Chapter 59

The one who preserved his strength best was none other than Cao Cao and Gongsun Zan.

Most of Gongsun Zan's subordinates were cavalry.

Seeing that the situation was not good, he immediately withdrew his troops at the fastest speed.

Plus, the main target of the Dong Zhuo army was the two Yuans, so Gongsun Zan did not suffer too many losses.

Cao Cao did not participate in the Hulao Pass battle because he stayed at Sishui Pass.

With keen intuition, he had already smelled something wrong a few days ago.

When the decisive battle of Hulao Pass broke out, Cao Cao decisively ordered his troops to retreat back to Yanzhou.

Thereby avoiding the fate of being annihilated.

As for the other small and medium-sized warlords, under Gu Yi's instruction, the generals of the Dong Zhuo army did not kill them all.

After all.

At present, Dong Zhuo had no way to send troops to occupy the Guandong region, which was completely infiltrated by the aristocratic family group.

If they forcefully occupied those lands.

I am afraid that as soon as the Dong Zhuo army left, endless rebellions would break out in those places!

Under such circumstances.

If all these small warlords died.

Yuan Shao and Cao Cao would definitely occupy Hebei and the Central Plains at the fastest speed.

This was definitely not good news for the Dong Zhuo army.

In this way, rather than benefiting Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

It would be better to leave this group of small and medium-sized warlords to prevent Hebei and the Central Plains from being quickly unified by a certain force.

At the same time.

It also gave the Dong Zhuo army ample time to clear up internal contradictions.

Commonly known as sitting on the mountain to watch the tigers fight, and reaping the benefits of the fisherman.

……

And among these defeated and fleeing warlords, there was an extremely special existence, and that was Sun Jian.

The reason why the coalition forces suffered a miserable defeat was partly because Yuan Shao, the coalition leader, was blinded by greed.

On the other hand, it was because of Sun Jian's defection.

Actually, Zu Mao was only part of the reason for Sun Jian's defection.

After the Sishui Pass battle ended, the contradictions between Sun Jian and the various warlords had become increasingly intense.

The warlords accused Sun Jian of inaction.

They believed that it was precisely because Sun Jian did not stop Hua Xiong.

That caused the coalition to be ambushed by Hua Xiong's army during the Sishui Pass battle.

But in reality, even if Sun Jian wanted to stop Hua Xiong, he couldn't.

His grain supplies were cut off by Yuan Shu, and his soldiers were hungry for a whole day, completely lacking combat capability.

However, the various warlords would not care about these things.

They only saw their own losses.

And they completely ignored the predicament faced by the Sun Jian army.

Later, the Hulao Pass battle broke out.

Zu Mao was captured because he followed Yan Liang and Wen Chou to chase Lu Bu.

After this incident happened, it made Sun Jian feel even more disappointed with the coalition forces.

He himself believed in putting interests first.

The coalition forces gave him no hope at all.

Instead, it was Dong Zhuo who threw out an olive branch at this time.

Although... Dong Zhuo's reputation in Guandong could almost be called "a mess."

But so what?

It was better than dying with the coalition forces, right?

Thus, Sun Jian agreed to the Dong Zhuo army's envoy and decided to defect before the battle during the decisive fight.

And after the various warlords were defeated and fled.

Sun Jian was also the only warlord who remained outside Hulao Pass.

Regarding this, Dong Zhuo attached great importance to it and decided to come to Hulao Pass personally to have talks with Sun Jian.

……

"Hahahaha, Wentai, you and I haven't seen each other for several years."

"I didn't expect that we would meet again in such a way."

Dong Zhuo, under the protection of Hua Xiong and Lu Bu, arrived at a place fifty paces away from Sun Jian.

And beside Dong Zhuo, Gu Yi and Zhao Yun had also followed along.

The lineup on Sun Jian's side was much simpler.

Aside from Zu Mao, who had just been released.

The rest were Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and Han Dang.

Facing Dong Zhuo's greeting, Sun Jian gave a bitter smile, then cupped his hands and replied:

"Prime Minister, from now on, you and I are both subjects of the Han dynasty, I hope we can work together to clear the world."

"Hahahaha, easy to say, easy to say."

"I have long believed that Wentai is a man who can achieve great things."

"Now that I see it, it is indeed so."

"However, with Wentai's ability, I think a mere Administrator of Changsha can no longer match your status."

"How about the Inspector of Yizhou?"

"Plus the status of a County Marquis, can that satisfy Wentai?"

After the words fell.

Sun Jian was stunned.

The pie Dong Zhuo threw out was really too big, so big that he could hardly catch it.

But as the saying goes.

How could one be willing to spit out food that is about to reach one's mouth?

Greed gradually occupied Sun Jian's ideological high ground.

…….