next »

[Humble Hero]

I'll concede to you, it seems that Ce had more of a vision then I gave him credit for.

However, Ce was similar to Liu Bei in that the people loved him too much. These sorts of men are dangerous. Combine having to deal with Liu Bei, a man who used to reside in Caos kingdom, with Caos paranoia, and you have a time bomb that spells doom for Sun Ce. Dont think Cao wouldnt execute Ce just because he surrendered.

[Nick]

The biggest reason that this particular "what if" is so difficult to explore is because there are so many possibilities, and each one causes so many ripples in history.

First, do we believe that Sun Ce would have fought against Cao during his campaign against Yuan Shao?  If so, does Sun Ce beat Chen Deng?  Does he then help Yuan Shao beat Cao Cao?  Does Yuan Shao become "Cao Cao" now?  Does he still die a year later?  Does Sun Ce try to take the emperor?  Does he join under the Emperor as a loyal Han officer?  Does he instead ally or serve with Yuan Shao?  Does he try to fight against Yuan Shao at some point?  When does he aim back at Jing?  When does Huang Zu launch an attack on Sun Ce?

Just in the first year, there are way too many variables for us to ever have any serious "what-if" discussion.

[GuanXing-Shu]

Also doesn't help that Sun Ce was young. He could have changed the way he ruled or acted as the years went by.