Waves at the end of Han Dynasty

Chapter 71 The Foundation of the Sun Clan
Sun Jian's camp in Guzhang County, Danyang County, Yangzhou.

Sun Jian crossed the border. As the prefect of Wu County, he personally led the troops to the territory of Danyang County, which was indeed a violation of the regulations.

The prefect of Danyang, Zhou Xin, persuaded Sun Jian to return with a letter first, and then threatened to report to the court with official documents, but the results were useless, and he was helpless under the rage. Who said that there are so many fools...

Sun Jian is no fool, he has a purpose and reason to come here, and it has been planned for a long time.

The purpose, of course, is to come here for elite soldiers. Back then, General Li Ling of the Western Han Dynasty used [-] Danyang infantry to fight against the Huns' [-] cavalry alone.

Wu County, where Sun Jian lives, has a large population, but the terrain is relatively flat and suitable for farming. Compared with Danyang, the folk customs are very simple.

Sun Jian asked Huang Gai to recruit some soldiers in this county, but after several months of rigorous training, they were still only considered as ordinary fighters.

However, Danyang has a complex terrain with many mountains and hills. Although there are not many Han people, the Shanyue people live together with the Han people and often attack each other.

Moreover, there are copper and iron mines in the mountains, and there are not a few people in Danyang who forge their own armor...

The combat power of the army in the cold weapon era is nothing more than several aspects: the quality of individual soldiers, the ability to fight in battle, armor and ordnance, cavalry and archery, fighting spirit, morale, and enforcement of military discipline. Of course, there are many other factors, but for ordinary soldiers , basically these are the main things.

Some of these can be solved through training, and some can be solved through krypton gold... that is, money, but soldiers with certain abilities like Danyang soldiers can naturally save a lot of effort, not to mention they also bring their own armor!

Sun Jian also covets the copper and iron mines in the mountains. Although the scale is very small, most of them are mined spontaneously by ordinary people, but they are also copper and iron.

Of course, such a plan also has disadvantages, but Sun Jian thinks that is not a problem.

Danyang's soldiers were not well disciplined and difficult to control. It was because they had not encountered capable generals. Sun Jian believed that with his strength, he would definitely be able to hold them down.

Danyang prefect's obstruction is not worth mentioning. At most, it will be known as arrogant and domineering. Is it possible that Zhou Xin, who is weak, dares to fight with me?
What's more, I also prepared a legitimate reason. Half a month ago, Wucheng County in Wu County was ransacked by thieves. After Sun Jian's "detailed investigation", it was not Shanyue's rebellion, so he pursued the Shanyue thieves so far.

----

In the big camp, [-] soldiers were training, shouting and killing loudly, Huang Gai and Han Dang were in charge of different training items respectively.

That's right, in fact, after Sun Jian led the troops to Danyang, he didn't have any offensive, although he was nominally here to attack Shanyue.

Sun Jian needs to wait for the right time to send troops. War is not his goal, but just one of his means. Only one hand with a carrot and one hand with a big stick can make Danyang Shanyue soldiers really work for him!
Since we are going to talk first and then fight, let the soldiers train every day. Since we have paid so much rations to feed them, we can't let them be neglected and slack, and the combat power can be improved a little bit.

Sun Jian inspected the camp and was about to say something when he saw the sentry soldiers coming to report:
"My lord, Lieutenant Sun Ben came from Wu County to escort food and grass, and he has already arrived ten miles away."

"Well, let Gongfu go to meet you."

Although Sun Ben was Sun Jian's own nephew, there was not much difference in age between the two. Before Sun Jian became the prefect, Sun Ben was the governor of the county, and he was already very prosperous in the county.

But Sun Jian is different. Sun Jian was a small official in Fuchun in his early years. He was gradually promoted until people from the Longwei Mansion came to help him. Later, Xu Zhao rebelled in Juzhang. Coupled with the operation of Longwei Mansion, he was promoted to Wu Junshou.

After Sun Jian took office, he did not get the support of the nobles in Wu County. Instead, the four local families took the opportunity to make waves and sing against him...

Gu, Lu, Zhu, and Zhang, as prominent families in Wu County, have been operating in Wu County for many years, and their strength is very strong. Of course, they cannot tolerate a leader from a poor family in Fuchun.

What's more, Sun Jian has another fatal flaw, that is, he is also a local.

The imperial court of the Han Dynasty stipulated that locals were not allowed to hold important positions such as governors and county guards. At the beginning, Ouyang Qi deliberately tampered with Sun Jian's ancestral home for his own consideration, and his old boss Zang Min also acquiesced, and only after money opened the way did he reluctantly win the post of Wu County prefect.

But even though he got the official position, Sun Jian couldn't convince the public. They are all locals, and no one knows who's details...

Just when Sun Jian was struggling, Sun Ben took the lead to support his uncle and led some officials, big and small, to serve Sun Jian.

He came forward to contact and helped Sun Jian temporarily stabilize the overall situation in Wu County, the prefecture, and then introduced Wu Jun Haoyou Wu's marriage with the Sun family.

And after Sun Jian asked to marry the daughter of the Wu family, he broke the chain of contempt that forced the gentry...

After completely stabilizing Wu County, Sun Jian led the army to go out with confidence. In addition to wanting to obtain Danyang's high-quality soldiers and copper and iron, he also wanted to prove his ability to command the army again and deter the gentry in the county.

The counties and counties south of the Yangtze River in the Han Dynasty were almost all military commanders, because except for Wujun and Kuaiji, other places were dominated by mountains and barbarians. The Han people only controlled a few cities and surrounding areas, and the main conflict in each county was not development. Nongsang, but to guard against ethnic minority rebellions, so the military capabilities of these county guards are also relatively high.

If Sun Jian could hold down the most powerful Shanyue people nearby, he would naturally have the foundation to hold down the Han people.

Sun Jian relied heavily on Sun Ben and did not treat him according to the etiquette of his nephew and uncle. As a result, Sun Ben's prestige in the army was also quite high. Ordinarily, Sun Ben was not required to do the usual task of transporting food, but this trip was indeed different.

"Uncle, fortunately Ben lived up to his fate and arrived safely."

When the food transportation team entered the camp, Sun Ben immediately bowed down when he saw Sun Jian and said, without any pride in his achievements.

"Boyang is tired all the way, come, come and rest with me."

Sun Jian signaled to Huang Gai and Han Dang behind him to continue training, while he dragged Sun Ben into the tent.

Sun Ben also nodded to indicate that after all, they were going to talk about family matters next, and although the two were reliable, it was not appropriate to be there.

This time, Sun Ben originally stayed in Wu County to take care of Sun Jian, but not long after Sun Jian left, he received an invitation to propose marriage from another noble family in Wu County, the Xu family.

The four surnames of Wu Jun are powerful, and the rest of the surnames are far from any of them. If the inferior gentry such as the Wu family and the Xu family do not want to overtake in a curve, they will always be suppressed by them .

So now inspired by the Wu family, the Xu family also sees the hope of marrying the Sun family to fight against the four surnames.

After Sun Ben knew the meaning of Xu's visit, he immediately made a decision on Sun Jian's behalf, and immediately spread the news that the two families were about to marry.

The result was not as expected by Sun Ben, and the effect was very good.

Originally, before Sun Jian set out for the expedition, among the thirteen counties in Wu County, he could only actually control the four counties of Wu County, Haiyan, Wucheng, and Fuchun.

But now the two major Haoyou in the county are all married to the Sun family. Although they are not comparable to the four major surnames in Wu County, the combined strength of the two is not weaker than one of the four surnames.

So, Sun Ben found a breakthrough and forced the magistrates of An, Lou, and Yangxian counties who had been vacillating before to surrender.

After the situation stabilized, he quickly led his troops to bring in the grain and grass funded by the Xu family, and told Sun Jian the good news.

"In this way, the alliance of Wu Jun's gentry has already disintegrated, and the day when my uncle leads Wu Jun is not far away!"

Sun Ben congratulated Sun Jian after explaining the situation in detail.

"It all depends on Boyang's strategic planning. If my Sun family can prosper, Boyang should be worshiped by me!"

"This matter is absolutely impossible. Uncle, don't want to offend your nephew. But my Sun family is married, who does uncle want?"

"Well... only my sister is ready. I will repair a letter, and you send it to my sister. I will explain it in detail when I lead the army back."

"Here, how is uncle's battle going?"

Sun Ben asked about the war with concern, and he was also very aware of the situation in Shanyue, not only because of the huge number but also because of the strong combat power, so he was somewhat worried.

"Don't worry, Boyang, the more the mountain is defeated, the easier it is to win, but it is very difficult to accept his heart, but I have thought of a good strategy, and I will definitely win and return!"

"In this way, Ben wished my uncle the best of luck, and tomorrow I will go back to Wu County to deal with everything..."

(End of this chapter)