Liu Bei taking down Lujiang County was a huge blow to Yuan Shu. It was equivalent to putting down a wedge in Yuan Shu's hinterland. This made Yuan Shu very uncomfortable.
However, this also provided an opportunity for them to wear each other down. This was something that Yang Rui was happy to see.
When Yang Rui captured Ji Ling, Zhang Xun, Chen Ji, Lei Bao and several other Yuan Shu's subordinates, he immediately released them using the reason of being old friends with Ji Ling. In truth, Ji Ling was too important to Yuan Shu. Without him, he would immediately face a life and death situation.
As expected, Ji Ling successfully defended against the attack of Cao Cao from Si Lizhou in the following battle at Dong Ling Pass, playing the role of a stabilizing needle.
However, Yang Rui was happy to see Ji Ling defend against Cao Cao's attack. At the same time, he was also happy to see Liu Bei take root in his hinterland and plant hidden dangers. After all, Yuan Shu becoming emperor was only a prelude. As long as Yang Rui was able to maximize his ability to wear down the other feudal lords, he had already achieved his goal.
Liu Bei was only one of the painful spots that Yuan Shu was facing.
Apart from that, Cao Cao sent two hundred thousand troops to Dongling Pass, which connected Si Li Province and Yuzhou. Liu Biao also sent a hundred thousand troops to Jingzhou, Yuzhou, Jiangxia, Nanyang, etc., directly threatening Runan, Yingchuan, etc.
Yuan Shu's territory could be said to be in imminent danger. Even though Yang Rui had already released Zhang Xun, Chen Ji, Lei Bao and several other generals, Yuan Shu would not be able to resist the challenge of Liu Biao, Cao Cao and Liu Bei.
Fortunately, the southwest of Yuan Shu's territory was Liu Yao's territory. The southeast was Sun Jian's territory. The east, northeast and north were mostly Yang Rui's territory. These three forces had a certain relationship with Yuan Shu and would not participate in the encirclement.
At the same time, these three forces also provided a barrier for Yuan Shu, allowing him to focus on dealing with Liu Biao, Cao Cao, Liu Bei and the other forces.
This was also the promise that Yuan Shu gave to Yang Rui when Yang Rui sent someone to ask for help.
Speaking of which, Yang Rui and Yuan Shu's relationship was one of using each other. In terms of true friendship, they were not as close as Sun Jian and Liu Yao. However, Yuan Shu still asked for help from Yang Rui. It could be seen how desolate his situation was.
After failing to ask for help, Yuan Shu obtained the right to continue exchanging resources from Yang Rui. The method was still bartering with people and land. However, this time, people and land would have to move Yuan Shu's foundation and not the few counties in Xu Province.
In addition, Yang Rui also allowed Yuan Shu to barter. As long as Yuan Shu could take out something that could move Yang Rui, he could exchange it for resources of the corresponding value.
In reality, the main reason why Yang Rui created a special trading method for Yuan Shu was because of the drawbacks of bartering with people and land.
Although bartering with land was beneficial, Yang Rui still had not decided on which part of Yuan Shu's territory to take. This was especially true after Yang Rui obtained the two new territories in Xu Province. The new territories had not been properly managed, and he had not planned out the direction of future expansion.
On the other hand, the territories that Yuan Shu handed over were usually cleaned out. Even if Yang Rui imposed various restrictions on population, it still could not stop Yuan Shu from plundering the territories under his jurisdiction. Often, there was nothing left of the land that he obtained.
Bartering with people also had its drawbacks. Yuan Shu often abducted the NPCs under his jurisdiction as if they were slaves. Even if the land he passed through did not become barren, it was close to becoming barren.
The male NPCs were either captured as able-bodied men or the old, young, sick, and weak were selected to be bartered. The female NPCs, on the other hand, were selected as young and beautiful to enter the palace or become the concubines of the soldiers. The remaining NPCs were mostly the old and weak.
In short, the NPCs that Yuan Shu used to barter for resources were basically the leftovers. As for the territories that Yuan Shu abducted NPCs, even if he obtained them in the future, most of them would already be barren.
As a result, bartering with people was a very unprofitable business. Unless it was under special circumstances, Yang Rui had temporarily suspended this trade.
Although there were also some problems with bartering, Yuan Shu could still plunder resources and so on, it was currently the fairest method for Yang Rui. It was better than the other two methods.
In fact, the resources that Yuan Shu could control at this time were very scarce. Most of the resources had to be obtained from Yang Rui. The resources that Yuan Shu could provide were very limited. The resources that Yang Rui cared about were the rare items that Yuan Shu had.
For example, the first batch of items that Yuan Shu sent over were mostly Soul-type items that Yang Rui had specified.
The grades of these items were not too high. They were all Silver-tier Soul-type items. In Yuan Shu's hands, they could only be used as Gold-tier items. There was no problem with bringing them to the real world.
However, as astute as Yuan Shu was, he knew the value of these items. At the very least, he could still smell something special from the prices of Soul-type items in the current market. Therefore, Yang Rui could not fool Yuan Shu when it came to the conversion of prices.
Of course, Yang Rui did not need to personally deal with these matters. He left it to Wei Xiu'er to identify and set the prices.
Yang Rui, on the other hand, used the Ethereal Airship to patrol the battlefields of Yuan Shu, Liu Biao, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei. He observed the situation of several parties and grasped the development of the situation so that he could respond at any time.
At the same time, Yang Rui also sent a large number of Ethereal Ninjas to the relevant areas. He also brought the Imperial Guards with him to obtain first-hand information at any time and maintain surveillance of the situation.
On this day, Yang Rui went to Gan Ning's Navy on the Yangtze River to check on the situation. When he was about to reach his destination, Yang Rui suddenly thought of a problem.
When Yang Rui first discovered Shrimp Island, he used Sky City to cross the strait to the Wo Nation's territory. Now, his train of thought was limited.
It would have been fine if the Sky Castle's flying ability had been restricted in the past, but now that Yang Rui had the Ethereal Airship's soul, it was even more convenient than the Sky Castle in terms of traveling. However, it was limited to the traditional way of thinking.
That was the matter of the Fourteenth State of the Three Kingdoms Civilization. Whether it was Yang Rui or Taishi Ci, they were all thinking about how to expand their fleet and make time to use the map to open up a channel to reach the Fourteenth State.
However, he didn't think of using the air. Before the sea route was established, Yang Rui had used the Sky City's soul to travel from the Shrimp Island State to the Nihon civilization's territory. On the way, he only encountered some hurricanes and barriers, which didn't affect the Sky City much.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
