My name is Huang Tian, ​​what the hell is this "Heaven is dead" nonsense?

Chapter 33 Built to a height of three zhang and three chi.

"Even if we surrender the city, will we only be able to save our lives?"

Even though Liu Yan was very good at maintaining his composure, he couldn't help but feel a little angry at this moment. The Yellow Turban Army was completely disregarding their 70,000 to 80,000 troops in the city.

He stood up angrily, "I want to see the god you speak of!"

Zhang Jiao shook his head: "The Holy One will not see you."

"How did you know?!" Liu Yan barely suppressed her anger and asked.

"Because the Holy One already knew that you wanted peace, that's why the divine decree was issued."

Liu Yan was stunned. "You knew all along?"

“Your Majesty already knew before you shot the command arrow,” Zhang Jiao nodded.

A chill suddenly ran through Liu Yan and the other three. Could this so-called Zhonghuang Taiyi God really foresee the future? How could they possibly fight this battle?
Peace talks? The Yellow Turban Army won't talk!
Is surrendering the city the only option?

Liu Yan, his heart heavy, asked one last time, "Is there really no room for negotiation?"

Zhang Jiao shook his head: "Gentlemen, please return. Take the divine oracle back to the false emperor. If he surrenders the city voluntarily, perhaps our army can spare his life."

Liu Yan was deeply stung by the term "false emperor." He snorted coldly and said unhappily, "Since your army is so arrogant, let's have a fierce battle under the walls of Luoyang and see if you have the ability to conquer this great city!"

Zhang Jiao remained calm, which only fueled Liu Yan's anger, because the calmness of the strong was, in fact, a form of humiliation for the weak.

He turned and left, with Liu Bei and the other two following closely behind.

“Great teacher, those people are rude. Should we arrest them and teach them a lesson?” Huang Shao’s rough voice rang out.

Zhang Jiao said, "There is absolutely no need for that; they are merely making a dying fuss."

Liu Yan stormed out of the Yellow Turban camp and mounted his horse. He then realized he was covered in a cold sweat, which was very uncomfortable as it soaked his clothes. He glanced back at the dark, dense camp and was filled with mixed emotions.

Liu Bei rode over and said, "Your Excellency, it seems that peace talks are impossible."

Liu Yan sighed, "Yes, we have no choice but to fight to the death. The victor lives, and the loser dies."

The two looked at each other in silence. Suddenly, Guan Yu's gaze fell on a certain spot, and he asked curiously, "What are those moth bandits doing? Building an earthen fortress?"

Liu Yan and Liu Bei looked in the direction Guan Yu pointed and saw many Yellow Turban soldiers digging soil and piling it up, seemingly to build a high platform.

"Perhaps they built earthen mounds so that archers could stand on the high ground and shoot arrows down into the city?" Zhang Fei guessed.

Liu Bei shook his head: "The earthen mound is quite far from the city wall. How could the arrows shot by the archers standing on the mound reach the city?"

"Perhaps it was used for lookout," Guan Yu pondered.

"That's how it should be."

Besides this explanation, they couldn't think of any other intention behind the Yellow Turban army's earthen ramparts.

"Don't think too much about it. Let's go back and report the progress of the peace talks to His Majesty first."

Liu Yan yanked the reins, and the horse neighed, carrying him towards Luoyang City. Liu Bei and his two companions quickly followed, their hooves leaving shallow footprints on the dirt road. Inside the palace, Liu Hong, having heard Liu Yan and the others' report, flew into a rage, shouting, "Those traitors are hateful! Those traitors are hateful!!"

Liu Yan and Liu Bei remained silent with their heads bowed.

"Since the Moth Rebels are unwilling to give me a way out, let's see who wins. The army in the city is seventy or eighty thousand strong. If we conscript some commoners, one hundred thousand will be easy to reach. With one hundred thousand troops and a strong city and powerful weapons, I do not believe that Luoyang cannot be defended!"

Liu Hong immediately issued an order, requiring Grand Commandant Deng Sheng and General He Jin to conscript as many civilians as possible into the city as possible, ideally placing a soldier in every corner of the city wall to make the city impregnable.

After this order was issued, Luoyang, which was already in turmoil, became even more chaotic, with savage and fierce soldiers wantonly arresting able-bodied men and children on the roads.

able-bodied men can be used as soldiers, while the elderly and children are used for extortion.

If you want to ransom your elderly father and young son, you must offer a large sum of money. Otherwise, the old and young can still join the army, but whether they will be fed food or wielded swords is another matter entirely...

Within just a few days, Luoyang City was in turmoil, and the common people were filled with fear and unease.

In contrast to the bustling city of Luoyang, the Yellow Turban army camp outside the city was extremely calm. For several days, the Yellow Turban army did not attack the city, but only conducted daily drills for its soldiers and focused on building earthen ramparts.

"What exactly are these moth thieves planning to do? Why don't they attack the city?"

Yuan Shao was extremely puzzled. The news that the Yellow Turban Army demanded the Han court's "unconditional surrender" had already spread throughout Luoyang City. Faced with the Yellow Turban Army's tough stance, the ministers were all worried, feeling that as long as they did not surrender the city, they would soon face a continuous barrage of attacks from the Yellow Turban Army.

However, several days passed, and the Yellow Turban army failed to shoot a single arrow onto the city wall, let alone launch a surprise attack.

What puzzled them even more was that the Yellow Turban Army hadn't even built any siege equipment; they had focused solely on piling up earth to build a high platform and hadn't done anything else.

"Could it be that the Moth Rebels don't intend to attack the city, but only to besiege it and deplete the city's food supplies?" Yuan Shao pondered. "No, the city has plenty of surplus food. Before the Moth Rebels besieged Luoyang, Grand Commandant Deng transported a lot of grain from various places to the capital. It should be enough to last for a year or two, if not three or five years. The Moth Rebels couldn't possibly not know this."

He had secretly sent people to contact the Yellow Turban Army and told them about the general situation in the city.

This was a way out that Yuan Shao left for himself.

Moreover, Yuan Shao believed that besides himself, there must have been others who tipped off the people outside the city.

In other words, these people couldn't control the city gates; otherwise, the gates of Luoyang might suddenly open one night, and the Yellow Turban army outside the city could easily storm into the city.

"Perhaps it has something to do with the high platform built outside the city..." Yuan Shao pondered.

The fact that the Yellow Turban army built earthen platforms attracted great attention from He Jin, Deng Sheng, and others. After all, it was very strange that they were not attacking the city but only building platforms. They couldn't help but notice it.

Unfortunately, no one knew why the Yellow Turban Army did this.

Generals such as Gongsun Zan, Sun Jian, and Liu Bei all suggested sending a force out of the city to destroy the earthen platform—whatever the enemy wants to do, as long as they can't do it, that's fine!
Unfortunately, Emperor Liu Hong refused to agree and issued a strict order for all armies to hold their positions in the city, not to venture out to fight recklessly, and to wait patiently for reinforcements, the possibility of which was uncertain.

The imperial decree was difficult to disobey, so everyone could only watch helplessly as the earthen platform was built from scratch, reaching a height of 33 feet and 3 inches. A square table was placed on the platform, and earthen-yellow flags were planted on all four sides, resembling an extremely simple sacrificial ceremony.

"Whatever that earthen platform is, there will be a result within the next few days at the latest..."

Yuan Shao had a strong premonition that one day something would happen that would change the entire situation in Luoyang and the course of the world.

"Therefore, I need to make several more preparations: the retainers and followers at home, the dozens of soldiers and a hundred strong horses that Wu Kuang has assigned, and the escape route in the direction of Dongyang Gate..."

(End of this chapter)