Tiger Owl

Chapter 34 Night Raid on the Fleet
After capturing Shu County, Sun Ce immediately divided his forces into two routes. One route ordered Zhang Hong and Cheng Pu to lead 10,000 troops north to accept the surrender of the northern counties of Lujiang Commandery and to appease the officials.

The other route was led by Sun Ce, who personally commanded 30,000 troops to march south and capture Juchao County and Wan County.

On the city wall of Wan County, Sun Ce's face was extremely ugly. He never expected that Yuan Shu's family and troops had been taken away by Gan Ning half a month ago.

Sun Ce didn't really care about Yuan Shu's family, just as Cao Cao didn't care about Yuan Shu's family either. Cao Cao cared about Yuan Shu's wife, Lady Feng, while Sun Ce cared about Qiao Rui's two daughters.

Men vie for the world for nothing more than three things: the highest power, the most land, and the most beautiful woman.

Now that Gan Ning has seized the two bridges, how could Sun Ce not be furious!
Zhou Yu understood Sun Ce's feelings at this moment, so he advised him, "Gan Ning only kidnapped Yuan Shu's family and troops. He may not know that Qiao Rui has two beautiful daughters. Qiao Rui's wife is very good at hiding them. Even Yuan Shu and Liu Xun did not discover the beauty of the two Qiaos, let alone Gan Ning?"

Sun Ce's hope was rekindled; it was very possible!

He pondered for a moment and then said, "In your opinion, Gongjin, what should we do next?"

"Our next step is, of course, to completely eliminate Liu Xun. Judging from the timeline, Liu Xun should have already eliminated Gan Ning by now, and Yuan Shu's family and the two bridges are back in his hands. So as long as we wipe out Liu Xun, our lord will surely achieve his goal."

Sun Ce nodded. "If Gongjin hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten about Liu Xun. I wonder how his attack on Chaisang is going?"

Just then, a scout reported, "My lord, a mutiny has broken out in Liu Xun's army. The generals Chen Lan and Lei Bo have surrendered to Cao Cao. The army is now under the command of Yu Jin, one of Cao Cao's generals, and has occupied Pengze County. Liu Xun's whereabouts are unknown."

"what?"

This news shocked and enraged Sun Ce. He slammed his fist on the battlement, shouting, "What is Cao Cao trying to do? What does Jiangdong have to do with him? Why does he have to interfere?"

Zhou Yu pondered for a moment and said, "This matter did not happen suddenly. I'm afraid Cao Cao has already intervened in Lujiang County. We just didn't know it. My lord, we cannot let Cao Cao establish himself in Jiangdong. We must remove this thorn in our side as soon as possible."

"Why not uproot Chaisang first!" Sun Ce was still thinking about the Second Bridge.

"My lord, the two bridges will be safe in Chaisang. If you are worried, you can send people to Chaisang to find them. But at this time, the affairs of the state must come first. Cao Cao is a hundred times more threatening to us than Gan Ning. We must drive Cao Cao's forces out of Jiangdong immediately. Please decide what is more important!"

Sun Ce sighed, "You're right, at this time we should prioritize the affairs of the state!"

Sun Ce immediately sent a trusted subordinate to Chaisang to inquire about the Second Bridge, while he personally led an army of 30,000 men on 500 large ships to Pengze County.

...........
In a private room on the second floor of a restaurant in Nanchang County, Jia Xu and Sun Ben sat facing each other.

"This is a personal letter from Sikong to General Sun!"

Jia Xu pushed a letter to Sun Ben, who opened it, read it, and nodded, saying, "Please tell Cao Cao that I will do my best to stop the Wu ruler's northern expedition!"

Jia Xu then reminded him, "General Sun would be better off personally persuading Lord Wu. Writing a letter won't be very effective. This matter requires the joint opposition of the Jiangdong gentry."

Sun Ben smiled slightly, "Don't worry! I'll be in Wu County all winter, and I'll be back soon."

"General Sun is gone, who's in charge here in Nanchang?"

"It should be my brother Sun Fu who makes the decision!"

"What about Lü Fan?"

“Lü Fan will also return to Wu County with me.”

As long as Lü Fan is not in Nanchang, there will be no problem in Pengze County.

Jia Xu readily agreed, saying, "What Lord Cao wanted to say is all in the letter, so I have nothing to add. Also, Pengze and Chaisang both bear important responsibilities entrusted to them by Lord Cao. Please ask General Sun's army not to attack for the time being." Sun Ben nodded silently, as he really didn't know how to explain this to Lord Wu.

..........
In early winter, the Yangtze River is only suitable for upstream ships to attack downstream ships, while it is very unfavorable for downstream ships to attack upstream ships. It is against the wind and current. If the ships are equipped with oarsmen, they can still sail. However, if the ships are not equipped with oarsmen, it is difficult for them to go westward. They can only be pulled along the banks by boatmen.

It was either small-scale raids where everyone fought in their warships, but large-scale naval battles were basically impossible. So after winter, the Yangtze River region was generally in a truce period, with everyone either fighting on land or going home to rest, and fighting again in the spring of the following year.

But Sun Ce was an impatient man; how could he possibly wait until next spring? In addition, Sun Ce's personality was such that he liked to do everything himself, so even if attacking Pengze County and Chaisang County was a bit difficult, he would not hesitate to send troops.

Fortunately, Wan County is not far from these two places, and it will take at most three days to reach them.

Sun Ce attacked by land and captured Wan County. The ships Liu Xun left in Wan County were all unovenable warships and cargo ships. He used the oared warships and fighting boats for himself.

The ships captured by Sun Ce could only sail by wind. Now, with the wind blowing from the west, Sun Ce had no choice but to recruit several thousand able-bodied boatmen in Wan County to pull his five hundred large ships. The fleet sailed along the Wan River into the Yangtze River and then along the north bank of the Yangtze River. Huang Gai led ten thousand soldiers to protect the boatmen on foot along the riverbank to prevent the enemy from attacking them from the land.

Once the boatmen were attacked, hundreds of large ships lost power.

However, not all warships lacked oar propulsion. Many warships had oar holes in their lower cabins, allowing them to row even without wind. It was just that Sun Ce was unlucky; the warships Liu Xun left him were all old-fashioned warships without oar holes.

During the Battle of Red Cliffs, it was possible to use warships and large warships to row into Cao Cao's camp and set it on fire without the help of an east wind. However, setting fires required the assistance of wind. Without the help of an east wind, it would be difficult to ignite Cao Cao's large ships. In fact, the north wind would backfire and burn their own ships to the ground.

Didn't Zhuge Liang also row a boat to the Northern Army's camp to borrow arrows? It's just that Zhuge Liang was lucky. If some husky Cao army soldier had a short lapse in judgment and accidentally fired a few fire arrows, then it wouldn't have been borrowing arrows with straw boats, but rather roasting Zhuge Liang alive.

Under the cover of night, Gan Ning led three hundred naval troops to appear on the river a hundred feet away from the Jiangdong fleet, watching the fleet slowly sail along the river. Sun Ce was very impatient, even wanting to march at night.

A moment later, Wang Xiaoman swam back and reported, "This subordinate has confirmed that they are all connected by ropes, not iron chains."

Gan Ning laughed. Just as he had expected, Jiangdong was not so extravagant as to use iron chains to chain up cargo ships; it was more like military ships.

Gan Ning had already seen the opponent's weakness: those ropes.
Gan Ning waved his hand, and the soldiers crawled on the sampans and rowed forward like a hundred arrows shooting out, quickly moving towards the cargo ship.

Naval warships generally fall into two categories: warships and cargo ships. Warships are positioned in front, with cargo ships following behind. Cargo ships also carry garrison troops, but not many.

Sun Ce's fleet consisted of 150 cargo ships, fully loaded with grain and other logistical supplies. The cargo ships were all large, flat-bottomed vessels with a capacity of 2,000 shi (a unit of dry measure), and the ships were tied together by ropes.

Leading the way was a large ship with a capacity of three thousand shi (a unit of volume), pulled by a dozen tow ropes and hundreds of boatmen, which propelled the convoy of one hundred and fifty cargo ships behind it forward slowly.

As the sampan approached the cargo ship, a soldier jumped into the water with a pole knife in hand.

What does a pole-cutting knife look like? It's actually the high-pole shears we use to cut tree branches. It's an essential item for river pirates. It's about seven feet long, with an exceptionally sharp blade, and is specifically used to cut cables, tow ropes, and traction ropes, of course.

The large ship was moving slowly when suddenly a long pole-like blade emerged from the water. Like pruning tree branches, it precisely clamped onto the towing rope behind the ship, and with a gentle slide cut, the rope snapped instantly.

With three main towing ropes cut in succession, the grain-laden convoy immediately lost power and came to a stop. Subsequently, the connecting ropes between the cargo ships were also cut.

These events occurred almost simultaneously; hundreds of cargo ships lost power and began to scatter, drifting downstream towards the center of the river.

The boatmen on the shore started shouting, and the soldiers on the cargo ship were also awakened. They shouted in panic and jumped into the water to swim to the shore.

At this time, Wang Ping and Ding Feng, leading three thousand naval troops, had been waiting for a long time downstream, dozens of miles away.

(End of this chapter)