The Envoy

The surname of this envoy of the Central Plains was Ma, and his full name was Ma Lian. He was in his forties and his official position was that of Imperial Minister or some other sinecure. It was a little unusual for him to come to the Western Regions to investigate military exploits. Wei Song's explanation for this was, "Prince Xiao had a slight disagreement with the General-in-chief. Since the people in the Imperial Court already trust Prince Xiao, they sent a civil official here as a reward for the troops."

Wei Song's introduction was very brief and almost the same as the one given by Prince Xiao. And then he asked, confusedly, "Do you suspect Ma Lian, Dragon King? It's very unlikely. As far as I know, he never held any grudges towards Lord Gu. Actually they barely ever interacted with each other."