Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

The squad leader's courteous attitude slightly surprised Zhou Yu.

It should be known that with the arrival of the chaotic times, order had collapsed. Even Dong Zhuo could do whatever he wanted in the imperial palace as if it were his own living room, so the situation in the localities was naturally even worse.

"Thieves come like combs, soldiers come like rakes, officials come like razors" almost perfectly summarized the current situation in the localities.

Whether it was bandits or soldiers, few of them refrained from harming the common people.

Seeing the small to know the great!

The squad leader was already like this, so it could be seen that the discipline of the Wu County army must be quite strict.

This gave Zhou Yu a bit more confidence in his goal, and then he cupped his hands slightly towards the squad leader in front of him.

"I am Zhou Yu from Lujiang. I do not wish to take a boat, but rather I wish to see the general who led the army here. I have something prepared to present to the general, please report it for me."

Upon hearing this, the squad leader's somewhat relaxed attitude immediately became serious. He carefully sized up Zhou Yu, and after confirming that this young scholar was not joking, he replied.

"Please wait a moment."

Immediately, the squad leader explained a few words to a nearby soldier, telling him to return to the rear to deliver the message, while the squad leader continued to lead the remaining soldiers to guard in front of Zhou Yu.

After waiting for nearly the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the soldier returned and whispered a few words into the squad leader's ear.

The squad leader nodded and said.

"Our General Sun has agreed. Please follow me, sir."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yu then strode to catch up with the squad leader, heading towards the interior of Xiang'an Ford.

Zhou Yu was naturally not coming to Xiang'an Ford for the first time, and he could be said to be quite familiar with the interior of Xiang'an Ford.

After entering Xiang'an Ford, Zhou Yu kept close to the squad leader, while also using the corner of his eye to size up the surrounding soldiers.

Mostly brave and fierce soldiers!

Elite troops!

Soon, Zhou Yu secretly came to a judgment.

Looking at the Yangtze River navy, Zhou Yu had never seen a navy with a higher degree of elite soldiers, and even in the already controlled Xiang'an Ford, each soldier patrolled with a sense of order and strict discipline.

Compared to Zhou Yu's composure, the pageboy following behind him could only be described as trembling.

Looking at the burly soldiers, the pageboy was so frightened that his face was as pale as if he had been dead for three days, afraid that a soldier would draw his sword and slash it on his neck.

It was only with the support of his desire to survive that the pageboy forced himself to closely follow behind Zhou Yu.

However, to Zhou Yu's surprise, the general leading this elite navy did not choose a house to live in as a temporary residence.

Instead, he moved various account books and bamboo slips from the Xiang'an Ford treasury and piled them in an open space. The general was personally supervising several clerks in calculating something.

More importantly, the general was so young that Zhou Yu was greatly surprised. He looked to be about the same age as Zhou Yu, but he was already able to lead an army alone.

Just as Zhou Yu approached within a certain distance, and the personal guards on the left and right were preparing to step forward to check whether Zhou Yu had hidden weapons on his body.

Sun Ce, noticing this scene, waved his hand and said impatiently.

"Alright, how could a weak scholar hurt me? Let him in, but forget about that quail behind him, he'll just be an eyesore if he comes over."

As soon as these words came out, the pageboy's face turned even whiter, fearing that Sun Ce would casually order someone to drag him down and slaughter him.

On the contrary, Zhou Yu still calmly walked past a group of personal guards and walked up to Sun Ce.

Sun Ce looked him up and down a few times, and a look of approval appeared on his face as he said.

"Not bad, this is quite a figure from the Lujiang aristocratic family. It's worth my time to meet him…"

"Speak, what is the matter for seeking me out?"

Zhou Yu first unhurriedly saluted Sun Ce before speaking. "I have come here this time to relieve the general's worries."

Sun Ce raised his eyebrows, looking at the young scholar in front of him who had a few similarities in appearance and temperament to his teacher from five or six years ago, and became a little more interested. He said.

"Interesting, I don't know what worries I have."

Zhou Yu replied. "Since the general has already appeared here, it can be expected that the anti-Wu allied army has been defeated, and it should undoubtedly be a crushing defeat."

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Ce's expression became a little more serious.

Sun Ce naturally had sufficient confidence in the battle situation in Yangxian, but in fact, Sun Ce had not yet had time to understand the relevant news.

Therefore, Sun Ce was undoubtedly both curious and doubtful about Zhou Yu's assertion.

"How do you know?" Sun Ce asked.

"From the beginning, the anti-Wu allied army had absolutely no possibility of success."

Zhou Yu said calmly, and then added.

"'National Scholar' Li Ji is not an incompetent person, he could not be unaware of the potential dangers in Wu County, but the National Scholar still supported Lord Liu in leading a large number of elite troops openly to travel thousands of miles to attack Dong, how could there not be a trick in this?"

The so-called: something abnormal must be a demon.

For a wise man like Zhou Yu, he would never attribute the abnormality to the other party's negligence or carelessness, especially since that person was the famous National Scholar.

Even if Liu Bei's decision was to send out all the elite troops from Wu County to attack Dong, Li Ji would be difficult to disobey.

But according to common sense, Li Ji would definitely try to secretly transfer troops to maintain the appearance of sufficient troops in Wu County, instead of leaving with great fanfare and revealing Wu County's weak posture.

As long as this point is taken into consideration, then the subsequent actions of Wu County have too many suspicious points.

Therefore, Zhou Yu understood almost from the beginning that the so-called "anti-Wu allied army" was a trap secretly promoted by Wu County, in order to solve the obstacles that the Jiangdong aristocratic families might cause to Liu Bei's domination of Jiangdong once and for all.

Sun Ce asked playfully. "If that's the case, then didn't you try to persuade or remind the other Jiangdong aristocratic families?"

Zhou Yu smiled faintly and said. "People will only believe what they want to believe and what is believed by the masses, not the truth."

Some things are just like mathematics, knowing is knowing, and being able to see through is being able to see through.

Perhaps no matter what kind of scam it is, there will definitely be smart people who can see through it, but being able to see through does not mean being able to stop it, otherwise there would not always be large-scale scams that continue to succeed.

Furthermore, Zhou Yu's family had only moved back to Lujiang for less than a year, and Zhou Yu himself was just a young man who had not yet reached adulthood, with little influence, how could he convince a group of old things in the aristocratic families who valued seniority and relied on the old?

After a pause, Zhou Yu then continued. "And since this is a trap personally set by the National Scholar, the defeat of the anti-Wu allied army is naturally not surprising."

"It's just that I thought the anti-Wu allied army could have lasted a few more days, but I didn't expect the general to arrive in Lujiang County today, which is a pity for their mighty alliance and march."

Speaking of this, Zhou Yu couldn't help but smile bitterly.

This time, the so-called anti-Wu allied army and the Jiangdong aristocratic families were completely played between the palms of their hands, and in the eyes of the world or in history books, they would inevitably become objects of ridicule by others.

Hundreds of thousands of troops!

Even if those troops were just a makeshift rabble, they shouldn't have failed so completely in such a short period of time…

More importantly, yesterday Zhou Yu had already learned through the family's information channels that the anti-Dong alliance army had broken through Hulao Pass.

One victory and one defeat, one righteousness and one inferiority…

It further highlights that the anti-Wu allied army and the Jiangdong aristocratic families are undoubtedly a joke!

As a member of the Jiangdong aristocratic families, Zhou Yu can also be said to feel quite ashamed.

Even if there were hundreds of thousands of pigs, they shouldn't have failed so completely in such a short period of time.

Compared to Zhou Yu's sigh and sorrow, Sun Ce's eyes lit up slightly, and he felt a little impressed by the young scholar in front of him, and he also felt a little lucky.

If the Lujiang Zhou Yu in front of him had commanded the anti-Wu allied army, it might have really caused a big trouble for Wu County.

However, Sun Ce still remained calm on the surface and instead said.

"Since you also know that Wu County has won a great victory, then what worries do I have? Could it be that you are alarmist?"

Zhou Yu continued to answer calmly. "Winning the battlefield is only one thing. Wu County's goal must be to swallow the four counties of Yangzhou and then dominate Jiangdong…"

"And not all Jiangdong aristocratic families participated in the anti-Wu allied army, and the National Scholar's inducement of the Jiangdong aristocratic families to rebel is nothing more than to have a reason to force the Jiangdong aristocratic families to submit."

"Therefore, how to do both kindness and power, how to accurately screen out the Jiangdong aristocratic families who have not participated and support them, how to accurately punish and attack the aristocratic families who participated in the allied army, so that there will be no more rebellions in Jiangdong, this is the general's worry."

Upon hearing this, Sun Ce continued. "So, do you have a good plan?"

Immediately, Zhou Yu took out a bamboo slip from his wide sleeve and handed it to Sun Ce, saying.

"This is the general situation of the money, food, and materials that my servants and retainers secretly investigated from the various aristocratic families in Lujiang County to support the anti-Wu allied army. With this bamboo slip, it will be easy for the general to use both kindness and power."

Sun Ce took the bamboo slip and opened it to read it carelessly. On it was a detailed record of the money, food, and materials sent from the Lujiang County aristocratic families to Liyang.

Of course, even if they were both Lujiang aristocratic families, the other aristocratic families did not deliberately guard against the Zhou family, but it was impossible for the Zhou family to know the exact number down to how many dou, so the recorded money, food, and materials could only be calculated by car.

Sun Ce flipped through it at a glance, and under Zhou Yu's gaze, he took out another scroll of bamboo slips from his arms and then spread out the two scrolls of bamboo slips for comparison.

This scene caused Zhou Yu's always calm expression to change slightly.

The Zhou family was able to clearly investigate the movements of the Lujiang aristocratic families because the Zhou family was already the top noble family in Lujiang, but Sun Ce also had a scroll in his hand?

'Could it be… that someone surrendered faster than me?'

The thought flashed through Zhou Yu's mind subconsciously, and then he immediately dismissed it.

So, besides that slim possibility, the only remaining answer was that Wu Commandery had likely planted spies within the various aristocratic families many years ago.

Zhou Yu, who had only moved his family back to Lujiang about a year ago, truly hadn't realized this.

So… the Jiangdong aristocratic families had been jumping around under their noses all along? (End of Chapter)