Tiger Owl

Chapter 75 Joining Forces to Combat Yellow
In the council hall of the Wu Marquis's residence, Sun Quan was discussing with others the matter of retaking Lujiang County.

The most urgent matter for Jiangdong now is to retake Lujiang County. However, Cao Cao is very dissatisfied because Sun Quan has taken Guangling County. Sun Quan is also worried that Cao Cao's army may march south at any time, so he has deployed a large number of troops in Guangling County.

With Guangling Commandery dispersing a large number of Jiangdong's troops, it would be unrealistic to expect Sun Quan to fight Huang Zu alone and recapture Lujiang Commandery.

Zhang Zhao stood up and said, “Lord Wu, I have an idea. Could we join forces with Gan Ning of Yuzhang Commandery to deal with Huang Zu? As far as I know, Gan Ning’s army has occupied E County and has already fought two battles with Huang Zu. The two sides are now at odds. If we join forces, we can attack Shu County of Lujiang Commandery from the east, and Gan Ning can attack Wan County of Lujiang Commandery from the west. In this way, Huang Zu will be attacked from both sides and will surely be defeated.”

Previously, Gan Ning had handed over the captured enemy general Deng Long to Jiangdong. Sun Quan personally beheaded Deng Long in front of his father's tomb to offer sacrifice to his father. Gan Ning gained a great favor and greatly eased the hostile attitude between Yuzhang Commandery and Jiangdong.

Chief Clerk Lü Fan said, "Lord Wu, Military Advisor Zhang's idea is good, and I support it. However, there is a problem: once Huang Zu is defeated, how will the two families divide the spoils?"

Zhang Zhao smiled slightly and said, "We can give him the area west of Wan County. There is only Xunyang County to the west of Wan County, and Xunyang County itself is Gan Ning's territory. It is not a big loss for us, but we can take back Lujiang County."

Sun Quan took the map and examined it closely. To the west of Lujiang County was the Dabie Mountains, to the southwest was Pengli Lake, and to the far west was Xunyang County. The Dabie Mountains were of little value, except for the southwest corner.

Sun Quan finally nodded, "We cannot cede too much land west of Wan County. Let Pengli Lake be the boundary. All the land west of Pengli Lake can belong to him."

..........
The battle report from Wuchang County quickly reached Nanchang. While overjoyed, Gan Ning also realized that Huang Zu would not give up easily, and an even bigger war was about to break out.

Gan Ning ordered preparations for war.

Deep within the Pengli Marsh, the Yuzhang Army was conducting naval warfare drills. Dozens of warships equipped with paddle wheels sped across the water, weaving nimbly among dozens of large ships, constantly throwing water-filled thin-skinned earthenware jars onto the larger vessels.

Of course, this was just a drill, and real oil could not be used. Real oil pots were coated with oil on the outside, lit, and then thrown. The burning pottery shards would naturally ignite the oil, and the soldiers would not have to worry about it.

But now another new type of kerosene bottle has appeared. This new kerosene bottle is filled with a mixture of pine resin and tung oil, which has an extremely strong burning power. The bottle is very small, containing only one pound of mixed kerosene. It is sealed with a wooden stopper and placed in a specially made bottle belt. One bottle belt can hold five kerosene bottles side by side, just like a grenade belt in later times, and can be worn on the body.

When in use, soldiers would remove the cork, stuff a piece of tarpaulin inside, light the tarpaulin with a tinderbox, and then throw it out—just like the petrol bottles used by Western citizens in later protests.

That's how war works; it allows people to quickly learn from experience and develop more powerful oil-based weapons. Soldiers complained that the four-pound thin-walled earthenware canisters were too heavy and couldn't be thrown very far, so changing them to a one-pound canister made a huge difference, making them more practical and effective.

Gan Ning, Lu Su, Jiang Wan, Xu Shu, and others watched the battle from a five-story ship with a capacity of 6,000 shi (a unit of weight).

Lu Su said to Gan Ning with some concern, "Huang Zu's main naval force consists of several thousand warships, while there are not many tower ships and fighting ships. If the enemy deploys all their warships in the warship battle, I'm afraid fire attacks will not be effective!"

Jiang Wan also said, "The warships are covered with raw cowhide, which is fireproof. More importantly, raw cowhide is very soft, so pottery jars will not break when hit on it, but will bounce off and fall into the water. My lord, have you considered other tactics?"

In fact, neither Lu Su nor Jiang Wan understood Gan Ning's emphasis on fire attacks. In their view, naval warfare should primarily rely on bows and arrows.

Gan Ning smiled slightly and said, "War is actually a test of national strength. If we use arrows as an example, the cost of one arrow is thirty coins. A naval battle consumes 200,000 arrows, which is six million coins. Most of these arrows sink to the bottom of the river and cannot be reused."

If kerosene is used, the main raw material for fire attack is currently tung oil, and pine resin oil is not used much, mainly because it is too difficult to refine. Even if tung oil is used, it costs 10 qian per jin on the market, and a jar of tung oil contains 3 jin. Including the cost of the jar, the cost is 40 qian.

A naval battle would consume 5,000 cans of tung oil, which would only cost 200,000 coins, much less than 6 million coins. Even if mixed with pine resin oil, it would cost at most 500,000 coins.

As for lethality? Everyone was wearing leather armor, so the arrows were actually quite weak. In the end, it was still up to the people on the ship to fight.

If fire is used, it will be a devastating disaster for wooden ships once the fire spreads. Therefore, fire is the most terrifying weapon in naval warfare. Moreover, although Huang Zu's main force consists of warships, their commander must be on tower ships and fighting ships. I will use a surprise attack to deal with the tower ships and fighting ships, destroying their command ship. Without their commander, no matter how many warships they have, they are no longer a threat.

Lu Su and Jiang Wan then understood that their lord's battle strategy was to deal with the enemy's main general, which was indeed a very good idea, and the two of them said no more.

At this moment, Xu Shu, who had been silent until now, smiled and said, "I remember that the Book of Han, Geography section, records that there is a flammable river called Wei River in Gaonu County, but I don't know what this Wei River is?"

Gan Ning laughed and said, "Weishui is petroleum, a black slurry that is very viscous. After refining, it burns extremely well. Unfortunately, it is rare in the south and more common in the northwest."

Lu Su stroked his beard and smiled, "We can keep an eye out for this. If we can find this kind of oil, we can use fire attacks extensively in future battles."

Gan Ning knew very well that there was no oil in the south, so it was better to adapt to local conditions and consider pine resin oil, which was also highly flammable.

Gan Ning pondered for a moment and then said, "Pine trees are widely distributed in our Yuzhang County and are the most important tree species. They can be used to produce large quantities of pine resin oil. If pine resin oil is mixed with tung oil, the burning intensity will be at least ten times stronger, which will make it easy to ignite the wood of the large ship. Military Advisor Lu, please arrange for the large-scale refining of pine resin oil as soon as possible."

Lu Su nodded, "I'll make the arrangements!"

Just then, a soldier came to report, "Reporting to our lord, the special envoy from Jiangdong, Zhu Zhi, has arrived in Chaisang."

Gan Ning smiled at everyone and said, "We're very close to Chaisang, let's take a look! What does Sun Quan want with us this time?"

...........
Gan Ning met with Zhu Zhi in Chaisang. Zhu Zhi handed Gan Ning a personal letter from Lord Wu and said with a smile, "Lord Wu is very grateful to General Gan for handing Deng Long over to Jiangdong, which allowed Lord Wu to avenge his great grudge. Now Huang Zu is powerful and has occupied Lujiang County, which also infringes on General Gan's interests. Therefore, Lord Wu suggests that our two families join forces to deal with Huang Zu's army in Lujiang County."

After reading the letter, Gan Ning handed it to Lu Su and smiled slightly. "I strongly agree with Lord Wu's suggestion. With the combined strength of our two families, we should be able to easily defeat Huang Zu. And then? After defeating Huang Zu, how will the spoils be distributed?"

"The Marquis of Wu meant that Pengli Lake should be the boundary, and the area to the west, including Pengli Lake, could be assigned to Yuzhang Commandery."

This condition is not bad. You know, both sides of Poyang Lake are high-yield grain areas. Gan Ning looked at Lu Su.

Lu Su spread out the map and laughed, "Twenty li east of Pengli Lake is the Xiwan River, and further north is the Dabie Mountains. Why not take the boundary between the Xiwan River and the Dabie Mountains as the boundary and give us the western part?"

Lu Su wanted the coastal areas of Pengli Lake, otherwise going ashore would cross the border. Then he also wanted half of the Dabie Mountains. In this way, they took away 30% of the land of Lujiang County.

"What do you think, my lord?" Lu Su asked Gan Ning with a smile.

Gan Ning nodded. "I fully support this plan!"

In fact, Lu Su's plan was Sun Quan's backup plan. After all, negotiation is a matter of bargaining, and the other party cannot agree to your plan outright. Therefore, it is necessary to have a backup compromise plan to save Zhu Zhi from having to ask for instructions back and forth. As long as it is within the scope of compromise, Zhu Zhi can agree.

Zhu Zhi pondered for a moment, then finally nodded. "Let's go with this plan! It's a deal."

The two sides then agreed on the cooperation method. Lujiang County has two important counties, one in the east and one in the west. One is Shuxian in the east and the other is Wanxian in the west. Huang Zudu stationed heavy troops in both places. Jiangdong Army was responsible for attacking Shuxian, while Gan Ning was responsible for taking Wanxian. The two sides agreed on a time. On May 15, ten days later, the two sides launched an offensive at the same time.

When Zhu Zhi came to negotiate, Gan Ning received an important piece of news: Tai Shi Ci had been demoted to the position of county magistrate in Tai Mo County. Gan Ning immediately realized that his opportunity to recruit Tai Shi Ci had arrived.

(End of this chapter)