Xue Fútu camp.

Gao Zhen stood on the wooden walls and looked out in every direction. The Hei Wu showed no immediate intent to attack — they were already constructing field works, digging trenches around the camp perimeter, clearly to prevent any breakout by the Ning force inside.

Their plan was to seal the Ning soldiers in so completely that escape became impossible — while occasionally letting a few “messengers” slip through, to draw more and more Ning forces into this position and force a decisive battle here.

Watching the enemy finish their encirclement, Gao Zhen pushed down his earlier impulse to break out immediately.

The Emperor and the Grand General had both told him: fight however you see fit and leave the rest to us. But Gao Zhen was no longer the simple, headstrong man he used to be. He had learned to think.

Looking at the enemy, the word *containment* came to him.

As long as he stayed put, the enemy wouldn’t push the assault hard — which meant he was pinning down at least fifty thousand Hei Wu soldiers.

And for the Hei Wu to execute their overall strategy, the Xue Fútu camp had to be the anchor. Every tactical arrangement they had built was based on this one premise.

Looking at it that way, it seemed as though *his* staying — not breaking out — was actually more beneficial to the Hei Wu. They were getting exactly what they wanted.

But dig another layer deeper, and the formation the Hei Wu had built was a dead formation. To prevent Gao Zhen’s unit from punching through, they needed a minimum of fifty thousand long-term in position around this spot. If he actually tried to break out, that number might balloon to a hundred thousand.

The Hei Wu had laid what looked like a perfect net, with no visible weakness — except the center of that net wasn’t their own people. The center was Gao Zhen’s Ning force.

Fang Biechen walked over and said quietly, “What is the General thinking?”

Gao Zhen looked at him and smiled. “Are you afraid?”

Fang Biechen shook his head. “I thought I would be. But now that we’re actually here, I don’t feel it at all.”

Gao Zhen said, “Look at those Hei Wu soldiers out there.” He swept his hand in a wide arc.

“Because of our ten thousand men, they have to keep at least fifty to a hundred thousand tied down right here and unable to move freely.”

Fang Biechen said, “Right. As long as they want to lure the Grand General, the one condition is that we stay put.”

Gao Zhen said, “With the Grand General’s ability to read a battle, he’ll make full use of exactly this weakness.”

Fang Biechen said, “A hundred thousand of their soldiers tied down by ours before the real fighting even starts — that’s practically a ten-for-one trade already.”

Gao Zhen smiled. “I’m not clever enough to guess how the Grand General will play this — but I’m certain that wherever the Hei Wu feel most confident right now, that’s exactly where the Grand General will hit them hardest.”

Fang Biechen said, “Let’s just watch. We’re not going anywhere.”

Gao Zhen made a sound of agreement. “Not going anywhere. We watch.”

—

Hei Wu main camp.

When Kuòkědí Yèlán heard that the encirclement of the Ning army was complete, he laughed.

“This battle is more than half won.”

He paced his command tent and addressed his assembled generals: “All units keep a close watch on the Ning force’s movements. Proceed according to plan.”

He stopped before the map — the one hanging on the side of his tent, drawn from intelligence provided by Xue Fútu.

“Remember,” he said, pointing at the map. “Do not engage the incoming Ning relief forces too aggressively. Draw them in, a little at a time. Right now only one Ning unit is trapped, and that alone is not enough to make them desperate.”

“Central Plains people have a saying — *a brave man cuts off his own hand when it is caught in a trap.* If we strike the relief forces too heavily and inflict serious losses, they may simply abandon the rescue attempt.”

“One Ning force is trapped now. Draw the next ones in, and we’ll trap a second and a third.”

He turned to face his generals. “Once more than fifty thousand Ning soldiers are enclosed, this battle will be beyond Tang Pídí’s ability to undo.”

At that moment, a rider came hard from outside and threw himself off his horse at the tent entrance, dropping to one knee. “Your Highness — a report from the front!”

Kuòkědí Yèlán said, “Speak.”

The soldier announced loudly: “Forward scouts report: approximately two hundred li south of the Xue Fútu camp, a dragon banner has been spotted.”

“A dragon banner?”

Kuòkědí Yèlán’s expression shifted. Then, in the space of a breath, a light blazed up in his eyes — like a detonation.

“Ning’s Emperor Lǐ Chì has come out in person?”

His voice was trembling slightly. He hadn’t noticed.

Before this battle, the most glorious victory he’d imagined was the total destruction of every Ning soldier Tang Pídí had brought to the northern wastes.

Now he saw something greater still within reach.

The Central Plains had barely emerged from years of civil war. The Ning Kingdom had just replaced the Chǔ Kingdom as the new hegemon of the realm.

If Lǐ Chì could be killed in this battle, then this newly founded empire would collapse overnight.

With the Ning Emperor dead, the Central Plains would descend into civil war again almost immediately — and there could be no greater windfall for the Hei Wu Empire.

“Send more riders to confirm!”

Kuòkědí Yèlán barked the order, then held up a hand: “Wait—”

He turned to his general Lóng Lí: “Go yourself. If the Ning Emperor is truly there, return at once.”

“Yes!”

Lóng Lí spun on his heel and was gone.

“Ha…” Kuòkědí Yèlán exhaled long and slow, then broke into a grin. “Gentlemen — if we can kill the Ning Emperor today, what do you think the Great Khan will give us? I expect he’ll throw open the imperial treasury and tell us to help ourselves!”

The tent erupted in laughter.

—

Meanwhile, in the Ning army.

Standing on elevated ground, Tang Pídí raised his spyglass northward. The Xue Fútu camp was still too far — the full extent of the Hei Wu deployment was not yet visible.

But even from here he could see Hei Wu roving cavalry appearing at intervals, and these were not merely scouts — they were formed units of light horse.

That alone said something about how badly Kuòkědí Yèlán wanted a decisive engagement on these wastes.

He lowered the spyglass and turned to face his Ning generals.

“This fight against the Hei Wu is the hardest battle any of us has ever had to fight.”

He began to pace slowly as he spoke. “I know you are all proud. All of you are confident — because not one of you has lost a battle in the past several years.”

“In the Central Plains, no one can match us. Just hearing our names is enough to make enemies afraid.”

“But!” He pointed north. “The Hei Wu are not afraid of us. Their confidence when facing Central Plains soldiers is exactly the same confidence we once had when facing any other enemy.”

“Their confidence is not arrogance — they will not underestimate us. They will bring every advantage they have and hit us with full force.”

“That is what makes this enemy so hard to defeat.”

He stopped and breathed slowly for a moment.

These generals had not seen such gravity on Tang Pídí’s face in a very long time. Some of them had never seen it at all.

They had all won too much, too easily — and as Tang Pídí had said, that had made them too proud.

“If…” he continued, “if we defeat the Hei Wu — not behind city walls, but in open battle — then we will have earned the right to be truly proud. Then, when you are old, you can tell your grandchildren without restraint how you made the Hei Wu weep.”

He said, “Have I ever talked this much before a battle?”

One general answered: “No, Grand General. You usually said about one thing. You’d say: *go do it.*”

The crowd laughed.

Tang Pídí also smiled, and then continued: “So now I’ve said all these words instead. Do you understand what I mean?”

“We do!”

“The Hei Wu are not easy opponents.”

“This battle requires everything we have.”

The answers came in from every direction. Tang Pídí nodded along.

Then he lifted his hand and pointed north again: “So this time, I will fight the Hei Wu with a strategy that looks, from the outside, like guaranteed defeat.”

When those words left his mouth, even his expression grew heavier.

“I have never used a strategy like this. Not even when I was fighting the decisive battle against Prince Yang Jìjù. I wouldn’t have considered it.”

“But our enemy is too powerful. In numbers, in logistics, in the fighting ability of individual soldiers — they are superior to us in every measure.”

“This is the only gamble I have. And it is the only chance — the one and only chance — at winning.”

He held up a single finger: “One.”

“Grand General, give the order!”

“Grand General, give the word!”

“Whatever you want, Grand General — just say it, and we’ll spend our lives on it.”

Tang Pídí raised his hand and pressed it down slowly. The voices fell silent.

He let out a slow breath and went on: “Before I came here, I spoke with His Majesty for some time. I told him that in the early stages, this battle might look ugly. Difficult. Humiliating — there may even be moments of disgrace.”

He paused and looked at them. “What do you think His Majesty said to me?”

No one answered. Every eye was on Tang Pídí, waiting.

“Go do it.”

Tang Pídí’s voice rose. “That was all His Majesty said — just those three words. Like what I used to say to you. Do you know why His Majesty said only three words?”

He raised his right arm high: “Because His Majesty trusts us!”

“*Huh!*”

“*Huh!*”

“*Huh!*”

The northern wastes felt, perhaps for the first time, the full force of the Ning generals’ will to fight.

“As I’ve arranged for each of you.”

Tang Pídí thrust a finger north: “Go do it.”

—