He originally intended to surrender to Wei, so why did he end up restoring Han?

Chapter 111 Stealing Intelligence but Stealing the Wrong One

"You mean, we should pretend to be merchants, deceive the guards along the way, and then launch an attack immediately after entering the city to seize it?"

Zhou Yu summarized some of Sun Ce's ideas, which were indeed a rare and valuable approach. Although morally questionable, it was a brilliant tactical strategy.

Merchants who would normally only seek harmony and make money suddenly transform into valiant and skilled soldiers. Such a surprise attack is enough to cause the collapse of all troops except for battle-hardened elite units.

"My lord, what are your plans after you've captured this city?" Zhou Yu needed to know Sun Ce's next move so he could determine the detailed course of action. Sun Ce simply shook his head and shrugged, looking completely innocent.

Zhou Yu was thoroughly angered by this attitude and addressed Sun Ce by his courtesy name in a formal setting: "My lord! Bo Fu! Haven't you thought about what to do after we break through?"

"I can't say I didn't think about it. My idea was to make a quick buck and get something back with this operation."

If we break through, everyone's happy; we can just pack up our loot and make a quick getaway. If we can't break through, then it's all over, and we don't need to worry about the future.

Sun Ce's words were surprisingly pragmatic.

That makes sense. Now that we've come to this point, thinking about unrealistic things would just be courting death.

Zhou Yu calmed his agitated emotions slightly. For some time now, he had practically been begging, visiting the powerful families of Jiangdong every day to gather more supplies for Sun Ce. He hoped they would generously donate to help Sun Ce through the crisis. The complex web of relationships had put immense pressure on him, which explained his emotional outburst.

Sun Ce's army witnessed Zhou Yu's dedication and felt he had done an excellent job; even the most critical person couldn't find fault with him. Furthermore, given Zhou Yu's consistent performance, veteran generals like Huang Gai and Cheng Pu truly considered him a reliable comrade-in-arms.

Sun Ce managed to gather enough resources through tax farming and alms-begging, allowing him to indulge in a wild and extravagant war—a battle on which he staked all his hopes.

After completely calming down, Zhou Yu began to ponder: "In that case, the key to our army's success is to move in and out quickly, without being blocked by the other troops in Yuzhang. After capturing Nanchang City, we should pack up the spoils and send them out as quickly as possible. In this case, the navy's transport capacity will be very important. However, although our army has large ships, they are obviously not usable here."

This is indeed a very difficult challenge, because their navy cannot bring too many men and ships at the beginning, otherwise it will attract the attention of Yuzhang County.

After all, no one would use a huge fleet and a large group of vicious thugs to do business.

However, if we bring too few men and ships, it will lead to insufficient transport capacity. Even if we capture Nanchang City, we won't be able to take away the captured grain, supplies, gold and silver. Wouldn't that be a waste of effort?

"Young General, I have an idea, but I don't know if I should say it." General Cheng Pu interjected at this moment, feeling that Sun Ce and Zhou Yu had both fallen into a misunderstanding.

"Okay, go ahead and say it."

"Since we can't transport too many troops and ships at once, our army can send in small numbers multiple times. A couple hundred men can go in each day, boarding some ships. Those who go in first shouldn't rush; they can live normally in the city for a while. We can launch an attack after more people have arrived. What do you think?"

Just as Zhou Yu was about to persuade the old general to reconsider, Sun Ce directly stated his position: "This idea is good, but it takes too much time. Just infiltrating Nanchang City might take several days, which would be enough time for Hua Xin and the others to react."

Although both Sun Ce and Lu Meng wanted to cross the river in disguise, the current Sun Ce is fundamentally different from the Lu Meng of the original history.

The biggest factor that enabled Lü Meng to succeed in history was that he spent a lot of time infiltrating the cities of Guan Yu and others, and then launched a surprise attack when Guan Yu was on his northern expedition and the military strength of Jingzhou was weak.

Otherwise, there are many things that cannot be explained, such as why the Wu army encountered almost no decent military resistance when they entered Jiangling, and why the local officials only put up a symbolic resistance before surrendering.

Sun Ce lacked such a detailed plan and sufficient time, so he could only rely on a rapid attack.

"Alright then, in that case, how many people would be appropriate to send?"

"One thousand. One thousand is enough for me."

Sun Ce had the ability to say such a thing, and he firmly believed that he could do it. As for the other troops, they set up camp on the banks of the Yangtze River. On the appointed day, this part of the troops would attack Pengze or Chaisang depending on the situation, thus drawing away the attention of Hua Xin and others.

While Sun Ce was making great strides, Cao Cao was also actively working on his own. After gaining the upper hand in public opinion, he began to think about whether he could acquire Liu Bei's industrial technology.

The intelligence agency, after being reorganized by Xiahou Dun, was much stronger than before. After several months of re-infiltration, the agency finally handed over a map of Liu Bei's army to Cao Cao.

Upon hearing the news, Cao Cao was so excited he couldn't sleep. At daybreak, he immediately went to his office to see what kind of blueprints he had received. Xiahou Dun, who had returned to Chenliu County for the New Year, saw Cao Cao's excitement and personally brought him the blueprints.

After seeing the blueprints, Cao Cao stopped in Bengbu. He summoned Xiahou Dun, placed the blueprints in front of him, and said, "This—is this what I want? I want papermaking technology, not some salt-making trick! Take your brains out of your heels and use them again. Do we even need this salt-making technology now?"

Cao Cao was furious with his intelligence agents. They didn't even know which technology to steal first. Did the two provinces of Chong and Yu, plus the Sili region, have a coastline? And they just wanted to steal the salt field blueprints? Besides, the salt fields were right there. You could learn how to use them just by standing next to them. Why did they even need to steal them?

Xiahou Dun knew that this job was done rather sloppily, but it was still an achievement, better than the two complete annihilations when the intelligence organization was still in Guo Jia's hands.

So he half advised Cao Cao to calm down, and half defended his men, saying, "It's alright, my lord. Once we defeat Yuan Shao and bring our army to Xuzhou, we'll arrest that straw sandal seller. That'll be useful then."

Cao Cao was even more furious and got a headache after hearing this. Wasn't it because I, Cao Cao, couldn't beat Yuan Shao and Liu Bei that I thought of getting some technology from Liu Bei so that the two provinces of Chong and Yu would no longer be restricted by Liu Bei's trade?

If I can beat them, why don't I just take it directly?

Just as Cao Cao was so angry that he was dizzy, Xun Yu was intently watching the news magazine that Lu Wan was running in Xuzhou. This kind of thing was very hard to buy now, especially for Cao Cao, who had a bad relationship with Xuzhou. The copy he had was purchased by someone from Xuzhou, so it was quite precious.

As Lu Wan expected, this product caused a huge uproar in Xuzhou as soon as it was launched.

People are now a bit wealthier and have started to seek out more spiritual nourishment. However, in this day and age, there are clearly not many forms of entertainment available. The only low-cost and convenient form of entertainment is to have sex at home in the middle of the night. This is why, as the situation in Xuzhou improved, a baby boom quickly followed.

People are naturally very happy to have something to relieve their boredom, even if they can't understand the words on it, it doesn't dampen their enthusiasm.

In fact, the literacy rate among ordinary people during the Eastern Han Dynasty was not high, as can be seen from unearthed artifacts. If the literacy rate were high, various forms of "commoner literature" should have appeared among the unearthed artifacts. However, most of the documents unearthed today are official documents, account books, and registers, all written by officials. A large number of tombstones and temple inscriptions were also written by cultured scholars.

This shows that ordinary people at that time could not yet immerse themselves in the ocean of knowledge; acquiring knowledge was a symbol of status in this era.

What if ordinary people can't understand it?

Don't worry, a group of cultured people who are not from wealthy or powerful families have emerged in Xuzhou. Most of these people have become rich overnight by taking advantage of Xuzhou's development. Influenced by this trend, they also greatly respect and admire scholars. In order to show that they are also cultured, they not only buy a lot of books (even if they can't understand a single word), but also hire tutors to teach their children.

Of course, they were also trying to learn to read, although the efficiency was very low and there were many mistakes. But this showed that after the people of Xuzhou had satisfied their basic needs, they began to pursue some positive spiritual nourishment.

Some people were quick-witted, and in order to hone their skills and establish themselves as educated individuals in the eyes of the people, they would immediately read aloud the articles in newspapers to illiterate people as soon as they bought them. In this way, even those who couldn't read could understand what was written.

Perhaps these newly literate people were not knowledgeable enough to govern the people, but in terms of cultural level alone, compared to the people of the Eastern Han Dynasty who had little prenatal education, these people were already considered to be prophetic.

As it turns out, Lu Wan's previous plan had already yielded some results. The advent of paper and books greatly reduced the difficulty of acquiring knowledge, allowing many families with decent means but lacking connections to access knowledge.

Lu Wan's most cunning tactic was that he didn't directly create his own interpretation of the classics, nor did he rely on Zheng Xuan for assistance. Instead, he specifically sent people to various powerful families to request annotations of the relevant classics, ensuring that their names and biographies would be included in these books.

This really hit the nail on the head for the aristocratic families. The families, who had initially thought Lu Wan was going to fight them for the right of interpretation and whose attitudes were somewhat unfriendly, immediately dug out all sorts of ancient books from their homes upon hearing this and expressed their willingness to cooperate in publishing a book, as long as the introductions to them were written more clearly and in more detail.

Things were already at a perfect point, but Lu Wan was clearly not satisfied. Building on the existing foundation, Lu Wan proposed that Liu Bei, the governor of Xuzhou, take the lead in forming a joint group, with aristocratic families contributing members to serve as editors of the book.

This is a stage for them to expand their influence, and even if the powerful families know there are problems with it, they can't refuse it at all.

In this way, these books encompassed the core viewpoints of various prominent families, but often used ambiguity at crucial points or presented multiple perspectives simultaneously. This resulted in a vast and profound system, yet its internal logic was riddled with contradictions. Upon closer examination, readers would inevitably encounter numerous questions and begin to ponder.

Lu Wan's schemes weren't over yet! After the book was completed, Lu Wan specially commissioned someone to make a handwritten copy, then wrapped it exquisitely in Shu brocade and sent it to the noble families who had contributed to the project. She claimed that this was a unique copy made to commend their selfless dedication, and that there was only one copy in the entire Han Dynasty.

With these combined tactics, few members of the aristocratic families remained clear-headed, so they turned a blind eye to the leakage of knowledge to ordinary people.

Moreover, the publication also provided a guide to governance for the aristocratic families who did not hold positions in the governor's office in the lower village. It recorded what was happening in Xuzhou and how Xuzhou was going to develop, and also provided a source of information for other aristocratic families who had not entered the core circle.

Seeing that the matter of the blueprints was settled, Cheng Yu bowed to Cao Cao again: "My lord, it seems that things are getting unsettled in the south again recently. Sun Ce of Jiangdong is making trouble again."

Cao Cao wasn't even surprised. Given the current state of development in Jiangdong, not actively expanding its territory would be a recipe for disaster. So, to this question, he simply asked perfunctorily, "Who has that little madman Sun Ce gone to invade this time?"

"There are rumors that it was Hua Xin, the prefect of Yuzhang."

Cao Cao raised an eyebrow, then sneered, "Now is not the time to attack Hua Ziyu. Sun Ce may be a bit crazy, but he's not so stupid that he can't even understand this basic principle. It seems that the situation in Jiangdong has deteriorated to the point that he has no way to control the situation except for the most extreme measure of starting a war."

"My lord, that is indeed the case. Reports indicate that Sun Ce is extremely unpopular in Jiangdong, and the people speak of him with gritted teeth. The reason for this is that since taking control of Jiangdong, Sun Ce has been exploiting the people to the bone. Not long ago, he even implemented a tax farming system, contracting out the tax revenue of a region or industry to a certain person. As long as the person who contracted the tax revenue paid the full amount of tax, no matter how much money he had taken from the people, no one would hold him accountable."