Chapter 1: All in control

During the summer and autumn social seasons, an army of more than 10,000 people from Chang'an to the southwest was in a mighty state. The central army was guarding a carriage, and there was a general on both sides of the left and right guard. He was tall and majestic and strong in appearance. These two were the tiger snail Xu Chu and Elai Dian Wei.

In the carriage, Guo Jia was kneeling quietly, with piles of bamboo slips placed in front of him. They were detailed battle reports of Cao Cao's army leading his army south to occupy Jingzhou. These all happened a month ago. The battle reports have only been passed to Guo Jia now, and they can be called a speedy one.

There was still a person sitting in the carriage, young and beautiful, with a decent temperament. Zhen Mi, wearing a snow-white sleeved pleated skirt, looked at Guo Jia quietly, as if Guo Jia's expression when she was focused made her look unhappy.

The focus of the Zhen family's business operations has been on Chang'an in recent years, and Zhen Yu is too busy alone. Fortunately, there is a fourth lady at home who doesn't like studying. These four ladys rarely appear in Guo Jia's sight in recent years. The reason is that she learns business with her elder brother Zhen Yu and quickly stands alone.

Guo Jia had a diplomatic battle with Cao Cao in Luoyang a few months ago. The Zhen family represented the Yizhou Chamber of Commerce to provide special support for money and food. Unfortunately, Guo Jia just bluffed and did not accept the good intentions of the Chamber of Commerce. This is Guo Jia's principle and it is reasonable. He did not take out his old capital to fight Cao Cao's life and death. There is no need to owe the Chamber of Commerce a favor to ask for their money and food. What's more, someone would have seen the essence of this war afterwards. At that time, he would be labeled as greedy and cleverly setting up a name to plunder the people's ointment, which would not be worth the loss.

When Cao Cao had occupied Xiangyang, Guo Jia withdrew his troops from Chang'an and retreated little by little. It happened that Zhen Mi, a fifth lady from the Zhen family, was traveling in Chang'an and was planning to return to Chengdu, so Guo Jia took her with her.

After reading the battle report, Guo Jia closed his eyes and sighed softly.

"I underestimated the enemy, Cao Mengde."

This time, Cao Cao went south, only Man Chong led the military advisors, only Cao Ren and Cao Chunlejin were famous among the generals, and there was also a famous Li Tong.

If Jingzhou surrendered generals will only have more literary recruitment.

The beautiful and delicate Zhen Mi stroked the hair that fell on her chest in her ears, looked at Guo Jia in confusion and asked, "What do you mean by your envoy? Hasn't the King of Wei conquered Jingzhou?"

News of the fall of Jingzhou spread earlier, but the detailed military intelligence was delivered to Guo Jia a little later.

Cao Cao won Jingzhou and was intimidating the world. Many people thought that the troubled times were about to end, and the one who unified the world would be Cao Cao, the King of Wei who was wise and martial, who was the one who unified the world!

Guo Jia rolled up the bamboo slips and held them in his hand, and said softly to Zhen Mi: "There is no outsider here. Just call me brother-in-law, and there is no need to see the outside. I said that Cao Mengde underestimated the enemy, not that he despised Jingzhou, but that he despised Sun Quan and Liu Bei."

Zhen Mi seemed not afraid to look at Guo Jia, and when Guo Jia looked at her, she slightly looked away.

"Liu Bei's defeated army leader, Wu Hou Sun Quan is young, and it is also reasonable for Cao Cao to despise both of them."

Guo Jia thoughtful and nodded in agreement, saying, "What my sister said, Liu Bei was displaced for half his life, and fought repeatedly, and defeated repeatedly. In Xuzhou, Liu Bei was frightened by Cao Cao and fled. Cao Cao was expected to despise him. Sun Wentai was unstoppable in the battle to fight Dong, and his momentum was like a rainbow, but Cao Cao was defeated by Dong Zhuo. However, that was all the past. Sun Quan's brother Sun Ce was so powerful that he was shocked by Jiangdong. In the end, he was still the position of Wu Hou by Cao Cao. Sun Quan was only twenty-seven years old this year and had never faced such a big scene. It was reasonable for Cao Cao to ignore him."

Sun Jian died at the hands of Huang Zu under Liu Biao, and Liu Biao was scared to death by Cao Cao. The two were compared with each other and the judgment was made immediately.

Cao Cao's troops occupied Jingzhou without bloodshed, and Jingzhou was obviously more territory and more soldiers than Jiangdong. Thinking of this, it seems that the possibility of Jiangdong surrender was very high. Therefore, Cao Cao did not take Liu Bei seriously at all. He also had the mentality of swallowing it in one mouthful for Jiangdong, which still had the ability to resist.

Xiahou Yuan, Li Dian, Yu Jin, Xu Huang and other generals Cao Cao did not bring him with him. The big reason is probably that Cao Cao was worried about the change in the battle situation in Luoyang in the north.

Jingzhou is already the flesh of Cao Cao's mouth. Faced with this situation, what Cao Cao was worried about was that Guo Jia went out to attack Luoyang and then cut off the ties between Hebei and the Central Plains.

"My brother-in-law doesn't seem to be worried about the current situation at all. Once the King of Wei conquered Jiangdong, in the future..."

Zhen Mi still understands the situation in the world. If Cao Cao even wiped out Sun Quan, then there will be only Guo Jia and Cao Cao left in the world. Guo Jia only has three points in the world, and Cao Cao has seven points. No matter how you look at it, Guo Jia doesn't seem to have room to turn around.

Guo Jia did not answer Zhen Mi's words positively, but instead smiled mysteriously.

Worry?

Why worry?

Everything is developing towards what Guo Jia expects.

The situation is under control.

Thinking of something, Guo Jia said in a slight tone: "Liu Bei left his wife again at Changbanpo. Fortunately, he had a Zhao Zilong rescued his only bloodline, but his wife, concubine and daughter died in Changbanpo. Cao Mengde actually said that Liu Bei had a hero in the world. I don't know if he regrets it now. But that's right, even a scholar like me was looked up by Cao Cao, haha."

Liu Bei's family is not full of incense, he has many sons, many daughters, and even more wives. Unfortunately, for most of his life, he was left behind by him to die on the battlefield, and there were countless wives, concubines and children. The glorious deeds of Zhao Zilong bravely saving Liu Chan were left on Changban slope, but they were forgotten. In fact, Liu Bei had two daughters dead there.

Zhen Mi's eyes were beautiful and clear and charming. She looked at Guo Jia and smiled, "My brother-in-law's words are self-deprecating. As my sister said, my brother-in-law is like a character in the story my brother-in-law told before. The world's famous martial arts masters competed for each other, but finally met an unknown sweeping monk, who was the master who did not show his dew."

Guo Jia was stunned and looked at Zhen Mi in surprise, with a look of remembrance in his eyes.

Once upon a time, when he told stories to Zhen Tuo, Zhen Dao and Zhen Rong and others at the Zhen family, he told many stories about martial arts novels in later generations. He himself could not remember these things clearly now. If Zhen Mi hadn't talked about them, he wouldn't even have an impression of them at all.

He smiled self-deprecatingly. Guo Jia didn't expect that for so many years, he had few people going out to fight, and finally ended up with such an image in Zhen Mi's heart.

Perhaps, in the eyes of the world, he had already weakened his desire to compete for the world, otherwise he would not have given Cao Cao the opportunity to sweep Jingzhou.

Guo Jia smiled at Zhen Mi in confusion and asked, "I remember you were still a baby at that time. Did Tuoer Daoer tell you these stories?"

When talking about what happened at that time, Zhen Mi's face suddenly turned red.

Without looking away, Zhen Mi nodded and said in a soft voice: "It was the fourth sister who told her that the fourth sister would be dizzy after less than half an hour of study, but she could write down all the stories told by her brother-in-law."

Thinking of when I was a child, Zhen Mi's heartbeat suddenly accelerated and a shy mood rose.

At that time, Guo Jia had hugged her, coaxed her to sleep, and even changed her clothes.

Just when Zhen Mi was in a daze, the carriage suddenly swayed sharply.

There are always rugged and difficult sections of the road from Chang'an to Chengdu. The wheels of the carriage rolled over a large stone and bumped a little.

As a result, Zhen Mi, who was sitting in the car, leaned back to the door panel behind her, then tilted to the side, and fell into Guo Jia's arms.

Guo Jia has long been accustomed to this kind of bumpy situation. He reflexively supported the door panel with his hand, stabilized his body, and caught Zhen Mi with his other hand.

"Little sister, is it okay?"

Zhen Mi blushed and her heartbeat, and she stroked her slender hands behind her head, moaning softly because of the pain.

Guo Jia quickly held her down, stroked her hands on her cloud-like hair, and asked her to bend down to check the situation behind her head.

"It's okay, it's just a little swollen, and it will naturally disappear after a few days."

Guo Jia smiled and helped her up, but Zhen Mi lowered her head to her chest, touching her hair and wondering what she was thinking.

The carriage suddenly fell into silence. Guo Jia saw that she looked shy and timid, and had some clarity, so she sat upright and picked up the bamboo silhouette and read it.

Once upon a time, Guo Jia dreamed of many lives that men pursued, including adding fragrance to their red sleeves, lying on the knees of beautiful women drunk, etc. All of this has been realized. If it is to be greedy, greedy people will not have a good end.

What's more, he is nearly 40 years old now, and Zhen Mi is only in her early twenties, so Guo Jia really has no need to waste other people's happiness anymore.

The two of them avoided talking about their own thoughts and were speechless all the way.

Yizhou Chengdu

Lu Su naturally knew that Guo Jia was not in Chengdu, but in Guanzhong. But he still came to Chengdu.

In Jiangdong, Zhuge Liang was performing a good show of talking to many scholars. Lu Su knew that Sun Quan would never welcome Cao, so the current situation in Jiangdong was just to unify internal thoughts and let the surrendered Cao faction turn to support Sun Quan.

Lu Su's purpose in traveling to Chengdu was to let Guo Jia join the Sun-Liu alliance, and the three families jointly rejected Cao Wei.

He didn't have time to go north to Guanzhong to meet Guo Jia in person, but he didn't have the opportunity to let Guo Jia help Jiangdong.

When he came to Chengdu and met all the officials of Yizhou Prefecture, Lu Su thought of two people first.

Xi Zhicai and Qin Mi.

These two are two people under Guo Jia's rule, one is a strong counselor who is in a central and stern manner, and the other is an example in civil officials and political affairs.

Lu Su admires Guo Jia very much, here is what he said.

Xi Zhi is Guo Jia’s friend, so he doesn’t need to talk much about his abilities. Naturally, he is the best among people. It is reasonable to be entrusted by Guo Jia with important responsibilities.

However, after Guo Jia took over Yizhou, he had extraordinary respect and trust in Qin Mi, which showed Guo Jia's power and tricks.

Guo Jia uprooted the Yizhou gentry, and Qin Mi was a representative of the younger generation of Yizhou scholars. Low-level people would see if Guo Jia could treat him equally. Guo Jia promoted Qin Mi and trusted Qin Mi to let everyone see that Guo Jia not only knew how to use talents from Yizhou, but also dared to use talents from Yizhou, but the Qin family was Guo Jia's enemy in the past!

Such power and tricks made Lu Su admire him very much in his heart.

This is also the reason why Lu Su was unwilling to be loyal to Sun Ce in the past.

Most of the people Sun Ce used were people who were like him, such as Zhou Yu, Taishi Ci, etc.

In Lu Su's eyes, such a monarch is immature and difficult to achieve hegemony, because the most important ability of a monarch who aims at the world is to use people. He must not only be able to use people whom he appreciates, but also be able to use even those he hates in his heart, and use them properly without any mistakes, and be even more convinced.

Obviously, Sun Ce could not meet Lu Su's requirements. Although Sun Quan was not as brave as Sun Ce, Lu Su was more optimistic about Sun Quan at the level of emperor's mind, so he served as an official to assist Sun Quan.

...
Chapter completed!