This was likely the second most humiliating experience of Shi Fenghui’s career as a military commander: as the acting commander of three hundred thousand troops, if you wanted to go home, you had to pay a toll.

If it weren’t for the humiliation that ranked first, he might truly not have been able to bear this one that ranked second.

The one that ranked first was being handed command of these three hundred thousand troops in the first place.

But the calculation wasn’t hard to make. Paying a toll was humiliating, yes — yet if someone were to go around right now and ask every soldier in this army, most of them would probably be willing to lay down their weapons and strip off their armor if it meant surviving and going home.

Fight?

How to fight?

Prince Ning Li Chi had calculated everything from the start: the Ning Army didn’t want to fight — but the Tianming Army wanted to fight even less.

These three hundred thousand troops — an impressive number — were in reality an army that had been fleeing and fighting in retreat for nearly four months. An army of the defeated.

Every last man was exhausted and sick of war. And the cruelest truth for Shi Fenghui, as commander, was that he had no way to raise morale.

What could you say to the soldiers?

Say: win this battle and there’ll be silver for everyone? By now none of them cared about silver. They just wanted to survive and go home.

Say: win this battle and you can go home? The soldiers would ask: if we just hand over our weapons and armor without fighting, can’t we go home too?

An army with no morale cannot win, no matter how fine its equipment or how rigorous its training.

Never mind that a Ning Army of around one hundred thousand stood in their path — even if it had been Li Xionghu’s ragtag forces blocking the road, the Tianming Army didn’t want to fight, and an army that doesn’t want to fight cannot win.

So, after weighing all considerations, Shi Fenghui decided to take this gamble and ordered the entire army to hand over nearly all their equipment, horses included.

Xie Xiu, at least, did not make further difficulties. Most notably, he did not demand they leave behind their grain and provisions.

And that, precisely, was what Li Chi had instructed.

By taking all the Tianming Army’s horses — war horses and draft animals both — the Tianming Army on departure could only haul their food with human backs.

That meant these three hundred thousand Tianming troops, marching out laden with provisions and stripped of their arms, would not have the means to cause any trouble as they passed through Jingzhou.

Their food was their lives, and carrying their lives on their own backs, they would have no energy left for anything else.

Xie Xiu was as good as his word. Once Shi Fenghui had handed over the supplies, he ordered the Ning Army to open a corridor.

The Tianming troops departed under the watchful eyes of the Ning soldiers. Every one of them walked with their head down — not out of shame, but simply wanting to get away and go home.

Xie Xiu was smiling, openly and without concealment.

He had just taken the equipment of nearly three hundred thousand troops. Why wouldn’t he smile? He ought to roar with laughter.

Prince Wu had no way to push into Jingzhou — that, too, was something Prince Ning had calculated before heading north, because Prince Wu’s army had no grain.

They could only go back and dig in to hold Jingzhou, hoping that between scrambling from every direction, they could get enough supplies to see the army through this winter, and then through the lean spring that followed.

So Jingzhou needed no excessive worry — but also no lack of vigilance, for Prince Wu commanded troops in a manner that defied any pattern or prediction.

Xie Xiu watched the three hundred thousand Tianming troops complete their departure, then personally led his forces to set up defensive positions along Jingzhou’s eastern line.

Across from Tuozhou was Jingzhou’s Yumen Pass, and currently in Yumen Pass was a Chu force of several tens of thousands — fresh troops who had yet to see serious combat, and accordingly full of arrogance and ambition.

Prince Wu hadn’t even considered attempting to exploit the moment by attacking Jingzhou, but the young men of the Yang clan leading those forces had nursed exactly that idea.

No sooner had the thought arisen, however, than news arrived: Xie Xiu’s hundred thousand troops had entered Tuozhou.

And so the idea was promptly shelved, not to be entertained again in the near term.

Inside Tuozhou City.

Xie Huainan saw that Xie Xiu had arrived and asked how matters stood. Xie Xiu recounted everything from start to finish, and even Xie Huainan couldn’t help but laugh.

Prince Ning’s planning left nothing to chance. The toll the Tianming Army had paid on their way through was enough to equip an entire new expansion of Jingzhou’s forces.

But one of Xie Huainan’s advisors had thoughts running in a somewhat different direction. He had served the Xie household for many years and was on familiar terms with Xie Huainan. His name was Gao Jinchen.

Though not surnamed Xie, he held a position of particular standing within the household, having served as head steward for over twenty years.

Because of Xie Huainan’s protection, he had been spared when a large portion of the Xie family members were sent to Yuzhou.

So he was eager to distinguish himself — to repay the care Xie Huainan had shown him.

“My Lord.”

Gao Jinchen’s eyes shifted: “At present, Prince Wu’s forces dare not attack our Jingzhou, and Tianming King Yang Xuanji has fled far away. Right now, Jingzhou…”

He looked at Xie Huainan: “As long as we mass troops on Jingzhou’s eastern and northern lines, no one can break through. And now, having taken the equipment of nearly three hundred thousand troops…”

His words trailed off at that point. Before the rest could come out, Xie Huainan had already turned to look at Xie Xiu: “Cripple him.”

Xie Xiu rose immediately, put a foot into Gao Jinchen’s chest, and sent him flying. Even the chair the man had been sitting in flew clear across the room.

Xie Xiu was a commanding general in the field. The force behind that kick needed no elaboration.

Gao Jinchen was a scholar. After being kicked to the floor, he lay there struggling just to catch a breath, writhing and crying out in pain.

“I kept you on because I believed you understood your place. It seems you do not.”

Xie Huainan’s face was hard as stone: “Bind him and his family. Have troops escort them to Yuzhou City and deliver them to Master Yan for handling. Remove his jaw and break all four limbs first.”

Xie Xiu turned and called out at once: “Someone get in here and deal with this.”

Personal guards stormed in, quick and ruthless, and hauled Gao Jinchen out. Before long, a chorus of agonized screams came from outside.

“This is exactly what I feared…”

Xie Huainan sat back down, his face still pale with anger.

“I was afraid people at the lower levels would start having these ideas. The Xie family has barely managed to preserve itself — and yet they want to send the Xie family to the underworld.”

Xie Huainan let out a long sigh.

Xie Xiu said: “Let me handle this. I need to kill a few people first — otherwise the household won’t be afraid. The rest can be sent on to Yuzhou.”

Xie Huainan nodded: “Then handle it as you see fit.”

Xie Xiu nodded: “I’ll head back to Tingyang City first, make the situation clear there, and if anyone else dares keep talking nonsense, I’ll kill a few more.”

Xie Huainan said: “Use your own judgment. These people… deserve to die as well.”

Xie Xiu said: “Their vision is too small — and they all think they’re so clever… What a pity about Gao Jinchen. He did at least manage household affairs in good order.”

Xie Huainan said: “Death is what he deserves.”

Xie Xiu said: “Then I’ll head back to Tingyang first. Once I’ve taken care of it, I’ll come back. Take care of yourself.”

He turned and left.

Xie Huainan sighed again, thinking to himself: has someone like Gao Jinchen lost his mind? Did he truly think the Xie family could transform itself into a ruling dynasty on the strength of one Jingzhou?

After sitting in thought for a time, he took paper and brush and drafted a memorial confessing his errors, and arranged for it to be sent to Jizhou by the fastest possible means.

In this moment, he could not afford the slightest complacency.

Jingzhou was important to Prince Ning — so the Xie family was important. But if Jingzhou ceased to be important, would the Xie family still matter?

Simultaneously, in the Left Guard Army.

The force was marching back — making a show of forced pursuit while in reality beginning a careful withdrawal.

Prince Wu had spent the better part of his life commanding armies in battle, and no one understood better than he did how to fight a war. Even knowing full well that the Tianming Army would not dare turn and fight, he still made every prudent arrangement.

General Zhang He was one of the few old comrades Prince Wu had left. Through the endless years of campaigning, those generals who had followed Prince Wu on his southern and northern expeditions and earned merit in battle — the dead were dead, the crippled were crippled.

After his elder brother Zhang Yi was killed, Zhang He’s standing within the Left Guard Army had risen considerably. In commanding troops, and in martial skill, he was in truth no inferior to his elder brother. It was simply that he was by nature more understated, and never sought to compete with his brother.

Prince Wu had entrusted Zhang He with the command of the return march, leaving the old man free to rest.

“Your Highness.”

Zhang He boarded Prince Wu’s carriage and sat down: “As Your Highness ordered, men have already been dispatched to Yumen Pass.”

Prince Wu gave a sound of acknowledgment: “Those young men’s intentions are too easy to read. Every one of them fancies himself the next great leader — thinks they’ll surpass me before long. In truth, they are nothing but decorative pillows.”

Zhang He said: “Your Highness sent a personal letter in stern warning not to make any rash moves. They would not dare entertain such ideas any further.”

“Let us hope so.”

Prince Wu said: “I have exhausted my wits to keep Jingzhou stable. If they go and ruin this hard-won peace, that would be a poor outcome.”

He looked at Zhang He: “If not for the Black Martial invasion — thinking through how the Jingzhou situation might have played out, what is your assessment?”

Zhang He thought for a moment, organized his reasoning — this was not something he could only now be thinking about. As a field commander, he would long since have worked through every possible scenario.

“In your subordinate’s view, if the Black Martial forces had not come south to invade, Yang Xuanji would by now have been trapped in Jingzhou by Your Highness, while Xie Xiu’s forces would have blocked every route of retreat at any cost.”

Prince Wu nodded: “That is correct. Prince Ning Li Chi had no intention of letting Yang Xuanji go home — he would have used my hand to eliminate Yang Xuanji.”

He asked: “And then?”

Zhang He said: “Over in Suzhou, the same logic applies. Without the Black Martial invasion, Li Xionghu would have been no match for Tang Pidi. With one stroke at Hangcheng, Tang Pidi split Li Xionghu’s so-called million-man army into scattered fragments for the Ning Army to pick apart one by one. My estimation is that Tang Pidi would have finished Li Xionghu outside Hangcheng.”

Prince Wu asked again: “And then?”

Zhang He said: “On our side — we would have defeated Yang Xuanji, but at severe cost to ourselves. Xie Xiu’s Jingzhou army and Xiahou Zuo’s Yuzhou army would then have pressed in on us like madmen. Without grain, within half a month of being surrounded, our defeat would have been inevitable.”

Prince Wu asked once more: “And then?”

Zhang He opened his mouth, but said nothing.

Prince Wu said softly: “Then the realm would have belonged to Prince Ning Li Chi. By the third month at the latest, Daxing would have exhausted its grain stores and had no choice but to open its gates in surrender. Li Chi would have proclaimed himself Emperor in the third month in Daxing City.”

He slowly let out a long breath: “This was a trial that faced Prince Ning Li Chi — he was only a matter of months away from announcing the fall of Dachu from within Daxing City…”

Zhang He echoed with a sigh.

There was a thought he didn’t dare speak, not even before this loyal old comrade.

The thought was: even if Dachu somehow got lucky again and managed to scrape along a while longer — what about afterward? How could one Jingzhou resist the inevitable destruction of the dynasty?

Prince Wu also had a thought he didn’t dare speak, not even in front of his most faithful subordinate.

He wanted to say: if this realm was ultimately not to be Dachu’s, then better it should be Prince Ning Li Chi’s.

If Yang Xuanji took the throne, he would not last long — for the hearts of the people had changed, and no one any longer held reverence for anyone of the Yang imperial bloodline.

As for Li Xionghu — if that brigand became Emperor, the devastation he would bring to the Central Plains would be worse by far than the Black Martial forces invading from the north.

Simultaneously, in Jizhou.

Within the great army, Director Gao and Changmei the Daoist were both staring anxiously at Old Zhang Zhenren, who was in the midst of casting a divination.

Seeing Old Zhang Zhenren’s expression grow grave, Changmei the Daoist finally could not restrain himself: “Well? What does it say?”

Old Zhang Zhenren let out a slow breath: “In the matter of the northern frontier, there will be alarm but no catastrophe. The Central Plains should face no great peril. And this… is most likely the greatest trial of all.”

He had said in one breath: alarm but no catastrophe; and in the next: the greatest trial of all.

So whether it was Changmei the Daoist or Director Gao — both men’s hearts remained suspended in anxiety.