The Horse of the Three Kingdoms Treads the World

() Good things don't go out, bad things spread thousands of miles.The news that Huaxiong had lost his city and lost his troops and generals soon spread to Luoyang City. Both the common people and the officials knew that Yangcheng was broken by the Kwantung Allied Forces and the Xiliang Army was defeated and retreated.

Regarding this point, the people who already thought about the Xiliang Army were naturally deeply worried, and only hated themselves for not being able to help the Xiliang Army fight against the powerful enemy.And some officials in Luoyang, who were coerced by Dong Zhuo with force and whose life was getting sadder every day, secretly celebrated and rejoiced, hoping that the Kwantung Allied Forces would come to the city one day earlier to help them eradicate these traitors.

At the same time, some people who still have some strength in their hands can't sit still.They think that now is a good time to fight back. As long as they rise up with righteousness, there will be a large number of responders, which is enough to make the Xiliang army, which is already in panic all day long, even more headache.So these people started to take action, and even wanted to attack several large granaries and storage warehouses in Luoyang.

However, they still underestimated the power of the Xiliang Army in Luoyang City. Before they could make a real move, countless Xiliang soldiers surrounded their residence, arresting those guys who were deliberately trying to stab them in the back out.

In just two days, Dong Zhuo ordered more than a dozen officials with unruly intentions to be executed on the spot, and all their wealth was confiscated, which became the logistical support for the Xiliang Army.

The consequence of this matter is that Dong Zhuo distrusts Luoyang officials even more. Whenever someone shows a little dissatisfaction with him, Dong Zhuo, who is already angry because of the unfavorable war ahead, will take him and his family for various reasons. Follow the law to make a warning to others.As a result, Dong Zhuo's vicious reputation became even more prominent. Although the remaining officials were temporarily intimidated by Dong Zhuo's force and did not dare to oppose it openly, they secretly hated the warrior who trampled them down even more.

But this is only an external unfavorable factor. Inside the Xiliang Army, with the loss of Yangcheng this time, some people once again proposed to move the capital.They believed that Luoyang, except for Hulao Pass, was difficult for other cities to resist the attack of the Kwantung Allied Forces. In order not to fall to the point of desperation, and to have a better retreat, the capital should be moved to Chang'an, so as to rely on Xiliang The old place continued to fight with the Kwantung Allied Forces.

Regarding this, Dong Zhuo was also a little moved, but he also understood that this matter was too important, and he had to consult the opinions of many subordinates before making a final decision.So on the eighth day after the news of the defeat, he called all his subordinates who were still in Luoyang together to discuss major issues, and Ma Yue was naturally among them.

However, the discussion this time deviated from the topic at the very beginning. After Dong Zhuo talked about the loss of Yangcheng and asked his subordinates to talk about how to deal with it, a general named Sun Ji stood up and said, "My lord, From the point of view of the last general, the most important thing now is to hold Hua Xiong accountable. He lost Yangcheng and caused nearly ten thousand troops to be killed. He must take full responsibility! Please also punish him severely, so that the dead soldiers can be punished. Let us explain together, and at the same time, we can use this to warn the three armies!"

"General Sun is right, please punish Hua Xiong severely!"

"Hua Xiong loses his troops and loses ground. Not killing is not enough to boost the morale of the army. Please make a quick decision, my lord!"...For a while, many generals stood up and echoed, and the hall was full of crusade against Hua Xiong.

Ma Yue looked at these generals with some doubts, wondering why they suddenly spoke like this.But soon, he understood the problem. In fact, they were not targeting the capture of Yangcheng, but Hua Xiong.Because Hua Xiong has risen too fast in the past two years, made too many contributions, and surpassed too many people who were only above him.These people were naturally full of jealousy and hatred towards Hua Xiong, but because Hua Xiong had never made a mistake before, and Dong Zhuo valued him so much, they didn't dare to reveal it.

But today is different, Hua Xiong made a big mistake, not only lost Yangcheng, but also lost nearly [-] horses, which gave them a reasonable excuse to criticize him and force Dong Zhuo to kill him Vent anger.

Seeing that the generals below were furious and threatened to kill Hua Xiong, Dong Zhuo frowned.Hua Xiong is his confidant and favorite general, although he was very annoyed at the loss of Yangcheng, but he never thought of taking his life as atonement.However, seeing so many generals kept saying that they wanted to kill Hua Xiong to shake the army's morale, Dong Zhuo naturally couldn't veto it outright. These people are also his subordinates who rely heavily on him, so he can't lose the hearts of many others because of one person.

Seeing Dong Zhuo's hesitation, Ma Yue also felt a little nervous.He tried his best to save Hua Xiong, naturally he wanted to use this general in the future.If Dong Zhuo ordered him to be killed because of those people's jealousy, it would not be worth it.So Ma Yue had to say something to excuse Hua Xiong at this time.

After pondering for a while, Ma Yue had an idea, and immediately said: "My lord, this is absolutely impossible. Killing General Hua will not only fail to boost the morale of our army, but will make the soldiers in the front feel cold and worried about failure." After being blamed, he surrendered to the enemy!"

Seeing Ma Yue's words to save the siege, Dong Zhuo was overjoyed, and immediately followed his words: "Zhong Ling, are you saying that if Hua Xiong is severely punished, the soldiers fighting in front will be afraid, so they will not be able to fight the enemy with all their strength?"

"That's right! Victory and defeat are commonplace in military affairs. Even though General Hua was defeated for a while and even lost Yangcheng, he was defeated only when his troops were far inferior to the enemy's. He cannot be entirely blamed. The soldiers at the front were all aware of it. If the lord blamed him for this, or even wanted to kill him, I'm afraid there would be shadows in the hearts of the soldiers at the front, and it would be difficult for them to let go of their hands and feet to fight the enemy.

"When this great enemy is in front of us, it is even more inappropriate to kill the general himself to weaken his power. If the Lord really wants to punish him, he should wait until after the enemy has retreated, and then decide together based on his achievements and mistakes."

Seeing that Ma Yue stood up to speak for Hua Xiong again, all the generals were very dissatisfied: "Mr. Ma, why did you take advantage of Hua Xiong to speak well of him so often? This time he lost Yangcheng, Isn't it a great sin to make us so passive?"

"Losing the city is a serious crime, and should be severely punished? This is unacceptable. General Hua was not captured by the enemy without doing anything. He has won several victories before. If the soldiers under his command were not physically and mentally Exhaustion, coupled with the fact that the enemy used tricks to burn the food and grass in the city, causing the army's morale to lose, how could he lose the city? Therefore, the defeat in this battle is not the responsibility of General Hua alone, and we cannot ask him to pay for it with his life. .”

Speaking of this, Ma Yue turned his eyes to those generals who kept saying that Hua Xiong should die as a punishment: "If you really insist, I can't help it. But, I only have one request, that is, after killing Hua Xiong, From now on, the several cities ahead, including Hulao Pass, will be guarded by you all, if something goes wrong, you should also be guilty of the same crime as General Hua!"

"This..." After hearing Ma Yue's words, these generals shrank back immediately, and they were no longer as aggressive as before.They were naturally aware of their abilities. If they were to guard the city, the Kwantung Allied Forces would be defeated if they attacked.In this way, these people are no longer obsessed with this problem.

But Ma Yue hadn't breathed a sigh of relief yet, one of them laughed and said, "Ma Yue, it seems that you and Hua Xiong really have a very close relationship, and you actually excused him with such clever words. My uncle has always been very clear about rewards and punishments in the army. Since Hua Xiong is defeated and lost the city, he should be severely punished, but you still talk like this, it is really disgusting!" The one who spoke was Dong Zhuo's nephew, Dong Huang.

In fact, Dong Huang didn't care much about asking about Hua Xiong's crime.But once this matter got out of hand, he must stand up and confront him.He was so humiliated by Ma Yue before, and he was beaten with dozens of sticks, lying on the couch for a month before he could get up. This made Dong Huang really hate Ma Yue, and he would stand up against anyone who Ma Yue supported.

With Dong Juan's appearance, the generals who had already died down regained their confidence, and began to persuade Dong Zhuo again according to his wishes, asking him to take Hua Xiong seriously, which made Dong Zhuo frown again.

Seeing that it was Dong Huang who jumped out, Ma Yue didn't take it seriously, he knew that this person had only this ability, so he was easy to deal with.Then he cupped his hands at Dong Zhuo and said, "My lord, it is clear that rewards and punishments are clearly defined when governing the army. I think Mr. Dong must have learned the lesson before. However, the distinction of rewards and punishments does not only emphasize the word of punishment, but also the word of reward. Some time ago, General Hua led the army to defeat the Kwantung Allied Forces for many times. None of the people here stood up to ask for credit for him. How come everyone wants to investigate his fault now?

"It's true that he lost the city, but the credit he made for defeating the Kwantung Army several times before is enough to offset the guilt this time, so I don't think that General Hua can be convicted because of this. Otherwise, my lord will be How will the officers and soldiers below treat a fatuous lord who will not be rewarded for meritorious deeds and will be punished for his deeds? How can they still be willing to contribute to the lord?"

"Zhongling is right. The defeat this time cannot be entirely blamed on General Hua alone. My lord can write a letter to ask him to pay for his meritorious deeds. As for other ways of dealing with it, we should leave it to be discussed after the war." Never Li Ru who spoke had already judged Dong Zhuo's intentions through Dong Zhuo's expression, so he spoke at this time.

With Li Ru's joining, the situation became more favorable to Ma Yue's side, and some people who had no inclinations also expressed their agreement with Ma Yue's point of view.These people are all capable generals under Dong Zhuo, such as Li Que, Zhang Ji, etc., which makes other generals who have not yet achieved their ambitions no longer dare to object.

As a result, Dong Juan had nothing to say, and could only stare at Ma Yue with hatred, but the latter didn't even look at him, obviously not taking him seriously.

Dong Zhuo breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the matter was finally resolved satisfactorily, and then brought the topic back to how to deal with the problem in front of him: "What do you think, how should we deal with the current situation? We should continue to fight against the rebels here How about retreating temporarily and retreating to Chang'an?"