Tiger Owl

Chapter 110 Sun Ben Asks for Help
Ten days later, the Xu family received a letter from Gan Ning.

But it was too late. Xu Wei's second unauthorized escape had thoroughly angered the Sun family.

Under Sun's supervision, Xu Wei's plaque in the Xu family ancestral hall was officially removed, which meant that the Xu family no longer recognized her as a member of the Xu family.

For several days in a row, the Xu family did not deal with the letters written by Gan Ning. Xu Kun could not bear it any longer and went to his father again.

“Father, we are being very rude. Gan Ning is, after all, a regional lord. Even if we do not agree to this marriage, we cannot ignore others.”

Xu Zhen put down the book in her hand, took out a letter, and handed it to her eldest son.

“I didn’t ignore Gan Ning. I wrote a quick letter to Meng Yu to ask for his opinion. After all, he is Xu Wei’s father. This is his reply. I just received it this afternoon.”

"What did he say?"

"See for yourself!"

Xu Kun quickly opened Xu Qiu's reply and read it carefully. After a while, he frowned and said, "What does Brother Meng Yu mean? What do you mean by handling it according to clan rules?"

Xu Zhen gave a wry smile and said, "Can't you understand the tone in his letter?"

"He seems a little dissatisfied."

“It’s not just a little, it’s a lot of dissatisfaction. We expelled his daughter from the family without his consent, so he must be very angry.”

"Then what did he mean by replying?"

"What he meant was, you can decide for yourselves. If you want to arrange a marriage, then please restore Xu Wei's family status. That would be handling it according to the family rules. In other words, he doesn't care about this matter."

"What should we do then?" Xu Kun was genuinely anxious.

"I do not know either!"

Xu Zhen sighed, "I went to see Madam Wu early this morning to ask for her opinion. Madam Wu told us to handle it ourselves, saying that this matter had nothing to do with her. It seems that our refusal to arrange the marriage last time angered her as well."

"And what does Mother mean?"

"Her attitude was very simple: she told me to write a letter directly to reject Gan Ning. She did not agree to Xu Wei marrying Gan Ning. She wanted Xu Wei to come back and admit her mistake, and then she would consider marrying Xu Wei to Sun Kuang."

"Ah!" Xu Kun exclaimed in surprise, "Mother wants Yunqing to marry Sun Kuang?"

Xu Zhen nodded. "She never told me this until yesterday. She told me that her previous opposition to the marriage between Xu Wei and Gan Ning was also because of this."

"It's just that your mother has always been rather domineering and self-willed, rarely consulting me on matters. That's why I only now find out about her thoughts. If she had told me earlier that she wanted to marry Xu Wei to Sun Kuang, I would have been able to appease Xu Wei and prevent the conflict from escalating to the point where she decided to elope."

At this point, Xu Zhen couldn't help but let out a long sigh; his wife's arrogance had ruined everything.

Xu Kun was speechless. He finally understood what Xu Qiu meant. What did it mean to handle it according to the clan rules? It meant to restore Xu Wei's reputation first and let her return to the clan before marriage could be discussed. Xu Qiu was also extremely dissatisfied with his daughter being expelled from the clan.

But Xu Qiu's request was undoubtedly a slap in the face to his mother!

Xu Kun knows his mother all too well. She has been very domineering since she married into the Xu family. For nearly thirty years, she has controlled the family tightly. In recent years, with the rise of the Sun family in Jiangdong, his mother's voice has become even stronger, and she has completely made the decisions for the entire family.

"You understand now!"

Xu Zhen glanced at her son and said slowly, "The Xu family will never agree to Gan Ning's marriage proposal. The only way now is for Xu Wei to come back and apologize to her grandmother, promise not to run away from home again, and agree to marry and obey her grandmother's arrangements. Only then can she return to the family."

This isn't about marriage at all; we need to deal with her running away from home without permission. This concerns the Xu family's reputation, and also your mother's. If we don't resolve this first issue, how can we expect anything else to happen?"

Xu Kun sighed, "Then there's really nothing we can do." Xu Zhen took out another letter: "This is the reply I wrote to Gan Ning. I'll tell him frankly that Xu Wei has no connection with the family anymore. If he wants to marry Xu Wei, he can write to her father and ask him to make the decision for her. He shouldn't ask us anymore."

Xu Kun was truly helpless, as the Xu family ultimately missed out on this marriage alliance.

.........

News of the alliance between Sun Quan and Gan Ning reached Cao Cao's ears. Jia Xu even sent a copy of the alliance treaty from Xuzhou. However, Cao Cao did not take the matter to heart, as he was currently focused on dealing with Yuan Shao.

The Battle of Guandu was equivalent to the Liaoshen Campaign in later times. It broke the situation of Yuan Shao being stronger than Cao Cao and brought the two forces into balance.

Although Yuan Shao was defeated at the Battle of Guandu, he was still a force to be reckoned with, as he still controlled four provinces.

The eldest son, Yuan Tan, controlled Qingzhou; the second son, Yuan Xi, controlled Youzhou; the youngest son, Yuan Shang, controlled Jizhou; and the nephew, Gao Gan, controlled Bingzhou.

Cao Cao still needed to continue his efforts to completely crush Yuan Shao step by step.

At this time, Cao Cao had received a top-secret message: Yuan Shao's condition was serious and he could only live for another six months at most. This news really cheered Cao Cao up. Yuan Shao was determined to make his youngest son, Yuan Shang, his heir. While he was alive, his other sons dared not speak out against him. Once Yuan Shao died, how could his sons possibly acknowledge their youngest son as their lord? They would inevitably fight fiercely for the position of lord.

While Yuan Shao was alive, they could still unite as one; without him, his sons would become a disorganized mess. Because Cao Cao understood this, he was not in a hurry and patiently waited for Yuan Shao's death in Xuchang.

At this time, Sun Ben sent his eldest son, Sun An, as an envoy to Xuchang, hoping to gain more support from Cao Cao.

In the main hall, Cao Cao read Sun Ben's letter and said indifferently to Sun An, who was kneeling below, "Is the Sun-Gan alliance so frightening to you?"

Sun An kowtowed and said, "My lord, you are unaware that Sun Quan's alliance with Gan Ning is entirely aimed at us. It puts us in a difficult position, making it impossible for us to concentrate our forces to eliminate Jiangdong. In particular, Gan Ning's occupation of half of Lujiang County is a serious constraint on us. I implore you, my lord, to send troops to Wan County to help us recover Lujiang County, so that we can unite with Huang Zu. Then, with Huang Zu restraining Gan Ning, we can launch a full-scale attack on Jiangdong."

Sun Ben had already made his words very clear in his letter: his goal was to get Cao Cao to send troops to recover the entire territory of Lujiang Commandery and drive Gan Ning's forces out of Jiangbei.

But Cao Cao didn't think that way. He supported Sun Ben, creating a situation where the two Suns ruled across the river, in order to prevent Jiangdong from launching a northern expedition from the south while he was conquering Hebei.

However, Sun Ben mentioned something in his letter that made Cao Cao somewhat tempted: there were still many people in Jiangdong who secretly supported Sun Ben, and he hoped to take advantage of Sun Quan's unstable position to launch a full-scale attack on Jiangdong and destroy Sun Quan.

As Cao Cao was considering, Guo Jia gave him a wink.

Cao Cao nodded and said to Sun An, "You have come a long way and must be tired. Go and rest first! Let me think about this matter carefully."

Sun An kowtowed and withdrew.

Cao Cao then asked Guo Jia, "What insightful opinion does Fengxiao have?"

Guo Jia smiled slightly and said, "My lord, don't be fooled by Sun Ben's sweet talk. He's just making empty promises to swindle you out of your money."

Cao Cao was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

“Sun Ben only has a little over three hundred warships. How will he cross the river to reclaim Jiangdong? Would our lord really give him the warships from Xuchang?”

Cao Cao shook his head. "The warships are for my crossing of the Yellow River. How could I possibly give them to him?"

"So what? At least for the next three to five years, he simply doesn't have the ability to attack Jiangdong. He actually wants us to send troops and ships to help him conquer Jiangdong so he can reap the benefits. But if we can conquer Jiangdong, what use is he? Wouldn't it be better for our lord to rule Jiangdong himself?"

Cao Cao chuckled, "That makes sense. I hadn't thought of that."

Guo Jia added, "Sun Ben's role is to block our impulse to launch a northern expedition from Jiangdong. He is a buffer zone between the Central Plains and Jiangdong. My lord only needs to grasp this point and not worry too much about anything else."

Cao Cao pondered for a moment and then asked, "What about sending troops to help him recapture Lujiang Commandery?"

(End of this chapter)