Chapter 790: Secret Letter

When the Zhongyuan Dynasty was strong, these neighboring regions were almost all good neighbors, except for the Xiongnu to the north.

Whenever there was something good at home during festivals, they sent it to Bianjing; in wartime they also helped fight, truly doing their utmost.

But when the Zhongyuan Dynasty declined, those good neighbors all turned into man-eating wolves.

The Uyghur People can be called the model of good neighbors, yet they are also the ones who turn face most decisively and ruthlessly. At least they act openly, unlike the Shiva People, who are disgusting.

Chen Wuji rubbed his face and said, "Although we cannot yet confirm whether the Uyghurs will send troops, we must still count them in; the Qiang Land situation cannot be delayed, we must swiftly destroy their manpower."

We must absolutely not let Nan Jun fall into a situation of being surrounded on all sides.

Otherwise, even if he now has strong troops and sturdy horses, commanding a force of 200,000, he will inevitably be stretched thin, unable to support, facing the danger of collapse.

The Uyghurs already have a seventy to eighty percent chance of sending troops to assist.

As for the Qiang and Shiva Peoples, needless to say, they are already gathering troops and preparing for the next battle.

Worse still, once the Court sends troops, whether his southern ally will remain an ally becomes uncertain.

Yang Yu, although his relationship with the Court is not harmonious, was also exiled to Lingnan by those powerful ministers in the court.

But on the surface he remains a subject of the Court, constantly proclaiming loyalty to the Court as his priority.

Roughly calculated, he already faces enemies on all sides; a casual gathering could easily number hundreds of thousands.

The lineup is somewhat overly luxurious.

Xu Zengyi nodded with a somewhat solemn expression, "The Court, from gathering provisions to actually launching troops, will likely take about three months; in that time, if we settle the Qiang trouble, we can then shift the battlefield to Qiang Land."

"Besides that, my lord can also send people to talk with the Uyghur People, first to sound out their intentions."

Chen Wuji nodded, "Talking is fine, but I estimate the effect will be minimal; we cannot give the Qiang what they want."

"Whether land or silver, I would be reluctant to give them any of it. If we simply threaten them, it seems I currently lack that much influence; the only condition we could discuss is helping them fight the Court, but I don't really want to do that."

"How our internal affairs turn out is our own business; if we help outsiders, that's betraying from within and abandoning our ancestors. This I do not wish; even if we reach a dead end, I would not choose this path."

Xu Zengyi gave a wry smile, "In that case, there's no need to send anyone over."

"If we want the Uyghurs to turn against their allies or at least remain neutral, we will certainly have to relinquish some land and silver."

Chen Wuji raised his hand, "Then let's just drop it and prepare for war. Yang Yu could send someone to talk, though……"

Chen Wuji's words trailed off; he pondered for a moment, then shook his head, "This person is overly calculating, and given his relation with the Court, forget it—let's not send anyone for now, observe his moves before deciding."

Yang Yu is an extremely clever person; once the Court's great army marches south, he will surely understand what's really behind this war.

Chen Wuji also wanted to see his true nature; if he sent people early, Yang Yu would surely seize the initiative, control the discourse, and hide his real intentions.

Xu Zengyi disagreed, "Yang Yu is indeed an uncertain factor, but his troops are currently tied up by the Qiang; after three months, how many forces he can divert remains unknown. With Chen San Shu guarding Guangtongzhou, and sending another force to hold the line, we should be safe in the short term."

"Although three months is somewhat tight, it's already enough for my lord to make some preparations."

He lifted his tea cup, took a sip of the already cold tea, moistened his throat, and then said, "My lord should order General Yang to keep prisoners in this battle, not continue to massacre them all, to avoid cruel methods."

"Why?" Chen Wuji glanced over.

"If we fight the Court, my lord will need a large number of conscript troops; the Qiang are undoubtedly the best choice."

Chen Wuji briefly considered, nodded and agreed, "Let Xi Leng go on this trip."

"Good!" Xu Zengyi nodded, "My lord, please remain seated; I'll tidy these up."

Chen Wuji grunted in acknowledgment and continued reading the Emperor's letter.

This guy doesn't even know how long he's been writing; a single letter is terrifyingly long.

He's been looking at it for so long, yet there's still a thick stack behind.

Even those lovesick princes couldn't write that many love letters.

What does the Emperor think he is?

But just looking further back, Chen Wuji suddenly froze.

The whole page is filled with numbers like 09, 27, 33, etc.

"What the hell is this?" Chen Wuji muttered, shaking out the entire letter.

Everything written afterward is just these things, a frightening amount.

This is clearly a kind of encryption.

But seriously, Chen Wuji has never seen a decent person encrypt so much content before.

If each group of numbers represents a character, then there could be at least hundreds of characters on it.

The Emperor's move is so showy it's making him go bald!

"Sir, first set aside your work and take a look at this!" Chen Wuji handed the letter over again; this task really requires brainpower, he can't crack it himself, needs an expert.

Hearing that, Xu Zengyi set down his pen, merely glanced at it, and declared, "My lord, this is a character cipher; these numbers correspond to the line and character counts of some book—was the relevant book mentioned earlier?"

Chen Wuji shook his head, "No mention of anything book-related; the most likely candidate is Yu Ren's eighteen generations of ancestors—could it be that?"

"Let's try; if it's Yu Ren's eighteen generations of ancestors, then the correspondence certainly wouldn't be line and character numbers but the arrangement of the genealogy—I'll try arranging it." Xu Zengyi said.

"There, old sir!"

Xu Zengyi quickly found another sheet, listed Yu Ren's eighteen generations of ancestors according to the genealogy order, then matched them one by one to the numbers written by the Emperor.

"Indeed it is!" Xu Zengyi exclaimed delightedly.

Soon a line of characters appeared through the one-to-one correspondence.

But Chen Wuji's expression gradually turned odd, "Is that really it? He went to all this trouble just to curse me once—does he have something wrong with his head?"

All that Xu Zengyi had arranged read: "You bastard, this is the new fun I've found!"

"Indeed there seems to be some problem, my lord; perhaps our direction is wrong." Xu Zengyi said.

"Let me see if there are any subtle hints of other things on it; Yu Ren's eighteen generations of ancestors are quite conspicuous in this letter, and even if a coded phrase was used, it actually isn't kept secret!"

Xu Zengyi then went through the Emperor's letter item by item.

After a moment, he shook his head, "My lord, the information is probably not in this book."