While Sun Quan prepares for a retaliatory strike from Liu Biao, Liu Biao and Liu Bei brace for an invasion by Cao Cao.

* Transcript

* Map of Key Locations

* Graph of Key Characters and Relationships

Transcript

PDF of transcript

Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 48.

Last time, Sun Quan and the troops of the Southlands had just defeated and killed Huang (2) Zu (3), a close friend and top commander of Liu Biao, the imperial protector of Jing (1) Province. Sun Quan had also captured the key city of Jiangxia (1,4), which Huang Zu was defending. Upon receiving Huang Zu’s head, Sun Quan ordered that it be placed in a wooden box and taken back to the Southlands to be placed as an offering at the altar of his father, who had been killed in battle against Liu Biao years earlier. He then rewarded his troops handsomely, promoted Gan Ning, the man who defected from Huang Zu and then killed him in battle, to district commander, and began discussion of whether to leave troops to garrison the newly conquered city.

His adviser Zhang Zhao (1), however, said, “A lone city so far from our territory is impossible to hold. We should return to the Southlands. When Liu Biao finds out we have killed Huang Zu, he will surely come looking for revenge. We should rest our troops while he overextends his. This will guarantee victory. We can then attack him as he falls back and take Jing Province.”

Sun Quan took this advice and abandoned his new conquest and returned home. But there was still the matter of Su (1)  Fei (1), the enemy general he had captured. This Su Fei was friends with Gan Ning and was actually the one who helped him defect to Sun Quan. So Su Fei now secretly sent word to Gan Ning asking him to save his life.

“Even if Su Fei did not mention it, I would not forget,” Gan Ning said.

When the army returned home, Sun Quan ordered that Su Fei be executed and that his head be offered up alongside Huang Zu’s as sacrifices to his father’s spirit. But Gan Ning now went to see Sun Quan, pressed his head to the ground, and wept.

“If not for Su Fei’s help, I would be a pile of bones underground and would not have been able to serve you,” Gan Ning said. “Even though Su Fei deserves to die for his offense, for the sake of his past kindness to me, I am willing to give up my position in exchange for his life.”

Sun Quan was touched by this, but he still had reservations.

“Since he had been kind to you, sir, I can spare his life for your sake,” Sun Quan said. “But what if he then flees?”

“If you spare Su Fei, he would be endlessly grateful. Why would he ever flee?” Gan Ning answered. “If he does flee, then I will lay my head at your feet.”

That was good enough for Sun Quan, and he pardoned Su Fei and only offered up Huang Zu’s head as a sacrifice.

After the ceremony, Sun Quan held a big feast to celebrate the victory. While the wine was flowing freely, one man suddenly started crying loudly, rose to his feet, pulled out his sword, and made straight for Gan Ning. Gan Ning quickly used his chair to keep his attacker at bay. Sun Quan looked and saw that the attacker was the officer Ling (2) Tong (3), whose father had been killed by Gan Ning during Sun Quan’s previous unsuccessful campaign against Huang Zu. While Sun Quan was magnanimous enough to let bygones be bygones when Gan Ning defected to him, you can imagine that Ling (2) Tong (3) would feel JUST a bit differently, and he was after revenge.