"Independence is impossible. Either Linghu Chong was feigning surrender, or..." Song Qingshu fell into deep thought. "Or something happened over in Sichuan."
"Something happened?" The women looked at one another, unsure what he meant.
"There is too little intelligence right now to judge. Ping'er, arrange for the Huan Yi Yuan spies to investigate what has happened in Sichuan recently, especially anything unusual about Wu Xi." Song Qingshu said.
"All right, I'll go now." Wanyan Ping nodded and turned to leave.
"Ah, wait a moment," Song Qingshu called after her. "There is one more thing. Later, arrange a place to put Puchá Ahute and his son under house arrest, then go to the Heavenly Prison and release them."
Wanyan Ping said with a faintly teasing smile, "You took advantage of Qiucao, so now you want to make it up to her?"
Song Qingshu's face darkened. "She is your good sister too. Don't you want to help her?"
"Qiucao did come to see me several times, but I was afraid of ruining your grand plans, so I never agreed," Wanyan Ping sighed. "Had I known you would release them in the end, I might as well have done it sooner and earned a favor from Qiucao."
Still sighing as she spoke, she departed, leaving the people in the room looking at one another.
Song Qingshu's old face heated with embarrassment. He hurriedly changed the subject. "We cannot passively wait for the Huan Yi Yuan to investigate. We need to proceed on two fronts. Send an army to launch a probing attack, and we will know whether his surrender is genuine or feigned."
"Whom should we send? Pusuan Zhongyi and Heshi Lie Zhining are leading the court's main forces in the Western Huainan Route and the two prefectures of Deng and Tang on