◎Great Victory◎

In the first few days, the people within Ruozhou city hadn’t yet noticed anything different about this Xishao offensive compared to previous ones—not until the number of refugees flooding into the city kept climbing did anyone begin to sense something was wrong.

Three cities lay between former and later Liangzhou and Ruozhou, and refugees would also have to cross the great western frontier river. Why would they insist on fleeing all the way to Ruozhou for shelter?

Moreover, the residents of the eleven provinces should have understood better than anyone that if real fighting broke out, Ruozhou, as the front line against Xishao, might well be no safer than any of the other provinces.

Zhou Tan had already raised this same doubt on the very first day the refugees began arriving. He and He Yuankai went out among the refugees to investigate, and sure enough, discovered things were exactly as Qu You had suspected.

Someone had deliberately spread word throughout Liangzhou that the western frontier garrison would commit its entire force to defending Ruozhou.

As the people of Liangzhou made their way north, they spread this rumor along the way, prompting many border residents to head to Ruozhou preemptively to seek shelter—after all, everyone across the eleven provinces knew that Ruozhou’s walls were high and deep, and that it had never once fallen in all these years.

Within the command tent, Wang Juqian sighed repeatedly.

Everyone knew Ruozhou had held firm, but few understood the price paid to keep it that way—a price steeper than that of all the other ten provinces combined.

Along the border between the great Yin and Xishao lay a scattering of mountain ranges and great rivers, and Ruozhou’s importance stemmed precisely from the fact that it was the only place along that border without a natural boundary line.

A great river ran past just a few li outside Ruozhou city, which was why the city existed almost like an oasis where desert met mountains, a lush and fertile stretch of land—it wasn’t hard to imagine how much Xishao coveted such territory.

The Dingxi campaign of years past had dragged on for a long time, with battles large and small breaking out around Ruozhou city and the neighboring Gerila mountains. Xiao Yue and Chu Lin had fought tooth and nail to drive Xishao back beyond Lishao Pass, and the border had never been breached since. But time had passed—Xiao Yue was long dead, and Chu Lin himself had grown old, his deterrent power against Xishao diminishing with each passing year.

Wang Juqian had risen through the ranks of the western frontier garrison, earning his post as defender of Ruozhou through hard-won military achievements—a difficult assignment, but also a fine opportunity to build his own reputation. For years he had remained ever vigilant, relying on support from the western frontier garrison to keep the city’s defenses ironclad.

But now, following the fall of former Liangzhou, the garrison’s troops had been redirected to Liangzhou first.

After discussing the matter together, He Yuankai, Zhou Tan, and Wang Juqian all agreed that Xishao’s move to drive the population of the eleven provinces into Ruozhou city must signal some larger scheme.

Xishao’s young ruler was ambitious, and after years lying in wait, he was quite possibly prepared to commit everything to this single decisive battle. Striking former Liangzhou first was a diversionary tactic—the western frontier garrison, unaware of the true situation within Ruozhou, would naturally assume Xishao meant to press their attack starting from Liangzhou, and it would be difficult in the short term to persuade them to redirect their forces here instead.

But with nine out of ten cities across the eleven provinces left nearly empty, if Xishao managed to commit everything to taking Ruozhou, they could then sweep forward unstoppably.

As though sensing the coming storm, Ruozhou city had begun extinguishing its lights earlier and earlier each night. During the day, Qu You went to the city gates and saw that everyone leaving the house—men, women, young and old—now carried some kind of weapon on them.

The refugees who hadn’t yet made it into the city set up camp outside the gates, lighting fires for the night. Qu You climbed up onto the wall and saw Zhou Tan standing on a dark stretch of it, looking down below.

The distant firelight traced his silhouette. Following his gaze, Qu You saw a mother holding a child, sitting on a large rock outside the city, singing a song in a language she didn’t understand.

“I fought so hard to abolish the Begonia Decree, hoping this world would never again know displaced refugees. But without coming to the frontier myself, I would never have understood—as long as a nation’s strength isn’t sufficient, there will always be refugees.”

The wind on the city wall was strong, whipping their robes about with a sharp, snapping sound.

Qu You looped her arm through his and sighed. “The great Yin’s national strength isn’t necessarily lacking. But strength alone isn’t enough—if the laws aren’t strict and the ruler isn’t benevolent, there will always be people forced to wander.”

Zhou Tan let out a low laugh. “You’re clever enough to guess exactly what I’m thinking right now.”

“The old forces of the Lingxiao Army, lying dormant all these years, were meant to be your trump card,” Qu You said after a moment of silence. “If you play that card now, you’ll have no way back. But if you don’t, relying on General Wang alone probably won’t be enough to hold Ruozhou.”

“If the capital garrison were coming, they should have arrived days ago,” Zhou Tan said with a bitter smile. “But I’ve received word that the Crown Prince has sent them to Tianhan Province instead, saying Xishao wouldn’t dare move against Ruozhou, and that it’s better to defend the weaker points first—if Ruozhou runs into trouble, they’ll come reinforce it then.”

Qu You frowned deeply.

“Both the western frontier garrison and the capital garrison have their eyes fixed on the city gates, but Uncle Xu, Xiaoyan, and I think Xishao might launch a surprise attack from the abandoned Lishao Pass instead. He Yuankai and General Wang have already made as many preparations as possible along the walls. Ruozhou is easy to defend and hard to attack—holding out for a while longer wouldn’t be a problem on its own… but these refugees are still stranded outside the city. The Crown Prince wants to wait until I’m at my wit’s end, so he can sell me a grand favor. I can play along with him for now, but what about all these people outside?”

She knew what history had to say about Song Shiyan, and could easily share Zhou Tan’s frustration—this man’s heart held nothing but political scheming and power; the lives of the common people outside probably never entered his calculations at all.

Back in the capital, Zhou Tan had refused to accept his overtures.

Now, with the Crown Prince’s uncle leading troops to the western frontier, he was deliberately redirecting them elsewhere, specifically to force Zhou Tan into a position where he’d have no choice but to be grateful to him.

While the two of them were still talking, a guard came rushing up from one side of the gate, reporting in a hushed voice that Zhou Tan was needed at the Marquis of Xiangning’s residence.

Qu You and Zhou Tan rode there together at once, and only upon arrival did they learn that Yan Fu had secretly taken Xu Zhi’s military authorization token that very night and privately mobilized five thousand elite Lingxiao troops out of Ruozhou.

He had left in such haste and secrecy that even Xu Zhi had no idea where he’d gone.

Strangely enough, this news actually put Qu You somewhat at ease. Watching Xu Zhi pace back and forth across the hall, she couldn’t help but offer a word of comfort. “There’s no need to worry, my lord. General Xiaoyan has extraordinary natural talent—perhaps he’ll manage to save Ruozhou from this crisis after all.”

Xu Zhi slammed his hand on the table, exclaiming repeatedly, “What extraordinary talent? That boy has only ever followed the General into battle—when has he ever commanded troops on his own? This is what comes of my spoiling him…”

But he never expected that Qu You would turn out to be exactly right.

The next day, Zhou Tan opened the city gates and let in all the refugees waiting outside. Qu You went to the porridge stand and asked the elders of Ruozhou to keep a careful eye on the refugees on the government’s behalf. To her surprise, they proved remarkably conscientious—within half a day, they’d identified several people among the refugees with no friends or family accompanying them.

He Yuankai searched these individuals and found western frontier defense maps and rough notes on their persons, confirming that things were exactly as they’d suspected—Xishao planned to lure the population of the eleven provinces into Ruozhou, then strike into Lishao Pass while the prefecture was thrown into chaos and caught off guard, avenging their old defeat.

Xu Zhi led the Lingxiao Army into position at the western gate, fully prepared to defend Ruozhou’s people even if it meant exposing the Lingxiao Army’s true strength right under the capital’s nose. But before the main force had even set out, word of victory arrived unexpectedly from the front lines.

Yan Fu, leading five thousand men, had launched a surprise attack on the Xishao camp stationed beyond Lishao Pass.

Xishao’s newly enthroned ruler was skilled at training troops; the force sent to Liangzhou had been merely an advance guard, while their true elite forces had quietly gathered at the edge of the desert beyond Lishao Pass, traveling under cover of darkness without lighting fires, advancing only three li each day, planning to catch Ruozhou completely off guard.

Knowing Xishao’s fondness for eating raw meat, Yan Fu had brought along several fierce dogs, tracking the scent through the darkness for two days, then lying in wait for a third, before finally slipping into the enemy’s main camp while their guard was down.

Though the Xishao army numbered a full fifty thousand, five thousand men managed to slaughter their way through the main camp while the enemy slept, inflicting countless casualties. Yan Fu captured their young commanding general alive and withdrew his troops from the heart of Xishao territory completely unscathed, losing fewer than a thousand men in the process.

Not just Xu Zhi, but even Zhou Tan was utterly stunned.

At the long-abandoned western gate, Qu You watched as the young general returned from a distance, the enemy commander’s severed head raised on the tip of his spear, followed by a great mass of troops—though their numbers, while considerable, still couldn’t compare to Xishao’s own forces.

It was difficult to imagine how history’s famous battles of the outnumbered defeating the many had actually been fought, but she knew that after this, Yan Fu would become famous overnight, and would go on to command the western frontier for over a decade after Song Shixuan’s ascension to the throne, all but annihilating the Xishao tribes that had once been the great Yin’s greatest threat.

Standing within history itself, she had witnessed these shining stars with her own eyes.

Over the following days, the remaining Xishao forces attempted several more assaults, but with their vanguard commander dead and morale shattered, their original plan lay in ruins, and further success proved nearly impossible.

Even Xishao’s newly enthroned ruler himself probably never imagined that all his careful scheming since taking the throne would be undone by an unknown young man leading troops for the very first time.

Though the remaining forces were merely leftover remnants, they were still not to be underestimated—at their most dangerous, they had even fought their way right up to the city gates.

Zhou Tan and He Yuankai busied themselves transporting weapons and setting up defensive mechanisms for the army, while Qu You helped treat the wounded within the city. The people of Ruozhou were well accustomed to scenes like this; seeing her personally lend a hand, many women from local households came out to help as well, setting aside any concern for propriety between men and women—saving lives mattered more.

Kneeling within a hastily erected tent, she could faintly hear the sounds of fighting beyond the walls, punctuated occasionally by the distant, drawn-out call of a military horn. At first, she’d been frightened by the dying cries of wounded soldiers, but with the comfort and encouragement of those around her, she gradually grew accustomed to it.

Beside her, Wang Yiran was bandaging the wounds of a young soldier whose legs had been severed, shaking her head with a sigh. “You didn’t believe me last time when I said this would frighten you. This kind of thing happens often enough in Ruozhou—fortunately, our gates have never been breached, so no matter how deafening the noise gets, it never truly unsettles us.”

Li Wei arrived belatedly with troops from the capital garrison, helping Wang Juqian win a few minor victories just as the Xishao forces were already on the verge of retreat.

Zhou Tan claimed that the five thousand elite troops Yan Fu had led were simply soldiers under Wang Juqian’s command, spinning an elaborate and thoroughly fabricated tale that the surprise attack had been an all-or-nothing gamble by the whole of Ruozhou—during those days, with no troops left to guard the city, no one had dared truly sleep.

Xu Zhi never made an appearance. Li Wei, unable to imagine where any additional troops might have come from, believed the story entirely and hurried back to the capital.

According to a letter from Ai Disheng, once Li Wei returned to the capital, he removed his cap in a gesture of guilt and knelt before the Xuande Hall for an entire day, weeping bitterly and confessing that he had misjudged the situation, nearly putting Ruozhou at grave risk.

But since Ruozhou had, in the end, held firm, and Song Chang was too far removed to know the true scale of Xishao’s offensive, he simply docked Li Wei two months’ salary as punishment, while richly rewarding Yan Fu, granting him Ningzhou outright as his fief.

The Crown Prince had originally calculated that even if Zhou Tan managed to hold Ruozhou through sheer effort, he would surely be left severely weakened, allowing Li Wei to swoop in and reap the benefits.

But Yan Fu gave him no such opportunity at all, seizing the credit for slaying the enemy commander entirely for himself.

Song Shiyan sat at his desk listening to Li Wei’s report, hearing this young man named Zhou Yan described as a “heaven-sent genius” and a “young divine general.” Even General Chu Lin, upon hearing the news, hastily set aside his own affairs at Liangzhou and rushed to Ruozhou to see the man for himself.

Song Shiyan raised his hand and swept an entire set of fine Dayuchuan porcelain off his desk.

Qu You, reading between the lines of Ai Disheng’s letter, could easily guess the Crown Prince’s state of mind at that moment, and spent the whole afternoon laughing to herself in her room.