Within the several dozen *li* surrounding Longtou Pass, there were a dozen or more villages large and small, and most of the people in those villages hadn’t originally been from this area.

Jizhou had seen years of unbroken warfare — especially in the area around Longtou Pass, which had endured multiple large battles. Of the original inhabitants, seven or eight out of ten had been swept away. The people in the villages now were a mix: some who had fled as refugees from elsewhere and settled here, some who had once fought alongside the Ning army as civilian militia and remained afterward.

About twenty-six or twenty-seven *li* from Longtou Pass stood Longshou Mountain, and at its foot lay four or five villages.

In a grove on Longshou Mountain, Master Wu was conferring with his men on military matters.

Two soldiers came running from a distance, a mountain man of around forty following close behind.

“Sir.” The soldiers stopped and bowed. “This elder brother is from the nearby Hao Family Village. He says he has important news to report.”

Master Wu looked at the mountain man. “What’s happened?”

The man said urgently: “People from the village were taken.”

Master Wu asked at once: “When? Do you know who took them?”

The man answered: “I was walking my wife back to her parents’ home — not far from our own village, over at Xishui Village. When we were coming in, I saw several men on horseback riding out of the village with people tied across the horses’ backs. My wife and I have sharp eyes, so we hid behind a wall. They didn’t see us. I told my wife to go into the village and spread the word, and I came straight here to report it.”

Master Wu said, “Which direction did they ride?”

The man pointed: “That way.”

Master Wu was quiet for a moment. “The scouts reported that the Yongzhou army has genuinely reached this area. This must be their men taking villagers to interrogate for information.”

A young general under Master Wu’s command clasped his hands and said: “Sir, let me take some men to have a look.”

Master Wu shook his head. “The Yongzhou army still has tens of thousands of men. They are desperate and at their most dangerous. Taking men over there now won’t rescue the villagers.”

He thought for a moment. “Go tell the Xianjian Battalion to assemble first. As for how to get the people out — I’ll tell you the plan when we get there.”

The young general answered at once and ran off.

Master Wu looked up at the sky. It was nearly dark. If they set out now, by the time they reached where the Yongzhou army was hiding, the night would be fully black.

Master Wu had come from Qingzhou with his forces because Li Chi had sent him a letter some time ago. In it, Li Chi said he suspected the Yongzhou army’s defeated remnants would flee toward Yanzhou.

He asked Master Wu to bring the Qingzhou forces toward Longtou Pass to cooperate with the Longtou Pass garrison and stop Han Feibao’s remnants from getting through.

Li Chi’s meaning was this: Qingzhou too was severely undermanned — after accounting for those who had to remain in garrison across the counties, the forces that could be sent out were extremely limited. So once Master Wu arrived, he should not take the initiative to engage, as the situation was unclear and mistakes too easily made. He only needed to cooperate with the Longtou Pass garrison, hold the chokepoint firmly, and when Tang Pidi’s main force caught up, Han Feibao would be dealt with.

Master Wu had scraped and pooled men from every county of Qingzhou, and managed to assemble a force of fifteen thousand. More than half of those were civilian militia; most of the rest were auxiliary troops; genuine Ning army regulars were very few indeed.

But when Master Wu reached Longtou Pass, he didn’t lead his forces into the pass. He took them into the mountains and hid them.

His thinking was this: he had no way of knowing whether Grand General Tang Pidi’s forces were in pursuit. He had no way of confirming that Han Feibao’s remnants would come to Longtou Pass at all. Going in early would risk giving away their position.

Master Wu, whose grasp of the larger situation was exceptional, had to consider this: if Tang Pidi’s pursuing army never arrived, how could Han Feibao’s forces still be destroyed?

The only chance was to keep his men hidden in the mountains, wait for Han Feibao to launch a fierce attack on Longtou Pass, and then lead his forces out to strike the Yongzhou army’s rear by surprise.

The most capable fighters in this force of under fifteen thousand were those Master Wu had personally trained — the Xianjian Battalion.

Eight hundred men.

The young general Master Wu had appointed to command the Xianjian Battalion was named Su Ou.

This young man was an orphan. In the wars that ravaged Qingzhou, the chaos had actually run deeper than in Jizhou. Because even at its worst, Jizhou had still had the Feathered Prince Yang Jixing, and the Regional Commander Zeng Ling, and the great eunuch Liu Chongxin’s home was in Jizhou.

But Qingzhou had dissolved into chaos early and entirely — at its worst, rebel forces large and small numbered over a thousand. Some declared themselves kings with thirty or fifty men behind them. Some seized a hilltop and declared themselves emperors.

Orphans, bereft elders — there were far too many such people in Qingzhou.

Ten-plus years of chaos, and six or seven out of ten of Qingzhou’s able-bodied men were gone.

By the time Shen Shanhu led the Yanzhou army south and brought Qingzhou to heel in a single sweep, Qingzhou’s total population had fallen by sixty percent from its peak.

And of that sixty percent, the vast majority were men between the ages of fifteen and fifty.

Su Ou’s home was on the Qingzhou coast, the son of fishermen. One year the local bandits came, and with them the Black Barbarian pirates who had long plagued the coast, and the village was struck by catastrophe. Of a village of over a thousand people, only Su Ou and two other children survived.

Master Wu, after taking up his post as Qingzhou Regional Commander, had gone out to survey the people’s conditions across the province. It was during these travels that he found Su Ou and took him in.

In the years since, Su Ou had stayed at Master Wu’s side, learning both the martial arts and the arts of war. His aptitude was exceptional — though barely three years had passed since he began training and study, his progress was so rapid that even Master Wu found it astonishing.

The eight hundred of the Xianjian Battalion had been personally trained by Master Wu to root out the banditry left scattered across Qingzhou. After Shen Shanhu brought Qingzhou into the fold, there were no more large-scale rebel forces — but small bands of brigands were everywhere. Large-scale military campaigns wouldn’t work: there weren’t enough troops, and the brigands would spot them coming and slip away.

These small, mobile bands could only be countered by a force even more mobile, even more ferocious.

The Xianjian Battalion was built, and after two years of training, Master Wu led them personally. In the year that followed, they traveled more than two thousand *li* across Qingzhou, fought over a hundred engagements, and killed in total over ten thousand brigands.

Before the sun had fully set, Su Ou had the eight hundred Xianjian men assembled at the foot of the mountain.

Master Wu came down from the mountain. He called over several scouts and spoke quietly: “Under cover of dark, go to the positions you’ve already reconnoitered and have a look. If the Yongzhou army is still in the same place as before, you don’t need to report back — just wait in position. If the Yongzhou army has moved, return immediately and tell me.”

The scouts acknowledged the order and rode ahead.

Master Wu looked at Su Ou and the eight hundred men of the Xianjian Battalion. He drew a slow breath and said: “Tonight we go to rescue people. To bring back our neighbors from the midst of tens of thousands of enemy soldiers. We don’t know whether those people are still alive. But we must go. Do you know why?”

Su Ou said loudly: “Because we are the Ning army — the Ning Prince’s soldiers. And the Ning Prince has said: the Ning army does not fight for the Ning Prince. The Ning army fights for the people.”

Master Wu nodded. “Each man takes two horses. Follow me. No one moves without my order. When we arrive I will tell you how we fight.”

“*Hu!*”

The eight hundred men of the Xianjian Battalion answered as one, and followed Master Wu as he wheeled his horse. Eight hundred riders fell in behind him.

In the darkness of the night: eight hundred dragons in motion.

—

*In the Yongzhou army camp.*

It wasn’t much of a camp — they had only half a day and a night to rest before attacking Longtou Pass at first light, so nothing like a proper stockade had been built. And in the state they were in, they had nothing decent left to build one with.

Beside several trees, Hutuo of the Black Barbarian Blue Office looked down at the body on the ground, then looked at the boy tied to a tree.

The boy’s upper garment had been torn open. Across his chest, dense and close together, were the welts from whip lashes.

Yet this stubborn, courageous boy had not let slip a single word even now.

His mother lay dead at his feet. The other villagers taken alongside them had been beaten to death as well; their bodies lay nearby.

Hutuo had killed many people in the Blue Office, yet even he could not help but regard this boy with a certain grudging respect.

Though what filled him more was fury. A half-grown child, and Hutuo had come close to running out of moves.

Even as Hutuo had cut into the boy’s mother, stroke by stroke, right in front of the boy’s eyes, the boy had not opened his mouth.

Not because he didn’t love his mother — but because even at his young age he saw clearly, and was too lucid, too rational.

Even if he talked, his mother would still die. And so would he.

“Cut off his ears.”

Hutuo gave the order abruptly.

Two of his subordinates stepped forward. They had been at this for half a day, had beaten five or six villagers to death, and even these men were tired of it.

The two who stepped forward had half a mind to just finish the boy off with a blade and be done with it.

“Wait.”

At that moment, Han Feibao appeared. Yuan Zhen was behind him. Han Feibao’s expression was dark; Yuan Zhen’s was no better.

“You’ve gone too far.”

Han Feibao said it in a voice gone cold.

His soldiers had killed no small number of innocent people, especially in the northwest — he had killed in numbers reaching the hundreds of thousands. But the feeling now was strange. When his men killed common people, he had always told himself he was putting down unruly rabble, so there had never been any discomfort in him.

Yet now — these few villagers, who in his eyes should have been as disposable as weeds, had been killed by Black Barbarian hands.

Even though, somewhere in his heart, he had already quietly accepted the need for Black Barbarian help, he still could not face it calmly.

“My lord.” Yuan Zhen began to speak, but Han Feibao turned on him with fury: “This is what you called *a gentle approach to drawing out information*?”

Yuan Zhen said, “Extraordinary times—”

Han Feibao’s expression grew colder still: “Don’t forget — you are a Black Barbarian!”

Hutuo gave a snort: “We call you lord, and you’ve started thinking you really *are* a lord?”

Yuan Zhen barked: “Hutuo! Hold your tongue!”

Han Feibao pointed at the boy: “Release him.”

Yuan Zhen said, “My lord, if we do that, all our efforts have been wasted.”

Han Feibao was silent a moment. “Then get out of the way. I’ll ask him myself.”

Yuan Zhen looked at Hutuo; Hutuo shook his head at him; Hutuo gave a cold laugh and stepped back.

Just then, the scouts Master Wu had sent crept silently close to the Yongzhou army’s camp.