Chapter 195

Moreover,

Lu Bu truly felt guilty in his heart.

If it weren't for his own inaction as their leader,

the lives of his Bingzhou brothers would surely not have been so miserable.

Just as Lu Bu was drinking frantically, becoming dead drunk,

a knock on the door suddenly sounded outside the residence.

Subsequently,

Lu Bu staggered over to open the main gate.

He saw that the person standing at the entrance of Lu Fu was none other than Gao Shun.

Seeing Gao Shun arrive, a trace of panic appeared in Lu Bu's eyes.

"Fengxian, you are secretly drinking alone again."

Gao Shun looked at Lu Bu with a pained heart.

If it were in the past, Gao Shun might have tried to remonstrate with Lu Bu, telling him not to drink so much all the time.

Drinking ruins affairs; that was no empty talk.

But now,

the look in Gao Shun's eyes as he looked at Lu Bu was filled only with heartache...

As Lu Bu's good friend and also his subordinate, Gao Shun understood exactly how much pressure Lu Bu was facing.

Wei Xu, Song Xian, Hou Cheng, and the others could not understand Lu Bu's difficulties and kept pressuring him.

But Gao Shun would not do that.

He would stand behind Lu Bu and support him unconditionally!

Even if what Lu Bu was facing

was very likely a death trap,

Gao Shun would only follow Lu Bu to face it without hesitation!

This was Gao Shun,

a loyal and upright soldier!

He was the embodiment of loyalty in this era.

In fact,

Gao Shun's ability was no less than Zhang Liao's.

It was just that

his specialty was commanding infantry, and his nature of not competing or fighting for things made his brilliance somewhat dimmer compared to Zhang Liao's.

At this moment,

looking at the drinking Lu Bu,

Gao Shun walked into Lu Fu.

He led Lu Bu step by step, step by step, to sit down in the main hall.

At this moment,

all the grievances in Lu Bu's heart erupted like a gushing spring.

Tall and imposing, he wept like a child beside Gao Shun.

The world knew

that Lu Bu was a "great filial son" and a "servant of three masters."

But how many people knew that behind Lu Bu, there were tens of thousands of Bingzhou brothers following him?

Why did Lu Bu kill Ding Yuan?

Was it really just for that Red Hare horse?

Of course not!

If that were really the case,

why did all the Bingzhou soldiers voluntarily choose to follow Lu Bu and join Dong Zhuo after Ding Yuan died?

He was a man who had betrayed his master and killed his foster father!

Why did everyone still continue to follow him?

To put it bluntly,

the reason Lu Bu killed Ding Yuan, besides his own future, was also out of consideration for the future of tens of thousands of Bingzhou brothers.

Ding Yuan was a military man, but he was not good to military men!

Yes, it sounds absurd,

but the fact is that Ding Yuan, a military man himself, discriminated against his own subordinates who were also military men!

Ding Yuan, who rose to prominence in Bingzhou through warfare,

after rising to power, tried desperately to join the aristocratic groups and mingle with them.

But... why would the aristocratic groups look up to him?

Ding Yuan betrayed his own class without hesitation.

He wanted to be a dog for the aristocratic groups.

And he secretly gave more than seventy percent of the Bingzhou army's military funds to the aristocratic groups.

This matter was known to Lu Bu, who held the position of "Chief Clerk."

Yes, it sounds very incredible,

but Lu Bu's position in the Bingzhou army was indeed that of the civil official "Chief Clerk."

Therefore,

calling Lu Bu the "strongest Chief Clerk of the late Han and Three Kingdoms era" is also acceptable.

The Bingzhou army entered the capital under Ding Yuan's leadership.

But before they had even officially entered the capital, the incident of Ding Yuan giving the Bingzhou army's funds to the Guandong aristocratic groups had already occurred.

If Ding Yuan had successfully taken control of Luoyang,

it is likely that all the Bingzhou soldiers

would have become puppets in the hands of the aristocratic groups.

At this moment,

Dong Zhuo sent Li Su to find Lu Bu, using the Red Hare horse and heavy gold to win him over.

This was an attitude, an attitude of hoping to reuse Lu Bu and the Bingzhou faction under him!

The options placed before Lu Bu were either to kill Ding Yuan and take the Bingzhou soldiers to defect to Dong Zhuo,

or to follow Ding Yuan to the end and become a running dog for the Guandong aristocratic groups.

Did Lu Bu... have any other choice?

To be precise, it wasn't Lu Bu who betrayed Ding Yuan;

it was Ding Yuan who betrayed his class and the Bingzhou soldiers behind him.

However,

after killing Ding Yuan and defecting to Dong Zhuo,

the life Lu Bu had originally expected did not arrive.

The fierce suppression by the Xiliang loyalists made it almost impossible for him to lift his head.

He felt guilty toward the Bingzhou soldiers who followed him and trusted him.

A man does not shed tears easily.

At this moment, Lu Bu poured out all the grievances in his heart to Gao Shun.

However... it never rains but it pours.

Bad things always come one after another.

A huge conspiracy was looming over Lu Bu's head, about to descend rapidly...

PS: The truth about Lu Bu killing Ding Yuan here is just a setting for this book and does not necessarily fully conform to history or the novel. (Don't nitpick)

Historically, there was actually a more important reason for Lu Bu killing Ding Yuan.

That is, before Ding Yuan entered the capital, his status had already changed from Inspector of Bingzhou to Inspector of Jingzhou.

And the new Inspector of Bingzhou was none other than Dong Zhuo!