The small, cold cellar, once a place of interrogation, had become a council room for a war that did not officially exist. Ying Zheng stood before a large, detailed map of the Qing Empire, one that Meng Tian had retrieved from the Imperial Library. The information extracted from the assassin, Ying, had been a revelation, exposing the true depth and sophistication of Cixi's clandestine power. But in revealing the enemy's greatest secret, she had also exposed its greatest vulnerability.
Ying Zheng traced a small finger across the vast, mountainous expanse of Sichuan province in the far west. The School of the Silent Orchid, the Hidden Valley, Cixi's personal nest of vipers—it was there. A cancer growing in the heart of the empire.
He knew he could not send an army to attack it. A military operation of that scale would be impossible to hide. It would be an open declaration of civil war against the Empress Dowager, a move that would shatter the fragile stability of the court and the nation. He could not ask Prince Gong to do it, for the same reason. This was a task that required not a hammer, but a scalpel. It had to be a black operation, utterly deniable, executed by a ghost.
He turned to his general, who stood waiting, his face grim and resolute. "Cixi used her school to send assassins for you, General," Ying Zheng said, his voice quiet but filled with an iron resolve. "We will use you to destroy her school."
Meng Tian's eyes lit up with a fierce, predatory fire. This was a mission he could understand. It was a mission he craved.
Ying Zheng, now fully in his element as a grand strategist, began to lay out the bold, multi-stage plan he had formulated.
"First, intelligence and logistics," he began, pointing to the capital on the map. "You must leave Beijing in secret. A man of your prominence, the Emperor's personal shield, cannot simply vanish. Therefore, he will not vanish. He will be reassigned."
He explained the first part of the plan. He would use his newfound influence over Empress Dowager Ci'an. Ci'an, now acting as his advocate, would officially sign an imperial edict, giving Meng Ao a new, secret mission: to conduct a personal inspection of the coastal defenses near Tianjin and the forts at Port Arthur. It was a plausible and patriotic duty for the Emperor's most trusted bodyguard. This would provide Meng Tian with legitimate travel papers, official cover, and a reason for his absence from court for several weeks.
"While the court believes you are inspecting cannons on the coast," Ying Zheng continued, "you will travel southwest." His finger moved across the map to the provincial capital of Sichuan. "Scholar Shen will handle the logistics. He will arrange your passage, your supplies, and your new identity—a simple merchant trading in herbs and spices. Our agents in the treasury have already identified the corrupt trading company in Chengdu that supplies the school, the one with the serpent seal. It is secretly owned by a cousin of Li Lianying."
"Stage Two: infiltration and persuasion," he went on, his voice cold and precise. "You will make contact with the head of this company. You will use the information from Li Lianying's stolen ledger to expose his own financial crimes, to blackmail him into submission. And then, you will use your own… unique talents of persuasion to ensure his complete cooperation. He will reveal to you the exact route and the precise timing of the next winter shipment of medicinal herbs to the Hidden Valley."
Meng Tian nodded, a grim smile touching his lips. He understood what "persuasion" meant.
"Stage Three is the attack," Ying Zheng said, his eyes now glinting with a ruthless light. "But we will not attack the school itself. It is hidden, its defenses unknown. A direct assault by one man, even you, is too risky. We will not attack their present; we will steal their future."
He explained the core of the mission. Meng Tian would not assault the fortress. He would intercept its supply line. Not the supply line of herbs, but the one that brought the school its true resource: children.
"According to Ying, the new recruits are brought to the school only once a year, during the Spring Festival. They are gathered from orphanages and the streets of the southern cities and transported in secret caravans. You will intercept this year's caravan of new recruits. You will neutralize their handlers—the graduates of the Silent Orchid who act as their shepherds. You will liberate the children."
This was the true, brilliant cruelty of the plan. It was an attack Cixi could not easily trace or understand.
"And Stage Four," Ying Zheng concluded, "is the aftermath. The liberated orphans, children who were destined to become spies and assassins, will be secretly transported to a new location. We will use Prince Gong's network to place them in a remote Buddhist monastery in the mountains of Yunnan, a place loyal to his faction. There, they will be cared for, educated as scholars and scribes, not as killers. They will be given a real life."
He looked at his general. "Cixi's school will be starved. Its supply of new blood will be severed. She will not know if her handlers were killed by common bandits, betrayed their posts, or were eliminated by a rival power. It will sow more chaos and paranoia within her network. She will be forced to send her existing agents out to investigate, exposing them further."
Meng Tian's mind, the mind of a master tactician, saw the genius of the strategy. It was a devastating blow delivered with surgical precision, leaving almost no trace.
"And the school itself, Your Majesty?" Meng Tian asked, his voice a low rumble. "The current nest of vipers?"
"A serpent without new fangs will eventually wither and die," Ying Zheng said coldly. "We will cut off its head later, when the time is right. For now, we take away its future, and we turn its own evil act of stealing children into an act of salvation."
The mission was set. It was their most dangerous, most proactive, and most audacious move to date. It was a direct strike at the very source of Cixi's clandestine power.
Meng Tian knelt, placing one fist over his heart in the ancient salute of the Qin army. "I will not fail you, My Emperor."
The episode ends with Meng Tian making his final preparations, trading his imperial guard's uniform for the simple, durable clothes of a northern merchant. He was no longer just a bodyguard, a shield for the Emperor. He was now the commander of the Second Reign's special operations, a one-man army being sent deep into enemy territory. The ghosts of Qin were on the march again.