Though Luo Chu was young, he was clever, and saw at a glance that Sun Jian intended to take control of Jiangdong.
But even Luo Chu had heard of Sun Jian's ferocity and temperament. Whether letting such a fierce tiger into Jiangdong would bring fortune or disaster was impossible to say.
Luo Chu merely drank with Sun Jian without taking up his remarks, and so the banquet ended.
Watching Luo Chu leave, Sun Jian felt rather helpless, but could only sigh. "Young Master Chu will enter Jiangdong and bind the clans together into a solid sheet of iron. What am I to do then?"
After taking his leave of Sun Jian, Luo Chu had barely boarded his ship before his brows drew into a deep frown.
Jiangdong was fertile and masterless.
Based upstream on the Huai River, Yuan Shu's faction had occupying Huai-Si as its primary objective. But Jiangdong lay behind Huai-Si, and Yuan Shu's faction would certainly seek entry here. Even without Sun Jian, there would be a Wang Jian or a Li Jian.
"Is Uncle Qiao unwilling to attach himself to a warlord? Or does he have other considerations?"
Without having met Qiao Wei, Luo Chu could only guess at his motives from the limited information available.
The great ship sailed downstream from Jiujiang toward Wu Commandery. The moment it entered the commandery's territory, the flourishing prosperity that greeted them far surpassed that of Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Xuzhou. The flames of war in the Central Plains had yet to reach here, and the region had not suffered much warfare, which was why such a scene remained.
Although Jiangzuo had its own inherited tradition of classical studies, exclusion by the classical scholars and gentry of the Central Plains had gradually led it to develop its own system of appraisal.