Wang Xuan was right. The truly difficult part was not defeating Yuan Shao, but figuring out how to subdue the powerful clans that had entrenched themselves in Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Jizhou for hundreds or even thousands of years after occupying those three regions.
Any ordinary person could make three or five friends over the course of a decade or two, let alone these entrenched great clans.
Wang Xuan did not know whether the theory that anyone could get to know the entire world through seven people was correct, but he could be certain of one thing: from the highest-ranking officials under Liu Bei to the lowest-ranking soldiers, not a single one would escape. The great clans could find connections to every one of them and persuade them.
Who did not have three or five close friends, or relatives in their clan?
Take the Guo Family of Yingchuan, for example. It had existed for hundreds of years, and its descendants listed in the clan genealogy already numbered several hundred. There were even more who were not listed. It would be easy to dig up several thousand people. Guo Jia was a member of a collateral branch of the Yingchuan Guo Family, and he was even listed in the genealogy.
As for Guo Tu under Yuan Shao, he was one of the more outstanding members of this generation from the main branch of the Yingchuan Guo Family.
In this era, when clan loyalty far outweighed loyalty to the state, even if Guo Jia was unwilling to deal with the main family's mess, what about Guo Jia's parents and relatives?
Which member of a collateral branch did not wish to reunite with the main branch?
In their eyes, that was the most important thing. Given Guo Jia's position and achievements under Liu Bei,