About half a month after settling into the capital of Daxing, the first to lose patience were not the civil and military officials under Prince Ning Li Chi’s command — but the surrendered ministers.

A good number of them gathered outside the gates of Yibin Garden, kneeling in supplication for Prince Ning to ascend the throne and proclaim himself Emperor. The spectacle was quite impressive.

After they had been kneeling for some time, Master Yan came out on Prince Ning’s behalf to receive them, and even invited them all inside Yibin Garden for a talk.

They entered with great enthusiasm, expecting an audience with the Prince himself — only to find that Prince Ning was not in Yibin Garden at all, which left them sorely disappointed.

Thinking back on how they had just been kneeling outside the gates, they suddenly felt that all the effort had been rather wasted emotion.

Of course, Li Chi hadn’t simply been away the entire time — he had slipped out through the back door shortly after these men arrived.

He genuinely had no desire to explain himself to these gentlemen, and no desire whatsoever to look at their parade of loyal-minister faces.

“Old Tang sent back a military report yesterday.”

Li Chi strolled along the streets of the capital with Xiahou Zhuo and the others, talking as they walked.

“Han Feibao has been chased by Old Tang for nearly a thousand li now. He’s retreated to hold Lanhe Prefecture. Old Tang has dispatched troops to cut off Han Feibao’s road back to the northwest — so wiping out Han Feibao’s Yong Province army is merely a matter of time.”

Xiahou Zhuo listened, then nodded. “Even if Han Feibao’s forces were double Old Tang’s, he still wouldn’t be Old Tang’s match. And now Han Feibao has barely any men left.”

On the military front, there was little to worry about.

With the Ning Army’s current momentum, never mind crushing one Han Feibao — even sweeping down to take the entire Jiangnan region wouldn’t face much resistance.

The rebel leaders who still had some troops left didn’t dare openly confront Old Tang either. As the Ning Army pushed south, these rebel forces either surrendered outright or fled into the deep mountains to wait out the storm.

These forces ranged from thirty or fifty thousand at most down to barely a thousand or eight hundred at the smallest — even the most thick-headed among them wouldn’t dare face the Ning Army head-on.

Yet most of these people would become a lasting danger. Those who had retreated into the mountains would turn to banditry, and as long as they remained, they would plague the surrounding region.

“Lu Chonglou has already left Daxing.”

Yu Jiuling said, “My eldest brother assigned him a battalion of Tingwei Army troops as escorts. He’s first making a circuit through the various prefectures and counties within Jing Province — by the time he completes that loop, it’ll likely take a full year.”

Doing Jing Province first was to buy time while waiting for the large contingent of officials being transferred from the northern frontier. The journey was long — just traveling there would take most of half a year, and for the most distant postings, a full year was not unheard of.

To say nothing of the men being selected from Yan Province who would need to travel over — they would be walking through all four seasons before they arrived.

The Central Plains was simply too vast — so vast that the overwhelming majority of people couldn’t even begin to imagine its scale.

“I’ve been thinking about something lately.”

Li Chi said as he walked. “The division into thirteen provinces is somewhat disordered. After years of war, none of the provinces have intact and functioning government offices anymore. So I want to redraw the Central Plains when the time comes.”

“Replace provinces with circuits — *dao* — and reorganize the Central Plains along rational geographical lines. My current vision is to carve out more than a dozen circuits and establish circuit administrative offices in place of the old provincial structure. That would make governance far clearer.”

Yu Jiuling didn’t really follow any of this, so he just walked along in silence. Whether it was circuits or provinces, regional governors didn’t concern him — all he wanted was to serve as Li Chi’s personal guard commander.

“These things still need a complete plan drawn up later. Once Xu Ji arrives, I’ll hand this matter over to him.”

Li Chi said, “In matters like these, Xu Ji’s abilities are second to none.”

Xiahou Zhuo nodded. “There’s still one thing that sits uneasily — many of the places we took came so quickly that official appointments haven’t been able to keep up.”

He looked at Li Chi. “So we ended up directly dispatching military commanders from the army to serve as local officials. But it’s never quite right — commanding troops is one thing, but governing the people tends to come out too rough and blunt.”

Li Chi said, “Once the people being transferred from the north arrive in sufficient numbers, I’ll summon all the generals currently posted as local officials and call them back.”

Xiahou Zhuo said, “That’s bound to cause grumbling. They’ve just gotten used to being local officials — masters of their own domain within a region. Being recalled won’t sit well with any of them.”

Li Chi said, “I have an idea. In the future, I want to establish an academy in Chang’an — one that brings together the strengths of all schools of thought. Part of it will be set aside as a military academy. These generals will all be recalled to the military academy for fresh study, and once they graduate, they’ll be assigned to garrison positions across the various regions.”

Xiahou Zhuo smiled. “That would be ideal.”

Just then, Li Chi noticed in the distance that a small crowd had gathered before a notice board, talking animatedly among themselves.

He sent Yu Jiuling to dispatch someone to have a look. It turned out that the former Dean of the Daxing Academy had already begun making arrangements to establish a new academy in the capital, and had posted a notice inviting those who considered themselves learned to join.

The Dean’s standing in the hearts of scholars was, one could say, that of the foremost figure in the realm today — and so when the notice was posted, the city’s readers and scholars were tremendously stirred.

Just think: if they graduated from this academy, they could call themselves the Dean’s students for the rest of their lives — no small source of pride.

And the immediate practical benefit was clear enough: as the Dean’s disciples, seeking office and entering government would naturally be far easier.

Li Chi smiled and asked Yu Jiuling, “Jiuling, tell me — why do so many people seem so delighted about the Dean’s plan to open an academy?”

Yu Jiuling thought for a moment. “I couldn’t say exactly… perhaps… hope.”

Everyone looked at Yu Jiuling, then began to applaud without prior arrangement. Those two words captured the very purpose behind so many of Li Chi’s arrangements — to let people in every trade, every walk of life, every stratum of society, see hope.

Li Chi patted Yu Jiuling on the shoulder. “Jiuling has a perceptive heart.”

At that same moment, in Yu Wenli’s residence, Yang Jing stood beneath a tree that had shed nearly all its leaves, lost in thought.

Yu Wenli came over carrying a bowl of freshly prepared rock sugar white fungus soup, and said softly, “Your Majesty, the soup is just made — would you care for some?”

“I am no longer Emperor.”

Yang Jing accepted the bowl, and said in a gentle tone, “You must be more careful with your words from now on. If someone seizes on that as a pretext, it becomes a matter of life and death.”

Yu Wenli quickly assented, feeling a heaviness in his heart.

With Yang Jing living in his home, he had come to understand firsthand what people meant by the warmth and coldness of human feeling. Not a soul dared set foot here anymore — every acquaintance kept as far away as possible.

“How are things outside?”

Yang Jing asked.

Yu Wenli said, “Nothing unusual — much the same as before.”

He didn’t want to say that the common people all looked different now, that each one seemed to feel life had something to look forward to.

Even less did he want to say that the scholars of Daxing, simply upon hearing that the Dean intended to open an academy, had already begun singing Prince Ning Li Chi’s praises.

“Perhaps…” Yu Wenli ventured cautiously, “I could seek an audience with Prince Ning and ask him to permit us to leave the capital.”

Yang Jing shook his head. “If we leave the capital, where would we go? Li Chi isn’t killing me — but he needs to keep me within his sight. I cannot go anywhere. As long as I remain where he can see me, An’er will be safe.”

Yu Wenli let out a long sigh in his heart, wondering how An’er was faring.

The best protection, after all, was for even them not to know where Yang Jing’s child had gone.

Just as they were speaking, someone suddenly knocked at the outer gate. A servant cracked the door open to peek out — the visitor outside pushed straight in.

The servants were startled and moved to block the way, but the man ran to Yang Jing’s side and dropped to his knees with a thud.

“Your Majesty, this subject has arrived late.”

Yang Jing studied the man carefully, but didn’t recognize him at all — not even a flicker of familiarity. He was certain he had never seen this person before.

“Who are you?”

Yang Jing asked.

The man appeared to be around thirty years of age. One look at the layer of road dust on him made clear he had traveled from a great distance.

“Your Majesty, this subject has come from Shu Province. I entered Daxing just this morning, and upon learning that Your Majesty resided here, came at once.”

“Shu Province?”

Yang Jing’s eyes narrowed.

Shu Province had always been a place of great complexity. The reason Yang Xuanji had been able to contend for the realm was precisely the backing of the great clans of Shu Province. And from the evidence that followed, Han Feibao and the Marquis of Guanting — who had never set foot in Shu Province — both had close ties with various forces there, bound by a thousand threads. Yang Jing had long sensed that some mysterious force seemed to be scheming all of this from the shadows.

“Who exactly are you?”

Yang Jing asked, his tone carrying a hint of frost.

The man answered, “This subject’s name is Yao Huancheng. I am a retainer of the Military Commissioner, and the Commissioner has sent me to escort Your Majesty to Shu Province.”

Yang Jing’s expression shifted at once.

“Your Majesty, Shu Province is a land of fertile plains stretching a thousand li — the finest place for Your Majesty to rise again. The Military Commissioner has already prepared troops for Your Majesty, along with provisions and supplies. As long as Your Majesty reaches Shu Province, reclaiming the realm is assured.”

In that moment, Yang Jing — who had believed himself to be beyond all desire — felt something stir inside him.

If there truly had been a mysterious force that cultivated Yang Xuanji and Han Feibao as puppets, then the power behind that force was clearly terrifying beyond measure.

Now that Han Feibao and the Marquis of Guanting were both beyond redemption, those forces had apparently moved to secretly extract him — intending to use Shu Province as a foundation from which to accumulate strength and challenge Li Chi.

“Insolent!” Yu Wenli glared at Yao Huancheng. “Where does this treacherous wretch come from, daring to appear here and set a trap?”

He barked an order: “Men — seize him!”

A group of household guards surged forward and restrained the man. Yao Huancheng didn’t struggle — he simply knelt and said, “Your Majesty, please believe this subject. Reach Shu Province, and there will still be a chance.”

Yang Jing said nothing, and turned to walk back toward the main building.

Yu Wenli understood immediately what Yang Jing meant: this man’s origins were unknown, and needed to be clarified before anything else. Yang Jing’s silence was not a dismissal — if it were, he would have given the order himself.

Yu Wenli waved his hand, and the household guards bound Yao Huancheng and escorted him to a side room.

Once the man was secured, Yu Wenli hurried back to the main building and dropped to his knees before Yang Jing.

“Your Majesty, this matter calls for great caution.”

Yang Jing said, “If this man was placed here by Prince Ning Li Chi to test me, then Li Chi most likely intends to have me killed… but if — if there truly is even a thread of hope remaining…”

Yu Wenli’s expression shifted rapidly, and for a moment he didn’t know what to say.

—

Nearly a thousand li from Daxing, within the prefectural seat of Lanhe Prefecture, the routed remnants of the Yong Province Army were encamped.

In the rear courtyard of what had once been the prefectural government office, Han Feibao stood with his hands clasped behind his back, staring blankly into space.

“My lord.”

A subordinate came in quickly, carrying a letter.

Han Feibao turned. “Who sent the letter?”

The subordinate answered, “The messenger said he came on the orders of the Holy Master. He left the letter and departed in haste.”

Han Feibao started. He reached out and took the letter, hands trembling slightly as he broke the seal and read. When he finished, his hands were shaking even harder.

“Outrageous!”

Han Feibao flew into a rage and tore the letter to shreds.

His Holy Master had instructed him to abandon any thought of retreating to Yong Province, and instead to feign a breakout southward before changing course to retreat southwest — back into Shu Province.

Once he reached Shu Province, he was to use Shu’s natural defenses to hold and wait. If the Chu Emperor Yang Jing arrived in Shu Province, he was to take Yang Jing as his liege, support him, and plan his next move accordingly.

“So I was nothing but a puppet to be moved as they pleased?!”

Han Feibao muttered to himself, his lips trembling.

—