General Cheng!

As soon as Xie Ming arrived at the courtyard gate, he saw the old man with a full head of white hair nimbly dismount his horse. His face was full of wrinkles, but his eyes were full of energy.

He was the late emperor's top confidant, possessing all the necessary skills, abilities, and loyalty. This is why he was able to firmly hold his position in Jiangbei.

Some aristocratic families wanted to make a move against him, but they were all subdued by General Cheng before they could even make a move.

From then on, the major clans here realized that this was no ordinary general; he was also the head of intelligence for the Great Sheng Dynasty.

"This old minister greets Prince Kang!"

When General Cheng saw Xie Ming come out to greet him, he quickly stepped forward, clasped his hands in greeting, and bowed at a 90-degree angle.

"General, there's no need for that. My father often thinks of you while he's in the capital."

"Thanks to Your Majesty's great favor, this old minister is well!"

When the emperor and his minister met, they naturally had a long chat about old times before finally discussing Xie Ming's purpose in going to the southwest.

General Cheng pulled out two lists from his robes and said, “After receiving the official document, His Majesty’s men also conveyed an oral decree. This old minister dared not presume to know His Majesty’s intentions, so I prepared two lists. If it is merely as rumored, this old minister will give you the green list. If you have other duties, then I will give you both lists.”

Xie Ming took the list and looked through it carefully. He then discovered the advantage of putting the two lists together. As expected, the old fox was the wisest!

This shows they've thoroughly figured out the entire Jiangbei camp.

People on the green list are either usable but not trustworthy, while those on the red list are entirely trustworthy.

The fact that some people appeared repeatedly on the roster was clearly due to spies planted by General Cheng. More importantly, the two rosters together contained as many as 10,000 people.

"General Cheng, do you have any other arrangements regarding the number of people?"

"Your Highness, rest assured, many of the men above are wounded, and now that they've retired, no one will bother them."

Xie Ming understood; this was part of General Cheng's fortune, and it even included some of his most loyal followers.

It seems that General Cheng saw through the trickery during the trip to the southwest; was this a scout sent to test the waters?

"How many more people like this does the old general have?" Xie Ming asked quietly as he closed the roster.

General Cheng's expression turned solemn as he knelt down and said, "Your subject has overstepped his bounds."

"General, please get up and let's talk properly." Xie Ming gently helped the person kneeling on the ground.

"Your Highness, I am ashamed to say this. I consider myself a warrior, but unfortunately, all my sons are like scholars, and none of my grandsons can go to the battlefield. If I were to pass away, I would feel ashamed before those who have followed me for half my life."

Xie Ming was also surprised after hearing this. Did General Cheng have no capable generals left to entrust with? Thinking this, he asked, "Is the situation in the Jiangbei camp really that dire?"

"I don't have many trusted confidants."

The old general's words revealed his heartache.

"Okay! Don't worry, I've taken them all in and will make sure they're well taken care of."

Xie Ming was short-handed at the time, so he wouldn't care about injuries or injuries.

Even the wounded have their uses; they are all heroes who have seen bloodshed. If all else fails, they can always take on a few apprentices.

In the next few years, there will be more and more people from the Southwest, and who knows what kind of stubborn people will come over.

“Your Highness, this is my grandson. He's a good child, but he suffered a lot because he wasn't born into the right family. My children and grandchildren, while not necessarily talented, are at least settled, but this child…”

Every family has its own problems, and Xie Ming wondered if this would lead to another case of someone obsessed with romance.

Before he could finish thinking, the Heavenly Dao delivered a melodramatic plot.

Well! It's that "real and fake young master" trope again. Luckily, the real young master has a reliable maternal family that pulled him out of the mire.

"Does this young man have any special talents?"

"These two points of my nephew's are particularly useful."

General Cheng smiled and pointed to his head and mouth, then went on to recount a whole bunch of his stories.

Xie Ming was delighted after hearing this; wasn't this sending him a talented individual?

Alright, let's send Fuquan over there to be a divine messenger.

If used well, the Crown Prince's advisors can quickly leave and go do other things with him.

"General, then I will grant your grandson a bright future."

After Xie Ming finished speaking, he crossed his name off the roster.

General Cheng felt a chill run down his spine. He was also an intelligence officer and knew all too well that some shady characters operated in the shadows.

"Don't worry, I can't reveal what he did for the time being, but his life is definitely not in danger."

Not knowing what riddle his master was playing, General Cheng still nodded in agreement.

He obtained this child under a different identity. His wicked daughter is confused; who knows what she'll do if she knows the person is still alive? Entrusting the child to Prince Kang is indeed much safer than keeping him by his side.

The two sat in that low farmhouse for the entire afternoon.

Xie Ming's task for General Cheng was to restrain the various forces within the Jiangbei camp so that he could control them in the future.

As for his sons and grandsons, he suggested that they go to school and be good students, and if they were capable, they would surely be successful in the future.

These words not only reassured General Cheng's descendants but also put pressure on him to reorganize the Jiangbei camp.

When Xie Ming left the Jiangbei camp, he ostensibly took less than 500 men with him, but secretly he had tens of thousands of men following behind them in smaller groups.

With no shortage of men and horses, Xie Ming began the traditional brainwashing work.

They formed small groups of five and larger groups of 20, and in addition to traveling day and night, they also worked to unify their thinking.

The message conveyed was just a few points: patriotism, love for the people, loyalty to the emperor, and serving the country.

As people gradually arrived in the southwest region, almost every soldier became a passionate patriot.

The Black Feather Army, who had followed them all the way, were dumbfounded. It had only taken them a month to go from being bewildered and listless to being excited.

They had no doubt that they could take this group out to fight right now. They were also glad that they had come with Xie Ming.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!