Chapter 271 A Safe Place to Surface

Tan Xiaopei thought about it carefully, and this might indeed be a solution. To deal with the Dao Ming Sect, they needed someone who could direct the forces of all parties on the ground and make decisions on the fly, someone who could make the Intelligence Bureau, the Inner Court, and other forces completely trust them and hold nothing back. To subdue those industries with their diverse minds, they needed unparalleled business acumen and imagination, as well as an understanding of people's hearts. In either respect, Ye Tao and Tan Weixin could meet these requirements. However, Tan Xiaopei absolutely could not tolerate or bear it if anything happened to either of them. Tan Weixin had always been Tan Xiaopei's darling, as well as someone with the wisdom and ability to govern the entire Dongping and even the entire continent's economy. Ye Tao now meant even more to Dongping, Yunzhou, and Zhenzhou. Even setting aside these considerations, Ye Tao was now the father of two children, one of whom was Tan Xiaopei's grandson. This kind of dangerous situation, where only success was allowed and failure was not an option, really made Tan Xiaopei hesitate.

Dai Qiuyan, who had recently returned to the manor for a rare respite, didn't care. She only asked two questions: one, would there be any danger, and two, if they encountered anything dangerous, could they escape? Ye Tao answered truthfully: Yes, there shouldn't be any problems. So Dai Qiuyan nodded and said, "That's good, then. If you think you should go, then go."

Sophie shrugged, not mentioning any questions at all. It wasn't that she didn't care about Ye Tao, didn't cherish the gentle and affectionate feeling of being with Ye Tao. On the contrary, she cared very, very much. Moreover, unlike Dai Yun, Tan Weishi, Dai Qiuyan, Tan Weixin, and others, who always had family to be with, Sophie only had Ye Tao left.

Dai Yun and Tan Weishi, the two mothers with relatively shallow experience, whispered together for a long time, and finally agreed to this crazy idea of Ye Tao and Tan Weixin. However, the two of them threatened Ye Tao in unison, saying that if he missed the time when the children started talking, he shouldn't regret it. How could Ye Tao, who was so concerned about his children, be willing to miss these things? However, some things had to be done.

Moreover, since it was what Tan Weixin requested and longed for, there was even less reason for him to refuse or hesitate. In a polygamous family, this kind of balancing act was really not easy. Fortunately, whether it was Dai Yun, Tan Weishi, Dai Qiuyan, or Sophie, they were all very understanding. Although Ye Tao and Tan Weixin had been married the longest, they were the kind of people who had endless work to talk about when they were together, and discussing too private matters was not suitable for Tan Weixin's health in the past. But now, Tan Weixin's health was finally improving a bit. And the two of them deserved to have an interesting, peaceful, and solitary life. As for the enormous power of Yunzhou and Zhenzhou, for these two people, it was never something worth clinging to. Not to mention temporarily relinquishing it, even if they completely handed it over, they wouldn't even frown.

Tan Xiaopei finally agreed to Tan Weixin's proposal and let the two of them handle the Chen family's mess. However, Tan Xiaopei wanted to personally oversee how this matter was arranged.

It wasn't so easy to set off and do this thing. The Intelligence Bureau, the Inner Court, and other parties had so much preparation work to do. Moreover, after some research, everyone suddenly discovered that the best place to start wasn't Chunnan, but Xiling. Xiling might not be a place where they could collect many industries, but it was a good place to safely let the identity of "Chen Kai" slowly emerge. They couldn't directly enter any place under the name of Chen Kai. They had to use a third identity. After this identity was properly arranged, they would go to Xiling and slowly erode the suspicion and vigilance of those industries while intentionally or unintentionally revealing the identity of "Chen Kai." Then, they would prepare to "flee for their lives" to Chunnan to take over those industries after the Dao Ming Sect noticed. Indeed, this would take some time, but it would also give them a greater chance of success. Was there any danger in Xiling? Of course, but the strength of the forces deployed in Xiling was much stronger than in Chunnan. If something really went wrong, whether they ran north to the areas controlled by the Leiyin Demon Sect in Zhongzhou and Taizhou, or even further north to Zhenzhou, they would be safe. Or they could run east to Xuanshan Pass, or even go directly to the arranged rendezvous point and return directly by airship. There was too much leeway. If they went to Chunnan, they would be caught off guard if they encountered any trouble. The deployment in Chunnan still needed a lot of time.

Ye Tao and Tan Weixin didn't leave Yunzhou until September, when the weather started to cool down. They transferred through Zhenzhou, Taizhou, and Zhongzhou, all the way to Anqing, the capital of Xiling. The Special Operations Camp had all infiltrated Anqing, and many members of the Tan and Dai families had also come to this city, which now seemed a little pale and gloomy.

Xiling's paleness and gloom was natural. On the surface, they had finally given up the conquest of Dananguan. The various troops gradually retreated and returned to their original garrison locations, reorganizing and waiting for orders. In the past year or so, Xiling was first blitzed by Dongping, losing Zhenzhou, the province with the largest land area, and then Chunnan, which they had always bullied into not daring to talk back, went straight down to Dananguan. All the important foreign passes were now in the hands of others. These days were really hard to live. Fortunately, the King of Xiling was also very decisive. He ordered another pass to be built in front of Dananguan, facing Dananguan from afar.

Although Chunnan knew that this would greatly reduce the significance of their capture of Dananguan, they really couldn't do anything about it. The fierce battle with Xiling had lasted too long. Although Xiling had lost a total of more than 350,000 main combat troops and auxiliary troops, militia, and clan soldiers, Chunnan's losses were no less than this number. The main combat troops currently deployed on the front line were all replenished to full strength under Chen Xujing's strong request, but the decline in combat effectiveness was an indisputable fact. In the short term, holding the passes was no problem, but it was absolutely impossible for them to risk their lives to fight for results like before. Chen Xujing himself was quite surprised by the unity of the Chunnan army during these past few years. No matter which faction the commanding general belonged to, no matter which faction of the army inclined towards court struggles, as long as Chen Xujing gave an order, they would definitely obey it respectfully, even if some orders were obviously extremely dangerous and would result in heavy losses. This situation had never happened in Chunnan before. Chen Xujing couldn't help but think that if they had been like this before, why would they have lost territory year after year to this point?

At this time, the physically and mentally exhausted Chen Xujing finally took a breath and prepared to return to Yuhang to report for duty and take a short rest. This time, he had overdrawn a lot of his life.

Under these circumstances, Xiling finally had a sense of crisis, and the direction of the court had changed somewhat, becoming more pragmatic. At this time, Sun Bobing, who had always been down-to-earth, hardworking, and had strong business skills, was reused. He ascended to the position of Minister of Revenue earlier than expected and began to take charge of Xiling's financial work, becoming an undisputed core minister. Although Sun Bobing now had many guards around him and found it quite inconvenient to contact outsiders, he still revealed some core secrets through Gu Xi of the Qingxin Sword Sect. This level of intelligence was beyond important. It not only involved the basic economic situation of Xiling, such as the total amount of taxes, the proportion of various expenditure items, and other core data that the court would never publicize in this era and that almost no one understood, but also the content of many court meetings in Xiling.

Since taking office as Minister of Revenue, Sun Bobing had been constantly playing the role of a drag. He used the excuse that the court had no money to scuttle many projects. Xiling originally planned to bring 20 private business revenues into the central government, but Sun Bobing only managed to incorporate half of them. Xiling originally planned to outsource the procurement of weapons to merchants and aristocratic families, reducing central military expenditures, but it failed to pass in the end. ... However, through this series of events, Sun Bobing's position in everyone's mind became more and more important. Every time he came up with irrefutable economic data, speaking with solid figures. And every time he compromised, he proposed intermediate solutions that were comprehensive. This kind of capable minister was not something that the few guys pushed to the forefront by the Dao Ming Sect could compare to. When those ministers who supported the Dao Ming Sect proposed that the King donate to the reconstruction of the Dao Ming Sect's main altar, Sun Bobing even flew into a rage. He cited the amount of donations the Dao Ming Sect had received in the past three years and questioned where all that money had gone. That was really a lot of money, almost equivalent to the total amount of silver in the clean Xiling national treasury. The Dao Ming Sect hated him so much that their teeth itched, but they couldn't refute him.

While such dramas were being staged in the capital of Xiling, it seemed that no one noticed that a young couple surnamed Lu had bought a small but extremely comfortable courtyard in a quiet part of the eastern city and quietly moved in. The surrounding courtyards and shops had changed hands one after another...

The Lu couple were businessmen. Although the young man named Lu Zheng looked more like a scholar than a businessman, they used to run a fur business in Zhenzhou. After Lu Dan took over Zhenzhou, many of the fur businesses were snatched away by merchants from Yunzhou. Lu Zheng sold off the local properties and was planning to open a shop in Anqing. Lu Zheng wasn't in a hurry at all. He and his wife were still busy with their comfortable little courtyard. The two of them only brought a maid named Sisi, an old family member they called "Uncle Liu," and a errand boy named "Xiao Jin." In their courtyard, there was gentle laughter every day, small, harmless disputes over whether or not to take back moves when playing chess, and the rich aroma of food drifting out...

Those neighbors who came to visit and strike up friendships all said that although this family had fallen on hard times, they really knew how to live. The grandfather clock in the Lu couple's living room was a high-end item worth a lot of money. It was still a limited edition from back in the day. Although there were some scratches due to transportation and the Lu couple probably didn't have the money to repair it, it still showed their status. In their small courtyard, although they only had porridge and simple dishes every day, they lived very comfortably. It turned out that even in poverty and hardship, one could still have a life.