Chapter 239

At the beginning of the third year of Xinping, a piece of news coming from Luoyang City immediately shook the entire world: Dong Zhuo was dead, and that number one warlord of the world had kicked the bucket.

How Dong Zhuo died, no one knew. Luoyang City had been sealed off, and it was very difficult for outsiders to learn any news.

Some said that Dong Zhuo was licentious and lawless, causing his body to collapse; he had already suffered many injuries when he was young.

Others said that Dong Zhuo was assassinated, and the person who assassinated him was a loyalist to the Divine Han.

There were various conflicting accounts.

However, Luoyang City was once extremely chaotic. As the backbone of Xiliang, once Dong Zhuo died, the entire Xiliang Army fell into chaos. Without Dong Zhuo's suppression, Luoyang City, the Xiliang Army, the Imperial Guards, and the private armies of various noble families were all fighting crazily.

The entire Luoyang City fell into civil strife, and the imperial court was even more so.

During his lifetime, Dong Zhuo promoted many officials who had defected to him, while officials from some noble families were suppressed. Now that Dong Zhuo was dead, these people were naturally unwilling to be suppressed any longer.

One by one, they stood up to fight for power and profit. Of course, the interior of the Xiliang Army was also unstable.

Dong Zhuo's sudden death left no successor for Xiliang. In this way, the generals of Xiliang were also full of ambition, each wanting to become the next Dong Zhuo.

And with Dong Zhuo's death, the world fell into even greater chaos. Warlords from all over seemed to feel that once Dong Zhuo died, they had a chance to surpass him, so they crazily expanded their armies one by one and then swallowed up the surrounding territories.

Donghai Territory, Government Office.

Su Fan naturally also received a letter from the Dark Owl; he even understood more about Dong Zhuo's death.

Dong Zhuo's death was indeed an assassination.

The information found by the Dark Owl showed that there were many forces involved in the assassination of Dong Zhuo. The noble families contributed the most, especially the Yuan clan, the Wang family, and some noble families around Sili, who united and finally cooperated with the Sword Saint Wang Yue to secretly finish off Dong Zhuo.

In order to investigate this news, the Dark Owl also paid the price of three lives.

Su Fan felt very heartbroken. He had established the Dark Owl for several years, yet the number of Dark Owls had always been small, and each one was extremely precious.

As for how Dong Zhuo actually died, Su Fan didn't care, after all, the man was already dead.

Moreover, Luoyang City was some distance away from him, and he had no power to interfere, so even if he knew the reason for Dong Zhuo's death, what of it?

Besides, even without the news from the Dark Owl, Su Fan could have guessed a thing or two about Dong Zhuo's death.

Those noble families in Luoyang looked down on Dong Zhuo; how could they endure Dong Zhuo shitting on their heads?

Especially in recent years, Dong Zhuo had become increasingly reckless, and the interests of their families were constantly being swallowed up, until they finally couldn't hold back anymore.

On this point, Su Fan had already guessed it long ago; Dong Zhuo was destined to fail.

If it were in a world of the Dharma-ending age with no martial power, if Dong Zhuo were a little more careful, he might have had a chance. But in this fantasy world, those Soul Refining experts and some insidious methods would make you unable to guard against them.

There were no true civil officials under Dong Zhuo's command. The only one he trusted, Li Ru, was just a disciple from a humble background and didn't have a deep enough understanding of those great clans.

The only one who might have had some understanding, Jia Xu, was not serving Dong Zhuo sincerely.

Therefore, as early as a few years ago, Su Fan had guessed Dong Zhuo's fate.

If he could have truly subdued Lv Bu, perhaps there might have been a possibility of defense. After all, with the protection of a fierce general at the ninth layer of Gang Refining, ordinary assassinations would not have been possible.

However, after the Battle of Hulao Pass ended, Lv Bu's status in Luoyang City dropped a few notches.

Perhaps Dong Zhuo felt the threat from Lv Bu and began to suppress him constantly, which naturally would cause Lv Bu to become alienated.

This ultimately led to Wang Yue assassinating Dong Zhuo. Whether the other party sensed it, outsiders didn't know, but with his strength at the ninth layer of Gang Refining, as long as Wang Yue made a move, he would inevitably sense it at the first opportunity.

According to the news investigated by the Dark Owl, Lv Bu didn't make any move that day, which shows the estrangement between the two sides.

It can only be said that Dong Zhuo's fate was destined.

In Luoyang City, if he couldn't suppress everything, he had to suffer the backlash; this was the consequence of practicing tyranny.

If he had the tyrannical prestige of the First Emperor or Emperor Wu of Han, he wouldn't have been afraid, but unfortunately, he didn't.

Dong Zhuo was dead, and for Su Fan, it didn't have much of an impact.

Luoyang was separated from him by Yanzhou and Yuzhou. What ideas could he have? Holding the Son of Heaven to command the warlords was a good choice for warlords who started with a weaker foundation, but for someone whose own strength was already very strong, the Son of Heaven didn't have much effect on him.

Historically, why didn't Yuan Shao choose to march into Luoyang and take Emperor Xian of Han into his hands? It was probably for this reason.

At that time, his strength was already very powerful, and the effect Emperor Xian of Han had on him was not even the icing on the cake.

It might even bring trouble.

Many of the ministers around the Son of Heaven had high reputations. Even if you treated the Son of Heaven as a puppet, they were all puppets, but once they wanted to cause trouble for you, it was very easy.

And you wouldn't dare to kill them easily.

Historically, Cao Cao initially borrowed the Son of Heaven to command the warlords, and he did develop very quickly, but later on, he also had endless trouble.

For this reason, he even slaughtered some ministers, and as a result, his reputation immediately became bad.

Fortunately, he won against Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu; otherwise, his fate would definitely have been bad, and historically, he might have ended up with the same reputation as Dong Zhuo.

The Son of Heaven was also of no use to Su Fan at all now. He didn't lack righteousness; being the Inspector of Yuzhou and General Who Pacifies the East was enough.

Once he took Yangzhou and Xuzhou, at that time, no righteousness would be able to trap him.

At that time, the world would look at strength.

Therefore, he was not concerned about Dong Zhuo's death at all; instead, he was quite cautious about the great battle in Jizhou and Youzhou.

Jizhou was still taken by Yuan Shao. Although Yuan Shao's reputation had declined after the Battle of Hulao Pass, the foundation of the Yuan clan was there.

His own ability was also not bad.

Most of the noble families in Jizhou also favored Yuan Shao more. Han Fu ultimately couldn't outplay the other party, even though the great generals in the Jizhou Army laughed at Han Fu more.

Unfortunately, Han Fu himself was too incompetent, and coupled with the fact that several top generals in Jizhou were not commander material.

Facing the various schemes of the strategists under Yuan Shao, as well as those "traitors" in Jizhou, Han Fu was finally defeated and fled Jizhou at the end of the first year of Chuping.

Fortunately, he ran to Yuzhou and sought refuge with Kong Zhou. As for the several top generals of Jizhou, they also came to Donghai Commandery under the leadership of Gao Lan.

In one fell swoop, the generals of the Donghai Territory were raised to a higher level once again.

The officers under Han Fu were truly numerous: the top general of Jizhou, Pan Feng; Zhang He and Gao Lan of the Four Pillars of Hebei; and the two brothers Lv Kuang and Lv Xiang.

Plus one Zhu Ling.

Seven generals at the Gang Refining stage.