Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

After surrendering Duan Wei, Jia Xu and Fa Zheng did not stay in Huayin for long. They left on the same day and headed east until they came to a cliff east of Huayin, where Lu Bu, Zhang Mo, Xu Chu and Guan Hai were waiting.

Several of them were dressed as ordinary people and were sitting under a cliff to enjoy the cool air.

"How is the matter going?" Seeing Jia Xu and the other two coming over, Lu Bu stood up and asked.

Xu Chu took two green fruits he had picked from somewhere, wiped them on his clothes, and handed them to the two of them. "They're sour. Eat two to quench your thirst."

Jia Xu glanced at it and didn't take it, but Fa Zheng took it politely, wiped it on his clothes again, took a bite, and it was indeed sour and refreshing to quench one's thirst.

Jia Xu took out Duan Wei's military token from his bosom and handed it to Lu Bu, "You have fulfilled your mission!"

Lü Bu smiled with satisfaction. "With Mr. Wenhe on our side, capturing him will be easy. After we bring him to the Emperor, I'll have to trouble you to go to Zhang Ji and Fan Chou as well."

Jia Xu cupped his hands, "It's my duty!"

"Sir, you are a great hero to my Bingzhou. If these two are willing to surrender, we can build Tongguan here and form a corner with Huayin. Then we can station a small number of troops there to prevent rebellion in Guanxi."

"Repair the pass?" Jia Xu was slightly surprised.

"Yes! Build a pass!" Lu Bu looked at Zhang Mo and flicked away a locust that had landed on her body. "The name Tongguan was chosen by A-Mo during our field trip today. I also think it would be a good idea to build a pass here."

Zhang Mo looked at the surrounding terrain from afar and explained, "This place is full of mountains and peaks, with deep valleys and steep cliffs. The mountains are high and the roads are narrow, with only a narrow goat path running through the middle, which is only wide enough for one cart and one horse to pass. It can be said that the narrow road is dangerous and the monkeys are fighting. The road on earth ends at Tongguan. After incorporating Hongnong into the territory, a pass must be established here."

In history, Cao Cao established Tongguan in the first year of Jian'an to prevent military rebellion in Guanxi. In her previous life, Zhang Mo had visited the old site of Tongguan, which was probably built in this place.

After dealing with the little emperor this time, Lu Bu will use his troops to attack Jizhou. After eliminating Yuan Shao, he will concentrate on dealing with Gongsun Zan in the next few years. Henei County and Henan Yin, Hedong County and Hongnong County are all separated by only one river. To the west of Henan Yin is Hongnong County, and to the west of Hongnong County are the sphere of influence of Li Su, Li Jue, and even Ma Teng and Han Sui of Liangzhou. Lu Bu currently has no time to deal with this side, so he can only incorporate Hongnong County and Henan Yin into his territory and build Tongguan in Huayin to resist the harassment of the troops from Guanxi.

Therefore, this time he came to Hongnong County, not only to deal with the little emperor, but also to deal with Duan Wei, Zhang Ji and Fan Chou, and completely eliminate the threats from the south of Hedong County and Henei County.

It would be best if these people were willing to surrender to Bingzhou. If not, Gao Shun has already deployed his troops in Hedong County and can come down and take care of these minions at any time.

Now that Jia Xu has dealt with Duan Wei, Zhang Ji and Fan Chou are trapped in the middle. Unless they run to Cao Cao for help, they will be beaten if they do not surrender.

Moreover, Guanzhong has suffered a major disaster this time, and Bingzhou has stored so much grain that it must absorb refugees. It is just right to use the method of work-for-relief to let the refugees come here to repair the wall of the pass, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Jia Xu was a clever man, and he understood the usefulness of Tongguan without Zhang Mo's explanation. He nodded and said, "Building a pass here is indeed a good idea, but Hongnong is the domain of the Yang family. After taking in Zhang Ji and Fan Chou, we still have to deal with the Yang family."

Zhang Mo said with a headache, "Let's talk about this later!"

The Yang family, headed by Taiwei Yang Biao, is a top contemporary family that can rival the Yuan family. They control a large population and land in Hongnong County, and are equivalent to a local emperor.

Aristocratic families have huge networks of contacts, vast fields, thousands or even tens of thousands of slaves and armed forces. A large aristocratic family can even control the people's livelihood and economy of an entire county.

If it were just that, no dynasty would be able to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor. What the rulers could not tolerate was that the aristocratic families controlled almost all the means of production and did not have to pay taxes. Even the channels for the government to select talents were in the hands of the aristocratic families. From the central government to the county and township levels, most officials, big and small, had connections with the aristocratic families. In addition, the aristocratic families intermarried, and the network of relationships became very large.

Lu Bu previously governed Henei by first winning over the Sima, Zhang, and Yang families, which were noble and upright families. Then, he took advantage of this war to accuse those disobedient noble families and powerful people of treason, figured out the connections between them, and completely eliminated them, and only then could he barely clean it up.

But after cleaning up these people, a gap appeared in the officials of Henei. There were Du Ji, Sima Lang and others at the top, and the petty officials below were barely enough, but the middle level was almost killed. The talents cultivated by Bingzhou in recent years were simply not enough. Some departments had no one to manage and were almost paralyzed.

Despite this, Lu Bu did not promote people from the Sima, Zhang, and Yang families extensively, in order to prevent these families from completely controlling the officialdom of Henei. Now, each county in Henei County has one person holding several positions, and can only barely maintain order. In the future, more talents will have to be sent there to fill the vacancies.

Of course, as the overall environment in Hanoi stabilized, Zhang Mo invested in building several schools there, focusing on training middle and lower-level management talents.

So, having said that, for the aristocratic families, the simple use of force to massacre without any reason will cause a greater backlash. Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao are lessons from the past.

The massacre of the Yang family would not only have a great impact on Lu Bu's future dominance over the Central Plains, but the Hongnong County would also be completely paralyzed after the massacre.

In addition, Lu Bu had killed Yang Chuo, a member of the Yang family's branch, and was wanted by the Yang family. Although the relationship was temporarily reconciled through Wang Yun's mediation, the issue still existed. Now they could only kill Yuan Shao first and then deal with the Yang family.

This time, Lu Bu and his companions came to Hongnong, not only to surrender Duan Wei and investigate the location of Tongguan, but also to select a suitable place to seize the emperor. Of course, only Lu Bu, Zhang Mo and Guan Hai knew about this.

As for the person to create an accident for the emperor, Zhang Mo thought about it and decided that Guan Hai was the most suitable one. Guan Hai came from the Yellow Turbans and was originally against the court. He didn't care whether the emperor lived or died. The key point was that he was loyal to Zhang Mo, not a talkative person, and had good martial arts skills. It was not difficult for him to sneak into the kidnapping team and act according to the circumstances.

The group left Huayin and arrived at the south bank of the Yellow River. Qu Yi and Hua Xiong, with two thousand cavalrymen, had already crossed the Yellow River. Seeing Lü Bu and his men returning, Qu Yi stepped forward, saluted, and asked, "My lord, shall we immediately head west to greet His Majesty?"

"No rush. Let the soldiers rest for a day. Huayin Duan Zhongming will go to meet the emperor first. We can just wait here for the troops of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao."

"Duan Wei surrendered?"

Lu Bu nodded. "His men will escort His Majesty here. You just need to prevent the people from being captured by Yuan Shao and Cao Cao. Yuan Shao's men should arrive tomorrow morning. I'll leave this place to you and Ying Wei. A-mo isn't feeling well, so I'll take her back to Hedong Commandery. I'll have An Ren stay here to help you two. If anything happens, please let Feiying report it to me."

"Madam, are you feeling unwell?" Qu Yi looked up at her.

Zhang Mo pretended to hold her head, "I feel a little dizzy, maybe I have heatstroke."

Qu Yi hid his eyes and snorted coldly, "I told you not to follow me. Women are trouble!"

Lu Bu pretended not to hear and took Zhang Mo and Xu Chu back across the river.

On the shore, Qu Shu watched the departing ships and whispered, "The Lord truly trusts the General to entrust such an important matter to us. Aren't you afraid that we'll have to return to Jizhou after picking up His Majesty?"

Qu Yi said, "Trust those you employ, and don't employ those you doubt! My lord has always done this well. Besides, Jizhou is about to fall, so why should we go back?"