Chapter 513 The Importance of Reputation
Sun Quan’s “passive” intervention in the war among vassal tribes had extremely obvious effects.

As “mercenaries”, Sun Quan’s troops did not participate in small-scale guerrilla warfare and frictions.

After all, that was not what Sun Quan’s soldiers were good at, and it was easy to lose manpower.

Sun Quan’s army only participated in the tough battle of frontal assault.

Sun Quan’s army was well-armed, well-trained and proficient in the art of battle. When dealing with these barbarians, direct combat was a complete dimensionality reduction attack.

Often, after just one confrontation, the disorganized enemy army would collapse immediately, and then win an overwhelming victory.

Wherever the royal army went, it was truly invincible.

Moreover, Sun Quan did not rob money, food or territory, and his military discipline was excellent, and his reputation was very good. He only wanted the people who were defeated and released.

This kind of “mercenary” was so considerate that it quickly won the unanimous recognition of the southeastern tribes and had an excellent reputation.

Many tribes praised: “It is indeed worthy of being called the Celestial Empire, it is full of benevolence!”

Sun Quan was very pleased with this.

Just like the end of the Han Dynasty in history, no one was aware of the importance of population until the middle and late stages of the war.

Because the essence of the chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty was that there were too many people and not enough resources to go around.

Only after most of the population had been wiped out due to war, plague, famine, etc., did people react, or start to take it into consideration.

As for these small tribes, needless to say, they are very short-sighted.

Seeing the increasing amount of money, food and treasures in the tribe, they didn’t care about the number of people at all, and they even wished there were fewer people so they could get more.

When the war began, like a domino effect, more and more tribes were drawn in.

Some are ambitious, and some are forced to fight back.

Of course, there were some smart people who realized the problem, but the situation had already gotten out of control.

Sun Quan did not kill them all, but took the opportunity to gather some tribes willing to support “Great Wu” as peripheral forces and help them grow stronger.

After all, if the war continues to this day and the population becomes smaller and smaller, they will sooner or later discover the problem.

Sun Quan distributed the population appropriately, taking the lion’s share for himself and allocating some population to the tribes that surrendered to him depending on the circumstances.

The leaders of these peripheral forces remained unchanged, but the backbone members were replaced by the aristocratic families, who gradually hollowed out the upper level and controlled the lower level.

To put it bluntly, these tribes were controlled in a subtle way.

There are few tough people in the southeast, but most of them are fence-sitters and stupid and lazy people.

Many tribal leaders did not notice this, and even welcomed these talents supported by the Celestial Empire.

You don’t have to worry about anything, your power is constantly expanding. Where can you find such a good thing?

However, they do not understand the principle that if you want to get something, you must first give it.

Sun Quan was watching these idiots with a smile from behind.

There are no smart people anymore, and these “extremely smart” people are what he needs.

Relying on this model, just like a pyramid scheme, Sun Quan’s peripheral forces continued to expand and soon reached a scale of millions.

Moreover, with these locals and guides around, it would not be too easy to invade other tribes.

Whenever they arrived at an alliance, they would first scare them, then incite them to rebel, and finally annex them.

Sun Quan was very familiar with this combo, relying on these barbarians to fight against their own people, and his efficiency was much higher than that of Liu Fan.

It was so surprising that Sun Quan, who came later and was much weaker, was able to gather the southeastern population faster than Liu Fan in less than half a year.

“Sun Zhongmou is a real hero, Fan is not as good as him.” Liu Fan couldn’t help but sigh after learning about the situation of Sun Quan’s side.

You know, his advantage is much greater than Sun Quan’s, and he also has Tian Ze’s talent bonus, but in the end he is not as good as Sun Quan. Zhang Song and others also sighed.

They knew that it was not that Liu Fan was not good, but that Sun Quan was too evil.

It sounds easy to maneuver and stir up conflicts among the tribes, but it is not easy to grasp the scale.

The scope, intensity, method and direction of the conquest all need to be carefully considered.

“My lord, actually I had thought of this strategy before, but this strategy has many hidden dangers and a fatal problem, so I gave up.” Li Yan said in a deep voice.

“Oh, what’s the problem?” Liu Fan asked.

“What should we do with the barbarians that Sun Zhongmou has gathered?” Li Yan asked.

“Can’t we send him directly to Da Qi?”

Li Yan shook his head gently: “If that happens, Sun Zhongmou will be doomed in the future.”

“Some things, when done, may bring temporary benefits, but they will lose your credibility, which will be difficult to recover in the future.”

“These enemies in the southeast are actually not difficult to deal with. If we do this right from the start, who will trust Sun Zhongmou when we advance westward in the future?”

Upon hearing this, Liu Fan nodded thoughtfully.

“But isn’t it all right if we just keep this a secret?”

Li Yan smiled lightly: “How can we keep it a secret from the public? Besides, the pacification of the southeast is such a big event. If we only use this strategy locally, it will be fine. But if we do it on such a large scale, it will be difficult to end it.”

“If you adopt this strategy right from the start, it will quickly end the war in the southeast, but I’m afraid your future will be difficult.”

Li Yan was well aware of Tian Ze’s ambitions.

The southeastern area is very close to Jiaozhou and will definitely not accommodate them in the future.

Their future inheritance is still in the West, perhaps in Parthia or perhaps in the Roman area.

In order to stabilize the foundation, it would be an inevitable choice to subdue the local people and integrate them with Han culture.

If you ruin your reputation now, it will be difficult to gain the trust of other ethnic groups in the future.

Reputation may seem useless, but it is actually of great significance.

A big part of the reason why Tian Ze was able to take over Xiliang and Yizhou so easily and firmly control the situation in the world was because of his strong reputation.

When the situation is uncertain, this reputation will be the crucial straw that breaks the camel’s back.

The Chinese dynasty has always been under the banner of justice, not just for the so-called false reputation, but to seize the initiative and control the situation.

The outward expansion has never slowed down, otherwise the territory would not have continued to expand from the initial tiny amount.

This steady and long-term approach is the real wisdom.

After all, it’s just a matter of a few more envoys dying, and the Han Dynasty is very good at this.

There is no big country in the southeast, and Liu Fan is not orthodox. Although it seems a bit hasty to destroy and annex him, it is not a big deal.

It would have been fine to accuse him of robbing a merchant from Da Qi afterwards, after all, it was a fact.

Several merchants from aristocratic families did die nearby. As for how they died, the right of explanation lies with Da Qi.

But what Sun Quan did was somewhat against the rules.

It is not a nice thing to kill the donkey after it has done its job. Even if you really do it, you can’t do it openly.

Li Yan’s remarks at this time were not meant to steal credit, but because he had indeed considered this matter deeply.

(End of this chapter)