In the second year of Xingping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 195), Sun Ce, who was preparing to leave Yuan Shu and start his own business, wrote a letter to his friend Zhou Yu, asking for his help. Zhou Yu generously led his troops to join him. From then on, Zhou Yu became an in

In the second year of Xingping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 195), Sun Ce, who was preparing to leave Yuan Shu and start his own business, wrote a letter to Zhou Yu, calling for his help. Zhou Yu generously led his troops to invest.

From then on, Zhou Yu became an indispensable confidant general around Sun Ce, helping Sun Ce to pacify Jiangdong. After Sun Ce's death, he assisted Sun Quan and made great contributions to the world of Soochow.

After Sun Quan became emperor, he once said: "I am not Zhou Gongjin , and he is not an emperor." This shows Zhou Yu's contribution to Soochow.

Zhou Yu's assistance to the Sun family of Soochow began with Sun Ce. The relationship between him and Sun Ce was very unusual. According to Sun Ce, it was "the difference between the two is the same as that of flesh and blood." This was the basis for the two to jointly start a business.

In fact, Zhou Yu’s family background is much stronger than that of Sun Ce.

According to records in history books, Zhou Yu's great-grandfathers had Shangshuling , and his ancestors and uncles all had Taiwei. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taiwei was one of the three princes and the head of the military attachés in the world.

Zhou Yu's father also served as the magistrate of Luoyang. Luoyang was the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The status of this magistrate of Luoyang was far stronger than that of the local prefect.

It can be seen from this that the Zhou family has been a standard aristocratic family for many generations.

On the other hand, Sun Ce's family was just a local tycoon. For generations, his family had only served as officials and officials in Wu County. It was only when Sun Ce's father Sun Jian became the governor of Changsha.

Obviously, if we compare family background and family influence, Sun Ce should be the one to assist Zhou Yu, but in the end, Zhou Yu put down his arrogance and assisted Sun Ce, whose family background was not as good as his own.

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty and even the Three Kingdoms period, if you had a good family background, then starting a business would be much easier than if you had no family background. At least, it would be easier to recruit talents.

Before Sun Ce's death, Jiangdong's six counties had captured five, but the aristocratic families in Jiangdong were still unwilling to obey him, not because they looked down on the Sun family and disliked the Sun family's weak family background.

From this perspective, if Zhou Yu starts his own business, he may not lose to Sun Ce.

And judging from Zhou Yu's ability, he probably has the ability to start his own business.

Liu Bei Later, because of Zhou Yu's hostility and attack on him, he once slandered Zhou Yu sourly: " Gong Jin is a man of civil and military strategy, a hero of ten thousand people, considering his vast abilities, I am afraid that he will soon be heard by others."

Therefore, Zhou Yu had the conditions to work alone, his family background far surpassed that of Sun Ce, and his talents were no less than that of Sun Ce, but why was he willing to be Sun Ce's younger brother?

Among the examples of entrepreneurship by various princes in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, there are roughly three types of basis for entrepreneurship and separatism.

One of them is the royal family, and this status naturally gives him an advantage. For example, Liu Biao father and son separated Jingzhou , Liu Yan father and son separated Yizhou are all typical examples.

Even if they don't bring any team to the local states and counties , just by virtue of their royal status, they can make local families and powerful people obey their orders, at least on the surface.

If he had some ability, it would not take much effort to control the place. Liu Biao went to Jingzhou alone in the first place.

A more typical example is Liu Bei, who under the banner of the emperor's uncle, forced himself to occupy one third of the world.

Secondly, it relies on family strength and reputation to start its business. For example, , Yuan Shao, , and Yuan Shu brothers are typical examples.

Yuan Shao was from Henan, but he went to Hebei to start a business. With his "Four Generations and Three Dukes" family background, he commanded the heroes of Hebei, which once overwhelmed Cao Cao.

Yuan Shu was even more impressive. When the Han Dynasty was in decline, he dared to risk the disapproval of the world and proclaimed himself emperor and founded the country early. He also relied on the Yuan family's family background.

Thirdly, it started based on the location of the family. This is mainly due to the family's local influence, at least the local foundation is relatively solid.

Such as Cao Cao, Ma Teng and his son, etc. all started their businesses and separatist regimes in this way.

As long as the family is still recognized locally and as long as the base is not occupied by the enemy, even if it hits a wall when going out, it can still come back to inflict wounds and find an opportunity to fight out again.

When Sun Ce started his own business, he chose the third option. The Sun family was from Wu County, Jiangdong. They had been officials in Wu County for generations and had a certain mass base in the local area and even in some Jiangdong counties.

When Sun Ce left Yuan Shu, he said to Yuan Shu: "My family has old favors in the east."

In Jiangdong at that time, the local powerful factions were not very strong, and the northern princes could not reach Jiangdong for the time being. The superposition of

gave Sun Ce the confidence to covet Jiangdong.

On the other hand, although Zhou Yu came from a wealthy family, his family background and reputation were not as good as those of brothers Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu.

The location of the Zhou family happened to be under Yuan Shu's military front. When Zhou Yu came out to assist Sun Ce, it happened to be the peak of the Yuan family's power.

If Zhou Yu started his own business, none of the three methods described above would be suitable. The Zhou family was suppressed locally by Yuan Shu and could not learn from Cao Cao and Ma Teng. It is estimated that they would be destroyed by Yuan Shu if they put up a banner.

The Zhou family is not a royal family and cannot start a business in another place. Unlike Liu Bei, they have no foundation, but with the title of imperial uncle, they can get along anywhere.

For example, Tao Qian, he is from Danyang County (one of the six counties in Jiangdong), but he went to Xuzhou to establish a separatist regime.

As a result, when Tao Qian died, he could only give up his foundation to Liu Bei. The reason was that the Tao family had no foundation in Xuzhou, and the local aristocratic families in Xuzhou did not recognize the Tao family.

If Zhou Yu started a business in another place, even if he could occupy a certain state or county, the final outcome would probably be similar to Tao Qian. In that era, local protectionism was quite strong.

In this way, Zhou Yu had no basis for starting his own business, so he could only choose to assist others, and choosing Sun Ce, who was "good in general and divided between flesh and blood" , was the best option.

In addition, from a broad geographical perspective, Zhou Yu's birthplace Lujiang County also belongs to Jiangdong. Sun Ce covets Jiangdong. Zhou Yu is also familiar with the situation in this area, which is conducive to Zhou Yu's personal ability.

Zhou Yu was actually from Jiangdong. He was later called an outsider in the composition of the Soochow regime. This was because the core area of ​​the Soochow regime was south of the Yangtze River, and most of the Jiangdong area north of the Yangtze River was occupied by Cao Wei .

Based on the above analysis, we can know why Zhou Yu was willing to be Sun Ce's younger brother, whose family background was far inferior to his own.

According to the situation at the time, Zhou Yu had no foundation for starting a business. Even if he wanted to go it alone, he could not find his own initial base.

Although Sun Ce's family background is not as good as Zhou Yu's, the influence of the Sun family has a considerable foundation in the Jiangdong area south of the Yangtze River. There happened to be a window period when the princes in the north of the Yangtze River were unable to take care of the south of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, Sun Ce can leave Yuan Shu and work alone, but Zhou Yu cannot work alone. Even if Liu Bei's words "(Zhou Yu) may soon become a minister" are true, he can only choose to be a minister.

Of course, a more reasonable explanation is that Zhou Yu had no intention of starting a business alone. With the help of Sun Ce, a die-hard friend, he had already followed his wishes.

All analyzes in this article are personal opinions, and there may be errors and omissions. Readers are welcome to leave comments and discussions in the comment area.

Reference: "Three Kingdoms"

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