By June of this year, the Yellow Turban Rebellion that swept almost the entire Han Dynasty was coming to an end.
Lu Zhi, Zhu Jun, and Huangfu Song sent three armies to suppress the rebellion, and they all won great victories, annihilating most of the Yellow Turban Army's effective forces.
Liu Bian fought equally vigorously. After quelling the Yellow Turban Army in Youzhou, he went to Guangzong with a great victory to join forces with Lu Zhi's army to encircle and annihilate the core force of the Yellow Turban Army led by Zhang Jiao and Zhang Liang.
The arrival of Liu Bian also happened to relieve Lu Zhi of a disaster.
Although the Yellow Turban Army in Guangzong City was at the end of its rope at that time, they were all the most devout followers of Taiping Dao, so they worked together as one.
Lu Zhi was well versed in the art of war and knew that a strong attack at this time would only arouse the Yellow Turban Army's desire to fight to the death. Even if they could capture the city, they would have to pay a heavy price, so he decided to encircle the city without attacking.
In his expectation, the food stored in Guangzong, a small county town, must be limited. As long as the city starts to run out of food, the rebel army's morale will gradually collapse, and then they can take advantage of the situation to break through the city.
But Lu Zhi only counted all the enemies, but missed his own side.
Seeing that Lu Zhi, who was originally invincible, was still unable to attack Guangzong, various rumors began to arise in the court. Some said that Lu Zhi was afraid of war, and some said that he was self-respecting in supporting the invaders.
Liu Hong heard more and began to have doubts in his heart, so he sent Zuo Feng, a close confidant of Xiaohuangmen around him, to inspect the military situation.
When Zuo Feng arrived at Lu Zhi's army, he didn't care about the war between the two armies. He opened his mouth to ask for bribes.
Lu Zhi has always been upright, how could he do such a conciliatory thing, and sternly refused on the spot.
Zuo Feng was furious and had a fit at that time. He kept saying that he would "speak kind words" to the emperor when he returned to the court.
Liu Biancha arrived at this time. When the Chinese army met Lu Zhi and learned about this, he was furious and ordered Zuo Feng to be pushed out of the Meridian Gate and beheaded immediately.
He led the army to quell the rebellion in Youzhou, and besides his nobility, he also developed a murderous aura, which is really frightening when it breaks out now.
Zuo Feng was so frightened that he peed his pants and knelt on the ground, begging and begging.
In the end, Lu Zhi felt that even though Liu Bian was the eldest prince, it was inappropriate to kill the angel like this, so he came forward to intercede tactfully on Zuo Feng's behalf.
Liu Bian was still angry, and ordered people to drag Zuo Feng down and beat thirty army sticks hard before driving him out of the barracks. He also sternly warned Zuo Feng that if Zuo Feng dared to slander in front of his father and ruined the important task of encirclement and suppression of rebellion, he would be Even in front of my father, I want to chop off his dog's head with one sword.
Zuo Feng returned to Luoyang in despair. As expected, he did not dare to gossip in front of Liu Hong, but he could not express his resentment in his heart, so he cried out to his backers Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong.
Although Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong did not express it clearly, they began to have some ideas in their minds when they thought that the prince Liu Bian was so powerful and that life under him would not be easy in the future.
Liu Bian and Lu Zhi were not aware of these underworld matters, but seeing that there was no other reaction from the court later, they calmed down and faced the besieged Guangzong City.
Although Liu Bian felt that Lu Zhi was taking a safe approach, he was worried that something might change if it was too late. However, he could not think of any other good strategy and could only ask his men to cooperate with Lu Zhi's army to siege the city.
That night, he and his generals were planning a strategy to break the city as soon as possible in the tent. While they were discussing, a chuckle suddenly came clearly to everyone's ears, and then everyone felt that their eyes were blurred, and the open space in the middle had disappeared out of thin air. There is another Taoist with a light body and a face like a full moon.
"Death to the spy!"
Before anyone else could react, two big men shouted loudly at the same time.
One of them had a red face and long beard, silk-like eyebrows and phoenix eyes, and the other had an iron face and steel beard, and a leopard head with ringed eyes. As they shouted, they drew their swords out of their sheaths and crossed at the Taoist to cut them in the waist. The timing, angle, and speed of the swords were unexpected. They all cooperated in perfect harmony.
The Taoist didn't panic, raised his right hand and stretched out his index finger to point forward gently, exactly at the point where the two long swords crossed.
The two people immediately felt as if there was a mountain of ten thousand feet in front of the long sword in their hands. No matter how hard they tried, it was like a worm shaking a tree, unable to make an inch forward.
"Yun Chang, Yide, stop, this is my adoptive father!"
Liu Bian's timely words resolved the dilemma between the two of them.
The two men hurriedly sheathed their swords and retreated. When they looked at the ordinary Taoist in front of them, their eyes were full of admiration.
Liu Bian completely ignored his identity as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the prince of the Han Dynasty. He quickly stepped out from behind the commander's case, grabbed Hu Long's sleeve and asked, "Father, where have you been these days?"
Hu Long raised his hand and patted his shoulder, and said with a smile: "I went to the north for my father, met a very interesting person, and got a very interesting thing. We will talk about this later when we have the opportunity."
At this time, Huang Zhong, Huang Xu and his son, and Zhao Yun also came forward to meet Hu Long. Then Liu Bian called other generals to meet Hu Long and introduced them one by one.
These people were all the talents he recruited when he was fighting the rebellion in Youzhou. Among them, the two people that Hu Long was most concerned about were naturally the two people who had just taken action - Guan Yu, Guan Yunchang and Zhang Fei and Zhang Yide.
According to Liu Bian, these two people came to surrender on their own initiative after he led his troops into Youzhou. But as a result, Liu Bei, who lost his two major helpers in starting a business, is still unknown and has no idea where he can support himself.
Liu Bian knew Hu Long best and knew that since he showed up, he must be here for something, so he hurriedly invited Hu Long to take the seat, and then couldn't wait to talk about the current problem.
Hu Long smiled calmly and said: "This is easy. If what I predict is true, Zhang Jiao will definitely abandon the fortified city within three days and lead his elite troops to fight in the field with Wang's army. My son must immediately inform Lu Zhonglang to prepare for war." .”
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the tent was shocked.
At the same time, Zhang Jiao, the great sage and mentor in Guangzong City, was staring blankly at his brother Zhang Liang, with expressions of disbelief on their faces.
After a long while, Zhang Liang said calmly: "Brother, what...what is said in this letter, exactly..."
Zhang Jiao finally came back to his senses, his eyes fell on a silk book spread out on the tables in front of him, with an expression on his face that seemed to be crying and smiling:
"That person can deliver the letter to us silently, so what's the difficulty in taking our heads? Naturally, there is no need to use lies to deceive. In fact, the luck gathered by the Tao of Taiping has formed a golden elixir certificate. Immortal Queen, my brother, faintly felt that there was something wrong with these three volumes. Now it seems that it is probably as stated in the letter that the so-called immortal fate at the beginning was just bait to lure me into the game and become a chess piece."
Zhang Liang gritted his teeth and said, "I asked why those Yellow Turban warriors are becoming more and more violent and murderous. Even I often can't control my temper. It turns out that the root cause is that."
Zhang Jue suddenly laughed so hard that he fell forward and backward and was out of breath. Zhang Liang's heart went crazy with laughter.
"Brother, you..."
Zhang Jiao stopped laughing, wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes, shook his head and sighed: "The peaceful world, the Tao Kingdom on the earth, the luck, merits, and immortal Tao fruits were all just a big dream, but now it is the dream. Time to wake up.”
Zhang Liang's expression changed: "Brother, do you really want to follow what this letter says?"
"Why not?" Zhang Jiao sneered, "No matter who sent this letter, he must be the enemy of the so-called 'Nanhua Old Immortal' who originally sent it to me. If you act according to his words, you will not only be able to counterattack the 'Nanhua Old Immortal' 'For once, we can find a way out for the Taoists who follow us, why wouldn't we do it for my brother?"
