Liu Mu pulled Tan Qianshou aside, lowered his voice: “This young man is a remarkable talent. If he’s really only fourteen — if he can live long enough, he’ll accomplish extraordinary things in the future. If we could find some way to bring him in and keep him on our staff, just thinking about it is something to look forward to.”

Tan Qianshou laughed: “Honestly, what conditions could you and I offer someone of this caliber right now? To make a real comparison, we’re not even a match for his arrangement with Yu Chaozong.”

Liu Mu sighed: “Still — if we just let someone like this go, it would be a terrible waste.”

Tan Qianshou said: “If Dachu were in its prosperous days, someone of this talent ought to be kept at any cost. But right now, you and I shouldn’t stand in the way of this person’s future. He’s eating and drinking well with Yanshan Camp — far better than if he were suffering with us. Knowing Yu Chaozong as we do, a talent like this one — Yu Chaozong will certainly make good use of him.”

Liu Mu said: “Suddenly I find something rather ironic about this. We’re official government generals, and yet we think the better thing for him is to keep being a bandit.”

Tan Qianshou shook his head: “In this world, it’s getting harder and harder to tell who the real bandits are.”

When Liu Mu heard that, something caught in his chest. Think about it — when it came to sucking people’s blood and eating people alive, those well-dressed, sanctimonious great personages in the Dachu court were far more vicious than any mountain bandit or outlaw, and they did it all through methods that appeared perfectly above board.

“Forget it, stop thinking about it. I’ll go have a few words with that young man.”

Liu Mu sauntered over to Li Chi and found him gnawing on a corn bun — part of the rations the common people had sent up. In this bitter cold the buns had long since frozen rock-hard, but Li Chi didn’t seem to mind, alternating bites of bun with sips of water. Liu Mu also noticed an unusual habit when it came to eating: even a crumb that fell onto his clothes, Li Chi would pick up and push back into his mouth. By the time one bun was finished, not a single scrap had been wasted.

Liu Mu watched him, and a pang of sorrow rose in his chest. If Dachu had only been able to employ talent like this, how had things ever come to this pass?

Li Chi finished the bun in his hand and picked up another. This cold, rock-hard thing — he’d already gone through four, and this was the fifth. Noticing Liu Mu staring at him, he shifted sideways to move out of Liu Mu’s line of sight and kept eating, in a way that made it look very much like he was guarding the bun against Liu Mu snatching it.

“Have you thought about joining the military?”

Liu Mu ultimately couldn’t hold the question back.

Li Chi glanced at him: “Fourth-Grade General?”

Liu Mu nodded: “Daizhou Defense General Liu Mu, Fourth Grade military rank.”

When Li Chi finished listening, he shook his head: “Not following you.”

Liu Mu felt something in those three simple words — a complete absence of regard. A dignified Fourth-Grade General, looked down upon by a young mountain bandit. The manner of it suggested that Fourth Grade meant absolutely nothing to him.

“I can keep you under my command as a company commander.”

Liu Mu crouched down beside Li Chi with the most genuine expression he could manage, like a scoundrel dangling a jar of goldfish to lure a child: “With my military rank, I can directly promote up to Fifth Grade General — the process might be a little involved, but giving you a company commander post immediately isn’t a problem. Once there’s enough achievement for the men below to respect it, I can put you in for Fifth Grade.”

Li Chi glanced at him, then turned half a circle so his back was to Liu Mu.

Liu Mu sighed: “Sure, right now you’ve got wine and meat and silver going with Yu Chaozong — but aside from that, what else? After all, it’s a bandit operation. A young man ought to have ambition and aspiration. You’re only fourteen — though I always have the feeling you’re lying to me, I’ll magnanimously believe it — by the time you’re seventeen or eighteen you could be a general. Doesn’t that feel like something worth having?”

Li Chi was still gnawing on his corn bun.

Liu Mu possibly decided his jar of goldfish wasn’t attractive enough, and simply went straight to making grand promises: “I’ll make you my personal troop company commander. In my army, you won’t even be bound by military regulations. Do whatever you like.”

Li Chi sighed and said: “Not following you.”

Still those three words.

Liu Mu pressed on, refusing to give up: “Give me a reason, at least. You must have a reason.”

Li Chi answered: “Your rank is too low. And you’re not well positioned.”

Liu Mu: “You—!”

He stood up and nearly kicked Li Chi, but held himself back, put his smile back on, and said: “You don’t understand me. Within Daizhou I have the final say, and if I have the final say, that’s more or less the same as you having the final say.”

Li Chi said: “Daizhou can hold off the Black Wu. Can it hold off its own people? Your three thousand household troops are all gone. Anyone who casts their eyes on Daizhou in the future won’t even bother recruiting you — they’ll just take it. No soldiers, no officers, no weight. Following you, I’d end up equally sidelined — just thinking about it is unbearable.”

Liu Mu: “…”

He was quiet for a moment, then said: “If you won’t agree, I’ll detain you once this battle is over. Say you’re a rebel leader, take you in for a reward. Even if I don’t claim the reward, I can lock you up and keep you from seeing daylight for years…”

Li Chi kept gnawing on his corn bun and said: “Stop boasting.”

Liu Mu: “Hey, I really will—!”

Li Chi: “You can’t beat me.”

Liu Mu: “…”

Tan Qianshou stood off to the side thoroughly enjoying this. He thought to himself: Liu Mu, oh Liu Mu — you’ve spent half your life making other people’s lives difficult, and now you’re being made to puff and splutter like a goldfish blowing bubbles. It was a pleasure to watch Liu Mu get the worst of it, given how many times Liu Mu had gotten the worst out of him in the past.

“Two Generals.”

Li Chi had eaten his fill, stood up, dusted off his stomach, and addressed them with the air of a thoroughly unqualified salesman: “Any interest in coming to join us at Yanshan Camp as bandits? Mountain-and-water setting, excellent manor house, bandit stipend included — with your status and ability, you’d certainly be leaders of some kind once you got there, far senior to me.”

Liu Mu: “…”

Tan Qianshou asked with genuine curiosity: “What’s your position in Yanshan Camp?”

Li Chi answered: “Purely a friend. No position at all. No wages either — everything I do is volunteer. If you really force me to name a title, I’m probably Yanshan Camp’s Honorary Junior Ruffian.”

Tan Qianshou: “I think you’re stringing me along.”

Li Chi: “You think wrong.”

He looked at the Yanshan Camp brothers around him and asked: “Did I lie? Am I not a friend of Yanshan Camp?”

“Yes!”

Zhuang Wudi’s men all answered at once, every one of them clearly suppressing a grin.

Li Chi said: “There you have it. I’m a probationary bandit.”

Liu Mu and Tan Qianshou stared at each other. The bar for joining a rebel bandit outfit had gotten this high? A young man of this ability, and he was just a probationary… almost-bandit.

At the same time, in Jizhou City.

Military Governor Zeng Ling hurried to stand before Prince Yu and bowed: “Your Highness, urgent report from the border. The Black Wu forces are launching a massive southward push, attacking both Daizhou pass and Xinzhou pass simultaneously. Both passes have sent people to Jizhou asking for relief, saying that without immediate troops the passes may not hold.”

Prince Yu shot to his feet. His first impulse was to immediately divide forces and reinforce both passes — but the words were at his lips and he swallowed them back down.

“This matter… must first be verified.”

Prince Yu said: “Send people to both Xinzhou and Daizhou passes to assess the situation. If the Black Wu really have come south, immediately appeal to Prince Wu for troops, requesting that he deploy to relieve the passes. Then send someone to report to the court and request that the court dispatch soldiers here.”

Zeng Ling was taken aback.

He looked at Prince Yu with an expression of urgent appeal: “Your Highness, if these two border passes are broken by the Black Wu, within ten days the Black Wu army could surround Jizhou. We really should be dividing our forces to go.”

“I know.”

Prince Yu paced as he spoke. “But if we exhaust Jizhou’s army, what do we use afterward to rise? It’s not that I’m unwilling to divide forces — it’s that the troops in our hands right now are simply not many to begin with. The best course is to quickly go request Prince Wu to send soldiers.”

With that, he waved his hand: “I’m a little tired. I’m going to lie down for a while. Consider this matter settled — don’t come to ask me about it again.”

Zeng Ling opened his mouth wanting to argue further, but Prince Yu had already walked away at a measured pace without so much as looking back.

Meanwhile, outside Jizhou, volunteers from every direction making their way to both border passes could be seen on every main road. Dressed in rags, carrying crude weapons like wooden clubs, they moved in clusters of hundreds or in small groups of three or five, marching on foot toward the frontier.

Northwest of Daizhou, a cavalry force of roughly twelve hundred men was pressing forward at speed, having come from Tiger Mouth Pass on the northern edge of Youzhou, already on forced march for several days.

The Fifth-Grade General leading them had a look of urgency on his face, constantly urging the column forward.

Deputy General An Song rubbed his eyes, but couldn’t rub out the sand that had blown into them. His eyes had already been rubbed red. He said to the general ahead of him: “General, going AWOL like this — even if we save Daizhou pass, we might face military tribunal. You only got your promotion as general less than ten days ago. This…”

The general was Xiahou Zuo. He gave a short scoff and said: “Forget all that. Save Daizhou pass first and deal with the rest later. I went to request orders and who knows when those would have been approved — the troops above me report to General Luo of Youzhou, and General Luo would have to deliberate carefully before giving orders, and by then Daizhou pass might already be in Black Wu hands. None of you need to worry — never mind our own general, even General Luo doesn’t dare do anything to me. You know that well enough.”

He wiped the frozen snot from beneath his nose, his manner still as casually careless as ever.

“After all, there aren’t many people as impressively capable as me.”

An Song finally got the sand rubbed out of his eye, breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a laugh: “True enough. Back when you were still a company commander, our general was already sending you gifts on a regular basis…”

Xiahou Zuo sighed: “Same story as when I was in Jizhou — always having to depend on other people’s favor even for pocket money. A hard life.”

An Song: “Ugh!”

—