Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Meanwhile, on the other side, Zhao Yun led the White Horse Riders swiftly through the heart of Luoyang.

Unlike Zhang Fei's mission, Zhao Yun's destination was the "Eastern Pavilion."

The "Eastern Pavilion" was the Han Dynasty's imperial library, located within the southern palace of Luoyang, housing a vast collection of books dating back to the Spring and Autumn period, the Warring States period, and the Qin and Han dynasties.

Especially before the improvement of papermaking and the widespread use of paper, the difficulty of copying bamboo slips meant that many precious books existed only in their original form.

It could be said that the countless books collected in the "Eastern Pavilion" were the crystallized wisdom of Chinese civilization at that time.

Besides this, Li Ji also valued the Eastern Pavilion for its archives containing information on the population, terrain, and land of various regions of the Great Han Dynasty.

The imperial palace of Luoyang was a general term, but in reality, the imperial palace at this time was divided into the southern palace and the northern palace. The two palaces were not in the same location, separated by more than seven miles.

Currently, the northern palace was where the emperor and his concubines resided. In addition to the "Eastern Pavilion" for storing books, the southern palace was mainly used for the emperor and his ministers to hold court, discuss politics, or conduct official business.

Therefore, Lü Bu led the Bingzhou Wolf Riders directly to the northern palace located in the north of Luoyang, while Zhao Yun headed towards the southern palace in the south of Luoyang.

Similar to the northern palace.

The Sili elite, originally responsible for garrisoning Luoyang, had all been transferred to Hulao Pass, replaced by the Xiliang Iron Cavalry responsible for guarding the imperial palace.

Now, with the chaos in Luoyang, the southern palace was also plagued by the Xiliang Iron Cavalry engaging in theft, taking the opportunity to commit adultery and plunder within the southern palace.

Zhao Yun, with only three thousand cavalrymen entering the southern palace, naturally could not imitate the Bingzhou Wolf Riders by sealing off the southern palace. He could only identify the direction of the Eastern Pavilion while slaying the rebellious soldiers.

Li Ji may never have entered the imperial palace of Luoyang, nor had he ever been to the "Eastern Pavilion."

However, Li Ji's own father-in-law, Cai Yong, had been ordered by Emperor Ling of Han, Liu Hong, to revise the "Annals of the Eastern Pavilion" in the Eastern Pavilion.

For Cai Yong, the location of the Eastern Pavilion was more familiar than the road home.

Li Ji, who had long been eyeing the Eastern Pavilion's collection, had Cai Yong draw a map of the Eastern Pavilion before leaving Wu County. Now, it was handed over to Zhao Yun and came in handy.

Despite the poor visibility due to the darkness of the night, Zhao Yun carefully identified the location after entering the southern palace and led the White Horse Riders straight to the Eastern Pavilion.

However, before Zhao Yun could reach the Eastern Pavilion, he saw what appeared to be firelight rising from the Eastern Pavilion.

This made Zhao Yun extremely anxious, and he broke away from the main force, using the speed of the Night Shining Jade Lion to rush to the Eastern Pavilion ahead of everyone else.

At this moment, the Eastern Pavilion was undoubtedly in chaos.

More than a dozen Xiliang rebel soldiers were searching for valuables inside the Eastern Pavilion, but the outwardly imposing palace only contained a massive collection of books. Where would there be any valuables stored here?

Out of anger, these Xiliang rebel soldiers simply started setting fires to vent their frustration, just as Zhao Yun arrived.

"You deserve to die!"

Seeing three or four places in the Eastern Pavilion already ablaze, Zhao Yun was undoubtedly furious. He shot and killed two rebel soldiers with two arrows from afar, and then rode the Night Shining Jade Lion directly into the Eastern Pavilion.

Wielding the Cliff Corner Spear in his hand, he almost instantly killed the dozen or so Xiliang rebel soldiers.

Immediately, seeing that the fire was about to spread, Zhao Yun simply used the corpses of the Xiliang rebel soldiers to smother the flames, barely managing to control the fire in the Eastern Pavilion.

Only then did the White Horse Riders, who were slightly slower, arrive one after another, assisting Zhao Yun in completely extinguishing the fire in the Eastern Pavilion.

After the fire was extinguished, Zhao Yun then gave the order.

"Move it!"

"Move all the books from the Eastern Pavilion away!"

Of course, relying only on their hands, even with three thousand White Horse Riders, it would not be possible to move the books from the Eastern Pavilion out of the southern palace in a very short time.

And the time left for Zhao Yun was only one night.

When dawn broke, and the other lords successively entered Luoyang to control the situation, it would be impossible for Zhao Yun to openly transport the books from the Eastern Pavilion.

However, Li Ji had naturally prepared for this in advance, having the Mi family prepare hundreds of flatbed carts in Luoyang beforehand.

Perhaps preparing other things would arouse suspicion, but for a merchant, preparing a few more flatbed carts was too inconspicuous.

Moreover, these flatbed carts had been stored in a warehouse not far from the southern palace early on.

Therefore, while Zhao Yun had the White Horse Riders quickly move the books, he also led five hundred men to connect those flatbed carts with warhorses, and then pulled the carts back to the Eastern Pavilion.

Even at this moment, the allied lords, who had been hindered by Gao Shun, had just arrived in Luoyang one after another.

However, these lords almost all went to the northern palace, trying to find the emperor, completely ignoring the southern palace.

The collection in the Eastern Pavilion had as many as hundreds of thousands of volumes, encompassing everything and including the various schools of thought…

However, the White Horse Riders led by Zhao Yun were all strong men who could draw powerful bows, running back and forth between the Eastern Pavilion palace and the flatbed carts, carrying more than a dozen bamboo scrolls at a time.

By the time they had tossed and turned until dawn, the entire Eastern Pavilion was empty, replaced by hundreds of flatbed carts fully loaded with bamboo scrolls.

Immediately, Zhao Yun took advantage of the last trace of the night to leave the southern palace directly according to Li Ji's orders, completely avoiding the northern palace, where the sounds of fighting had continued all night, and left Luoyang through the Vermilion Bird Gate, choosing to leave Luoyang.

Unlike Zhao Yun, who worked as a porter all night in the southern palace, the elite troops led by the allied lords and the Bingzhou Wolf Riders, relying on the palace walls of the northern palace, fought for a whole night.

Even now, as dawn was about to break, everyone realized that the palace walls of the northern palace were already red with blood.

However, even after fighting for an entire night and still not breaking into the northern palace, the lords were still unwilling to give up and wanted to dismantle nearby houses to build temporary siege equipment for attack.

The palace gate of the northern palace suddenly opened slowly. Emperor Liu Xie, wearing a black dragon robe, appeared before the lords, guarded on the left and right by Lü Bu and Zhang Liao.

At this moment, Emperor Liu Xie, who was only nine years old, was pale and his eyes were flustered, but he still勉强強pretended to be calm and opened his mouth.

"Why are you attacking the imperial palace, esteemed ministers? Do you want to imitate the traitor Dong and cause chaos?"

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the lords all changed.

In the end, Yuan Shao still hardened his heart and stepped forward, offering a distant salute to the emperor and then opening his mouth.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, we have heard that Dong Zhuo is wreaking havoc on the court, acting perversely, and has repeatedly offended the emperor. That is why we have come to clear the emperor's side."

Liu Xie nodded, glanced at Lü Bu beside him, and then opened his mouth again with a childish voice.

"You have all been attentive, esteemed ministers, but now the traitor Dong has been killed by Marquis Wen. Now there are no traitors in Luoyang. You may all withdraw. When the court meets in the future, I will reward you according to your merits."

(End of this chapter)