Several dozen dark-clad fighters slashed their way through to escape. In truth, while the townspeople had the courage to gather and protect their county magistrate, when the time came for the villains to flee, not many of them thought to throw their lives in the way and buy time.

And even those who thought of it — how many could actually do it?

This was not a failure of courage. It was simply human nature. Why are heroes so rare in this world? Not because most people lack bravery — if everyone were fearless, half the world would be heroes and the other half monsters. The reason a few names endure through history is precisely because those people were among the rare few who acted when others could not.

There is a saying: the common people of the Central Plains, when danger finds them, are protected by the brave among their own number.

Yue Huanian was one of those brave few. If he did not distribute the grain, these people would not survive the fallow season between harvests. If he did distribute it, he would be put to death.

And he was not facing the law of the state — had he been, he would at least have had something to say for himself. He was facing private law. What was private law here? Whatever Prince Yu declared it to be.

Prince Yu was in full preparation for war. At this inconvenient moment, Pingchang County Magistrate Yue Huanian had reported to the Jizhou prefectural office requesting permission to open the granaries and distribute to the people.

Word reached Prince Yu. Prince Yu ordered the official grain stores of Pingchang County transported back to Jizhou as quickly as possible. So it was not that Jizhou was desperately short on grain — there was a shortfall, yes, but not as severe as Li Chi and Zhuang Wudi had estimated.

But if the government moved openly, it would look terrible. Everyone knew that Prince Yu was the true master of Jizhou — the prefectural office blocking the grain distribution meant Prince Yu blocked it; the prefectural office moving the grain meant Prince Yu was taking it.

Yet the matter wasn’t so simple, because it touched on reputation.

Prince Yu wanted the whole realm, which meant his reputation could not afford damage.

So the task was passed down to Commissioner Zeng Ling. Zeng Ling devised the scheme of having the grain store act as front — never mind that this was a case of covering one’s ears while stealing a bell; on the surface, at least, it had nothing to do with the government.

Shengchang Grain Store was already controlled by men loyal to Commissioner Zeng Ling. Its entire purpose was to quietly gather grain and supplies from across the region in preparation for Prince Yu’s uprising.

Whatever methods were used, the grain simply needed to be brought back.

Liu Yingzhan was not one of Prince Yu’s men, nor was he a grain store man. He was a man of the Yuwen clan — an operative placed by the Yuwens within Prince Yu’s circle. This kind of operative was called an open line. Not only did the Yuwens know he was their man; Prince Yu knew it, and so did everyone else inside Prince Yu’s household. Hence the term.

Having Liu Yingzhan stationed within Prince Yu’s household — ostensibly serving the Prince — meant he would find ways to channel information back to the Yuwen family in the capital.

This time, Prince Yu had sent him along to deal with Yue Huanian. The magistrate was a man of talent for governance and deeply beloved by the people, but to Prince Yu, one minor seventh-rank county magistrate was not worth the grain in the official stores.

Once Yue Huanian learned what was coming, he had called together all the county’s people, broke the locks on the granary doors, and distributed enough grain for one season to every family. He also ensured that each household received sufficient seed grain.

It was the seed grain that gave the people their real hope of survival. The distribution had begun a few days earlier; that very night, families who received their seed went out with torches and began planting. It was already late in the spring to be sowing, but late was better than nothing.

Yue Huanian told the people that whatever grain was given to them must be carefully hidden. The county had so many people that Prince Yu would not dare move against all of them — and if he actually dared to strike at tens of thousands of people, he could forget his ambitions of becoming Emperor.

So distribution and planting proceeded side by side, and more than half of what had been in the official granary was gone.

Qiu Qingche would have preferred to simply distribute everything and then take the magistrate and flee. But Yue Huanian understood clearly: if all the grain were gone, Prince Yu’s fury might spare the people from outright slaughter, but he would certainly move against a significant number of them. Kill enough and the rest would submit, handing back whatever grain they had received.

But distributing grain to every family in the county was not something that could be accomplished in a day or two. By the time he confirmed every household had received their share, it was already too late to leave.

“Sir.”

Qiu Qingche spat a mouthful of blood and looked at Yue Huanian. “We need to get out of the city quickly. Liu Yingzhan’s men will be finding reinforcements soon — if we wait any longer we won’t be able to leave at all.”

“I have a cart at home!”

“So do I!”

The townspeople called out from all sides.

Yue Huanian pressed his hands together and bowed to the crowd. “Magistrate Yue thanks every one of you, his people.”

“Sir, hurry.”

Qiu Qingche’s chest hurt terribly — almost certainly broken ribs from that mace blow, though he couldn’t know how many were cracked, and had no time to think about it.

They made their way toward the city gate with Yue Huanian at the center. When they reached it, they found to their dismay that the gate was sealed.

Pingchang County, as a garrison town dependent on Jizhou, had only two city gates — one to the north, one to the south. To ensure the town did not fall, the gates were built small and fitted with heavy drop-stones suspended above the entrance. Once a drop-stone fell and blocked the gate, nothing could enter or leave.

The south gate’s stone had clearly been dropped — Liu Yingzhan’s doing. If they wanted to leave, they had to try the north gate.

Qiu Qingche and the others rushed with Yue Huanian to the north gate. Turning onto the main road leading to it, they found at least two to three hundred men already blocking their path.

Several heavy carts had been drawn across the gate to seal it. The dark-clad fighters held bows and crossbows trained on them from the barrier.

“Magistrate Yue.”

From where he sat atop one of the carts, Liu Yingzhan called out to them from a distance.

“You’re slow. I’ve been waiting here a while. I want to see whether those people who said they’d protect you can actually protect you out of this city.”

Hundreds of bows were trained on Yue Huanian’s side. The crowd halted several dozen paces from the gate and dared not advance further.

“Come on then,” said Liu Yingzhan, beckoning toward Yue Huanian with a wave of his hand. “You said you wanted to protect him out of the city — come ahead. I have several hundred bows here. Even if we can only shoot a hundred of you at once, and it takes three volleys for you to reach us — that’s only three hundred dead to get here.”

He laughed. “A few hundred people, nothing more. Plenty of people love you, Magistrate. Losing a few hundred isn’t much.”

“Sir, let us charge first!”

A young man grabbed his hoe and was about to run forward, but his mother seized him by the arm.

Looking at his mother shaking her head, the young man opened his mouth — but couldn’t find the words.

After a moment, the woman said: “It’s not that I’m stopping you. It’s just that it’s not the turn of you young people to go first. Your mother isn’t afraid to die, and I know right from wrong. Without the magistrate, we’d all have been dead long since — what life would we have left? It’s because of him we’re still here.”

She took the hoe from her son’s hands and called out loudly: “Let the elders go first. If we die, we die. As long as we can get the magistrate through to the gate, the young people behind us can finish the fight. Our legs can’t carry us forward anymore, but we can stop the arrows with our bodies.”

“I’m going!”

A white-haired old woman came to the front, leaning on her walking stick, and with one arm shoved away the grandson trying to steady her.

“Li Family Aunt is right. We old ones have nothing left to fear. Listen carefully, all you young people — today the old go first. Your job is to get the magistrate safely out of this city. Do you hear me?!”

The old woman’s walking stick struck the ground once, hard.

“The old ones go forward!”

She took a step toward the gate.

“No — please, no!”

Yue Huanian pushed through the crowd and caught the old woman by the arm, stepping in front of her with his own body. “Please go back. If you all die for me, what is left for me to live for?”

Clap, clap, clap, clap.

From Liu Yingzhan’s side came unhurried applause, and a laugh. “How profoundly moving. How deeply stirring. I actually find myself admiring you, Magistrate Yue. Remarkable — truly remarkable.”

He extended a thumb. “Truly. Remarkable.”

In the crowd toward the back, a young man tugged at the person beside him and said quietly: “I just arrived, I don’t know what’s going on. Can someone explain?”

The person he’d tugged said: “You don’t know and you still came?!”

The young man thought for a moment and immediately said: “I respect Magistrate Yue. Whatever it is — standing at his side can’t be wrong.”

“That’s sensible,” said the other, and gave him a quick summary.

The young man said: “They’re just openly going to seize official grain like this?”

The man beside him sighed. “Dachu has had no rule of law for a long time. Those who are cruel and powerful get what they want. If cruelty comes with rank, ordinary people have no way to survive. These past years — if not for Magistrate Yue, none of us would still be alive.”

“I have an idea,” said the young man.

He pushed quickly to the front, made his way to Yue Huanian’s side, and said: “Sir, please fall back to the county office for now. Charging forward like this isn’t the answer. I’ll go find people to help — I know some people from the jianghu. I’ll be back quickly.”

Yue Huanian looked at the young man. “Who are you?”

“My name is Yu Jiuling.”

The young man said: “Remember that name, sir. One day it will belong to a hero whose name shakes the whole world.”

He said his piece, then shrank back into the crowd. Without any obvious movement he vanished among the dense mass of people, and before long Yu Jiuling had made his way to a stretch of the outer wall where no one was watching. He braced both hands against the corner and climbed, needing no tools at all, pulling himself up with swift, practiced ease until he reached the top.

He had left a rope there — he tied it off and slid down the outer face of the wall. A horse had been left waiting for him on this side. He swung up and rode off at a gallop.

—

Meanwhile, on the official road between Jizhou and Pingchang County.

Proprietor Su came hurrying up from behind, caught sight of Zhuang Wudi, and demanded: “How much longer does the convoy have to wait?! Why did it just stop?!”

Zhuang Wudi shrugged. “I don’t know how much longer. Our young proprietor stepped off to relieve himself — he’ll be back once he’s done. Don’t worry, Proprietor Su, Pingchang County isn’t far.”

“It’s been half a shichen!” Proprietor Su’s face had gone white with fury. “What on earth takes half a shichen to pass?!”

Zhuang Wudi replied at a slow and apparently sincere pace: “You don’t know our young proprietor. He has considerable… capacity.”

“Capacity…”

Proprietor Su looked as though he might explode. “If we don’t move soon, I’m going to take the reins myself!”

“Oh,” said Zhuang Wudi, wearing the expression of a man who has just remembered something. “Actually, I just recalled what our young proprietor is doing.”

“What is he doing?!”

“Not just himself,” said Zhuang Wudi. “He also has that pig of his who needs to go. The pig has been raised with very particular habits — you might not believe this, but it genuinely cannot relieve itself in front of people. It needs a secluded spot. So our young proprietor had to take it somewhere out of the way.” He paused. “Who’d have thought it would wander off the road and run wild? He’s been chasing it all this way. He doesn’t want to delay you, Proprietor Su, so rest assured — it should be any moment now. Our pig is actually quite efficient. Much less capacity than our young proprietor.”

Proprietor Su’s expression defied description.

Zhuang Wudi added, helpfully: “If our young proprietor didn’t have such strong hands, he’d never manage to hold the pig steady while it—”

Proprietor Su had stopped listening entirely.

—