Jin Yu dragged a man with a face full of snot and tears, running straight through the city toward the residence. Everyone who saw them stopped and turned to stare — just a few days ago, a messenger had wailed and howled his way into the city. Why was there another one?

What had happened?

People quickly noticed this man’s clothes and the white mourning cloth tied around his head — someone from the Mountain Sparrow clan? Well, now.

Zhù Ying was in the office composing from memory the records and characteristics of Jiang Zheng and Shao Shuxin. Without the official gazette being delivered to Wuzhou, Zhù Ying had other means of obtaining information. Both the Wuzhou prefectural office and the Fulu County office, as well as certain local gentry, had channels of contact. Not only was Jiang Zheng coming south to serve as governor — Shao Shuxin, who had previously come south to oversee salt affairs, was also going to move his office closer in.

Along with the gazette had come news from the gentry below the mountains: because the new governor was arriving, the Prefect Xu had gathered some of the local gentry to discuss arrangements for welcoming the new governor. Gu Weng and others thus found themselves unable to leave, and could only send a messenger up the mountain to ask for help.

The earlier information Zhù Ying had received was incomplete — some guesses had not been accurate. Now the information was clearer, and a rough picture could be sketched. These two had come specifically to obstruct her — preparations needed to be made.

Zhù Qingye saw a small girl called Zhù Xi running over and waved her off. When Zhù Ying lifted her brush to dip it in ink, Zhù Qingye said: “She… there’s news.”

Zhù Xi stepped forward and said: “She! Jin Commanding Officer is bringing someone from the Mountain Sparrow clan — they’re wearing mourning!”

Zhù Ying set down her brush: “Who else has seen this? Has there been any loud commotion?”

“Not… not yet.”

“Good. Pass word — no spreading this around, and above all make sure Lin Feng’s wife doesn’t find out.”

“Yes.”

“Have them come in.”

Jin Yu brought the man in quickly, his tone urgent: “She! Lin Feng’s A’Ba… what are we going to do?” The man also threw himself on the ground and started to weep.

Zhù Ying said: “Keep your voice down! Lin Feng isn’t here, and his wife is with child — don’t startle the pregnant woman. Tell me what happened.”

The man said: “The night before he was fine — drank half a bottle of wine, slept soundly, didn’t get up in the night. The next morning he just kept not waking up. Half a day later, someone went to check and he’d already passed on.”

Zhù Ying asked: “Did he leave no words at all?”

The man shook his head and began to sob again, the sound deeply sorrowful and clearly genuine. Zhù Ying said: “I understand. Qingye, have someone inform Qingjun — tell Lin Feng properly; don’t just drop the news on him all at once.”

Jin Yu said: “She… Lin Feng hasn’t been home for several years and misses his family greatly. If news comes too slowly and he can’t see his A’Ba off, he’ll be heartbroken. And the campaign…”

Mentioning the campaign he became flustered again. Terrible — what he’d said made it sound like he was rushing to get Lin Feng recalled so he could take his place! Jin Yu’s face went red, and an ambiguous flicker of hope stirred in him: maybe I really will get to go out after all. But what I just said — was that not entirely appropriate?

Zhù Ying watched his expression with full attention, then said slowly: “Qingjun will know what to do. Lin Feng will also have his chance.”

She first instructed the messenger to rest for a day, then told Jin Yu: “Have you finished your task?”

“I — I…” Jin Yu said. “I’ll go right now!”

Zhù Ying said: “Be quick.”

“Yes.”

Zhù Ying continued giving orders to Zhù Qingye: “Send word to Qingjun — have Lin Feng’s unit rotate back, with Jin Yu’s unit to relieve him.”

“Yes.”

Then Zhù Ying had Zhù Xi go find Xiang An: “Have her make arrangements — I’m going to the Mountain Sparrow clan to pay my condolences. First send over a set of funeral offerings.”

“Yes.”

After that, Zhù Ying personally went to Lin Feng’s house. After his marriage, Lin Feng had a place of his own in the mountain city. After he went off to war, his wife and a few servants lived here. It certainly wasn’t as impressive as life back in the stronghold, and she was occasionally “reminded” about how she treated the servants. But the mountain city was better supplied than the stronghold — life was more convenient, and there were more people to talk to. Both had their advantages, and the new bride was living comfortably enough.

Zhù Ying dropping by was a regular occurrence, and the new bride was glad to see her. Today there was someone else in Lin Feng’s home as well — Qi Niangzi, who had brought over some small garments and swaddling for the baby. The two women were chatting and laughing together.

When they saw Zhù Ying, both stood up. Zhù Ying saw how quickly the new bride moved and exchanged a glance with Qi Niangzi. Qi Niangzi said to the bride: “Let me take these inside to your room.”

The new bride asked: “She… is something the matter?”

Zhù Ying said: “Your family sent word. Your father-in-law is ill and is thinking of his son and daughter-in-law.”

The new bride sighed: “A’Ba is getting old.”

Zhù Ying said: “Lin Feng is still out there. If you need anything, come and tell me. I also haven’t seen him in a while — I’ll travel with you both, so safety won’t be a worry.”

The new bride mustered a smile: “You have so many important things to attend to. When he comes back, the two of us will go home together. How is it… Is A’Ba quite unwell — is that why you’d come along? Ah…”

Zhù Ying said: “Don’t overthink it — I’ll bring several doctors with us.”

“All right.” The new bride agreed, and silently longed for her husband, hoping he would return having won a victory.

——

At the border of Gan County, Lin Feng spat hard on the ground!

Their battle had not gone smoothly.

Su Sheng asked: “You too?”

Lin Feng said gloomily: “Aren’t you?”

Lu Danqing said evenly: “It’s the same for me too. Let’s not just sit here being angry — I think Qingjun’s situation is probably not much different. Let’s put our heads together again. At least now we know our map was fairly accurate. More scouts next time.”

Lin Feng muttered something, then cursed at his soldiers: “Didn’t you all train well enough before? How could you…”

His centurion pulled him back: “Brothers fought to the death, there are wounded, there are those who didn’t come back — everyone feels bad. Come see the commanding officer first.”

The four of them looked around. The soldiers each unit had brought were somewhat different. Lin Feng’s troops included more of his own Lin Dunsu clan’s private warriors — newer trainees. Lu Danqing and Su Sheng also had some of their own private soldiers, but being a woman and being young respectively, neither had received many private troops, so their forces were largely conscripts from Zhù and Gan Counties who had been training longer.

Because of this difference, although none of them had been badly outmatched against the Xika or Jima fighters, Lin Feng’s forces had suffered heavier casualties than the others. This left Lin Feng feeling embarrassed.

The group went together to find Zhù Qingjun. Her camp was of a different character entirely. Her soldiers were the most thoroughly trained and experienced, suffered the fewest losses, and recovered morale most quickly after returning to camp. Wound-binding, medicine, gathering the fallen comrades, setting up camp, maintaining watch — it was all methodical.

Zhù Qingjun had changed into lighter clothing, her hair tied back, and was cleaning her blade.

Hearing them arrive, she set the blade on the table: “Bring them in.”

The group entered, all with poor color. Zhù Qingjun smiled: “Why is everyone so unhappy? It’s not as though we came away empty-handed.”

“Used a cleaver to kill a chicken, and let a few chickens run off anyway.” Lin Feng said.

Lu Danqing said objectively: “The commanding officer’s strategy was sound. Once we burned the grain, they did fall into disorder just as expected.”

Su Sheng said: “Too bad we didn’t burn enough. Can they really all be fighting independently with no shared logistics?” The frustration in his voice was unmistakable.

Zhù Qingjun’s plan had been perfectly sound — what was flawed was the enemy. Several clans had gathered together, and yet they had no unified supply management: each stored their own grain separately. Even the tactic of raiding the granaries had been correct — the force concentrated to carry out the ambush, only to discover the numbers were all wrong — far too little. It took a good while to work out that the enemy simply had no centralized logistics at all. Meeting this sort of opponent should have made things easier to fight, but it fell entirely outside their plan and left them wearing themselves out for nothing. And because the raid hadn’t burned all the grain, only the two clans whose grain had been destroyed descended into disorder. Among those whose grain remained untouched, some chiefs were too foolish to control the chaos around them and got swept up in it; others were shrewder, and used the moment to attempt a raid on Zhù Qingjun’s rear.

Fortunately Zhù Qingjun had been cautious and had kept something in reserve, and the main camp was saved.

Between the two outcomes, their side had only a minor victory — far from what had been hoped. The performance of the new soldiers in their first engagement was also barely adequate.

Zhù Qingjun was unperturbed: “Then we change tactics — in fact, it makes things simpler. Pick them off one by one. No common leader, no true coalition — come on, let’s decide who to hit first!”

The group rallied again at last. Lin Feng thought the Xika were easier to fight, the Jima a bit tougher — better to pick the soft fruit first. Zhù Qingjun said: “Of course we hit the harder one. Hit the soft one and the hard one will come to help; hit the hard one and the soft one may not.”

Lu Danqing said: “Even so, the soft one has his own home to defend — he’ll fight to the death for it.”

“Feint attack, tie him down.” Zhù Qingjun had already thought it through. “No need to annihilate — just harass and intimidate, keep him from joining forces with the other. Cut off pieces one at a time and eat them. Jima came on a long campaign without solid unity — a few defeats, supply lines failing, and they’ll scatter. Once Jima retreats, Xika becomes manageable.”

Su Sheng said: “I think that works.”

Lu Danqing said: “I think so too.”

Zhù Qingjun asked Lin Feng: “What about you?”

Lin Feng thought it over and said: “It can work. But — do we have enough troops?”

Zhù Qingjun said: “Once this battle’s done, we’ll request a rotation from her.”

Lin Feng grew a little tense — his people had taken the most casualties — and asked: “How do we divide the forces?”

Zhù Qingjun said: “We’ve had bad intelligence on their grain supply — need to send more scouts to get a clear picture first. And — have the interpreters who speak Xika language been gathered? Get them to call out! Anyone who comes over and surrenders will be granted free status. Survey everything clearly before we move. As for the Jima clans — we choose one, I lead the main assault, you and Danqing hold off the relief forces, Su Sheng, you guard the home base.”

No objections from the three.

Scouts were dispatched. Two days later they returned with reports, and the disposition of the enemy “coalition” was much clearer now. Zhù Qingjun selected one of the Jima clans — their position was a bit more isolated from the others, making encirclement easier. She would lead the main attack; Lin Feng would set up an ambush to cut off relief from the Xika side; Lu Danqing would handle relief attempts from the other Jima clans. Su Sheng and Zhù Lian would maintain contact to guard against anyone trying to raid their home base.

The units all moved out. Zhù Ying’s messenger had also arrived at Gan County, but the “battle” was already underway, and by the time he reached the camp it was empty. Not only that — he was captured by Su Sheng, who in his state of excited vigilance had decided caution was never wrong, and nearly gave the messenger a beating before things were sorted out.

Fortunately the man carried his official token, spoke official language well, and had proper documents — only then did Su Sheng let down his guard and ask what the business was.

The messenger knew Su Sheng, and explained the matter. Su Sheng said: “They’re all out already — how do I get the message to them now? Nothing for it but to wait until the battle’s over.”

Su Sheng spent the night sick with anxiety, terrified of a surprise attack. He was too tense to sleep, getting up eight times through the night to make rounds. And yet the night passed without incident. The following day, a batch of wounded came back from the front, and he arranged for their treatment, asking questions about the situation. He learned that things were going reasonably well — Zhù Qingjun had launched a night ambush, which had gone smoothly enough.

On the other side, Lu Danqing and Lin Feng hadn’t been defeated either — some had big wins, some smaller. Zhù Qingjun’s side had been somewhat delayed by the prisoners, and would be returning a bit later.

As everyone knows, people need to eat — and prisoners were no different. Prisoners of fighting age eat even more. Such prisoners were typically very difficult to manage: release them, and you were sending soldiers back to the enemy; keep them and treat them badly, and they’d revolt; treat them well, and you couldn’t feed them. Set them to work, and you had to watch them constantly for escape attempts and sabotage.

This was often the reason for “killing prisoners”: cruelty was one reason, but the fundamental problem was that they were hard to handle and produced no sufficient value.

Zhù Ying had long prepared a method for this. Separating out the different types: clan chiefs were to be killed without exception — they were hardened loyalists, so if they were hardened loyalists, they would simply be killed. Minor sub-chiefs were fewer in number but might know things of value, so they were to be detained, interrogated, and dealt with as circumstances warranted.

Ordinary fighters: give them two days’ rations and release them.

Because sorting took time, there was a delay.

Su Sheng dared not dawdle over the matter of the Mountain Sparrow clan’s father-in-law, and had the letter sent to Zhù Qingjun in the field. Zhù Qingjun made the call without hesitation: she sent a message to Lin Feng: “Once the battle’s done, come back. Your A’Ba is ill. Take the victory report with you when you go to her — that counts as official duty.”

——

Lin Feng led his troops back to the main camp, and Jin Yu had already arrived with the rotation troops. The two sides quickly carried out the handover. Jin Yu told him: “Su family’s Little Sister has also arrived at the mountain city.”

Lin Feng said, resigned: “If she’s here, she’s here. She needs to be there to guard her anyway — I have to go home.”

He set off for home with his battered troops and the victory report, his heart racing all the way.

Back at the mountain city, Zhù Ying had already made all the preparations. Taking the battle report, she handed it directly to Zhao Su: “Record the merits, handle the condolences and rewards and punishments, all according to the prior rules. Keep a close watch — not a single person is to enrich themselves from this. Skimming money is bad enough; if compensation doesn’t reach the wounded and the families of the fallen, it harms us.”

“Yes.”

“The relieved soldiers also need time to rest and recuperate — the spring planting is mostly done, so more people can be freed up. Have Little Sister and Hou Wu take them in hand and keep drilling.”

“Yes.”

“Jiang Zheng and Shao Shuxin won’t be making slow, leisurely journeys. The gazette can be blocked, people can be forbidden from entering the mountains, and they can likely also restrict trade — Xiang An, increase trading activity and recruit more craftsmen!”

“Yes.”

Once Zhù Ying finished assigning everything, she set off with Lin Feng and his wife — and took A’Pu along for good measure. On the road, she finally told them that the Mountain Sparrow clan’s father-in-law had died. When the two of them heard the terrible news, they broke down weeping. Zhù Ying had them helped into the carriage, then pushed A’Pu in front of them so they’d have to look after the child. And so they were dragged back to the great stronghold.

The Mountain Sparrow clan’s funeral preparations had already begun. Su Mingluan, Lang Kunwu, and other clan chiefs had all arrived. The Mountain Sparrow clan’s eldest son was long grown, with children of his own already quite big, and had long been managing the family affairs — an unquestioned heir. Lin Feng had no desire to contest any of the inheritance with his brother, and said: “I have a home in the city. I just need to be able to come back and see A’Ma whenever I want.”

The expressions of the other brothers became somewhat complicated, but there was nothing to argue against.

Zhù Ying said: “Very well then. After the funeral, I’ll petition for your official title.”

The Mountain Sparrow clan’s funeral was somewhat different from the Asu clan’s. They did not bury in the mountains but first cremated, then buried deep, and in the process burned many of the deceased’s personal belongings. The funeral meals were also very good.

The funeral went on for seven days and seven nights — the chief mourners wept for seven days and seven nights, and the guests ate at banquets for days on end.

Seven days later, the funeral concluded and the ceremony to officially invest the new clan chief followed. Preparation and ceremony took several more days. The old furnishings of the Mountain Sparrow clan’s residence were all burned, new ones made, and only when the fresh arrangements were complete was the move and investiture ceremony held.

The investiture ceremony ran for three days.

Though fighting blazed at the front, Su Mingluan observed with a cool eye that Xijin, Lu Guo, and even the Mountain Sparrow clan’s own sons all seemed entirely oblivious. Lang Kunwu, having just lost his father-in-law, also had no attention to spare for the dangers at Gan County — he was focused on watching for trouble between his brothers-in-law and brothers-in-law.

Su Mingluan went to find Zhù Ying: “There have been no official gazettes for several days. Is it because of the fighting?”

Zhù Ying said: “The road to the imperial court has had a small problem — we’re preparing to reopen it.”

Su Mingluan asked no further.

When the funeral was over, Zhù Ying brought Lin Feng and his wife back to the mountain city. The couple was told to stay home for now. Zhù Ying instructed Lin Feng to remain behind closed doors for at least a month, then go down to the camp at the foot of the mountain to help with the troop drilling. Lin Feng had just suffered the loss of his father, his mind in turmoil, and had no heart to argue — he nodded quickly and accepted the arrangement.

Having settled Lin Feng, Zhao Su came once more, clutching a stack of papers: “She, news from outside the mountains.”

Zhù Ying reached out to take them, and Zhao Su continued: “Jiang Zheng has been appointed governor and has issued an order forbidding anyone from traveling without a pass — it’s aimed at us.” Wuzhou could ignore the passes of people from other prefectures and only check goods; but at the markets on the borders between the two prefectures there were checkpoints, and without a pass from their prefecture, people couldn’t get through — unless they slipped through illegally or smuggled.

Zhù Ying went through the papers one by one. There was an official document from Jiang Zheng, formally advising of the pass restriction. Then there was an invitation from Jiang Zheng asking Zhù Ying to come down the mountain for a meeting — not necessarily the prefecture seat; Jiyuan Prefecture was fine. If she didn’t want to go to Jiyuan, Fulu County would do. If even that was too far, the border market would suffice — which, rumor had it, was the very spot where Zhù Ying, when she had first arrived in Fulu County, had met with the Asu clan chief. A step further back than that, even the temple the local villagers had built to honor her was acceptable — so long as they could meet, to prevent any unnecessary misunderstandings that might bring suffering to the people.

Below that was a document from Shao Shuxin, formally announcing that he was taking charge of salt affairs and would be cracking down on the private salt trade. He also hoped to meet with Zhù Ying — the manner of meeting was entirely flexible.

“Is this all?” Zhù Ying asked.

Zhao Su said: “Yes — let’s hope there’s no more. As for the trade situation — I have family intelligence on that. Jiang Zheng has called the local gentry together and guaranteed everything will remain ‘as before,’ except for trade with us. Private trade, of course, would carry high prices — not in our interest. Good thing the front is going well. Even if we endure three hard years, as long as we take the western territory, we can break out of this…”

He hadn’t finished when Su Zhe came running with news: “She, the front — it’s stalemated! They haven’t scattered! In fact, they’ve rallied behind one grand chief — and he is said to be a son-in-law of the Yigan clan!”

“What?” Zhao Su exclaimed involuntarily.

The early phase of the front had not gone entirely smoothly. One of their more stable allies had died. The pieces placed in the imperial court had been half-swept from the board. And now someone had blocked the front door, threatening to cut off the food supply.

Four aggravating things descended all at once. Zhao Su was somewhat stunned.