Chapter 359

Zhao Yun said with a light smile.

"That is indeed true!"

Huang Zu nodded affirmatively: "After all, it is quite difficult to strike without crushing an ant!"

"We can only blame ourselves for being too strong! Haha!"

He felt very fortunate that he had honestly defected to Su Xuan and acknowledged Su Xuan as his master.

Otherwise, how could he have today's status and power?

In fact, status and power were not that important under Su Xuan; the good things in the Merit Pavilion were what truly mattered!

Look at him?

In his first thirty years, he had only cultivated to the mid-stage of the Transformation Realm, which was almost the limit of his life.

But after joining Su Xuan's ranks?

In less than a year, with the help of a large amount of high-level resources, he had broken through his limits to become a fierce general at the peak of the Transformation Realm, and he was not far from the Dan-Strength super-first-class level.

Not only him, but his son, who had mediocre aptitude, also had the opportunity to become a fierce general no less capable than him in the future.

This was the key!

"Haha!"

Xia Xia Houlan, who was on the side, also smiled and said: "Indeed! If the opponent is too weak, it requires extremely superb skill to hold back!"

"I only hope that this Sun Ce can stir up more bloody storms in Jiangdong and wreak more havoc on the local noble clans, powerful families, and mountain bandits there!"

"In that way, it will be much easier for our lord to govern Jiangdong after we take it."

They also knew a little about Su Xuan's thoughts.

Nothing else, they just greatly admired Su Xuan's ideals.

"Alright!"

Zhao Yun interrupted their conversation at this moment and said: "Since Sun Ce and his men have honestly left Jiujiang, we should also continue our operations and bring the entire Jiujiang under our control!"

"In addition, we must deploy defenses in Dantu, Zhongli, Jianyang, and other places to guard against a possible invasion by Tao Zou Qian."

Although this possibility was not high for the time being, it was still very necessary to take precautions.

What if Tao Zou Qian became senile and really did it?

As generals, they naturally had to consider all possibilities and guard the territory well for their lord.

According to Su Xuan's arrangements, the Azure Dragon Army would be stationed in the Jiujiang area for the next few years.

The Jiangxia Navy would also be divided into two this time; Huang Zu would most likely be transferred to Jiujiang to form the Jiujiang Navy, patrolling the defenses of the Jiujiang and Lujiang waters to ensure the safety of the waterway lines of the two commanderies.

"Understood!"

Huang Zu and Xia Xia Houlan immediately accepted the order and began to take action.

Among them, Jianyang, which was adjacent to the Yangtze River, was handed over to Huang Zu.

And Zhongli was handed over to Xia Xia Houlan.

For this, Zhao Yun assigned him 5, 00 Azure Dragon troops.

As for Zhao Yun himself, in addition to sending main forces to garrison the Jiujiang capital of Shouchun, he also sent thousands of troops to garrison Dantu and Quyang respectively, quickly turning the Jiujiang border into an impenetrable fortress.

Afterwards, he began to cooperate with officials to carry out purges and implement reforms within Jiujiang Commandery, and to clear out mountain bandits and outlaws.

After Su Xuan took Lujiang and Jiujiang, Cao Cao, who had personally led his army to the northern border of Yuzhou and was in a standoff with Lord Yuan Shu's army, also received the news.

"Su Boyuan's speed is truly fast!"

"It seems his troops have become stronger again?"

"This is truly a headache; I don't even know how to deal with him in the future!"

Cao Cao rubbed his brow with some distress.

Zhong Yao, who was on the side, heard this and said: "My lord! Now is not the time to consider these things; taking Yuzhou, destroying Lord Yuan Shu, and strengthening our own power is the key!"

"Besides, the King of Zou Qian is indeed very strong, but because of his new policies, he has offended the vast noble clans and even powerful families of the world, which is equivalent to offending everyone under heaven. For such a feudal king to still want to unify the world? Isn't that a dream?"

In Zhong Yao's view, Su Xuan was completely courting death.

As a leader of the current generation of the Zhong clan, a great clan of Yingchuan, Zhong Yao naturally stood on the side of the noble clans.

Therefore, he was very hostile and even hateful toward Su Xuan, so he naturally wouldn't say anything good about him.

Cao Cao heard this, glanced at Zhong Yao, and nodded noncommittally on the surface: "Perhaps! I hope what you say is correct!"

But inwardly, Cao Cao felt great disgust toward Zhong Yao: "Noble clans! Noble clans! Does your heart, Zhong Yao, only contain the noble clans?"

"Where do you place me, your lord?"

"In your eyes, do the noble clans stand above me, your lord?"

"Then what do I need you for?"

"If I really took the world using people like you, would this world still belong to you noble clans? Would I still have to be controlled by you?"

At this moment, Cao Cao finally deeply realized why Su Xuan wanted to implement new policies to limit the disorderly development of the noble clans.

This all had a source.

Even the fact that the Great Han was reaching its end was mainly the result of these noble clans expanding excessively.

At the same time, Cao Cao also recalled his experiences when he served as the Chancellor of Jinan in the Jinan Kingdom.

Indeed, these noble clans and powerful families should be dealt with properly.

Of course, he had actually realized this point before and had already been carrying out small-scale reforms in his own territory, attempting to suppress the local noble clans and powerful families.

Although this was not purely because the noble clans were too powerful and were elbowing him.

It was also related to the fact that the noble clans led by Zhang Miao had begun to have disagreements with him.

But he had indeed begun to do so; the famous scholar Bian Rang was killed by him under these circumstances.

This also became a turning point in the relationship between Cao Cao and the Yanzhou noble clans, which began to fracture.

It was just that the Yanzhou noble clans were temporarily enduring it for now, and Cao Cao also thought that by killing the chicken to warn the monkey, he had temporarily suppressed the noble clans of Yanzhou.

"Yuanchang, what you said is very correct! The top priority is still to take Yuzhou and strengthen our power first!"

On the surface, Cao Cao still nodded affirmatively to Zhong Yao, and then continued to lead his army to engage in battle with Lord Yuan Shu's army.

The combat effectiveness of Cao Cao's troops was clearly a cut above Lord Yuan Shu's side.

Moreover, Cao Cao had far more and stronger fierce generals than Lord Yuan Shu, and with the help of the three Liu, Guan, and Zhang brothers this time, the war went even more smoothly.

Advancing like a hot knife through butter, in just over a month, Lord Yuan Shu had successively lost Pei State, Yingchuan, Huaiyang Commandery, etc., and was besieged by Cao Cao's army of over 100, 00 in Runan City.

And in this process, Lord Yuan Shu's destiny was also quietly being swallowed in large quantities by Su Xuan's Golden Dragon of Destiny, presenting a scene of being on the verge of reaching a dead end.

Under such circumstances, time arrived at the end of 191 AD and the beginning of 192 AD.

On this day, in the Military Sima family mansion in Wenxian, Henei,

It was bustling with activity, with people coming and going.

A large number of Military Sima family descendants and relatives arrived at the Military Sima mansion in Wenxian to participate in this year's year-end grand sacrifice.

These were all seen in the eyes of the secret guards sent by Jia Nineteen.

"Is everything arranged properly?"

That evening, when the Military Sima family's dinner was about to begin, Jia Nineteen stood in a high building hundreds of meters away from the Military Sima mansion, checking the situation in the Military Sima mansion through beast-taming while asking the secret guards beside him.

"Reporting to the Commander! Everything is arranged!"

The secret guard replied hurriedly: "Three Smiles Carefree Powder has been put into all the food and drink. We poisoned the water source directly, so there will definitely be no problems!"

It was said that this Three Smiles Carefree Powder was personally developed by the lord himself.

The medicinal effect could lie dormant for four hours before taking effect, and it was colorless and odorless, making it almost impossible to detect by any means.

"That's good!"

Jia Nineteen nodded with satisfaction: "Then let the brothers below wait patiently! Once the medicine takes effect, that will be the moment for us to act!"

"By the way! When will the White Wave bandits arrive?"

This time, Jia Nineteen was not really prepared to do everything himself.

Otherwise, it would be easy to leave traces that would make people suspicious.

Even the poison was actually just a final backup.

Many people of the Military Sima family might not even wait for the poison to take effect before being hacked to death by the White Wave bandits.

To mobilize the White Wave bandits, Jia Nineteen had used personnel lurking within the White Wave bandits, inciting them early on to take advantage of this rare opportunity to come to Wenxian and plunder the Military Sima family.

After all, who knows how rich a family like the Military Sima family, which had been passed down for hundreds or even thousands of years, was?

— Author's Notes —

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