The two sides tacitly agreed, and then it was easy to talk. Sun Ce accepted Tao Qian's gift and gave up his plan to garrison Pengcheng, and he could also be friends with Tao Qian's son, and he was even willing to arrange for them to go to Nanyang to study in the martial arts hall. In exchange, Lu Zhu's younger brother Lu Fang would be recruited by Sun Ce in a private capacity and become Sun Ce's subordinate.

In order to give Elfang a high starting point, Elk Zhu was willing to provide three hundred well-equipped cavalry as Elfang's troops.

Sun Ce agreed, and arranged for Qin Mu to go to the Elk family with Lu Zhu to assess the strength of Lu Fang and the Elk family. Whether it is to make a deal or for the sake of Elfang's safety, it is necessary to select qualified cavalry, and indiscriminately filling the number will only waste money. Qu County is by the sea, the road is far away, and it has to pass through the three counties of Pengcheng, Xiapi and Donghai, so Tao Qian's permission must be obtained. But with Moose Zhu, none of this is a problem.

Elk Zhu's task was completed more than he could have imagined. Tao Qian's goal was achieved, and the Elk family also reaped unexpected joy. Sun Ce set up a banquet for the elk to catch the wind, and the guests and hosts enjoyed themselves. Lu Zhu's wish is to be a Confucian businessman, gaining fame and fortune, and Sun Ce's wish is to be a general businessman and hold a sword to do business. He wanted to use strong force to cooperate with commercial development, and use the huge profits of commerce to raise troops.

Sun Ce said, my father also did business when he was young, and he didn't do as big as your elk's business, and he often encountered pirates, so he abandoned business and joined the army, and now he is considered a little powerful. In the future, after the war, I will also go to business, and I will use the army to protect my merchant ships, and see which pirate dares to rob me.

Lu Zhu laughed, feeling that he and Sun Ce had a common language and could talk very well. Through the wine, the more the two talked, the more speculative they became, and they unconsciously called each other brothers. Taking advantage of this popularity, Sun Ce and Lu Zhu agreed that they would have the opportunity to do business together, especially salt. There is no salt mine in Nanyang, and the salt is all purchased from outside, and the East China Sea is on the seaside, so there are innate conditions for operating the salt industry. In the past, because of the salt monopoly, the elk family was powerless, but now the world is in chaos and the court can't control it, which is a good opportunity to make a fortune.

Lu Zhu agreed.

Du Xun was dumbfounded. He told Guo Jia that he originally thought that the general was like a god, but now he found out that he has a better way of doing business.

Guo Jia smiled mysteriously, patted Du Xian's shoulder and said: "You can follow the general with peace of mind, holding Xiangxian is only the first step, and if there is a chance in the future, we will have to compete with Yuan Shao." ”

Du Xun was surprised and delighted.

Although Guo Jia is frivolous, he is not a casual person, otherwise Sun Ce would not let him make military sacrifice wine. Guo Jia explained this to him, naturally because they had a friendship that traveled the same way, which was different. He pulled Guo Jia and asked carefully. Guo Jia briefly explained Sun Ce's plan to launch the Yellow Turban to defend the Huai River, and then select some people to fight guerrillas in Juyeze and Mangdang Mountain, and stop Yuan Shao in Yanzhou as much as possible.

He said it briefly, but Du Xian listened to it with enthusiasm. He originally had little confidence in holding Xiangxian, and felt that sooner or later Sun Ce would give up Yuzhou and run Jingzhou with all his might, and eventually even retreat to Jiangnan. From the bottom of his heart, he has some regrets, and if he gives up Yuzhou, he will leave his hometown. Now listening to Guo Jiayi, I know that although Sun Ce will focus on Jingzhou, he will not give up Yuzhou easily, so he naturally can't ask for it. It would be great if the battle line could be maintained at the battle of the Yellow River and Huaishui.

Full of wine and food, Elk Zhu left, taking Qin Mu and ten knights with him.

After Sun Ce discussed with Guo Jia and Du Xi, he invited Ge Sheng and others to show them Tao Qian's gift list. I am cooperating with Tao Qian now, I have food, you select people as soon as possible, count the number of people, and I will allocate food to you.

Ge Sheng and the others were overjoyed. People are more angry than people. In order to be able to eat, they don't know how much effort they have put in, but the harvest is still limited. As soon as Sun Ce arrived, before he could do anything, Tao Qian sent 200,000 stone of grain. Ge Sheng Mao recommended himself, I want to go for the general, go to Qingzhou to meet the marshal Guan Hai, and discuss the alliance with him. Qingxu Yellow Turban suffered a big loss in the Northern Expedition last year, and now it should need the help of the general.

Regarding the affairs of the Yellow Turban Army, Sun Ce was more cautious. Qingzhou Assassin Shi Tian Kai was signed by Gongsun Zhan, and from the overall situation, Gongsun Zhan was still his ally, and he could not act recklessly, destroy the alliance, and let Yuan Shao take advantage of it. He called Bei Wu Zhou and asked him to go to Qingzhou to meet with Tian Kai, in addition to reporting the recruitment of the Yellow Turban, he also wanted to join forces with Tian Kai to encircle and suppress Liu Bei, a traitor. If Liu Bei's previous acceptance of Tao Qian's four thousand Danyang soldiers was only an internal matter of the alliance and could barely be accepted, now that Liu Bei accepted Yuan Shao's appointment, he was a traitor. Tian Kai, as Liu Bei's former official, had a traitor among his subordinates, and he had no reason not to take action.

Wu Zhou happily obeyed.

——

Xin Bi stood outside the gate of the inner city of Wancheng, watching a group of seven or eight-year-old children carrying schoolbags and walking into the city gate in groups of three or five, talking and laughing, their faces were full of happiness, but they were not happy at all.

He walked around Wancheng for two days and saw a lot of places, but he couldn't enter the inner city without a door registration, so he could only stand outside the city gate and take a look. Nothing else, these seemingly inconspicuous children have brought him great pressure.

First of all, this is a matter of virtue. Regardless of whether Sun Ce is hypocritical or not, being able to select a hundred children to enroll, provide pen and ink stationery, and provide a free lunch every day can bring Sun Ce a lot of good reputation, and strictly ensure the proportion of children from poor families has made Sun Ce earn enough prestige among ordinary people, but the Nanyang family can't have half a complaint because of this.

Secondly, it is a very far-sighted initiative. Sun Ce built the Wood School and the Materia Medica, but no matter how he induced him, the children of the family who had no worries about food and clothing and did not worry about the future would not be willing to become craftsmen and medical craftsmen. Sun Ce's cultivation of these children from poor families is to cultivate the successor strength for the Mu School and the Materia Medica. These children are literate and hyphenated, and they have been cultivated since childhood, and they will definitely be easier to produce results than those who are illiterate, and it is not impossible to produce a few more geniuses like Huang Yueying in the future.

Sun Ce is very realistic, he didn't play those imaginary things, and what he did was all solid things. Give him three or five years, and Nanyang will be firmly controlled by him. Give him ten years, and the strength of Nanyang County may exceed that of the entire Jizhou, and when the time comes, Yuan Shao will be defeated.

If you want to defeat Sun Ce, you can either learn his methods and compare your development with him, or you can kill him before he has accumulated enough strength and take Nanyang. In contrast, the latter seems to be a little easier. It's just that under the pressure of Gongsun Zhan's soldiers, it's really hard to say whether Yuan Shao can still make this decision.

Simbi was in a trance, when he suddenly felt that someone was staring at him. He spun around quietly for half a circle, his eyes falling on a four-wheeled carriage. The window of the carriage was ajar, and a man was waving to him. Simbi took a closer look and was overjoyed. He looked around, but no one paid attention to him, so he pretended to be very casual, followed the flow of people, walked unhurriedly to the carriage, and stopped.

"Mr. Berger, why are you here?"