Preliminary Operations [OBJ]

[Chunyu Qiong]

"Hmm, looks like two... maybe three guards on that merchant caravan. We won't need more than five riders total," Huangpo Gan said to one of his men. His raiding unit had been dispatched from Ye a scant few days ago, and already they had crossed the Huang He. They were supposed to be joining up with Yan Liang's officer Ryou Kin, a former bandit from Youzhou. Apparently the man was experienced in these kinds of dealings, because although they had been sent ahead of Gan, he could not pick up a trace of them yet.

His own unit, 500 strong, had managed to proceed undetected so far. The bulk of it being made of the ferocious Xianbei cavalry, he was sure any merchant caravans traveling from Luo Yang to Chen Liu would be run down quickly. They had spent the majority of their relatively short time here, about three days, raiding caravans. It was excellent they way they conducted it. The bandit flags from the Heishan had proved to be a great boon. They'd ride out, about ten to fifteen men at a time and waylay the caravan. Once that was done, scouts would ride in and load up the goods and ride off to the place the rest of the unit was waiting. Off in a forested group of hills south of the Huang He the archers waited, manning the camp they had built, watching over the spoils of the raids. Meanwhile, back on the road, the raiders would move the slaughtered men on horseback and cover the blood with fresh dirt and then stamp it flat with the aid of their horses. The result? After a raid that may have happened only 20 minutes ago, another caravan could pass through the same area, and the drivers, nor any guards accompanying them would be the wiser.

The caravan they were stalking was traveling toward Chen Liu, the driver and guards blissfully unaware of what lay in wait for them.

"Wait for them to pass those trees, then ride on them. Three to the front, two to the back."

The oxen whipped flies away from its buttocks, "Hey, how much longer a walk is it," one of the guards inquired. "Hmm, about three or four hours more," the driver replied. "I hope the pay is as good as you say it is, or I might just run off with your master's goods myself!"

The driver laughed at the remark, "Hah! You wouldn't know what to do with this anyways. Just keep an eye peeled for bandits." As the caravan began passing the trees Gan noted to the riders earlier, he spoke, "Go, try not to damage the cart!" The five riders shot out from their ambush position and swarmed the caravan, Gan and two coming in from the front, and the other two from the rear, the bandit banner waving from Gan's belt like a sash.

"What the he," one guard said as he was cut short, a gurgle sound escaping his mouth as Gan rode by with his sword out, slashing his throat in the ride-by. "Bandits! Bandits! Do something," the driver frantically called out as the other two guards were killed. One stood his ground and parried a blow from a Xianbei rider's Ji with his sword, only to be run through as a second one rode through from behind. The last guard, the one having made the remark ran for his life, and was run down by Xianbei, trampled to death.

Gan sheathed his sword and took up his spear from the side of his saddle. He pointed it at the driver, "Off the cart!" He complied, shaking like a leaf in a typhoon. A Xianbei's Ji sliced through his torso like hot butter as soon as he reached the ground.

Like clockwork the scouts rode in, about 10 of them and untied the oxen from the cart, in place they tied their horses. They then hauled the cart off the road and out of sight, back to Gan's camp. The oxen scattered without an provocation, Gan felt no need to go after them. The bodies were loaded up and carried off as well, Gan and one rider stayed back, and hurriedly grabbed fistfuls of dirt and tossed it over where the blood had splattered. They rode their horses up and down the stretch for a few minutes to pound the dirt in and then swept it with their feet. The blood was effectively concealed, and it only looked like regular traffic had passed through.

Gan and the last rider took off. He wondered where Ryou Kin was, he figured he couldn't be up the road, since caravans still passed pretty regularly. If he was down road, he'd surely come up road to find out what was disrupting the merchant flow. All Gan could do was continue to waylay caravans and hope Kin would find them.

[Chunyu Qiong]

Another day, another series of caravans. Huangpo Gan sat in the seat of his saddle, scratching his head. The sun was beating down on them, luckily they made camp not far from a river, so water was never in scarcity. He had wet his turban with some of the water from his wineskin. It was funny, he could call it a wineskin, but he never put water in it. Alcohol on a march was just bad form, not to mention a cloudy mind in any respect made one unfit for leadership. When people depended on your ability to think clearly in order to survive, Gan found that sticking to sobriety was the only way. Of course, he had never been much of a drinker in the first place, it was due to his association with Chunyu Qiong that he had first had a taste of what was commonly called, "fire water".

"You'd think they'd have noticed that caravans aren't showing up by now, wouldn't you? I've seen more than a few riders pass by here on their lonesome. They must be sending messages," Gan said to one of his raiders. The man replied, "Haha colonel! I would expect so too, but why complain as long as we are still able to disrupt them?" Gan smiled, he liked the way this man thought, "Remind me to put you up for a promotion when we return, hahaha!" A few of the other riders chuckled at this remark. It seemed Huangpo Gan's sense of humor had endeared him to his men, even in these conditions. Admittedly, it was not that hot out, yet the sun, undisturbed by clouds, could make a man in armor hot on just about any day.

It would indeed turn out to be a case of S.S.D.D. today, as it had several other days prior. Small caravans consisting of one or two carts and at most fifteen guards would travel along, Gan and his riders would bushwhack them and make off with the goods. Then the tracks would be covered, and repeat ad infinitum.

Except for the last part of the day, the dusky sun was beginning to tinge the sky orange-red when Gan spotted it, the mother load of all caravans. Or so it would appear to him. A caravan, fifteen carts large, with about 60 guards was moving on the road to Chen Liu. For a caravan of its size, it was moving slower than Gan had figured. They must be overburdened. Finally! A target worth our time! No doubt they are expecting this one to get through. After this we had best skedaddle.

"Hey," Gan said, tapping a rider on the shoulder, "Go assemble the full compliment of Xianbei. We're not taking chances with this one, also, inform the full compliment of scouts to be ready to take just the goods, maybe one or two carts depending on what they are carrying. Also, tell them to relay to the camp that we are going to load up our spoils and go for the rafts tonight. No doubt they'll send some kind of force out after this."

In about 30 minutes the whole force had been informed of what was to take place, the caravan had moved past their position about a good 500 yards. The dust cloud the wheels churned up could still be seen. The conditions were perfect for this raid, with the sun to the front, they'd be blinded, and with the dust cloud at the back, they wouldn't see the attack until it was too late. The 300 Xianbei had been formed up and Gan now gave the orders, "This is it, we hit them hard, and we hit them fast. No fratricide, keep the oxen tied to the carts and don't tip anything! I don't know what they are carrying, but it must be important, because this is the largest caravan I've seen through these parts since we've been here. So I don't want it getting damaged, understand! The guards and drivers, do to them what we've been doing. Now, half of you will ride out ahead of them, half to the rear."

The group split as ordered, and within ten minutes were in position, ready to envelop the convoy. Then they got down to business, the entire compliment of Xianbei, 300 riders rode down the convoy. Within seconds, the 60 guards were scattered, obliterated. With only 4 men to a cart to guard it, the convoy was within Huangpo Gan's hands quickly. The drivers were ordered to ride the convoy to Gan's camp, once Gan had taken a peek inside one of the carts and found that what was within was too much for his riders to carry. Once the carts arrived at the camp, the entire raiding force began to load up the spoils of the expedition onto rafts and prepared to move across the Huang He, back into Yuan Shao's lands. The drivers were released to tell of the bandits that had pillaged the place. Gan hoped that these reports would spread the impression that Cao Cao could not govern the lands he had effectively enough to stop some simple bandits. He even gave one of the banners to a driver, ordering him to go back to Luo Yang and tell of bandits marauding about. With that, he and his men got onto the rafts as well. He hoped to give a favorable report within the week to his general Chunyu Qiong. No doubt things will have been disrupted within Cao's lands now.

[Norion]

REWARDS:

Since I can't take any money away from Cao Cao's force's income to give you you for this one, I will give you

• 400 gold

It was a decent thread, so you get the base reward of 200 plus the extra bonus of 200