Chapter 22: Cao Cao’s Concerns
“Please don’t kill me! I have money, gold and silver. I’ll give you all my wealth, just spare my life!”
The cabin was filled with corpses. Ze Rong huddled in the corner of the cabin, desperately clasping his hands and begging. The great general before him was like a heavenly god, his twin halberds still dripping with blood.
Gan Ning yanked Ze Rong up, pinched his neck, and dragged him out of the cabin. The deck was covered in corpses, all killed with a single strike, blood flowing across the deck.
Ze Rong had never seen such a fierce and brave man. At this moment, he felt death was so close.
“General, spare this dog’s life!” Ze Rong begged bitterly once more.
Gan Ning said coldly, “If you don’t want to die, order everyone to lay down their weapons and surrender. Otherwise, I’ll use your head to force their surrender!”
“Raise… raise the black flag and white flag together. That means I’m ordering… ordering surrender. But I don’t know if they’ll obey?”
Gan Ning waved his hand. Several subordinates found the black flag and white flag in the flag chest. They lowered the flag ropes, yanked off the red flag above, hung the black flag and white flag together on the ropes, and hoisted them up the mast.
At this time, great general Chen Mu was commanding soldiers in battle. He was following Ze Rong’s orders. The red flag on Ze Rong’s large ship meant to fight.
Suddenly, a soldier shouted, “General Chen, the lord has raised the black flag and white flag!”
Chen Mu spotted the flags in the distance and saw Ze Rong desperately waving from the bow, with a tall general standing behind him.
Chen Mu’s heart sank like into an abyss. Ze Rong had been captured.
“General, what do we do?”
Chen Mu stood stunned for a moment, then sighed deeply and said, “Pass the order to surrender!”
The enemy army’s numbers were clearly greater than theirs, and their naval battle ability was stronger. They would eventually be wiped out, so it was better to surrender and preserve the soldiers’ lives.
Chen Mu’s large ship also raised the black flag and white flag. As the flagship commander, all ships followed his flag signals.
Ze Rong’s ships surrendered one after another.
……..
Gan Ning carried Ze Rong, bound like a rice dumpling, onto a small boat.
Ze Rong shouted in fear, “I’ve already followed your orders and surrendered! You promised not to kill me!”
“Of course I won’t kill you, but the one who decides your fate isn’t me—it’s Sun Ben. Go beg him properly!”
Ze Rong wanted to beg more, but soldiers stuffed a rag in his mouth. He made muffled noises, and soon a black bag was put over his head. The soldiers shoved him into the cabin.
Two subordinates rowed the boat toward Nanchang County.
Whether to kill Ze Rong meant nothing to Gan Ning. He might as well use him to do a favor.
In this battle, they killed over four hundred enemy soldiers, captured sixteen hundred, and Gan Ning lost nearly forty men, with over seventy lightly wounded.
A one-to-ten casualty ratio—a brilliant great victory.
At the same time, Chen Mu was willing to pledge loyalty to Gan Ning and become a new general under him.
Chen Mu was the nephew of former Prefect of Wu Commandery Chen Yu, from the Chen family of Xiapi. Last year, Chen Yu betrayed Sun Ce, nearly ruining his major plans. Later, Chen Yu’s army was defeated by Lv Fan’s large army, and the whole force fled. Chen Mu disguised himself as a common soldier to escape.
Chen Mu came to Yuzhang Commandery to join Liu Yao, but Liu Yao had already died of illness. He was captured by Ze Rong, who forced him to pledge loyalty. With nowhere to go, Chen Mu temporarily stayed with Ze Rong.
Chen Mu surrendered to Gan Ning, and his sixteen hundred subordinates switched banners and became Gan Ning’s men.
Though Ze Rong had plundered vast wealth, most of it had gone to building temples. What remained wasn’t much: three thousand taels of gold, thirty thousand taels of silver, twelve thousand strings of copper coins, thirty thousand shi of grain, plus salt, pickled meat sauce, and various military supplies—mainly weapons and armor. Ze Rong also privately collected many fine weapons.
Gan Ning returned to Chaisang. Lu Su came out to greet him. “Congratulations, my lord, on your triumphant victory and total annihilation of Ze Rong’s forces.”
Gan Ning laughed too. “Ze Rong wanted to take over the nest, but he walked into the tiger’s mouth. Though we didn’t get his base, we got his accumulated property. Not bad!”
Lu Su was delighted and quickly asked, “Did you capture Ze Rong?”
“We captured him. I sent him to Sun Ben as a thank-you gift!”
Lu Su nodded. “Ze Rong has many Buddhist believers. Keeping him is trouble, killing him is trouble. Sending him to Jiangdong is good!”
“This time we captured plenty of grain and money, plus sixteen hundred surrendered soldiers. Now our army has reached five thousand!”
Lu Su gave a thumbs up and praised, “In just over a month, my lord grew from three hundred to five thousand men. Truly impressive!”
Gan Ning sighed softly. “The easy meat is all gone. Next are the hard bones. We must hurry and train!”
……….
Ze Rong was ultimately ordered by Sun Ben to be publicly beheaded, and his head sent to Jiangdong for Sun Ce.
Ze Rong was eliminated, but Taishi Ci’s attack on Ai County wasn’t going well. He encountered Liu Xin’s six thousand reinforcements, and the two sides fought fiercely at Ai County.
Taishi Ci was no match and retreated to Haihun County, requesting aid from Sun Ben. Sun Ben immediately sent Zhou Tai with five thousand troops to support Taishi Ci.
Meanwhile, Liu Xin’s troop strength also grew to ten thousand, and the two sides faced off at Ai County.
But after twenty days of standoff, Taishi Ci launched a proactive attack. Liu Xin was defeated and had to temporarily abandon Ai County, withdrawing his entire army to Changsha Commandery.
………..
At the same moment Gan Ning was establishing a foothold in Chaisang, the world-shocking Battle of Guandu also began.
Yuan Shao and Cao Cao each deployed over one hundred thousand troops, facing off along the Yellow River banks.
In Xuchang, on the eve of Cao Cao’s march north to Dong Commandery, he received news from Jiangdong and Jingzhou.
With the decisive battle against Yuan Shao imminent, Cao Cao was still worried about Jingzhou’s Liu Biao and Jiangdong’s Sun Ce.
In the study, strategist Guo Jia smiled faintly. “My lord has already bought off the Cai Family, and with Cai Yang garrisoning Nanyang, Liu Biao won’t dare act rashly due to the Cai Family’s influence. No need to worry about him.”
Cao Cao shook his head. “Liu Jingsheng is just a guard dog. I’m only worried about Sun Ce. This man has extraordinary courage and ambition for the world. He’ll surely take advantage of Xuchang’s weakness to launch the Northern Expedition. Does sir have any good strategy?”
Guo Jia smiled faintly. “I have a good plan ready!”
Cao Cao was delighted and bowed. “Please instruct me, sir!”
Guo Jia said unhurriedly, “I’ve considered two lines to tie down Sun Ce: one internal, one external. Because of Chen Yu’s betrayal, Sun Ce purged the Jiangdong Group extensively. Not only is the Jiangdong Aristocracy extremely dissatisfied with him, but cracks have also appeared within Sun Ce’s Army.
Previously, Sun Fu visited my lord and expressed a desire to ally with you. He has no qualification to discuss alliances—it’s actually his elder brother Sun Ben’s intention. My lord can send someone to negotiate details with Sun Ben, having him oppose Sun Ce’s Northern Expedition from within.”
Cao Cao nodded repeatedly. “For the external line, can we use Liu Xun?”
Guo Jia shook his head. “My lord overestimates Liu Xun. In my view, he’s a half-baked general, unfit for major use. Using him to tie down Sun Ce would surely ruin my lord’s great plans!”
Cao Cao frowned. “How so?”
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