"Search carefully, don't miss a single copper coin or grain of rice!"

After the battle, Sun Jian immediately ordered a thorough search of the manor.

Many of those adventurers were skilled in unorthodox methods, and in their presence, all the secret rooms and hidden chambers in the manor were rendered useless.

Within half an hour, Lord Morasi and his family, along with the money and grain hidden in the manor, were all brought before Sun Jian.

An advisor, carrying several account books and a thick stack of IOUs, also came to Sun Jian.

"General, these should be records of the estate's assets, but unfortunately they are all in Roman script, which I cannot understand!"

Sun Jian took the ledger, glanced at it casually, and then handed it to the guide beside him: "Read it!"

"Who...who are you people?"

Just as the guide took the ledger, Lord Morasi looked at Sun Jian with a look of fear and asked.

Sun Jian glanced at Morasi indifferently and then made a gesture to one of his subordinates beside him.

The subordinate understood, immediately picked up his long sword, walked towards Morasi, and then plunged the sword directly into the man's chest.

"Ah...uh..."

Molesi let out a painful groan and looked at Sun Jian with eyes full of fear.

All I did was ask one question, and they attacked me without even saying a word?

The scene before them terrified Morales's wives, concubines, and children. Despite their fear, they covered their mouths tightly, not daring to make a sound.

"Hmph!"

Seeing this, Sun Jian snorted and then looked at the guide: "Now begin reading!"

"yes……!"

The guide nervously agreed, then opened the ledger and read out its contents word by word.

Before long, after the guide finished reading, Sun Jian had a general understanding of the wealth under Morais's name.

This town is called Xilin Town. It has 21 villages under its jurisdiction, with a total population of over 24,000 and nearly 200,000 mu of land.

After so many years of cunning and plundering, all the farmland in the town has become Morasi's private land. The villagers have not only become serf-like tenants, but every household is also in debt.

The grain that the people harvest in a year is barely enough to cover land rent and debt interest.

A minor baron lord, who had been sucking the blood of more than 20,000 people for decades, had naturally accumulated a considerable amount of wealth.

The granaries in his estate contained at least 500,000 shi of grain, enough to feed all the people in the town for two years, and the total value of all his property was about 100,000 gold coins.

The fact that this lord amassed such a fortune from a small town with a population of just over 20,000 shows how impoverished the local people were.

"Although Rome is known for its wealth and power, the wealth belongs to the nobles and lords. The lives of the common people are not much different from those of the people in the Han Dynasty!"

After learning about the hardships the people had endured, Sun Jian couldn't help but sigh.

"However, this is for the best. The more the people suffer, the greater the chance of success!"

After thinking it over in his heart, Sun Jian then handed over Molesi's family and the surrendered guards to the able-bodied men to deal with.

Although Lord Morasi was dead, the years of oppression and persecution had caused these young men to vent their anger on the lord's family and the guards who had aided and abetted the evildoers.

A series of mournful wails echoed throughout the manor.

Soon, everyone connected to the lord, regardless of age or gender, was brutally murdered by the able-bodied men, some of whom had even been reduced to a pile of minced meat.

"Leave three hundred brothers to guard the estate's money and provisions; the rest of you, follow me north!"

After the able-bodied men had vented their anger, Sun Jian gave an order and then led the remaining men toward the manor in another town to the north.

After half a day of travel, Sun Jian, leading more than a thousand people, finally arrived at the target manor at sunset.

The security situation at this manor was similar to the previous one: the walls were low, and there were only about three hundred guards with poor combat capabilities.

Within two quarters of an hour, Sun Jian led his men to breach the manor and beheaded the lord's entire family and all the guards.

This lord's territory is larger than the previous one, encompassing twenty-nine villages and a population of nearly thirty thousand.

The estate has enough food and money to feed all the town's residents for two years.

After capturing the two towns, Sun Jian and Gao Shun ceased their operations.

They brought only a small number of people, not enough to control more villages and towns in a short time. If they develop too quickly, they will definitely attract the siege of other towns and even cities in the surrounding area.

Therefore, while ordering his men to continue cutting off the two towns from the outside world, Sun Jian also ordered his men to gather the villagers from the remaining villages with food and supplies.

It took nearly a month, with the encouragement of food and words, for nearly 50,000 villagers in 50 villages under the jurisdiction of the two towns to become staunch followers.

Sun Jian also selected 8,000 young men from among them to form a team called the "People's Protection Army," and incorporated 2,000 adventurers into the People's Protection Army to serve in important positions, all of whom were then trained by Gao Shun.

Sun Jian disguised himself as a merchant and led a caravan into the city. While exchanging silk and tea for money, he also monitored and inquired about the city's activities, preparing for future actions after the formation of his army.

...

While Sun Jian was busy with his work, two caravans left the territory of Yizhou, heading northwest and northeast of Parthia respectively, to the north of the newly established Yizhou.

Unlike ordinary caravans, the guards of these two caravans were all on horseback. Each knight carried a long sword at his waist and a powerful bow on his back. What was most puzzling was that all the knights wore masks, making them extremely mysterious.

Neither of these guard teams carried any flags to identify them, and the armor worn by the knights did not indicate which faction they belonged to.

The leaders of the two teams are Gongsun Zan and Ma Teng, respectively.

Unlike Liu Bei and Sun Jian, Gongsun Zan and Ma Teng were both cavalry commanders. Therefore, after arriving in Yizhou, the two first obtained a batch of warhorses with the help of Chu Qian, Cheng Pu and others, and then carried out some training, which delayed their actions by several months.

After some investigation and comparison, Gongsun Zan chose the northeastern region, where the Persians, Parthians, and Kushans were mixed, while Ma Teng chose the northwestern region, which is close to the Caspian Sea and Armenia.

Now that Parthia has been attacked by Chu Qian and Rome in turn, its national strength has been weakened to the extreme. Therefore, the actions of Ma Teng and Gongsun Zan are much easier than those of Liu Bei and Sun Jian.

At this point, Liu Hong's contingency plans in Rome and Parthia were all in place.