Isolated town in northern border region

After Yan Ji and Yang Wei left, the smile on Zhou Xun's face vanished instantly, like a mask being torn off.

He leaned against the couch, staring at the top of the tent, and remained silent for a long time.

Tie Muyun sheathed his knife and squatted down in front of him, looking at him.

"You really want me to leave?"

Zhou Xun did not look at her.

"real."

Tie Muyun placed the knife across his lap.

"Fine, then it's true that this old lady is going to chop someone up!"

Zhou Xun finally turned his head to look at her, his eyes filled with a hint of helplessness and a unique kind of doting.

"Your strike has given the states of Yan and Shu a pretext to wage war."

Tie Muyun stuck the knife into the ground.

"Then let's die together."

Zhou Xun glanced at her, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just shook his head.

"It hasn't come to that yet."

He sat up straight, took the paper and pen from beside his pillow, laid them on his lap, and dipped the pen in ink.

"I've run out of chips."

"The technology has been provided, and now that they have Jingguo backing them, they won't be held back by a single blueprint."

"We can't defeat the combined forces of Yan and Shu, and the prince can't cede the land."

He went through his current situation in his mind.

"There's only one person who can help me now."

Tie Muyun looked at him.

"Who?"

Zhou Xun picked up his pen again and wrote the recipient's name on the paper.

"princess!"

He wrote very quickly, and his handwriting was more messy than usual.

"I need a list."

"List of spies planted by the Jing Kingdom's Bureau of Folklore in the Yan and Shu Kingdoms."

"Jingguo can give them technology, but Jingguo must also have planted spies in their country."

"As long as Jiang Min can tell me who those people are, I can use this list to turn the Yan Shu court into a complete mess."

Tie Muyun watched him finish writing the letter, seal it with wax, and then asked a question.

"Those are, after all, the princess's former subordinates. Wouldn't it be too disloyal to do this?"

Zhou Xun handed her the letter.

"Don't worry, Your Highness is extremely intelligent. I wrote it this way because I was afraid that Yanji and Yang Wei would intercept the letter."

"If I had ever been in charge of the Bureau of Folklore and Cultural Research, I wouldn't have needed to provide a real list; I could have made one up on the spot!"

Tie Muyun took the letter, got up and left the tent.

The moment the carrier pigeon took flight from the Xuzhou camp, Zhou Xun stood at the tent entrance watching the gray-white shadow disappear into the northern horizon before turning back to his couch.

He knew that all he could do now was wait for the pigeon to fly back with the answer.

In Kyoto, the carrier pigeon landed on Jiang Min's windowsill late at night. She got up, put on her coat, untied the bamboo tube, unfolded the letter, read it, and then sat under the lamp in silence for a while.

She knew perfectly well why Zhou Xun wanted this list.

He wanted to use it to buy time, to divert the attention of the Yan and Shu states from the front lines of the battlefield to their own courts.

The intelligence she has gathered over the years, controlled by the Bureau of Folklore, is enough to throw the courts of Yan and Shu into chaos several times over.

She stood up, walked to the desk, spread out a new sheet of paper, and began to write.

She wrote very slowly, going over each name in her mind.

The first page is real.

The list included the officials she had bribed, those who had received money from the Bureau of Folklore, and those who had spoken up for the Jing Kingdom in the courts of Yan and Shu. The list also noted their respective official positions and weaknesses.

The second page is also true.

Those government offices and institutions infiltrated by the Bureau of Folklore, those secret agents who have been turned but have not yet been exposed.

Page 3.

She paused for a moment, then began writing a third list, which was fake.

She wrote about the most difficult and stubborn members of the Yan and Shu courts, the young and ambitious officials who advocated war against Chu, and the officials who were most unfriendly to Chu on the third page.

After writing down the three lists, she looked them over again. None of them were originally subordinates of the Bureau of Folk Customs; they were all people from the Yan and Shu kingdoms.

The genuine part is solid enough to withstand scrutiny, and the fake part is also genuine enough to withstand close examination.

She folded the letter, sealed it with wax, handed it to the guard waiting outside the door, then sat back down under the lamp, picked up the now-cold tea and took a sip.

Once this list is sent out, the courts of Yan and Shu will be thrown into chaos for a while.

When the carrier pigeon arrived at the Xuzhou camp, it was already evening of the ninth day.

Zhou Xun was reading a book on the couch. He put down the book, opened the bamboo tube, unfolded the letter, and read it line by line. A smile slowly appeared on his lips.

After reading the letter, he folded it and put it in his sleeve. Then he stood up, walked to the tent entrance, and glanced in the direction of the Yan-Shu allied army camp.

"Go tell Yan Ji and Yang Wei that I will speak with them first thing tomorrow morning."

The next morning, Zhou Xun changed into clean clothes. His leg injury had mostly healed, and although he walked slowly, he was not limping.

When he entered the council tent of the Yan-Shu allied forces, Yan Ji and Yang Wei were already waiting inside.

Yan Ji sat in the main seat, with the scroll of state documents in front of him, while Yang Wei sat beside him holding a teacup.

The soldiers on both sides of the tent still held their sword hilts, but they were less fierce than when Zhou Xun last came.

Zhou Xun walked to the front of the table and stood there without sitting down.

"You two, I've thought this through before I came down."

"The State of Chu cannot sign that letter of credence."

Yanji's face darkened slightly.

"Envoy of Chu, do you really think my Great Yan dares not wage war again?"

Yang Wei also snorted coldly.

"Such neglect and utter insincerity!"

Zhou Xun did not respond to him, but instead took out two scrolls of paper from his sleeve and placed them on the table.

"Please be patient, both of you."

"Before I came down, I had an extra item in my hand, which you two might need."

He pulled out portions of the list and pushed them in front of the two men respectively.

"It's not too late for you two to make a decision after you've read it."

Yan Ji and Yang Wei exchanged a glance, and Yan Ji reached out and picked up a document, unfolding it.

His gaze fell on the first line of text, and his pupils contracted slightly.

Yang Wei also picked up another one, and his reaction was almost the same: first astonishment, then solemnity!

After they each finished reading their own lists, Yanji put down his paper.

"Where did this list come from?"

Zhou Xun did not answer the question.

"Don't forget, I, the Princess Consort of the Northern Frontier, once headed the Jing Kingdom's Bureau of Folk Customs for twelve years!"

"You two should both recognize these names."

"Some of these people spoke on behalf of the Jing Kingdom in the courts of Yan and Shu, some received money from the Jing Kingdom, and some shielded the Jing Kingdom from trouble at crucial moments."

"The fact that Jing State is willing to help you deal with Chu State now does not mean that Jing State will not plant spies in your back."

"The names on this list are only a part of it."

Yan Ji did not respond immediately.

Yang Wei folded the list and put it into his sleeve.

"I need to send this list back to my country for verification."

Zhou Xun nodded.

"No rush, I can wait."

"But I have a small request..."

"While you two are verifying the information, the militaries of both countries should not take any rash actions."

"After all, if the list I presented is genuine, launching a military campaign too easily would only leave the country vulnerable."

Yan Ji and Yang Wei exchanged a glance, but neither of them spoke.

Yan Ji stood up.

"Please ask the Chu envoy to return to his tent and rest. We will discuss peace after I have verified the facts."

Zhou Xun bowed and left the tent. The sunlight shone directly on his face as he stepped out of the tent.

He squinted and let out a long sigh.

Tie Muyun and the others waited outside the tent. Seeing his expression, they walked over and asked in a low voice.

"Did it work?"

Zhou Xun nodded, then shook his head.

"I estimate this can buy us some time, but if that's still not enough, I really have no other choice."

The two walked back to the tent side by side, the twilight slowly spreading behind them, like a page of a book waiting to be turned, the corner of the page just lifted by the wind.

The courts of both Yan and Shu were indeed thrown into chaos for a while after the list was sent back.

Some were imprisoned, some were dismissed from their posts, some wrote letters to defend themselves overnight, and some began to implicate each other.

Each name on that list was like a pebble thrown into water, creating ripples that spread outwards, growing ever larger.

Several key figures in the pro-war faction fell during the purge, and the remaining ones began to waver.

The peace faction seized the opportunity and began to voice their opinions in the court.

What was originally a united front against external threats has turned into a cacophony of arguments and probing.

Amidst this uproar, the peace talks were put on hold for another two weeks.

Yan Ji and Yang Wei did not appear in the council tent for several days in a row, spending their time verifying the list and appeasing the court.

Zhou Xun reads books in his tent every day, as if he has become accustomed to this rhythm of waiting.

Tie Muyun once asked him a question.

"Aren't you afraid they'll find out there are fake names on the list after they check it?"

Zhou Xun put down his book.

"I bet they can't even tell who's real and who's fake anymore."

"Even if we're exposed, it doesn't matter; it's just buying time for the prince."

At this moment, Xiao Lie was standing on the banks of the Tiger Roaring River, looking at the military camp on the opposite bank that he had spent more than half a month trying to conquer, and he gritted his teeth.

The sound of artillery fire was still ringing in the distance, but it was much less frequent than it had been two weeks ago.

The shells are running out, and time is running out...