Chapter 66: Smart Dong Zhuo Leading 10,000 Xiliang soldiers, Dong Zhuo arrived at the Guangzong battlefield. As the commander-in-chief, Lu Zhi specially set up a banquet to entertain Dong Zhuo and his generals. At the banquet, Tian Ze looked at the sturdy and strong man from the northwest calmly. Dong Zhuo was born tall and mighty, with a body like an iron tower and a thick neck as strong as an old tree stump. On his square face, his eyebrows were as black as ink, and his eyes were piercing and sometimes flashed with a wolf-like cunning light. Under the high nose bridge, there is a wide mouth, and when he speaks, his voice is as loud as a bell. His face is covered with beards, each of which is like a steel needle, which adds a bit of ruggedness and heroism. Although he looks rough, he actually does things in a very methodical way. He treated Lu Zhi with great respect on the surface, and got along very well with the other generals in the camp. Even Tian Ze drank a few cups with him. In just one banquet, Dong Zhuo became one of the few people. At first, Lu Zhi and the other generals actually had some reservations about Dong Zhuo's arrival. In their view, this was the emperor's lack of trust in their abilities, or he felt that they were no match for this barbarian from Xiliang. Dong Zhuo was born in a humble family, was just a military officer, and was born in Xiliang. He was at the bottom of the court's contempt chain and had always been discriminated against by scholars.
"Prime ministers come from Guandong, and generals come from Guanxi." After the tragic end of Sanming in Liangzhou, the people of Xiliang completely lost their trust in the imperial court and became extremely cautious from then on, fearing that they would be schemed against by scholars and have their military power taken away from them. Dong Zhuo is a typical example. He rose to power with his tough and generous style and made many military achievements. At the same time, after witnessing the darkness of the court, he became cunning and no longer blindly obeyed the orders of the court and his superiors. Instead, he put his own interests first and secretly played a game with the court. He knew very well that the army was the foundation of his life, so he held the military power tightly in his hands and was unwilling to fight hard or difficult battles to avoid causing too much damage to his own troops. This expedition against the Yellow Turbans is a good assignment. If nothing unexpected happens, we can gain a lot of military merit. After all, as long as we follow Lu Zhi and nothing goes wrong, it will be fine. But Dong Zhuo knew very well that his arrival would surely make these arrogant and powerful generals under Lu Zhi feel dissatisfied. If they assigned him some difficult tasks because of this, it would be troublesome. So at the banquet, he kept a very low profile and tried his best to win over everyone present in order to eliminate the rifts between them. Although Tian Ze was not good at speaking, his status and deeds made Dong Zhuo look at him differently, and he toasted him many times. It was only the first time for the two of them to meet, but they vaguely felt that they were quite similar in some ways. They all harbor resistance to the imperial court, all value their own power more, and all are egoists who only care about self-preservation. Both of them have apparent backers in the court, but in reality they are both pursuing their own agenda. Tian Ze had the support of He Jin and Zhao Zhong, while Dong Zhuo had the support of the Yuan family, a family of three generations of officials. As early as the Xiping period, after being inexplicably dismissed from office, Dong Zhuo finally saw the corruption in the court and had to bow his head. He was recruited by Prime Minister Yuan Wei as a clerk and later served as the Governor of Bingzhou and the Prefect of Hedong County. From then on, Dong Zhuo was deeply branded with the Yuan family's imprint. The Yuan family must have contributed a lot behind the scenes to be nominated to participate in the fight against the Yellow Turbans. However, the Yuan family and Lu Zhi are not completely the same kind of people. It has to be said that Dong Zhuo's methods were extremely clever. With just a banquet, he made everyone present put aside their prejudices.
This may be Dong Zhuo's innate talent. Tian Ze keenly noticed that Dong Zhuo seemed to have the same affinity as Liu Bei. It’s just that Liu Bei’s charm is maxed out, and Dong Zhuo’s friendliness has little effect on Confucian generals and civil officials like Lu Zhi, but it has an amazing appeal to soldiers and the brave and aggressive Hu people. No wonder this guy can thrive in Xiliang like a duck in water, he is truly a born hero. After eliminating the hostility of the people and removing the hidden dangers, Dong Zhuo applied to Lu Zhi to lead the troops to besiege Xiaquyang to prevent Zhang Bao and Zhang Jiao from colluding with each other. He and Lu Zhi belonged to different factions, so it was inevitable that they would be wary of each other when they were together. Lu Zhi was worried that he would disobey military orders or pretend to obey them. He was also worried that Lu Zhi would make him a scapegoat, leading to either a disastrous defeat or heavy losses. Dong Zhuo had seen a lot of intrigues within the army in Xiliang, so it would be better to divide the troops directly. Lu Zhi thought about it for a while, then agreed to Dong Zhuo's request and allocated 5,000 county soldiers to him. He didn't ask Dong Zhuo to defeat the enemy, but just to stabilize Xiaquyang. Dong Zhuo was quite surprised. He did not expect Lu Zhi to send troops to him. He could not help but feel touched. But in an instant, this touch of emotion turned into coveting and contempt for Lu Zhi. This is an honest man, you can trick him a little. In today's political environment, there are not many such honest people among the civil and military officials of the Han Dynasty. But think about it, if Lu Zhi was not so honest, why would those scholars recommend him to lead the army? Isn't it because we value the fact that he values his reputation and has no desire to fight for power or gain? A gentleman can be deceived. For the scholar group, military talents like Lu Zhi and Huangfu Song are the easiest to control. They can be deployed at any time when needed, and when not needed, a decree can take away their military power and let them retire. Even if his prestige is too great, just abandon it. At most, you can give him a long sword like you did to Bai Qi. In contrast, they should be wary of Dong Zhuo's disobedient "tools". But due to the situation, someone has to do the dirty work. We have to use him and suppress him at the same time. We can never let him stay in a high position, otherwise what if he turns the table over? After Dong Zhuo led his army to Xiaquyang, he immediately challenged the Yellow Turbans to a battle. Faced with the powerful Yellow Turban Army, Dong Zhuo did not hesitate to use 5,000 county soldiers as the vanguard to fight with them. It was not until the county soldiers could no longer hold on that he sent the Western Liang cavalry to charge. Faced with the already exhausted Yellow Turban Army, the Western Liang Cavalry tore through the battlefield like a tornado and won a great victory. However, the price paid was the loss of nearly two thousand county soldiers. However, Dong Zhuo didn't care, because they were not his own soldiers anyway. He wanted this effect, and even delayed the dispatch of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry to reduce his own losses. After achieving victory, Dong Zhuo immediately reported the victory to Lu Zhi and the court respectively. Afterwards, they set up camp in Xiaquyang, passively waited for the outcome of Lu Zhi's battle in Guangzong. Dong Zhuo had a clear view of the situation and had his own plans in mind. You only need to win once, and you will have achieved results. The best option next is to sit back and wait and see. There is no need to fight to the death with this group of Yellow Turbans, otherwise it will be your own troops who will suffer casualties, which will not be worth the loss.
In the current situation, if Lu Zhi wins, as the second-in-command of the army and having the ability to coordinate, he will naturally get a large part of the credit; if Lu Zhi is defeated, he can become the commander-in-chief, be promoted to a higher position, and take over the army. Dong Zhuo didn't care about his official position. He had long seen through that no matter how high the official position was, it was not as important as the military power in his hands. That group of scholars had done too many operations such as promoting people in public and demoting them in secret. It would be meaningless to give an official position no matter how high it was without real power. When they want to deal with you, they just fabricate some charges and a few petty officials can take you down. What Dong Zhuo coveted was the Northern Army under Lu Zhi, as well as the armies of Zong Yuan and Tian Ze, the commander of the Wuhuan Guard. Although he can only command in name only, he cannot actually control it. But if you make some friends, do more favors, and lay some foundation, it might come in handy one day. The reason why Dong Zhuo was able to gather so many troops in Xiliang was because of this trick. Before the troops were divided, he often drank with the Northern Army captains, clan members and Tian Ze. His subordinates did the same, toasting and drinking with the middle-level generals under their command, and established some friendships. However, Tian Ze and his generals and soldiers were not allowed to drink alcohol due to military orders. Instead, Dong Zhuo was not angry about this. Instead, he looked at Tian Ze with an even better eye. Especially when he saw the burly and ferocious Dian Wei standing next to Tian Ze, his eyes lit up. It’s a pity that no matter how envious he is, it’s all in vain in front of the master who is trying to poach him. (End of this chapter)