The Strom of Youth ,led by Sun Quan
History of Three Kingdoms 13
In April 200 A.D., at the age of 19, Sun Quan（孙权）,Sun Ce’s(孙策) younger brother, succeeded as Lord of Jiangdong（江东≈Eastern Wu）, but his position was at first very precarious.
Many people doubted Sun Quan's ability and thought of joining a new master. Fortunately, with the support of Zhang Zhao（张昭） and Zhou Yu（周瑜）, Sun Ce's old troops were gradually pacified.
Sun Quan soon promoted a number of new people, such as Lu Su（鲁肃strategy master）, Zhuge Jin（诸葛瑾Zhuge Liang’s big brother）, Lu Xun（陆逊from local powerful family）, Gan Ning（甘宁fierce general came from Sichaun） and so on, who later became the pillars of Jiangdong.
Sun Quan seemed to favour the young, such as Luo Tong（骆统） at the age of 20, Zhu Ran （朱然Zhu Zhi's foster son,Used to be named Shi Ran施然）at the age of 19, Hu Zong（胡综studied with Sun Quan when they were young） at the age of 18, Sun Shao（孙邵） at the age of 17, Lu Ji（陆绩） at the age of 16, and Ling Tong （凌统）at the age of 15.
Under Sun Quan's leadership, the land of Jiangdong has witnessed an even more violent storm of youth.
At that time, there were a lot of Yue（越）ethnic people living in the mountainous in the south of Yangze River. These Yue ethnic people were tough and rebellious, not obeying the jurisdiction of the local counties, which posed a great threat to the rule of Sun Quan, who held a tough attitude of resolutely suppressing them, and sent generals such as Lyu Fan（吕范）, Cheng Pu（程普）, He Qi（贺齐）, and Taishi Ci（太史慈）, to various places to suppress the Yue people.
In addition, Huang Gai（黄盖）, Han Dang（韩当）, Zhou Tai(周泰), Zhu Ran, Zhu Zhi(朱治) and many other famous generals of the Eastern Wu participated in the in the suppression of the Yue people.
This took a lot of Sun Quan's energy, but it didn't work out very well
The main reason for this is that Sun Quan, in dealing with the issue of ethnic relations, he did not do the suppression and support together,or used psychological tactics, but only suppression.
In this regard, Sun Quan is obviously inferior to the later Zhuge Liang（诸葛亮）, the battle of Zhuge Liang captured Meng Huo(孟获) seven times and pacified Nanzhong(南中≈present day Yunnan province), then basically relieved the problems of Shu Han from rear.
And the problem of the Yue ethnic stubbornly plagued Sun Quan throughout his life.
More serious than the Yue ethnic problem was the rebellion of the local sheriffs.
When Sun Ce was alive, he had appointed Li Shu（李术） as the governor of Lujiang(庐江), After Sun Ce's death, Li Shu couldn't stand Sun Quan, who was a rookie, and with the support of some big clans in Jiangdong, Li Shu started to recruit and buy horses to expand his army, and wanted to ally with Cao Cao in the north to fight against Sun Quan.
In this situation, Sun Quan showed his maturity and political wisdom beyond his age. On the one hand, he wrote a letter to Cao Cao declaring the advantages and disadvantages, on the other hand, he sent his troops to attack Wancheng(皖城) in a swift manner, and Li Shu panicked and turned to Cao Cao for help, Cao Cao really hesitated to save him, so Li Shu was killed when the city was finally captured
Sun Fu（孙辅）, the governor of Luling(庐陵), was the cousin of Sun Quan and Sun Ce, and followed Sun Ce to conquer the Jiangdong, also made great achievements. But after Sun Ce's death, Sun Fu believed that Sun Quan was incapable of preserving Jiangdong, so he secretly sent messengers to Cao Cao.
When Sun Quan found out, he did not move, arrested Sun Fu in the name of summoning him, killed all his trusted men around him, disintegrated his troops, and finally moved Sun Fu to the east of Wu commandery(吴郡), where he was put under house arrest until his death.
In 204 A.D., Sun Yi（孙翊）, the younger brother of Sun Ce and Sun Quan, was assassinated. Sun Quan rushed to Danyang(丹阳) with his troops, killed all the rebels, and appointed his cousin Sun Yu（孙瑜） as the governor of Danyang.
During the transition of power between Sun Ce and Sun Quan, it was normal for there to be turmoil or rebellion. Sun Quan used old-fashioned political tactics and thunderous methods to cultivate his own power, remove dissenters, and consolidate his position as the undisputed Lord of Jiangdong.
In 203 A.D., in order to avenge his father's death, but also in order to remove the threat of western Yangzhou(扬州), Sun Quan led Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Lyu Fan, Zhou Tai and others, began the western expedition against Huang Zu(黄祖), the defender of Jiangxia(江夏), Huang Zu defended in Xiakou(夏口), avoiding the battle, Sun Quan attacked for a long time and could not win, and heard that the Yue ethnic rebelled again, so he had to retreat and return!
In 207 AD, Sun Quan once again led his troops to attack Huang Zu, but before he arrived, he heard the news that his mother was critically ill and had to withdraw his troops again
One year later in 208 AD, Sun Quan led his army on land and water for the third time to conquer Huang Zu in the west. This time, Sun Quan was determined to win, and he appointed Zhou Yu as the front commander, and Dong Xi(董袭), Ling Tong, and Lyu Meng(吕蒙) as the vanguard. In the fierce battle, Ling Tong, who was less than 20 years old at that time, was very heroic, and he succeeded in his surprise attack, breaking through Huang Zu's army's defences first, Huang Zu was routed, and he was killed on the way of escaping, the majority of Jiangxia Commandery of Jingzhou(荆州) came into Sun Quan's possession. after the battle, Sun Quan took control of the Yangtze River waterway in the line of Xiakou and Chaisang(柴桑), and greatly increased the safety of the Yangtze River line of Jiangdong.
Sun Quan, compared with Sun Ce, although the ability to open up territories is not enough, but still more than enough to keep the success, especially at this time, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao are in the northern part of the war is in full swing, do not have time to care about the south, which also gives Jiangdong a rare opportunity for development, so Sun Quan took this opportunity to stabilise the internal, build up the strength, and to determine the direction of the history of Red Cliff coming to the great victory, to create the conditions!