Chapter 437 - Broken Sun Clan
In the end, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu recalled Cheng Yu to Jianye to negotiate the peace treaty.
When Cheng Yu arrived, all soldiers, officers, and generals glared at him as if they wanted to stare at him to death. However, Cheng Yu kept his composure, ignoring all the death stare.
Pu Jing, the murderer of Sun Jian, also tagged along, acting as Cheng Yu"s bodyguard. He did not care if someone had a silly idea of killing him since he could always summon his bears and use his system skills to slaughter all officers here.
Sun Ce gave a death stare to Pu Jing. He, too, wanted to revenge for his father, but it was not the right time.
To kill all immortals, they had to incite a conflict between the strongest forces and make them fight each other. Trying to revenge for Sun Jian right now would be a foolish idea as they would end up fighting both Tong and Cao Cao"s forces with their puny military power.
Moreover, Sun Ce was aware of the wing cultivation technique. He could sense that Pu Jing was stronger than him and Zhou Yu.
"It"s impossible to kill him at the moment. But I learned my lesson from the other life. I won"t make a mistake and get myself killed by my arrogance again!"
While the tension between the two forces was ongoing, Cheng Yu broke the ice.
"I"ll get to the point. We will give you the Imperial Seal as an apology token for the previous incident. However, we want to form a truce and an alliance treaty with you, so we can fight the false emperor Zhang Tong together."
Huang Gai bellowed, "Do you think we will forgive you because of a single jade!? Do you take us for a fool!?"
Zhou Yu glared at the old general, "Silence! Do not interfere with our negotiation!"
"There is nothing to negotiate! We should kill these men and sent their heads to Cao Cao! The Sun Clan is not some pushovers that they can offend and walk away by only giving us stupid bribery!"
"Don"t overstep your boundary, geezer! You"re just a slave of the deceased. You hold no power here!"
Han Dang, Cheng Pu, Zhu Zhi, and Huang Gai could not believe their ears. Calling the most loyal general a slave was uncalled for, and using the word "the deceased" for Sun Jian was also an insult to their former lord.
Such disrespect remark from an upstart brat was unforgivable.
All generals glared at the youthful Zhou Yu. Their hatred directed to him instead of Pu Jing.
At that moment, Zhou Yu sent a message in the clan chat.
Zhou Yu: "Forgive me for the drama. Pretend to be angry at me for now."
Zhou Yu: "I have a plan, but it needs your cooperation. I"ll explain everything to you and take all the punishment later."
Zhou Yu: "Play along with me!"
Finished relaying the messages in secret, Zhou Yu continued insulting Huang Gai.
"For a slave that can"t even differentiate between rights and wrongs, I doubt your former lord must have given you too much spoiled dog food to the point that your intelligence degrades to that of a child. Your dog family should have raised you better."
"YOU WHAT!?"
Huang Gai was mad for real.
Insulting himself was fine, but insulting his lord and his family could not be tolerated.
Still, Zhou Yu reminded Huang Gai in the clan chat.
Zhou Yu: "I"m sorry. Keep getting angry and insult me."
Zhou Yu: "After I punished you with a bit of whipping, I"ll explain the details later."
The strategist hinted that he wanted to use the same plan when he ordered Huang Gai whipped 100 times during the Battle of Chibi in the other life.
Unfortunately, he overlooked one fact, which was the critical factor of this plan.
He had yet to earn Huang Gai"s trust!
In this world, Huang Gai had been following Sun Jian around, but he did not have any chance to work with Zhou Yu. Meanwhile, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu worked together with Huang Gai for a long time during their conquest of Jiangdong in the other world.
Secondly, their age and maturity were different. Huang Gai in the Battle of Chibi was 15 years older than the current world, and his tolerance level was higher as he had been through a lot in life. Unfortunately, this middle-aged Huang Gai still possessed some uncontrollable temperament, which affected his judgment.
And lastly, Tong influenced Huang Gai, Han Dang, and Cheng Pu with Ye"s culture and prosperity, which demonstrated the example of his domestic prowess. With the promise of giving the Sun Clan"s people a better life, the four legendary figures believed in Tong"s government more than the sugar words of an upstart strategist.
As a result, their mentality was not the same!
"Are you kidding me!? What kind of bulls.h.i.+t is this!? I ain"t gonna work with that brat!"
Betraying Zhou Yu"s expectation, Huang Gai stomped out of the meeting, refusing to cooperate with Zhou Yu"s plan.
The strategist frowned when Huang Gai chose to leave.
The walk-out of Huang Gai caused a chain-reaction. Han Dang and Cheng Pu also decided to follow after the old general. Several sergeants and lieutenants in the meeting also left the hall.
Cheng Yu observed the internal conflict within the Sun Ce"s forces. He mocked them in his mind.
"Fool! Insulting their veteran is not something you should do when you"re still relying on their strength to manage your troops!"
Cheng Yu took notes of this event, while Pu Jing stared at Zhou Yu with a frown.
"It"s almost like Zhou Yu is trying to use that 100-whip tactic in Chibi. Well, I can easily kill him if Huang Gai shows up and ask to surrender to Cao Cao, though."
Everything seemed to be against Zhou Yu and Sun Ce, but all of them were wrong.
Zhou Yu had prepared for all of this. Regardless of what reaction and the consequences that Huang Gai and his colleague will create, he would still obtain his objective.
"He left, so this is better. If he follows through with the other timeline, Pu Jing and other immortals will be able to predict the outcome, and the entire scheme will be ruined. Now, I have to fool Pu Jing and all immortals that the Sun Clan is breaking apart, and we"re no longer a threat to Cao Cao."
He coughed and bowed to Cheng Yu, "Please forgive us for the unsightly subordinates. We"re having a lot of problems after the sudden death of our lord."
Cheng Yu nodded, "I understand. It might be hard on you."
"Then, I"ll also get to the point. We will cooperate with you, but we want an additional condition," Zhou Yu glanced at Pu Jing, "We want you to hand over the head of our lord"s murderer."
Pu Jing looked back at Zhou Yu, who was targeting himself.
"Figured. Well, Cheng Yu won"t agree with them on this since Cao Cao will need me to fight Tong."
Pu Jing didn"t give a cultivation manual to anyone for a reason.
By being the sole immortal in Cao Cao"s forces, Cao Cao could not betray him, and Pu Jing could continue manipulating everyone into killing all immortals.
Pu Jing"s goal was not the unification of China. He wanted all otherworlders dead!
Without otherworlders and immortals, he could slowly devour China and all neighboring countries, including the mother Russia, forming a new empire stronger than the other dimension.
He was looking at the world on a larger scale than Tong and Cao Cao. He wanted to top seat and the absolute dominant position as the liege, not a follower of someone else.
Cao Cao was just a tool to destroy Tong"s influence!
Meanwhile, Cheng Yu glanced at Pu Jing and chuckled.
"To be honest, I want to kill this b.a.s.t.a.r.d right away, but he"s too valuable as a chess piece. I need him to kill Zhang Tong and Sun Fang. Well, I can clean up his mess for once."
He gazed and Zhou Yu, "We would like to postpone the handling of this matter until Zhang Tong is dead. We need this so-called "Murderer" for our future tasks."
Sun Ce and Zhou Yu glared at Cheng Yu and Pu Jing. Though they disagreed with Cheng Yu, both of them swallowed their pride and grudge.
Sun Ce nodded at Cheng Yu, "I understand. We should discuss the details of our cooperation on papers."
The meeting continued until night.
.
.
All former subordinates were fed up with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce. They visited Wu Guotai and Sun Quan, telling them about the development.
Sun Quan had already fallen asleep as it was nighttime. On the other hand, Wu Guotai recovered from the shock and could not sleep.
She listened to the stories with a sad expression.
"I read the clan chat. Bofu is taking over as the clan head, I a.s.sume."
Huang Gai nodded, "Yes. This is getting out of hand. For now, my lady, let"s move everyone to Guangling, so we can stay with the first young master."
He wanted to evacuate all trustworthy clan members to Sun Fang, so they could stay clear of Zhou Yu and Cheng Yu"s schemes. None of them wanted to be a part of those hypocritical politicians, especially the disrespectful Zhou Yu.
Wu Guotai shook her head, "No. I think Fang"er will get involved in the struggle as well."
"Then, would we be staying here? Watching the mess that Bofu and Gongjin make?"
"No."
Huang Gai was confused.
Then, he noticed something.
The tearful eyes of Wu Guotai revealed a tinge of determination and resolve. Those were not the eyes of someone who had given up.
"Gongfu," She called Huang Gai"s by his style name.
"Yes, my lady?"
"Tell me about Zhang Tong and his citizens. What did you see?"