The Tingwei Army set out in force, riding straight for Youzhou.

This time, no one traveled by carriage. Every rider mounted and pushed hard. The distance from Jizhou to Youzhou was not especially great, but Li Chi could not bear to waste a single breath.

Li Chi understood, in his heart, that the dream Old Zhang Zhenren had described was only a pretext for conveying something he wanted to say.

That Old Zhang Zhenren, residing on Dragon Tiger Mountain, still held the realm in his heart — that much was beyond question.

And to deduce that the Black Wu might march south this very year required judgment assembled from many different factors.

Li Chi had spent enough years traveling the rivers and lakes at Changmei’s side to know well how the art of convincing people worked.

Changmei, for instance, was revered across seven counties of Jizhou as Changmei Zhenren — but was that truly because of his profound mastery of the Dao?

What appeared to common people as uncanny and mystical almost always had a rational basis underneath.

Take Old Zhang Zhenren’s reading of the northern frontier situation: the Black Wu’s new Khan Emperor, Kuokedi Daishi, had been on the throne for several years now, and had gradually drawn all court power firmly into his own hands, purging rivals and eliminating threats one by one.

He was no different from any of his predecessors — every Khan Emperor nursed the same ambition to conquer the Central Plains.

And at this moment, the Central Plains was at its most critical juncture: the great powers carving up the realm, constant warfare, no end in sight.

For the Black Wu, this was a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity.

Wait a few more years, and the Central Plains might reunify. Once that happened, moving south would be far from easy.

Think about it — what dynasty’s founding army was not made up of battle-hardened veterans? What dynasty’s founding emperor was not a man of exceptional vision and wisdom?

Li Chi had kept his attention off the northern frontier precisely because Xiahou Zuo was there, and so it had occupied his thoughts less than it perhaps should have.

Now, stirred by Old Zhang Zhenren’s warning, Li Chi recognized it clearly: if the Black Wu moved south, it could mean a bloodbath across the entire Central Plains.

The column pushed to Youzhou at maximum speed, only to learn that Xiahou Zuo had already personally led his troops north to North Mountain Pass.

North Mountain Pass was the Black Wu’s first and most natural choice when marching south. For the Central Plains, this was the most vital gateway.

The reason the Black Wu always chose to attack North Mountain Pass was the terrain: the ground there allowed their forces to deploy across a broad front.

Beyond North Mountain Pass was a wide open plain. Outside the other passes, the land was far more constrained — some were even set in the narrows of gorges.

The Black Wu were not skilled at storming fortifications. What they excelled at was open-field battle. Sending them to attack fortifications in terrain where their numbers could not spread out was to fight them at their greatest advantage.

Learning this, Li Chi’s party did not pause for a moment and continued straight from Youzhou to North Mountain Pass.

Days later. The inner gatehouse of North Mountain Pass.

Xiahou Zuo stood waiting at the gate for Li Chi’s arrival.

Before Li Chi reached Youzhou, word had already been sent ahead, so a messenger had beaten them to North Mountain Pass by a few days.

At the gatehouse entrance, Xiahou Zuo watched as a cavalry force appeared in the distance. The corners of his mouth curved upward, almost of their own accord.

Two years. It had been two years since he’d seen that man.

Li Chi swung down from his horse in a single motion and walked quickly to where Xiahou Zuo stood. The two looked at each other for a moment, then both broke into laughter.

Behind them, Yu Jiuling said with a note of feeling: “Boss, I don’t mean to start anything — I’m just genuinely saying it. You and Xiahou are better matched for each other.”

Gao Xining said: “Your intent to cause trouble is written all over your face, and you still claim you’re not starting anything?”

Yu Jiuling grinned. “If I had an older brother like Xiahou, how wonderful that would be.”

Gao Xining said: “You’re saying I don’t measure up?”

Yu Jiuling: “Ugh!”

Gao Xining said: “You should decide now which side of the horse you’re going to dismount from. Getting military-disciplined because you dismounted from the wrong side would be rather unfortunate.”

Yu Jiuling: “Allow me to perform a kowtow on horseback for Big Sister, right now.”

Gao Xining laughed. “Stand on the saddle and do a handstand and I’ll let you off.”

Yu Jiuling sighed: “How could the boss’s Big Sister compare to my Big Sister? My Big Sister — beautiful as flowers in full bloom, radiant as an immortal descended from the heavens. In beauty and bearing, across all of history, no one comes close. As for her figure, one ounce less and she’d be too lean, one ounce more and too full — perfection itself. If anyone were to claim that there exists any woman in this world who could stand beside my Big Sister, I would stake my life against theirs to defend my Big Sister’s name as the most beautiful woman under heaven. I am my Big Sister’s person in life and her ghost in death…”

Gao Xining gave a full-body shudder: “Cold…”

Yu Jiuling: “Quick — strip the Prince of Ning and wrap his coat around my Big Sister.”

Gao Xining: “Hahahaha…”

Yu Jiuling thought to himself: *that was close, close — managed to slip out of trouble once again.*

—

“What’s the situation?”

Li Chi asked Xiahou Zuo.

Xiahou Zuo said: “I’ve sent as many scouts as I can afford north to gather intelligence. Yesterday word came back that a village some twenty *li* north of here was empty — the local people have vanished, no one knows where. Our scouts didn’t dare get too close, because there were already Black Wu soldiers on watch there.”

Li Chi’s brow creased slightly. “The village emptied out?”

He thought for a moment, then said: “Keep scouts watching that village. If the Black Wu main force were planning to arrive, there’d be no reason to clear out a random village — unless…”

Xiahou Zuo snapped to attention: “Unless someone wants to use that village as his command post. As the center point for all his forces. That’s probably where the commanding general of this Black Wu army intends to be stationed.”

Li Chi gave a low sound of confirmation. “The Black Wu didn’t expect us to have scouts probing this far ahead of time, which means we have an opportunity.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “Should we…”

Li Chi immediately smiled. “Let’s do it.”

And so, not long after arriving at North Mountain Pass, the Prince of Ning changed into scout’s clothing. Two of them — the Prince of Ning himself and the commanding general Xiahou Zuo — took only a few dozen elite personal soldiers and slipped out of the pass.

Word of such a thing, once known, would be believed by almost no one.

Anyone other than Xiahou Zuo would not have said those three words — *should we* — in the first place. And anyone other than Li Chi would not have answered *let’s do it*.

These two…

—

Outside that village, in a stretch of tall grass, Li Chi and Xiahou Zuo lay side by side and watched. Black Wu soldiers could occasionally be seen moving back and forth inside the village perimeter, but there were no guards visible on the outside.

“They’re afraid of giving themselves away?”

Xiahou Zuo said quietly.

Li Chi nodded. “The more they act like this, the more likely our guess is right. They cleared the village, but placed no heavy guard outside… whoever is coming must have a very high-ranking identity. If we could find a way to cause some trouble here…”

Xiahou Zuo said: “We’re just looking, nothing more. There’s no real opening here. The advance troops here are all small fry — when the big piece arrives, the Black Wu main force will be right behind it. This place will be the central camp of an army of at least a hundred thousand.”

Li Chi sighed. “There might still be a way…”

Xiahou Zuo asked: “Then say it.”

Li Chi grinned, and pointed toward one corner of the village. Xiahou Zuo followed the direction and looked — nothing in particular caught his eye. He frowned and looked harder, then understood.

“A well?”

Xiahou Zuo said: “Poison the well?”

Li Chi sighed. “You’ve been listening to too many stories.”

Xiahou Zuo: “And most of those stories — didn’t you tell them?”

Li Chi chuckled. “Whether poisoning a well works depends on three conditions. First, timing — if we poison it now, never mind how long, even three or five days from now there’s likely nothing left. Second, quantity — how much poison would it even take to make a difference? The more the better, naturally…”

Xiahou Zuo noticed he’d paused, and asked: “And the third?”

Li Chi sighed. “Luck. If the groundwater flows — like an underground river running beneath — the poison won’t hold. Doesn’t matter how much you put in.”

Xiahou Zuo had gotten tired of lying on his front. He rolled over and stretched out on his back. “I’ve heard that in the Dachu imperial palace, the well water in the inner court can’t be drunk at all. The rear palace has three courts, six halls, seventy-two consorts’ chambers — not a single one without a well. But no one touches the water. They all have it brought in from outside. So maybe your three conditions don’t hold.”

Li Chi sighed. “That the well water in the imperial palace can’t be drunk — I don’t know if that’s true or not. But if it is, has it ever occurred to you why they wouldn’t dare drink it? It might be because someone is putting things in those wells every single day…”

Xiahou Zuo thought about it, and felt a chill run up his spine.

He asked Li Chi: “You mean those noble ladies of the rear palace — their daily entertainment is throwing things into each other’s wells?”

Li Chi: “You’re calling it entertainment?”

Xiahou Zuo said: “They might consider it entertainment. Women selected for the imperial palace are all exceptional — how could they have ill intentions?”

Li Chi laughed: “I’m joking, of course. But as for actually poisoning the Black Wu’s well right now — it’s not that I’m above it. I’m more worried it won’t work and will only put them on alert.”

When Li Chi said “it’s not that I’m above doing something as vicious as poisoning the enemy’s water supply,” Xiahou Zuo nodded his full agreement without a moment’s hesitation.

Li Chi said: “What expression is that.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “I believe you. You said it and I believed it, and then I thought about how Old Tang used to talk about you.”

Li Chi: “What did he say?”

Xiahou Zuo: “The thing about the silver coins.”

Li Chi: “Get lost.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “I suddenly have an idea. What if we went and hunted some large animals — wild boars and the like — and threw the carcasses into the well to soak? Oh — did you bring the divine eagle with you?”

Li Chi sighed: “It’s not that I’m reluctant to part with the divine eagle. It’s that I doubt any of the well mouths in that village are wide enough for the eagle to fit through.”

Xiahou Zuo burst out laughing.

Li Chi said: “You could always go and discuss that possibility with your younger sister-in-law.”

Xiahou Zuo: “Forget it. I told you — she’d be the one stuffing me into the well.”

Li Chi mused: “And yet what you said does seem to make a certain sense. Truly, when it comes to silver coins, it really is all about the vintage.”

Xiahou Zuo paused, then realized Li Chi was calling him old.

—

The two of them slipped quietly away from the village and went back to make their preparations.

The Black Wu soldiers inside the village were not few, but at this point they were not particularly vigilant — and they had absolutely no way of imagining that Li Chi and his people had already spotted the irregularity here.

So getting a few skilled men to sneak in and drop something into the wells would not be a major problem.

—

Meanwhile. The Western Regions.

Six or seven rulers of small kingdoms sat together, and none of them looked pleased.

“If we don’t do this, the Black Wu will come after us. We cannot stop a Black Wu army.”

The one who said this looked around at the others.

Another spoke: “But if we genuinely attack Liangzhou… does anyone here actually believe they can beat Dantai Qi?”

Silence fell again around the room.

“What if… we found a way to kill Dantai Qi?”

The one who appeared eldest among them spoke: “We send someone to request an audience with Dantai Qi, and we tell him directly that the Black Wu is forcing us to attack Liangzhou. He would have no reason to doubt us.”

When the others heard this, they fell quiet. After a moment, they exchanged glances, and nearly all of them nodded at the same time.

“That might work.”

“Yes — if Dantai Qi is dead, there’s nothing left to fear.”

Then, at that moment, one voice spoke very softly: “But what if… we can’t kill him?”

At that, the room went silent once more.

—