At dawn, sunlight spilled down from the east in layer upon layer, gilding the world in successive hues. The birds in the gorge sang with a particular clarity in that moment, as though they were offering a song of welcome to the sacred radiance.

Xiahou Zhuo, clad in iron armor, strode up the slope. The sunlight left its holy blessing across the surface of his armor, making him appear especially tall and imposing.

As he walked, the scrape of interlocking armor plates and the crunch of his battle boots over gravel drowned out the birds’ singing.

He stopped at the foot of the high ground and looked up.

“Is General Gao present?”

Xiahou Zhuo called out in a loud voice.

Gao Guangxiao stepped out from behind a large boulder and replied, “Has this general come to persuade us to surrender again?”

Xiahou Zhuo answered, “No. I have a few words to say to the old general, after which we will attack.”

Gao Guangxiao said, “Then please speak.”

Xiahou Zhuo said, “My lord is a man who cherishes talent and has no desire for unnecessary slaughter. That is why he has spent several days asking General Gao to consider coming down from the mountain. Since the old general has remained firm, my lord respects your resolve, and so…”

He paused briefly before raising his voice. “Therefore, the attack on the mountain is imminent. However, my lord values his soldiers’ lives and does not wish for heavy casualties, and so he has decided to set the mountain ablaze.”

“I have come to inform General Gao: if you have compassion for your men, you may permit them to descend the mountain before the fire is lit. My lord will not trouble them.”

When Gao Guangxiao heard this, his heart gave a sharp lurch.

They had surrounded the mountain pass with such overwhelming numbers, and their opponent was his few thousand battered remnants — and yet they were planning to burn the mountain?

He had no way of knowing that when Li Chi had attacked Xiu Mountain, burning it down had been his intention from the start. It was only because Yao Zhiyuan had the foresight to scorch the dry grass on Xiu Mountain beforehand that things had unfolded differently.

The mountain where Gao Guangxiao and his men now stood was overgrown with wild grass. In this season, a single torch could send fire rolling up the slope without end.

So when Xiahou Zhuo finished speaking, the color drained from Gao Guangxiao’s face.

“Old General, please give it further thought. At noon, regardless of how many men come down, the fire will be set.”

With that, Xiahou Zhuo turned and walked back to the army.

Reaching Li Chi’s side, Xiahou Zhuo let out a soft sigh. “I wonder whether those words will be enough to force the old general down.”

Li Chi shook his head slightly. “It will likely be difficult.”

Xiahou Zhuo said, “Getting a man like that to submit truly is no easy thing. But if we could bring him over, the road ahead would be far smoother.”

Fang Biehan, standing nearby, said, “Why don’t I go and try?”

Li Chi asked him, “Do you have a relationship with Gao Guangxiao?”

Fang Biehan shook his head. “We’ve never crossed paths, never met… but perhaps a few words from someone of my standing might carry some weight.”

Li Chi said, “There’s no need. If he knows who you are, he may well order his men to attack you.”

Fang Biehan said nothing more. He knew perfectly well how unwelcome a person from the *muyíng* was in the eyes of a Shu army officer. If he went up to reason with Gao Guangxiao, the old general might genuinely loose a volley of arrows on him.

Li Chi said, “Since we have already given him a deadline, there can be no further lenience. If we drag this out again and again, there will be murmuring in our own ranks.”

Xiahou Zhuo nodded. “Then I’ll make the preparations.”

Li Chi said, “Have Gao Zhen handle that.”

Though Li Chi had sent Xiahou Zhuo up with that ultimatum, he had no genuine intention of burning the mountain. The terrain here was nothing like Xiu Mountain — Xiu Mountain had been small and isolated, and burning it had been a manageable affair. But here, the mountain ranges stretched on and on. A single fire could sweep across a thousand *li* without stopping.

What Xiahou Zhuo had said on that slope was nothing more than a bluff.

Just then, several Shu army soldiers appeared on the hillside, waving white cloth as they descended.

Clearly, Xiahou Zhuo’s threat of burning the mountain had worked.

The soldiers came down in silence. No one gave them any orders; they simply found a spot off to the side, crouched down, and waited.

More kept coming, a steady stream. It was plain that Gao Guangxiao had given the order: anyone who did not wish to stay and die with him was free to leave.

The Ning army counted the numbers. By the time it drew close to noon, some seven thousand men had come down from the mountain.

When they asked the descended soldiers how many remained up top, the answer was: only a few hundred, all of whom were staying to fight to the death with Gao Guangxiao — his personal guard and a handful of his subordinate officers.

The tally was still being taken when Gao Guangxiao appeared on the heights.

He called down toward the Ning army in a loud voice.

“King of Ning — now that only this old man and a few hundred personal guards remain up here, there is surely no need to set the mountain ablaze. Behind this mountain are villages and hamlets; one carelessly started fire and innocent people will be caught in it.”

He paused, then continued, “This old man speaks on behalf of the Shu army. I hereby declare war upon the King of Ning! King of Ning — come up here and take this old man’s head!”

Gao Zhen turned to Li Chi with a fist-salute. “My lord, give the order. I will lead three hundred Wolf-Ape soldiers up there and wipe out the last of them.”

Li Chi suddenly laughed.

Seeing that laugh, Xiahou Zhuo and the others all had the same thought: the old general on that mountain, with all his readiness to die, was about to run into trouble.

“Tell the old general that since only a few hundred men remain beside him, there’s not much point in fighting anymore.”

Li Chi turned and walked back toward the army. “Also tell him — I will leave a detachment behind to wait for him. If he wants a fight, he can come down and have one. I’m going to go attack Mei City.”

Xiahou Zhuo could not help but laugh.

Gao Guangxiao had wished to die for his convictions. But Li Chi was clearly not going to give him that satisfaction.

Xiahou Zhuo had someone shout the message up to the mountain, conveying Li Chi’s meaning, and then he too departed.

The Ning army left a small force behind to keep watch. The rest escorted the prisoners back toward Tiger Wall Pass.

Up on the mountain, Gao Guangxiao and his men had all been resolved to die. Every last one of those few hundred had made their peace with death.

But now, watching the Ning army withdraw, that willingness to die simply… dissipated.

And it didn’t feel altogether pleasant, either.

In truth, Li Chi was in no hurry to attack Mei City. The next objective, the Mei Mountain Military Camp, was going to be far more formidable than Tiger Wall Pass or Xiu Mountain.

The Mei Mountain Camp served as the gateway to Mei City. It lay less than a day’s march away, close enough that its garrison and the city’s defenders could support each other.

Before attacking, Li Chi needed to understand the situation at the Mei Mountain Camp thoroughly. Fang Biehan knew the place well and briefed Li Chi on everything he knew.

The camp’s commanding officer was Pei Jinglun, a nephew of Pei Qi’s, exceptionally skilled in martial arts and possessed of a sharp strategic mind. He had followed Pei Qi into the army as a boy, and since Pei Qi had no children of his own, Pei Jinglun had been formally adopted from a young age.

From the age of seven or eight, Pei Jinglun had accompanied Pei Qi on campaigns — back when Pei Qi was not yet Military Governor of Shu. Pei Qi treated him as his own son, denying him nothing, yet Pei Jinglun had not grown into the kind of pampered young aristocrat that upbringing might have produced.

From childhood, he had loved reading military texts and listening to tales of battle. By his teens he had followed Pei Lang into Shu, where Pei Qi set him to work training troops.

First Yang Xuanji, then Han Feibao — both men had marched out of Shu to contend for the realm. No small part of the armies they commanded had been trained by Pei Jinglun.

The Mei Mountain Camp was in many ways the foundation of Shu’s military strength. Each year, great numbers of soldiers were dispatched from it to fill the ranks elsewhere. In his day, Yang Xuanji had been deeply impressed by Pei Jinglun’s talent and had asked Pei Qi for him several times. Pei Qi had always refused.

Furthermore, the Mei Mountain Camp’s defenses were seamless and complete. Over more than a decade, Pei Qi had turned it into a mountain fortress.

It contained not only enormous reserves of food and weapons but also a vast array of defensive engines. Fang Biehan mentioned that on the mountain, a number of siege-catapults had been installed that could cover the main road below. Any Ning army marching through would be struck by plunging fire from above.

The entire mountain had been shaped into something resembling terraced fields, with heavy defensive weapons deployed at every tier.

This mountain fortress, standing before Mei City, was the hardest bone of all to crack.

Li Chi did not rush into an attack. For several days he remained in camp conferring with Fang Biehan and the others about how to assault the Mei Mountain Camp — and in the process, he rather forgot about the men still holding out on the mountain above.

Five or six days later, he remembered them, and reckoned they were probably close to breaking — not from lack of food, since the surrendering soldiers had left their rations behind for Gao Guangxiao’s men, giving the few hundred enough to manage for some time, if they were careful. But the spiritual torment was something else entirely, far harder to endure.

Counting from the day they had taken to the mountain, it had now been ten days. By any reasonable estimate, relief troops should have arrived by now.

Li Chi asked whether any Shu army reinforcements had appeared. His men replied: none. Not even a Shu army scout had dared come too close.

Just as Li Chi was considering going up to try persuasion again, word came that someone was asking for an audience outside the camp. The visitor turned out to be Yao Zhiyuan.

Gao Guangxiao had sent men to his hometown to find him, assuming that Yao Zhiyuan had surrendered under duress. They returned utterly bewildered to learn it had been entirely voluntary.

Yao Zhiyuan had known his mentor would be unable to hold Tiger Wall Pass and had come to see the situation for himself. He now wished to ask the King of Ning to spare his teacher’s life.

After Li Chi received Yao Zhiyuan, Yao Zhiyuan volunteered to go up and talk to Gao Guangxiao.

Up on the slope.

More than ten days without a bath or even a wash of the face — the water in their canteens had begun to go stale, let alone anything else. Gao Guangxiao, an old general who had always taken considerable pride in his appearance, no longer had the energy to care about such things.

Han Zai stole a glance at him, then could not help asking, “Commander… reinforcements…”

Gao Guangxiao shook his head. “There will be no reinforcements.”

Han Zai said, “They should still be coming, shouldn’t they? By the count of days, they might arrive today.”

Gao Guangxiao knew his beloved officer was not foolish — he simply could not bring himself to accept the reality of being abandoned.

“The Mei Mountain Camp is what matters most.”

Gao Guangxiao said, “The Military Governor will never send the Mei Mountain forces to rescue the two of us. Tiger Wall Pass is already lost. What would be the point of sending men and suffering more casualties just to bring me back?”

Han Zai said, “But we held Tiger Wall Pass in the Military Governor’s name…”

He didn’t finish the sentence. Gao Guangxiao’s eyes stopped him.

Han Zai sighed. “I’ve heard that in the Ning army, no comrade is ever abandoned.”

Gao Guangxiao started. He looked at Han Zai. “Don’t tell me you too have thoughts of going over to the enemy?”

Han Zai said, “If we were disloyal, it would be one thing for the Military Governor not to send aid. But this way — doesn’t it chill the hearts of every soldier who serves him?”

Gao Guangxiao said, “Isolated forces — it has always been thus throughout history…”

The words died on his lips as he saw a figure ascending the slope, step by step. The Shu army soldiers posted as sentries did not bar his way. Not one moved to stop him.

Gao Guangxiao rose. The moment he saw it was Yao Zhiyuan, his expression changed entirely.

He immediately cried out, “Drive him away — do not let him come to see me!”

In the distance, Yao Zhiyuan dropped to both knees.

—