The Warriors of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 397 Changes in Situation
Jiangdong was mourning, and Sun Quan frowned after learning that Dongfang Shengxing's troops had entered Jiangdong.

His elder brother Sun Ce relied on Zhang Zhao and Zhou Yu, only Zhou Yu was a native of Jiangdong, and Zhang Zhao was a scholar in exile from Xuzhou.Because the Sun family was an outsider, and Sun Ce used violent methods in the early stage, the Jiangdong gentry did not have much sense of attachment to the Sun family, and even had a faint hatred. For example, the Jiangdong Lu family was wiped out by Sun Ce.

So this time Zhou Yu led [-] troops into battle and returned in a disastrous defeat. Zhang Zhao, another Sun family's current "Minister Gu Ming", clearly expressed his dissatisfaction, and at the same time began to throw out his theory of surrender.

Of course, Zhang Zhao wanted to rely on Cao Cao instead of Dongfang Sheng. For this reason, Sun Quan's main generals have joined forces and divided into two factions. The surrender faction headed by Zhang Zhao suggested that Sun Quan surrender to Cao Cao.

The other faction is undoubtedly the main attacking faction headed by Zhou Yu. They advocate repelling Dongfang Sheng's attack. For this reason, they can ally with Cao Cao but cannot surrender to Cao Cao.

The two factions were arguing fiercely. Of course, Zhou Yu naturally thought of Lu Su, who was also a representative of the powerful gentry, in order to gain overwhelming strength in the debate.

Who would have thought that Zhou Yu would be shut out.

Lu Su's servant claimed that Lu Su had not returned home, and Zhou Yu didn't know the truth for a while and could only go back temporarily.

Then when Dongfang Sheng was approaching Jiangdong, Sun Quan finally made the decision to join forces with Cao Cao to attack Dongfang Sheng, but at this time Cao Cao's troops had already reached the border between Yizhou and Youzhou.

Dongfang Sheng's instigation plan was very successful, and he instigated Yuan Tan and Zhang Yang almost effortlessly. Of course, these two guys also had their own objections.

For a while, most of Cao Cao's land in Jizhou fell. After hearing the news, Cao Cao, who had always been prudent, panicked a little because he dispatched most of his troops to attack Dongfang Sheng.

Xudu is extremely empty now, once Yuan Tan and the others capture Xudu, then everything will be over.

After Sun Quan heard the news from Cao Cao's side, his heart was ashamed.

However, Cao Cao was naturally not a fuel-efficient lamp. He did not let the two teams that originally attacked Yizhou and Youzhou come back, but ordered them to continue to attack Yizhou and Youzhou.

He himself took Jingqi to Jizhou to face Yuan Tan and the others.

But Dongfang Sheng doesn't care about other things. Yizhou has Jia Xu and Youzhou has Tianchou. He doesn't worry at all that these two people will lose to anyone under Cao Cao's command.

Now that the rear is stable, Dongfang Sheng will naturally enter Jiangdong without hesitation.

On the first day Dongfang Sheng entered Jiangdong, Lu Su came directly to join Dongfang Sheng.

At the same time, Lu Su also recruited a group of quite powerful Jiangdong gentry to surrender. These people are deeply entrenched in Jiangdong. If the relationship with them is not good, it is simply a dream to rule Jiangdong properly.

Even though Sun Quan relied on the Jiangdong gentry to ascend to the throne in history, he had to distribute the benefits to the Jiangdong gentry in exchange.

In the later period, Wu State was dominated by the Jiangdong gentry, so that Sun Quan even abolished the established prince in order to restrain the Jiangdong gentry, and at the same time killed Sun Ba, the second son who competed with the prince for the throne, which eventually led to the decline of Wu State.

Originally, the economic strength of Wu State was the strongest among the Three Kingdoms, and the strength of Wu State's gentry was also one of the best. They even reached the point of "boy servants formed an army, closed doors for the market, cattle and sheep covered the plains, and fields covered thousands of miles".

Boy servants form an army, which means that these servants of the gentry can make up an army.Closing the door as a market means that these gentry only need to close their homes to act as a market.

Such power of the gentry would not dare to be underestimated even by the extremely powerful Wei State, so Dongfang Sheng still maintained a certain level of courtesy to these gentry.

There are four major families in the Jiangdong gentry: Gu, Lu, Zhu, and Zhang.These four surnames held the highest civil and military official positions in Wu State in history.

Gu Yong of the Gu family served as the prime minister, and Lu Xun of the Lu family served as the general.

Among the gentry that Lu Su brought this time were the Gu family, the Zhu family, and the Zhang family. The Lu family was now in decline after being suppressed by Sun Ce, so they were not able to participate.

Of course, there are some other Jiangdong gentry, such as the Yu family, but Dongfang Sheng is only acquainted, because Lu Su brought dozens of gentry spokespersons, and a conversation is enough to make people collapse.

After the meeting, everyone sat down. Lu Su looked at Dongfang Sheng with expectant eyes and asked, "What will the general plan if he wins Jiangdong?"

As soon as Lu Su's words came out, the rest of the spokespersons of the gentry stretched their necks waiting for Dongfang Sheng's words. They rushed here because they really hated Sun Quan. The most important thing was that they felt that Sun Quan was no longer good and wanted to find another Backing, the purpose is naturally to maintain their existing interests.

"Everything is the same." Dongfang Sheng smiled lightly.

Lu Su breathed a sigh of relief, and the rest of the spokespersons of the gentry also retracted their heads and showed joy.

Dongfang Sheng looked around at the spokespersons of each family, and Zhu, Zhang, and Gu were the most calm. Although these three breathed a sigh of relief, they were not overjoyed.

These gentry clans can still produce talents, but most of them are just second-generation dudes.Dongfang Sheng sighed in his heart.

For the local gentry, Dongfang Sheng will not touch them for the time being. If you touch the cheese in the mouth of the most powerful gentry in Jiangdong from the beginning, you will not want long-term stability.

If you want to move them, you must use the method of boiling frogs in warm water to slowly paralyze them, wait for their defenses to relax, and then take the opportunity to take them down in one fell swoop.

It is nothing for these people to have wealth, even if they own land beyond ordinary people, it is nothing. The most important thing is that these gentry have their own armed forces, which is the most troublesome.

There are tens of thousands of Zhu Jiaguang tribes here. These are real private soldiers that can be pulled out to fight. There are so many gentry in Jiangdong, and each gentry family will raise some private soldiers. If they unite, Dongfang will definitely win. Dare to underestimate the power.

Then Dongfang Sheng discussed the situation in Jiangdong with Lu Su, and also learned from the side that there are two major factions under Sun Quan's command, Zhou Yu's faction is the main attack, and Zhang Zhao's is the main surrender.

At the same time, Lu Su also provided some military information such as Sun Quan's current force structure, food and grass, which is definitely the most valuable news for Dongfang Sheng.

(End of this chapter)