Chapter 1 The Establishment of Mingcha Si

In the past few days, the series of small-scale conflicts around Yanjing had infuriated the Northern Liao court. Had the Northern Liao's defenses and intelligence work become so lax? But Jing Linchi quickly got into gear. Under the ruler's thunderous rage, his yet-to-be-named department rapidly gathered elites drawn from the Yulin Army, the Inner Court Guard, the Yanjing Garrison, the Eyes Viceroyalty, the Eastern Route Army, the Western Route Army, and other units. Some experts provided by various families were also temporarily seconded, allowing Jing Linchi to have enough masters to cope with any problems that might arise in this tense situation. Jing Linchi himself, and the people in various departments, naturally understood that this new department, hastily assembled by drawing personnel, was filled with forces from all sides. For the time being, it was still difficult to actually enter a state of preventing spies and secret agents, but it was more than suitable for dealing with the current chaotic situation.

Jing Linchi knew that the most important thing he needed to solve next was the issue of whether the internal staff were united. Although he now commanded these hundreds of people, only less than thirty people he had personally selected could truly be directed at will. If he could submit a satisfactory answer sheet in a short period of time, and then gain the ruler's affirmation, then his position would be secure. Otherwise, the power struggles within this organization alone would be enough to watch, and he wouldn't have to do anything else.

He quickly mobilized more than two hundred people from various departments, divided them into more than twenty groups, and scattered them to collect suspicious information, trying to figure out the various details before and after the two attacks, so as to understand who did it and how they did it.

Compared to the attack on the Northern Liao's testing ground, the ambush that occurred in the small village south of Yanjing was even more worrying. Although the Western Ling people deliberately ambushed the Chun Nan people, who were anxious to return home, they still had a good chance of success, but their detailed arrangements were indeed exquisite. They unknowingly controlled a village. When the Chun Nan men passed by disguised as a transport team from a carriage and horse shop, the Chun Nan people responsible for scouting ahead did not notice that the old village chief in charge of welcoming them was actually fake. The "old village chief" was none other than Du Ming, "Old Man," the person in charge of the Northern Liao side of the Western Ling's largest intelligence agency, "Sky Character Number Four."

The Chun Nan group was unknowingly led into the valley. It wasn't until they had finished eating that they realized something was wrong. Although the Chun Nan side was a bit careless, they were very careful about food and drinking water, and among them was Doctor Lao Li, who had retreated with the team specifically to provide various treatments for secret agents and was well-versed in medicine. No one knew what Lao Li's real name was, and he hadn't used his original name for almost twenty years, so he might not even remember it. But it was he who identified the colorless and odorless anesthetic in the food and drinking water, and the Chun Nan side quickly began to prepare countermeasures… When a fight broke out in the middle of the night, almost simultaneously launched by both sides who thought they were deliberately calculating against each other, it quickly evolved into a major battle. Because both sides had many highly skilled assassins and martial artists, as well as strong commanders and wise staff, this battle can be described as classic in terms of specific tactical command, but the mutual strangulation was also exceptionally tragic. The Western Ling side failed to smoothly carry out their ambush to the end, but they had the advantage of occupying advantageous terrain in advance, so they still benefited a lot. In the end, the Western Ling side won the *Operation Guide* they wanted at the cost of ninety-four deaths, and after hurriedly fleeing the scene of the battle to meet with the support personnel, another four seriously wounded people died. Having paid such a price, the Western Ling side felt it was still quite worthwhile. For the current Western Ling, the role that this *Operation Guide* could play was quite critical. Among the support personnel, there was someone very familiar with airship technology, holding the *Operation Guide* and reading it over and over again, overjoyed.

It is said that Western Ling had put a lot of effort into airship design and manufacturing. Just this guy named Du Zhong, who belonged to Sky Character Number Four, had taken all the routes in Dongping more than once in order to figure out some rules, and also used other names to try to hitchhike on the special high-speed airships of the Information Transmission Bureau and the delivery airships of Federal Express and DHL Worldwide Express, repeatedly observing the operating rules of the airships and the exposed mechanical parts. Du Zhong was born into a family of craftsmen, and his uncle was now an official in the Western Ling Ministry of Industry, but he still liked handicrafts since he was a child and was not very interested in his career. However, he did not expect that he would embark on the path of technical intelligence and do quite well. Du Zhong even participated in the apprentice examination of the Yip's Workshop Yicheng headquarters. Although he passed the exam, he soon left the apprentice course on the pretext that it would take at least three to five years before he could access key institutions. Du Zhong was also a very talented guy, and he was extremely obsessed with airships. Now, he could almost accurately draw the appearance diagrams and exposed mechanical structure diagrams of various types of airships in Dongping. His familiarity with various types of airships in Dongping, as well as some of their modifications, even greatly exceeded that of many technical officials in Dongping, and even exceeded Yip Tao and others. After all, even Yip Tao, Zhao Dazhu, Yip Lao Geng, Qian Shun, and others could not track the research and development and minor modifications of every type of airship at any time.

After Du Zhong confirmed the value of the *Operation Guide*, it showed that these partners had not died in vain, and the Western Ling intelligence personnel had to start worrying about how to return to Western Ling quickly and safely to deliver this thing.

"Du Zhong," "Old Man" Du Ming instructed, "You take two people south, try to get into Dongping, and then take an airship all the way to the south to find Lao Jiang in Qingfeng Town. He can arrange for you to return safely." After thinking it over and over, Du Ming decided to let Du Zhong take the things and separate from them. Du Zhong's combat ability was really not worth mentioning, but he and this *Guide* were too important.

"But, what about you?" Du Zhong frowned and asked.

"Hehe, us… we'll disperse on the spot and then have a good time with this group of people from Northern Liao. It will take at least a month for Chun Nan to be able to stop the people from being unfavorable to us. What we have to deal with first is the Northern Liao's Inner Guard… Based on past experience, although our strength is greatly damaged now, we can still deal with them. Besides, after all, we are different from the Chun Nan side. They are completely withdrawing, but our agencies scattered in various places are still there. We are just focusing on doing this big deal." Du Ming explained. He and Du Zhong were not related, but they had the same surname, and he liked Du Ming's serious work ethic, so the two could be considered quite agreeable.

"This is too dangerous…" Du Ming hesitated.

"There's no time. Even Northern Liao already has airships… You know, our airships are now slightly worse than those learned from Chun Nan, just slightly worse. You said this thing is important, and you are familiar enough with airships. This time you go back, let those big guys fly better. In the future, you can give the enemy some color to see. It all depends on you. Now it is still peaceful with Dongping, and neither side is interested in starting a war, but the southern line and the Chun Nan side may only have a few months of peace. It is best to let the airship play its role at that time," Du Ming said.

"Yes…" Du Zhong thought for a while and replied seriously.

"Also, after you get into Dongping, let our guys find a way to transfer another group of people to investigate the details of that Kong Xinhua. This guy can get this thing, so his background must be extraordinary," Du Ming said.

Such a team quickly dispersed. Although the relationship between Northern Liao and Dongping was tense now, and border inspections were very strict, there were always open channels. Originally, Dongping's inspection of books and booklets was not particularly strict, but in order to prevent accidents, Du Zhong took a more careful approach. He forcibly memorized the entire *Guide*, and then burned the original. He and two colleagues pretended to be a master and two servants who entered Dongping to avoid the war, and easily entered Dongping. Then he immediately went to the nearest city, prepared a complete set of pens and inks, and memorized the entire set of *Guide* with both text and pictures, and then mounted it in the interlayer of calligraphy and painting. In order to prevent accidents, he also drew another set on delicate bamboo paper, and then sealed it in a metal bucket, and sent a colleague back through another channel, just in case. Western Ling's Sky Character Number Four's ability to transmit intelligence still gave him a lot of confidence.

Du Zhong returned to Western Ling in less than half a month and brought back the *Guide*. But Du Ming was in trouble. He originally thought his opponent was the Northern Liao Inner Guard, but he did not expect that it would now become the group of people that Jing Linchi was leading. Jing Linchi quickly captured a Western Ling spy and learned the whole story from his mouth. This was a really big contribution, and Jing Linchi's temporary agency officially received the name "Mingcha Si," and the first official internal promotion was given to the meritorious personnel. This kind of agency can be considered to have temporarily gained a firm foothold.

Kong Xinhua and Yip Tao got the news later. They did not expect that this idle move would cause such a big storm, but the result was pretty good. Kong Xinhua, who provided the *Guide* to Northern Liao, rose sharply in status. When Chun Nan and Western Ling began to deploy surveillance and investigation on Kong Xinhua, Dongping's intelligence agency had made complete preparations. On the one hand, they covered up the entire process of Kong Xinhua's rise, so that people could not detect his connection with Dongping. On the other hand, they also sent a group of people to monitor and investigate Kong Xinhua, and Kong Xinhua's smuggling business in Dongping was under great scrutiny for a period of time, which also seemed to indirectly prove that his identity was different from the past.