12dz Chapter 274: Warfare is no good; the balance of power is the strongest principle among the three kin
Chapter 274: Warfare is no good; the balance of power is the strongest principle among the three kin
On the fourth day of the second lunar month, the sky cleared, and Sun Ce died.
Guo Jia hesitated for a long time with the letter, and only wrote this one sentence.
It wasn't that Guo Jia was bad at writing, nor that he had nothing to write about; rather, he felt that the real show in Jiangdong was just beginning.
Sun Quan's prestige in the army was far inferior to that of Sun Ce, and even compared to Sun Yi.
According to intelligence reports, Zhou Yu and Zhang Hong, the two trusted ministers entrusted with the care of the young emperor, had a major disagreement on who should be his successor.
If Guo Jia's guess is correct, Zhang Hong should support Sun Yi, while Zhou Yu supports Sun Quan.
The reason is easy to understand.
Zhou Yu and Zhang Hong were both from Huai and Si.
Logically speaking, the two should have been on the same page.
But Zhang Hong was Sun Yi's teacher.
Although Zhou Yu and Sun Quan were not teacher and student, Sun Quan often consulted him on military strategy, and their personal relationship was naturally closer.
Of course, personal feelings are only one factor to consider.
The deciding factor was that Zhou Yu came from the Zhou family of Lujiang in the Huai-Si region.
The Zhou family had produced two generations of high-ranking officials, so they had seen a lot and were very clear about the consequences of continuing to be enemies with the powerful families of Jiangdong.
The powerful families of Jiangdong may not necessarily perish, but the Sun family army will definitely not have peace, and may even be destroyed by other warlords!
With Zhou Yu's wisdom, it wouldn't be difficult to guess who was behind Sun Ce's death.
However, if Jiangdong is to be stabilized, cooperating with the Jiangdong aristocratic families is an essential task.
When Sun Ce was still alive, Zhou Yu had repeatedly advised him against it, but Sun Ce could never swallow his anger.
At present, Sun Yi, whose personality is exactly the same as Sun Ce's, will only continue to implement the administrative measures that Sun Ce was in.
Only Sun Quan could facilitate cooperation between the Sun family army and the powerful families of Jiangdong!
Whether Zhou Yu could persuade Zhang Hong or not was not important.
Sun Ce was persuaded by him, so the person who would inherit the Sun family army naturally became Sun Quan, not Sun Yi.
With this in mind, Guo Jia added another sentence to the letter:
"Zhou Gongjin is a more dangerous person than Sun Bofu!"
"Should we dig up the Zhou family's ancestral graves?"
"Alright, let's let him off the hook for now, and dig him out when we need to."
Poor Zhou Yu had no idea that whether the Zhou family's ancestral tombs could be preserved depended entirely on the decision of Guo Jia, the sixth son of the family.
And Zhou Yu, whom Guo Jia was talking about.
At this moment, he is also busy assisting Sun Quan in handling various military and political affairs.
……
chaisang
City Lord's Mansion
Sun Quan, dressed in white linen robes, had his brows furrowed so deeply they almost formed the character "川" (river).
Two major problems were facing Sun Quan.
First, how to restore relations with the Jiangdong aristocratic families?
This requires a catalyst that takes into account both the feelings of the Jiangdong aristocratic families and the feelings of Sun's old subordinates.
Second, a bunch of powerful ministers and a bunch of arrogant and fierce generals!
When Sun Ce was alive, he could keep these people in check. But after Sun Ce died, they all became restless and eager to make their own moves.
Sun Quan took out five slips of paper, picked out the first three, and wrote down the following three names on them.
Prefect of Danyang, Wu Jing.
Xu Kun, the Prefect of Kuaiji (whose surname was not Cai).
Sun Ben was the Prefect of Poyang.
After a slight hesitation, Sun Quan wrote down the following on the last two slips of paper:
Left Protector General, Sun Yi.
The leader of the central army was Zhou Yu.
The question is, why write down the names of these five people?
These five people, apart from Sun Quan himself, held the most military power within the entire Sun family army!
Right Protector General was Sun Quan's position in the Sun family army at this time.
If the military power of the Sun family army after Sun Ce's death is divided into six parts, Sun Quan only occupies one part.
The center of the Han Dynasty was the best, the left was the second best, and the right was the worst.
Besides his uncle Wu Jing, his eldest cousin Sun Ben, and his cousin Xu Kun, who were all powerful prefects.
Zhou Yu commanded the most troops, followed by Sun Yi, and Sun Quan commanded the fewest.
The situation was beyond critical; Sun Quan could be overthrown at any moment!
It should be noted that both Uncle Wu Jing and eldest cousin Sun Ben were dissatisfied with Sun Ce's succession as head of the family and wanted to start their own family!
If Yuan Shu hadn't declared himself emperor, Wu Jing and Sun Ben would have had no future following him, and perhaps the two of them wouldn't have chosen to join Sun Ce at all.
My cousin Xu Kun was a powerful figure in Kuaiji Commandery, a real opportunist who had defected from Wang Lang's command.
A cousin like that, what kind of loyalty could he possibly have to Sun Quan!
The relationship between Sun Quan's third brother, Sun Yi, and Sun Quan was never good.
In Sun Yi's eyes, Sun Quan was a coward!
A real man fights to the very end!
For the foreseeable future, Sun Yi may continue to follow Sun Ce's dying wish and support his second brother, Sun Quan.
But what if one day, someone with ulterior motives comes along and stirs things up beside Sun Yi?
It's easy to imagine that Sun Yi would definitely turn against Sun Quan at any moment!
Among the five people with the most military power in Sun Quan's army, only Zhou Yu would firmly support Sun Quan, which was the biggest source of confidence for Sun Quan to rise to power.
But apart from Zhou Yu, the other four are bombs that could explode at any time!
This is only an internal problem.
As for external threats, let's leave aside Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, and Liu Biao for now.
Even just figuring out how to restore relations with the Jiangdong aristocratic families is a skill in itself.
Honestly, in this situation, anyone else would be unable to sleep well!
Only Sun Quan, this cunning and scheming guy, a master of internal strife, could continue to play the game.
Suddenly, Sun Quan got up from his seat, wiping away his tears as he went to the backyard.
"Mother! Mother!"
Sun Quan's sorrowful appearance moved even Lady Wu.
"Mother, you have to help me."
As soon as Sun Quan finished speaking, Lady Wu dismissed everyone around her, leaving not even her maids behind.
"Quan'er, don't worry, your mother will always be on your side!"
As the wife of the "Tiger of Jiangdong" and the mother of the "Little Overlord," Wu Guotai was a rare heroine among women.
A smile appeared on Sun Quan's lips.
"Mother, Uncle is so rude!"
“When his elder brother passed away, he relied on his status as an elder and did not come to pay his respects in person.”
Lady Wu frowned and said:
"Your uncle did something wrong."
"Quan'er, if your uncle has any rebellious intentions, your mother will personally make him hand over his military power and retire to his hometown."
Don't assume that just because Wu Guotai is Wu Jing's older sister, she will side with Wu Jing.
Women in the Han Dynasty mostly believed in following their husbands' lead and were connected to their husbands' families.
Moreover, Sun Ce, Sun Quan, Sun Yi, and Sun Shangxiang were the biological children of Lady Wu.
What biological mother wouldn't protect her children?
Unlike some of the more effeminate women of later generations who were so bizarre as to use their husbands' family savings to subsidize their own families!
Sun Quan cried again:
"Mother, I am worried about my uncle."
"My uncle was a hero of our time who fought alongside my father to conquer the world!"
"My child... doesn't need him!"
Wu Guotai sighed, her gaze gradually hardening as she said:
"Quan'er, what do you need your mother's help with?"
Sun Quan whispered in his ear:
"Mother, if this is the case, Uncle will definitely come to Chaisang in person!"
"At that time, Mother will help me..."
……
PS: We should acknowledge the positive aspects. Sun Quan was incompetent in warfare, but he was also bad at internal strife, creating a system of checks and balances, and harming powerful clans. Cao Cao and Liu Bei had to step aside.