The empress disliked my achievements for overshadowing her own, so she turned her attention to the N

Inside the city of Northern Qi, Jiang He sent someone to bring two jars of strong liquor, which he drank alone.

At this time, Liu Banggua had already left the territory of Daqian and entered the territory of Northern Wei.

On the other hand, Chen Nan finally managed to persuade Hongming to join him in the reforms.

Upon returning to the palace, he saw a letter on the table.

The letter was wrapped in kraft paper, with a black circular mark at the top.

Chen Nan knew that this was the code he had given to his men for an emergency.

He vaguely remembered that the last time he saw this kind of code was after the assassination of the late Emperor of the Great Qian Dynasty.

He picked up the letter and quickly opened it to read.

The letter contained several lines of large characters: Liu Bangua has gone on a mission alone; Jiang He has returned to Daqian; there is internal turmoil in Western Shu; Eastern Qin is acting strangely; Northern Wei may face a joint attack from various countries.

The few lines of large characters made Chen Nan's heart pound with fear.

He didn't understand that all he had done was hold a court assembly, or to put it more bluntly, lead 10,000 men to surround the palace.

Only one morning had passed, yet such a huge change had occurred in the outside world.

Chen Nan sat in a chair, burned the letter he had finished reading, and fell into deep thought.

First, the Emperor of the Great Qian was assassinated, and then he took on the role of the pillar of the Great Qian.

During this period, the Great Qian Dynasty was constantly targeted by other countries.

Especially in the Northern Wei, the two sides had reached a point of intense confrontation.

When he did not exert his full strength, the Northern Wei Dynasty maintained the upper hand.

The other countries took no action.

However, after he exerted his efforts, the Northern Wei Dynasty never recovered, and several other surrounding countries began to support it.

Western Shu was responsible for the economic supply of Northern Wei, while Eastern Qin was responsible for sending extraordinary talents to Northern Wei.

But ever since he was expelled from the Great Qian Dynasty, the major countries have been in a strange balance.

This balance continued until the moment he was recruited by the Empress Dowager of Northern Wei.

Since then, the economic support from Western Shu has gradually become perfunctory.

The Eastern Qin dynasty completely severed all ties with the Northern Wei dynasty.

The only difference is that without him, the Great Qian Dynasty was once again being suppressed and rubbed down by the Northern Wei.

These things are not strange. What is strange is what happened after he left the Great Qian Dynasty.

Previously friendly states with the Northern Wei inexplicably all sided with the Great Qian.

For a moment, Chen Nan was unaware of the conspiracy behind these events.

His intuition told him that something was definitely not going to happen.

Suddenly, something occurred to him.

Both the Great Qian and the Northern Wei dynasties had women as the highest rulers.

Moreover, neither of the emperors of these two countries died of natural causes.

Another thing is that whichever country he is in, that country will be targeted.

Thinking of this, Chen Nan shouted, "Mo Bai!"

Hearing the voice, Mo Bai gently pushed open the door and asked in confusion, "Your Highness, is there something you need from me?"

Chen Nan turned around and glanced at Mo Bai, then at the chair in front of him.

Mo Bai understood and sat down directly.

As soon as he sat down, he saw the worried expression on his master's face.

However, he did not ask any questions, but waited quietly for what would happen next.

Chen Nan sighed softly, "Mo Bai, do you still remember who proposed that the Northern Wei launch a war against the Great Qian?"

Mo Bai was taken aback; he was just a nobody.

How could he possibly know about such important national affairs?

He shook his head helplessly: "Your Highness, I am just a quartermaster in the army. How could I possibly know such things?"

"However, hasn't General Hongming always held the position of Commander-in-Chief?"

He may not know, but others do.

Chen Nan was taken aback, but he didn't blame Mo Bai.

He also knew that the other party was just a lowly soldier.

Just do whatever the general says.

Moreover, the best way to find out about this is really to ask Hongming.

Suddenly, Chen Nan stared at Mo Bai, his fingers tapping incessantly on the table.

Half a day later, he let out a long sigh and said softly, "Mo Bai, go to the Yinwu Marquis's residence and invite Hongming over."

"Alright, I'll go right away."

Mo Bai answered and then left the room.

During this brief moment of rest, Chen Nan pondered for a while longer.

However, his mind was in a constant state of confusion throughout this time.

There was absolutely no clue.

They could only wait for Hongming to arrive.

However, half an hour later, a voice came from outside the door: "Your Highness, General Hongming said she has other things to attend to and cannot come today."

Left with no other choice, Chen Nan had to abandon his thoughts on the matter and instead focus on reforming it.

However, Mo Bai did not leave; instead, he lingered outside Chen Nanmen.

His face was etched with deep sorrow.

Wu Xu, who was standing to the side, finally couldn't stand it anymore and asked, "What are you doing wandering around here?"

Mo Bai rolled her eyes: "What do you know? I'm considering whether or not I should explain this to the Prince."

"If you think it's useful to the prince, then report it; if you think it's useless, then don't report it," Wu Xu chuckled.

It was this sentence that made Mo Bai's eyes light up.

Yes, if it's useful to the prince, report it; if it's not, ignore it.

He couldn't even understand such a simple principle.

He praised her generously, saying, "You know what, you may look a bit simple-minded, but you can actually be quite useful in a pinch."

After speaking, he gently knocked on the door: "Your Highness, I have something important to report."

Inside the door, Chen Nan heard Mo Bai's voice and, curious about what the other party wanted, said, "Come in and talk."

Soon, the two returned to their previous positions.

Mo Bai cleared his throat, gathered his thoughts, and said, "Your Highness, the investigation into the matter of Gejia Village is almost complete."

"Oh? Tell me more." Chen Nan's eyes gleamed.

He never expected that Mo Bai would have such strong abilities.

Such a talented person is being wasted on a mere grain transport official position.

Mo Bai explained, "Your Highness, the land in Gejia Village was acquired by someone sent by the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue."

"The imperial court's salary was distributed according to the official rank."

"The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue was the lowest-ranking official among the three Vice Ministers of the Northern Wei Dynasty."

"Therefore, his salary would naturally not be high, but that's only in comparison to officials of the same rank."

"This led him to resort to crooked methods, such as forcibly seizing land from the village and selling it to some powerful families."

“Through land sales, the imperial court’s tax revenue was decreasing, while he himself made a fortune.”

After hearing the explanation, Chen Nan praised, "You did a good job. But how did you find out who was behind it?"

Mo Bai chuckled: "Your Highness, I sent more than ten soldiers to cause trouble in the fields."

“Those powerful families dared not attack the soldiers, so they had to seek out the people who had sold them the land.”

"In that case, the Vice Minister of Revenue will naturally be unable to hide it."

"When the Vice Minister of Revenue arrived at the fields, he saw that it was our people, but he didn't say a word and just turned around and left."

Chen Nan suddenly stood up: "Come with me to the residence of the Vice Minister of Revenue."