I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 922: Jiaozhou Shock
In the second year of Kaiyuan (191 AD), in October of winter, Jiaozhou.

"what?!"

"The general wants to attack Linyi, and he wants us to assist and cooperate?"

The person who spoke was Zhu Fu, the governor of Jiaozhou.

Just as Su Yao was on his way back to Beijing from Huainan, Jiaozhou finally received Su Yao's initial order from twenty days ago.

There is no way, the two places are too far apart, more than two thousand miles.

Even so, Su Yao strengthened the post station, using both water and horse transport, and managed to deliver the goods without any accidents along the way.

However, the biggest difficulty for the current command is time.

As soon as the message was delivered, the governor of Jiaozhou expressed his full support for the order.

The reason is very simple. Although Zhu Fu is not Su Yao's confidant, and Su Yao doesn't even know him, this person's background is indeed not simple. He is the son of the current Shangshu Ling Zhu Jun.

This is one of the benefits of Su Yao taking over the government affairs.

While Su Yao was busy with wars in other places, the central government, which was not dysfunctional, was still performing its functions.

When Su Yao suppressed the rebellion of Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju in Jizhou, the court transferred Jia Cong, the former governor of Jiaozhou, to be the governor of Jizhou, and Jiaozhou fell into a power vacuum.

Before the imperial court had the chance to send anyone over, the rebellions of the Ten Eunuchs and Dong Zhuo broke out one after another. The bigwigs in the court could hardly protect themselves, and the matter of appointing a replacement for the Governor of Jiaozhou was temporarily shelved.

After Su Yao reorganized the court, the issue of the Jiaozhou governor was put back on the agenda. After several discussions, the court officials sent Zhu Fu to rectify the affairs of Jiaozhou.

However, due to the rebellion of Ma Teng and Youji states that broke out soon afterwards, the imperial court looked shaky. The local governors of Jiaozhou did not respect the governor who had just been parachuted in, and kept delaying the payment of taxes, so that Zhu Fu had to go into battle himself and take his trusted aides to the countryside to collect taxes to ensure the normal operation of the governor's office.

Now, when he heard that the general had turned his attention to Jiaozhou, he was overjoyed and immediately sent an envoy to Beijing to express his loyalty and pledge his full cooperation.

What? Is it difficult to conquer Linyi? Will it be dangerous?

In Zhu Fu's eyes today, those are all secondary issues.

Taking advantage of the entry of the imperial army, restoring the authority of the Inspectorate is the top priority!
Therefore, Zhu Fu almost took a chicken feather as a token of authority. Based on Su Yao's short document of a few words, he expanded it and said that tens of thousands of troops of the imperial court would march south to Jiaozhou to attack Linyi, and asked the governors of all counties to cooperate with the action. Not only did they have to pay money and grain, but they also had to hand over soldiers and be prepared to cooperate with the troops.

Zhu Fu's exaggerated propaganda soon caused an uproar in Jiaozhou.

Due to the long distance, the only news these governors had received was that Su Yao had beheaded Yuan Shu and Jingxu and other places surrendered. They had no idea that Su Yao had only sent Sun Ce to conquer Linyi.

However, Zhu Fu's propaganda was plausible, and the documents stamped with the seal of the General's Office did not seem to be forged. For a time, the prefects had different reactions.

Among the prefects of various counties in Jiaozhou, some were worried and began to secretly stockpile food and fodder for emergency use; others scoffed at Zhu Fu's orders, thinking that he was just taking advantage of the opportunity to suppress dissidents.

Shi Huang, the prefect of Cangwu County, was one of those who had a tough attitude.

After receiving the report from the Governor's Office, Shi Huang slammed the document sent by Zhu Fu on the table:
"My Cangwu County has been harassed by the Shanyue for years, and the treasury is empty. How can there be money and food for him to squander? Now he is using the title of the general to scare us. I, Shi, will never fall for it!"

The chief clerk beside him advised cautiously: "Sir, even if Zhu Fu is exaggerating, the general's order cannot be disobeyed. Now that Jing and Xu have surrendered, Su Yao is unstoppable, we should still..."

Shi Huang snorted coldly and interrupted, "Hmph! Jiaozhou is remote and out of reach of the imperial court. How can it have tens of thousands of troops to march south? This Zhu Fu is clearly relying on the power of another country to bully others! Ignore him, ignore him!" Shi Huang had 5,000 combat soldiers under his command, which was enough to make him look down on others in the remote Cangwu. He did not take the new governor seriously at all.

This time, he planned to unite several other prefects who were also dissatisfied with Zhu Fu to jointly resist the conscription order.

However, Kong Zhi, the prefect of Nanhai County, had completely different ideas.

Moreover, Jiaozhou is located in a remote area, with poor conditions and difficulty in promotion, so few scholars are willing to serve as officials here.

Kong Zhi had been serving as the governor of Nanhai for more than ten years and had never had the opportunity to be transferred.

With the chaos in the world in recent years, Kong Zhi has been paying close attention to the situation in the Central Plains. He knows Su Yao's methods and power better than his other colleagues, and understands that the court today is no longer what it used to be. So after receiving Zhu Fu's order, he immediately summoned officials in the county and began to prepare food and soldiers.

Kong Zhi said to his subordinates: "The general is feared by the world. If you can help in the conquest of Linyi this time, perhaps we can have a better future. We must not ruin the future of the whole county because of short-sightedness."

Kong Zhi not only actively responded to Zhu Fu's call, but also took the initiative to write letters to several prefectures in the surrounding areas with whom he had a good relationship, persuading them to cooperate in the action.

Compared with the other two, Jiaozhi Prefect Shi Xie was more flexible in his attitude.

He has been in office in Jiaozhi for several years. Although his power cannot be said to be huge, he does have some foundation.

This time, since Jiaozhi was close to Linyi Kingdom, he was the only person besides the Governor Zhu Fu who received Su Yao's personal letter, and therefore he was able to see through Zhu Fu's true intentions.

"Sun Bofu is a surrendered general, with a thousand men and hundreds of ships and an order to do what he wants. He wants to conquer Linyi. It's simply wishful thinking!"

At the family meeting of Jiaozhi County Governor's Mansion, Shi Xie's cousin Shi Yi scoffed at this:

"Brother, this Zhu Fu obviously wants to use the name of the general to expand his power. We don't need to obey his orders."

"Brother Yi, you can't say that."

Shi Xie spoke slowly, his voice steady:

"General Su Yao was able to sweep across the Central Plains in a short period of time, destroy Yuan Shu, subdue Yuan Shao, and restore the prestige of the court. His methods and strategies are by no means ordinary. His orders must not be ignored."

"How can Sun Ce shake Linyi with just his few men?"

Shi Yi still looked disdainful.

When Rinan County rebelled, Jiaozhou did not sit idly by. Each of their county governors sent thousands of soldiers to support the rebellion, but they were defeated and could only wait for support from the court.

It was for this reason that the emperor sent troops from four states to quell the rebellion.

Now, after decades of absence, reinforcements from the imperial court have finally arrived. However, their force is so small that it is barely enough to fill a gap between teeth. What can they do?
Shi Xie narrowed his eyes slightly: "What if Sun Ce's goal is not really to recapture Linyi?"

"what?!"

Shi Yi widened his eyes and looked at Shi Xie with confusion:

"Why do you say that, brother? If it weren't for the recovery of Linyi, what would be the purpose of the general sending him to Rinan County?"

(End of this chapter)