With Li Chi’s fists temporarily out of commission, the question of eating became something of a predicament. After everyone discussed who should feed him, Li Chi found the prospect too embarrassing to bear, so he asked Xiahou Yili to cut a notch in the bandaging on his right hand. Since his right thumb was the most badly injured, they settled on leaving just the index finger and middle finger exposed—barely enough to grip a spoon and eat.

Li Chi felt that was still better than being fed. Though holding a wooden spoon between those two fingers was rather awkward, he flexed them a few times experimentally. Gao Xining, standing nearby, felt a pang watching—but as she looked at those two protruding fingers, a children’s rhyme suddenly came to mind. The two fingers stuck up like rabbit ears, and the bandaged white fist looked just like a rabbit’s head.

*Little white rabbit, white and white, two ears standing upright…*

Yu Jiuling sat watching Li Chi eat with two fingers and could barely keep from laughing. He twirled his chopsticks through his fingers—back and forth, back and forth—whistling at Li Chi as he did so, asking whether he noticed how nimble his hands were.

Then he wanted to play rock-paper-scissors with Li Chi, loser washes the bowls. Li Chi raised his hand and looked at his two fingers. Yu Jiuling made a fist and declared that Li Chi had lost.

“See,” Yu Jiuling said, “even this victory feels ignoble—your two fingers can only make scissors. I can’t bully you like that, can I? How about you switch hands?”

Li Chi lifted his bandaged left hand and looked at it. Yu Jiuling spread out a palm: “See? I win again. I’ll graciously concede the advantage.”

Li Chi said, “I won sixteen hundred taels of silver from that fight. I’ll put up a thousand right now as a bounty. Whoever can make Yu Jiuling’s hands stop being so nimble gets the thousand taels.”

Yu Jiuling asked, “Buy what?”

He puffed out his chest. “Don’t let the money go to someone else—buy a chest. I’ve got one right here.”

Li Chi: “……”

Yu Jiuling continued, “You want the left side or the right? Buy one, get one free.”

Zhuang Wudi stared into his bowl of food. After a moment of silence he said, “Dig it out.”

Yu Jiuling froze, and then his mind conjured an image of his own chest being hollowed out—bloody and gaping. He shuddered and looked at Zhuang Wudi, who reached his spoon into his bowl and dug out a scoop of rice, leaving a hollow in the mound. He glanced at Yu Jiuling, then put the spoonful of rice in his mouth.

Yu Jiuling let out a yelp of fright. “You’re twisted!”

For most meals the group ate separately—Auntie Wu would bring food over to the rear courtyard for Liu Yingyuan’s family. They still didn’t dare show their faces out on the streets of Jizhou City, even though the case involving former Jizhou prefect Lian Gongming had seemingly been put to rest long ago.

Since returning to Jizhou, Liu Yingyuan’s family had felt uneasy about staying at Li Chi’s place while contributing nothing—they were burdened by guilt over it. But Li Chi genuinely wasn’t comfortable letting them go out: if they were spotted, they would likely be watched.

The reasoning was straightforward enough. The ones who had wanted Lian Gongming eliminated were Prince Yu and Regional Commissioner Zeng Ling. Once Lian Gongming was dead, both of them had long since put the matter out of mind.

But their subordinates hadn’t. How much had those people made off the case? They weren’t about to let it close so easily. Of the people once connected to Lian Gongming, some had fled and some had been broken; others had paid through the nose to buy themselves peace.

Those who hadn’t fled but lacked the strength to settle things outright—they were still being shaken down by the Regional Commissioner’s men every so often. If you didn’t hand over some silver now and then, the men could always dig up evidence that you’d colluded with Lian Gongming back in the day.

Let alone a year—if things stayed as they were in Jizhou, the men under Regional Commissioner Zeng Ling could milk that case for three more years.

Such was the state of governance throughout Dachu, top to bottom.

However, Liu Yingyuan’s father had thought of something a couple of days earlier, and had written out a list which he handed to Li Chi. He had once served as an official in the Jizhou prefectural administration—not a high position, but an important one: he had overseen the granaries.

When he handed the list to Li Chi, Liu Yingyuan’s father said that in his view, the realm was on the verge of great upheaval, particularly after Prince Yu raised his army. With Jizhou left defensively thin, the neighboring state of Yanzhou to the west and Qingzhou to the southeast might well seize the opportunity to attack.

If one could take both Jizhou and Yanzhou, that would be tantamount to controlling the entire northern region of Dachu. Jizhou was known for its fierce men and fierce customs—it had produced formidable warriors since ancient times. Yanzhou had terrain that was rugged and easy to defend, and could sustain itself in grain. If Jizhou’s population were used to build an army and Yanzhou were made the strategic base, one could truly command the realm.

Liu Yingyuan’s father guessed that as soon as Prince Yu led his army out of Jizhou, the Regional Commissioner of Yanzhou, Zhou Shiren, and the Regional Commissioner of Qingzhou, Cui Yanlai, would both likely launch their forces.

If Jizhou were besieged, grain would become the most desperately scarce resource. Having once administered the granaries, he knew just how far certain people would go for money, and so he advised Li Chi that if he had the funds to spare, he should convert silver into grain stores.

But who to entrust with the task—that Li Chi couldn’t immediately determine. His brothers were all capable fighters, but this kind of work required smooth social dealings and the ability to cultivate relationships with officials, and even Yu Jiuling wasn’t suited for it.

Over the meal, everyone talked it through, and in the end they decided to take the risk and put the matter in Jiang Ran’s hands.

When it came to dealing with officials, ten of Yu Jiuling couldn’t match one Jiang Ran. But what Li Chi worried about was that using Jiang Ran would expose their connection to Yanshan Camp.

After Li Chi laid out the situation, Tang Pidi sat thinking for a moment, then looked up and said, “Have Jiang Ran try it with a small purchase first—say it’s for his own use, that he’s worried about food running short in the future. If he can get that done, we take it further from there.”

Li Chi nodded. “For now that’s the only way. Have Jiang Ran make contact with the officials. If it proves workable, we store grain here at the depot—so that if Jizhou really does come under siege, at least we won’t go hungry.”

Zhuang Wudi turned his head and looked at Li Chi, then after a brief silence asked, “When do we go up the mountain?”

Li Chi said, “Brother Zhuang, Yanshan is steep and rugged—no question it’s easy to defend and hard to attack, a solid base. All of that is true. But if Brother Yu wants to accomplish great things, he’ll need to take Jizhou in the end. The time just isn’t right yet. Everything we’re doing now is preparing the ground for Yanshan Camp to take Jizhou one day.”

Zhuang Wudi nodded. “I’ll follow your lead.”

Li Chi said, “I had a brief talk with Master Ye yesterday, and he thinks the city gates might open in a few days—the various forces that Prince Yu has summoned are nearly assembled, and when they converge, Prince Yu will march south.”

He paused, then continued: “So we need to move quickly. Jiuling—you handle getting in touch with Jiang Ran; you’re responsible for the grain stores. Brother Zhuang can go along with you as a precaution.”

Yu Jiuling grinned. “Leave it to me. I think Jiang Ran is a decent man—he knows that right now his only way forward is to stay close to us.”

Li Chi made a sound of agreement, then looked at Tang Pidi. “Training and day-to-day affairs—I leave those to you.”

Tang Pidi nodded.

Li Chi looked at his master, Changmei. “Master, you should be getting out and about more lately. A clever hare has three burrows—we have the depot as our open face and home as our hidden refuge, but we need a few more places to fall back on. You and Mister Yan take a walk through the city when you have time, and if you see somewhere suitable, secure it, just in case.”

Changmei looked over at Mister Yan, who smiled and said, “When it comes to spending money, that’s never a problem.”

Li Chi said, “I’ll find ways to keep earning silver, and you all spend what I earn… somehow I find that deeply uncomfortable.”

Everyone laughed. They were building a web inside Jizhou City—a web that would give them enough to protect themselves when the great events to come arrived. And all of it, in truth, had barely begun.

Zhuang Wudi suddenly asked, “After Prince Yu leaves, can our elder brother come to attack the city?”

Li Chi shook his head. “He cannot. Absolutely not.”

Yu Jiuling asked curiously, “Didn’t you just say that for Yanshan Camp to accomplish great things, it must eventually take Jizhou? So why can’t they come when Jizhou is undermanned? Wouldn’t whoever arrives first get the advantage?”

Li Chi explained: “After Prince Yu leaves, he’ll still leave enough troops to garrison Jizhou—it’s his base, he can’t afford to lose it. Jizhou’s walls are formidable, and Yanshan Camp lacks siege experience. Even with a hundred thousand men, if Jizhou had only ten thousand defenders, it would be extremely difficult to break through.”

He continued: “That’s the first reason. The second is this: even if Brother Yu brought Yanshan Camp’s full force here and took Jizhou at enormous cost, what would they face next? Forces from both Yanzhou and Qingzhou—and after losing tens of thousands of brothers in the assault, they’d have to bleed even more to hold the city. By the time the men were nearly spent, Prince Yu would turn his army around and come back—and how would they fight then? The most likely outcome is that Yanshan Camp exhausts its hundred thousand men, only to end up holding the city for Prince Yu. So—let whoever wants to attack Jizhou come and attack it. But Brother Yu must not.”

Tang Pidi looked at Li Chi, his eyes full of admiration. He had known before coming that Li Chi was a man of rare talent; now, hearing Li Chi lay all this out, his respect had grown even deeper.

In terms of martial ability, Tang Pidi was perhaps somewhat Li Chi’s superior. But in terms of strategic vision, he knew he was Li Chi’s inferior—and so was everyone else at that table.

Tang Pidi said, “If you intend to take Jizhou in the future, preparations must begin now. Send word to Yanshan Camp and ask Yu Chaozong to deploy at least three thousand men here. To get three thousand people into the city will require patience—no more than a hundred should enter any given day, and they must come in separate groups. Once the three thousand are inside, they scatter to different locations throughout the city, and must not act rashly. Prepare for a dormancy of at least two years.”

Li Chi’s eyes lit up. “I’ll write the letter now and arrange for someone to take it to Brother Yu.”

Zhuang Wudi frowned. “That many people?”

Tang Pidi said, “To take a great city like Jizhou, three thousand infiltrators is the bare minimum. If I were Yu Chaozong, I would have started sending people in a year ago, when entry was still easy—now it’s gotten much harder. And I would also have feigned acceptance of Prince Yu’s offer of reconciliation, planting men inside as informants. Having informants within the Jizhou garrison would make the eventual seizure of the city far easier.”

Zhuang Wudi said matter-of-factly: “Brother Yu would never do something as dishonorable as accepting a false reconciliation.”

Tang Pidi glanced at him but said nothing more.

Just then one of the brothers came inside to report that a merchant had arrived wanting to discuss business with the carriage depot. He said it was a significant piece of business, and if the depot agreed to take it on, they would receive ten thousand taels of silver.

Yu Jiuling’s eyes lit up the moment he heard *ten thousand taels of silver*. But Li Chi’s brow furrowed slightly.

“Where is the man now?”

Li Chi rose and asked.

The one who had brought the news said, “Waiting in the front hall at this very moment.”

Li Chi said, “Then I’ll go take a look.”

Tang Pidi stood. “I’ll come with you.”

—