Tiger Owl

Chapter 104 Three Questions
At this time, Sun Ben was in Liyang County. He was the second most important figure in the Jiangdong Army, and he had a large number of people secretly supporting him in the Jiangdong Army and officialdom.

As a result, he was fully aware of all the situations that were happening in Jiangdong.

As soon as Joan's ship sailed out of Dantu, it was spotted by his sentry boat.

Joan was led into the military camp and into a large tent.

Sun Ben, seated at the head of the table, chuckled and said, "Inviting Mr. Qiao in this way is a bit impolite, please forgive me!"

Qiao An calmly bowed and said, "Qiao An greets General Sun!"

"Mr. Qiao, please don't stand on ceremony, please have a seat!"

Although Sun Ben had a forced smile on his face, a hint of coldness lurked beneath the fake smile.

Qiao An sat down and sighed, "In the past, when Zhu Zhi traveled between Jiangdong and Yuzhang, he didn't even have any escort ships and there were never any problems. We underestimated General Sun's influence in Jiangdong."

Sun Ben stroked his beard smugly and said, "I know all of Zhu Zhi's whereabouts, but I just don't want to arrest him."

"Then why does General Sun want to arrest me?"

"There are two reasons. First, I want to know Gan Ning's true intentions in forming an alliance with Jiangdong. I hope Governor Qiao can tell me."

"And the second reason?"

Sun Ben squinted and smiled, "The second reason is that I want to exchange Lord Qiao for Sun He."

Qiao An nodded. "If General Sun can guarantee the safety of my men and exchange us together, I can frankly tell General Sun anything he wants to know."

Sun Ben nodded. "I like pragmatic people like Lord Qiao. I also despise hypocritical and cunning civil officials like Zhang Zhao. Our two families will have dealings in the future, and you will find that I am more honest and trustworthy than Sun Quan."

"What does General Sun want to know?"

"It's very simple. I just want to ask three questions, and I hope you can answer them frankly. First, what is your lord's true intention in forming an alliance with Jiangdong?"

On the way to his capture, Qiao An had already thought of a solution. He said calmly, "General Sun, do you know that last December, when Zhu Zhi went to Yuzhang County, he proposed an alliance between the two countries, but in the end, the alliance was not successful and only a non-aggression pact was signed?"

Sun Ben nodded. "I know about this matter because you disagree on the ownership of Lujiang County."

Qiao An shook his head. "Actually, the disagreement wasn't about the ownership of Lujiang County, but rather that there was a dispute during the first boundary demarcation negotiation. We advocated using the Wan River as the boundary, but Jiangdong only agreed to use the Xunyang River. The two sides' boundaries were nearly 300 li apart. Later, both sides compromised and used the western Wan River as the boundary."

But we were still disappointed. What we wanted was Wan County, and then we would take over the land east of the Han River, merge the two territories of Lujiang County and Jiangxia County, and establish Xiling County.

Therefore, the alliance negotiations between the two sides failed last December because we insisted that the alliance be based on the Wan River as the boundary, but Jiangdong firmly disagreed with adjusting the boundary.

Qiao An did not deceive Sun Ben. He was talking about the long-term prospects. Of course, he would not tell the truth. Gan Ning was actually worried that the four families would join forces to deal with Yuzhang County.

Sun Ben nodded. Qiao An's words were reasonable and well-founded, and he believed them. He also believed that Gan Ning had always wanted to annex Huang Zu.

"Your lord wants to annex Huang Zu, but he is worried that I will attack Lujiang County from behind. So you decided to form an alliance with Jiangdong to use Jiangdong to restrain me and prevent me from making any rash moves. Am I right?"

Qiao An nodded. "General Sun sees things very clearly. The alliance we proposed this time is still based on the Wan River as the boundary, because Wan County is already in our hands. Jiangdong has no choice but to accept the reality." Sun Ben was very satisfied with Qiao An's reply. He had also received news from within Jiangdong that Gan Ning was indeed insisting on using the Wan River as the boundary for the alliance this time.

"My second question concerns salt. Please tell me about the sources of your salt."

Qiao An said calmly, "General Sun also served in Yuzhang County. Didn't you know that?"

"I didn't pay attention to this issue at the time."

"Actually, this question shouldn't be difficult! Just ask any salt merchant and you'll know the answer."

“I know, but I still hope that Lord Qiao will tell me in person.”

"Sixty percent comes from Guangling sea salt, thirty percent from Sichuan well salt, and ten percent from our own mineral salt. Is General Sun satisfied?"

Qiao An naturally wouldn't tell the truth. In the alliance plan that his subordinates took away, there was a clause to replace Jianghuai salt with Jiangdong salt.

Sun Ben certainly knew about the salt resources in Yuzhang County, but he used it to test Qiao An and see if he was telling the truth. So far, Qiao An's performance has satisfied him.

Sun Ben smiled and said, "I appreciate Lord Qiao's frankness. I have one last question. I would like to see the draft of your alliance."

Qiao An shook his head. "I'm afraid this will disappoint General Sun. This time I went to Jiangdong to discuss the possibility of an alliance, that is, whether the other side can accept the Wan River as the boundary. If Jiangdong accepts, we will take the next step, each of us will draft a proposal, and then conduct alliance negotiations. We haven't reached the second step yet, and there is no draft alliance proposal."

Sun Ben's fake smile vanished, replaced by a cold stare. "You think I'm that easy to fool? There was no reply from Sun Quan in your luggage, and the plans for the follow-up negotiations are gone. Do you think that's possible?"

Qiao An also said coldly, "Does General Sun think I would hand over something as important as Wu Hou's personal letter and the subsequent negotiation arrangements? I have already sent it away. If your own people failed to intercept it, you can't blame others."

"you--"

Sun Ben's face turned ashen with rage. He glared at Qiao An for a long time before waving his hand and saying, "Take him away and lock him up!"

At this moment, a subordinate hurriedly walked in and said to Sun Ben, "I have already interrogated them, and the boatmen all testified that before we made the arrest, one of them jumped into the river and escaped, wearing a black water jacket."

"A bunch of useless idiots!"

Sun Ben ordered his men to bring Zhang Qi, the general who had arrested Qiao An, to the scene. As soon as Zhang Qi entered, he was stunned by a hard slap from Sun Ben.

Sun Ben pointed at him and cursed, "You can't even do the smallest thing right, what else can you do? Even a dog would be better than you, you useless idiot!"

Zhang Qi lowered his head, not daring to utter a sound, and cursed fiercely. Sun Ben kicked him again, yelling, "Get out! Get out of here!"

Zhang Qi was so frightened that he ran away in a panic. He had no idea what had happened. He was ordered to capture the other party's envoy but was scolded. What did he do wrong?
After hurling a tirade, Sun Ben felt a little better. He immediately sat down and wrote two letters. One was to Gan Ning, demanding that Qiao An be exchanged for Sun He, as well as Qiao An's and Sun He's men.

The second letter was addressed to Lu Yu, the head of the Lu family, demanding that he lead the eight great families in opposing the alliance between Jiangdong and Gan Ning. He threatened that if they did not comply with his demands, he would publicly reveal the eight great families' original plan to change leadership.

Sun Ben wrote more than a dozen secret letters and sent them to Jiangdong to deliver to his supporters. He was determined to destroy the Sun-Gan alliance no matter what.

(End of this chapter)