Tiger Owl

Chapter 54 Hidden Dangers That Are Hard to Solve
Sun Yi then realized he was in a small, dark room. Terrified, he turned and knocked on the door, shouting, "Open the door! Open the door quickly!"

The side door behind him was tightly closed, and no matter how much Sun Yi knocked, there was no response from outside.

"You sons of bitches, when I get out of here I'll tear you to pieces!"

Sun Yi began to get agitated. He took a few steps back, took a deep breath, and slammed his shoulder against the door. Unexpectedly, his legs suddenly went weak, and Sun Yi stumbled and crashed into the door, then slid down to the ground.

His head began to spin, and his strength rapidly disappeared. Sun Yi was horrified and realized that he had been hit.

He immediately held his breath, clenched his fists, and desperately pounded on the door, but the force of his pounding grew weaker and weaker until he finally collapsed and fainted.

He was knocked out by the incense.

Sun Yi was captured, and all his personal guards were killed without exception. That very night, Xu Kun handed the army over to Sun Quan, and all of Sun Yi's dreams vanished in an instant.

Madam Wu was completely unaware of what had happened that night. She thought her third son, Sun Yi, was still in Kuaiji County, but she didn't know that her son had been right beside her the night before, only fifty paces away.

As for the seal of the Marquis of Wu, it is not important. Sun Quan has to wait for the imperial court to confer the title before he can become the true new Marquis of Wu. Even if he obtains the seal of the Marquis of Wu at that time, it will not be of much significance.

In reality, no one cares whether he has the seal of the Marquis of Wu, just as no employee cares whether the general manager has a board authorization certificate.

The next day, Sun Quan ordered Sun Yi to be appointed as the governor of Wu Commandery. Of course, this was just for show for his mother. In reality, Sun Yi was temporarily placed under house arrest and would only be released after Sun Quan had completely taken control of the power.

Zhang Hong fell ill in a fit of anger. He had no idea that his son had been bribed by Zhang Zhao. A few days later, Zhang Hong resigned and went to Xuchang to take up an official post in the imperial court. Cao Cao had invited him many times.

Sun Yi was only seventeen years old, simple-minded, and relatively easy to deal with, but the other Sun Ben was not so easy to deal with.

Upon hearing that Sun Yi had been appointed Prefect of Wu Commandery, Sun Ben immediately led his troops back to Danyang Commandery. He then wrote a letter to Sun Quan, first explaining his reasons for sending troops in a casual manner. His reason was that he was worried about Sun Yi's youthful impulsiveness, so he prepared to come to Wu County to mediate. Now that the brothers had made peace, he was relieved.

At the end of the letter, Sun Ben formally proposed his terms for reconciliation, demanding that Sun Quan appoint Li Shu, the former governor of Lujiang, as the governor of Jiujiang Commandery. If Sun Quan appointed Li Shu as governor, he would allow his second son, Sun An, to study in Wu County.

Inside the official residence, Sun Ce handed Sun Ben's letter to Zhang Zhao, saying, "Strategist, take a look at the final terms of reconciliation proposed by Sun Ben."

Zhang Zhao frowned. "This Li Shu used to be Liu Biao's subordinate. When Lord Wu discovered that Li Shu was colluding with Liu Biao, he dismissed him. I heard that he is now Sun Ben's advisor and has been appointed as the governor of Jiujiang. Jiangdong is in great danger!"

Sun Quan walked a few steps with his hands behind his back and said, "I need to secure my position as Marquis of Wu. I need to keep Sun Ben in check first. Why don't we agree to let Li Shu temporarily serve as the Prefect of Jiujiang Commandery, and then find an excuse to dismiss him a year later?"

Zhang Zhao understood Sun Quan's feelings. After all, Sun Ben was the number two figure in the Jiangdong army and had many subordinates, including veterans like Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and Han Dang. Sun Quan was wary of him deep down.

Therefore, Sun Quan was eager to reach a compromise with Sun Ben. Since Sun Ben was willing to send his son to study in Wu County, Sun Quan was naturally more than happy to accept it.

However, Li Shu is too dangerous, and Sun Ben must have had ulterior motives in appointing him to Jiujiang Commandery.

After pondering for a long time, Zhang Zhao finally nodded and said, "I can agree to Sun Ben's request, but we must send someone to keep an eye on Li Shu to prevent him from causing trouble."

The following day, Sun Quan issued an order appointing Li Shu, the former governor of Lujiang Commandery, as the governor of Jiujiang Commandery.

Soon after, Sun Ben's second son, Sun An, came from Moling County to study in Wu County.

With this, Sun Quan finally resolved the internal power struggle within the Sun family, but at the same time, he left behind a huge hidden danger: Li Shu.

.........

On the banks of the Yangtze River in Moling County, Sun Ben saw off his advisor Li Shu to take up his post in Jiujiang Prefecture.

In the pavilion by the river, Sun Ben dismissed everyone before slowly speaking to Li Shu: "Sir, you are about to head north. I will now give you the inside scoop. Zhou Yu has led 20,000 troops to retreat to Jingkou, but there are still 10,000 elite soldiers under Taishi Ci in Shouchun. His generals Xia Jie and Liu Zhan are my men. You can contact them."

"Once you raise an army, sir, the bandit Xu Qian in the south of Jiujiang Commandery will rise up in response, and the bandit Zhang Duo in Guangling Commandery will also rise up in response. Both of them are actually my men, and the two of them probably have ten thousand troops. As long as you take Guangling Commandery for me, I guarantee to appoint you as my military advisor, and I will never go back on my word." Clearly, Sun Ben could not seize power in Jiangdong, so he prepared to develop in Jiangbei, occupy the three commanderies north of the river, and declare himself the Marquis of Huai.

Sun Quan refused to appoint him concurrently as the governor of Jiujiang Commandery, so Sun Ben had to settle for second best and let Li Shu serve as the governor of Jiujiang Commandery, while he directed operations from behind.

Li Shu stroked his beard and pondered for a moment before saying, "What if Taishi Ci refuses to leave Jiujiang Prefecture?"

Sun Ben said calmly, "Sir, first establish a foothold in Jiujiang County. Anyway, Sun Ce's mourning tent will be set up for 81 days. Two months later, I will suggest to Sun Quan that all the generals in various places return to Wu County to mourn their deceased lord. Given the friendship between Taishi Ci and Sun Ce, he will definitely return to Wu County to mourn. That will be your opportunity."

Li Shu readily agreed, "I promise I will not disappoint the general!"

After Li Shu boarded the ship and left, Sun Ben's eldest son, Sun An, asked with some concern, "Lord Wu once said that this Li Shu was colluding with Liu Biao. Does Father really believe him?"

Sun Ben sneered, "I'm afraid he won't rebel. As long as he rebels, his men will all be my men. It won't be difficult for me to destroy him! Let him work hard to rebel, only to end up benefiting me."

Sun An sighed inwardly. His father always thought things were too good to be true. Back then, his father joined forces with the eight great families of Wu Commandery to switch masters, thinking that he could replace Sun Ce as the ruler of Jiangdong. In the end, however, he only benefited Sun Quan.

Now they want to use Li Shu, but Li Shu is a very cunning man, and my father may not be able to control him!
Although he was worried, Sun An dared not say much and could only suppress his doubts.

Before we knew it, it was early February, and Gan Ning had already captured Yuzhang County for a month.

Gan Ning toured various parts of Yuzhang Prefecture and then returned to Nanchang County. He now deeply realized that Tongzhi of Luling Prefecture was the biggest enemy he had to deal with first.

Originally, Lujiang Commandery was part of Yuzhang Commandery and had a very close relationship with it. Many officials came from Luling Commandery.

Gan Ning finally understood why Sun Ben had dealt with Luling County first before Chaisang; it was because Tongzhi of Luling County posed a much greater threat to Nanchang than he had at the time.

Gan Ning immediately devised a plan to capture Luling County...
Among Gan Ning's many subordinates, Yang Xuan was second only to Lu Su as a strategist. He had previously served as a staff officer and military advisor. After the capture of Yuzhang County, Gan Ning appointed him as the Prefect of Yuzhang County and concurrently the Magistrate of Nanchang County.

The Prefectural Commander was in charge of military affairs. However, since the army was controlled by Gan Ning, the Prefectural Commander of Yuzhang Prefecture was actually a nominal position. Yang Xuan's real position was Magistrate of Nanchang County.

Yang Xuan was once Yuan Shu's chief strategist, but among the many strategists of the Three Kingdoms period, Yang Xuan could only be considered above average. Historically, after Yuan Shu's death, Yang Xuan served as an official in Jiangdong, and there are basically no records of him after that.

During this period, Yang Xuan was also extremely busy, with all sorts of miscellaneous matters piling up, including more than a hundred cases that had not yet been tried or judged.

That morning, Li Zheng, the county clerk, hurriedly arrived at Yang Xuan's office with a file bag in his hand.

"Commander Yang, I have discovered something important!"

Yang Xuan was sitting among a pile of files, flipping through them. He sighed and said, "There are too many important things. One more won't hurt. Go ahead and speak!"

Li Zheng walked in and said, "Previously, Sun Fu suspected that there were Tong Zhi spies in the city, so he searched the whole city and arrested more than a thousand people. Does Sima know about this?"

Yang Xuan nodded. "I know about this. And then what?"

"More than a thousand people were interrogated for a day and a night. After General Gan took Nanchang County, everyone was released. Just now, while I was sorting through several boxes of interrogation records, I found a special dossier bag. The contents of the bag may be of interest to you, Sima."

Li Zheng handed the file bag to Yang Xuan, who took out the interrogation records from the file bag. After reading only a few lines, Yang Xuan's eyes widened.

"is this real?"

"I don't know either, I just felt I should tell Sima."

Yang Xuan jumped up and strode outside like a gust of wind, shouting, "I'm going to find my lord!"

(End of this chapter)