My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 234 Returning to Luoyang
At this time, the situation in Henan was truly appalling. The roads were deserted, with bones exposed in the wilderness, and ruins everywhere. The villages were infested with urban foxes and rats, and jackals and wild dogs showed no fear of people, even daring to attack scouts in packs.

As they approached Luoyang, signs of human habitation finally began to appear.

Having arrived in Luoyang six months earlier, Dong Cheng, who was in charge of repairing the palace, led hundreds of his troops out of the city to greet him.

Dong Cheng was a very upright-looking man with a square face, exuding authority even without anger. He was of medium build but very robust, and he had the air of a loyal minister and a filial son.

However, Liu Feng knew that this guy was no good either.

Although Dong Cheng rebelled against Cao Cao in history, he did not rebel against powerful ministers, but rather against powerful ministers who prevented him from becoming powerful ministers.

Liu Feng, Cao Cao, and Yang Feng took the lead and crossed the river first to summon Dong Cheng.

Liu Feng was followed by Guan Ping, Jia Kui, Gao Shun, and Pan Zhang, while Cao Cao was accompanied by Dian Wei and Cao Hong. Yang Feng was followed by his nephew Yang Wei and his beloved general Xu Huang.

Liu Feng did not give a direct answer to Yang Feng's request to surrender, but instead made the excuse that he needed to consult Liu Bei.

Although they did not become a family, they became much closer, both emotionally and in their actions.

Cao Cao was quite worried about the changes between the Xuzhou army and the Hedong army, but he didn't have any good solutions for the time being, so he just tried to win over Zhang Yang.

But Zhang Yang was not easily fooled. He maintained a good relationship with Liu Feng, and the two sides even agreed to continue trade. Cao Cao's attempt to win him over at this time seemed somewhat ridiculous.

Moreover, Zhang Yang's two right-hand men, Yang Chou and Sui Gu, although they were at odds, both unanimously advised Zhang Yang to choose Xuzhou on this point.

The reason is simple: Yang Chou, as a local power, should actually side with Cao Cao, because Cao Cao is closer to Hanoi than Xuzhou.

But what could Cao Cao do when he couldn't offer any benefits?
Whether it was bartering grain for horses or trading in sugar and salt, the profits Yang Chou made were far beyond what Cao Cao could provide.

As for Sui Gu, he had a deep-seated hatred for Cao Cao, which was obviously not so easy to resolve.

"General Dong, the Emperor's entourage has landed and will be stationed in Pingyin this afternoon."

Upon seeing Dong Cheng, Liu Feng dismounted and went to greet him. Cao Cao followed closely behind, while Yang Feng was somewhat reluctant.

In Yang Feng's view, Dong Cheng was nothing but a loser. He had tried to cause trouble in Hedong before, but Han Xian beat him up and sent him to Luoyang to repair the palace for the emperor.

How could Yang Feng possibly take such a defeated opponent seriously?

However, Liu Feng and Cao Cao had already dismounted to greet him. After hesitating for a moment, he finally followed after being persuaded by Xu Huang.

At this time, Dong Cheng was the General of Anji, so Liu Feng's address of him as "General" was well-deserved.

The titles of generals in the Eastern Han Dynasty were extremely valuable, and even in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, they carried great weight.

Despite the infighting among the Xiliang warriors, their hostage-taking of the emperor and officials, and the rampant bestowal of favors and titles of generals, it was still confined to the Xiliang warrior group itself.

Once outside, the General's ship is a completely different story. Even a miscellaneous General's ship is still very popular in the Kanto region.

Yuan Shao, Liu Bei, and Cao Cao can be considered the top five warlords, but most of their trusted generals were only colonels, and only a very few meritorious officials were appointed as generals.

The rank of Lieutenant General is far from that of a general of miscellaneous titles; it's equivalent to the distance between a brigadier general and a lieutenant general.

This shows how valuable the title of "General of Miscellaneous Ranks" was.

Therefore, Dong Cheng's army of only a thousand men was able to be appointed as the General of Anji, which was a testament to his talent and good fortune; theoretically, he was qualified to be at the table.

Xuzhou had a large and powerful army, and was also the main supplier of grain to the Guandong loyalist army, so Dong Cheng certainly couldn't act like a general.

Although he knew that the young man in front of him was just a local military commander, Dong Cheng still spoke with utmost courtesy: "Your Majesty, I am guilty. I am short of manpower and food and supplies. I have done my best, but I can only repair a few large houses in the inner city. Although these places are not comparable to the palace, they are spacious and clean and can serve as temporary lodgings for Your Majesty."

Liu Feng was not surprised by this.

Historically, Dong Cheng did the same thing, and to be honest, the result was quite good; at least it provided the emperor with a foothold.

Therefore, Liu Feng wanted to praise the other party, but Yang Fengxian interrupted.

"You incompetent wretch, what use are you?"

Yang Feng cursed loudly, "You have been in Luoyang for half a year, and all you have done is tidy up a few large courtyards. You are as stupid as a pig, and you still have the nerve to come here to claim credit and buy rewards?"

Yang Feng's sudden attack caught both Liu Feng and Cao Cao off guard.

Although Dong Cheng was somewhat prepared and guessed that Yang Feng might make things difficult for him, he still did not expect Yang Feng to humiliate him so brazenly.

Dong Cheng's square face turned bright red, as if blood could seep out, but in the end, he did not dare to retort. Instead, he explained, "A group of Yellow Turban remnants in southeastern Luoyang has been incorporated by Yuan Shu and has repeatedly sent troops to harass Luoyang. My troops are few and my generals are few. I can only do my best to keep Luoyang from falling, but I am powerless to drive them away."

"Hmph, Luoyang is right under the emperor's nose. Where would any Yellow Turban remnants come from? I think you're just using clever words to deceive the emperor."

Yang Feng was still not satisfied and relentlessly pursued Dong Cheng, showing a strong desire to crush him.

In response, Liu Feng said he would just watch the show and remain silent.

Yang Feng clearly sided with Xuzhou, and besides, Dong Cheng was no good either, and he couldn't be won over by Liu Feng's few kind words, so why should he stand up for Dong Cheng?

Cao Cao, who was also watching from the side, rolled his small eyes twice, first reassured Yang Feng, and then asked Dong Cheng: "The remnants of the Yellow Turbans have actually attacked the very grounds of the Emperor. This matter is extremely important. I wonder if General Anji has any more specific information to report to the Emperor?"

Dong Cheng glanced gratefully at Cao Cao and quickly replied, "The leader of this Yellow Turban rebel group is named Chang Nu. He has long been entrenched in the Funiu Mountains. Later, he was recruited by the Left General and has repeatedly launched attacks to harass the capital. My subordinates number only about a thousand, while Chang Nu has four or five thousand men. I am truly powerless to help him."

Upon hearing this, Liu Feng was immediately delighted.

Chang Nu was indeed recruited by Yuan Shu in history, but he was originally an ally of Dong Cheng, and together they worked to prevent Cao Cao from entering Luoyang.

Now Cao Cao followed him to Hedong to welcome the Emperor, but Changnu instead started fighting with Dong Cheng.

This can be considered a butterfly effect brought about by myself.

Now that Cao Cao had spoken up to ease the tension between Yang Feng and Dong Cheng, Liu Feng asked what was going on.

After Liu Feng and Cao Cao inquired, it turned out that Chang Nu's troops had actually been entrenched in the Funiu Mountains, and were only incorporated into Yuan Shu's forces in the latter half of last year.

When Yuan Shu heard that Liu Bei of Xuzhou had raised an army to support the emperor and wanted to escort him back to Luoyang, he was surprised.

He felt like he had a cat's claws inside him, and he had to let it out and disgust him before he was satisfied.

After much deliberation and searching, they finally discovered the Changnu tribe in the Funiu Mountains. They then spent a large sum of money to recruit him and ordered him to march north to Luoyang, preferably to capture the city, or at least burn it down completely.

In short, Yuan Shu's main goal was to disgust people, and he enjoyed doing things that harmed himself and others.

Changnu's troops numbered over ten thousand, including four to five thousand able-bodied men, which was indeed beyond Dong Cheng's ability to handle.

It was precisely because this group was poorly equipped and untrained that they were more like a mob than soldiers; otherwise, Dong Cheng's more than a thousand troops would not have been able to stop Chang Nu.

Upon hearing that there were able-bodied young men available, Liu Feng's eyes lit up.

It wasn't that he really lacked those ten thousand men; he only needed four or five thousand able-bodied men. The main reason was that he didn't want Cao Cao to get them.

Despite his generosity in ceding Yingchuan and Hanoi to Cao Cao when it came time to divide the spoils, he was quite magnanimous.

In reality, the territory of Hanoi was already small, and Yuan Shao had taken away one-third of it. More than half of Hanoi's population lived in that one-third of the territory.

Yingchuan County was transformed from a populous county into a barren land with a population of less than 100,000. Otherwise, Cao Cao would not have been able to establish a large-scale military-agricultural colony in Yingchuan so easily in history.

The real reason is that there's no one left in those areas of Yingchuan.

As for Sili, the situation there was also appalling. The situation in Henan was exactly the same as that in Yingchuan, or even worse.

The situation in Chang'an, Guanzhong, was originally the best, but after the internal strife among the Liangzhou warriors, seven or eight out of ten people were wiped out. It is uncertain whether the remaining population can survive the next two years of severe drought.

In this way, the only population Cao Cao could truly hope to control was Hedong and half of Hanoi. However, these two commanderies were never known for their large populations, and could only provide him with a maximum of four or five hundred thousand manpower. But both Hedong and Guanzhong would still face direct attacks from the Hu people. At that time, in order to defend Hedong and Guanzhong, Cao Cao would probably have to send additional manpower.

Cao Cao is unaware of this now, but he will understand the pain of a population shortage as soon as next year or the year after.

So even though Cao Cao gained a lot of territory and seemed to have gotten a great advantage, he actually lost a lot in terms of substance.

However, Cao Cao was unaware of these circumstances at the time, still basking in the glory of his victory in the negotiations.

Liu Feng then said to Cao Cao, "Uncle, many of my troops are newly recruited and lack battle experience. This bandit Changnu is not strong enough; even General Anji's thousand-strong force cannot defeat him. He can be used to train my troops. Please grant my request, Uncle."

Cao Cao was somewhat surprised, but he couldn't immediately see the benefits of suppressing the bandits. He did want to get involved, but his army was running low on food, so he nodded in agreement.

Liu Feng then turned to Jia Kui and said, "Liang Dao, you are in charge of this battle. Do you dare to sign a pledge?"

Upon hearing this, Jia Kui was overjoyed and immediately knelt down, saying, "What is there to be afraid of! I only ask that you, young master, dispatch three thousand men, and I will surely behead Changnu and present his head to you."

"it is good!"

Liu Feng highly praised him: "A thousand guards will accompany you into battle. In addition, Deng Yong's troops, Guan Ping's troops, Jia Bin's troops, and Liu Fu's troops will be assigned to your command."

Liu Feng's 1,000-man unit was established with the assistance of Jia Kui, who also served as its commander, making it a well-organized force.

In addition, Liu Feng specially reinforced the troops with a garrison of two hundred armored soldiers, which were Deng Yong's troops under Pan Zhang's command. This garrison of armored soldiers alone would be enough to tear apart all of Chang Nu's lines in a head-on confrontation.

Finally, Liu Feng handed over Guan Ping's troops, Jia Bin's troops, and Liu Fu's troops to Jia Kui, both to give his brother Guan Ping some prestige and to let Jia Bin and Liu Fu test the waters and see how to arrange things in the future.

When Jia Kui heard that Liu Fenglian and Deng Yong's troops had been handed over to him for command, his heart was filled with excitement.

Deng Yong's troops greatly increased Jia Kui's fighting strength, Guan Ping demonstrated the great favor the lord bestowed upon him, and as for Jia Bin and Liu Fu's troops, they were filled with complete trust.

Jia Kui felt that meeting a wise ruler was worthwhile, even if he died immediately.

Before leaving, Liu Feng gave him a word of advice: "Liang Dao, I know your abilities well. I'm just worried that your eagerness to make a name for yourself might lead to you being taken advantage of by unscrupulous people. Do you understand?"

Suppressing his joy and excitement, Jia Kui bowed respectfully and said, "Please rest assured, young master, I will be careful and cautious, and take a lenient approach to the enemy!"

"Good, go."

Having received Liu Feng's consent, Jia Kui immediately bowed and left.

After Jia Kui left, Liu Feng turned to Gao Shun and said, "Captain Gao, this is the first time Liang Dao has led an army alone, and I'm still a little worried. You've always been cautious and steady, possessing both wisdom and courage. I suggest you provide support for his rear guard. If Jia Kui wins, you don't need to worry about him. If Jia Kui's troops suffer losses, you can adapt to the situation and support his troops. Would you be willing to make this trip, Captain?"

"The young master's order is my command!"

Gao Shun immediately replied, "How dare I speak of hardship? Young Master, please rest assured, I will act according to your orders. If the vanguard advances smoothly, I will remain on the sidelines; if there are any setbacks, I will certainly come to their aid in time."

"Great!"

Liu Feng couldn't help but exclaim in admiration, "I really like loyal and diligent subordinates like Gao Shun."

After accepting the order, Gao Shun immediately led his troops away.

Cao Cao and Yang Feng watched as Liu Feng issued orders, their thoughts completely different.

Cao Cao was shocked by Liu Feng's high prestige in the army. He issued orders like a veteran general. His entire routine was impeccable, with encouraging words, reassuring composure, and a surprise attack.

Cao Cao himself admitted that he had not been as prudent and cautious as he was when he first started his army, let alone his eldest son Cao Ang.

Yang Feng was quite excited, feeling that although Liu Feng was young, he had the demeanor of a great general and was indeed worthy of being called the prodigy of the Liu family of Xuzhou.

Xu Huang, standing behind Yang Feng, was also captivated and even felt a great deal of envy towards Jia Kui.

As generals, how many of them do not aspire to gain regional power and implement the strategies of a great general?

Look at Jia Kui, who is only twenty years old, yet he is so highly valued and cultivated by Liu Feng, who goes to great lengths to eliminate any worries he might have.

No wonder Jia Kui was so excited; I, Xu Gongming, also wish for such a wise ruler.

Subsequently, under Dong Cheng's guidance, the three groups entered the city together, took control of all the city gates, and set up camp in the city.

That's right, we set up camp in the city.

At this time, only the city walls remained of Luoyang. All the houses and official residences inside the city were destroyed by fire, leaving only large areas of ruins and a few buildings that managed to survive.

With a large number of troops stationed in Luoyang, they had to clear flat land in the city to set up camp; otherwise, they wouldn't even have a place to sleep.

After entering the city, Dong Cheng took the initiative to lead Liu Feng and the others to the inner city.

What he prepared for the emperor was the former residence of Zhao Zhong, the Grand Chamberlain, one of the Ten Attendants, and Liu Xie's "Grandmother".

This mansion, located right next to the palace, miraculously survived. Moreover, it boasts a grand layout and luxurious architecture. Although it has experienced war, it has been repaired by Dong Cheng and has been restored to about 60-70% of its original appearance, making it a very good place to stay.

To be fair, it was truly remarkable that Dong Cheng was able to achieve this.

However, Yang Feng still refused to let the other party go, speaking coldly and sarcasticly throughout, and it was unclear where his deep resentment came from.

Liu Feng and Cao Cao, for different reasons, both turned a blind eye to this and allowed Yang Feng to make things difficult for Dong Cheng.

Dong Cheng was indeed quite shrewd; he simply ignored the insults and endured the humiliation without retaliating.

It's because our troops are fewer than the opponent's, and we're not as good at fighting as them.

The emperor spent only one night in Pingyin. The next morning, he couldn't wait to continue south, and by evening he had arrived outside Luoyang.

After more than a year of hardships and dangers, numerous bloody battles, the loss of dozens of officials with salaries of over two thousand shi (a unit of grain), and enduring hunger and subsisting on wild vegetables, the emperor finally returned to Luoyang under the escort of the Guandong loyalist army.

That evening, the emperor entered Luoyang and stayed at the home of his "great-grandmother," Zhao Zhong.

That evening, the emperor issued another edict to appease the generals Liu Feng, Cao Cao, Yang Feng, Guo Gong, Zhang Yang, and Dong Cheng. If the emperor hadn't been so short of money and supplies, given his excitement, he probably would have generously rewarded the entire army.

The emperor also had his close advisors give a hint, but none of Liu Feng and the others paid any attention.

These days, money and grain are precious. I'm giving you, the emperor, money to win over my subordinates. You're so lucky, you can have anything you want in your dreams.

The next day, the emperor was finally free from having to squeeze into a small room or summon his officials in a fenced courtyard.

The apparent submission of Liu Feng, Cao Cao, and others gave the emperor a great deal of confidence, making him feel that he was a hidden dragon emerging from the abyss.

On that day, the emperor issued an edict to confer titles upon Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Zhang Yang, Guo Gong, Yang Feng, Dong Cheng, and others, but notably omitted Yuan Shao.

It wasn't that Liu Feng and Cao Cao didn't report it; rather, the emperor removed it on his own.

In response, Liu Feng and Cao Cao said, "We have tried our best, but the emperor does not allow it, so there is nothing we can do."

As for Yuan Shao's reaction, we'll see when the time comes.

As long as Cao Cao and Xuzhou stand together, Yuan Shao's threat level instantly drops by one or two levels.

Xuzhou needs Cao Cao to step in and take the fall, to absorb the negative effects of "serving the emperor to command the disobedient" and the immense pressure from Yuan Shao, in order to buy time for Xuzhou to march south to Yangzhou and take over as acting governor of Yuzhou.

Similarly, Cao Cao needed powerful local lords like Xuzhou to support him and help him gain legitimate control of the government. This would allow him to resist the immense pressure from Yuan Shao while expanding westward at his own pace.

This is the cornerstone of the Cao-Liu alliance.

Both sides may have their own underhanded tactics, but they must cooperate well on the surface; otherwise, it will be a situation where both sides suffer losses.

(End of this chapter)