After hearing what Sun Ce said, Zhou Yu was also speechless.
Qiao Rui issued an edict on behalf of the emperor and persuaded Sun Ce. Afterwards, Sun Ce secretly wrote to the Han court, agreeing to surrender to the Han court. After receiving Sun Ce's letter, Liu Xie was overjoyed and sent someone to choose a woman of appropriate age from the royal family to marry Sun Ce.
But Sun Ce was also quite loyal, and out of various concerns, he still wrote a letter to Yuan Shu, persuading Yuan Shu not to establish himself as emperor.
Of course, Sun Ce wrote this letter not only for Yuan Shu's sake, but also for his own consideration. After all, his current relationship with Yuan Shu is not simple.
Sun Jian was originally dependent on Yuan Shu, and the relationship between the two was similar to that between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. Sun Ce inherited Sun Jian's legacy and continued to rely on Yuan Shu, which was actually very similar to being Yuan Shu's adopted son.
Of course, the situation of this adopted son was very embarrassing. Yuan Shu already had a son and son-in-law, and Sun Ce could never be integrated into the core circle. He conquered a lot of territory for Yuan Shu in vain, but did not get much actual benefits.
Moreover, the more capable Sun Ce was, the more Yuan Shu had to be on guard against him, lest he become too powerful to be eliminated.
So Sun Ce had no choice but to feel dissatisfied. Now he finally took the opportunity to seize Jiangdong, making it impossible for Yuan Xi to control him anymore.
But if Sun Ce wanted to break away from Yuan Shu and cut off ties with him, he must have a legitimate excuse, and now this good opportunity has been placed in front of him.
Yuan Shu declared himself emperor and the Han court tried to win him over.
For Sun Ce, this was like a pillow sent to him when he was dozing off, but in order to avoid giving others a chance to criticize him, Sun Ce still asked Zhang Hong to write a letter to Yuan Shu.
Zhang Hong, whose courtesy name was Zigang, was a native of Guangling, Xuzhou. Together with Zhang Zhao, he was known as "the two Zhangs". He was once recruited as an official by General He Jin, Grand Marshal Zhu Jun, and Minister of Works Xun Shang, but he declined the offer and took refuge in Jiangdong.
Before Sun Ce pacified Jiangdong, he personally visited Zhang Hong many times to invite him. Zhang Hong was touched by his kindness and decided to serve as an official.
Sun Ce had long harbored the intention of establishing himself. When he asked Zhang Hong for advice, he proposed to "gather the scattered people, occupy Wuhui in the east, avenge the enemies and become an external vassal of the imperial court." Based on Sun Ce's ideas, Zhang Hong proposed a strategy of straddling Jing and Yang and occupying the entire Yangtze River defense line. This was also the strategy consistently pursued by the Eastern Wu in later generations.
To all the princes in the world, Jingzhou is an extremely important place, and everyone wants to take it for themselves.
However, Liu Biao relied on local clans such as the Cai family to manage Jingzhou very well. Jingzhou itself was a place that was easy to defend but difficult to attack. Yuan Shu's attacks were repeatedly frustrated, and Sun Jian was even killed in battle.
The letter Sun Ce wrote to Yuan Shu was the idea of his advisers. This not only maintained his reputation for protecting Yuan Shu, but also expressed his loyalty to the Han Dynasty. It can be said that he had done his utmost.
After the letter was written, Qiao Rui volunteered to deliver it. Sun Ce and Zhou Yu advised him, "Mr. Qiao, Yuan Shu was planning to use you to establish his authority. If you go back now, won't you be walking into a trap?"
Qiao Rui sighed and said, "Of course I know that, but I heard that Yuan Shu is planning to kill my family. If I don't go back, I'm afraid Yuan Shu will kill me."
Zhou Yu shook his head and said, "Excuse me for being blunt, but if Mr. Qiao returns, he and his family will be in trouble."
"I remember that Madam Qiao died early, and there were only two daughters in the family, but no sons, right?"
"As long as there is green mountain, there is no fear of running out of firewood. I am afraid that Mr. Qiao's family is in danger, but as long as Mr. Qiao is here, the Qiao family has hope."
"Now that Mr. Qiao has gone back, if his whole family is killed, wouldn't that mean everything will be ruined?"
Qiao Rui listened for a long time before finally gritting his teeth and saying, "Indeed, there are only two daughters, but they were entrusted to me by my wife before she died."
"If I give up on them, how can I be worthy of my wife?"
"So I thought about it and decided to find a chance to send him to Wancheng for refuge after returning to Shouchun."
Seeing that he was determined, Sun Ce said, "If you are like this, if you are killed, I will avenge you in the future."
After hearing this, Qiao Rui thanked him and left.
After Qiao Rui left, Zhou Yu sighed and said, "Those who accomplish great things do not pay attention to trivial matters. I'm afraid Qiao Gong is in danger."
Sun Ce had a complicated expression. He didn't know why, but he remembered his missing mother, Madam Wu. He said in a daze: "Everyone has their own aspirations. I can understand that."
"If he is killed, we can only find an opportunity to rescue his family."
Afterwards, Qiao Rui returned to Shouchun and brought Sun Ce's letter. Yuan Shu was furious after reading it. In addition, some people accused Qiao Rui of being captured, so Yuan Shu immediately put Qiao Rui in prison.
Originally, Yuan Shu wanted to kill Qiao Rui to serve as a warning to others, but many ministers tried to persuade him against it, saying that it would be unlucky to kill someone since Yuan Shu had declared himself emperor at this time. In addition, Qiao Rui was a general of Yuan Shu and had made many contributions over the years. If he was killed, it would only discourage everyone.
Moreover, Qiao Rui was delivering the letter on behalf of Sun Ce this time. If he were severely punished, wouldn't this force Sun Ce to turn against him even more?
After much consideration, Qiao Rui was finally released and sent back home, but his mansion was surrounded by soldiers, making him no different from a prisoner.
After hearing the news, Sun Ce was temporarily powerless. After all, Yuan Shu was now very powerful, and Sun Ce alone could not openly break off relations with Yuan Shu.
But now Sun Ce received an imperial edict from the Han court, which openly ordered Cao Cao, Sun Ce and others to attack Yuan Shu!
While Sun Ce was cursing the Han court for being unkind, he also understood that this was actually a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him.
Apart from Liu Bei in Xia Pi, the only people close to Yuan Shu's base camp were Sun Ce in Wujun. This meant that it would be easier for him to seize the territory in Yuan Shu's hands as a foundation for his future dominance!
Moreover, now that Yuan Shu was being attacked by five parties, the pressure on Sun Ce was undoubtedly much less. Moreover, with the legitimate excuse of the emperor's edict, he could turn against Yuan Shu with justification!
When he was discussing with Zhou Yu, he saw Lu Su walk in.
Lu Su, courtesy name Zijing, was a native of Dongcheng, Linhuai. He was a powerful local landlord and was widely praised for his charity.
When Zhou Yu was the chief of Juchao, he came to Lu Su's house to borrow grain. Lu Su directly gave him half of his family's stored grain, 3,000 hu of rice. Since then, the two became good friends. Later, Zhou Yu defected to Sun Ce and recommended Lu Su, who then summoned him to be his subordinate.
Lu Su hurried in, bowed to the two men, and said, "There is another urgent letter from the Han court."
Sun Ce took the bamboo slips from Lu Su's hand, unfolded them, and said with a smile, "This is a good time." After that, he handed it to Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu took a look and saw that it was Wang Ju, a counselor sent by the Han court, who brought the edict of enthronement of Emperor Xian of Han.
Zhou Yu looked at it and laughed, "The Han court came in such a hurry, obviously they want to ask Bofu for something."
"In this case, we can discuss the terms with him."
Sun Ce laughed and said, "That's right!"
Jicheng, Youzhou.
Yuan Xi's mansion was already busy with preparations, because as the Han court's edict reached Youzhou, everyone knew that Yuan Xi was about to leave again.
The situation was the same inside the city and in the military camp outside the city. Inside a tent, Zhang Fang was explaining the mission to the other four people.
Although they were divided into teams of five, forming the smallest organization, no one dared to underestimate them.
Not only because they were all Yuan Xi's personal guards, but also because they had made many military achievements, the five of them did not want to separate and insisted on not being promoted to military positions, and continued to fight together in the battlefield.
Zhang Fang held a simple linen map in his hand, squatted on the ground, held a branch in his hand, and wrote and drew on the ground in front of him.
When he wrote the word Guangling, he accidentally wrote the word Ling wrong. He realized it and quickly erased it and rewrote it. When the other four saw it, they suddenly burst into laughter, "Boss, you made the mistake several times!"
Zhang Fang's face flushed, "You just want to keep holding on to me!"
"I will tell you the marching route and location later, and you will write them down one by one!"
"If you don't write well, the number of words you have to write down in the next few days will be doubled!"
As soon as these words came out, everyone cried out in pain, "Boss, this is too cruel!"
Zhang Fang ignored them and started explaining to everyone, from the marching target location, to the possible routes, the time it would take, any accidents that might occur, and the reassembly location, all of which were explained clearly one by one.
This is an important step before the Youzhou Army sets out. As long as it is not a secret operation, all plans for the dispatch of troops, no matter how big or small, must be implemented at the lowest level of the troops, so that every soldier knows what to do.
Initially, the generals and counselors of the army gathered all the people above the rank of captains and sergeants to explain and issue orders. After the captains and sergeants went back, they conveyed the message to their respective units to ensure that everyone understood the goal and intention of the expedition.
This was also one of the innovations proposed by Yuan Xi. At first, Ju Shou, Lu Xun and others were quite puzzled and thought that this was unnecessary. As long as the soldiers obeyed orders on the battlefield, they would be qualified. Why do these unnecessary things?
Yuan Xi did not explain too much, but in the subsequent field exercises, he let two parties of equal strength, one who knew the tactical arrangement and the other who was completely unaware, engage in confrontation under different terrains and unexpected situations.
Ju Shou and Lu Xun were surprised to find that if it was a head-on fight on the battlefield, the two sides were indeed about the same, but when faced with unexpected situations such as sneak attacks, changes in plans, and temporary changes in combat objectives, the situation of the latter would be far stronger than the latter.
Not only can they try to gather themselves together after being scattered and continue marching towards their target, but they can also come up with targeted solutions, such as avoiding the enemy or changing to a faster route in order to achieve their ultimate goal.
The latter, unable to understand the details of the battle plan, can only run around like headless flies. Even if they can gather together, there will be many disagreements, which will greatly reduce their combat effectiveness.
While Ju Shou and Lu Xun were amazed, they also understood that this approach actually placed very high demands on every soldier.
The first is that everyone has the most basic tactical qualities, and the second is that everyone can read. These two points alone are extremely difficult to achieve.
But under the continuous and purposeful guidance of Yuan Xi's soldiers over the past two years, they were able to almost do it. Any one of them would have been at least qualified as a centurion under the command of other princes!
Ju Shou and Lu Xun then understood why Yuan Xi limited the number of his elite soldiers to a few thousand. No matter how many more people there were, Youzhou would not be able to do it.
Even so, the two understood the horror of this approach. If Yuan Xi could pull out a team of tens of thousands of people, these thousands of soldiers could immediately serve as mid-level officers and form a good combat force in a short period of time!
Moreover, this method of training can also maintain military discipline. When there is no fighting on weekdays, the soldiers can reunite with their families at night, but they need to go to the camp for drills and roll calls during the day, and then learn written tactics. In wartime, they train during the day and have conversations at night, leaving no time for the soldiers to cause trouble.
While Ju Shou and Lu Xun were perfecting their military training methods, they gradually understood the profoundness of the methods, and their admiration for Yuan Xi, who was able to create this method, increased a little more.
On this expedition, Yuan Xi brought Ju Shou and Lu Xun with him, and left Guo Jia, who was good at political strategy, in Youzhou.
At this time, Guo Jia and Tian Yu went to Beixin City to inspect the labor education of the Black Mountain Army prisoners of war in the past six months.