Su Mu frowned while holding the letter sent by Yun Feiyu and Hu Yuan. It wasn't that the two of them encountered any trouble when they went to Wu and Yang to form an alliance, but that it went too smoothly.

The appearance of Princess Hongyun raised Su Mu's vigilance. Shi Qingshuang provoked war between the Jin Kingdom and the Qing Kingdom, but he had a feeling that this also had something to do with Princess Hongyun as well. Su Mu was dedicated to the development and growth of the Qing Kingdom, while the Wu Kingdom had intentions to conquer and unify the world. If the Qing Kingdom became stronger, it would cause great trouble to the Wu Kingdom. The more chaotic this place full of unrest was, the more beneficial it would be to the Wu Kingdom. By then, the national power of these small countries would be exhausted by war against each other. And when the Wu Kingdom attacked at that time, would they not get twice the result with half the effort? Don't blame Su Mu for having conspiracy theories, this was how this world was, if you didn't want to be eaten you must eat others first. Su Mu would do the same if he was the ruler of the Wu Kingdom.

Su Mu put down the letter in his hand. Wu and Yang had agreed to jointly send troops to attack Jin. If there was no exception, even if Jin was not destroyed, it would be divided by the other countries in the end. But Su Mu kept feeling that it would not be that simple. Sun Hongyun was by no means an ordinary woman. She even dared to kill Shi Ran, so what else would she dare to do? Su Mu looked at Gu Yunzhou next to him and asked, "Why did you accept nine cities as a reward for killing Shi Ran?"

The Lingxiao Pavilion was a force belonging to jianghu, was he planning to establish a country of assassins?

The tall muscular body wrapped in black clothes gave people a great visual impact, causing the little palace maids who served Su Mu to secretly blush. Gu Yunzhou looked at Su Mu with dark eyes and said: "The nine cities are for Lingxiao Pavilion's spies that had been placed in various countries to settle their homes in."

When Su Mu heard this a feeling of guilt suddenly arose in his heart. It was indeed not a good life fighting and killing in the jianghu all day long. Su Mu felt a little sad and his tone couldn't help gentling: "Then now that you gave Shi Ran to me, what about them?"

Gu Yunzhou said: "The Lingxiao Pavilion has been in existence for more than a hundred years, and there are many hidden spies that have been inserted in various countries. They face capture and suppression of those in power at all times. Now that war is about to start between Shi, Wu, and Wei, Lingyun Pavilion cannot ensure the safety of everyone no matter how powerful we are. We can only find a place of safety for them, but the people of jianghu are not good at governance. It is also a move out of helplessness to ask for nine cities, and it is uncertain whether their safety will truly be guaranteed."

Su Mu looked at him and said, "So you mean....."

Gu Yunzhou looked at him earnestly and said, "You are an excellent monarch. I hope you can let them join the Qing Kingdom."

"How many people do you have?" Su Mu asked.

Gu Yunzhou said: "A total of 30,000, plus their family and relatives, the total is about 80,000. Most of these people have skills and will be useful to you."

Su Mu nodded and said: "If they join the Qing Kingdom, will they be scattered or concentrated." Su Mu had to consider this. If these seventy to eighty thousand were directly concentrated in one place, it would definitely be difficult to manage. After all, the people of jianghu were always so unruly and difficult to manage.

"These people didn't live together in the first place, and they could be scattered throughout the Qing Kingdom as family units. If you need them, they can also collect information for you." Gu Yunzhou said.

Su Mu nodded: "I will allocate some farm fields for them, but since they have joined the Qing Kingdom, they can no longer engage in their original profession within the Qing Kingdom. If they don't want to become ordinary people, they can also join the imperial court or continue to follow you. "

Gu Yunzhou nodded and agreed. He had long wanted to get rid of this burden as his lifelong pursuit was the summit of martial arts. The people at the bottom ranks of Lingyun Pavilion wede not much different from refugees. Although they had some skills, they were mostly at the bottom of society with no speaking power at all. Moreover, Lingyun Pavilion was just an organization and no matter how powerful it was it could not hold up against a powerful country.

After the two talked, Gu Yunzhou disappeared from the room, intending to go back and convene his subordinates to discuss settling those people. Su Mu threatened Shi Ran to write a few letters back to the Shi Kingdom to have a large amount of grain be sent to the Qing Kingdom.

In fact, Shi Ran had no choice but to do so. In this place of chaos and unrest there must be a shield that could prevent the invasion of Wu Kingdom.

At noon, when Su Mu was having his meal, Liu Xi's voice came from outside the door: "Paying respects to Your Highness."

Su Mu put down his chopsticks and said, "Come in."

Only then did Liu Xi lift the curtains and walk in. Since the Crown Prince taught them a good lesson after the incident of slipping medicine in his tea last time, he had yet to see the Crown Prince again. Only thinking that the Crown Prince's anger had cooled, did he dare to show up this time. Of course he had already had a good excuse prepared, "Your Highness, the three imperial academies will be completed in half a month."

"And?" Su Mu looked sideways at him.

"This official wanted to ask what else Your Highness has in mind." His eyes were filled with affection as he stared fixedly at Su Mu, his tone soft and seductive: "Your Highness, I....."

Su Mu hurriedly interrupted him lest he said anything sappy again: "The Zheng family didn't come to make trouble again?"

"They have, but were stopped by this official." Liu Xi's eyes were almost glued to Su Mu's body. Seeing Su Mu's rosy lips, he wanted nothing more than to pounce forward and chew on it. He suggested: "Your Highness, would you like this official to accompany you over to take a look, it can also be a relaxing walk."

In any case, having been tired for so long, Su Mu decided to accept his proposal. However, he took Liu Xi to another place, the villa on the outskirts of the imperial capital that produced toilet paper and soap. Speaking of this, Su Mu was really speechless. The efficiency of production was so low that it could only be sold to foreign aristocrats as luxury goods. But Su Mu's purpose this time was not some child's play like soap and toilet paper. What he wanted to check in on were the two tasks he had later assigned to those people, steam and explosives.

Su Mu was no expert on these two things, but he knew their general direction of development. There was no progress on the steam engine yet, but the gunpowder was already showing signs of success. After all, fireworks already exist in this world. Seeing that the world was going to be thrown into total upheaval soon, Su Mu's most urgent concern was the production of explosives.

Su Mu stepped down from the carriage in plain clothes, but the heavily armed guards of the Qingye Villa stopped Su Mu: "Paying respects to Your Highness." The tone and attitude were very respectful but they still made no concessions.

Liu Xi, who was next to Su Mu, was about to get angry but was stopped by Su Mu. He took out a sign and gave it to the guards guarding the door, who then immediately let him through.

Such a strict system of security was actually due to all the martial arts TV dramas Su Mu watched in his previous life. He was rather afraid that there would be techniques of disguise in this world. After all, things like martial arts and qinggong existed in this world so why not face-changing skills.

Qian Guan, the person in charge of the villa, hurriedly came to see Su Mu just after he stepped inside: "Paying respects to Your Highness."

"Manager Qian does not need to be so courteous." Su Mu asked: "How is the development of the explosives?"

Qian Guan said nervously: "Answering Your Highness, it is still unstable and easy to explode and hurt people."

Su Mu said: "Take me to the test site."

Qian Guan hesitated and said: "Your Highness, it is too dangerous."