Chapter 64: Xu Wei Of Lujiang
Yin Mo and Li Zhuan’s defection truly delighted Gan Ning. The Recruitment Hall had been established for half a month and had attracted quite a few scholars, but almost all were obscure. Of course, that was very normal. History was originally the world of the aristocracy, and poor families rarely had opportunities to rise. How many famous people could there be?
Although they lacked fame, as long as they had real talent and learning, Gan Ning would try his best to employ them. If there really was no place to assign them, he would give them a title to teach.
But Yin Mo and Li Zhuan’s defection was different. Not to mention that Yin Mo himself possessed extremely high talent, he also had deep connections among the scholars of Jingzhou. His defection would inevitably bring other talents from Jingzhou to join.
And on the very first day, Li Zhuan made Gan Ning realize he had found a treasure. He easily solved the problem of the dragon bone water wheel being laborious to pedal, a problem that dozens of artisans couldn’t solve, but this genius Li Zhuan resolved it in less than two hours.
Gan Ning had many ideas, but he couldn’t implement them. With this genius Li Zhuan, many of Gan Ning’s ideas could now be put into practice.
Gan Ning immediately appointed Yin Mo as Prefectural Chief Clerk of Yuzhang Commandery and Li Zhuan as Military Advisor of the Advisory Office, in charge of military equipment research.
It needs to be explained here that Gan Ning had two sets of staff. One was the government affairs team of Yuzhang Commandery, including Lu Su’s Prefectural Assistant, Yin Mo’s Prefectural Chief Clerk, Yang Xuan’s Prefectural Sima, as well as the various departments under the Prefectural Office, and the county yamens of each county.
The other set was the Advisory Office, which managed the army. Previously, Lu Su had been Chief Clerk, but now Gan Ning had promoted him to Strategist. There were also many civilian officers, divided into six departments: troops, law, granary, merit, armor, and fields.
As all aspects of Yuzhang Commandery fell into place, Gan Ning also ushered in a rare period of stable development.
Soon, Yin Mo wrote a letter recruiting another great talent, the famous scholar Jiang Wan from Lingling Commandery. Gan Ning was overjoyed and immediately appointed Jiang Wan as Prefectural Assistant, allowing Lu Su to focus solely on being Strategist.
At the same time, the situation in Jiangdong had settled. Sun Quan accepted Cao Cao’s appointment and was enfeoffed as Governor of Yangzhou and Colonel Who Subdues the Rebels, continuing to hold the title of Marquis of Wu. At the same time, according to Sun Quan’s nominations, he appointed prefects for Wu Commandery, Kuaiji, Jiujiang, Danyang, and Lujiang.
But as a condition, Sun Quan’s younger brother Sun Yi went to the Imperial Court to serve as Assistant Colonel of the Army on the Right, one of the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden. During Emperor Ling of Han’s time, they were infinitely glorious; Cao Cao and Yuan Shao had both been among the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden. But now the Eight Colonels were just honorary positions with no real power; Sun Yi was essentially going as a hostage.
Of course, Sun Quan sending Sun Yi to Xuchang as a hostage was also to stabilize Jiangdong. After all, Sun Yi had previously received support from his mother Lady Wu, Zhang Hong, Hua Xin, and others, making him one of the destabilizing factors threatening Sun Quan’s position.
After being under house arrest for several months, Sun Yi finally submitted. He himself was willing to go to Xuchang. Zhang Hong left him a letter, advising him to make more connections with famous scholars—weren’t there the most famous scholars in Xuchang?
Sun Yi headed north without hesitation.
To Sun Quan’s disappointment, Gan Ning also received Cao Cao’s support and was appointed Prefect of Yuzhang Commandery, which meant Jiangdong had lost its legal claim to Yuzhang Commandery.
With no other choice, Sun Quan ordered Prefect Xu Qiu of Lujiang to rebuild Wankou City at the mouth where the Wanshui River enters the Yangtze River, to replace Chaisang as Jiangdong’s bridgehead for attacking Jiangxia.
At the same time, he sent Zhu Zhi to Nanchang City for the second time. He had no choice but to agree to Gan Ning’s conditions, temporarily acknowledging Yuzhang Commandery as belonging to Gan Ning in exchange for Sun Fu.
The original small city of Wankou had been demolished, and now a new city was being built, expanded to three times the original size on the existing foundation, personally supervised by Prefect Xu Qiu.
Although Xu Qiu was Xu Zhen’s nephew, he was not much younger than Xu Zhen. He was nearing forty and had previously served as Prefect of Runan and Chancellor of Donghai. In the second year of Jian’an, the Imperial Court appointed him as Court Judge, but he was hijacked by Yuan Shu on the way to take office. Early last year, he escaped and returned to Wu Commandery. After Sun Ce captured Lujiang Commandery, he appointed him as Prefect of Lujiang Commandery.
Xu Qiu had two sons and one daughter. His eldest son Xu Mao served as County Magistrate of Yuyao County, his second son Xu Peng served as an subordinate official under Sun Quan, and he also had a young daughter Xu Wei, who was thirteen this year. She had loved fortune telling and divination since childhood, and the famous Daoist Yu Ji had even taken her as his last disciple.
Xu Wei had been betrothed to Sun Yi since childhood, but Sun Yi had a violent temper and a simple mind, and Xu Wei did not like him. This time, with Sun Yi being sent to Xuchang as a hostage, Lady Wu wanted her to go to Xuchang with Sun Yi, but of course Xu Wei refused and fled back to Lujiang to find her father.
“Daddy, I’ll only be gone a few days, just to visit Master at Longhu Mountain. I promise to come back soon. Besides, I’m going with third brother—aren’t you reassured?”
Xu Wei stayed in Lujiang for a few days and soon grew bored. Coincidentally, she had a cousin who was going to Nanchang to seek a position and had come to Lujiang Commandery to visit his clan uncle. Xu Wei then got the idea and wanted to go with her cousin to Nanchang to play for a few days.
Visiting Master at Longhu Mountain was of course just an excuse she made up. Her master Yu Ji visited her once a year, taught her a set of techniques, and left. She didn’t even know where her master was.
Xu Qiu had long been an official away from home. His second wife, Lady Xie, died shortly after giving birth to their daughter, who was raised from childhood by his cousin’s wife Madam Sun. Madam Sun treated her as her own granddaughter and loved her dearly.
Xu Qiu knew his daughter was particularly clever, and she had a highly skilled female guard as her personal protector, so there was no need to worry too much. Besides, there was also her cousin to look after her.
So he agreed. “At most one month—don’t stay too long.”
Xu Wei jumped up joyfully. “Thank you, Daddy!”
Xu Wei suddenly remembered something and instructed her father: “I did a divination yesterday. There will be warfare to the east soon. You must not go to Jiujiang Commandery.”
Xu Qiu chuckled and didn’t take it to heart. Besides, he had been building the city recently and wouldn’t go to Jiujiang Commandery anyway.
“Be careful on the road yourself!”
Xu Qiu arranged a thousand stone passenger ship, and Xu Wei set off with her cousin.
Xu Wei’s cousin was from the Xu clan of Yingchuan and was named Xu Shu. He was thirty-two years old. A few years ago, he had come to Jingzhou to seek refuge and also to seek employment in Jingzhou, but as he was from a poor family and had not been recommended as a filial and incorrupt official, Liu Biao didn’t even give him an interview.
Not long ago, Xu Shu received a letter from Yin Mo. Gan Ning had invited him to Yuzhang by name, which flattered Xu Shu somewhat. So he came to Lujiang to ask Xu Qiu’s opinion.
It also happened that Xu Zhen decided to place bets on Gan Ning, putting the Xu clan’s poor family descendants on Gan Ning. Xu Qiu thus encouraged Xu Shu to go to Yuzhang Commandery to seek development.
Xu Shu finally made up his mind and set off with his young cousin Xu Wei.
The advantage of a thousand stone passenger ship was that the cabin was relatively large and could be divided in two. Xu Shu lived in one half alone, while Xu Wei and her female guard Qin Yan lived in the other half.
Qin Yan was about twenty years old, over six feet tall, with very dark skin and a physique as strong as a man’s. Her swordsmanship was extremely skilled, she was proficient in swimming, and she was utterly loyal to her master. Since Xu Wei was eight, Qin Yan had been responsible for her safety.
Last year in Xuchang, Gan Ning had also seen her. At that time, Qin Yan was helping Xu Wei ashore, and Gan Ning had thought she was a servant woman.
Qin Yan sat cross-legged in the cabin with eyes closed in meditation. She spoke very little; often her piercing gaze said what she wanted to say.
Xu Shu felt a bit uneasy in his heart. He laughed from the next cabin: “Little sister, could you do a divination for your foolish brother, to divine his future?”
Xu Wei laughed. “For fun, sure, but for a serious one, not today?”
“Why?”
“Divination requires opportunity, like encountering a peculiar person, seeing a peculiar event, or having a sudden inspiration. Only then can you burn three incense sticks and divine with a calm mind. But third brother’s future doesn’t need divining. I divined for Gan Ning—he had an extremely auspicious divination. Combined with his double pupils, this man must be one of the lords of the world.”
Xu Shu smiled speechlessly. This young cousin was young but spoke with such an old-fashioned tone.
“You know Gan Ning?”
“I saw him last year in Xuchang. He brought the imperial seal into the capital—his aura was truly powerful. So I have a bit of an opportunity with him.”
“I see!”
Xu Shu suddenly had a realization. His young cousin’s insistence on going to Nanchang was probably because she wanted to find Gan Ning.
