Xiahou Zuo gazed at the distinctive commander’s battle banner atop the walls of Yumen Pass, his eyes growing slightly distant. He had seen this kind of banner many times at the estate of Prince Yu.

In his father’s study, there had been such a banner hung on the wall as well — spread open, with several holes in it, presumably where arrows had pierced through.

He had never asked about the history of that banner, but he could roughly guess — it was the banner his father had used as a commanding general in his youth, leading Dachu’s sons in battle against the Black Wu people on the northern frontier.

His father had once been a great hero. Xiahou Zuo had always believed this, even now he believed it still.

It was only that later, the kind of desire harbored in a man’s heart transformed the great hero into a demon.

Yet in a certain sense, his father could hardly be said to have been entirely wrong — with Dachu crumbling as it had, who would not want to ascend to the supreme position?

It was just the same as Yang Xuanji now. If Prince Yu had been in Yang Xuanji’s position, there would have been no difference.

“It cannot be Prince Wu.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “The scale of the banner is not sufficient.”

There was no royal battle flag — which meant the one who had come was not of high enough rank.

Just then, the city gates suddenly opened.

A cavalry detachment emerged from within — roughly a dozen riders. At their head was a young general who looked to be in his mid-twenties, clad in a red-corded bright-mirror armor with a bright yellow cape, marking his Imperial family identity beyond any doubt.

This party of a dozen or so seemed entirely untroubled, riding straight toward Li Chi and Xiahou Zuo.

When they were still about a dozen zhang away, they reined in their horses. Yang Zhenshuo clasped his fists toward them and asked: “May I ask — which of you gentlemen is Great General Xiahou Zuo?”

Xiahou Zuo answered, then asked: “And who are you?”

Yang Zhenshuo clasped his fists again: “Elder Brother, I am Yang Zhenshuo, son of Song Prince Yang Jiyue. My father and Elder Brother’s father were blood brothers.”

Xiahou Zuo returned the salute with clasped fists.

Yang Zhenshuo said: “Elder Brother — might we speak a few steps apart?”

Xiahou Zuo looked toward Li Chi. Li Chi gave a slight nod.

Not long after, on a small rise outside the city, Xiahou Zuo and Yang Zhenshuo dismounted and walked slowly up together.

“Elder Brother, I have known of what you did on the northern frontier for some time, and have long held you in deep admiration.”

The moment Yang Zhenshuo finished speaking, Xiahou Zuo replied with a slight coolness in his tone: “No need for such courtesies. Say what you wish to say directly.”

Yang Zhenshuo did not take offense. He had thought he ought to be angered — Xiahou Zuo was of the Yang Imperial family by birth, and yet here he was among the rebel forces. By any reckoning, anger would have been justified.

Xiahou Zuo was not like Yang Xuanji. Yang Xuanji was also a rebel, but Yang Xuanji was a lord unto himself, not a subordinate to another.

“The Yang family’s realm should not simply end like this.”

Yang Zhenshuo looked at Xiahou Zuo: “Elder Brother — at this moment, the Yang family still has Prince Wu. His Royal Highness’s army has already destroyed fifteen thousand of Li Xionghu’s rebel troops, and has already forced Yang Xuanji’s forces into a defensive retreat. With Elder Brother’s talent for commanding armies, with Elder Brother’s birthright — you should be supporting the dynasty, not aiding the enemy’s cause.”

Xiahou Zuo only looked at him, saying nothing.

Yang Zhenshuo pressed on: “If Elder Brother were willing — the tens of thousands of soldiers within this Yumen Pass, and this pass itself — I would give them all to Elder Brother. I would willingly become Elder Brother’s subordinate and do everything in my power to assist him.”

Xiahou Zuo smiled faintly: “To the Yang Imperial family — is my father not a rebel?”

Yang Zhenshuo said quickly: “How could that be the same?”

Xiahou Zuo’s smile carried a trace of mockery: “Then in what way is it different?”

Yang Zhenshuo’s mind went into disarray all at once. He was absolutely certain it was different, yet when he tried to explain it, he could not find the words.

Xiahou Zuo said: “You believe that even among rebels, Yang family rebels and other rebels are not the same — correct? That a rebel like Yang Xuanji, being of the Yang bloodline, is somehow more acceptable to the Yang family, while others simply are not.”

Yang Zhenshuo said: “Elder Brother knows that is not what I mean. What I mean is—”

Xiahou Zuo said: “What you mean is that I carry the blood of the Yang Imperial family in my veins, and so at a time like this I ought to stand forward and protect the Yang family — otherwise I fail our ancestors and betray all who came before?”

Yang Zhenshuo: “I… yes. Elder Brother is of Imperial family descent, after all.”

Xiahou Zuo suddenly asked: “How old are you?”

Yang Zhenshuo said: “Twenty-two years old.”

Xiahou Zuo nodded: “Do you have heirs yet?”

Yang Zhenshuo: “I have not yet formally taken a wife, so…”

Xiahou Zuo said: “Let me tell you the way to save the Yang Imperial family — it is not something you can accomplish by defending this Yumen Pass with tens of thousands of men. You would do better to go home, take a wife, and have children. Your children, in time, will be the continuation of the Yang family. That is a more useful way to save the Yang family than leading troops into battle.”

Having said this, he turned and walked back down the rise.

“Why?!”

Yang Zhenshuo called out after Xiahou Zuo: “Why is it that even men of the Yang family must rise against the Yang family’s realm?”

Xiahou Zuo did not turn back, and did not reply — he simply walked straight away.

Before meeting Xiahou Zuo, Yang Zhenshuo had truly harbored a flicker of expectation, a sliver of hope, believing he might be able to persuade him.

Had Xiahou Zuo agreed, he had genuinely been prepared to hand over the military authority at Yumen Pass — and in the moment he made the decision to seek out Xiahou Zuo, he had even imagined it: in the future, with men like Xiahou Zuo and Prince Wu at the helm, the court’s armies would at last sweep away the rebels, and the Dachu realm would be restored.

It turned out that these fantasies could only remain fantasies.

He felt Xiahou Zuo was cold — cold to the point of having no kinship or shared blood whatsoever.

—

Returning to Li Chi’s side, Xiahou Zuo let out a sigh: “For the Yang family to have reached the point of relying on someone like him as a commanding general — and still clinging to the foolish dream of holding onto their realm and dynasty.”

Li Chi smiled: “He came to claim kinship with you?”

Xiahou Zuo gave a hum of acknowledgment: “Worked out the family tree — I am his elder cousin.”

Li Chi said: “His elder cousin left him standing there alone. He probably thinks you are heartless.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “He is a commanding general of one army, I am a commanding general of another. Two armies facing each other in battle — that I did not seize him or simply kill him outright means I am not heartless.”

Li Chi bumped his shoulder against Xiahou Zuo’s: “I had a look earlier — there’s a river seven or eight li south of camp. Shall we go fishing in a bit?”

Xiahou Zuo curled his lip: “I am the commanding general of an entire army, and you would have me abandon my post to go fishing?”

Li Chi: “Mm-hmm.”

Xiahou Zuo: “Then word cannot reach those below — we will need a decent-sounding lie.”

Li Chi burst out laughing.

—

Inside Yumen Pass.

A young man who looked barely seventeen or eighteen years of age asked Yang Zhenshuo: “Elder Brother — how did it go?”

This young man was also of the Yang family — his name was Yang Zhenlan, and this year he had not yet turned seventeen.

The Emperor had said this realm belonged to the Yang family and could not be seized by those rebels — and so he had come.

His parents had both forbidden it, had even locked him in his room with chains on the door. But he had still escaped. He felt the Emperor was right. The men of the Yang family could not just watch while Prince Wu alone fought and bled for the Yang family’s realm. When the Emperor had bowed toward the Yang family members and said, “We beg this of all of you,” a fire had blazed up inside his chest.

The men of the Yang family could never fear the battlefield, no matter when. The Dachu realm had been won by the Founding Emperor one battle at a time — now that someone wanted to take it, they would take it back one battle at a time.

Yang Zhenshuo shook his head and said to Yang Zhenlan: “Xiahou Zuo refused.”

Yang Zhenlan immediately flared with anger: “That illegitimate-born, and yet he carries on with such arrogance?”

Yang Zhenshuo said: “Perhaps… that is precisely the reason.”

Yang Zhenlan said: “If you ask me, they were always too lenient with people like them. But no matter — let him come and attack. Let’s see whether he can break through our defense of Yumen Pass.”

Yang Zhenshuo gave a hum of assent: “I am going to make an inspection. You go back.”

Still young, and so his words came out immature and childish — Yang Zhenshuo did not want to waste breath on him.

Yang Zhenlan said: “Those lowborn trash deserve to be torn apart limb from limb.”

These words gave Yang Zhenshuo a start, and a chill broke out across his back.

He turned. The sight of Yang Zhenlan with his fists clenched — it was like a demon who had already begun to sprout horns from his head.

In Yang Zhenlan’s mind, of course Xiahou Zuo and the others were the ones in the wrong. As for a man born illegitimately, someone who couldn’t even be properly entered into the clan register — how dare he defy them?

In this moment, Yang Zhenshuo was startled — because for no clear reason, a thought came to him: had he once been like this himself?

The Yang family had divided all under heaven into ranks and tiers. Every Yang family member naturally believed themselves to be of the first rank — yet they had forgotten that the Yang family itself was also divided into ranks and tiers.

If the Ning Army had not been pressing down upon Yumen Pass — if the rebel armies from across the realm had not already shattered Dachu beyond recognition — if this had been a peaceful and flourishing Dachu — had Yang Zhenshuo met Xiahou Zuo in those circumstances, would he have addressed Xiahou Zuo as “elder brother” with humility in his voice?

Yang Zhenlan had said: they had always been too lenient with people like them…

These words made Yang Zhenshuo shudder to his core.

—

By the riverside.

Li Chi handed Xiahou Zuo a flask of water. Xiahou Zuo took it, then simply sat down right on the ground. Li Chi asked: “What is it — you look like you are not in a good mood?”

Xiahou Zuo gave a hum, then after a moment asked Li Chi: “Whatever comes in the future — your descendants must never become like the Yang family.”

Li Chi laughed.

Xiahou Zuo: “What are you laughing at — this is a serious matter.”

Li Chi said: “I know it is serious. But honestly, there is not much I can do about a thing like that. I do not have children yet, and I do not know how I would raise them once I did. Though I do have one thing I could leave them.”

Xiahou Zuo asked: “What is it?”

Li Chi smiled: “The realm was seized by force. If you squander it, someone will seize it again.”

Xiahou Zuo burst out laughing.

“Then write that down and hang it in the imperial study of the palace in the future.”

He looked at Li Chi: “Though speaking of it — it really is time for you to start thinking about having a child.”

Li Chi shot him a sidelong glance: “Go handle those three old men for me first, then we’ll talk. You think I don’t want to? Even if I haven’t given serious thought to having a child yet, I’d certainly give serious thought to the process of having one, wouldn’t I.”

Xiahou Zuo: “Get lost…”

This time it was Li Chi who burst out laughing.

In truth, Li Chi knew Xiahou Zuo was unsettled. Having seen those Yang family members had left Xiahou Zuo feeling deeply conflicted.

After a long silence, Xiahou Zuo said: “If it were possible to choose worthy successors rather than simply eldest sons — that might make things better. Yet it is so difficult.”

Li Chi said: “Indeed. It is so difficult.”

Xiahou Zuo suddenly thought of something, and smiled: “For you, it should not be so difficult.”

Li Chi asked: “Why?”

Xiahou Zuo said: “The founding emperor of Dachu — the fortune of one man sustained Dachu’s realm for hundreds of years. I believe that founding emperor’s fortune was far beneath yours.”

Li Chi smiled: “If my fortune alone could bless a thousand years, now that really would make me something.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “In truth — as long as there are those among your descendants who never stop striving to stand shoulder to shoulder with you — that would be enough.”

Li Chi thought for a moment, then smiled: “But what I leave my descendants to contend with me for — there is not much of it left.”

Xiahou Zuo laughed: “Who is to say — someday there might be one among them who makes the Central Plains supreme over all under heaven?”

Li Chi let out a long breath: “That would probably take hundreds of years of accumulation.”

—