Li Chi and Gao Xining took the silver they’d squeezed from Yu Jiuling, found a restaurant in Chengzhou, and treated themselves to a very satisfying late-night supper.

Gao Xining ate, dabbed her mouth, and then said, with apparent self-awareness, “After we’re married, we can’t keep doing this.”

Li Chi asked, “Doing what?”

Gao Xining: “Conning Ninth Brother.”

Li Chi said, “What does conning Ninth Brother have to do with whether we’re married or not?”

Gao Xining said, with full seriousness, “Once we’re married, you’ll be Emperor and I’ll be Empress. An Emperor and Empress teaming up to swindle someone out of a few hundred taels — that’s a little embarrassing.”

Li Chi thought it over and nodded. “Fair point. The two of us — Emperor and Empress — working together, and all we managed was a few hundred taels. That is a bit beneath us.”

Gao Xining nodded. “You understand me.”

What she meant, of course, was not that swindling others was embarrassing — only that swindling so little was. Now that they were going to be Emperor and Empress, if they were going to do something, they ought to do it properly.

The two of them left the restaurant and headed back to their lodgings. They had barely stepped through the gate when they spotted someone standing in the courtyard, head tilted back, gazing at the moon.

Gao Xining felt a faint pang of guilt at the sight.

“We… haven’t actually driven Ninth Brother simple-minded, have we?” she murmured.

The figure standing in the courtyard staring at the moon was, of course, Yu Jiuling. There was nothing particularly wrong with him — he simply couldn’t sleep.

When Yu Jiuling saw Li Chi and Gao Xining come back, he let out a mournful sigh and came over to greet them.

Li Chi held out the food box he was carrying. “Figured a petty soul like yours would lose sleep after getting conned out of silver, so we brought you something to eat.”

Yu Jiuling: “Bought with my money?”

Li Chi: “What else?”

Yu Jiuling grabbed the food box. “Then I’m eating.”

They went inside to the main hall. Yu Jiuling opened the box and laid out the dishes Li Chi had brought back. When he found that Li Chi had even brought him wine, he broke into a grin.

Gao Xining said, “We con you out of your silver to buy dinner, then bring you back a little something and you’re already this happy. Where’s your self-respect?”

Yu Jiuling just chuckled and said nothing, eating and drinking with evident contentment.

After a while he said, “I knew it. My lord and Big Brother — whenever you two go out for a late supper, you always bring something back for me.”

Li Chi: “And if we hadn’t?”

Yu Jiuling: “Then you’d both be cold-hearted villains.”

Gao Xining burst out laughing.

She drew a small embroidered pouch from her sleeve and handed it to Yu Jiuling. “We used the silver we conned from you to buy a jade bracelet and a pair of jade earrings. Take them back for your wife.”

Yu Jiuling froze.

Gao Xining said, “You leave home and you’re gone for a year or two at a stretch. She doesn’t have it easy back there. With your temperament, you probably never remember to bring her gifts when you go home. Before, I used to buy things and have them sent over, telling her you’d asked someone to bring them — all this time. This is to teach you a lesson. Remember to buy things yourself from now on.”

Yu Jiuling’s mouth was still full of food. He stood there stunned, at a loss for words.

Li Chi sat down and said, “I’ve already sent people to escort her to Chang’an. As for the house there — I had Lian Xiwu arrange one for you in advance.”

He looked at Yu Jiuling. “Settle up the silver later. Just give it to me directly.”

Yu Jiuling first made a sound like pfft and sprayed half the food out of his mouth laughing — and then suddenly let out a wail and began to cry.

Li Chi: “No no no — forget it, please — don’t cry. You crying… it’s truly ugly.”

Yu Jiuling cried with great abandon, mouth still half-full of what hadn’t been sprayed, face scrunched and wet. It really was quite a sight.

He opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, tried for a long moment — and couldn’t get a single word out.

Gao Xining asked him, “What are you actually trying to say?”

Yu Jiuling: “Just… is there any silver left over?”

Gao Xining’s palm connected with the back of his head.

Yu Jiuling’s face cracked into that grin of his again — tears still streaming, ugly as ever. And yet, somehow, that smile suddenly looked rather fine.

Truth be told, Li Chi and Gao Xining had spotted the bracelet and earrings the day they arrived in Chengzhou. But without giving Yu Jiuling a proper scare first, he’d never learn to bring gifts home to his wife on his own.

The jade bracelet and those two kingfisher-green earrings together cost far more than the silver Li Chi had conned out of him.

“We should be able to catch up with Shen Shanhu’s convoy in a few days.”

Li Chi said, “Eat up and get to sleep early. We have to be on the road again come morning. Once we’ve checked in with the army up ahead, we’ll set out for Jizhou.”

Yu Jiuling nodded hard, then looked at the remaining food. “Can’t eat anymore. Full.”

Li Chi: “Then go to sleep.”

Yu Jiuling started packing everything back into the box. “I’m taking it with me.”

Li Chi: “…”

Meanwhile, in Yanzhou.

Grand General Tang Pidi sat in his study reading. In the outer hall, his general Cheng Wujie was receiving envoys from the Bohai Kingdom.

Among the envoys was Piao Henyong, a border general of Bohai, and another — the Bohai King’s appointed representative, Grand Chancellor Piao Henmeng. From the names alone, it was clear the two were brothers: Piao Henmeng was the elder, already nearly fifty.

The current Bohai King was named Piao Pushan, and he had been king for less than a year.

Ever since the great battle in which Bohai and the Sang Kingdom had jointly invaded Yanzhou, Bohai had suffered devastating losses and fallen into internal chaos. In just a few years, the kingdom had seen seven different kings — each reigning an average of barely half a year.

Piao Pushan had originally been a Bohai general. He seized the throne through a coup, killing the previous king and declaring himself ruler. A man of deep cunning and ruthlessness, he had, in order to secure his position, slaughtered every rival — even those he merely suspected of being potential threats — down to the last member of their clans. In his first month as king, he killed more than nine thousand people. The Bohai capital was said to have run with rivers of blood.

Every official Piao Pushan employed came from his own clan. Grand Chancellor Piao Henmeng was his paternal uncle — supreme below the king alone, master of all court affairs. That Piao Pushan had sent him as the envoy spoke volumes about how seriously the king regarded these negotiations.

Of course, the Bohai Kingdom truly did not dare go to war anymore.

With the Heiwu people behind them, the Bohai had been like a dog that, half-starved and beaten raw by its master, would still throw itself snarling at whatever the master pointed to. But now Heiwu had gone cold on them — Piao Pushan had tried to rekindle ties, sending envoys, only for them to be turned away at the border without so much as a foot across the line.

So Piao Pushan dared not face the Prince of Ning. He certainly knew who was coming — the undefeated Grand General Tang Pidi himself.

Before they left, Piao Pushan had given explicit instructions: be humble, be deferential, do whatever it takes to avoid provoking a war. As long as the Ning army’s demands weren’t utterly unreasonable, agree to them.

Piao Henmeng carried that heavy responsibility on his shoulders. His only hope was to minimize whatever demands the Ning army placed.

But after arriving, Grand General Tang Pidi refused to see him at all — sending only Cheng Wujie to receive them in his stead.

Piao Henmeng was quietly displeased, though he dared not show it.

“The Grand General’s conditions are, in truth, somewhat… difficult.”

Piao Henmeng chose his words carefully and addressed Cheng Wujie with caution. “General Cheng, you know as well as I — our Bohai is poor and barren. We are genuinely impoverished. Fifty million taels of silver and five million taels of gold — even if you hollowed out every mountain in Bohai, you could not dig out that much…”

He looked at Cheng Wujie. “Could I trouble the General to speak with the Grand General on our behalf and have the amount reduced somewhat?”

Cheng Wujie let out a sigh. “I’m afraid you don’t understand the Grand General’s temperament. If you say you don’t have it, and the Grand General doesn’t believe you?”

He looked at Piao Henmeng. “If he doesn’t believe you, the Grand General might want to go to Bohai and see for himself whether it’s truly empty. That’s the Grand General’s way — he believes what he sees with his own eyes.”

He smiled slightly. “Actually, having the Grand General come to look for himself isn’t necessarily a bad thing for you. If you really do have it, he’ll take it and leave. If you really don’t — well, the Grand General is a kind-hearted man. He might take pity on how poorly you live and even give you something in return.”

Piao Henmeng thought: Like hell I believe that.

He put on a troubled expression. “General Cheng, even if the Grand General came to look for himself, we genuinely cannot produce that much at this time.”

Cheng Wujie studied that very-troubled-but-not-at-all-fierce face for a moment. His fingers rested on the tabletop, tapping rhythmically.

After a pause, Cheng Wujie said, “I sympathize with your situation. But if you only ask me to intercede without any other gesture, that shows no real sincerity. I know Bohai is poor and can’t produce much silver — but I’m not the one who decides. The Grand General does. Persuading me is useless. You need to find a way to persuade him.”

He looked at Piao Henmeng. “Think. What could move the Grand General? Come up with something — then I’ll take it to him. That will carry more weight, and show that your sincerity is genuine.”

Piao Henmeng fell silent. What did Bohai have to offer right now? No grain, no money. What on earth could move that butcher of a Grand General?

Cheng Wujie watched him sit wordless for a long while, then sighed again.

“It seems you have no real sincerity. You simply don’t want to negotiate terms.”

Cheng Wujie stood. “In that case, you may go. You’ll find out soon enough what the Grand General decides to do.”

Piao Henmeng immediately rose. “General Cheng — please, guide me.”

Cheng Wujie looked at him with an expression of mild exasperation. “You came here to negotiate with me, and now you want me to coach you? Very well, very well…”

He sat back down and, after a moment, continued: “You are surely aware of what Bohai did in Yanzhou in years past — the slaughter carried out there, how many people of Yanzhou died at Bohai hands. If our armies march into Bohai, that debt will be collected tenfold.”

Piao Henmeng said nothing to this. There was nothing to say. It was the truth — even if the Bohai forces that invaded Yanzhou had all been killed in the end.

Cheng Wujie said, “If our army enters Bohai, we would likely not withdraw until a million lives had been taken… So let me take it upon myself to propose a different set of terms. The Grand General needs to rebuild the northern frontier passes and construct roads — he requires a great deal of labor.”

He looked at Piao Henmeng. “I’ll offer you a substitution right now: five hundred thousand able-bodied male laborers, ages sixteen to thirty-five, in place of the fifty million taels of silver. And three hundred thousand young women, ages sixteen to thirty, in place of the five million taels of gold.”

He paused. “If you think this is worth discussing, go back and consult your Bohai King. And while you’re at it, tell him — if he agrees, there’s an additional eight hundred million taels of silver owed as a labor fee. After all, our Grand General is providing nearly a million Bohai people with a livelihood. Ten taels a head is hardly excessive.”

Cheng Wujie rose. “If you think this cannot be negotiated, you may also leave. Tell your Bohai King that we’ll simply go and collect those eight hundred thousand people ourselves — and take every last scrap of Bohai’s wealth along with it.”

Piao Henmeng’s face had drained of color. “General Cheng, this truly is going too far.”

Cheng Wujie nodded. “It is. That’s the reality. And if you don’t wish to be pushed around, you’re also welcome to fight.”

He stepped in front of Piao Henmeng and said with deliberate calm: “The Grand General asked me to pass along one thing: from this day forward, we will treat Bohai exactly as Heiwu has treated you. Two choices only — die lying down, or live on your knees.”