Chapter 75: Alliance Against Huang
In the Marquis of Wu’s Manor council hall, Sun Quan was discussing with everyone the matter of recapturing Lujiang Commandery.
The most urgent matter for Jiangdong now is to recapture Lujiang Commandery, but because Sun Quan captured Guangling Commandery, Cao Cao is very dissatisfied, and Sun Quan is worried that Cao Cao’s army might head south at any time, so he deployed heavy troops in Guangling Commandery.
Guangling Commandery has dispersed a large amount of Jiangdong’s troop strength, and if Sun Quan is to fight Huang Zu alone, recapturing Lujiang Commandery is somewhat unrealistic.
Zhang Zhao stood up and said, “Marquis of Wu, I have an idea. Could we ally with Gan Ning of Yuzhang Commandery to deal with Huang Zu together? As far as I know, Gan Ning’s army has occupied E County and has already fought fiercely with Huang Zu twice; the two sides are now irreconcilable. If we ally, we can strike into Shu County in Lujiang Commandery from the east, while Gan Ning strikes into Wan County in Lujiang Commandery from the west, putting Huang Zu under attack from both front and back, which will surely cause him to collapse.”
Previously, Gan Ning had sent the captured enemy general Deng Long to Jiangdong, and Sun Quan personally executed Deng Long at his father’s tomb to sacrifice to his father. Gan Ning earned a great favor, which also greatly eased the hostile attitude between Yuzhang Commandery and Jiangdong.
Chief Clerk Lv Fan said, “Marquis of Wu, Strategist Zhang’s idea is good, and I support it too, but there’s a problem here: once Huang Zu is defeated, how will the two sides divide the interests?”
Zhang Zhao smiled faintly and said, “We can cede everything west of Wan County to him. Currently, west of Wan County there’s only Xunyang County, and Xunyang County is already Gan Ning’s base, so it’s not a big loss for us, yet we recapture Lujiang Commandery.”
Sun Quan took the map and examined it closely. To the west of Lujiang Commandery is Dabie Mountains, to the southwest is Pengli Marsh, and the farthest west is Xunyang County. Dabie Mountain Range has little value; there’s only that southwestern corner.
Sun Quan finally nodded. “We can’t cede too much west of Wan County. Let’s use Pengli Marsh as the boundary; including Pengli Marsh, all the base to the west can go to him.”
……….
The battle report from Wuchang County soon reached Nanchang. Amid the joy and excitement, Gan Ning also realized that Huang Zu would never let it rest, and a larger war was about to erupt.
Gan Ning ordered preparations for battle.
Deep in Pengli Marsh, the Yuzhang Army was conducting naval battle drills. Dozens of mengchong warships fitted with oars sped across the water surface, fast and agile, weaving between dozens of tower ships, extremely flexible, constantly throwing thin-skinned pottery jars filled with water onto the large ships.
Of course, this was just a drill, so they couldn’t use real fire oil. Real fire oil pottery jars were coated with oil on the outside; once lit and thrown, the burning pottery shards would naturally ignite the fire oil, and the soldiers didn’t need to worry about it.
But now another new type of fire oil bottle has appeared. This new fire oil bottle is filled with a mixture of pine resin oil and tung oil, with extremely strong combustibility. The bottle is small and compact, holding only one jin of mixed fire oil, sealed with a wooden stopper, placed in a special bottle strap. One bottle strap can hold five fire oil bottles side by side, just like a hand grenade band in later generations, which can be worn on the body.
When using it, the soldier pulls out the wooden stopper, stuffs in a piece of oiled cloth, lights the oiled cloth with a fire starter, and then throws it directly—exactly like the gasoline bottles used by Western people in later generations during protest marches.
War is like that; it allows people to quickly summarize experience and develop more powerful fire oil weapons. Previously, the four-jin thin-skinned pottery jars were complained by soldiers to be too heavy and couldn’t be thrown far, but changing to one-jin ones is completely different—much more practical and effective.
Gan Ning and Lu Su, Jiang Wan, Xu Shu, and others stood on a six-thousand-stone five-story tower ship watching the battle.
Lu Su said to Gan Ning with some concern, “Huang Zu’s naval battle main force is mengchong warships, with thousands of mengchong. He doesn’t have many tower ships or dou ships. If the enemy comes out with all mengchong warships, I’m afraid fire attack won’t be effective!”
Jiang Wan also said, “Mengchong are covered with raw cowhide, which is inherently fire-resistant, and more importantly, the raw cowhide is very soft; pottery jars hitting it won’t shatter but will bounce back into the water. Lord, should we consider other battle tactics?”
In fact, Lu Su and Jiang Wan didn’t quite understand why Gan Ning valued fire attack so much. In their view, naval battles should primarily rely on archery.
Gan Ning smiled faintly and said, “What war really fights for is national strength. Let’s calculate with archery: the capital for one arrow is thirty cash, and a naval battle consumes 200,000 arrows, that’s six million cash. Most of these arrows sink to the river bottom and can’t be reused.
If using fire oil, the current fire attack materials are mainly tung oil, with little pine resin oil used because it’s too hard to refine. Even using tung oil, the market price is ten cash per jin, one jar of tung oil has three jin, plus the jar cost, the capital is forty cash.
A naval battle consumes 5,000 jars of tung oil, which is only 200,000 cash, much less than six million. Even mixing with pine resin oil, it’s at most 500,000 cash.
As for lethality, everyone wears leather armor, so arrows actually have low killing power; in the end, it still comes down to boarding and hand-to-hand combat.
If using fire attack, for wooden ships, once the fire spreads, it’s a devastating disaster, so in naval battles, fire is the most terrifying.
Moreover, although Huang Zu’s main force is mengchong, their commander must be on a tower ship or dou ship. I’ll send a surprise attack force against the tower ships and dou ships, destroying their commander’s ship. Without the commander, no matter how many mengchong, they’re no threat.”
Only then did Lu Su and Jiang Wan understand that the lord’s battle plan was still to target the enemy army’s commander; this was indeed a very good idea, and the two said no more.
At this time, Xu Shu, who had been silent, smiled and said, “I remember that the History of Han·Geographical Treatise records that Gaonu County has Wanshui River that can be burned, but I don’t know what this Wanshui River is?”
Gan Ning laughed and said, “Wanshui River is petroleum, a black viscous liquid. After refining, it burns extremely well, but it’s rare in the south and more common in the northwest.”
Lu Su stroked his beard and laughed, “We can keep an eye out. If we can find this petroleum, we can use fire attack on a large scale in future battles.”
Gan Ning knew very well that petroleum couldn’t be found in the south; it was better to adapt to local conditions and consider pine resin oil, which also had extremely strong combustibility.
Gan Ning pondered and said, “Our Yuzhang Commandery has pines distributed extremely widely; they are the main tree species. We can mass-produce pine resin oil. If pine resin oil is mixed with tung oil, the burning intensity will be at least ten times stronger, making it easier to ignite the wood of large ships. Strategist Lu, please arrange for mass refining of pine resin oil as soon as possible.”
Lu Su nodded. “I’ll arrange it!”
At that moment, a soldier came to report, “Report to the lord, Jiangdong envoy Zhu Zhi has arrived in Chaisang.”
Gan Ning smiled at everyone and said, “Chaisang is very close from here; let’s go take a look together! What does Sun Quan want from us this time?”
………..
Gan Ning received Zhu Zhi in Chaisang. Zhu Zhi handed Gan Ning the Marquis of Wu’s personal letter and smiled, “The Marquis of Wu is very grateful that General Gan handed Deng Long over to Jiangdong, allowing the Marquis of Wu to avenge his great enmity. Now Huang Zu is strong, occupying Lujiang Commandery and also infringing on General Gan’s interests, so the Marquis of Wu suggests that our two sides ally to jointly deal with Huang Zu’s army in Lujiang Commandery.”
Gan Ning finished reading the letter and handed it to Lu Su. He smiled faintly and said, “I very much agree with the Marquis of Wu’s suggestion. With our two sides’ strength, it should be easy to defeat Huang Zu. And then? After defeating Huang Zu, how to divide the interests?”
“The Marquis of Wu’s meaning is to use Pengli Marsh as the boundary; including Pengli Marsh, everything to the west can be ceded to Yuzhang Commandery.”
This condition wasn’t bad. After all, both shores of Pengli Marsh were high-yield grain areas. Gan Ning looked at Lu Su.
Lu Su spread out the map and smiled, “Twenty li east of Pengli Marsh is the west Wanshui River, and further north is Dabie Mountains. How about using from west Wanshui River to Dabie Mountains as the boundary, ceding the west to us.”
Lu Su wanted the coastal areas of Pengli Marsh; otherwise, landing anywhere would cross the boundary. He also wanted half of Dabie Mountain Range, which would take away thirty percent of Lujiang Commandery’s land.
“What does the lord think?” Lu Su asked Gan Ning with a smile.
Gan Ning nodded. “I fully support this plan!”
In fact, Lu Su’s plan was Sun Quan’s backup plan. After all, negotiation involves bargaining; the other side won’t agree to your plan outright, so you must have a compromise plan ready, saving Zhu Zhi from going back and forth for instructions. As long as it’s within the compromise range, Zhu Zhi can agree.
Zhu Zhi pondered for a moment and finally nodded. “Then that’s the plan! We have a deal.”
The two sides then settled on the cooperation method. Lujiang Commandery has two important county towns, one east and one west: Shu County in the east and Wan County in the west. Huang Zu had stationed heavy troops in both places. The Jiangdong Army would attack Shu County, while Gan Ning would take Wan County. They agreed on the time: May 15th, ten days later, both sides would launch their offensives simultaneously.
During this negotiation, Zhu Zhi brought Gan Ning an important piece of news: Taishi Ci had been demoted to county commandant in Taimo County. Gan Ning immediately realized that his chance to recruit Taishi Ci had come.
