Chapter 3 Chapter 2 Loyalty and Sacrifice

Guo Huai rubbed his fingers slowly, staring at Tianshui prefect Ma Zun with stern eyes.The latter kept wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, as if it had been roasted by the beast copper stove burning fine charcoal in the meeting hall. After a long time, he raised his head and stammered: "Bo... Boji made a mistake? How could there be spies from the Shu Army in Shangbi City?" "Oh, but my people already have solid evidence to prove that there is an intelligence network of the Shu Army secretly operating in Shangying City." Guo Huai said unhurriedly, but his voice was calm and powerful.He is the real ruler of Shangyu City, and people like Ma Zun have always been ignored.

Ma Zun continued to wipe his sweat and tried to save his face: "If such an intelligence network really exists, my people should be aware that they..." "The problem is that they didn't realize it." Guo Huai interrupted him unceremoniously, "Your Excellency's parts are all recruited locally. Their bravery is worthy of respect, but they obviously lack training in espionage affairs. Of course, this It's a digression... Yiding!" Guo Huai suddenly raised his voice, the door opened in response, and a young military general in neat armor pushed the door and walked in.He walked to the center of the chamber, straightened his body, raised the crimson crown on his head high, and tied the straps on both sides of the leather breastplate meticulously.

"This is my nephew. His name is Guo Gang, and his name is Yiding. He is twenty-four years old this year and serves as the general of Yamen in our army." Guo Huai stretched out his right hand to introduce. Yang raised his eyes from beginning to end without looking at Ma Zun, his expression was arrogant and indifferent. "It's really a young talent, a young talent." Ma Zun said flatteringly. "He still has another identity, that is, Jianjun Sima, who is responsible for investigating the espionage activities of the Shu Kingdom in the Tianshui area." Guo Huai said that Ma Zun was surprised. Tell him as the prefect that he feels he has been fooled.

"Why...why have I never heard of this?" "Oh, Jianjun Sima is a non-public position. He is directly responsible to the Zhongshu Province in Yecheng and is not subject to local jurisdiction." Guo Huai deliberately and slowly clicked the word "Zhongshu Sheng", which seemed to be very effective Ma Zun's face turned from pale to ashen. Zhongshu Sheng is the center of the court, and this cowardly bureaucrat would never dare to have any opinions on the court. "Well, Yiding, tell me." Seeing Ma Zun's silence, Guo Huai raised his chin at Guo Gang.

"yes!" Guo Gang's voice was the same as his name, blunt and solid, like the icy edge of the Yellow River in winter: "On January 12, our army intercepted a group of private soldiers coming from Hanzhong on the mountain road between Shangyu and Lucheng. The salt dealers concealed twenty counterfeit military and political tokens among their goods, as well as two seals of Tianshui County Governor, of course, they are also fake." Guo Huai gave Ma Zun a sympathetic look, and the latter curled up behind the desk with an embarrassed expression. "According to the private salt dealer's confession, they received a large sum of money from the Shu army before they left. Cheng smuggled salt dealers went to Jicheng and managed to meet up with the target on January 20. We captured this person and found out that this local man was employed by an official in Shangbei. After his Identification, we finally identified the official on January 28."

Ma Zun began to wring his fingers uneasily. First, it was the forged seal of the prefect's mansion, and then it was a traitorous official. He began to wonder if today was his day of death. Guo Gang's tone of voice lacks cadence, but it has a clanging feeling similar to the impact of iron objects. "From January 29th, we immediately arranged to monitor the official. From the day he was monitored, this person contacted our soldiers, junior officers, and gentry military households five times in Shangyu City. After interrogating the contactee afterwards, we found that this person's questioning skills were very ingenious, and his purpose was well concealed. What he was interested in was the number of our troops stationed in Wudu and Yinping, as well as Tianshui The distribution of the main food storage locations in the area. It is worth mentioning that during the surveillance period, he also went out once, and we suspect that he exchanged information with other lurkers. There is no doubt that this is a Shu country who was placed in Shangbei night owl."

Seeing Ma Zun's puzzled eyes, Guo Huai explained that "Night Owl" is the idiomatic term used by Wei's intelligence department to refer to an enemy spy.After listening to the report, Ma Zun swallowed a mouthful of saliva and asked anxiously: "Then who is this person, is he an official of the prefect's mansion?" Guo Gang nodded. Ma Zun suddenly became very excited. He thumped the table and said loudly: "Such shameless things happened, who is it? Tell me, I will go and have him arrested immediately!" Obviously, he Trying to cover up his embarrassment with anger.

"No need." Guo Huai said coldly, "Our military already has a plan. According to Yiding's judgment, he will meet another night owl from Shangyu in the near future, and we will catch them all at that time. Prefect Ma, you just need to mobilize the county government to cooperate with us on the outside when the time comes." Humiliation, annoyance, embarrassment and panic all mixed together, making Ma Zun's facial muscles twitch.No matter how I say it, I am the highest official in the Tianshui area in name, but now I am kicked away on my own territory, which is a great insult.But what can he do?The opponent is the governor of Yongzhou who holds military power, and there is also an interim army Sima directly under Zhongshu Province.

Ma Zun finally chose to endure. He gritted his teeth and tried to make himself smile: "Okay, I will give orders." "Please be careful, Prefect Ma, no one other than you is allowed to know about this matter. People in the prefect's mansion are not very reliable." Guo Huai's reminder was undoubtedly another resounding slap in the face. Before Ma Zun could react, he stood up, picked up the small pointed shovel beside him, and stirred the red coals in the copper furnace to make the fire more intense. Exuberant.This was an obvious order to see off guests, so Ma Zun had no choice but to get up and leave, and left bitterly.

After Ma Zun disappeared, Guo Gang said to Guo Huai, "Uncle, how could the court tolerate such an incompetent person taking such an important position?" "Yiding, the emperor decides the affairs of the court. We only need to do our part well." Guo Huai walked up to him and looked directly at his nephew. Those with political leanings. With political leanings, there will be prejudice and blind spots, both of which are the basis for the survival of enemy spies." "Yes, nephew knows." "Very well. You go down and plan the details of the operation."

"Nephew has already arranged the candidates. This time, the core number of people involved in the operation will not exceed six. The peripheral support personnel will not be informed of the specific purpose until the moment before the operation." Guo Huai nodded, indicating that he could leave.Guo Gang clasped his fists in an impeccable posture, then turned and walked out of the meeting hall. Now Guo Huai was the only one left in the conference hall. He returned to the case and tore off the yellow cloth hanging on the back wall. A fairly detailed map of Longxi occupied most of the wall.He paced from left to right of the map, and from right to left, taking out a stick of charcoal from the bottom of the stove from time to time to draw a few strokes on the map.Obviously, what he was thinking about now was far more important than hunting down the night owl in Shu. Wei Taihe three years, February 10th. Chen Gong felt that it was necessary for him to go out.He had been trying to find out who the name was in the matter, but to no avail; there were many possibilities, to be precise, but none of them rose to the level of reliability.February 15th was the day when he routinely reported information to Nanzheng. If the work of "returning" the information could not be completed before then, it would be completely meaningless. He decided to look for "Baidi", another spy hidden in Shangbei City, he might have some valuable intelligence channels.Chen Gong and "Bai Di" did not know each other at first, and the working principle of Shu Wencao was: the spies working on the front line were isolated from each other, worked vertically in a single line, and never had horizontal contact.In this way, the espionage efficiency will become lower, but it can ensure that when a spy is captured, it will not cause damage to other intelligence lines.Si Wencao was just like the Prime Minister Zhuge whom they were loyal to, cautious to the point of being somewhat conservative. After the failure of the first Northern Expedition and the collapse of the intelligence network of the Shu Kingdom, Chen Gong and the "Bai Di" discovered each other's identities because of an accidental review-Chen Gong always found this ironic.Both of them were lucky enough to survive the purge of the Wei State, and they knew each other's existence ever since.The two of them rarely meet each other, but maintain a unique way of contact. On the night of February 10th, Chen Gong came to the infantry academy in Shangyu City. He erected three small stones at the lower right corner of the wooden gate, and then added another one on top of the three stones. The ink was applied beforehand.After finishing all this, Chen Gong disappeared into the night again. The next afternoon, he went to the prefect's mansion for an excuse to do business, and passed by the school yard again, and saw that the unremarkable shape had changed: the stone at the top was turned over, and the side painted with ink was facing up.It seems that "White Emperor" has replied. At noon on February 12th, Chen Gong left the house and went to the agreed meeting place.He hoped to get some information from "White Emperor" that he didn't know, which might help to understand the identity of that person. After walking two streets, Chen Gong saw two soldiers talking against the wall of the street with their spears each.Chen Gong recognized them as Ma Zun's subordinates, feeling a little strange in his heart.He noticed that there were also a few soldiers sitting in a nearby wine shop, but they were not drinking.After another street, Chen Gong turned to the left and saw soldiers guarding the gate of the lane on the right side of the street.There are always guards here, but today there are twice as many guards as usual.One of the soldiers saw Chen Gong and greeted him friendly. "Master Chen, where are you going?" "Hey, it's not about the inventory. The boss is pressing all day to come up with a clear account book." Chen Gong began to complain, complaining to the boss is the best way to enhance the relationship with colleagues.Sure enough, the soldier nodded sympathetically, and sighed: "Yes, we were supposed to take turns off today, but now we are suddenly transferred here and cannot leave. We are ready to die at any time." "At any time?" Chen Gong drew a big question mark in his heart, "Why?" "We were ordered to wait here, but we didn't say what we were going to do." Chen Gong talked casually with the soldiers again, and then left with an excuse.For some reason, he began to feel uneasy, but he continued to walk towards the scheduled junction... In front of him were two women smashing their clothes in front of the ditch; a coolie walked with two big bags on his shoulders; The child ran to the middle of the street to tease a dead dragonfly, but was scolded loudly by the passing coachman.Leaning against the sunny wall were a few lazy sergeants, their crude leather armor spread out on their knees, with the inner lining facing up, and one of them was concentrating on picking lice.Everything seems normal. "This official, come and drink some offal soup to warm up your body." The owner of the small shop by the street poked his head out and yelled, and a strong smell of mutton came out from the crack of the door.Chen Gong didn't stop, he looked up at the sun, quickened his pace a little, turned and walked to the right. "Are you sure it's this person?" Guo Gang was standing behind an earthen wall, and one of his subordinates just poked his head out and then retracted it.After hearing the question from his boss, he nodded, "That's right, it must be him." At this moment, the person in charge of monitoring on the roof across the street suddenly waved a green flag to the west three times. "Target begins to move west." Upon receiving this news, Guo Gang subconsciously pursed his lips, and said to several subordinates who had changed into civilian attire: "You two, take a step ahead and go around in front of him from another street intersection; you two just follow behind him, so you can't be spotted by him." The four subordinates let out a sigh and left the earthen wall.Guo Gang, on the other hand, turned around and climbed up a 20-foot-tall tower, leaning forward with his hands on the edge of the tower and looking down, his eyes as sharp as a falcon.The subject now turned a corner and headed in the direction of the bazaar.Two of his subordinates followed him at a distance, and the other two walked alongside him from the side. "Tweet quickly, Ye Xiao." Guo Gang murmured, clenching his fists involuntarily.When Guo Huai recommended him to serve as interim army commander, many people opposed him on the grounds that he was too young; he was eager to prove to everyone that his uncle's arrangement was correct. A group of patrolling soldiers suddenly walked in front of the target person, their broad armor and flying dust blocked Guo Gang's sight.Guo Gang's eyes widened, and he cursed bitterly in his heart: "Damn it, go away!" After the team drove past, Guo Gang found that the target was gone.He was taken aback, the target must have entered a blind spot that couldn't be reached by sight.At this time, Guo Gang, who was far away on the tower, was out of reach, so he could only pin his hopes on his subordinates. He ordered the messengers behind him to replace the flag on the tower with the Pixiuya flag with green edges and red background. This semaphore means that the tower cannot see the target and requires the tracker to report the direction immediately.At the same time, the orderly beat a drum to remind the follower to pay attention. The three subordinates quickly sent back their secret signals: the target person disappeared from sight.Guo Gang clenched his fist even tighter, where is the target?If he disappeared on purpose, does it mean that he has found the tracker?A series of questions mixed with annoyance surged into Guo Gang's heart, and a thin layer of sweat appeared on his forehead. Fortunately, this situation did not last long. Guo Gang soon noticed that the fourth subordinate was waving his right hand three times towards the tower, and then pointed to the nearby Niuji Winery.This shows that the target has entered the wine shop and has not yet come out. "It must be there to connect!" Guo Gang immediately made a judgment. He ordered the apricot-yellow flag representing "continue to pursue" to be hoisted, and then quickly ran down the tower.Twenty soldiers dispatched from the prefect Ma Zun were waiting downstairs. Guo Gang made a gesture for them to follow, then flew on his horse and headed towards the only restaurant in Shangyu City... Guo Gang got off his horse and ordered the restaurant to be surrounded immediately, and no one was allowed to leave.On the periphery, more soldiers sealed off the city within a radius of two miles from the wine shop.Three subordinates in charge of tracking rushed to the scene and reported that the fourth person had followed the target and entered the second floor of the restaurant. "Should we wait until he comes into contact with another owl before going upstairs to catch him?" one of the subordinates suggested. "No need!" Guo Gang replied: "Now we control the two miles around the restaurant, and neither of them can escape!" After speaking, Guo Gang waved his hand and led ten strong infantry into the wine shop.The two infantry occupied the back door first, and the others rushed to the stairs with Guo Gang.A clerk happened to come down with an empty tray. Guo Gang kicked the unlucky ghost away and was about to go upstairs when he looked up and saw the target standing halfway up the stairs.Guo Gang immediately drew out his knife and shouted, "Hurry up and grab him!" The "White Emperor" standing upstairs smiled contemptuously. He opened his mouth and shouted loudly: "Rejuvenate the Han Dynasty!" After shouting this sentence, he suddenly fell down straight.The stairs were very narrow, Guo Gang immediately embraced the fallen "Bai Di", and the two of them rolled down two or three flights of stairs before being caught by the soldiers behind.Guo Gang got rid of "White Emperor" and stood up in embarrassment. Only then did he feel a stabbing pain in his chest. When he looked down, a small delicate dagger pierced his chest. blocked, only the tip of the knife pierced the skin slightly. Guo Gang hastily opened the chest of "White Emperor" who was lying on the ground, and sure enough, another dagger was stabbed on "White Emperor"'s left chest.A soldier next to him squatted down to check his breath, checked his pulse again, and shook his head. "hateful……" Guo Gang threw the dagger to the ground angrily, filled with infinite annoyance. Chen Gong walked towards his home expressionlessly, the noise from the Niu Kee Restaurant behind him had gradually faded away, but the cold sweat oozing from his spine was extremely cold when the wind blew. As soon as he went up to the second floor, he saw "Bai Di" sitting by the window.Chen Gong wanted to walk over, but "Bai Di" cast him a stern glance, then turned his eyes away, as if he never knew him.Chen Gong immediately realized that something was wrong. He turned his head and saw two right-leaning slashes on the wooden handrail of the stairs.This code means: "The matter has been leaked, flee quickly", which is the highest level of emergency warning. So Chen Gong turned around and went downstairs, leaving Niuji Restaurant without looking back.Just when he walked about two miles away, a large group of soldiers suddenly appeared on the street, blocking the exits of every street behind him.Soon he learned that the "White Emperor" had been exposed and committed suicide after failing to assassinate Guo Gang. The death of "Bai Di" made Chen Gong feel very sorry. He didn't even know the name of this martyred colleague. Now Chen Gong felt more and more lonely. The death of Baidi also caused more serious consequences: Cao Wei implemented a strict household registration control system since the first Northern Expedition in order to prevent espionage.Both civilian households and gentry military households must be registered with the local county government and checked frequently.This made it extremely difficult for Shu to place new spies in, because a stranger who was not registered on the local household registration would be discovered soon.Therefore, only the spies who had lurked before the Northern Expedition, such as Chen Gong and "Bai Di", could really play a role, and such people died one by one, so they could not be replenished.The death of Baidi cast a shadow over Shu Han's intelligence activities against Wei. And Guo Gang was equally frustrated.The identity of the spy he dug out has been clarified. His name is Gu Zheng, and his character means that he is a deputy captain in the prefect's mansion, and his rank is quite high.Gu Zheng's accidental death made it impossible to trace the intelligence network behind him, and it was also difficult to assess how much harm he had caused to the Wei State; what's more regrettable is that the other Ye Xiao also disappeared completely. It was not easy to find him.Afterwards, Wei Jun repeatedly checked the Niuji Restaurant and nearby passers-by, but there was no result. This operation was an unforgettable failure for both parties. February 12th, that is, late at night on the day of the operation.After the curfew, all the places in Shangyu City except the sentry tower had fallen into silence, only the candles were still flickering in the large tents in the barracks outside the city, and the shadows of two people could be vaguely seen. "You send too many people to follow the target, which gives the target more opportunities to find out that they are being stalked." "yes." "You're overreacting after the target is out of sight. It's a little trick that stalkers often play, disappearing all of a sudden, and then use it to look around and see if anyone panicked, so you can tell if you're Really being stalked." "yes." "Also, your judgment is too arbitrary. If the target's meeting place is not at the Niuji Restaurant, then your early action will expose the entire plan-in fact, it is exactly the same." "yes." "The most important point is that you should not act rashly before the target contacts the contact person. You forget what the target of this operation is." "yes." Every time Guo Huai said something, he raised a finger; he didn't scold Guo Gang, but calmly counted the young man's mistakes one by one.Guo Huai knew that for Guo Gang, who attached great importance to his reputation, this would be more effective than whipping him with a whip. Guo Gang held his crown in his left hand, and stood beside Guo Huai with his head bowed. He answered every sentence of his uncle's words with a very clear "yes", and at the same time bit his lower lip fiercely.A stream of blood has gradually flowed out from the corner of his mouth. "Yizheng, you have to know that the task we shoulder is very important. The Kingdom of Shu covets our territory all the time. Any mistake by us may cause serious consequences and make the enemy's plan succeed." Guo Huai said, while wearing Put on a felt coat, walk slowly to the tent opening, tighten the curtains on both sides, tie the ropes together again, and pull them hard, and the two curtains are immediately stretched together, preventing the cold wind from blowing in at all. . "Although there is no military movement in the Kingdom of Shu, this war has actually started in the dark." Guo Huai said this, and looked at Guo Gang, who was still hanging his head, "That's why I The reason why I asked General Cao Zhen to send you to Tianshui. Now it is a war under the water, and you are the protagonist of this war." "Understood, uncle! I'm going to re-interrogate the suspects related to Gu Zheng, and I will definitely dig out the other night owl!" Guo Huai stretched out his right hand to stop Guo Gang who was about to leave: "You can leave this matter to your subordinates. Now we have another more important matter, which is the top priority at present. The military needs time." Army Sima's full assistance." After speaking, he took out a thin piece of modesty from his arms and handed it to Guo Gang.After the latter read it, his eyebrows were raised, but he didn't make any comments. He simply handed the tissue paper to Guo Huai, and then replied: "Uncle, you will have it."