Bu was also sent to dig up the tombs of the previous emperor and concubines.
To put it bluntly, Dong Zhuo and Li Ru did not really regard Lü Bu as their own man, but only valued Lü Bu's martial arts value. In addition, Lü Bu was simple-minded and was a relatively easy-to-use tool. Moreover, Lü Bu's Fang Tian Hua Ji had stabbed his former master Ding Yuan.
Li Ru also assigned the task of burning Luoyang to Lu Bu, but Lu Bu did not realize there was anything wrong with it and just followed orders, arranging soldiers to pile weeds and firewood in various places in Luoyang, making final preparations for setting fire to the city.
The intelligence personnel in the city discovered that it was Lu Bu who was leading the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry to burn the city, and immediately passed the news on.
After receiving the news, Guo Jia, who had already arrived outside Luoyang City, thought for a moment, then immediately wrote a letter, had it delivered to the city by flying eagle, and asked someone to pass it to Lu Bu.
Just as Lü Bu arranged his men and horses and laid out the firewood, he saw a letter coming from one of his generals: "Marquis Wen, someone just shot a letter with a bow and arrow. It says 'Wen Hou's personal letter' on it. Please take a look, Marquis Wen."
Lu Bu took the letter, opened it and read it carefully. His expression changed. After hesitating for a moment, he burned the letter.
"Wen Hou, what did you write in the letter?"
"Nothing, just a letter from an old friend. Wei Xu, have you prepared all the firewood?"
"The firewood has been laid out. We just need to wait for the Prime Minister's carriages to leave Luoyang, and then we can start the fire."
"Don't worry. It's windy today. Let's wait another half an hour and let our troops retreat to the edge of the city. Fire and water are merciless. Be careful not to hurt your own people when setting fire. In addition, there is no need to arrange for anyone in the palace. As long as there is fire in all directions in the city, the palace will naturally be lost."
"Yes, I will go and arrange it right away."
Thinking of the last part of the letter, Lü Bu stopped Wei Xu who was about to leave and gave him one more instruction: "Take 300 trusted men and horses, bring some firewood, and pile up the firewood at the foot of the small hill west of the city. When my Bingzhou troops arrive, set fire to it."
Wei Xu was a little confused: "What does this mean?"
"No need to ask any more questions, just do it."
"Yes."
Soon, Dong Zhuo led the team to escort Emperor Liu Xie and the civil and military officials out of Luoyang first. Later, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry escorted the looted gold, silver, jewelry, money and food supplies, and then Lu Bu and his Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry came behind.
Seeing that everyone had left Luoyang, one of Lu Bu's generals came over and asked, "Marquis Wen, should we light the fire?"
Lu Bu looked at the troops in the distance and the city behind him, hesitated for a moment, and was about to say something when he heard the sound of horse hooves in the distance. He immediately ordered: "The enemy is coming, let all soldiers quickly withdraw from Luoyang, and the soldiers in the west of the city will be responsible for starting the fire!"
"Yes!"
Soon, a big fire broke out in the west of Luoyang City, and thick smoke rose. Lu Bu led his men out of Luoyang and headed west.
Immediately afterwards, Huang Zhong led two thousand soldiers and horses from the east of the city to the west. When they met the Xiliang cavalry, they fired several rounds of arrows and then turned and left.
Dong Zhuo heard the shouts and screams from the rear and quickly gave the order: "Speed up and tell Lu Bu to go and cover the rear and stop the pursuers!"
Once those in front started running, those behind would follow. Many officials and their families who were held hostage also began to panic. The huge team immediately became chaotic. Many people took the opportunity to flee to both sides of the team. The Xiliang Iron Cavalry were also trying their best to maintain order, and the scene began to become chaotic.
When Lu Bu led his troops over the small hill west of the city, he set fire to the hillside. The fire immediately spread and became larger than the fire in Luoyang City.
Dong Zhuo and Li Ru in the front had already retreated more than ten miles. When they saw the fire in the rear, they thought it was a fire in Luoyang City and were relieved. They didn't know that Lu Bu was pretending to obey their orders and only set fire to the west of Luoyang City and outside the city.
Thanks to this, the Liaodong Army that entered Luoyang from the east gate quickly controlled the fire in the west of the city with the assistance of the people in the city, preventing the fire from spreading.
Afterwards, Guo Jia assigned 2000 soldiers to help the people in the city put out the fire, while he led the rest of the soldiers to search every household for the various books treasured by the aristocratic families.
Those Xiliang cavalry were basically reckless men who did not know the importance of books. Li Ru previously controlled the royal library and had a lot of books in his hands. Now he was busy controlling the overall situation and arranging the evacuation, and for a while he could not take care of the books in the hands of the noble families, which gave the Liaodong Army an advantage.
With the help of the detailed map provided by the intelligence department, Guo Jia led his men to collect the letters from every household. Thousands and thousands of scrolls were collected, packed into sacks, and quickly transported out of the city.
At the same time, the coalition forces of the princes soon saw the fire in the direction of Luoyang and immediately realized that something was wrong.
"Oh no! There is a fire in Luoyang. Dong Zhuo must have abandoned the city and fled."
"Hurry and kill your way to Luoyang."
"Report, leader, Sun Jian has already taken the lead and is heading towards Luoyang!"
"Order all troops to break camp, attack Hulao Pass, and march to Luoyang!"
When the coalition forces of the princes rushed to Hulao Pass, they found that Hulao Pass was basically empty, with only some abandoned old soldiers walking on the city walls.
Afterwards, troops from all directions marched quickly towards Luoyang.
At this time, the various princes no longer cared about their image and led their few cavalrymen towards Luoyang.
Hulao Pass is fifty miles away from Luoyang. When the various princes led their troops to arrive, Guo Jia had already led his men to empty the books of the major families in the city and moved them outside the city.
The fire in Luoyang did not cause much damage, but only burned many houses in the west of the city.
Sun Jian, who rushed into the city first, saw that some troops had already arrived first, so he quickly sent people to inquire. When he learned that they were troops from Liaodong, Sun Jian did not dare to conflict with them.
At this moment, one of his generals came to report: "My lord, it seems that the Liaodong troops have not yet searched the palace. Why don't we go ahead!"
Sun Jian was delighted when he heard this and immediately led his troops into the palace.
When Guo Jia saw Sun Jian rushing into the palace, he just smiled slightly and didn't care.
After Sun Jian led his men into the palace, his men soon found some scattered jewels beside a dry well. Then, naturally, they discovered a palace maid who had fallen to her death in the well, and a box in the maid's arms.
The subordinates immediately presented the box to Sun Jian. Sun Jian opened the box and saw a jade seal inlaid with gold. On it were eight large characters inscribed: "Received the Mandate from Heaven, May You Live Long and Prosperous".
After obtaining this treasure, Sun Jian immediately hid it carefully and pretended that nothing had happened. He was already thinking about returning to Changsha as soon as possible.
Little did he know that while Sun Jian was discussing the imperial seal with his generals, a spy hidden among his troops had already written it down and quickly passed the news to Yuan Shao.
Soon, various princes rushed to Luoyang, and Lu Cheng also met with Guo Jia and others.
Then, Yuan Shao had the tent raised and summoned all the princes to ask Sun Jian about the whereabouts of the imperial seal.
Sun Jian naturally refused to admit it and swore: "If I really have the imperial seal in my hand, I will die with a bow and arrow!"
A vassal who had a good relationship with Sun Jian quickly stood up and said, "Since Wen Tai dared to swear, he must not have taken the imperial seal. Why should the leader of the alliance hurt the harmony because of this?"
Yuan Shao immediately summoned the secret spy and wanted to confront Sun Jian in court. Sun Jian drew his sword in anger and wanted to kill the secret spy, but was stopped by Yuan Shao.
At this time, all the princes were attracted by Sun Jian and the imperial seal, and not many people paid attention to the Liaodong army that had arrived first.
Afterwards, Cao Cao took the lead to pursue Dong Zhuo, and Lu Cheng followed closely behind.
As for the other princes, they had already made plans to go home, and Sun Jian even led his troops away directly...