Sanyue River Pavilion.

Cui Tai sat upright in his chair, awaiting the final word. When Li Chi had left, he’d offered a few parting words that gave Cui Tai a glimmer of hope.

Li Chi had said that the Cui family could leave Jizhou — so long as the Qingzhou forces withdrew, the Cui family would be permitted to depart safely.

For the Cui family, this outcome now seemed like the best they could hope for. As long as the family survived, the future still held possibility.

“At the granary — a battle to the last man. We lost more than eighty percent of our people.”

A clerk returned from outside, his face etched with grief.

“And Cui Qing?”

Cui Tai asked urgently.

“He… he fell in battle.”

The clerk lowered his head, seemingly unable to bring himself to look at Cui Tai’s face. From the moment Li Chi had departed — in barely more than an hour — their master had aged some ten or twenty years before their eyes.

“Send someone… send someone to request an audience with Xiahou Zuo. Tell him I am willing to surrender all of the Cui family’s assets in Jizhou City in exchange for my brother’s remains and the safety of every last member of the Cui household.”

The words had barely left Cui Tai’s lips when a clerk came rushing in from outside, calling out as he ran: “Master — that man is here again.”

“Who?!”

Cui Tai’s heart gave a small lurch. His first instinct was that Li Chi had returned.

He strode quickly to the doorway, and there was Tang Pidi leading a column of soldiers in from outside. They carried body after body into the courtyard, setting them down one by one. Tang Pidi gave the soldiers a nod, and they filed out of Sanyue River Pavilion in formation.

“Your brother’s remains.”

Tang Pidi gestured toward one of the bodies, wrapped in white cloth. “This is by General Xiahou’s order.”

Cui Tai stood where he was, looking as though the soul had left his body. He gazed at Tang Pidi, then at the shrouded form, and after a long silence he bowed deeply, cupping his hands. “My deepest thanks to you, Master Tang, and to General Xiahou.”

Tang Pidi said, “Mister Cui is a man of wisdom — you understand what General Xiahou means by returning your brother’s remains to you.”

Cui Tai nodded. “I understand.”

Tang Pidi asked, “And what is your decision, Mister Cui?”

After a moment of silence, Cui Tai replied, “Release me alone from the city. I will go and speak with Grand Coordinator Cui Yanlai of Qingzhou myself.”

Tang Pidi returned the bow. “Mister Cui, though you were our adversary, both you and your brother commanded respect — your brother fought to the death without once thinking to burn the granary. He died with honor. I respect a man like that.”

“My thanks.”

Cui Tai bowed once more.

Tang Pidi said, “General Xiahou says that if the Qingzhou forces withdraw, he will personally escort the Cui clan out of the city.”

With those words, Tang Pidi turned and left. He was almost at the door when Cui Tai called after him.

“Master Tang — General Xiahou’s willingness to let us go… I suspect that is largely your doing.”

Tang Pidi glanced back at Cui Tai, said nothing, and left with a smile.

Qin Zhuo stepped forward and said, “Could this be some kind of trap — deliberately getting us to gather everyone together so they can catch us all in one sweep?”

Cui Tai shook his head. “Setting aside Xiahou Zuo and Li Chi — Tang Pidi included — none of them are men who would go back on their word. And besides, letting us leave costs them nothing and gains them something. They will not break their promise.”

He smiled bitterly. “The Cui family has not been destroyed — Qingzhou’s forces are still out there. Letting us go: first, it lifts the siege of Jizhou; and second… it sets us loose to make trouble elsewhere. With the Cui family’s resources, we can make something of ourselves anywhere we go. Whether we go to Qingzhou or somewhere else entirely, we’ll draw and divide the court’s attention.”

He looked out the doorway. Tang Pidi’s figure had already vanished.

“The age of the young has arrived.”

On the third-floor railing of Sanyue River Pavilion, Gongshu Yingying watched the visibly aged Cui Tai, the ghost of a smile curling at the corner of her mouth. That the Cui family had fallen actually put her in something of a good mood, because she had never liked Cui Tai as a man.

Moreover, she had just come out here — and it wasn’t Cui Tai she wanted to see. It was Tang Pidi.

So Gongshu Yingying found herself wondering: should she leave, or stay? If she stayed, killing someone like Tang Pidi or Li Chi would be deeply satisfying.

Her interest in Tang Pidi, after all, stemmed from the grudge over Xu Yuanqing.

A man of character knows when to adapt — but she felt she was a woman of a different sort. Small women, she thought, hold grudges.

The Qingzhou army had marched a great distance to reach this place, only to be turning back empty-handed. For their soldiers, the disappointment would be immense — yet for the people of Jizhou City, the war had come swiftly and ended just as swiftly, and they were overjoyed.

And yet things were not yet finished.

Cui Tai slipped out of the city and met with Qingzhou Grand Coordinator Cui Yanlai. Not long after, he returned and sent word to Xiahou Zuo: Cui Yanlai had agreed. So long as the Cui clan was released from Jizhou in full, the Qingzhou army would withdraw at once.

Xiahou Zuo, of course, had no intention of going back on his word either. He did not even hold back half the clan to ensure the army withdrew first — he released everyone, all at once.

The Qingzhou army pulled back several dozen li. After the Cui clan filed out of Jizhou City, the city gates swung shut once more.

Xiahou Zuo stood on the city wall, watching the Cui family depart like a flock of sheep. He let out a slow breath and said, “Let them go cause trouble somewhere else.”

Tang Pidi smiled and nodded.

In that moment, both Xiahou Zuo and Tang Pidi felt that it was over.

But on the afternoon of the fifth day, a scout who had been tracking the Qingzhou army’s withdrawal suddenly came galloping back, bringing news that left everyone utterly stunned.

“General…”

The scout’s color had not yet fully returned when he spoke — he looked as though he himself had not yet entirely pulled free of his own disbelief.

“Why such panic?” Xiahou Zuo said. “Catch your breath. Speak slowly. Worst case, the Qingzhou army broke their word and turned back — what else could it be?”

“It’s not… not the Qingzhou army coming back.”

The scout swallowed, his voice hoarse. “The Qingzhou army withdrew quickly — probably worried someone would raid Qingzhou while they were away. They didn’t take Jizhou, and they didn’t want to lose Qingzhou on top of it, so they retreated over two hundred li in three days.”

He glanced at Xiahou Zuo and continued: “Just as they reached the Hutuo River… the Qingzhou army was ambushed.”

Xiahou Zuo’s eyes snapped open. “By whom?”

“His Highness the Prince…”

The scout said, “By the looks of it, the Prince’s army returned some time ago — but instead of coming to relieve Jizhou, he held back and set an ambush at the Hutuo River. The moment the Qingzhou army reached the river, the Prince led his forces in a fierce assault, while the Youzhou army struck from the north in a pincer. The Qingzhou army was routed — they lost tens of thousands at least.”

Xiahou Zuo turned to look at Tang Pidi beside him — and found on Tang Pidi’s face an expression almost impossible to describe. A smile that wasn’t quite a smile.

“What do you…” Xiahou Zuo instinctively asked for his read.

Tang Pidi merely smiled, without a word. Xiahou Zuo waited a good while. Eventually, seeing that he wasn’t going to drop it, Tang Pidi relented and offered a few words.

“I… can’t say.”

Then he bowed. “I’m heading back to the carriage depot. The fighting is over. I’m going to sleep.”

Xiahou Zuo watched Tang Pidi walk away. He understood — Tang Pidi’s position made it awkward for him to say much.

“Foolish, foolish, foolish…”

Tang Pidi came down from the wall, murmuring those three words to himself as he went.

His expression had been priceless up there — because Prince Yu’s move struck him as so spectacular… in the wrong direction.

Before the battle, Tang Pidi had argued: with the Qingzhou army besieging Jizhou, Prince Yu should hold off the Yuzhou forces with part of his army, then send a capable general to strike Qingzhou directly. With its troops away, Qingzhou would be thinly defended — taking it, or at least half of it, would not be difficult.

But instead, he had wheeled his army back to intercept the Qingzhou forces on the road.

Had he taken Qingzhou, he could have rested his troops and waited. The Qingzhou army would have had to march all the way back, exhausted — then he could have struck them at his leisure, and won an overwhelming victory.

Instead, Prince Yu thought it terribly clever to block their retreat halfway. Did he truly believe he could wipe out hundreds of thousands of Qingzhou soldiers down to the last man?

Even in a great victory, what would he actually gain? Prisoners? A pittance of provisions and supply wagons?

Prince Yu had apparently returned some time ago, watching from a distance while Jizhou was besieged for days, never sending relief — but secretly coordinating with Youzhou’s Luo Geng for a pincer attack on the road.

Those with narrow vision would no doubt think Prince Yu’s move was brilliant — a single blow to crush the Qingzhou army.

But what had been squandered was far greater.

The moment Prince Yu turned his army back south, Yuzhou was no fool. Seeing his great army pull away, they would certainly peel off troops to attack Qingzhou. And on this side, even if Prince Yu won his battle and the Qingzhou army lost half its number — so what? There would still be at least a hundred and fifty thousand Qingzhou soldiers who escaped. Cui Yanlai, Grand Coordinator of Qingzhou, would fight to the last. If the Yuzhou forces hadn’t even bothered attacking Qingzhou, and Yuzhou and Qingzhou joined hands against him, then when Prince Yu marched south again, they’d come at him from both sides.

For the sake of one trivial victory, to throw away the whole of Qingzhou — what was that if not picking up a sesame seed and dropping a watermelon?

How to look at it? As a joke.

When Tang Pidi returned to the carriage depot, he relayed the whole matter to Li Chi. Li Chi listened and was also left a little dazed.

Tang Pidi said, “Xiahou asked me what I thought. I couldn’t very well say. If you were the one to say it — how would you see it?”

Li Chi let out a long sigh. “How to see it… He was holding a magnificent hand — enough to win a thousand li of territory. And then he chose the smallest possible win. A thousand li of territory, passed up; exchanged for a few tens of thousands of prisoners. And those prisoners are a liability. Playing your biggest card to scrape out the riskiest little win… Prince Yu…”

Tang Pidi said, “It goes further than that. If my read is right, given Prince Yu’s vindictive nature, those prisoners aren’t even what he’s after. He wants to exterminate the Cui clan.”

Li Chi gave a sound of agreement. He’d just thought the same thing.

In Prince Yu’s mind, this was a show of authority — a proclamation: whoever crossed him would see their whole family wiped out.

The events inside Jizhou City these past weeks had already revealed enough of Prince Yu’s character. Seen now in this light, he was nothing more than this.

Tang Pidi laughed. “This was always a matter of both sides raiding each other’s heartland. You come to take my home; I go to take yours. On the Jizhou side of things, we held the home for him. And then he changed his mind midway — decided not to go take the enemy’s home after all.”

He shook his head, still smiling. “Lucky you didn’t choose him back then.”

Li Chi sighed. “Lucky Xiahou isn’t like him.”

Prince Yu, for his part, did not see things that way at all. He was still basking in the glow of a great victory. He looked over the prisoners — the Cui clan, old and young, numbering perhaps several hundred, all of them bound and kneeling outside.

Among them was Cui Tai.

Prince Yu walked out, looked down at the kneeling Cui Tai, and said with a smile: “Are you convinced now?”

Covered in blood, Cui Tai broke into a long laugh. “I thought you were still a man of substance. Now I see you for the petty wretch you are. A man like you will never rule the realm… Your Highness, forgive my candor: you will collapse in utter defeat before you ever cross the Southern Ping River. The estate your son Xiahou Zuo worked so hard to hold for you — within two years, it will be taken by another.”

Prince Yu’s fury ignited. He waved his hand and commanded: “Kill them all!”

“Yes!”

His soldiers surged forward, herding the Cui clan outside the camp. One by one, they were cut down on the banks of the Hutuo River.

Prince Yu asked, “Where is General Luo?”

A subordinate replied, “General Luo said the military affairs of Youzhou are pressing, and he would not trouble himself to take formal leave of Your Highness. He is concerned the Yanzhou army may attempt a raid and has returned to hold Youzhou.”

Prince Yu gave a sound of acknowledgment. “Luo Geng sees clearly.”

At that very moment, some hundred li north of the Hutuo River, the Youzhou army was on its way home.

Luo Geng rode on horseback, a smile that had not left his lips since the battle.

One of his men asked: “General, why do you keep smiling?”

Luo Geng smiled and replied, “After this battle, I can see plainly that Yang Jixing is nothing but a fool. He had every chance to push south and take a thousand li of territory, but instead he came back to fight a battle like this — thinking himself terribly clever. When we return, we’ll put our troops in order, build up our forces. Within two years Yang Jixing will fall. And when that day comes, rather than let someone else seize Jizhou, we should be the ones to take it.”

He spurred his horse forward, laughing as he rode.

—