Shen Yuanzhang judged that this was a moment of "extreme urgency".
For security reasons, this launch only involves the transmission of intelligence and there is no direct contact.
After completing their mission, the mole disappeared completely into the open once again.
Shen Yuanzhang flipped through this stack very slowly.
He repeatedly compared and verified every sentence on the paper with the information in his mind, trying to select the most suitable target.
The Wen family...Wen Tingwan?
This woman has some talent, but she is not top-notch.
He ranked eleventh in the first round of the exam, barely making it into the middle to upper ranks.
Logically speaking, if she performs consistently, she might be lucky enough to pass the exam, but her ranking will inevitably be low.
Huh? Wait a minute!
Shen Yuanzhang's gaze was fixed on the intelligence report about the Wen family, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
"The preliminary exam questions were obtained from the Pei residence."
"For this provincial examination, the Wen family spent a huge sum of 100,000 taels of public funds to purchase the exam questions from the Pei family again."
The Pei family? The Pei family has actually been involved!
The information was provided by the trusted old nanny who had served the Wen family's patriarch for thirty years, so it must be true.
The connection between these ideas flashed through Shen Yuanzhang's mind like lightning.
The Wen family is the paternal family of the sixth princess, Qin Zhaoyue, and that infamous sixth princess does indeed have a relationship with Pei Xueqiao.
He knew what others didn't.
The intelligence was provided by the Imperial Guards who had returned from disaster relief efforts. At that time, the floodwaters from the breached dikes swept away many soldiers, and in the end, it was the Sixth Princess who saved the eldest son of the Pei family.
Shen Yuanzhang's first reaction was that it was absurd.
100,000 taels for exam questions? Who would dare offer such a price?
Leaked exam questions? That's utterly absurd!
The Grand Secretary Pei, being so shrewd and calculating, would never allow such a blunder to occur within his own household.
Although the eldest son of the Pei family was somewhat inexperienced and dull in handling official matters, he was by no means such a reckless and tactless person.
Unless... unless it was a life-saving favor, Pei Xueqiao kept this matter a secret from his father.
Those spies deeply embedded in various mansions could never transmit false information.
The intelligence clearly stated that the Wen family matriarch had used a huge sum of public funds, demonstrating an unprecedented level of determination.
If they hadn't received absolutely certain information, why would the Wen family have willingly spent 100,000 taels of silver to buy a vague and uncertain "exam prediction"?
The more obviously false a piece of information is, the more likely it is to be true.
This was Shen Yuanzhang's intuition, gained through years of immersion in intelligence and countless lessons learned.
If this information is true, then there must be a crucial element that he is unaware of.
A crucial link that would make the Pei family, or Pei Xueqiao, willingly take great risks.
Shen Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes.
Unfortunately, his intelligence network is currently fragmented, and the two key nodes of the intelligence...
The spies in the Sixth Princess's residence had already been wiped out by that former commander of the Azure Phoenix Guard.
The Pei residence was like an iron fortress, impenetrable to both a needle and water.
Shen Yuanzhang's gaze was fixed on the words "Wen Tingwan" and "Pei family's 100,000 taels" as if it had taken root.
Time passed, and the candlelight flickered in his deep eyes.
One hundred thousand taels of silver—a sum that would tempt anyone, a lure pointing towards the behemoth that is the Pei family…
Is it worth risking everything and making this crucial bet?
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