Chapter 462

However, the price was very expensive.

This was to avoid touching the sensitive nerves of the gentry families too early, while also earning money in this regard.

So, Yuan Shu naturally knew about paper and used quite a lot of it on weekdays.

"Done! I'll prepare it for you right away! Haha!"

Su Xuan smiled knowingly and beckoned to Jia San on the side.

Jia San left understandingly, and before long, brought pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and also brought Yang Hong.

After Yuan Shao wrote the letter, stamped it, handed it to Yang Hong, and told Yang Hong all about the ransom, he finally said: "Yang Hong! Next, the matter of the ransom is up to you! When we can get out of trouble depends entirely on you!"

"I hope you don't disappoint me and get things done for me as soon as possible!"

"After it's done, there will be no shortage of benefits for you!"

"Yes!"

Yang Hong happily took the order: "Lord, don't worry, I will get this done as soon as possible!"

"Hmm!"

Yuan Shu nodded with satisfaction and sent Yang Hong away.

"Brother Gonglu! Wancheng has already been taken by my people. Why don't we move to Wancheng to rest for a few days, and wait until the ransom is ready! Then we will go to Ye County to hand over?"

Su Xuan then looked at Yuan Shu and invited him.

"What? You took Wancheng so quickly? Do you have other troops besides the tens of thousands here?"

Yuan Shu's expression changed, and he said in shock.

"Hehe! Naturally!"

Su Xuan smiled and nodded: "I have no less than 120,000 troops under my command. I know Wancheng very well, and the troops you left there are not many, so it was not difficult to take it!"

In fact, counting the Xiliang troops captured and reorganized this time, he had nearly 200,000 troops.

But he felt it was better to be conservative, so as not to scare Yuan Shu and make him run to unite with other warlords to deal with him, which would be bad.

But even 120,000 was enough to scare Yuan Shu, and he said with an ugly expression: "Are all 120,000 of them of this combat power?"

"Naturally not!"

Su Xuan shook his head without hesitation: "The real elites are only 30,000 or 40,000, all cultivated in the past few years, and the rest are actually new recruits recruited more than half a year ago;"

"Brother Gonglu, you should know this very well!"

"At that time, I was only the Administrator of Nanjun and couldn't afford so many troops;"

"These were all expanded after I became the Governor of Jingzhou."

Yeah! He just hid a little bit!

The old soldiers add up to 50,000 or 60,000, and the rest are not all pure new recruits, many are reserves trained in the past.

They already have a good foundation, and after formal recruitment and half a year of training, they already have good strength.

At least, they are much stronger than these so-called elites of Yuan Shu.

"Is that so? That makes sense!"

Yuan Shu believed it, because it was very reasonable.

At the same time, he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

If there were only 40,000 or 50,000 such elites, it was barely acceptable, and he still had a chance to defeat Su Xuan in the future.

Otherwise, he would really have to give up, or unite with other warlords to eliminate Su Xuan first.

Even though he breathed a sigh of relief now, he still regarded Su Xuan as his second greatest enemy in the future.

As for the greatest enemy?

That was naturally Yuan Shao.

He knew the energy of his Yuan family too well.

Yuan Shao, who took half of the Yuan family's energy, would inevitably erupt with terrifying potential and become extremely troublesome in the future.

He wanted to become strong enough before that, so that he could compete with Yuan Shao in the future.

Originally, Yuan Shu thought that the future struggle for the world would be a civil war between him and Yuan Shao.

Other warlords were nothing more than chickens and dogs in his eyes.

At most, they could be fierce for a while, but the future would be on his side.

But this failure made him understand that Su Xuan was also a strong enemy of his.

As for Dong Zhuo?

He had never taken him seriously.

In his view, Dong Zhuo, who retreated to Guanzhong, was not far from death and had no future.

What, you say Cao Cao, Sun Jian?

Hehe! In Yuan Shu's eyes, one was just a descendant of a eunuch, and the other was just the son of a melon farmer who achieved a little success by relying on their Yuan family.

Both were beneath contempt in Yuan Shu's eyes.

Even before this time, Yuan Shu didn't think much of Su Xuan, even though Su Xuan had already become the Governor of Jingzhou, General of the Front, and Marquis of Jiangling.

"Then let's go to Wancheng first!"

Yuan Shu said to Su Xuan.

He didn't have many choices left.

Su Xuan seemed to be asking, but he also had to be sensible. If he wasn't sensible, he felt that Su Xuan wouldn't give him a good look.

"Wait! Once I get out of trouble this time, I will definitely develop well. Once I expand to hundreds of thousands or millions of troops, I will be able to crush you just by relying on numbers! Hmph!"

"By then, the humiliation you gave me today, and what you swallowed of mine, will all be returned to you double."

Yuan Shu secretly swore in his heart.

This was the foundation of his Yuan family.

It was not something that a son of a county magistrate like Su Xuan could compare to.

In the following days, Su Xuan's troops attacked everywhere and easily took down various places in Nanyang.

And concentrated Yuan Shu's officials and troops in Ye County, waiting for the transaction.

At the same time, the news of Su Xuan ambushing Yuan Shu and capturing him alive in one battle spread throughout the Great Han at a very fast speed.

Bohai, Jizhou,

"Bang!"

When Yuan Shao received this news, he had just returned to Bohai and was preparing to plot against Han Fu and Gongsun Zan to seize Jizhou.

As a result, he learned of such a shameful piece of news, and he was furious.

"Yuan Shu, that waste, why doesn't he just die?"

"He has disgraced us to the ends of the earth!"

"Not only was he captured alive himself, but tens of thousands of troops under his command were all captured, and he even went to persuade them to surrender himself. Is there anything more absurd than this?"

"2 million shi of grain, 1 million gold! How much money and grain is this?"

"Does he know how many troops this amount of money and grain can allow Su Xuan to recruit?"

"Does he know how many years it would take for our Yuan family to accumulate this?"

"Waste! Prodigal son! Waste!! Bastard!!"

Yuan Shao was so angry that he overturned the table, his eyes red, showing the anger in his heart.

Xu You, on the side, waited for Yuan Shao to vent his anger before stroking his beard and saying: "Lord! Su Xuan not only got Nanyang this time but also obtained such a large amount of money and grain. His strength will likely soar by a large margin in a short period of time. We must guard against it!"

"It is best to come up with targeted strategies to limit his development!"

"Otherwise, by the time we take Jizhou, Youzhou, Bingzhou, and other places, who knows to what extent his strength will have expanded!"

"Indeed!"

Guo Tu on the side also nodded: "This person will inevitably be our great enemy in the future!"

"However, it is a bit strange that he was willing to let Yuan Shu go this time?"

"To maximize benefits, he could have completely killed Yuan Shu and then conquered Runan and the entire Yuzhou."

Guo Tu expressed that he was a bit confused.

Yuan Shao nodded slightly, also having the same doubt...

"Hehe! Shallow!"

Xu You looked at Guo Tu with a mocking expression: "Yuan Gonglu is indeed incompetent, but he is a legitimate son of the Yuan family and inherited at least half of the Yuan family's foundation. If he were rashly killed, even if Su Xuan conquered Runan and the entire Yuzhou, he would inevitably invite the counterattack and targeting of the Yuan family's forces deeply rooted in Yuzhou;"

"By then, he would definitely not have a good time!"

"In addition, if he showed such strong aggressiveness and strength from the beginning, he would inevitably be regarded as the greatest enemy by all the warlords in the world;"