Guo Jia being able to say something like "independence" made Yang Rui feel relieved. At this time, Yang Rui was most worried that Guo Jia would have thoughts of repaying the Han Dynasty.
Although the Han Dynasty was on the decline, most of the normal NPCs still recognized the Han Dynasty as the world. Even some of the special historical NPCs were the same. There were also many people who could not recognize the situation of the world, or who were not willing to give up on the Han Dynasty even though they recognized it.
"I'm touched that Feng Xiao is so considerate of me.
Hahaha … To be honest, Young Emperor Liu Bian and his mother, Empress He, are in my hands … "
On the other hand, Guo Jia was able to consider the pros and cons from Yang Rui's perspective. Therefore, Yang Rui directly told him about the matter between Liu Bian and Empress Dowager He. However, towards the end, Yang Rui directly whispered into Guo Jia's ear, his voice gradually becoming inaudible.
Most of the people present knew about Liu Bian and Empress He. Yang Rui did not want to hide it from them. He just wanted to prevent it from spreading.
After Guo Jia heard Yang Rui's words, he was stunned for a moment. Then, his eyes lit up. Obviously, he was surprised that Liu Bian and Empress He were under Yang Rui's control.
According to the rumors, Young Emperor Liu Bian and Empress He were rescued from Luoyang Imperial City by the Prefecture Overseer of Qing Province. However, they were later kidnapped by Dong Zhuo. Unexpectedly, the two of them were still in Yang Rui's hands.
"Prefecture Overseer, you are indeed far-sighted! If that's the case, there's no need to go to Chang 'an anymore … "Guo Jia clasped his hands and said in admiration.
Previously, when Guo Jia suggested that Yang Rui go to Chang 'an, he had the intention of using the Emperor to command the vassals. However, there was no need to do so now.
Compared to Liu Xie … Liu Bian was the original and authentic one. Liu Xie was just a new Emperor that Dong Zhuo secretly established. At that time, he was not widely recognized. Especially when the heroes asked for Liu Bian's plot, the eighteen vassals only recognized Liu Bian and not Liu Xie!
The Shi Clan Group also recognized Liu Bian more. However, since Liu Bian and Empress He went missing, the officials and generals in the hall had no choice but to recognize Liu Bian's position.
Now that Yang Rui had Liu Bian and his mother in his grasp, if he were to reveal them at the right time, the effect would definitely be greater than Liu Xie's. It was even possible that the emperor would be replaced. Therefore, when Yang Rui said that Liu Bian and his mother were in his hands, Guo Jia immediately realized that there was no need to go to Chang 'an and get involved in that muddy water.
Moreover, through the matter of Liu Bian and his mother, Guo Jia's understanding of Yang Rui had improved. At the same time, he also remembered Yang Rui's honesty in his heart.
In the next few days, Yang Rui wholeheartedly dealt with the agreement with Liu Dai. The matter of the title had been settled. After two more meetings, Liu Dai also gave Yang Rui the Archer Skill Book and the monetary compensation.
When Liu Dai used a Qiankun Bag to take out 10 million gold coins, Yang Rui even suspected that he had asked for too little. He might have underestimated Liu Dai's financial resources!
Because of the Dong Zhuo Rebellion plot, the items in the Qiankun Bag could not be used. This meant that Liu Dai's 10 million gold coins were, to a large extent, his reserves before the plot happened. It might only be a small part of Liu Dai's wealth …
In any case, when Yang Rui and Liu Dai finished discussing the agreement, the expedition to the East County came to an end for the time being.
Overall, Yang Rui's action could be said to be a success. Although he did not completely eliminate Liu Dai's strength, he had achieved the goal of weakening Liu Dai to the greatest extent. He had also divided most of Liu Dai's territory into several parts and occupied them separately with Qiao Mao and Ding Yuan. At the same time, he had also restricted Liu Dai's rise through the agreement.
Needless to say, Yang Rui's gains were not small. Qiao Mao and Ding Yuan, who were invited to join the expedition, had also gained a lot, especially in terms of territory. Qiao Mao had obtained Ding Tao Kingdom south of the Yellow River and a large area around it, while Ding Yuan had also obtained Dong Ping Kingdom.
The increase in territory and strength of the two parties was also beneficial to the stability of Yang Rui's forces in a short period of time.
Compared to the gains, the losses of the three sides in this battle were not great. In Yang Rui's case, in the process of attacking the dozen cities under Liu Dai's rule, although the total number of soldiers lost was not calculated, it was only in the thousands. Furthermore, Yang Rui had spent points to revive them.
The cost of provisions, transportation, and other aspects did not exceed 200,000 gold coins. The gold coins collected from the various cities were enough to make up for it, and there was still some left over. It was not an exaggeration to say that they were using the war to support the war.
As for Qiao Mao and Ding Yuan, other than Qiao Mao losing 30000 soldiers when attacking Ding Tao Kingdom, Ding Yuan was only responsible for following behind Yang Rui's army and taking over the territory. Therefore, there were not many casualties.
Qiao Mao losing 30000 soldiers was mostly due to his eagerness for rewards. After the war, he received a large amount of territory as compensation, so there was nothing much to complain about.
Over the next half a month, Yang Rui, Qiao Mao, and Ding Yuan took over the assigned territories one after another.
The process of attacking a city might be a little difficult, but taking over the territory was not much easier than attacking a city. It involved the appointment of relevant officials, the allocation of resources, and many other aspects.
This was especially true for the seven or eight cities north of the East County that Yang Rui took over. Originally, Yang Rui wanted to immediately implement the field system, the exchange of resources, and the military subsidy system. However, just the appointment of officials took Yang Rui a lot of effort to complete. It was obviously inappropriate to use these immature officials to implement the various policies.
Therefore, Yang Rui temporarily suspended the implementation of several policies. Instead, he encouraged the NPC civilians in the various cities to migrate to the best places in Qingzhou, such as the North Sea and the Kingdom of Qi. This was because Yang Rui still felt that the East County was not safe for the time being.
In reality, the large number of NPC migration that Yang Rui expected did not occur. The northern counties followed Yang Rui's advice and went to Qingzhou. Only some refugees and disaster victims who could not survive.
As long as ordinary NPCs could barely survive, there were not many who migrated to Qingzhou. Even though Qingzhou's reputation had long been known, it did not have much effect. In this regard, whether it was in real life or in the game, the situation was similar.
Yang Rui handed the matter of taking over the territory to Cheng Yu, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo. Most of the 300,000 troops and the newly obtained 20,000 Linyi County soldiers were left in the cities north of the East County by Yang Rui. Fan County alone had close to 100,000 soldiers.
Yang Rui, Zhang Ning, and Guo Jia led the navy soldiers, dagger-axe boats, transport ships, and 6,500 vanguard soldiers to go upstream along the Yellow River toward Hanoi Prefecture. The rest of the soldiers returned to the cities north of the East County. At this point, the Battle of Puyang City had officially ended.
The reason they sent troops to attack Liu Dai was to rescue Hanoi Prefecture Governor Wang Kuang. Now that the battle on Liu Dai's side had come to an end, they still needed to go to help Wang Kuang. As such, Yang Rui brought a portion of the soldiers to Hanoi.
In actuality, whether or not Yang Rui went to Hanoi did not matter much. Recently, due to the help of the various player organizations in Si Li Province, Wang Kuang's crisis had been temporarily resolved. Although it was not enough to restore his position in Hanoi Prefecture, it was not a problem for him to gain a foothold in the three or four cities east of Hanoi Prefecture.
As such, Yang Rui going to Hanoi was just an excuse to send troops so that the matter could be completed and no one would say anything.
After accepting new territories during this period of time, there was less than a month until the end of the Dong Zhuo's Rebellion storyline. While Yang Rui traveled slowly by water, he rode the Wind Carpet with Zhang Ning to investigate the players' territories near Hanoi County and Luoyang.
Following which, Yang Rui continued to follow the Yellow River upstream until he arrived near Chang 'an City to investigate the situation. Later on, he even followed the Yellow River's tributary to the Black Dock.
When Yang Rui arrived at the Black Dock, he coincidentally saw a large portion of the Xiliang army leaving from the Black Dock and heading towards Chang 'an City. It seemed like something big was about to happen.
Previously, when Yang Rui was investigating Chang 'an City, he could still see Lu Bu's flag on the city wall. It seemed like after two months of fighting, Wang Yun and the other nobles still had the advantage over Lu Bu in Chang' an City. Now that the Black Dock army had sent out troops, the situation was hard to say.
Moreover, the troops sent out by the Black Dock looked rather majestic. The Xiliang army's combat strength was still very strong. Yang Rui originally planned to set a fire with Zhang Ning to earn some achievement points and contribution points. However, after seeing the appearance of the troops, he gave up on that idea. There seemed to be quite a number of long-range archers among them that could threaten their safety.
"System Announcement: The Xiliang army and the Bing Province army have been fighting for more than two months. Lu Bu's troops have been completely defeated. Wang Yun has been executed. Li Jue and Guo Si have jointly occupied Chang 'an City. The Dong Zhuo Rebellion storyline is about to end. The game's Three Kingdoms region will enter a period of fragmentation. Players, please make the necessary preparations …"
Sure enough, a few days later, the Three Kingdoms region system announcement was made three times across the region. The Xiliang army had decisively taken Chang 'an City. In the end, Lu Bu was still chased out of Chang' an City.
At this time, there was only half a month left until the Dong Zhuo Rebellion storyline. Yang Rui's troops had only just arrived in Hanoi Prefecture.
"System Announcement: The Three Kingdoms region's second large-scale storyline, Dong Zhuo Rebellion, has officially ended. Following which, the Three Kingdoms region will officially enter a period of fragmentation!"
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