Jingye County.

This place lay roughly six hundred li from Daxing City, situated in the northern reaches of eastern Jingzhou, and was garrisoned by approximately three to four thousand Sky-Mandate Army soldiers.

After Li Xionghu’s withdrawal from Jingzhou, the Sky-Mandate Army had taken over a large number of the prefecture’s counties and cities, especially those positioned along vital arteries — all had been assigned troops to hold them.

The three or four thousand men posted here had no particular objections to the assignment. Being far from the fighting meant no fear of death.

The Sky-Mandate King was assaulting Daxing City — he had been besieging it for nearly a year now — and the Sky-Mandate Army soldiers encamped outside could never be certain they would come through an assault on the walls unscathed.

The fifth-rank general Huo Huai considered himself quite fortunate.

Holding this small city, living at leisure day after day, with none of the anxieties of warfare to trouble him.

Most importantly, Jingye County was the location of a major granary, and holding this position meant he had no shortage of provisions or supplies.

His one worry was the Ning Army in Suzhou. If the Ning Army advanced into Jingzhou toward Daxing City, Jingye County would lie directly on their path.

With only three or four thousand men, and reinforcements hundreds of li away, he knew that if it came to a real fight, there was no possibility of holding this place.

The Sky-Mandate King’s orders to him were that if he detected any sign of the Ning Army, he was free to immediately transport all grain and supplies out and abandon the county entirely.

But that was an absurd instruction. With just a few thousand men, how could he possibly move all the grain?

Before he had led his men out, Muyong Yanlie — the foremost advisor in the Sky-Mandate King’s counsel — had sought him out privately and told him that if the Ning Army truly entered Jingzhou, he should burn all the grain.

Muyong Yanlie had said that Tang Pidi, based in Suzhou, would inevitably move through areas with granaries when he advanced into Jingzhou.

Because Li Xionghu’s forces had ravaged Suzhou for so long, the lives of the common people there were wretched.

So there were no surplus provisions at all. Even if Tang Pidi managed to defeat the Chuang Army and seize part of their grain stores, it would be far from enough to supply the Ning Army’s needs.

If Jingye County could not be held, then destroy the granary.

With those words from Muyong Yanlie in his ear, Huo Huai felt somewhat more at ease.

He had dispatched a large number of scouts fanning out toward the northeast to keep watch. At the first sign of Ning Army movement, he would immediately torch the granary and lead his men in retreat.

A fine and pleasant day. Huo Huai was eating his midday meal when word came that an envoy sent by the Sky-Mandate King on an inspection tour had arrived, and was currently shouting abuse at the county gate.

Because the soldiers guarding the gate had tried to check his credentials, they had been rewarded with several slaps to the face.

Huo Huai thought — now who the hell is this, coming to ruin his peaceful existence.

The Sky-Mandate King kept thousands of retainers and over a hundred advisors. These men held no proper official titles to speak of, but every one of them considered himself something extraordinary.

Perhaps because the Sky-Mandate King had grown tired of them as well, he had taken to dispatching them to various places on inspection tours.

These insufferable characters took a chicken feather and treated it like a royal decree — every place they passed through got stripped bare.

He asked: “Even after being slapped around, did they at least verify his identity?”

His men replied: “He has the token and the official documents.”

Huo Huai sighed, rose to his feet, and said: “Let’s go. I’ll go receive him.”

At this moment, outside the gate, the inspection envoy’s expression was still dark, despite the fact that his men had already settled the matter for him. He somehow remained deeply displeased.

In truth, it was easy enough to understand. The Sky-Mandate King’s retainers and advisors held no official title, so in ordinary times there was no opportunity for them to throw their weight around. But once given the title of inspection envoy, they could crush any local official they pleased.

Anyone who dared show them less than full deference — they had the power to make that official’s life impossible.

Huo Huai arrived in a hurry with his men. He was a fifth-rank general — but he still had to show proper respect to the inspection envoy, bow first and ask questions later.

“Your servant pays his respects.”

Having arrived, Huo Huai didn’t worry about anything else — he bowed first.

His men quickly prompted him: “This is Lord Zhou, dispatched by our lord to inspect the counties of northeastern Jingzhou.”

“Your servant pays his respects, Lord Zhou.”

Huo Huai bowed again.

Seeing his manner, Lord Zhou seemed to find it difficult to make further trouble, and managed to squeeze out a semblance of a smile: “General Huo need not be so formal.”

Yet he made no move to dismount — an attitude that greatly displeased Huo Huai’s subordinates.

“Lord Zhou, please come inside the city.”

Huo Huai stepped aside and gestured an invitation.

But Lord Zhou said in a slightly chilling tone: “First you block me from entering, then you invite me in — unless there’s something irregular inside this county that you wanted to keep me from seeing, which is why you held me up, and now that it’s been taken care of, you’re letting me in?”

Those words went straight for the jugular.

Huo Huai inwardly cursed every ancestor of this Lord Zhou going back eighteen generations, but still had to put on a show of humility and keep apologizing.

He kicked the squad leader at the gate flying to the side: “Blind fool — get out of my way.”

Lord Zhou gave another huff and spurred his horse into the city.

“Take me to the granary first. Lead the way, General Huo.”

Huo Huai heard those words and knew this was not going to be resolved cleanly today. This man had been humiliated, and now he needed an outlet.

A trip to the granary would mean finding some pretext — however trivial — to use as leverage against Huo Huai.

Huo Huai was no fool, and immediately said: “It’s the middle of the day, and Lord Zhou has traveled far and must be weary. I have arranged a meal. Please rest first, my lord — after we’ve eaten, I’ll accompany Lord Zhou to the granary.”

Lord Zhou said: “Are you afraid of me going to look?”

Huo Huai cursed again inwardly, and knew there was no getting out of this without offering something.

“Lord Zhou may inspect the granary whenever you wish. However, I’ve already sent someone to fetch the account ledgers — please review them while you eat, and then we can visit the granary to verify them against each other.”

Hearing those words, Lord Zhou caught the implied meaning, and managed to produce a few more hollow smiles.

“Very well then. Let us review the accounts first.”

Shortly after, in the county office.

The table had been set with food and wine. A subordinate came in carrying a wooden box, which he handed to Huo Huai. Huo Huai placed it beside Lord Zhou: “These are the ledgers. Please look them over, my lord.”

Lord Zhou opened the box. Inside, packed full, were gold ingots — at a rough estimate, no less than two hundred taels or so.

For advisors of his rank, who held no properly paid position, this was no trifling sum.

So Lord Zhou’s expression changed immediately. He smiled and said: “Attendant, take the ledgers away first. I’ll review them carefully when I return tonight.”

The atmosphere relaxed at once. The room filled with laughter and talk, warm as old friends reunited after many years.

Drinking and chatting, the conversation drifted naturally to the granary. Lord Zhou’s face had grown faintly flushed — clearly he had been drinking well.

He laughed and said: “General Huo handles things with such steadiness. The granary, I’m sure, will have no issues either. I’ll go for a brief look later just to go through the motions — gives me something to report when I get back.”

Huo Huai quickly affirmed that the granary would absolutely have no issues.

Who actually believed that?

If the granary was truly in order, where had that box of gold come from?

They were posted in a small county with no other source of income — what else were they supposed to rely on if not selling grain?

In truth, this was no different from what the officials of the Great Chu had done. Except they were far more brazen about it than those Chu officials — because this grain had been seized as plunder. It wasn’t theirs to begin with. Plundered goods left no ledger trail, or rather, no ledger existed at all, so there was nothing to investigate.

Over the past few months, Huo Huai had been in contact with local merchants, offloading grain through them. In these turbulent times, nothing sold better than grain.

The two men grew more and more comfortable with each other. Lord Zhou’s speech grew increasingly unguarded.

“General Huo is truly a man of spotless integrity.”

Lord Zhou sighed: “All along my journey from Daxing City, what I have seen and heard has been deeply troubling… men like General Huo, who are so faithful to their duties, are truly rare.”

He lowered his voice: “Let me tell you something. Not a word of it outside this room.”

Huo Huai immediately said: “Lord Zhou may rest assured. These words leave your mouth and enter only my ears — they will go no further.”

Lord Zhou said: “When I passed through Lixian County, do you know what General Chen, who was garrisoning Lixian, was doing?”

He let out a huff — a highly complex sound, carrying both indignation and envy.

“A while back, he led his troops back to the main camp and reported to our lord that over ten thousand Chuang Army remnants had attacked Lixian County. He said his numbers were too few to hold, so he withdrew from the county, bringing back a hundred-odd cartloads of grain, while burning the rest — he said he’d rather burn it than leave it for the Chuang rebels. Our lord praised him greatly and gave him considerable rewards. But when I passed through Lixian County, I learned the truth of it.”

Lord Zhou lowered his voice further: “There were Chuang rebel remnants, that part was true. But he never burned the grain. He sold it to the Chuang rebels.”

Huo Huai’s eyes flew open: “Something like that actually happened?”

Lord Zhou said: “The Chuang rebel remnants had only about ten thousand men — not much of a force. But they had money. Their people had stripped every place they passed through bare as the earth itself, so there was no shortage of coin. What they lacked was grain. Without grain they couldn’t travel far. Their Chuang King Li Xionghu had already fled, and his men also wanted to flee — but they had no grain. So they’d originally planned to attack Lixian County to seize the granary. But General Chen had no desire to fight, so he negotiated terms with the Chuang remnants. They probably figured fighting would leave both sides worse off, so they agreed — they let General Chen withdraw peacefully, and in exchange paid a great sum of silver for that granary.”

Lord Zhou smiled: “But those Chuang rebels were all roughnecks and country folk — they had no idea General Chen had played them. Most of the grain in the Lixian granary had already been sold off by him. There was barely any left. They paid a king’s ransom in silver and got very little grain in return.”

He leaned forward: “Do you know how much General Chen cheated those Chuang rebels out of?”

Huo Huai shook his head: “I don’t.”

Lord Zhou held up one finger.

Huo Huai: “Ten thousand taels?”

Lord Zhou gave him a sideways look: “One million taels!”

Huo Huai sighed: “Those Chuang rebels really did have money. They’d taken Dingyang County before — that was the estate of the King of Liao, and by all accounts they’d looted no less than several million taels of gold and silver treasure from it.”

He looked at Lord Zhou: “If you had one million taels, Lord Zhou — what would you do with it?”

Lord Zhou sighed: “If I had one million taels, I’d find some quiet place and live out my days in retirement. Why stake my life on any of this?”

Huo Huai’s eyes flickered briefly.

Lord Zhou sighed: “What a pity… if only I had a granary to my name, I’d trade that granary for one million taels of silver.”

Huo Huai heard those words, and his eyes narrowed.

He raised his cup and took a sip, and then suddenly smiled: “Lord Zhou — how do you know all of this so clearly?”

Lord Zhou blinked.

Huo Huai asked again: “If Lord Zhou came from the direction of Lixian County, Lixian County has already been occupied by the Chuang rebels — how exactly did Lord Zhou come through there unscathed?”

He set down his cup: “Let me guess…”

He gestured to his subordinate: “Hand me the blade.”

The guard quickly stepped forward and placed the sword in Huo Huai’s hand.

Huo Huai waved his hand: “The rest of you, out. Lord Zhou and I have something to discuss.”

Everyone else withdrew. Only Lord Zhou and Huo Huai remained.

Huo Huai picked up the blade: “The real Lord Zhou is already dead in Lixian County, isn’t he? You’re one of the Chuang rebels.”