Huiyang City, inside the Prefectural Mufu.
"Sir, according to the spies' report, Jinxia City's outpost also appeared on the official road from Ganzhou to Shenzhou. Our transport team disguised as a trading company was seized halfway!"
"Master Fei, the delivery time of the White River City information has been overdue for two days. Do you want to make another arrangement?"
"The information from Anshen City has not arrived today."
"There are reports from spies lurking in the county. Jinxia City seems to be providing food to towns that are short of food. But... these relief food are all imported goods? Sir, I will send someone to review the accuracy of the news."
Fei Nian rubbed his forehead with a headache. What was going on over there in Shenzhou? Let’s not talk about the great things accomplished by the secret agents of the Ministry of Records. Even the basic function of collecting intelligence is somewhat unsustainable. Is the guy hired by the director really a professional spy
Of course, the situation was not so difficult at the beginning.
In the first two weeks, the intelligence collection work went very smoothly, and the food shortage plan was also carried out in an orderly manner. It was foreseeable that a large-scale famine would break out in Shenzhou in one or two months. If Jinxia does not have enough food reserves, that will undoubtedly be the best result. The Privy Council does not even need to send troops. The hundreds of thousands of mouths alone can bring the princess's territory to collapse.
Even if there is food in reserve, it doesn't matter. If Anshen, Baihe, and several other large counties could not be saved, Jinxia's efforts in winter would be in vain. If the Privy Council came in with Liuzhou Culiang at this time, they would be the savior. In addition, whether or not to accept the hungry people is also a challenge for Jinxia City. The princess had just promoted that everyone should be treated equally at the New Year celebration, and now she has turned away a large number of hungry people. This is definitely a major blow to her prestige.
However, the operation that started smoothly seemed to suddenly hit a turning point. Jinxia's army began to strictly inspect all roads leading to Shenzhou, and the recovery of intelligence became intermittent.
If the official channel is blocked, it will make it difficult to transport silver and other materials. Fei Nian can understand this, but it is unreasonable for the messenger to make mistakes in this regard.
They were not using the official route, and they also had carrier pigeons to assist in sending messages. At the same time, there were at least two teams arranged at one transfer point, so the possibility of being caught in one fell swoop was extremely low.
If it has something to do with the third princess's coping strategy, it would be incredible. How much control can an emerging regime have over its territory? What's more, except for Jinxia, other places were just captured in winter.
"Master Fei, the information from Baihe City is here!" At this time, a subordinate walked into the lobby quickly, "Two copies in total!"
"From White River City?" He perked up and hurriedly waved to the other party to bring it directly - originally the information needed to be screened by the Recording Department first, but now there were only two copies, and he could easily read them all by himself.
After unwrapping the oil paper, the smell of blood hit my nostrils.
Fei Nian frowned and saw a few dark red blood stains on these two letters. It was obvious that someone had tried their best to send them to Liuzhou.
"Sir, this is..." The subordinate stopped talking.
"One of the secret agents must have been attacked while placing the secret message."
In order to avoid exposing the relationship between the upper and lower lines, this kind of large information that cannot be transmitted by pigeons is usually hidden at the agreed collection location. The senders do not meet each other and do not know who the other party is.
It took two days to delay the delivery of the message, and the blood stains on the letter may have told the story.
But now was not the time to worry about the spies. Fei Nian opened two bags of envelopes one after another and poured out the contents.
One of them was sent by Pelican.
Fei Nian had some impression of this person. He was not a loner. He had his own team outside, so Baihe City's food burning plan was also entrusted to him to execute.
Fei Nian was shocked when he saw the first line of words.
"I am sure that Jinxia City has some kind of extremely convenient communication method that can send messages across thousands of miles in an instant. Everything that happens in Baihe City can be known to the other party immediately. I hope the general government will be more vigilant! It is this negligence that has caused Someone has suffered heavy losses. If possible, please inform the spies who have sneaked into other towns as soon as possible."
Is there really such a method
In an instant, many of the doubts lingering in his mind were answered.
For example, during the prison robbery in Shangyuan City, who informed Xia Fan about the mobilization of the Privy Council Guards.
For example, how is the "decision to win thousands of miles away" mentioned in the newspaper achieved
The fact that this communication method can be assigned to the White River City Affairs Bureau shows that it is by no means a rare thing, and the conditions for its use are probably quite simple.
Although I don’t know the specific method, just the confirmation of this information is worth thousands of dollars!
The next piece of news is related to demons—
"I also discovered that the wild cats in the city have become the enemy's spies. I'm afraid this has something to do with the monsters. I guess that the monsters colluding with Jinxia City are far more than the two dragons. I ask the general government to consider the addition of alchemists when fighting Jinxia. Use other forces to avoid being plotted by evil spirits."
"In addition, Jin Xia claims to be able to supply food throughout Shenzhou, but I don't know whether it is true or not. However, it is a fact that the rise in food prices in Baihe City has stagnated, so I decided to attack the grain store in advance - the consequences of this battle are unpredictable. If something unexpected happens to me, , I also hope that the Privy Council will take good care of my descendants as promised."
In addition, the letter also recorded some scattered information.
For example, Jinxia mobilized troops to block the main official roads in the state, the food relief team said that it would not give up every citizen of Baisha City, etc...
From here Fei Nian felt the huge gap in the speed of intelligence acquisition between the two sides.
After several batches of silver they sent were seized, they got news of Jinxia's army's actions from the spies. Even before the central government has decided on a countermeasure, the third princess has already started a public opinion offensive, trying to sway people's hearts.
The other letter was much simpler.
There are only two paragraphs - the secret code of White River City has been cracked, and the latent spies have suffered heavy losses.
The intelligence transfer point was also revealed by the prisoners. They will find a way to send the remaining intelligence and persist until the last moment.
Feinian punched the table violently.
The worst assumptions really came true.
This letter also means that unless the Privy Council sends new manpower, no more information will be sent to White River City.
He folded the first letter again and pushed it in front of his men, "Arrange a messenger to deliver this secret letter to His Highness the Second Prince without any delay."
"Just for a letter?" The latter was stunned, "Sir, do you want to wait until tomorrow..."
"Didn't you hear what I said?" Feinian said coldly, "What I want is to travel day and night and deliver it alone!"
"Yes, I'll do it right now!"
Not long after this person left, another official from the Registration Department came in and said, "Sir, the spies from Jinxia City have sent a new issue of the Shenjin Weekly Report."
"Put it on the table."
After the other party resigned, he opened the newspaper - it's funny to say that the most reliable information channel now is actually the public document that comes out every seven days.
But Feinian soon lost even this self-deprecating mood.
The title of this issue of the newspaper is "In Memory of the Heroes of Shenzhou", and there is a row of small words below: Declaring war on the usurper Ning Qianshi and the Gyeonggi Privy Council.