Xiahou Zuo seemed unchanged — still that same perpetually loose and careless manner. But it was precisely because he was still the same as ever that he had come, bringing his entire company of troops without waiting for official orders to authorize it.

Not everyone remains unchanged by circumstances — because not everyone has the kind of impressively capable standing to remain unchanged.

This was the sort of thing only Xiahou Zuo could do. Anyone else would never have had the nerve.

What Xiahou Zuo hadn’t anticipated was that he would run into Li Chi at Daizhou pass. So when he spotted Li Chi, he first rubbed his eyes, then couldn’t help measuring Li Chi’s height.

“I’ve been away over a year and you’ve been secretly eating dung behind the Daoist’s back?”

Xiahou Zuo knocked Li Chi on the head. Li Chi flinched, neck pulling in — in the old days when Xiahou Zuo knocked his head he didn’t have to lift his hand nearly this high. It had only been a little over a year, but Li Chi was already almost as tall as Xiahou Zuo.

Li Chi smiled and said: “Eating dung makes you grow taller?”

Xiahou Zuo said: “Robust and vigorous.”

Li Chi burst out laughing, and the two of them held each other’s gaze for a long moment, then pulled each other into a bear hug.

Xiahou Zuo stepped back two paces and looked Li Chi up and down. How old was this kid — already a rather tall and imposing young man. After a few looks, Xiahou Zuo thumped Li Chi on the chest. The feel of it was not bad.

“Decent chest muscles.”

Li Chi said: “Robust.”

Xiahou Zuo asked: “How’s my mother doing?”

Li Chi answered: “Fine, just misses you.”

Xiahou Zuo was taken aback. He slowly let out a breath. “After a little more time passes, if things quiet down battle-wise, I’ll tell the general I want to head back to Jizhou to see her. But you lot have to help me keep up the cover story — say I’ve come back from the capital.”

Li Chi sighed: “You fool — do you really think she doesn’t know what you’ve been up to? She simply doesn’t want to stop you too forcefully and make things hard for you. But if you told her outright, she’d outright forbid you to go. You play dumb and act as if she doesn’t know, so she plays along and acts as though she really doesn’t.”

Xiahou Zuo was quiet for a good while, then nodded: “True — my mother is too sharp. Nothing gets past her… By the way, why in the hell are you on this battlefield?!”

Li Chi said: “What if I said it was sheer coincidence that I ran into you here?”

Xiahou Zuo: “What do you think?”

Li Chi then gave a full account of how he had sent Zhuang Wudi back to Yanshan Camp and then made his way to Daizhou. When Xiahou Zuo heard that Li Chi had used nothing but a bluff to drive off the Black Wu vanguard, he stared at Li Chi in disbelief, thinking: eating dung doesn’t just make you grow tall, it makes you grow brains?

Li Chi asked: “What are you staring at?”

Xiahou Zuo leaned close to Li Chi and sniffed at his head, then nodded: “Sure enough. Dung-fragrant.”

Li Chi said: “Have your tastes gotten this refined since you’ve been up here at the northern frontier?”

Xiahou Zuo raised a hand; Li Chi immediately stepped back. But this time Xiahou Zuo didn’t bring it down — instead he reached out and hooked his arm around Li Chi’s neck, pulling him back in, and walked on with their shoulders touching.

“You little runt. Getting a bit full of yourself, aren’t you.”

Li Chi said: “More or less, I suppose.”

The two of them had just started up toward the wall when they heard someone behind them call out the name “Li Dui” — though Xiahou Zuo had been away over a year, he knew perfectly well that anyone who could call out “Li Dui” like that was definitely trouble — at the very least the same kind of trouble as Li Chi.

He turned around, and sure enough there was Yu Jiuling trotting up after them — and it had to be said, this fellow could really run. In a moment he was right beside Li Chi and Xiahou Zuo.

Li Chi looked at Yu Jiuling and asked: “Ni’er, how did you end up here?”

Yu Jiuling was panting hard, and the clothes he was wearing looked as though someone had dumped half a cartload of dirt over them — dirt was falling off him with every step, and his hair had so much earth in it that a shake of his head would have raised a sandstorm.

Yu Jiuling looked at Li Chi, his eyes full of aggrievement.

“I got here early. After you headed back, I ran flat out to Qianlie County, handed the Divine Eagle and Gouzi over to the Daoist along with the carriage — didn’t dare say what was really happening. Just said that you’d heard Xiahou Zuo was at Daizhou and gone over to see him — and who would have thought Xiahou Gongzi would actually be here… I had them both head back to Jizhou, and if they happened to run into Gao Xining on the way, to pass word to her that…”

Li Chi: “Ahem, ahem…”

Yu Jiuling caught himself and continued: “Then I came straight here on the road. Barring any trouble, I should have caught up with you the same day you arrived. You know how fast I can run.”

Li Chi: “What went wrong?”

Yu Jiuling said: “I… got lost.”

Xiahou Zuo’s eyes went wide: “You’re a fully grown adult. And it’s not like you’ve never left home before — you’ve made the trip to the capital and back on your own without any trouble. From Xinzhou to Daizhou is barely any distance at all. How did you get lost?”

Yu Jiuling’s face crumpled miserably: “It was all because of one little brat… I was terrified the whole way of going in the wrong direction, so I figured I’d ask anyone I met along the road. But I ran dozens of li before I came across anyone at all — just a small kid gathering firewood. I asked him if he knew the way to Daizhou, and the little brat pointed me the wrong way. That one detour cost me at least three hundred extra li…”

Xiahou Zuo said: “There are kids that awful?”

Yu Jiuling said: “Absolutely awful. All I did was ask him one question. ‘Hey, you little brat, do you know the way to Daizhou? Tell your grandpa…’ “

Xiahou Zuo’s mouth twitched and he said: “If I were that kid, I’d have pointed you all the way to the outer reaches beyond the border and left you wandering the northern steppe for the rest of your life… Who do you have to blame?”

Yu Jiuling said: “Never again can I just trust a random child’s directions. Who the hell said children don’t lie… I’m exhausted.”

Li Chi pointed at all the dirt on Yu Jiuling: “And what happened to all this?”

Yu Jiuling said: “Don’t even mention it. There are hardly any people out this way in the northern frontier — villages are mostly destroyed. I walked at least another hundred li before I found anyone, found out I’d been going the wrong way, turned back around, and then ran into a dust storm. Endless yellow dust everywhere, and I got lost all over again.”

Li Chi said: “With everything you’ve been through these past few days, I could tell the story at Yunzhai Teahouse for three days straight.”

Yu Jiuling’s expression was thoroughly wretched. He never in a million years would have imagined being tricked that badly by a little kid.

Li Chi suddenly lowered his voice and said: “But did you ever think about why, in a place with barely a soul in sight, you ran into a kid?”

Yu Jiuling thought carefully about it, and then a chill went crawling up his back.

His face went pale with fright: “Don’t try to scare me — I don’t believe in any of that supernatural business…”

Li Chi smiled and said: “You’ve misunderstood me. What I mean is — running into a child in the middle of nowhere who points you in a direction, that’s just the universe sending you your rightful payback…”

Li Chi hadn’t expected to run into Xiahou Zuo at Daizhou, and Xiahou Zuo certainly hadn’t expected it either. The three of them talked and walked together up to the wall, then went to meet Liu Mu and Tan Qianshou.

Though the Black Wu vanguard had temporarily withdrawn, everyone understood clearly that it wouldn’t be long before the Black Wu army came again, and when they came next, the fighting would be far more brutal than anything that had come before.

Black Wu Khan Emperor Kuokedi Dashi had arrived. He would never allow his great army to return without accomplishment. For hundreds of years, from the founding of Black Wu onward, the empire had set its heart on swallowing the Central Plains’ splendid territory. Black Wu southward campaigns had never stopped — there was war every year, and every few years a great war.

When Dachu had still been strong, along with the support of the grassland tribes’ cavalry, it had always managed to hold. But Dachu now was riddled with the wounds of internal strife — from the Black Wu perspective, this truly was the best opportunity there had ever been.

Xiahou Zuo walked and asked Yu Jiuling: “Do you know what Li Chi’s been eating this past year or more? How has he grown so fast?”

Yu Jiuling answered without a moment’s hesitation: “Dung. Every fragrant variety of dung there is.”

Li Chi squinted over at Xiahou Zuo, then squinted over at Yu Jiuling.

After the three of them had met with Liu Mu and Tan Qianshou and discussed the situation, though the outlook around Daizhou pass was grim, the Black Wu had withdrawn for now, and there should be no fighting for the next few days. If Xiahou Zuo was willing to make a run, he could go and reinforce Xinzhou pass.

Xiahou Zuo had come specifically to fight the Black Wu, so of course he had no objection. The only regret was that he had barely been reunited with Li Chi and would have to part again so soon. In the midst of a great battle, swords and blades have no eyes — and even though no one said it outright, everyone understood clearly that each parting might be the last.

But just as Xiahou Zuo was preparing to set out for Xinzhou, Zhuang Wudi came back.

Zhuang Wudi hadn’t expected that Brother Yu would actually agree to send troops to help hold Xinzhou. And precisely because Brother Yu had personally led troops there himself, Zhuang Wudi felt a rather complicated feeling in his heart.

When they had set out, Yu Chaozong hadn’t come. At the time Zhuang Wudi had thought: the stronghold really does have so much that needs Big Brother’s attention — how could he possibly just leave on a whim? But then Zhuang Wudi passed on every word of what Li Chi had said, and Big Brother hadn’t hesitated much at all before personally leading troops to Xinzhou pass.

What Li Chi had said at the time was: Tell Brother Yu — if you want to accomplish great things, you must first win the hearts of the people. If you can resist the Black Wu invasion, you will naturally earn the love and trust of the common people, and in the future more and more people will stand behind you. Furthermore, once Yanshan Camp secures Xinzhou pass, you will have the means to advance or retreat as you choose. Even if real trouble comes later, you can exit through Xinzhou and move into the grasslands — that’s having a contingency prepared.

Because of those few words, Yu Chaozong had personally led his forces out.

And so Zhuang Wudi understood clearly: Big Brother’s heart was set on becoming Emperor.

—