Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

"What's wrong with Ziyuan again?" Sima Yi seemed somewhat alarmed.

Now it was Sima Zhi's turn to be nervous. Did his elder brother not know?
"Stop beating around the bush, Zihua, speak your mind quickly," Sima Yi urged, frowning.

Sima Zhi swallowed hard. "Brother, I've always served as Huang Quan's deputy in the army, handling official business and documents for him. Before His Majesty was still in Jiangning, Jiang Zitong recommended Wu Gai as the Prefect of Danyang and Ziyuan as the Magistrate of Jiangning, but Huang Quan rejected them. Then he recommended Xiahou Xuan as the Prefect of Danyang and Zhong Yu as the Magistrate of Jiangning..."

"Brother, do you really not know about this?"

"I really don't know!" Sima Yi replied immediately, his face visibly darkening.

Sima Yi was aware of the appointments of Xiahou Xuan as Prefect of Danyang and Zhong Yu as Magistrate of Jiangning. According to the system, the imperial entourage accompanying the emperor would send a batch of documents to Shouchun every ten days, including records of these two appointments.

Xiahou Xuan and Zhong Yu were both nobles, talented scholars, and confidants of the emperor, which was not surprising to Sima Yi. However, he did not expect that Jiang Ji had also recommended Wu Gai and Sima Shi behind the scenes...

Why didn't Jiang Ji tell me about this?

Sima Yi asked with a grim face, "Zihua, when did this happen?"

Sima Zhi thought for a moment: "Roughly in early February."

"That was before His Majesty appointed Sima Zhao as the magistrate of Dantu?" Sima Yi asked again.

Sima Zhi nodded: "That is correct."

Sima Yi remained silent for a long time.

The current court is no longer the same as when he, Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, and Chen Qun were regents...

……

Kuaiji Commandery, Shanyin County.

As the name suggests, the Shanyue people mainly operated in mountainous areas, namely the vast regions of Danyang County, Kuaiji County, and Xindu County. The most fertile areas along the river and Wu County of Wu were not included.

For the imperial court, the rebellion of the Shanyue was an important but not urgent problem. After all, it was all former Wu territory, and the Wei emperor and his officials would not feel too bad if the Shanyue caused a little trouble.

This was true for Cao Rui and his ministers, but it was a different story for Jiang Ji, the governor of Yangzhou, and Guanqiu Jian, the general in charge of the army.

The main area of ​​activity of the Shanyue people was Yangzhou, and Jiang Ji, as the governor of the prefecture, naturally had the responsibility of quelling the rebellion and suppressing the riots. Although Jiang Ji had made contributions to the logistics of transporting grain and fodder during his tenure as governor of Yangzhou, wouldn't his position as duke be more secure if he could make some strategic contributions during the pacification of the Shanyue people?

For Guanqiu Jian, this sense of urgency was even stronger. The emperor had promoted him to the position of commander-in-chief at the age of thirty-something, but for the past two months he had been circling around the eastern side of Yangzhou.

Dantu was captured, but this drawn-out siege, compared to the thunderous advances at Ruxu and Wuhu, made him appear weak and incompetent. The Grand General only had the Wuwei Army under his command; His Majesty had given Guanqiu Jian ten thousand Xiaowei soldiers—what more can be said?

Moreover, Wu Commandery was persuaded to surrender only half-heartedly based on the prevailing circumstances, Kuaiji Commandery rebelled again after being captured, not to mention the previous incident where Hu Zhi was utterly defeated by Sun Shao at the gates of Dantu... Objectively speaking, Guanqiu Jian's contributions along the way were indeed negligible. His lack of merit not only tarnished his own reputation, but His Majesty's swift promotion of him could also seriously damage His Majesty's prestige.

You've done a great service!

This was the thing Guanqiu Jian was most eager to do.

After the Battle of Dantu, Wu's former general and member of the royal family, Sun Shao, was killed. The Privy Council then transferred Wang Ling's 10,000 elite guards to the north, and Wang Ling himself was also implicated. His own 5,000 central cavalry were also transferred back to Shouchun to assist Dong Zhao in suppressing the situation.

After Guanqiu Jian reorganized the military forces in Wu County, he ordered General Xiahou Xian to lead 5,000 cavalry to quell the situation and take command of all military affairs in Wu Commandery.

Guanqiu Jian himself led the troops of General Cao Zhao, Lieutenant General Pu Zhong, and the remnants of Hu Zhi's troops, totaling 13,000 men. Cao Zhao and Pu Zhong each led 5,000 men, while Guanqiu Jian directly led 3,000 of the most elite troops.

In addition to these troops, Guanqiu Jian also brought along the 6,000 troops previously conscripted from Wu Commandery, plus the 3,000 soldiers selected from Dantu after its fall, bringing his total force to 22,000.

This is still not a very large force, but it should be enough to conquer the Shanyue. The Shanyue had been suppressed by the Wu Kingdom for many years. Now that Wu's power has been completely disintegrated, can they really defeat the Great Wei?
There is no such logic.

After crossing the Qiantang River in early March, Guanqiu Jian stationed himself in Shanyin County, the seat of Kuaiji Commandery.

Shanyin was the capital of Kuaiji Commandery and the only decently prosperous place in Kuaiji Commandery. Guanqiu Jian's military strategy was to attack the east first and then the west. He successively sent generals Cao Zhao and Pu Zhong to the east to suppress the wavering Shangyu, Yuyao, Gouzhang, Mao County, Yin County and other places.

To use a later geographical division analogy, it's like Guanqiu Jian entering Zhejiang from Jiangsu, passing through Hangzhou, crossing the Qiantang River, stationing his main force in the Shaoxing area, and then sending troops to sweep through the surrounding areas, advance eastward to Ningbo, and reach the coast.

Now that they've reached the seaside, they're not far from Wengzhou, a city on the sea. Liu Daoren, a remnant of the Yellow Turban rebels who commands ten thousand pirates and is stationed in Wengzhou, is now facing a final decision about his fate.

Indeed, it was only at this point that Liu Daoren began to make his decision. In late March, Liu Daoren personally led his followers westward by sea, passing through the Qiantang River and Cao'e River to Shanyin, to pay homage to Guanqiu Jian.

Unexpectedly, Guanqiu Jian put on airs again, refusing to summon him and leaving Liu Daoren and his party waiting in the courtyard of the Kuaiji County government.

In the courtyard of the prefectural government, armored soldiers stood on both sides, watching them with hostile eyes. After landing and entering the city, Liu Daoren had seen many pointing fingers and comments along the way, all referring to them as pirates.

Although Liu Daoren was unwilling to call themselves pirates, they looked like pirates and acted in a manner unmistakably like pirates, so they were indeed true pirates.

"General Guanqiu won't see me..." Liu Daoren was momentarily embarrassed. He looked around before asking Lu Ya beside him, "Young Master Lu, is there any other way right now?"

In January, when Lu Xun led his army into the river, he sent Lu Ya and Ou Kui to the sea to persuade Liu Daoren to assist the Great Wei in sending troops.

At that time, Lu Xun offered Liu Daoren the following terms: he would recommend him as the General Who Pacifies the Sea, allowing him to lead his troops across the sea from Wengzhou to attack the five counties of Jiaxing, Haiyan, Yangguan, Wucheng, and Qiantang. In return, Lu Xun promised Liu Daoren five stipends of 2,000 shi (a unit of grain).

But Liu Daoren... Liu Daoren not only did not respond, but also kowtowed to Lu Ya immediately.

In Lu Ya's view, she had initially thought they were forced to flee to sea, but now it seemed they were simply desperate and had nowhere else to turn! Now that General Guanqiu wouldn't see them, they came to beg them—wasn't that laughable? (End of Chapter)