Wang Jun’s orders ca both urgently and swiftly, and Sima You Tong acted quickly as well. After receiving the orders, he imdiately went to make arrangents, and by the ti people below knew about it, the ssage had already reached Shi Le.
Protector Sun Wei hurried to advise, "General, Shi Le’s visit seems suspicious, I’m afraid there’s deceit involved; it’s not the ti to et him now."
Wang Jun wouldn’t listen to advice at all. This year, the most frequent thing he’s been hearing is this won’t do, that won’t do, and he’s grown tired of it. He just wants to hear compliance.
So he coldly rebuked Sun Wei and even threatened, "Anyone who hinders my grand plans shall die; do you wish to follow in Wang Ti’s footsteps?"
Wang Ti, Wang Jun’s chief secretary, of course, was not appointed by him but by the court.
At that ti, Wang Jun’s influence in Youzhou was not as great; at least he couldn’t yet cover the sky with one hand. Wang Ti was the chief secretary of Youzhou and always had disagreents with Wang Jun.
This wasn’t really Wang Ti’s fault; many of Wang Jun’s subordinate generals didn’t get along with him either because Wang Jun governed harshly and brutally, treating his subordinates cruelly. Just in this year, 18 officials, aides, and scholars opposing his imperial ambitions were killed.
Indeed, even Zhao Hanzhang, who held great power and had the young emperor under thumb, never thought of proclaiming herself emperor, yet Wang Jun, isolated in Youzhou, was already considering it.
This can be traced back to when the previous emperor was captured.
At that ti, upon hearing that Emperor Jin was captured by the Xiongnu, Wang Jun was overjoyed, considering that the Jin State was finished, as even the emperor was seized, wasn’t it the fall of the state?
Thus, he ignored Zhao Hanzhang’s orders to aid the king and seized the opportunity to attack Jizhou.
He wanted to connect Jizhou, Qingzhou, and Youzhou as one, and then declare himself emperor.
Of course, he wasn’t proceeding step by step; he was tackling several issues simultaneously.
Therefore, while he sent people to attack Jizhou, he was testing waters everywhere.
For example, he spread rumors throughout Youzhou, claiming his father Wang Shen, styled Chudao, matched the prophecy of "At the high point," using this prophecy to probe everywhere. Those who opposed him openly, he killed if possible; if not, he reassigned them.
Those who remained silent, he gradually discarded as well, killing those he disliked, and finding ways to remove those he didn’t dislike much, so they wouldn’t be an eyesore.
Speaking of "At the high point," this requires ntion of an interesting prophecy.
Emperor Wu of Han once lanted a phrase, "Han faces the calamity of sixty-seven, should bear another mandate, which imperial family descendant shall fulfill this? Forty-second generation of Han, at the high point."
This prophecy spread widely, and thus Yuan Shu thought he was that high point, Li Jue also thought he was that high point, and now, fifty-eight-year-old Wang Jun dragged his long-buried father out, pointing at him, declaring him the high point.
He was driven mad by his desire to beco emperor, but his subordinate officials were not; first, Wang Ti expressed stringent opposition, and thus he was killed, followed by Liu Liang, Wang Tuan, and Gao Rou.
In just half a year’s ti, Wang Jun killed many people, and his patience for "No" reached its limit. Now, the last thing he wanted to hear was this word; upon hearing it, he’d explode, and upon exploding, he’d kill.
Sun Wei saw he couldn’t persuade him, so he quietly fell silent.
Even the protector acted like this; there was no need to ntion others, everyone retracted and kept quiet.
Sima You Tong watched, his heart slightly relaxed.
Shi Le received the news and imdiately made arrangents, sending people to ambush at the border first while others established contact with Zu Ti, "Where has he arrayed his troops?"
Zhang Bin said, "Received the ssage, Zu Ti has arrived, just waiting for the lord to take Wang Jun’s head."
Shi Le then said, "We can’t kill him casually; we aim to manage in Youzhou in the future. Let him completely lose public support before killing him, then we can garner popular goodwill."
Zhang Bin greatly praised, "The lord can think of this now, it’s truly excellent."
"Learned it from Zhao Hanzhang," Shi Le sighed, "Nowadays, few know the young emperor, but even three-year-old children know Zhao Hanzhang of Xiping."
Because of this good reputation, the Zhao Family Army could quickly garner support wherever they went and install new county magistrates.
When Shi Le captured Shangdang back then, it took him half a year just to barely suppress the intermittent rebellions within, and even until he lost Shangdang, he never truly subdued Shangdang.
The people within Shangdang were divided into several groups, not only were there nobles, scholar-officials, and commoners, but also the Jie Clan, Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Han people, and aside from the Jie Clan, the other ethnicities seldom sincerely submitted to him.
But during this period of interacting with Zhao Hanzhang, he found that even in the Zhao Family Army, there were Jie Clan mbers who trusted Zhao Hanzhang greatly, respecting her as a tribal leader. When they saw him, they showed no excitent for a Jie Clan leader, but instead glared at him with disdain, considering him cruel for raising "two-legged sheep" and slaughtering captive civilians.
Such is the sentint within Zhao Family Army’s Jie Clan, even the Shi Army quickly accepted Zhao Hanzhang, despite their recent battles; she could swiftly integrate into the Shi Army, and before he led the army away, she was already bragging and drawing big pictures with his soldiers over wine.
His soldiers listened with keen interest, their faces full of longing.
Shi Le once privately asked them, "The Zhao Family Army once killed our comrades and hard us; don’t you resent Lord Zhao and the Zhao Family Army?"
The soldiers indifferently said, "That was on the battlefield; Lord Zhao said during warti, there are no father and son, only military orders and generals. We all serve our masters; it’s not a personal vendetta, why hold grudges?"
The soldiers even advised Shi Le, "Don’t worry, General, we’ll get along well with the Zhao Family Army brothers; there won’t be any conflict."
He laughed and said, "We killed plenty of their people too, yet they don’t resent us, do they?"
Shi Le: ...
Shi Le felt that if he stayed with Zhao Hanzhang any longer, not only would he submit to her, but even the Shi Army would change their surna to Zhao.
Seeing good things, he couldn’t help but claim them; seeing good thods, he naturally learned them unconsciously. At this mont, he was learning Zhao Hanzhang’s ways.
Thus, when Shi Le led elite troops into Wang Jun’s wide-open city gates, he forbade his n from pillaging, insisting they enter orderly.
Shi Army saw the lanterns hanging in the city and the light between houses, their hearts and hands itching, Shi Le seed to have eyes on his back and cracked a whip, sternly commanded, "Spread the orders: anyone who dares violate the command and causes disorder, I will kill them to offer a sacrifice to the flag!"
Everyone knew Shi Le could do what he said, and no one dared entertain mischievous thoughts again, except Shi Hu, who was following closely behind Shi Le looking very discontent. Before they ca, he heard his uncle would let the troops loot in any city entered to supplent military needs, and he was prepared, even had empty bags stuffed in his pockets, but today there was no permission for action.
Shi Hu suppressed his anger and followed Shi Le into the city’s temporary General Mansion. Once inside, he started stomping around. Seeing Shi Le didn’t stop him, he acted more excessively, approaching a beautiful maid standing under the corridor and proceeded to grab her.
The wife of Wang Jun, sitting not far away, was startled and imdiately rose to reproach, "Who is this young general, daring to be impudent in the General Mansion? How outrageous!"
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