Chapter 395

“Of course, we can’t go too far! We can’t completely clear out the ailments of Jiangdong for the King of Zou Qian in advance and win the hearts of the people for ourselves. Otherwise, not only will we be unable to get greater benefits, but it might even be counterproductive and arouse the King of Zou Qian’s suspicion!”

After all, a former master of Jiangdong who has won the hearts of the people, even if he surrenders to the King of Zou Qian, is a potential hidden danger to the King of Zou Qian.

Perhaps the King of Zou Qian is broad-minded and doesn’t care himself, but what about the civil and military officials under him?

Can they also not care?

Many times, it doesn’t matter what the lord thinks; what matters is what the people under him think and want to share the lord’s worries.

“This is really a bit troublesome!”

Sun Ce also felt that this matter was not simple.

If you don’t grasp it well, good things can become bad things.

“In this case, I’m afraid you have to be in control of this matter, and I will be your blade to execute it, how about that?”

“You are more careful and stable, you should be able to grasp this degree!”

Sun Ce proposed.

He knew his personality very well; many times he was too reckless and impulsive, and it was easy to get too hot-blooded.

So he was not suitable for this kind of controlling degree.

“That’s fine!”

Zhou Yu didn’t refuse and nodded with a smile: “Then I will be in charge of it!”

“In addition, do you think we need to send someone to meet the King of Zou Qian in advance to express our thoughts?”

He himself was also hesitant about this matter.

Doing so had both advantages and disadvantages, and it could only be decided by Sun Ce, the lord.

“Hmm...”

Sun Ce stroked his beard and pondered: “Let’s not talk about it for now! Let’s send an envoy to explain the situation after we completely defeat Liu Biao!”

“I hope that by then, you, Zhou Gongjin, will personally act as this envoy to persuade the King of Zou Qian to set a three-round bet with me, okay?”

He didn’t trust anyone else, fearing they wouldn’t handle it well.

“Good!”

Zhou Yu agreed.

He himself also wanted to take this opportunity to see the King of Zou Qian and understand up close what kind of person Su Xuan was.

In this way, if there was anything different from what he imagined, he could adjust their plan in time, right?

In the King of Zou Qian’s mansion in Xiangyang City,

Su Xuan received the latest intelligence from the Jiangdong Dark Guard that day and saw the conversation between Sun Ce and Zhou Yu.

“Tsk tsk!”

After reading it, Su Xuan couldn’t help but smack his lips: “I didn’t expect the debut of the ironclad fleet to achieve such an unexpected joy. It really surprised me!”

“Hmm?”

Tian Feng and Xi Zhicai on the side were confused: “Unexpected joy? My lord, what happened in Jiangdong?”

“Here! Take a look! You’ll understand after reading it! It’s a good thing!”

Su Xuan handed the intelligence in his hand to Tian Feng and the others to read.

“Whoa...”

After reading it, they couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

“This Sun Ce and Zhou Yu are quite interesting! This time they actually saw the situation so clearly and made the right choice so easily. This is completely different from the impulsive Little Conqueror Sun Ce I knew before!”

“However, my lord, this is indeed a great thing;”

“In this way, we can take Jiangdong without a fight and harvest a relatively clean state with less difficulty in reform!”

Xi Zhicai couldn’t help but sigh and evaluate.

“Indeed!”

Tian Feng also nodded: “I have some understanding of how deeply rooted the scholar clans and powerful families and the Zongzei forces are in Jiangdong. Even Sun Sun Jian died in their conspiracy. If Sun Ce can clear out a batch of scum in advance, it will indeed be of great help to our implementation of the New Policies after we take Jiangdong in the future!”

“My lord, I think if Sun Ce and Zhou Yu really do this and surrender, we can give them a great merit and give them more merit points.”

“Agreed!”

At this time, Xun You also nodded: “In addition, it can be seen from these conversations that Zhou Yu is indeed extraordinary in talent, not losing to us at all. After he surrenders, I think he can be focused on and reused;”

“This person can be considered a true civil and military talent!”

“Able to be a general and commander on horseback and ship, and able to be a capable minister with a pen off the horse, rare in the world.”

Such a great talent, they almost missed it completely.

Fortunately, Sun Ce turned back in time, and finally did not waste such a great talent together.

“Hmm!”

Su Xuan nodded with a smile: “Even if Gongda didn’t say it, I would reuse and focus on cultivating Zhou Yu by then!”

“This person’s talent is no less than Kongming’s, and he is even stronger than Kongming in commanding troops!”

Zhuge Liang’s performance in the academy over the years has been excellent, and his talent has gradually begun to show.

Kongming’s performance in government affairs, strategy, military, etc., is all quite good.

He is also an all-rounder.

However, he has not personally trained troops, let alone led troops into battle.

Therefore, he is certainly not as good as Zhou Yu in commanding troops for the time being.

As for whether he can surpass Zhou Yu in this regard in the future, it is unclear.

Mainly, Su Xuan’s positioning for him is not a military general, but more of a capable minister and strategist.

There is no shortage of military generals under Su Xuan, so there is no need to waste Zhuge Liang’s talent and time.

“Kongming?”

Hearing Su Xuan mention Zhuge Liang, Xun You couldn’t help but smile: “Uncle and Cai Gong and the others all like Kongming and Shiyuan very much, especially Kongming, whose talent is too good! His character and conduct are also excellent, and they have regarded him as a personal disciple, basically teaching him everything they have!”

It’s also true; it would be strange if they didn’t teach everything they had to such a genius.

In the future, when Kongming becomes successful and famous, these teachers will also have face!

Good teachers are hard to find, and good students are equally hard to find!

Taking Jiaozhou,

“Boom boom boom!!”

The First Navy spent several days crossing the ocean to reach the southern coast of Taking Jiaozhou.

Then, with lightning speed, they directly launched an attack on the ports and cities on the Taking Jiaozhou coast.

At first, they directly used artillery to bombard.

It caught Shi Xie off guard.

By the time they reacted and wanted to gather troops to drive the First Navy into the sea and defeat them, it was already too late.

At this time, the coastal areas had already fallen and were completely taken by the First Navy.

“Father, the enemy is fierce, what should we do?”

Shi Xie’s son asked his father anxiously.

“Don’t lose your footing!”

Shi Xie frowned and scolded: “First hold the city pass, and then gather troops from all over to encircle and suppress this group of enemy troops!”

“In addition, have you figured out what means they used to capture our coastal ports, cities, and fortifications?”

Shi Xie’s son shook his head: “It’s not clear, it seems to be a special crossbow or catapult, but the power and speed are far beyond catapults;”

“Also, the combat effectiveness of the enemy soldiers is too strong; they seem to be all martial artists.”

“The lowest cultivation is at the middle stage of Mingjin.”

“What?”

Shi Xie’s expression changed drastically: “All martial artists? How is this possible? Who has such a big hand? By the way! Still don’t know whose army this group of thieves is? Have you investigated clearly?”

Shi Xie’s son nodded: “Basically investigated clearly, it seems to be the navy of the King of Zou Qian, Su Xuan, from Jingzhou, and the designation is the First Navy!”

“They seem to have come from the sea, which is perhaps why they were named the navy!”

“I didn’t expect Su Xuan to be so quiet and actually come up with such a big move, forming such a terrifying navy;”

“He clearly has been planning to attack our Taking Jiaozhou for a long time! Simply hateful!”

— Author's Notes —

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