Pang Fei asked Qin Mubai what he wanted to know, and Qin Mubai immediately asked–

“Do you have any definite information about King Wu?”

“No.” Pang Fei shook his head awkwardly. His answer made Qin Mubai a little disappointed.

Qin Mubai knitted his brows and said, “Could it be that King Wu was really assassinated?”

Pang Fei replied, “Upon hearing this, I immediately sent my trusted aides to secretly investigate the Jingzhou crime scene. As a result, the Jingzhou government sealed off the information very tightly. I only know that the Imperial Court sent Chu Suiliang to investigate the case personally. In addition, there is a survivor accompanying King Wu, and that is the King Wu’s Mansion Divine Army’s Lieutenant, Yin Yang!”

“Yin Yang?” This news surprised Qin Mubai a little. He said, “I know him very well. At first, I worked with Yuwen Hongtai, who he still owes, in King Wu’s Mansion. It was considered a good friendship between brothers. Where is he now?”

“I don’t know.” Pang Fei shook his head. “It is possible that he still stayed in Jingzhou, or that he returned to Chang’an with Chu Suiliang. The people I sent to Jingzhou tried their best to find out, but it was very difficult to find any valuable information, let alone contact those people who knew about the case.”

Qin Mubai rubbed his chin and fell into deep thought. After a long time, he said, “Has Chang’an sent anyone?”

“I’ve gone. I haven’t returned yet.” Pang Fei’s expression turned ugly as he lowered his voice a little. “After the King Wu case, all the passageways leading to the pass in Kansai have been tightened up and pedestrians have been closely checked.” Especially all the officials and generals under the Lanzhou Governor-General’s Mansion. It was very difficult for them to go to the pass, and they had to be interrogated layer by layer, as if they were supervising a prisoner. Therefore, I guess the people I sent to Chang’an to gather information won’t come back so soon. ”

“What do they mean?” Qin Mubai couldn’t help but be a little annoyed, “Did you treat me, Guanxi Army, the Governor-General of Lanzhou, as a thief?”

Pang Fei sighed and said, “If I tell Master one more thing, Master will definitely be even angrier …”

“Speak!”

“I have a few colleagues from the Hundred Cavalry. Mentor also knows them. They work in the military mansions of Long Zhou, Jing Zhou and Qi Zhou in the western border area. We often have correspondence, and we have a very good friendship.” Pang Fei said, “Not long after the King Wu incident, someone secretly told me that the Imperial Court has issued an order to gather most of the soldiers of the Guanzhong Military Manor to strengthen their garrison in Chang’an. In addition … the Xi Jiang area has increased the number of sentry posts to secretly investigate, and they have a vague intention of guarding against Guanxi Army!”

Hearing Pang Fei’s words, Qin Mubai felt a chill run down his spine.

However, Pang Fei also said that all of this was “vague” and not enough to prove it. Qin Mubai, who had always been calm and collected, did not lose his temper. He only said indifferently, “Guard against others is indispensable.” We are not afraid of shadows, let them go! However, since the Imperial Court has made such a reaction, I feel even more that the current situation in King Wu is not optimistic. Either they had already been assassinated and died, but the Imperial Court had tightly sealed off the information and did not send it out. “Either that, the imperial court itself had a big problem, so it made such an emergency response to prevent the chaos in the capital!”

“Chaos in the capital?” Pang Fei blinked his eyes and thought, “Actually, the rumors stop at the wise. As long as there is His Majesty the Emperor in the court, there will be no chaos.” Also, even if something unexpected happened to King Wu, as long as he found out the truth and captured the culprit to give an explanation to the people under the heavens, he would not cause any major trouble if he tried to appease the various parties. “Although we don’t have any definite information about Chang’an yet, I have an ominous premonition when I look at how frightened the people of the Western Region are when they arrive at the inner reaches of the Pass.”

“Do you think something happened to the Emperor?” Qin Mu’s eyes shone brightly.

“This is a serious matter!” Pang Fei whispered in surprise, “Unless something unexpected happened to His Majesty the Emperor, the loss of the Imperial Court will make it appear so nervous and chaotic!”

Qin Mubai’s eyebrows furrowed, and his expression became even colder. He nodded and said in a deep voice, “If this is really the case … then the rivers and mountains of my Great Tang will truly be in chaos!”

Seeing Qin Mubai’s expression, Pang Fei took a deep breath! Judging from his current situation, he was prepared to respond to the actions of the Imperial Court with a bit of self-help!

“As you said, regardless of King Wu’s life or death, no matter how popular the rumors are, as long as His Majesty the Emperor is still presiding over the court, there will be nothing to worry about.” Qin Mubai said with a serious expression, “But if His Majesty the Emperor falls and ignores politics, then the power of the Imperial Court will definitely fall into the hands of King Wei, Eldest Sun Wuji, and the others! … This situation will be extremely disadvantageous to us!”

Pang Fei’s expression tightened as he continued, “Coupled with the rumors about his mentor, I’m very worried that someone in the Imperial Court will take advantage of this and attack us sooner or later!” Because, if King Wu was no longer around, the future Crown Prince and Emperor would undoubtedly be King Wei. “Then, the first obstacle to be eliminated is our teacher, the people from Guanxi Army!”

“But–what if King Wu doesn’t die?” Qin Mubai asked.

Pang Fei was stunned for a moment and didn’t know how to answer. He hesitated, “That’s another situation. But looking at the current situation, even if King Wu isn’t dead, he must be hiding in Chang’an or kidnapped and lost his freedom! Otherwise, why would Chang’an be so tense to guard against me?”

“Smart!” Qin Mubai nodded and praised, “Pang Fei, you are getting stronger and stronger now. Your analysis is very reasonable.” That’s right, if King Wu didn’t die even though he was ambushed, then there wouldn’t be a need for Jingzhou to keep the news so tightly sealed. Thus, Chang’an would not be so frightened. There were only two possibilities. First, King Wu is dead; Secondly, even if King Wu wasn’t dead, he was still missing! “Even the people in the Imperial Court, including the Emperor, do not know where King Wu is!”

“That’s right, this explanation is reasonable.” Pang Fei said, “If something happens to King Wu, it’s easy to think of how your mentor will react, so the Imperial Court has taken strict precautions against me, Guanxi Army!”

Qin Mubai’s eyes narrowed. A murderous aura gushed out of his eyes.

“Strictly guard against it?” Qin Mubai said word by word, “I, Qin, am a loyal hero of the Great Tang. When did I become a thief?”

“Ah” Pang Fei sighed helplessly and said, “Master, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Guanxi Army, including all the officials and civilians in Lanzhou, are all loyal to the Great Tang. These past few years, we have been living and dying here in Lanzhou. How many brothers have been stained with yellow sand and buried in the battlefield? How many civilians have sacrificed their lives to support our army? “After we defeated our strong enemies through suffering and pacified the Tang Empire, the Imperial Court acted as if it was dealing with bandits … This is truly chilling!”

Qin Mubai closed his eyes and let out a long sigh of relief. “Forget it … this is politics!”

“Master, what should we do now?” Pang Fei asked.

“I’ll leave two things to you.” Qin Mubai said, “First, continue to send people to the pass to investigate the whereabouts of King Wu, inquire about the direction of the imperial court;” Second, announce to the people that I, Qin Mubai, have conquered the Western Regions and returned triumphantly! Afterwards, they prepared to hold a merit celebration meeting in the capital of Lanzhou, inviting all officials above the seventh rank under the Governor-General’s Mansion and the representatives of the gentry and commoners to participate. Let me think about the rest. ”

“Alright, the students will do it immediately.” Pang Fei agreed. Although he was anxious in his heart, since Qin Mubai had already returned, Lanzhou had a backbone. He could be considered confident in his heart, and he was no longer so hesitant. He knew that Qin Mubai had never liked to show off. The reason why he had specially held this “celebration party” was to show his loyalty to the Imperial Court to the people from all walks of life in Lanzhou, shatter the rumors in the streets, and stabilize the morale of the people.

As long as Lanzhou wasn’t in chaos, Pang Fei believed that Qin Mubai would be able to solve the problems in the outside world.

After gaining a general understanding of the situation from Ponfey and instructing him to do a few things, Qin Mubai prepared to leave the barracks. When he left, he deliberately looked around the barracks and felt that it was not bad. After leaving Lanzhou for a long time, he handed over the military and political power to Pang Fei. This brat seemed to be working very hard. Seventy percent of the hundred thousand troops left in Lanzhou were new troops. After training for this period of time, they had already had a few tens of percent of their strength. Their vitality was also very abundant, and they had inherited Guanxi Army’s passion and courage.

Looking at the military camp in front of him, Qin Mubai couldn’t help but think to himself, Lanzhou has a hundred thousand troops here, plus the three hundred thousand troops Xue Rengui and Yuwen Hongtai are returning from behind, Lanzhou will soon have four hundred thousand troops, and they will be elite masters who have gone through a hundred battles!

In other words, if he was an emperor and a court official, it was impossible for him to turn a blind eye to the four hundred thousand troops in Kansai after Li Ke’s accident. Everyone knew that there had been many battles around the Great Tang in recent years, and most of the soldiers and horses in the inland had been transferred to the frontier battlefield. Now that the pass was empty, all of the soldiers and horses combined were at most half the number of Guanxi Army!

Moreover, apart from some of the elites recruited by the Imperial City’s Imperial Guards, even if there were a large number of other idle soldiers, how could they compare to a Tiger Wolf Master like Guanxi Army who had experienced the essence of bloody battles?

If the kansai really want to rebel, changan is really not able to withstand!

Thinking of this, Qin Mubai frowned and felt suspicious. With Li Shimin’s wisdom, since he knew that Chang’an and Kansai had such a huge disparity in strength, why did he still put on the posture of “preventing thieves” to provoke me? Isn’t it easier to break my heart and force me to rebel? Although I wouldn’t naively think that Li Shimin is a sage and definitely wouldn’t be afraid of his subordinate, Gao Zhen Zhu, but with his usual wrist and style, it would be the best policy for him to pacify and praise me at this time and then summon me, a great contributor, to the capital to “protect the king of diligence”.

But why did the Emperor play such a stinky game at this critical moment?

“This is too unreasonable!” Qin Mubai’s heart skipped a beat as he continued to ponder, “This really doesn’t look like the Emperor’s usual wrist.” I guess there are two possibilities for such a situation. First, Li Shimin suddenly fell ill and even died. The power of the Imperial Court fell into the hands of Eldest Sun Wuji, Li Tai, and the others. They must be afraid that I would ask for revenge for Li Ke, so they set up a defensive formation and waited for him. According to such an analysis, Li Ke was very likely dead, and it was because of these two people’s hands that he died. “The second possibility is that … the Emperor is using an extremely dangerous and mean method to test me!”

Thinking of this, Qin Mubai’s heart flashed like a bolt of lightning, both shocked and bright. He raised his eyebrows and said to himself, “If it was the first possibility, there is no way to say that the world of the Great Tang would truly be in chaos.” Even if I, Qin, do not interrogate them, the eldest Sun Wuji and Li Tai will not be able to suppress the feudal officials and generals from other places. The world will definitely be in chaos, and it will even end up like the end of the Sui Dynasty, where anti-king beacons are everywhere. If that’s the case, I’m not afraid. The 400,000 Tiger Wolf Masters of the Western Region are in my hands, backed by the Myriad Miles Territory of the Western Regions, as well as Mobei Li Ji and Liaodong Li Dao Sect. Who can touch me? If it was the second possibility … then! “!”

“Then Li Ke is not dead!”

“Li Shimin is testing my loyalty to the Tang Empire and my breadth of mind and bottom line! He wants to take advantage of the chaos to cut off some resistance and make Li Ke his reserve, so that I can become Li Ke’s aide and the mainstay leader of the Tang army in the future!”

Qin Mubai closed his aching eyes, raised his head, took a deep breath, and muttered to himself, “It’s just like how Li Shimin treated Li Ji in history.” After making Li Zhi the cowardly son of the Crown Prince, Li Shimin found a small crime and demoted Li Ji, the then head of the military, to military power. After the Crown Prince ascended to the throne, he would entrust heavy responsibilities to Li Ji’s reinstatement, allowing the new monarch to show kindness to Li Ji so that he could control it. At the same time, it was also a test of Li Ji’s loyalty and bottom line. At that critical juncture, if Li Ji, who had been wronged and demoted, could not calm down and complain, or did something out of line, then it meant that the new monarch would definitely not be able to control him in the future, and Li Ji would be a dead end! “Li Shimin will definitely get rid of it and get rid of future troubles for the new ruler!”

“Is this the so-called’descending from the heavens’?” Qin Mubai sighed deeply and murmured, “Could it be that all of this is just the Emperor’s mental arts?”