Chapter 2371 - 2095: We Are Not Yet the Only One

Liu Bei looked at Zhou Yu, whose brows were slightly furrowed, and was very aware that the other was under immense pressure at the moment. Liu Bei deeply felt that after this military review, anyone who still had ideas of clashing with him would likely feel a significant amount of pressure. Truth be told, before the review, even Liu Bei didn’t know how strong he had become.

Regarding Zhou Yu, Liu Bei actually holds great respect for him, just like all the generals who respected Zhou Yu after the Northern Frontier.

This respect arises from an ordinary person’s heartfelt admiration for a strong man. Commanding hundreds of thousands of troops on the battlefield at will is not something you can just decide to do. Yet now, at only twenty-three or twenty-four years old, Zhou Yu is already standing at the peak of this era.

Indeed, for the current Han Dynasty, Chen Xi represents an insurmountable peak in civil affairs, and in terms of command, Zhou Yu seems to have become a pitfall that cannot be bypassed. Not only do these two possess immense capabilities, but they are also very young!

Therefore, even if Zhou Yu chose the path of self-destruction, Liu Bei would still respect him. Zhou Yu is a strong man; it’s just his fate was unlucky to encounter an opponent like Chen Xi, who doesn’t play by the rules.

"It is like this, Lord Xuande, who exactly is your opponent?" After a while, Zhou Yu spoke, his furrowed brows twitching slightly, giving off a sense of inexplicable seasoned wisdom.

"My opponent?" Liu Bei paused for a moment in silence.

"Yes, if you were to cut your elite troops in this review by half, it might still be reasonable to say it’s for defeating us, but with your current strength, you’re on a completely different level from us. Who exactly is your opponent?" Zhou Yu, having said this, did not hesitate any longer.

"Your current strength wasn’t amassed overnight, meaning that as early as two years ago, or even earlier, perhaps at the end of the Yuan-Liu battle, you already possessed half of the power we see now, which means you already had the capital for unification then." Zhou Yu solemnly inquired, as the Xiahou brothers also paused their drinking to look at Liu Bei.

"Zichuan, why don’t you answer?" Liu Bei patted Chen Xi on the back, "This review is essentially the culmination of all your work thus far, and you know better than I why we’re doing this."

"Handing over the authority to explain this to me isn’t really nice." Chen Xi chuckled but stood up with a smile to prepare his explanation.

"Because you know best." Liu Bei patted Chen Xi on the shoulder and then sat back down.

"Alright, I’ll explain why." Chen Xi nodded and said.

"Gongjin, many people say my ways are strange." Chen Xi stood up with a smile and said to Zhou Yu, who nodded in acknowledgment of this view.

"The problem is, I don’t want it to be this way either, but if I didn’t do it this way, I wouldn’t feel confident. While in plotting and military strategy I can hold my own, when it really comes down to confronting you, my chances of winning are very slim. Even people like Jia Wenhe, Guo Fengxiao, and Fa Xiaozhi who are adept at planning, how shall I put it, can they reliably suppress you?" Chen Xi glanced at Jia Xu and others, then looked back at Zhou Yu.

"Hey, hey, hey, don’t drag us into it when you’re arguing." Guo Jia and Fa Zheng said almost in unison, with the same tone to Chen Xi.

"No, Jia Wenhe calculates with no flaws, Xun Gongda isn’t someone to be trifled with, Guo Fengxiao and Fa Xiaozhi possess extraordinary talent, but it doesn’t mean we can’t handle them." Zhou Yu calmly stated, making Fa Zheng very upset with Zhou Yu gloating about the facts. Still, saying it like that makes him quite unhappy!

"Exactly, since pressing you tactically is too stressful, then strategically pressing you is the right choice. The core of military strategy is using strength against weakness, is employing long against short, which translates into a simpler approach: if you bring out ten thousand laborers, we’ll bring out twenty thousand elite armored soldiers." Chen Xi spread his hands and said quite helplessly.

"Well, that was my original thought because fighting you head-on is truly burdensome. So, from the start, my plan was to remain unchanged, no matter what tactics you use, I’ll crush it with my massive army—overrun cities, cut waterways, the Yangtze River is too wide? No problem, I’ll sink a thousand fifth-generation warships in it to form a barrier lake. If it doesn’t work, I’ll send two thousand more!" Chen Xi pressed his left hand over his chest, speaking very arrogantly.

"In summary, that’s how it is. As for why I didn’t immediately unify the world after the Yuan-Liu war, according to your thinking, it certainly could’ve been done back then. Leave half of the Central Plains devastated, let civilian life wither, and within a few years achieve unification. Then how many of you here would still be able to stand in front of me?" Chen Xi asked with disdain.

"Although we understand that you indeed wanted to preserve the Central Plains’ vital energy, we’re more curious about what kind of pressure you faced that made you make such a choice. What kind of enemies did the Central Plains have that made you give up on the great cause of unification?" Zhou Yu slowly asked.

"No, that’s not it." Chen Xi raised his right hand, waving his index finger, denying Zhou Yu’s words.

"Perhaps in the past, this world still had enemies formidable enough to threaten us, maybe even crush us head-on, but as for now," Chen Xi declared proudly, "we already stand at the pinnacle of the world—there are still opponents, yes, enemies too, but none can pose a fatal threat to us anymore."

During the Yuan-Liu war, essentially what it boiled down to was a collision between two pinnacle kingdoms, perhaps even two kingdoms nearing the status of empires.

Although the strength of the victor in the battle between the two might have fallen to the level of a powerful kingdom, when the conqueror absorbed and assimilated the territories, population, and resources of the defeated, Liu Bei, upon meeting the Roman envoys, already had the foundation of an empire.

Back then, Yuan Shao had almost all the foundations of imperial military power, lacking only two things: a system that could command an entire empire and the complete war potential of an empire.

The first one, how to put it, when a kingdom crosses the threshold to become an empire, its territory, population, and resources will undergo great changes, and the entire nation will experience a painful institutional reform; this is something that must happen.

When Qin destroyed the Six States, if it did not reform, it would die, but even after reforming, without an adequate stabilization period, it would still die. The collapse of an empire often begins with its institutions.

Liu Bei’s conquest of Yuan Shao was akin to two great powers merging into an empire. They were of the same culture and ethnicity, without cultural conflicts or blood feuds. The system had obvious continuity, making this the best opportunity for any great power to upgrade to an empire.

However, rather than saying it’s upgrading from a great power to an empire, it’s more accurate to say it’s rebuilding a new empire on the remains of an old empire, inheriting unfinished institutions from the previous empire.

The so-called Han inheriting the Qin system originated here because although the Qin dynasty fell, it indeed left behind a complete system. If the Han dynasty had to reform as well, the instability in social strata could lead to the Han dynasty collapsing alongside the Qin dynasty.

Yet, even when rebuilding a new empire from the remains of the previous one, a period of chaos is inevitable. Generally speaking, it lasts five to ten years, during which the national strength of the country has not recovered, and it is still in a phase of internal adjustment and poses various hidden dangers.

Once these problems are resolved, the new empire is truly born.

However, Liu Bei from the start resolved the institutional issues, and Chen Xi suppressed the period of chaos to within two years, then forcibly ended the local policy chaos by building roads everywhere, integrating county-level administration into the system.

By that time, Liu Bei was already considered an emerging empire with nearly thirty million people. Then, by methodically implementing the policies prepared in advance, Liu Bei’s subordinates increasingly liberated the population from agricultural production, which meant his military strength grew ever stronger.

At this point, Chen Xi no longer cared for the domestic situation because everyone was sensible, not destructive anti-human elements. Given Chen Xi’s clearly left room for maneuver, they wouldn’t court death.

Chen Xi thought thoroughly about the Four Great Empires of Europe and Asia in this era: Parthia needless to say, should indeed rest in peace; Kushan was strong, very strong, but without resolving Kushan’s complex internal contradictions, it would never qualify to achieve final victory here in the Central Plains.

As for Rome, well, one cannot deny that Rome at this time was exceptionally formidable. Any army capable of crushing an empire was the strongest elite in the cold weapon era.

It doesn’t matter whether Rome acquired this power through sheer militarism or other means; strong is strong, needing no explanation.

Parthia, although pressed by Rome for so long, still did not perish. Its vast territory, numerous population, and solid foundation represented its terrifying war potential. But in the records, it was directly stomped out by Severus across a vast distance, reaching Taysi Sealed and extinguished!

This mode of directly attacking Yellow Dragon bears a striking resemblance to the Han Dynasty’s extinction of the Huns. Was the domestic situation under Martial Emperor terrible? Indeed, very terrible; incomparable to the era of Wen Jing.

But if one speaks of Martial Emperor’s military power, despite domestic chaos, Martial Emperor was absolutely the strongest of the Former Han dynasty, strong enough to make all predecessors and successors tremble.

However, this did not frighten Chen Xi, not that Chen Xi underestimated Rome, but before Rome resolved its internal transportation network, the Romans could only advance to Taysi Sealed at most.

The Roman repeatedly captured Parthia’s capital, only to abandon it. Ultimately, it speaks of exceeding the governing range, unable to control.

Severus was so rampant, nearly plundering all of Parthia’s western frontier, winning every battle, yet in the end had to roll back to Rome. Given this troop deployment capability, Chen Xi expressed there was nothing fearful about it.

Thus, in this world, those who can sit at the card table, threatening the Han Dynasty, are too distant. They can only wait for development until the Han Dynasty is on their doorstep for a contest, or else, facing the Han Dynasty’s colossus, thinking of winning is a joke unless they’re flawless.

"Gongjin, whether you believe it or not, you were never our true opponents; to us, you are of the same culture and ethnicity, descendants of the same ancestry. We never intended to make you losers. The world is vast, there are more than one strong party. While we presently stand proudly at the peak, there are still coveters; there are still peers with the Han Dynasty, we have yet to achieve singularity!" Chen Xi slightly turned his head, calmly gazing at Zhou Yu.