Chapter 1051: The Midway Stop

Renshe looked at Chen Jun-nan with a hint of bewilderment, and after a long pause, he tentatively said:

“The entire mountaintop's people acting as messengers together...? Is this your answer...?”

Chen Jun-nan: “Could it be?”

“I'm not sure,” Renshe said. “Because that sounds more like you're asking a question than giving an answer. If you're set on responding that way... you could elaborate.”

Chen Jun-nan had originally planned to explain a bit, but upon second thought, since Renshe didn't know the actual answer to this question, the best approach was to bluff as much as possible and make the other person believe what he was saying.

So, instead of elaborating, he needed to spin a tale.

“I think it's like this...” Chen Jun-nan said. “In your question, theoretically, a messenger can risk their life to reach the second mountaintop, which means the chances of death and survival are about even, at least fifty-fifty. So, if the entire mountaintop's people scatter instantly, with each one acting as a messenger and taking all sorts of different routes to the other mountaintops, you could preserve half the forces one hundred percent.”

“No... hold on a second.” Renshe was a bit stunned by Chen Jun-nan. “Is that how you calculate it? This scenario of yours is way too idealistic, isn't it?”

“What?” Chen Jun-nan blinked. “My scenario is idealistic? Oh, so the two mountaintops can't see beacon fires or make phone calls, and they're surrounded by a group of people—that's not idealistic?”

“Uh...”

“What about your ninety-nine people thinking everything's fine, but one person complains the food is too salty—that's not idealistic?”

“Okay... okay, go on,” Renshe said.

“Exactly, it's all based on an ideal situation,” Chen Jun-nan nodded. “So, I figure, if you compare each mountaintop's forces to '1', a single '1' couldn't break out alone, but now one mountaintop has '1.5', so a unilateral breakout might work—it's like unsheathing a sharp blade.”

Renshe hadn't known Chen Jun-nan for long, but he always felt something was off—this guy's way of thinking was so unconventional that listening to him talk made you feel vaguely convinced, even if it was all fuzzy.

“But that doesn't seem right,” Renshe said. “The problem is how to make the two mountaintops launch a breakout at the exact same time, but yours turns into just one mountaintop breaking out alone.”

“That's seeking a way out in a dead end,” Chen Jun-nan said. “I don't know what you're thinking, but if we keep dragging this out, both mountaintops will end up surrounded and wiped out. Better to make a bold move than sit and wait for death—that's my philosophy, and it's what I've always done. Who knows, if the entire mountaintop scatters, the enemy might be totally baffled and not know how to intercept, and in the end, everyone could make it to the second mountaintop. After all, where there's a will, there's a way.”

“But the meaning of breaking out separately is...”

“Don't forget,” Chen Jun-nan interrupted, “the general of Mountaintop A has a certain chance of disguising himself as a messenger and reaching Mountaintop B. Once the two generals meet, they can communicate directly, skipping all the middle steps. Then, they could even count down three, two, one, and lead their people to break out separately from the front and back mountains, with perfect timing and no deception involved.”

Renshe thought that if Chen Jun-nan had really been born in ancient times, he might have been a brilliant military strategist. But unfortunately, this was all just theoretical talk, and his answer was unlikely to be the standard one.

It was like how, as a child, your imaginative answers might be correct from certain angles but still get marked wrong by the reference answers.

That said, if they could really make the entire mountaintop's people scatter on the spot to act as messengers, why not just order them to scatter and escape right away?

“I still need to think about it,” Renshe said. “I feel like your tactic only works if one of the generals is you—swap in anyone else, and it wouldn't hold up.”

“Tch.” Chen Jun-nan shrugged it off. “Believe it or not, even if you come up with eight hundred tactics, mine would still have the highest success rate.”

Renshe turned to Jin Yuanxun, who hadn't said a word for a while: “What do you think?”

“I...” Jin Yuanxun lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then said, “I feel... the problem isn't with the messengers at all.”

“Oh?”

“The issue is that the two great generals don't trust each other, so even if the messengers deliver the orders countless times, it's useless.”

Renshe nodded thoughtfully after hearing this: “That makes sense. So, how do you think they should make each other trust one another?”

After listening, Jin Yuanxun pointed to the left side of the table with one finger and said: “This is General A.”

“Mm-hmm.” Chen Jun-nan and Renshe both nodded.

Jin Yuanxun pointed to the right side of the table: “This is General B.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Jin Yuanxun clenched one hand into a fist and placed it in the center of the table, right between the two generals: “Ah, they're too far apart, so they'll never be able to trust each other. That's why we need a 'Tianguokou' in the middle.”

Chen Jun-nan was stunned: “Are you plugging an ad or something?”

“No, no.” Jin Yuanxun shook his head. “Ah, bro, this is exactly what 'Tianguokou' has been doing all along. Acting as a communicator between the two distrustful forces of 'Shengxiao' and the 'participants', passing messages to both sides.”

Seeing Chen Jun-nan and Renshe look bewildered, Jin Yuanxun explained: “It means privately liaising with both sides.”

“Alright, alright...” Chen Jun-nan waved his hand. “You're really making that little word come alive—you must be wearing out your Xiao Chu at home.”

Jin Yuanxun had no idea what Chen Jun-nan meant and just shook his head: “That's just what has to be done as the intermediary.”

Renshe didn't dwell on Jin Yuanxun's wording and simply asked in thought: “So, in this scenario, how should we establish a 'Tianguokou'?”

“It feels like we could find people the two generals trust, have them go to the center and put on enemy uniforms, and set up a temporary midway point,” Jin Yuanxun said. “All messages go to the midway point first, then get sent out from there. That way, both sides trust the midway point, oh, and the people only have to run half the distance that way.”

Jin Yuanxun's English was a bit halting and grammatically off, but Chen Jun-nan and Renshe instantly understood what he meant.

“Hiss...”

After making the sound, the two exchanged glances.

“I won't 'hiss' anymore,” Chen Jun-nan said with an awkward smile. “You're the snake, so you 'hiss' away.”

Renshe felt that Jin Yuanxun's idea made sense this time—the so-called “midway point in enemy uniforms” would only be known to their own people, so it was safe from all angles.

But it was still just theory. It sounded logical, but what about in practice?

Fortunately, in this case, there was a real example to verify it.