Yanshan Camp.

Yu Chaozong had just finished breakfast and was heading out to make his rounds of the camp when he stepped outside and found a minor officer pacing back and forth in front of his door — clearly waiting with something to say.

“Chief!”

The officer spotted Yu Chaozong and immediately bowed.

Yu Chaozong smiled. “Gao Lu, if you’ve got something to tell me, you can come straight inside. No need to wait out here.”

This Gao Lu had been with Yanshan Camp for several years now. He wasn’t part of Yu Chaozong’s original band, but he’d been among the first wave to join after Yu Chaozong established the camp.

The man’s family had been very poor. He was from Daizhou, and claimed he’d come to join them because he couldn’t endure the oppression anymore — said a wealthy household in the city had mistreated his family so badly he’d finally killed them all and fled to Yanshan.

But the truth was rather different. The man had always been a common thug and street ruffian in Daizhou City. He’d had his eye on a girl from a respectable family, and one night he’d climbed over the wall to have his way with her. Her family came home in the middle of it, and in his panic, he grabbed a kitchen knife and killed several of them before escaping.

After Sun Rugong’s mother had decided to send Sun Rugong to Yanshan Camp, she’d dug into Gao Lu’s past and learned that he had once done odd work for the Zheng family — all the underhanded dealings of the Zheng family business had been carried out by Gao Lu and his crew.

She’d also heard that he’d since risen to become a minor officer at Yanshan Camp. So she’d sent someone to make contact, given Gao Lu a considerable sum of money, and arranged for him to smooth Sun Rugong’s path into the camp.

Sun Rugong’s mother had further promised him: once he’d introduced Sun Rugong to Yu Chaozong, he would receive an even more generous reward.

With Sun Rugong’s mother’s silver in hand, Gao Lu’s greed pushed him to take the gamble.

“Chief,” Gao Lu said carefully. “You know I’m from Daizhou — there’s a relative of mine there who wants to come and join us. He’s a wealthy merchant from Daizhou, by the name of Zheng. He dealt in trade, but his backing used to come from the Daizhou garrison commander.”

Yu Chaozong asked, “The one who ran the moment he heard the Black Wu forces were raiding the frontier?”

“That’s right.” Gao Lu said, “That’s the one. This relative of mine, his name is Zheng Gongru — still young, but he’s already taken over the family business. The business did very well with the garrison commander’s backing, but once that commander ran, the other officials in the city banded together and started trying to swallow the Zheng family’s enterprises. He couldn’t hold out, so he wants to come and join you.”

Yu Chaozong shook his head. “The kind of person you’re describing — we should be cautious about taking someone like that into Yanshan Camp.”

Gao Lu spoke quickly: “Zheng Gongru sent someone to find me and gave me two hundred taels of silver as an introduction fee. I’ve already added it to the camp’s accounts. Chief, it’s not the two hundred taels I’m after — it’s that after he told me something, I felt I had to bring it to the Commander’s attention.”

Yu Chaozong had already been about to leave, but that last sentence gave him pause. “What is it?”

Gao Lu said, “Zheng Gongru says those officials in Daizhou have been crushing him from every side. He’s furious. He’s willing to work from the inside and help the Chief take Daizhou City.”

Yu Chaozong smiled. “He’s a merchant. If he really had the means to do that, how would a few petty officials have him cornered?”

Gao Lu said, “He’s willing to bring men and come over in person. His mother will coordinate from inside Daizhou, using the Zheng family’s merchant caravan as cover to get people into the city, and then take Daizhou in a single strike.”

Yu Chaozong’s brow shifted slightly upward.

When Prince Yu had given him his general’s title and set him to guarding the northern frontier, he’d also granted him nominal authority over Daizhou and Xinzhou — but he couldn’t actually get into either city. The moment Yanshan Camp’s men approached, both cities sealed their gates. Each had several thousand garrison troops dug in and ready to hold. Taking them by force would be genuinely difficult.

Not impossible, but the casualties would be severe.

Now, hearing Gao Lu’s account, Yu Chaozong found himself genuinely interested.

He asked Gao Lu: “How many men do you have under you right now?”

Gao Lu answered promptly: “Chief, I have over a thousand brothers.”

Yu Chaozong said, “I’ll leave this matter to you. Take your men, disguise yourselves as a merchant caravan, and enter the city. Have this Zheng Gongru coordinate with you. I’ll station a force outside the city walls and wait. Once you’ve seized the city gates, the relief force will come in. If you can actually take Daizhou, I’ll promote you to general, give you three thousand troops — and your relative can have a place in Yanshan Camp with a proper rank. He won’t be treated poorly.”

Inwardly, Gao Lu cursed. So I’m the one who gets to go risk my neck?

But he was already trapped. If he said he didn’t dare, Yu Chaozong would grow suspicious — might even think he’d been sent by the authorities to set a trap and have him eliminated.

And if Yu Chaozong thought that, Gao Lu’s days in Yanshan Camp were finished.

“Yes,” Gao Lu said, bowing. “I’m willing to risk my life for Yanshan Camp. I’ll go down the mountain now and contact Zheng Gongru. If we can take Daizhou, he also says we can strike Xinzhou while we’re at it.”

Yu Chaozong thought: this Zheng Gongru has quite a lot of confidence. Claiming Daizhou is one thing — the Zheng family’s caravan could cover the approach, at least. But he’s actually saying Xinzhou too?

Yu Chaozong gave a mild smile and said offhandedly: “If your relative can also take Xinzhou — two cities in Yanshan Camp’s territory — I’ll give him a seat at our table. We have seven heads of the camp right now. If he delivers Xinzhou, he’ll be the eighth.”

“Yes!”

Gao Lu answered with a bow, though inwardly he felt a pang of resentment. If they actually took both cities, this Zheng Gongru would become one of the heads — while he’d be stuck as a minor general. Thinking about it, he couldn’t quite shake the annoyance.

“Then I’ll go make contact. Wait for my report, Chief.”

“Go ahead. Be careful.”

Yu Chaozong added those words, but in truth gave the matter little further thought. Yanshan Camp was growing powerful, and the people wanting to attach themselves to it were no longer just common folk — countless wealthy households and great families were all trying to get their people inside, hoping to place their bets on Yu Chaozong while the stakes were still early.

These were the kinds of people Yu Chaozong generally had no interest in accepting. And he didn’t believe for a moment that someone called Zheng Gongru could actually deliver two cities. In all his years, he’d heard more than enough boasting.

Just the other time, a fellow had come offering himself, claiming he cultivated the way of the sword immortal and could ride through the air on his blade. Yu Chaozong had told him to fly. The man said the last time he’d tried, the sword had taken off but he hadn’t managed to jump on — and the sword had been wandering lost for over a year and hadn’t come back yet.

Yu Chaozong had suggested he go look for his sword, adding that he was willing to buy it.

As for taking Daizhou and Xinzhou — Gao Lu himself didn’t believe it. But the boast had been inflated past the point of retrieval, and if he tried to deflate it now, the rebounding air pressure would be enough to burst his own stomach.

That same day, Gao Lu went down the mountain. Zheng Gongru was already waiting at the foot of Yanshan, and after the two met and went over the details, Zheng Gongru’s eyes lit up.

“Yu Chaozong actually said that if I take Daizhou and Xinzhou, he’ll make me the eighth head of the camp?”

“He did,” Gao Lu confirmed. “His own words.”

Zheng Gongru thought carefully for a moment, then said, “Don’t report this to Yu Chaozong yet. Just bring your thousand and more men down from the mountain. I have the means to take both cities with your force alone.”

The color drained from Gao Lu’s face. “Don’t get me killed over this!”

Zheng Gongru said, “Think about it — if we report it, and Yu Chaozong sends one of the heads of the camp here with an army, who gets the credit? If you want your name made — fame and fortune — we stake everything on this one move.”

He added, “Second: if we actually fail, and those thousand-odd men of yours come to grief — I’ll personally make sure you get enough silver to last two lifetimes, more than you could spend. You’re not losing anything. Are a thousand men’s lives worth more than a fortune beyond counting?”

Gao Lu’s eyes flickered, shifting rapidly, clearly weighing the options.

In the end, he couldn’t resist the pull of the silver. He nodded and said, “You make a fair point. If I report it and Yu Chaozong sends a head of the camp with his own army, the glory goes to them. If we want our fortune, we bet it all on this.”

Zheng Gongru smiled. “Trust me. I won’t let you down.”

He leaned close and murmured a few things in Gao Lu’s ear. Gao Lu’s expression brightened at once.

“Can it really be done?”

“It really can.”

Zheng Gongru said, “Just follow my plan to the letter, and taking Xinzhou and Daizhou will be as easy as reaching into a pocket.”

Once they’d settled the plan, they brought their forces and set out for Daizhou. That same day, Zheng Gongru had Gao Lu’s men, along with his own people, disguised as a merchant caravan to reenter the city. They seized the gates in a sudden strike.

Zheng Gongru had Gao Lu’s men wave their banners and shout that the great army of Yanshan Camp was about to descend. The city gates lost, the garrison troops believed a vast force was truly coming.

On top of that, many of those soldiers had old ties to the Zheng family — they were veterans who had served under Zheng Gongru’s maternal grandfather. With a little money from the Zheng family in their pockets, and a few of their own people in the ranks stirring up doubts, the whole garrison — more than three thousand men — surrendered.

Zheng Gongru then arranged for some of the garrison troops to ride out of the city and race toward Xinzhou.

When the messenger reached Xinzhou, he told the official in charge that Daizhou had erupted in a popular uprising over food shortages — more than ten thousand people were besieging the government offices. The Daizhou administrator was afraid to seek help from Yu Chaozong of Yanshan Camp, fearing that if Yu Chaozong learned of the chaos he would seize the opportunity to take the city. So he’d come to Xinzhou for aid instead.

The messenger added: if Daizhou fell into Yu Chaozong’s hands, Xinzhou would not be blameless in the eyes of Prince Yu when he returned.

The officials of Xinzhou deliberated for some time, and ultimately decided to send their forces. The chief administrator personally led thousands of Xinzhou troops to march to Daizhou’s aid.

Meanwhile, Zheng Gongru left Gao Lu behind with a thousand men to hold Daizhou. He himself took the newly surrendered Daizhou garrison troops — dressed in their own uniforms — and marched to a position some seventy or eighty li from Xinzhou to wait.

When word came that the Xinzhou army had already set off for Daizhou, he led those several hundred Daizhou garrison troops, flying banners made to look like Xinzhou’s own, and claimed to be men sent back by the administrator to retrieve certain supplies. And that lie was actually enough to get the gates opened.

Zheng Gongru was short and rather plain-looking, but over the years since his recovery he had trained diligently and relentlessly, and his martial skills had improved dramatically. He nursed a deep grudge that gave him a ruthlessness of spirit — and that naturally produced a measure of real achievement.

He led his few hundred men through the open gates and held the position at all costs. When the reinforcements arrived, they took Xinzhou City.

Back outside the walls, the Xinzhou administrator had led his army all the way to Daizhou, only to find the gates shut and barred with no sign of any welcome. Sensing that something had gone very wrong, he turned his forces around and marched day and night back to Xinzhou — and found he couldn’t get in there either.

Zheng Gongru appeared on the city wall and told the administrator that he had taken Xinzhou on the orders of Heavenly King Yu, and that Heavenly King Yu had promised: if he surrendered, he would keep his post as Xinzhou’s chief administrator.

The Xinzhou officials held another round of deliberations, and ultimately chose to submit. Zheng Gongru had the forces outside set down their weapons and enter through the gates — and the moment the administrator stepped through, his men seized him.

In seven days, Zheng Gongru had actually taken both Daizhou and Xinzhou. Whether it was extraordinary luck or extraordinary skill, no one could quite say.

When the news reached Yanshan Camp, even Yu Chaozong was stunned.

He immediately sent for Zheng Gongru to come to Yanshan Camp. He genuinely wanted to meet this person — and to find out just how much more there was to him.

—