Chapter 55: Spy’s Suspicious Trail
The training ground was filled with thunderous shouts. Ding Feng and Xu Sheng each led six thousand soldiers formed into two large square formations, training sweatily. Although the two large formations trained separately and seemed unrelated, they were actually competing secretly—who had the neater formation, higher morale, and louder shouts.
Gan Ning stood on the viewing platform, watching the soldiers train. Although Yuzhang Commandery now had countless matters awaiting attention, grasping the essence, army training was the most important.
Army training not only improved morale and combat effectiveness, but more importantly, it could increase soldiers’ recognition and loyalty.
If the soldiers’ loyalty was insufficient, they would flee at the start of battle, and this major war could not continue.
Gan Ning watched the army training, but his mind was on Luling Commandery matters. He and Lu Su had agreed to prioritize dealing with Tong Zhi in Luling Commandery, but how to attack Tong Zhi, Gan Ning had not decided.
Sun Ben said Tong Zhi was an unavoidable stumbling block for Yuzhang Commandery, but in Gan Ning’s eyes, Tong Zhi was more like a viper lurking in the grass behind, pouncing to bite hard when unprepared.
Gan Ning considered eliminating this viper before March, so he could wholeheartedly deal with Huang Zu and the revenge from Jiangdong’s army.
He naturally wanted a stratagem; forcibly attacking Luling Commandery was too difficult. Luling Commandery was today’s southern Jiangxi, Jian, Ganzhou, Ruijin, all the way to Meiling connecting to Guangdong.
The mountains rose and fell, with layered peaks, and large numbers of Shanyue People lived inside, having poor relations with Han People, with frequent conflicts.
Tong Zhi had recruited a group of Shanyue People who most hated Han People as subordinates, secluding himself in Luling Commandery, opposing Yuzhang Commandery.
Although taking Luling Commandery by stratagem was the best choice, what stratagem could be used?
Gan Ning suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness.
At this time, Yang Xuan hurriedly came to Gan Ning’s side and said, “Lord, there’s something for you to see!”
He handed the document bag to Gan Ning. Gan Ning took the bag and smiled, “What is this?”
“There really are Tong Zhi’s spies inside the city!”
Gan Ning’s eyes lit up immediately. He had just wanted to sleep, and Yang Xuan delivered a pillow—this discovery of suspected Tong Zhi spies came at the perfect time.
He quickly took out the information from the document bag. Inside was a registration form listing over thirty shops from Luling County, with red lines under two of them and a note beside: ‘Suspected Tong Zhi spies.’
There followed a summary of doubts from two interrogation records. Upon close inspection, they were contradictions between the shopkeeper’s and waiter’s statements. For example, one was an inn where the shopkeeper said the shop had been open for three years, but the waiter said it had been open for less than half a year.
The other was a fur shop that clearly had dismal business but kept going to Luling for goods.
At the end was an instruction: ‘Report to the general for decision tomorrow!’
Gan Ning could not help but chuckle wryly. Wang Xiaoman impersonated a Tong Zhi spy to buy armor and weapons, resulting in being reported; Sun Fu arrested people throughout the city, and unexpectedly, they really found Tong Zhi’s spies.
But before dawn, the Chaisang Army killed into the city, the interrogations were interrupted, and all arrested people were released home.
“Don’t alert the enemies for now. Later, I’ll have Xiaoman come find you!”
Yang Xuan saluted and left.
Gan Ning pondered for a moment, then stood and ordered loudly, “Order Wang Xiaoman to come to the prefectural office to see me!”
…..
Gan Ning first found Sun Fu. Sun Fu and his concubine were currently under house arrest in a two-mu small residence, guarded by a hundred soldiers, with only one old servant specially cooking for them.
“What do you want from me?”
Sun Fu’s tone was cold, looking at Gan Ning discontentedly.
Gan Ning said coldly, “If you want to go back early, you’d better speak politely.”
Sun Fu had been under house arrest for a month and was already struggling to endure. Helplessly, he could only suppress his discontent and say, “General, please speak! What is it?”
“I want to know about this person Tong Zhi. You should know him well!”
“Does the general want to attack Luling Commandery?”
Gan Ning nodded slowly. Sun Fu smiled, “Tong Zhi claims to have an army of one hundred thousand, but actually only over ten thousand, and they are a motley crew without full armor and weapons—one battle can crush them.”
“But you occupied Yuzhang Commandery for a year or more, yet never crushed him?” Gan Ning said sarcastically.
Sun Fu said indignantly, “That’s because this bastard is too cunning. As soon as our army enters Luling Commandery, they flee into the mountains. Once we settle, they harass and raid at night, leaving us unable to guard everywhere. In the end, the army could only withdraw from Luling County, and he reoccupied it.”
“Is it because Shanyue People support him?”
Sun Fu shook his head. “Tong Zhi is a Shanyue Person, but from Danyang Commandery, with no relation to the Shanyue People here in Luling Commandery. He was defeated by my elder brother in Danyang Commandery and fled to Luling County three years ago.
He received Liu Xin’s support to rapidly grow strong. Initially, his army was only three thousand because Liu Xin only supported armor and weapons for three thousand.
Later, he exploited contradictions between Shanyue People and Han People, recruiting over ten thousand Shanyue People who extremely hated Han People as soldiers, but without armor and weapons, only hoes and steel forks, so Tong Zhi particularly craved armor and weapons, seeking them by every means.
“Is there a way to deal with him?”
“Previously, Strategist Lv thought of a plan: withdraw the army from Nanchang County, using the empty city as bait. Tong Zhi would surely pounce like a wolf and devour Nanchang County clean. But my elder brother disagreed with this plan, believing Tong Zhi wouldn’t trust a full withdrawal with no reason—Tong Zhi is no fool.”
“Tong Zhi wants to devour Nanchang?”
Sun Fu nodded. “That’s his dream. He dreams of devouring Nanchang and the entire Yuzhang Commandery. That’s also the condition for Liu Xin’s support. He is very eager for Nanchang City.”
Gan Ning smiled. “Thanks!”
Gan Ning clasped his fists in salute and left. At the door, he smiled again: “I’ll assign a few more servant women to you and provide more supplies!”
Sun Fu sighed; he truly could not utter thanks.
Gan Ning returned to the prefectural office and saw Wang Xiaoman squatting outside the gate killing ants with a knife. Gan Ning could not help laughing. “What is the kid doing?”
Wang Xiaoman looked up, startled, quickly put away his small knife and stood. He scratched his head embarrassedly. “This subordinate is waiting for the lord to return!”
“Come to my official residence to talk!”
Gan Ning brought Wang Xiaoman into the official residence and sat down. “There’s something you caused that you must handle to the end.”
“What is it?” Wang Xiaoman asked nervously.
“You impersonated a Tong Zhi spy to buy weapons, leading to over a thousand people arrested. Remember?”
“This subordinate remembers of course. Weren’t those over a thousand all released? This subordinate personally released them.”
“They interrogated some, and found there might really be Tong Zhi spies among them.”
“Ah—”
Wang Xiaoman’s mouth gaped in shock, unable to speak.
Gan Ning tossed him a document bag. “Inside, two shops are suspected Tong Zhi spies. You investigate thoroughly, but I warn you—these spies are very useful to me. Do not alert them or let them discover. You can only investigate secretly from behind.”
Wang Xiaoman nodded repeatedly. “This subordinate understands!”
“If needed, you can seek help from County Magistrate Yang!”
“This subordinate noted it.”
“Report to me anytime there’s progress!” Gan Ning instructed again.
“Understood!”
Wang Xiaoman saluted and left hurriedly.
Gan Ning lightly tapped the table. If Tong Zhi really craved to devour Nanchang County, then Lv Fan’s plan was really not bad.
