Han Ji

August. Jiangdong, Chaisang.

Sun Quan stood atop a high cliff by the river, the river wind whipping his robes in the wind. Below were naval camps, rows of warships moored along the shore, sails lowered, masts standing bare. Further on, the Yangtze River stretched out, its waters gleaming white in the sunlight.

Zhou Yu walked up from behind, holding a newly arrived scout report. "Liu Biao's northern expedition has failed. Wen Ping was driven back by Ma Chao and Zhang Xiu at Ye County, suffering heavy losses. Some of the troops from Jiangxia were drawn north and have not yet returned. Now is the perfect time to attack Jiangxia."

Jiangxia. Huang Zu.

Huang Zu was a subordinate of Liu Biao and the governor of Jiangxia. He held this position for more than ten years, commanding 20,000 to 30,000 naval troops who were stationed on the river near Xiakou.

Sun Ce had attacked Huang Zu once during his lifetime, burning down Huang Zu's naval camp at Shaxian, but failed to capture Jiangxia City. After Sun Ce's death, Huang Zu felt that Jiangdong was easy to bully, and constantly sent small fleets across the river to harass the riverside villages around Chaisang and Pengze. They looted grain, burned fishing boats, and plundered people.

Sun Quan had long wanted to attack him. However, the Shanyue tribes were not yet pacified, so he couldn't spare the resources. Now that the Shanyue were subdued and elite troops were in hand, the time was ripe.

He summoned Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Han Dang, Jiang Qin, and Zhou Tai to the governor's mansion. The map in the main hall had been replaced; it no longer depicted the six counties of Jiangdong, but rather the entire middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. From Jianye to Jiangxia, the winding river was drawn as a thick line.

"Jiangxia is stuck in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River." Sun Quan tapped the location of Jiangxia on the map. "If we don't take Jiangxia, Jiangdong will be forever locked in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Liu Biao will advance down the Han River from Xiangyang, and Liu Bei will press south from the Central Plains. If we are attacked from both sides, we can only cower in Jiangdong and be beaten. Only by taking Jiangxia can we open the door to westward expansion."

Zhou Yu said, "Huang Zu has more than 300 warships at Xiakou. His navy is the strongest. To attack Jiangxia, we must first break through the naval fortress at Xiakou."

Sun Quan said, "Gongjin, you will command this naval battle."

Zhou Yu clasped his hands in a fist salute.

Sun Quan then said, "Cheng Gong, you should lead 10,000 infantrymen westward by land, passing through Xunyang and Qichun, and outflank Jiangxia from the land. Advance by both land and water, so that Huang Zu will be unable to defend the water and the land."

Cheng Pu clasped his hands in a fist salute.

In early October, Jiangdong advanced by both land and sea. Zhou Yu led his navy from Chaisang, with five hundred warships of various sizes sailing westward along the Yangtze River. The fleet stretched for dozens of miles, its sails and masts obscuring the sky.

On the shore, Cheng Pu's infantry marched westward along the north bank of the Yangtze River, their banners waving. In the villages along the river, some people stood on the riverbank watching. Seeing so many boats and so many soldiers, some were frightened and ran into the mountains, while others knelt on the bank and kowtowed.

Huang Zu received the battle report from the watchtower of the Xiakou water fortress. He put down his wine bowl, walked to the railing, and looked east. He couldn't see any ships on the river; they were still far away, but he knew the Jiangdong navy was coming. The last time Sun Ce came, he burned half of his water fortress; he remembered how the firelight illuminated the night.

"Someone come here!" he called out, turning around. "Raise the iron chains blocking the river outside the water fortress. Have all the warships leave the harbor and line up on the river."

He then sent someone to Xiangyang to request help from Liu Biao. The messenger was urgent, traveling 500 li (approximately 250 kilometers), and the messenger would remain the same even after changing horses; the messenger had to arrive within three days.

Zhou Yu's navy marched for three days and encountered Huang Zu's naval outpost on the Qichun River. Twenty-odd Mengchong warships lay lined up across the river. Zhou Yu stood on the command platform of his flagship, examined himself with a monocular bronze mirror, and then put it down.

"Run it over," he said.

The vanguard of the Jiangdong navy consisted of fifty Mengchong ships, each with an iron-clad bow and forty oarsmen. As they rowed, the bows cleaved through the river, sending white foam flying.

The first Mengchong rammed directly into the side of Huang Zu's warship, the iron-tipped hull punching a large hole in the warship's hull. River water poured in, and the warship began to list. The taxi drivers on board jumped into the river to escape, but were rescued and taken prisoner by small boats from Jiangdong that caught up from behind.

The remaining Huang Zu scouts turned and fled. Zhou Yu did not pursue them too closely; he waited for Cheng Pu's infantry to arrive.

On September 12, Cheng Pu's infantry arrived at Qichun. Qichun was the eastern gateway to Jiangxia, defended by 3,000 troops, and the commander was Huang Zu's nephew, Huang She.

Cheng Pu besieged the city but did not rush to attack. He ordered catapults to be set up outside the city for three days, and then a breach appeared in the city wall of Qichun. Cheng Pu's troops rushed in, and Huang She led his remaining troops to escape through the west gate. Qichun was captured.

On September 15th, the land and naval forces met on the Xiakou River. Huang Zu's naval stronghold was on the opposite bank, with hundreds of warships densely packed on the river, and iron chains blocking the river across the middle.

On September 16th, the decisive battle began. Zhou Yu divided his navy into two groups: one group rammed the iron chains from the front, while the other group circled around to the rear of the naval camp. Facing them were fire ships—dozens of small boats piled high with hay and oil—drifting downstream towards the iron chains. The fire ships struck the chains, spilling oil and turning the chains red-hot, but they did not break. More and more fire ships piled up, the fire grew larger and larger, and black smoke obscured half the river's surface.

Huang Zu's archers fired arrows at the fire ships, but the fire was too intense, and the arrows were ineffective. While everyone's attention was focused on the raging fire in front, Jiang Qin led fifty fast boats to circle around from the reeds on the south bank to the rear of the water fortress.

The flanks and rear of the water fortress were poorly defended, so Huang Zu moved most of his warships to the front. Jiang Qin's fast ships rushed into the fortress and launched rockets. The rockets struck the grain sheds and boat awnings inside the fortress, bursting into flames. Chaos erupted within the water fortress.

Some tried to put out the fire, some tried to move the ships, and some jumped into the water. Just then, Zhou Yu's main force broke through the iron chains. It turned out that after the fire ships had been burning for a while, the iron chains had become brittle at the joints. Jiangdong's large ships rammed the chains with their iron rams, and the chains snapped, creating a gash in the river.

Jiangdong warships surged into the breach. Huang Gai's ship was the first to rush in. Huang Gai ordered his soldiers to use grappling hooks to grab the side of Huang Zu's flagship, and he himself jumped aboard with his sword.

The flagship engaged in close combat, and in less than a quarter of an hour, Huang Gai beheaded the flag bearer, and Huang Zu's banner fell. With the flagship lost, the other warships scattered in disarray; some moved towards the shore, some fled downstream, and some surrendered immediately.

At the same time, Cheng Pu launched his attack from the north bank. His infantry advanced from the north bank and stormed the main camp outside Jiangxia City. Zhang Shuo, a general under Huang Zu, was defending the camp but was not able to hold them off and was killed in battle by Cheng Pu. The fleeing soldiers ran into Jiangxia City, and the drawbridge at the city gate collapsed, causing many to fall into the moat and drown.

Huang Zu escaped from the water fortress, went ashore, and mingled with the fleeing soldiers as he ran towards Jiangxia City. When he reached the city gate, he was overtaken by Han Dang's cavalry. Han Dang pierced Huang Zu's back with a spear, and Huang Zu collapsed onto the dirt road in front of the city gate, his face buried in the mud, and died.

Jiangxia City fell. Sun Quan entered the city and stood in Huang Zu's governor's mansion. The mansion was very grand, with carved beams and painted rafters, and the treasury was filled with gold, silver, bronzeware and silk.

He walked around the treasury, and after coming out, he said, "Huang Zu has been plundering for so many years, and in the end, it all benefited me."

Liu Biao's reinforcements are almost here, and the army is already besieging Jiangxia. Liu Biao is deliberately slowing down the reinforcements because Jiangxia has always been in a state of autonomy under Huang Zu.

They do not obey my command. This time, the rescue of the Sun family of Jiangdong, the capture of Jiangxia, and the subsequent use of a large army to push forward and recapture Jiangxia is a great opportunity to regain control of Jiangxia.

Zhou Yu helped Sun Quan analyze the pros and cons, and after weighing the options, Sun Quan decided to withdraw from Jiangxia.

However, he gave the order: remove everything that could be moved from Jiangxia City. Zhu Huan oversaw the plundering of the city's grain, copper, iron, and artisans. Tens of thousands of bushels of grain stored in the granaries were completely taken away, and the copper and iron raw materials in the blacksmith shops were even dismantled and loaded onto carts.

The population was registered by household, able-bodied men were conscripted into the army, artisans were relocated to Wu Commandery, and the elderly, women, and children went with the fleet. The rice in the fields outside the city, which hadn't yet been harvested, was burned down. When Liu Biao's next army reached Jiangxia, they would find an empty city and scorched earth.

As the fleet returned, the holds were filled with grain, fodder, copper, and iron, and the decks were crowded with people migrating north. Sun Quan stood at the stern, watching Jiangxia City become a small black dot in the twilight. He turned to Zhou Yu and said, "Next time we come, we won't leave again."

As the fleet sailed down the river, the holds were filled with grain, fodder, copper, and iron, and the decks were crowded with people who had migrated from Jiangxia. Some elderly people sat on the deck holding their grandchildren, some blacksmiths carried their bellows, and some women carried their children in cloth swaddles.

Sun Quan stood at the stern of the flagship, watching Jiangxia City grow smaller and smaller in the twilight. Zhou Yu approached and said he had found some old shipwrights who had built the Mengchong in Jiangxia years ago. Sun Quan agreed, saying that once they arrived in Wu Commandery, they would be sent to the shipyard to train apprentices.