Chapter 87: Storm Clouds Gather
Jia Xu then took a ship across the river to Jiangdong on a mission. When the news reached Jiangdong, Sun Quan dared not delay and sent someone to welcome Jia Xu to Wu County.
In Wu County, Jia Xu formally proposed the plan to exchange Lujiang Commandery for Danyang Commandery, which immediately caused a huge stir within Jiangdong. The Jiangdong internal forces were clearly divided into two factions. The military, led by Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu, opposed giving up Lujiang Commandery, believing they could send troops to retake Danyang Commandery. If they abandoned Lujiang Commandery, they would completely lose control of the north of the river.
However, the civil officials, led by Zhang Zhao, believed that Cao Ren’s army of fifty thousand was stationed in Guangling, targeting Jiangdong. If they rashly sent troops to Danyang Commandery, they might face a situation of being attacked from both front and back. Moreover, the value of Danyang Commandery far exceeded that of Lujiang Commandery. This was clearly a disadvantage for Sun Ben, making it a good opportunity to reclaim Danyang Commandery.
Zhang Zhao pointed out incisively that Sun Quan had just ascended to power and his position was not yet stable. At this time, he should not provoke such a strong enemy as Cao Cao, a statement that struck a chord with Sun Quan.
Furthermore, the noble families of Jiangdong generally supported Zhang Zhao, and even the Xu family supported him. They believed that Danyang Commandery should be reclaimed through negotiation, and that Cao Cao should not be provoked.
Sun Quan finally agreed to Jia Xu’s plan, exchanging Lujiang Commandery for Danyang Commandery, and sent Sun An back to Jiujiang Commandery.
Both sides began to withdraw their troops. The Jiangdong Army from Lujiang Commandery retreated to Danyang Commandery, while Sun Ben’s Army from Danyang Commandery withdrew to Jiujiang Commandery.
Under Cao Cao’s strong consolidation, the Jianghuai region quickly formed a new situation of two Suns jointly governing Jiangdong. Sun Ben occupied Guangling Commandery, Jiujiang Commandery, and Lujiang Commandery, while Sun Quan of Jiangdong controlled Wu Commandery, Danyang Commandery, and Kuaiji Commandery.
Cao Cao also approved the plan to migrate over a hundred thousand refugees from Runan Commandery to Lujiang Commandery.
On the official road leading to Lujiang Commandery, over a hundred thousand refugees marched in a vast procession, carrying the old and young, stretching as far as the eye could see. Xu Huang led twenty thousand troops to monitor the refugees’ southward migration.
In the middle of the migrating army was a small group of over three hundred people, consisting of men, women, and children. Their leader was named Pei Yuanshao, who was originally a Yellow Turban Army general. Later, he became a bandit in Liuxian. A month ago, a man from the North came to his mountain stronghold with over thirty people to borrow grain. Pei Yuanshao was no match for the other party and surrendered, becoming a subordinate. The man from the North became the leader, and he, along with his dozen or so subordinates and their families, integrated into the mountain stronghold.
In the past two years, Xuzhou has suffered continuous droughts and disasters of war, making life truly difficult. It happened that the Imperial Court decided to migrate the disaster victims to Lujiang Commandery. It was said that there were abundant water sources, fertile land, and all of it was ownerless. They decided to join the refugees and develop in Lujiang Commandery.
“Brother Pei, are we going up the mountain when we go to Lujiang Commandery?” a subordinate asked with a smile.
“That’s for the Boss and Mr. Tian to decide, why ask me?”
“What does the Boss intend?”
“The Boss said to see how it goes. If the government is harsh, we’ll go up the mountain. I heard the scenery there is beautiful, and we might be able to claim a treasure spot. I need to go ask the Boss.”
Pei Yuanshao spurred his horse towards a young general riding a white horse.
“Brother Zi Long, wait for me!”
On Copper Green Mountain in Xia Zhi County, Wuchang Commandery, Gan Ning stood on a height, watching over a thousand people busy in the mining area. Miners used winches to pull baskets of copper ore from the vertical shafts and pits, loading them into rough sacks to be transported by mules to the ore warehouse.
Two thousand mules transporting ore formed a two-mile-long procession, a truly spectacular sight.
Gan Ning did not lack weapons at this time. Over the past year, he had captured over a hundred thousand sets of armor, enough to equip an army of a hundred thousand.
He lacked money now, specifically in Yuzhang Commandery. Yuzhang Commandery was rich in supplies, but the copper coins issued by the Imperial Court rarely flowed into Yuzhang Commandery, leading to many counties in Yuzhang Commandery using cloth as currency, and barter still being prevalent in the countryside.
It had long been an open secret that the vassal lords minted their own coins. Inferior Wu Zhu coins were rampant in the North, and even large coins worth ten or a hundred times their value were common everywhere.
Currently, half of the money in Yuzhang Commandery came from Jingzhou, and half from Jiangdong. In reality, these were not minted by the Imperial Court, but by Liu Biao and Sun Ce. Gan Ning naturally wanted to mint his own coins; as the Lord of Yuzhang Commandery, how could he let others control the right to mint currency?
Gan Ning’s desire to mint coins was not a sudden impulse. Yuzhang Commandery had the foundation for minting coins. Two years ago, Liu Yao had planned to mint coins in Nanchang. After only three batches of coins were minted, Liu Yao unfortunately fell ill and died, and the minting plan was interrupted.
Jiang Wan spent a month recalling the furnaces and artisans, and now they were just waiting for the raw materials.
The copper ore would be sent to Xia Zhi County for initial smelting, then transported to Nanchang for refining, after which coin minting would begin.
The coins being minted now were, of course, Wu Zhu coins. A Zhu was a unit of weight, equivalent to 0.65 grams. A five Zhu coin meant a copper coin weighing five Zhu, equivalent to 3.25 grams.
“How much copper can be produced in a month?” Gan Ning asked.
The casting supervisor bowed and replied, “Reporting to my Lord, we produce about ten thousand catties of copper per month. But it’s not just copper; we also produce several hundred taels of silver and thirty to forty taels of gold, which are byproducts.”
Gan Ning calculated silently: three thousand guan per month, and thirty-six thousand guan per year.
“What about the miners’ wages? How much is it per month?”
“No money is needed!”
The supervisor shook his head and quickly explained, “The miners are paid in grain, three catties of wheat per person per day. This is their net profit, and the mine provides accommodation and food for the miners.”
“How much copper did Huang Zu produce per month before?”
“At its peak, it reached thirty thousand catties, and it was relatively stable at around twenty thousand catties per month, double our output.”
“Is it because there were more miners?”
“Precisely. Previously, there were two to three thousand people. Now we only have twelve hundred people, mainly because many people are involved in city construction. There is a labor shortage. Once the city is built, miners will return, and then the output will increase.”
At this moment, a soldier rushed in to report, “Reporting to my Lord, Strategist Xu is in Chaisang and says he has important matters to report!”
Gan Ning nodded. He had inspected enough, so he temporarily ended his inspection and boarded a ship at the nearby dock. The ship sailed towards the Yangtze River.
The following morning, Gan Ning returned to Chaisang and met Xu Shu at the government office.
“Yuan Zhi, what happened?” Gan Ning asked with a smile.
“Reporting to my Lord, a major event has occurred in Jiangdong. Cao Ren led fifty thousand troops to retake Guangling Commandery, but handed Guangling Commandery over to Sun Ben. Sun Ben then exchanged Danyang Commandery with Sun Quan for Lujiang Commandery. Now Sun Ben occupies the three commanderies north of the river, and Sun Quan occupies the three commanderies south of the river. The two Suns have split.”
This outcome was within Gan Ning’s expectations. Sun Ben had invested a great deal of effort and endured countless infamy to defeat Sun Ce, only to have Sun Quan snatch the fruits of his labor. How could he possibly give up? The split was the best outcome; if Cao Cao had not intervened, civil war would likely have broken out soon.
Gan Ning smiled and said, “An enemy divided into two is certainly not a bad thing for us. What other news is there?”
“There’s also news that Cao Cao is relocating a large number of refugees from Xuzhou to Lujiang Commandery, over a hundred thousand of them.”
Gan Ning’s eyes lit up. This news was also good. He chuckled and said, “Now Lujiang Commandery has value!”
Population is the greatest value.
Xu Shu pondered for a moment and added, “Your subordinate believes that Sun Ben, having taken Lujiang Commandery, will likely attack Xunyang County first. He will not recognize the agreement we signed with Jiangdong, so we must prepare for war.”
Gan Ning had anticipated this long ago, otherwise, he would not have stationed fifteen thousand troops in Xunyang and assigned a fierce general like Taishi Ci to be in charge.
“As the Strategist says, Cao Cao will certainly instigate Sun Ben and Huang Zu to join forces against us. However, Xunyang County, lying between them, will inevitably be the first nail Sun Ben will want to remove.”
