#101: Would that really work?

[ajk]

Kind of one-up-one-down for #101. When Li Kaigu told Chulin that he had planted agents in the palace out of concern about Shin Hong, I cheered out loud. As irritating and paranoid as the guy can be, every once in a while he does something that you just have to respect him for. What a shrewd move! Clear-headed and insightful. Now maybe Shin is finally going to get busted.

On the other hand...This business about Goem and Dan marching right into Tang forts and having commanders believe their phony messages and send out troops: Does anybody think that would really work? I didn’t, and it bugged me because it just seemed like another one of those writers-being-sloppy things. It’s actually a very good idea for the plot, but phonying up orders like that would seem to me to be a very difficult thing to do and I wish they had made more of a storyline about how to do it convincingly.

Anybody out there know how Tang military units communicated with each other? Somebody knows this stuff, I’m sure.

[ginnycat5]

"I have planted secret agents around the palace. If you get in trouble, just contact them."

Hmmm. Secret.... Contact them how, exactly? Except for that, it was a great idea!

Did the Tang and Korguryo people speak the same language? I wonder how hard it was to pass as a messenger of Tang forces. It seems like it was a really risky thing to do. Have to have a cool head in case anyone asked about a brother with the Tang general or something else unexpected that a real messenger would know.

[ajk]

I had the same reaction, ginnycat. Not so much about the language (only because that ship sailed a long, long time ago!). But I agree, I was waiting for the lord to ask Goem how so-and-so in the fort was doing or what was the status of some project. It just seemed impossible that there wouldn’t even be a code word or some such thing to identify a real messenger versus a plant.

Now all of those lords are a bunch of head cases!