Chapter 317 He dares not gamble! (Thanks to book friends Wu Mingchuan and Lonely Snow for the reward!)

Gu Sansi's words finally eased Ye Mingsheng's serious expression. He nodded and said in a deep voice:
"Then Mr. Gu, you should start to act."

"Yes, sir!" Gu Sansi said with a folded hand:
After he finished speaking, he looked at Huo San, who was kneeling on the ground with a face full of shame. His eyes flickered and he said:
"Sir, in order to make the plan more effective, I need Director Huo to cooperate with me..."

Seeing Gu Sansi pleading for Huo San, Ye Mingsheng glanced at Huo San and said indifferently:

"Get up!"

"Yes!" After receiving Ye Mingsheng's order, Huo San dared to stand up slowly.

Looking at the dejected Huo San, Ye Mingsheng gradually regained his sanity from his anger. At this time, Gu Sansi seemed to see that Ye Mingsheng had something to say to Huo San, so he very tactfully bowed and said:

"Sir, I will go down and prepare first!"

"Yeah!" Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly.

After Gu Sansi left, only Ye Mingsheng and Huo San were left in the lobby. Ye Mingsheng then asked in a low voice:
"What percentage of your spies are on the names on the list?"

When Ye Mingsheng first got this list from Shen Jianzhong, he didn’t know what it was. It was not until he saw the names of several spies deployed in other areas that Huo San had reported to him that Ye Mingsheng realized that this was a list of spies deployed by Huo San outside Fengzhou...

Ye Mingsheng’s only hope now is that these spies planted by Huo San will not be wiped out!

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's question, Huo San wiped the sweat from his forehead and said bitterly:

“About half.”

Although the whole army was not annihilated, Ye Mingsheng still felt a pain in his heart when he heard this answer. He spent several thousand taels of silver to let Huo San build an intelligence network, but it had not been used for long and now half of it had been cracked by Shen Jianzhong's Supervisory Office. This loss was enough to make Ye Mingsheng feel painful!

And the most important thing is not the loss of the intelligence network itself, but time!

Although Shen Jianzhong did not take action against these people, he took out this list of people. In order to ensure safety, all the people on the list need to be abandoned. If half of the people are abandoned, it means that Ye Mingsheng’s intelligence network needs to be redeployed...
And redeployment takes time, it requires re-placement, winning over, and corruption, all of which takes a long time!

Unfortunately, what Ye Mingsheng lacks most now is time!

Now that the war is approaching, the situation in Liaoyang will become extremely chaotic. At this critical juncture, Ye Mingsheng needs his own intelligence network to provide him with news and intelligence from all sides so that he can make judgments!

And at such a critical moment, his intelligence network had to abandon half of its spies and redeploy. It was self-evident how huge the loss was...

Feeling the disappointment in Ye Mingsheng's expression, Huo San felt endless fear in his heart. He knew very well what would happen to him if Ye Mingsheng gave up on him. Thinking of this, he hurriedly said in fear and trepidation:

"Sir, although these seventeen people have been discovered by the Supervision Department, the most important chess pieces are still safe. As long as they exist, our source of intelligence for the Statistics Department is guaranteed!"

"As long as these people exist, for three months, no, two months! I can get the Investigation and Statistics Bureau's intelligence network up and running again!"

Hearing what Huo San said, Ye Mingsheng also remembered the situations of the most important chess pieces that Huo San had reported to him. After pondering for a while, his expression gradually calmed down.

Although Huo San was beaten badly by Shen Jianzhong this time, it is understandable if you think about it carefully. After all, his opponent is Shen Jianzhong, the most terrifying spy agency in the Great Zhou Dynasty - the Supervisory Office!

The Supervisory Office in Liaoyang can be said to have infiltrated all walks of life and all aspects. It is even heard that in order to do some dirty work, they secretly controlled some bandits and horse gangs. It is conservatively estimated that they have several thousand people.

Although Ye Mingsheng spent thousands of taels of silver on Huo San, the funding for an operation of the Supervisory Department might be limited to this amount.

With such a huge gap in power, it was normal that Huo San's Fengzhou Military Statistics and Investigation Office was unintentionally dealt with by the Supervisory Office this time, and it was not surprising if you think about it carefully.

But this time he was beaten really badly!
It just makes Ye Mingsheng a little bit unacceptable·············
Seeing Ye Mingsheng's expression eased, Huo San secretly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he was temporarily out of danger. Then he seemed to have thought of something, hesitated for a while, and decided to report to Ye Mingsheng:

"Sir, I got a piece of news. Fan Kuan, the captain of the Supervisory Department, is a womanizer. He has a pair of sisters in his brothel. He also lost nearly 1,000 taels of silver in the Gongsun family's casino. The Gongsun family is now chasing him to collect the debt!

"Fan Kuan originally wanted to borrow money from Shen Jianzhong to pay off the debt to the Gongsun family, but Shen Jianzhong only gave him an advance of 500 taels of silver for the next two years' salary, and told Fan Kuan to figure out the rest himself."

Ye Mingsheng also became interested after hearing this. If he remembered correctly, this Fan Kuan was one of the first people to defect to Shen Jianzhong after he became the pacification envoy of the Supervisory Office.

Shen Jianzhong reciprocated Fan Kuan's allegiance by promoting him to the rank of a thousand households, so Fan Kuan could be considered Shen Jianzhong's man.

However, I heard that Shen Jianzhong didn't like Fan Kuan very much, so the relationship between the two was not very close. Shen Jianzhong didn't take him to do some profitable business. As a result, although Fan Kuan was a high-ranking officer in the Liaoyang Supervisory Office, his life was not very wealthy.

However, Fan Kuan was quite capable and had great martial arts skills, so Shen Jianzhong entrusted some important tasks to him. Therefore, Fan Kuan could barely be considered a core senior official of the Supervisory Department in Liaoyang.
Judging from Huo San's expression, does he want to drag Fan Kuan into this?
If this succeeds, it will be a powerful weapon against Shen Jianzhong. For a behemoth like the Supervisory Office, it will be difficult to overthrow them from the outside unless Ye Mingsheng gains control of the entire Liaoyang one day.

Therefore, if you want to deal with Shen Jianzhong, it might be a good choice to find a way from within the Supervisory Department. Isn’t there a saying like that?
The strongest fortress is often breached from within...
Shen Jianzhong's move this time has made Ye Mingsheng feel the power of his teacher. In view of his irreconcilable position with him in the future, Ye Mingsheng feels that he needs to place someone inside the Supervisory Department to inform him of the situation.

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng raised his head, looked at Huo San deeply, and then said:
"How confident are you that you can pull Fan Kuan into the water?"

In response to Ye Mingsheng's question, Huo San thought for a moment and replied:

"To reply to your Excellency, I am 50% sure!"

"Fifty percent..." Ye Mingsheng felt that the probability was neither high nor low. Under the temptation of planting someone inside the Supervisory Department, he might as well give it a try!
Ye Mingsheng, who had made up his mind, asked Huo San:
“How much funding do you need?”

Huo San immediately shook his head upon hearing this, bowed to Ye Mingsheng and said:
"You don't need to spend a penny on this matter!"

"Oh? What do you mean?" Ye Mingsheng asked in surprise:
"I am guilty of my incompetence and have caused the Military Statistics and Investigation Office to suffer such a heavy loss. I hope you can give me a chance to make amends!"

"I am very honored to have served you for a long time and have saved up some money. Even if I have to sell everything I have, I will bring Fan Kuan under my wing!" Huo San said firmly.

Huo San's words made Ye Mingsheng look at him with a new respect. He knew that Huo San saved money, but Ye Mingsheng also understood that it was impossible to make the cow run fast and not let it eat grass at the same time!
Therefore, Ye Mingsheng turned a blind eye to Huo San's actions. According to his estimation, Huo San should have saved more than 1,000 taels of silver now, and bribing Fan Kuan would definitely cost a lot of money. Huo San would most likely spend all of his saved money. From this point of view, Huo San was quite courageous...
"Have you thought it through? Are you really willing to give it up?" Ye Mingsheng asked Huo San with great interest:

"Please give Huo San a chance!" Huo San bowed and said firmly:
"In that case, I'll leave this matter to you. If the money is not enough, tell me!" After looking Huo San up and down, Ye Mingsheng ordered:

"Thank you for your grace, sir. I will definitely fulfill my mission!" Seeing that Ye Mingsheng agreed to this, Huo San said excitedly.

Although he loves money, he also knows that money is something outside of one's body. As long as Ye Mingsheng supports him, he will be able to earn back the money sooner or later.

And if Ye Mingsheng gave up on him, then no matter how much money he had, he would have no life to spend it all, so the top priority now was to let Ye Mingsheng feel his loyalty and ability, and not let Ye Mingsheng give up on him·············

"The matter of bribing Fan Kuan can be put off for later. What you need to do now is to cooperate with Mr. Gu to solve the current urgent problem!
"Then, conduct a thorough self-examination of your Statistics and Investigation Department to see if there is any foul play within your department. Find out how your Supervision Department knows the information of these seventeen people!" After a moment's silence, Ye Mingsheng solemnly instructed Huo San:
"Yes, I understand!" Huo San nodded seriously.

After a while, Huo San bowed and took his leave. Ye Mingsheng sat alone on a chair in the main hall with a flickering look in his eyes.

This time, the intelligence network suffered a heavy blow. In addition to being disappointed with Huo San, he did think about replacing Huo San, but after thinking carefully, he gave up the idea.

First of all, although Huo San was beaten badly by Shen Jianzhong this time, it was partly because of Huo San's ability, and partly because of the huge gap in strength between the two sides. Moreover, Shen Jianzhong attacked suddenly, so it was understandable this time.

Secondly, Ye Mingsheng couldn't think of anyone under his command who could take over Huo San's position and perform better than Huo San in the Statistics and Survey Department.
As a rational leader, what Ye Mingsheng needs is a solution to the problem rather than simply venting his anger.

Based on the above considerations, Ye Mingsheng finally decided to give Huo San a chance to reform and let him prove his value to himself again!
Of course, although Huo San is still needed now, perhaps it is time to prepare for a rainy day and look for some better candidates in advance!

···················
···················
It was a dark and windy night in the Fengzhou General’s Mansion.

A dark shadow skillfully bypassed the guards outside the study and tiptoed into Ye Mingsheng's study. After getting what he wanted a moment later, the dark shadow quickly left the study and ran towards the back door of the general's mansion.

After a cup of tea, Ye Dong came to a side room in the General's Mansion and bowed to Huo San and Gu Sansi who were drinking tea inside and reported:

"My Lords, according to your arrangement, the fish has been hooked!"

Hearing this news, Huo San looked at Gu Sansi who was sitting opposite him with an inquiring look. Gu Sansi looked a little satisfied at this time. Then he took out the general token given to him by Ye Mingsheng from his arms, handed it to Ye Dong and said with a smile:

"Captain Ye, please seal off the General's Mansion in half an hour. In one hour, take this token and go to the North City Camp to find Commander Chen Chuanwu and ask him to send troops to impose martial law throughout the city!"

"understand!"

Although he was not quite sure what Gu Sansi was up to, when he thought of the young master's instructions to him, Ye Dong took the token from Gu Sansi and left!

After Ye Dong left, Huo San, who still looked a little worried, looked at Gu Sansi who was contented and asked with some doubt:

"Mr. Gu, are you so sure that Shen Jianzhong can be fooled? Shen Jianzhong is really not a good person..."

When he said the last words, Huo San recalled the list that Shen Jianzhong took out during the day, and a look of sadness appeared on his face.

Facing Huo San's question, Gu Sansi smiled and nodded:
"Director Huo, have you heard the story of Jiang Taigong fishing? I am like Jiang Taigong now, and Shen Jianzhong is like the fish. Those who are willing will take the bait!"

Seeing Huo San still looked a little confused, Gu Sansi shook his head and continued to explain:

"Director Huo, don't worry! Even if I give Shen Jianzhong ten times the courage, he wouldn't dare to gamble!"

Facing Gu Sansi's increasingly confusing words, Huo San simply stopped guessing and asked directly:
"Mr. Gu, what are you asking Shen Jianzhong to bet on?"

Seeing that Huo San still didn't understand, Shen Jianzhong sighed and continued to explain:

"Director Huo, do you know why our general didn't go when Chen Dechang asked him to attend a meeting in Changqing Mansion?"

Upon hearing this question, Huo San immediately said:

"Mr. Gu, I know this. Our general is worried that the old thief Chen will perform a Hongmen Banquet!"

Gu Sansi showed a teachable expression, and then said meaningfully:

"That's right! That day, our general didn't dare to bet whether Chen Dechang was holding a Hongmen Banquet. Today, Shen Jianzhong also doesn't dare to bet whether it will be the demise of the Zhenwu Army!"

(End of this chapter)