The death of the hussar general Dong Chong caused the two factions, Empress He and Empress Dowager Dong, to become really at war with each other.

In Luoyang City, people were rushing around.

He Jin's former generals, Wu Kuang, Bao Xin and others, all received full efforts from both sides to win over them, not to mention Situ Cui Lie and Taiwei Zhang Wen.

Until that day, Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang. Although the Xiliang army was stationed outside the city, Dong Zhuo led all the generals and more than a thousand elite Feixiong troops into the city.

Many of the Flying Bear Army were Xiliang warriors, and they were not under control, which immediately caused chaos in Luoyang City. This incident reached the ears of Zhijinwu Dingyuan, who also criticized Dong Zhuo.

Speaking of which, the two of them had worked together in Bingzhou, fought together in the Battle of Hedong County, and fought against the Xianbei Southern Huns coalition forces. However, they had not had much contact and were not familiar with each other, so Ding Yuan also chose to suppress the matter.

After all, these are troubled times, and if there is a conflict between soldiers and horses, the consequences will be disastrous.

Dong Zhuo went directly to Yuan Wei's house, which was considered proper etiquette. After all, he was also considered an old official of the Yuan family. However, Dong Zhuo had his own ideas about the support Liu Bian said in Yuan Wei's letter.

What Zhang Rang said made him instinctively dislike Queen He's group.

Dong Zhuo came to the guest hall and saluted Yuan Wei very respectfully.

"I have met Duke Yuan, Dong Zhuo." Dong Zhuo called himself his subordinate very humbly.

"Zhong Ying doesn't need to be polite. Please take a seat and talk. This is Yuan Shao and Yuan Benchu." Yuan Wei introduced him and said with a smile: "I should have arrived a few days ago. Why is it a few days late?"

After Dong Zhuo sat down, he nodded to Yuan Shao and said to Yuan Wei: "It's not that we are delaying on purpose, but we are going to Beimang Mountain and catching some thieves."

"Thieves? Who are they?" Yuan Wei just asked casually.

"The Ten Constant Attendants and some young eunuchs."

Yuan Wei suddenly came back to his senses and said seriously: "Shi Chang Shi? Zhong Ying, don't want to play tricks."

Yuan Shao also stared at Dong Zhuo with gleaming eyes, as if he was a regular servant.

"How can such a big thing be trivial! I heard that Duke Yuan said that the Shi Changshi had escaped from the palace. There were many checkpoints around Luoyang, and only Mangshan in the north could escape. So I took people to search, and found out if there were any

Harvest.”

"Have you ever captured Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong?" Yuan Shao asked next.

Dong Zhuo shook his head and said: "We were never captured. According to the eunuch's account, Zhang Rang Zhao Zhong and Duan Gui fell into the river and died."

"Have you ever tortured him?" Yuan Shao entered the state of Sili Colonel and began to interrogate him.

"I have killed him!" Dong Zhuo said in a very angry tone, "The eunuchs are causing chaos in the country, and everyone will kill them if they find them!"

"Hey, Dong Zhoumu's trip was inappropriate. He should have handed the people into my hands and I will take out the evidence of their crimes one by one!" Yuan Shao said regretfully.

Yuan Wei just listened and sipped hot tea quietly, as if watching two juniors chatting.

Dong Zhuo thought to himself: He knew that Duke Yuan wanted people. Originally, he would really listen to his brother Dong Min's advice and sacrifice a living person to Yuan Wei. But after meeting Jia Xu, he changed his mind.

The reason is that there are too many secrets in the body of Shi Changshi, as well as the evidence of the crimes of hundreds of officials in the court. If they fall into the hands of the Yuan family, almost all of the officials in the court will be punished by the Yuan family. The Yuan family is above the court.

But really no one can compete.

And if all the Shi Changshi are killed, those who have had transactions with the Shi Changshi or who have been caught by the Shi Changshi will be grateful to Dong Zhuo.

Jia Xu's words directly made Dong Zhuo very enlightened.

However, Jia Xu politely refused Dong Zhuo's recruitment, saying that he told Dong Zhuo this because he and Dong Zhuo were fellow villagers in Liangzhou, and Dong Zhuo did not force him.

Yuan Wei felt a little regretful when he heard that Dong Zhuo had killed ten ministers and a group of eunuchs, but he still had a smile on his old face and said to Dong Zhuo: "Zhong Ying hates evil as much as he hates it, and he still has the heroic demeanor of the past!"

Dong Zhuo chatted with the two for nearly half an hour, covering a wide range of topics, from Chang'an to Hanyang and Ji County, and from Han Sui to the Qiang people. In the end, he had to face the problem.

The question of which side the emperor chooses to take.

"Zhong Ying, now Empress He and Empress Dowager Dong are at loggerheads. There is a lack of voices with enough weight in the court. The commanders of the Xiyuan Army have complex backgrounds, their morale is scattered, and they don't know how to fight. And He Jin's generals are waiting and watching. Those stubborn

Jinwu and Dingyuan, I chose to remain silent and summoned you to Luoyang because the general and I both wanted you to support Liu Bian."

Yuan Wei turned a corner. He knew that He Jin was also wooing Dong Zhuo. If he brought the general to say this, it would be more legal. Otherwise, as a Taifu, why would Yuan Wei recruit local troops to come to Luoyang?

"Mr. Yuan, Queen He often has connections with Shi Chang Shi. Moreover, everyone in the world knows that Queen He is sarcastic and vicious. Liu Bian is uneducated and has no princely accomplishments. I wonder why Mr. Yuan supports Liu Bian?

Dong Zhuo asked. In fact, he did not come up with these words himself.

Yuan Wei's expression changed slightly. When did Dong Zhuo become so organized when he spoke? Could it be that he has grown so much in these years of leading troops and fighting?

Why he supports Liu Bian? Of course he has his own ambitions. In order to win over Dong Zhuo, maybe he should reveal it.

"Alas!" Yuan Wei sighed deeply first, as an emotional tone.

"The late emperor was ignorant, which caused great chaos in the world, and the people were displaced. Starvation and death were everywhere in the Central Plains. Between Ying and Ru, rogue bandits were scurrying. I, the Yuan family, have received the blessings of the past emperors and became a prominent family today. The report of the Yuan family's general Runan

listen with me,

In fact, those who heard it were sad, and those who saw it shed tears. Previously, I tried hard to admonish Your Majesty, but Shi Changshi did evil. Now the late emperor has passed away, and Shi Changshi has punished him. The two princes are young, and Yuan Wei is not talented. He is willing to take up the important responsibility of the country.

To restore peace and prosperity to each and every one of the great men."

Yuan Shao looked at Yuan Wei with some surprise. It was the first time for even him to see such an explicit expression of his ambition.

"The country cannot be abolished, and the ancestral system cannot be abolished, otherwise the world will become more chaotic, and there will be no peace for the country and the people! Therefore, I hope to get Zhongying's support." Yuan Wei said.

Abolition of elders and establishment of younger ones is the source of trouble. Dong Zhuo recognized this. Yuan Wei said that he was not talented and wanted to control the government and restore peace and order to the world. Just listen to this.

However, what Yuan Wei said was sincere and sincere, so it was impossible to refute it.

Dong Zhuo planned to go and ask Jia Xu for his opinion.

"We admire Mr. Yuan for making a living for everyone in the world!" Dong Zhuo cupped his hands and said, "But since we are new to Luoyang, we would like to meet the ministers first."

Dong Zhuo's appeal was very reasonable and was expected by Yuan Wei. Now that Dong Zhuo was here, Yuan Wei didn't need to worry so much.

The news that Dong Zhuo's army was approaching soon spread in Luoyang City, and the forces that had originally escaped became honest again.

During this period, Dong Zhuo's army and Zhi Jinwu's army often had conflicts, and even reached the point of attacking each other, but the scale was not large.

…

A few days later, Liu Qing rushed to Yanmen. After meeting Xun Yu, he rushed to Guangwu County without stopping, which is the iron-making county where Gan Lai is currently located.

When Dong Zhuo was in Bingzhou, he served as the county magistrate of Guangwu County, Yanmen County.

Maybe this is also some kind of chance.

Initially, Liu Qing decided to focus on the development location here because he considered the shipping factors of the Hutuo River.

After arriving in Guangwu, Hu Jie, the magistrate of Guangwu County, took Liu Qing to the Juzhu Mountain Mine.

When Liu Qing saw Gan Lai, he found that he had lost a lot of weight and darkened a lot, but unlike the dark and thin appearance when he first met him in the past, he looked very energetic now.

"Official, I have come here to see you." Hu Jie said with a smile.

Hu Jie is a scholar who is over fifty years old. He has read books and achieved military exploits, but he has no attributes.

The official is a joking name, because Gan Lai has great power, Liu Qing has orders, and there are several surrounding counties. Whenever Gan Lai needs something, he must fully cooperate without making any mistakes.

When Gan Lai heard this, he ran over quickly, knelt down and said, "My lord! Why are you here?"

"The workshops in Jizhou are all waiting for your work, why do you think I'm here?" Liu Qing said angrily.

Gan Lai chuckled, and suddenly felt that his lord was becoming more friendly. He got up from the ground and came up to him and said: "My lord, the small blast furnace can basically operate, but the big one is not working. It really can't work. Let's expand a batch of small blast furnaces first to satisfy the need."

Production first?”

"Go and have a look! Lead the way!"

Gan Lai led the way, occasionally reminding Liu Qing to pay attention to his feet. Juzhu Mountain is a big mountain, and the front of him is just a small vein. Now, a large area of ​​exposed ore rock has been excavated here. On its periphery, two

An iron tower-like building stands here.

"Lord, this is a small blast furnace. Although it looks two feet high, the volume inside is actually very small, so the output is very low."

"There are only two at the moment?" Liu Qing asked.

Gan Lai nodded, as if he didn't find any problem.

Liu Qing really wanted to slap him in the face. Even if the output was low, he could make ten or twenty of them first, couldn't he? This thing is much more efficient than the local refining method!

"If the big blast furnace cannot break through in a short time, then expand the small blast furnace. If ten is not enough, then twenty will be built. If twenty is not enough, then one hundred!"

Anyway, in this era, the iron ore in this mountain is almost unlimited.

"My lord, in fact, the biggest problem is mining. The best method we can think of at present is the alternating hot and cold stone cracking method. However, cutting down firewood and drying it into firewood is too complicated and extremely wasteful of manpower. Otherwise, lord

Send more manpower," Gan Lai said.

The alternating hot and cold rock cracking method should be the so-called thermal expansion and contraction method. Using fire to heat the ore and then pouring water can cause cracks in unstable rock formations and reduce the difficulty of mining.

But if preparing firewood is time-consuming and laborious, wouldn't coal be used?

"Why not use charcoal for firing?" Liu Qing asked.

Gan Lai's eyes widened with an incredulous expression, "My lord, you don't know the price of coal!"

"Expensive?"

"It's already close to the price of food." Gan Lai put on a smile and said calmly.

"Why so expensive?"

Liu Qing seemed to understand, because the market had opened up, and coal was now widely sold in Xianbei, especially steamed coke, and the price had exceeded that of cheap coarse grains. Because Xianbei had a severe cold winter, this thing was a winter artifact.
To be continued...