Chapter 979

Li Si heard this and could not help but awkwardly scratch his beard.

"The Black Ice Terrace and the Net require so much budget every year—surely it wasn't all embezzled?"

Hearing Ying Zheng, upon learning that neither of the two major intelligence agencies had any news, could not help but start rebuking them.

Li Si, Zhang Han, and Zhao Gao, hearing this, were all startled.

They stepped out from the ranks of officials and immediately begged punishment, saying,

"Your subjects are incompetent; please, Your Majesty, mete out punishment."

In truth, a hidden-world great power like Emperor Wenlong was hardly someone ordinary intelligence agencies could track down.

Moreover, Emperor Wenlong was one of the ultimate trump cards of the Yunzhou Imperial Dynasty.

Across the entire Yunzhou imperial clan, those who knew of his existence could be counted on one hand.

There was no need to even mention the question of intelligence leaks.

Although Hearing Fusu did not know the ins and outs of it, he knew he could not just offend the two major intelligence agencies and the three great court ministers like that.

He immediately said,

"Father Emperor! This old man's identity is clearly extraordinary; in your son's view, he must be a figure on par with the Yunzhou imperial clan's state-protecting treasure.

How could such a figure be easily tracked down?

The Black Ice Terrace and the Net are the intelligence capabilities of our Great Qin, and even of the Nine Provinces, second only to the Qinglong Society.

Your son believes that, given enough time,

as long as this old man is not a dead man, the Zhongjiu Society will eventually track down some lead on him."

"The Great Imperial Prince speaks truly; given time for the Black Ice Terrace, this minister guarantees we will root out this man's identity."

Zhang Han secretly expressed his gratitude to Hearing Fusu, then replied solemnly.

"Your Majesty! The Net will not lag behind either."

Zhao Gao immediately thumped his chest and gave his assurance as well.

Hearing Ying Zheng was merely seizing the chance to give them a rap on the knuckles; he had no real intention of meting out punishment.

At this point he took the easy way out and said,

"Very well! Since Fusu has pleaded for you, I shall grant you some more time.

This old man's identity—come up with some leads as soon as possible."

Hearing Ying Zheng clearly also knew Emperor Wenlong was not so easy to track down; his demand was merely to come up with some leads.

Zhang Han and Zhao Gao immediately breathed a sigh of relief and gave their assent once more.

"Since everyone feels this old man's identity is not simple, and his Wu Gong cultivation is not low either,

then the low-profile Yunzhou Imperial Dynasty surely cannot be looked down upon by any of you, can it?"

Hearing Fusu once again steered the topic back.

"What the Great Imperial Prince says is reasonable."

Li Si lowered his head and admitted it once again.

"Good! Among the five great powers under heaven, if our Great Qin wishes to stand out, relying solely on brute force will certainly not work.

After all, no matter how strong Great Qin is, it cannot fight four at once, can it?"

Hearing Fusu asked again.

Indeed, when Great Qin first rose from the western frontier, it too had stood out among the many powers.

The trick, in fact, was very simple: befriend the distant and attack the near.

Sure enough, after Hearing Fusu finished asking, without waiting for the ministers to respond, he went straight on to say,

"Great Qin's dominance over the western frontier, laying an unshakable foundation for Wan Shi, relied on the strategy of vertical and horizontal maneuvering, befriending the distant and attacking the near.

The current situation, by contrast, bears quite a few similarities to before Great Qin had risen.

Therefore, your son suggests that our Great Qin now needs to determine who must be attacked first, who must be befriended first, and who must be ignored first.

Only by setting a clear diplomatic strategy can our Great Qin once again reign supreme!"

"Good!"

Hearing Ying Zheng, upon hearing this, could not help but feel quite approving.

The look he cast at Hearing Fusu was full of heartfelt relief.

He had not expected this once frail Great Imperial Prince to suddenly grow up and be able to ponder matters of military and state.

With this praise from him, the ministers, whether willing or not, naturally all vied to flatter and fawn.

Even Chancellor Li Si gave Hearing Fusu a good round of flattery.

After a long while, Hearing Ying Zheng lightly pressed down a hand, signaling everyone to be quiet, and asked Hearing Fusu,

"Then in my son's view, what should our Great Qin do?"

"Of the five great powers, three are Central Plains peoples, and two are from beyond the borders."

Hearing Fusu clearly already had a well-thought-out plan and immediately began to answer,

"Therefore, from the standpoint of great righteousness, the ones we should first befriend are, as it should be, the Great Tang and Yunzhou, which are also Central Plains powers.

We must not befriend the grassland peoples of the Great Yuan, nor the You Dongying people.

Otherwise, not only would it lower our standing, it would also make the Central Plains peoples disinclined to favor our Great Qin."

Hearing Ying Zheng neither agreed nor disagreed, signaling Hearing Fusu to continue.

Hearing Fusu could not read joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness from Hearing Ying Zheng, but as long as Hearing Ying Zheng did not stop him, he was not afraid, and immediately went on to say,

"Furthermore, regarding making enemies: You Dongying lies beyond the Eastern Sea, while Great Qin sits in the western frontier.

The distance between them is vast, no less than tens of thousands of li.

There is no need to directly make enemies of such a power; simply ignoring them will suffice.

On the contrary, it's the Dayuan!

This faction previously fought a bitter war with the Great Tang, and also offended the Qinglong Society.

After Tie Muzhen's death, the four Dragon Heads of the Qinglong Society led men to bloodily purge the upper echelons once.

Since Tie Muzhen's death, the realm within the country has become even more turbulent, with several great factions surging with undercurrents.

Such a foreign faction is precisely the best target for our Great Qin to expand into."

"Then what about the so-called friendly factions that the Imperial Prince mentioned?"

Li Si asked directly.

"The Great Tang!"

Fusu said,

"Since the Great Tang won the war against Tang Yuan, and has also subjugated the Xuanxinzheng Sect, its strength has been rising day by day.

But it also sits in the heartland of the Central Plains, truly a place surrounded by war on four sides.

If we befriend it, let it pin down the main attention of Dayuan.

And by the way, under the pretext of helping it, make contact with factions like the Xuanxinzheng Sect.

When the time comes that something changes within the Great Tang, if we can make these factions choose Great Qin, wouldn't that be far better than directly making an enemy of the Great Tang?"

Ying Zheng, Li Si, and the others had by now understood.

After all this roundabout talk, what Fusu truly wanted to say was, in fact, still resolving the matter of Lian Wuhen's Tears.

If, for the sake of Lian Wuhen's Tears, Great Qin were to forcibly mobilize its experts,

not only would Great Qin's experts be stretched thin, making it very difficult to obtain Lian Wuhen's Tears for the time being,

it would also cause enmity with the Great Tang over this.

But if one changes the approach, and befriends the Great Tang,

sending out one or two experts under the name of an envoy, secretly helping Jin Guang,

not only would it not cause enmity with the Great Tang, it would instead befriend Jin Guang.

When the time comes that relations change in the future, or the Great Tang simply runs into trouble,

then, using this bond of affection as a tether, find a way to draw Jin Guang and the Xuanxinzheng Sect to Great Qin.

Wouldn't that be better than Great Qin forcibly sending people now to take those Lian Wuhen's Tears?

Ying Zheng sorted out Fusu's thoughts, and the color of approval in his eyes grew even thicker.

"Very good, very good! My son has such far-sighted thoughts; truly worthy of being the talent who will succeed our Great Qin."

The talent who succeeds and the sovereign who succeeds differ by only a single character.