Dong Zhuo ordered Emperor Liu Xie and the civil and military officials to lead the way. There were more than two hundred thousand soldiers escorting them, so there was basically no need to worry about safety along the way. After leaving Hangu Pass, the group continued to head west toward Tong Pass. This article was written by
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There were many who did not follow, but they were all killed on the spot. As such, no one dared to say anything else.
The emperor and the officials were the most important part of Dong Zhuo's plan to move the capital to Chang 'an, but they were only a small portion of the first batch. Following that, Dong Zhuo ordered the troops stationed in the counties near Luoyang to mobilize the local citizens and send them to Hangu Pass. Anyone who disobeyed was killed on the spot.
The crowd of NPCs dragged their families and carried all kinds of resources towards Hangu Pass. Although the scene looked grand, these NPCs had their own difficulties and had to endure the hardships of migration.
Most of these NPC civilians were organized into counties and townships. Every migrating group was detained by the local Dong Zhuo's subordinates. During the process, any NPC civilians who delayed the migration were often beaten up, or even killed on the spot.
At the same time, the soldiers under Dong Zhuo's command were indulged in raping and raping. Practically all the women, money, and belongings of the various families were lost. Those who resisted in the slightest were similarly slaughtered and thrown into the wilderness. The scene along the way was simply too horrible to look at!
Dong Zhuo naturally moved these people to fill up and build up Chang An. At the same time, he also wanted to cut off the foundations of the heroes. In the entire Three Kingdoms region, Luoyang's Imperial City and the entire Yin region of Henan were the most flourishing and most densely populated areas. Wouldn't their strength swell even more? Dong Zhuo naturally did not want to see such a scene.
If one were to say that the plundering of the NPCs mostly happened to the low-ranking soldiers of Dong Zhuo's faction. However, Dong Zhuo's actions in Luoyang Imperial City were aimed at the upper-class rich families. Anyone who had any connection with the Guan Dong Marquis was the first to have their property confiscated. Just like the Yuan Clan, they lost both their wealth and their people.
This kind of people always had some evidence to prove their crimes, and they didn't die with the most grievance. What's more, Dong Zhuo used all kinds of groundless pretenses to capture the rich families of Luoyang's Imperial City and the nearby counties, implicating several tens of thousands of families and more than a hundred thousand people. All of them had their flags planted on their heads. Just like the previous group of people, they were all beheaded outside the city, and their gold and silver coins were all taken for their own.
Dong Zhuo captured all the NPCs with Lifestyle Skills and tied them up. He planned to move them to Chang 'an to rebuild the city and restore all kinds of production. Of course, a portion of these NPCs would be handed over to Yang Rui, including 1,000 Advanced Lifestyle Players.
Meanwhile. Dong Zhuo even sent his trusted generals to lead his troops and dig up all the tombs of the previous generations of emperors and ministers outside Luoyang Imperial City. They took all the gold, silver, jade, and other treasures that were excavated for themselves, and brazenly packed them in carriages and sent them to Chang 'an. The caravan of carriages was actually more than ten miles long!
As Dong Zhuo officially began moving the capital, a large number of people and resources surged towards Hangu Pass from all over Henan. As detaining the citizens required a large number of troops, Dong Zhuo's camp in the various counties of Henan was already very empty. Only Luoyang Imperial City, Yanshi County City, Gong County City, Hulao Pass, Gucheng County City, and Hangu Pass still had many troops stationed at the front lines.
Most players, including Yang Rui, should have expected Dong Zhuo's abduction to happen. Back when Yang Rui and Li Ru were discussing the conditions, they had thought of restricting Dong Zhuo's actions. However, in the end, Yang Rui only raised a request to Li Ru — Dong Zhuo did not burn down Luoyang Imperial City when he left!
This request was not included in the list of conditions that Yang Rui had raised. Furthermore, Li Ru did not give a direct response. At this point in the game, most of the important storylines were difficult to change. Dong Zhuo could not be blackmailed indefinitely. Yang Rui could only try his best to save this majestic Imperial City.
In truth, even if Luoyang was left intact, Yang Rui did not have the power to occupy it. The only reason he had spoken out to persuade Li Ru was because it would be too much of a pity if Luoyang, an imperial city, was destroyed! Even in the game, Luoyang Imperial City could be considered a symbol of the Three Kingdoms!
While Dong Zhuo was busy moving people, Yang Rui, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo once again led over 6,500 Fifth Grade vanguards and 30000 Fifth Grade Iron Guards. They took advantage of the chaos in the northwest area of Luoyang and took over Henan County City once again.
There weren't many of Dong Zhuo's subordinates stationed in Henan County City. However, there were a large number of maids and NPCs gathered there. Dong Zhuo pretended to be sending these people out of Hangu Pass, but in truth, he was waiting for Yang Rui to come and get them.
Yang Rui had his men do a headcount. After confirming that there were over 10000 maids and NPCs, with over 1000 Advanced Professions among them, he led these 20000 NPCs to He Yin County City. At this point, all the matters that Li Ru and Yang Rui had agreed on had been fulfilled, apart from the remaining ten advanced checkpoint blueprints.
Yang Rui and his men were also harassed by some players from Dong Zhuo's faction while they were transporting the maids and NPCs. However, due to the suddenness of the incident, these players were not prepared. In the end, Yang Rui's 40000 elite soldiers easily dealt with them.
Yang Rui did not attack again after the transfer of the people. Instead, he remained within He Yin County City, supervising the construction of transport ships at the various docks in preparation for the transportation of people.
In truth, Dong Zhuo's faction was already very weak in Henei County, north of the Yellow River. Yang Rui had originally planned to take some of his men and spend a few days conquering the few counties west of Henei County. Under normal circumstances, it would take Dong Zhuo's forces five or six days to retreat to the east of Hangu Pass.
However, something unexpected happened. Sun Jian's troops, who had been defeated by Dong Zhuo's Hulao Army and had disappeared for some time, suddenly used a large number of ships to kill their way to the Yellow River near Ping County. They took over Ping County at lightning speed!
It turned out that after Sun Jian's repeated defeats, he had retreated to the White Horse County area. There, he consolidated his manpower and resources and began to build ships. As a typical southern army, Sun Jian's army had brought craftsmen who could build ships with them, just like how Dong Zhuo's army brought siege weapon craftsmen with them when they were attacking a city. Together with some shipbuilding craftsmen, docks, and wood that they had temporarily gathered from their own pockets, it was not difficult for them to build ships.
The transport ships built by Sun Jian were not ordinary. Most of them were medium-sized transport ships like Yuan Yuan and Tuantuan. There were even three or four transport ships that were more than twice the size of these medium-sized transport ships. They should already belong to the category of large transport ships.
As Yang Rui's fleet had been active in the vicinity of Heyin County and Mengjin, Yang Rui immediately received news of Sun Jian's arrival. He also knew the characteristics of the ships very well. Therefore, Yang Rui immediately realized that Dong Zhuo's process of moving the capital to Chang 'an would probably be shortened by a lot, and he might be caught off guard!
Therefore, Yang Rui canceled his plan to go to Hanoi and focused on waiting for the possible confrontation between Sun Jian and Dong Zhuo. Although Yang Rui and Li Ru had agreed not to obstruct Dong Zhuo's men from entering Hangu Pass, it did not mean that they were no longer enemies. Yang Rui would naturally earn as many merits and points as he could.
Moreover, the wealth in Luoyang Royal City was not something that Dong Zhuo could take with him. Sun Jian's sudden arrival reminded Yang Rui of the Imperial Jade Seal. He wondered if Sun Jian had obtained this supreme treasure in the game, just like how it was described in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Although Sun Jian had built many ships, he could only transport about 30000 soldiers at a time. Sun Jian was able to capture Ping County so quickly because he was the Tiger of the Gangdong and had extraordinary combat power. On the other hand, Dong Zhuo had put most of his forces into moving the capital, so the number of soldiers stationed in Ping County was very limited.
Therefore, after Sun Jian captured Ping County, he focused all his energy on defending the city. He set up more banners to create momentum. At the same time, he ordered his men to lead the transport ships back to Whitehorse County to gather more troops. He was prepared to attack Dong Zhuo when he had sufficient troops. He did not dare to attack Luoyang Royal City immediately.
It could be said that if Dong Zhuo gathered all his troops to attack Ping County, Sun Jian might not be able to gain a foothold. However, after Dong Zhuo received the news that Sun Jian had captured Ping County, he was immediately intimidated by Sun Jian's reputation. In a panic, he sped up his retreat and did not dare to send any troops to attack Sun Jian's troops.
Under such circumstances, Dong Zhuo and Sun Jian defended their respective cities and did not attack each other for two days.
The situation might be temporary, but the outcome was almost certain. Therefore, Yang Rui used the two days of stalemate to clean up Dong Zhuo's forces in He Yin County. After that, he, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo led 6500 warriors and 30000 Iron Guards to Spirit Condensation Mountain Village in Mt Beimang.
Zhang Ning, Chen Lin, and Du Yang stayed behind to guard He Yin County. There were 10000 county soldiers, 10000 Iron Guards, and 20000 Fourth Grade soldiers and archers that had been resurrected in He Yin County. There was no need to worry about Dong Zhuo's chaotic forces.
In truth, the last agreement between Yang Rui and Li Ru was that the ten advanced checkpoint blueprints were in Spirit Condensation Mountain Village. However, the agreed time to collect them was before Dong Zhuo left Luoyang. However, with the threat of Sun Jian now, there was no telling if Dong Zhuo had the time to arrange this. Yang Rui did not find the blueprints in the mountain village when he arrived.
After two days of delay, Dong Zhuo had mobilized his troops and detained most of the NPC civilians to the east of Hangu Pass. He had also transported most of the people and wealth out of Luoyang. However, Sun Jian had also managed to replenish 30000 troops to Ping County through ships.
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