What Guo Ziyi said made a lot of sense. There was a saying since ancient times, "You can be a thief for a thousand days, but you can't guard against thieves for a thousand days." Thieves could keep an eye on you every day, looking for the moment when you let your guard down, but those who were guarding against thieves couldn't keep an eye on you every day, let alone be cautious all the time. Therefore, the pressure of guarding against thieves was too great.
The problem of Horse Gang in Summer State City couldn't be solved by guarding against thieves. After all, it cost a lot of military expenditure to dispatch four or five thousand soldiers and horses in a day. If it continued for a long time, not only would the soldiers and soldiers be exhausted, but the imperial court would also be under great pressure. Moreover, there were many trade routes in Summer State City, and each of them had branches, the longest of which was hundreds of miles long.
Guarding a trade route that was hundreds of miles long would already put a lot of pressure on four or five thousand soldiers and horses, not to mention that there were many trade routes. Therefore, it didn't make much sense to set up defenses everywhere. If the troops were scattered, they would be defeated by Horse Gang, which would cause great losses to the Tang dynasty's soldiers and horses. They had indeed adopted this method of patrolling and guarding everywhere before, but the result was that they didn't have enough troops, and often a small troop of Tang dynasty's soldiers and horses would be defeated by the Horse Gang that suddenly gathered together, resulting in great losses.
Even though the imperial court transferred Lao Guo here, the situation didn't improve much. After all, dealing with the elusive Horse Gang was different from a large-scale offensive and defensive battle, and many strategies in military books were useless. At least, all the tactical formations were in vain, because Horse Gang wouldn't confront the soldiers and soldiers head-on. If they saw a large number of officers and soldiers, they would have fled long ago.
Lao Guo had also planned to let the elite soldiers and horses of Tang dynasty sneak into Qiwu Mountain at night, and then let the caravan pass through the trade route normally during the day, preparing to launch a surprise attack when the Horse Gang came out to rob and defeat them. But it was in vain after several attempts, because the Horse Gang didn't take the bait at all. Maybe they had already known about it. At least, that was what Lao Guo suspected.
As for hiding the elite soldiers and horses in the caravan, they had also tried this method, but it didn't work. Either they were seen through, or they just watched the Horse Gang run away. After all, the caravan couldn't have too many horses, otherwise it would arouse suspicion. A large number of elite soldiers hidden in the goods boxes could only fight as infantry, but infantry couldn't catch up with the Horse Gang at all, and a small number of cavalry dared not chase them at all, and could only watch them run away.
In the final analysis, these failures were due to the poor intelligence work. There were moles of the Horse Gang among the Tang dynasty's soldiers and local Tang dynasty's officials, but there were no moles of the Tang dynasty's soldiers and soldiers inside the Horse Gang. In this way, the Horse Gang knew everything about the Tang dynasty's soldiers and horses, while the Tang dynasty's soldiers and soldiers knew little about the Horse Gang. So how could they win the battle?
Lao Guo had been in the army for so many years, so how could he not understand such a simple principle? Therefore, he quickly thought of ways to infiltrate the Horse Gang, to get the real situation of the Horse Gang, and from the Horse Gang, to know who in the Tang dynasty had colluded with the Horse Gang. Only in this way could the Horse Gang's troubles be solved fundamentally.
However, the idea was good, but there were many difficulties when it came to implementation. First of all, it was very important to choose the right person. Not everyone could be an undercover. The person must have enough psychological and political quality, and the person must be someone nearby, so as to gain the trust of the Horse Gang. In addition, the secret work must be done well. Once the Horse Gang's moles found out about the undercover, the undercover would be like a sheep in a tiger's mouth.
But Guo Ziyi was a newcomer, so he didn't know who to trust, nor did he know who to consult. If the official he consulted was a mole or a blabbermouth, there would be a serious possibility of leaking the secret. But if he didn't ask the local official for help, how could Guo Ziyi select qualified moles himself? He didn't know the local people or the specific situation of the local soldiers.
In this way, Lao Guo had to take a gamble. If the gamble was right, everyone would be happy, but if the gamble was wrong, he could only blame himself for bad luck. In order to increase the success rate, Lao Guo planned to recruit several groups of moles. Each group of moles was independent of each other, and didn't know each other's existence. In this way, even if one group of moles was exposed, the other groups could continue to gather information.
Guo Ziyi selected a total of three officials, and asked them to recommend two moles each. Lao Guo then checked them personally, and asked them to keep it strictly confidential. At the same time, they all believed that they were the only moles, so as to ensure the absolute confidentiality.
After selecting the moles, it was time to think about how to send the moles into the Horse Gang. At this step, Lao Guo finally sent the moles into the Horse Gang. Among them, three moles were responsible for infiltrating the Horse Gang, and the other three moles were responsible for receiving the moles. In other words, they disguised themselves as hunters and woodcutters, and entered the Qiwu Mountain to hunt and chop firewood, and then secretly brought back the intelligence.
The three moles entered different mountains of the Qiwu Mountain. Theoretically, they should send back the intelligence after getting used to the environment for a while. But more than a month had passed, and only one of the moles sent back the intelligence, while the other two were missing. Either they were exposed, or they didn't have the chance to send back the intelligence, or they didn't find any valuable intelligence. In short, the other two moles were missing, and their partners came back empty-handed every day.
As for the last spy, although he was able to send back information every three to five days, it was all trivial matters that had no value at all.
After all, this spy had just infiltrated into the inner circle of the Horse Gang and had not yet infiltrated into the core leadership, so it was reasonable that he could not get any important information. But Lao Guo had another concern. He was worried that this spy would be found out, and the Horse Gang would deliberately leak some worthless information. In short, Lao Guo was very worried about this spy.
It was exactly because of his lack of confidence in the moles' strategy that Lao Guo went to the capital before the Spring Festival, hoping that Ang Lee could invent a more powerful weapon, so that they could have a better chance of winning against the Horse Gang. With a more powerful weapon, they could fight against more Horse Gang with the least number of soldiers.
What made Ang Lee most helpless was that Lao Guo didn't know how many people the Horse Gang had, even though he had been here for several months. This was very troublesome. Without knowing the strength of the enemy, he couldn't know himself and the enemy, nor could he work out the corresponding countermeasures. He couldn't even find a suitable excuse to ask the imperial court for more troops, let alone figure out the number of the Horse Gang. How many troops should the imperial court send?
What was worse was that the local officials didn't take their work seriously, but liked to fool around. Some of them even had backings in the capital. Lao Guo couldn't punish them even if he wanted to, in case he failed to punish them and got himself into trouble instead. That would be terrible.
The moles' operation didn't go well, the local officials weren't very cooperative, and a few of them even colluded with the Horse Gang. All these factors combined made Guo Ziyi very worried that he couldn't finish the heavy task of wiping out the Horse Gang. Of course, Lao Guo wouldn't give up. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, Lao Guo would try his best to finish his task and eliminate the Horse Gang in Mount Qiwu.
In the worst case, Lao Guo had already made up his mind that he would go to Mount Wu by himself and negotiate with the leader of the Horse Gang. With the spirit of "nothing ventured, nothing gained", he would win the battle against the bandits.
Of course, now that Ang Lee was here to help, he wouldn't let Lao Guo take the risk alone. He also didn't think that Lao Guo could go up the mountain alone to pick up the leader of the Horse Gang, because it was too risky. Any accident could put him in a hopeless situation.
Ang Lee was a newcomer, so his understanding of the Horse Gang was still based on other people's descriptions. Naturally, he didn't know much about the real situation of the Horse Gang. In this case, there was no need to formulate a strategy to wipe out the Horse Gang. The only thing he could do was to figure out the whole situation first, and then he could make arrangements.
Summer State City was neither big nor small. The population in the city had already exceeded ten thousand. This was the main city of Summer State and also the largest city. The other four counties only had a population of a few thousand people. The entire state only had a population of about six thousand. According to the calculation of five people per household, the population was only thirty thousand people. It was considered a small state, but it was not too small either.
More than 10,000 people in Xia Zhou City was not a small number. There were people from all walks of life in the city. Among them, there were many businessmen, including those from the Tang dynasty, those from the north, and those from the Western Region. With so many businessmen gathering in Xia Zhou City, it became more and more prosperous.
However, prosperity was destined to be a minority. For the majority of the poor in Xia Zhou, their lives had only improved slightly, but the businessmen had made a fortune. This serious gap between the rich and the poor was the root cause of the Horse Gang's unrest in Xia Zhou.
Since he was a newcomer and didn't know anything, he might as well walk around. Maybe he could get some clues.
There were also bustling commercial streets in Xia Zhou City. If he didn't take a look, it would be a waste of time. However, if he went there in his official uniform, it would be too ostentatious and would alarm too many people. Therefore, Ang Lee felt that it was more reliable to go out in disguise.
However, for safety, even if he went out in disguise, he still had to bring a few guards with him to avoid encountering threats to his personal safety.
The Horse Gang were active in the area around Mount Qiwu. They would occasionally appear in Wushui, Wuding River, and other areas. Basically, they wouldn't appear in Xia Zhou City. Even if there were Horse Gang spies in the city, they would only be a small number of non-combatants and wouldn't be much of a threat. Although the Horse Gang was fierce, the state capital and county were forbidden areas for them. They wouldn't dare to go to the county or state capital even if they had ten times the courage.
"Assistant Minister Li wants to go out in disguise. This is too dangerous. I'll send the best guards to follow behind. This is safer."
When Guo Ziyi heard that Ang Lee wanted to sneak out to play on the streets, he was a little worried and asked for protection.
Ang Lee shook his head and said, "There's no need. It's in the state capital. What danger can there be? I'll bring two guards."
When Guo Ziyi heard this, he didn't object. He only told Ang Lee that he would send soldiers to patrol the city. Once there was danger, he would let Ang Lee send a signal. In this way, the soldiers under his command could arrive at the scene in the shortest time possible to ensure Ang Lee's safety.
There was almost no nightlife in Xia Zhou City. Although the night ban had been lifted, the city gates were closed at night and ordinary people couldn't enter or leave freely. They only allowed the people in the city to walk around freely. For most of the people, nighttime was the time to sleep. Only a few restaurants and brothels were open at night. These places all had nightlife, but these areas were the minority. The nightlife didn't form a large scale. After all, there were only about ten thousand people here, which couldn't be compared to the millions of people in Chang 'an. Many of the goods in demand in Chang' an couldn't be seen here.
At a glance, one could tell that Ang Lee wasn't a local. If he came out at night when there were very few people, it would be easier to arouse suspicion. Therefore, in order to not attract attention, Ang Lee could only choose to come out during the day and learn about the local customs of Xia Zhou City.
On the first day of arriving in Xia Zhou City, Ang Lee needed to rest. He stayed in his residence and didn't go anywhere. He also met with a few local officials and exchanged pleasantries with them. It could be considered as a form of communication.
On the morning of the second day, Ang Lee selected two guards and let them go out in disguise. However, they needed to keep a certain distance from Ang Lee. This way, they would be a smaller target.
"Hanlu looks so valiant in men's clothes! It's no problem to be a female general. "
Ang Lee looked at Li Hanlu who had already changed her clothes and said.
"Female general, when I was in the tribe, didn't I always look like one?"
Li Hanlu said.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "That's true. How could I forget about this? My Hanlu has always been a female general. Come, stick a beard on it. That way, you'll look even more handsome."
As he said that, he stuck the fake beard that he had already prepared above Li Hanlu's lips.
Li Hanlu gently picked up the mirror and looked at herself in the mirror. She was quite satisfied with her appearance.
"If you were born a man, Madam would look like this. I wonder how many young ladies would be charmed to death by you!"
Ang Lee looked at Li Hanlu in the mirror and praised her.
Li Hanlu was naturally very happy to be praised. She gave Ang Lee a kiss and then the two of them quietly left through the back door. This way, they would be able to hide from the eyes of others and not be easily discovered.
In any case, Ang Lee felt that there must be eyes watching around the house where he lived. There were local officials and perhaps horse thieves. It wouldn't be wrong to avoid them.
After going out, the two guards who came out from the main door were already waiting for Ang Lee in front. Seeing Ang Lee walk over, one of them continued to move forward while the other stood on the ground, ready to follow behind Ang Lee. This way, they could provide all-round protection.
The most prosperous commercial road in Xia Zhou City was not far from Ang Lee's residence. It was enough to walk for a quarter of an hour.
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