Chapter 115 If You Lose, Sun Ce Must Follow Me

This was a weird dinner party.

Six hundred royal guards surrounded the entire courtyard in three layers inside and outside.

The various ethnic groups in Yuzhang County who served as county officials were now as terrified as they had been in trying to please Sun Jian before.

The calmest person present was only Sun Jian.

Ever since Jin Mao learned from his two advisers that Sun Jian had ill intentions, he no longer dared to sit at the same table with him and had long since hidden away.

For this reason, Sun Jian was even more contemptuous. He drank and ate meat as if no one was around. He also asked Cheng Pu, Han Dang, Zu Mao and Zhu Zhi, who all looked nervous, to relax.

But how could the four generals dare to relax? The murderous aura of Jin Mao's personal guards was so tangible that even the officials of Yuzhang County, big and small, could feel it, not to mention that the four generals were veterans of the battlefield.

After having enough food and drink, Sun Jian went straight to the point and said, "This time, I came to Changsha County to suppress the rebellion, and I want to borrow some soldiers from you, Junior Brother."

Sun Jian made a circle with his fingers and said, "No need for more, these six hundred personal guards are enough."

Jin Mao could hear the contempt in Sun Jian's tone and snorted coldly: "Suppress the rebellion?"

"Brother, can you tell me who is rebelling in Changsha County?"

Sun Jian casually said, "The heroic commander Qu Xing called himself a general and led more than 10,000 people to besiege the city."

He emphasized again: "I can easily defeat just 10,000 people!"

Jin Mao scratched his ears and asked in confusion: "Qu Xing? Did I hear it right?"

"Zhicai, is this the Qu Xing we wiped out last month? He's not dead?"

When it comes to showing off, Jin Mao doesn't feel inferior to anyone, and said: "Brother, to be honest, this district is said to have 10,000 people, and in fact, there are 10,000 people."

Sun Jian was almost defeated by this turn of events.

"As for the fighting ability, I can't say anything good about it."

"Last month, I took it very seriously, but guess what?"

"One of my young generals led more than a thousand new soldiers and defeated Qu Xing in just one round."

"Hey! If Qu Xing hadn't run so fast, how could I have only cut off 3,000 heads of those bastards? 20,000 wouldn't even be enough!"

Sun Jian instinctively didn't want to believe it. Why wasn't he exaggerating to the sky? He could defeat ten enemies alone. He really thought he was the reincarnation of the God of War.

"I knew you wouldn't believe me." Jin Mao said, "Well, I see you have four brave generals behind you, let's do a test."

Sun Jian immediately became interested and asked, "How to test it?"

"It's very simple. Just divide it into two parts." Jin Mao held up two fingers: "First, I will send four generals to fight in pairs."

"Of course, that's enough."

"Second, you send out a hundred people, and I send out a hundred people. Let's have a hundred-man battle."

Jin Mao said nonchalantly: "We only send troops, you don't limit the number of generals."

"Okay!" Sun Jian said confidently, "Since you don't have a general, I don't need one either!"

Then he asked, "There has to be a jackpot, right?"

Jin Mao pondered and said, "As the Art of War says, before troops move, food and fodder must go first."

"If I lose, how about I give you ten thousand shi of grain and ten thousand shi of straw?"

"Great!" Sun Jian stood up and said goodbye.

Jin Mao said unhappily, "Brother, you haven't told me yet, what will happen if you lose?"

"I can't lose!"

Jin Mao insisted: "What if I lose?"

Sun Jian couldn't afford to bet the equivalent of 20,000 dan of grain, so he simply asked, "What do you think, Junior Brother?"

"I heard that your son Sun Ce is quite similar to your father. How about letting him work for me in the future?"

Sun Jian frowned, but soon figured out the problem and nodded in agreement: "Okay! I'll do it for you!"

When they walked out of the door, Cheng Pu said to Sun Jian, "My lord, any bet made in dangerous situations can be ignored. Why did you agree to such an impolite request?"

Zhu Zhi echoed, "You hate eunuchs for ruining the country, but now you are betting with corrupt officials who relied on eunuchs for promotion. I don't understand."

Sun Jian smiled and said, "Perhaps my junior fellow apprentice is not that bad after all. If he can really beat me, then why not let Ce'er work for him?"

He then said confidently, "Besides, I will definitely win! These 20,000 shi of grain and grass are just given to me for free."

"Don't you have the confidence that you can defeat a corrupt official's men?"

The four generals made assurances.

Sun Jian said happily: "That's it. Tomorrow you should fetch me 20,000 shi of grain and grass!"

"Here!"

...

night.

After the dinner, Jin Mao was told that the Imperial Guardsman Zhang Tie had arrived, and he immediately ordered people to light hundreds of oil lamps in the study.

With the current oil production, there is absolutely no problem in lighting the lamp, but the smoke and smell are a bit overpowering.

Fortunately, Zhang Tie not only had no objection, but also praised it highly.

"Governor Jin is so generous. I have only seen lights like this in the palace when I was in the capital. It was as bright as day!"

Jin Mao found it funny to see the startled expressions of ancient people. Fortunately, although there were many lights in the room, they were far less than those in later times, so Zhang Tie did not see his expression clearly.

"You came and didn't even tell me." Jin Mao still kept a low profile. He had to endure it as long as Liu Hong was here: "I'll go and greet you!" "Oh, forget it." Zhang Tie said with disgust: "I've been on the boat for half a month and I feel dizzy. It's more comfortable on the ground."

"That's great!" Jin Mao invited, "Nanchang is much better than Wushang, you can play there for a while longer."

"If there is nothing else, I will stay here." Zhang Tie said with regret, "Business is more important."

Zhang Tie took out an imperial edict and read it out: "On July 27th of the fourth year of Zhongping, the emperor issued an edict: Jin Mao, the governor of Yuzhang County, has made great contributions in suppressing the rebellion and has a high moral character, so he is transferred to be the governor of Yingchuan County."

"Ah?" Jin Mao was confused. "Are you mistaken? I have little experience, how can I be the governor of Yingchuan?"

Yingchuan County is located on the edge of Luoyang, and there are many noble families.

If Guanglu Dafu was the default intern of the Nine Ministers, then the Yingchuan County Magistrate was a reserve for promotion to the Nine Ministers.

Jin Mao is only 18 years old!

Do you really think that everyone is a champion and can hold a high position at a young age?

Jinmao is sure that if he dares to take over, he will definitely not survive next year.

"Someone is trying to frame me!" Jin Mao asked Zhang Tie with a sad face, "You can't hide it from me. Who is trying to harm me?"

Zhang Tie's face was gloomy as he scolded, "You want to disobey orders, Governor Jin? Do you know that disobeying orders is a serious crime?"

In fact, this imperial edict was also a forged one, and Zhang Tie was not at peace.

"The place is unstable, so I cannot obey your order." Jin Mao gritted his teeth and accepted it. At worst, he could just resign and go home. This was not an uncommon thing in modern times.

Suddenly, Zhang Tie was in a dilemma.

In the end, Zhang Tie could only tell the whole story, hoping to explain it clearly to Jin Mao.

It turns out that Sheng Xian was behind all this.

At the beginning, Sheng Xian's plan to cut off the source of the problem was to ask Kong Rong to unite with the Luoyang gentry to flatter Jin Mao and kill him.

As long as Jinmao is transferred away from the local area, the power of his subordinates will naturally disintegrate, and there will be no need to go through so much trouble to clean them up.

In other words, Jinmao has become "famous", not only in Yangzhou, but also in Henan and Yingchuan areas. He is "famous" and is regarded as a great talent who can pacify the world!
There was a deeper meaning that Zhang Tie hadn't said yet, but Jin Mao was already angry enough.

“Sheng Xian!”

Jin Mao had a gloomy face and asked Zhang Tie to go down and have a rest first, and they could discuss anything tomorrow.

"Somebody come!"

When Xi Zhicai and Gu Yong were awakened from their beds, came to Jinmao's study, and heard this shocking news, they suddenly woke up.

Almost at the same time, Gu Yong and Xi Zhicai passed the pass.

The two looked at each other, Gu Yong lowered his head and motioned Xi Zhicai to speak.

The latter was grateful and said, "My lord, there must be one of the Ten Eunuchs behind this!"

Jin Mao's thoughts suddenly became clear, but they were still quite vague. He said, "Zhicai, please explain in detail."

Xi Zhicai then talked about the relationship between the emperor, the Ten Attendants and the gentry.

"Sheng Xian promoted the Luoyang gentry and carried out a plan of flattery and murder. The Ten Eunuchs followed suit and sold the gentry a favor."

Even though they were smart like Xi Zhicai and Gu Yong, they would not have thought of the Ten Attendants forging the imperial edict. However, this did not prevent them from guessing that the Ten Attendants must have something in the hands of the gentry, otherwise they would definitely not compromise.

Jin Mao didn't care about that. He gritted his teeth and said, "Damn you eunuch!"

"You are an unfamiliar white-eyed wolf!"

"You're using me as a sacrifice!"

After venting for a while, Jin Mao gradually calmed down and thought of another thing.

"Has Sun Jian become a eunuch and a running dog?"

"You came here to seize my foundation?"

This ties everything together very well and explains why Sun Jian was so rude at the time.

Putting yourself in his shoes, if Jin Mao took over Sun Jian's power, he would definitely have to get closer to his subordinates.

At this moment, Jin Mao was filled with endless anger, and the thought of killing Sun Jian kept flashing through his mind.

"No matter how strong the enemy is, if I want to die, I will drag you down with me!"

"Ming Gong, please calm down. Things haven't come to that point yet."

Gu Yong's words were like cold water, just enough to wake Jin Mao up. "What do you think, Yuan Tan?"

Gu Yong carefully chose his words before saying, "Ming Gong once told me the sixteen-character key to guerrilla warfare."

"I think Ming Gong's idea is probably to unite the majority to attack the minority, and use our strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses."

Jin Mao was amazed. He didn't expect Gu Yong to be so smart that he could actually guess Chairman Mao's main ideas.

In fact, guerrilla warfare was also evolved by Chairman Mao from ancient military tactics. It is not surprising that they share the same origin.

"Yuan Tan, you are right, but what does it have to do with this time?"

Gu Yong said respectfully: "Sun Jian has many private soldiers, and his soldiers are skilled and his generals are strong. The eunuchs hold power. If I fight both parties at the same time, it will be like hitting a rock with an egg."

"Why not first unite with Sun Jian to fight against the eunuchs?" Gu Yong proposed two solutions: "If the eunuchs give in, then we can ask for benefits, and it won't delay the alliance with Sun Jian."

"Wonderful!"

Jin Mao's thoughts suddenly became clear, and he planned carefully with the two of them until dawn.

(End of this chapter)