I traveled back to the Southern Song Dynasty and was actually outmaneuvered by Yue Fei.

Zhao Bozong did not answer Xin Qizong's question.

He took out a chipped copper coin from his sleeve and placed it on the table in front of Xin Qizong.

The copper coin was old, missing a corner, and its edges were worn smooth and shiny.

This is not the one Qin Keqing had in her sleeve, but another one, which Zhao Bocong found in the copy of the roster. It is one of the seven tokens that Zhijia gave away before his death.

When Xin Qizong looked down and saw the copper coin, his expression was as if he had been punched in the chest.

"Is this Zhijia's stuff?"

"Zhijia left a list before his arrest," Zhao Bozong nodded, his voice calm. "General Xin's name is also on the list."

It wasn't Yue Shaobao's own handwriting; it was two lines from Zhijia: "Xin Qizong, a former subordinate of Shenwu, is usable, but we must wait for the right opportunity."

Xin Qizong picked up the chipped copper coin with his rough hands, rubbing his thumb hard along its broken edge, when suddenly a gust of wind blew past the gate.

"In the second year of Shaoxing, when I led the last eight hundred men to break out of Xihe, we were out of food and reinforcements. At that time, Yue Fei himself only had a small army of less than a thousand men, but he sent Zhang Xian to personally lead a cavalry unit to meet us."

I remember it snowing heavily the day we entered the camp. Yue Fei, the Junior Protector, was standing at the camp gate. He handed me his bowl of mutton soup and said, "If General Xin is alive, then the Western Army is still alive."

Xin Qizong raised his head. His eyes were not red, but there was a layer of water in the corners of his eyes.

"He also said that when the world is at peace, he would invite me to Bianliang for drinks. Now that he is dead, I will never be able to repay that debt of wine."

Liu An stood by the gate, his hand on the hilt of his sword, without saying a word. But when he heard Xin Qizong's words, his body trembled.

Zhao Bozong stood up and bowed to Xin Qizong.

"General Xin, I am not Yue Fei. I am sixteen years old, with no soldiers, no power, and no allies."

But I can guarantee that every transfer you make in the future will have a legitimate reason, every soldier will have written documentation to back it up, and every step you take will no longer be erased by a mere claim of privately owned suicide soldiers.

By "legal," I mean the official filing by the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs, not Qin Hui's private order.

"Tonight it's just the four of us. You have one night to think it over. If you wish to see me at dawn tomorrow, have Liu An deliver your reply."

May 20th, 5:00 AM.

Liu An rode out of the city alone and returned before dawn.

He brought back not a message, but a knife.

A Xihe waist knife, so old it couldn't be older, with the cowhide on the scabbard worn shiny, and four characters engraved on the blade—"Xihe Xin Clan".

"General Xin said that this knife had been with him for thirty years. He fought against the Western Xia, the puppet Qi, and the Jurchens. He brought it out from Xihe in the second year of Shaoxing, but did not return it when he was impeached in the seventh year of Shaoxing."

Liu An placed the knife in front of Zhao Bocong, saying, "He said that placing the knife here with Your Highness is my pledge of allegiance. Your Highness said 'legal,' and he said that those two words are enough for him to wait eight years."

Zhao Bozong picked up the knife; it felt rough and heavy to the touch.

This day was May 20th of the twelfth year of Shaoxing, eight days after Qin Hui set up three Imperial City Guard outposts in Lin'an on May 12th.

The seven-day information window that Qin Keqing predicted has already closed.

Qin Hui's spies had been re-established throughout Lin'an City by this day.

The informant that the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard knocked out was only the outermost of the seven lines. Qin Hui had many more lines at his disposal, and he could complete the connection in just a few days by readjusting them.

But on that very day, Zhao Bozong did something no one expected.

Instead of hiding it, he had Zhao Shiyi formally submit the filing documents to the Ministry of Personnel in the name of the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs.

The document clearly states that the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs needs to access the roster of military officers from the former Shenwu Deputy Army camp in order to organize the genealogy of the imperial clan and verify the imperial clan's favors and privileges. It also needs to temporarily requisition two vacant warehouses in the former southern suburbs camp as archives.

The document was signed with the large vermilion seal of the Imperial Clan Court and dated May 20th.

When Qin Hui saw this document, he must have sat in the signing room for a long time.

The Grand Court of Imperial Clan Affairs reviewing the register of military officials was a perfectly legitimate and routine official duty.

Requisitioning vacant warehouses as archives is a legitimate and routine official business. Everything is operating within the rules, and there are no loopholes to be found.

But he vaguely sensed something was amiss: a minor prince had planted a flag at the old camp in the southern suburbs, and something was definitely not right.

He wrote four characters in the comments section of the document: "Approved in accordance with regulations".

Could he refuse to approve it? No.

Because he couldn't afford to be accused of interfering in the affairs of the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan Court.

The privileges of the imperial clan members of the Taizu lineage were left by the late emperor. He could use the Imperial City Guard to monitor the imperial clan members, but he could not prevent the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs from filing records in accordance with the regulations.

Qin Hui could be a treacherous minister, but he could never be the first to openly tear down the established laws of his ancestors. Zhao Bocong had calculated this point perfectly.

On May 22, two vacant warehouses in the old camp in the southern suburbs were officially marked with the sign "Zongzheng Temple Documents and Archives".

Xin Qizong's soldiers began to register in batches.

Everyone signed two documents when registering: one was a copy of the military register of the former deputy commander of the Shenwu Army, and the other was a temporary assignment letter from the Zongzheng Temple's special clerk.

An old soldier who had been retired for eight years stepped forward first and reported his former unit number. Zhao Shiyi personally sat behind the desk and recorded it down in a book. After copying each page, he sealed the copy directly into a copper box and stamped it with the seal of the Imperial Clan Court.

These bronze boxes were no longer registered with the Ministry of Personnel, nor were they handed over to the Privy Council; instead, they were kept independently by the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs.

That afternoon, Qin Hui went to Chongzheng Hall to see Zhao Gou and suggested, on the grounds of "security in Lin'an", that the old camp in the southern suburbs be placed under the jurisdiction of the Imperial City Guard.

After listening, Zhao Gou remained silent for a moment before saying something.

"The Prime Minister need not concern himself with matters concerning the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs."

This statement means clearly: Zhao Gou allowed Zhao Bocong to do whatever he wanted in the old camp in the southern suburbs, provided that he did not cross the boundary.

The so-called "not overstepping the boundaries" means staying within the bounds of the law, within the authority of the imperial clan, and without threatening the imperial power.

Zhao Bocong would certainly not cross the line; to do so would be tantamount to handing Qin Hui a knife.

The first thing he asked Xin Qizong to do was neither to practice killing techniques nor to distribute weapons.

They actually made each of the 1,200 former subordinates copy a copy of the old manual of the Shenwu Deputy Army.

This manual was compiled by Xin Qizong in the fifth year of the Shaoxing era when he served as the Deputy Commander of the Shenwu Army. Its contents are all standard military procedures for cavalry and infantry coordination, military formation drills, and equipment maintenance. It is a standard military teaching material, and there is not a single word about intelligence gathering or assassination techniques.

However, during this copying process, Zhao Bocong arranged for Qin Keqing to open and read the backup copies of the manual one by one in the archives of the old camp.

Based on her existing network of contacts, she assigned personnel who needed to be stationed at several key locations in the southern suburbs for extended periods to the Zongzheng Temple as "document scribes".

These people ostensibly copy military manuals every day, but in reality, they are responsible for liaising with intelligence points in various wards of Lin'an City.

The brilliance of this approach lies in the fact that copying drill manuals is a legally mandated form of training, as documented in the Privy Council's military regulations.

Even if the Imperial City Guards infiltrated the old camp to investigate, all they would see was a group of old soldiers copying old manuals.

No one could find any trace of intelligence activities on these people; all the covert intelligence transmission routes were set up at liaison points outside the old camp.