The Three Kingdoms: Zhaolie, the strategist, and the rise of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 172: Ce Xin annexed Jiangdong, and those he killed were all heroes and heroes. In my opinion, they will die at the hands of ordinary people.

However, after Sun Ce was canonized by the imperial court, he was appointed as the governor of Kuaiji.

He settled in Jiangdong and inherited his father's foundation.

He also joined forces with Zhou Yu, a prominent family in Lujiang, to recruit talented people and win over heroes in the Wuhui area.

The four major surnames in Wu are especially representative: Zhu, Gu, Lu and Zhang.

Sun Ce appointed Gu Yong, a minister of the Gu family, as his aide to assist him in matters related to Jiangdong.

At that time, Sun Ce obtained the tacit approval of the imperial court to capture Chaisang, so he ordered Cheng Pu to lead 2,000 soldiers to station in Chaisang first.

Block the Yangtze River waterway.

The Yangtze River waterway is the economic lifeline of Jingzhou. Strangling the Yangtze River is equivalent to blocking Jingzhou's water trade.

The navy of Jingzhou was mainly in the hands of Huang Zu of Jiangxia.

Sun Ce's move undoubtedly threatened the interests of the Huang family.

Huang Zu reacted strongly to this and immediately ordered his eldest son, Huang She, the prefect of Zhangling, who was far away in Xiangyang, to make suggestions to Liu Biao.

The book briefly says:

"At a young age, Sun Bofu was able to make friends with famous people and strive for fame and success."

"His vigor and energy are no less than that of his father."

"When he asked for troops to advance and attack Jiangdong, Yuan Shu was not without caution, and finally let the tiger out of the cage, allowing it to run rampant."

"Now that the Sun family has occupied Wu, it has become a problem that is difficult to get rid of."

"The imperial court is not trying to stop them, but is trying to allow them to invade our Chu territory."

"To protect the Yangtze River is to protect Jingzhou."

"I now ask Liu Mu to send troops to prevent the Sun family from crossing the river."

After receiving Huang She's letter, Liu Biao responded promptly.

He ordered Huang Zu to immediately block the mouth of the Yangtze River to prevent Sun from crossing the river.

If Sun refuses to leave Chaisang, we will send one army from Jiangxia and another from Liyang County, Lujiang.

He then ordered Liu Xun, the governor of Lujiang, to lead the third army.

Combined with the three armies, they were determined to force Sun to withdraw from the Yangtze River coast.

Liu Biao's character was not actually decisive, but his attitude towards one thing was always firm.

That is, whoever dares to attack Jingzhou will be killed.

Sun Ce sent troops to station in Chaisang, which is the mouth of the river connecting Jingzhou and Yangzhou.

Within a few years, Sun Ce invaded and annexed several territories in Jiangdong, and also had a feud with Liu Biao for murdering his father.

When he stationed his troops in Chaisang, he was undoubtedly hanging a sharp knife over the head of Jingzhou.

This was something that Liu Biao and even the major families in Jingzhou could not accept.

No matter how the aristocratic families fight openly or secretly on a daily basis, once the core interests of Jingzhou are involved, they must unite to face the outside world.

The situation between Jing and Yang was tense and war was imminent.

Sun Ce also knew that Jingzhou was rich, with abundant money and grain and a large number of warships.

If we can defeat it in one battle, we can save a lot of development time.

This was of great benefit to the Sun Wu regime, whose territory expanded rapidly in recent years.

He wanted to advance his troops to Jiangxia to attack Huang Zu.

At that time, Gu Yong, a representative of the scholars in Wu, advised:
"This is Cao and Liu's plan to drive the tiger to devour the wolf. They want me to attack Liu Biao, while they sit back and reap the benefits."

"A general cannot be used by others."

Sun Ce said seriously:

"Don't I know what Cao and Liu are up to?"

"However, Yuan Tan only knows one side of the story, not the other. He only knows the surface, but not the inside."

"Yuan Shao is now powerful in Hebei, so Cao Cao and Liu Bei put aside their previous grudges and joined forces with the troops of Yanzhou and Xuzhou."

"Use the strength of Henan to resist Hebei."

"Although Yuan Shu was defeated, there are still many stubborn and foolish people in the south of the Yangtze River."

"Li Ziyu did not want Henan to be dragged into the disputes in the south of the Yangtze River, so he allowed Sun Wu to attack Jingzhou in the west."

"If I don't use the military, how can the people of Henan tolerate me?"

Sun Ce was not a fool. How could he not know that Cao and Liu wanted to use him to attack Liu Biao?

This would disrupt the situation in the south and allow the Central Plains to concentrate on dealing with Hebei.

All the rewards Sun Ce had received before were given by the imperial court, which enabled him to legally occupy the land of Jiangdong.

If you don't obey the imperial edict, you will be slapping yourself in the face.

If he did not attack Liu Biao westwards as Cao and Liu had intended, Cao and Liu would definitely not allow Sun Wu to follow behind him.

He will definitely resolve the affairs in the south of the Yangtze River first before daring to use military force against Hebei.

In other words, Sun Ce's initiative to attack Liu Biao was a token of his allegiance to Cao and Liu.

You don't have to worry about the affairs in the south of the Yangtze River. As long as I launch an attack on Liu Biao, this war will be a life-and-death battle.

This is an open conspiracy.

Sun Ce, Cao Cao and Liu Bei all got what they needed.

Cao and Liu need a stable diplomatic environment and there must be no threats from the south.

Sun Ce had just established a new regime and could not make too many enemies.

He attacked Liu Biao,

The first was to reassure Cao and Liu, the second was to seize the warships and money of Jingchu to strengthen their own strength, and the third was to avenge his father.

"Even so, Liu Biao has been in Jingzhou for many years, and his troops are well-trained and well-fed, so we should not move lightly."

Gu Yong spoke out to dissuade him again.

These scholars still retained the traditional "farming mentality" and believed that "those who love war will perish."

A newly emerging regime is not in a hurry to live in harmony with the people and cultivate virtuous governance.

But frequently launching wars is a way to death.

But at this time, Gu Yong obviously did not understand the particularity of the Sun Wu regime.

This needs to be emphasized.
Among the three regimes of Wei, Shu and Wu, Wu was the most special.

Normally, a regime needs to shout out a slogan to make its rule more legitimate.

It also strengthened the rulers' control over the lower classes of the people.

For example, the slogan of the Shu Han regime was "Support the Han Dynasty."

The slogan of the Cao Wei regime was "The Mandate of Heaven has changed."

If one wants to help a man, even if the man he helps is his own, it is still helping a man.

One of them wanted to usurp the Han Dynasty, but I said that the Mandate of Heaven had changed and I was the legitimate heir to the Mandate of Heaven of the Han Dynasty.

No matter which slogan it is, it is a means of public opinion propaganda by the rulers.

But the Sun Wu regime was the only one that did not have this.

Because Sun Ce, the founder of the regime, was very embarrassed in the early days of his business.

He himself was not an independent warlord and his military rank was low; he was just a lieutenant commander under Yuan Shu.

His attack on Jiangdong was illegal in itself.

And more importantly, after he conquered these territories, how would he reward his meritorious officers?
Sun Ce couldn't possibly appoint an officer with a higher rank than his own to one of his generals, right?

Before, when Lü Fan was appointed as the Prime Minister of Huxiu, he was given the title through the help of Zhou Shang, the prefect of Danyang.

Therefore, Sun Ce could only give two things as rewards to his generals at this time:

Property and soldiers.

Therefore, Sun Ce adopted the "military granting system".

This was based on the embarrassing reality that Sun Ce himself was unable to grant official titles or make promises to his subordinates.

It was not an institutional innovation made by Sun Ce on a whim.

As the name suggests, the system of granting soldiers means directly giving you soldiers as a reward and recognition for the generals.

For example, in the campaign against Zu Lang, Cheng Pu rescued Sun Ce from the chaos of the army.

So Sun Ce "added two thousand soldiers" and gave them to Cheng Pu.

Then these two thousand people would become Cheng Pu's private army, and no longer Sun's army.

It is worth mentioning that,
At the beginning, Sun Ce did not think of fully adopting the system of granting military service.

He simply wanted to take command of the army as a reward for his generals.

However, since wars were too frequent at the beginning of Sun Ce's career, many generals had made great military achievements.

Then the system of granting soldiers to generals gradually turned into hereditary private soldiers.

For example, Cheng Pu's more than 2,000 soldiers could be passed on to his son Cheng Zi.

But soldiers have a lifespan.
What if these soldiers died in battle, died of illness, or fled?

Then, as long as your troops are not fully staffed, you can recruit on your own to fill up the army.

But it cannot exceed the amount originally set for you.

However, this gave rise to a new problem.

That is, these soldiers have become your personal troops.

Should Sun Ce provide money and food to help you maintain your troops?
The answer is of course no. After all, these are your own private soldiers and you should be the one paying their salaries and food.

Strictly speaking, they are no longer my Sun family soldiers.

But how can a general support hundreds or thousands of private soldiers on his own?

For example, Lü Meng once "secretly borrowed money and made red robes for the soldiers."

In order to buy uniforms and leggings for his soldiers, Lu Meng even had to borrow money on credit.

Chen Wu, one of the Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiang Biao, and his son Chen Biao are even more so.

——"All the family wealth was spent on supporting scholars. On the day of his death, his wife and children were left exposed."

In other words, Chen Wu left so many soldiers to his son that Chen Biao had to spend all his family wealth to support them.

After Chen Biao died, his wife had no house to live in and could only stand in the open air.

Of course, the story about Chen Biao’s wife is an exaggeration.

But it also shows that maintaining an army is extremely costly.

So if you look at Sun Ce's resume, you will find that he is either fighting or on his way to a fight.

Because the soldiers under his command are all looking forward to this. If he doesn't share some of the spoils, how can he feed his private soldiers?

The benefit of the hereditary military leadership system was that it trained a large number of military talents for Sun Wu and promoted the development of the military farming system.

But the downside is that it caused the power of the aristocratic families to expand rapidly.

The hidden population far exceeds the population actually counted by the government that can pay taxes.

This is also the fundamental reason why among the Three Kingdoms, Wu had the largest number of hidden households.

When Sun Ce was alive, he was able to use his prestige and military achievements to intimidate the generals under his command.

But Sun Quan’s qualifications were far from enough, and he was not good at fighting, which formed a vicious circle.

Many people laughed at Sun Quan for being incompetent and playful.

You're so bad at fighting, why do you always like to lead the army yourself?

In fact, at least half of the blame for Sun Ce's nickname of Sun Shiwan should be attributed to him.

Because the system of granting military power has laid the hidden dangers of dispersing military power and declining combat effectiveness.

Especially when the soldiers become the "private property" of the generals, would the generals themselves be willing to risk their lives to consume the soldiers under their command?

You said that all the soldiers were killed and all the equipment was damaged, but those were all my personal losses as a general.

So in the Battle of Hefei, you will see a strange sight.

"Liao Fu has returned and broken through the siege, pulling out the remaining troops. Quan's troops are all defeated, and no one dares to confront them."

Now you know why no one dared to face Zhang Liao among the 100,000-strong army. Who would be willing to send his soldiers to die?

This is also the reason why Ling Tong burst into tears after his troops were killed by the Wei army in order to save Sun Shiwan.

Those who died were all Ling Tong’s Ling family soldiers!
This can also explain why the Wu army is very strong in defending their home but becomes weak once they cross the river to attack.

The military granting system laid a solid foundation for Sun's entrepreneurship, but it also became a shackle that blocked Sun's outward expansion.

Didn’t Sun Ce consider this hidden danger?

No, of course he had thought about it.

But in Sun Ce's view, as long as he fought fast enough and unified the world quickly, he could solve the problem of the military granting system in one fell swoop.

After all, he is still so young and has plenty of time.

"I have been preparing for this battle for a year, so why would Yuan Tan doubt it?"

Sun Ce was determined and insisted on sending troops to Jingzhou.

Gu Yong said, "Even if we want to send troops, we must wait for a good time and not rush into the water in winter."

As they were talking, they suddenly heard footsteps outside the hall.

A handsome young man came in and said in a clear voice:
"Why wait so long to avenge my grievances?"

"Huang Zu shot and killed Sun Po Lu. This feud is irreconcilable!"

Everyone looked and saw that it was Zhou Yu.

Sun Ce was overjoyed to see that it was Zhou Yu, and immediately stepped forward, pulling his hand over, and said:

"Gongjin, what did you learn during your visit to Chaisang?"

"Can Sun Wu march into Jingzhou?"

Zhou Yu nodded and said seriously:
"Liu Biao has no foresight, and his two sons Qi and Cong are both stupid and incompetent, unable to inherit the business and pass on the foundation, or to entrust them with important matters."

"If we don't plan for it now, we may be defeated by Cao and Liu in the future."

Sun Ce was overjoyed; this was exactly what he wanted.

It is not to say that Zhou Yu's opinion will definitely influence whether he will mobilize troops, but Zhou Yu's opinion can help him better persuade his ministers to send troops.

Zhou Yu understood Sun Ce's intention and said to everyone:
"Now the Han dynasty is in danger, many heroes are rising up, and the land of Jingchu is a place that military strategists must fight for."

"Cao Cao and Liu Bei were in Henan, focused on dealing with Yuan Shao, and had no time to look south."

"This is a God-given opportunity, and we should go west."

"If the victory or defeat in the Central Plains is decided, it will be either Cao or Liu who wins, or Yuan Shao who wins."

"They will take Jingchu and Jiangnan in the future."

"If we don't seize Chu territory and increase our strength early, how can we resist the northerners in the future?"

This question is very powerful.

The ministers who had previously opposed the expedition were all silent.

Zhou Yu looked around and continued:

"Now General Cheng Pu is advancing to Chaisang and threatening Lujiang's flank. It is appropriate for him to station troops in Jingzhou."

"You can first take Huang Zu, who is old and feeble, and is only interested in money and profit."

"I once crossed the river to investigate and saw that they were encroaching on officials and civilians, and the people were all resentful."

"If the weapons of war are not repaired, there will be no law in the army."

"If you attack them, they will surely be defeated."

"After defeating Zu's army, we can march westward, seize the Chu Pass and attack Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong."

"Shu is a land of abundance, and Emperor Gaozu established his empire from it."

"If we unite with Shu, we will unite with Jingzhou and Jiangnan."

"Then great things can be accomplished, and hegemony can be established!"

Zhou Yu met with Sun Ce in a very proud manner and planned the future strategic plan for Sun Wu.

Sun Ce was delighted when he heard this. "Gong Jin's words are as good as gold and jade, and they are exactly what I want!"

So Zhou Yu was appointed as the Central Guard General, in charge of the naval and land forces.

He also ordered Huang Gai and Chen Wu as vanguards and Lu Fan as military advisor.

Stationed in Chaisang and joined Cheng Pu's troops.

This is also Sun Ce's habit of employing people, which is to balance the relationship between the new and old factions.

Huang Gai, Cheng Pu, Han Dang, Zhu Zhi and others were all old ministers of Sun Jian's reign.

Lü Fan, Zhou Yu, Chen Wu and others were all generals promoted and trained by Sun Ce himself. Sun Ce deliberately balanced the power of the two factions to achieve the purpose of checks and balances and prevent one faction from becoming too powerful.

After all the factions were divided, Sun Ce led 15,000 troops to personally attack Jiangxia.

The general had already learned about it through spies and reported it to the Jiangxia prefecture government.

Huang Zu, the governor of Jiangxia, also received the order from Xiangyang in advance.
Be sure to guard the river mouth and don't let Sun Ce cross the river.

Huang Zu hurriedly gathered people to discuss strategies to repel the enemy.

Su Fei, the military governor, suggested:

"Jiangxia controls the Yangtze River. Sun Ce has just risen to power and has very few warships. He will definitely not be able to cross the river."

"We can first lead a fleet of warships to the mouth of the Mian River, and then set up more than a thousand strong bows and crossbows on each of the warships."

"Tie the long rope to secure the ship above the water."

"When the Sun Wu troops arrive, we will sound the drums on our warships and fire all our bows and crossbows."

"The Wu soldiers will not be able to advance and can only retreat out of the water."

Huang Zu was delighted when he heard this and said, "This is a brilliant plan. I would like to use your advice."

Therefore, Huang Zu appointed Su Fei as the chief general, and ordered Chen Jiu and Deng Long to assist him, and act according to the plan.

Jingzhou had many ships, so they formed a battle array and quickly blocked the river.

Waiting for Wu Jun to arrive.

When Sun Ce's army arrived, he ordered Huang Gai and Chen Wu to lead the troops to attack.

The boats on the river had bows and crossbows ready, and arrows rained down.

Huang Gai and Chen Wu were unable to advance and had to retreat.

Upon seeing this, Sun Ce gathered the people to discuss countermeasures:

"There are many ships in Jiangxia, and they are blocking my way across the river. Now I can't get through. What can I do?"

Zhou Yu offered a suggestion:
"The only solution now is to select strong and brave men and sail across in small boats."

"First cut the long ropes so that the ships of Jingzhou cannot be connected, and then set fire to the ships."

"Take advantage of the chaos to attack, kill Chen Jiu and Deng Long, and the bandits will be defeated."

Sun Ce said:

"With such a need for strong men, who would dare to take the risk?"

As soon as the words fell, everyone fell silent, as if thinking about something.

This is not a question of courage, but it is very difficult to do.

Whether you succeed or fail, you may not be able to get out of it safely.

It was almost like sacrificing oneself to help the large force in the rear. It was really dangerous.

Sun Ce looked around and saw no one answered, so he smiled softly and said:
"It seems that if I don't do it myself, I can't accomplish this!"

As soon as the words fell, everyone was shocked.

Zhou Yu hurriedly advised:

"No! I have heard that the son of a wealthy family will not sit in the hall with his head lowered."

"Confucius was particularly cautious about the dangers of a violent tiger crossing a river. How could the lord personally take the risk?"

“Is this the right way to live peacefully?”

Sun Ce raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and smiled:
"I regard all the rats in the world as grass, what do I have to fear?"

"Just follow my plan, and watch me defeat the enemy tomorrow."

Everyone had no choice but to comply.

The next day, early in the morning.

On the Sun Wu side, a hundred small boats were carefully selected.

Each boat had thirty elite soldiers, ten of whom were rowing the boat, and twenty of whom were each wearing armor and holding a bronze knife.

Sun Ce personally stood at the bow of the boat, urging it forward.

He drew his sword again and shouted loudly:

"Sun Lang is here!"

Upon seeing this, Chen Jiu and Deng Long ordered their archers to shoot directly at Sun Ce.

Sun Ce held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, dodging arrows under the boat.

Successfully drew a lot of fire from the remaining ships.

The remaining ships did not shy away from the arrows and came right up to the battleship.
So he swung his sword and cut the rope in half.

As a result, the large ships from Jingzhou on the river lost balance and could not be controlled.

The archers were not allowed to aim their bows, and the rain of arrows stopped.

Seeing this, Central Guard General Zhou Yu seized the opportunity and urged the army forward.

In a moment, the boat rushed into the water fort like an arrow.

Then the sky-high price set fire.

Smoke rose to the sky and the fireboat was on fire.

Generals Chen Jiu and Deng Long were shocked, thinking that the situation was out of control and they could not fight on the river.

He planned to abandon ship and leave, but Sun Ce had already boarded the ship. He flew onto the warship, raised his hand and slashed Deng Long to death with a sword.

Chen Juze went away in a small boat, but was caught up by Chen Wu on the river, who drew his bow and arrow.

He was hit in the back by an arrow and fell into the water and died.

The remaining Jiangdong troops arrived and defeated the Jingzhou navy.

The news that Deng Long and Chen Jiu had died in battle reached the surface of the river.

Su Fei, the commander at the time, was shocked when he heard this and said:

"Did the Eastern Wu army cross the river?"

He led his troops to the shore and intercepted Sun Ce's troops.

Sun Ce struck while the iron was hot and led his troops to land quickly.

He ordered Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and other veteran generals to form one group, and Chen Wu, Lu Fan and other new generals to form another group.

Go straight to Su Fei’s camp.

He then ordered Zhou Yu to lead an army to encircle Su Fei's camp from all sides.

He personally led his troops to challenge the enemy.

Su Fei did not notice it, and seeing that Sun Ce had few soldiers, he deployed his troops in the wild and went forward to meet him in battle.

Sun Ce formed a battle array, held his spear in hand and rode his horse, appearing under the gate flags.

Seeing this, Su Fei cursed loudly:

"How dare you, Jiangdong rat, invade the territory of my Han royal family!"

Sun Ce raised his gun and cursed:

"Huang Zu shot and killed my father. The hatred for killing my father is irreconcilable."

"Why say more?"

He ordered Han Dang to challenge, and Su Fei ordered Song Lian to fight.

The two cavalrymen met and fought for less than ten rounds. Han Dang pretended to be defeated and fled.

Song Lian urged his horse to chase after him. When Sun Ce saw this, he put down the gun in his hand and drew his bow and arrow.

An arrow hit Song Lian in the face, and he fell off his horse.

Sun Ce shot Song Lian to death and then urged his troops forward.

Su Fei led his troops to fight when he suddenly heard a loud shout behind him.

Zhou Yu led his troops to attack from behind the camp. Cheng Pu on the left and Chen Wu on the right each committed suicide.

Su Fei was unable to defeat the enemy, so he abandoned his helmet and horse and fled for his life among the infantry.

He didn't want to run into Huang Gai head-on, so Huang Gai hit him on the back with a steel whip.

Su Fei felt pain and was grabbed by Huang Gai and captured alive.

The vanguard army sent by Huang Zu was completely defeated by Eastern Wu.

When Huang Zu heard the news, he advanced his troops to Shaxian and personally went to fight Sun Ce.

Someone may advise:
"We have just been defeated and the soldiers have no will to fight. It is better to dig deep trenches and build high fortifications to avoid Sun Ce's attack."

"Wait for Liu Jingzhou's reinforcements to arrive, and the siege of Jiangxia will be lifted."

Huang Zu disagreed:
"What can a young boy like him do?"

"His father, Sun Jian, was known as the Fierce Tiger. He was extremely brave and fierce, but he died at my hands."

"How does this grandson compare to Sun Wentai?"

So he did not listen to his advice and led his army himself to fight Sun Ce.

Sun Ce said nothing more, but led his victorious troops straight in and killed the generals.

Huang Zu led his troops to meet the enemy, and the two armies collided, with blood and flesh splattering everywhere.

The fighting continued until noon, and Huang Zu's army was unable to defeat the enemy.

More and more people began to flee, or turned against their enemies and surrendered to the Wu army.

Huang Zu also suffered several wounds and fled in a panic.

The remaining soldiers and horses were killed and had no way to escape.

When they entered the river, both the men and the horses went down to drink water.

People were shouting and horses were neighing.

The killing was so intense that corpses were scattered all over the ground and countless people drowned.

In this battle, the Sun Wu army won a great victory over the Jingzhou army.

In total, more than 10,000 enemies were killed, more than 3,000 ships were seized, and property piled up like a mountain.

Huang Zu's seven wives, concubines and children were all captured by Sun Ce.

This has achieved the goal set by Sun Ce for the expedition to Jingzhou, which is to rob property and feed the soldiers.

As Huang Zu was defeated and fled, Sun Ce occupied half of Jiangxia.

So they gathered again to discuss the next strategy for advancing.

Gu Yong advised:
"An isolated city cannot be defended. Since you have seized a large number of ships and money, you may as well return to Jiangdong."

"I have another plan, and then I will return Huang Zu's wife and children."

"Don't let the Sun and Liu families become too hostile to each other, so as to avoid trouble in the future."

Sun Ce said:

"Now that we have won, why should we return?"

Gu Yong said again:

"After conquering many counties in Jiangxia, we should stop to rest and recuperate our troops, so as not to agitate the morale of the army."

Sun Ce also felt that this made sense, although his fighting style was always about quick victory.

But the soldiers cannot be denied rest, otherwise it will surely provoke a mutiny.

So he accepted Gu Yong's advice and temporarily stationed his troops in Shaxian for rest and recuperation.

Before Sun Ce set out on the expedition, he had anticipated that Jingzhou would be prosperous, but he never expected it to be so prosperous.

The spoils captured in this expedition against Huang Zu far exceeded his imagination.

At the same time, the great defeat of Huang Zu not only boosted the morale of the soldiers, but also made his own reputation spread far and wide.

Although he was resting in Shaxian these two days, Sun Ce could also hear that many people were talking about him.

When Sun Ce saw this, he was overjoyed and felt even more proud and successful.

Since Sun Ce liked to be close to the scholars and common people, he often came to the streets to have fun with the people.

For this, he won a lot of public support.

Many tourists and travelers also came to Shaxian to pay homage to this rising young hero.

Cheng Pu advised Sun Ce:
"This is a time of trouble. We should conduct a thorough investigation and not let anyone into the city casually."

Sun Ce was very proud of himself at this time, so he did not take it seriously and replied:
“I am close to the people, so they tolerate me.”

"If we refuse to interact with them now, we will lose their hearts."

So they continued to allow outsiders to enter the city freely.

Cheng Pu could not persuade him any more and had to give up.

Sun Ce received a lot of praise again and was secretly proud of himself.

On this day,

He was bored and wanted to go hunting in the mountains.

Cheng Pu and others led the troops to follow.

When we reached the top of the mountain, we saw a fat deer leaping by.

Sun Ce was just about to draw his bow and shoot it, but the fat deer was frightened by the large army and quickly ran into the woods.

Sun Ce was very upset when he saw the deer was gone, and he blamed Cheng Pu and others:
"You came so close that you scared away my deer."

Cheng Pu and others said:

"It's just to protect the lord's safety. It's not our intention."

Sun Ce looked around and said with a smile:

"There are few people in this mountain, who can harm me?"

"Just wait here while I go to the forest to hunt deer."

Cheng Pu was shocked when he heard this and said hurriedly:
"My lord, if you go alone, you may get into trouble."

Sun Ce was furious and shouted:

"I am invincible in the world, who am I afraid of?"

Seeing this, Cheng Pu had no choice but to advise:
"In this case, you can select a dozen brave cavalrymen to escort you to ensure safety."

Sun Ce waved his hand and refused:

"When there are too many people, the deer will be scared away again."

"You don't have to follow too closely. If there is anything, I will only come to you. Don't worry too much."

Cheng Pu and others tried to persuade him, but Sun Ce still refused to listen.

So he set out alone and headed into the dense forest.

……

……

Xuzhou, Xiapi.

"What is the military advisor thinking about?"

Liu Bei walked behind Li Yi and asked softly.

Li Yi stood up, and without rushing to salute, he responded to Liu Bei's question first, saying:

"I was thinking about Hebei."

Seeing this, Liu Bei smiled and said:
"Military Advisor is so concerned about Hebei's affairs, is it really that important?"

Li Yi answered decisively:
"What happens in Hebei is what happens in the world."

"If Hebei is stable, the rest of the country will be stable sooner or later."

"Isn't this what the lord wishes and what the people want?"

Liu Bei was startled when he heard this, and asked again:

"Isn't this what you wish, sir?"

Li Yi sighed and said:
"I am sorry to have made you worry about me, my lord. After all, I am just a commoner."

"Thanks to my lord for saving me, I will allow you to drive."

"I was lost in thought just now... If the world is at peace, the people live in peace, and the borders are at peace."

"...Why should we waste our time and energy here, planning in the court?"

"Even if I cannot become famous in the world, I have no regrets."

……

(End of this chapter)