Zongwu: Aspiring to be the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 340 Western Regions Strategy, Turtle Nourishing Heavenly Fragrance

"Lu Xiaofeng? Haha, Mr. Huo overestimates me."

Lu Xiaofeng was startled, thinking he had revealed some flaw.

What he just said was indeed his true thought.

As Huo Tianqing himself said, he does have some ability to judge people.

A pure lie, especially one made up on the spot, is easily seen through by the other party.

It's not as effective as simply stating what's on your mind.

Regardless of the outcome, at least it won't be exposed.

However, this carries the risk of exposure.

However, considering that the two had only known each other for a very short time, it was highly unlikely that Huo Tianqing could have gained a complete understanding of him in just a few days.

That's why Lu Xiaofeng was bolder.

Unexpectedly, Huo Tianqing said something like that.

Is my personality really that obvious?

Having only known each other for a few short days, how could we have left such a deep impression on each other that now even a casual conversation carries the risk of being exposed?
Huo Tianqing, of course, did not see through Lu Xiaofeng's disguise, but sighed with some emotion: "In the martial arts world, there are really not many people like Lu Xiaofeng who like to meddle in other people's business. If you really have no powerful backing or any vested interest, and are simply looking for evidence, then in this respect, you are very similar to Lu Xiaofeng."

Lu Xiaofeng quickly replied, "Mr. Huo, you flatter me."

Huo Tianqing turned his head and looked at the night sky: "I understand what you mean, brother. I will give you a satisfactory answer tomorrow."

The next day, one document after another, information on various countries, city-states, and powers in the Western Regions, along with archival documents, was delivered to the residence of Lu Xiaofeng and his companions.

"They actually delivered it!"

Looking at the information, Afei exclaimed in astonishment, "Lu Xiaofeng, everyone says you're good at making friends and have friends all over the world. I never imagined your ability to make friends would be this amazing!"

Tie Chuanjia was also surprised: "Did Master Lu not reveal his identity? In Huo Tianqing's eyes, Master Lu should just be a guest he just met. How did he send all these materials over?"

Lu Xiaofeng laughed and said, "The quality of friendship is not determined by time, but by sincerity. If you exchange sincerity for sincerity, even if you only meet once, you can still be a close friend you can entrust your life to. If you are hypocritical, even if you are face to face, you will still be hiding a knife behind your back."

I, Lu Xiaofeng, travel the world relying on two words: sincerity! Everyone in the world has befriended me, shown their true feelings, and become my close friends because they have felt this sincerity!

"I see!"

Afei looked curious: "Then, are Huo Xiu and Jin Jiuling the same? And Bluebeard and Kunsha too...?"

"you!"

Lu Xiaofeng was speechless.

They couldn't help but laugh.

Since arriving in the Western Regions, things have progressed very smoothly.

First, without spending a penny, he obtained the right to view those archives and documents from the Star Luo Sect. Then, because of Lu Xiaofeng's strong ability to make friends, he directly got Huo Tianqing to send over information on various forces in the Western Regions.

Such smooth progress naturally puts people in a good mood.

After laughing, the group took out a document and began to look at it.

"Ok?"

Li Xunhuan suddenly realized something was wrong.

He carefully held the paper and flipped through it, staring at the words on it and trying to decipher them.

Afei, sitting next to him, asked, "What's wrong? Is there a mistake in the information?"

Li Xunhuan shook his head and said, "It is these characters."

"Handwriting?"

Lu Xiaofeng took one look and quickly realized something was wrong.

"These characters look like they were just copied."

Afei said, "That's normal. Huo Tianqing also needs to study these materials, so he certainly can't give us the originals."

"wrong!"

Lu Xiaofeng shook his head: "You guys stay here and watch for now, I'm going to Iron Claw Flying Eagle's place."

Not long after, Lu Xiaofeng returned to his room and said, "Just as I expected, that guy Huo Tianqing not only sent us information on these forces, but also sent a copy to the Eastern Depot!"

Afei exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? Why is that? Did the Eastern Depot increase the money again?"

Tie Chuanjia scratched his head: "More money? Do you think the Eastern Depot is so easy to extort?"

Lu Xiaofeng shook his head: "Probably not. I saw those people from the Eastern Depot, and they all had smiles on their faces. They didn't look like they were being extorted again."

I think Huo Tianqing must have proactively provided these materials, and may even have specifically reminded those people in the Eastern Depot, which is why they're smiling so happily.

"Offered it voluntarily? Why?" Afei asked, puzzled.

Li Xunhuan pondered, "Perhaps it's related to the Western Regions strategy that the Star Luo Sect is currently implementing."

"Oh? What does Scholar Li mean?"

Li Xunhuan said, "The Star Luo Sect now rules over all the oasis areas near the Central Plains, but it still has ambitions to expand outwards, only temporarily halting its progress."

On the one hand, they focused on developing the territories they already controlled; on the other hand, they continuously sent troops to harass various forces in the desert—a strategy of strengthening themselves while weakening their enemies.

Lu Xiaofeng nodded: "That's right!"

Li Xunhuan continued, "The target we need to find, according to Brother Lu's previous speculation, should be a force that has existed in the chaotic Western Regions for at least a decade, and has been able to receive support from the Iron-Blooded Marquis all these years."

All of the above descriptions can be simply described as... a powerful force!

"That's it, I understand."

Now that things have been said, how could Lu Xiaofeng not understand?

"Whether it's us or the Eastern Depot, as long as we want to achieve our goals, we'll always have to make some noise among those powerful forces. This noise may be big or small, but in any case, it aligns with the Star Luo Sect's current Western Regions strategy."

Li Xunhuan said, "That's right. However, we are only able to receive such treatment thanks to Brother Lu."

Although it aligns with the Star Luo Cult's strategy, it's clear that the Eastern Depot's group is more aligned with it.

The likelihood of them causing trouble and clashing with local forces in the Western Regions is far greater than that of Lu Xiaofeng and his group.

That's why Huo Tianqing took the initiative to provide them with intelligence. It's less likely that Lu Xiaofeng and his group were involved. Therefore, one reason is likely the conversation between Lu Xiaofeng and Huo Tianqing last night.

"Now that we have the information and the documents, although both sides have them, it is not easy to accurately find the target from these information and endless documents."

Li Xunhuan said, "Although the Eastern Depot has an advantage of one day over us, this advantage is probably not very helpful. In the end, who can find the target first will depend on our own abilities."

"Excellent!" Lu Xiaofeng nodded. "Let's begin!"

In a blink of an eye, two more days passed.

"almost."

Lu Xiaofeng stretched and stood up, saying.

Although only two days had passed, and the time it took to obtain the archives and documents was one day later than that of the Eastern Depot.

But as Li Xunhuan said, in this respect, a mere one-day time difference does not bring much advantage; rather, their abilities are more important.

Both Lu Xiaofeng and Li Xunhuan are quick-witted individuals, while A Fei and Tie Chuanjia are both innate masters. Compared to ordinary people, they can be considered talented individuals.

They easily made up for that slight advantage with their abilities.

Although there were still many files and documents to read, Lu Xiaofeng felt that he should be almost done.

What they are looking for is a force that has existed for more than a decade.

Although there are countless forces of all sizes on the vast land of the Western Regions, if this prerequisite is added, there probably won't be many left.

Ideally, this force should also be connected to the outside world to facilitate their access to resources from the Iron-Blooded Marquis.

Therefore, the small number of forces that advocate isolationism can also be excluded.

It also needs to be combined with the records in those archives and documents.

After such a selection process, having ten targets in the end is considered quite good.

"It's almost done."

Li Xunhuan nodded and said, "The targets we have selected so far basically meet all the conditions. Even if we check the files and documents later, we will only find that all the targets meet the conditions."

Looking at the targets they had listed, Afei said, "Even so, there are still eight or nine targets right now. Not to mention that we will have to look for clues after we get there, just going through these eight or nine targets will probably take more than half a month."

Lu Xiaofeng said, "That's why we should carefully choose our first target; it might be our only target. Li Tanhua, which place do you think is the best choice?"

Looking at the targets selected by the group on the paper, Li Xunhuan said, "In my opinion, the first choice should be the Kingdom of Guizi."

“How come you see?”

"As far as I know, the Kingdom of Guizi has always been one of the most powerful kingdoms in the Western Regions. It is not only powerful and wealthy, but also has a well-established lineage, which is rare in the Western Regions."

On the other hand, according to the latest intelligence provided by the Star Luo Sect, a rebellion suddenly broke out in the Kingdom of Guizi, who actually drove the original king out of the country and took the throne himself.

Although the king was driven out, he was quite powerful and even claimed to possess a rare treasure called the "Star of Bliss," which could unlock his ancestral treasure and restore his kingdom. Therefore, he used a large amount of gold and silver to recruit martial arts masters in the martial arts world.

In terms of conditions, the Kingdom of Kuja met all the conditions we had previously assumed. Furthermore, considering the timing, there were no rumors of a tyrannical king or widespread famine in Kuja, yet a rebellion suddenly broke out. This seems too coincidental.

"Li Tanhua believes that the rebellion in Guizi Kingdom is because of the Iron-Blooded Marquis's incident. However, the Marquis's case seems to have only occurred in the last half month. Given the gap between the Central Plains and the Western Regions, the impact of this matter probably cannot have spread so quickly, right?"

Li Xunhuan said, "The case of the Divine Marquis originated from the falling out between the Wan families, but the falling out between the Wan families originated from the marriage arrangement before the Spring Festival. Several months have passed since then. If this rebellion started to brew at that time, there is still plenty of time."

Lu Xiaofeng said, "That makes sense."

Li Xunhuan asked, "Then, Brother Lu, where do you think it should be?"

Lu Xiaofeng said, "I'm wondering why the Iron-Blooded Marquis is sending so much gold and silver to the Western Regions. What is his purpose? And why the Western Regions? Why not other places?"

Upon hearing this, Li Xunhuan nodded and said, "That makes sense. Even if we consider the argument that Iron-Blooded Marquis really intended to rebel and sent a large sum of gold and silver to the Western Regions to train his own army, the Western Regions are still far inferior to the Central Plains."

Even if there's a risk of being discovered by other powers within Ming territory, we could always choose Song or Zhongzhou; those two places are far better than the Western Regions!

To train an army, you must build barracks.

When building barracks, one must consider the issues of water, soil, and food.

Whether it was Zhongzhou or Song, it was still the Central Plains, and the prices of grain, salt, and iron were still reasonable.

But if it were the Western Regions, the price would skyrocket.

Moreover, even if you choose the Western Regions, why not choose a place closer to the Central Plains instead of choosing the depths of the desert?
Isn't it like an oasis in the desert, which is often small in size and cannot support even ordinary people, let alone train soldiers?
To rebel against the Ming Dynasty, one would need at least fifty or sixty thousand soldiers.

But looking at the Western Regions, even five or six countries combined might not have 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers.

There's no way around it; it's just a natural environmental limitation.

If we were to say that with the supply of gold and silver from the Iron-Blooded Marquis, the same amount of gold and silver could train a far greater number of troops in the Central Plains than in the Western Regions.

So no matter how you look at it, it's highly unlikely.

But besides training troops, what else did the Western Regions have that the Central Plains needed?
To be honest, although various artifacts from the Western Regions can fetch high prices after being brought to the Central Plains by merchants, it's only because the connection between the two regions remains unchanged, and scarcity drives up the price.

In terms of their function, many of the exotic items from the Western Regions are actually nothing special.

Moreover, as the imperial uncle, Zhu Wushi controlled the Dragon Guard Manor. What couldn't he get his hands on?

unless……

“Rare and precious materials?” Li Xunhuan suddenly thought of a possibility.

These rare and precious natural treasures are not only extremely rare in the world, but they can also generally provide great benefits to martial artists.

Therefore, many people eat it directly after obtaining it, making such items even rarer.

"Could it be that there is some rare treasure from the Western Regions that the Iron-Blooded Marquis absolutely needs to obtain?"

As Li Xunhuan spoke, he glanced at Lu Xiaofeng and said helplessly, "Brother Lu, if you have any thoughts, just say them directly. Don't play games with me."

Lu Xiaofeng smiled and pointed directly to a name.

"The Kingdom of Heavenly Fragrance?"

Li Xunhuan had traveled to the Western Regions for many years and had naturally heard of this country: "In the past, there was a strange man in the Persian Kingdom who wrote about all the rare treasures of the Western Regions and compiled them into a book, which he presented to the Persian King. This book was called the 'Secret Records of Persia' and was listed as a royal secret. Later, when Persia was in turmoil, the book was circulated and the various rare treasures of the Western Regions recorded in it aroused the scramble of countless people."

Among them is a plant called "Heavenly Fragrance Cardamom," which bears fruit every thirty years, and only one fruit at a time. Yet this plant possesses the power to seize the essence of heaven and earth, and to bring the dead back to life.

However, this brought disaster upon them; not only was the country that possessed this item destroyed, but the item itself was also coveted and disappeared forever.

Lu Xiaofeng continued, "But just over ten years ago, someone established a country on the original site of that country, called Tianxiang Kingdom, which still exists today."

(End of this chapter)