Chapter 22: Looking at his granddaughter's husband, Old Dong said I am more satisfied the more I look!

The chattering objections of the various lords rose and fell in the camp.

It made the head of Yuan Shao, the alliance leader, grow large.

Sure enough, the coalition had too many problems.

Cao Cao was very glad that he had left this mess to Yuan Shao in the beginning.

If the person sitting in Yuan Shao's position today was him, he would likely feel even more irritable than Yuan Shao.

"Quiet, quiet!"

Helpless, Yuan Shao had to bring out his dignity as the alliance leader to signal the various lords to keep quiet.

"Alliance Leader, you must be discerning!"

"It's not that we are stingy, nor that we don't want to crusade against the Dong thief and rescue His Majesty."

"It's just that we truly have the heart but lack the strength!"

The person who spoke was Qiao Mao, the Prefect from Dongjun.

He had a total of three thousand troops under his command, and last time he encountered Hua Xiong's surprise attack, nearly half died.

For such small lords, the few troops they had were equivalent to their own lifeblood.

If all the troops were lost, even returning to their territory safely would become a problem.

Similar to Qiao Mao, there were several other lords.

Their luck was not very good.

When Hua Xiong raided the coalition camp last time, their stationing area was very close to Yuan Shu, so they were greatly implicated.

"Everyone, don't worry, this Alliance Leader knows your predicament in his heart."

"But now is the critical period for crusading against the old thief Dong Zhuo."

"If everyone cannot work together, I fear that you will inevitably suffer Dong Zhuo's retaliation in the future!"

Yuan Shao threatened.

Hearing this, the few small lords who had been jumping the most happily instantly extinguished their fire.

The reason these few people were able to become Inspectors and Prefects was precisely because of Dong Zhuo's appointment.

If the coalition dissolved, it meant they would very likely need to face retaliation from Dong Zhuo alone!

Involving the question of whether they could continue to survive, the few small lords no longer dared to casually question the decision made by Yuan Shao.

Seeing that he had handled the opponents, Yuan Shao decided to adopt Cao Cao's suggestion to split the coalition of lords into two routes.

The first route was led by Cao Cao.

Taking the few weaker lords in the coalition, they would station outside Sishui Pass to pin down the defenders inside Sishui Pass.

The second route was left to Yuan Shao himself.

This was also the main force of the coalition.

For example, Gongsun Zan, Han Fu, Tao Qian, and Sun Jian, who were stronger and had more troops, were all in this route.

It is worth mentioning that

Yuan Shu, due to his serious injury, was not suitable for moving around and remained outside Sishui Pass.

Seventy percent of the troops under his command were handed over to his younger brother Yuan Yin, who followed the main coalition force to rush to Hulao Pass.

Compared to the coalition of lords who were each harboring their own ulterior motives,

in Luoyang City, the various troops under Dong Zhuo were eager to try, intending to establish military merit in the upcoming war.

However, whether it was the Xiliang direct line, the Bingzhou Army, or the Luoyang Imperial Guard,

there was no tacit understanding between the three parties.

To put it nicely, it was called showing their own sharpness.

To put it bluntly, it was called not looking favorably upon each other!

In order to ensure that the rear had enough troops for support,

Dong Zhuo brought a total of 130,000 troops to the Hulao Pass front line.

Among them, Lu Bu commanded 50,000 troops, Zhang Ji commanded 60,000 troops, and Xu Rong had the fewest troops, only 20,000.

It was not that the Luoyang Imperial Guard had few people.

It was that most of the troops in the Luoyang Imperial Guard had been broken up by Dong Zhuo and incorporated into the New Army.

This caused Xu Rong, the leader of the Luoyang Imperial Guard faction, to be in a very awkward position.

However, for the sake of survival, and also to let the brothers under his command have a good life,

Xu Rong also tried his best this time to go to the front line to make contributions!

The three routes of the great army, under the gaze of Li Ru and Fan Chou,

left the Luoyang city gate in a mighty manner.

They galloped toward Hulao Pass.

In order to boost morale, Dong Zhuo decided not to take a carriage, but to ride a horse with the cavalry unit to rush on the road.

However... due to Boss Dong becoming increasingly fat,

one warhorse could no longer carry him.

Helpless, he had to ride two horses side by side, and only then could he barely keep up with the speed of the main force.

When they arrived at Hulao Pass,

Hua Xiong and Gu Yi, as well as the 20,000 Western Liang Iron Cavalry previously stationed at Sishui Pass, had already arrived one step ahead.

Seeing Hua Xiong, Boss Dong excitedly gave him a bear hug.

"Good boy!"

"I said you had ability." ===== CHAPTER 23 =====