The firelight from the bonfire reflected on the faces of Wang Hui and several escorts nearby. Their rough faces, which were exposed to wind and sun from years of escorting, looked like bronze sculptures in the flickering firelight, full of a repressive atmosphere.
The management structure of the escort agency is very simple and efficient. To use a fashionable management term from Yan Liqiang's previous life, it is flat. The head of the escort agency is the chief escort chief, under the chief escort chief is the escort chief, under the escort chief is the escort master, and under the escort master is the porter who escorts the goods. The chief escort chief rarely goes out, and most of the escorts are undertaken by the escort chiefs below. The escort chief is like the project manager of each escort trip, and these escort masters are the subordinates of the project manager, and the porters are the employees working below. When the escort is on a mission, the escort chief can personally manage each porter, and these escort masters also have division of labor and cooperation among each other. They are responsible for the management of many trivial matters below, and are also the most important combatants. Porters can become escort masters when they have reached a certain level of qualifications, and can become escort chiefs when the escort masters have enough merit and ability. Once they become escort chiefs, they have the right to dividends in the escort agency, which is considered to be entering the upper echelons.
Now that leader Feng is not here, there are only three surviving escorts, including Wang Hui. The other two are Huang Sheng and a bearded escort named Gong Dequan. The escort named Gong only returned to the yard this afternoon.
The escort named Gong was a little uncomfortable at first with the change in Yan Liqiang's status in the escort agency. However, after he learned about what happened and encountered to Yan Liqiang and Wang Hui in the city, especially after learning about Yan Liqiang's previous predictions and arrangements, the escort named Gong also tacitly accepted Yan Liqiang's current status among the remaining people. At a time like this, it is a good thing to have an extra smart person to help with ideas.
After Yan Liqiang finished speaking, the escorts were silent for a long time. No one spoke. Finally, Wang Hui couldn't help it. He said gloomily, "Since no one is talking, let me tell you my opinion. I think we have to get away with this escort. Now we have only forty or so people. There is no way we can deliver the goods that require hundreds of people to escort to the hands of the Fengyun Army in the north. Even if we send people to the escort agency for help, it will take at least three or four months to go back and forth. During this period, it is hard for the people who stay here to watch the escort to tell what will happen. Today we went to Jinling City to take a look. I feel that what brother Liqiang said before is right. This Jinling City is now unmanaged. Thieves are rampant. Now the weather is slowly getting hotter. In the next few days, Jinling City will either have a major epidemic or a major chaos..."
"And it's not just Jinling City. Everyone saw the natural disaster last night. Such a natural disaster has never happened before. So many people died in Jinling City all of a sudden. The entire city is almost gone. I don't know what happened to other places. I think the Han Empire is going to be in chaos..." Huang Sheng had a gloomy face and used a wooden stick to stir the firewood in the campfire. "Even if we can go back and ask the escort agency for help, and the escort agency sends more people over, the people we stay here can still guard this escort, but these escorts may not be able to be delivered to the north. Not to mention anything else, once those passes, bridges and roads are cut off, these escorts will rot on the road..."
"When I came back today, I passed by Jinlan Bridge, and it has collapsed. If we want to deliver the convoy, we can only change the route. Even if we change the route, we don't know if the roads ahead are passable..." Gong Dequan sighed and said with some sadness, "This is God's will to destroy our convoy. Even if the chief escort comes, there is nothing he can do. The chief escort has no way to send this convoy from the sky, so this escort will definitely not be delivered to the Fengyun Army..."
"Not only can we not deliver it to the Fengyun Army, but we also have no way to bring this escort back. We are carrying so many things on the road, and we only have so few people. And the escort leader Feng is not here. If any of those local bullies on the road have evil intentions, they can easily kill us all. We will all die, no one will survive..." Huang Sheng added.
The escorts were silent for a few seconds, and then their eyes were focused on Yan Liqiang's face. Huang Sheng and Gong Dequan glanced at Wang Hui and signaled with their eyes. Then Wang Hui spoke again, "Brother Liqiang, the three of us are rough people, and our brains are not as good as yours. Tell me, what should we do now?"
Yan Liqiang had known for a long time that this escort mission was going to fail. In this era when people pulled and horses carried loads, once they encountered such natural disasters and major changes, the escort team would lose so many people at once. It would be simply impossible to complete such long-distance logistics.
However, he cannot say this, as if he says it, it will give rise to criticism and may cause big trouble in the future. It can only be said by the three escorts. After the three escorts have reached a consensus, he can say what to do.
"You three are all veterans in the escort agency. Since you all think that this escort mission is going to fail, even if I have great abilities, I can't deliver this escort to the Fengyun Army or the Sword God Sect!" Yan Liqiang glanced at the three escorts and immediately made up his mind, "First of all, I think we should consider three things?"
"Brother Li Qiang, can you tell me what the three things are?" Gong Dequan asked curiously.
"The first thing is that since this escort is destined to fail in our hands, we should consider what methods we can use to minimize the losses. You should know that this escort is made of rosewood steel weapons that our Tianqiaotang has spent a lot of effort to create. There are a total of 20,000 pieces, which can equip almost eight battalions of troops. Even if we can't deliver these things to the Fengyun Army, we must not let them fall into the hands of the bad guys, otherwise it will cause chaos!"
"Yes, that's right. Just like those thieves we encountered in Jinling City today, it would be a sin if these things fell into their hands. Fortunately, brother Li Qiang, you reacted quickly and handled it properly. Now people outside think that what we are transporting is porcelain instead of weapons. Now in Jinling City, no one is interested in porcelain, no matter how good it is!" Wang Hui nodded, Huang Sheng and Gong Dequan looked at each other and nodded.
"Brother Li Qiang, what do you think is the second thing we should consider?" Huang Sheng asked.
"The second thing is, of course, that we must find a way to survive, and also ensure that the surviving brothers return safely to the Sword God Sect!"
The three escorts nodded at the same time without thinking. They had survived a disaster last night and now they didn't want to die even more. Especially the escorts, they all had families and no one wanted to die outside for no reason.
"What about the third one?" Gong Dequan asked again.
"For the third matter, we should think from the perspective of the Sword God Sect's Sect Master and elders. The big change last night will probably be reported to the Sword God Sect's mountain gate in a few days. When this news reaches the Sword God Sect's mountain gate, I think the Sect Master and elders in the Sword God Sect will be most concerned about not how our escort mission went, but what the current situation in the Imperial Capital is like!"
Yan Liqiang's words shocked the three escorts. Yan Liqiang looked at the three people with burning eyes. "After all, even if we lose this escort, for the leader and elders of the Sword God Sect, the loss is only 20,000 weapons. The current situation in the Imperial Capital may affect the future of the entire Han Empire. You may have felt the situation last night. The biggest movement came from the direction of the Imperial Capital. No one knows what the situation in the Imperial Capital is now. From the position of the leader and the elders, their concern for the situation in the Imperial Capital is absolutely extraordinary. If something happens in the Imperial Capital now, then we may be the group of people in the Sword God Sect who are closest to the Imperial Capital at this moment. At this time, if we can think about what the leader thinks and what the elders are anxious about, and find out the real situation in the Imperial Capital and report it back to the Sword God Sect as soon as possible, so that the leader and the elders can accurately understand and grasp the situation in the Imperial Capital at the first time, this may be a great achievement..."
Wang Hui, Huang Sheng and Gong Dequan were completely stunned. They had never thought that at this time, when everyone was so worried that they didn't know what to do, Yan Liqiang could actually find an opportunity to make a contribution. But after thinking about it carefully, the three of them couldn't find any reason to refute...
"Brother Li Qiang, just tell us what to do!" Wang Hui spoke directly and clearly...
(End of this chapter)