The affairs of the carriage depot were left in Zhuang Wudi’s hands. Li Chi made himself the sort of master who hands off everything and disappears — and with that, he brought his people out of Jizhou City and set course for Yunyin Mountain.

The road to Yunyin Mountain would pass through seven or eight prefectures and counties, and along the way Li Chi decided to call on every martial sect they encountered.

People throughout Dachu said that the lands of Jizhou were full of tigers and wolves — that the people there had a fierce, martial spirit. But that saying needed unpacking.

Jizhou was Dachu’s northern borderland. And not only Dachu’s — since ancient times, this place had been a battlefield. In the era of Zhou it was a battlefield; in the era of Chu it was a battlefield. Every clash with the enemies of the northern frontier had been fought here.

Back when Chief Instructor Gao Yuanzhang of the Four Pages Academy was still in the capital at Daxing, he had once argued this very point with someone, and left the man speechless.

That man had said: the northern people are rough and lawless, difficult to govern, with little sense of propriety — it has always been so. That is why the north is called the land of tigers and wolves, and cannot compare to the south with its tradition of learning and scholarship. And it shows in the imperial examinations — year after year, scarcely any northerners place in the top ranks.

Gao Yuanzhang said: even the way you make that comparison shows very little graciousness.

He continued: setting aside the chaos before the Zhou dynasty, let us speak only of what happened under Zhou. From the moment Zhou was founded, Jizhou was in constant bloodshed. You say it has always been so — then let me tell you what “always” has meant.

In the early years of Zhou, foreign enemies invaded and seized a thousand li of territory. Two to three million people in Jizhou died. The people of Jizhou took up arms and resisted, holding their ground step by step, dying before they would fall back. You say the people of Jizhou all train in martial arts and are therefore fierce — then let us start from this moment and trace why they became fierce.

In the thirty-second year of Zhou, the northern frontier was breached again. A thousand li, soaked in blood.

In the one hundred and twentieth year of Zhou, nearly the entire northern frontier was lost. Everywhere you walked, you saw the bodies of those who had fallen in battle or been slaughtered. Their remains almost blanketed the land.

In the final years of Zhou, sixteen tribes from beyond the northern frontier launched a joint assault on Jizhou. Jizhou and Yongzhou combined lost more than twenty million people. The enemy came not just to kill, but to annihilate — to exterminate the bloodline. For ten thousand li, not a living soul remained. Of nearly nine million households of Central Plains people in those two provinces, fewer than one hundred and fifty thousand survived.

Before the founding of the Youshan Kingdom, the Zhou court relocated people from all over the Central Plains to resettle there. Over the course of fifty or sixty years, Jizhou was rebuilt to over a million households. Then Youshan was founded, the Iron Crane tribe swept south, and out of that one million Jizhou households, fewer than two hundred thousand remained.

You say the northern people are rough and ungovernable, Gao Yuanzhang had said. After every great war, Jizhou was littered with the dead, and people were transplanted there from all corners. After just one generation, every group of newcomers became part of that same fierce, martial culture. Why is that?

Do you believe that books of poetry and prose can stop an enemy’s blade?

The man had no answer. He swept his sleeves and walked away.

Not long after, Gao Yuanzhang left the capital and settled in Jizhou, where he founded the Four Pages Academy. When he first enrolled students there, he gave a speech.

“I came to Jizhou to found the Four Pages Academy — and the name comes from the fact that I once wrote a full four pages of an essay denouncing those who look down on every brave soul in Jizhou. The Academy stands here, and I mean to show the world: the most courageous warriors are in Jizhou, and the finest academy is in Jizhou too. Warriors are to be praised; scholars are to be praised; and from this day forward, no one will dare look down on either.”

That was the origin of the Four Pages Academy.

But Li Chi also knew that the north genuinely was not as prosperous as the Jiangnan region. The south had centuries of scholarly tradition behind it; in the north, the great majority of people lived in poverty — if they could fill their stomachs, that was enough. Not many families had anything left over to send their children to school.

A single sheet of decent paper could be enough to make a family turn away. It was the price of three meals.

So in the northern borderlands, children mostly trained in martial arts — not through formal instruction, but by picking up whatever rough techniques they could manage on their own. In later years, as Dachu was founded and life in the north improved somewhat, many fighters began opening martial halls. Sometimes an entire village would pool its money to send one child for training, and when that child came back, he would teach what he had learned to everyone else.

Even now, within Jizhou, large and small martial sects were as numerous as the hairs on a cow’s back. These were men of valor, and they could be put to use.

And if one traced it to the root — perhaps, many and many years ago, there had never truly been a purely native-born person of the north at all. In some year, in some great battle long forgotten, the last truly native northerner had died without a whisper. After every war that left Jizhou strewn with bodies, people were sent from all over to repopulate it. And those newcomers — one generation later, without fail — would have become part of that same fierce northern spirit.

A fierce wind does not always reveal which grass is strongest. The grass that forces its way up through a crack in stone knows better than anyone just how bitter and unyielding it has to be. It is the stone pressing down that understands this clearest.

The procession was not small. When Li Chi had persuaded Madame Xiahou to make the trip, he’d told her the world wasn’t in that bad a shape yet — but in truth, any merchant caravan still willing to take the road spent a fortune on armed escorts, and even then only dared travel by gathering with others in larger groups.

But Li Chi’s party had nothing to worry about. What they had with them was the hundred elite soldiers that Gao Xining had trained herself.

After leaving Jizhou City, their first stop by the route was Dafang Town, some seventy li to the northwest — they’d spend one night there and push on the next day, a full day’s travel to Jingkou County.

Li Chi had gone over every stretch of the route several times, and each place they’d rest was carefully chosen. Everything was accounted for — the road, the lodgings, the meals, the surroundings, even the weather.

Sometimes you thought about it, and traveling with someone like Li Chi ought to be wonderfully easy. You didn’t have to think about anything. He had the route laid out, the accommodations arranged — he’d thought of everything, down to the weather.

Dafang Town had been looted by rebel forces two years ago. The people scattered to the winds, and after the rebels were gradually absorbed by Prince Yu or defected to Yanshan Camp, the organized rebel forces in Jizhou were more or less gone. The occasional small band of roving bandits was nothing Li Chi’s group would trouble themselves about.

Over the past two years, Dafang Town had started to breathe again. Most of the people who had fled — perhaps seventy percent of them — had drifted back.

It was a natural resting point: one full day’s travel from Jizhou to the north, and equally one full day’s travel from the north coming down to Jizhou. In peaceful times, Dafang Town had been quite prosperous.

The group arrived at Dafang Town before dark. The place looked somewhat worn down — there were still plenty of inns and eateries doing business, but the money to repair the buildings destroyed in the raids hadn’t come yet, and the place had a melancholy air about it.

Yanshan Camp had eyes in Dafang Town, so the moment the convoy arrived and a man spotted the banner on the lead carriage, the identification was instant.

“Excuse me — are you friends from Yongning Tongyuan Carriage Depot in Jizhou City?”

A middle-aged man with sun-darkened skin stepped forward and cupped his fists. Li Chi nodded. “We are. And you are?”

The man smiled. “My name is Hu Shanshe.”

He dropped his voice. “Yanshan Camp. Is the Third Head in the group?”

Li Chi smiled. “That’s me — Li Chi.”

The man was taken aback. He stepped back two paces, cupped his fists again, and bowed deeply. “Hu Shanshe pays his respects to the Third Head!”

Li Chi came down quickly and caught him by the arm. “We’re all brothers of Yanshan Camp — no need for such formalities, Brother Hu.”

He asked, “Did the Chief station you here?”

Hu Shanshe said, “The Chief arranged it. There are about ten of us besides me in Dafang Town — mainly watching the movements of the official forces in Jizhou City. If they head north, we’ll know at once.”

Li Chi gave a sound of acknowledgment. “The Chief thinks of everything.”

Hu Shanshe asked, “Is the Third Head heading back to the mountain? If you’re going now, the Chief may not be at camp — a few days back, one of the brothers doing the rounds mentioned that our camp took Daizhou and Xinzhou in quick succession, and the Chief may have gone to inspect.”

Li Chi was startled.

“Took Daizhou and Xinzhou? That fast?”

Hu Shanshe said, “I only heard about it through a brother who came on his rounds a couple days ago. He said someone with real talent had come to the camp — a Zheng somebody, he couldn’t quite remember the name. This person offered a plan to the Chief and took both cities in one stroke. Word is the Chief is going to reward this person handsomely — might even make him the eighth head of the camp.”

Li Chi smiled. “That’s good news. Taking Daizhou and Xinzhou gives the Yanshan Camp two fortresses at the front. Every move the official forces make will be right under our eyes.”

Hu Shanshe said, “You’re not wrong — the Chief was in particularly high spirits over it, and I heard he’s thinking of having this new head of the camp do a circuit of the various cities in Jizhou, get familiar with the territory, and see if he can bring in more prefectures and counties before long.”

Li Chi nodded and asked, “Do you happen to remember this new head’s name?”

Hu Shanshe thought hard, then shook his head. “I’m hopeless with names. All I know is it’s surname Zheng — something like Gong, I think.”

Li Chi laughed. “Not remembering is fine. We’ll meet him eventually.”

He glanced over at Tang Pidi. Tang Pidi smiled. “In times like these, capable people come from every corner. None of them should be underestimated.”

At that same moment, in Xinzhou.

In the main hall of the prefecture, Yu Chaozong was seated in the position of honor, smiling warmly. “Two great cities taken in succession — Zheng Gongru deserves the foremost credit. I am a man of my word, so I’ll say it plainly now: from this moment on, Brother Zheng Gongru is the eighth head of our Yanshan Camp.”

All eyes turned to Zheng Gongru. He immediately rose and bowed. “The Chief’s generosity overwhelms me. I’ve only just arrived, and I wouldn’t dare presume to outrank those who came before. I ask you to take back the title.”

Yu Chaozong said, “You’re underestimating the magnanimity of our brothers in Yanshan Camp. If you have the ability, no one will fail to respect you. If you’re worried about not having enough standing yet, then show more of what you can do.”

His tone shifted, and he looked at Zheng Gongru. “I’ve heard there are reclusive masters on Yunyin Mountain — physicians of unrivaled skill. If those masters could be persuaded to lend their aid, it would be like giving every brother in Yanshan Camp an extra chance at survival.”

He rose and walked over to Zheng Gongru. “Go in the name of the eighth head of Yanshan Camp and invite the masters of Yunyin Mountain to join us. Remember — do not be rash. If they can be persuaded with words, persuade them; if not, do not press. Healers are compassionate souls. In this world, they are all like bodhisattvas, and we do not harm healers.”

“Understood.”

Zheng Gongru bowed. “I’ll set out first thing tomorrow morning.”

Yu Chaozong clasped his shoulder. “Truly — the young are to be feared. To think and scheme the way you do at your age is rare indeed. The Third Head of our Yanshan Camp — my brother Li Chi — is close to your age. Truly, heroes rise from the young.”

The moment that name landed, something in Zheng Gongru clenched. As if a knife had been plunged into him without warning.

Li Chi?!

At the sound of that name, the hands beneath Zheng Gongru’s sleeves tightened into fists on their own. The tendons on the backs of his hands stood out white.

Zheng Gongru bowed immediately, not daring to let a flicker of anything show on his face, and said: “Then… I’ll be sure to learn from the Third Head when we meet.”

Yu Chaozong smiled. “You two are around the same age — I’m sure you’ll have plenty to talk about. I imagine he’ll appreciate a young man like you as well.”

Zheng Gongru said, “I find myself rather eager to meet the Third Head.”

The next morning, Zheng Gongru set out from Xinzhou with Gao Lu and several hundred men. After a day’s travel, they found a place to stop for the night.

Inside his room, Zheng Gongru paced back and forth without rest. He had been unsettled since the previous day — he had never, in his wildest reckoning, imagined that Li Chi had already become the Third Head of Yanshan Camp.

He wanted to run. Right now. Just go.

But he couldn’t bring himself to give up.

After a long time in thought, he suddenly called out: “Someone — go find me some incense.”

Before long, a handful of offering sticks was brought to him. Zheng Gongru lit them all, clenched his jaw several times, and then — eyes shut — drove the burning sticks against his own face, again and again, until burns covered his cheeks.

He flung the incense away and braced himself against the table, his whole body trembling.

“Li Chi!”

He muttered through gritted teeth: “All of this goes on your account.”