After rebirth, I joined forces with my mortal enemy to seek revenge.

Pei Jiaoran rested his chin on his hand in front of the desk, calmly calculating how much more work he would have to do in the future. At this moment, the prince's eyes were completely glued to the piece of paper with names densely written on it, as if he had not expected to receive such shocking news.

Noticing the prince's scrutiny, Pei Jiaoran turned her eyes to Wei Shulin. Wei Shulin looked normal, and even nodded to her.

Looking at the Prince's Secretary Wei Shulin in front of him, who would be the first person after the crown prince ascended the throne, Pei Jiaoran curled his lips, thinking that the man in front of him would also be a rival worth paying attention to in the future.

After thinking about it, Pei Jiaoran looked away. In the current situation, she didn't need to be an enemy of the people around the prince. As for the future, it would depend on each person's ability. See who can come out on top.

"Is Prime Minister Pei the only one who knows about this?" The prince put down the letter and asked slowly.

"I have already informed Prime Minister Cen of this in advance. After all, it is the duty of a minister to share the worries of the monarch in such a big matter." Pei Jiaoran smiled and said, "Hiding it from Your Highness is deceiving the monarch. I would never dare to do such a reckless thing."

She told both parties that they both had selfish intentions. The former were like grasshoppers on the same rope, and if they knew about it, they would have many ways to deal with it. As for the latter, it was the duty of a minister, and by the way, he would use the power of the prince to investigate these people.

"Pei Qing can clearly check on these gatekeepers by himself. Why does he have to make a special trip to the East Palace?" asked the prince.

Pei Jiaoran said: "If I want to investigate, I must have a reason. If I don't have a reason and it gets to your Majesty's ears, I won't be able to explain. Besides, if I go to investigate, it will only arouse suspicion. I think that since you are the heir apparent, it is most appropriate for you to go."

As the Crown Prince, the court officials who depend on him cannot be only civil officials, military generals are also important forces. If there are no people of his own serving in key positions, then this honor of thousands of chariots will most likely be an empty shell.

Wei Shulin took over the conversation, "Your Highness, the book says that military affairs are a matter of life and death, and we must be careful." This is a tactful reminder. The ruler must always keep a clear mind. Especially when it comes to using troops, everything is a big deal and we must be vigilant.

The prince glanced at him and asked, "How do you think we should investigate this, Wei Qing?"

"Why don't we first find out where Zhang Rang came from?" Wei Shulin asked tentatively.

If you want to enter or leave the palace, you don't have to go through the Vermillion Bird Gate. You can also go in and out through other gates. Since Zhang Rang wants to leave the palace, he will probably choose the safest way to avoid alerting too many people. And the people who can open the gate for him are probably the kind that are not conspicuous, but are of vital importance.

Pei Jiaoran now has the list of the soldiers guarding the gate last night, which can at least save a lot of time. They only need to find out where Zhang Rang left the palace and where he returned to the palace. Then follow the clues to find out who is on duty at which city gate, who his superior is, and what is his relationship with Jia Gonglu.

However, before things are put into practice, any carelessness will cause accidents. Knowing the relationship, a deeper layout should be carried out later.

The fact that Zhang Rang could open the palace gate at night was indeed unbearable. After all, no one wanted to fall into a trap set by others in their sleep. But this matter must not be made public. Firstly, it would arouse the emperor's suspicion, and secondly, it would alert the enemy. Therefore, after finding this person, we must observe him quietly and ensure that this chess piece of the other party cannot play a role at the critical moment.

The two have very different ideas.

"I do have a plan. It will not only avoid alerting the enemy, but also solve this hidden danger. It will also silence Zhang Rang."

The prince and Wei Shulin looked at each other and nodded, signaling Pei Jiaoran to continue.

Pei Jiaoran said, "Your Highness is a great ruler, so you don't need to take action on this matter. I heard that Your Majesty intends to let the King of Wu leave the palace to set up a government office. According to the rules, when a prince leaves the palace, he will select guards from the palace to serve as the government guards. Your Highness can arrange to transfer one or two of Zhang Rang's spies out. Then, on the grounds of insufficient manpower, transfer his people away from key positions. It will not be so easy for Zhang Rang to place people there later."

"Then how can we ensure that Zhang Rang will not continue to bribe them?" Wei Shulin said, "In my opinion, it would be better to just change everyone's positions."

"The Chancellor is wrong." Pei Jiaoran smiled. "There are guards at every gate in the palace, but the imperial city and the palace belong to the Shen Ce and Jin Wu Wei armies respectively. Large-scale personnel transfers will only arouse your majesty's suspicion, and then suspect whether the prince has any intentions. So you and I can only control the scope of personnel transfers to the Jin Wu Guard, which is the only place that will not be at risk if the prince touches it. Once the Jin Wu Guard is transferred to the Prince's Palace, there will inevitably be vacancies. We only need to make appropriate adjustments to ensure that there will be no vacancies. It is also acceptable from a legal point of view. In this way, even if Zhang Rang wants to insert people in the later period, it will not be so easy."

"For Zhang Rang, the information chain he had painstakingly arranged was destroyed. Given his personality, he would not sit still and wait for death. Therefore, he had to make another plan, mobilize the forces of all parties, and renegotiate the distribution of interests with his followers to ensure that the King of Wu would not be affected. But according to my observation, Zhang Rang's current strength cannot fully support him to act in this way. If this happens, the camp he built will surely collapse."

After saying this, Pei Jiaoran looked up at the prince. The sunlight coming in from the door just happened to fall on her. The goldfish bag on her waist swayed with the light and shadow. Although the wearer sat like a bell, he could still feel a force that could not be ignored.

The prince glanced outside the palace and winked at Wei Shulin. The three of them walked into the inner palace one after another. A deeper discussion could only start from here.

He ordered Wei Shulin to copy down the names and honors on the register provided by Pei Jiaoran.

The densely packed names were arranged on the paper from top to bottom.

Watching Wei Shulin's actions, Pei Jiaoran said, "To open the palace gate, an imperial order is necessary. But the Central Secretariat and the outer provinces do not have any backup of the imperial order. The generals who guard the gates and the city gate guards dared to agree to let Zhang Rang open the palace gate late at night. In addition to the soldiers guarding the gates, these people must also be thoroughly investigated."

"The process of opening the palace gate at night is quite complicated. It would be impossible to achieve it without any step. Your Highness can ask the Crown Princess to look for Concubine Xue and let her accidentally reveal the matter. Although His Majesty will not say anything on the surface, he will most likely send someone to investigate. If the Censorate has a chance to intervene, this matter will not be easily revealed."

"These people have violated the law of duty. It is human nature to survive, and no one is willing to risk being accused of the Ten Treasons to conceal the truth. Now that the matter has come to light, Zhang Rang will not be able to redeploy a large number of people in a short period of time. But he himself will be deeply trapped in the vortex and will have no time to take care of other things."

Pei Jiaoran was absolutely sure that Zhang Rang would get deeper and deeper into this matter. After all, Zhang Rang's greed, while earning money for the inner treasury, also fostered his ambitions and blocked the way for others to rise. Once he fell into the trap, someone would surely take advantage of him.

This dispute was inevitable and would eventually become a nail driven into his body. People’s minds were unpredictable, so Zhang Rang could not escape the arrangement of this strategy.