Chapter 1131 Whistleblower
Gan Qiang planned to set up an ambush in the nearby mountains, and then use himself as bait to lure the Han and Horse troops into the mountains for an ambush battle. It sounds like a good idea to make the most of your strengths and avoid your weaknesses. It sounds like a good idea, and it seems to have a slight chance of winning, but its implementation is not as easy as talking about it.
Judging from Gan Qiang's previous experience in fighting the Haihan Army, the Haihan Cavalry has extremely high mobility and has some mysterious long-range weapons at their side. If they cannot shorten the combat distance with their opponents, it will be difficult for them to gain the upper hand even in terms of strength. Attacking the Haihan Army in front of it will cause substantial damage to it, and the opponent will most likely quickly withdraw from the battlefield after realizing the disadvantage in strength. Therefore, the battle location that Gan Qiang chooses must be based on limiting the opponent's mobility as a prerequisite. It is best to be in an environment where the opponent can shut down his retreat after entering the ambush site.
There are indeed many locations with such conditions in the Cishan Mountains, but actual operations still need to consider the difficulty of gathering manpower to the location for pre-war deployment. Even if Gan Qiang does not have the time or ability to formulate a detailed battle plan, he cannot deal with such a key issue casually. This is gambling with his own wealth and life. If he is not careful, he will even be killed. Pay it in.
In addition, Gan Qiang must first set up a plan with Gan Sheng, including when to bring the Haihan people into the mountains, how to contact them if something unexpected happens, and how Gan Sheng will escape when the war starts. At least there must be a plan. One of the main reasons why Gan Sheng was unwilling to agree to Gan Qiang's plan was that he believed that Gan Qiang would not be able to perfect the plan to the point where it could be implemented in a short period of time. The result of reluctant implementation would most likely be self-dragging, especially for someone like him. Once his role as cannon fodder is revealed, he will be the first to be unlucky.
If he really wanted to have a relatively high degree of confidence in accomplishing something, it would take at least two or three days to prepare. However, Gan Qiang was afraid that the Haihan people would be too far away to catch up, so he would miss this opportunity to take action, so he forced Gan Qiang to do it. Sheng set off as soon as possible, even threatening to demolish the inn, and asked him to ride a fast horse to chase the Haihan horse team, which had been out of town for a long time.
"Bring them back and stay in this inn first, and make up your own excuse. In short, just delay them for a day or two. After I go back to the mountain and decide on the location, I will send someone to deliver a letter to you as soon as possible. Then you can take them in Mountain." Gan Qiang was pacing back and forth while gradually refining his plan in his mind, and continued to tell Gan Sheng with excitement: "Be careful and don't expose your roots. After this deal is done, the military advisor and I will Tell me, I will also give you a leader, and I will leave the affairs around Guxian Town to you.”
Gan Sheng complained in his heart that his brother did not regard him as a relative at all, forcing him to risk his life to deceive the Haihan people, and the so-called reward was just a leader position. Gan Sheng knew very well that this kind of position was just a false name, without any real power, and it was hard to say whether he had the life to get it.
Gan Sheng tried to calm down his emotions and said to Gan Qiang: "What if my brother unfortunately misses and gets captured?"
"Why are you so afraid of this and that before you start doing it?" Gan Qiang scolded mercilessly: "If the Haihan people find out, don't say anything about the relationship between you and me, otherwise you will die faster!"< br>
When Gan Sheng heard that he didn't mention trying to rescue him at all, he was even more heartbroken. He shook his head and said, "Forget it, then I'll do what you want, and let everyone else take care of their destiny!"
On the coastline six or seven miles north from Guxian Town, there are several villages with relatively concentrated populations such as Baibao Village, Shiwuying Village, and Huangzhuang. According to the information given by the refugees who had previously taken refuge in Haihan, these villages are very close to each other, with chickens and dogs hearing each other and connected by roads. It is said that there are at least hundreds of households in this area. Sun Zhen planned to stop in this area to promote Haihan's immigration policy, and also post notices of wanted criminals to see if he could get relevant information from the local people.
Before the cavalry team left Guxian Town, they also found two conspicuous places on the street and posted wanted notices. However, the cavalry team had limited manpower, and this was not an area controlled by Haihan, so it was impossible to leave people in the town to wait for news, so they left after posting the notice. If someone really wanted to provide relevant information to Haihan, they would have to either catch up with this cavalry team to report, or go to the Haihan camp near Fushan County to report. Essentially speaking, this method of posting wanted notices is more of a deterrent. Due to the traffic and information dissemination conditions of this era, its effect on arresting wanted targets will be very limited. Sun Zhen et al. People don't expect to rely on these wanted warrants to really let people tie up the prisoners and hand them over to them.
However, all kinds of unexpected things always happen in life. Before the cavalry team left the town for two miles, a man and a horse chased them along the official road from the direction of Guxian Town. When the rider approached, Sun Zhen was slightly surprised, because he had just seen this man in the restaurant not long ago. He still remembered that this man's surname was Gan and that he ran an inn in the town, but he didn't know where he was going at this time.
However, when this man saw Sun Zhen and his party, he decisively slowed down and shouted from a distance: "Masters Haihan, please stay here. I have something important to tell you!"
"Boss Gan is chasing after him so urgently. It seems that it is indeed a very important matter." Sun Zhen reined in the reins and asked the team to pause and wait for Gan Sheng to explain what he wanted to tell him.
Gan Sheng chased so hard that both man and horse were panting from exhaustion. It took him a while to regain his composure and said to Sun Zhen, "I do have something important to tell you. But before that, I hope that Uncle Sun will forgive me." There are some inaccuracies in what I said previously.”
Sun Zhen's eyes lit up and he said: "What you said is not entirely true. Could it be that it is related to the wanted order."
Gan Sheng nodded and replied: "That's right."
Sun Zhen thought that the forgiveness Gan Sheng asked for was related to the silver reward, so he immediately responded: "As long as what you said is true and the clues you provide can help us catch the person, the silver reward will definitely be effective!"
Gan Sheng glanced left and right, lowered his voice and said, "Can I take a step to speak?"
Sun Zhen guessed that he was so cautious because he was afraid that the people on his side would be unreliable, so he did not explain much at the moment and ordered the team to rest in an open space next to the official road. After Sun Zhen and Gan Sheng dismounted, they called Wang Jinmin together to listen to Gan Sheng's "revelation".
Gan Sheng said straight to the point: "Gan Qiang, who has the same surname as me on this wanted order, actually appeared in Guxian Town a few days ago. By chance, I also happen to know his whereabouts. It's just that the restaurant where I met you earlier was still there. There are a lot of people waiting, and I am worried that the news will be leaked, so I pretend that I don’t know, and I can only wait until everyone leaves Guxian Town before chasing each other out.”
"Boss Gan is really interested!" Sun Zhen nodded and said, "Then please tell me, Boss Gan, where is Gan Qiang now?"
"This thief is hiding in Cishan in the south of Guxian Town, but the specific location needs to be reported." Gan Sheng explained: "This thief came to the door a few days ago, and used the security of the inn to force me to come forward to buy food and herbs, and then tried to deliver them Go into the mountains. Now that the things have been sent into the mountains, the specific hiding place will be known after the people I sent to escort them come back in a day or two!”
Wang Jinmin asked suspiciously: "You guys have the same surname as Gan, are you related to each other?"
Gan Sheng had already thought about this, shook his head and said, "Actually, we are not related. It's just that in order to force me to help, this thief forced me to make a twisted connection, saying that I have cousins with me." "My seniority is there. But this statement is really ridiculous. If I were really related to this thief, I would not open an inn in Guxian Town." Sun Zhen and Wang Jinmin exchanged glances, and they both felt that Gan Sheng. This statement sounds like there is no loophole. However, Cishan, south of Guxian Town, is a completely unfamiliar environment for them. It is still relatively risky for the cavalry team to enter such an area to perform combat missions. In their planned march route, there was no section that went into the mountains. They were almost all marching on the coastal plains. The reason was to avoid risks as much as possible and ensure that the team's mobility in the wild would not be affected by the geographical environment.
There is only one squad in this team that belongs to the special operations battalion that specializes in mountain operations. The rest are all members of the cavalry battalion. In terms of staffing, they are not suitable for carrying out mountain combat missions. Therefore, although Sun Zhen and Wang Jinmin He believed that what Gan Sheng said had a relatively high degree of credibility, but he did not immediately declare that he would take corresponding arrest actions.
After Gan Sheng finished speaking, he saw that both of them were expressionless and didn't speak. He felt a little panicked at the moment, fearing that the other party would find a flaw in his words and become suspicious. His rhetoric was also made up hastily. He was not sure where there might be problems. If he could not gain the trust of the Haihan people, then the follow-up plan would be completely impossible to carry out.
Gan Sheng was afraid that the two of them would continue to slowly ponder over the taste of the food, so he quickly changed the subject and said, "If I help Mr. Haihan capture this thief, the news will definitely leak out, and the thief will definitely be retaliated. I'm afraid it will happen in the future." I can no longer open an inn in Guxian Town. I wonder if there is any compensation for this besides a reward of silver? ”
Sun Zhen said: "What compensation does Boss Gan want? Money or something else?"
Gan Sheng gritted his teeth and said, "I heard that Haihan is recruiting immigrants to settle in the south. Is this true?"
"Of course it's true." Sun Zhen understood what the other party meant after hearing this: "If Boss Gan feels that because of this incident, he will not be able to stay in Dengzhou in the future, he can go to the south to settle down and start his life again. Itinerary We can make arrangements for you and your destination, including your future livelihood, without the boss having to worry about it.”
Wang Jinmin also said: "If you are afraid of something happening, we can escort your family to Zhifu Island now. There will be no danger there."
Gan Sheng shook his head and said: "I have no family and am alone. I can leave at any time. I'm just a little worried about whether I can adapt to the local living conditions after going to the south."
"Don't worry about it!" Sun Zhen patted his chest and said, "I am from Dengzhou. When the war broke out in Dengzhou, I fled to the south and joined the Haihan Kingdom. I was alone when I went there. Now I am back in good health. ?”
"It turns out that Uncle Sun is also from Dengzhou. No wonder his accent sounds like a local!" Gan Sheng heard this and knew Sun Zhen's origin. If Sun Zhen's accent hadn't changed subtly after he went to Haihan, he would have been able to hear it long ago.
Gan Sheng took the initiative to try to leave the local area through immigration, which undoubtedly made Sun Zhen trust him even more. However, this does not help solve the current problem, and it cannot reduce the risk of cavalry entering mountainous areas to perform combat missions. Sun Zhen thought for a moment and said to Wang Jinmin: "Otherwise, let's stay near Guxian Town and wait for news about Boss Gan. In the meantime, we will send someone back to Zhifu Island to apply for support."
Upon hearing this, Gan Sheng quickly interjected: "I think this is inappropriate. The thief may still have eyes and ears in the town to keep a close eye on him. If your army is dispatched in large numbers, I'm afraid they will be alerted before they even enter the mountain!"
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Gan Sheng knew very well that Gan Qiang's plan was full of loopholes, and the biggest reliance was on obtaining advantages in strength and environment through pre-planning. If either of these two was not satisfied, the entire plan would have no chance of success. If the Haihan people sent more reinforcements into the mountains to encircle and suppress them, Gan Qiang would probably lose a handful of rice instead of stealing the chicken. Fortunately, he reacted quickly enough and immediately came up with a reasonable reason to persuade the other party to give up this plan.
Sun Zhen seemed to make sense when he heard it, but it was impossible not to report the matter to the headquarters. This was not only a matter of operational risk, but more importantly, it was inconsistent with Haihan military regulations. As a commander, he could not arrange the original arrangements as he pleased. Unplanned combat operations.
"So what's Boss Gan's plan?" Seeing that Sun Zhen didn't express his position, Wang Jinmin continued to ask Gan Sheng.
Gan Shengqiang said with a smile: "I don't know how to march and fight, so I can't have any plans. I can only tell the two uncles what I know. Everything depends on them!"
"It doesn't matter if you talk about it. This is all our own and will not be spread out." Sun Zhen also encouraged.
Seeing the other party's insistence, Gan Sheng could only bite the bullet and said: "In my opinion, the people you two brought can stay in your inn first. After a day or two, when news comes back, they will immediately set off into the mountains to fight there. The thief was caught off guard! I know a thing or two about the terrain of Cishan, and I can guide you both.”
After hearing these words, Sun Zhen suddenly became slightly suspicious. He did not express his position at the moment. He only said that he would discuss it with Wang Jinmin first. Gan Sheng walked a few feet away knowingly, leaving room for the two of them to talk.
After seeing him walk away, Sun Zhen asked: "What do you think?"
Wang Jinmin shook his head and said: "There is something wrong with this man."
"It's what I thought." Sun Zhen said solemnly: "He said that our reinforcements would alert others, but he suggested that we live in the town. The whole town knows our origins. Isn't this more obvious?"
(End of chapter)