At the Ning Army main camp.

Tang Pidi’s forces and the contingent Li Chi had brought were now fully across the Panxing River, pressing against Ting’an County from all sides.

The reason Tang Pidi had paid no mind to the Chu cavalry’s approach was that he now had more than enough confidence — because all of Li Chi’s troops had arrived.

The earlier reinforcements had numbered just over forty thousand, enough to relieve pressure on Tang Pidi. The follow-on forces had arrived without much delay after, and with them, Tang Pidi’s total strength now decisively surpassed the Prince of Wu’s.

Let alone Tang Pidi having calculated that the Prince of Wu was merely probing — even if those Chu cavalry had genuinely dared to attack, they could only have ridden to their deaths. Because Li Chi alone had brought close to one hundred and fifty thousand troops. The Prince of Wu had only seen the initial forty to fifty thousand.

“For the first time since I took command.”

Even Tang Pidi couldn’t help but marvel.

He looked at Li Chi: “You’ve finally let me know what it feels like to be a man of means.”

Li Chi laughed: “From now on, you’ll always be a man of means. Fight rich — however rich, that’s how you fight.”

The Ning Army now numbered over two hundred thousand. It was genuinely the first time Tang Pidi had ever fought with such abundance.

From the day the Ning Army was founded until now, every battle had been fought at a disadvantage, always outnumbered — no exceptions.

Standing at a high vantage point and watching the vast Ning Army formations gradually close a half-encirclement around Ting’an County, Tang Pidi finally felt the tension ease from his shoulders.

He had said it himself: against someone like the Prince of Wu, there could be absolutely no contempt, no room for any opening whatsoever.

He had also said: against other opponents I can win with fewer troops, but against the Prince of Wu — if I have one hundred thousand, I will use every one. If I have one million, I will use every one.

“If he had split his forces and broken through before we crossed the river, the Chu Army might still have had a sliver of hope.”

Li Chi said, “But a man like the Prince of Wu would never abandon his own soldiers to save himself. He’s not Yang Xuanji.”

Everyone laughed at that.

Back in Jingzhou, Yang Xuanji had done exactly that — dressed in disguise and slipped away in the night, abandoning his three hundred thousand troops without a second glance.

The Prince of Wu was not that kind of man. He would never do such a thing. But precisely because of that, this battle would be ferocious beyond measure.

From Li Chi’s perspective, his view of the situation differed from Tang Pidi’s in one respect.

Take this very battle, for instance.

From Tang Pidi’s perspective: if an opportunity arose to kill the Prince of Wu, it must not be allowed to pass. As long as the Prince of Wu lived, he was the Ning Army’s greatest enemy.

This had nothing to do with whether Tang Pidi respected him. If there was any connection to respect, it was this: bringing your full strength against an enemy was the highest respect you could offer them.

In truth, no one perhaps respected an opponent like the Prince of Wu more than Tang Pidi did.

But Li Chi felt that if the chance arose, he ought to try speaking to the Prince of Wu in person first. The worst that could happen was sending him to Yuzhou’s Qipan Mountain to raise pigs in retirement.

Because Li Chi genuinely, from the heart, admired this old general — and felt that a man of such extraordinary ability, if his life could be preserved, might be worth saving.

But none of this prevented Li Chi from heeding Tang Pidi’s judgment and fighting this battle entirely on Tang Pidi’s terms.

The battle belongs to Tang Pidi. Li Chi doesn’t interfere. That had been agreed upon long ago.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Tang Pidi said quietly, standing beside Li Chi.

“If we can keep the Prince of Wu alive, it’ll also serve you well when it comes time to enter Daxing City.”

Li Chi made a sound of agreement.

Tang Pidi continued: “If the people of Daxing City learn that even the Prince of Wu has been pardoned, they’ll feel reassured.”

He looked at Li Chi. “More importantly, if the Chu soldiers in the city learn that the Prince of Wu has surrendered, the chances they’ll lay down their arms go up considerably. If Daxing City falls without a fight, that’s a tremendous thing.”

Li Chi made another sound of agreement.

Tang Pidi said: “But this man is a liability. His loyalty to Chu is too deep — and that is an irreversible quality. He will inevitably scheme in the future. That, too, is irreversible.”

“With his abilities, as long as he lives, he will absolutely work in secret to rally his old supporters.”

Tang Pidi continued: “By comparison — if the Chu Emperor Yang Jing were to surrender, once he saw Chu destroyed and its capital fallen, he would lose the will to resist entirely. But the Prince of Wu would not.”

Li Chi slowly exhaled. “I’ll defer to you. I said it before — how this battle is fought, I defer entirely to you. When I’m not at your side, I won’t send letters interfering. When I am at your side, I’m nothing more than one of your officers.”

Tang Pidi smiled.

Just like when they’d left Jizhou City — Li Chi had said the same thing then, and Tang Pidi’s smile had been the same radiant, unguarded smile.

“Even so, I’ll still try to keep the Prince of Wu alive if I can — even if he himself may have resolved to die in this battle.”

Tang Pidi said: “He does everything he can to die. I do everything I can to keep him alive.”

Li Chi couldn’t help asking: “Why?”

Tang Pidi looked into the distance and said: “I must be the ferocious general. You must be the benevolent ruler.”

Li Chi was stunned.

Tang Pidi said: “On the battlefield, I need a fearsome reputation. The goal of this battle is to annihilate the Prince of Wu’s forces completely — not one left standing. But if he himself survives, you’ll earn a name for benevolence and righteousness in the eyes of the people and of future Chu surrendered soldiers.”

Li Chi said: “But didn’t you just say that as long as the Prince of Wu lives, he’ll inevitably rebel?”

Tang Pidi was silent for a moment, then said: “When that time comes and we kill him — the world will have no pity left for him.”

Li Chi blinked.

Old Tang’s thinking truly did, at certain moments, run far ahead of nearly everyone in this world — even ahead of Li Chi himself.

Li Chi murmured quietly: “If he lives, I earn a name for benevolence. If he lives and eventually betrays us — when we kill him then, the world will resent him for trying to plunge the Central Plains into chaos again.”

Tang Pidi nodded. “But… the battlefield shifts in an instant. I can’t guarantee I’ll truly be able to protect his life. And if he chooses to end it himself in a desperate moment, no one can stop him.”

Li Chi said: “He won’t.”

Tang Pidi smiled.

Yes. A man like the Prince of Wu would never choose to take his own life. Because he knew that as long as he lived, he could still do something for Chu.

“Report!”

A scout came running up and bowed. “My lord, Grand General — the Qingzhou forces are nearly here. Less than two hundred li away. Grand General Shen has sent word.”

Li Chi looked at Tang Pidi. Tang Pidi smiled and said, “Have the messenger brought up.”

The man who came was a junior officer who looked utterly exhausted — he must have pushed hard without rest on this ride.

“Rest here for a day, then return tomorrow. Take a letter back from me.”

While waiting for the messenger to be brought, Tang Pidi had already written the letter.

He asked Shen Shanhu to bring the Qingzhou Ning Army and position them southeast of Ting’an County, sealing that route. Any attempt by the Prince of Wu to break through toward Suzhou would now be essentially impossible.

Tang Pidi said to Li Chi: “If I were the Prince of Wu, I’d be sending scouts intensively southeast to gather intelligence right now.”

Li Chi said: “If he finds no trace of our main force to the southeast, he’ll try to break through toward Suzhou.”

Tang Pidi said: “If that happens, two scenarios unfold. First — our forces give chase in full strength. As our formations shift, the Prince of Wu doubles back and breaks through due south instead.”

He held up two fingers. “Second — if our forces split to intercept, our strength becomes thin. The encirclement gets stretched across east, southeast, due south, and southwest, and two hundred thousand troops get pulled into a massive circle. Paradoxically, that makes it easier for him to break through. He wants us moving — only once we’re moving can he find the gaps.”

The Prince of Wu wouldn’t go northeast. He knew Ning reinforcements would come from Qingzhou; northeast led only to a wall.

He wouldn’t go due north either — that was Mangdang Mountain.

Northwest? That was the direction the Yuzhou Ning forces had come from. The Prince of Wu wouldn’t choose it, because if he got bogged down, he’d never have another chance to lead his men out.

Li Chi said: “The scouts have also reported finding large numbers of Chu scouts to the southeast.”

Tang Pidi said: “The Prince of Wu knows I can predict him. So he’s not bothering to hide it. His only real chance is betting that the Qingzhou forces arrive later than expected.”

As he said this, a flicker of regret passed over Tang Pidi’s eyes.

It was faint — but Li Chi saw it clearly.

That brief, fleeting regret said everything Li Chi needed to understand about Tang Pidi’s state of mind in this moment.

What commander didn’t have a competitive heart?

But the opponent Tang Pidi was facing now — still the man called the God of War of Chu — was no longer the Prince of Wu at the absolute height of his powers.

If it had been possible, Tang Pidi would have preferred to fight the Prince of Wu at forty-something.

“He’s grown too cautious now.”

Tang Pidi said, his voice carrying a faint undercurrent of melancholy. “If he were forty, he wouldn’t care whether our Qingzhou reinforcements arrived or not — he’d have broken out to the southeast already.”

Li Chi nodded slowly.

Tang Pidi said: “He’s deploying scouts to probe southeast in force — to feel truly secure, he’d need them to range at least a hundred li, and with a radius to cover that distance, going out and back alone takes two to three days, to say nothing of thorough coverage. In war, does the enemy give you two or three days?”

Li Chi said: “So instead he’s had men build massive defensive works outside Ting’an County — digging trenches, raising earthen walls, laying out obstacles…”

Tang Pidi said: “That’s the contradiction inside him.”

Li Chi was quiet for a moment, then said: “By now, he probably knows, himself, that he’s no longer who he used to be. That must be a deeply painful thing.”

Tang Pidi made a sound of agreement. Yes. That would indeed be a deeply painful thing.

When a legendary commander begins to hesitate — begins to doubt himself — the suffering within him could perhaps only truly be understood by Tang Pidi.

“Report!”

Another scout came up and bowed. “My lord, Grand General — the men we sent to probe northwest encountered messengers from Grand General Xiahou. Our forces from Yuzhou are less than one hundred li away. Grand General Xiahou Zhuo sends word.”

Li Chi was genuinely surprised. Xiahou had come fast.

Xiahou Zhuo had ridden all the way back from Jingzhou to Yuzhou. Li Chi had only just arrived from Jingzhou himself a few days ago — and Xiahou was already nearly here.

Yuzhou was indeed closer, but this speed still exceeded Li Chi’s expectations.

Tang Pidi dispatched men to inform Xiahou Zhuo where to position his forces.

One hundred li at the Ning Army’s marching pace was no great distance. With this, the northwest would be completely sealed.

“Luo Jing is leading troops from Suzhou to link up with Shen Shanhu, and together they’ll seal the east on three sides.”

Tang Pidi let out a slow, long breath. The great picture was settled.

“The Prince of Wu shouldn’t have hesitated.”

He said it almost to himself.

—