Chapter 553

"Oh?"

Sun Ce's expression looked much better upon hearing this, and he really wanted to ask clearly right now.

But considering that his mother and the others could fall into the hands of Su Xuan's army at any time, he couldn't calm down to listen to Zhou Yu's detailed explanation for the moment.

He immediately said to Zhou Yu: "Since you already have ideas, Gongjin, that's good!"

"Now is not the time to talk about this. You keep it in mind. After we escape this danger, you can tell me in detail, and we will carefully plan how to counterattack Su Xuan!"

"For now, I will go one step ahead to Jiujiang to save my mother and the others!"

"Good!"

Zhou Yu naturally had no objections and nodded in agreement.

"Hahaha! Then it's settled! Giddy up! Personal Guard Battalion, accelerate and follow me!"

As he spoke, Sun Ce laughed loudly, immediately called upon the 3,000 soldiers of the Personal Guard Battalion, formed a military formation, and accelerated toward Jiujiang Commandery.

Afterward, Zhou Yu urgently withdrew all the troops and personnel they had left in various cities in Lujiang and then also hurried toward Jiujiang Commandery.

In Jiujiang Commandery, Hefei City,

"Zilong! Are we really not going to take the opportunity to take Liyang City as well?"

"According to the Dark Guards' intelligence, Sun Ce's family members are all in Liyang City, right?"

"Taking them should earn us quite a bit of merit, right?"

Xia Houlan asked Zhao Yun with a puzzled look.

"No!"

Zhao Yun shook his head helplessly upon hearing this: "Indeed, Sun Ce's family members are in Liyang City, but if we take Liyang City and capture Sun Ce's family members, not only will we not gain merit, but we will also be punished by the Lord."

"Eh?"

Xia Houlan was stunned upon hearing this and asked with a puzzled look: "Why?"

He couldn't understand it at all!

This is completely illogical!

"Hehe!"

Zhao Yun smiled slightly: "Because your rank is not high enough, so you don't understand that there are schemes from the Lord and the military advisors in this!"

"They just want to preserve the majority of Sun Ce's strength and drive him to Jiangdong to contend with Liu Biao;"

"If we take Sun Ce's family, he will definitely fight us to the death;"

"We are naturally not afraid, and could even easily eliminate him;"

"But after that, we would have to deal with Jiangdong ourselves!"

"Some things are better left for others to do, such as those clans and powerful families in Jiangdong!"

"Compared to other places, the power of the clans and powerful families in Jiangdong is more complex and difficult to handle. Didn't Sun Jian die under the secret schemes of those Jiangdong clans before?"

"These people are ruthless; letting Sun Ce go and step on the mines is the best choice;"

"Anyway, we cannot expand too much territory for the time being, and we are not afraid of Sun Ce growing stronger because of this. Letting him go to Jiangdong only has benefits, no harm."

Following Su Xuan all these years, he had also learned a lot.

Whether it was the academy or the military academy, he often went to attend classes. Having learned more, he naturally understood more and was no longer as stubborn as he used to be.

Flexibility is sometimes very important.

"Hiss!"

Xia Houlan gasped upon hearing this: "Is it actually like this? As expected of the Lord and the military advisors! I didn't expect them to have calculated so far ahead!"

"Then hasn't Sun Ce long been calculated to death by the Lord and the others, becoming a chess piece of the Lord without even knowing it?"

"I suddenly feel this guy is a bit pitiful!"

If it were him in Sun Ce's shoes, he would probably want to die, right?

Sure enough, choosing to be loyal to the Lord was the most correct choice he had ever made in his life.

"Hahaha!"

Zhao Yun also smiled: "Pitiful people must have hateful aspects; you don't need to sympathize with him at all."

"If they hadn't been greedy for the Imperial Jade Seal in the first place, they wouldn't have ended up in this state today!"

"If Sun Ce had chosen to serve the Lord after Sun Jian died, he wouldn't have ended up in this state today either!"

"In the end, everything is just Sun Ce's own choice!"

"From the moment he chose to feign submission to Yuan Shu, wanting to borrow a chicken to lay eggs and realize his ambition of becoming a king, his future fate was already doomed!"

People! One must always be responsible for one's own choices.

Admittedly, the Lord actually didn't want Sun Ce to defect to him; this didn't fit his plan.

But if Sun Ce had really chosen to sincerely defect to Su Xuan, would Su Xuan have refused?

That is definitely impossible!

Regardless of anything else, Sun Ce's martial arts talent is not inferior to the likes of Taishi Ci.

After cultivating properly for a few years, he could definitely become a Heaven-Man Divine General.

In addition, if Sun Ce defected, Zhou Yu probably wouldn't be able to run away either.

Even Sun Quan is not bad in terms of power scheming; being a commandery administrator or even a provincial inspector is not a problem.

Oh! And the waist-bow beauty Sun Shangxiang.

"That is true!"

Xia Houlan nodded in agreement: "This can only be blamed on Sun Ce himself. If we hadn't defected to the Lord, we wouldn't have had today's glory;"

"The Lord is a wise and virtuous master. Not to mention anything else, just the point of appointing people on their merits, promoting only those with talent, not looking at birth, but only at ability and merit, is far beyond what other warlords can compare to;"

"Otherwise, for people of our background, wanting to truly get ahead? It's too hard, too hard!"

On this point, Xia Houlan had deep personal experience in the past.

In this era, background is too important.

Not every warlord is Su Xuan.

"Yes!"

Zhao Yun also felt emotional upon hearing this and couldn't help but recall: "I still remember when the Lord first saw me, he looked at me differently. Not only did he cure my eldest brother, but he also sincerely recruited me and valued me;"

"Such kindness of knowing and meeting, I can never repay in this life or the next!"

"Not to mention the full-force cultivation afterward!"

"I already owe the Lord too much! I can only serve the Lord to the death for the rest of my life to repay his kindness!"

It's still not enough to pay it back.

"How could I be any different?"