“The things I have done — have I disappointed you?”

The Emperor asked.

The Empress shook her head.

The Emperor looked into her eyes and said, “There is nothing I fear now, except your disappointment.”

The Empress reached out and took his hand. “But does Your Majesty know — the thing I fear most is Your Majesty’s disappointment in me.”

The two of them looked at each other, and both pairs of eyes held a warmth that had not been there before.

The Emperor had become a different person, and for Dachu this was certainly a good thing. For the people of Daxing, it should also be considered a good thing.

The breeze of early summer carried away some of the troubles, and though summer had arrived, the air still lacked the weight of high-heat’s oppression. With wind against one’s face, the heart felt as though it had been swept clean.

And so, sitting in the East Study, the Emperor looked at the dust on the table and felt no anger at all.

He had been living at the training grounds for a very long while. The head eunuch Zhen Xiaodao and the Imperial Guard Commander Hui Chunqiu had both been staying there with him, and the palace staff had grown negligent in his absence — the tables in the East Study had not even been wiped.

The Emperor felt no anger. Zhen Xiaodao felt very angry.

He was presently dealing with those eunuchs in a most severe manner.

In former times, the sound of such berating would have made the Emperor irritable as well. But today he was different.

The Empress had just told him: Your Majesty is light — the sunlight that should be shining over the entire realm.

Some clouds have hidden Your Majesty’s radiance. What Your Majesty is doing now is dispersing those clouds, so that every subject of Dachu may once again bask in sunlight.

She was such a pure woman — so much so that in the words she chose, even the Emperor leading his new troops to slaughter the great clans through the night had become nothing more than sunlight scattering clouds.

When she said it like that, it even sounded pure.

“Your Majesty, it is time to return to the barracks.”

Hui Chunqiu reminded him gently from the side.

The Emperor gave a nod. “Not yet — let’s wait a little.”

The Empress was staying at the barracks. Eating and sleeping were both uncomfortable there, and she had no way to properly bathe.

He knew she had surely gone to bathe. So he wanted to wait.

The Empress had said: if a husband and wife take a little more thought for each other, they will not be troubled and angered by trivial things. The Emperor felt that these were principles he had always understood — when someone teaches you what you already know, you tend to feel annoyed. But when the Empress said it, he did not resist it, and he would remember it carefully.

“Hui Chunqiu.”

“This subject is here.”

“Since we have already gone this far, let us finish it properly.”

The Emperor looked at Hui Chunqiu. “Those people were counting on Yang Xuanji to come and save them, hoarding their wealth to make offerings to their new master once he arrived, while crying poverty every time I needed them…”

The Emperor paused, then slowly let out a breath. “My enemies are also my teachers. Prince Ning, Li Chi, understands the hearts of the people better than anyone. I should learn from him…”

Hui Chunqiu understood. He bowed. “This subject will see to it at once.”

The Emperor said, “Do not fear their resistance. Do not fear their threats. The Empress said… all of this is nothing but clouds blocking the sunlight. The clouds over Daxing have been blocking the sun long enough. I need wind — when wind comes, clouds scatter.”

Hui Chunqiu bowed in acknowledgment.

The best way to restore the loyalty of an Imperial Guard rotted through with corruption was not to root out every last worm — it was to kill all the people who had been feeding the worms. When the worms saw their masters all dead, they would not dare act further. After all, they were only worms.

There were certainly many in the Imperial Guard who had been bought off, and many key positions had been filled with spies placed by those factions.

The Emperor had Hui Chunqiu tell the Imperial Guards: I can forgo pursuing which of you have been turned, but you must understand what you are here to do.

Having already come this far, what did the Emperor have left to hesitate over?

And so from that day, the people of the city witnessed the Imperial Guards appearing in Daxing day after day, week after week.

House by house they searched and confiscated. Household by household, they brought charges. All seized assets were commandeered for the military.

The Emperor had not expected it at all — with the imperial treasury as depleted as it was, the wealth and provisions seized in these raids were so vast they left him scarcely able to believe it.

All at once, the pay and provisions for tens of thousands of new troops were resolved — enough, in fact, to sustain an even greater force.

For Li Xionghu, he had believed himself to have arrived at an opportune moment. But it was truly not an opportune moment.

The Empress told the Emperor: Prince Wu’s army had no provisions and no support lines. Rather than letting the soldiers fight with empty stomachs out in the field, it would be better to recall Prince Wu. Sometimes a measured withdrawal is in fact the right thing to do.

The Emperor had long wanted to do this, but he had been afraid — afraid that if he did, the people would think the court could no longer even fight a war.

Now, placing himself in the position of the weaker party, he could set his pride aside.

The Emperor issued an edict: Prince Wu’s army was to return to Daxing and hold the capital — to use a defensive siege to wear down Li Xionghu’s forces.

It had to be said: this was in fact the most correct approach.

Li Xionghu’s forces were large and numerous, that was true — but Daxing’s walls were tall and solid, that was equally true. This was, after all, the imperial capital of Dachu.

From the beginning of the sixth month, Li Xionghu had no choice but to attack Daxing — because he had come this far, and he could not afford not to.

And so every day outside the walls, great numbers of bodies were left behind. This war of attrition was no easier to endure for Li Xionghu than for anyone else.

Daxing held the city walls. In the Northern Frontier, a city was also being held.

The Chler people had finally understood what they needed to do, because among them was a man of clear sight — Shuyang Chuan.

At Unnamed Mountain, Shuyang Chuan ordered his people to continue reinforcing the city’s defenses, using wooden walls as frames and strengthening them with stone.

They resisted the Black Warrior attacks, strengthened their mountain fortress, and kept watch on the situation at Northern Mountain Pass.

Whether or not the tribespeople were willing, Shuyang Chuan’s orders were absolute. Whenever he judged that the Black Warriors were pressing Northern Mountain Pass too hard, he would dispatch cavalry to assist the Ning forces there.

With Bulegedi’s support, Shuyang Chuan’s authority gradually became established.

From early in the fifth month to early in the sixth, for a full month without pause, the Black Warriors applied unrelenting pressure on Northern Mountain Pass.

Yet because of those stubborn Chler people, each of their assaults was harassed and disrupted time and again — they could never bring their full strength to bear against the Ning forces.

Northern Mountain Pass.

Li Chi cut down a Black Warrior who had climbed to the top of the wall, half his skull splitting away. As the body fell, brain matter splashed down with it.

The fallen corpse was quickly swallowed by the mass below. Beneath the wall there was no water — only a vast, dark press of Black Warrior soldiers.

A scaling ladder hooked itself onto the wall. Li Chi’s Minghong Blade came down in one stroke, chopping clean through the two iron grappling hooks at the ladder’s top. The ladder lost its hold and slid away — the men on it cried out in alarm.

About seven or eight zhang away from Li Chi, the Black Warriors had broken through again. A Black Warrior soldier with a savage expression vaulted onto the wall, flailing wildly with his curved blade.

Li Chi heard the battle cries, spun around, and with one stroke slashed diagonally through the Black Warrior before him. His left hand shot out and seized another by the throat, stepped forward, and shoved hard — the man’s head smashed into the wall with a sickening crack, his skull shattering.

The Black Warriors’ numerical advantage was simply too great. Every day they managed to climb onto the walls, and every day they were driven back by the Ning forces.

One by one, Black Warrior bodies were hurled from the walls, and more than a few of those below were knocked down by the falling dead.

But then, from the Black Warrior side, warning horns rang out.

Li Chi found a moment to glance into the distance and saw that the Chler cavalry had actually launched a charge directly into the Black Warrior camp.

Every previous time, the Chler had harassed the flanks of the Black Warrior assault forces. This time they had actually dared to attack the main camp directly — the Black Warriors had not expected it, and even Li Chi had not expected it.

The Black Warriors had no choice but to fall back, for their camp had broken out in fire.

“The Chler have a remarkable military mind leading them.”

Xiahou Zuo said, wiping the blood from his face as he walked over.

Li Chi gave a sound of agreement. The Chler’s tactics had become more fluid and dynamic recently — quite different from before — and so Li Chi had concluded that whoever was commanding on that side had changed.

One could not help but admire the Chler cavalry. They were truly formidable.

Once they had been nothing more than military slaves, with no training for actual warfare. Yet when these men of the Chler tribe mounted their horses, they became the most powerful cavalry in the world.

The sudden attack on the Black Warrior rear camp forced the enemy to divert troops for defense — for that was where the supply depot was.

Having already been burned once before by the Chler, the Black Warriors would not let themselves stumble over the same stone twice.

The Chler’s approach was one of harassing raids — once they had compelled the Black Warriors to pull back, the Chler withdrew as well.

On the walls of Northern Mountain Pass, Li Chi set his blade aside and braced against the battlement, catching his breath.

The unending battles placed the Ning soldiers under enormous strain. But it was precisely because Li Chi and Xiahou Zuo fought at the very front in every engagement that — despite having been besieged for so long — the Ning army’s morale remained fierce and unyielding.

The Black Warriors withdrew. Shortly afterward, their recovery teams moved up.

It seemed to be an unspoken rule of this battlefield: after each failed assault, great numbers of Black Warrior laborer troops would come to retrieve the bodies.

The Ning forces would not loose arrows at these laborers. First, there was no need. Second, it would be a waste.

“We need to find a way.”

Xiahou Zuo looked toward Li Chi.

Li Chi understood what Xiahou Zuo meant.

It was only the sixth month. By the Northern Frontier’s climate, the Black Warriors had at least three or four more months before the season would force them to pull back.

If they had brought enough winter gear and supplies, they could press on without pause.

But the Chler at Unnamed Mountain could not hold out that long — the provisions the Ning army had left them were not enough to sustain them until winter.

And with the Black Warriors blocking all routes, the Ning forces had no way to send more provisions to the Chler.

A way forward… what way was there?

This was a problem Li Chi had thought about more than once.

Send a breakout force to deliver provisions to the Chler in daylight? Unthinkable — every man who went out would die.

At night?

No different — every man sent would die.

At the same time, on Unnamed Mountain.

Shuyang Chuan looked toward Bulegedi. “Great Khan…”

Bulegedi looked back at him, his expression indicating: you are the Great Khan now.

Shuyang Chuan acted as though he had not understood and continued, “Great Khan — we need to take a risk. If we don’t take this risk, we won’t be able to hold much longer.”

Bulegedi said, “Please speak, Great Khan.”

Shuyang Chuan said, “If we succeed, not only will the provisions problem be solved — we may cause the Black Warriors considerable pain, and perhaps even push them to withdraw. That would give our people a better chance of passing through the passes and entering the interior.”

He leaned close to Bulegedi and lowered his voice to speak a few sentences in his ear.

When he finished, Bulegedi’s eyes had gone wide. “That is indeed… very risky.”

Shuyang Chuan said, “We just made a raid on the Black Warrior camp. The reason I ordered that was to force the Black Warriors to divert more troops to guard their supply depot — because their provisions are also running low. I have calculated the timing. Now should be exactly right.”

Bulegedi rose to his feet. “I will go. Only I can go.”

Four or five days later. The Black Warrior camp.

“Great General!”

A man soaked in blood ran into the command tent and collapsed to the ground. “Great General — our provisions, our provisions have been taken by the Chler!”

—