Chapter 270: Tit For Tat
For this southern campaign, Cao Cao mobilized a total of more than two thousand warships. After he annihilated Yuan Shao, he captured a large number of Yellow River warships, plus the warships he manufactured in Xuchang over the past two years, bringing his total number of warships to two thousand three hundred. He supplied five hundred medium warships to Sun Ben, leaving himself with more than one thousand eight hundred warships.
Cao Cao’s warships were not along the Yangtze River shore in Liyang County, but anchored inside Chao Lake, with strict guards.
This morning, more than one thousand eight hundred warships, under the close protection of an army of one hundred thousand, fully loaded with grain and supplies, slowly departed Chao Lake and entered a tributary of Chao Lake, the Hangbu Canal.
The Hangbu Canal is actually an ancient man-made river channel connecting the East Wanshui River and Chao Lake, about fifty li long, with a few sections slightly silted up due to years of accumulation, unable to pass large ships, but they have already been dredged by the Cao Army.
The Hangbu Canal was full of ships stretching endlessly, with no end in sight. On both banks were endless Cao Army soldiers wearing armor, carrying spears, with military blankets, dry rations, kettles, and other items on their backs. The soldiers were well-trained and marched in formation.
The Cao Army’s large-scale mobilization was immediately discovered by Western Chu Army scouts around Hefei. Several carrier pigeons circled in the sky a few times and flew straight toward Chaisang.
Lu Su quickly walked into Gan Ning’s official residence, followed by Pang Tong and Xu Shu. All three strategists had come, and Gan Ning was stunned for a moment, immediately realizing that something major had happened.
“What happened?”
“Marquis of Chu, take a look at this!”
Lu Su handed the copy of the pigeon message to Gan Ning. Gan Ning read it once, immediately stood up, and went to the other side of the official residence, where a huge sand table was placed, including Jiangdong and Jingzhou. There was no new sand table for Jiaozhou yet; the previous Jiaozhou sand table was too rough and inaccurate, so it had been sent back for refinement.
Gan Ning naturally knew that Cao Cao’s warships were all inside Chao Lake. He had once considered sending scouts to destroy them, but the Cao Army guarded them strictly, and they found no opportunity. Now Cao Cao had finally begun to act.
Gan Ning quickly found the Hangbu Canal on the map. Sure enough, the Hangbu Canal connected to the northern part of the East Wanshui River. Further north of the East Wanshui River were mountains, where the riverbed could no longer accommodate large ships, but the connection point of the Hangbu Canal was exactly a section that could accommodate large ships.
Gan Ning suddenly thought of something. Back then, to force Sun Ben to withdraw his army from Danyang Commandery, he led his army to Hefei and had studied the inner river channels. Yes, it was this Hangbu Canal. He remembered it clearly. At that time, because the river channel was silted and could not pass large ships, the fleet had changed course to the Yangtze River via the Xuru Estuary.
Gan Ning suddenly thought of something and asked again, “Did Cao Cao send troops to dredge the river channel?”
Lu Su nodded and handed another copy of the pigeon message to Gan Ning. “Cao Cao sent fifty thousand troops ten days ago to dredge the silted river sections.”
“Ten days ago?”
Gan Ning frowned, somewhat displeased, and said, “Why is it only being reported now?”
Pang Tong looked somewhat apologetic and stepped forward. “Marquis of Chu, it was my oversight. I’m not familiar with the terrain and didn’t realize Cao Cao’s intention in dredging the Hangbu Canal, so I didn’t report it in time. I just wanted to observe for a few more days to understand their intentions.”
Gan Ning was not really angry. Hundreds of intelligence reports came from all directions every day, and this simple act of dredging the river was indeed hard to associate with Cao Cao planning a strategic transfer. After all, strategic transfers generally went via the Yangtze River.
Gan Ning waved his hand. “Forget it, it doesn’t have much impact. Be more careful next time.”
Gan Ning did not intend to pursue the matter. He continued to stare at the sand table and slowly pointed with a wooden rod at a river not far from the Yangtze River. “This river is called the Small Tributary River, connecting the Wanshui River and North Pengli Marsh. The channel is not wide, but the water is deep and can accommodate large ships. The Cao Army fleet must be going to North Pengli Marsh along this river.”
Pengli Marsh is a remnant of ancient Yunmeng Marsh, divided into two by the Yangtze River. The southern Pengli Marsh is the predecessor of Poyang Lake but larger than Poyang Lake. Chaisang County and Pengze County are located on both sides of the southern Pengli Marsh’s inlet to the river.
The North Pengli Marsh is also very large in area, with fragmented terrain and many large water bays, which can be perfectly transformed into water fortresses. Xunyang County is adjacent to Pengli Marsh, only twenty li from the lake shore.
All the routes were clear, and Cao Cao’s intentions were thus revealed. He had indeed changed strategy to deal with them, no longer targeting Jiangdong, or rather, he had handed Jiangdong over to Sun Ben.
Lu Su slowly said, “Cao Cao knows that transferring via the Yangtze River waterway would be intercepted and destroyed by our navy, so he used the inner river channels. Marquis of Chu, do we still have time?”
Gan Ning gently shook his head. “Cao Cao is a cautious man. Since he knows we would intercept his fleet on the Yangtze River, he wouldn’t fail to prepare. I estimate he has already dug traps, just waiting for our army to go north of the river to intercept his fleet.”
Xu Shu also said, “Xunyang County began expansion last year. They might have considered the plan to attack Chaisang at that time.”
Gan Ning paced back and forth with his hands behind his back and slowly said, “Don’t consider interception for now. We need to respond to Cao Cao garrisoning troops in Xunyang County, make strategic adjustments, and transfer most of the troops and navy from Wuchang Commandery and Changsha Commandery back.”
Xu Shu was somewhat worried. “What if the Cao Army suddenly attacks us from Nan Commandery?”
Pang Tong smiled and said, “Nan Commandery only has one hundred twenty cargo ships, anchored in Xiangyang. Not to mention that one hundred twenty cargo ships could never cross south for the campaign, even if they wanted to do so, their ships couldn’t leave the Han River. Our six thousand navy and three hundred warships at Queyue City have sealed the Han River’s inlet to the Yangtze River. Moreover, we have so many intelligence scouts. As soon as Xiahou Dun makes any move to deploy troops, we will know. So Nan Commandery is impossible. Strategist Xu need not worry.”
Gan Ning also approved of Pang Tong’s analysis and said with a faint smile, “This is the significance of Queyue City. As long as it exists, the Cao Army cannot attack us from Nan Commandery!”
Western Chu’s war machine also began to turn rapidly. Ding Feng from Changsha Commandery and Wei Yan from Wuchang Commandery each led their armies to assemble in the direction of Chaisang. Various grains and military supplies were also transported from warehouses in Nanchang to Chaisang.
But more importantly, the Yangtze River was completely controlled, from Xiakou in the west to Wankou in the east. The entire thousand-li stretch of the Yangtze River was filled with Western Chu Army warships. Gan Ning issued a Yangtze River fishing ban and passage prohibition order. All civilian ships north of the river had long been withdrawn south of the river, so any ship appearing on the Yangtze River was suspected to be an enemy army scout ship.
Inside Chaisang City, Wang Xiaoman led three thousand internal guards to begin screening and combing through newly opened shops since October last year or shops that changed owners. Last autumn, Jichun Apothecary sent false information to Cao Ren, causing Cao Ren’s attack on Queyue City to end in disastrous defeat. From then on, Jichun Apothecary would no longer be trusted by the Cao Army, so they would definitely send new scouts to Chaisang.
Investigation Camp Group Seven was still responsible for the northeast district of Chaisang. Li Qun led his subordinates to screen house by house, but Li Qun knew that screening based solely on government office information was far from enough. The greater possibility was that the shop had already been transferred but not registered with the government office, so he also needed to learn about the situation through some informants.
This morning, one of Li Qun’s informants hurriedly found him.
