Sun Ce returned to the camp, convened Quan Rou and others to discuss matters, and announced his decision.

When Sun Jian died, their brothers wanted to go back to Wujun to handle the funeral. The matters of Hebei were handed over to Quanrou and Wen Chou. Sun Ce transferred Cui Yan to join the army to assist Quanrou in handling military affairs. Cui Yan had assisted Ju Su in handling related affairs, was familiar with military affairs, and was interested in changing to military positions. Sun Ce was willing to give him this opportunity.

Quan Rou was a little surprised, but she didn't think much about it. Sun Jian passed away and Sun Quan thought it was time to go back to attend the funeral. There was nothing to doubt about.

After adjusting Changshan's affairs, Sun Ce took Sun Quan back to Zhongshan, and then arranged for him to set off and rush back to Wujun first.

The day after Sun Quan left, Sun Ce summoned the generals to discuss. Facing dozens of military advisors from the Military Advisory Office, joining the army, and generals above the commander of each battalion of the Central Army, Ju Su came up with his plan. Ju Su was not limited to northern Hebei, nor to Youzhou. He focused on the entire northern border, and Bingzhou and Liangzhou were considered, and Bingzhou was centered on it.

Ju Su believed that northern Hebei was in a disadvantageous position in the terrain, and even if Jingxing was recaptured, it would not be able to cross Taihang and attack Taiyuan. The best way was to enter Bingzhou from Youzhou, first take Yanmen, and then go south from Yanmen to threaten behind Taiyuan.

There is no doubt that war horses are one of the most important strategic resources of this era. If you control the grassland, you will control the war horses. Without war horses, even if Liu Bei occupied Bingzhou, he would not be able to advance eastward and go south, and at most he would rely on his geographical advantage to defend himself.

At this point, he had a personal feeling. Because he had never been able to truly control Youzhou, Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan could not get enough war horses, and the cavalry became weaker and weaker, and was finally suppressed by Liu Bei until Wei was destroyed.

Seizing the northern part of Bingzhou has another great significance: curbing the Hu people. The Hu people live by chasing water and grass, and the northern part of Youzhou, Bingzhou, and to Liangzhou, are all pastures on which the Hu people depend for survival. Dou Xian went to fight against the Northern Xiongnu and tied the stone Yanran, the court relaxed its vigilance against the Hu people and watched the Xiongnu. The Xianbei people grew stronger. They not only occupied the marginal counties, but also went deep into the Senei. Now Yanmen, Xihe and Shangjun in Bingzhou were all occupied by the Xiongnu, not to mention the Wuyuan. During the chaos of the Yellow Turbans, the Xiongnu could easily break into Hanoi. Now the Huns were crippled by Jia Xu, and the Xianbei people still had their strength. If they were not curbed, they would make a comeback soon.

Seizing the pasture with abundant water and grass and driving them to the depths of the desert can fundamentally control their development.

As for Jingxing, there is no need to worry. Whether Liu Bei has just escaped to Henoi is a problem whether he can gain a foothold in Bingzhou. It is impossible to have the strength to go to Taihang in a short period of time. It is too wasteful to transport grain from Taiyuan. It will not take long before Zhang Fei will withdraw the main force back to Taiyuan and leave a small number of infantry to guard Jingxing Pass. The possibility of taking the initiative is not high. If you consider capturing Jingxing at that time, it will be much less difficult. If you force it too tightly, the court will feel the pressure, which may instead allow Liu Bei to enter Bingzhou and strengthen the power of Bingzhou.

After fierce discussion, Ju Ju Su's plan passed the questioning successfully, but failed to get the highest level evaluation. It was just a high-level B. The reason was that the plan was too large, there were too many variables, and the feasibility was affected. No one dared to say whether it could be implemented as expected. The more grand the plan was, the more so it was. Liu Ye's Jizhou strategy was unexpected. It was not expected that Liu Bei would leave without a fight, and the plan to encircle and annihilate Liu Bei failed as soon as it was launched. Ju Su's plan was more complicated and had more variables than Liu Ye's plan.

Cui Yan, who participated in the plan, was a little disappointed and felt that the military advisor, mainly Ruying and Huai Si, deliberately made things difficult for Ju Su. Ju Su had no feelings and accepted the result calmly.

Sun Ce immediately sent a letter to Shen You, ordering him to move to Zhuo County and be responsible for the war from Youzhou to attack Taiyuan. Now that the front line has been advanced to Hanoi, there will be no longer large-scale wars in Qingzhou, and it is meaningless for Shen You to stay in Qingzhou. It is better to go to the grassland to try your skills.

This task was originally reserved for Taishi Ci, but in Liaodong, Taishi Ci couldn't escape. He himself had to go back to deal with Sun Jian's funeral, so he could not stay for a long time, so he could only give Shen You a favor. In order to strengthen Shen You's cavalry power, Sun Ce also ordered Taishi Ci to remove Gongsun Du's position as General Du Liao, demoted to a partial general, and transferred to Shen You's position to obey orders. Yan Xing took over the position of General Du Liao.

Everything was arranged and Sun Ce led the navy to the east. If he didn't leave, the amount of water in the water would decrease and the large tower ship would not be able to leave.

Before leaving, Sun Ce summoned Guan Jing.

After Guan Jing surrendered in Xiancheng, he had not received any arrangements. When he learned that Sun Ce had summoned him, he did not dare to neglect and rushed to the scene immediately. The boat was ready to go. Sun Ce received Guan Jing on Feilu, prepared tea and snacks, and asked Guan Jing to take his seat.

Guan Jing was nervous and sat opposite Sun Ce.

"Yuan, how many years have you followed Liu Bei?" Sun Ce picked up the teapot, poured a cup of tea, and pushed it to Guan Jing. Guan Jing bowed to thank him, held the tea cup in both hands, and thought for a while. "At the end of the sixth year of Chuping, Gongsun Bogui died in battle, and it has been almost six years."

“How about these six years?”

Guan Jing smiled bitterly. "I am just a careless person and have no desire to have any extravagance."

Sun Ce smiled. He knew that Guan Jing had not been doing well in the past few years, especially after Feng Ji entered the curtain, he basically faded out of Liu Bei's vision. This man was born in an average and had some knowledge, but not very good. He was still a talented person under Gongsun Zan, and was far inferior to Feng Ji, and he was not well-known or capable enough.

"I heard from Bosi that you are rigorous in your work and follow the laws, and you have the style of a legalist?"

Guan Jing shook his head with a wry smile. "General Gongsun praised it and was ashamed of being accused of being a cruel official. There is no academic experience to speak of."

Sun Ce pondered for a moment. "I want to appoint Yuan An as the governor of Jizhou, but I don't know what Yuan An wants to do?"

"How dare you, how dare you?" Guan Jing subconsciously said a few humble words, suddenly realized something was wrong, raised his head in surprise, and looked at Sun Ce with his eyes straight at him. Sun Ce smiled but said nothing. After a while, Guan Jing realized that he was rude, so he quickly withdrew his gaze, put down the teacup, and bowed: "The king is wrong, Jing is grateful, but..."

"Don't rush to refuse. It's not too late to make a decision after the orphan is finished." Sun Ce waved his hand and signaled Guan Jing to be calm. Guan Jing nodded repeatedly, but his heart still pounded violently. He never expected that Sun Ce would entrust him to be the governor of Jizhou. Jizhou is a big province, with its strength far above Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Xuzhou, and it is also the front line of fighting against Bingzhou. Such a heavy responsibility should be taken by his confidants, so how could it fall on his shoulders?

Sun Ce explained the changes in the responsibilities of the governor. In the Wu system, the governor was only responsible for supervision and did not manage military or administration, but had the power to recruit officials, which was considered to be in power. Jizhou had many powerful families, and the people's customs were different from those of the Central Plains. He needed someone who was familiar with the people's sentiments and had certain means to supervise Jizhou, and Guan Jing was a good candidate.

"The governor is not easy to do, and will offend many people. If Yuan An doesn't want to ruin his reputation, he will not force himself. He will arrange other things for you."

Guan Jing actually thought of this. It is difficult to be a governor, especially the governor of Jizhou. Sun Ce asked him to be a governor of Jizhou to be a knife. Even so, he was still very grateful. Sun Ce was willing to use him as a knife, at least it means that in Sun Ce's eyes, he still has something to do with him. If he can be competent, he will not have to worry about his future future. If Sun Ce crosses the river and destroys the bridge and kills the donkey, there is nothing he can do about it.

What else can he expect from a minister who surrenders again? Gongsun Xu was resentful of his surrender to Liu Bei. If he did not have an official position, it would not be that easy for him to be an ordinary citizen.

"I wish to serve the king."

"That's great." Sun Ce said again: "There is another thing I want to ask Yuan An for advice."

Guan Jing smiled. "Did the king say Liu Xiu?"

Sun Ce nodded. Guan Jing was also a smart person, so it was not difficult to guess. He kept Liu Xiu, and wanted to give Guan Jing a chance to show off. Otherwise, it would be difficult to convince the public if he was appointed as the governor of Jizhou. Guan Jing also knew it and volunteered to go to Yuyang to persuade Liu Xiu to surrender.

Sun Ce was very satisfied and raised his teacup and greeted Guan Jing. "I wish Yuan'an horse success."

——

The boat set off and went down the water. It arrived in Yi County in two days.

Gan Ning came to pay a visit, and accompanied by the newly surrendered Bohai Prefect Zang Hong and the chief clerk Han Xuan. After he and Bu Zhi led their troops to Bohai, they first defeated Cui Jun outside the city, beheaded 3,000 and captured more than 10,000 prisoners. Cui Jun fled because he had a lot of money and property with him and was killed by the defeated soldiers. When the piles of spoils piled up under the city, Zang Hong knew Sun Ce's attitude, and did not hesitate much, and decided to surrender the city to avoid innocent killing.

Han Xuan is the one who gave him advice.

Han Xuan gave up his resistance because of Bu Zhi's handwritten letter. In the letter to Zang Hong, Bu Zhi emphasized two things: one was that Zang Hong's father Zang Min was kind to Sun Jian, which was the first to recommend Sun Jian to the officialdom; the other was that the leader of the party members got along well with Sun Ce. Although Zhang Jian and He Yong did not enter the officialdom, they kept in touch with Sun Ce. Xun Yu and others served Sun Ce, and even Li Ying's grandson worked in the State of Wu.

After reading Bu Zhi's letter, Han Xuan changed his attitude and urged Zang Hong to reject Cui Jun's alliance and waited for Cui Jun to be defeated.

Sun Ce and Zang Hong didn't say much. He knew Zang Hong very well. First, Zang Hong was rumored in history, second, Zhang Chao had a high opinion of him and wrote to him many times, hoping that he could reuse Zang Hong. Third, Zang Hong was from Sheyang, Guangling. Now there are many Huaisi departments in the military advisory department, which is very convenient to understand. He was very curious about Han Xuan and asked a few more questions.

Han Xuan, whose courtesy name is Jingran, was a native of Nanbohai. He was in his thirties. He was short and only about six feet away. When facing Sun Ce, he was not nervous at all. He talked freely and said confidently that Sun Ce was lucky to win this time. If it weren't for Liu Bei's guilty and fleeing, he would hold on for another month or two, the outcome would be unpredictable. The reason is very simple. Summer has passed and autumn and winter are coming. Except for the Hutuo River and Zhang River, other rivers are not suitable for the Jiangdong Navy's navigation, and the transportation of supplies will become Sun Ce's trouble. In addition, judging from the recent news, there may be changes in Liaodong. Taishi Ci's possibility of rushing troops westward. Sun Ce lacks enough cavalry, and it is not easy to capture the counties in the western part of Youzhou.

Sun Ce was surprised and turned to Guo Jia and said, "There is another general in the Military Advisory Office."
Chapter completed!