Chapter 76: Marching On Lujiang
Huang Zu could accept the loss of Lujiang Commandery, but he absolutely could not accept the occupation of native Jiangxia Commandery. He had controlled Jiangxia Commandery for eighteen years, and every inch of land in Jiangxia Commandery had become part of his flesh and blood. Moreover, Gan Ning had sliced away thirty percent of his flesh and blood with one stroke; how could he endure it?
Not to mention that Gan Ning had merely gained Cao Cao’s support—even if Gan Ning were Cao Cao’s son, Huang Zu would fight him with his old life and dismember him with a thousand cuts to vent the hatred in his heart.
His son Huang She’s sneak attack on E County ended in disastrous defeat, making Huang Zu recognize a reality: small-scale skirmishes could no longer reclaim southern Jiangxia Commandery. Only a large-scale army pressing forward, or even directly attacking Chaisang or Pengze, would be effective.
On the east bank of the Han River’s confluence with the Yangtze River in the north, there was a vast Queyue City shaped like a recumbent moon, tall and sturdy, easy to defend and hard to attack, with fifty thousand troops garrisoned inside the city.
Riverside outside the city was also a massive naval fortress, mooring over ten thousand mengchong warships. Queyue City and the water fortress were Huang Zu’s old lair, the coffin capital that Wei Yan had mentioned.
At this time, Huang Zu was here deploying troops and generals, actively preparing for war, ready to launch a major offensive on Chaisang and Yuzhang Commandery.
But such large-scale warfare could not be waged on a whim; it required transporting massive amounts of grain and supplies. Huang Zu had even unprecedentedly sought aid from Liu Biao, who readily agreed. If the situation became critical, he would send troops to support Huang Zu.
After all, Gan Ning had swallowed up a large amount of money and grain that Liu Biao had transported from Changsha in E County, equally infringing on Liu Biao’s interests.
Huang Zu was actively preparing for war, yet he did not know that Gan Ning and Sun Quan had already allied to launch a joint offensive on Lujiang Commandery.
Zhou Yu led twenty thousand troops on hundreds of warships, charging into Lujiang Commandery from Linhu County in the east, heading straight for his hometown Shu County, where six thousand of Huang Zu’s troops were garrisoned.
Gan Ning similarly led twenty thousand troops, setting out from Pengze and advancing east. His targets were Wankou and Wan County, where Huang Zu’s nephew Huang Yuan commanded five thousand troops in garrison.
When Huang Zu was young, with family support, he barely managed to become a local warlord, firmly grasping Jiangxia Commandery and even seizing half of Jingling Commandery, which was somewhat accomplished.
But now advanced in age, Huang Zu had become increasingly senile and muddled, unable to tolerate any dissenting advice. Killing the famous scholar Mi Heng was typical: when Mi Heng called him senile and muddled, Huang Zu killed him in a rage, making scholars of the world despise him, and the scholars around him all left.
Huang Zu’s decline began with killing Mi Heng; he had thoroughly offended the scholars.
This time in attacking Lujiang Commandery, many great generals and scholars advised him not to send troops, as Sun Quan and Gan Ning were both eyeing Lujiang Commandery, making it easy to be attacked from both front and back.
Even his son Huang She bitterly advised him against it, but Huang Zu would not listen, stubbornly pressing on. Although he temporarily seized Lujiang Commandery, he also lost southern Jiangxia Commandery.
Now Gan Ning and Sun Quan had allied to seize Lujiang Commandery, yet Huang Zu remained oblivious.
Gan Ning led three hundred large ships and arrived first at Wankou City, which had not yet been fully rebuilt.
Interestingly, after occupying Lujiang Commandery, Huang Zu continued constructing Wankou City using Jiangdong’s engineering efforts. Even so, the construction of Wankou City was only sixty percent complete.
Only the city walls were basically completed, but aside from that, including the warehouses and barracks inside the city, nothing had been started. The moat had not been dug in time, there was no drawbridge, the dock outside the city had not been built, and the Cao River leading into the city had only been dug halfway, naturally with no ships in sight.
The military city’s area was about the same as a small county town. The reason it was not a county town was that no citizens lived inside; it was entirely garrisoned by troops. Currently, there was only one thousand troops in garrison inside the city.
Gan Ning waved his hand, and ten thousand troops began disembarking. Several soldiers ran forward and used crossbow bolts to shoot an arrow letter into the city.
The garrison commander inside the city was named Zhang Shun, a colonel. He stood on the city wall coldly watching the Yuzhang Army swarming in. A soldier ran up and handed him the arrow letter. “Report to the general, this is the letter just shot into the city by the enemy army!”
Zhang Shun took the letter without looking at it and tore it to shreds, ordering, “The whole army prepare for battle!”
The surrounding generals were shocked. “General, why not read the letter?”
Zhang Shun said coldly, “Today is the time to die for our lord. Even if we die in battle, we must make them taste our prowess!”
The generals fell silent. One thousand against twenty thousand—Zhang Shun was simply mad.
Zhang Shun ordered again, “Light the beacon fire and notify Wan County: enemy army attacking!”
The beacon fire on the beacon tower was lit, and thirty li away, another beacon tower lit its fire, notifying Wan County.
The one thousand soldiers rushed up to the city walls, holding bows, arrows, and spears, anxiously watching the Yuzhang army below the city.
Huang Zu treated Zhang Shun well. Zhang Shun’s father Zhang Yan had grown up with Huang Zu and was considered a family friend. Zhang Yan had once been Huang Zu’s grain officer in charge of money and grain. Upon his death, he entrusted his wife and children to Huang Zu.
Huang Zu had always treated Zhang Shun like a son, exceptionally promoting him to colonel. The year before last, when Zhang Shun’s mother passed away, Huang Zu not only arranged an excellent grave but personally went to carry the coffin at the funeral. At the same time, Huang Zu promised that if Zhang Shun unfortunately died in battle, he would raise Zhang Shun’s son.
It was these favors that made Zhang Shun utterly loyal to Huang Zu, with no thought of surrender in his heart. He would rather die in battle to repay his lord’s grace.
But not every low-level general was loyal to Huang Zu. If Huang Zu knew how to win people over, there would not have been Ding Feng and Wei Yan’s successive surrenders.
Wankou City’s walls were three zhang high, making siege ladders difficult to use. Gan Ning ordered, “Use the battering ram to smash open the city gate!”
A massive battering ram about five zhang long appeared, with handles on it. One hundred soldiers carried the battering ram, while another two hundred held up shields to protect it. From above, it looked like a giant centipede.
Zhang Shun stood above the city gate and shouted, “Prepare boulders and rolling logs! Once they approach the city gate, smash them down hard!”
Several battalion commanders behind him exchanged glances, suddenly surged forward, pressed Zhang Shun to the ground, and bound him with ropes. Zhang Shun struggled desperately, cursing, “You bastards, cowards! Let me go… muffled! Muffled!”
His mouth was gagged. Twenty or so personal guards tried to rush to rescue him but were immediately surrounded by over a hundred soldiers. Spears thrust together, and the personal guards screamed as they were stabbed to death.
Several battalion commanders waved white flags and shouted, “We are willing to surrender! We surrender!”
Gan Ning’s army was about to attack the city when an unexpected mutiny occurred inside Wankou City. A white flag was raised on the city wall, followed by the gates opening. Several generals carried out Zhang Shun, bound like a rice dumpling, followed by one thousand soldiers who all laid down their weapons and surrendered.
The disparity in troop strength between the two sides was too great; not a single soldier was willing to fight to the death. They unhesitatingly followed their generals in surrendering.
Gan Ning immediately ordered Zhang Shun beheaded and appointed Xu Sheng’s subordinate general Zhang Tai as Wankou’s garrison commander, commanding two thousand soldiers including the surrendered army to defend Wankou.
Gan Ning then led the fleet toward Wan County.
……..
Wan County’s commander was Huang Zu’s nephew Huang Yuan. This man had a violent temper, cruel and fond of killing. In history, Zhuge Liang had several times wanted to kill Huang Yuan but was stopped by Liu Bei each time. Liu Bei, for the stability of Jingxiang, also did not want to offend the Huang Family.
The beacon tower was lit, and Huang Yuan already knew a large enemy force was attacking, though he did not know who the enemy was. Wan County had only four thousand garrison troops, plus newly recruited soldiers still in training, totaling no more than seven thousand. Huang Yuan immediately sent several carrier pigeon letters via carrier pigeon message urgently seeking aid from Huang Zu.
Two days later, Gan Ning’s fleet arrived at Wan County.
Before setting out, Gan Ning had discussed plans to capture Wan County with his generals. They had previously captured Wan County, and though it was through inside-outside collusion at the time, Gan Ning had then discovered Wan County’s defensive weakness.
Wan County’s defensive weakness was the water gate. Cities in Jiangnan generally built a water city gate, like Suzhou’s Panmen—anyone interested can go see it.
The gates of water city gates used various materials and were not uniform. Later capital cities like Jianye used iron doors that dropped from above, but most county towns used wooden doors—iron doors were too luxurious. Some small counties even used wooden fences as gates.
Wan County used a wooden door, which had been soaked in water year-round and was quite decayed. This kind of decayed wooden door was most suitable for a battering ram.
For this, Gan Ning prepared a specially made assault boat. The assault boat was one of the Three Kingdoms warships, its main feature being a prow horn, so its task was to ram open water fortress gates or wooden fences, hence the name assault boat.
But normal assault boats were large, with long oars on both sides. Including the oar length, they were four or five zhang wide.
While Wan County’s Cao River was only two zhang wide, the assault boat clearly could not navigate the Cao River, nor ram the water gate.
But… everything fears the word “but.”
A standard assault boat could not navigate the Cao River, but a non-standard assault boat could be made!
What Gan Ning prepared was a non-standard custom assault boat, with a hull width under one zhang, each side fitted with two three-chi-wide wheel oars. The entire assault boat’s width was at most one zhang six chi, fully navigable in the two-zhang-wide Cao River.
The assault boat’s prow was fitted with a massive pig iron ram.
On the very evening of arriving at Wan County, Gan Ning launched an attack on Wan County from the water gate.
