Tiger Owl

Chapter 212 Forced Admission
Although Cao Cao did not officially announce the relocation of the capital to Ye City, Ye City was already the de facto capital. The emperor and officials had all been moved to Ye City, and Cao Cao himself also lived in Ye City. His hundreds of thousands of troops were also stationed around Ye City.

At this time, there was one last battle left in the north, which was the war against the Wuhuan army in Liaoxi. However, Cao Cao was not worried. He could wipe out the mere Wuhuan people in one battle.

What Cao Cao was truly worried about was the south. Liu Bei had entered Xichuan and established his own base there, like a dragon returning to the sea, making it difficult to destroy him.

Furthermore, Gan Ning's forces had unknowingly occupied nine counties, possessing an army of 150,000 and thousands of warships. Their strength had surpassed that of Jiangdong, making them the most powerful force in the south.

Cao Cao was not worried about the power of Jiangdong. With Sun Ben around, Jiangdong would continue to be mired in internal strife. No matter how capable Sun Quan was, he could not make Jiangdong strong again.

The logic here is simple: many powerful families in Jiangdong wanted to serve the imperial court or Cao Cao, but they couldn't directly pledge allegiance. Sun Ben became a bridge, and while they outwardly supported Sun Ben, they were actually supporting Cao Cao behind him.

Cao Cao was also quite troubled these past few days. He received news that Gan Ning had renamed Wuchang County to Chu County, and his title of Marquis of Wuchang had been changed to Marquis of Chu.

Cao Cao certainly understood this little trick; changing the marquis's name was a pretense, the real intention was to establish a new state.

What troubled Cao Cao was that Gan Ning actually wrote to the court, requesting that the court change the name of the county and his title as county marquis. If the court rejected his petition, Gan Ning obviously would not restore the original state, and it was very likely that Gan Ning would sever ties with the court from then on.

His advantage of "holding the emperor hostage to command the feudal lords" will be greatly diminished.

However, if they do not reject the request, Gan Ning will become even more arrogant and will surely make even more outrageous demands in the future.

Cao Cao was caught in a dilemma. To be honest, Cao Cao was somewhat blaming Guo Jia. If Guo Jia hadn't repeatedly opposed his suppression of Gan Ning, Gan Ning wouldn't have ended up in this out-of-control situation.

But Guo Jia had already passed away, so it was no use for Cao Cao to blame him.

At this moment, a guard reported, "Military Advisor Cheng has arrived!"

"Invite him in!"

Before long, the strategist Cheng Yu strode in. Although Cheng Yu's decision led to Cao Ren's disastrous defeat in Jiangxia County, Cao Cao did not blame Cheng Yu. Cheng Yu's thinking was completely correct: cutting off Gan Ning's salt supply and seizing Gan Ning's strategic vitals.

However, problems arose during the execution; the reinforcements from Nan Commandery failed, leading to the ultimate failure. Of course, this was also related to Cao Ren's underestimation of the enemy.

"Greetings, Prime Minister!"

Cao Cao handed Gan Ning's memorial to Cheng Yu, saying, "Take a look, strategist! This is Gan Ning's memorial to the court."

Cheng Yu took the memorial and read it through. He was slightly taken aback. "Lord Chu, does that mean his banner will become the Chu Banner from now on?"

“That’s exactly right. He wants to establish a state called Chu and use the title of Marquis to test us.”

"May I ask, Prime Minister, did Gan Ning act first and report later?" Cao Cao nodded. "Indeed!"

Cheng Yu pondered for a moment, then sighed and said, "Prime Minister, this matter is not easy to handle!"

"I know it's troublesome, and I'd like to hear your opinion!"

Cheng Yu shook his head and said, "The normal course of action would be for the court to reject his petition and refuse to accept his request to change the county name and marquis name. But what would be the consequences? The consequences would be that he would no longer heed any imperial edicts, the court would lose control over him, and then the court would declare Gan Ning a traitor and order our lord to lead a large army to punish him. Our lord would then have a legitimate reason to march south."

Cao Cao was silent for a moment and then said, "The problem is that we don't have enough warships. On the Yangtze River, our army will be like fish on a chopping board, at their mercy. The main reason is that I don't plan to attack Gan Ning first. Instead, I want to go through Hefei and attack Jiangdong first. Otherwise, what am I doing raising Sun Ben?"

"If that's the case, then there are only two options: either the court approves his request, or the court responds to his request with silence. I suggest that the Prime Minister choose the former, at least the court can save face if he chooses the former, but if he chooses the latter, he will lose both face and substance."

"But if we approve him, wouldn't he then rightfully become the Marquis of Chu?"

Cheng Yu advised, “The Marquis of Chu is not a terrible thing. The court has enfeoffed Sun Quan as the Marquis of Wu, so what can he do? Would he dare to openly establish the Kingdom of Wu? What I mean is that since there is already a Marquis of Wu, having another Marquis of Chu is not a big problem. In essence, they are just county marquises, not kings. Gan Ning’s memorial is just skirting the line and has not crossed the red line.”

Cao Cao nodded. "I understand. It seems I have no choice but to swallow my anger, accept his pretense, and maintain the facade of the court's authority."

Cheng Yu gave a wry smile and said, "This is what makes Gan Ning so difficult to deal with. He knows that the Prime Minister will have no choice but to agree in order to maintain the situation of holding the emperor hostage to command the princes. In the end, it is because our navy is not strong enough that he is so fearless."

Cao Cao sighed, "It seems I have to focus all my efforts on building ships in the north to avoid a second Jiangling incident!"

Three days later, Cao Cao, as Chancellor, approved Gan Ning's request to rename Wuchang County as Chu County and changed Gan Ning's title from Marquis of Wuchang to Marquis of Chu. From then on, Gan Ning was known as Marquis of Chu.

Cao Cao, wanting to go all the way, issued an imperial edict in the name of the emperor to congratulate Gan Ning on the birth of his son and to enfeoff Gan Ning's son as the Marquis of Nanxiang. At the same time, Gan Ning's wife and two concubines were all granted the title of Lady.

As it turned out, Gan Ning's move to skirt the rules was successful. Without crossing the court's bottom line, Cao Cao was forced to weigh the pros and cons and ultimately chose to save face at the expense of substance, maintaining the court's superficial authority while also preserving Cao Cao's position of controlling the emperor to command the other warlords.

When the imperial reply arrived in Chaisang, it was already late December, less than ten days before the New Year. A heavy snow was sweeping across both banks of the Yangtze River, covering everything from Jingzhou to Jiangdong with a blanket of white snow, turning the area into a silver-clad world.

The New Year is approaching, and all the shops in Chaisang are doing brisk business. Brothels and gambling dens are packed with customers. There is a gambling den called Nanxiang Gambling Den. During the Han Dynasty, Hulu was quite popular. It was made with five wooden dice. Black represented calves and white represented pheasants. The number was determined by the combination of dice. All five black dice were called "Lu". When the dice were thrown, everyone shouted "Lu", hence the name Hulu.

That afternoon, the manager of Nanfeng Gambling House hurriedly found the owner and placed a twenty-tael gold in front of him. The owner was none other than Magistrate Yang Jing, who was the maternal uncle of Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao. He was a local bigwig with many businesses in Chaisang City, including restaurants and gambling houses. As long as the businesses were legal and did not involve any immoral or immoral acts, Gan Ning would not interfere, since Gan Ning himself also owned many restaurants and caravans.

Yang Jing picked up the gold and examined it closely, then froze in surprise.

(End of this chapter)