That noon, Li Chi received word that Cheng Wujie and the others had gone missing.

Liu Ge’s men reported that the three of them had remained indoors the whole time, so no particular watch had been kept on them.

By midday, Liu Ge’s men had gone to call them for the meal. They called out for quite some time without any response.

The men stationed outside immediately felt something was wrong. They could roughly guess what had happened.

They pushed the door open and went in. The room was empty.

The news quickly reached Li Chi, who immediately summoned Liu Ge as well.

Li Chi asked Liu Ge: “How much do you know about Ekema?”

Liu Ge nodded. “Something. Although mostly in terms of battlefield conduct — I don’t know enough about the man himself.”

He went over what he knew, and Li Chi listened carefully.

He turned it over in his mind for a moment. If Cheng Wujie and the others had gone to find Ekema, would they be in serious danger?

In the end, Li Chi’s assessment was: they had been the closest of brothers since childhood, and Cheng Wujie seemed to place deep trust in Ekema. Li Chi understood clearly that brotherly trust was mutual — given this, Ekema should not bring himself to act against them.

Still, he could not set his mind at ease.

Liu Ge said, “I am not saying anything against Cheng Wujie and the others — I can understand the feelings they must have. If I were in their position, I might do the same.”

“First, they are new to Your Highness’s service, and suddenly learning that a close brother is in the enemy camp — it would be hard not to have thoughts about that.”

“Second, the three of them may only have gone to try to persuade Ekema to give up the fight and come over to our side.”

“Third, Ekema may keep them there, given how close they all are.”

“Fourth, even if they choose to stay on Ekema’s side, I don’t see anything particularly alarming in that.”

Li Chi did not agree with Liu Ge’s reasoning inwardly, but he heard him out without interruption and without dismissal.

“Do this.”

Li Chi said, “Send extra scouts and have them watch the Shuntian Cult’s movements at all times. If anything looks wrong, report back immediately.”

“Yes, sir!”

Liu Ge acknowledged the order.

Walking out afterward, Liu Ge felt that Prince Ning was being too kind.

After all, those three men were only picked up along the road into the prince’s service — complete strangers. And their closest bond was with a commander in the enemy forces. That was just human nature: people had those they were close to and those they were not.

Prince Ning showing this much concern for three men he barely knew was already more than could be asked.

Still, even though he didn’t believe the three men had gone merely to reason with Ekema, he obeyed Prince Ning’s orders.

He dispatched several times the usual number of scouts and ordered them to advance as close to the Shuntian Army camp as possible.

For his own part, Liu Ge did not care much about three men he had only just met. What he cared about was the lives of his scouts.

Sending out several times the normal number of scouts for the sake of those three men meant soldiers could die for it.

He was a general, and a general had his responsibilities.

Li Chi was a commander — a leader. The two of them thought about things in completely different ways.

The entire afternoon, no scouts returned with news. When dusk came and Liu Ge’s mind returned to the matter, he thought: those three had probably stayed with the enemy.

He considered pulling some of the scouts back. In the end, he didn’t issue the order.

In the dead of night, scouts suddenly came back reporting strange movement in the enemy camp.

A line of torches stretched across the darkness, and the sound of battle cries came with it.

Liu Ge’s chest tightened. He thought: Prince Ning had probably already gone to sleep by now. So he immediately went out himself.

He ordered the cavalry to assemble at maximum speed, then personally led the column forward toward the enemy camp.

By this time, dawn was not far off.

—

At the same moment.

A five-man scout unit was watching from the darkness. They saw that the firelight in the enemy camp had taken on a strange pattern.

Judging by the sounds, it seemed the enemy was moving on the far side of the camp.

Could there be a force attacking from the other direction?

They were already close enough. Getting closer risked being detected.

But the intelligence was critical, and had to be confirmed. If the enemy camp was truly in chaos, this was a moment to exploit.

This was what scouts were for.

The squad leader looked around, lowered his voice, and said, “I’ll go on foot without my horse and approach the enemy camp alone. The rest of you wait here. If I haven’t come back in half an hour, don’t bother waiting.”

“Squad leader, let me go.”

“We’ll go!”

The squad leader shook his head. “Don’t argue.”

He checked his gear and said, “When we were chosen as scouts, what was the first thing we learned?”

“Follow orders!”

“Right. Follow orders. I’m squad leader — you follow mine.”

The squad leader took a slow, deep breath, and then crouched low and moved out.

He had barely gone a short distance when he suddenly stopped and dropped into a crouch, peering ahead.

Something strange was reaching his ears out of the darkness.

After a moment, he saw in the moonlight a white horse come charging hard out of the enemy camp.

The squad leader immediately raised his hand. Every scout unslung their crossbow and took aim.

“There might not be a rider on that horse?”

One scout muttered quietly.

“There is!”

The squad leader said quietly, “The rest of you hold position. I’ll go see — looks like the person on the horse may be dead.”

He ran toward the white horse. At the moment it was about to pass him, he grabbed the reins. The momentum pulled him forward quite a distance before the horse could be stopped.

“Who is this?”

When he finally brought the horse to a halt, he found a heavy-set man strapped to the saddle, barely breathing.

“The general told us to watch for several specific people, and one of them was a heavyset man.”

The squad leader made a signal with his hand. “Get this person back to the general.”

They pulled back immediately. All five of them escorted the white horse back toward the Ning forces’ position.

Right then, a body of cavalry charged out of the enemy camp — several hundred riders.

“If they’re coming that hard after someone, the person matters!”

The squad leader ordered, “You four protect this man. I’ll cover the rear.”

He unslung his crossbow and began shooting back at the pursuing riders.

By now, a faint band of white had appeared along the eastern sky.

One night had ended. Darkness retreated into the deep of the earth, and light came on strong, sweeping swiftly across the world.

Out on the open plain, several hundred enemy soldiers chased the five-man scout unit, charging toward the rising sun.

The gap between them held steady. By now the squad leader’s crossbow had run dry.

The enemy behind them outnumbered them vastly and had far more arrows.

Individually, their combat ability was not in the same class as Ning Army scouts. Even the finest Chu dynasty garrison scouts couldn’t match a Ning Army scout.

But the enemy had numbers and arrows on their side, and pressed their advantage shamelessly.

Arrows whipped in from behind. The Ning Army scouts’ situation grew steadily more dangerous.

They flattened themselves against their horses’ necks to evade the incoming shafts, feeling the rushing air of arrows slicing past.

“On my word.”

The squad leader called out, “This man — whoever he is — is probably one of the people the general ordered us to watch for. This is our mission.”

“Yes, sir!”

All four scouts answered at once.

The squad leader called out: “Ning Army scouts — how do we finish a mission?!”

“Win. Or die!”

The squad leader shouted, “Where there’s a fight, the highest-ranked goes first. I go first — if I fall, those behind me fill in!”

“Hoah!”

The squad leader immediately shifted his line slightly, positioning himself directly behind the white horse — using his own body to shield Cheng Wujie from the arrows.

Ahead of them, the sun was lifting above the horizon. Its light hit them in the eyes.

Dimly through the glare, something seemed to stir at the edge of the world.

Ahead, General Liu Ge was riding hard. He spotted a mounted column coming at him, raised his field telescope, and looked.

He saw at once it was one of his five-man scout units, being run down from behind by the enemy.

“Brothers ahead!”

Liu Ge raised his long blade and thrust it forward. “Bring them in — harm a single one of mine, and I’ll kill every last man responsible!”

“Hoah!”

The Ning cavalry answered and moved forward in unison.

Hundreds of enemy soldiers were in full pursuit, riding hard directly into the sun, their eyes struggling too.

By the time they made out the black mass surging across the horizon toward them, it was already too late.

The cavalry drove forward, peeled open to either side of the five-man unit, and swept them in to safety.

Then a wall of arrows flew back from the Ning Army side.

“Ning cavalry!”

One enemy soldier cried out in sheer terror, voice cracking.

The arrows came down.

The foremost Shuntian Army riders went tumbling from their horses by the dozens in an instant.

“Go — ride!”

“Pull back!”

“Run!”

The enemy soldiers pulled up in disorder, wheeled their horses around, and drove hard back the way they came.

Liu Ge slid his bow back into its place at the saddle, gauged the distance, and roared: “Switch to crossbows!”

The cavalry shifted smoothly, stowing bows and taking up crossbows. As they closed on the fleeing enemy, a dense volley of bolts crackled out.

Enemy soldiers dropped from their horses one after another.

Liu Ge was the first to close the distance — half a horse-length behind his target.

“Blades!”

At the command, Liu Ge drew his long blade and cut down the man in front of him in a single stroke. The head came clean off; the body stayed upright in the saddle for a moment, blood jetting from the neck stump.

Through the blood-mist, the Ning cavalry drove through one by one.

Within moments, every last one of the several hundred enemy soldiers who had been hunting the scout unit was dead.

In the distance, horns began to call out from the enemy camp.

A mass of infantry came pouring out of the camp gates and rapidly formed into defensive lines.

Liu Ge reined in his horse and looked back at the field of bodies.

“Take their heads for merit count.”

At the order, his riders dismounted and went to work, drawing blades and taking heads — fast and efficient.

Every cut was clean.

The Shuntian Army soldiers standing in their battle lines watched every bit of it.

The Ning Army soldiers in their black battle dress — beneath the just-risen morning sun — looked like clusters of black flame, burning.

They stripped the enemy of their heads, hung them from the horses, and turned to go.

—

**One hour later. Dingxian County.**

Li Chi walked quickly into the room. The medical officer was working on Cheng Wujie’s wounds. Cheng Wujie had not yet regained consciousness; his breathing was faint.

Liu Ge stood nearby, watching this man with such grievous wounds. His eyes held some measure of guilt.

He hadn’t done anything wrong. And yet the guilt was there.

He felt he should not have thought the way he had.

One look at Cheng Wujie’s wounds told the whole story — his friend had shown him no mercy at all.

This man had gone there to persuade Ekema. And apparently it had never even occurred to him that Ekema would strike without the slightest hesitation.

“Three went, and only one was brought back.”

Liu Ge looked up as Li Chi entered, bowed, and said, “I’ve already sent out scouts to gather more intelligence, but…”

He looked back at Cheng Wujie.

He shook his head. “It’s possible that in order to bring him back, his two brothers already gave their lives.”

Li Chi made a soft sound of acknowledgment, then walked to Cheng Wujie’s side and looked down at him. He asked the medical officer: “How is he?”

The medical officer answered, “Your Highness — with a wound like this, whether he lives or dies… is in heaven’s hands.”

Li Chi said, “What heaven does or doesn’t decide is none of your business. Doing everything you can to treat the wound — that is your business.”

He turned and walked out. “Liu Ge. Issue my orders — move the column forward.”

“Yes, sir!”

Liu Ge acknowledged the command at once.

Moments later, the horns of the Ning Army camp rang out.

Column by column, the elite Ning forces began to form their ranks, gathered with speed, and moved out toward the enemy.

……

……