Yu Jiuling sat on the ground, both hands planted behind him, head tilted back, staring up at a moon so beautiful it seemed almost unreal.

He said, “The truth is, I have no business being a general. I understand nothing of military affairs. All I can do is think about what to prepare for the rest of you while you plan affairs of state — something like this food I brought…”

He sounded somewhat rueful, somewhat reproachful of himself.

Li Chi laughed. “Each person has their own strengths. Stop thinking about what you are not good at — because what you are good at, no one else can match.”

Yu Jiuling said, “What am I good at.”

Tang Pidi said, without inflection, “Running.”

Yu Jiuling snorted with laughter, then shook his head. “Running is a skill for saving one’s own skin — it can’t help the army win a battle.”

He sat up properly, raised a hand, and pointed to his own head. “Just now, I was straining my mind, going over and over it — trying to figure out what under heaven Yuwen Shangyun is up to. I was hoping that when everyone else came up empty, I would be the one to figure it out — that I could take some of the burden from your shoulders and actually be useful for once, be impressive for once…”

Yu Jiuling gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Turns out I was fooling myself. My mind is a complete blank.”

“A complete blank?”

Li Chi smiled. “If Yuwen Shangyun’s mind were not a complete blank, why would he resort to a plan like this? He is more pressed for time than we are right now — so while your blank mind just means you are not acting for the moment, *his* blank mind means one clumsy move after another.”

Tang Pidi looked at Li Chi. “You suspect that this surrendering-soldiers scheme has no follow-up move at all?”

Li Chi said, “Whether he has one or not, I have to think of one for him. He may not have it — but I cannot afford not to.”

He too tilted his head back and looked up at that moon, impossibly beautiful, its light and shadow like a brush of ink accidentally spilled across a silver plate.

“Start with what he is trying to accomplish.”

Li Chi said, “He wants at minimum two forces to come and surrender, and he has guessed that I need battle-hardened soldiers right now — that I will want to keep whatever forces surrender to me.”

“Once I take them in, Yuwen Shangyun will look for a chance to leave the city. With surrendered enemy troops mixed into my forces, I cannot fight effectively — I fight, I lose. And once I lose, he either captures me or kills me, then drives my retreating soldiers into Jizhou.”

Li Chi finished, then looked at Tang Pidi and said, “The moment his troops come out of the city in force, if we simply attack and engage them head-on, the feigned-surrender troops will just pull back into Anyang.”

Tang Pidi said, “We could send word to Dantai to force the river crossing tomorrow. Let’s see whether the Chu forces split to block him or not. If Yuwen Shangyun divides his forces to hold the riverbank against Dantai, he will no longer have the strength to execute any false-surrender scheme.”

Li Chi smiled and nodded. “That can be our arrangement for tomorrow. But if Yuwen Shangyun truly does split his forces to block the crossing, then pull back to the southern bank — use one part of his force to pin troops along the river, and press from two directions at once. Let’s see how the Chu forces cope.”

Tang Pidi said, “If he is forced to split his troops, whatever follow-up move he had becomes meaningless — because he will not have the strength to execute it.”

Yu Jiuling suddenly spoke up. “When the chief just said pressing from two directions, doesn’t it also need him to actually believe that you are genuinely interested in his forces?”

He stood, looked at Li Chi and Tang Pidi, and said with utmost seriousness, “I am willing to go as your envoy — go to Yuwen Dian’s unit, and find a way to work something out inside the city.”

Li Chi immediately shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

Yu Jiuling said, “I was just thinking — Yuwen Dian is acting under Yuwen Shangyun’s orders, feigning surrender. As long as he has not sprung the trap yet, he will not do anything to me. If we pretend to fall for it — but tell him we won’t let him surrender outside the city, and instead ask him to open the gates and let our army in…”

Tang Pidi’s eyes lit up.

Before Yu Jiuling could continue, Tang Pidi had already hoisted him off the ground and was swinging him around at arms’ length…

Tang Pidi spun in circles several times, until Yu Jiuling was completely disoriented.

“Tang Pidi, have you gone mad?”

Yu Jiuling shouted.

Tang Pidi planted Yu Jiuling back on the ground and smiled. “Who said your head was useless? This is a stroke of genius.”

Yu Jiuling felt instinctively that this could not be right — he was quite sure he could not have come up with anything genuinely brilliant. He had probably just accidentally landed on something.

“Yuwen Shangyun’s one and only chance of winning is a decisive engagement inside Anyang City.”

Tang Pidi said, “If I pretend to accept the surrender and ask Yuwen Dian to open the gates and let our army in, Yuwen Shangyun, upon hearing of it, will not let this chance slip through his fingers.”

Li Chi said, “Extremely dangerous.”

Tang Pidi said, “As long as I can hold out for a day and a night, Dantai’s full army can cross the river.”

Li Chi shook his head. “No.”

Tang Pidi said, “This is a precious opportunity. Yuwen Shangyun does not have much time — and our time is not unlimited either. If we end up entrenched here for three or four months and early winter comes before we can march south, Prince Wu Yang Jiju will have ample time to refill the gap in Yuzhou’s forces. By the time we push into Yuzhou again next spring, it will be far, far harder.”

He looked at Li Chi. “If we truly sit here for three or four months, and another winter sets in with nothing done, the push south into Yuzhou has to wait another whole season.”

Yu Jiuling said, “So — the idea is that my plan could actually work?”

Tang Pidi said, “It can!”

Yu Jiuling said, “But I hadn’t finished yet.”

Tang Pidi smiled. “That is entirely my fault for cutting you off. Please continue.”

Yu Jiuling said, “If he opens the gates, he will certainly mass nearly every soldier he has inside the city in ambush. That battle will be brutal. But if I go in beforehand and do a little mischief…”

He grinned a sly grin — a grin that looked very much like Yuwen Shangyun being ground underfoot.

That night, Tang Pidi wrote a letter and had the man Yuwen Dian had sent deliver it back inside Anyang City.

By this point it was nearly dawn. Yuwen Dian had been waiting the whole night without sleep — had he even wanted to sleep, he could not.

When he heard that the messenger he had sent had returned, he had the man brought in immediately.

Half an hour later, Yuwen Dian was already inside Yuwen Shangyun’s study, recounting everything.

“Tang Pidi says that if you intend to surrender, he must send someone to meet with you in person first. A matter of this importance cannot be settled through a few letters alone.”

Yuwen Shangyun’s brow furrowed. He thought it over and nodded. “Give him permission to send someone.”

Yuwen Dian said, “How should we receive whoever he sends?”

Yuwen Shangyun said, “Present yourself as a man who truly wants to surrender — but insist that Li Chi must give you a position of real authority. Hold firm in the negotiation. The more you insist, the more Tang Pidi’s man will be convinced your surrender is genuine.”

Yuwen Dian said, “Then I will go and write back to Tang Pidi right now.”

“You cannot.”

Yuwen Shangyun said, “You were on duty tonight — you have already sent one communication while on shift. If you write back immediately, it will look suspicious. According to the normal rotation of guard duty, wait three days before sending the next reply.”

Yuwen Dian said, “But our provisions…”

Yuwen Shangyun said, “Precisely because the provisions cannot hold and you cannot reply immediately — that is what will make them trust us.”

Yuwen Dian bowed. “I will follow the Great General’s every instruction.”

Yuwen Shangyun said, “If we can lure Tang Pidi into bringing his forces into the city, we at least have a shape to this fight. So receive whoever they send with care.”

Three days later.

Yuwen Dian sent another letter to the Ning Army in the night; it arrived quickly at camp.

On hearing that Yuwen Dian had agreed to receive Tang Pidi’s envoy, Li Chi looked toward Yu Jiuling and said, “I am assigning my personal guard to accompany you — among them are members of the Bureau of Scrutiny. When our Bureau agents first went into hiding in Anyang, they did not pull out all of their people. Some of ours are still inside.”

“Once you sense that Yuwen Shangyun has decided to kill you, go hide at the Bureau’s safe location in the city. There are not enough Bureau agents inside to seize the city gates by force, but they should be able to keep you safe.”

Yu Jiuling smiled. “Do not worry. You have not forgotten my greatest ability, have you? Anyone who wants to kill me — their blades cannot catch my heels.”

And so that night, Yu Jiuling, accompanied by several dozen guards, entered Anyang City alongside the man Yuwen Dian had sent.

Inside Yuwen Dian’s compound.

When Yuwen Dian saw Yu Jiuling had arrived, he came out personally to receive him.

He clasped his fist toward Yu Jiuling. “May I ask how this gentleman is addressed?”

Yu Jiuling gave his name, then the two of them took their seats, host and guest.

Yu Jiuling said, “General Tang sent me here — I think you know what this is about. This concerns the lives of both armies, so we cannot be anything but careful.”

Yuwen Dian said, “I tried to persuade Yuwen Shangyun to leave Anyang, retreat east, and give up both the city and Yuzhou. He cursed me for it and nearly stripped me of my command. If not for some close friends speaking up on my behalf, I would not be a general anymore.”

Yu Jiuling said, “A man like that truly chills people’s hearts. I have come here — you naturally understand what our Great General Tang Pidi’s sincerity means. So tell me your requirements plainly.”

Yuwen Dian said, “First — my troops remain under my command. No splitting them up, no planting people inside my unit.”

Yu Jiuling said, “Both of these are reasonable. Agreed.”

Yuwen Dian said, “Second — I want equal standing with a Ning Army general of the same rank. No discrimination, no differential treatment.”

Yu Jiuling gave a solemn look and said, “On behalf of our Great General — shall I offer you his own position of Great General in trade?”

Yuwen Dian’s expression shifted. “That is rather cutting of you, General Yu.”

Yu Jiuling said, “You have just agreed to become a subject of Prince Ning, yet you don’t want to be treated differently, and you don’t want to fight — so giving you the position of Great General would be an insult to you. We ought to give you Prince Ning’s seat. So here is what I will do: once I return, I will kill off Prince Ning and the Great General both, remove all your worries, and you can defect to yourself — you become Prince Ning.”

Having said this, Yu Jiuling rose from his seat. “That is a joke. You have genuinely wasted my trip here.”

“Wasted your trip?”

Yuwen Dian said with some irritation, “You are inside my army — you come and go as you please?”

Yu Jiuling walked a few paces, then dropped his head down flat on the table, pulled his collar aside, and bared the back of his neck.

“Come on then. Right now — do any of you Chu soldiers know how to take a man’s head? Come, come.”

He turned his head to look at his own guards and called out, “Someone cut my head off and leave it here as a deposit — then let’s see if Prince Ning will leave this city of Anyang not a blade of grass standing!”

In an instant, Yuwen Dian’s expression became even uglier.

Yuwen Dian’s trusted aide, Liu Boran, gave an awkward laugh and quickly moved to help Yu Jiuling up. “General Yu, truly, there is no need for such a scene.”

Yu Jiuling said, “I do not make scenes. I deal in practical matters.”

He turned and shouted, “Ning Army soldiers — where are you?!”

His guards stepped forward as one. “Here!”

Yu Jiuling said, “Kill me!”

Those few guards who had entered with him drew their long blades immediately.

Yuwen Dian took one look at this — and thought: these are all madmen…

He quickly yielded. “General Yu, please do not be angry. Let us speak calmly. That two-year moratorium on combat was excessive of me — forget I mentioned it. Let us discuss other terms.”

Yu Jiuling made a sound of displeasure, sat back down, and said, “Your head — I am holding it safe for you temporarily.”

Yuwen Dian: ????