Chapter 393: 379. Yuan Shao's Next Step
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Holding no position and power to protest against Han Xuan, Wei Yan could only push his boiling anger down because from the start of the meeting until the end he was never even once asked by Han Xuan what opinion he had, he could only squeeze himself in any of the discussion, and unbeknownst to Han Xuan who ordered Yang Ling to draft their reply to the Sun Clan that his bad treatment to Wei Yan would be his end in the future.
Yang Ling, on the other hand, smiled smugly at Wei Yan, as he was never considered to be an influential man in Han Xuan's court but many thought he was, due to the sheer support from the younger retainers.
Who wanted to dispose of the older retainers' control over the powerful positions they were in, not knowing the huge consequences this could cause which is why this also caused a rift between Han Xuan's retainers.
As Han Xuan's court becomes further unstable without him realizing it, the letter addressed to the Sun Clan soon drafted where it contains that Han Xuan accepted all of the Sun Clan's promotions and gifts.
On what condition or terms he had in return, he only asked that the Sun Clan not make many changes to the current government of Changsha under him, and in return, he would give them Wei Yan whom he explicitly put as one of his best generals.
This was a move that Ha Xuan thought was needed for his court to stop the divide that was happening right now, as he thought that all of this was because of Wei Yan who led the younger retainers to oppose the older ones.
Not realizing that everything happened due to him favoring one side and ignoring the other, which resulted in resentment that was growing between his retainers which had become a powder keg situation.
After the letter finished being drafted, Han Xuan put a seal on it and had Yang Ling send the letter to the Sun Clan through his contact, as Yang Ling has contact in the Sun Clan Capital that could be trusted.
The letter arrived at Sun Ce's hand several days later, and he immediately convened a meeting to discuss the response Han Xuan had over their offer.
Huan Jie opened the letter and read the content inside loudly so that others could know what the letter contained, when he reached the section where Han Xuan offered Wei Yan in exchange for the government positions of Changsha didn't have many changes, the room turned solemn.
Sun Ce who had heard of Wei Yan's name thought that it wasn't a bad deal and suggested that they should agree on this deal because having another strong general of the caliber of Zhou Tai wasn't a bad deal.
Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong on the other hand hadn't even heard of Wei Yan's name, they trusted Sun Ce's evaluation of Wei Yan but in exchange for the government positions of Changsha not having large scale changes, they felt that Han Xuan trying to hold some special power.
The two of them said what they thought to Sun Ce and the others, and Sun Jian also had an initial agreement with what the two of them said, but he then added that they could slowly change their positions in the future.
Hearing this, Zhang Zhao was silent for a while as he thought of the effect this could have because Changsha was a very strategic location and they needed to at least control half of its government.
This is also to anticipate any chance of Han Xuan's trying to separate himself from them in the future, as he already had a track record of doing so by separating himself from Liu Biao in a critical conjecture.
So he feels that exchanging Wei Yan an unknown general with the control of Changsha's government wasn't worth it in his opinion, but of course, if Sun Ce feels that Wei Yan is a very valuable addition to the military of the Sun Clan, he could allow it to happen.
He told this to Zhang Hong who also thinks the same as him, the reason is that they didn't want to dispirit Sun Ce who had replaced Sun Jian for a short amount of time.
Zhou Yu, Huan Jie, and Sun Jian gave their support to Sun Ce as they felt that improving the military was a great idea especially reinforcing talented generals in their hands, because many were already in their middle age and even older years especially the ones who had followed Sun Jian since his early years.
Finally, after several hours of discussion, it was decided that they would agree with Han Xuan's offer and slowly change Han Xuan's government in the future, silently without Han Xuan realizing it.
As the decision was made, Sun Ce had Zhang Zhao draft a letter to reply to Han Xuan and began to decide the date with his advisors when Changsha would officially join the Sun Clan announcing it to the land.
While The Sun Clan and Han Xuan were preparing themselves to finalize the deal of terms that had been made for Changsha Commandery to be ceded from Liu Biao and join the Sun Clan, to the north of China Yuan Shao was holding a court meeting at his capital Nanpi.
After almost 2 years of stopping his plan to attack Cao Cao due to the sudden changes at the rear of his domain, he becomes restless seeing that other warlords are expanding left and right.
Especially Lie Fan who had expanded his land everywhere, even managing to take over Jiangxia and Huang Zu from Liu Biao's hand which in turn allowed Liu Bei to usurp Liu Biao.
Also having the Sun Clan as his ally was a final nail in the coffin for Liu Biao, as he was being assaulted relentlessly where he lost many lands to both Lie Fan and the Sun Clan.
So Yuan Shao held the court meeting calling for all of his generals and advisors to discuss his next step because previously he had halted the plan of attack on Cao Cao.
This exhausted many resources that had been prepared especially the supplies that were distributed to the common people and army, where the remaining was corrupted by the nobles under Yuan Shao.
Of course, all of this was noticed by Yuan Shao, but he turned a blind eye to this corruption because he also received a slice of the pie, just like when he was corrupting the supplies of the coalition army with Yuan Shu's help as the Supply Commander at the time.
Tian Feng who knew about this had advised Yuan Shao to stop doing this, because this could become a scandal if it was known by his army and the people of his domain, but was ignored by Yuan Shao.
Feng Ji and Guo Tu who hated Tian Feng fueled the fire, causing Yuan Shao who at first ignored Tian Feng to despise him and sometimes didn't include him in the meetings, marginalizing him from others.
The other advisors followed Feng Ji and Guo Ti who had the ears of Yuan Shao, but there were also some who supported Tian Feng but small in numbers, and all of them were more talented compared to the one supporting Feng Ji and Guo Tu.
As for the generals, Yan Liang and Wen Chou were the highest power and influence in the military, whereas Zhang He and Gao Lan came next to the duo but they didn't hold as much power or say in Yuan Shao's military.
So from this, it could be seen that Yuan Shao favored the people whom he personally valued and those who listened to him, not people who contradicted him and couldn't subtly refute his words not an outright one.
Yuan Shao: "Okay everyone! Since we have seen tag there have been no movements from the Xiongnus to the north, and the Gongsun Clan was still standing tall with Gongsun Gong now in gel since Gongsun Du had died, what should we do next?"
Feng Ji: "My Lord if I may suggest, we should attack Zhang Yan and eliminate him once and for all, because he was a former Yellow Turban commander and leader of numerous bandits, where eliminating him could raise some prestige for My Lord and the riches Zhang Yang have was also a nice bonus!"
Guo Tu: "I agree it what Feng Ji has just said, My Lord! This was a big reward in both reputation and monetary, which could help us in reimbursing our losses during our previous preparation, but also enrich your treasury!"
Tian Feng: "My Lord if I may, I don't think we should attack Zhang Yan, but proceed with our previous plan which is to attack Cao Cao, because he was your biggest rival and obstacle to entering the Central Plain and the rest of China."
Xu You: "I supported what Master Tian Feng said My Lord, attacking Cao Cao will open more domain for us and receive the fertile central plains from Cao Cao's hand, we also could have the Emperor be in our control if we managed to take down Xuchang."
Shen Pei: "I disagree! My Lord I think we should do what both Master Feng Ji and Guo Tu had suggested, it was the best course of action with limited casualties and losses, and at the same time could empower My Lord's preparation to attack Cao Cao."
Feng Ji: "Thank you for the support Shen Pei, My Lord what Tian Feng and Xu You had just suggested was also suicide for us because we needed to prepare a large amount of supplies, with the condition of our treasury now not enough so attacking Zhang Yan is the best course of action."
Xu You heard how Feng Ji discredited him and Tian Feng wanted to retort to him, but he saw Shen Pei who silently mouthed that he knew what his son and nephew had done, if he didn't want them to be captured he better stay silent.
Reading what Shen Pei had mouthed to him, he stood in silence thunderstruck by what Shen Pei had said, fearing for his life and the life of his family, he could only stay silent and let Tian Feng stand alone to retort Feng Ji's words.
Without any allies, Tian Feng was soon besieged by Feng Ji, Guo Tu, and Shen Pei, a three on one debate which goes for a long time and Tian Feng could stand tall against them until finally, Feng Ji managed to sway Yuan Shao who stopped the debate, scolded Tian Feng for not thinking the current condition of their treasury, and choose the plan proposed by Feng Ji as he is already bewitched by the prospect if the reputation and riches he will receive from Zhang Yan much to the dismay of Tian Feng.
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Name: Lie Fan
Title: Three Heroes Who Defeat Lu Bu
Age: 31 (198 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 825
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 936 (+20)
VIT: 598 (+20)
AGI: 583 (+10)
INT: 587
CHR: 96
WIS: 509
WILL: 397
ATR Points: 0
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