After seeing Tao Ying off, Sun Ce looked at the four counties in Xuzhou that Tao Ying brought, and was both angry and funny.

I just chased and suppressed a few stray dogs who had lost their grass. I had spent so long and spent so much money. I don’t know if it was because the Tao brothers were too incompetent or too greedy. There were no big mountains in Xia Pi. The places where people could hide were some coastal water squares. It was indeed not easy to fight, but who was that person? The Runan family was not the 108 generals of Liangshanpo, and they could come and go freely in the water squares.

After all, I just want to delay time and wait and see more benefits.

Sun Ce asked Zhuge Liang and Yang Yi to take the results of the other four prefectures and conduct a comprehensive accounting. As expected, the income and expenditure of the five prefectures were basically balanced, with a slight margin. If taxes were paid to the court according to this number, they would be about tens of millions of yuan, which was far less than Yang Biao's selling money. If Yang Biao insisted, he could send the money to Chang'an as much as possible, giving Yang Biao a face to the court so that he could explain it.

Sun Ce was very satisfied and asked them to copy a briefing for Yang Biao, and wrote a briefing to convey to the relevant personnel.

After asking Zhu Ran, he learned that Gan Mei was called by Yuan Quan, Sun Ce also cleaned up and decided to go to Yuan Quan for dinner. Several things were settled and a few things were about to begin. It is rare that he needs to relax when he has a free time.

After leaving the camp, Sun Ce slowly went up the mountain along the rocky path around the mountain. When winter comes, the leaves have fallen. Occasionally, he turns his head and vaguely sees the camp at the foot of the mountain through the sparse branches. It is a bit different from being in it. Due to the terrain, the camp is not particularly large, but it is surrounded by water on the back of the mountain and facing the left and right, surrounded by water villages composed of dozens of building ships and hundreds of large warships, especially the two largest building ships on the front, like double gazes, and like warriors holding flags. The entire Dalei Mountain is a warship ready to go, and can sail and ride the wind and waves at any time.

Sun Ce's heart moved and suddenly remembered the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang. He had read relevant information. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses were a typical Qin army battle formation. There was an exquisite bronze carriage in the central army, which was enough to represent the highest level of the copper carriage at that time. However, there was no owner on the carriage. Some people speculated that the owner was Qin Shihuang lying in the imperial tomb on the west side.

The situation in front of him seemed a little. Sun Ce turned around and faced the camp at the foot of the mountain. He was standing tall and he felt aroused by the feeling of responding to him. He rubbed Xiang Yu's sword on his waist, and was in a daze.

Is this the feeling of dominating the world? This is the momentum?

"Yifeng, what do you think of Qin Shihuang?"

Zhu Ran, who was following behind, thought for a moment. "A generation of overlords."

"What else?"

"He could have gone further, the inner sage and the outer king, but he was too arrogant and did not know where to stop, and was full of military force, and hundreds of years of hard work were exhausted."

Sun Ce smiled. "He is the overlord, where is the overlord Xiang Yu?"

Zhu Ran hesitated a little, hesitated for a while, and said, "I think that although he is the dominant princes, he cannot make good use of his power. It's a pity that although he is known as a king, he cannot hold on to the world and become the target of public criticism."

Sun Ce turned to look at Zhu Ran, a little surprised. Zhu Ran was his close servant, alert and smart. He must have felt his inner conflict, so he took the opportunity to advise him. Seeing Sun Ce looking at him, Zhu Ran was a little nervous and lowered his head.

Sun Ce slowed down his tone. "Do you think Xiang Yu should be the emperor?"

"yes."

"Why?"

"The feudal system has been proved undesirable by Ji Zhou. Even the surnames will be conquered each other, let alone the different surnames? Chu occupied half of the world and went to the Central Plains to compete for the tripod, but was finally destroyed by Qin. This is enough to prove that the concentrated royal power has more advantages. He was in a chaotic world. He clearly had the opportunity to unify the world, but he also enfeoffed the princes and claimed to be overlords, which was actually a rival."

"Would you like to concentrate the royal power?"

Seeing that Sun Ce did not blame him for being too talkative, Zhu Ran became bolder. "General, I think this is the Tao, just like water." He stretched out his hand and pointed to the Taihu Lake in front of him. "It was originally just a small stream that could wader and cross, and could only allow small fish and shrimp to swim in it. When it gathered into a large lake, it would be a huge blue wave, and several feet of fish went in and out of the wind, which showed that concentration was more beneficial than dispersion."

Sun Ce laughed. "But when Chen Sheng and Wu Guang revolt, they said that the world had suffered for a long time. How can this be solved?"

"This is because Qin Shihuang did not use the power in his hands to benefit the people, not because of the concentrated power. If he could change the law and become rituals after unifying the world, and go from dominance to kingly way, how could he lose it? In fact, he finally woke up, otherwise he would not have been spread to Fusu. It's a pity that God wants to destroy Qin, so the treacherous minister took power, and Fusu died and established the second generation."

Sun Ce laughed and turned to walk up the mountain. "You are reading Jia Yi's article recently? This tone is a bit like Jia Yi's "Theory of the Qin Dynasty".

"The general is wise."

"Do you believe that Xunzi's human nature is evil, or do you believe that Mencius's human nature is good?"

"I think human nature is both good and evil, neither good nor evil."

Sun Ce laughed out loud. "Did you also read the Buddhist scriptures?"

Zhu Ran scratched his head. "When I was packing up the documents for the general, I flipped through the "Prajna Path Practice Sutra". Although I couldn't quite understand it, I found it very interesting. I didn't notice it for a while, so I would like to forgive me."

"It's okay, books can be read, and it's a good thing to be integrated, but you can't believe them easily. Didn't Mencius say that it's better to have no books than to believe in books. Let's listen to why human nature is both good and evil, neither good nor evil."

"Here." Zhu Ran was very happy, rushed forward, followed Sun Ce and talked about his experience.

The two walked and chatted, and before they knew it, they came to the small courtyard where Yuan Quan lived. Yuan Quan had heard the report and led Zhen Mi to stand outside the door waiting. When Sun Ce saw this expression, he knew that Zhen Mi had just joined the group and became Yuan Quan's small follower. He couldn't help but look at Yuan Quan and smiled slightly. Yuan Quan bowed to salute.

"Thank you for your hard work, General."

Zhen Mi followed suit and bowed to salute. "Thank you for your hard work, General."

Sun Ce smiled and said, "It's indeed a bit hard. The horse you brought is very strong-willed. It took a lot of effort and hurt a few Xianbei slaves."

When Zhen Mi heard this, her face changed slightly, and then she smiled and said, "Xianbei slaves are the ones who trained horses. The horses are not docile. They are injured in their dereliction of duty and blame themselves. As long as they do not hurt the general."

"It's not that easy to hurt me." Sun Ceju walked into the door and entered the front yard. He heard the laughter and joy in the kitchen. When he turned around, he saw that the fog was scattered and the figure was silenced. He couldn't help but feel curious. When he walked to the kitchen door, he saw Mi Lan, Yin Yu and others were all there, and was talking happily.

"What are you saying, so happy?"

Huang Yueying jumped out, dancing with her two flour-stained hands, and her spirits were flying. "Of course I'm happy, what we are talking about is the great desires that the saints said."

"What?"

"Food and sex, look, what we make is delicious food in our hands and talk about your beauty in our mouths. Aren't it all the great desires that the saints call?"

Before Huang Yueying finished speaking, the others laughed, and even Zhen Mi covered her mouth and smiled. Sun Ce couldn't help laughing, raised his eyebrows at Huang Yueying and leaned into her ear. "Then are you beautiful or delicious food? I don't know how it tastes, and when will it be cooked?"

Huang Yueying's pretty face turned red and she hated Sun Ce. "That depends on how familiar you like, and then talk nonsense, letting you eat raw rice." After that, she giggled and turned around and disappeared into the steaming fog. Sun Ce was about to catch her, but a figure walked out, rolled up her sleeves, and her arms were as white as jade. It was Gan Mei.

"General, the meal will be ready for a while. I'll prepare tea for the general. You can rest for a while."

"Okay." Sun Ce nodded and followed Gan Mei out of the kitchen. Yuan Quan also brought Zhen Mi to the backyard and came to the hall. Sun Ce took his seat on the prepared mat. The yard was facing the sun with the mountain, and there was no wind, but the sun was very warm, much warmer than the world. Yuan Quan winked and Zhen Mi stepped forward. "I'm a general."

Sun Ce nodded, took off his cloak, and handed it to Zhen Mi. Zhen Mi carefully carried it and sent it to the room. Sun Ce looked at Yuan Quan. "Sister has trouble."

Yuan Quan said, "You are polite. Although the Zhen family is in Zhongshan, it is Guanying's house. I know all these etiquettes, but I am a little timid when I first arrived. Fortunately, the general is easy and the sisters are reasonable and will not care about these." She glanced at the room again. "When I saw her, I remembered Ah Heng, who is more close to me."

"When will Aheng arrive?"

Yuan Quan frowned. "It was probably because something was delayed. Logically, she should have arrived long ago."

"You don't have to worry, there will be no trouble with Lei Bo and his friends."

Yuan Quan nodded. Gan Mei came over with tea, knelt in front of Sun Ce's case, brought the tea cup to Sun Ce, and then moved it to Yuan Quan to serve tea. Then he stepped aside. Sun Ce picked up the tea cup, took a sip of tea, and talked about the negotiation with Tao Ying. This was the result that Gan Mei was most concerned about now. He told her earlier so that she could rest assured. He also needed Gan Mei to do Tao Ying's work, and it would be best to make the Tao brothers give up Xuzhou voluntarily, so as not to tear everyone apart.

Gan Mei is very smart. "Thank you for your tolerance, General."

Yuan Quan also breathed a sigh of relief and was very grateful. The five states had limited plans to win, and Yang Biao's mission could be completed successfully. Sun Ce could spend 30,000 gold to keep Yang Biao, and would never be petty about this thousand gold. Using more than a thousand golds a good reputation, the court had nothing to say and let the people of the world see his measurement. Such a simple truth is not needed to be said by others, and Sun Ce would understand it. This is a result of both worlds. Sun Ce was so anxious to come over, so that Gan Mei was at ease, and the key was to make her feel at ease.

At this time, Zhuge Liang walked in quickly, came to Sun Ce, and bowed to salute. "General, Mr. Yang is not in the yard. I heard that Mrs. Yuan said that an old friend was visiting him, and he went to the shore to greet him."

Sun Ce nodded calmly. "Have Yang Yi followed?"

"Yes, he took a few tiger soldiers to the inn by the case to check the records and see who they were."

"You go to the big tent to guard it, and come and inform me immediately if there is any news."
Chapter completed!