Chapter 72 – Dong Zhuo's Ambition.
Tian Shui City. Dong Zhuo's resident.
Dong Zhuo sat in his room, listening to his granddaughter who was narrating her fantasy love story about her previous life in front of him.
Dong Zhuo got tip-off by his son-in-law, Niu Fu, about the unusual request from Zhang Ji and his fiancé. He had his strategist, Li Ru, investigated his subordinates. Surprisingly, their actions were linked to Dong Zhuo's own granddaughter.
Because of the investigation, Dong Zhou asked Dong Bai to tell him the truth, which resulted in the current situation.
"Are you serious, little Bai?"
Dong Zhou's frown deepened and glared at the girl. Her story was too much like a fairy tale or a silly folklore. He could not believe a daydreaming fantasy of a 5-year-old child.
"Bu-But I told you the truth."
Dong Bai cried as she answered her grandfather. She kept sniffing and wiping her tears with her sleeves.
Dong Zhou calmed himself and pat the head of his granddaughter with his blistered-rough hand. Then he thought about the report of Zhang Tong which Li Ru had given him before.
Suddenly, Dong Zhou had a sinister smile on his face. Then he spoke to Dong Bai in a gentle voice.
"Do you want to go and see Zhang Tong?"
"Y-Yes!! Really!? I can see him!?"
"Of course. Much better than seeing him, I want you two to reunite!"
Dong Bai cried again. However, she shed tears of happiness this time.
"Thank you, grandpa! I love you!"
"Haha! I love you, too. My dear."
…
After Dong Bai returned to her room with her big sister Zou Shi, Dong Zhou summoned Li Ru into his room.
Five minutes later, a shady man in brown official cloths entered the room. He has small glossy mustaches, which he was proud of, and pale skin.
"Wenyou, let's go with your plan on that day. Give my granddaughter to him, and bring him back here as my grandson-in-law."
"My lord, as I have told you before, Zhang Tong is a filial man. He sacrificed 100,000 gold to buy his father the governor position and freed him from the hands of Yuan Shao. I don't think we can bring him here as long as Zhang Jiao is alive. We also cannot make him kill his father either. He will never do such a thing."
"What about making his father join us as well?"
"That's ... uncertain as well. I don't have any confident persuading Zhang Jiao."
"And how can I make him my subordinate!? I want that Immortal as my pet dog!"
"My lord. Please calm down. Although we have a slim chance to convince him to join us, it's guaranteed that he will be our faithful ally."
"Hmm? Why ally? Why not my dog!?"
"It's the geography of the land, my lord."
Li Ru pulled out the country map within his sleeves and rolled in open on the table in the room. Afterward, he started explaining while pointing at several locations in the map.
"We are here at the far west, while Zhang Tong is in the middle of the northern part in Ji Province. At the east of his city, Yuan family is there in Nanpi. Then the south is the territory of Han Fu. And then the north, Liu Yan is over there. No matter where you see it, he was surrounded by his enemies."
"And?" Dong Zhou still did not understand.
"What Zhang Jiao and Zhang Tong need the most right now are dependable allies. Though we can't recruit him at the moment, we can make a good impression on him first. We will offer him an alliance proposal with your granddaughter as one of your gifts. After the alliance talk is settled, we will just wait for him to get himself crushed by the surrounding enemies. Once he is defeated, then he will think of us when he considers where to retreat to."
Dong Zhou frowned. The plan sounds familiar. After he spent 10 minutes to consider Li Ru's plans, he was reminded of something.
"Isn't this plan the same that Yuan family used on Zhang Tong? Didn't he crush all of his enemies the last time!?"
"Indeed. It is the same, but at the same time, it is not the same."
"How?"
"My lord, when the Yuan family utilized this plan, they betrayed Zhang Tong and held his father hostage! But we won't do the same. We will approach him and showed our sincerity. Please do not forget that your granddaughter will also be used as a gift as well. For someone filial and honest like Zhang Tong, he will never forget this gratitude. Besides, we can also give them a platoon of soldiers to help Zhang Tong fending off his enemies. With these, he will never look at us as his enemy like the Yuan family."
"… Don't you think this plan is kind of fragile? What if Tong defeats all of his enemies again? What if he doesn't want to come to us?"
"If he succeeds, it will actually benefit us in the long run as well. Think of what happened during the warring states, my lord. At that time, the Qin State occupied Chang An and our territories, while the other six states formed an alliance and declared war on Qin. However, Qin State suddenly formed a secret alliance with Yan and Qi to deter the other states. It was the strategy called 'Allying with distant states and attacking nearby ones'. We can do the same with the Qin Shi Huang, too. As for the matter that he won't come to us, it will never happen. Zhang Tong doesn't have any other ally at the moment, so where could he goes when he is in trouble?"
The eyes of Dong Zhuo brightened up. The history of the Qin Dynasty proved itself that this alliance could go along with his grand ambition.
"Good! I'll leave everything to you! As for the gifts, pick one of the red warhorses that we are breeding. What was their breeding name again?"
"They were called 'Red Hares', my lord."
"Right, give one to him, too."
"As you commanded, my lord."
Li Ru stepped back and was about to leave. However, Dong Zhuo was reminded of the pair of a baby and a sketchy man.
"How are the baby and that man?"
Li Ru turned back and gave his report.
"He did not suspect anything. We are giving him our best treatment."
"Good. Keep an eye on them. Don't let them run away to other noble. I want them with me forever!"
"Of course, my lord."
…
Tian Shui Official Resident Area, Guest Resident.
A thin man in mid-30s sat on a chair in the middle of the courtyard. He had sharp straight eyebrows which slanted upward as if he was always mad at something. However, his Van Dyke style goatee beard made him looked more dandy rather than intimidating.
His name was Jia Xu, courtesy name as Wenhe. He had been a minor official in Luo Yang for years. However, because of the political in-fighting between the mad prince, the eunuchs, and the loyal faction, several ministers and officials were randomly assassinated or poisoned without reasons. As long as someone from a faction suspected that the person was a part of other faction supporters, he would be killed the next day.
Jia Xu was not stupid enough to remain in the capital and got himself killed. Last year, he quit his job and attempted to escape to Chang An. He vowed that he would not take part in any politic fight or serve any noble.
Unfortunately, a colleague of his suddenly entrusted the baby to him, and he was told.
"This is the third prince Liu Xie! Take him with you and hide. Do not let anyone find out about his status!"
Jia Xu was flabbergasted. He just wanted to retire in peace, yet he was shoved with a heavy responsibility.
He did his best to keep himself low profile and managed to stay in Chang An for a month. Then, he was attacked by a group of bandits and was captured.
On the contrary of the appearance of the bandits, Jia Xu figured it out that they were hired thugs that were sent by one of the factions within imperial court. Fortunately, they did not target the baby, so he was very healthy and unharmed.
After being captured for a few days, he was rescued by Dong Zhuo's patrol troops from Tian Shui, and he was taken here as guests of Dong Zhuo himself.
Behind him, a wet nurse was breastfeeding a baby. Around the courtyard, twenty burly soldiers stood guard which surrounded the thin man and the baby.
The baby was none other than the prince Liu Xie who was entrusted to Jia Xu when he had tried to escape from Luo Yang.
"Sir, the baby is well-fed. I shall take my leave." The wet nurse politely bowed and left.
Jia Xu turned around and glared at the baby that was lying in the prepared children bed.
'Motherfudger! It's all your fault! I just want to live in peace. Why do I have to take responsibility for you!'
He was annoyed every time he saw the happy face of the prince. He did not like the baby one bit.
'From the treatment of Dong Zhuo, he definitely knew about this brat's status. Screw all of you! If you want to be an emperor, just kill him and get this over with! Don't drag me into this!'
Jia Xu continued to curse within his mind. His face was already made him looked like an angered man, now he became an angered beast.
"Au! Au! DA!" On the contrary of Jia Xu's madden face, Liu Xie laughed at his face.
After seeing the baby's happy laugh, Jia Xu calmed himself down. He extended his index finger to touch the baby's cheek, after which the baby held his finger with his tiny hand.
"To be honest, I want a son like you, too."
Jia Xu sighed and surrendered to his fate.