Three Kingdoms: I will act as a substitute for the Hunjun

"General, you are wrong." Gai Xun was not angry at Hua Xiong's attitude, but smiled and said, "General, how can you say you surrender?"

This time it was Hua Xiong's turn to be confused. Was Gai Xun trying to take this opportunity to surrender to me? Then what was he trying to do by putting on such a gentle and friendly attitude?
Even court officials such as Cao Cao and Ding Yuan were confused for a moment, and Song Xian, Cheng Lian and others were even more confused.

"General, you are originally a member of the imperial court." Gai Xun continued with a smile, "You are originally an official of the imperial court, receiving a salary from the imperial court, and you have made great contributions to the imperial court in guarding the border and suppressing the Qiang Rebellion. It is only because you were bewitched by the thief Dong that you followed him on the evil path. I believe that this is not General Hua's true intention.

"Now Dong Zhuo is desperate, like a candle in the wind, he may collapse at any time. General, you should abandon the dark and join the light, return to the court, and make contributions to the people of the world and the Han Dynasty. This is the true loyalty and shame. Dong Zhuo is a traitor. How can you be loyal and shameless if you follow him to the end? I hope you will think twice."

"This..." Hua Xiong was speechless for a moment, unable to refute, feeling that what Gai Xun said seemed to make sense.

I was originally an official appointed by the imperial court, and it seems reasonable for me to return to the imperial court now. It is not shameful, and I will not be branded as disloyal, but... I always feel that something is wrong.

While he was still hesitating, Cao Cao came forward, took his arm and said with a smile: "General Hua has always acted uprightly, why are you being so fussy now? Come on, let's go have a drink."

It has to be said that Cao Cao understood human nature. He knew that Hua Xiong's heart was already wavering, but he was still hesitant. He only needed to give him a gentle push, and the matter would be settled.

Especially when using this method of active approach, usually the stubborn generals would find it difficult to refuse.

"Yes, yes, yes, let's drink, and then we'll fight for another three hundred rounds." Xiahou Dun also instantly understood Cao Cao's intention, stepped forward and grabbed Hua Xiong's other arm and said.

"This...this..." Hua Xiong was overwhelmed by the overwhelming affection. Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun affectionately invited him into the big tent.

Hua Xiong stuttered twice and forced himself to steady himself. The last bit of reluctance told him that he had to say a few more words, so he said, "General Gai, although Mr. Dong has many faults, he still has a kindness to me, Hua Xiong. I..."

"General, rest assured. I promise that I will not let you participate in any battle against Dong Zhuo, and I will never let you bear the reputation of being unkind and unjust." Gai Xun pointed to the central army tent and took Hua Xiong's hand and said, "Let's go to the tent and have a drink. All the officers in the camp come and celebrate General Hua's return!"

Hua Xiong felt he had no words to say anymore, he had gotten what he wanted, the other party had given him everything, what else could he say? He could only be dragged to the central army tent by everyone.

Everyone sat down in the big tent and the atmosphere was quite lively. While waiting for the food and wine, Hua Xiong looked hesitant and seemed to be hesitant to speak.

"General, you can speak frankly about whatever is on your mind. Now we are all serving in the same palace, so there is no need to be formal with each other as we are comrades." Gai Xun said upon seeing this.

"This..." Hua Xiong cleared his throat and said, "I heard that the number one general in the Central Plains is named Lü Bu, Lü Fengxian. I hope that the Marshal can arrange for us to have a competition at the right time..."

To be honest, Hua Xiong was not convinced about being captured today. He thought to himself that if it weren't for his poor horse and the stumble, how could he, the greatest general in Guanxi, be defeated by an unknown person like Xiahou Dun?

Even if he wants to submit to the imperial court, he still has to challenge the strongest fighter in the world to show that he is worthy of his reputation.

"Hahahahaha..."

But before Hua Xiong could finish his words, a burst of laughter came from the tent, making Hua Xiong feel embarrassed and confused. Is this really that ridiculous?

"Why are you all laughing?" Hua Xiong asked.

"You are no match for Lu Bu!" Song Xian said directly.

Song Xian had served with Lu Bu in the Bingzhou army before and knew Lu Bu's abilities. Moreover, Hua Xiong had killed his good friend Hou Cheng. Although Hua Xiong had now surrendered to the court, Song Xian still disliked him more and more.

Seeing that the other party was so arrogant, I couldn't help but come out and fight back.

Hua Xiong felt even more embarrassed this time, but still asked unconvincedly: "I wonder how General Song compares to Lu Bu?"

"I am not even 20% as strong as Lu Fengxian in combat power." Song Xian raised his head and said. At this moment, he had an illusion that his poor martial arts skills were an extremely glorious thing.

However, this answer made Hua Xiong's face solemn. Although he had never fought with Song Xian directly, he had seen Song Xian and Guo Si fighting. This general was no ordinary person, at least above average. How could his combat power be only 20% of Lu Bu's?

Hua Xiong thought it was easy to defeat Song Xian, but could he defeat five Song Xians? Obviously not.

If Lu Bu's combat power is really five times that of Song Xian, then he is really not Lu Bu's opponent, and there is even a big gap.

But Hua Xiong still had some doubts about Song Xian's statement. Is there really such a powerful general in the world? He raised his head and glanced at everyone in the tent.

There are only two people in this tent who have recently fought with Hua Xiong and whose strength is not much different from Hua Xiong. One is Xiahou Dun and the other is Xu Huang.

Xiahou Dun smiled but said nothing. He had also heard of Lu Bu's bravery, but the two had never met, let alone fought. He had no accurate judgment on how powerful Lu Bu was.

When Xu Huang saw Hua Xiong looking at him, he shook his head and said, "I am far inferior to Lu Fengxian."

When Liu Ming led his troops to conquer Henei, Xu Huang fought side by side with Lu Bu, so he was well aware of Lu Bu's bravery.

He was not exaggerating. He was indeed not as good as Lu Bu, and the gap was quite big.

Hua Xiong was stunned for a moment, then looked at Gai Xun for confirmation. He had fought with Xu Huang before, and it could be said that they were evenly matched. Of course, the fighting time was limited, but it didn't determine the winner, so at least he could judge that he was not much worse than himself.

Even a character like this is willing to admit that he is far inferior to Lu Bu. Am I really underestimating the heroes of the world?

Gai Xun still maintained a warm smile and said, "On the court side alone, there are more than ten people whose martial arts are as good as General Hua, but Lu Bu...he is the only one in the world."

There was a hint of playfulness in his smile, and to Hua Xiong, it seemed as if this smile was mocking his ignorance of the immensity of the world.

Hua Xiong sucked in a breath of cold air. What he was concerned about was not Gai Xun's evaluation of Lu Bu as the best in the world, but the fact that there were more than ten people in the imperial court who were not inferior to him?

You have to know that I am Dong Zhuo's top fighter, and even the top brother in the whole Guanxi. I thought I would be a rare commodity in the court, but I didn't expect that...

"There are at least ten people who are not inferior to me? Are you serious?" Hua Xiong asked.

"Then I will tell you one by one." Gai Xun said with a smile, "In my account, there are Yuan Rang (Xiahou Dun's courtesy name) and Gong Ming (Xu Huang's courtesy name) who are not inferior to General Hua, and under the command of Grand Marshal Huangfu Song, there are Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhang Liao, who are only above the general.

"Not long ago, your majesty went on a southern expedition. As far as I know, you also subjugated several generals. Xu Chu and Huang Zhong are only above General Hua, while Gao Shun and Wei Yan should be on par with the general. Your majesty also summoned two generals to fight in Yanzhou, Zhao Yun and Dian Wei. I heard that these two generals performed very well on the battlefield, and their military strength should be only above the general."

Hua Xiong was stunned when he heard this, and everyone in the tent fell silent.

"These are only the military commanders who have names and are serving in the court." Gai Xun continued, "Our Han Dynasty has a territory of tens of thousands of miles, and there are more than tens of millions of talents. There are countless unknown people among the grassroots who have extraordinary skills."

At this time, the wine and food had been served. Gai Xun raised his glass and said, "Let's drink together and congratulate General Hua!"

Everyone also raised their glasses.

Hua Xiong looked ashamed, his hand holding the cup trembling slightly, he stood up and bowed to all the generals, saying: "I am Hua who is ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth, and I don't know heroes in the world. I am sorry to make you laugh. I sincerely submit to the court, and I hope you can give me more guidance and advice!"

There was no longer any trace of arrogance or disobedience in his words.

People are like this. When they realize that they are just so-so and not as awesome as they imagined, they will naturally become timid.

"Okay, cheers!" Gai Xun was overjoyed when he saw this and was the first to drink up the wine in the glass.

"Cheers!" All the generals drank the wine in their cups, and there was joy in the tent.

……

In the capital city of Luoyang, today is another regular court day.

According to Liu Ming's new policy arrangements, the regular court would no longer be held every ten days, let alone every day. Instead, it would be held on the last Friday of every month for officials in Beijing to mainly inform and discuss major issues.

Of course, the regular court would also be convened temporarily according to special circumstances. For example, when Liu Ming destroyed the Yuan family, it was not yet time for the regular court at the end of the month. However, such a major matter must be known to all court officials, so it needed to be convened urgently.

Today's regular court session has three agenda items. First, the court officials will discuss the various clauses of the imperial examination system. Second, they will listen to the report from Xun Yu, the chief secretary of the Grand Tutor's Office, on the progress of the preliminary affairs of the new tax system. Third, His Majesty will report on the progress of various military operations.

Of course, these issues had already been discussed and approved at the central government meeting.

The so-called central court meeting was a meeting convened by Liu Ming, including the Grand Marshal, the Grand Tutor, the Grand Chancellor, the Grand Justice, and the Grand Minister of Rites, which was held once a week.

If the chief officer is absent, the secretaries of each department will attend the meeting.

Moreover, Liu Ming also changed the time for attending court from the original Mao time to Chen time, which means that the original time for attending court was changed to 7 o'clock in the morning.

In Liu Ming's opinion, this was already early enough, but the court officials seemed to have been pardoned. Their joy was beyond words, and they all praised Your Majesty for his wisdom and benevolence, which was unprecedented in history.

As for today, Liu Ming did not ask them to come to court directly at noon, but first organized everyone to visit the first paper shop in Luoyang City.

The so-called paper shop is actually a shop that specializes in selling paper.

The new papermaking workshop promoted by Liu Ming has been fully put into production and has produced the first batch of paper for official sale.

When Jian Shuo was alive, he called it Jian Paper. Now that Liu Ming is in power, it naturally cannot be called that name anymore, but is changed to Ming Han Paper.

The court officials were all well-educated people. When they saw the neatly arranged white papers in the paper numbers, they were all stunned.

Especially those learned scholars, who gently stroked the paper and couldn't help but burst into tears.

It can be predicted that with these new Ming-Han papers as carriers, the great Han culture will surely usher in a prosperous period. (End of this chapter)