Zhang Heng waved his sleeves and said seriously to Xun You: "There are still more than ten days before Cai Shizhong gets married. Gongda can make arrangements as he pleases. I will let Ziyi listen to your orders. Don't have any scruples in everything, just give it a go." !”
"I understand!"
Xun You nodded heavily.
At this moment, he couldn't help but think of He Yong who died in prison.
If he had obeyed him like Zhang Ziyi, there would be grass growing on Thief Dong's grave now.
Chen Gong suddenly said: "Captain, do you want to inform Shizhong Cai about this matter? Although he is committed to Dong Thief, he is not attached to it. If we can get his help, we will be even more powerful."
"No, no!"
Before Zhang Heng could speak, Xun You waved his hand and said, "Even if Shizhong Cai has the intention to eliminate thieves, he will inevitably hesitate when it comes to the marriage of her eldest daughter, fearing that he will miss the opportunity. Furthermore, what if Shizhong Cai If we are unwilling to cooperate, we will fall short.”
Xun You had already suffered the loss of his advisers' lack of confidentiality once, and he would never do it again.
"What Gongda said is true. In the worst possible time, we will take Cai Shizhong away from Luoyang to prevent him from falling into the hands of Thief Dong." Zhang Heng nodded.
After all, you have taken advantage of someone, so you have to leave a way for them to survive.
Seeing Zhang Heng's words, Chen Gong had no choice but to give up the idea.
After the discussion was settled, Zhang Heng ordered everyone to prepare separately.
In fact, there is nothing to prepare for. The commanding authority Zhang Heng has been delegated to Xun You, so just watch him perform next.
Just taking advantage of this period of time, Zhang Heng could plan his route after escaping Luoyang.
With Li Ru's shrewdness, even if he didn't notice it beforehand, he would definitely react immediately afterwards, and he would definitely lead an army to chase him down.
So, which way should you retreat?
Zhang Heng took out the map and looked at it carefully.
Luoyang is the capital of the empire. Roads naturally extend in all directions in the world, so you can go anywhere.
After frowning and thinking for a long time, Zhang Heng roughly mapped out four routes.
First, after leaving Luoyang, go straight to the southeast, bypass Xuanyuan Pass and go straight into the mountains and forests, which is the road Zhang Heng took from Yingchuan to Luoyang.
The advantage of this road is that it is short and can be reached in the shortest time. Once entering Yangcheng Mountain, not to mention Li Ru's 10,000 troops, even with a hundred thousand troops, it is difficult to find traces of Zhang Heng and others.
The second is to leave Luoyang and go straight north to reach Pingjin Ferry as quickly as possible. After crossing the Yellow River, there is Hanoi County. Yuan Shao is currently stationing troops here. Li Ru will never dare to pursue him across the Yellow River.
And this road is shorter and faster than the previous road.
The disadvantage is that there are too many uncontrollable factors, not to mention that the Pingjin Crossing is definitely guarded by the Xiliang Army. Even if they can cross the Yellow River, Yuan Shao is definitely not a good guy.
The third is to go all the way west, as long as you can bypass Hangu Pass, you will enter the boundary of Guanzhong, which is beyond Li Ru's reach. Although the journey is long enough, fortunately, it was unexpected and even Li Ru would not think about it. As long as they avoid the limelight for a while, Zhang Heng and others will be safe.
The fourth and final way. Go all the way south, heading straight to Nanyang.
This road is wide and flat, traveling very fast, and there is only one obstacle in the way, Guangcheng Pass. Once you enter Nanyang, you will be in Yuan Shu's territory, and you and others will be completely safe. Zhang Heng could even ask Yuan Shu in advance to send troops to respond. Now is the honeymoon period for Yuan Shu and Liu Bei, so he shouldn't refuse.
But the biggest drawback of this road is that it is flat.
The faster you travel, the faster the enemy pursues you. Once you are overtaken, you will have no chance of defending and can only close your eyes and wait for death.
Each of these four paths has its own advantages and disadvantages. Even though Zhang Heng thought hard for a long time, he could not choose the most suitable one.
"That's all, it's still more than ten days anyway. Let's think about it slowly then."
Zhang Heng blew out the candle, lay down on the couch and fell asleep.
…
Time passed day by day, and Xun You's plan progressed little by little.
Zhang Heng, on the other hand, has completely become an idler. He either hides in the house to sleep or sits in the courtyard to bask in the sun every day.
From the second day after the planning began, Chen Gong began to move people out of the city in batches.
When he informed Xu Rong of the news, Xu Rong was moved to tears.
Unfortunately, it turns out that Mr. Ziyi did not regard me, Old Xu, as cannon fodder. He responded immediately and moved his wife, children, and children out of the city.
In order to prevent Li Ru from noticing, Chen Gong acted very carefully and only allowed no more than ten people to leave the city every day.
Fortunately, there are not many people to send away in total. There are three families, Zhang Wen, Xu Rong, and Xun Shuang, and there are no more than a hundred people together. Ten days and eight days are enough. As for the servants, I can't take care of them now. Let's leave together when the time comes. First, ensure the safety of my family.
On the other hand, Xu Rong also began to prepare weapons for the attack.
There are a total of 10,000 Xiliang troops in Luoyang, and the troops responsible for city defense are only 4,000 on a daily basis, rotating every five days. In other words, only the two thousand people who were in charge of city defense that day had weapons, and the rest of the weapons were sealed in the arsenal.
Among these two thousand people, at least one thousand guarded the safety of the palace, and another thousand guarded various city gates.
As for the remaining 6,000 people, they were all stationed outside the city.
Dong Min and his senior generals only had dozens of guards with them on a daily basis.
Since Cai Yong married a daughter, most of the senior generals of the Xiliang Army were invited, so Xu Rong soon got the opportunity to be in charge of patrol that day.
As for weapons, he took advantage of his position as city gate captain to get a few every day. Fortunately, he finally got enough.
If it were placed in the Taiping years, and the arsenal had to be inventoried every time it came in and out, Xu Rong would naturally have no chance. But at this time, Dong Zhuo was in power, and all government affairs in the city were in the hands of Li Ru, and all military affairs were in the hands of Dong Min.
Although Li Ru was scary, Dong Min was only as vigilant as he was, so he gave Xu Rong a chance.
The time finally came to the fourteenth day.
Tomorrow is the auspicious day for Cai Yong to marry his daughter, and the Hedong Wei family has also arrived today. The long welcoming procession has been swaying through the market, attracting many people to watch.
The entire Cai Mansion was decorated with lanterns and streamers, creating a scene of joy.
Officials who were familiar with Cai Yong came to congratulate him in advance, and Cai Yong returned the favor one by one. Even half of Luoyang was shrouded in joy.
Inside the Chancery.
Li Ru opened a military newspaper and read it carefully. It was the latest news from Dong Zhuo from the front line.
At this time, the war in Xingyang has entered its third round.
After listening to Li Ru's advice last time, Dong Zhuo reorganized his troops and launched another attack on Xingyang.
Unfortunately, they still failed to break the city, but lost thousands of soldiers and horses.
In desperation, Dong Zhuo finally let go of his thoughts and planned to return to the court.
In addition, Dong Zhuo approved everything Li Ru mentioned in his letter last time and asked him to take action immediately.
One was to issue an edict to Huangfu Song, who was stationed in Fufeng, and let him enter the capital.
The second thing is to deal with Liu Bian.
Liu Bian abdicated last year, and now he is just King Hongnong. It stands to reason that he is no longer a threat. The reason why Dong Zhuo wanted to kill him was actually because of the princes of Guandong.
To be precise, it was because Yuan Shao's original banner was that Dong Zhuo was arbitrarily abolishing the establishment and had evil intentions, so they would never recognize Dong Zhuoli as the emperor and vowed to march into Luoyang and welcome Liu Bian back.
In this case, Mr. Dong simply eliminates Liu Bian physically to see what excuses you have.
These two things were both minor and serious. Li Ru planned to issue an edict first, and then poison Liu Bian after Huangfu Song returned to Luoyang and lost the ability to resist.
After thinking about it, Li Ru immediately wrote quickly and eloquently wrote an edict. Finally, he took out the imperial seal, stamped it, and prepared to send it to Huangfu Song.
But after stamping the seal, Li Ru looked at the imperial seal in his hand, and a strange color suddenly flashed in his eyes.
This thing... maybe I can use it some time.
Once the capital is moved to Chang'an, Luoyang will inevitably be conquered by the princes.
It would be better to throw out the jade seal passed down as a meat bone and let the princes bite the dog.
Thinking of this, Li Ru's lips revealed a sneer.
…
The next day, afternoon.
Zhang Heng walked out of the room, but he had already packed up and looked ready to go.
Today is the day when Cai Yong gets married, and Xun You's arrangements have been completed. Luoyang will become a battlefield in the evening.
With Zhang Heng's temperament, he would not personally participate in this turmoil and would naturally leave early.
On the other side, Zhang Wen also walked out of the room.
In order not to attract attention, Zhang Heng specially arranged for Zhang Wen and Xun Shuang to leave last.
"Uncle, everything is ready, let's leave the city." Zhang Heng stepped forward and cupped his hands.
Zhang Wen nodded solemnly and said, "Okay, I have made an appointment with Brother Ciming to meet outside the city. Let's set off now."
At that moment, Zhang Heng and Uncle Zhang Wen left the house and headed out of the city with only one butler.
Before leaving the city gate, Zhang Heng couldn't help but look back at Luoyang City.
The imperial capital that has been here for hundreds of years, I have not yet experienced its prosperity, so I have to leave in a hurry. The next time I come back, I don’t know what year or month it will be.
And even if I could come again, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to see such a prosperous scene.
Before Dong Zhuo moved the capital, he must have brought disaster to all those who could bring disaster, and finally burned down the entire city with a fire.
"Ziyi, let's get out of the city."
Zhang Wen couldn't help but remind his nephew when he saw that he was in a daze.
"Okay, let's get out of the city!"
Zhang Heng nodded solemnly, and the uncle and nephew led the horse through the city gate, then galloped away from Luoyang.
A few miles outside the city, they saw Xun Shuang and his party who had been waiting here for a long time.
"Brother Ciming!"
Zhang Wen dismounted, walked over with a big smile, and cupped his hands to Xun Shuang.
Xun Shuang also bowed his hand to Zhang Wen, and then turned his attention to Zhang Heng.
"This must be Ziyi's virtuous nephew."
Zhang Heng quickly raised his hands and saluted, "Wan Sheng has met Xun Sikong!"
"Why should a good nephew be so close to each other? Your uncle and I have been close friends for many years. If your good nephew never abandons you, how about calling me uncle?" Xun Shuang stroked his beard and said with a smile.
He had learned the entire plan from Xun You, and understood that it was the young man in front of him who was behind everything, and his words and deeds were much more polite.
Xun Shuang wanted to have a relationship, but Zhang Heng had nothing to say, so he had to hold his hands again and said: "This junior has met Uncle Xun!"
"My nephew is exempt from the gift!"
Xun Shuang stroked his beard and smiled.
It is worth mentioning that Zhang Heng discovered that in addition to the housekeeper and a few servants, there was a young woman behind Xun Shuang. She was about twenty years old. She was fair, beautiful, and graceful, but she kept a cold face, as if It's like everyone owes her money.
This girl must be Xun Shuang's concubine.
This old guy looks sanctimonious, but he turns out to be an old pervert!
