Chapter 54: Hidden Dangers Hard To Resolve
Only then did Sun Yi realize he was in a sealed small room, pitch black all around. Sun Yi was greatly alarmed and turned to knock on the door. “Open the door! Open the door quickly!”
The side door behind him was tightly shut. No matter how Sun Yi knocked, there was no response from outside the door.
“You sons of bitches, when I get out, I’ll cut you all into a thousand pieces!”
Sun Yi began to lose his temper. He retreated a few steps, took a deep breath, and fiercely rammed his shoulder into the door. Unexpectedly, his legs suddenly went weak. Sun Yi stumbled, crashed into the door, and slid down to the floor.
His head began to feel dizzy waves, his strength rapidly fading. Sun Yi was greatly terrified and only then realized he had been drugged.
He quickly held his breath, clenched his fists, and desperately pounded the door. But the force of his pounding grew weaker and weaker until he softly collapsed and fainted.
He had been knocked out by incapacitating incense.
Sun Yi had been captured, and all his personal guards had been wiped out without exception. That night, Xu Kun handed over the army to Sun Quan. All of Sun Yi’s dreams vanished into smoke that night.
Lady Wu was completely unaware of everything that happened that night. She thought her third son Sun Yi was still in Kuaiji Commandery, unaware that her son had been right beside her the night before, only fifty paces away.
As for the Seal of the Marquis of Wu, it actually wasn’t that important. Sun Quan needed to wait for the Imperial Court to formally appoint him before he could become the true New Marquis of Wu. At this time, even if he obtained the Seal of the Marquis of Wu, it wouldn’t mean much.
In fact, no one would care whether he had the Seal of the Marquis of Wu, just like no employee would care whether the general manager had a certificate of authorization from the board of directors.
The next day, Sun Quan ordered Sun Yi appointed as Prefect of Wu Commandery. Of course, this was just for show to his mother. In reality, Sun Yi was temporarily under house arrest and would only be released after Sun Quan fully seized control of the power.
In a fit of anger, Zhang Hong fell ill. He had no idea at all that his son had been bought off by Zhang Zhao. A few days later, Zhang Hong directly resigned and went to Xuchang to serve as an official in the Imperial Court. Cao Cao had already invited him multiple times.
Sun Yi was only seventeen after all, simple-minded and relatively easy to deal with. But the other one, Sun Ben, would not be easy to handle.
Upon hearing that Sun Yi had been appointed Prefect of Wu Commandery, Sun Ben immediately led his army to withdraw back to Danyang Commandery. He promptly wrote a letter to Sun Quan, first lightly explaining the reason for his mobilization of troops—that he was worried Sun Yi was young and impulsive, so he had prepared to come to Wu County to mediate. Now that the brothers had shaken hands and made peace, he was relieved.
At the end of this letter, Sun Ben formally proposed his terms for reconciliation, demanding that Sun Quan appoint former Prefect of Lujiang Commandery Li Shu as Prefect of Jiujiang Commandery. If Sun Quan appointed Li Shu as Prefect, he would send his second son Sun An to Wu County to study.
In the official residence, Sun Ce handed Sun Ben’s letter to Zhang Zhao. “Strategist, take a look at the end. Sun Ben’s proposed terms for reconciliation.”
Zhang Zhao frowned. “This Li Shu was once a subordinate of Liu Biao. When Lord Wu discovered Li Shu was colluding with Liu Biao, he dismissed him. I hear he’s now a retainer of Sun Ben. Appointing him as Prefect of Jiujiang Commandery would pose a great risk to Jiangdong!”
Sun Quan paced back and forth with hands behind his back. “Right now, I need to secure my position as Marquis of Wu. I need to first stabilize Sun Ben. Why not agree for now, let Li Shu temporarily serve as Prefect of Jiujiang Commandery, and find an excuse to dismiss him in a year.”
Zhang Zhao understood Sun Quan’s feelings. Sun Ben was after all the second most important figure in the Jiangdong Army and had many subordinates in the Jiangdong Army, including elders like Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and Han Dang. Deep down, Sun Quan was very wary of him.
So Sun Quan was eager to reach a compromise with Sun Ben. Since Sun Ben was willing to send his son to Wu County to study, Sun Quan of course eagerly desired it.
It was just that Li Shu was too dangerous. Sun Ben having him take the position of Prefect of Jiujiang Commandery must have some intention behind it.
After much contemplation, Zhang Zhao finally nodded. “We can agree to Sun Ben, but we must send someone to keep watch on Li Shu to prevent him from causing trouble.”
The next day, Sun Quan issued an order appointing former Prefect of Lujiang Commandery Li Shu as Prefect of Jiujiang Commandery.
Soon after, Sun Ben’s second son Sun An came from Moling County to Wu County to study.
At this point, Sun Quan had finally resolved the internal power struggles within the Sun Family, but at the same time, he had left behind a massive hidden danger: Li Shu.
……
On the Yangtze River bank in Moling County, Sun Ben saw off his retainer Li Shu as he headed to Jiujiang Commandery to take up his post.
In the pavilion by the river, Sun Ben dismissed everyone before slowly saying to Li Shu, “Sir is about to head north. I’ll give you the inside story here. Zhou Yu led twenty thousand troops in retreat to Jingkou, but Shouchun still has Taishi Ci commanding ten thousand elite soldiers. The great generals under him, Xia Jie and Liu Zhan, are my men. Sir can contact them.
Once sir raises troops, the bandit Xu Qian south of Jiujiang Commandery will rise in response. Additionally, the bandit Zhang Duo of Guangling Commandery will also rise in response. These two are actually my men and together command around ten thousand troops. As long as sir takes Guangling Commandery for me, I guarantee to appoint sir as military advisor without fail.”
It was clear that since Sun Ben could not seize power in Jiangdong, he planned to develop north of the river, occupying the three commanderies north of the river and declaring himself Marquis of Huai.
Since Sun Quan refused to appoint him concurrently as Prefect of Jiujiang Commandery, Sun Ben had no choice but to settle for the next best thing, having Li Shu take the position of Prefect of Jiujiang Commandery while he directed from behind.
Li Shu stroked his beard and pondered for a moment. “What if Taishi Ci refuses to leave Jiujiang Commandery?”
Sun Ben said indifferently, “Sir should first establish a foothold in Jiujiang Commandery. Anyway, Sun Ce’s spirit hall must remain for ninety-nine eighty-one days. In two months, I will suggest to Sun Quan that all the great generals from various places return to Wu Commandery to mourn the late lord. Given the friendship between Taishi Ci and Sun Ce, he will surely return to Wu County to mourn. That will be your opportunity.”
Li Shu said delightedly, “I guarantee I will not disappoint General!”
Li Shu boarded the boat and left. Sun Ben’s eldest son Sun An said somewhat worriedly, “Lord Wu once said this Li Shu was colluding with Liu Biao. Does Father really trust him?”
Sun Ben sneered, “I’m just afraid he won’t rebel. As long as he does rebel, all his subordinates are my men. Wouldn’t it be easy for me to destroy him? Let him labor hard to rebel, only to end up making wedding clothes for me.”
Sun An sighed inwardly. Father always thought things too optimistically. Back then, Father had allied with the Eight Great Noble Families of Wu Commandery to change lords, thinking he could replace Sun Ce as lord of Jiangdong, only to end up making wedding clothes for Sun Quan.
Now he wanted to use Li Shu again, but Li Shu was a man of deep schemes. Father might not be able to control him!
Though worried in his heart, Sun An did not dare say more and could only suppress his pile of doubts.
In the blink of an eye, it was early February. Gan Ning had captured Yuzhang Commandery for a month already.
Gan Ning toured various places in Yuzhang Commandery and returned to Nanchang County. He now deeply realized that Tong Zhi of Luling Commandery was the great enemy he had to deal with first.
Lujiang Commandery had originally been part of Yuzhang Commandery and was deeply connected to it. Many officials hailed from Luling Commandery.
Gan Ning finally understood why Sun Ben had first dealt with Luling Commandery before Chaisang. It was because Tong Zhi of Luling Commandery posed a far greater threat to Nanchang than he had at the time.
Gan Ning immediately devised a plan to take Luling Commandery…
Among Gan Ning’s many subordinates, Yang Xuan was the strategist second only to Lu Su. Previously serving as retainer military advisor, after capturing Yuzhang Commandery, Gan Ning appointed him as Sima of Yuzhang Commandery and concurrently County Magistrate of Nanchang County.
The Sima of the commandery oversaw military affairs. Since the army was controlled by Gan Ning, the Sima of Yuzhang Commandery was actually a nominal position. Yang Xuan’s real role was County Magistrate of Nanchang County.
Yang Xuan had been the top strategist under Yuan Shu’s account, but among the many strategists of the Three Kingdoms, Yang Xuan was only middling to upper. In history, after Yuan Shu’s death, Yang Xuan served as an official in Jiangdong with basically no further records.
During this time, Yang Xuan was also busy to the point of dizziness, with a mountain of miscellaneous tasks. There were over a hundred unresolved cases alone.
That morning, the county chief clerk Li Zheng hurriedly arrived at Yang Xuan’s official residence with a document bag.
“Sima Yang, I’ve discovered something important!”
Yang Xuan was sitting amid a pile of documents flipping through them. He sighed. “There are too many important matters. One more won’t hurt. Speak!”
Li Zheng walked in. “Previously, Sun Fu suspected there were spies of Tong Zhi inside the city and searched the whole city, arresting over a thousand people. Does Sima know of this?”
Yang Xuan nodded. “I know of it. And then?”
“Over a thousand people were interrogated for a day and a night. After General Gan took Nanchang County, everyone was released. Just now, while this subordinate was clearing several boxes of interrogation records, I found a special document bag. The contents might interest Sima.”
Li Zheng handed the document bag to Yang Xuan. Yang Xuan pulled out the interrogation records from the bag and after reading just a few lines, his eyes suddenly widened.
“Is this real?”
“I don’t know either. I just thought I should tell Sima.”
Yang Xuan jumped up and rushed out like a gust of wind. “I’m going to see the lord!”
