Jiang Zhen answered and turned to carry out the order, but her feet caught and one foot tripped over the other — she nearly fell. Zhù Qingye’s quick eye and swift hand shot out and hauled her upright. Zhù Qingye looked at Jiang Zhen with mild concern; Jiang Zhen forced a smile and made to go.

Zhù Ying asked: “What’s the matter with you? What are you in such a panic about?”

Jiang Zhen swallowed. “Well, since the western campaign began, not once have we had this many people of rank die in one go. I was wondering if some strange thing had happened…”

Zhù Qingye nodded along.

Zhù Ying raised an eyebrow. “What is there to be alarmed about? On the battlefield, anything at all can happen.”

Zhù Qingye said carefully: “Still, it does make one’s heart feel uneasy, I… hmm…”

Zhù Ying said: “Then send orders to all commands — ask for full accounts of the situation and have each of them take extra care.”

The two young women were somewhat reassured by this. Jiang Zhen suddenly turned a little shy. “I’ll go now and send word to Su Sheng.” With that she went clattering out of the tent.

Zhù Qingye also went to draft the dispatches, and Zhù Ying said: “First go and bring the people I’m scheduled to see today.”

“Oh, yes!”

In a short while Zhù Qingye returned with more than a dozen people. They were of all heights, ranging in age from around twenty to those with streaks of grey in their hair; there were men and women alike. Their clothing was not particularly fine. Once inside the main tent, most of them had curiosity in their eyes, mixed with a certain shy awkwardness. Zhù Ying paid special attention to three who seemed relatively at ease: one was a young man, another was an older man, and the third was a middle-aged woman.

Zhù Ying rose from her seat and walked toward them, asking first in the Xika tongue: “Can everyone here understand what I am saying?”

More than half of them nodded and answered in agreement.

Zhù Ying then asked the same question in the Jima tongue — again, about half of them nodded.

She repeated the question in the Qixia language and the Huapa language, noting down in each case who responded. Finally she asked in official speech — and only two people nodded.

Zhù Ying said: “All of you are capable people and intelligent people. Before, you had energy with nowhere to put it. Now things are different.”

The more than a dozen people Zhù Ying was meeting today were all natives of the newly attached territories, and their situations were broadly similar. None were of a chiefly background, but all were well-liked, carrying some natural authority among the people, and — most importantly — sharp-minded, able to follow what people said to them. “Able to follow what people said” was not a mocking or condescending remark; it was a factual description.

Whether in the mountains or outside them, there was always a certain type of person who, though apparently speaking the same language as you, could not seem to understand what you said. You could say, “The roof is broken — when it rains, the water will leak in — we need to fix it quickly,” and they would say, “What? Can rain water fix a roof?”

All dozen or so of these people had been encountered by Zhù Qingjun, Zhù Lian, Jiang Wan, and the others, assessed as capable, and added to the list.

And, without exception, none of them could read. Zhù Ying had summoned them all together for two reasons: first, to meet them in person as a sign of regard, and at the same time to conduct her own assessment; second, to gather them at the main camp for a period of concentrated training, to teach them some fundamentals of governance, so that they could, like Yang Xi at the iron mine, eventually take on a specific area of responsibility.

One month was far too short to give them skills that normally took others years to acquire. The main point was familiarization — and then to assign each of them an “assistant”: a student who could speak both languages and was literate, to accompany them, urging them forward in their studies while also learning from them some of the practical wisdom of how to deal with people and get things done.

The students’ ability was not necessarily superior to these people’s.

Zhù Ying noticed the middle-aged woman kept glancing at her, and said openly: “We’ve met before. I bought sheep from you.”

The woman smiled, speaking in Jima: “I thought you looked familiar too, but I couldn’t quite place where I’d seen you. I didn’t have any sheep of my own back then — I herded the chief’s sheep for him.”

Zhù Ying said: “I went through your settlement. Your chief wanted to buy needles…”

“Oh!” The woman’s eyes brightened. “You gave one as a gift — and gave me a piece of cloth as a reward. My face was covered in dust back then, and you still remembered me.”

Zhù Ying nodded. “That was me. You are Kandizhan, aren’t you?” This was a transliterated name meaning “wool.”

The woman still smiled: “Yes.”

So Zhù Ying knew — this woman had been selected by Zhù Lian.

This woman could not read, but her memory was exceptional — she could commit every assigned task to memory without fail. When Zhù Lian went through the territory distributing land and levying grain, she was able to organize everything with perfect clarity once they reached her settlement. She even knew which families had sent men to enlist in the army, and that those families were entitled to certain provisions under the regulations.

She had been assigned only to herd sheep for her master, memorizing the condition of each sheep, tracking how many lambs had been born this year. For all that, she still could not escape being beaten — whether the lambs lived or died was not something she had any power over, and if the flock got scattered in bad weather, she was lucky if they didn’t demand her life in compensation.

When Zhù Qingjun and the others arrived and hands rose and fell, the chief became a severed head, and the woman was no longer only a shepherd.

Zhù Ying said with a smile: “Let’s sit down and talk.”

Zhù Ying spoke with each of them in turn, asking about their ethnic backgrounds and asking about the locations of their settlements. Descriptions of location here were quite vague — “two days’ walk from the road we came in on,” “over three mountain ridges” — phrases like these kept appearing in their speech. And “three mountains” could refer to anything, as the “mountains” in their vocabulary ranged from major peaks to small hills; “river” was similarly flexible, covering both wide flows of tens of zhang and narrow streams of five or six.

While speaking with them, Zhù Ying was also searching the map for their exact positions and thinking through how to assign each of them. Among them were those from areas with gold and coal deposits, and for those, extra local troops would have to be stationed.

By the time they reached the meal hour, she invited everyone to eat together. The camp’s food was plain, but to those who had known the life of ordinary slaves, it was a delicacy beyond imagining. Zhù Ying pulled a platter of plain boiled pork toward herself, sliced it cleanly against the grain, and cut it into thin slices; then she piled it high on a plate and pushed it in front of the old man: “Eat this — easier to chew.”

At this age, even the well-nourished found their teeth unreliable. Even Zhang Xiangu these days only ate food made with ground meat. This old man had lived a hard life; the teeth he had left were scattered and sparse — a large piece of meat that others ate with relish was something he could not get any grip on when he tried to tear it.

The old man looked down at the plate, then looked up at Zhù Ying, nodded lightly, then said with weight: “Thank you!” He reached his oily hand in and took a pinch and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly. Zhù Ying pushed the salt dish to him as well.

The meal was finished quickly. After eating, Zhù Ying spoke with each of them again in turn, and finally had Zhù Qingye and Witch Twin go teach them some simple official speech, handing out a copy of the Literacy Song along with writing materials to each, to learn slowly. None of them were slow-minded; given a start, they would manage the rest on their own.

Within a few days, Kandizhan and the others began to feel their own names were not particularly good — they wanted new ones. Zhù Ying raised no objection. Some of them took the surname Zhù; others chose other surnames. Kandizhan, for example, took the surname Zhù — and Zhù Ying gave her the given name Zhùzhonghua. The old man’s father had died panning for gold, and he wanted to keep that gold in his name; Zhù Ying let him take the surname Jin and gave him the given name Shou.

And so it went for each of them.

While names were being given on one side, the reports from Zhù Qingjun and the others had also come in — Posheng Chief was proving considerably more formidable this time than before!

Zhù Ying, seeing this, gave a light knock of her knuckles on the table and asked: “Su Sheng — how far out is he?”

——

Su Sheng was at that moment on the road back to the main camp.

Among the gravely wounded was one of his brothers. You knew your own family best — compared with the strife between Lin Feng’s brothers, their family was a harmonious one by comparison. His aunt, though domineering, had looked out well enough for her brothers and nephews; it was she who had sent him to the Elder Matriarch’s side. Without that, where would he be today?

His brother was gravely wounded, his older female cousin had also been hurt, and his heart was burning with anxiety.

When he reached Su Zhe’s forces, Su Zhe was this time wearing a sling under a different arm — the sight drained the color from Su Sheng’s face: “How did you get hurt again? Last time you…”

Su Zhe’s face was set. “Never mind me for now. What are you doing here?”

“The Elder Matriarch sent me to assist — but how could this…”

Su Zhe said coldly: “What, ‘how could this’? You were there when the Elder Matriarch issued the seals — you saw their faces. Even if you didn’t see it, they made their sour remarks right to your face — you must have heard that. I couldn’t very well put a muzzle on them; there was no way to stop them.”

Su Sheng said: “Even so, Posheng’s forces shouldn’t have been this capable — something isn’t right!”

He was a bit younger than Su Zhe and always spoke to her with a certain deference.

Su Zhe said calmly: “I’ve already reported it to the Elder Matriarch — Posheng Chief’s cavalry.”

“What? That doesn’t sound like the kind of fighting done in the mountains.” Cavalry was most useful in two situations: charges and rapid flanking maneuvers. Both were extremely difficult to execute effectively in mountain terrain.

Su Zhe said: “That’s why it needed to be reported. Come — have a look at the others.”

What was there to see? Su Sheng was among the luckier brothers — he felt the round seal hanging from his waist, then looked at his brother lying there, and found he fully believed what Su Zhe had told him. He thought this older female cousin of his had terrible luck — their aunt’s authority had been built up over twenty years, and no one dared act against her. But Su Zhe was different: she was often away from the settlement, and she was young, so people regularly forgot she was actually very capable too. It seemed some of the brothers had been less than obedient.

Well — now they’d paid for it with their lives, and when they got home, who knew what the uncles would have to say about it.

The brothers were all subdued and dejected; when they saw Su Sheng arrive, they were too ashamed to speak. Su Sheng asked quietly: “Why wouldn’t you listen to orders?”

That only made the brothers more miserable. Already shaken and frightened, now to be blamed on top of it — they stiffened and said: “If you see the enemy and don’t charge, what kind of fighting is that? To be a wolf and die is still better than being a rabbit and running!”

Su Zhe, standing outside the tent, heard this and nodded imperceptibly. Her maidservant moved to lift the tent flap; Su Zhe waved her off, signaling not to go in. She waited until Su Sheng had checked on the brothers and cried it out, and then she and he talked it over: “Whether dead or wounded or untouched, take them all away with you.”

“That’s fair. But I’m not sure they’ll agree.”

Su Zhe gave a cold smile: “I’m not doing it for their sake — I’m doing it for myself. If they’re here and keep acting on their own without following orders, I’m afraid they’ll get me killed. Once, twice — I don’t think I can survive a third time!”

Su Sheng had no reply.

Su Zhe said: “If they won’t go willingly, I’ll have them tied up and you can drag them home. Whatever the uncles have to say, they can wait until I’m back and we’ll discuss it!”

Su Sheng said: “Understood.” His heart was beginning to sink with dread, dreading the prospect of facing his father and uncles, and dreading the task of getting his brothers safely home along the way. Then suddenly an idea struck him: I can pass by the Elder Matriarch’s headquarters! The order came from the Elder Matriarch — stopping to report back along the way is perfectly reasonable, isn’t it? And once I’ve seen the Elder Matriarch, maybe there will be further instructions.

And so he escorted these brothers — the dead and the living alike — and the remnants of their forces, and set off toward Zhù Ying’s main camp. Because of the wounded and the bodies, the road was slow; by the time he arrived at the main camp, he discovered that not only he — Zhù Qingjun and the others had returned as well!

He met Zhù Qingjun outside the main tent. Zhù Qingjun glanced at the few lightly wounded brothers trailing behind him and said: “Coming back is the right thing to do. You all have been rather unfortunate. A messenger has already been sent to summon Little Sister; she should be back within the next few days. Go in and see the Elder Matriarch.”

——

Su Sheng and the few brothers who could move entered the main tent. He had barely lifted his arms to cup his fists in salute when the brothers behind him burst into loud sobbing: “Elder Matriarch! You must avenge us!”

Zhù Ying let them cry for a moment, then said: “Tell me slowly. What did you experience?”

What they had experienced was difficult to describe, because the cause of it all was that Su Zhe had told them not to charge — but Su Zhe had not been able to stop them — and they had taken their soldiers and charged anyway! Then they ran into the “iron cavalry,” and before that moment, the young men of the Asu family had never in their lives encountered cavalry. Those who had seen it — like Su Zhe and Su Sheng — were extremely cautious. Those who hadn’t — they were simply stunned when the cavalry hit them, and the next clear impression they had was of brothers dying and themselves wounded.

How were they supposed to describe that?

“They had blue faces and fangs — their faces were painted black, like demons — it was terrifying!”

“No, no — it was a crimson face!”

In any case, the enemy were not quite human.

Beyond that, a small note of grievance: “We were being chased, and Little Sister fell behind us — she even veered off course.”

Zhù Ying said without ceremony: “If she had stayed behind you, her formation would have been broken up by your retreat as well — that would have been a complete rout. Someone come — take these men back to Wuzhou.”

“Elder Matriarch! We’re not going back!”

Zhù Ying was not the least indulgent: “On the field of battle, to disobey military orders and cause such losses among the soldiers — you all should be executed. Are you still making trouble? Su Sheng, take them out!”

Su Sheng answered quickly and began pulling the brothers toward the exit. The brothers tried to struggle a little, but Zhù Ying gave a soft cough — for some reason, she suddenly seemed very imposing in that moment. The young men instantly went quiet and shuffled out after Su Sheng in small, rapid steps. Su Sheng got the brothers settled, then thought for a moment, rummaged through his collection of battle spoils, and pulled out a handsome little blade, tucked it inside his coat, and went to look for Zhù Qingjun.

He had taken only a few steps when he saw Zhù Ying and her party coming toward him — Zhù Qingjun was right at Zhù Ying’s side; they were on their way to pay their respects to the fallen.

Su Sheng forced himself to wait patiently while Zhù Ying offered three sticks of incense and said: “Every one of them is to be sent home properly.” He agreed, and as Zhù Ying turned away, he caught Zhù Qingjun’s eye and gave a meaningful look; Zhù Qingjun did not understand what he meant, but nodded.

Su Sheng felt greatly relieved.

He found a free moment when Zhù Qingjun was unoccupied and appeared outside her tent. He cleared his throat: “Older Sister Qingjun! It’s me!”

“Come in.”

The tent flap opened, and a tall, powerfully built man held one edge of the flap and looked at him expressionlessly. Su Sheng gave him a nod and walked in. He greeted Zhù Qingjun, then asked: “Are you also back for rest and reorganization?”

Zhù Qingjun said: “Yes. You have something to ask.”

Su Sheng produced the little blade: “I came across this trifle on the road — I thought this sort of thing could only be put to good use by you.” It was set all over with gemstones — a genuinely expensive piece.

Zhù Qingjun regarded him with an amused expression: “Say it plainly.”

Su Sheng said: “That — well, Older Sister, I don’t want to go back to Wuzhou. Could you put in a word with the Elder Matriarch for me? I want to stay at the front. My brothers died and were wounded — I want to avenge them! In Wuzhou, we’re the ones who’ve properly trained and fought alongside the Elder Matriarch out west. All the others are self-taught fighters.

Don’t you think, Older Sister? Soldiers who survive battles — the more battles they fight, the stronger they get. But battling Jima people now, the going isn’t actually faster than it was against the Xika people before. I don’t think it’s that we’re not capable — I think Jima’s opponents are somewhat more capable than our earlier enemies. With a tough enemy in front, you can’t send me back home, can you?”

The tall, powerfully built man’s throat produced a small sound — as if suppressing a laugh.

Zhù Qingjun asked: “When has the Elder Matriarch ever had soft ears? Even if I spoke — let alone me — even the Elder Matriarch’s mother and my own teacher couldn’t sway her when she had decided how to arrange things. If I were you and wanted to stay, I’d go tell her myself. She has her own reasoning. If she keeps you at the front, obey. If she sends you back to Wuzhou, there is no doubt something there that needs you specifically.”

Su Sheng said helplessly: “I’m afraid to go back.”

“Fear doesn’t change anything. You’re afraid to go back because you’re worried you can’t explain yourself there — and that means you’ve taken responsibility. When others see that you face what you must face, they’ll regard you differently than before. Someone who dodges responsibility doesn’t get the big assignments later.”

Su Sheng blinked. “All right. I’ll go find the Elder Matriarch.”

Zhù Qingjun reached over and took the expensive little blade: “Hmm, not bad. It’s mine now.”

Su Sheng: …

He rubbed his nose, gave the tall powerfully built man two glances, then walked briskly off to find Zhù Ying.

Inside Zhù Ying’s tent, there was an unfamiliar young woman standing beside the writing table. Zhù Ying gestured at the young woman and said to him: “Meet her — this is Qingxue.”

Su Sheng had been away for some years and was not familiar with the people at the prefectural office; but hearing the character “Qing” in the young woman’s name, he guessed she was most likely among those Huajie had raised, all of whose names followed after Zhù Qingjun’s.

Zhù Qingxue was there because Zhù Qingye also had a concurrent duty managing the seals, and Huajie had worried that Zhù Ying’s side was not amply staffed, so she had sent another person over.

Su Sheng’s attention was not on the young woman; he stated his wishes to Zhù Ying, haltingly, though his attitude was quite firm: “Even if going back means I have tasks there, once I’ve finished them, can I come back?”

Zhù Ying said: “What else did you have in mind — trying to get out of work?”

Su Sheng relaxed: “Then I can leave now?!”

“No hurry — wait until Little Sister and the others have all gathered. I have a new arrangement.”

“Yes!”

——

Su Sheng had not waited two days at the main camp when Su Zhe and the others arrived one after another. Su Sheng had returned early and had himself cleaned up and well-presented; Jin Yu, Lu Danqing, and the others by contrast looked a little the worse for wear, and the soldiers under their commands also showed rather more wounds than before.

Some people in clothing clearly marked with Jima and Xika features were also moving about giving orders — it was plain that soldiers of both ethnicities had already risen to officer rank within the army. Su Sheng’s eyes dropped to their waists, and sure enough, he spotted round seals hung on ribbons at several of their sides.

Once everyone had assembled, Zhù Ying beat the drum and summoned all the commanders; Su Sheng followed along into the main tent. There, he saw not only Zhù Qingjun and the others, but also that tall, powerfully built man. And near the tent’s entrance, there were five or six faces unmistakably belonging to the two ethnic groups.

Zhù Ying said: “Everyone has taken a hit? Come — let’s hear it.”

Su Zhe was first to report her fault, speaking of her defeat. She kept her head low, her voice also pressed down low: “I was incompetent — I failed to stop them.”

Inwardly she felt only contempt. Stop them? Stop what? She could stop people, but only if they were willing to be stopped. These cousins — most of them weren’t particularly clever. Well, clever or not — as long as there was something to be gained, they would charge forward. That had nothing to do with cleverness.

As long as she put them in that position, and then provoked them slightly — “You lot are useless — you’ll never win” — that would do the trick.

Zhù Ying said: “I do not want to hear that.”

Zhù Qingjun said: “Even if she had stopped them, we still would have suffered. Elder Matriarch, there is a Western Tribes hand behind Posheng Chief.”

“Continue.” Zhù Ying nodded at her. Zhù Qingjun had told her about this the moment she returned to the main camp; now it was being formally discussed among everyone.

Zhù Qingjun said: “The mountains do have horses — people can ride them. But ‘people who can ride horses’ and ‘cavalry’ are two different things entirely. Especially for a charge — even the accompanying weapons are different. Posheng Chief’s cavalry, whether for charge or flanking assault, nothing about it looks like the fighting style of the mountains.”

Su Zhe also added: “I also feel it must have been trained by someone with experience.”

Lu Danqing said: “I didn’t encounter cavalry, but my opponents were definitely harder to fight than before.”

Su Sheng and Jin Yu both confirmed they had not encountered cavalry either.

Zhù Qingjun said: “Cavalry is expensive to maintain. Even with a backer, Posheng Chief can’t sustain many. Even with someone behind him, he can’t match our numbers. The main thing to guard against is the Western Tribes entering the fighting themselves.” So saying, she nodded toward the tall, powerfully built man.

The tall man also stepped forward and crossed his arms in salute. Zhù Ying nodded back to him. Su Zhe looked at him with curiosity. Zhù Ying said: “He is from the former Yigan family.”

The tall man gave a hearty laugh and said: “I am a slave of the Yigan family — I was sent as part of a bride’s retinue to the Posheng family. I escaped. I’m following General Zhù because I want to fight my way back and take revenge!”

Slaves seeking revenge — this plot had been coming up rather frequently of late, though ordinary slaves rarely had such imposing physiques. Nor was he gaunt and skeletal.

Su Zhe asked: “Truly from the Yigan family?”

Zhù Ying nodded: “When he was young, he followed the old Yigan Cave Master around. I saw him.”

Su Zhe looked him over carefully and noticed that his neck, near the shoulder, bore a ring of scarring — the scabs had long faded, leaving behind a one-finger-wide band of white — and she understood with a nod. It was the mark of a slave’s collar.

His story was nothing unusual. When a chief’s daughter married, the household would select healthy, reasonably attractive male slaves to be part of the bride’s retinue, as a demonstration of status. That the separation tore apart someone’s family, and the impact of losing a strong young man from a household — neither of these was something a chief would trouble himself to consider.

Posheng Chief had mobilized the chiefs for an “eastern campaign,” and this man had been brought along; they hadn’t used him as a sacrificial offering before the battle, but he had managed to learn that his own parents and siblings had already died. On the road home after the campaign, he found his chance and ran. Like other slaves before him, he gathered a group together, encountered Zhù Qingjun’s forces, and went over to their side.

Having spent some time in the Posheng household, he knew quite a few things — and all of it he was ready to tell Posheng Chief’s enemies!

Zhù Ying said: “Tell us what you know.”

“Right. From what I’ve heard, many years ago, people from the Western Tribes came to meet with Posheng’s family…”

They were neighbors, so contact had come relatively early. At first the Posheng family paid no attention. Later the Western Tribes grew powerful, gave the Posheng family a thorough beating, and the Posheng family finally fell into line. Though “falling into line” was relative — the Western Tribes themselves were not a unified entity like the Central Plains court; within them there were different tribal factions that occasionally fought each other.

The Posheng family had had no shortage of friction with neighboring tribes — which was how the reputation that “Jima fighters are more capable than the Xika fighters” had come about.

The two sides also had some intermarriage, which created channels of exchange, including trade. The Posheng family had learned some things from the Western Tribes, but cavalry had not been there from the beginning. Only recently had Posheng Chief made the request; the Western Tribes had accepted his gold and agreed.

He offered one more piece of intelligence: “Posheng Chief must be desperate. Before, he had native gold and salt wells. The gold-producing areas have now been taken by you, and the salt wells are not far from you either. You cannot stop — if you stop, he will come for you.”

Zhù Ying gestured for him to sit, then said: “Everyone speak up. What do we do?”