Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 298 292. Difficulty in ruling the country
Facing Zhuge Ke's bewilderment and a hint of fear, Zhuge Jin just shook his head. What Dongwu couldn't do two years ago when it was at its peak, how could Jiangdong, which is already in turmoil, do it now? Destruction is only a matter of time.

As expected, Zhuge Jin had only stayed in Chengdu for a few days when he received an invitation from Zhuge Liang to visit his home for a chat.

"Ajun!"

When Zhuge Jin arrived, he found that a middle-aged man had arrived earlier. It was Zhuge Jun, the youngest of the three Zhuge brothers.

After Kong Ming came out of seclusion to assist Liu Bei, he initially left Zhuge Jun in Nanyang to farm. Later, when Zhuge Liang came to Sichuan, he was in urgent need of manpower to share his worries. Thinking that Zhuge Jun had been farming for several years and had tempered his character, he simply sent a letter home to invite Zhuge Jun to Sichuan.

Zhuge Jun and Zhuge Jin had not seen each other for decades, so the two brothers were naturally overjoyed to meet again.

"Brother is here? Ah Jun is back from his trip to his grandparents' home today, so the three of us brothers just happened to be together."

Zhuge Liang waited for Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Jun to chat for a few words before coming out of the inner room and taking the two of them to sit down. The three brothers drank happily.

After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Zhuge Liang's expression suddenly changed and he became serious.

"Brother, I have something else to tell you today."

Zhuge Jin saw Kong Ming's serious face and knew that it must be related to him. Now, the only thing that could be related to him was probably the affairs of Jiangdong.

"Could it be that the war in Jiangdong has been decided?"

Zhuge Jin's hand holding the wine glass shook unconsciously, but he still spoke tremblingly.

"That's right. Yesterday, the Grand Commander Feng Xi sent a report of the battle, saying that Sun Quan had been executed and his body was being transported to Chengdu. Since Sun Quan, many civil and military officials in Jiangdong have fought to the death or sacrificed their lives for their country, and many have also surrendered."

Zhuge Liang tried to speak as calmly as possible. He could understand that after all, Dongwu was the place where his elder brother had devoted most of his life's efforts. Now it was gone, and it would be a lie to say that he was not sad.

Zhuge Jin remained silent and drank several cups.

"Big brother..."

Zhuge Jun, who was standing by, was a little worried when he saw Zhuge Jin's look and raised his hand to stop Zhuge Jin.

"Ajun, it's okay. Now that you and I are here, I won't do anything stupid. Aliang, does the battle report say how His Majesty died?"

Zhuge Jin held Zhuge Jun's hand and shook his head to indicate that he was fine. Then he looked at Zhuge Liang, wanting to know all the details.

Zhuge Liang nodded, and then attached the contents of Feng Xi's battle report. Feng Xi's battle report described in detail how Xu Shu led a small army to march along the hinterland of Eastern Wu, and then also wrote about how Sun Quan was framed by Xu Shu in Wujun and died from a hail of arrows piercing his heart.

"Alas... I never thought that Great Wu would end up like this. When Zhou Yu was alive, he was so handsome and heroic, and the Jiangdong navy looked down on the world, and no one dared to challenge him. Now, in just 20 years, he ended up dead."

Zhuge Jin had experienced the rise and fall of the Eastern Wu, and he was deeply moved by this. Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jun looked at each other in silence and could only comfort Zhuge Jin.

Fortunately, Zhuge Jin was able to save his life and property under such circumstances, which was a blessing in disguise. When Zhuge Jin returned home and told Zhuge Ke about the destruction of the Eastern Wu, Zhuge Ke's reaction was even more intense. He was like being struck by lightning, his eyes were dull, and he sat in a chair for a long time, and then he locked himself in the house for several days.

When Zhuge Ke came out again, he had lost a lot of weight and looked haggard. It was probably because he truly felt the same sadness as the future poet Du Fu, who saw his country's destruction.

Zhuge Jin's family only needs to be sad, but Zhuge Liang has a lot of things to consider.

Now that Jiangdong has been secured, Li Yan can prepare to take up his post. Once Li Yan leaves, the selection of the governor of Shangyong County will have to be carefully considered. In addition, resources from various places need to be deployed, so Zhuge Liang really has no time to spare.

While Zhuge Liang was busy, Feng Xi also encountered many problems.

First of all, there are many aristocratic families in Jiangdong. Although the Han army has taken over Jiangdong, many Jiangdong nobles who are dissatisfied with the Han army's rule are still trying to find ways to cause trouble for the Han army.

Feng Xi's method for dealing with these people was still simple and crude, that is, to let the aristocratic families that they did not get along with report these aristocratic families, and then the Han army had a reason to directly imprison these people or behead them. Although it caused some riots, more people cared about the vacant positions left after the death of these guys who were just sitting there doing nothing.

At the same time, taking advantage of the fact that the Han army was now at its peak, Feng Xi introduced many reform measures that had already been implemented in the Jingzhou area into Jiangdong. With the examples set by those aristocratic families, no one dared to continue to sing a different tune, at least openly.

In addition to internal troubles, there are also external threats.

The Shanyue had always been a major concern for Jiangdong. Now that the environment in Jiangdong had stabilized, Feng Xi had received reports from many counties, saying that the Shanyue had taken advantage of the Han army's eastward expedition to harass the surrounding counties, causing a lot of losses.

Now that the Han army has conquered the Eastern Wu, they have to deal with this problem. However, Feng Xi is still quite confident about dealing with the Shanyue. First, Feng Xi has the memory of the future, and he knows exactly how the Eastern Wu dealt with the Shanyue. At worst, he can just copy it.

Secondly, the Shanyue issue is essentially a matter of gathering in the mountains, and Feng Xi is not without a solution to this problem.

Under Feng Xi's order, except for the navy that continued to guard against Cao Wei, most of the Han army arrived at the counties bordering the Shanyue, and then organized local laborers to begin clearing the local dense forests and bushes.

This will not only obtain a lot of timber resources, but also compress the forest environment on which the Shanyue people depend for their survival.

Then, Feng Xi ordered the soldiers to use loudspeakers to continuously publicize the policies of the Han army, which had always provided preferential treatment to the Shanyue people who took the initiative to leave the mountains and join the Han Dynasty.

Then, it was a matter of giving a date and then hitting it with a stick. For the Shanyue who came out of the mountains to harass, we must be ruthless. It is best to capture them alive, but if we cannot capture them alive, we must kill as many as possible. At the same time, we built more earth walls, fences, trenches and other things in various places, so that the Shanyue could not form a numerical advantage in local battles.

You have to know that the Eastern Wu in the original timeline could easily kill a large number of Shanyue. How could the Han army, which is several times stronger than the Eastern Wu, not be able to do it?

Occasionally, a small group of Shanyue who continued to descend the mountain were captured directly by the Han army, with hundreds or even thousands of people captured at a time. Feng Xi also ordered each tribe to select some Shanyue people who seemed to be loyal to the Central Plains and release them back, so that they could promote the policies of the Han Dynasty on their behalf.

After a few visits, in less than a month, tens of thousands of Shanyue people came down the mountain to surrender. Feng Xi dispersed them, settled them in various places, and let them assimilate into the Han culture.

As the autumn harvest was approaching, Feng Xi also ordered the Han army to cooperate with each other, advance gradually, and go into the mountains to harvest the Shanyue people's grain, intending to force them to attack.

(End of this chapter)