At the end of August in the Sixth Year of Zhongping, in the Eastern Han Dynasty capital of Luoyang, within a massive residence in the Beique Jiadi district.
A young man of about twenty was leaning against a railing, quietly watching a pond. At this time of year, the lotus flowers in the pond had long since become withered blossoms and rotten stems, no longer possessing the brilliance of "lotus flowers reflecting the sun with a unique red." However, the young man's gaze remained deep and distant. It was as if he were looking not at a small pond, but at an infinite future.
His name was He Xian, courtesy name He Xians courtesy name; he was a transmigrator whose body housed a soul from over 1,800 years in the future.
He should have been very fortunate because his transmigration was definitely a top-tier configuration among the many types of transmigrations.
His father was the highest military and political official of this dynasty, holding absolute power with a reputation at its zenith.
His father's younger sister, his aunt, was the supreme Empress Dowager He of this dynasty, the mistress of the inner palace.
Even the Son of Heaven, who currently governed the entire world, had been supported into his position by his father—this meant his father was a genuine merit-holding official from the dragon's rise, and a truly powerful imperial relative who held real authority and swayed the world.
Because of this, the world's talented men all served in his father's commandery office. Even the most valued young master from the greatest family in the world at that time had to carefully devise strategies under his father's command, not daring to provoke his father's anger.
Having transmigrated into a host with such a luxurious configuration, He Xian should have had no regrets. After all, power and wealth were but fleeting clouds to him, and he could enjoy endless beautiful women and fine residences. He could even subvert a dynasty with a flip of his hand if he so desired...
However, within this top-tier transmigration configuration, two not-so-important small problems had arisen.
The first problem was that his father had just died a few days ago.
Well, this problem really wasn't that big. After all, as the legitimate son and with no other brothers to compete for power, he would easily inherit all of his father's titles and authority, beginning his own era.
The second problem didn't seem too serious either.
This problem was, well... his father's name was He Jin, and he used to be a butcher in a commandery—that's right, his father was that Grand General He Jin from the Late Han and Three Kingdoms period who was almost like a joke!
"Enough! Stop with the self-hypnosis!" At the thought of this hurdle he simply couldn't bypass, He Xian broke down in tears: "The end of August in the Sixth Year of Zhongping—this is exactly the time when He Jin died and the Northwest butcher Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang! Anyone with a bit of knowledge about the history of the Late Han and Three Kingdoms period knows that Dong Zhuo's entry into the capital was the fuse that ignited chaos throughout the world. At that time, the sky will shatter, the sun and moon will lose their light, and darkness will shroud the earth. The Han Dynasty's mountains and rivers will collapse, the vegetation will turn to ash, and the four seas will boil like soup!"
"What's even more terrifying is, if I remember correctly, during the time Dong Zhuo entered the capital, this Young Master He seemed to have been scared to death!" He Xian covered his face in agony. Thinking back carefully, it seemed he was able to transmigrate because the son of the Grand General had been on his last breath, overwhelmed by terror.
He Xian was now very sorrowful and desperate. The self-hypnosis from earlier couldn't solve the practical predicament before him at all.
He withdrew his gaze from the lotus pond and saw that in the massive residence, there was hardly a single servant or attendant. The reason was that he knew once Dong Zhuo's group of Western Liang bandits entered Luoyang, they would certainly not spare this enormous mansion. Thus, after transmigrating, He Xian had dismissed and disbanded all the servants and attendants, hoping they could escape this catastrophe.
Those fierce, violent, and illiterate qiang and hu people would truly not bypass the Former Grand Marshals Mansion just because of its name—not to mention that the first thing a newly empowered ruler always does is settle accounts with the previous one, to announce the end of one era and the beginning of another.
In history, this was exactly what Dong Zhuo did.
To stabilize his power, he quickly incorporated the private troops of He Jin and He Miao, and then immediately turned his blade against the previously powerful He family.
After learning that He Xian had been scared to death, Dong Zhuo soon deposed the Son of Heaven, He Jin's nephew Emperor Shao of Han. Not long after, he also bestowed a cup of poisoned wine upon Empress Dowager He.
From then on, the once illustrious political faction of the He family completely vanished.
Normally, before transmigrating, looking at He Jin's life, He Xian would have felt that He Jin was overestimating himself. A butcher who didn't stick to slaughtering pigs and selling meat, but instead used his dull talents to try and pull the collapsing Han Dynasty back on track, was indeed somewhat comical.
But He Xian had transmigrated, causing the Young Master He, who should have died and been done with it, to come back to life.
Things had become serious.
If things developed according to history, He Xian knew with his toes that his future would definitely be miserable.
The chaotic times of the Late Han Dynasty—a truly chaotic era where people competed to eat each other, bandits ran rampant, white bones were used as pillows, nine out of ten houses were empty, drums and horns competed, and the flames of war reached the sky!
A chaotic era that slaughtered its way from a prosperous and powerful population of fifty million until the entire dynasty had less than six million left! Not to mention, the identity he transmigrated into was very awkward; he was exactly that little weed the new ruler wanted to pull up by the roots...
At the thought of this, the muscles on He Xian's face began to tremble, and his hands gripping the railing turned white from the force: "No, I've finally transmigrated once. Even though I've entered this hell mode right away, as a glorious and great transmigrator, I absolutely cannot give up like this!"
However, after swearing oaths for a long time, He Xian ultimately discovered to his helplessness that he had no way to deal with Dong Zhuo at this moment.
Future generations all knew Dong Zhuo was a demon, a pervert, and a brutal and dim-witted fellow. But He Xian, who had been a fan of the Late Han and Three Kingdoms period before transmigrating, knew that the real history was far from that simple. The early Dong Zhuo was by no means just a man of courage without strategy.
Taking the methods Dong Zhuo used to enter and control Luoyang as an example, one could see he was by no means the kind of guy who just got lucky.
Before entering Luoyang, there were also loyal ministers of the Han Dynasty who tried their best to keep Dong Zhuo outside the city. But Dong Zhuo was like a wolf that had caught the scent of its prey's blood; he repeatedly defied imperial edicts to return and lingered stubbornly outside Luoyang, which was how he managed to encounter the fleeing Son of Heaven at North Mount Mang.
After entering Luoyang, the troops he brought were only three thousand Iron Cavalry. In an imperial capital with a population of a million, the people could have drowned Dong Zhuo with their spit. Dong Zhuo himself knew it was impossible for him to stir up trouble in Luoyang with only three thousand Cavalry. So every four or five days, he would order his troops to secretly sneak out of Luoyang in the dead of night, and the next morning, they would march back into the city with drums beating wildly and colorful flags fluttering.
After doing this a few times, everyone thought that Dong Zhuo's Liang Province army was arriving one after another to reinforce him. In this way, Dong Zhuo easily intimidated those outwardly strong but inwardly weak Scholar-officials in Luoyang. Subsequently, with lightning speed, he successfully took over the troops that had been under He Jin and He Miao during their lifetimes.
Such tiger-like courage and the scheme of "crossing the sea under camouflage" were simply not something a brave but brainless brute could pull off. Regardless of whether Dong Zhuo came up with the strategy himself, the fact that he succeeded proved he was an extraordinary person.
"There's simply no chance at all. He Jin's tenure as Grand General was too much of a failure. He didn't have a single loyal subordinate under him. Now, as a leader with no followers, trying to challenge Dong Zhuo is like a mantis trying to stop a chariot."
"Moreover, now is not the time to be competing with Dong Zhuo. Currently, Dong Zhuo has taken over all the military forces in Luoyang, and even the number one fierce general of the Late Han, Lü Bu, is said to have acknowledged him as a foster father. For the current Dong Zhuo to kill me would be as easy as crushing an ant..."
"If only the transmigration had been a few days earlier. At the very least, if I had stopped He Jin from entering the palace and being killed, everything could have been rewritten. But now the die is cast, and I am powerless to change the situation..."
"If only I had a Golden Finger or something. The Late Han and Three Kingdoms... is not an era for normal people to survive in."
While whispering to himself, He Xian gave another helpless smile.
He used to read novels online where many people transmigrated and, with their foresight, unified the world step by step.
At that time, he enjoyed reading them. But now, he could guarantee with his hand on his heart that if those writers transmigrated into his situation, they would probably only wish they had an AK-47 in their hands.
To transmigrate without a few Golden Fingers, one might get killed by some bandit's blade right at the start. Especially when transmigrating into a chaotic era like the Late Han and Three Kingdoms period, if one isn't a special forces king, they wouldn't even have the ability to survive.
"O Heavens, O Earth, please grant me a Golden Finger!" He Xian knelt on the ground, his face full of sorrow as he prayed to the heavens. At this moment, he was truly incredibly devout.
Just then, an ethereal and hollow voice suddenly sounded in He Xian's ear.