Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 290: Easygoing Gan Ning
In Liaodong, late at night in Dajin, Gan Ning secretly came to Liangmao's mansion again.
"Oh? So Gongsun Du wants to agree to the Andongjin deal, and the 'bottom price' is all the goods I brought this time?" Gan Ning raised his eyebrows slightly.
"That's what he said, but... Gongsun didn't really trust me. I'm afraid he had other ideas. Gongsun Kang looked a little ferocious at the time," Liang Mao said uncertainly.
Indeed, Gongsun Kang had agreed with his father on the surface before, but... he was thinking in his heart that he would "play double act" with his brother-in-law later!
His "brother-in-law" naturally refers to the current king of Baekje, the leader of the Buyeo nobles who moved south.
When the construction of Andongjin was almost completed, he asked his brother-in-law to copy it, take away the valuables, and then lead his troops to provide assistance.
We cannot force the General's Office to give up Andongjin in one go, but we must reap it a few more times to let them know that Liaodong belongs to the Gongsun family!
As for the navy of the General's Office, would its stopover at Andongjin threaten the security of Liaodong?
Gongsun Du and Gongsun Kang had never thought about this. After all, they were just a group of naval forces, and... isolated in the wild. Apart from Andongjin, the nearest supply point was in the distant Zhouhu.
There is no strategic location to defend, no way to retreat, and if you lose you can only flee thousands of miles away by boat. What's so scary about this kind of "garrison"?
"Fierce look? Oh, well... let's see tomorrow who is more ferocious!" Gan Ning narrowed his eyes slightly, with a fierce light in them.
Liang Mao listened to Gan Ning's tone and wanted to persuade him with some uneasiness, but because he was not familiar with him, he didn't know how to start.
"Don't worry, Governor Liang. You are the governor appointed by the court. Although the court cannot take care of you, Lord Bai will not forget you. If Governor Liang is interested, you can follow me back to Jinling to meet my master." Gan Ning comforted him with a quick change of expression.
"No, Gongsun Du will not let me go easily. If I leave quietly, my family in Xiangping will probably be killed by him!" Liang Mao said immediately.
As for Gan Ning's words that disparaged the imperial court and implicitly placed Bai Tu above the imperial court, Liang Mao pretended not to hear them.
Liang Mao obviously does not have the temperament of a hero, nor does he have the ruthlessness of Jia Xu. This is the most normal reaction.
If everyone is like Jia Xu, then there is no need for protons to exist...
It is precisely because Liang Mao is just an ordinary person who cares about his family that Gongsun Du feels at ease with him. Liang Mao is even working in Dajin normally, so Gan Ning is able to meet him in advance!
"Then we must keep Liang Taishou in reserve until he is of use. Once the General's Office has established a firm foothold in Liaodong, we will find an opportunity to ask Gongsun Du directly for Liang Taishou's family."
Historically, Liang Mao was "requested" by Cao Cao to serve in the court after Gongsun Kang beheaded the Yuan brothers who had defected to him and defected to Cao Cao, and Gongsun Kang did not force him to stay.
Gan Ning's words were nice, but... the evil and crazy smile that always appeared on his lips was always unpleasant to the eye, and even reduced his credibility!
However, Liang Mao now had no choice but to believe it, and he carefully repeated to Gan Ning the reactions of Gongsun Du and Gongsun Kang after Gan Ning left.
…
A night passed.
Yesterday was nominally a welcoming party, but today is the time to get down to business.
However, even when talking about serious matters, Gan Ning still exposed his chest. After all, he always dressed like this in the central hall of the general's mansion.
With a step that ignored all his relatives, he came to the central hall of Dajin government office again, and met Gongsun father and son, as well as important officials of Liaodong such as Yang Yi and Liu Yi.
Gongsun Du avoided the topic of Andongjin at first and talked about the transaction directly. However... after talking for only three or five sentences, Gan Ning said directly: "The goods have been brought here this time. General Gongsun will name the price. As for the future... Hey! Who knows how much food, weapons and horses will be priced in Liaodong in the future? No matter how much we discuss now, won't we have to discuss the price next time?"
Gongsun Du's eyes flashed when he heard this, and then he asked tentatively: "I wonder how many horses the General's Mansion is going to exchange for?"
"It's the first time we do business, so everyone is generous and I won't bargain... Five thousand for a good horse and five thousand for a bad horse!" Gan Ning said with a wave of his hand.
Gongsun Du: ...
Be generous? Don't bargain?
Nonsense! You are the one who is asking for the price, what is your price?
"Isn't this price too high? Besides... horses are not easy to transport. I'm afraid most of them will be killed or injured at sea. I think it's better to trade war horses directly. The war horse training technology in our Liaodong is definitely much higher than that in Yangzhou." Gongsun Du said calmly.
Good horses and bad horses refer to real "horses", and Gongsun Du would like to trade trained "war horses" in the future. This is not for the small profit of extracting the horse power of civilian horses, but because he does not want to disclose the horse breeds, so as to prevent Bai Tu from starting to raise horses himself!
Although in Gongsun Du's impression, even if he had never been to Yangzhou, he knew that Yangzhou was not conducive to horse breeding - it was either a densely agricultural area, or a mountainous area or an area with complex water veins... but he still instinctively had to take precautions.
What's more, it also involves the issue of the "technology tree" of the City Princess. The City Princess of Youzhou is much better at training war horses than the City Princess of Yangzhou. Even the City Princess of Yangzhou who has been upgraded by Lu Bu and others is still weak in this aspect because there are too few opportunities to train war horses.
If there are more horse breeds, I'm afraid Bai Tu can also improve the training technology .
"It doesn't matter. If General Gongsun is afraid that I will suffer a loss, why not give me more space and leave some casualties? Hahaha." Gan Ning said as if the problem was easily solved.
Gongsun Du: ...
Why don't you just die? Which ear of yours could tell that I was "worrying that you'd suffer a loss"?
“Haha, Commander Gan is joking… Let’s not talk about whether the war horse is a good one, but the matter of Andongjin…” Gongsun Du’s heart was beating fast with anger, and he turned the topic back to the key point.
"Oh, Dajin! General, have you thought about it?" After Gan Ning said this, he showed an expression that said "something seems to be wrong", which was very realistic.
Gongsun Du: ...
"Huh? General Gongsun just mentioned Andongjin? Was it Andongjin I mentioned yesterday?" Gan Ning asked first.
"That's right." Gongsun Du's expression was already twitching a little.
"Hahaha, it seems that the wine from Liaodong is strong. What I wanted to talk about is actually Dajin." Gan Ning shook his head and laughed.
But Gongsun Du obviously didn't find it funny...
Dajin is equivalent to Lushunkou in later generations, Andongjin is equivalent to Donggang in later generations, and Xiangping, the base camp of Liaodong, is Liaoyang in later generations.
The three are like a triangle. In terms of straight-line distance, Andongjin is actually closer to Xiangping. If you take the high-speed rail, the travel time is about the same...
However, in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, this "distance" could not be calculated in this way. Andongjin and Xiangping were separated by the remnant of Changbai Mountain. Although it was a remnant, it was far from being continuous and steep, with the highest altitude being only a few hundred meters. Moreover, if you were willing to walk through the valleys, it was not impossible to avoid it. Using modern methods to blast mountains and open roads, it was not a difficult area to repair.
But...if marching in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the only way is to go around it, that is, go around the remnants of Changbai Mountain to the Dajin area and then head north.
This is also the reason why Gan Ning wanted to land at Dajin at the beginning and did not wait for Gongsun .
If the navy docked at Andongjin, Gongsun Du would have nothing to worry about, but at Dajin...
Although it's not that I'm worried, I'm much more sensitive than Andongjin!
"Does Commander Gan want to ask for too much?" Gongsun Du asked coldly.
"No, I just think it's more convenient to trade directly in Dajin. 'Convenient for others and convenient for myself' has always been my motto. I'm... very easy-going!" Gan Ning's mouth showed an evil and crazy smile again.
Gongsun Du was annoyed, but he dispelled his doubts. It seemed that Liang Mao and Gan Ning did not have any private contact...
