Chapter 262

The great battle between Sun Jian and Yuan Shu, the first to fail was indeed Sun Jian.

His foundation was still too poor, and he did not have much territory himself, especially the lack of grain and grass. Fighting Yuan Shu for more than two years, the consumption of grain and grass was a massive number.

Regarding Sun Jian sending a messenger to invite him to send troops together to deal with Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu was powerful; if it were someone else, they might agree.

After all, Xuzhou was close to Yangzhou and Yu Province, and it was a place of four battles. If the lips were gone, the teeth would be cold. If Sun Jian were exterminated, then Xuzhou would probably be difficult to block Yuan Shu's attack.

However, Su Fan was different. His strength was actually above Yuan Shu's, but for the time being, no one knew.

With this confidence, Su Fan did not care who was the final winner.

Although he joined forces with Sun Jian now, he might be able to kill Yuan Shu, but he would still have to take action against Sun Jian at that time. If he could not do it in time, it would instead make Sun Jian grow bigger.

It was better to watch the two of them die together and both be injured.

Even if one person won in the end, he could take action immediately.

So sending troops, Su Fan was naturally impossible.

But Su Fan needed Sun Jian to consume Yuan Shu's strength as much as possible, so supporting Sun Jian was still very necessary.

Su Fan did not go to see Sun Jian's messenger. Even if the other party was Zhuge Jin, the elder brother of Wuhou, it was not important to Su Fan.

First of all, the other party defected to Sun Jian, and it was difficult to defect to him now.

Secondly, there were not a few civil officials under his command. As he took Xuzhou, his reputation increased again, and naturally, another large batch of talent was accounted for.

Zhuge Jin's ability was very strong, both civil and military. In terms of internal affairs, he belonged to the top tier, and in terms of military affairs, he was not bad either.

But that also required him to be tempered for more than ten years before he could reach his peak.

At the moment, he was naturally much worse than Xun Yu and the others.

Soon the fourth year of Chuping passed like this. For a whole year, except for a few places in the world, most of them were in war.

The common people were displaced, which was cheap for Su Fan. A part of the Dark Owls sent by Su Fan specialized in propaganda everywhere, so the refugees who poured into Donghai Commandery this year were two or three million.

Of course, this number was very different from the refugees who had no land due to the war in the world.

Once the war started, some cities were smashed, especially those warlord armies in the local area, which had no military discipline. Every time they went to a place, the most unlucky ones were these common people.

Those armies were like locusts. Because of the war, there were tens of millions of displaced people, or even more.

Su Fan also tried his best to collect them, but the long journey was also very dangerous, and Su Fan had no way.

He could only try his best.

Of course, he took Xuzhou, and the entire Xuzhou also quickly entered into peace. There might still be bullies in the local area, but at least there was no war, and the common people at the bottom did not need to be displaced and could still live.

Moreover, the Donghai Ling's army began to station in various commanderies and places, began to sweep away the mountain bandits and outlaws in the surrounding area, and in just a few months, the entire Xuzhou was instantly cleared.

Trade also became more prosperous.

After all, mountain bandits and outlaws liked to rob those horse caravans and merchant caravans. Without these mountain bandits and outlaws, the merchant caravans were naturally more enthusiastic, and more merchant caravans entered Xuzhou.

Even many families changed their perception of Su Fan by a few points. At least for Xuzhou and for the families, this was also a good thing.

Don't look at the low status of merchants, but families were also engaged in commerce. The original Mi family was a top-tier commercial family.

The commercial base built by Su Fan in Donghai Commandery raised the commerce of Xuzhou by several levels, especially the products produced by Donghai Commandery, which were extremely welcomed in all parts of Shenhan.

The Mi family relied on the Donghai Ling and earned a lot of money. The Mi family, which originally had the lowest commercial family among the four major commercial families, was now almost sitting second and looking at the first.

It had only been a few years.

The role of a model was very strong. The families of Donghai Commandery saw that the Mi family was getting stronger and stronger, so they also changed their thinking.

They began to approach Su Fan, so in Donghai Commandery, Su Fan's any actions were not blocked by those families.

Even if they collected a lot of their land and let them take out a lot of black households, these families did not oppose it.

Because Su Fan gave too much.

After commerce developed, they discovered that they could not earn much money from the land.

Families valued land before because of grain, and grain was wealth.

But it did not exist in the Donghai Ling. Grain and money were difficult to link, because the grain in the Donghai Ling was really too much, and the price was even more shockingly low.

The families were not fools either. Seeing that they could not make money, naturally they were unwilling. Instead, the various products of the Donghai Ling were wealth. Whether it was agricultural products like salt and sugar, luxury goods like glass utensils, or fur clothing, they were all hot-selling items.

So they followed to drink soup and also became rich one by one, and the family's wealth increased several times.

The families of Donghai Commandery were also the most powerful in their support for Su Fan.

As the families of Donghai Commandery communicated more and more with the families of Xuzhou, some situations in the Donghai Ling were also understood by the families of Xuzhou.

More merchant caravans poured into Donghai Commandery.

Su Fan's influence in Xuzhou was also getting higher day by day.

This was a good thing, boiling a frog in warm water, slowly taking complete control of Xuzhou in his own hands.

This situation was not that no one discovered it. There were quite a few smart families, but Su Fan's methods were upright and honest; it could be said to be an open conspiracy.

Even if they discovered it, they were powerless to stop it. After all, the benefits Su Fan brought to everyone could not be compared with the loss of some land and tenant farmers.

Land might have been valuable before, but now it was not valuable, especially since Su Fan sent a large army to constantly sweep away the surrounding mountain bandits and outlaws, and at the same time hunted wild beasts in the wilderness, driving the wild beasts into the mountains and rivers.

The flat land in the wilderness could develop more land. Once there was more of anything, it was really not valuable.

Of course, in troubled times, warlords everywhere were short of grain, so grain was still valuable.

But Su Fan had long been prepared, forbidding the outflow of grain from Xuzhou. Anyone discovered would inevitably be punished ten times over.

Not only that, he also let Guan Hai send a batch of elites to guard some of the roads entering and leaving Xuzhou, specializing in robbing those horse caravans transporting grain.

After a few times, those families' merchant caravans that secretly took risks suffered losses and did not dare to transport grain out of Xuzhou again.

Smart people knew that the mountain bandits and outlaws came from the General Zhen Dong's office, but so what? The Inspector's Office issued an order, and it could not be violated on the surface.

Being robbed in private, they could only swallow this muffled loss.

Over time, no one transported grain out of Xuzhou.

In fact, although all places were short of grain, selling grain really could not earn much money. In this era, the roads were just like that, and the grain transport team probably consumed half of the grain on the road.

What could really be earned was really not much.