Chapter 612

Duan Yu pressed his hand down, then stood up first and said to Tie Shitou, who was to the side, "Change my clothes."

The few attendants waiting to the side immediately draped the official robes that had been prepared long ago over Duan Yu.

Black robe, jade belt, martial cap, horizontal sword.

Thorn armor, red cloak.

In an instant, the changed Duan Yu suddenly seemed like a different person in the eyes of the few commoners.

Clearly, a moment ago, he was an amiable official who understood the hardships of the people.

The next moment, he had transformed into a great general of golden spears and iron horses, looking down upon the four directions.

In the distance, the Red Dragon Cloud-Stepping Beast galloped over and stopped in front of Duan Yu.

After mounting his horse, Duan Yu flicked his sleeve: "Return to the city."

Hundreds of cavalrymen mounted their horses and followed behind Duan Yu.

The sound of thunderous horse hooves rang out, rolling up yellow dust that filled the sky as they headed toward Jixian.

Inside the Prefect's Mansion.

Duan Yu sat upright in the study.

Jia Xu and Liu Bai Tu stood before Duan Yu's desk.

On the desk in front of Duan Yu lay several secret letters from the Military Intelligence Office.

Some were from Jia Dong in Jizhou, and others were from 【Spring Cicada】 in Luoyang.

Duan Yu opened the secret letters one by one, and after reading them, handed them all to Jia Xu.

After reading all the secret letters, Duan Yu's expression was gloomy.

And the expression on Jia Xu's face was also extremely grave.

If it weren't for the secret letter Jia Dong had sent back from Jizhou, Duan Yu would not have dared to believe that all of this was true.

Zhang Jiao... was not planning to rebel.

And the one pushing for the rebellion was someone else entirely.

Jia Dong indicated in the intelligence that he did not quite understand all of this, but Duan Yu was exceptionally clear-headed at this moment.

It had always been said that Zhang Jiao created the Way of Peace and rebelled because someone behind the scenes was pushing him.

At first, Duan Yu had also thought so.

After all, something like a rebellion could not be achieved just by talking about it.

Even if Zhang Jiao had the million followers of the Way of Peace.

Just mobilizing these million people was an extremely thorny problem.

Wanting to make a group of peasant commoners who didn't know a single character lead troops into battle was no different from a pipe dream.

Let alone mobilizing thousands of troops; for an ordinary person, commanding even a hundred people was an extremely difficult task.

Duan Yu also felt that there must be someone pushing Zhang Jiao from behind.

But he never expected that it would be this kind of pushing.

Rather than calling it pushing, it would be better to call it exploitation.

If it weren't for Jia Dong seeing it with his own eyes—seeing Zhang Jiao set up an altar in Julu and lead tens of thousands of Way of Peace believers, unarmed, to go on a pilgrimage—Duan Yu would still not know why Yuan Kui wanted Tang Zhou to expose Zhang Jiao for rebelling.

After all, sudden news is certainly better than a prepared defense.

If Zhang Jiao were truly rebelling, what kind of shock would it be if this news suddenly reached the ears of Liu Hong?

Now Duan Yu understood.

Why Tang Zhou would choose this critical juncture to expose Zhang Jiao.

Yuan Kui!

All of this was just a trap set by Yuan Kui for Zhang Jiao!

And it was an overt plot at that!

Yuan Kui had long known that Zhang Jiao wanted to go on a pilgrimage and present the Taiping Heavenly Book.

And not that he wanted to rebel.

If Zhang Jiao were really allowed to go on a pilgrimage in advance, and the officials had no reaction, this would undoubtedly lead to a passive situation.

And having Tang Zhou expose him at this juncture was to take advantage of Zhang Jiao's desire to go on a pilgrimage and falsely accuse him of raising the flag of rebellion!

With the influence of the Yuan clan, they could borrow the documents reported by officials from various commanderies.

And Liu Hong did not have a god's-eye view; he had no idea whether Zhang Jiao was actually rebelling or not.

But if the officials of the commanderies across the world all submitted reports saying Zhang Jiao was rebelling, then Zhang Jiao was rebelling.

Furthermore, as long as the officials of the commanderies sent troops to suppress them, would the believers of the Way of Peace sit idly by and wait for death?

Zhang Jiao was the Great Wise and Virtuous Teacher of the Way of Peace.

He had not thought about rebelling.

But what about the disciples under Zhang Jiao?

What about his two brothers, Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang?

If Yuan Kui had long been in contact with the Way of Peace and had used flowery words to deceive some of the Way of Peace's commanders into trusting him?

Then, I'm afraid that even if it wasn't a rebellion, it would become one.

After all, the Way of Peace was too large.

Zhang Jiao had ability, but with his ability, it was fundamentally impossible to control the entire Way of Peace.

Human hearts.

Are the most fickle things in this world.

Greed.

Will drive many people to change their original intentions.

Perhaps those thirty-six commanders of the Way of Peace followed Zhang Jiao at the beginning just to have a bite to eat.

But when they became high and mighty commanders, wouldn't they want more?

"Received from Heaven, may it last forever and prosper!"

What a blood-boiling eight-character phrase.

"My Lord, Zhang Jiao... has been exploited by Yuan Kui."

After reading all the intelligence, Jia Xu placed the intelligence letters to the side.

Upon hearing this, Duan Yu nodded: "The wood is already carved into a boat; even if one had heaven-reaching means, one could not change this reality now."

"As long as the commanderies send troops to suppress them, then even if Zhang Jiao doesn't want to rebel, he will be forced to defend himself."

"Eating; compared to living, naturally the latter is more important."

This layout, Yuan Kui had probably been planning for who knows how long.

And it shouldn't be said to be Yuan Kui; it should be said that one doesn't know how many noble families were involved in it.

At the very least, those noble families who were implicated in the three Disasters of Partisan Prohibitions might all have been involved in it.

Even the Hongnong Yang clan, which was like a clear stream, would not stay out of it.

Huangfu Song, Lu Zhi, Zhu Jun, and his father-in-law Dong Zhuo.

These were the four knives chosen by the Hongnong Yang clan and the Runan Yuan clan.

Duan Yu was not worried about anything else now.

He was mainly worried about his father-in-law, Dong Zhuo.

Whether he would once again walk down the path of that history.

"My Lord, the Emperor conferring the title of Liangzhou Shepherd upon you is actually still intending to let you prepare your troops and wait for the moment," Jia Xu said.

Duan Yu nodded.

In addition to the intelligence, there was also an imperial edict from Luoyang.

Conferring upon Duan Yu the title of Liangzhou Shepherd, in total command of all military affairs in Liangzhou.

This was something Duan Yu had not expected.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion had become a foregone conclusion.

Liu Hong, under pressure, lifted the partisan prohibitions and distributed all the money and grain he had accumulated over so many years of selling offices and titles, which he had hidden in the Western Garden, to form a new army to guard the eight passes of Luoyang.

This proved that Liu Hong was also afraid.

The lifting of the partisan prohibitions meant that for a long time to come, as long as the Way of Peace was not quelled, the great power of the world would fall into other hands.

Yuan Kui, Yang Ci, and others submitted memorials directly pointing the finger at the Ten Regular Attendants in the palace. ===== CHAPTER 614 =====