My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 453 No Infernal Affairs?
"Call: Li Ji, Marquis of Quzhou, Luan Bu, Marquis of Yu, Han Tuidang, Marquis of Gonggao, and others to perform martial arts in Xuanshi Hall!"

Having set his sights on Gao Que, Liu Rong simply did not hide his intentions - he directly and clearly wanted to "perform martial arts".

As for why they did this, it was not because they were confident or not worried about the news leaking out.

——Liu Rong still understood the principle that things must be accomplished in a secretive manner.

What really made Liu Rong "plot loudly" was a few small things that happened in Chang'an in the past one to two years.

The reason why he was said to be small was that at that time, no one of the Han Dynasty's lieutenant in charge of the capital's security, the guard in charge of the palace defense, or the emperor's private armed forces - the imperial physician in public and the Embroidered Uniform Guard in secret - noticed anything.

But since Liu Rong has noticed this matter, no matter how small it is, it is actually not that small.

The specific process is not complicated.

About last year, after the Hetao-Mayi Battle between the Han and the Xiongnu broke out, a handwritten memorial from Zhao Tuo, the King of Nanyue, was sent back from Lingnan.

In the memorial, Zhao Tuo expressed in earnest words the loyalty of the people of Nanyue and even the Baiyue to the Han Dynasty, as well as their determination to remain loyal to it until death.

Then, Zhao Tuo changed the subject and said that he was old and had already passed the age of octogenarian (ninety years old);

I am weak and frail, and I am seriously ill and bedridden - I have said a lot of things in a roundabout way, but to sum it up in one sentence: I can't do it anymore!

Please allow Your Majesty to send back Zhao Hu, the grandson of the King of Nanyue who is held hostage in Chang'an, in case of any emergency.

As for why he was the grandson of the King of Nanyue instead of the crown prince of Nanyue?
As Zhao Tuo himself said in his memorial: King Zhao Tuo of Nanyue is already over ninety years old.

Zhao Tuo's eldest son, Zhao Zhongshi, the former crown prince of the King of Nanyue, passed away more than 20 years ago at the age of 51.

After serving as the crown prince of the King of Nanyue for thirty years, Zhao Zhongshi not only failed to outlive his father Zhao Tuo, but ended up outliving himself instead.

Thus, the inheritance of the Nanyue clan society fell rather dramatically on Zhao Hu, the son of Zhao Zhongshi, grandson of Zhao Tuo, and the crown prince/grandson of the King of Nanyue.

Logically speaking, Zhao Tuo was in his nineties and said that he was dying, so he asked Liu Rong to release the crown prince who was held hostage in Chang'an so as to prepare for the transfer of power that might happen at any time. This was a normal request.

But the bad thing is: Liu Rong is a time traveler.

Liu Rong, who is well versed in history, remembers very clearly: in the original historical timeline, the old turtle, Zhao Tuo, the King of Nanyue, lived to be 103 years old!

Born in 240 BC when the six kingdoms had not yet been unified and the First Emperor of Qin was still the "King of Qin";
When Zhao Tuo was two years old, the young Emperor Qin Shi Huang put down the rebellion of Lao Ai, eliminated Lu Buwei and his forces, imprisoned the Queen Mother Zhao, and then officially took power.

When Zhao Tuo was ten years old, Qin officially started its journey to sweep across the six kingdoms and unify the world.

By 221 BC, when Qin had unified the world and King Ying Zheng of Qin was officially promoted to "First Emperor Ying Zheng", Zhao Tuo, who was only years old at the time, had been promoted to the rank of captain for his military merits during the process of Qin's conquest of the six kingdoms.

Two years later, when Zhao Tuo was 21 years old, Emperor Qin Shi Huang officially decided to take over Lingnan, so he sent Tu Sui as the main general and Zhao Tuo as the deputy general to lead an army of 500,000 to the south to the land of Baiyue in Lingnan!
Seven years later, when Zhao Tuo was 28 years old, Qin's main general Tu Sui died in the battlefield. Emperor Qin Shi Huang then sent Ren Xiong to serve as the main general and continue to pacify Lingnan with his deputy general Zhao Tuo.

That year, Lingnan was pacified and Qin established six Lingnan counties.

Two years later, when Zhao Tuo turned 30, the First Emperor passed away and the Second Emperor was enthroned, and the world was suddenly engulfed in war.

After discussion, Ren Xiong and Zhao Tuo decided to destroy the roads and cut off the ravines so as to stop the war to the north of the Wuling Mountains and to maintain peace in a corner.

Four years later, in 206 BC, when Zhao Tuo was years old, Qin's chief general Ren Xiong died of illness and left a will for his deputy general Zhao Tuo to take over the army.

In the same year in the Central Plains, Liu Ji, the Duke of Pei, who was granted the title of King of Hanzhong, had just begun to build a plank road in the open and secretly pass through Chencang to regain control of the Three Qins. He also began to plan to unite the world and jointly attack the traitor Xiang Ji who murdered the Righteous Emperor Chu Huaiwang...

Starting from that year, which was the second year of Emperor Taizu Gao of Han, Emperor Taizu Gao subsequently reigned for eleven years, Emperor Xiaohui for seven years, and Empress Dowager Lü for eight years;

The twenty-third year of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, the sixth year of Emperor Xianzong Xiaojing, and the third year of the current Emperor Liu Rong...

All together, Zhao Tuo took charge of Lingnan at the age of 34, and a full 58 years had passed since then.

After fifty-eight years, Zhao Tuo's crown prince died, and his grandson Zhao Hu became an old man in his fifties.

Back then, the 500,000 old Qin soldiers and civilians who followed Tu Sui, Ren Xiong and Zhao Tuo across Lingnan to carry out the large-scale development of Lingnan - all of the first generation died, and only a few people over the age of 60 were left of the second generation.

The third generation is mostly middle-aged.

Today, the personnel of the Nanyue Army are basically the fourth-generation descendants of the old Qin soldiers and civilians who followed the Qin army to cross Lingnan.

However, the fourth-generation descendants of these old Qin immigrants are still led by the first-generation general: Zhao Tuo.

And in the foreseeable future, Zhao Tuo will continue to rule Nanyue for more than ten years.

By the time Zhao Tuo died, the generals and soldiers of the Nanyue Kingdom might have to rely on the fifth-generation descendants of the Qin immigrants as their backbone.

Closer to home.

Zhao Tuo, the old turtle who had just turned ninety-two, but whom Liu Rong knew would not truly die until he was one hundred and three, suddenly requested that the heir apparent be allowed to return to the country;

Especially at this critical time when the Han-Xiongnu War was imminent, the situation on the Mayi battlefield was unclear, and the main battlefield in Hetao had not yet started!
Liu Rong naturally knew what Zhao Tuo was trying to do.

——He thought that the Han people were going to be beaten up by the Huns, so he wanted to fish in troubled waters to see if he could take a chance and bite off a piece of meat from the Han people!

Therefore, he used the excuse of "being seriously ill and dying" to call the crown prince back from Chang'an to eliminate any worries.

Since Liu Rong had seen through Zhao Tuo's plan, he naturally ignored him.

Especially at that time, the entire campaign was still in the "strategic confidentiality period", and the Hetao battlefield had been developed in secret and had not yet been made public;

Liu Rong's entire attention was focused on the cost of the Hetao battlefield, so naturally he had no time to pay attention to the old turtle Zhao Tuo who was jumping around.

Later, naturally, the Hetao battlefield was won with a great victory. The Han Dynasty completely recaptured Hetao and officially declared a complete victory in the Hetao-Mayi battlefield.

After discovering that the Han family was not beaten badly by the Han family, Zhao Tuo, who had been ready to take advantage of the situation, stopped trying and started to play cowardly again.

Then the matter was over.

In Liu Rong's view at that time, the whole process of this matter was that Zhao Tuo had ulterior motives before the war, but he "repented and returned to the right path" after the Han Dynasty's complete victory - his illness was no longer serious, his life was not short, and his grandson Zhao Hu was not in a hurry to go back to inherit the throne.

But there was a small detail that was overlooked by Liu Rong, who was so overwhelmed by victory at the time that he had no time to pay attention to other things or investigate further.

Liu Rong was not the only one who overlooked this crucial detail: time.

You have to know that it takes at least ten days or half a month to travel from Nanyue where Zhao Tuo was located to Changsha on the other side of the Wuling Mountains!

From Changsha to Hangu Pass, even if the journey is expedited, it will take at least five to seven days.

After entering Hangu Pass, it took another three to five days to reach Chang'an.

All in all, the speed of information flow between Chang'an and Nanyue, even under the most ideal conditions, would take at least twenty days.

——It takes 20 days for news from Chang'an to reach Nanyue;

It also took twenty days for Zhao Tuo's memorial to be sent from Nanyue to Chang'an.

Forty days round trip!

But at that time, the battle of Mayi had just started less than ten days ago and Chang'an had just received the news of the war, but Zhao Tuo's memorial requesting the crown prince to return to the country had already departed from Nanyue!
When the battle in Mayi became intense, the memorial was just delivered to Chang'an and appeared on Liu Rong's desk.

Moreover, it was out of control - at first, a letter was sent every five days, then every three days, every two days, and finally, reports from Nanyue were sent to Chang'an every day.

There is nothing else to say: please release the crown prince and let him return to his country to be enthroned.

After the battle, the imperial edicts from the Kingdom of Nanyue stopped for a very short period of time.

Almost from the fifth day after the news of victory reached Chang'an, no more reports from Zhao Tuo were sent to Chang'an.

Is this reasonable?

Very unreasonable!

According to normal distances and normal channels for information flow, Zhao Tuo should have received the news at least twenty days after the battle of Mayi broke out, and Zhao Tuo's memorial requesting the crown prince to return to the country should have arrived in Chang'an at least forty days later.

The same logic applies: after the battle, Zhao Tuo should have received the news of "the great victory of the Han Dynasty" at the earliest after twenty days, and at the same time stopped sending memorials to Chang'an requesting the return of the crown prince.

Forty days later, the last memorial Zhao Tuo had sent earlier should have appeared in Chang'an, on Liu Rong's desk, and ended there.

However, the fact is that as soon as the fighting broke out in Mayi, on the northern border of the Han Dynasty, Zhao Tuo, on the southern border, simultaneously sent a report!
——The good news of "great victory" had just been reported from the Mayi battlefield in the northwest corner of the Han Dynasty's territory, and Zhao Tuo, who lived in Lingnan, stopped sending reports at the same time.

It’s like opening my third eye!
This matter was finally revealed at the turn of spring and summer this year, when the Donghu King's tribe on the grassland - or rather, the Chang'an Marquis Lu - sent back a piece of information.

In this intelligence, Chang'an Hou Lu clearly stated: Zhao Hu, the grandson of King Zhao Tuo of Nanyue and the heir apparent of King Nanyue, did not receive even the slightest orthodox education of the Han Dynasty, or was brainwashed!
Since being held hostage in Chang'an, Zhao Hu has not spent even a single day accepting the Han ideology of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness" and "rulers rule, subjects serve, fathers are fathers, and sons serve";
Instead, it was a so-called "scholar" from Lingnan who taught Zhao Hu every day: You must remember the humiliation that the Han Dynasty brought to Nanyue, and you must strive to become stronger in the future to avenge this blood feud!
In addition to this - in addition to the people who were secretly "brought" to Chang'an from his hometown in Lingnan and became his teachers in broad daylight, the great grandson Zhao Hu also had an intelligence organization with a small number of people but extremely efficient intelligence transmission efficiency!
It can be said that this intelligence organization had only one thing to do: to send back to Nanyue whatever happened in Chang'an City as soon as possible for the Nanyue King Zhao Tuo to decide.

In very rare cases, this intelligence organization could even, to a certain extent, execute decisions on behalf of Zhao Tuo under the judgment of his grandson Zhao Hu!

For example: Before Zhao Tuo received the news of the war between Han and Xiongnu, he submitted a petition to the court in Chang'an in the name of Zhao Tuo, asking for the return of the crown prince.

For example, when Zhao Tuo just learned about this matter and had no way of knowing the outcome of the war, he voluntarily stopped submitting reports.

As for the existence of this intelligence organization, why was it able to escape the scrutiny of the entire Chang'an City, but was known by the Chang'an Hou Lu family far outside the Great Wall?

The answer is: there is a fairly stable channel for intelligence trading, exchange, and cooperation between this intelligence organization and the Lu family, which has been maintained for many years.

Through this intelligence agency, Lu learned everything that happened in Chang'an City.

The intelligence agency, through Lu, was able to learn in advance about the situation on the grassland - mainly the actions that the Huns would soon take against the Han Dynasty, and based on this, formulate the next response measures for the Kingdom of Nanyue.

For example, Zhao Tuo tentatively claimed to be an emperor~
Or send a detachment to Changsha to get some help.
Or he could just give up the title of emperor and submit to the emperor's name.

The main point is that when the Han family is frustrated, I am arrogant; when the Han family is in power, I remain dormant - pure non-stick pan.

After learning about this, only Zhou Ren, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, knew how angry Liu Rong was.

From that day on, the Xiuyiwei were on high alert and were determined to uproot the secret intelligence agency that belonged to Zhao Hu, the grandson of the King of Nanyue, or in other words, to the Nanyue Kingdom, in Chang'an City.

Unfortunately, little effect was achieved.

In order not to alert the enemy, the Embroidered Uniform Guard never took any action against the prince's grandson Zhao Hu and the Nanyue scholar who disguised himself as a "great scholar".

But for some reason - perhaps there was no valuable information that needed to be risked to be transmitted, after the Han-Xiongnu Hetao-Mayi Campaign, that intelligence organization seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, and the Embroidered Uniform Guards never caught any evidence against it.

Liu Rong still trusted the Xiuyiwei.

I was careless before and didn't notice the existence of such an intelligence organization. Although it is infuriating, it is understandable.

Now, knowing that such an intelligence organization exists, any activities of this intelligence organization will definitely not be able to escape from the eyes of the Embroidered Uniform Guards again.

So, Liu Rong decided to release a fake bait to see if the fish would be hooked.

——The Emperor of Han summoned all the generals to perform martial arts. For the Kingdom of Nanyue, this was definitely important information worth the risk of passing on to the country!

As long as this information was delivered to that intelligence organization, Liu Rong would have more than 90% chance of having the Embroidered Uniform Guard eradicate it completely.

As for doing so, will it really leak secrets?
Who could know that Liu Rong was planning on Gao Que at this moment?

Who would have guessed that at this moment, Liu Rong's attention was not on Xiu Tu Ze in Hexi, which was within the Han family's reach, but on Gaoque, which was almost impossible to break through from the outside...

"It would be best if the rat was caught, and the old villain Zhao Tuo also believed that I was plotting to take Hexi;"

"——It would be best if we could send this news to the Xiongnu Chanyu's court."

"Hmm~"

"Enemy spies are not completely useless."

"Wait for the Xiongnu to keep an eye on Xiu Tu Ze and Gao Que..."

"Even if it's not within easy reach, at least it won't be that difficult?"

(End of this chapter)