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Under the light, at the round table, Jin Yi, who was sitting in a circle, leaned forward at the same time, looking at the four sets of numbers on the paper, and then looked at each other in confusion:

"What does this mean?"

There is no pattern between these numbers. Looking at them individually, no one can understand what they mean.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that this is indeed a set of passwords because they are so neat.

If it was just keeping accounts, how could it be so neat?

Seeing everyone's silence, Qi Ping took out a second piece of paper with the same four sets of numbers on it:

"This is the number in the diary on the 10th. The 'scholar' conveyed the information to Hongye the next day."

The numbers in this secret text are:

sixteen, fifteen, four;

twelve, twenty-two, two;

twelve, four, one;

Eleven, twenty-six, three.

…

Everyone continued to be confused and then fell into deep thought.

Qi Ping was not in a hurry. He waited for a while and then said, "Let's talk freely. What do you think?"

Several captains showed hesitation. Hong Jiaojiao looked thoughtful and took the lead in firing:

"It's already obvious that these numbers are some kind of code, corresponding to specific words. The imperial army has a method of 'character verification' to program some commonly used signals in the military into code books.

When transferring information to each other, they would write a poem and mark it under a specific word, which is actually a kind of number, and then compare it with the code book to decipher it..."

Everyone nodded, this is the most normal idea.

The secret agents of the Zhenfu Division belong to the "Forbidden Army" sequence and are also considered members of the military.

Therefore, the possibility of using this encryption method is greatest.

Moreover, this is also logical... After all, if the "scholar" left the account books and keys, he must have shown them to his colleagues, and the other spies would also think along this line of thinking after taking them.

For example, in the Northwest, hiding the location in the painting perspective is an operation that goes against conventional thinking. Only literati like to do it. After all, outsiders really can't figure it out...

Qi Ping was not surprised and agreed with this idea.

Pei Shaoqing thought for a moment and added:

"When encrypting secret text, in addition to the code book, you also need to know the compilation rules. If Mr. Yu doesn't know, it means that this set of rules does not belong to the yamen.

The numbers are in groups of three, and the ‘scholar’ runs a bookstore. Is it possible that the code book is a certain book, and the three numbers correspond to pages, lines, and words respectively.”

The rest of Jinyi's eyes lit up, and they all thought it made sense.

Qi Ping was noncommittal and acted as a guide: "Continue talking."

A Jinyi said excitedly:

"So, our purpose became to find the code book. Well, could it be the account book itself?"

Qi Ping shook his head and said:

"Probably not. It's very simple logic. These numbers jump a lot. If a scholar wants to leave information, how can he ensure that the required text is present on a fixed number of pages before and after? Moreover, the account book is very thin and there are not many words."

Hearing this, another person said:

"In this case, the books mentioned in that day's diary are very suspicious. You see, there is a book in front of each number. Maybe it is a corresponding relationship."

Everyone was shocked and felt that this guess was very logical.

"No, look carefully. The book titles are not always included in the accounts."

Hong Jiaojiao pointed at several paragraphs with her finger:

"Here, here... and here, there is no title of the book, only vague words such as 'copybook', 'old book', 'calligraphy and painting', etc. There is no correspondence."

Everyone's original excitement was poured cold water on.

"That's good, but it doesn't rule out the possibility. Maybe these vague projects are randomly mixed in, and they can be eliminated. This is indeed an idea, but we don't have these books at the moment and can't verify it. Well, it's to be determined first.

,Think again."

Qi Ping first affirmed what Nu Jinyi said and continued to encourage him.

A person's thinking is always limited. Brainstorming requires as many guesses as possible.

"There is another possibility, it is the most common book on the market." One person thought for a while and said.

Qi Ping nodded: "It makes sense. Because it is common, there is no risk of losing it. However, the range is still a bit large. It is to be determined. Is there any more?"

Everyone fell into deep thought and lost their train of thought for a while.

Pei Shaoqing thought for a while and asked:

"What about the other contents in the account book? Is it possible that a reminder was made? Since the scholar left a password, he may hope that someone can find it."

"Yeah yeah."

"That makes sense."

Several people agreed, and all looked at Qi Ping - he still had a stack of paper in his hand, but didn't show it.

Qi Ping was silent for a moment and said, "Are you sure you want to watch it?"

The Jinyi people thought otherwise.

Qi Ping hesitated for a moment, then threw the rest of the diary he copied on the table. Everyone rushed to grab it, and then looked down. After a while, their expressions became weird at the same time.

"Spit." Female Jinyi blushed and threw the page back.

"This is the 'scholar's' diary?" Everyone looked strange.

Qi Ping looked away and apologized to the spy whom he had never met before. I didn't want to make it public...

"Ahem, be serious and think about whether there is any problem." Yu Qing said something to break the awkwardness.

Everyone also knew that they were discussing serious matters at the moment and put aside their random thoughts. However, there was really no problem with this diary...

Suddenly, someone said: "Hey, you guys think...could the codebook be Jin Ping Mei?"

Everyone was stunned, even Qi Ping looked over.

The captain said seriously: "The fact that he mentioned it repeatedly in his diary may be a hint."

This... seems to make some sense.

Yu Qing straightened up and said seriously: "Who has this book?"

Brush... For a moment, everyone looked at the captain with a loud voice at the same time. Old Hu was stunned and faced everyone's gaze:

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm not doing anything!"

Haha, everyone looked in disbelief.

Finally, Hu Lai could not bear the invisible pressure and remained silent. He went out to the bedroom. After a while, he retrieved a book and threw it on the table:

"It's just this volume, there's not much left."

There are several volumes of the whole book, and this is the first volume he picked up.

Qi Ping said: "If it is true, then there is a high probability that it will be in the first volume."

For a moment, everyone got excited and began to translate in the order of "page", "line", and "word". However, as soon as they started, they discovered a problem:

The number of pages is enough, but there are not so many lines at all.

Although the Taoist Academy invented the new printing technology, the books of this era were still very rough, and there were not so many lines, or "columns" on a page.

One group of secret codes involves large numbers like "thirty-seven".

Everyone tried to count the lines in one direction until they turned two or three pages before finally picking the words, but when combined together, it didn't make sense.

By this, everyone grouped the numbers into different groups and took them several times, but nothing was right.

"Something's wrong, isn't it in this book? Or, it's not this book at all? Is this just a cover-up?" Pei Shaoqing leaned back on his chair slumped.

The rest were also depressed.

I thought I had found the truth, but found that I had come full circle and was back to the starting point.

For a moment, everyone was extremely frustrated.

Qi Ping also frowned. He was good at logical reasoning rather than deciphering codes.

Moreover, because this paper man clone only stores part of the soul, the speed of thinking is much slower than the "complete state".

This made him feel a little irritable.

Seeing this, Yu Qing looked around at everyone and comforted:

"Don't worry, maybe it's not this book, or maybe the compilation method is not as expected."
To be continued...