Chapter 255: Potential

Having persuaded Zhang Zhongjing, and with the former also promising to help Su Fan invite some Taoist Sect practitioners skilled in medicine to go to Donghai Ling, this trip of Su Fan's was well worth it.

And just on this second day, news came from the Dark Owl side that Taishi Ci, who had led troops to Wu Jun, had already beheaded Yan Baihu, and Wu Jun had been taken.

This could be called a double blessing.

Su Fan was still very happy.

Before the campaign against Wu Jun, everyone had already determined it, but being able to take it so easily now was still very good.

According to the Dark Owl's news, Taishi Ci, leading a group of military officers, had conquered cities and seized territory in less than two short months; Wu Jun had no power to resist at all and was flattened by Taishi Ci.

In several major battles, they did not lose many troops, and the number of wounded soldiers was less than six thousand.

This refers to casualties, not deaths.

Su Fan's Donghai Ling did not have many physicians, and that was because most of the physicians had been pulled into the army.

It can be said that every battalion was equipped with a considerable number of military doctors, so among these six thousand wounded soldiers, I am afraid that two-thirds will be able to survive.

As for whether they can continue to develop in the army, it depends on whether their injuries are severe or not, but even if they retire.

Su Fan had already made arrangements early on.

These retired soldiers almost all became village heads or village elders in the communities, and some acted as militia officers within the villages to train the militia.

Moreover, another benefit of doing this was that with these people controlling the villages, Su Fan's control over the local areas became even tighter.

Previously, imperial power did not reach the countryside, but it was different in Donghai Ling.

As for the soldiers who retired from the army, even if they retired, their support for Su Fan went without saying; it was almost impossible for powerful local clans to win them over.

This battle of Taishi Ci was also quite brilliant.

Taking Wu Jun meant that Su Fan once again had a place to develop, especially since Wu Jun had no major clans; he could continue to develop and build strength according to the guidelines of Donghai Ling.

Unfortunately, the key was still the population.

Su Fan also began to covet Yuzhou.

Although Yuzhou's territory was not as large as Xuzhou or Yangzhou, almost half of the essence of Zhongyuan was here.

The population here was dense; in Runan Commandery alone, during the reign of Emperor Ling, official statistics showed a full four million households, nearly thirty million people.

This was only the official statistic; if one added those hidden by the major aristocratic families, as well as some hidden households outside the cities, I am afraid it was no less than forty million people.

Even after experiencing the Yellow Turbans rebellion, and now that the population had greatly flowed away, according to Su Fan's estimation, Runan Commandery currently still had at least over twenty million people.

And the entire Yuzhou should have nearly fifty million people.

If all these people became his subjects, then his strength would increase explosively.

Among the other warlords in the world, when it came to the ability to convert population dividends into strength, he was second to none.

No one could rival him.

The more people there were, the stronger he would become, and if he were to mass-produce troops, his mobilization power would be even more terrifying.

Other warlords, perhaps when they mass-produced troops, what they produced were just miscellaneous soldiers, perhaps just a tiny bit stronger than Auxiliary Soldiers.

But he was different.

The population of Yuzhou made him covet it; Xuzhou was slightly worse, and according to his estimation, the population of Xuzhou, including those hidden by major clans, was probably less than twenty million.

Although Xuzhou itself was wealthy, its population was not large, and coupled with being ravaged by the Yellow Turbans, the population was even smaller.

Added to the fact that he had been absorbing them all these years, excluding Donghai Commandery, the population of the other commanderies in Xuzhou added together was probably at most a few million more than Donghai Commandery.

The Donghai Commandery here naturally included Donghai Ling.

Donghai Ling had ten million people, and Donghai Commandery also had about two or three million; this was also thanks to the development of Donghai Ling and its prosperous commerce, as most wealthy merchant families had migrated to Donghai Commandery.

Otherwise, for the initial Donghai Commandery, having a population of one million would have already been quite good.

However, most of Yuzhou was still in the hands of Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu was still ostensibly the number one warlord in the south or, one could say, in Zhongyuan.

Fighting a major war with him, for Su Fan, did not have much benefit.

After all, Yuan Shu was not so easily dealt with; Yuan Shu was not Yan Baihu, a mere weakling with not even two or three military officers.

Yuan Shu did not have any top-tier military officers under his command; Ji Ling could not even be ranked in the top twenty in the late Three Kingdoms period.

But truthfully, Su Fan had seen Yuan Shu's army; the army commanded by Ji Ling in Hefei was not Yuan Shu's elite.

But those officers in the army were quite good; at least in Su Fan's view, for the same mid-level officers, Sun Jian was not necessarily stronger than Yuan Shu's.

This was also the strength of the Yuan Clan's foundation; perhaps he could not find some top-tier military officers, but the attractiveness of those mid-level officers, relying on a powerful background, was quite large.

Most of these people came from humble backgrounds, their foresight was not high, and in their eyes, the Yuan Clan was a high-ranking family; being able to defect to the Yuan Clan was absolutely their own good fortune.

The detachment in Hefei was like this, and Yuan Shu's main force must be even stronger.

No matter how bad the historical evaluation of Yuan Shu was, and even if later internet users said he was completely brain-dead.

But Su Fan would not use these to perceive Yuan Shu.

If he really thought of Yuan Shu this way, then he would be the brain-dead one.

As a direct descendant of the Yuan Clan, Yuan Shu had been trained as an elite since childhood; the fact that even most of the clan elders in the Yuan Clan recognized him, rather than Yuan Shao, showed that he had ability.

If he had really relied only on his status as a direct descendant to suppress Yuan Shao, it would have been impossible.

Without a superior quality, wanting to gain a foothold was really a joke.

The aristocratic families had existed for thousands of years and had their own channels for promotion; the capable rise and the mediocre fall, this was an inevitable result.

If one were truly a mediocre person, who would dare to let him rise to the top?

Fighting Yuan Shu head-on, Su Fan was confident that he could finish him off, but he would inevitably suffer losses, and the losses would definitely not be small.

Su Fan could bear these, but I am afraid that in the future, the surrounding warlords would all be wary of him, and might even join forces to blockade him.

At that time, his development would inevitably be restrained and would slow down, which was something Su Fan could not tolerate.

He could accept Yuan Shu expanding his power, but he could not accept his own development changing, because if it were purely about development, he was confident that no one in the world could compare to him.

How many years had it been since Donghai Ling developed to this day? From construction until now, it had not even been ten years.

Give it another ten years, and he believed that the strength of Donghai Ling would exceed the current level by several times.

How could Yuan Shu possibly compare to him? At the very least, in this regard, he could say that everyone present was his junior.

Therefore, he could not disrupt his own plan.