Shen Peng deliberately relaxed his posture and said, “I’ve only heard some historical accounts mentioned by clerks in the bureau before. But when truly attempting this matter, I discovered that bird message transmission is no easy task. I didn’t expect Tangyi to have successfully trained birds capable of transmitting messages first. Judging by this sound, it’s pigeons, isn’t it?”

Great Liang had struck even more thoroughly at the old dynasty’s scholar-gentry. Now within its borders one might not even find a single breeding pigeon. Training and cultivating wild pigeons was even more complex. For Shen Peng to accomplish this matter at the Chengtian Bureau, without ready-made guidance and experience, having to fumble through fragmentary literati accounts, was even less of an easy task.

Shen Peng was about to say more when he noticed Han Bao, who had been standing silently against the wall, straighten his body at this moment. Obviously his words had aroused this person’s vigilance. It seemed if anything else was amiss, he would intervene at any time.

Shen Peng sat up slightly straighter, no longer probing, and said directly, “Since you can already use birds to transmit messages, Marquis Qianyang may know tomorrow what happened in Dingzhou City. But have you considered how Marquis Qianyang will utilize this matter?”

“What are you trying to say?” Wang Zhe also asked vigilantly.

“Don’t you want to know who we encountered at Guanjiang House that made us so bedraggled?” Shen Peng asked.

“…” Wang Zhe straightened up about to press the question, but turning it over in his mind, he realized they were the ones holding the initiative. How could they be led by the nose by Great Liang’s chief of secret agents? He relaxed his posture and sat back down, signaling Shen Peng to continue.

“If not for Marquis Wuyang Liang Ren and Prince He’s heir apparent Zhu Tianming appearing at Guanjiang House, us running into them face-to-face caught off guard, tonight wouldn’t have become so tumultuous.” Shen Peng said.

Han Bao gave Zhang Shigui guarding the door a look, having him fetch Huo Li over.

The information Shen Peng revealed was too critical.

Previously when they wrote what they saw and heard tonight into secret letters and had Shi Ruhai and a group of personnel disperse and evacuate while beginning to transmit back to Tangyi, much of what they wrote in the secret letters was speculation. But when Tangyi made decisions, they would weigh the speculative portions accordingly.

Now if they believed Shen Peng’s words, they had to verify this information. Otherwise they might mislead Tangyi’s decision-making.

Shen Peng had fallen into their hands, but that didn’t mean that for Great Liang’s interests, he wouldn’t intentionally mislead them.

Huo Li quickly came over. After Han Bao consulted with him and Wang Zhe for a moment, he stared at Shen Peng again and said, “I will personally verify what you’ve said. Now I’m giving you a final chance to change your statement. Once I step out of this courtyard, if I discover what you said differs from the facts by even the slightest bit, don’t blame us for being ruthlessly cruel. You also shouldn’t think we lack authority to dispose of Princess Yunhe. We infiltrated Dingzhou under orders. Ensuring we stay alive is the first priority. If necessary, we can even hold my lord’s secret letter and formally pay respects to the Chengde Army Provincial Military Governor…”

“My Emperor suspected Guanjiang House might secretly submit to the Mongol Uighurs, but not everyone in Wang Yuankui’s army is willing to become the Mongol Uighurs’ running dogs. That’s why the incident of unauthorized execution of our Great Liang’s envoy to force a showdown occurred earlier. My mission in coming this time was mainly to seek support from some officers in the Chengde Army to shake Wang Yuankui’s resolve and delay as much time as possible so my Emperor could capture Luzhou first. To add weight to winning over Chengde Army officers, my Emperor specifically had Princess Yunhe come along. We just never expected Zhu Rang would directly send Marquis Wuyang Liang Ren and Prince He’s heir apparent Zhu Tianming over—do you think I have any need to deceive you on this matter?”

Time was too urgent. Shen Peng didn’t want Han Bao and his group to waste time verifying his words, yet also knew convincing them wasn’t easy. He could only speak in an even calmer tone.

“I imagine you can understand what difference these two—Liang Ren and Zhu Tianming—coming here makes, right?”

Wang Zhe exchanged glances with Huo Li and Han Bao. They naturally clearly understood how huge the difference was.

Marquis Wuyang Liang Ren and Prince He’s heir apparent Zhu Tianming coming over were both envoys and even more so hostages.

Marquis Wuyang Liang Ren was the legitimate son of Liang Military Affairs Commissioner Liang Shixiong and also Prince He Zhu Rang’s brother-in-law. The two of them appearing in Dingzhou City as hostages undoubtedly demonstrated Liang Shixiong and Prince He Zhu Rang’s unwavering determination to rebel.

This matter would not only urge the Mongol Uighurs to dispatch troops at the fastest speed, but would also help Guanjiang House and Wang Yuankui resolve internal Chengde Army disagreements at the fastest speed.

Guanjiang House had long secretly submitted to the Mongol Uighurs, but Wang Yuankui ultimately wasn’t a puppet controlled by Guanjiang House and Wang Jingrong. The commanding generals under Wang Yuankui had even more their own calculations.

The previous situation was: on one hand Mongol Uighur cavalry could march south at any time, on the other hand Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang led one hundred thousand Liang army elite forces who could capture Luzhou at any time, then emerge from Jingxing Pass into Hebei.

Under these circumstances, which of the Chengde Army’s officers could be certain who would win in the end?

Even Wang Yuankui having hesitation was perfectly normal.

This was precisely why Shen Peng secretly escorted Princess Yunhe to infiltrate Dingzhou City—the purpose was to exploit Wang Yuankui and his subordinate officers’ hesitation and uncertainty to lobby and persuade them to delay time.

Princess Yunhe’s role was even that at the critical moment she could come forward as a hostage to show that Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang absolutely had no intention of pursuing the killing of the Liang envoy, thereby stabilizing Wang Yuankui.

As long as Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang could capture Luzhou first and display the momentum of military forces pointing directly at Hengzhou and Dingzhou, Wang Yuankui and his officers would be even less likely to make choices easily at that time.

At that point if they still firmly turned toward the Mongol Uighurs, it would only mean Heng and Ding states would be crippled immediately, with the Chengde Army immediately colliding with the military edge of one hundred thousand Liang army elite forces.

However, but, nevertheless—Liang Shixiong and Zhu Rang’s scheming ruthlessness was not inferior to the Liang Emperor’s. With Marquis Wuyang Liang Ren and Prince He’s heir apparent Zhu Tianming simultaneously appearing in Dingzhou City, the situation was completely different.

This represented that no matter what circumstances arose, Prince He Zhu Rang and Military Affairs Commissioner Liang Shixiong would definitely coordinate internally and externally to raise the banner of rebellion.

This meant Great Liang would definitely fall into great internal chaos.

This meant that even if Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang captured Luzhou, he could only immediately return south with his army to quell the internal rebellion.

This also meant Mongol Uighur cavalry would definitely take this opportunity to massively dispatch troops to invade Hebei.

No matter how Great Liang’s situation subsequently developed, whoever in the Chengde Army still harbored hesitation and uncertainty at this time would definitely suffer bloody purges.

Han Bao exchanged glances with Wang Zhe and Huo Li. They all couldn’t help thinking grimly that Liang Shixiong and Zhu Rang were truly ruthless characters to directly send Liang Ren and Zhu Tianming into Dingzhou City as hostages.

For anyone else, even understanding that after Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang captured Luzhou, he would extremely likely next turn around to deal with dissenting elements around him—not everyone truly had this courage of seeking life from the jaws of death.

“Since we’ve already encountered Liang Ren and Zhu Tianming face-to-face, presumably they won’t continue hiding their heads and tails either. What they currently need to do is merely urge the Mongol Uighurs to dispatch troops as much as possible. You don’t need to risk infiltrating to verify the truth or falsehood of these words. Perhaps tomorrow the news will spread throughout Dingzhou City,” Shen Peng said. “The only thing they can’t anticipate is that you can transmit messages by bird…”

“What are you trying to say? You surely don’t hope to use our carrier pigeons to transmit a letter to the Liang Emperor, do you?” Han Bao asked.

“Don’t try to deceive me at this time. Although the Chengtian Bureau hasn’t succeeded in training message-transmitting birds, we also know bird message transmission has too many limitations. If birds could truly transmit messages between different locations at will, mobilizing all of Great Liang’s national power, we definitely wouldn’t perform worse than Tangyi.” Shen Peng said.

Han Bao, Wang Zhe, and Huo Li didn’t speak.

“Mongol Uighur cavalry invading south, Zhu Rang and Liang Shixiong rebelling—Great Liang falling into turmoil is already certain. At that time Xu Mingzhen’s Shouzhou Army will also inevitably fall into great chaos. Perhaps Marquis Qianyang is precisely waiting for this opportunity to bring Shou and Huo states into his grasp?” Shen Peng looked toward the three and asked. “This is also the greatest purpose of your appearing here, isn’t it?”

“We’re only responsible for collecting and transmitting information. How my lord will decide is not something we can interfere with. You also need not wildly speculate.” Wang Zhe said.

“How can I not speculate? I have a brilliant plan that could allow the Tangyi army to seize Haozhou without bloodshed. I just don’t know if you three are willing to listen?” Shen Peng said.

“Chief, don’t waste so many words. Whatever you say, we can transmit back to Tangyi, but how my lord decides is not something you or I can interfere with.” Wang Zhe reiterated.

“With Liang Shixiong and Zhu Rang rebelling, Xu Mingzhen will most likely observe the situation and won’t easily abandon defending Shou and Huo states. But Chen Kun and Han Yuanqi are utterly loyal to my Emperor. As long as there’s a thread of opportunity, they definitely won’t sit and watch Bianjing fall into rebel hands,” Shen Peng said. “Of course, if Marquis Qianyang directly sends people to Haozhou to report, it would be difficult to gain Chen Kun’s trust. But if the Tangyi army can deliver letters personally written by me and Princess Yunhe to Chen Kun, the situation would be different—at that time, whether accepting Marquis Qianyang’s favor or needing to transfer forces to suppress the rebellion, Chen Kun will yield Zhongli City and lead his forces back to the north bank of the Huai River…”

Han Bao, Wang Zhe, and Huo Li now understood what Shen Peng’s plan was. Plainly speaking, it was using the time difference of carrier pigeon transmission to fight for Great Liang’s final thread of opportunity to salvage the defeat.

If they now transmitted Shen Peng’s secret letter back to Tangyi, and if Tangyi didn’t add insult to injury, the secret letter could reach Chen Kun’s hands as early as tomorrow night at the latest, and could be delivered to Han Yuanqi by noon the day after.

Han Yuanqi had six thousand elite cavalry available in Xuzhou—Great Liang’s only remaining lifeline at this moment.

Dispatching troops from Xuzhou, with cavalry forces galloping at two hundred miles per day, they could control the time to arrive at Bianjing six hundred miles away within three days.

In other words, five or six days later, if Han Yuanqi could personally lead six thousand elite cavalry to successfully reach beneath Bianjing City, there was still opportunity to seize Bianjing City back from Liang Shixiong’s hands.

After all, although the Liang Emperor had transferred Liang Shixiong to serve as Military Affairs Commissioner, the forces Liang Shixiong could directly command in Bianjing were quite limited.

Although Prince He of Liang Zhu Rang had thirty thousand elite troops in Weizhou, they were primarily infantry. Even if they departed recklessly tonight, five or six days later they might not reach beneath Bianjing City. Moreover, they still first had to control Weizhou to cut off Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang’s retreat route.

In fact, no matter how determined Prince He Zhu Rang was, to coordinate well with the Mongol Uighurs, he would most likely delay until Mongol Uighur cavalry fully entered the Chengde Army’s defense zone before launching the rebellion—Zhu Rang and Liang Shixiong couldn’t imagine that Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun on the southern front might learn the details this quickly—this way they could gain two to three more days for Han Yuanqi.

As long as Han Yuanqi could lead the remnant army to seize Bianjing, for Great Liang the situation wouldn’t be considered completely collapsed.

Who held Bianjing was too critically important for Great Liang’s future situation.

“Of course, when my letter reaches Marquis Qianyang’s hands, Marquis Qianyang may very likely ignore it, sitting and watching my Great Liang completely fall into turmoil, sitting and watching Mongol Uighur cavalry ravage the Central Plains. But no matter what, as secret agents dispatched by Marquis Qianyang, you should find a way to transmit my letter before Marquis Qianyang’s desk for his decision, shouldn’t you?” Shen Peng looked calmly at Wang Zhe, Han Bao, and Huo Li. He didn’t hope they would delay time verifying this matter. Even three to five hours earlier could determine Great Liang’s different fate.

At this moment Wang Zhe also began hesitating, looking toward Han Bao and Huo Li.

They now still had four carrier pigeons in hand—only one opportunity for emergency communication. In fact, even all four carrier pigeons might not successfully deliver Shen Peng’s secret letter back to Tangyi in time…