In the strategic plan agreed upon by Sun Ce, Guo Jia, and Zhang Hong, Yuzhou is the frontier buffer zone, Jingzhou is the base area, and Yangzhou is the rear area.

As far as the current situation is concerned, the rear of Yangzhou is still just an overgrown semi-wild land, with a total population of more than 4 million, 40% in Yuzhou, 20% in Wu County, and only about 500,000 people in Huiji he wants to go, which is about the same as the Lu country he just gave to Tao Qian. The mountains and hills are vertical and horizontal, the transportation is inconvenient, and the indigenous people known as Baiyue are distributed among the mountains, and it is difficult to collect taxes, but it is easy to evade taxes. The local family and Haoqiang did not take the court seriously, and ran to the mountains without saying a word, and even became the emperor behind closed doors if they were bold.

From Sun Ce's crossing of the river to Sun Wu's annihilation, the Sun clan and the Jiangdong natives fought for nearly a century and failed to achieve the final victory, which is inseparable from the special geography here. It is impossible to solve the problem by force alone, and relying on local families must divide power, and ceding power will only allow them to continue to sit on the throne and then demand more rights. Once this vicious cycle starts, it is difficult to put on the brakes.

In the later period, in order to curb the expansion of the Jiangdong family, Sun Quan engaged in a two-palace competition for the throne, and forced Lu Xun to death, but in the end it was useless.

In view of this, Sun Ce intends to keep the bottom line from the beginning and cannot rely entirely on the Jiangdong family. The introduction of Jingzhou Haoqiang can not only use their financial and material resources to quickly solve and open up the situation, but also create a competitor for the Jiangdong family. When he can gain a firm foothold without relying on the support of the Jiangdong family, he is qualified to negotiate terms with the Jiangdong family.

Cai Mao is greedy for money, but he doesn't have much political ambition, and his previous cooperation was quite pleasant. When the workshops were built in Nanyang and Runan, Cai Mao's development was limited, and he naturally would not refuse to give him an opportunity to develop in Yangzhou.

Sun Ce told Cai Mao about the general direction, and suggested that Cai Mao find some partners. The Cai family has strength, but compared to what he has to do, the Cai family's financial resources are far from enough. After all, Xiangyang's industry has to continue, and he can't drain all his funds.

Cai Mao understood.

Sun Ce exchanged information with Liu Pi again. Liu Pi was in Tuntian, south of Xiangyang, everything went well, and the first harvest had already been made this autumn, not only to be self-sufficient, but also to provide some military rations to Sun Fu, which was also helpful to Zhou Yu's conquest of Nanjun. After being a homeless person for a few years, Liu Pi was able to settle down again, and he was very grateful to Sun Ce, but he still had some regrets in his heart.

So far, the Runan Yellow Turban has been basically digested by Sun Ce and is divided into Tuntian everywhere. Because of his suspicions about Sun Ce at the beginning, Liu Pi only brought 3,000 people, and he was the weakest of the Yellow Turbans in the various departments. got up early in the morning, rushed to a late meeting, and watched Wu Ba, Gong Du and other former colleagues have been reused by Sun Ce one after another, and sat on one side, Liu Pi was inevitably a little disappointed.

Sun Ce comforted him with kind words and let him wait with peace of mind. The remaining land in Runan and Nanyang is limited, and most of the old Yellow Turbans will go south one after another. Liu Bi's results were not good some time ago, Zhou Yu was very satisfied with him, and he would definitely take him with him when he crossed the river to fight, and there were many opportunities for meritorious service.

Liu Pi was happy and grateful.

——

Xie Kuan stood in front of Xie Guanglong, looked up and down, and before he could speak, tears welled up.

Xie Guanglong was a little at a loss and rubbed his hands again and again. "Look at you, such a big person, why do you still cry at every turn like when you were a child? Don't cry, don't cry, I didn't bully you today. ”

Xie Kuan burst into tears and smiled, wiped his tears and said: "What else do you say, I ran away from home after a few quarrels with my uncle, and I didn't go home to take a look at it for ten years, and I didn't even have a message." My uncle thought you were dead, and he wanted me to inherit the family business, and forced me to practice martial arts and archery. These are the responsibilities that you should have shouldered, but now they have fallen on my shoulders, and I have suffered for you for ten years. It is said that the eldest brother is like a father, is there a brother like you? ”

Xie Guanglong hesitated for a moment, and finally opened his arms, hugged Xie Kuan's shoulders, and shook them vigorously. "Don't say that, you are doing a good job now, you can be an archer in General Sun's personal guard battalion, you are still a military marquis, in a few years, maybe you can be a captain, a captain or something, much better than my brother. It's very good that the Xie family in Xixian County has you as the head of the family. ”

Xie Kuan shook his head and sighed. "There are a lot of good shooters under the general's command, and my talent is limited, so if I can be a lieutenant in this life, it will be the end. But I was lucky, if it wasn't for General Sun coming to Xixian and my uncle recommending me to him as a guard, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn archery from a master archery like King Chen. ”

Xie Guanglong was surprised. "Chen Wang Liu Pet?"

"Yes, he accepted General Sun's invitation to teach the children of the Sun family to practice archery, and the archers in the army also followed him for a period of time, and the progress was obvious. A master is a master, not only his archery skills are good, but also his vision is unique, and he can see our shortcomings at a glance, just like a famous doctor to cure the disease. ”

Xie Guanglong looked at Xie Kuan and nodded again and again. He has been in Runan with Liu Pi for many years, so he naturally knows the prestige of King Chen and Liu Chong. But he never thought that he could ask King Chen for archery skills, one is a yellow turban thief, the other is a king, their status is very different, and they are not people of the same world at all. Younger brother Xie Kuan has average talent, and it is a rare luck to get the guidance of King Chen.

"Zhong Guang, you see, this is your luck. I have been in Runan for so many years, and I have not had the opportunity to ask King Chen for advice, but you have such an opportunity. It's your luck, no one can take it away. Cherish it, the Xie family will depend on you in the future. ”

Xie Kuan frowned. "You still won't go back?"

Xie Guanglong was stunned for a moment and shook his head. "I'm used to it, I don't like to stay in one place for too long."

"Are you married? I took a leave of absence to visit your house. ”

Xie Guanglong turned his head, looked at Xie Kuan for a moment, sighed, and didn't say anything, just patted Xie Kuan's shoulder. Xie Kuan saw it in his eyes, knowing that Xie Guanglong had achieved nothing all these years, so he was ashamed in his heart and didn't ask again. He was silent for a moment, gritted his teeth, walked quickly in front of Sun Ce, and bowed down.

"General, be brave and courageous, and ask for something."

Sun Ce looked at Xie Guanglong in the distance, and he had a rough score in his heart. Liu Bi didn't know the inside story, but just looked at Xie Kuan curiously, feeling that Sun Ce was really generous to his subordinates, and an ordinary military marquis dared to make a request directly.

"What's the matter?" Sun Ce gave Xie Kuanan a look as he spoke, and motioned for him to beg Liu Bi. Xie Guanglong is Liu Pi's personal guard, not an ordinary guard, he can't transfer him casually, he must agree to Liu Bi. Xie Kuan understood, hurriedly saluted Liu Pi, and told the Xie family about it. Only then did Liu Bi understand, stared at Xie Kuan and looked at it, and nodded again and again.

"No wonder I look a little like you, it turns out that you are brothers. In that case, how can I let your brother be separated, let him follow General Sun. Liu Bi saluted Sun Ce again. General, Xie Guanglong has outstanding martial arts, it's a pity to follow me, just let him follow the general. ”

Sun Ce nodded in agreement.

Xie Guanglong was grateful and gave Liu Pishen a salute.