A family of loyal martyrs, starting with nine wives to continue the family line.

"Your Majesty, three hundred men chased for half a month and only found this."

Hua Jieyu placed a muddy wooden plaque on the imperial desk.

The wooden sign was small, and its edges had been worn white by the mountain winds.

There were no words on it, only newly carved marks, as if someone had used a dagger to carve them out.

Wei Zhao reached out and picked up the wooden plaque, rubbing his fingertips across the engravings.

"Where did you find it?"

"Abandoned mountain god temple".

Hua Jieyu said in a low voice, "The people from the Embroidered Uniform Guard searched every inch of the temple. There were no corpses, no bloodstains, no weapons, and even the footprints were erased."

Wei Zhao remained silent.

Three hundred spies, six escape routes, and a full half-month's pursuit.

Liu Suan seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.

But he deliberately left this wooden plaque behind, as if he was waiting for the Embroidered Uniform Pavilion to find it.

"What's engraved on it?" Su Qingyun stood to the side, her brows furrowed slightly.

Hua Jieyu looked at Wei Zhao.

"White Robe, I haven't lost yet."

No one spoke again before the imperial desk.

Wei Zhao stared at the line of words and suddenly smiled.

Even while fleeing for his life, Liu Suan didn't forget to leave himself a way out.

Black Wind Ridge suffered such a crushing defeat; the alliance leader was beheaded, and the entire million-strong allied army surrendered. He himself abandoned Han Dashan and ran away faster than anyone else.

Now he has retreated to the mountains, but he has carved a sentence to say that he has not lost.

That's shameless.

Fang Fuyao took the wooden plaque, her gaze falling on the words: "He told me to listen."

Wei Zhao raised his eyes.

Fang Fuyao's fingertip paused on the words "white clothes".

"We both came from the same school. He knew that everyone in the world called me the White-Robed Imperial Advisor. Liu Suan left these words not to make the Embroidered Uniform Guard pursue him, but to remind me that he was still in the game."

"He will come back."

Fang Fuyao placed the wooden plaque back on the table: "I definitely will."

This statement was made so calmly that even Wei Zhao did not immediately respond.

He had witnessed Liu Suan's methods firsthand.

A strategic retreat outside the Golden City turned a defeat into a stepping stone for Han Dashan to ascend to the position of leader of the alliance.

In Black Wind Ridge, a single sentence led to the ambush and killing of Wei Zhao, and also sent the Eighth Prince to his death.

This person has few soldiers and no exceptional martial prowess.

He could temporarily unite a group of rebellious kings with ulterior motives, and he could also make them overthrow each other overnight.

For someone like that, escaping is more troublesome than dying right in front of you.

"What else does he have?" Wei Zhao asked.

Fang Fuyao remained silent for a moment.

"Half a book."

Hua Jieyu's eyes changed slightly.

"What book?"

"The policy for all people that the teacher wrote back then."

Fang Fuyao said, "When Liu Suan left Fangmen, he took with him half of the unfinished manuscript."

Wei Zhao tapped his fingers on the table.

"For governing the country?"

"no."

Fang Fuyao lowered her voice.

"That half of the book doesn't mention how to pacify the people or how to select officials. The teacher wrote about something else entirely."

"How to overthrow the foundation of a dynasty with minimal cost."

With a click.

A crack appeared in the sandalwood penholder under Wei Zhao's hand.

He glanced down at it and casually tossed the broken pen aside.

That's more like Liu Suan.

A person who only offers advice to rebel kings is not worthy of his vigilance.

But someone who knows how to dismantle the foundations of the imperial court and understands the weaknesses of every system in the new Wu dynasty is completely different.

The military merit system had just issued the first batch of land deeds, the imperial examinations had not yet begun, the five major ethnic groups had just been registered, and local military power was being transferred.

Shinbu looks like he's already won.

The faster you win, the weaker your foundation becomes.

The falsification of grain registers in one area could cause the army to run out of food.

If a state-run school is controlled by a powerful family, it could plunge those from humble backgrounds back into despair.

If someone in a surrendered army camp spreads the rumor that "Xinwu only collects swords, not land," it could push 100,000 people back into chaos.

Liu Suan did not need to attack the city.

If he can make the people believe that even the new Wu dynasty will fall apart, the world will descend into chaos once more.

"Pass on the order."

Wei Zhao looked up: "The Embroidered Uniform Guard has listed Liu Suan as a Class A wanted criminal, with priority given to capturing him alive. All prefectures, passes, docks, and salt fields along the route will have their household registrations and records re-examined."

Hua Jieyu nodded.

"Should we pass on his portrait?"

Sending a portrait is useless.

Wei Zhao said, "Since he can disappear right under the noses of three hundred spies, he won't use his original face."

Hua Jieyu pressed her lips together slightly.

"Then investigate the people around him. Scholars, Taoists, down-on-his-luck strategists, advisors who write legal documents for others—anyone who can read the Fangmen script and suddenly appeared after Black Wind Ridge, investigate them all."

"Yes."

Hua Jieyu turned to leave, but Nie Yinniang did not move.

She looked at Wei Zhao, her fingers tightening slightly inside her sleeve.

"His Majesty."

"explain."

"Even after the Seven Kill Tower was destroyed, there were still scattered assassin organizations in the martial arts world."

Wei Zhao looked at her.

Nie Yinniang wasn't good at long conversations, so she paused before continuing:

"They have no leader, no rules, and no government investigation. They kill for whoever pays them."

"If Liu manages to bring them under his control..."

She didn't finish speaking.

The candlelight in the imperial study flickered slightly.

Wei Zhao understood.

If Liu Suanruo only wanted to kill one person, the Embroidered Uniform Guard could protect him.

However, if he were to gather assassins from the martial arts world to kill officials, burn down granaries, and cut off military merit records, and combine this with the "Ten Thousand People's Strategy" in his possession, Xinwu would be engulfed in flames everywhere.

A killer doesn't need 100,000.

A few dozen people are enough to keep a state capital awake at night.

"Send me the list of scattered assassin organizations."

Wei Zhao said, "Investigate it yourself."

Nie Yinniang nodded.

She walked to the door and suddenly stopped.

"Your Majesty, if Liu Suan finds me, he might kill me first."

Wei Zhao looked at her.

"Then let him do it."

Nie Yinniang said nothing more and turned to leave.

Wei Zhao watched her retreating figure, feeling no relief whatsoever.

This is not a fight of pride.

Liu lost his soldiers at Black Wind Ridge, but he didn't lose his mind.

Xinwu is currently busy taking over the rebel king's territory, busy re-registering the surrendered soldiers, busy distributing land to the fallen, and busy preparing for the imperial examinations.

Everyone is watching for victory.

Only Liu Suan was looking at the crack.

That night, the lights in the Imperial Study were not turned off.

Wei Zhao stood alone in front of the table, with a map of the entire Xinwu territory beside him.

The world is bigger than he imagined.

Huainan has just been taken over, Liangzhou is not yet stable, the waterways of Jingxiang need to be re-registered, the old army leaders of Hedong are unwilling to hand over their private troops, the Baiyue army in Lingnan is being dismantled, and the salt ships of the Haidong army in Donglai have not yet been registered.

Everywhere could become Liu Suan's foothold.

Wei Zhao picked up his vermilion brush and circled the border between Liangzhou and Jingxiang.

This area is dominated by powerful clans, deeply entrenched former officials, and numerous surrendered soldiers.

The second red circle is located on the Huainan Salt Road.

Du Heng is dead, but the salt merchants remain. If salt prices skyrocket, the people will curse the imperial court, the salt merchants will rebel, and the old guard from the water fortresses will regroup.

The third red circle falls near the capital.

The capital city is both the safest and the most dangerous.

Here are former officials of the previous dynasty, noble families who have lost their titles, scholars who have just failed the imperial examinations or are about to take them, and a group of former military families who are unwilling to relinquish their military power.

Wei Zhao stared at the red circles, his fingers stained with cinnabar.

If Liu Suan were to make a move, he would never attack head-on.