Li Chi explained: “I had originally told Ninth Sister to send someone over in advance to greet you and ask what position you’d want the troops I’m bringing to take up.”

He looked at Tang Pidi: “The man she sent got here and immediately saw the fighting underway. We were on the north bank of the Panxing while you were on the south — in the thick of battle. He had no way to cross right then and meet you.”

Tang Pidi understood. He nodded: “So the messenger didn’t dare waste time and turned around.”

Li Chi said: “Right. He figured that if he circled around the battlefield, found a crossing, and came to see you, it might cost him a day or two of delay. The battle had already begun, and he didn’t dare risk letting the moment slip — so he turned back immediately and reported to me.”

This was the quality of a fine intelligence agent.

A more rigid-minded person would have kept their original mission as the goal and done whatever it took to see Tang Pidi, even if it meant a three or four-day detour to another crossing.

But such rigid thinking was ill-suited to the work of a spy or scout.

Adaptability — that was the defining quality of an excellent agent.

After the agent returned to Li Chi’s force and reported the situation of the Prince of Wu attacking the commander’s position, Li Chi immediately rallied the troops and set off at speed.

The soldiers Li Chi had brought along included a large portion of new recruits trained by Xie Xiu. Though trained to the Ning Army’s standard, they were ultimately still lacking in one regard or another. And these soldiers had not yet seen major battle — whether they could perform when it counted, fighting ability was one part, but courage was another.

So what Li Chi brought were the more battle-hardened veterans — roughly forty or fifty thousand, marching ahead.

But they had come from a long march and were already depleted. To throw them directly into battle would likely spell disaster.

So Li Chi divided his forty or fifty thousand into two groups. All the cavalry was sent on a wide flanking arc around the Chu forces to reach their left flank, making the enemy believe reinforcements had arrived from Qingzhou.

The cavalry was limited in number, so they had to carry many more flags than normal. They also tied branches to their horses’ tails to kick up great clouds of dust and throw off the Chu Army scouts’ count.

On the infantry side, three wan of soldiers were sent charging at the Chu right flank — three wan of men had to project the presence of ten wan, which meant using whatever was available.

Li Chi had said he’d used red undershorts — it wasn’t entirely a joke.

That was exactly how the Chu Army scouts had been fooled. The Prince of Wu never saw this with his own eyes. His judgments were made based on scout reports. And so the Chu force was startled into withdrawal.

Li Chi laughed: “Driving the Prince of Wu northward was all we needed to accomplish. No need to actually engage. Fighting would have only revealed our weakness.”

Tang Pidi made a sound of acknowledgment, then said: “The Prince of Wu won’t easily retreat back into Mangdang Mountain. He has likely already seen through the deception.”

Li Chi said: “Seeing through it and breaking through it are two different things. If he doesn’t want to enter the mountain, we’ll force him in.”

Li Chi spoke with confidence.

With their combined forces after the rendezvous, launching a direct offensive was a bit short on strength — but merely blocking the Prince of Wu from pushing south was not especially difficult.

Moreover, the Prince of Wu now believed the main Ning reinforcements had arrived, and wouldn’t dare try again easily. He would first deploy his scouts to probe other possible escape routes.

The military situation had in truth already settled into its intended course, with no major deviations.

So Li Chi and Tang Pidi were not under great pressure at the moment. For now, they simply waited for all the forces to converge.

Li Chi looked Tang Pidi up and down, and couldn’t help but smile: “You look a bit more solidly built than a few years ago.”

Yu Jiuling sighed: “Boss, please have some dignity — you’re almost drooling.”

Li Chi: “…”

Yu Jiuling made a gesture in front of himself, and said to Tang Pidi: “Boss right now has a thing for big. Someone like you.”

Tang Pidi: “…”

Yu Jiuling said: “My elder brother isn’t here right now. If he were, seeing the two of you with those expressions, he’d definitely get suspicious.”

Tang Pidi said: “Your elder brother only suspects men?”

Yu Jiuling said: “My elder brother would love to suspect women too. It’s just that our boss doesn’t have the ability.”

Li Chi: “Traitor.”

A flying kick shot out. Yu Jiuling sidestepped it: “Boss, why are you hitting me? Wrong door, wrong creditor — that’s what my elder brother says.”

Tang Pidi considered for a moment, then looked at Li Chi: “Miss Gao holds quite the grievance.”

Li Chi: “Shut your mouth!”

Tang Pidi said: “Do you have… some unspeakable difficulty?”

Li Chi: “Traitor!”

Tang Pidi burst out laughing. When he had laughed enough, he asked: “Have you been to the Shen Family Medical Hall yet?”

Li Chi: “Someone bring me my sword.”

Not long after the Ning forces rendezvoused, the Prince of Wu’s Left Martial Guard fell back to the area around Ting’an County.

As Tang Pidi had predicted, the Prince of Wu would not readily re-enter Mangdang Mountain.

Left Martial Guard general Nie Qitai was wounded in multiple places, and in the urgency of the retreat had had no time to bandage himself. A medical officer was now applying treatment. He looked at the Prince of Wu: “Your Highness, Tang Pidi’s purpose is probably to drive us back into Mangdang Mountain. With no grain in the mountain, he wouldn’t even need to make a hard assault — simply seal Mangdang Mountain tight, and we’d be starved out inside.”

The Prince of Wu gave a nod: “I know.”

This was Tang Pidi’s recognition of him, even his wariness of him.

Even a man whose military genius moved like spirits and gods, like Tang Pidi, was unwilling to face the Prince of Wu in a battle to the death.

Even with three times the numerical advantage in encirclement, the Left Martial Guard in a desperate last stand would still inflict immense casualties on the Ning Army.

Eliminating the Left Martial Guard at the cost of a hundred thousand Ning casualties was not what Tang Pidi wanted.

What is tactics? Inflicting maximum casualties on the enemy while minimizing your own losses — that is the finest tactical arrangement.

So there was nothing better than trapping the Prince of Wu to his death in Mangdang Mountain.

Even if the mountain had trees and wild game, ten-odd wan of soldiers surviving on tree bark and hunting — how long could they hold? Just two months, and they would be men too weak to lift a blade. Going in then would not be a fight — it would be collecting prisoners. And perhaps not many living prisoners at that.

“Your Highness.”

Left Martial Guard general Yang Jingyuan said, face full of worry: “We should try to find a way to break out in another direction. With Ning reinforcements having arrived, trying to force south again will be extremely difficult.”

The Prince of Wu furrowed his brow and did not answer immediately. He was thinking.

After a moment, the Prince of Wu said: “I suspect the reinforcements are a bluff.”

Yang Jingyuan asked: “Why?”

The Prince of Wu said: “Now that I think back — the scouts reported that the forces on the left flank were all cavalry, while the forces on the right flank had no cavalry at all. What kind of coincidence is that?”

Yang Jingyuan stiffened: “We were deceived?”

The Prince of Wu said: “Most likely. Ning reinforcements have arrived, but not in great numbers — so they used a feint to bluff us into retreat.”

He let out a soft sigh. He really was getting old. His mind and reactions were not keeping up.

If he had been even ten years younger he could not have been so easily fooled — he would have judged in an instant that the enemy was using deception, and immediately arranged forces to strike hard at the right-flank infantry.

Those were all infantry over there. A long march had drained them. A direct charge of twenty thousand hardened soldiers against them would have scattered that force.

Once the right-flank Ning troops were shattered, the whole battle could be turned around — and there would be a chance to press forward and deal Tang Pidi’s force a crushing blow.

At this thought, the Prince of Wu couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

He had let slip an ideal chance to turn defeat into victory.

If he could still move with the decisive swiftness of his prime, the right-flank Ning forces would already have been routed.

Once the right flank broke, the entire battle could be shifted — and from there, a chance to press forward and smash Tang Pidi’s forces open.

Seeing the constant shifts of expression on the Prince of Wu’s face, those around him dared not speak, afraid of disturbing his chain of thought.

They all assumed the Prince of Wu was devising a brilliant strategy. None of them knew he was instead regretting and lamenting.

“Increase the scouts. Probe the southwest.”

The Prince of Wu said: “At present, the main Ning forces should be converging from these directions…”

The Prince of Wu stepped to the ground and drew a rough map with a stick, speaking as he drew: “Li Chi will be bringing forces from the west. The feint soldiers who just appeared — nine out of ten, that was Li Chi arriving.”

“The Yuzhou commander is called Zhuang Wudi. He may not be in Yuzhou — or it may be Xiahou Zhuo. Either of those two favor caution and would not resort to unusual tactics. So it can’t be one of them.”

“The Qingzhou Ning forces will come from the northeast. The one commanding them should be Shen Shanhu — the only female general under Ning Wang Li Chi, whose military rank is reportedly equal to Tang Pidi’s.”

The Prince of Wu continued: “If she comes from the northeast, she will follow the river and push in, cutting off the forces we have crossing. She would be sharing Tang Pidi’s burden — because she is Tang Pidi’s wife. If it were a different commander, they might press our rear.”

He tapped the stick on the southeast: “Tang Pidi’s forces came from Suzhou. The Ning forces in Suzhou should be no more than thirty or forty thousand — perhaps only ten or twenty thousand.”

Nie Qitai said: “Your Highness means — we slip around Tang Pidi, and while he believes we’re pushing south, we instead turn toward Suzhou.”

Yang Jingyuan’s eyes lit up: “When Tang Pidi discovers we’ve gone southeast, he’ll immediately lead his forces to intercept.”

The Prince of Wu nodded: “Then we feign going to Suzhou, then reverse and cross the Panxing again.”

After saying this, the Prince of Wu closed his eyes to think carefully.

What he had just described was only a rough idea. Now he had to refine it into detail, making it foolproof.

But maneuvering in such a fashion was a thing of extreme difficulty.

He would have to take the Left Martial Guard and thread his way through a combined encirclement of at least five Ning Army forces and no fewer than five hundred thousand troops — twisting and turning, relying purely on movement to shake the Ning forces off, and find a seam to slip through.

This was not fighting. It was not killing. But it was far harder and far more harrowing than open combat.

After more than half an hour, the Prince of Wu finally opened his eyes slowly.

In that half hour, he had turned over every possible route in his head.

“Go arrange the scouts.”

The Prince of Wu looked at Yang Jingyuan: “No need to be too careful about it. Even if the Ning forces discover them, no matter.”

At the same time, at the Ning Army camp.

Li Chi asked Tang Pidi: “In this campaign against the Prince of Wu — did you tell Luo Jing?”

Tang Pidi said: “I hadn’t wanted to tell him. I was afraid that with his hunger for vengeance, he might ruin the larger plan. But then I thought again — if I truly don’t summon him, he’ll harbor resentment for the rest of his life.”

Li Chi nodded: “Right… Luo Jing’s temperament — if you don’t call him here, heaven knows what trouble he’ll cause later.”

He said to Tang Pidi: “Transfer him to my army. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Tang Pidi smiled: “On what grounds to transfer him to your side?”

Li Chi smiled: “Say I’ve been missing him.”

Yu Jiuling said: “Luo Jing has bigger ones.”