Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

Sun Quan sat in the hall, looking at his silent ministers, and a feeling arose in his heart that was hard to tell whether it was helplessness or sadness.

He led Jiangdong at the age of 18, learned everything by himself, suppressed the rebellion and established his career, and finally became an emperor. He did not encounter so many troubles after he became an adult. How come Sun Deng, who was the crown prince and had important ministers and famous scholars to assist him, was brainwashed by the scholars and became such a "reasonable" crown prince?

"Why aren't you talking?" Sun Quan spoke again.

Shi Yi bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, since the prince is separated from Your Majesty in Wuchang, the son will not see his father for a long time. It is far from enough to communicate through letters. How to be a good crown prince, how to understand the kingly way and the hegemonic way, these things cannot be taught by the general, nor by the prince's guests. Your Majesty must teach them personally!"

"Let me teach him in person?" Sun Quan hesitated a bit and asked again, "Jingzhou is far away from Jianye. If there is no one like the crown prince with a semi-king status to rule, even if he is from the royal family, it would not be appropriate. Among the ministers in the court, is there no one who can teach the crown prince for me?"

Hu Zong then said, "Your Majesty, how is Mr. Pan?"

"Pan Chengming?" Sun Quan looked at Hu Zong.

"That's right." Hu Zong nodded.

Sun Quan sat in the hall, his face still stern, as if he was still thinking.

Lü Yi seemed to see Sun Quan's tangled mentality, and bowed and said, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty summoned me back urgently, and I have a secret report in my hand that I haven't had time to give to Your Majesty."

Sun Quan raised his eyes and glanced at Lü Yi. Lü Yi understood, bent down and walked forward with small steps, and handed the document to Sun Quan with both hands: "Your Majesty, this is the information I obtained when I visited Changsha County and inspected the three counties of Linxiang, Liuyang, and Liling. Please take a look at it."

Sun Quan didn't answer, but looked at Hu Zong: "Wei Ze, come and read it!"

Hu Zong nodded and walked forward, taking the document from Lu Yi's hand. After just a quick glance at it, he began to feel frightened.

"Your Majesty..." Hu Zong hesitated: "Some of the contents of this document are not suitable for me to read..."

Sun Quan was still clear about what kind of person Lü Yi was. He used Lü Yi as a school official just to make him do the dirty work. If he didn't bite people, what was the point of keeping him? If Hu Zong didn't hesitate, Sun Quan would know what was written in this document.

"Wei Ze, feel free to come and study!" Sun Quan waved his hand.

"Yes." Hu Zong suppressed his frustration, cleared his throat, and then began to read. As Hu Zong continued to speak, not only did Hu Zong look unhappy, but even Shi Yi and Xu Xiang looked embarrassed.

All the things written in the document were illegal and cruel things that the officials of Linxiang, Liuyang and Liling counties had done to harm the people.

Linxiang County was the fief of General Bu Zhi, Liuyang County was the fief of Shaofu Pan Jun, and Liling County was the fief of Prime Minister Gu Yong. According to the system of the Wu Kingdom, those who were granted the title of county marquis could station officials in the county to be responsible for taxation, law enforcement, etc., and they had great power in their own fiefdoms. If the officials of Gu Yong, Pan Jun, and Bu Zhi committed crimes, the three of them could not escape blame.

But the problem is that collecting more taxes, enforcing the law unfairly, and slightly harming the people are not considered a big deal in Wu State. It has become a normal thing. After losing the battle of Wancheng six years ago, Sun Quan only took more than a year to restore his huge army of 180,000 soldiers.

Such a rapid recovery brought about an accelerated plunder of the people and the masses. Sun Quan was not the kind of monarch who grew up in the deep palace and was unaccustomed to mundane affairs. He knew clearly what his rule was like. Although the actions of the three subordinates, Gu Yong, Pan Jun, and Bu Zhi, were inconsistent with the law, they were similar to the general norm and even better than the fiefs of many military generals!
Whether or not to use this incident to mess with others has become a difficult decision.

"Your Majesty, the officials of the Three Marquises of Changsha are guilty, not the ministers." Shi Yi bowed and said tentatively: "The country has just been established. I ask Your Majesty to calm down your anger and send someone to reprimand one or two people. It is better not to make this matter too public."

"I second the proposal." Hu Zong said, "Your Majesty, please put the stability of the government first and leave this matter in the palace for the time being."

But Lu Yi acted as if it had nothing to do with him. He lowered his head and said nothing.

He was very clear about his position. To get the dirty information about the three marquises of Changsha was just a side job of going to Changsha. He just did it. Whether to use it or not was Sun Quan's business. He had no right to comment.

Sun Quan took a deep breath and said, "Zi Yu and Wei Ze are right. I will send the imperial censor to reprimand the three and order them to mend their ways. As for Pan Chengming, I will let him serve as the prince's tutor and send him to Wuchang to supervise the prince's conduct. I will let him come to the palace to find me later. I want to discuss the prince's affairs with him in person!"

"As for Diao Jia and Diao Xuan..." Sun Quan's face was grim, and he pointed at Xu Xiang: "Captain Lu and the Right Law Enforcement Officer, go to Wuchang and Jiangxia together, and bring Diao Jia and Diao Xuan to Jianye for me. I want to interrogate them in person!" "I will follow your majesty's order!"

"The minister obeys the order."

The two men responded one after another.

……

Now the world is in a three-way balance of power. Shouchun where Cao Rui is located and Jianye where Sun Quan is located are only separated by a river and Huainan County, only 400 miles apart. With these two monarchs in Yangzhou, it seems that Liu Chan and Zhuge Liang, the monarch and minister in Chengdu, Shu, are further away from the center of the world.

This is also something that can't be helped.

There is only Huainan between Wei and Wu. With the help of many water systems, Huainan is closely connected with the densely populated areas of Wei such as Central Plains and Hebei, making large-scale and low-cost transportation feasible. For example, at the moment, if we draw a circle on the map with Shouchun and Jianye as the two ends, the number of troops in the circle is at least over 150,000, and this is the result of no large-scale assembly.

As for Shu Han, there were only 80,000 soldiers in the whole country. The road to Shu was difficult, which blocked not only the road for Zhuge Liang to lead his army to the north, but also the road for Wei's army to the south.

After several months, Zhuge Liang finally returned to the outskirts of Chengdu with his entourage.

It was not that Zhuge Liang was delaying intentionally, but there were too many things to deal with. The Xiangfu moved south to Chengdu, which must have extended the command time compared to when he stayed in Baishui.

Zhuge Liang worked tirelessly and diligently, personally leading a group of officials to Yinping and Baxi, observing the terrain, arranging military strategies, leaving many plans, and providing sufficient guidance for Wang Ping and Wu Yi to garrison in their respective defense areas. With the back and forth, and the relatively large Xiangfu taking time to deploy, the time to return to Chengdu was also delayed.

During these months, many strange rumors were even spread among the officials in Chengdu, saying that the prime minister was clinging to power and was unwilling to return to Chengdu. However, these rumors had disappeared in the city when Zhuge Liang led the prime minister's office to Mianzhu. When Zhuge Liang returned to Chengdu, these people had all become good colleagues and subordinates who were in harmony with each other.

Zhuge Liang bowed and said, "Your Majesty, it is inappropriate for you to come out of the city to greet me personally. The etiquette between the monarch and his subjects should not be neglected. If there is a next time, Your Majesty, please stay in the palace and wait for me to come in and pay my respects."

Liu Chan laughed a few times and said, "If it were anyone else, I would definitely not come. If it is you, then everything is easy to talk about. Please ride in the same carriage with me and enter the city quickly."

"Okay. Your Majesty, please." Zhuge Liang looked calm.

"Yes." Liu Chan agreed.

The carriage swayed and swayed as it entered the city with the sound of drums and horns in front of it. As soon as Liu Chan sat down, he explained to Zhuge Liang:
"Father, I don't really want you to go back to Chengdu, but what other officials in the court said is not without reason. It is indeed much more convenient for you to handle government affairs in Chengdu than in Baishui..."

Zhuge Liang smiled slightly, and seemed not in a hurry to interrupt Liu Chan's speech. Instead, he waited until Liu Chan finished speaking and stopped before speaking: "Your Majesty, whether I am in Baishui or Chengdu, this matter makes sense no matter how you say it, and it will not harm the state. It depends on your Majesty's wishes. If there are such things in the future, your Majesty can deal with them all at once after considering them properly, and you don't have to worry about other things."

"Well, Prime Minister is right." Liu Chan sighed again: "I am only worried about one thing. Prime Minister is not in Baishui. If the Wei army attacks, how should we deal with it? Can Wei Yan, Wu Yi, and Wang Ping stop the Wei army?"

Zhuge Liang stroked his beard slowly and said calmly, "Your Majesty, please rest assured. General Wang Ping of Anbei is leading 6,000 troops to guard Yinping, General Wei Yan of Zhenbei is leading 20,000 troops to guard Baishui, and General Wu Yi of Zhengbei is leading 8,000 troops to guard Baxi. All these 34,000 soldiers are the elite of the Han Dynasty. If we talk about combat effectiveness, they can be used to defend against the Wei army just like the 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers in the past. Not to mention that it is only 800 miles from Chengdu to Baishui, and it can be reached in ten days by forced march. If there is any trouble, there is no time to act."

Liu Chan nodded continuously: "That's good, that's good. Since the Prime Minister said these three people are safe, then these three people must be safe."

"I have often wondered before, if I could give my father-in-law 100,000 soldiers, would he be able to lead his troops directly to Guanzhong and wipe out the Wei bandits? Jiang Gongyan explained to me all the previous wars of the Han Dynasty. I think every time the Prime Minister lost, it seemed to be because of too few troops. If there were 100,000 soldiers, with sufficient manpower, he would surely be able to win. I am absolutely confident in the Prime Minister's ability!"

After hearing Liu Chan's words, Zhuge Liang hesitated for a few moments, sorted out his words, and then spoke:
"Your Majesty, I have thought a lot about the Northern Expedition in the past few months. I have also heard all the advice from Jiang Gongyan, Fei Wenwei and other officials in the court. Even though the Northern Expedition is difficult, I still want to do it, and I plan to launch another Northern Expedition this winter."

"Another Northern Expedition?" Liu Chan was also surprised: "The Prime Minister has returned to Chengdu, why is there another Northern Expedition this year? Where are they going to attack?"

"Attack Wujie." Zhuge Liang said calmly: "For the Han Dynasty, forgetting to fight will lead to danger. Even if there is no result, we still have to march north. I will lead 30,000 troops north. If the enemy army fights, I will win. If the enemy army does not fight, I can also retreat safely. Please do not worry, Your Majesty!" (End of this chapter)