Every preparation for Old Tang’s wedding had long since been arranged in full. Over these past two months, Li Chi had poured enormous energy into ensuring that Old Tang’s marriage ceremony would be nothing short of perfect.

He might tolerate unexpected complications at his own wedding — but he would not allow a single thing to go wrong at Old Tang’s.

—

On Changxing Lake in Daxing City.

Li Chi stood in a small black-canopied boat, pointing at the lakeside:

*”The bridal procession will circle half the lake. Shen Shanhu’s family is from Yanzhou, so I chose a garden on the northeast side of the city as the welcoming grounds. It’s called Qing Yuan — the Celebration Garden.”*

He continued pointing out directions as he spoke. Tang Pidi stood quietly beside him, listening without interrupting, a slight smile at the corners of his mouth.

Li Chi kept talking and talking. Tang Pidi listened with eyes curved into a smile.

Then Tang Pidi suddenly asked: *”When are you and Gao Xining getting married?”*

*”Act like a person.”*

Tang Pidi burst into laughter.

He had only said it because seeing Li Chi so earnest was too hard to resist interrupting.

*”Still haven’t gotten past those three old stubborn mules?”* Tang Pidi asked with a grin.

*”My woman isn’t pulling her weight,”* Li Chi replied.

Tang Pidi laughed again.

Li Chi’s train of thought interrupted, he changed the subject: *”Have you been deliberately holding Tang Anchen back a little?”*

Tang Pidi was startled — then nodded. *”Yes. That’s why I didn’t give him the Yuezhou campaign.”*

*”Wasn’t he the most suitable?”*

*”Suitable — but I have my private reasons too.”*

*”The ancients say, when recommending the worthy, one need not avoid one’s own kin—”*

*”He’s my little brother,”* Tang Pidi said simply.

Li Chi gave him a look.

*”In truth, Anchen has accumulated very little battlefield credit that would command widespread respect. If I handed him Yuezhou — a relatively straightforward campaign with enormous merit — the men below would only resent it more.”*

*”So I made a decision on your behalf,”* Li Chi said.

*”What decision?”*

*”News has come from the northwest. The Western Regions people are stirring again. General Tantai sent an urgent military report — this unrest in the Western Regions may be connected to what’s happening in Yongzhou.”*

Tang Pidi understood immediately.

*”Even if Yongzhou conscripts new soldiers and redistributes its forces, they can’t stand against the Ning Army’s blade anytime soon — so Han Fei Bao plans to ally with the Western Regions people.”*

*”So he must die,”* Li Chi said. *”And die badly. He actually dared to plan on inviting western wolves into the pass.”*

*”I suspect Han Fei Bao doesn’t want to step back from the contest for supremacy. He’ll try to return to Shu — so the northwest situation is probably meant to pressure us into splitting our forces.”*

*”So I plan to send Tang Anchen to the northwest.”*

*”But we’re preparing to attack Shu right now. We can’t spare many men for him.”*

*”That is your affair,”* Li Chi said with a grin. *”You’re the Grand Marshal.”*

Tang Pidi smiled wryly. *”But I still feel Anchen shouldn’t bear this burden—”*

*”Act like a person.”*

Tang Pidi let out a helpless sigh. *”I defer to my lord’s command.”*

*”The troops, the tactics, all the preparations — those I leave to you. But since Tang Anchen is my appointed commander, don’t interfere any further.”*

*”Alright, alright, I won’t.”*

*”Once your wedding is done, send him to the northwest. Working with General Tantai, strike hard enough to make a real statement. The northwest wolves still think this is the days of Chu’s chaos — that they can wander in and take whatever they please. If we’re going to fight, fight the kind of battle that keeps the Western Regions from daring to provoke us for thirty years.”*

*”Can’t give him many men, but still need to strike a blow fearsome enough to deter the Western Regions for thirty years…”* Tang Pidi mused. *”For any other commander, it would be inadequate. And I won’t let Tantai go back.”*

For this campaign, if Luo Jing were still alive, he would be the ideal choice — with Tantai Yajing as second, then Tang Anchen. But Tang Pidi would never pull Tantai away from the Shu campaign. The situation in Shu was far more complex than in Yongzhou.

*”Once the northwest is settled,”* Li Chi said, *”I plan to move the capital to Chang’an.”*

*”Abandoning the prosperity of the south to place the capital near the northwest will meet enormous resistance.”*

*”Then I’ll be fierce about it and let them see.”*

Tang Pidi laughed heartily.

*”Why are you so set on the northwest?”*

*”Because wolves lie to the west, and tigers to the north.”*

Li Chi smiled quietly. *”To hold the western wolves and keep the northern tigers — that is no small thing for a man to call his own.”*

*”No small thing…”*

Tang Pidi repeated the phrase, then exhaled long and deep.

Li Chi did not see what flickered in Tang Pidi’s eyes at that moment — something resolute. A choice being made.

*”The battlefield prestige we’ve won is too fleeting,”* Li Chi said, gripping the oar and rowing as he spoke. *”The ones who are walking with their spines straight right now are only the less-than-a-million men in our ranks. A million sounds like a lot — but measured against the hundreds of millions of people across the Central Plains, it is truly not so many.”*

*”Winning the realm is not my primary goal. What I want most is to win the realm while also straightening the spine of every man in the Central Plains — hardening the knees of every great man, drawing out the pride buried in their bones.”*

Li Chi looked far out across the water. After a long silence, he continued: *”When I first met Luo Jing, he said to me: a Daoist cannot save the world…”*

He murmured, almost to himself: *”In an age of chaos, not even a fully enlightened immortal could save the world. True immortals don’t appear in this world — but what the world must have is someone fierce enough. Soldiers are the great instrument of catastrophe. Used well, they become a blade, a shield, a city wall — used well, that great instrument of catastrophe can bring order to chaos.”*

He turned to Tang Pidi: *”That truth, I understood the moment I laid eyes on Luo Jing.”*

*”My teacher and I wandered the counties of Jizhou, scraping a living while helping people, burying the dead — but we could only do so little.”*

*”Actions that deserved reverence were called performance and vanity-seeking. What could my teacher and I do then? Trick those people out of a few taels of silver. And they were tricked — yet they wore smug expressions, as if glory and wealth were right around the corner. How could such people perceive anything deeper?”*

*”But later — when my teacher and Luo Jing crossed paths on the road, those people, seeing soldiers approach, shrank back frantically. They wouldn’t even dare to look.”*

He turned to face Tang Pidi: *”That was the moment I understood.”*

Tang Pidi nodded. *”Though I am a little older than you, and entered the Academy a little sooner — I came to understand this far more than just a little later than you did.”*

Li Chi couldn’t help laughing. *”But what you’ve done surpasses me by far more than just a little.”*

*”You’re saying that the Shu campaign and the Yongzhou campaign — when they’re both done — that still isn’t the end.”*

*”No. It is only the beginning. We’ll spend ten years, with the sharpest possible blade, showing the people of the Central Plains how a man ought to live. Then another hundred years of that same blade, showing those outside the Central Plains: don’t come and provoke us — that is how you live.”*

*”Perhaps,”* Tang Pidi said, *”it won’t take a hundred years.”*

*”So — don’t think I haven’t noticed what you’re thinking. You’re getting married now, and after Shu falls you plan to retire quietly, step by step — you’ve calculated it all very neatly.”*

Tang Pidi smiled. *”Not retiring.”*

*”You’re not deceiving me?”*

*”I’ve always kept my word. Once the Central Plains are unified, I’ll stay and help you train the army — to forge that hundred-year blade.”*

Li Chi smiled too. *”That’s agreed then. No going back on it.”*

Tang Pidi gave a quiet sound of assent.

The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder in the small boat, looking out over Daxing City, which had recovered some measure of its former splendor — and yet neither man’s eyes carried the slightest attachment to it.

Neither of them was the kind of man to fix his gaze on a single magnificent city.

*”Oh, by the way,”* Tang Pidi said, *”though I only just returned, I’ve had no shortage of visitors.”*

*”I know what they want,”* Li Chi said. *”They’ve come to me more than once already.”*

Li Chi had decided not to claim the imperial title for now — which left many of his subordinates anxious. This was not just Li Chi’s own affair; it concerned a million Ning Army soldiers and tens of thousands of civil and military officials across the land.

For Li Chi to proclaim himself Emperor would make their own official titles fully legitimate.

They couldn’t move Li Chi, so they had their hopes pinned on Tang Pidi’s return — everyone knew Li Chi listened to Tang Pidi most, so they wanted Tang Pidi to persuade him.

*”They mean well, all of them.”*

Tang Pidi smiled. *”Yesterday they told me — since Prince Ning is unwilling to ascend the throne right now, perhaps just change the title. Something like… King of the Central Plains…”*

Li Chi burst out laughing.

*”Someone once suggested to me that the title of Prince of Ning was conferred by the Chu Emperor — and since Chu is gone, the title no longer fits. But what connection does my Ning title have to Chu?”*

*”As for those who say the title of Prince of Ning is beneath me — I’d rather they all witness what it looks like the day Prince of Ning becomes Emperor of Ning.”*

*”They did give me gifts, you know,”* Tang Pidi said with a grin. *”Having accepted people’s gifts, I should at least say a few words on their behalf — that’s how I can take the gifts with a clear conscience.”*

*”If people keep sending you gifts over this matter in the future,”* Li Chi said, *”keep taking them. Split me half.”*

*”That won’t do — you get seven parts, I keep three. You take the larger share.”*

*”Why?”*

*”So you’ll feel slightly awkward about giving me grief over it.”*

*”You think I’d feel awkward?”*

*”You would… probably…”*

*”I would?”*

*”You… would, yes…?”*

—

Several days later, Grand Marshal Tang Pidi of the Ning Army was wed in Daxing City.

On that day, the people of Daxing City witnessed what it meant for an entire city to be draped in red.

On that same day, as Prince of Ning Li Chi presided over the Grand Marshal’s wedding, he stood before all gathered and declared:

Today’s wedding is not the wedding of Prince Ning’s Grand Marshal. Today, his Grand Marshal is his elder brother — and today, the Grand Marshal is no longer Grand Marshal. He is *Grand Marshal-King*.

This was something Li Chi had long wanted to do.

To grant Old Tang a royal title.

Everyone had expected Tang Pidi to refuse with great reluctance. No one had anticipated that he would accept it with complete composure.

And then Tang Pidi knelt before Prince Ning and requested to lead the armies — to campaign the following year.

Old Tang understood: what Li Chi wanted to give, he could not refuse.

Old Tang also understood: this was not the moment to refuse.

—