Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

At this moment, Zhou Yu suddenly felt a little depressed, and his brows on his handsome face were slightly frowned.

When Zhou Yu's family moved back to Lujiang County from Luoyang, it was natural that some dirty conflicts would arise within the clan or the entire Lujiang family.

In addition to some reasons that he did not want to mention, Zhou Yu rarely went out in the past year, so he did not notice that Wu County had planted a large number of spies in Lujiang County. Zhou Yu felt that this was understandable.

But the other Lujiang families were also completely unaware of it, which made Zhou Yu feel a little difficult to judge these fellow villagers for the time being.

Just like this... you still want to raise an army to attack Wujun?

"From the beginning, the two sides were not evenly matched..."

Zhou Yu's face showed a hint of bitterness, and he realized that the "gift" he had prepared before might not be of much value.

Sun Ce compared them one by one and found that the details provided by Zhou Yu were not much different from what Wu Jun had learned. This made Sun Ce see the sincerity of the young scholar who came to him on his own initiative.

"Not bad!"

Sun Ce's originally pretended majestic look disappeared for the most part, and instead he revealed a hearty smile and said.

"It would be great if all the noble families in Lujiang were as tactful as you..."

After a pause, Sun Ce pushed the bamboo slips Zhou Yu had presented back onto the table and said, "But there is one item missing, which is the details of the money and grain that the Lujiang Zhou family sent to participate in the alliance, right?"

Zhou Yu smiled helplessly and said, "The fate of the Zhou family in Lujiang was not decided by me alone. All I want is to offer a name and ask for forgiveness for the Zhou family in Lujiang."

Sun Ce smacked his lips, stroking his still smooth chin, and said, "This is a very difficult matter. If I forgive him today, who knows, he might secretly retaliate again tomorrow?"

When Zhou Yu heard this, his slightly drooped eyes brightened a little.

The young general in front of him was talking about being in a difficult situation, rather than shirking his authority to make this decision, which undoubtedly explained a lot.

Although Zhou Yu also disliked the pedantic and narrow-mindedness of his clansmen, they were uncles and brothers from the same clan after all, so it was impossible for Zhou Yu to ignore them.

More importantly, as a member of the Lujiang Zhou family, if the Lujiang Zhou family was liquidated as a whole, Zhou Yu would also be among them.

Immediately, Zhou Yu secretly looked at Sun Ce carefully and bowed again.

"I have not asked for your name, General."

"I am a national hero, Sun Ce from Wu County." Sun Ce raised his chin slightly and spoke with a proud look on his face.

This also made Zhou Yu subconsciously stand up a little, and he paid more attention to Sun Ce.

People want fame, trees want shadow!
Sun Ce was naturally just an unknown person, but the prefix "national hero" added in front of his name was enough to attract Zhou Yu's attention.

After observing Sun Ce's words and expressions, Zhou Yu had initially concluded that he did not have any ulterior motives. However, at this moment he was slightly startled and realized that he might have made the mistake of judging a person by his appearance.

'Is he the type who is extremely cunning or appears foolishly wise?'

Zhou Yu made a new judgment, and for a moment he felt a little nervous. There was often a rumor that "Lü Bu is better in martial arts, and Li Ji is better in literature", and Zhou Yu was naturally quite dissatisfied with this, and had long wanted to compete with Li Ji.

Now facing Li Ji's disciples, how could Zhou Yu not pay great attention to them?

As Sun Ce was a national hero, it was common sense to infer that he must be a resourceful and wise man. So what Sun Ce said just now was very meaningful.

Missing the name of Lujiang Zhou family?
Forgive today and secretly retaliate tomorrow?

These are words that are worth pondering. On the surface, perhaps Sun Ce is just expressing his concerns. But what he is implying secretly is...

Zhou Yu, who was only about sixteen years old and had not yet come out of seclusion in the true sense, had nearly ten possibilities emerge in his mind, and then he quickly decided on the answer.

The Lujiang Zhou family is on Wujun's list. Even if they want to get closer to Wujun again, they must pay a sufficient price to ensure that they will never rebel again.

There is undoubtedly only one most convincing answer: that is, the Lujiang Zhou family must replace a group of decision makers.

This will undoubtedly require bloodshed.

Zhou Yu took a deep breath. He was by no means a hesitant person. He realized that he had underestimated Wu Jun's determination and ruthlessness. He took it for granted that he would be treated leniently if he was the first to offer a reason to get closer to Wu Jun.

However, Zhou Yu could also understand Sun Ce's approach. If Zhou Yu were in power, after establishing absolute advantage, he would definitely not be lenient towards the aristocratic families that would become an unstable factor under his rule.

Zhou Yu had no other choice between Wujun taking the initiative to attack the Zhou family of Lujiang and launching a power grab and purge a group of clan members himself.

Even in the case where Lujiang County was so severely infiltrated, as long as Sun Ce led his army to take over the Lujiang government office, any movement of the county's aristocratic families would not be hidden from the other side, and even if they wanted to escape with their families, they would probably not have the opportunity to do so.

Others are the butchers and I am the meat...

With this thought in mind, Zhou Yu spoke with a hint of heaviness in his originally confident tone.

"Okay, I will let the Lujiang Zhou clan provide sufficient proof, but now I am not yet an adult and my foundation in the clan is weak, so I need General Sun's support to let me become the clan leader."

When Sun Ce heard this, he was unable to react for a moment.

Although due to problems with information transmission, the main attention of the entire Han Dynasty is now still focused on the battle against Dong Zhuo in the Sili area, Jingzhou, Yuzhou and Xuzhou adjacent to Jiangdong will not have extra energy to focus on Yangzhou.

But in order to ensure that they could take advantage of this excellent opportunity to initially swallow up the entire Yangzhou, Wu County almost exhausted all the navy still under its jurisdiction, and even temporarily recruited a number of young and strong fishermen from the public to assist.

Jiujiang County and Lujiang County each sent 4,000 naval forces, Yuzhang County sent 2,000 naval forces, and Danyang County also had only 2,000 naval forces. The purpose was to seize the main ports along the Yangtze River and control the government offices of each county, while preventing the aristocratic families in each county from choosing to flee when they saw the situation was not good.

Now that the anti-Wu coalition has been defeated, Wu County sees the aristocratic families in each county as treasure chests waiting to be opened. How can they be allowed to escape so easily?
Therefore, after Sun Ce confirmed Zhou Yu's sincerity, he immediately wanted to win over Zhou Yu, make the Lujiang Zhou family an example, and temporarily appease the Lujiang aristocratic families.

Anyway, all the leverage over the Lujiang family is already in the hands of Wujun, waiting to truly control the entire Yangzhou. It won't be too late to slowly settle the score with Liu Bei and Li Ji after they return to Wujun.

Therefore, the reason why Sun Ce asked so many questions just now was purely to directly warn Wu Jun to understand the situation of Lujiang Zhou family and then to use both kindness and force. (End of this chapter)