Chapter 174: Meeting a Strong Match, Strategic Decision In a sense, Zhou Yu was an all-rounder, very sensitive both in leadership and politics. Therefore, just by seeing the letter from Qin Zhen, he realized the problem. Sun Ce was not very sensitive to politics, and seeing this, he could not help but ask: "What do you mean, Gongjin? He only sent a letter, what plan do you have?" He had indeed heard Zhou Yu say that Qin Zhen used the letter to plot against Lu Bu, but Lu Bu took the bait because he was too greedy. What Qin Zhen wrote in the letter was to ask him not to attack their grain ships. Regardless of whether Qin Zhen sends a letter or not, the autonomy lies with them. What can Qin Zhen do? But as he said this, Zhou Yu put the book on the table beside him, poured him a glass of wine and handed it to him, saying: "If you think there is no solution, then I would like to ask you, without my advice, how would you decide after reading this letter?" Sun Ce took the wine glass, pondered for a while and said: "If you only read this letter, I won't agree to it!" "First, Liu Bei is now governing Huainan with this grain. If our army sits back and watches the grain from Jingzhou being transported eastward, it will help Liu Bei stabilize the situation. This is a move to aid the enemy, which I don't want to do!" "Secondly, this villain Qin Zhen has helped Liu Bei plot against our army several times. He is insidious and cunning. I don't like him and I don't want to help him!"

He believed that he and Qin Zhen had no relationship and were enemies, so there was no reason for him to do as Qin Zhen asked. But as soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Yu shook his head and said in a deep voice: "If you do this, you will fall into Qin Zhen's trap!" "Because Liu Bei is now resettling the disaster victims in Huainan, it is a good deed!" "When the noble families in the world heard this, they all praised Liu Bei's benevolence." "At this moment, if our army is unaware, then that's fine. But now that Qin Zhen has sent this letter to warn us, if our army still intercepts the grain ships, wouldn't that mean we are deliberately cutting off the lives of hundreds of thousands of disaster victims?" "If this is the case, not only will scholars all over the world curse you, but the court will also punish you." "If Qin Zhen uses this to spread rumors, the people of Huainan will definitely regard our army as an enemy!" "Besides, this grain is not necessary for Liu Bei's army. They can earn money from selling silk paper and buy grain from anywhere else." "As long as he survives this disaster, when the autumn harvest comes, if he leads his army south, the people will surely follow him happily!" "This is a move that wins the support of the people, and Qin Zhen is happy to do it." "On the contrary, if we block the grain ships from Jingzhou now, even if our army has sorted out the affairs in Jiangdong, when we go north in the future, the people of Huainan will desperately follow Liu Bei to resist. We will not be popular, so how can we control Huainan?" "The reason why Qin Zhen sent this letter is probably not because he wants our army to let his grain ship go, but because he wants us to stop these ships and destroy our reputation!" As he said this, he secretly sighed that Qin Zhen was a deep-minded person, and his every move was full of hidden meanings. When Sun Ce heard this, he cursed inwardly: "Qin Zhen is really not a good son. I thought he was submissive, but I didn't expect him to have such a plan!" "If Gongjin hadn't investigated, I would have fallen into their trap again!" He thought that Qin Zhen was a strange guy and it was really difficult to figure out his thoughts. The letter to Lu Bu was meant to lure him with benefits, but the letter to him was meant to provoke him to stop the ship, which really targeted the weaknesses of human nature. While thinking, he frowned again and said: "Then according to what Gongjin said, should our army let their grain ship go?"

But as soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Yu shook his head and said: "Qin Zhen's thoughts are so deep, how could it be so simple?" "Now our army can neither intercept the ship nor let it go!" "You must know that Jingzhou's merchant ships are huge. They can not only carry food and fodder, but also hide soldiers and horses." "If our army lets go of the boats easily, and there are soldiers and horses hidden in them, how should we respond?" Although the incident of "White-Clothed Men Crossing the River" had not yet happened at this time, war is a treacherous path. Qin Zhen's use of troops has always been unusual, which made Zhou Yu begin to suspect that Qin Zhen intended to use the grain ships to transport troops! Jiangdong is vast and sparsely populated, which is a strategic advantage. The vast territory can give them great strategic depth and extend the enemy's supply lines. But from a tactical point of view, it is a huge disadvantage. On the defense line that is hundreds of miles long, if Qin Zhen secretly reaches an alliance with Jingzhou, transports troops via grain ships, and hides a troop at a certain point. Once the two armies go to war, this force could be fatal! Faced with Zhou Yu's analysis, Sun Ce felt a headache for a moment and said: "If you follow what Gongjin said, then our army can neither stop nor release the grain ship. How should we deal with it?" Ever since the fight with Qin Zhen, Sun Ce felt like he had been caught by a catfish. Anything that has anything to do with Qin Zhen will become very complicated no matter what. Just like the question of whether to stop the ships now, if Yuan Shu was in the north, he would stop them if he wanted to. Now, as soon as Qin Zhen sent him a letter, he was in a dilemma as to whether to stop him or not. It was really a difficult situation! Seeing Sun Ce like this, Zhou Yu raised the corner of his mouth and said: "This is the joy of competing with Qin Zhen. You need to be cautious in every move you make!" "In my opinion, there is no need to embarrass me, brother!" "Because Qin Zhen's letter is not the main purpose, he just wants to cause some trouble to our army!" "In this case, our army might as well set up a sentry post south of Congyang to collect the tax and strictly check the ships coming and going!" "This way, we can prevent Qin Zhen from taking advantage of the opportunity to transport troops on merchant ships, and also increase our military income!" Suanmin was a taxation policy implemented during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, which was specifically designed to extort taxes from merchants. However, after the salt and iron industries became state-run, the system of calculating silk taxes was gradually replaced by other types of taxes. Now, facing the dilemma raised by Qin Zhen, Zhou Yu thought of collecting taxes! I will neither intercept the ships nor let them go easily. I will directly inspect the grain ships under the pretext of collecting taxes! If you want to transport grain to the east, you must either pay or return! Even if this matter was reported to the imperial court, at most it would be reported as an issue of their privately setting tariffs. However, in times of chaos, many people set up checkpoints and collected taxes privately. Just like Cao Hong under Cao Cao, who relied on customs taxes to embezzle money.

This crime is not serious and will not damage your reputation much. On the contrary, if Liu Bei's army stopped transporting grain because they were afraid of paying this small tariff, it would not be them who would be blamed by the people. As the saying goes, a little bit of rice will bring you favors, while a big bit of rice will bring you resentment. If Liu Bei wants to stabilize the situation in Huainan now, he must continue to show favor to the people and not be stingy in the slightest. If Liu Bei stopped the grain shipment just because of the additional tariffs, the people would think that Liu Bei was being hypocritical. This method, for them, was killing two birds with one stone. After hearing this, Sun Ce rubbed his hands and said: "My dear brother, this is an excellent idea. I have had this idea for a long time!" "I heard that old Liu Bei is now buying property in Huainan and making tens of millions of dollars a month. Our army can set up posts along the way and extort more money from him!" Seeing that he looked like he wanted to take advantage of the rich, Zhou Yu shook his head and said: "Brother, you cannot increase taxes for this policy!" "You must know that the grain Liu Bei bought this time is all old grain, which cannot be sold at a high price. If our army charges too high a price, Liu Bei may directly buy grain from other places." "If our army wants to reap real benefits, the price cannot be too high." "In my opinion, fifty coins per stone is enough. Even if we only charge one million stones, it will be fifty million coins!" "Don't exhaust all the fish in the pond, which may cause Liu Bei's army to get angry and mobilize!" Fifty coins was the conclusion Zhou Yu had just come to. Because he knew that old grain generally cost one or two hundred coins per stone, while new grain cost three or four hundred coins per stone. The gap in the middle is the tariff they can charge. If the price is set too high, Liu Bei's army would rather buy new grain than keep the old grain. Therefore, they charged half of the profit as a limit, which would make Liu Bei reluctant to look for new grain, but also ensure that they would not lose all profit. Otherwise, if Sun Ce was allowed to act recklessly, Qin Zhen might be forced to come up with some ruthless countermeasures. That is not a good thing for them. Although Sun Ce was not good at politics, he could understand these principles and laughed: "Just follow your advice, brother! But I noticed that the Huai silk produced by Liu Bei's army was also purchased from Jiangdong!" "Although these noble families are only collecting raw silk for Liu Bei, they are also in danger of being linked to Liu Bei!" "I want to set up a sentry post in Dantu to collect the money. What do you think?" Among all the princes in the world, there is no one who is not short of money, and Sun Ce is no exception. He didn't have the energy to take care of this matter before, but now that Zhou Yu brought it up, he decided to set his sights on the aristocratic families. According to his idea, he would collect money from the raw silk, and then collect another money from the production of Huai silk by Liu Bei's army, thus making money from both ends. It can restrict both the aristocratic families and Liu Bei, so why not do it? But when Zhou Yu heard this, he frowned. He proposed this method mainly to restrict Qin Zhen.

But Sun Ce’s current idea is to cut off other people’s financial resources. It should be noted that their relationship with the Jiangdong gentry has now reached a freezing point. If we cut off the financial resources of these noble families, wouldn't that force them to rebel? But when he looked at Sun Ce's expression, he knew that Sun Ce had probably made up his mind. He thought that these noble families had already become alienated from them. According to Liu Bei's development trend, they would move south within half a year, which would only take a few months. This little hatred would not matter. After thinking for a while, he nodded, indicating that he agreed with Sun Ce's idea. Therefore, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu decided on a tax collection strategy, and at the same time wrote Sun Ce's decision into a letter and sent it to the north. The meaning is very clear, that is, the war between our two families has nothing to do with the people. As long as there are no military supplies and soldiers in these grain ships, I, Sun Ce, will not take the initiative to intercept them. After the letter was sent, Sun Ce continued to send troops towards Jing County at noon the next day. But before they reached Jing County, they heard the spies report: "My lord, Taishi Ci is leading his troops westwards and is retreating towards Lingyang!" Upon hearing this news, Sun Ce couldn't help but smile at Zhou Yu and said: "It is known that Taishi Ziyi knew the power of our army, and he fled without fighting!" But when Zhou Yu heard this, he smiled bitterly and said: "Brother, don't be careless. This must be Qin Zhen's intention!" "If Qin Zhen hadn't sent a letter, Taishi Ci might not have withdrawn his troops so quickly." "Qin Zhen is a man who can bend and stretch. When he knew it was difficult to win, he immediately withdrew his troops. His decisiveness is frightening!" He was not afraid that Qin Zhen would keep Taishi Ci in Jing County as a thorn in his side. I was afraid that Qin Zhen would hide his head if he saw that something was wrong. Because the former will give them an opportunity to take advantage. The latter, on the other hand, constantly preserves its vitality and exchanges space for time! They marched quickly this time and had no strength to pursue Taishi Ci's troops. Once Taishi Ci escapes into the mountains, when Qin Zhen goes south, he will definitely have another surprise force! From a strategic decision-making perspective, Qin Zhen's reaction speed and avoidance methods frightened him. This means that the reason why Qin Zhen did not move was not because he was afraid of them, but because the time was not right! As long as the time comes, Qin Zhen may march south with lightning speed and not give them any chance to resist. This way of fighting and deploying troops does not seem like a scholar's at all. He is so experienced that he does not give anyone any chance to make moves. After thinking about this, he said to Sun Ce: "Our army is currently short of manpower. Even if we defend Wanling, it will be difficult to defend Jing County!" "Since Taishi Ci has retreated, we can persuade Jing County to surrender. There is no need to march any further." "We might as well withdraw our troops now and shrink our defense line to prevent Qin Zhen from finding us and taking advantage of us when Liu Bei goes south in the future!" When Sun Ce heard this, he realized that their battle line was too long and it would not be advisable to extend it further.

Although he really wanted to defeat Taishi Ci and Zu Lang in one battle, the conditions did not allow it now. After thinking about it, he nodded and decided to return to Wujun. At this point, the second confrontation between Liu Bei's army and Sun Ce ended with both sides' extremely restrained and solid defense line. At the same time, after receiving Sun Ce's letter, Qin Zhen did not stay any longer and prepared to return to Shouchun with his troops. (End of this chapter)