Chapter 67: Opportunity For Battle Arrives
The next day while combing her hair, Da Qiao tearfully hugged her husband’s neck and cried, unable to bear his departure.
After the two had become intimate and shared a night sleeping together, Da Qiao’s mindset was completely different; previously they had treated each other with respect, but after a night of intimacy, she finally gave her entire body and soul to Gan Ning.
“Husband, you must return early.”
“I will definitely return as soon as possible.” Leaving the gentle embrace, Gan Ning was truly reluctant.
In the dark night, Gan Ning mounted his horse, waved to Da Qiao, and galloped away surrounded by more than a dozen personal guards.
She raised her hand and waved wearily until her husband’s figure was no longer visible, then Da Qiao returned to her room full of melancholy.
Huang Zu personally led troops in a sneak attack on Xunyang County.
Huang She was truly worried, “Father, Xunyang is Gan Ning’s base; we should bypass it and not make another strong enemy!”
Huang Zu’s triangular eyes glared fiercely, “He can seize my Chaisang County, so why can’t I capture his Xunyang County? He killed Hu Xian, so why can’t I kill his men?”
“Father, please calm down; once he sends troops to Xunyang County, it will cut off our retreat and leave us attacked from both front and back!”
Huang Zu fumed for a moment, “Fine then, surround the city on three sides, leave East City open for them to flee; I’ve already done all I can in benevolence and righteousness!”
Huang Zu immediately commanded 20,000 troops to surround Xunyang County, leaving one side open; County Chief Qiao An fled from the east gate with 300 soldiers and his wife and children, and Huang Zu occupied Xunyang County without bloodshed.
Of course, Xunyang County was no longer one of Gan Ning’s three cunning rabbit burrows; Gan Ning no longer needed three cunning rabbit burrows now, and the large amount of money and grain stored in Xunyang County had been transported to Nanchang a month ago.
Xunyang County was merely a wedge Gan Ning had driven into the north of the river, a springboard for his future offensive into the north of the river.
Huang Zu had long had his eye on Xunyang County; not only was it very close to Yuzhang Commandery, it was even closer to Jiangxia Commandery, only a little over 20 li away, so the army could kill over in the blink of an eye.
Huang Zu was about sixty years old, with a tall, fat body topped by a huge head; he held a long halberd and stood on the city wall, his gaze fixed on the distant east.
Huang Zu’s offensive this time was not aimed at Yuzhang Commandery, but to swallow Lujiang Commandery.
He had just received Liu Biao’s urgent military order demanding that Huang Zu immediately send troops to Lujiang Commandery.
Li Shu had once been Liu Biao’s subordinate; for opposing Yuan Shu he was promoted by the Imperial Court to Prefectural Chief Clerk of Lujiang Commandery, and later surrendered to Sun Ce in time and was kept on by Sun Ce as Prefect of Lujiang Commandery.
But soon Sun Ce discovered he was colluding with Liu Biao to offer Lujiang Commandery to Liu Biao, so Sun Ce unhesitatingly dismissed Li Shu; Li Shu fled to Sun Ben and became his advisor, gaining Sun Ben’s protection and escaping Sun Ce’s reckoning.
From Liu Biao’s military order, Huang Zu learned that Li Shu had rebelled in Jiujiang Commandery; he was overjoyed—how could he not seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Sun Ce had just died, Sun Quan had just taken the throne, and the interior was unstable; if he didn’t seize the chance now to capture Lujiang Commandery, there would be no hope later.
Huang Zu of course still wanted to capture Yuzhang Commandery, but with Cao Cao behind Gan Ning, he was somewhat wary; otherwise, after Gan Ning eliminated Hu Xian, he wouldn’t have held back until now.
But capturing Lujiang Commandery gave him no such worries; after resting only one day, Huang Zu’s 20,000 troops continued toward Wan County.
Xu Qiu had already received warning from scouts in Yuzhang Commandery and learned that Huang Zu’s 20,000 troops were coming to kill; with only 2,000 soldiers under him, he could not resist, so he hurriedly organized the army and officials to retreat, and the force withdrew to Wankou to observe the situation.
It was relatively easy to retreat from here; once Huang Zu came to kill, they could board ships and withdraw.
Meanwhile, a rebellion also broke out in Jiujiang Commandery; the new Prefect Li Shu took advantage of Taishi Ci going to Eastern Wu to mourn Sun Ce, seized Taishi Ci’s 10,000 troops in Shouchun in one stroke, and quickly recruited 10,000 troops from two bandit groups, occupying Jiujiang Commandery.
But Li Shu’s ambitions went far beyond Jiujiang Commandery; according to Sun Ben’s plan, he also had to seize Guangling Commandery, then Sun Ben would advance north to occupy Jiujiang Commandery and Guangling Commandery, and finally capture Lujiang Commandery.
But capturing Lujiang Commandery had always been Liu Biao’s wish; the last time Li Shu tried to offer Lujiang Commandery to Liu Biao, Sun Ce saw through it, but this time Li Shu decided to offer Lujiang Commandery to Liu Biao—as for Sun Ben, Sun Ben was too greedy, so he could only say sorry.
Li Shu did not hesitate and immediately led troops to attack Guangling Commandery; Guangling Commandery was modern Yangzhou, under the jurisdiction of Xuzhou Governor’s office and Cao Cao’s territory—this was also an important goal of Sun Ce’s Northern Expedition, to take Guangling Commandery.
Guangling Commandery had originally been Yuan Shu’s territory; after Cao Cao greatly defeated Yuan Shu, he seized Guangling Commandery, with troops reaching the north bank of the Yangtze River; Cao Cao appointed Yan Xiang as Prefect of Guangling Commandery, who led 5,000 troops to garrison Guangling County.
Li Shu had 20,000 troops, while Guangling Commandery had only 5,000, and with Xuzhou occupied by Liu Bei, Yan Xiang had no support—this opportunity Li Shu naturally had to seize.
Yan Xiang on one hand sought aid from Jiangdong, and on the other led 5,000 troops to meet the enemy; as expected, he was defeated by Li Shu’s army, his entire force routed, Yan Xiang died in the chaos, and Li Shu accepted the surrender of nearly 4,000 defeated troops, seizing Guangling Commandery in one go.
The three pieces of news—Li Shu rising in rebellion, Yan Xiang urgently seeking aid, and Yan Xiang defeated and killed—reached Wu County one after another, throwing the Sun Wu regime into chaos.
Coincidentally, Sun Quan was at that time in Dantu County, with the military city of Jingkou on the Yangtze River just 20 li north.
Sun Quan was considering moving the capital, with candidate locations being Qu’a County, Dantu County, and Moling County in Danyang Commandery.
Sun Quan was leading a large group of officials from Qu’a County to inspect the second candidate for moving the capital, Dantu County, when the three urgent messages arrived before Sun Quan.
“Bang!” Sun Quan slammed his fist on the desk on the desk, ranting hysterically, “I knew it! I knew that bastard recommending Li Shu had ulterior motives—he wants to take my three commanderies north of the river!”
Zhang Zhao and Zhou Yu reacted quickly; the two exchanged a glance, and Zhang Zhao hurriedly said, “Lord, no matter what Sun Ben is scheming, this is also our chance to seize Guangling Commandery; we must send troops immediately, annihilate Li Shu before Sun Ben does, take Guangling Commandery, and then retake Jiujiang Commandery.”
Zhou Yu also said, “Sun Ben didn’t expect Lord to be in Dantu, which has bought us time—this is Heaven’s Will; Lord, send troops immediately!”
Sun Quan slowly nodded; even Xuzhou had been occupied by Liu Bei, so Cao Cao wouldn’t consider Guangling Commandery—this was indeed a golden opportunity for them to seize it.
Sun Quan immediately appointed Zhou Yu as Navy Governor, commanding 20,000 navy troops; he personally led 50,000 troops and a thousand warships from Jingkou to advance north.
In Chaisang, Gan Ning also personally led 20,000 troops into position.
Gan Ning’s current troop strength was 36,000 men, with more than 2,000 large and small warships and 1,000 warhorses.
By now Gan Ning had received confirmed intelligence that Huang Zu had personally led 20,000 troops to occupy Wan County and was continuing toward Shu County, meaning Huang Zu’s true goal was not to provoke him but to swallow Lujiang Commandery.
Deputy Strategist Xu Shu said to Gan Ning, “Everything has pros and cons; if Huang Zu can take Lujiang Commandery, it’s actually good for us—Jiangdong will temporarily have no attention for Yuzhang Commandery.”
Lu Su also smiled faintly, “Yuan Zhi is right; we can now ignore Huang Zu’s army and instead advance west to seize southern Jiangxia Commandery.”
Jiangxia Commandery covered a vast area, north to the Huai River, south to Mufu Mountain, west to the Han River, east to the Dabie Mountains, bisected by the Yangtze River, with the area south of the Yangtze River being the modern Wuhan and Huangshi area, known as Ezhou in the Sui and Tang eras.
But in the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms period, it was still remnants of Yunmeng Marsh, mainly wetlands with scattered land patches distributed within, forming various villages.
North of the Yangtze River was mostly plain land; over 60% of Jiangxia Commandery’s population and important cities were north of the Yangtze, and Huang Zu’s rule center Xiling County was also in the north.
But southern Jiangxia Commandery was extremely important to Gan Ning; this vast area was like the west courtyard of Yuzhang Commandery—taking this large courtyard would suddenly broaden Gan Ning’s view: north to swallow Jiangxia Commandery, west to enter Nan Commandery, south to kill into Changsha Commandery, and Gan Ning’s forces would formally enter Jingzhou.
Even more importantly, there were mines here; Jingzhou’s main copper and iron mines were here, modern Daye.
Southern Jiangxia Commandery had three counties, all close to the Yangtze River: first Xia Zhi County very close to Chaisang, then the largest in the south E County, and further west near Chibi was Shaxian County.
Xia Zhi County and Shaxian County were both small counties with few people and no garrison; their cities were dilapidated and low, easily taken but also easily lost.
The key among the three counties was E County, with walls 30 li around, large population, tall and sturdy city, wide moat, and 6,000 garrison troops; taking E County meant taking everything south of the Yangtze in Jiangxia Commandery.
Gan Ning accepted Xu Shu’s suggestion; 20,000 troops boarded nearly a thousand large ships and majestically sailed along the Yangtze toward E County.
The route was all vast rivers and lakes shimmering with light; the former Yunmeng Marsh didn’t disappear suddenly but shrank gradually over a thousand years, now in the late stage of shrinkage, the once sea-like great marsh divided by land into hundreds of large and small lakes and wetlands.
Modern Hubei is called the province of a thousand lakes, actually the remnants of Yunmeng Marsh.
Chaisang was about 350 li from E County; the fleet would take five days, which was also the difficulty of Huang Zu attacking Chaisang—just mobilizing troops and preparing supplies and money and grain would take months.
Still 50 li from E County, at noon, scouts brought intelligence on E County, and Gan Ning ordered the fleet to dock and anchor.
E County had about 6,000 troops, with commander Deng Long, one of Huang Zu’s trusted great generals.
Gan Ning asked Ding Feng, “Do you know this Deng Long?”
Ding Feng nodded, “Before coming to Chaisang, I was in E County and know him a bit; this Deng Long is Huang Zu’s son-in-law, indeed capable, especially good at archery; he often boasts of having shot and killed Sun Jian, though it’s unclear if it was really him.”
Xu Shu asked, “General Ding, is E County’s city easy to attack?”
Ding Feng shook his head, “Very hard to attack, mainly because the moat is too wide, over 20 zhang—this is a feature of cities in all Jingxiang; Xiangyang, Jiangling, Xiling, E County all have particularly wide moats.”
Gan Ning looked at the scout intelligence; the city wall was 2.5 zhang high, but it didn’t say how far from the moat, so he asked again, “How far from the moat to the city wall?”
Ding Feng thought and said, “Less than 2 zhang, so not many troops can stand under the city.”
Gan Ning laughed, “If the moat is only 2 zhang from the city wall, we can build aerial bridges directly from tower ships.”
Everyone’s eyes lit up; this was indeed a brilliant stratagem for attacking the city.
