The affairs of the Judicial Army were something Li Chi would absolutely never interfere with — he had promised Gao Xining as much from the very beginning.
If the word of a man to a woman meant nothing, then a man’s word to another man was likely worth little more.
At dinner, Gao Xining ladled a bowl of soup and set it before Li Chi, then sat down and said: “The Judicial Army has been expanded by four hundred. We’re now at twelve hundred.”
Twelve hundred men — a full battalion by military reckoning. Quite a substantial force.
She looked at Li Chi. “For a good while to come, the force will not expand further. Maintain as is.”
Li Chi acknowledged: “Your call.”
Gao Xining ate as she spoke. “Once the force reaches this size, talented personnel need to be identified as commanders. A short while back, Master Ye and I ran a selection contest within the Judicial Army.”
Li Chi had attended that contest; he had noted several people and kept them in mind ever since.
“Shang Qingzhu, Fang Xidao, Du Yan — those three young ones all impressed me.”
Gao Xining smiled. “I knew you’d remember those three.”
That contest had tested not only martial skill but all-around capabilities, and those three had each distinguished themselves brilliantly.
The Judicial Army’s unit structure differed somewhat from the Ning Army’s. Among the twelve hundred soldiers, five made a squad, with a squad leader; ten made a team, with a team leader; one hundred made a company, with a company commander.
Three companies made a regiment; the regiment had a regimental commander, though in the Judicial Army this title was not “regimental commander” but “Hundred Overseer.” Three regiments made a battalion; the battalion had a battalion commander, though in the Judicial Army this was not “battalion commander” but “Thousand Overseer.”
“Those three have already been promoted to Hundred Overseer,” Gao Xining said. “I’ve sent them out of the city for field experience.”
Li Chi nodded. “Getting out and moving through the jianghu is good for them. They’re young — the only thing they lack is experience in the wider world.”
Gao Xining acknowledged, thinking: when they came back from this outing alive, what they would have gained was not merely experience in the jianghu, but experience facing death.
Twenty days later. Anyang City.
The general’s residence.
Meng Kedi cast a glance at the martial artists gathered in the courtyard, his eyes full of contempt.
He was a man of the military — he had never been able to respect men from the jianghu. But there were times when jianghu methods had to be used.
The catastrophic defeat in Jizhou had left the Anyang Army gravely wounded.
Prince Wu, locked in a standoff with Yang Xuanji in the south, had received word and sent a letter back berating Meng Kedi thoroughly.
Meng Kedi knew how thoroughly he had disgraced himself, how deep the humiliation ran.
But militarily, there was nothing he could do to retaliate quickly.
The Anyang Army’s losses would take a long time to replenish.
Without even engaging in battle, one great flood had cost him more than half of his tens of thousands of troops.
After returning to Anyang City, Meng Kedi had taken ill from sheer rage — and lay sick for two full months.
When he recovered, he began scheming his revenge.
By then, the men he had sent to investigate Jizhou had also returned.
That “Li Duidui” who had come to Anyang was no medicine hall proprietor — he was the great bandit Li Chi of Yanshan.
Meng Kedi knew of the Yanshan bandits. At their height, they had commanded two hundred thousand men and dominated the north.
Their chief, Yu Chaozong, was called the Green-Browed Heavenly King, commanding unrivaled prestige and authority throughout Jizhou.
And this Li Chi had been the third-in-command of the Yanshan bandits at that time.
After the Green-Browed Army’s defeat, Li Chi had rallied the remnant forces and become the new chief of the band.
Once the intelligence was confirmed, Meng Kedi’s fury only deepened.
A lifetime of reputation — ruined by the leader of a gang of mountain bandits, and ruined completely, without a shred left intact.
From that point forward, whenever people spoke of Meng Kedi, they would naturally bring up his catastrophic defeat in Jizhou.
And they would not fail to mention that the enemy had made him dance to their tune, in his own territory, from start to finish.
Such humiliation could only be washed clean with Li Chi’s blood.
In a soldier’s way of thinking, the proper course was to face Li Chi openly on the battlefield and defeat him — that would be true revenge.
But the present strength of the Anyang Army did not allow for rash action.
Meng Kedi, who had once commanded eighty thousand troops, now had fewer than fifty thousand remaining after that engagement.
And he had confirmed it: the so-called Ning Army now numbered close to fifty thousand as well.
Fifty thousand against fifty thousand, attacking a fortified Jizhou — there was no chance of victory.
Moreover, winter had already arrived — the worst season for military campaigns. The fields held nothing but dried grass. If he marched now, how would his men be fed?
So Meng Kedi had no choice but to fall back on the lesser option: hire martial artists from the jianghu to kill Li Chi.
“General.”
Ding Shengjia bowed his head. “They have been waiting in the courtyard for over half an hour. In this weather…”
He glanced at Meng Kedi’s expression and let the sentence hang.
Ding Shengjia knew perfectly well that Meng Kedi despised jianghu types, and knew how sourly Meng Kedi regarded him these days.
It had to be said: Li Chi’s arrival in Anyang was closely connected to him — it was he who had introduced Li Chi to Meng Kedi in the first place.
From the very beginning, Ding Shengjia had been deceived by Li Chi; and once deceived, he had gone on to help Li Chi deceive others.
After the defeat, Meng Kedi had cursed Ding Shengjia on more than one occasion — calling him useless, calling him an idiot, calling him the shame of the Anyang Army.
Ding Shengjia felt the guilt keenly. What else could he do but swallow it in silence?
And so every time Ding Shengjia now appeared before Meng Kedi, his heart clenched. He had even begun deliberately avoiding the man.
But Meng Kedi had no wish to avoid him. Seeing him still produced the same cold resentment; even now that the open berating had stopped, the pointed, vicious remarks had not.
This had made the atmosphere within the Anyang Army deeply uncomfortable.
In truth, every man in the army understood: the general had simply pushed Ding Shengjia forward to bear all the blame.
As supreme commander, you could blame Ding Shengjia for the deception. But could you blame Ding Shengjia for the defeat?
Meng Kedi simply could not bear the damage to his face. Unable to stomach the humiliation, he took what small relief he could from humiliating Ding Shengjia again and again.
Hearing Ding Shengjia speak, Meng Kedi frowned. “Are you feeling sorry for them?”
Ding Shengjia opened his mouth, not yet having found words to explain himself, when Meng Kedi said in a flat, glacially cold tone: “Since you feel so sorry for them, go outside and keep them company.”
Ding Shengjia inwardly sighed, rose, gave a salute, and walked out of the hall.
The new general whom Meng Kedi had promoted after Xue Chunbao’s death, Lai Yihu, was a young man with an aggressive, rising energy.
Now that Ding Shengjia was falling from favor, Lai Yihu had not been slow to help push him down.
He said to Meng Kedi: “Ding Shengjia perhaps feels that because of what happened last time, the only way to avenge the defeat is to rely on these jianghu people — and so he is too invested in their comfort. The general need not take offense. Ding Shengjia is still thinking of revenge; even if a large portion of these martial artists were recruited through him, he likely has no private intentions.”
At those words, Meng Kedi’s expression shifted.
“Private intentions?”
He looked at Lai Yihu. “What private intentions might he have?”
Lai Yihu’s expression became somewhat awkward. “This subordinate spoke carelessly… it was only something I heard in passing.”
He lowered his voice. “One of this subordinate’s personal guards and a servant in Ding Shengjia’s household are from the same hometown — they occasionally gather together. This subordinate’s guard reportedly heard that Ding Shengjia has been losing his temper at home frequently, and has even… “
Here he glanced at Meng Kedi. “There are things this subordinate doesn’t dare say — there is truly no solid evidence, and saying it would feel more like slander against Ding Shengjia.”
“Say it,” Meng Kedi said. “True or false, I will judge for myself.”
Lai Yihu sighed. “It was only said that once, when Ding Shengjia had drunk too much, he flew into a rage and beat a servant with a horsewhip — all the while shouting: ‘You were useless yourself — why blame me for it?!'”
“What?!”
Meng Kedi’s eyes snapped wide open.
“I suspect it’s false,” Lai Yihu said. “Ding Shengjia has served the general faithfully for many years. Perhaps it was a servant he struck who invented the story out of spite, to blacken Ding Shengjia’s name.”
The darkness on Meng Kedi’s face deepened.
“So this subordinate reprimanded that guard soundly,” Lai Yihu added, “and dealt with him under military law.”
At that, Meng Kedi turned to look at Lai Yihu and said: “Have your guard come to my residence tomorrow.”
“Yes…”
Meng Kedi was silent for a moment, then said: “This matter — there is no need for Ding Shengjia to be involved. Go see to those jianghu guests yourself. Bring Ding Shengjia back; I have something to say to him.”
Lai Yihu rose, his expression betraying nothing, but inwardly crowing with delight.
He thought: the world turns. Ding Shengjia — don’t expect to go on ruling the Anyang Army the way you used to.
Once, Meng Kedi’s two great generals had been Xue Chunbao and Ding Shengjia — both second only to the general himself throughout the Anyang Army.
In the army, even officers of equal rank would nod and defer to those two. Both had forceful personalities, and the offenses and enemies they had accumulated were many.
Lai Yihu had originally been due for promotion well over a year ago, but Meng Kedi had sought Ding Shengjia’s opinion on the matter.
Ding Shengjia had said: Lai Yihu is barely past twenty — truly a bit young.
And so with one word, he had pushed Lai Yihu’s promotion back.
As for the background behind this: Lai Yihu’s origins were no ordinary matter.
The great general of the imperial guards in the capital, Lai Yong’er, had been granted the title of Lord of the Illustrious State, and the Emperor Yang Jing held him in high regard.
Lai Yihu was Lai Yong’er’s nephew; the Emperor Yang Jing had sent him to Anyang for reasons that were, naturally, transparent.
At the time, it had been Meng Kedi who wanted to suppress him, knowing perfectly well that he was the Emperor’s watchman. Of course he was displeased.
So he had instructed Ding Shengjia — when the matter of promoting Lai Yihu came up, to say a few words against it, and thereby push him down.
Lai Yihu had never known this was Meng Kedi’s doing; the resentment he had harbored against Ding Shengjia only deepened over time.
Now, with Meng Kedi having no one left to rely on, and Lai Yihu promoted, the chance for revenge had come.
A short while later, Ding Shengjia came back inside.
“Sit,” said Meng Kedi, gesturing to the seat across from him.
Ding Shengjia thanked him and sat.
Meng Kedi personally poured him a cup of tea, then smiled. “I’ve had too much weighing on me lately, and you’ve been with me longest, so I’ve been taking my temper out on you more than is warranted. Don’t hold it against me.”
Ding Shengjia felt a surge of gladness and quickly bowed his head. “This subordinate would never. This subordinate only wishes to share the general’s burdens.”
Meng Kedi nodded. “I know where your loyalty lies. Think nothing of it.”
He paused, then continued: “I hear you haven’t been well lately?”
“Only a slight chill…”
Before he could finish, Meng Kedi said in a level tone: “If you’re unwell, you should rest. If something were to happen to you, I’d have no one left to talk to… here: I’ll give you three months of special leave. Go home and recover. Don’t trouble yourself about the troops — I’ll arrange someone to take over in the interim.”
He waved a hand. “Go home and recuperate properly. Don’t overthink things. My trust in you has never changed.”
Ding Shengjia’s eyes flew wide open.
He stared at the man before him, and suddenly it was as though he no longer recognized him.
—