Tiger Owl

Chapter 291 Liu Bei's Alliance
The following morning, Lu Su hurriedly came to find Gan Ning and presented him with a letter written by Liu Bei.

In his letter, Liu Bei expressed his regret over the destruction of Jiangdong and his willingness to cooperate with Gan Ning to fight against Cao Cao.
The letter was rather vague, only expressing an attitude of looking forward to cooperating with Gan Ning. As for various details, such as how to cooperate and the steps involved, the letter did not mention them.

Gan Ning frowned slightly. What did Liu Bei mean by this?
Last autumn, Liu Bei attempted to form an alliance with Sun Ben to jointly conquer Jiaozhou. Now, not long after, Liu Bei is talking to me about cooperation again. This man changes his tune so quickly, he has no sincerity whatsoever.

More importantly, they were too far apart and had no common goal to cooperate on. Gan Ning suddenly had a thought: Could it be that Liu Bei wanted to attack Nan Commandery again? After thinking it over, it seemed that only Nan Commandery was the place where they could have common ground.

However, Nan Commandery is too far from Bashu, and Zhuge Liang himself is also eyeing Nan Commandery covetously. If they come to participate in the struggle for Nan Commandery, they will be finished once the Three Gorges Road is cut off by him. Zhuge Liang could not possibly be unaware of this.

Gan Ning gradually ruled out the possibility of Nanjun. If it wasn't Nanjun, then what was it?

A thought suddenly popped into his mind: Hanzhong. Another possibility was Hanzhong. Liu Bei wanted to seize Hanzhong, hoping to hold back Cao Cao's army.

Having figured this out, Gan Ning's mind raced, and a clear strategic outline emerged: to use Liu Bei's capture of Hanzhong to force Cao Cao's main force to retreat.

"What did Sun Qian say?" Gan Ning asked.

Lu Su bowed slightly. "Sun Qian said that Cao Cao's power is strong. If we do not unite, we will inevitably be devoured by Cao Cao one by one. He also said that our two families have no conflict of interest. We are both staunch anti-Cao Cao factions and are natural allies."

Gan Ning nodded. "What he said does make some sense, but I'd like to know, what is their attitude towards Nanjun?"

Lu Su quickly replied, "I also asked Sun Qian about Nan Commandery."

"How did he say?"

“Sun Qian was quite frank. He said that our lord Liu Bei did indeed have the idea of ​​taking back Nan Commandery and putting Liu Qi on the throne as a puppet. However, the strategist Zhuge Liang strongly opposed it. Zhuge Liang believed that our occupation of Queyue City was aimed at Nan Commandery. It would be easy to deal with Cao Cao's army, but we would definitely lose to a local strongman like us with a powerful navy. We would easily cut off the Three Gorges Road and their logistical support. Without logistical support, their army would only face the fate of total annihilation when facing the fierce Cao Cao's army.”

Gan Ning nodded. "This Zhuge Liang certainly sees things very clearly!"

Gan Ning then changed the subject and asked, "Did Sun Qian say exactly how we will cooperate? What exactly is their target?"

Lu Su shook his head. "Sun Qian didn't go into details, nor did he mention their goals. He only said that he hoped to form an alliance first, and then discuss various collaborations based on that alliance."

"Does the strategist think an alliance is feasible?"

Lu Su smiled faintly, "It's always better to have one more friend than one more enemy!"

Gan Ning laughed heartily, then immediately nodded and said, "I agree to the alliance. You continue to talk to him. I hope to use the alliance as a catch-all for various cooperation proposals. Also, tell Sun Qian that my first cooperation proposal is to discuss Hanzhong."

Lu Su was startled. He immediately understood that his lord had seen through Liu Bei's intentions.

Sun Qian brought with him an alliance agreement, which was a relatively simple framework agreement consisting of general principles such as jointly resisting Cao Cao, non-aggression, and strategic cooperation, but lacking in specific details.

Lu Su unfolded the covenant and said with a smile, "Lord Chu, take a look for yourself! Any additions or modifications that need to be made can be changed, and you can send them back via pigeon."

Gan Ning's heart skipped a beat, and he pressed on, "Did Sun Qian bring a carrier pigeon?"

“No!” Lu Su affirmed, “I asked the manager of your hotel, and Sun Qian did not bring any carrier pigeons on this trip.”

Gan Ning laughed and asked, "Then where do their carrier pigeons come from?"

Lu Su also laughed and said, "Needless to say, they have an intelligence point in Chaisang!"

Gan Ning nodded. "Then let's add one more thing! Change each other's intelligence points to official liaison offices. Since we're allies, we should have this much mutual trust."

In fact, the liaison office itself is also an intelligence agency, except that it collects publicly available intelligence, such as population, food prices, garrison troops, city walls, and marriage alliances between aristocratic families. This intelligence is all public and anyone can collect it, so as long as it does not involve digging up the other party's military secrets, both sides tacitly agree to this kind of search for publicly available intelligence.

Lu Su readily agreed, "This falls under the principle of mutual trust in intelligence, and I can add it."

"There's also free trade, which involves many details, such as taxes, inspections, and embargoes, but we can include the principles of free trade in the text and discuss the details later."

Lu Su noted down the two requests and then hurriedly took his leave.

Back at the manor that evening, Gan Ning sat down in his study. Da Qiao brought in a cup of ginseng tea and joked, "I heard that Liu Bei's envoy has come to Chaisang. If they know that Shang Xiang is with us, will Liu Bei say that Shang Xiang is his fiancée and demand that she be handed over to him?"

Da Qiao was right. Sun Quan and Liu Bei did reach a marriage alliance agreement, and it had reached the final step. This spring, Liu Bei would send a ship to bring Sun Shangxiang back to Bashu to get married. Sun Shangxiang was indeed Liu Bei's fiancée in the official sense.

It was only because she discovered that the marriage process had reached its final stage that Sun Shangxiang was so frightened that she ran away from home to elope.

Gan Ning smiled and said, "Liu Bei doesn't care about the person. Whether Shangxiang is male or female is not important to him. What's important is to join forces with Jiangdong to seize Jiaozhou."

Da Qiao covered her mouth and burst out laughing. She laughed so hard that her body trembled. "Husband, what do you mean by 'it doesn't matter whether it's a man or a woman'?"

Gan Ning chuckled, "It was just a metaphor, a bit exaggerated, but you understand what I mean."

Da Qiao suppressed a laugh and said, "You can't say it's a man. You can say you don't care if someone is ugly or handsome, or old or young, but the premise is that they have to be a woman."

"Anyway, Liu Bei has lost interest in Shangxiang. I have received news that Liu Bei has married the sister of Wu Yi, a representative of the Dongzhou Group. This matter need not be mentioned again."

Da Qiao nodded. "Alright, let's talk about reality! Has your husband decided to marry Shang Xiang?"

Gan Ning thought for a moment and said, "There is one advantage to our family: we don't need our parents' consent. We can decide for ourselves. As the husband, I am willing to take Shangxiang as a concubine, but as the legal wife, you also have the right to decide whether you are willing to accept this new sister?"

"I'll take it!"

Da Qiao whispered, "I accepted her on the first day she arrived. Her beauty, kindness, and innocence are the qualities I value most. Besides, her country is now destroyed and she has nowhere to go. I will never push her out of the house."

Gan Ning thought for a moment and then said, "Then let's follow our family rules! She will officially become one of my wives on New Year's Eve."

(End of this chapter)