"Minister Taihang, please give the order! Those traitors must not be allowed to live past tomorrow!"

"Yes, even if we die here, we'll take their lives!!"

The soldiers inside Chu Qian's tent were also furious. They had been fighting against foreign tribes for many years, and their hatred had seeped into their very bones.

We are naturally filled with utter resentment towards those spineless scoundrels.

"Brothers, please calm down!!"

Seeing that everyone had gripped the hilts of their knives, Chu Qian quickly spoke up to stop them.

"Minister Taihang...are you perhaps afraid?"

The soldiers looked at Chu Qian with some displeasure.

"Hmph~, if I, Chu Qian, were afraid of death, I wouldn't have come here!"

Chu Qian snorted coldly, looking angrily at the brutes in front of him.

Then Chu Qian earnestly said, "They deserve to die, of course, but we still have a mission to fulfill for His Majesty. If we all die here, how can we report back to His Majesty? How can we get the information we've gathered to His Majesty?"

Upon hearing Chu Qian's words, the soldiers finally came to their senses.

"We were reckless and almost made a grave mistake. We hope Minister Taihang will not take offense..."

"Please forgive me, Minister Taihang!"

A man who appeared to be a captain quickly led his soldiers to bow and apologize to Chu Qian.

"Brothers, there's no need for this!"

Chu Qian quickly stepped forward to help the captain up, then said in a deep voice:

"I understand your feelings. These people who betrayed their country and nation are far more hateful and deserving of death than these barbarians. Even if I can't kill them now, I won't let them get away with it!"

"Could it be that Minister Taihang has some idea?"

Chu Qian's words made the captain's eyes light up, and he looked at Chu Qian with curiosity.

"Those people must have just arrived here recently. Even if they are willing to submit to the Xianbei, Tan Shihuai probably won't immediately trust and give them important positions..."

After a moment's hesitation, Chu Qian said, "Here's what we'll do... I'll write a few letters in the name of the imperial court. You and your brothers should try your best to find out about them, and then hide those letters in the residences of some of them..."

"Even so, that Tan Shihuai shouldn't do anything to them, right?"

The captain looked at Chu Qian with a puzzled expression. How could such a stupid method possibly fool Tan Shihuai?

Chu Qian chuckled lightly, "Hehe~, Tan Shihuai might not be a problem, but his son is another story!"

"That 'He Lian'...?"

"That's him! He's the one!"

Chu Qian smiled and nodded. Based on his observations over the past few days, Tan Shihuai's son, He Lian, could be described as a complete brute.

Moreover, He Lian is extremely hostile to the people of the Han Dynasty. Even with Tan Shihuai around, He Lian can't do anything to those people, but it's still no problem for He Lian to go and cause trouble for them and humiliate them.

Over time, those people naturally lost their unwavering devotion to Tan Shihuai.

Over the next few days, Chu Qian and his soldiers, after extensive inquiries, finally found out the situation and whereabouts of the traitors, and then secretly slipped the letters into their tents under the cover of night.

However, to Chu Qian and the others' surprise, before they could notify He Lian, the letters were discovered by those people and handed over to Tan Shihuai.

Looking at the letters before them, Tan Shihuai and Han Sui couldn't help but reveal a triumphant smile.

The reason they hadn't taken any precautions and allowed Chu Qian's soldiers to inform Chu Qian about the banquet in the royal tent was that they wanted to use Chu Qian to test whether the scholars were truly loyal to them.

Seeing this situation now, Tan Shihuai finally felt relieved.

"Ha! Such a petty trick! Such a clumsy method! What a bunch of fools..."

Among the crowd, a young scholar, upon seeing Tan Shihuai's expression, couldn't help but sneer inwardly, filled with contempt for Tan Shihuai and Chu Qian.

This person was a spy under Jia Xu from the Jizhou Investigation Bureau.

As early as last autumn harvest, Jia Xu had predicted that someone would take the opportunity to gather the families of exiled officials and powerful figures.

That's why Jia Xu instructed Chen Hu and others to find Lu Zhi and Huangfu Song and to plant people from the Investigation Bureau in them. Besides monitoring those with ulterior motives, the most important thing was to prepare for infiltration into the grasslands.

Now, Jia Xu's plan is finally beginning to show results.

February 5th.

Just as Tan Shihuai and Han Sui were discussing this year's plans, a scout suddenly rushed into the royal tent.

"Reporting to the Chanyu, according to my intelligence, the Left Wise King of the Northern Xiongnu destroyed the Juyan Kingdom before the new year, and plundered a large amount of grain, salt, wine, cloth, and other supplies..."

"What??"

Upon hearing the scout's report, Tan Shihuai was taken aback.

Tan Shihuai then looked at the scout and shouted angrily, "Damn it... Why are you only finding out about what happened before the New Year now?!"

"Great Chanyu, please forgive me... It's because the Xiongnu have been frequently sending out cavalry to patrol and search lately, making it difficult for my men to get close and gather information..."

The scout was startled by the sandalwood tree and quickly spoke up to explain.

Why are their defenses so tight?

Upon hearing his subordinate's explanation, Tan Shihuai looked at Han Sui beside him with a puzzled expression.

Han Sui pondered for a moment and said, "It's possible that when the Han envoy passed through their territory, they discovered him and then searched for him."

Either someone raided a Xiongnu tribe, which is why the Xiongnu strengthened their defenses!

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