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

Chapter 116: Taking the Initiative to Contact

Zhao Bocong remembered that in the original timeline, Wanyan Lianghui murdered the emperor and usurped the throne in the nineteenth year of Shaoxing, becoming the fourth emperor of the Jin Dynasty.

In the thirty-first year of the Shaoxing era, he broke the peace agreement and launched a large-scale invasion of the south, with an army of 600,000. He once reached Caishiji on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and the Southern Song Dynasty almost perished.

That war was still nearly twenty years away from this point in time.

However, Wanyan Liang began expanding his army in the thirteenth year of Shaoxing.

This means that the military preparations for the Jin Dynasty's invasion of the south did not begin after Wanyan Liang usurped the throne, but rather nearly twenty years earlier.

During these twenty years, the Jin Dynasty secretly amassed military strength, built warships, and trained its navy, while the Southern Song Dynasty, under Qin Hui's appeasement policy, continuously reduced its military equipment, suppressed military generals, and destroyed materials related to the Northern Expedition.

The reason why the Song army was able to win the decisive battle at Caishiji twenty years later was not because the Song army was strong, but because Wanyan Liang made a strategic mistake.

If Wanyan Liang had not made a mistake, the Southern Song Dynasty would have perished.

"In the tenth year of Shaoxing, the Jin state broke the first peace agreement and invaded the south. Yue Fei, the Junior Protector, fought his way to Zhuxian Town and almost recovered Bianjing."

Qin Hui summoned him back with twelve gold tablets and killed him; that happened in the eleventh year of the Shaoxing era. Zhao Bocong remained silent for a long time before raising his head to look at Qin Keqing.

"It is now the thirteenth year of Shaoxing. Wanyan Liang is secretly expanding his army and training troops in Yanjing."

The Jin dynasty did not abandon its southward invasion because of the peace treaty of the eleventh year of the Shaoxing era; they were merely waiting, waiting for the Southern Song dynasty to cripple itself militarily. Qin Hui accomplished that for them.

"Your Highness, this intelligence is not an isolated case."

"The fact that the remaining Han Chinese spies within the Jin territory have taken the initiative to re-establish contact indicates that there are many more lines of communication operating independently in the north that we are unaware of."

They may have been waiting for a long time, waiting for someone in the south to catch what they are handing out.

"If we can restore these old connections, we can rebuild our intelligence network within Jin territory."

Qin Keqing's speech quickened without her realizing it, "But this matter cannot bypass Your Highness, because those former spies swore allegiance to Yue Shaobao back then. Now, if we want them to continue to be loyal, someone needs to take over the tokens that Yue Shaobao left behind."

Zhao Bozong took the chipped copper coin from the bronze box and placed it on the table. "Zhijia left seven copper coins, and we found four. There are three left, and perhaps one of them is in Jiangbei."

......

White Horse Temple in Xiangyang.

Yue Yinping received the same intelligence that Li Bao had forwarded from the mouth of the Han River in a side hall under the bell tower.

After reading the secret letter, she walked to the stone steps outside the clock tower and sat down.

Wanyan Liang.

She had heard of that name.

When my father reached Zhuxian Town in the tenth year of Shaoxing, Wanyan Liang was just an idle member of the imperial clan in the Jin Dynasty's Marshal's Mansion, in charge of the allocation of military equipment for surrendered Han soldiers.

My father's scouts had reported that this man was good at winning over surrendered people, but at the time no one took him seriously. There were too many members of the Jin royal family, and a minor figure in charge of military equipment was not worth paying attention to.

This minor character is now secretly expanding her army, while her father...

Yue Yinping stood up, picked up her plain wooden spear, and began practicing alone on the training ground.

The sound of the spear tip slicing through the air was exceptionally clear in the quiet temple in the afternoon...

April 10th, the study of the Prince of Puan's residence.

Qin Keqing spread out the latest abnormal transfer records of the Imperial City Guard sent by Feng Yi on the table.

Records show that after the "copper coins return to their place" signal was sent from Xiuzhou, there were unusual gatherings at three outposts of the Imperial City Guard in Lin'an City.

"The simultaneous unusual gathering at three sentry posts indicates that the Imperial City Guard has been monitoring these three locations."

They received our signal and assumed that an old node in their intelligence network was about to be activated, so they concentrated their forces to prepare for the operation.

Qin Keqing's finger traced the record one by one, "But they didn't know that the three copper coins were fake. The real copper coins were still in Feng Yi's hands. He didn't distribute them, so the Imperial City Guard's gathering was in vain."

Zhao Bozong nodded.

"The fact that the Imperial City Guard has assembled indicates that the exposed intelligence network nodes in the wooden box at Fantian Temple do indeed exist, and that the Imperial City Guard already knows the contact methods and aliases of at least three of them."

However, all they knew was that Zhou Sanwei had fabricated a pseudonym, so they had been waiting for him to come to them.

These three nodes are now completely exposed and can no longer be used. What we need to do is notify these three people to immediately go silent, switch to new identities, and the sooner the better.

In addition, if Feng Yi takes back the three fake copper coins, once the Imperial City Guard discovers that they have made a false alarm, they will expand the search area of ​​Lin'an City, and Feng Yi's palace connections will have to remain silent for at least half a month.

For the past two weeks, all our communications with the Cining Palace have been handled by Zhang Quwei, who delivers them via the side corridor of the Deshou Palace, no longer through Feng Yi.

After writing down the instructions, Qin Keqing looked up at Zhao Bocong.

She noticed that Zhao Bozong spoke slightly faster than usual today.

Ten months ago, when he faced Zhao Gou in the warm pavilion, he only had the roster left by Zhijia and an empty envelope from the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs.

Back then, he spoke very slowly, each word like a tentative step on ice.

Now he has more cards to play.

This is the real change in him over the past ten months. He has not only learned the art of power, but more importantly, he has learned to remain calm while in control of the overall situation.

A sixteen-year-old prince, commanding an entire invisible army, could still sit calmly at his desk, reviewing intelligence report by report. This composure was not innate; perhaps it was more a result of being gradually forced out of him by Qin Hui.

......

On April 12th, at Lin'an Wharf, Li Bao's merchant ship entered the port as usual.

When the sailors met with Manager Chang at the dock, they handed him more than just a list of medicines and routine reports.

There was also a very small oilcloth bag containing half a reed tube.

Reed tubes were the standard tokens used by spies in Jiangbei to pass intelligence.

Around the tenth year of the Shaoxing era, Han Chinese spies within the Jin territory hid secret messages in reed tubes and buried them under the stone steps of a designated ferry crossing. These messages were then dug up and taken away by sailors on merchant ships heading south.

This system of tokens had been dormant for nearly four years, but it has now been unearthed again at the same ferry crossing, indicating that the remaining old connections on the north bank of the river are being actively re-established.

Qin Keqing did not open the reed tube immediately when she received it in the small house in the side courtyard.

She placed the reed tube on the table and looked at it for a moment by the candlelight.

The outer wall of the reed tube was dry, cracked, and yellowed, but the wax ball at the seal was intact.

Qin Keqing opened the wax pill and pulled out a very thin sheet of bamboo paper from the tube. There were only a few words written on the paper, the handwriting was messy but very powerful.

"North of Yanjing, remnants of the old railway line remain, awaiting a message from the south."

There are no signatures, no place names, and no specific number of people.

But Qin Keqing could tell the weight of those words.

The phrase "awaiting the token from the south" itself is asking: Are the copper coins we received back then still valid?

Qin Keqing got up to hand the reed tube to Zhao Bozong.

The old railway line in Jiangbei is waiting for an answer, and that answer must be given by Zhao Bozong himself.