Guo Jia turned his head to look at Sun Ce, revealing a wicked smile. "General, do you have a feeling of being let down?"

Sun Ce thought about it and smiled dumbly, and his originally anxious mood was relieved a lot. As Guo Jia said, he does have a feeling of being let down, so he is extremely angry. In view of the fact that the killing of the deity was too heavy and the hostility caused was too strong, which led to the difficulty of establishing the country of Eastern Wu and the internal chaos, he came to this era to remind himself to be restrained, to take into account the overall situation, and not just to be happy.

Although he took a lot of land from the family, he never took it by force, except for what they had encroached upon, most of it was ransom, in exchange for predictable benefits, so that they would not suffer. In this way, he hoped to solve the problem of land annexation, or at least alleviate it, and then lead the family to industry and commerce, to the research of new technologies, so that they can benefit and the whole nation can develop sustainably.

But he still turned out to be too naïve. These families did not change their opinion of him because of this, but only hibernate for a while, waiting for the opportunity to make a comeback. Now that the opportunity has come, they are ready to move again.

Slap Lao Tzu in the face? Do you know who this is fighting, this is fighting with a knife? If you don't hack a few bastards to death, this evil breath is incomprehensible. Sun Ce's heart swelled with a cloud of shameful anger, and he wanted to behead all those families immediately.

This is the secret thought in his heart, but he didn't expect it to be broken by Guo Jia.

"General, human nature is evil, and you can't expect too much. The combination of grace and power has always been the self-evident importance of governing the way, and grace and power cannot be wasted, there is no grace and no grace is mean, and there is grace without grace and leniency. This dynasty is in power, Shang Rou is good and wide for nearly a hundred years, and the family is strong and strong, how can it be changed for a while. Is it possible that the general still hopes to influence him with kindness and righteousness? ”

Sun Ce smiled bitterly and shook his head. "I don't dare to hope to influence them, I just hope they can have a bottom line, and now it seems that I am too naïve and seek skin with the tiger."

The general was serious. In this dynasty, there are not many people who uphold good righteousness, but the mud and sand are all down, and it is difficult to distinguish between good and bad. Confucianism promotes goodness, Legalism punishes evil, and rigidity and softness complement each other, and they do not contradict each other. The general used to be a favor, but now he can demonstrate. It's just that the Lujiang and Jiujiang families are not enough and are not worthy of the general's anger. Runan and Nanyang are the focus of the general's attention. ”

Sun Ce's eyebrows trembled slightly, and he was vigilant. Although Guo Jia no longer studied the law, the Guo family is a legal heirloom after all, and their worldview is different from that of pure Confucianism, or in other words, they believe that human nature is inherently evil, and there is a fundamental difference between the mainstream of Confucianism who believes in the inherently evil of human nature. Guo Jia himself despised etiquette and was uninhibited, and he didn't talk much with Confucian scholars like Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong.

Especially Zhang Zhao.

Runan Taishou is Zhang Zhao. Although Zhang Hong is not Nanyang Taishou, he is the actual presiding officer of Nanyang's government affairs. The families of Runan and Nanyang are in turmoil, and these two people are to blame. Guo Jia's words may not be intended to slander them, but it may be a natural outpouring of rational differences.

It's not a bad thing for his subordinates to have different opinions, but he can't be misled by others.

"In your opinion, what should be done? You can't just leave Lujiang and Jiujiang alone. ”

"General, who is your enemy?" Guo Jia smiled evilly and looked very relaxed. "Everything is outlined, you are now also the prince of the three states and the southeast, how can the person who can fight against you be a general who commands tens of thousands of troops, and a few thieves are not worth your shot."

Sun Ce raised his eyebrows, comprehending.

Yuan Shao's father and son are his opponents, in front of him, only Liu Xuan is qualified to let him face the battle in person, those bandits hiding in the mountains still send their generals to go, otherwise they will be too tired and easily distracted. Isn't Yuan Shao's purpose in doing this so that he can't get out, how can he let Yuan Shao fulfill his wish. Shoot the man first and shoot the horse, and capture the thief first and capture the king. If you want to stabilize the situation in Lujiang and Jiujiang, the focus is not to go into the mountains to discuss, but to repel Liu Xuan, block Yuan Shao, and then slowly clean up these greedy and inadequate families.

Sun Ce sent a letter to Cheng Pu and Wu Jing, telling them to calm down and not be impatient, guard the city, and don't rush to send troops to recruit. He led the main force up the river and went straight to Chaisang, and at the same time ordered Zhou Yu and Jiangxia Taishou Wenpin to ask them to fight.

——

Lu County.

A deafening sound of war drums, thousands of bows and crossbows under the command of the strong crossbow captain again and again volleys, dense arrow rain covered the sky and the sun, crossed the moat, poured on the head of Lu County, the last suppression of the defenders of Lu County before the strong attack.

More than a dozen huge siege engines slowly approached the city wall under the impetus of the people, and dozens of heavily armed soldiers stood on the siege vehicles, waiting for the moment to lower the wooden bridge. Pan Zhang held a shield in his left hand and a knife in his right hand, staring at the general flag on the city with a pair of eyes, staring at Ji Ling, the guard under the general's banner, and urging the people to work hard from time to time to get as close to the city wall as possible.

Ji Qi was hostile to Pan Zhang, but he was helpless. After besieging the city for more than half a year, there were heavy casualties in the city, and there were less than 500 people left in the whole city to fight, and there were few ordnance left, and the arrows were almost cut off.

"Ji Xiang, prepare to break through, I can't hold on." The lieutenant general, Chang Xuan, rushed over, and his face was covered in blood. He covered his bloody forehead with one hand, and held a war knife in the other, which was also missing, and the battle armor was even more scarred, and there were two feather arrows in the armor leaf.

"Tao Envoy Jun handed over Lu County to me, how can I abandon the city and flee?" Ji Ling shook his head. "Withdraw, and I shall live and die with the city."

"Ji Xiang, breaking through is not an escape." Chang Feng was in a hurry. "If we retreat to Bian County or Nanwuyang, we can continue to block the attack. Lu County has been guarding for more than half a year, and there is no food, how to keep it? There are people in Bian County and Nanwuyang, which are better than Lu County. It's really not possible, we can still go into the mountains, Zang Xuangao and others are near Nanwuyang, we can ask them for reinforcements. ”

Ji Ling thought about it and felt reasonable. "Okay, you guys are ready to break through, I'll break back."

Chang Feng was overjoyed and rushed away.

Ji Ling sighed secretly. Until now, he knew that Lu County would definitely not be able to hold it. Qingzhou was tight, and Tao Qian deployed heavy troops in Langxie, and there was no spare strength to support Lu State. Without help, Chang Feng and the others don't want to fight anymore, even if he doesn't agree, Chang Feng and the others will break through. Rather than this, it is better to retreat together, withdraw to Bian County or Nanwuyang, and have a chance to hold on for a while and wait for a turnaround.

Sun Jian is nearby, ready for reinforcements. The reason why he has not taken action is probably because Tao Qian had concerns and did not ask Sun Jian for help. Ji Ling didn't know what Tao Qian had any concerns, but thinking about Sun Ce's gift of the entire Lu Kingdom to Tao Qian, he felt that the courage of the two was not a little bit worse.