Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

"Yes, how could that be? It must be a bluff!"

"No way."

"The Wei traitors will stop at nothing to trick us into opening the city gates!"

The officials were discussing amongst themselves in the hall, while Huang Yi, the Prefect of Yuzhang, sat in the main seat with a grim expression.

"What does Your Excellency mean?"

"Yes, Your Excellency, please advise us on how to best defend the city."

All eyes turned to Huang Yi, who simply shook his head and sighed, "His Majesty is blessed with great fortune and should not be in trouble. But if the country is not threatened by war, how did the Wei army manage to reach Nanchang? Can anyone explain this to me?"

Huang Yi's face flushed red, and he slammed his fist on the table, but no one in the hall could respond.

"My lord," Sun Da said, equally terrified, "may I speak of the rest of the letter?"

Huang Yi sighed again: "What time is it? Just say it."

All the officials in the hall turned their anxious eyes toward Sun Da, who took the letter, composed himself, and said slowly and deliberately, “The Wei traitors say that if we do not open the city gates and surrender, they will immediately launch a full-scale attack. The people from Chaisang, Liling, and Haihun that we have conscripted in the past few days can be used to fill the ditches. After we conquer the city, we will massacre everyone without exception.”

Sun Da's face had turned pale, but he continued reading: "If the city is opened and surrendered within an hour, everyone in the city can retain their original official positions, regardless of their background in Wu, family history, or whether they are surnamed Sun or not. The court will also bestow additional rewards upon them later."

"Gentlemen, we only have one hour to make a decision." Sun Da's voice grew softer: "This letter must be returned before noon, otherwise it will be considered a refusal, and the Wei traitors will immediately attack the city."

Prefect Huang Yi, sitting in the main seat, coughed lightly and looked at Sun Da: "The letter from Wei clearly states that regardless of family background or status, all officials will retain their official positions and wealth. The large number of troops outside the city cannot be faked, and the soldiers in the city are not capable of fighting. I'm afraid they won't even be able to hold out for half a day."

"Commander Sun, what do you say?"

Sun Da was in a state of confusion and turned to Huang Yi: "I don't know how to deal with this. I leave it all to you, Lord Huang."

Huang Yi subtly implied that Sun Da had shifted the blame back to Huang Yi. With this maneuver, all the officials in the hall understood. They then all expressed their willingness to let the Prefect make the decision. Others mentioned the strength of the Wei army outside the city, the inability to defend the city, and the fact that what the Wei rebels said was mostly true…

Moreover, everyone knows that although Sun Da is a member of the imperial clan, he is not a close relative, and his official career has never been very successful. Otherwise, why would he, at over fifty years old and with the experience of fighting alongside Sun Quan since the early Jian'an period, still be a minor captain here?
"Then I shall make the decision." Huang Yi stood up and sighed, "I, Huang Yi, am willing to die for His Majesty, it is of no consequence. But the Wei Kingdom has a notorious reputation. If they are truly angered by me and want to attack and massacre the city, how can I face the people of Chaisang, Liling, and Haihun counties? How can I face the innocent people in Nanchang?"

"I'm sorry to trouble you, Lord Huang." Sun Da bowed respectfully to Huang Yi's side.

Huang Yi covered his face with his hand: "For the sake of the greater good, let's open the city gates and surrender. You gentlemen, come with me, a sinner of this country, and come out of the north gate to welcome us."

"Thank you for your hard work, Lord Prefect."

"Your Excellency is truly righteous."

"It is entirely up to Your Excellency to decide."

Everyone agreed readily, and Sun Da didn't express any dissatisfaction, as if his surname, Sun, had nothing to do with him.

Ultimately, Nanchang surrendered so quickly for several reasons: First, the surprise attack threw the Wu generals and soldiers into chaos, leaving them demoralized and devoid of any will to fight. Second, strategic maneuvering; if Wu hadn't faced significant military problems, this Wei army wouldn't have been present. Third, overwhelming military force; the city was heavily surrounded, and with over 30,000 men besieging Nanchang, taking it was not difficult. Fourth, the threat of massacre and the promise of retaining official positions.

For a long time, the official propaganda of the Wu Kingdom has consistently demonized the Wei Kingdom, portraying it as a place of plundering civilians, massacring cities, indiscriminate killing of innocents, and utter tyranny...

While such negative propaganda could unify internal thinking, when Nanchang, a heartland of Wu, faced a sudden attack by more than 20,000 Wei troops, these ominous events in the propaganda actually helped.

Often, loyalty and disloyalty are separated by a single thought.

If the Wu officials in Nanchang knew news of Sun Quan, or if they knew that Sun Quan's army was not far away, most of them would be willing to hold their ground for Sun Quan. But they were completely unaware of Sun Quan's whereabouts!
For Huan Fan's Wei army, entering cities to accept surrender had become routine and they were very familiar with the process.

"Lord Huang, Commandant Sun, please rise." Huan Fan calmly helped the two up, holding one of their hands in each, and slowly said, "Let me tell you the truth. Sun Quan has only fled and disappeared, not died in Jianye. The Great Wei has not yet found his whereabouts. But it is true that the Great Wei has marched south with 800,000 troops, and it is also true that the Wu Kingdom is on the verge of collapse."

"Do you two resent me?" Huang Yi lowered his head and replied, "How could we dare to resent General Huan! We Wu ministers are of no use to the Great Wei, but fortunately the General has not abandoned us and accepted us, allowing us to retain our official positions and continue to serve. We have no complaints whatsoever!"

Since Huang Yi had already lowered his head once, he didn't mind lowering it a few more times. Regardless of Sun Quan's fate, whether he was dead or alive, in Jianye or somewhere else, the sheer number of Wei soldiers besieging the city was undeniable! He had witnessed it firsthand from the city walls!

Sun Da also said, "I am willing to serve you, General, without any objection!"

"Good!" Huan Fan smiled. "I will march south from Chaisang to attack Poyang. I will need a lot of grain, military supplies, and laborers. I will need to requisition all the grain, supplies, and ships from the Yuzhang Prefecture's granary, and also collect the stored grain from all the people in Nanchang and within fifty miles of the city. I will give you three days. Can you do it?"

It's one thing to confiscate grain from the government treasury, but why also forcibly conscript laborers from the populace to collect it?
Huang Yi wanted to offer some advice and argue, but when he looked up and saw Huan Fan's ambiguous smile, he hesitated.

At this opportune moment, Huan Fan patted Huang Yi on the shoulder: "Lord Huang, you haven't been ennobled yet, have you? For your merit in opening the city, I can recommend you for the title of Marquis within the Pass. If you do this well and help me take Poyang, the title of Marquis of a Pavilion is not out of the question."

Huang Yi gritted his teeth and swallowed hard: "Please rest assured, General Huan, I will do my best!"

"That's good." Huan Fan nodded and waved to Sun Li: "Deda, lead two thousand cavalry to help Lord Huang. The grain requisition is a major task and cannot be neglected!"

"Yes, sir." Sun Li bowed and accepted.

Once you've breathed a sigh of relief and surrendered to the enemy, it's incredibly difficult to muster the courage to fight back.

With the assistance of officials like Huang Yi and Sun Da, who had long served in Yuzhang, Huan Fan's efforts to conscript laborers and gather military provisions in Nanchang, the capital of Yuzhang Prefecture, went exceptionally smoothly.

Although Huang Yi, Sun Da, and others knew they were doing evil deeds, that they had let down the Wu Kingdom, Sun Quan, and the local people, they could not turn back now.

Interestingly, Poyang City, which faces Nanchang across the Pengli Lake, is now facing a similar situation to Nanchang.

Sun Quan once used the pretext that the area of ​​Yuzhang Commandery during the Han Dynasty was too large to artificially create a new commandery called Poyang Commandery. And the governor of Poyang has remained unchanged for all these years, always Zhou Fang, also known as Zhou Ziyu, who once cut his hair to forge a letter and deceive the Wei Kingdom.

The Yuzhang Commandery and Poyang Commandery of the Wu Kingdom, one in the west and one in the east, each almost divided up half of Pengli Lake.

Sun Quan's situation was no more optimistic than Huan Li's.

When the entire army from Chaisang sailed south and passed through Qiyang, Sun Quan issued an imperial edict in the army, ordering the requisition of surplus grain from all the people in Poyang Commandery, and conscripting all males aged 14 to 55 from all over the commandery to gather in Poyang City.

Huan Fan knew that his deployment was urgent and that he could not wait for all the counties in Yuzhang Commandery to send grain, so he only plundered Chaisang, Liling, Haihun, and Nanchang.

Meanwhile, Sun Quan plundered the nine counties of Poyang Commandery. Qiyang, Guangchang, Poyang, Dong'an, Le'an, Zhongling, Yuhan, Geyang, Shangrao... none of them escaped his grasp.

Sometimes, it's true that your own people can be more ruthless than your enemies.

On the morning of the 17th, Huan Fan led an army of 25,000, 3,000 surrendered soldiers, more than 20,000 civilians, and more than 1,000 boats of various sizes to begin sailing eastward towards Qiyang.

Meanwhile, Lu Xun, the Great General of the Eastern Expedition of Wei, had personally led 20,000 naval troops on a voyage that had sailed for nearly seven days and arrived at the dock south of Hailing City.

As the ship slowly sailed toward the dock, Lu Xun and Cao Zhi, who were standing in front of the top railing, fell silent at the same time.

The scenery today is truly breathtaking.

Under a cloudless sky, a vibrant red sun leaped from the eastern horizon. To the south of Lu Xun and Cao Zhi lay Wu Commandery, and along the western coast, one could sail upstream. The navy that the Great Wei had longed for since the Jian'an era finally officially entered the Yangtze River on this day.

Lu Xun remained silent for a long time before speaking: "Having arrived in Hailing, Your Majesty and I have completed half of our mission. Over the past few years, the Great Wei has devoted countless military resources to conscripting laborers, logging timber, building ships and manufacturing troops, training naval soldiers, and embarking on long sea voyages, all for today, for today when the Great Wei navy officially enters the Yangtze River."

"From this day forward, the Yangtze River will no longer be a natural barrier between the north and south, and a new era is about to begin."

Cao Zhi nodded: "The 17th day of the first month of the ninth year of Taihe. This day should be recorded in history." (End of this chapter)