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“No matter how powerful the Su family is, this is Qi Kingdom’s territory. They cannot outmaneuver the current Emperor,” An Jin opened a military strategy book and pointed to a line for me to see.
Retreat is the best strategy.
I understood. “You mean, the Emperor wants to force the Su family to flee?”
“Exactly. The Su family are Western Liang’s secret agents. Once they flee, they must return to Western Liang to report to Yan.”
“But isn’t this like releasing a tiger back to the mountains?”
“His Majesty certainly has a purpose,” An Jin closed the book, lightly tapping his knuckles on the table. “His entire plan might also involve the Secret Department. I just haven’t received his imperial decree yet.”
The Emperor was indeed not an easy character to deal with.
I suddenly felt an ominous premonition. “What do you think he’ll make the Secret Department do?”
“I don’t know,” An Jin turned away, his expression slightly cold.
I had a strong feeling that An Jin actually did know, but he chose not to reveal it.
He chose not to speak, and I stopped asking, silently preparing myself. During this process, an unprecedented clarity emerged in my mind. Some previously overlooked details and forgotten clues gradually emerged from the fog.
Given what we currently knew, there was still a significant doubt.
If the Emperor’s goal was to have the Su family send an assassin to confirm the Fifth Princess and force them to flee, why go to the trouble of having the Tang family design the mechanism? Now it seemed the mechanism, apart from causing a fire, served no other purpose in the plan.
Wait… the fire?
Could the Emperor be using this assassin to destroy the Fifth Princess’s body? That would indeed be killing two birds with one stone.
No, this still didn’t make sense. If the Emperor wanted to destroy the Fifth Princess’s body, he could do so anytime. Unless he was wary of something and didn’t want to destroy the body himself, instead using the assassin to achieve his goal.
There were three things the Emperor might fear: Western Liang, Southern Rui, and the Secret Department.
