The strongest devouring system in the Three Kingdoms

"Yes, sir," the Chang'an magistrate replied. "I will go and borrow grain from those aristocratic families."

"There's another piece of news you can reveal a little about: Lord Lu Zhi's army has arrived at Fengling and will soon be at the gates of Chang'an," Wang Yun said to the Chang'an magistrate who was about to leave.

"Understood, Your Excellency." Chang'an Lieutenant turned and bowed to Wang Yun before taking his leave.

"Dian Wei."

"Father-in-law, what are your orders?"

After the magistrate of Chang'an left, Wang Yun found Dian Wei and said to him, "I want you to lead a group to inspect the city." Wang Yun quickly explained to Dian Wei that the people in the city were short of food and that he had already sent people to borrow grain from the powerful families. Wang Yun wanted Dian Wei to inspect the city and give the powerful families a warning.

“I understand,” Dian Wei said to Wang Yun.

"Isn't it just that they want to make themselves look like the bad guy?" Dian Wei thought disdainfully. "These are the scholars. They just know how to play these roundabout games. They clearly want something, but on the surface they have to pretend to be like, 'I don't want it, I don't want it.'"

This is like wanting to be a prostitute and also wanting to have a memorial arch erected. However, Dian Wei doesn't mind. After all, no matter what, he has achieved his current status, and out of respect for Chan'er, Dian Wei will not go against Wang Yun. So what if he's a bad guy? Dian Wei smiled contemptuously. I, Dian Wei, am doing this for the people!

Yes, for the sake of the people, under the inducements of the Chang'an Commandant and the threats of Dian Wei patrolling the city, the powerful clans, led by the Chen family, donated large quantities of grain to relieve the city's inhabitants and help the imperial army overcome its difficulties. Seeing that these powerful clans indeed still possessed large amounts of grain, Wang Yun couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "Thankfully, Ding Yuan eliminated some of these powerful clans; otherwise, they would have become the destroyers of the empire sooner or later."

At this time, Wang Yun also saw the threat posed by the powerful clans. However, as someone who wanted to become a powerful minister, Wang Yun was unable to carry out the same purge as Ding Yuan. Moreover, Wang Yun still needed the help of these powerful clans, so he dared not purge those clans that opposed him.

Wang Yun's rise to power caught many aristocratic families off guard. Moreover, as someone born into a small family, Wang Yun's background was somewhat inferior to those of the powerful clans. Yet, this very person suddenly became the one who saved the royal family from dire straits. Isn't such a thing hard to accept? However, with Dian Wei's assistance, those who opposed Wang Yun dared not openly show their faces for the sake of their own lives. They could only secretly devise ways to remove Wang Yun and replace him.

To put it bluntly, these people are all just doing it for their own benefit.

Just as undercurrents were swirling in Chang'an, the Xiliang army was finally ready to attack the city. With Li Jue, Niu Fu, Guo Si, and Li Ru at its core, the various Xiliang army units formed a new alliance. Of course, this alliance was under the banner of avenging Ding Yuan, but in reality, it was just an action by these individuals to replace Ding Yuan and become the superior person.

After discussion, Li Ru decided to lead 20,000 troops to garrison the Hangu Pass line to defend against Yuan Shao in the east, while the other three led 20,000 troops to attack Chang'an. They agreed that whoever captured or killed Dian Wei would be the leader of the group and would be promoted to the high position that Ding Yuan had once held, so that he could continue to lead the Xiliang army to conquer the world.

"I wonder where Lord Lu Zhi's army is now," Wang Yun said, standing on the city wall of Chang'an and looking at the Xiliang army formation outside the city.

“The river is treacherous, and it will be difficult to cross it directly in the short term. I suppose Grand Commandant Lu is actively trying to find a way to cross it,” Dong Cheng said.

"From now on, Dian Wei, General Dong, and I will each be responsible for one side of the city wall. We must hold out until reinforcements arrive," Wang Yun said to the three of them.

Dian Wei cupped his hands and said, "Father-in-law, rest assured, as long as I am alive, I will not allow the rebels to enter the city."

Dong Cheng echoed this sentiment, saying, "Rest assured, my lord, if the rebels want to enter the city, they will have to step over my dead body!"

However, Dong Cheng already had some other thoughts in mind. Lu Zhi was coming, and he was wondering which side he should take. Although he had overthrown Ding Yuan with Wang Yun, Lu Zhi was more capable and had a better reputation than Wang Yun. Lu Zhi was also a regent appointed by the late emperor, which Wang Yun was inferior to from the start. More importantly, Lu Zhi had more power than Wang Yun, and he also had Chen Er's support. This made Dong Cheng think more about it.

While adding flowers to brocade is not as good as providing charcoal in the snow, the strength of this "brocade" is simply too great. Besides Dian Wei, what else can Wang Yun offer?

As Dong Cheng walked towards the city wall he was responsible for, he analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of both sides in his mind.

"Well, let's wait until we defeat the Xiliang army before making any decisions," Dong Cheng sighed to himself.

Boom!Boom!Boom!

The war drums sounded outside the city; the Xiliang army was about to attack. Dong Cheng quickened his pace and walked up the city wall. Chang'an only had a little over 20,000 troops. To prepare for the Xiliang army's retaliation, after killing Ding Yuan and driving them away, Wang Yun, Dong Cheng, and others had urgently conscripted soldiers. However, they now only had a little over 30,000 men. Distributed evenly across the four city walls, each wall had only about 8,000 men. The force should be barely enough, but the quality of these soldiers was far inferior to the Xiliang soldiers outside the city. Apart from the 10,000-odd Bingzhou soldiers under Dian Wei, who were quite capable, the rest were mostly farmers who had recently laid down their hoes. They might be able to bully ordinary people, but in a real battle, it was highly unlikely.

"We can only try our best to hold out until Grand Commandant Lu's reinforcements arrive," Dong Cheng said. Even after Wang Yun proclaimed himself Grand Commandant, he still addressed Lu Zhi as Grand Commandant, even in front of Wang Yun. There was nothing he could do because Wang Yun hadn't thought of this at the time, and only remembered this misunderstanding later. However, Lu Zhi had already been given no official title, so Wang Yun could only pretend not to know about it and gave Lu Zhi the title of Governor of Bingzhou. Even so, most people in the court were still used to calling Lu Zhi Grand Commandant Lu, since Wang Yun was still lurking in some corner of the world when Lu Zhi became Grand Commandant.

"General, the Xiliang army has attacked," a captain reported to Dong Cheng.

Musketeers and archers, prepare!

"The rest of you, prepare the stones and the gold syrup!" Dong Cheng ordered loudly.

"One hundred and fifty steps!"

"One hundred and thirty steps!" "One hundred steps!"

"Musketeers, fire!"

"Archers, fire!"

There were only 5,000 musketeers in Chang'an, with only 1,000 assigned to each city wall. To enhance long-range firepower, Wang Yun and his men searched the entire city and equipped it with all available bows and crossbows. According to Wang Yun, it didn't matter whether the shots were accurate or not, as long as they were aimed at the enemy.