Chapter 101
The reason why Chu Huan didn't give the compound bow was that she couldn't find a good excuse. Now that the Dongyi incident happened, Chu Huan's mentality changed because of Magistrate Zhang's wife, so she gave it away.
If you fall behind, you will be beaten.
The border was often harassed by the Western Rong and Northern Di. Wasn't it because the two countries saw that Dasheng was weak and thought it was easy to bully?
Only by arming Dasheng to the teeth, making the surrounding countries tremble in fear, and making the people confident and proud, will they not be afraid of villains like Dongyi.
[Sister Huan, aren't you afraid they'll take credit for your work?] This has become a major concern for the system; every thought about it makes them angry.
Chu Hua herself was quite open-minded: "I don't know how to design weapons. I learned the compound bow by chance because I played with it before. If you ask me to produce another blueprint, I won't be able to do it either."
What if the Emperor and the Ministry of War ask me to produce another blueprint for a different weapon? If I say I saw it somewhere else, do you think they'll believe me? Will they investigate further? It would be difficult to explain myself then.
Once the compound bow appears on the battlefield, all nations will be fixated on it. If they can't win it over, they'll kill them. Why put yourself and your family in danger for such a small achievement?
This is also the reason why she asked General Xuanwei to pass it on.
As long as it was kept secret within the imperial court, no one knew that the blueprint for the compound bow came from her. They would just think it was invented and improved by the Ministry of War, or they might think it was someone else or some secret genius. In any case, it had nothing to do with her.
If this information is accidentally leaked, it can also be used to eliminate foreign spies within Dasheng.
Chu Hua: [Tong'er, let's catch some spies.]
Rather than dealing with it after the fact, it is better to take precautions in advance and deal with it quickly before things get out of hand to avoid subsequent troubles.
system:? ? ?
system:! ! !
[Hahaha, great, great!] The system was excited. Which other system in the world was like it, investigating corruption and catching spies every day?
When it returns to the main system and submits this report, it will definitely become the most beautiful system in the world, hahaha!
Everyone discussed it together, and when it was late at night and about to go to sleep, they picked out and repeated what they had said during the day.
Everyone in the Chu family got up, and some, like the fifth prince, who was very sleepy, quickly slapped their thighs twice to wake themselves up.
What are you so tired of? This is about catching a spy!
If you miss out on such a huge melon, do you still dare to call yourself a civet in the melon field? Even the civet won’t recognize you as a companion!
In fact, the events caused by Chu Huan's binding system were seen and heard by many people. As a result, the court arrested many spies who wanted to pass on information and assassins who attempted to assassinate Chu Huan. They gained a lot, but they could do nothing about those spies who kept their composure and did not act rashly.
With this system, spies who are hiding deeper or have just infiltrated can be caught without any effort.
Everyone just felt so happy!
The system lived up to everyone's expectations and revealed a big secret right away: [The Minister of Personnel is a spy sent by the Dongyi people.]
Everyone: “…”
The information was indeed huge, but they almost choked to death.
The Ministry of Personnel was in charge of the assessment, appointment, dismissal, promotion, etc. of officials in Dasheng. The Assistant Minister of Personnel was a third-rank official and was the second-in-command of the Ministry of Personnel, with great power.
If there is a Dongyi spy in such an important position, doesn't that mean that Dongyi has planted countless spies in Dasheng through the hands of the Minister of Personnel?
They would suffocate if they thought about it for a moment!
The fifth prince was more optimistic. The court did not discover the spy, the Minister of Personnel, early on, which caused a lot of losses. However, it was not too late to be discovered by the system now, and there was still time to remedy the situation.
What's more, with the Minister of Personnel's intolerant personality, with him putting pressure on him, it shouldn't be so easy for the Vice Minister of Personnel to make any moves, and even if he really did do something secretly, it would be limited.
The losses should be within a controllable range. If not... it depends on how angry my father and the old Grand Tutor are, and how deeply they will deceive the Dongyi people.
The matter of stealing gold is still under careful planning and can be supplemented at any time.
The fifth prince put his hands together with a compassionate look on his face: Dongyi, go with peace of mind, you will definitely take the blame for this.
Last year, Chu Huan went to court to replace her brother Chu Qin's official position. Her subsequent promotion and transfer were all imperial decrees. She had nothing to do with the Ministry of Personnel and did not know anyone in the Ministry of Personnel.
I have a certain impression of the Minister of Personnel. He appears to be affable and easy to talk to, but in reality, he's very strict about promotions. It's said he came from a humble background and, in his youth, worked hard to achieve some political achievements, only to have them snatched away by his superiors, who leveraged their status and family background. Therefore, he has a strong aversion to fabricating and stealing achievements.
She had reason to suspect that Chu Qin's promotion last year did not go through the hands of the Minister of Personnel, otherwise it would not have happened so quickly - the third place in the imperial examination was promoted faster than the first place, there must be something fishy going on, and the Minister of Personnel must be unable to tolerate it and want to suppress it.
Chu Hua: [I've met the Minister of Personnel before when I was in court, but he didn't leave a deep impression on me.]
Perhaps it was because she attended court less frequently and for a shorter time, and in order to keep a low profile, she often slacked off and did not interact with other officials. It could also be that the other party actively avoided her.
System private chat complaints: [He knows you're connected to the "Eating Melon" system, so he's definitely avoiding you. Every day before court, he prays to the gods and Buddhas that you won't focus on him, otherwise his spy identity will be exposed immediately, and his life will be over in an instant.]
Chu Hua: [So, he's been trembling with fear for over a year, right?]
System: [Yes, seeing how easily you brought down the former Minister of Revenue, the Third Prince, and others, he was almost scared to death. He didn't dare to speak out, nor did he dare to pass on any information to anyone, lest the Dongyi people find out and immediately send people to kill you, even though he hadn't been exposed before. Then he would be exposed immediately and have no chance of survival.]
Everyone is selfish.
Some people sacrifice their own families for the sake of the country and the nation, and naturally there are also people who sacrifice their country to protect their own interests.
While Yitong was seemingly silent but actually chatting privately, everyone else was also thinking, and their thoughts were in sync with the system - the Minister of Personnel might be consciously avoiding Chu Huan and the system, just to protect his identity and secrets.
Sure enough, even with a plug-in like the melon-eating system, it is impossible to cover everything, so that such a big fish was missed.
The system finished the private chat and returned to group chat mode: [The current Minister of Personnel is not the same Minister of Personnel as before. Let me explain in detail.]
Chu Huan lost interest when she heard this opening line: [What a true and false minister stunt.]
system:【……】
Seeing the host's attitude, it looked at others again. Wow, except for the Fifth Prince and the Embroidered Uniform Guards, everyone else started yawning.
It’s really disrespectful to the melon-eating system!
It's working diligently to expose the truth, how can you have such an attitude?!
The system suspected that its method of revealing information was not right, so it changed its habit of starting from the beginning and only revealed the explosive information: [Although this current Minister of Personnel is a spy from the Dongyi, he is from Dasheng.]
Chu Hua: [Oh.]
Wasn't Imperial Censor Wu Ru also from Dasheng? He was bribed by the Western Rong and even wanted to spread the Fushou Cream throughout the court. His heart is damnable!
It can be seen that whether or not one is a spy has nothing to do with one's country of origin, and there is no inevitability.
The system is not in a hurry, and revealed the second shocking news: [The current Minister of Personnel looks exactly like the previous Minister of Personnel. ]
This melon was indeed powerful, and Chu Huan was attracted: [Is this the famous disguise technique in the martial arts world?]
The others were not attracted by the information revealed by the system, but were attracted by the disguise technique that Chu Huan mentioned. Could it be that there really is a way to change one's appearance in this world?
"Little guy, can't I handle you?" The system was very proud. It knew what kind of melon was most likely to impress people.
[The technique of changing one's appearance by applying a super-thin layer of skin has many flaws, even in novels and television, such as not being able to sweat, bleed, or blush.]
[They don't need to use this legendary method because they already have the same face.]
Chu Hua: [It's not disguise, and plastic surgery is impossible, so they are twins? ]
System: [That’s right.]
Chu Hua: [Even if they are identical twins, their voices, body shapes, speech patterns, habits, handwriting, and so on are all different. It takes a lot of effort to completely imitate another person, and it's not something that just one or two people can easily accomplish.]
System: [The Dongyi have an institution dedicated to training spies, and the fake Minister of Personnel came from there. When the Dongyi people discovered that one of their spies looked exactly like the real Minister of Personnel, it was like pie in the sky, and they smiled so hard their faces almost split.]
Then they collected all the habits of the real Minister of Personnel and had the spy memorize and learn them. They also had him learn false pronunciation and imitate handwriting. They trained him in this targeted manner for several years until they felt the time was right to completely switch the two.
Chu Huan: [Then didn't anyone else in the Minister of Personnel's residence notice it? Even if the servants and maids who served him personally didn't notice, his wife, concubines, and children should have noticed something was wrong, right?]
System: [There's still something wrong, but no one's thinking about that. It's normal for him to make excuses and say he wants to change his tastes and preferences.]
Everyone's preferences change over time, which is normal.
Some people didn’t like eating tomatoes when they were young, but suddenly fell in love with the taste when they grew up. They like both raw and cooked tomatoes, and no one thinks “Has my friend been replaced by someone?”
Chu Huan thought about it and felt that this difficulty was comparable to "Because my child's temperament suddenly changed, I skipped other speculations such as the child growing up and becoming sensible, and directly thought about whether the child had traveled through time?"
"Didn't you say the fake Minister of Personnel was from Dasheng? How did he end up in the Dongyi spy training facility? Did he go there on his own initiative, or was he forced to go there?"
Three questions in a row, the system almost answered them one by one.
Realizing that this approach would be boring, it didn't follow the questions in order, instead focusing on the key points: [The Dongyi people scouted candidates throughout Dasheng, taking advantage of wars and natural disasters to abduct or sell children, bringing them to secret locations for brainwashing and training. From a young age, they were taught that they were Dongyi and that they must devote everything to the Dongyi people.]
It's fine if they're obedient and do what they're told, but some older children, remembering they're Dasheng people and unwilling to be brainwashed, will be severely beaten, subjected to various tortures until their skin is torn and flesh is bruised. They'll also be thrown into snake dens and left to be bitten by poisonous insects until they become submissive, numb, and obedient.
Some children didn't make it, and their tiny bodies weren't even buried. Instead, they were thrown to the dogs in front of everyone. This frightened the children, leaving them pale and traumatized. They became even more terrified of the Dongyi people, and dared not object to their words, leaving them with only one option: to obey.
Some children survived, but it was these hardened souls that the Dongyi people loved to torture the most. They would break their spines, crush their limbs, and shatter their pride. The prouder and more stubborn a person was, the more they would be tortured, until they died.
[Beast!] Chu Huan bit her lip, her mouth filled with the bloody taste of her angry lips. She uttered those two short curse words with a trembling voice.
Wen was in tears. As a mother, she couldn't bear to hear her child being abused and killed.
Even a gentle person like her couldn't help but harbor murderous thoughts towards the Dongyi people: These beasts deserve to die! Go to the eighteen levels of hell!
The fifth prince's eyes were deep and completely black.
If his father had not ordered him to move to the Chu family and live next door to Chu Huan, eating melons day and night, he really would not have known that under the prosperous and peaceful Da Sheng, there were so many dirty things going on in secret.
He still remembered that when he was six years old, he was sleeping soundly in his bedroom, but was awakened in the middle of the night by a snake crawling onto the bed. He was so scared that he screamed, had a high fever and nightmares, and tossed and turned for several days. He was so depressed that he didn't even want to go to the imperial garden where snakes might be.
Those children who were the same age as him or even several years younger than him must have been scared to death when they were thrown into the snake cave. It is unknown how long they had nightmares.
Dongyi!
He will never coexist with the Dongyi people in this life! The fifth prince's fingers creaked.
The system continued to reveal: [In addition, the Dongyi people divided children into three levels based on their appearance: upper, middle, and lower.]
The best ones were taught various skills such as music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and were sent to the palace or given to princes, dukes, and other royal relatives. The middle-class ones were trained to suit the preferences of certain officials, and when they reached a certain age, they were sent to the backyard through various means to steal intelligence for the Dongyi or to influence their subordinates to achieve certain goals.
Those they deemed inferior were trained in various killing techniques, becoming assassins or death squads, to assassinate talented individuals or officials. They also had people who specialized in cleaning up the scene, making it look like an accident or a robbery, making it less noticeable.
[The above standards are not absolute. They also train some good-looking people to be assassins, who can assassinate royal relatives and officials. Their lives are not in their own hands, let alone innocence. Once the Dongyi people make a request...]
Having said this, the system paused, intentionally giving Chu Huan and everyone else some time to digest and sort out their emotions.
To it, this is a struggle between nations, and the people who died in it are just a few words and numbers, just like many later generations look at the names and numbers of people who died in the war when they look at history.
But for Chu Huan and others, those were their compatriots who should have lived on the same land with them.
Even strangers who had no previous contact with them would find it hard not to be moved when they heard that they had been beaten and tortured by the Dongyi people since childhood, and were ordered by the Dongyi people to fight against Dasheng, their country and their relatives for the Dongyi who treated them so badly.
Chu Huan's voice was extremely cold: "Tong'er, give me the list of locations. Don't miss any of the ones who are still alive."
For the next period of time, everyone listened to the system's detailed report, while Chu Huan, wearing her coat, recorded everything bit by bit at the table.
An hour later, Chu Huan rubbed her sore wrist and sorted out the thick stack of lists.
The system looked distressed: [Sister Huan, Meng Hang is not here, how did you send the list out? ]
Chu Huan was silent for a moment, then suddenly said something shocking: [Tong'er, I want to hand you over.]
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