Double penetration: This Three Kingdoms has dragon energy

Chapter 177 As the assassination attempt on Dong Zhuo is imminent, an encounter with Cai Wenji occurs.
After the college entrance examination, all affairs in the territory continued to proceed as planned.

Ji Qiu's work also returned to normal.

While taking care of all basic tasks, we are closely monitoring the situation on Izumo Island.

Well, he currently has two main jobs.

The first basic task is to transport supplies between the modern world and the Dragon Kingdom world every day.

As the scale of trade between the two worlds continued to expand, the amount of goods he needed to transport each day also increased.

However, the size of his personal space also continued to expand as his strength increased.

Overall, the two are in a state of balance, so the time required for this task has not changed much, basically one hour per day.

Ji Qiu also used his spare time to work more than ten hours a day, transporting a large amount of supplies to both realms, which freed up more than half a month for the next two weeks.

But that's the limit.

On the one hand, both worlds need time to produce materials.

Even though Ji Qiu increased the transport capacity, there weren't enough resources for him to transport goods.

On the other hand, Ji Qiu always carefully controlled the amount of basic resources in the Dragon Qi Three Kingdoms world.

The quantity should be controlled to meet the needs of the forces within one month.

This is to ensure that the entire force remains under his control.

Be careful to make a thousand-year ship.

Although by today, his control over his forces is extremely strong, far exceeding that of other warlords in the Dragon Kingdom world.

But he still insisted on doing it.

Because he doesn't allow any accidents to happen.

Of course, doing this also has a drawback.

Ji Qiu will become the biggest weakness of the entire force.

If he were suddenly taken away one day, his power would collapse within a month at most.

But so what?
Ji Qiu was never a particularly noble person. He had a kind heart, but he would not let that kindness supersede his own.

It would be meaningless if his career were successful, but the fruits of his labor were not in his own hands!
The second basic task was to travel daily to the Guanzhong region and Izumo Island to transport the recruited Guanzhong people.

The relocation of residents within the area controlled by Ji Qiu has now been basically completed.

Beihai County currently has a permanent population of five million.

In addition to Beihai New City, there are also six newly built cities with a population of over one million.

The total population that can be accommodated is nine million!
Therefore, a large population is needed to populate the city.

Meanwhile, the people of the Guanzhong Plain were living in dire straits.

After abandoning Luoyang and moving the capital to Chang'an, Dong Zhuo completely let himself go.

If Dong Zhuo during the Luoyang period still had some ambition, thinking of pacifying the world and establishing lasting achievements...

Dong Zhuo, who moved the capital to Chang'an, was completely defeated.

At this point, he no longer cared about restoring the Han Dynasty or pacifying the world.

All they think about is pleasure.

In this situation, he simply didn't care about the lives of ordinary people.

Not only did he fail to restrain his own troops, he even took pleasure in abusing the people.

That's absolutely inhuman.

The lives of the people of Guanzhong under Dong Zhuo's rule were only slightly better than hell.

In this situation, Ji Qiu's recruitment of the people based on humanitarian concern is truly unparalleled in its benevolence and righteousness.

Every day, large numbers of people flock here to seek refuge.

This task also takes up an hour of his time each day.

Besides the two basic tasks, the key task is to develop Izumo Island.

This is his top priority this year; he must completely eliminate Izumo Island within this year!
However, compared to the two basic tasks, this key task is actually the least troublesome.

After giving Xun You full authority, Xun You handled all the affairs of Chuyun Island in an orderly manner.

They sowed discord and divided among the various tribes of the Izumo demon clan, causing their war to escalate.

In conjunction with the grassroots mobilization plan launched by the intelligence and propaganda departments, a base has been established in the northern part of Izumo Island.

Most importantly, to this day, no member of the Izumo demon clan has discovered his existence.

It's absolutely terrifying!
With Xun You in charge of the specific tasks, Ji Qiu's role was mostly to assist and listen to reports.

Leisurely days always fly by.

May has arrived in the blink of an eye.

At this time, Ji Qiu received a message from Lü Bu in Chang'an.

He said that Wang Yun had already met with him in secret for the third time to discuss the assassination of Dong Zhuo, and he really couldn't delay any longer.

If they refuse again, it might arouse Wang Yun's suspicion and ruin Ji Qiu's plans.

Wang Yun had already begun planning the assassination of Dong Zhuo before the end of last year.

He no longer had Diao Chan, but as the head of the Taiyuan Wang clan, he naturally had no shortage of beautiful women.

So he used another beautiful woman to try and turn Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu against each other.

However, history is composed of both inevitability and chance.

Not everyone can be easily replaced.

Diao Chan was one of them.

This substitute for Diao Chan is clearly not as good as the original Diao Chan in this respect.

Not only could they not deceive Lü Bu, who was already under Ji Qiu's control, but they could not even deceive Dong Zhuo.

When Dong Zhuo discovered that Lü Bu was having an affair with this maid, he did not hesitate to give her to Lü Bu as a reward.

Well, Lu Bu's secret rendezvous with this maid wasn't because she was particularly alluring.

It was entirely because of Ji Qiu's orders.

Because Ji Qiu needed to control the situation in Guanzhong, he had to keep track of the progress of Wang Yun's assassination attempt on Dong Zhuo.

Therefore, we cannot let Wang Yun be disappointed in Lü Bu; we must get Lü Bu to cooperate with Wang Yun's plan.

The first step of the elaborate scheme almost failed.

Wang Yun almost lost his composure and nearly tried to flee Chang'an.

If Lü Bu hadn't taken the initiative to get closer to Wang Yun later, Wang Yun probably would have given up on assassinating Dong Zhuo.

With Lü Bu's support, Wang Yun was able to regroup and continue pushing forward his assassination plot against Dong Zhuo.

However, after giving Wang Yun initial support, Lü Bu began to become distant and ambivalent.

This was naturally due to Ji Qiu's request to delay as much as possible so that he would have time to transport the people of Guanlong region to Beihai County.

However, Lü Bu couldn't drag this out indefinitely. He had to give Wang Yun an answer eventually.

It can be done once or twice, but not over and over again.

This was the third time Wang Yun had secretly conspired with Lü Bu, which fully demonstrated Lü Bu's position in his heart.

If Lü Bu doesn't reply soon, Wang Yun might really abandon him.

"Very well, since Wang Yun is so eager, let's agree to his request."

Anyway, the people in the Guanzhong region have been mostly transported away, so although assassinating Dong Zhuo at this time is not very appropriate, it is still acceptable.

However, assassinating the director is of great importance, and may even affect the overall political landscape.

However, it should not be taken lightly.

"It seems I'll have to make a trip to Chang'an myself," Ji Qiu thought to himself.

……

Chang'an City.

The copper nails and door knockers at the city gate still bear traces of cinnabar, but have been stained dark brown by dried blood.

People dressed in hemp clothing lined up to fetch water, clutching earthenware jars, each tucking their necks into their collars as if to avoid the sight of the patrolling soldiers on the city wall.

The rope used to draw water creaked against the well wall, and someone would always shudder at the sound, spilling half a jar of water onto the bluestone slab, where it would quickly be absorbed by the grayish-white dust.

Although the shops on both sides of Zhuque Avenue were not completely closed, the shouts and calls of the past were nowhere to be heard.

The owner of the silk shop propped up the door panel with a wooden bar, leaving half of the door crack exposed.

Whenever she heard the sound of horses' hooves approaching from afar, she would immediately slam the door down with a bang, the sound of the wooden bar hitting the ground startling stray dogs on the street who would tuck their tails between their legs and run away.

The cloth shop counter was covered in a thin layer of dust. The shopkeeper's hands, holding the ledger, trembled slightly, but his eyes kept glancing towards the end of the street.

That was the gate of Dong Zhuo's army camp, where reddish-brown banners fluttered in the wind like blood about to drip.

The teahouse at the alley entrance was still steaming, but the tea drinkers all spoke in hushed tones, even the clinking of teacups was unusually restrained.

Suddenly, someone accidentally broke a teacup. The crisp sound of shattering startled everyone into silence, and dozens of terrified eyes turned to the source of the sound.

When they realized it was just a waiter who had brought the wrong tea, everyone's tense shoulders relaxed slightly, but they all instinctively touched their waists.

What was pinned there was no longer jade pendants and sachets, but broken silver coins used to exchange for grain, and everyone was afraid of being seen by the mutinous soldiers.

As dusk fell, the sound of the clappers on the city wall filled the air with unease. An old man selling steamed buns wrapped his unsold buns in a straw mat and hunched over as he ran home, only to be stopped by several drunken soldiers at a street corner.

Rough hands tore open the straw mat, and amidst the laughter and curses reeking of alcohol, golden steamed buns rolled to the ground, quickly covered by grayish-white dust.

The old man trembled as he tried to pick it up, but his hand was stomped hard by a leather boot. The onlookers hurriedly turned their faces away, some secretly wiping away tears, but they didn't even dare to sob.

As Ji Qiu stepped into Chang'an, her feet crunching on the ground covered with gray-edged locust leaves, the morning mist carried not the smoke of cooking fires, but the lingering stench of blood.

Dark brown stains clung to the cracks in the bluestone slabs, and the tavern banners on the street were torn in half by the wind, with the faded character for "wine" casting a broken shadow on the gray wall.

The old man selling steamed buns huddled in a corner, trembling at the sound of horses' hooves; the bamboo basket in his arms was so empty that it echoed.

The once bustling market on Zhuque Street is now reduced to a few homeless people scavenging for rotten vegetable scraps.

A woman in a coarse cloth dress walked briskly past, clutching a child's hand. The infant in the swaddling clothes stopped crying abruptly halfway through.

She covered the child's mouth, her eyes filled with the fear of a frightened bird.

Ji Qiu gazed at the mottled bloodstains on the city wall. Although the heads that had been cut off by Dong Zhuo's soldiers had been removed, dark red still seeped into the cracks between the bricks and stones, like a curse that could never be erased.

"In the past, the twelve-story tower was bathed in the bright moonlight; today, half the city is gray and half is ravaged."

Ji Qiu sighed softly. This was not his first time in Chang'an. In the past, when he was not transporting people from the Guanzhong region, he would come to Chang'an every ten days or half a month, if not every day.

Every time I come to Chang'an, I find that the city has become more desolate than before.

There's no way around it, Dong Zhuo was just too powerful.

Today I'm happy, so I kill a minister to celebrate; tomorrow I'm angry, so I kill a minister to vent my anger; the day after tomorrow I'm neither happy nor angry, so I kill a minister to amuse myself.

Moreover, when he killed ministers, he never killed just one person; he killed the whole family.

This fully demonstrates humanitarian concern, ensuring that the other party remained neat and tidy throughout!

Under these circumstances, the entire city of Chang'an lived in a climate of white terror.

The ministers lived in constant fear, and so did the common people.

How could Chang'an not fall into ruin?

“Those who are united in purpose will prevail. Now, everyone in Chang’an is hoping for Dong Zhuo’s death. How could he possibly survive?” Ji Qiu sighed again.

At this point, he realized what Lu Bu meant by "it can't be delayed any longer."

Judging from the current situation in Chang'an, even without Lü Bu, someone else would probably come to kill Dong Zhuo.

He has already incurred the wrath of both heaven and man, and is bound to die!

"Very well, since this is the will of the people, we cannot forcibly stop it. Let us go with the will of the people!"

"But before we can eliminate Dong Zhuo, we need to do some things first," Ji Qiu thought to himself.

He then walked in one direction, but stopped after only two steps.

Then his gaze fell on the girl who was distributing porridge to the refugees in a porridge shop not far away.

The twin lotus flowers embroidered on the pale yellow dress were vivid and bright, and the indigo silk ribbon tied around her slender waist.

Her dark hair was carefully styled into a high bun, with a white jade hairpin adorned with pearls inserted diagonally, swaying gently with her steps.

Her features were exceptionally clear, with slightly upturned corners of her eyes, yet at this moment they held a look of sorrow. Her cherry lips were slightly pursed, and her cheeks were flushed with a natural blush from her busyness.

The new jade bracelet on her wrist was warm and translucent; it was specially sent by her father yesterday, as if silently encouraging her good deed.

The firewood crackled beneath the copper pot as Cai Wenji picked up a gilded wooden ladle and stirred the rice porridge, thick white steam rising from her curved eyelashes.

"Don't push, there's enough for everyone."

Her voice was clear and melodious, like a spring striking a stone. When she scooped up a bowl of porridge, the porridge liquid, along with a few bits of vegetable leaves, stretched out in thin threads along the edge of the spoon.

The first elderly woman to step forward had difficulty walking and was hunched over, almost touching the wooden table. She immediately got up, walked around the table, and brought the bowl of porridge to the woman's lips: "Drink slowly, it's hot."

The old woman's withered fingers trembled, and turbid tears dripped onto her embroidered skirt. Cai Wenji, however, simply smiled gently and patted the old woman's hand lightly.

Several children clung to the edge of the wooden table, their noses, red from the cold, almost touching the rim of the bowls.

She took off her brocade cloak and spread it on the ground so the children could sit on it. Then she took out sugar wrapped in oil paper from her sleeve, broke it into pieces, and put it into their porridge bowls.

Suddenly, the sound of rapid hoofbeats grew louder as they approached. The children huddled together in fear, their bowls of porridge trembling in their hands.

She straightened her back to protect the children behind her, her knuckles turning white from gripping the wooden spoon so tightly.

Once she realized that the guards were sent by her father to escort her, her tense shoulders relaxed, and she smiled reassuringly, "Don't be afraid, keep eating."

She turned around and continued scooping up the still-warm rice porridge, transforming the kindness of the noble lady, along with the power of her family, into a source of comfort in a chaotic world.

"This is... Cai Wenji?" Ji Qiu looked at the face that was so similar to Cai Zhaoji's and the almost identical elegant temperament, and couldn't help but think to himself.

That's quite a coincidence.

He was originally going to visit Cai Yong's residence, but unexpectedly he ran into Cai Wenji on the way.

What a coincidence!
(End of this chapter)