Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

This also led to Sun Ce being somewhat unable to react to Zhou Yu's request for support in his bid to become the clan leader.

He should have been the one putting pressure on Zhou Yu, so why was Zhou Yu making demands instead?

This caused Sun Ce's originally cheerful expression to darken slightly. If Sun Ce hadn't had such a good impression of Zhou Yu beforehand and hadn't inexplicably developed a desire to befriend him, he would have already kicked Zhou Yu out.

Did he think I was a fool?

Did he think I was easy to talk to?

Sun Ce, with a hint of anger rising on his face, sized up Zhou Yu for a few moments but didn't explode.

Currently, Sun Ce only had four thousand troops. Controlling the ferry crossings along the Lujiang River and the government office was already quite a stretch.

Sun Ce might not have been able to think of a good way to stabilize the Lujiang aristocratic families effectively, but he understood that promoting a model Lujiang aristocratic family that completely sided with Wu Commandery would have a certain effect.

"Okay…"

Sun Ce nodded first, then said, "But you need to serve under my command and help me stabilize the situation in Lujiang."

This wasn't because Sun Ce was particularly far-sighted, but rather a form of retaliation based on the displeasure he felt.

Zhou Yu's ability to foresee the changes in the Jiangdong situation and understand that the anti-Wu alliance was a trap undoubtedly proved to Sun Ce that he wasn't an ordinary person.

Moreover, Zhou Yu was a member of the Lujiang aristocratic families and was certainly more familiar with the local area. Therefore, Sun Ce wanted to at least gain some advantage from Zhou Yu.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yu couldn't help but sigh inwardly that Sun Ce was indeed a disciple of a great scholar, with such impressive political skills.

Once Zhou Yu became the leader of the Lujiang Zhou clan and then joined Sun Ce's command, the message conveyed to the outside world, besides the Lujiang Zhou clan completely siding with Wu Commandery, was a template for how to escape Wu Commandery's purge.

No aristocratic family was absolutely harmonious internally; there would always be different voices.

For example, in the Lujiang Zhou clan, Zhou Yu was strongly opposed to participating in the anti-Wu alliance, but as a result, his voice was weak and he couldn't stop the elders in the family from making the decision.

Or Zhou Yu might be able to directly and forcefully ascend to the position with Sun Ce's promised help, but that didn't mean that the other Lujiang aristocratic families would be able to do the same.

It was conceivable that once this news came out, Sun Ce wouldn't need to use a single soldier to make the originally terrified aristocratic families begin to divide and fight, directly shifting the contradiction originally between the Lujiang aristocratic families and Wu Commandery to within the Lujiang aristocratic families.

'In the end, I underestimated the heroes of the world. Even a disciple like Sun Ce, who hasn't even reached adulthood, is so capable. What kind of divine strategist must the great scholar Li Ji be?'

At this moment, even if Zhou Yu didn't want to admit it, he realized that he truly felt the pressure from the number one person of this era.

These thoughts flashed through Zhou Yu's mind, allowing him to quickly sort out the consequences of the current decision in just a few moments before nodding slightly and saying,

"Then I will be under General Sun's care from now on. If Zhou Yu has any shortcomings or foolishness, please point them out."

"Hahaha…"

As Zhou Yu agreed so readily, Sun Ce's impression of Zhou Yu improved by another three points.

Sun Ce was most annoyed by wishy-washy people, and Zhou Yu's temperament and bearing were somewhat similar to Li Ji, not to mention that he made decisions very decisively and directly, unlike that kid Gu Yuan, who would always pretend to be stupid and look left and right, which made Sun Ce quite appreciate him.

"Now that you are temporarily under my command, you are one of us. There is no need to be so polite. Just call me by my name and treat each other as brothers," Sun Ce said cheerfully and generously.

Instantly, while several thoughts flashed through Zhou Yu's mind, on the surface, he smiled elegantly and said,

"This is truly Yu's good fortune. I was born in June of the fourth year of Xiping. I wonder when the General was born?"

Sun Ce said with some surprise, "Oh? That's a coincidence. I was also born in the fourth year of Xiping, but in May, so I'm a little older."

(PS: Fourth year of Xiping = 175 AD.)

Zhou Yu cupped his hands and saluted, "Then your brother will pay his respects to his elder brother here."

Sun Ce already had some intention of befriending Zhou Yu, and since Zhou Yu had followed along and struck up a friendship, he didn't refuse, but instead said with a smile,

"Okay, then I will boldly call you Brother Yu from now on. From now on, we two will be considered brothers."

Immediately, Sun Ce pulled Zhou Yu down to sit down. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he continued,

"Brother Yu, I'm just worried about how to stabilize the situation in Lujiang and wait for Chief Clerk Jia to send a large army to take over. I wonder if Brother Yu has any brilliant plan to help me?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yu was stunned for a moment, and a hint of surprise instinctively appeared in his eyes as he looked at Sun Ce.

Just now, Sun Ce had already shown amazing political skills, intending to use the Lujiang Zhou clan to cause the Lujiang aristocratic families to turn against each other, thereby gaining an invincible position. This was already the best policy, so wasn't it enough?

'Is he testing me? Or does he simply think that this is not stable enough, so he wants me to check for omissions?'

Zhou Yu secretly guessed, combining it with Sun Ce's warm and friendly attitude just now, this time he felt that Sun Ce's main intention was the latter.

Immediately, Zhou Yu asked unhurriedly, "How does elder brother plan to act next?"

Sun Ce had no intention of hiding anything,

"After controlling Xiang'an Ford, send a team of soldiers to control the Lujiang Commandery government office, and then send the remaining troops to quickly bring the river crossings along the Lujiang Commandery under control, forcibly cutting off the possibility of the Lujiang aristocratic families escaping along the Yangtze River."

Zhou Yu stared at Sun Ce with wide eyes, and even his head couldn't help but tilt slightly, and several question marks subconsciously appeared in his mind.

Huh? ? ?

Although Xiang'an Ford was the main ferry crossing of Lujiang Commandery, there were no less than five other river crossings along the Lujiang Commandery, not to mention other natural docks that were suitable for temporary mooring of ships even if they weren't ferry crossings.

And from what Zhou Yu had just seen, Sun Ce's navy might be called elite, but the number definitely didn't exceed five thousand.

Under the circumstances that he had to control key places such as the Lujiang Commandery government office, how many troops could he spare to control each ferry crossing?

Moreover, Lujiang Commandery was located in the north of the Yangtze River, connected to the Yangtze River in the south, and connected to many water systems such as the Huai River, Guo River, and Ying River in the north. Blindly guarding against it would be like fishing with a large net, which would inevitably be full of loopholes.

Therefore, it wasn't that Sun Ce's plan was unfeasible, but it could only be called mediocre, which was greatly inconsistent with Zhou Yu's assessment of Sun Ce's ability.

'Could it be… that he's deliberately testing me?'

Zhou Yu had such a thought in his mind, which, besides Sun Ce being really useless, was the only reasonable explanation Zhou Yu could think of for the time being.

Immediately, Zhou Yu smiled slightly and said, "Since elder brother wants to test me, then I will say a few words shamelessly, and please elder brother comment."

Zhou Yu's humility and politeness made Sun Ce quite appreciative, and he said cheerfully, "Brother Yu, just say it, it doesn't matter if there are any mistakes."

"Sun Tzu said: Water has no constant shape, and soldiers have no constant form."

Zhou Yu waved his sleeves, but this was the first time he had pointed out the country and talked about strategies in front of outsiders.

This made Zhou Yu unable to restrain himself for a while, and he felt a bit heroic and impassioned, saying,

"The situation in Lujiang is also like this. Blindly blocking will inevitably have loopholes. If you want to prevent some desperate Lujiang aristocratic families from escaping, it is better to dredge than to block."

"It's okay to open the Yangtze River ferry crossings. Elder brother only needs to quickly control Shuxian, the seat of Lujiang, with thunderous force, and station two thousand soldiers in it."

"Then, elder brother should lead an elite force with many flags and patrol the cities of Lujiang to intimidate people, and post notices every time he passes by, expressing an attitude of non-aggression towards the local people and aristocratic families."

"Elder brother can even take the opportunity to marry a daughter of a Lujiang aristocratic family as a concubine to show closeness. In this way, by combining kindness and power, he can not only temporarily appease the people, but also make the Lujiang aristocratic families hold a wait-and-see attitude and not easily escape."

"At that time, with the cooperation of my Lujiang Zhou clan, and with elder brother's power and skills, the Lujiang aristocratic families will be just grasshoppers in elder brother's palm."

Sun Ce, who was originally listening with great interest, couldn't help but be stunned when he heard the last sentence.

'My power and skills?'

Sun Ce had at least followed Li Ji for many years. When he was young, he was determined to follow Li Ji to learn how to use strategies, but the heavy blow from his talent made Sun Ce realize what reality was.

If you can't learn it, you can't learn it…

However, although Sun Ce has always found it difficult to master the essence of how to use strategies, he has been able to make accurate judgments about whether a strategy is feasible or not under years of influence.

The strategy that Zhou Yu had just said, Sun Ce almost couldn't help but applaud and praise, but Zhou Yu's last compliment made Sun Ce unable to figure out where his power and skills were?

Sun Ce admitted that he definitely had martial skills, but power and skills…

"Cough cough, Brother Yu is overpraising me."

Sun Ce was not a thick-skinned person, and he was quite self-aware, so he changed the subject and said,

"However, what Brother Yu said is exactly what I want, so let's do it that way."

Although he had only known Zhou Yu for less than an hour, Sun Ce believed in his judgment. Zhou Yu's plan was much better than his original plan.

Instead of guarding against it strictly, it was better to control the Lujiang Commandery seat and patrol around to deter those who were disloyal.

Sun Ce's style of doing things was even more evident in the word "decisive". Immediately, except for leaving five hundred people to guard Xiang'an Ford, he directly led the entire army straight to Shuxian.

This scene fell into Zhou Yu's eyes, and naturally he wouldn't think that Sun Ce would directly believe someone he had just met for less than an hour, and make a decision in an instant, taking the other party's suggestion as a marching strategy.

Therefore, Zhou Yu only thought that Sun Ce himself thought so, and the two sides inadvertently had the same idea.

… …

While Sun Ce was attacking Lujiang, Sun Jian led his troops from Sili, marching towards Changsha with almost no rest.

Days of rapid marching had left Sun Jian's troops exhausted and demoralized, with desertions occurring frequently... (End of Chapter)