Tiger Owl

Chapter 70 Sun Quan's Liquidation
Gan Ning then renamed E County to Wuchang County and appointed Ding Feng as the Wuchang Commandant, commanding 6,000 troops to garrison Wuchang County, while also overseeing the construction of the unfinished Xiakou City.

Xiakou City is today's Wuhan. Huang Zu first built the city here, but it is only half completed so far. Xiakou faces the confluence of the two rivers, making it very suitable for monitoring Huang Zu's army. It can be said to be the eyes of E County. Once Huang Zu's army is detected to be moving, Wuchang County can be notified to prepare for war by means of beacon towers or pigeons.

Gan Ning also reappointed the county officials of Wuchang County, Xiazhi County, and Shaxian County. With a new emperor comes a new set of officials. The previous county officials were all appointed by Huang Zu. If Huang Zu launches a counterattack, they will become internal collaborators. It is necessary to use our own people.

In the past two months, Gan Ning has recruited over a hundred scholars from humble backgrounds, and he has no shortage of civil officials under his command.

After arranging the defenses of Wuchang County, Gan Ning and Xu Shu rode into the heart of the territory to inspect the area.

The area south of the Yangtze River is a mix of land and water, often consisting of land surrounded by water. Surprisingly, it has a large population, with villages of all sizes scattered across the land, and the people there mainly make a living by farming and fishing.

Xu Shu pointed with his riding whip at the distant village and said, "My lord, I believe that we should establish more counties in the heartland. It is such a pity that such a large and prosperous land does not have any counties."

Gan Ning nodded. This place was indeed a prosperous land, and in later generations, cities of all sizes, such as Wuhan, Huangshi, Xianning, and Jiayu, emerged from here.

"We can build a county town on the south bank of the Yangtze River, at the border with Changsha County, as a springboard for our next attack on Changsha County."

The county town that Gan Ning wanted was indeed built later, which is Jiayu County. About two hundred miles southwest along the Yangtze River is Dongting Lake.

However, before attacking Changsha County, we must fight a fierce battle with Huang Zu to completely weaken him and render him unable to attack Wuchang County and Chaisang County. Only then can we consider attacking Changsha County.

Gan Ning and his advisors reached a consensus that they should not eliminate Huang Zu until their strength was sufficient to rival Liu Biao's. Huang Zu served as a valuable strategic buffer; once they destroyed him, they would have to confront Liu Biao directly.

After resting for two days, the army left Wuchang County and returned to Chaisang.

...........
Jiangdong also demonstrated its formidable strength at this time.

Sun Ben originally planned to immediately march north after Li Shu took Guangling County, seize Jiujiang County and Guangling County, and then turn around and take Jiujiang County.

Unexpectedly, Huang Zu's sudden attack on Lujiang County disrupted Sun Ben's plans, delaying his entry into the palace by two days. However, it was during these two days that the situation began to turn around, and the Jiangdong army marched into Guangling County.

Sun Ben was greatly alarmed and immediately led his army to attack Jiujiang County.

The counties of Jiujiang surrendered to Sun Ben one after another, and Sun Ben's army swept through the enemy lines and captured Shouchun in one fell swoop.

At the same time, Zhou Yu led 30,000 troops to capture Guangling City in one fell swoop, killing 20,000 enemies. Li Shu suffered a great defeat. Since the road back to Jiujiang County had been cut off by Huang Gai's army, Li Shu could no longer return to Jiujiang County. He had no choice but to lead several thousand remaining troops to Xuzhou to join Liu Bei.

In just half a month, the situation in the Jianghuai region changed dramatically. Huang Zu captured Lujiang County, which he had long coveted, and the Jiangdong army seized the opportunity to take Guangling County, which Sun Ce had coveted for many years.

Although Sun Ben did not achieve his goal of taking over all three commanderies, he still obtained Jiujiang Commandery, which extended his sphere of influence across the Yangtze River and gave him control over Danyang Commandery and Jiujiang Commandery. Overall, he can be considered a winner.

Sun Quan's capture of Guangling Commandery actually violated his promise never to launch a northern expedition, a promise he discarded less than three months later.

Sun Quan's gaze then turned to Jiujiang and Lujiang counties. He no longer cared about Yuzhang County. Sun Ben had become his greatest threat, posing a significant threat to the safety of Jiangdong.

Huang Zu was Sun Quan's father's killer, and now that Huang Zu had occupied Lujiang County, Sun Quan, fueled by both old and new grudges, was eager to reclaim Lujiang County and personally kill Huang Zu.

Despite his resentment, he dared not turn against Sun Ben for the time being. Sun Ben controlled Danyang Commandery, and a falling out would pose too great a threat to Wu Commandery. At this time, Sun Ben wrote to Sun Quan to explain that he was doing this to quell Li Shu's rebellion. Sun Quan had no choice but to swallow this bitter pill and appointed Sun Fu as the governor of Jiujiang Commandery.

As for Huang Zu, Sun Quan had no time to deal with him for the time being and could only put him aside. He needed to swallow the fat meat of Guangling County and also clean up the poison left by Li Shu in Jiangdong.

Sun Quan immediately ordered the relocation of more than 30,000 households from Guangling County to Wu County. The area north of the Yangtze River was still not very stable, and only the area east of the Yangtze River was his true territory.

Immediately afterwards, Sun Quan began to purge the civil and military officials who had followed Li Shu in the rebellion.

But no one expected that the first general implicated by Li Shu would be Taishi Ci. Taishi Ci led 10,000 troops to garrison Shouchun. When he came to Wu County to mourn Sun Ce, Li Shu seized the opportunity to take away his 10,000 troops, which became the backbone of Li Shu's rebellion.

Here's the question: why was Li Shu able to so easily take over 10,000 troops, and why were these 10,000 troops willing to be under his command?
The investigation report came out quickly, revealing that Taishi Ci had promoted two generals, Xia Jie and Liu Zhan, to defect to Li Shu, and that the two of them controlled an army of 10,000.

Xia Jie and Liu Zhan had already been killed by Huang Gai and Chen Wu in Guangling Commandery, but Taishi Ci, who had promoted them, was also implicated and demoted by Sun Quan to the position of county magistrate of Taimo County in Kuaiji Commandery. This area was actually the territory of the Yue people, and Sun Quan sent Taishi Ci to govern them. On the official road south of Wu Commandery, an oxcart was slowly traveling south. A woman was carrying a young child, and beside her was a boy of about ten years old. These two children were Taishi Ci's eldest son, Taishi Heng, and his second son, Taici Lai.

Taishi Ci rode his horse slowly alongside the oxcart, with two old attendants following behind him.

“My lord, Xia Jie and Liu Zhan are clearly Sun Ben’s subordinates. What does it have to do with you? You’re not even a colonel. How are you qualified to be promoted to general? Why were you demoted to a lowly post in a remote and impoverished area?”

Taishi Ci's wife, Wang, said indignantly.

"Mother, Father was purged by the Marquis of Xinwu because he supported the Northern Expedition," the eldest son, Taishi Heng, said loudly.

Taishi Ci's face darkened. "Heng'er, don't talk nonsense!"

Tai Shiheng stiffened his neck and said, "I'm not making this up; Mr. Hua told me!"

Mr. Hua is Hua Xin, and Taishi Ci had a good relationship with him.

Taishi Ci remained silent. How could he not know? He wrote to Sun Ce, urging his lord to launch a northern expedition, and even offered to lead 10,000 troops to Shouchun as the vanguard, waiting for his lord's order to march north.

Countless people who opposed the Northern Expedition hated him to the bone. He knew that Zhang Zhao and Sun Ben were very hostile to him. Now that his lord had died unexpectedly, he had lost his base and backing in Jiangdong. If Sun Quan did not settle accounts with him, how could he explain to those forces that opposed the Northern Expedition?

Furthermore, Sun Ben was clearly behind Li Shu's rebellion. Wu Hou dared not pursue Sun Ben, but instead made him bear all the responsibility, and no one spoke up for him. Thinking of this, Taishi Ci was truly filled with resentment.

Lady Wang said with great concern, "My husband is originally from the north and has no foothold in Eastern Wu. Even Cao Cao wrote to you, asking you to return to the north. You only stayed because the Marquis of Wu had shown you kindness. Now that the Marquis of Wu is dead, Zhang Hong, Hua Xin and others who used to be loyal to him have all returned north. Where will you find a way to make a name for yourself if you stay in Jiangdong? You should find a way out as soon as possible."

Taishi Ci sighed deeply. In this vast world, where could he find a place to stand?

"Let's settle down in Taimo County first!"

As the sun set, the family headed south alone.

..........
Li Shu led four thousand remaining troops to Xiaopei, where he was warmly welcomed by Liu Bei.

Liu Bei was ordered to attack Yuan Shu, but Yuan Shu died halfway there. Liu Bei seized the opportunity to capture Zhu Ling's entire army, killed Che Zhou, the governor of Xu Province, and occupied Xiapi County. Liu Bei ordered Guan Yu to guard Xiapi, while he himself led his army to garrison Xiaopei.

Liu Bei was already forty years old at this time, so of course he wouldn't have a son in his forties; he actually already had a wife and children.

However, Liu Bei was constantly on the move, and several of his wives died in the war. His last wife and son were captured by Lü Bu and their whereabouts are unknown. They are presumed to have died in the chaos of war. Only one concubine, Gan, remained by his side.

After arriving in Xiapi, in order to gain the support of Mi Zhu, a wealthy man from Xuzhou, he humbled his wife, Lady Gan, who had just been made his second wife, to become a concubine again, and married Mi Zhu's sister. In this way, he obtained a large amount of money from the Mi family, and Liu Bei's army quickly increased to 20,000 men.

Liu Bei and Li Shu were old acquaintances. At this time, Liu Bei also wanted to know about the situation in the south, so he invited Li Shu to take a seat, and the two drank and talked.

"I've heard that a man named Gan Ning has risen to prominence in Yuzhang County. How much do you know about him, my brother?"

Liu Bei also heard about Gan Ning's rise to power, and he was very interested.

Li Shu smiled slightly and said, "He gained Cao Cao's support by seizing Yuan Shu's imperial seal and handing it over to Cao Cao. He then established himself in Chaisang and gradually grew stronger after annexing smaller forces such as Zhang Ying, Zuo Rong, and Zheng Bao."

But the fundamental reason was Cao Cao's support. Without Cao Cao's support, he would have been destroyed by Huang Zu and Sun Ben long ago. However, he had now grown powerful, occupying Yuzhang Commandery in less than a year with tens of thousands of elite troops, which gave many scholars in Jingzhou hope, leading them to flock to him.

Thinking of his own life of wandering and displacement, and how he still had no real place to stand, while a young man had risen to power and occupied Yuzhang County in less than a year, the stark contrast made Liu Bei feel ashamed of himself, but at the same time, it made his heart flutter.

Liu Bei pondered for a moment and then asked, "Are there many opportunities in the south?"

(End of this chapter)