After leaving the experimental site of Jiangzuo Camp, Cao Yun took the guards to return to the Changsheng Palace by horse.

Although he became the emperor, Cao Yun still maintained his military style and lived a life that was almost ascetic in life. His wife and son died in that disaster, leaving only a married daughter. This daughter did not get any practical benefits except for the title of a princess. What was going on in the past?

After several years of ascending the throne, he had never chosen even a concubine or approached any woman. Even the palace maids were sent away by him. In the Changsheng Palace, only the veterans who had followed him for many years were left to take care of his daily life.

In the huge palace, the most remote Changsheng Palace became Cao Yun's place to garrison, and almost all the government affairs of Qi State were resolved here. Unless it was a big dynasty meeting, Cao Yun would appear in the imperial court's Zhengda Guangming Hall.

When Cao Yun was swaying his saddle and leaving the horse in front of the Changsheng Hall, he unexpectedly saw Cao Hui standing in front of the hall. Once upon a time, Cao Hui was considered a good news. Every time Cao Yun saw him, he could always bring him one good news after another. But from when, the good news began, the bird turned into a crow. When he saw Cao Hui's face, Cao Yun knew that this guy must have no good news to him today.

However, there is no worries about debt, and there is no itch to lice. Now Cao Yun no longer cares about hearing more bad news.

"Go in and talk!" He threw the reins to the guard behind him, and Cao Yun walked inside without looking back.

Walking into the hall, Cao Yun picked up a pot of cold water on the table, turned his mouth to the spout, drank half of the pot in one breath, and then put the pot on the table with a loud bang and sat down.

Cao Hui stayed away from Cao Yun and other styles. Cao Hui was not unable to endure hardships. When needed, he could lie on ice and snow, not eat or drink for a few days. When needed, he could eat even the most unpalatable things. However, as long as conditions permit, he would always be better for himself. In Chang'an, he was even more representative of the fact that he never tires of fine food and fine meat.

Cao Yun used to be very clear-headed, and basically had no requirements for his desire to be tempted. Since he ascended the throne and became the emperor, this habit seems to have become more and more intense. The ministers of Qi were afraid of Cao Yun leaving them for dinner. You can't eat anything good here. The things the emperor took out were basically cooked by his veterans in a big pot. You can imagine how the taste was.

Cao Hui did not think that this was correct. As the emperor of Qi, Cao Yun did not need to use these to show himself. Just like Qin Feng of the Ming Dynasty, as far as Cao Hui knew, it was a delicious food. In order to eat, he even built a greenhouse in the palace, built a house with expensive glass and then cultivated some off-season sparse vegetables. Such sparse vegetables were much more expensive than fish and meat. Cao Hui watched the emperor growing up step by step, in his opinion, it seemed that he still had the habit of lazy politics. He often did not show up for a long time and did not issue any orders. Even the personnel appointments that the emperor valued the most were basically taken by the Ming Dynasty Political Affairs Hall. In many cases, Qin Feng acted as a rubber stamp.

Many people in Qi think that this is just an illusion revealed by Qin Feng, but as the intelligence leader, Cao Hui had a much deeper understanding of Ming Kingdom than other people. Of course he knew that this was true.

The Political Affairs Hall became a political barrier in front of Qin Feng. They naturally took the initiative to make contributions, but if there is a problem, they will naturally take the blame. As the emperor, Qin Feng will naturally be wise. The people will never blame the emperor who is superior. In their opinion, the emperor is naturally wise, and the officials will only be incompetent.

Like Cao Yun, he would do everything himself and exhaust himself, but the effect was not better than that of Ming Dynasty.

"Tell me, what's the bad news?" Cao Yun pointed to the chair in front of him and signaled Cao Hui to sit down and say.

"Your Majesty, our biggest secret spy in Ming Kingdom has been arrested by Ming people." Cao Yun said sadly. "The Ming Kingdom National Security Bureau recently carried out a large-scale sweep. The nails hidden in the Ming court were almost wiped out. The remaining people had no access to any secrets of Ming people."

"It's the Minister of Rites? It was the list provided by Wu Jing to us back then. Did you send someone to instigate the rebellion?" Cao Yun thought for a while and asked.

"Yes." Cao Yundao, "Over the years, we have used his power in the Ministry of Rites to be responsible for the Ming Dynasty's grand examination to quietly stuff a lot of our people into the Ming Dynasty's official system, but now, they are all done."

“How did it be exposed?”

"No warning!" Cao Hui sighed, "I doubt that he had fallen into the sight of Mingren long ago, but he had not moved him. We used the nails buried by this person, and naturally they were under the control of Mingren. In this way, they were more trouble-free. If they were not moved, they would give us a heavy blow. I used to think that only Guo Jiuling could be my opponent. Now it seems that Tian Kang, who succeeded him, is not bad at all!"

"The two countries are about to fight, and there is nothing strange about eliminating each other's spy spies. Our people at the center of the Ming Dynasty are finished. Then Cao Yun, I want to ask you, are there any spies from Ming people in our court?" Cao Hui asked, his tone a bit aggressive, no different from his usual style.

"Your Majesty, I can guarantee that there are absolutely no spies from the Ming Kingdom in our court center." Cao Hui said affirmatively.

"Are you here today to report this news to me?" Cao Yun said with some dissatisfaction.

"It's not just these!" Cao Hui said: "Although our senior spy detective is gone, he sent back the last batch of valuable things before he was arrested. I have brought all these things here."

“What are these?”

"Bookbook!"

Cao Yun was stunned and asked back: "Bookbook?"

"Yes!" Cao Yun said. "The Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty has the power to review textbooks in major universities in the Ming Dynasty. Our spy detective is a very capable person. He knows the importance of these textbooks. Although he can't understand them, he still memorized them by rote. After returning home, he wrote them out and sent them out in batches. Among those things, there are things we urgently need. Because we have not collected them all, the ministers did not make any statement. This time, he finally sent out the last batch."

"What kind of teaching materials are they?"

"The most important thing is some textbooks from the Ming Mechanical College, as well as a series of textbooks such as physics and chemistry from Jingliang University Hall. Earlier, we could easily obtain relevant textbooks from primary and secondary schools from the Ming Dynasty because these were sold publicly, but the textbooks from universities were strictly controlled by the Ming Dynasty, especially some sensitive things, which are highly confidential. However, they have archives in the Ministry of Rites, and what he got was these things." Cao Hui said.

"Are the machinery, artillery, and gunpowder of the Ming people all related to these?" Cao Yun was a little excited.

"Yes!" Cao Yun said affirmatively: "Although understanding these things in the books may not necessarily make the advanced things of Mingren, at least we can push the door open. Whether we can enter the house depends on how much we can understand. After all, we are too behind. In Ming Dynasty, many people learn such textbooks."

"Why didn't we use this person to arrange some people to learn these things?" Cao Yun asked.

Cao Hui sighed: "We did not realize the importance of these disciplines at the beginning. The people we arranged to enter the Department of Political Economy in the Peking University. This department was an official, and the people who studied these textbooks were just craftsmen after they went out. Later, we realized that it was too late. Although the minister had thought of many ways, the people he brought in were always assigned to other departments by chance. He didn't think anything at that time. Now, when he thinks about it, I'm afraid that he would have been targeted by the National Security Bureau of the Ming Dynasty at that time."

Cao Hui was not very sorry when he looked at the box of books carried in by several veterans next to him.

"I have carefully recalled the problem. The time period when the problem arises was when Qin Li fled Yuejing City. Although Qin Li did it very cleanly, the National Security Bureau of Ming Dynasty must have found clues from it, because Qin Li secretly met the minister when he left Yuejing City. At that time, it was to obtain the drawings of the steam engine."

Cao Hui nodded, "At that time, we knew too little about these things and always thought that as long as we got the drawings, we could copy them. It was really naive. Just like when we obtained the drawings and samples of the Crossbow and the Thunder Fire, it took us many years to copy them on a large scale! How is this? By the way, Yang Gui told me that if some of our basic research fails, even if the Ming people put the entire set of steam engine drawings in front of us, we would not be able to build a foundation at all, and we could only sigh. Now with these things, we have the opportunity to push open the door, and hope it will not be too late."

"Of course it's not too late!" Cao Hui said. "The great Qi country has His Majesty in charge. We are not Qin and Chu, and we can be defeated by Ming in a short time!"

Cao Yun stared at Cao Hui for a while, "Are you pessimistic about our prospects for this battle with Ming Dynasty?"

Cao Hui was a little confused, but immediately he realized that he always acted confidently in front of his subordinates, but he was afraid that in his subconscious, he really thought that Qi State is no match for Ming State at all, so he burst out this sentence unconsciously.
Chapter completed!