Chapter 243

"Let Yuan Shu and Sun Jian fight to the death, and we will profit as the fisherman. Lord, this strategy is brilliant."

The martial generals, upon hearing this, slapped their thighs and said.

"Use Sun Jian to consume Yuan Shu's foundation. Zhicai, Feng Xiao, this matter will be handled by the two of you, and the Dark Owls will fully support you."

"Of course, once Yuan Shu shows signs of defeat, we will immediately send troops."

"But for now, let's take Wu Jun first; as for Jiujiang, let's wait for a while."

"As for Xuzhou, it's time to visit Inspector Tao."

Originally, Su Fan, Xi Zhicai, and the others planned to take the six commanderies of Yangzhou; Su Fan actually did not care that Yuzhang was taken by Sun Jian.

Sun Jian was a fierce tiger and a famous general himself; his ability to lead troops in battle was quite strong, and among the many warlords in the crusade against Dong, he was among the top.

However, Sun Jian's foundation was too poor. Although he occupied two commanderies, these two commanderies were both vast and sparsely populated. Adding the two commanderies together, the population was probably only a few million.

The south was undeveloped, and being able to have so many people was also due to refugees fleeing from the north during these years of chaotic times; otherwise, the population would probably be even smaller.

In addition, although Sun Jian obtained Yuzhang Commandery, the time was too short, and Yuzhang Commandery could not provide too many resources to Sun Jian.

Sun Jian's army of five hundred thousand mostly came from Changsha Commandery, and the supplies also mostly came from Changsha Commandery. He would need at least a few years to truly control Yuzhang Commandery.

So Su Fan did not care about Sun Jian; even if his army of five hundred thousand were all elites comparable to the Imperial Guard, they would not pose much of a threat to Su Fan.

After all, in terms of the elite nature of the army, Su Fan's army was even more powerful.

The strong armies of the world were divided into several grades. The strongest should be the battle-hardened veterans; these were like those border troops who often fought against the grassland barbarians.

This kind of army, which had been trained for several years and then experienced more than a dozen major battles, was the most powerful, such as the former Imperial Guard.

Now, the Imperial Guard of the Imperial Court was a few grades worse.

Secondly, there were the elites of the various warlords; the soldiers they recruited, after half a year of training, were then pulled to the battlefield and experienced three to five battles, and those who survived were the elites.

The weakest were the newly enlisted armies, just young and strong men who had not undergone training. This kind of army was actually the mainstream of the world.

After all, in the chaotic wars of the warlords, elite soldiers would only become fewer and fewer, while the recruited young and strong men came in batch after batch.

Once these young and strong men were gone, they would immediately decline.

Sun Jian's army of five hundred thousand only had a few tens of thousands that could be considered elite. As for battle-hardened veterans, there were not many. Firstly, the training was insufficient, and secondly, how could the battles compare to the border troops?

Of course, tens of thousands of elites were already quite good; after all, most warlords could have ten thousand elites, which was already very powerful.

The rest of Sun Jian's men were young and strong. Once these five hundred thousand young and strong men were gone, it would be very difficult for him to recruit again.

Four or five hundred thousand young and strong men represented four or five hundred thousand households. Changsha and Yuzhang together did not even have a million households.

Could he recruit all these civilian households into the army?

Impossible.

Without the young and strong, where would the grain in the fields come from?

Taking one out of ten was already considered exhausting the people and the military, let alone taking one out of five or even less.

Su Fan could do one out of ten because of his powerful productivity. Other warlords could not do it; once they did it for two or three years, they would receive a backlash.

Sun Jian did not have that foundation, but Yuan Shu was different. Thousands of years of accumulation and the family's foundation could allow Yuan Shu to consume for ten years.

So Su Fan did not care about Sun Jian, but he was very wary of Yuan Shu.

Because Sun Jian could not afford to lose; if he lost once, he would be doomed forever, while Yuan Shu was different—he had this confidence.

Su Fan needed to use Sun Jian to consume Yuan Shu; this was the plan he thought of the first moment he learned that Yuan Shu and Sun Jian had turned against each other.

So for this reason, he did not hesitate to change some of his previous plans.

Of course, half of Yangzhou was now in Yuan Shu's hands, and the power of the Yuan clan meant that the prefects of the six commanderies of Yangzhou leaned towards Yuan Shu at the first opportunity; there was no need to conquer them at all.

This was the terrifying thing about the Yuan clan.

Their students and former officials were all over the world.

But fortunately, in Xuzhou, the power of the Yuan clan was not strong, and his previous agreement with Tao Qian made it quite easy for him to take Xuzhou.

Donghai and Guangling of Xuzhou were already under his control, Xiapi had Tao Qian, Langya did not have much power, and it was only Pengcheng that required his army to be sent out.

As for Yan Baihu of Wu Jun, a local tiger—the news from the Dark Owls said that he had an army of three hundred thousand under his command.

Of these three hundred thousand troops, two hundred and fifty thousand were newly recruited in the last two years, mostly new recruits, and their combat power was at most just a little stronger than the ordinary Yellow Turban Army.

And the real elites were about ten or twenty thousand, also trained over these years of confronting the mountain barbarian tribes.

The generals asked to fight, and he considered who should be the main general.

Watching the generals rubbing their hands and looking eager, he seemed a bit troubled—troubled that there were too many martial generals under his command and he could not choose.

After considering for a while, Su Fan said sternly: "General Taishi, the crusade against Wu Jun will be led by you as the main general, with General Gan, Colonel Zhou, and Colonel Jiang as deputy generals."

"General Taishi, I will give you an army of one hundred thousand. Can you take Wu Jun in one fell swoop?"

"Lord, rest assured. If I cannot take Wu Jun with an army of one hundred thousand, I am willing to offer my head."

Upon hearing that Su Fan made him the main general, Taishi Ci was immediately excited and issued a military order directly.

"Haha! General Taishi, that is too serious. I want you to return alive. Even if Wu Jun is not taken, I do not want you to have any accidents."

Su Fan knew very well that with Taishi Ci's ability, taking the small Wu Jun was no problem, especially since he gave the other party an army of one hundred thousand.

You must know that his Donghai Territory's army might have less combat experience than some border troops, but the amount of training far exceeded this world.

They were absolutely elite combat soldiers. Besides, the Donghai Territory did not fight much with warlords, but they hunted quite a few mountain bandits, robbers, and even demon beasts in the surrounding areas.

This could also be considered a different kind of combat experience; at least they had all seen blood.

Coupled with the advantage of equipment, even if they encountered elite border troops, there would absolutely be no problem.

In the great battle of Henei, when fighting against the elite infantry of Xiliang, the Donghai Territory's army did not fall behind; instead, relying on equipment, they could often achieve a combat loss ratio of one to three or one to five.

Could Yan Baihu of Wu Jun be compared to the Xiliang elites?

Because only troops were sent to Wu Jun, Su Fan set the main general, and the generals and commanders who did not get the opportunity were all a bit disappointed.

Of course, it was only a bit disappointed, because they knew that their lord's ambition was to sweep across the world, and future great battles would be indispensable.

What they needed to do most now was to seize the time, train hard, and strengthen the fit between themselves and the army under their command.