Back to square one, Zhao Haiping fell into deep thought.
Had the tea bandits flown the coop as soon as the government troops entered the mountain?
Was that reasonable?
Zhao Haiping, well-versed in ancient warfare as a modern man, found the situation clearly unreasonable.
In ancient wars, information and intelligence were crucial.
Many military texts discussed the importance of information and intelligence, emphasizing "know yourself, know your enemy, and you will never be defeated," a consensus among legendary generals throughout history.
A competent general, before facing the enemy, would dispatch numerous spies and scouts to gather as much information about the opponent as possible—a basic tactic.
However, the transmission of information in ancient times was considerably limited.
After all, there were no mobile phones or telegraphs in ancient times; besides the rare instances of using homing pigeons, most communications relied on human runners.
