Chapter 64

In the bridal chamber.

Gu Yi lifted Dong Bai's veil.

The couple whispered sweet nothings by the bed and soon entered the mood.

A moment of a spring night is worth a thousand pieces of gold.

Dong Bai had long since set her heart on Gu Yi.

As for the fact that Gu Yi already had a concubine, Diao Chan, gifted by Wang Yun, Dong Bai knew about it, but so what?

She was Gu Yi's primary wife.

In this era, the status of a primary wife was far beyond what a concubine could compare to.

It was perfectly normal for a man to take concubines.

In any case, Gu Yi's main focus would certainly be on Dong Bai.

With that, Dong Bai was satisfied.

Besides, how could a mere Diao Chan compare to her status?

Who was behind Dong Bai?

That was Dong Zhuo and the entire Xiliang Group!

No matter how one looked at it, Dong Bai did not take Diao Chan seriously.

Although Diao Chan's beauty was indeed exceptionally high.

But as the saying goes, marry a wife for virtue, take a concubine for beauty.

If Diao Chan were not beautiful, Dong Bai would even want to replace her husband and drive this concubine away!

From then on, Gu Yi's residence officially welcomed its mistress.

The next morning.

When Gu Yi and Dong Bai woke up, the two who had just been married could not help but delay for a while longer.

And when the two got up and came to the courtyard, it was already surrounded by countless gifts.

Who was Dong Bai?

The eldest granddaughter of Prime Minister Dong Zhuo.

Who was Gu Yi?

The strategist of Dong Zhuo's army; although he had not joined for long, he had made countless great contributions.

The marriage of these two was naturally a top-priority event!

The middle and high-level officials of Dong Zhuo's army, whether rich or poor, all sent gifts voluntarily.

The length of the gift list was almost as tall as Gu Yi himself.

"Bai'er, these will be left for you to handle."

Gu Yi smiled.

Then he tapped Dong Bai on her cherry lips.

As the mistress of the Gu residence, Dong Bai quickly entered her role.

Although she had no experience in handling such matters in the Prime Minister's residence before.

But now, as the mistress of the Gu residence, she could quickly get the hang of it and become proficient.

Looking at the busy Dong Bai.

Gu Yi thought to himself that he must not treat his wife poorly.

He must reward her doubly tonight.

After the wedding, Gu Yi's status in Dong Zhuo's army became even more unshakeable.

And shortly after finishing lunch, Gu Yi was suddenly called to the Prime Minister's residence by Dong Zhuo to discuss matters.

Looking at his grandson-in-law who had rushed over, a hint of guilt appeared on Dong Zhuo's face.

Gu Yi had just gotten married yesterday, so he should have been given a break.

But today's matter was truly too sudden.

The high-level officials of Dong Zhuo's army had already arrived here to discuss matters.

It is worth mentioning.

Li Jue and Guo Si, who had been stationed at Wuguan, had also returned to Chang'an.

In the council hall of the Prime Minister's residence.

Sitting on the left were Niu Fu, Hua Xiong, Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou, and Zhang Ji.

Sitting at the head on the right was Li Ru, with an empty seat beside him, which seemed to be reserved for Gu Yi.

And after that were Lu Bu and Xu Rong.

The left side was entirely composed of the Xiliang core faction.

Li Ru and Gu Yi on the right were both Xiliang core members and Dong Zhuo's trusted strategists, as well as his son-in-law and grandson-in-law!

Only Xu Rong and Lu Bu appeared slightly awkward.

But they were already used to this situation.

Every time they held a meeting, they were basically in these positions.

Seeing Gu Yi take his seat, the poker-faced Xu Rong gave a barely perceptible, kind smile.

Although... this smile was hard to detect.

But Gu Yi could still feel that Xu Rong was expressing his gratitude for the promotion of Hu Zhen.

As for Lu Bu, his face still wore that "I am the greatest" expression.

It could be basically determined that this fellow had not yet realized that Gu Yi had played a significant role in Zhang Liao being promoted to a General of Miscellaneous Titles.

Suddenly, Gu Yi sensed two gazes intentionally or unintentionally looking his way.

He raised his eyes to look.

Sure enough, the owners of those two gazes were Li Jue and Guo Si.

These two had previously been stationed at Wuguan.

This meeting was their first encounter with Gu Yi.

The two were filled with curiosity about Gu Yi.

The seat that this fellow Hua Xiong usually occupied during meetings was actually behind the "Xiliang Army F4."

But this time, Hua Xiong had become the only General of Important Titles under Old Dong's command.

The root cause was that this fellow had received Gu Yi's help and performed a great service at Sishui Pass.

Otherwise, how would it have been his turn to be the first to be promoted to a General of Important Titles?

Except for Niu Fu, who was a General of the Household and also Old Dong's second son-in-law,

no one else was currently qualified to sit in front of Hua Xiong.

A General of the Household was not considered an important title; in the late Han period, a General of the Household was below the Four Generals of the Garrisons but above the Generals of Miscellaneous Titles.

Xu Rong and Lu Bu currently held the official rank of General of the Household as well.

But besides being a General of the Household, Lu Bu also concurrently held the position of Commander of the Imperial Guards.

Seeing that everyone had taken their seats, Dong Zhuo spoke:

"According to an urgent report from spies planted in Liangzhou,"

"Ma Teng suffered a major defeat some days ago!"

"He was surrounded in Fufeng by Han Sui leading a group of small Liangzhou warlords."

Once these words were spoken, all the generals except for Li Ru and Gu Yi were shocked.

One had to know.

Ma Teng and Han Sui could almost be called old acquaintances of the Xiliang Army.

A few years ago, whenever a rebellion broke out in Liangzhou, Ma Teng and Han Sui were involved every single time.

For example, the Bian Zhang rebellion and the Song Jian rebellion.

In these two major rebellions that swept through Liangzhou, Ma Teng and Han Sui were roughly the fourth or fifth most important figures among the rebels.

But under Old Dong's leadership, Bian Zhang and Song Jian were successively executed.

Afterward, taking advantage of Old Dong's entry into the capital, Ma Teng and Han Sui reoccupied large swaths of land in Liangzhou.

They essentially separated from the original rebel forces and started working on their own.

At the same time, the two were sworn brothers.

Later, at Gu Yi's suggestion,

Old Dong, in order to deal with Ma Teng and Han Sui,

decided to promote Ma Teng.

He also recognized his status as a descendant of the Wave-Calming General Ma Yuan in the name of the court.

This was equivalent to offering amnesty to Ma Teng, and with a great deal of sincerity at that!

Even knowing that Old Dong might be up to something,

facing this fragrant, large pancake,

Ma Teng couldn't help but want to eat it!

Sure enough.

After his status as a descendant of the Wave-Calming General Ma Yuan was officially recognized by the court,

in just one month, the power under Ma Teng's command expanded significantly.

Many small Liangzhou warlords who had previously been wavering and watching from the sidelines flocked to Ma Teng.

They had the intention of recognizing him as their big brother and paying homage to his mountain.

Besides this,

the efficiency of troop recruitment in the cities occupied by Ma Teng also improved significantly compared to before.

Originally, Ma Teng's strength and Han Sui's were at most a fifty-fifty split.

But after this move,

the gap in strength between the two sides widened at a speed visible to the naked eye.

I fear that in less than half a year—in just three or four months—Ma Teng would be able to crush Han Sui in every aspect.

Regarding this, Ma Teng was very happy.

He had become the second warlord after Dong Zhuo with the hope of rising in Liangzhou!

But he had forgotten one saying.

To wear the crown, one must bear its weight.

While the forces under his command were experiencing rapid development,

it was destined that the development of other Liangzhou warlords would be severely restricted.

The first to bear the brunt was naturally Han Sui, whose strength was originally about the same as his.

As a sworn brother with a plastic brotherhood, Han Sui understood Ma Teng better than anyone else.

In his view, although this fellow Ma Teng was quite capable in battle, he was not so outstanding in strategy.

His joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness were all easily displayed on his face.

Commonly known as "a dog's belly cannot hold two taels of sesame oil."

Thus, Han Sui secretly instigated several small Liangzhou lords to test Ma Teng's attitude.

Sure enough, after his power expanded, Ma Teng was much more arrogant than before.

He had quite an attitude of looking down on others.

Seeing this, Han Sui was overjoyed.

This was exactly the result he wanted!

If Ma Teng had shown an easy-going demeanor, those small Liangzhou warlords would likely have been gradually absorbed by him.

This was definitely not a situation Han Sui wanted to see.

But now, Ma Teng was clearly already floating.

As cunning as Han Sui, he quickly seized the opportunity to win over other small Guanxi warlords and explain the pros and cons.

The fine tradition of the small Guanxi warlords was that they could not watch one force become the sole dominant power.

Up until now.

Looking across the entire Liangzhou,

the only person who could break this tradition

was Dong Zhuo alone!

And now, Dong Zhuo had entered the capital and become the Chancellor of the Great Han, with power over the world.

After Ma Teng accepted Dong Zhuo's enfeoffment, he gradually had a trend of becoming the sole dominant power in the small territory of Liangzhou.

For this group of small Guanxi warlords, this was absolutely intolerable.

Under Han Sui's solicitation, an "Anti-Ma Teng Alliance" quickly took shape.

Yet Ma Teng himself had never realized the severity of the situation.

Until twenty days ago, when Han Sui led the allied forces to launch a fierce attack on Ma Teng's home city!

Only then did Ma Teng realize it in hindsight.

But it was already too late.

Although the forces under his command had developed to a great extent recently,

compared to the allied forces formed by Han Sui, they were still far behind.

In order to wipe out Ma Teng in one fell swoop,

Han Sui gathered all his strength and summoned almost all the small Liangzhou warlords together.

Although this group of people were just a rabble when fighting alone,

once gathered together, they could still form a formidable fighting force.

Ma Teng and his eldest son Ma Chao and others fought to the death, but still lost their home city.