Liangzhou. The Grand Marshal’s Residence.
Liangzhou’s anchor and pillar, Tantai Qi, had only recently returned from the capital, Chang’an. Now that he was back, the old Grand Marshal was genuinely preparing to set down his burdens.
And the one who would take up those burdens was his only son, Tantai Yajing.
Choosing between the Grand Marshal of the Western Frontier and the Grand Marshal of the Imperial Guard had given Li Chi pause for a long while.
He had genuinely wished to keep Tantai Yajing close by — but weighing the situation on the western frontier, and the weight of the Tantai family’s influence in that region, he had ultimately sent Tantai back west.
This was not solely a matter of the Tantai family’s standing on the frontier. It was also Li Chi’s read on the Western Regions people.
In the words Li Chi had once used when discussing the Western Regions states with Master Yan: *a pack of people always looking for petty advantage — if you don’t make them suffer for it, they’ll never stop. Even if they can’t gain anything, they’ll find ways to make your life difficult.*
When the first letter of credentials and list of gifts from the Western Regions delegation had arrived, it confirmed Li Chi’s assessment of these people entirely.
The nations of the Western Regions shared one common failing: they forgot pain with extraordinary speed.
In plain Central Plains terms — people rotten to the bone with pettiness.
Consider an ordinary person in a dispute where the fault lies clearly with the other party. Whether out of pride or some other reason, if he refuses to admit it, the matter ultimately comes to blows. You beat him soundly. He may still refuse to concede aloud, but he will keep his distance from you afterward. He’ll do his best to avoid you.
The people of these Western Regions small states are different — their reaction is the classic response of the incorrigible.
You beat him soundly and for the moment he backs off in fear. A few days later, he’s already thinking: *you’re not beating me anymore — maybe you’ve used yourself up?* And so he comes around to cause trouble again. You beat him again. He backs off again. A few days after that, the same thought resurfaces: *maybe he really can’t do it anymore.*
Back in the Chu era, Grand Marshal Xu Qulu had bathed the Western Regions in blood, and it had brought the western frontier a period of genuine peace.
But after a few years, these people were already thinking: *what if we gave it another try?*
The most important reason Li Chi had transferred Tantai Yajing back to the western frontier was simple: for fighting in this theater, no one could surpass this father-and-son pair.
Never mind that back in Chang’an, Li Chi had told Master Yan in conversation that if the Western Regions peoples came sincerely to negotiate trade, they could negotiate. Li Chi’s fundamental assessment, which had never changed from the beginning and remained unchanged now, was still the same:
Against the Western Regions people, if you don’t make them hurt, they will never conduct business with you in good faith according to your rules.
Da Ning had just been founded, and the fighting force was at its sharpest. If they didn’t use this moment to wage the wars that needed waging, fighting them later would require far more careful deliberation.
A nation passes through several periods. If Da Ning, right now, looked like a newly founded state with everything still in disarray — Da Ning was still not afraid of fighting.
Not afraid of anyone. Never mind Western Regions people or Bohai people — even if the Black Martial came again, Da Ning would meet them head-on.
But if Da Ning were to enjoy twenty or thirty years of peaceful development and then go to war — that war would truly require deep thought.
Because by that stage, Da Ning would be in the early phase of building its wealth across all fronts. A major war could roll back whatever progress had been made by many years.
Li Chi’s meaning was plain: let him fight the wars that needed to be fought now.
His children could focus on developing Da Ning in peace.
And then Da Ning would enter a third stage — a point where the nation was strong enough that war held no fear at all. Not just in terms of resources and manpower, but in terms of fighting spirit and a people’s confidence in themselves.
When that day came, Da Ning would have ascended to an entirely different height — not *daring to fight when provoked*, but: *even when no one is provoking you, looking for a reason to start one.*
When the Black Martial people swept south, Li Chi had just proclaimed himself Emperor in Chang’an, and had a long conversation with Dean Gao and the others. He had said:
*We fear nothing right now. Fighting these wars now is better than fighting them any time in the next hundred years. If We don’t fight the wars that must be fought, Our descendants will have to fight them. The common people’s descendants will have to fight them. And by the time they fight, it will threaten the very foundations of the state.*
*Right now is different. If We said Da Ning is wealthy — that would be overstating it. If We said Da Ning is prosperous — that too. But if We said Da Ning has strong soldiers and powerful horses — that We can say without reservation.*
*Once We have fought these battles, Da Ning may start from a lower base going forward — but its growth will accelerate. If We spend our energy now trying to build Da Ning’s wealth first, We’ll find ourselves fighting and developing at the same time, forever. That is too slow, and too hard.*
*Fight first. Fight until all four directions do not dare come against us for fifty years. Then those fifty years of development will take flight.*
Before Tantai Yajing returned to Liangzhou, Li Chi had a long conversation with him as well — with Grand Marshal Tantai Qi also present.
On the Emperor’s assessment, old General Tantai Qi was in complete agreement. His read was identical to His Majesty’s.
No one understood the Western Regions people better than the old general. He knew those people were wolves at heart.
This time, with the Western Regions coalition forming a delegation to pay court to Da Ning, Tantai Qi had invited Muyan Mudi into Liangzhou City while ignoring everyone else — a deliberate statement of intent.
First: to signal to the Western Regions peoples that if you genuinely wished to do business — as Jialou did — Da Ning would treat you as a friend in return, with equal sincerity.
Jialou was the model: genuine goodwill would be met with genuine goodwill from Da Ning.
In the Grand Marshal’s Residence in Liangzhou, Tantai Qi and Tantai Yajing were having dinner together with Muyan Mudi.
“His Majesty’s meaning is this,” Tantai Yajing said, looking at Muyan Mudi. “Jialou’s Emperor is sincere, and so Da Ning will be sincere in return. So if Your Highness the Prince is willing to set out for Chang’an now, We will arrange a guide to escort your party to Chang’an within Da Ning’s proper procedures and customs.”
Muyan Mudi’s eyes lit up at once.
He was not a fool — if he were, he would never have advised his elder brother the Emperor Leye Kuxin to abandon all thought of military expansion. He understood perfectly well the implications of this preferential treatment.
Da Ning was looking to cultivate a model nation in the Western Regions — one that others would look to as an example.
Right now, that nation was Jialou.
From this arrangement, Jialou would receive the most favorable treatment from Da Ning across the board. Whatever Da Ning wished to sell — whatever Da Ning needed to buy from the Western Regions — Jialou would get first consideration.
And precisely because of that — Jialou would become a thorn in the side of every other Western Regions state.
Muyan Mudi possessed extraordinary military ability, exceptional martial skill, and a remarkably forward-thinking mind.
At this moment he had to make a choice: align himself with Da Ning, or bind himself to the rest of the Western Regions states.
The light shining in his eyes at this moment already spoke clearly enough to his decision.
Muyan Mudi rose to his feet, adopted the Central Plains form of greeting, and clasped his hands toward Tantai Qi and Tantai Yajing in a bow.
“Many thanks to the two Grand Marshals, and many thanks to Da Ning’s Emperor. If His Majesty truly allows us to proceed to Chang’an ahead of the others — my gratitude would be immeasurable. I find myself wanting to set out first thing tomorrow morning.”
Tantai Qi smiled. “If you want to set out tomorrow morning, that is no difficult thing to arrange.”
Muyan Mudi clasped his hands again. “Many thanks to the Grand Marshal. This truly is the best possible news. I will go back and tell my people at once.”
Tantai Qi smiled. “These are all minor matters — easy enough to see to.”
He raised his cup and drank with Muyan Mudi, then, as if idly, asked: “I hear that many are displeased because I invited you to stay within Liangzhou City?”
Muyan Mudi smiled. “The Grand Marshal does not care about their displeasure, and I do not care about them either.”
Tantai Qi nodded. “I certainly don’t care. And you need not care either. But if some of them truly become bothersome enough to be irritating — then I find myself caring a little.”
Muyan Mudi caught the faint edge of killing intent in these words.
A man like Tantai Qi — who had held the line in Liangzhou for years, whose Liangzhou Iron Cavalry alone had kept the Western Regions nations in terror for decades — when a man like this led his troops into battle even outnumbered and unsupported, he had still left the Western Regions coalition in humiliating rout.
Now, with a new empire at his back and Da Ning’s Emperor deploying heavy forces on the western frontier — Tantai Qi had even more solid ground beneath his feet.
At their level, even casual dinner conversation carried little room for idle words.
From Tantai Qi’s remarks, Muyan Mudi instantly read the meaning: the old general was selecting someone to make an example of.
An operation on this scale would require the Ning Emperor’s sanction — without it, even a Grand Marshal should think carefully before moving.
After a moment’s thought, Muyan Mudi said: “Some people are indeed deeply disagreeable.”
Tantai Qi smiled and asked: “It seems Your Highness also has someone you dislike.”
Muyan Mudi smiled. “Of course. Perhaps even the same person the Grand Marshal dislikes.”
Tantai Qi said: “Drinking like this at this hour, without a game to play, the dry drinking is getting a little dull. How about this: Your Highness writes down the person you dislike, I’ll write down mine. You just said they might be the same — let’s make that our wager. If it’s the same person, I drink three cups. If not, Your Highness drinks three.”
“Done!”
Muyan Mudi laughed. “Now this is more interesting. Grand Marshal, have someone bring brush and paper.”
The two waited for brush and paper to arrive, each wrote a line, then looked at each other — and both began to smile simultaneously.
Tantai Qi said: “Set them face up on the table together, then?”
Muyan Mudi agreed, and the two slapped their written papers onto the table at the same moment.
Muyan Mudi’s Central Plains speech was passable, but his written characters were poor, so his had been written in the Jialou script — a fairly long line of characters.
Grand Marshal Tantai Qi’s was simpler: three characters.
But the long line in Jialou script, translated, also amounted to three characters.
*Xiaoyueshi.*
In the Western Regions, the only state with the standing to even attempt a challenge to Jialou was Xiaoyueshi.
Da Ning was the undisputed hegemon of the Central Plains; Jialou could be called the hegemon of the Western Regions.
When two first-powers decided to settle a score, the one who suffered was always the second-power.
The difference between first and second: outside the walls of Liangzhou, the one playing second was rallying a crowd of people around a fire.
*What if we had a go at the first-power?*
The crowd looked excited — taking on the first-power did seem like an exciting proposition — yet every one of them was harboring their own private calculations.
Meanwhile, when two first-powers sat down together and said: *what if we had a go at the second-power?*
The answer was, naturally — *then let’s.*