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 Huangzhu,

a close friend and top commander of Liu Biao, the imperial protector of Jing province. Sun Quan had also captured a key city

of Jiangxia, which Huang Zu was defending. Upon receiving Huang Zhu'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.

Sun Quan then rewarded his troops handsomely, promoted Gan Ning, the man who defected from Huang Zhu and

then killed him in battle, to district commander, and began discussion of whether to leave troops

behind to garrison the newly conquered city. His advisor Zhang Jiao, however, said,

A long city so far from our territory is impossible to hold.

We should return to the southlands. When Liu Biao finds out that we have killed Huangzu,

he will surely come looking for revenge. We should rest our troops while he over-extends 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 Sufei, the enemy general he had captured.

Now this Sufei 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 Zhu'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 Sufe's help, I would be a pile of bones underground and would not have been able to serve you, Gan Ning said.

...