Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

The next morning, the group finally left Beimang Mountain and reached the broad road outside. After marching for more than an hour, they heard the soldiers leading the way report, "There is a troop coming towards us. Judging from the flags, they are the troops of Dong Zhuo, the governor of Bingzhou."

Lu Zhi and the others who had previously opposed inviting Dong Zhuo to the capital all changed their expressions upon hearing this. They all looked at Yuan Shao in unison, "What is Dong Zhuo doing here?"

Yuan Shao said, "What else can I do? I'm here to welcome you!"

Lu Zhi then asked the soldiers, "How many men did he bring with him?"

"One thousand cavalrymen will be sent ahead, and several thousand more will be stationed along the road ten miles away."

Lu Zhi's face darkened slightly. "They brought so many soldiers and horses here, I'm afraid they are not here to welcome the emperor."

As he spoke these words, a cloud of dust raised by the war horses could be seen ahead. The rumbling sound of horses' hooves came from far away and made the ground tremble slightly. The young emperor Liu Bian looked ahead in horror and saw a group of soldiers with ferocious faces and strong bodies like tigers and bears coming towards him aggressively. He was so frightened that he accidentally rolled off his horse, making a different sound amid the rumbling sound of horses' hooves.

"His Majesty!"

The court officials, frightened by the momentum of the Western Liang Army, reacted quickly and rushed over to support the emperor. Some were helping others, some were pulling horses, and some were checking whether the emperor was injured. They were all crowded together in a mess. When Dong Zhuo arrived, he saw this scene.

"Son of Heaven?!" Dong Zhuo feigned a cry of surprise, quickly dismounted, and beckoned to Lu Bu. Lu Bu understood, dismounted, and escorted him as he rushed into the crowd of officials.

Yesterday, Dong Zhuo almost died in Beimang Mountain. Now everyone seems to be his enemy, and he has become more and more dependent on Lu Bu. He feels that as long as Lu Bu is with him, he will be safe.

"Son of Heaven? It really is the Son of Heaven!"

Dong Zhuo pushed aside the others around Liu Bian and saw that Liu Bian's hair was disheveled and his clothes were dirty and torn. He looked extremely miserable. He pretended to cry out in shock, "Dong Zhuo, the governor of Bingzhou, was too late to save you. Your Majesty has suffered so much!"

He then pointed at the ministers' noses and cursed them righteously, "You are princes and ministers, who have been blessed by the emperor for generations and receive salaries from the court. Is this how you protect the emperor?"

Everyone was stunned. It was clearly your soldiers who scared His Majesty so much that he fell off his horse!

Dong Zhuo stepped forward and pushed away Wang Yun who was supporting Liu Bian. Wang Yun staggered and almost fell. Lu Bu subconsciously helped him up. Wang Yun looked at Lu Bu with gratitude and quickly recognized that this was the man who saved Amo many years ago.

To be honest, if this person had not rescued her, Amo would have died in the woods long ago. Wang Yun wanted to thank Lu Bu again, but he saw that Lu Bu had turned his back to him. Wang Yun thought that now was not the time to reminisce about the past, so he had to give up for the time being.

Dong Zhuo personally supported Liu Bian, with a look of loyalty on his face. "Your Majesty has suffered, and I deserve to die. I am too late to save you! Your Majesty, don't be afraid. I have brought 10,000 soldiers to protect you. I will escort you back to the palace."

Liu Bian originally thought that this man with a face full of flesh and a fierce look would be a bad person, but he did not expect him to be so respectful to him. His frightened heart calmed down a little, but his hands were still shaking.

Dong Zhuo held Liu Bian's left hand with a little force, "Your Majesty is the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, how can you be so timid?"

He pointed at the ministers and shouted, "How did you treat His Majesty the other day? I saw you burn down the Imperial Palace. Do you still have respect for the Han people? Do you still have respect for the Emperor?"

Lu Zhi finally couldn't stand Dong Zhuo's hypocritical and poor acting anymore and shouted angrily, "Dong Zhuo, stop pretending and talking nonsense. We searched the mountains for a whole day and a whole night before finally finding Your Majesty. And you're sitting outside enjoying the cool air and you have the nerve to criticize us?"

"I'm here to cool off?" Dong Zhuo sneered. "Yesterday, I was on my way to find Your Majesty, but was ambushed by bandits. My cousin Dong Yue died fighting against them. If we hadn't fought tooth and nail to repel the enemy, Your Majesty wouldn't have returned safely. How dare you stand here and talk?"

"Are there really bandits?" Lu Zhi wondered. When they passed through a valley in the mountains early that morning, they saw dried blood and land trampled by war horses. They assumed a fierce battle had taken place there the previous day, but was it actually Dong Zhuo's troops who had been ambushed?

Dong Zhuo snorted, "How could it be false? Over three hundred of my Xiliang soldiers died, and even I nearly died at the hands of the rebels. How dare you say I didn't do anything to protect you?"

"Where are the bodies of the rebels? Do you know if they are from Black Mountain or White Wave?"

These two bandit armies were located in Taihang and Hedong Commandery, both very close to Luoyang. Upon hearing what Dong Zhuo said, the court officials became nervous.

Dong Zhuo looked depressed when he said this. They didn't kill many enemies in the first place, and when they went back to clean up the battlefield, they found that there was not a single enemy corpse. He could only select 500 of his own corpses to pretend to be bandits. Otherwise, if the news got out that his Xiliang army had ambushed the enemy but didn't get a single enemy corpse, wouldn't it be a huge disgrace?

"The rebel army didn't announce their names, so we don't know which group they are from."

Dong Zhuo snorted and said to Liu Bian, "It's getting late. I will escort Your Majesty back to the palace."

Liu Bian nodded woodenly and was about to follow Dong Zhuo back to the palace.

Lu Zhi held out his hand to stop Dong Zhuo, "Your Highness, Governor Dong, may escort His Majesty back to the palace, but you cannot enter Luoyang City with such a large force."

Dong Zhuo said, "You are so incompetent. Who knows if there are still eunuchs in the city? What if someone comes out to hold Your Majesty hostage? I have led the troops here to protect Your Majesty. How can I not enter the city?"

At this time, Yuan Shao stepped forward and said, "Don't worry, Governor Dong. We have already ordered the slaughter of all the eunuchs in the city the day before yesterday. We guarantee that not a single one will escape."

When Yuan Shao said this, there was a hint of arrogance on his face, and his eyes looked at Dong Zhuo with deep meaning.

Dong Zhuo naturally knew what his look meant. You, Dong Zhuo, are a former official of the Yuan family. It was because of my uncle Yuan Wei's recommendation that you were able to serve as the Governor of Bingzhou and the Prefect of Hedong. The Yuan family is your lord, so just be obedient and leave your troops outside the city.

If Dong Zhuo did not have so many troops, others would not be so wary of him. If he did not suspect that the Yuan family wanted to get rid of them, he would still be willing to give the Yuan family face. But Dong Zhuo is now very powerful, his desire for power has been extremely inflated, and he suspects that the group of bandits in Beimang Mountain were hired by the Yuan family. How could he leave his troops outside the city?

However, lest the Yuan family feel they can no longer control him and attempt to kill him, Dong Zhuo decided to give them some face. "In that case, I will lead 3,000 men into the city, and the rest will set up camp outside."

Although Dong Zhuo was not in Luoyang, he had done his homework on the military strength of Luoyang City before coming. The Guanglu Xun, who was in charge of guarding the palace gate, had about 3,000 Huben and Yulin soldiers, and the Weiwei, who was in charge of guarding the palace gate, had about 3,000 soldiers. There were five battalions of the Northern Army, plus the Zhijinwu and the City Gate Captain, so there were about 10,000 soldiers in the city.

Emperor Lingdi established the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden, which merged the above five camps and the Huben Army. For example, Yuan Shao, the Huben Lieutenant General, was appointed Colonel of the Central Army, and Bao Hong, the Colonel of the Tunqi in the Five Camps, was appointed Colonel of the Lower Army. However, not all of the eight colonels' troops were stationed in the city. The eight colonels were in charge of the military power near the capital.

With Lu Bu around, even if a fight broke out, Dong Zhuo was confident that he could defeat these people with only 3,000 men. Moreover, bringing fewer people would also make the Yuan family let down their guard.

Although Dong Zhuo had been arrogant in pointing fingers at the ministers and scolding them, he had taken a big step back in the most crucial issue of the number of troops entering the city, and he had indeed repelled the enemy army. If they continued to argue at this time, it would be no joke to anger these barbarians, so everyone stopped talking.

A group of people escorted the emperor and Prince Chenliu and marched into the city in a mighty procession.

On the way, Dong Zhuo asked Liu Bian about what happened the day before. Liu Bian couldn't help but recall the scene when Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and others led their troops into the palace to kill people. A eunuch who had served him since he was a child was beheaded by a soldier without saying a word. Another eunuch who was helping him undress hugged his legs and cried for help. He wanted to save him, but the soldier ignored him, dragged him out and chopped him with a knife. He followed him out and saw corpses all over the ground. He didn't dare to sleep for the past two days. As soon as he closed his eyes, he saw blood in front of him and heard wailing and screaming in his ears.

Liu Bian began to tremble again and stammered for a long time but could not express himself clearly. However, Liu Xie, the King of Chenliu next to him, told Dong Zhuo what happened that day clearly and fluently, and Dong Zhuo was very satisfied.