On the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month in the fourth year of the Jian'an Era, Liu Bei led his army to Sun Ce's old stronghold, Wu County.
Thus, the war for Jiangdong was declared over. With the entire Sun family surrendering, Liu Ye personally went to Shangyu on the twenty-ninth day of the fourth month to persuade Xu Kun to submit.
After hearing that Sun Ce was dead, Xu Kun naturally wept bitterly, grief-stricken beyond measure.
Yet no matter how deeply he mourned, he was merely Sun Ce's cousin and held no authority to decide.
So the next day, he led his subordinates in surrendering to Liu Ye, formally bringing all of Jiangdong into Liu Bei's hands.
Only at this moment did Liu Bei finally enter a new stage in life. The population under his command exceeded six million, while his total forces numbered more than three hundred thousand.
The Han Dynasty had thirteen provinces and one hundred and five commanderies in all. Liu Bei alone held thirteen commanderies.
Adding places such as Runan and Chen State, which he did not yet fully control, he held a total of fifteen commanderies.
Such strength naturally placed him beyond the ranks of ordinary lords, at a level where he could wrestle with Cao Cao and Yuan Shao.
Thus, after taking Wu County, Liu Bei was overjoyed and personally entered the residence to summon the former officials under Sun Ce.
Among them were Zhang Zhao, Sun Jing, Wu Jing, Zhu Zhi, Yu Fan, and many other old ministers.
Among these men was an old acquaintance of Qin Tian's—his senior fellow disciple, Gu Yong!
Though the two were fellow disciples, when Gu Yong saw Qin Tian, he still respectfully bowed and addressed him as Lord.
Seeing this, Qin Tian hurriedly waved his hand,