Chapter 147: Resolving The Salt Source
Gan Ning met with Huang Zu again, comforted him with a few words, and let him return home to retire. Huang Zu felt somewhat moved in his heart. Gan Ning actually still used his son as Prefectural Assistant. He repeatedly stated that he would retire peacefully, would not cause any more trouble, and would hand over the salt mine to the Yuzhang Army.
Huang Zu took his wives and concubines on an ox cart and returned to the countryside.
Gan Ning then announced a series of administrative orders, changing the taxes to be the same as in Yuzhang Commandery, drastically reducing the taxes, which made the citizens throughout Jiangxia Commandery jubilant.
Gan Ning kept most of the officials of Jiangxia Commandery in their positions, of course, with Huang Zhong taking the position of Prefect.
Even though Chen Jiu had killed Su Fei, Gan Ning felt he was decent. Chen Jiu’s father had been an imperial camel herder, in charge of raising camels, so Gan Ning let him follow in his father’s footsteps and appointed him as the General’s Mansion herd supervisor, specifically in charge of animal husbandry in various places.
Huang Zu’s forty thousand surrendered soldiers were too many for Gan Ning, so he ordered a streamlining of the soldiers: remove the elder brother and keep the younger, remove the father and keep the son, and only one son per family goes home. In the end, only twenty thousand troops were kept.
The fifteen thousand laborers who had followed Gan Ning’s army on the road earlier were also given some money and grain and persuaded to return home to continue farming.
At the same time, Gan Ning promoted a colonel, Chen Mu, deputy general under Xu Sheng. He had originally been a subordinate of Ze Rong, and after Ze Rong’s downfall, he followed Gan Ning, and his seniority was sufficient.
Gan Ning does not appoint people solely based on seniority; he also looks at ability and other aspects. Just like Lou Fa and Zhang Xi, who have followed him for a very long time but are still only commandants. The reason is not that their abilities or seniority are insufficient, but that they are illiterate, so Gan Ning is giving them time to study. Once they can read and write, they can naturally be promoted to colonel.
Chen Mu was slightly lacking in martial arts, so Gan Ning promoted him to colonel, to lead troops stationed in Jiangxia Commandery, with his superior being Prefect Huang Zhong. With Huang Zhong there, Gan Ning felt more at ease.
Among the various spoils of war captured this time, the grain captured was not much, only eighty thousand shi, but there was a lot of money. Huang Zu had accumulated nearly a million guan over twenty years, plus five hundred thousand bolts of cloth. This was also the largest spoils of war Gan Ning had obtained in all his previous wars.
So what was incomprehensible was that Huang Zu clearly had so much wealth, yet he still imposed heavy taxes and cruelly exploited the citizens. It was Huang She who put it plainly in one sentence: his father was a genuine miser, becoming more stingy the older he got.
Gan Ning immediately ordered rewards for every soldier who participated in the battle: five guan and two bolts of cloth each. The soldiers were instantly beaming with joy, full of jubilation.
Huang Zu’s private wealth was also honestly handed over. This was the convention: the private wealth of the defeated belongs to the leader of the victor. Gan Ning only took gold, silver, treasures, and other portable items, and returned the fields, shops, houses, and other immovable property to Huang She.
Gan Ning left the remaining miscellaneous matters to Huang Zhong to handle. With three thousand cavalry escorting him, he arrived at Anlu County.
After taking Jiangxia Commandery, what Gan Ning cared about most was the salt mine. Without the salt mine, Jiangdong could choke him at any time, and as for Bashu’s salt, he could not even buy a single grain of salt now.
Salt was currently the only thing choking Gan Ning, and it concerned life and death. He had to resolve this critical problem.
Two days later, accompanied by the salt production chief steward, Gan Ning visited the salt mine. The salt mine was located in the northern mountainous area of Anlu County, with the veins distributed across dozens of large mountains.
He saw a bare mountain covered with countless rock caves, densely packed like swallow nests.
“The salt veins are distributed in two forms: one is band-shaped, and the several large mines in front are band-shaped; the other is honeycomb-shaped, in clusters. The large mountain the general is seeing now is a honeycomb-shaped salt mine, with each salt cave being one nest.”
Gan Ning knew all this; Luling Commandery also produced rock salt, all honeycomb salt mines, but with low output.
“Is the salt mine easy to mine?”
“Very easy. Just peel off the outer layer of rock skin, and inside is the salt mine.”
“What is the output?”
“Producing sixty thousand shi a month is no problem.”
This output was good, completely sufficient. Gan Ning followed up: “What about the reserves?”
“The reserves are boundless. This subordinate estimates at least enough to mine for a thousand years!”
Beside him, Xu Shu had been staring at the rock caves. He asked, “How much salt can one such salt cave produce?”
“About one hundred thousand jin or so! This is the first one we discovered, and it’s basically mined out, so there are hardly any people here. The truly high-output ones are the dozen or so large mines inside, all with veins.”
At this time, Gan Ning saw several very large houses not far away, pointed and smiled, asking, “Are those warehouses?”
“Exactly!”
“Let’s go take a look!”
There were five warehouses in total, each occupying over ten mu, and all similar in appearance.
The chief steward opened the door of one warehouse, and Gan Ning walked in. He saw salt mines piled up like mountains, some grayish-white, some pink, all various crystals, each piece weighing over ten jin.
Gan Ning’s eyes were dazzled. He asked, “How much is here?”
“Around one hundred thousand shi!”
“Are the other warehouses the same?”
“All the same!”
Gan Ning’s mind raced: he had to quickly transport these salt crystals back to Yuzhang Commandery—five hundred thousand shi! Enough for them to use for a year.
He asked again, “How far is it from here to the Wei River?”
“Reporting to the general, it’s not far from the Wei River, less than twenty li.”
The chief steward added, “We use carts to transport the salt mine to the Wei River bank, where there is a dock. The warehouse there is still under construction and not completed. Salt mine cannot get wet by rain. If there are ships, we can load directly onto them.”
Gan Ning said to Xu Shu, “Entrust this matter to the strategist. Dispatch ships to transport all this batch of salt mine away, then station five thousand troops here, specifically to guard the salt mine.”
Xu Shu nodded. “My lord, rest assured. This subordinate will handle it carefully!”
The news of Jiangxia Commandery being captured by Gan Ning reached Xiangyang. Liu Biao was like a deflated ball, sitting at the desk, unable to speak for a long time. His heart even felt a bit fearful—Huang Zu had been taken down so quickly.
Cai Mao observed his expression and comforted Liu Biao: “In the Battle of Xiakou last time, Huang Zu was actually already done for. He lost nine out of ten lives, with only the last one barely holding on. So my lord need not think too highly of Gan Ning. It was normal for him to destroy Huang Zu; it would be strange if he couldn’t.”
Kuai Yue also advised, “Huang Zu’s defeat was not only a military failure; his rule was also a complete mess. The citizens all rose in rebellion. It was like a rotten house: it looks normal on the surface, but inside it’s all decayed to slag. Gan Ning’s army struck lightly, and it collapsed with a crash.”
After a while, Liu Biao sighed: “If we had known Huang Zu was so rotten, we should have sent troops to Jiangxia Commandery. If we had taken Jiangxia Commandery and not given Gan Ning a chance… We failed to seize this opportunity. I regret it!”
“My lord, we still have a chance. After all, there’s only the Han River separating us. The enemy cannot keep the army stationed in Jiangxia Commandery long-term. In a few months, when Jiangxia Commandery’s defenses slacken, we can send troops to take it back.”
Eldest son Liu Qi also said, “The major noble families of Jiangxia Commandery have close ties with our Nan Commandery. As an invader, Gan Ning will not get their support. Although Gan Ning has taken Jiangxia Commandery, he is still far from truly swallowing it. Father, we still have a great chance to take back Jiangxia Commandery. This time, just think of it as Gan Ning eliminating Huang Zu for us—isn’t that a good thing?”
Kuai Yue’s and the eldest son’s words comforted Liu Biao greatly. He immediately said to Cai Mao, “Arrange intelligence scouts to Jiangxia Commandery. As soon as an opportunity appears, send troops immediately.”
“This subordinate obeys the order!”
