Tiger Owl

Chapter 172 Attack on Lujiang
The two sides reached an agreement on the details of troop deployment the following day.

Inside the official residence, Lu Su was reporting the details of the negotiations to Gan Ning. Lu Su smiled and said, "It seems that Jiangdong is very clear. They know that if we send troops to Jiujiang County, Cao Cao's army will definitely intervene."

"And then?" Gan Ning asked with a smile.

"Then Zhang Zhao asked me directly if we would withdraw from Jiujiang County if Cao Cao's army intervened. I told him that if Cao Cao sent troops to drive us away, we would not retreat, but if Cao Cao chose to persuade us with words, we might retreat."

Gan Ning laughed. "Zhang Zhao didn't turn hostile?"

“Zhang Zhao has shown some composure; he calmed down and asked me what to do about Sun Ben. I replied that our condition for withdrawing our troops was that Sun Ben must withdraw from Danyang County. No matter how much pressure Cao Cao’s army puts on us, the minimum number of troops withdrawing cannot be less than 30,000.”

"And what did Zhang Zhao say?"

"Zhang Zhao agreed. He told me that if Sun Ben withdrew 30,000 troops, they would be confident of defeating Sun Ben's army."

Gan Ning nodded. "Let's talk about the compensation for sending troops!"

"It's all settled. The general proposed the terms: 300,000 barrels of tung oil. After we send troops, they will deliver 100,000 barrels first. After we enter Jiujiang County, they will deliver another 100,000 barrels. Finally, after they recapture Danyang County, they will deliver the last 100,000 barrels to us."

Gan Ning said happily, "We can sign the contract now!"

Zhang Zhao returned to Jiangdong with the contract, satisfied. Three hundred thousand barrels of tung oil in exchange for Danyang County—this price was far too cheap for them, representing only 30% of Jiangdong's tung oil production.

Of course, Zhang Zhao was a politician, and he knew that Gan Ning's dispatch of troops to help them wasn't just for the tung oil. He also wanted to make amends for the falling out between the two families over Huang Zu, to ease tensions, and, more importantly, because of Gan Ning's parting words: 'The reason I'm sending troops is that I don't want Cao Cao's influence to extend south of the Yangtze River.'

This statement was very insightful, and Zhang Zhao kept pondering it on his return journey. Sooner or later, Cao Cao's army would march south, and whether or not they could stop Cao Cao's army north of the Yangtze River depended heavily on Sun Ben. They absolutely could not allow Sun Ben to gain a foothold on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Sun Ben was a very important piece and the key to Cao Cao's future southward expansion. However, Sun Ben himself did not know that although the surprise attack on Danyang County was successful, he had made a major strategic mistake. He prematurely exhausted his role as a piece. Once he was driven out of Danyang County by the combined forces of Gan and Sun, it would be difficult for Sun Ben to make another southward expansion in the future.

From this perspective, Sun Ben's surprise attack on Danyang County may not necessarily be a bad thing.

As night fell, Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci led 30,000 troops to the west bank of the Wan River. Xu Shu had received Gan Ning's order to attack Lujiang County.

Although Sun Benjun deployed more than twenty watchtowers along the river in Wan County to closely monitor the movements of the Yuzhang Army on the west bank, the enemy made a habitual mistake in thinking. These twenty-odd watchtowers were all deployed opposite Wan County, stretching for more than ten miles. They seemed to believe that if the Yuzhang Army were to send troops, they would definitely cross the river from Wan County.

Of course, the other side must have still planted spies in Wan County. Although the spies could not be found for the time being, Xu Shu had his own methods. He did not move the garrison in Wan County and had the spies continue to monitor the garrison camp. Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci's troops did not enter Wan County at all.

At this moment, Taishi Ci's army appeared on the west bank of the Wan River, fifteen li north of Wan County, while Zhao Yun's army appeared on the west bank of the Wan River, fifteen li south of Wan County. These two crossing points bypassed the sentry towers on the opposite bank. Dozens of boats quickly built pontoon bridges on the river, with the boats linked together by iron chains and large wooden planks laid on them. There were two pontoon bridges in total, one on the north and one on the south.

At midnight, the two armies, one from the north and one from the south, simultaneously boarded the pontoon bridge and headed towards the other side, thus beginning the Battle of Lujiang.

Sun Ben's army camp was very quiet. The commander-in-chief, Xu Yuan, was the brother of Xu Qian, the governor of Lujiang County. Xu Yuan was also very cautious and deployed many sentries and patrols around the camp. They could spot any enemy troops coming to attack from a mile away and immediately make an emergency call.

At midnight, two sentries from Sun Benjun were chatting idly when they suddenly noticed countless small red dots in the sky. The two men stood up in surprise and stared blankly at the red dots getting closer and closer in the sky. It wasn't until hundreds of red dots swept past their heads that they finally realized that they were firebirds, and hundreds of burning firebirds appeared in the sky.

The two men looked back and were terrified. The direction of the hundreds of firebirds was right in front of their camp. They frantically took out iron plates and started banging on them.

"Dang! Dang! Dang!"

The ear-piercing knocking sound cut through the quiet night, but the sky was no longer peaceful. Hundreds of fire kites were turning into balls of fire and rushing straight towards the camp.

Alarm bells rang loudly in the military camp, and many soldiers ran out of their tents and saw the firelight in the sky. They screamed in fear.

This was the first time fire kites were used in actual combat. Although fire kites kept falling from the sky, many still flew into the military camp, and in an instant, hundreds of tents were set ablaze.

The fire spread rapidly throughout the military camp, with flames raging everywhere and thick smoke billowing out. Terrified soldiers rushed out of the burning tents without even having time to put on their shoes, scrambling to escape towards the camp gate amidst the crowded throng.

While the long-range sneak attacks by fire hawks were very effective, they also had obvious drawbacks: they were relatively slow and too conspicuous. If the slow speed wasn't a drawback, then the conspicuousness was a major flaw. As long as the sentries were not asleep, they could detect the abnormality in the sky from a mile away, thus sounding the alarm and giving the soldiers more time to escape, preventing the entire army from being wiped out and burned to death in the camp.

But the result was the same. Just as the thousands of soldiers escaped from the camp, 30,000 Yuzhang soldiers surrounded and attacked from all sides, and the shouts of battle around the burning camp were deafening.

More than 80% of the escaped soldiers were barefoot, unarmed, and without armor. When they suddenly saw the fierce army attacking from all sides, they were so frightened that they knelt down and surrendered, begging for their lives.

Of the 6,000 troops, more than 5,400 escaped, but more than 500 perished in the fire, including the commander Xu Yuan, whose warhorse was startled and carried him into the raging flames.

The following day at noon, the camp was burned to the ground. The soldiers of the Yuzhang Army began to clean up the camp, carrying out one after another corpses that had been burned to charcoal.

The soldiers found a burnt warhorse, and next to it, they discovered a charred corpse wearing a gold plaque inscribed with the name of Xu Yuan, a colonel in the Western Army.

After dealing with the main camp, the prisoners of war were sent to Wan County for imprisonment. Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci continued to lead the army to Shu County, which was a hundred miles away. Lujiang County was very large, but its troops were concentrated. Six thousand troops were deployed on the east bank of the Wan River, and another fifteen thousand troops were deployed in Shu County. Once Shu County was captured, it would mean that Lujiang County would be captured.

(End of this chapter)