Li Ru cursed in his heart. He didn't expect that what he had been worried about would come true. Yang Rui wanted to force Dong Yi to stay as a hostage! Li Ru could almost imagine the consequences of Dong Yi being held hostage!
"Lord Prefecture Overseer, this is not appropriate. Prime Minister Dong ordered Li Ru to bring his beloved daughter here for the marriage. Now that the marriage has failed, Li Ru should bring her back intact. How can Li Ru leave her outside? Li Ru won't be able to answer to Prime Minister Dong!"
Facing such a situation, although Li Ru and Li Su were beside him, Dong Yi still showed a trace of panic. He couldn't help but slowly move behind Li Ru. Li Ru was Dong Zhuo's son-in-law. In Dong Yi's impression, Li Ru was very capable, so he made such a move.
As for Dong Zhuo's other son-in-law, Niu Fu, he had been killed by Yang Rui. Dong Zhuo's nephew, Dong Huang, had also died under Yang Rui's gun. In detail, Yang Rui already had a deep hatred for Dong Zhuo. However, the situation had changed. Dong Zhuo had no choice but to send someone to propose marriage. He was willing to give his daughter to Yang Rui, but he was rejected by Yang Rui!
Of course, Li Ru knew about the hatred between Yang Rui and Dong Zhuo. Previously, Li Ru proposed a marriage between Dong Zhuo and Yang Rui. In a sense, he also wanted to resolve this hatred between the two sides. However, now that there was no hope of a marriage alliance, Li Ru naturally didn't want Dong Yi to be trapped in Yang Rui!
"No need to say anymore. I've already made up my mind. If you want to say anything more, all of you can stay here. The contents of the previous negotiation are all invalid!" Seeing that Li Ru was unwilling to give up, Yang Rui made a prompt decision.
Sure enough, after Yang Rui warned him like this. Li Ru didn't dare to say anything else. Although he wanted to say something, he stopped. In the end, he didn't say anything.
"Li Ru will take his leave. I hope that Lord Blazing Sun will keep his promise!"
In the end, Li Ru seemed to have thought it through. He no longer entangled himself in Dong Yi's matter. After instructing Yang Rui a few words, he turned around and left. At the same time, Li Su, who hadn't said a word all this while, also left. If Yang Rui knew his identity, he probably wouldn't be able to leave either!
After Li Ru and Li Su left, Yang Rui raided the forces of Dong Zhuo's camp near Taigu City. Then, he continued to lead his troops to attack the small town in Wu Xiang. Not to mention that Dong Zhuo had yet to give a final reply to Yang Rui, even if he really had to fulfill the previous agreement with Dong Zhuo, it wouldn't delay Yang Rui from conquering the city!
That was because Yang Rui and Li Ru had already agreed on the specific details and marching route. If Dong Zhuo started to fulfill the agreement, he would take the initiative to hand over some of the cities. When that happened, Yang Rui would be able to conquer the cities as easily as taking something out of his pocket.
Yang Rui and Li Ru had made such an agreement for two reasons. On one hand, it was to hide the fact that they had always been fighting against Dong Zhuo's forces. On the other hand, it was to move the troops away from Hangu Pass and make way for Dong Zhuo to move the capital. It was a win-win situation for both parties. Naturally, Li Ru was more than happy to accept it.
Not long after Yang Rui conquered Wu Xiang City. As expected, Dong Zhuo sent a horse to give Yang Rui a final reply. Everything would be done according to the agreement between Yang Rui and Li Ru! There was only one exception. As expected, Dong Zhuo wasn't willing to hand over the Flying Bear soldiers. Instead, he agreed to give 10000 Second Grade to Fourth Grade skill books for archers. This was within Yang Rui's expectations. In fact, it was something he could accept.
Following this, Yang Rui and Dong Zhuo entered the formalization phase of their agreement.
First, Yang Rui ordered Gao Shun to lead the 40000 Fifth Grade Iron Guards and temporarily station them in Wu Xiang City. Zhang Ning, Zhang Liao, Chen Lin, and Wu Anguo were to return to Pingyin County on horseback. Meanwhile, Yang Rui himself used the Flying Carpet to rush to Hangu Pass to mobilize the troops.
As Pingyin County would be an important stronghold for Yang Rui, Yang Rui ordered Zhang Ning, Zhang Liao, Chen Lin, and Wu Anguo to return to the city. Moreover, the troops that Yang Rui transferred from Hangu Pass would also be stationed in Pingyin County.
However, Yang Rui only told Dragon Soul and the other player organizations that he needed to transfer their forces away from Hangu Pass due to the eastern front being too deep into the enemy's territory. Dragon Soul and the other player organizations had always been concerned about the strategic position of Hangu Pass. As such, they were more than happy to see Yang Rui withdraw from Hangu Pass. They couldn't wait for Yang Rui to withdraw from Hangu Pass completely.
Not long after Yang Rui transferred the 10000 Fourth Grade soldiers into Pingyin County, Zhang Ning, Zhang Liao, Chen Lin, and Wu Anguo arrived as well. Yang Rui confidently handed over He Yin County to the four of them. He then rode the Flying Carpet back to Wu Xiang City.
Yang Rui cleared out the forces of Dong Zhuo's faction near Wu Xiang City for two more days. On the third day, Yang Rui led his army north and headed straight for Yanshi County.
In truth, Dong Zhuo had secretly returned to the Imperial City of Luoyang during these three or four days. He had also made arrangements in Yanshi County. It was precisely because of this that Yang Rui was able to enter Yanshi County City from the south city gate without much effort. He even managed to break through the south city gate of the inner city. At this time, Dong Zhuo's troops had already 'fled' at the sight of the wind. They had all scattered from the west city gate of Yanshi County City.
Unsurprisingly, Yang Rui managed to retrieve 10,000,000 gold coins from the storage pouch in Yanshi County's three prefectures! This was almost unimaginable for a county. However, this was only the first part of the agreement between Yang Rui and Dong Zhuo.
In truth, Dong Zhuo had already sent his subordinates to place the ten million gold coins in the treasury of Yanshi County. When Yang Rui came to attack, Dong Zhuo's NPC forces would pretend to resist for a while before retreating. This allowed Yang Rui to easily take over the city!
This was also Dong Zhuo's response to Yang Rui's withdrawal from Hangu Pass. At this point, the first part of the agreement had been reached.
At almost the same time, Dong Zhuo was in Luoyang preparing to move the capital. He wasn't trying to convince the civil and military officials. Instead, he was trying to plunder the various professions, assets, and even excavate the imperial tombs. At the same time, he was also preparing to transport food, weapons, and various other items.
As for the civil and military officials, Dong Zhuo had no intention of discussing this matter with them. Even the young Emperor, Liu Xie, had no idea that Dong Zhuo was planning to move the capital to Chang 'an.
After Yang Rui took over Yanshi County, he didn't stay for long. Instead, he led his troops east, heading straight for Gong County. Similarly, he took over Gong County without much effort. However, Yang Rui and Li Ru had agreed to fulfill the second part of the agreement not at Gong County, but at Chenqian County, further east.
Hence, Yang Rui didn't stay in Gong County either. The next day, Yang Rui led his troops to Chenqian County once more.
Chenqian County was very close to Chenggao County, and it wasn't far from Hulao Pass. Moreover, Yang Rui's attack had been announced by the system. Hence, the impression he gave others was that Yang Rui was heading straight for Hulao Pass, where Dong Zhuo was located, and that he was going to attack Hulao Pass together with the heroes of Guandong. Little did they know that Dong Zhuo had already rushed back to Luoyang.
With Dong Zhuo's help, Yang Rui was like a hot knife through butter. When the players from the Anti-Dong Alliance heard about Yang Rui's performance, most of them were very excited. They gathered near Hulao Pass, preparing to attack from both inside and outside. Meanwhile, the players from Dong Zhuo's camp started cursing, condemning Dong Zhuo's troops for not being able to withstand a single blow.
As Yang Rui's forces moved east, the pressure on Luoyang decreased significantly. In truth, now was the perfect time for Dong Zhuo's camp to go back on their word. However, Yang Rui wasn't too worried.
If Dong Zhuo went back on his word, the most likely possibility was that he would suddenly attack River Yin County to reinforce Li Jue and the others on the northern shore of the Yellow River. However, the ones stopping Li Jue and the others from returning were Yang Rui's fleet. Yang Rui believed that Dong Zhuo wouldn't act rashly due to his lack of naval power.
Moreover, Zhang Ning and the other three generals in River Yin City weren't to be trifled with. In addition to Du Yang's ten thousand soldiers, defending River Yin County shouldn't be too much of a problem. This was also why Yang Rui had mobilized his generals to defend River Yin County.
Yang Rui's attack on Chen Qian's city was also a routine one. It didn't take much effort. Moreover, after Yang Rui entered the city and searched through the city's treasury, he quickly found the ten thousand Second to Fourth Grade skill books that Dong Zhuo had ordered his men to place there.
With these skill books in hand, Yang Rui had reached yet another agreement with Li Ru. Li Ru and Yang Rui had agreed on such details. Not only did it create the illusion that Yang Rui was heading straight for Hulao Pass, but it was also likely to cause Yang Rui's forces to truly distance themselves from Luoyang's Royal City.
At the same time, Dong Zhuo had also sent out his troops to attack Hangu Pass. He had sent out over two hundred thousand soldiers, as well as plenty of large-scale siege weapons!
As Yang Rui's forces had already been withdrawn from Hangu Pass, Dong Zhuo's assault on Hangu Pass had been extremely sudden, and Dragon Soul and the other player organizations were far inferior to Dong Zhuo's forces in terms of strength, long-range combat prowess, and overall strength, Dong Zhuo's momentum in taking Hangu Pass was almost unstoppable.
However, the players also displayed a different fighting spirit and flexibility compared to the NPCs. While Dong Zhuo's forces were attacking Hangu Pass, Tracer Dragon Soul and Starlight Vast Sky happened to be in the pass. Under the command of these two, the players used the geographical advantage of Hangu Pass to cause Dong Zhuo's forces a lot of trouble. They even managed to suppress the enemy for a time!
However, due to the massive difference in strength, this situation couldn't last for long. In particular, after Dong Zhuo's forces had deployed all of their large-scale siege weapons, the situation of Dragon Soul and the other player organizations guarding the pass was getting worse and worse. In the end, when they saw that they couldn't hold on any longer, Tracer Dragon Soul and Starlight Vast Sky decided to abandon the pass and enter Hongnong County from the west.
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