In 195 AD, Sun Ce(孙策) used Qu'e(曲阿) as his base and sent Zhu Zhi(朱治) to attack Wu commandery first. Xu Gong, the governor of Wu Commandery ,was defeated by Zhu Zhi in Youquan(由拳), and then he defected to Yan Baihu(严白虎), the leader of the brigand who had been ruling in Wucheng(乌程), and from then on, Wu Commandery came under the ownership of Sun Ce.
Shortly afterward Yan Baihu was also defeated by Sun Ce, then Yan Baihu and Xu Gong both ran to Xu Zhao(许昭) in Yuhang(余杭,present day Yuhang district of Hangzhou).
Cheng Pu(程普) suggested that Sun Ce should take advantage of the victory to pursue and eliminate these two, but Sun Ce did not agree because he respected Xu Zhao's character, but he did not except that Xu Gong secretly contacted Cao Cao(曹操) and tried to fight against Sun Ce. Soon Xu Gong's letter was intercepted, and Sun Ce killed Xu Gong and Yan Baihu in a rage.
A year later, Sun Ce led his troops to attack Kuaiji Commandery(会稽). He adopted his uncle Sun Jing's (孙静) strategy of lighting torches all over the place at night to confuse the enemy in the front, while splitting his troops to make a surprise attack.
Wang Lang(王朗), the governor of Kuaiji, sent Zhou Xin(周昕)to engage in haste, but he was killed by Sun Ce. Wang Lang was defeated and fled to Dongye(东冶today's Fuzhou) by boat, Sun Ce sent He Qi(贺齐) to pursue him, Wang Lang surrendered, and Kuaiji Commandery was pacified.
After Wang Lang surrendered, Sun Ce did not hurt him, and later Wang Lang was recruited by Cao Cao to serve in the imperial court, and had a smooth career, and in Cao Pi's(曹丕) period, he was appointed as Chancellor of Masses(司徒),to be one of the Three Councillors
In the first month of 197 A.D., Yuan Shu(袁术) crowned himself as the Emperor in Shouchun(寿春). Sun Ce explicitly declared that he had severed his affiliation with Yuan Shu, demonstrating his loyalty to the Han Dynasty, and appointed Wu Jing(吴景) as the governor of Danyang(丹阳), ousting the former governor of Danyang, Yuan Shu's cousin Yuan Yin(袁胤).
Cao Cao appreciated Sun Ce's attitude and immediately recognized Sun Ce as the governor of Kuaiji with the title of Marquis of Wucheng, and in the following year, in the name of the emperor, he formally appointed Sun Ce as the General of conquering Rebellion with the title of Marquis of Wu.
Cao Cao betrothed his niece to Sun Kuang(孙匡), Sun Ce's younger brother, and had his son, Cao Zhang(曹彰a fierce general), marry the daughter of Sun Ben(孙贲), Sun Ce's cousin, establishing a marriage alliance with Sun Ce.
Soon Taishi Ci(太史慈) appointed himself as the governor of Danyang and stationed his troops in Jing County(泾县). When Sun Ce learned of this, he personally led his troops to attack, Taishi Ci was unable to defeat him ,and he was captured by Sun Ce.
Sun Ce appreciated Taishi Ci's ability and character, so he personally untied Taishi Ci and held his hand tightly and said: "Do you still remember when we were in the Shenting(神亭), we two brothers fought one on one? If you caught me then, what would you have done?
Taishi Ci replied, "I don't know, I can't imagine that." Sun Ce laughed heartily upon hearing this, and immediately appointed the then 32-year-old Taishi Ci as a General of the Household, and granted him military power.
Not long after Liu Yao (刘繇the Provincial Governor If Yangzhou)died in Yuzhang(豫章), tens of thousands of his former subordinates bacame to have no master, Taishi Ci asked to go to pacify them, everyone said that Taishi Ci will not come back, only Sun Ce was very confident that it was not possible, but also personally for his wine to trample!
Before his departure, Sun Ce took Taishi Ci's hand and asked, "Brother, when will you be back?" Taishi Ci replied that it would not take more than 60 days. Later, he did return as scheduled.
Sun Ce is open-minded, bold and self-confident, treating his subordinates with tolerance but not suspicion, quite the style of a master, while Taishi Ci is a man of integrity, scrupulously abiding by the faith and justice, and the two know each other well and cherish each other, which made a good story.
At this time, Sun Ce already owned three commanderies in Jiangdong(to the east of Yangtze River), including Wu, Kuaiji and Danyang.
In June, 199 AD, Yuan Shu died of illness, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu(周瑜) took the opportunity to lead 20,000 men to attack Lujiang(庐江) under Yuan Shu, and defeated Liu Xun(刘勋), the governor of Lujiang, in Wancheng(皖城), and most of Lujiang Commandery came under Sun Ce.
During the conquest on WanCheng, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu respectively got the two great beauties, the Qiaos sisters(大乔、小乔). Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were the same age, both of them were very handsome, everyone thought that the destiny of Qiaos sisters were perfect by that time!
This year Sun Ce was 25 years old, at the end of the same year Sun Ce led Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai(黄盖), Han Dang(韩当), Lyu Fan(吕范) and other generals, attacked Huang Zu(黄祖) in Jiangxia(江夏), Huang Zu was defeated in the battle, escaped, his family of seven people were all captured by Sun Ce,Huang Zu had more than 20,000 soldiers, the number of being killed by diving and drowning was more than 10,000 , Sun Ce captured a variety of ships more than 6,000, the belongings are piled high!
At the beginning of 200 A.D., after Sun Ce defeated Huang Zu, he wanted to seize Yuzhang Commandery, Yuzhang governor Hua Xin(华歆) raised his city to surrender, Sun Ce honored Hua Xin and treated him as a honor guest, and later Hua Xin, like Wang Lang, was recruited by Cao Cao to serve in Xuchang(许昌), his official fortunes prospered, and he was also later named as one of the Three Councillors.
Soon after he occupied Yuzhang, Sun Ce ordered his cousin Sun Fu(孙辅) to take Luling(庐陵) Commandery.
At that time, Liu Biao(刘表),the provincial Governor of Jingzhou(荆州), had a nephew named Liu Pan(刘磐), stationed in You County(攸县) of Changsha(长沙,including cities around today's Changsha), Liu Pan is very brave, often went into the Yangzhou’s territory to harass and plunder, no one can handle, but Liu Pan is only afraid of Taishi Ci.
Sun Ce had no choice but to use Taishi Ci to command the southern military affairs to deter Liu Pan.
Sending Taishi Ci to the south, although Liu Pan was be good since then and did not dare to come back to harass, but also made Taishi Ci lose the opportunity to ride the frontier in the north and build a better career, in 206 AD, Taishi Ci died at the age of 41 in Jianchang(建昌).
Since then, Sun Ce finally succeeded in occupying six commanderies in Yangzhou, namely Wu, Kuaiji, Danyang, Lujiang , Yuzhang and Luling. At that time, there were seven commanderies in Yangzhou, only Jiujiang(九江) and a small part of and Lujiang were not occupied by Sun Ce.