In Chenliu, Cao Cao meets his father and sets about raising volunteers. Wei Hong, a man recommended for filial piety, gives his entire family fortune, and Cao Cao forges an imperial edict and sends it far and wide. Under a white banner bearing the words Loyalty and Duty gather Yue Jin and Li Dian, Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren and Cao Hong.
Yuan Shao comes from Bohai with thirty thousand men, and the lords who receive Cao Cao’s call to arms raise their armies one after another. Yuan Shu of Nanyang, Tao Qian of Xu Province, Gongsun Zan of Beiping, Sun Jian of Changsha, seventeen garrisons in all. Each leads his army toward Luoyang.
Gongsun Zan, governor of Beiping, passes through Pingyuan County and meets Liu Bei. Liu Bei, now magistrate of Pingyuan on Gongsun Zan’s recommendation, is asked what posts his two brothers hold, and answers that Guan Yu is a mounted archer and Zhang Fei a foot archer. Gongsun Zan says this is burying heroes and asks them to come with him against Dong Zhuo, and Liu Bei says he will go. Zhang Fei says, if you had let me kill that fellow back then, none of this would be happening today.