Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

Of course, it was impossible for Zhang Yan to get along with Lu Bu. On the contrary, since Lu Bu entered Bingzhou, Zhang Yan listed Lu Bu as his second number one enemy.

As for the number one enemy, it was naturally Yuan Shao. Compared with Yuan Shao, although Lu Bu was a good fighter, he was of humble origin and had a shallow foundation. He was like a high-rise building that was suddenly built without a solid foundation. It looked tall and magnificent, but in fact, a small earthquake might completely destroy it.

Yuan Shao's base was large and solid. Once this tall building was built, even a magnitude 9 earthquake would not be able to destroy it.

Now these two tall buildings have been built on both sides of Taihang Mountain, which has made Zhang Yan feel a little breathless. Zhang Yan cannot destroy Yuan Shao's foundation, but he can try to destroy Lu Bu's. He must destroy one side of Heishan first before he can come out to breathe.

Zhang Yan's lair was built in a small basin where the Hutuo River flowed. It was surrounded by mountains on three sides and had only one road on the south for entry and exit. Like Juyi Village, Zhang Yan built a city wall at the exit, and the Hutuo River flowed out from the bridge under the city.

The terrain of the small basin is flat and vast. It is more like a city than a mountain stronghold. From the riverside to the foot of the mountain in the west, there are thousands of houses of various sizes built in an orderly manner, accommodating Zhang Yan's tens of thousands of bandits.

In front of the mountain, the most magnificent and tall building is Zhang Yan's residence. At this moment, in the lobby, several generals of Zhang Yan's headquarters gathered to discuss sending troops to attack Taiyuan.

"According to spies, Lü Bu is not in Jinyang at this time, and some of Jinyang's troops are in Shangdang, locked in a stalemate with the Baibo Army. I have decided to launch a surprise attack on Jinyang. What are your opinions?"

Zhang Yan sat on the tiger-skin seat above and looked at everyone present.

He was not tall and not strong, with a fair complexion. Although he had a short beard on his chin, his face was clean. Except for the leg resting on the chair, he looked like an elegant scholar.

But it was such a harmless-looking man who commanded millions of bandits in Black Mountain. Wherever his flag passed, all the bandits bowed down to him.

"That would mean we would be enemies with Lu Bu, which is not a good idea, right?" Zhang Yan's deputy general Wang Dang said with some disapproval.

Zhang Yan rubbed the jade ring on his thumb with his right hand, his handsome brows furrowed slightly. "If Lü Bu were merely the Governor of Bingzhou, I wouldn't have made him my enemy. But now that he's taken Hedong and Henei, it's clear he's more than just the Governor of Bingzhou. My Black Mountain blocks his path to the east, and also to Yuan Shao's path to the west. Both sides consider my Black Mountain an enemy, and sooner or later they'll try to clear the Taihang Mountains. If I don't want to submit to either side, I have no choice but to strike first. This is my chance."

Wang Dangdao said, "Lü Bu's Wolf Cavalry and Conquering Enemy Army are both outside. Even if we capture Jinyang, it won't cause him much damage. Moreover, if there is any change in Taiyuan, his troops from these two locations can quickly come to support us. It will be difficult to fight!"

Zhang Yan pondered and said, "It's naturally not possible with my own strength. I plan to unite with the Southern Xiongnu and the Xianbei to contain the troops of Xihe and Yanmen."

"Unite with foreign races? If things go wrong, Bingzhou will fall into foreign hands."

Zhang Yan leaned back in his chair and smiled, "You underestimate Lü Bu's Wolf Cavalry and Conquering Army. The best outcome this time is to keep Lü Bu from recovering for years. The worst-case scenario is that all three of us will return empty-handed. Regardless, this is an opportunity; we must give it a try."

He said to Wang Dang, "Send someone quickly to the Southern Xiongnu royal court and Budugen. If both sides agree to send troops, then proceed!"

Zhang Yan made his decision, and the others no longer objected. Zhang Yan continued, "Agui's village is close to Jinyang, so we'll ask him to come with us this time. As for the other villages farther away, forget about it. There's no need to bother with the smaller ones. Our headquarters and Agui's combined efforts will suffice."

Sun Qing said, "Li Gui went out to plunder some time ago, so there are not many people in the village right now."

"Where to? Maybe call back?"

"It seems that it ran to Hanoi. It's too far away and I can't call it back anytime soon."

"Hanoi?" Zhang Yan frowned. "Why did you go there?"

Sun Qing said, "I don't know. I guess they saw that Taiyuan was a tough target, so they wanted to take advantage of the handover between Lü Bu and Wang Kuang in Hanoi to make a quick buck."

Zhang Yan nodded. "That's fine. Once they get a response, we'll go there ourselves. We'll gather our troops in the next few days. This time, we need to catch them off guard."

…………

In fact, it was not only Zhang Yan who wanted to take advantage of the situation, Yuan Shao also wanted to take advantage of it. However, his son was a hostage with Lu Bu, and Gongsun Zan was always eyeing Jizhou. Even if he had the intention, he did not have the courage or strength to do so.

After the Battle of Jie Bridge, Gongsun Zan obtained Bohai County in Jizhou. Bohai County connected Youzhou and Qingzhou, so Gongsun Zan temporarily turned his attention to conquering Qingzhou.

Gongsun Zan, the wild wolf that roamed the grassland, defeated the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou and made them flee in terror. However, he did not kill all these hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turbans. Instead, he confiscated their property and drove them to Yanzhou.

Before Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao fell out, the current Yanzhou Governor Liu Dai had a good relationship with both sides. Gongsun Zan even sent his subordinate Fan Fang to lead an army to assist Liu Dai.

However, Gongsun Zan later fell out with Yuan Shao, and Liu Dai chose to stand on Yuan Shao's side. This made Gongsun Zan feel betrayed and very unhappy. His original plan was to defeat Yuan Shao and then go south to Yanzhou to eliminate Liu Dai. However, the battle at Naihe Jie Bridge failed due to Lu Bu's intervention. Gongsun Zan did not want to let Liu Dai go, so he drove this group of hungry ghosts to Yanzhou to cause trouble for Liu Dai.

Liu Dai did not listen to Bao Xin's advice and personally led his troops out of the city to fight against the Yellow Turbans. As a result, he was defeated by the Yellow Turbans and was beheaded. Gongsun Zan then appointed Shan Jing as the governor of Yanzhou.

Of course, this appointment was only approved by Gongsun Zan himself. No one in Yanzhou recognized it. After Liu Dai's death, under the instruction of Yuan Shao, Bao Xin and local Yanzhou nobles, such as Chen Gong and Zhang Miao, welcomed Cao Cao as the governor of Yanzhou, joined forces with Bao Xin, and prepared to attack the Yellow Turbans.

Yanzhou was so lively that Yuan Shu, who was free at the moment, immediately decided to join in.

After Sun Jian's death in battle, Yuan Shu knew that he could not take Jingzhou from Liu Biao, so he turned his attention to Yuan Shao's ally Cao Cao. At that time, Cao Cao was being besieged by the Yellow Turbans, and he would be foolish not to take advantage of the situation. So he joined forces with Jin Shang, the Yanzhou governor sent by the court, to send troops to Yanzhou.

As for why Yuan Shu opposed Yuan Shao, in addition to the fact that they had disliked each other since childhood, there was another important fuse. It was that Dong Zhuo adopted Jia Xu's suggestion to issue one of the imperial edicts in order to disintegrate the Guandong coalition forces. He appointed Yuan Shao's people as the governor of Yuzhou to compete with Yuan Shu and Sun Jian for Yuzhou. The two brothers completely turned against each other because of Yuzhou, so Yuan Shu turned to ally with Gongsun Zan and Tao Qian to fight against Yuan Shao from the north to the south.

Now the princes in the Central Plains are roughly divided into two camps. One is the Yuan-Cao-Liu camp centered on Yuan Shao, and the other is the Yuan-Tao-Gongsun alliance represented by Yuan Shu. Lu Bu, who is far away in the border, has not joined any camp so far, nor has he become completely hostile to any force. However, with his takeover of Henei County, Bingzhou will soon be involved in the struggle between the two camps.