The strongest devouring system in the Three Kingdoms

One day, Gongsun Zan summoned his cousin Gongsun Pu and asked, "You must have heard about the King of Wei's reforms. What is your opinion on this matter?"

Gongsun Pu replied, "Elder brother, I believe that the King of Wei's reforms are a wise move."

"Oh? You think so too?" Gongsun Zan said with delight, "All the ministers in the court are saying that the King of Wei's actions are a breach of etiquette. Don't you think so?"

"Elder brother, the ancestral laws are still the same, reformed based on the foundation laid by our predecessors. The ministers in the court are all pedantic. Now, there are many outstanding people in the world, and dozens of large and small lords. If we want to stand out among so many forces, we must make some changes. If we stick to the old ways like those ministers in the court, our Gongsun family will fall behind the times sooner or later."

As the most forward-thinking talent in the Gongsun family, Gongsun Zan highly valued Gongsun Pu's opinions. He was already quite supportive of the reforms, and now that Gongsun Pu had said the same thing, Gongsun Zan felt even more confident.

Gongsun Zan said to Gongsun Pu, "In that case, I will petition His Majesty at the morning court tomorrow, and the court should also undergo reforms."

Gongsun Zan also wanted to reform, but of course he wouldn't do it exactly like Chen Er's. Gongsun Zan would only change the parts that suited his own situation, such as military reform. Since its formation, Chen Er's army had never suffered a major defeat. Even if there were initial setbacks or local losses, none of these had resulted in a true defeat for Chen Er's army. Gongsun Zan believed that Chen Er's military reforms would definitely be useful for such an army, since Chen Er himself had already proven it.

Of course, Gongsun Zan will not learn about the military rank system for the time being, as he knows the meaning of gradual progress.

The following morning at court, Gongsun Zan used his powerful influence to persuade the ministers to approve his reform proposals, and the Chang'an court officially began its reform process.

As the Chang'an court adopted the new policies of King Wei and carried out reforms, the influence of Chen Er's new policies expanded further. The various warlords in the south began to learn from the new policies of the northern autonomous regions. However, all the forces had one thing in common: they did not copy all of Chen Er's measures. They selectively learned some of the measures. There was also a strange case: Yuzhou. In the wave of imperial reforms, Yuzhou was the only place that did not take any action. No one knew what Yuan Shu was thinking.

Although the reforms will affect the interests of some powerful families, the benefits of the reforms are also visible to everyone. Even Yuan Shao, who hated Chen Er to the core, said to his subordinates more than once: "Although I am Cao Mengde's enemy, I admire Cao Mengde's talent quite a bit. The new policies of the King of Wei are worth learning from."

In the end, Yuan Shao even used the respectful title of King of Wei to address Chen Er, which shows the influence Chen Er had on Yuan Shao. Even his enemies acknowledged Chen Er's reforms, and Yuan Shao was the one who learned the most from Chen Er.

When Chen Er heard Yuan Shao's words, he smiled and said to the people around him, "Although we are enemies, I admire Brother Benchu's talent and magnanimity. However, the Yuan family is now only supported by Brother Benchu."

In this environment, Yuan Shu's behavior stood out as particularly eccentric. He was the only one in the land stubbornly refusing to reform, while everyone else was actively learning from Chen Er's new policies. After all, Chen Er's military achievements were undeniable, and everyone knew how effective it was to learn from someone. Oh, and there was one other force that hadn't reformed: the local forces in Yangzhou. They simply didn't have the time; the pressure from Yuan Shu's army was simply too immense.

In June of the year 2189 in the Yellow Emperor's reign, Yangzhou completely fell. Yuan Shu successfully occupied most of Yangzhou, with only a few remote mountainous areas remaining unconquered by his army. However, this did not affect Yuan Shu's control over Yangzhou, as he controlled all of Yangzhou's cities and the vast majority of its population.

From then on, Yuan Shu became the second warlord after Chen Er to control two provinces. The Sili region controlled by Yuan Shao was too small in area and population to be counted.

After occupying Yangzhou, Yuan Shu became arrogant. He moved his capital to Shouchun to strengthen his control over Yangzhou. Of course, this did not mean that Yuan Shu was without worries. To the south of Yangzhou, there were still large areas of hilly terrain controlled by the Yue people, and many scattered cities remained independent. In reality, Yuan Shu only controlled the area north of the Yangtze River; the area south of the river was only nominally under his command.

In particular, the Jiangdong clan group, led by Sun Jian, was extremely unwelcoming to Yuan Shu's entry into Yangzhou. If it weren't for their lack of strength, Sun Jian and his group would definitely have resisted to the end.

Yuan Shu was somewhat helpless against Sun Jian and his men. He had witnessed Sun Jian's abilities and the fighting strength of his army during the campaign against Dong Zhuo. Although Sun Jian did not have many musketeers and they were not as elite as Yuan Shu's troops, the fighting strength of Sun Jian's army should not be underestimated. More importantly, according to Yuan Shu's intelligence, Sun Jian seemed to have received support from an unknown force.

His army was rapidly being equipped with matchlock muskets, and even the Shenwu cannons had appeared. The Jiangdong clans, led by Sun Jian, with Jianye as their core, controlled the area south of Poyang Lake to the mouth of the Yangtze River, and their sphere of influence had reached the area south of Kuaiji Commandery. However, despite occupying this vast area, the Jiangdong clans had not formed an effective centralized power, but rather a clan alliance, with the Sun Jian clan at its core. Yuan Shu did not take these people seriously at all. In his view, as long as he controlled Yangzhou and Yuzhou as a base, he should expand northward. As for the southern areas, he could leave them to Sun Jian and others to help him defend against the harassment of the Shanyue people.

Although the overall fighting strength of the Yue people was not strong, they had too many advantages in jungle warfare, making it difficult for the Han army to inflict fatal blows on them. Moreover, these Yue people would come down from the mountains to harass towns from time to time, and Yuan Shu did not want to delay his future in the struggle for hegemony because of these guys.

So he simply followed Jin Shang's advice and allowed Sun Jian and other Jiangdong clans to control several counties south of the river. However, Yuan Shu was not a generous man, and he would not let Sun Jian reap the benefits without sowing. Yuan Shu secretly sent a message to the Yue people, promising them a lot of benefits, so that they would strengthen their efforts to go down the mountain and harass Sun Jian and others.

Who let Yuan Shu know such earth-shattering news, such tremendous news that Yuan Shu could not extricate himself from it, that is, someone reported to Yuan Shu that Sun Jian might have the Imperial Seal of the State.