Tang Pidi had wheeled around and cut back into the enemy alone, shooting more than twenty Black Wu pursuers from the saddle before his quiver ran empty. He then urged his horse back to the front of the column. Fortunately, Li Chi had already opened the gate on the Daizhou side, so there was no longer any fear of being surrounded and trapped by the Black Wu.

But when the Black Wu cavalry saw that the crack archer had returned to the front of the column, they immediately went into a frenzy again, driving their horses hard in pursuit. The gap between them closed rapidly. Steppe horses had tremendous endurance and excelled at long-distance running, but the Black Wu warhorses had a stronger burst of speed over shorter distances.

The Black Wu cavalry were firing arrows without cease at the backs of the steppe riders. All the steppe riders flattened themselves against their horses’ necks, arrows hissing past them — yet even so, people kept getting shot from their saddles.

“Give me your quiver.”

Tang Pidi reached out a hand toward Zhebei. Zhebei immediately pulled the quiver off his horse and tossed it over. Tang Pidi took it and went back to the rear of the column, returning fire without pause.

His archery was ferocious. Nearly every arrow struck a Black Wu soldier in the throat — one hit, one kill.

But the Black Wu were simply too numerous. Their arrows came in overwhelming volleys. Tang Pidi could not hold out much longer. When he could see the nearest Black Wu riders were barely seven or eight zhang away, and his arrows were spent a second time, he slung the bow onto his back, drew his long saber, and bellowed, “All of you keep charging forward — I’ll cover the rear!”

The words had barely left his mouth when Zhebei was already at his side.

“You’re my brother. How can I let you hold the rear alone? Men of the steppe do not abandon their brothers.”

Zhebei and Tang Pidi held the rear of the column together, cutting down every Black Wu rider who came up to them — but given how many Black Wu cavalry there were, no matter how many they killed it amounted to nothing. They were on the verge of being swallowed up by the Black Wu mass when a Dachu cavalry unit came slicing in from the flank like a blade falling.

Black armor. Black helmets with red tassels streaming from the top. They swung straight Dachu sabers in sweeping cuts, driving clean through the leading edge of the Black Wu pursuit and severing the vanguard from the body behind it.

“You go — I’ve got this!”

Li Chi shouted toward Tang Pidi, and caught only a glimpse of the person — someone who looked faintly familiar.

He led his three hundred Dachu elite cavalry in a lateral strike that sliced the Black Wu column apart, then swung around in a half-circle and charged back through. The Black Wu immediately peeled off a contingent to cut them off. Li Chi turned and shouted to the cavalry behind him, “Just stay on my heels!”

He put himself at the tip of the spear. The cavalry behind him had no choice now but to trust him — if they were encircled by the Black Wu mass, it would be total annihilation.

Tang Pidi looked back for a moment and felt that the young man also looked familiar somehow.

Li Chi led with his long saber. His three-hundred-man cavalry was a blade, and he was its point. Ignoring the Black Wu trying to cut him off from behind, he drove straight back into the heart of the Black Wu formation. Once again his column sliced through the long dragon of Black Wu riders.

Tang Pidi watched the man lead his unit through the Black Wu formation twice, and his eyes went wide. He was immediately seized with excitement. He wheeled his horse around and plunged back in — the steppe riders’ horsemanship was unmatched under heaven, it was pure instinct — and over a hundred riders followed Tang Pidi straight back into the fray.

On the left, Li Chi’s cavalry. On the right, Tang Pidi’s cavalry. The two columns wove in and out, punching through the Black Wu formation repeatedly like two needles drawing a single thread back and forth through a wound. The Black Wu cavalry numbered in the several thousands, yet their formation was completely shattered by these few hundred men weaving through them.

“Let’s go!”

Li Chi shouted across to Tang Pidi’s side, then led his column cutting out to the left. Tang Pidi understood instinctively, broke his column to the right. The Black Wu, out of instinct, split into two groups to pursue them — and then Li Chi and Tang Pidi’s columns looped around, reunited, and came charging together straight at the city gates.

In no time at all, the column came roaring through the gate. Up on the wall, Xiahou Zuo’s heart had been in his throat. He had never imagined Li Chi would be brazen enough to ride out with three hundred men and launch a direct assault.

If Xiahou Zuo hadn’t seen it coming, the Black Wu certainly hadn’t. In their experience, open-field engagement was their absolute domain — no opponent had ever matched them, let alone an enemy with roughly one-tenth their numbers.

Yet the two men leading those troops were simply not normal people.

After the two of them led their columns in repeated penetrating strikes, the Black Wu cavalry formation was thrown into total chaos. With numbers this great, movement and command became nearly impossible. Cut apart again and again, the forces at the rear had no idea what orders their commanders at the front had given.

Once Li Chi’s column was back through the gates, Xiahou Zuo immediately gave the order — arrows loosed from the wall in a torrent, a wall of projectiles that mowed down a layer of Black Wu riders. The Black Wu cavalry reined in frantically, the formation grinding to a halt outside arrow range.

The gates slammed shut. The Dachu soldiers guarding the gate were drenched in cold sweat, every one of them.

Li Chi pulled up inside the city and turned to look at the familiar-seeming young man. “Incredible — what skill!”

Tang Pidi looked him over carefully, and his expression suddenly changed completely. “Young Master Li?”

Li Chi could see the person recognized him, but however hard he looked, he could only feel a vague sense of familiarity — he simply couldn’t place who this was. And no wonder: Tang Pidi had been living rough in the open country for so many days that his face was caked with dust and grime, his clothes in the same state. On top of that, the two of them had been separated for more than a year and had only met once — it was perfectly understandable not to recognize him.

“It’s me — Tang Pidi!”

Tang Pidi said loudly, “We met in Tang County!”

Li Chi’s memory snapped into place. He burst out laughing. “I never would have imagined it was you — of all people! Ha ha ha ha, I truly could never have expected to meet you again here, of all places!”

Tang Pidi leapt down from his horse and strode forward to bow deeply before Li Chi. “My benefactor!”

Li Chi was startled and quickly reached out to pull Tang Pidi up. “Don’t — don’t do that — this makes me very uncomfortable.”

Tang Pidi turned back to Zhebei and said, “Zhebei, this is the Young Master Li I told you about — the one with the surname Li that we met in Tang County when we were leaving the Central Plains.”

Zhebei immediately placed one hand across his chest and gave a slight bow. “Zhebei greets Young Master Li. Tang Pi is my brother. His benefactor is my benefactor as well.”

He thought back to Tang Pidi’s bow a moment ago, and reached down to part his robe. “Then I suppose I should kowtow too.”

A thud — Li Chi dropped to his knees first. “No!”

Zhebei had bent his knees halfway. He paused there with bent legs and looked at Li Chi. Li Chi was kneeling in front of him, so Zhebei hastily dropped all the way down too. The two of them knelt there staring at each other, and for a while neither knew what to say.

Up on the city wall, Yu Jiuling leaned against the parapet, rubbed his nose, and said, “Well, this is a bit awkward.”

Mister Yan looked at Daoist Changmei and said, “Li Chi’s momentary foolishness — he must have learned that from you.”

Daoist Changmei thought: all the good things, how come you never say he learned those from me?

Tang Pidi saw the two of them kneeling facing each other and thought it didn’t look right to just stand there, so he knelt down too. Now three people were kneeling in a triangle, and the triangle was actually quite even.

Up on the wall, Xiahou Zuo wanted to bury his face in his hands. Li Chi, he thought, how can you be such an absolute idiot?

And to make matters worse, when those steppe riders saw Zhebei kneel down, they all followed and knelt too. The scene was genuinely unusual. Xiahou Zuo’s deputy general Ansong looked at the sight and wondered if he’d seem disrespectful for not kneeling along with them — but he decided he’d rather just stay standing, since kneeling for no good reason would make him look rather foolish.

An hour later, Tang Pidi had finished recounting what had happened after he left Tang County and went to the steppe, along with a general picture of the current situation among the steppe tribes.

“You can’t entirely blame the steppe tribes for not daring to resist the Black Wu.”

Tang Pidi looked at Li Chi and said, “They have no choice. The three great steppe tribes were once in an alliance — but then they fell to fighting each other bitterly. After more than a year of conflict, all three sides have suffered heavy losses. And now the Black Wu have come south with an army of nearly a million — the tribes don’t dare stand in the way.”

Li Chi made a sound of acknowledgment. He could roughly guess the situation — he had heard no small amount of rumors about the steppe’s endless internal strife.

Tang Pidi said, “How is it that there are so few troops holding the city? Has Jizhou not sent reinforcements yet?”

Li Chi instinctively glanced at Xiahou Zuo. Xiahou Zuo glared at him and said, “What are you looking at me for?”

Li Chi thought — who else am I supposed to look at? That’s your father’s business. If I say something critical about your father right now, you’ll probably punch me…

Xiahou Zuo gave a snort and said, “Even if Jizhou won’t send troops, we can still hold Daizhou Pass.”

Tang Pidi said, “I’ve observed the Black Wu encampment — troop strength appears to be no less than five hundred thousand, possibly more, and that’s just this position alone. Xinzhou Pass probably has around two hundred thousand on that side. If they’re truly determined to take this city, the current garrison won’t be able to hold out much longer.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “I say we can hold it, so we can hold it.”

He asked Tang Pidi, “How do you know the troop numbers on the Xinzhou side?”

Tang Pidi answered, “After I started a fire here, I rode over to the Xinzhou side and started a fire in their camp too, then rode back.”

Xiahou Zuo was briefly stunned, thinking this person was both reckless and out of his mind.

Li Chi suddenly realized something: behind Xiahou Zuo’s claim that they could hold the city, there must be some secret he hadn’t shared. Li Chi guessed that seeing how Jizhou City had sent no reinforcements, Xiahou Zuo had probably already sent someone back to Jizhou. If Prince Yu knew Xiahou Zuo was here holding the Black Wu at bay, Prince Yu wouldn’t merely send troops — he’d come racing here in person.

“Actually, we don’t need to just keep defending.”

Tang Pidi suddenly smiled. When he smiled, it was as if there was nothing in this world that could stop him — whatever he wanted to do, he could do it.

“I’ve raided the Black Wu twice in a row now, and they still couldn’t catch us. They’ll be furious. Tomorrow they’ll come at us with everything they have.”

Tang Pidi smiled, “But the last thing they’d ever expect is that we’d dare go back out tonight and hit them again…”

Xiahou Zuo’s expression changed sharply. “Absolutely not. If you go out again and get pinned down in the dark, we can’t open the gates to bring you back.”

“I’m not planning to come back.”

Tang Pidi said, “The reason I came to Daizhou Pass was just to tell you my plan. The Black Wu saw me ride into the city — they’ll naturally assume I won’t dare come back out. So I’m going to go right back out. One stone tripping them up twice wasn’t enough — I want it to trip them up three times.”

He looked at Li Chi and said, “Tonight — do you dare come out of the city with a few hundred men?”

Li Chi said, “Why not?”

Xiahou Zuo said, “I’m not sending any troops with you.”

Yu Jiuling raised his hand. “I’ll go.”

Xiahou Zuo: “……”

Tang Pidi still smiled his light and easy smile. “Trust me. Going out tonight, we can still catch them off guard. And I can guarantee — however many men you send out of this city will come back to you safely. I, however, won’t be coming back.”

He looked out toward those steppe riders in the distance, and his voice dropped.

“They came to help me. I have to bring them home. I have no right to keep them here fighting until the end of this war. Tonight we’ll go straight — and they’ll go home. And I’ll come home.”

He said to Li Chi, “We go out, we hit the Black Wu, we kill our fill and then we leave. I’ll draw the pursuers off — you and your men can get back safely.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “This is reckless.”

Li Chi said, “I think he can do it.”

Tang Pidi laughed. “I think you can do it too.”

—