Tang Pidi led the army into White Mountain Gorge. The Black Wu forces could not withstand the Ning army’s fierce assault and withdrew from the White Mountain line.

On the surface, the devastating coverage of the catapult bombardment was certainly terrifying — but from another angle, the Black Wu forces simply had little appetite left to fight to the death.

When their one and a half million troops had marched south, what a commanding, triumphant momentum that had been — what certainty of victory.

Yet in the battle of the Northern Wastes, counting the Tiehu Tribe’s three hundred thousand cavalry, the Black Wu army’s losses had reached a staggering one million men.

Even if the Black Wu Empire was the world’s preeminent power, its dominance still unshakeable — one million soldiers was no small number.

That was not one million sheep, not one million head of cattle — it was one million soldiers capable of fighting on the battlefield.

Even one million sheep, one million head of cattle — that would still be no small loss.

For the Black Wu forces, this defeat could rightly be called a devastating blow to their foundations.

The army defeated, the steppes lost, Kuokediye Lan missing — as these reports filtered back one after another to the Black Wu Empire’s capital, could the Black Wu Khagan really stand up, slam the table, and shout keep fighting, fight on, we must continue?

With the Black Wu Empire’s national strength, they could certainly keep fighting — and the ultimate outcome would almost certainly be the Ning army abandoning its newly seized Northern Wastes and retreating to defend the Yan Mountains line. But at what cost to the Black Wu forces? Fighting back and forth over nothing but the Northern Wastes — had the Black Wu forces never stopped to ask whether the price was worth what they gained?

The Northern Wastes held entirely different significance for the two nations.

For the Black Wu Empire: if this wasteland were truly indispensable, what had they been doing all these years? Why had they never stationed a heavy garrison there? If they truly cared that much about it, the Black Wu Khagan would long since have relocated the Southern Court encampment here.

For Great Ning it was different. Barren as the Northern Wastes were, this was land the Central Plains had once lost. To take it back — that was Great Ning’s national prestige.

Compared to the Northern Wastes, what the Black Wu forces cared about far more was the Outer Steppes. If at all possible, the Black Wu Khagan would far rather redeploy the Black Wu forces along the White Mountain line to retake the Outer Steppes instead.

So when the Ning army secured White Mountain Gorge, the Black Wu forces didn’t even organize a counterattack.

They simply accepted it. Simply let it go.

In their view, fighting to the death with the Ning army over this bitter, frozen White Mountain had truly become unnecessary.

And so in the days that followed, the Ning army’s primary objective was constructing the fortifications at White Mountain Gorge. Great numbers of craftsmen and laborers had been standing by for precisely this — the speed of construction surpassed all expectations.

Among them, the enormous number of Bohai laborers played no small role. It had now been over a year since they left the Bohai Kingdom.

That year — by any measure — had been the finest period of their lives.

Whether the food was good or not, at least they ate their fill with every meal. When winter came there were winter clothes; when summer arrived there were lighter garments.

This kind of life — this was what they had longed for and could not have in the Bohai Kingdom.

After more than a year of shaping, these laborers from the Bohai Kingdom had come to understand one truth: as long as you were willing to work hard, you could live well here.

As for whether any of them would slack off, or harbor secret ill intentions —

Of the eight hundred thousand laborers from the Bohai Kingdom, a number were executed every month. One could call it a deterrent — but those executed were all people who had broken the law, so while one might call it harsh, it was difficult to say it was unjust.

The Ning army had shown the Bohai people through actions, not words: here, if you obeyed and worked hard, you would eat and dress well and live a decent life.

By the end of summer, Li Chi led a portion of the Ning army away from the Northern Wastes. After a brief stop at the frontier pass in the Yan Mountains, he continued on toward Chang’an.

This campaign had begun in the fifth month and lasted until the end of the eighth month — barely four months from start to finish.

Yet the influence this campaign had generated already far surpassed, in its totality, the influence of every battle fought between Central Plains armies and the Black Wu forces across the past several hundred years.

In the past, no matter how long the fighting lasted — and there were times when the Black Wu pressed the border campaign for a year or two — the greatest achievement was simply not losing the frontier pass.

This great victory was, in the truest sense, a genuine reshaping of the world’s strategic balance.

Before withdrawing, Tang Pidi had dispatched sixty thousand Ning soldiers to be stationed on the Outer Steppes. These sixty thousand would live on the steppes for three years. After three years, a second rotation of Ning soldiers would come to relieve them, with rotations every three years thereafter — exactly when those rotations would end, no one could say for certain.

Holding the Outer Steppes meant Great Ning would have an endless supply of warhorses, and the northern frontier cavalry would grow toward the scale Tang Pidi had long dreamed of.

From the time he first took command to the present day when the realm was settled, Tang Pidi had never fulfilled his dream of commanding an iron cavalry one hundred thousand strong.

Once White Mountain Pass was built, Liu Ge — despite his high rank as Grand General — was temporarily stationed in this newly constructed border city, to remain for at least a year and ensure the Black Wu forces would not retake White Mountain Gorge.

In a place like White Mountain Gorge, the Ning army also left behind over ten thousand soldiers, the purpose being to stabilize this hard-won border fortress.

On the march home.

Li Chi shut the carriage door, then gave Gao Xining the now you can look. Gao Xining produced the chicken leg she had hidden away earlier, sat cross-legged, and began gnawing away contentedly…

Li Chi watched her and felt thoroughly happy. His woman — she had shown no serious morning sickness from the pregnancy, and was eating everything with such obvious relish. That truly was cause for celebration.

Li Chi lowered his voice. “Anything else you want?”

Gao Xining: “A jug of wine would be perfect.”

Li Chi: “Do you want me to make it so by decree?”

Gao Xining giggled. “Just teasing — I obviously know that pregnant women can’t drink wine.”

Li Chi: “A little wouldn’t hurt.”

Gao Xining: “Really? Then pour some!”

Li Chi: “See! Look at you!”

Gao Xining: “…”

She let out a sigh. “Awful man. You’d trick even a pregnant woman.”

Li Chi: “And what kind of pregnant woman are you — trick you and you’d actually drink?!”

Gao Xining: “Fine, fine — so this is what it’s come to. The feelings have cooled, and now you set traps just to scold me.”

Li Chi: “…”

He took her hand with tender gentleness and said, “Let’s not rush to announce this condition of yours to the outside world — once we’re back in Chang’an, I’ll make sure to find you a good doctor.”

Gao Xining snorted — and sprayed him.

Li Chi raised his hand and wiped his face, then sighed. “You really do chew quite thoroughly…”

Pfft — Gao Xining sprayed again.

Li Chi wiped his face a second time. “If you want to feed me, just say so.”

Gao Xining attempted a third spray, found she had nothing left in her mouth, and quickly lifted the chicken leg to take another bite.

Li Chi: “No, no, no — can’t we handle things with words? The way you’re behaving is truly excessive. You are now a mother — you must carry yourself with a mother’s dignity.”

Gao Xining chewed with her cheeks puffed out, her eyes fixed on Li Chi — no question, she was taking aim.

Li Chi hurried on: “No more spraying — if I step out of this carriage with bits of chicken all over me and someone asks, ‘Your Majesty, what happened?’ what am I supposed to say? That Her Majesty the Empress sprayed me? Then they’ll wonder — where was the Empress spraying from? I won’t even be able to explain properly, you chew so thoroughly that it doesn’t even look like anything that could have come out of someone’s mouth…”

Pfft!

Gao Xining couldn’t hold it. She truly couldn’t hold it. She sprayed him again.

Li Chi sighed. “Time to change clothes…”

The road back from the northern frontier to Chang’an was reasonably smooth and not especially rough. Gao Xining truly had no great reaction, and didn’t feel much discomfort.

Perhaps it was because all these years following Li Chi through campaigns north and south, she had long grown accustomed to life on the road.

By the time they returned to Chang’an it was early autumn — and the city looked genuinely beautiful.

The ginkgo trees lining both sides of the grand boulevard had already begun to turn, though not yet to that full golden color.

The civil and military officials of the court gathered outside Chang’an to welcome His Majesty the Great Ning Emperor’s return. The assembled officials of the whole court all dropped to their knees at the city gate.

Li Chi stepped out of the carriage, exchanged a few words with them, then returned to the carriage, intending to ride directly to the palace gate before descending.

But to everyone’s surprise, both sides of the great boulevard were filled with citizens who had come to welcome His Majesty and Her Majesty the Empress. The sight of such a vast crowd lining the streets was something Li Chi had never witnessed before.

That feeling of pride — an incomparable, soaring pride — welled up within him.

And so Li Chi decided to walk back to the Weiyang Palace on foot, waving acknowledgment to the people on both sides all the way.

That evening, Li Chi held a banquet in the Weiyang Palace and shared wine with his officials.

It was nearly midnight before the feast ended. Li Chi kept Yan Xiansheng and Director Gao behind in the palace.

“Xiansheng.”

Li Chi looked toward Yan Xiansheng and asked, “How has Xu Ji’s conduct been these past months?”

Yan Xiansheng replied, “He has handled every matter with appropriateness, and has been exceptionally diligent — working through state affairs well past midnight each day, and rising again very early.”

Li Chi nodded. “That is most gratifying.”

Even as those four words were spoken, Yan Xiansheng could hear a certain relaxation in Li Chi’s tone — and something that sounded almost like relief.

“In other respects?”

Li Chi asked again.

Yan Xiansheng fell silent for a moment, as if weighing how to phrase his words.

He looked at Li Chi and said, “Xu Ji seems to be particularly… particularly attentive to how young officials regard him. Of the newly appointed officials, those who visited his residence before departing for their posts encountered no obstacles — but those who did not call upon him, or who called too late, found themselves largely dismissed from their positions…”

Li Chi’s brow shifted almost imperceptibly. He said nothing more.

Yan Xiansheng continued, “Among the officials appointed to positions in the capital, the greatest numbers have been transferred from Yuezhou. The Director and I have quietly examined them — and in terms of ability and record, there was nothing significantly amiss. So we did not intervene.”

Li Chi seemed suddenly to lose interest in anything further regarding Xu Ji’s conduct. He smiled slightly and said, “Let us speak no more of this.”

He walked to one side and poured two cups of tea, then said, “The reason I kept Xiansheng and the Director behind is mainly to speak of something else.”

Li Chi smiled. “For instance… I am going to be a father.”

Li Chi had deliberately not sent anyone ahead to inform them of this, so the moment those words landed, Director Gao shot to his feet.

His eyes were already involuntarily blazing with light.

—