The northern bank of the Nanping River.

The Chu Army’s nerves snapped tight. The boats swarming across the water came at them like an endless tide of creatures walking the surface of the river.

“Archers!”

Yuwen Jing’s shout rang out.

The Chu Army’s riverbank archers, responding in unison, sent their volleys out in dense swarms.

In front of the archers stood a row of bolt-throwers.

Though the great Chu state had long since fallen into decay, Chu Army equipment was not to be underestimated. Even now, the bows and bolt-throwers built in Dachu remained among the most powerful weapons on any battlefield.

In the days when the Chu state’s power was at its height, the military arsenals of the Ministry of War held enough arms and armor to equip at least one million five hundred thousand men, with stores in immediate readiness.

As the various fronts grew increasingly desperate, when Yuwen Shangyun received imperial orders to form a new army and went to register at the Ministry of War, the ministry officials maintained throughout that the treasury was empty, the ministry had no funds, and there was no way to underwrite a new army’s formation.

When Yuwen Shangyun accompanied the ministry officials to the arsenal, he discovered warehouses stacked floor to ceiling with arrows.

Much of it had gone to ruin from poor maintenance — arrowheads fallen loose, shafts cracked and split.

The bolt-throwers built with Dachu’s finest craftsmanship sat there likewise, stacked and forgotten, thick with dust.

And still the ministry officials complained that the Ministry of Revenue had not disbursed funds in a very long time.

Standing before all that abandoned equipment — it was difficult not to feel something twist inside you.

The bolt-throwers on the bank fired their massive projectiles with sweeping, overwhelming force.

But in the moonlight, with a thin mist lying on the river, whether the bolt-throwers even found their marks was a matter of chance.

The main line of defense against the river crossing remained the archers.

What followed, though, was stunning. The arrows fell thick enough to strike each other mid-flight — and yet the Ning Army boats did not slow.

Yuwen Jing raised his spyglass and watched, and the longer he watched, the more something felt wrong.

When the boats drew a little closer, Yuwen Jing saw it: no matter how many arrows struck the Ning Army soldiers on those boats, not one of them went down.

A man struck full through by a heavy bolt did not fall.

“They’re dummies!”

Yuwen Jing called out.

But knowing they were dummies — what did that change?

He dared not stop shooting. He dared not let those boats reach the shore.

So the archers kept firing, pouring arrows out like water.

On the Ning Army’s boats, straw figures dressed in Ning Army uniforms were packed at the prow of every vessel. Every boat was the same.

Arrows lodged in the straw figures until the figures bristled with shafts.

The actual Ning Army soldiers on each boat were few — just enough to work the oars.

Prow, stern, and both sides of every boat: straw figures everywhere.

Before departure, when they were still on the southern bank, Dantai Pojing had given the order that every soldier was to make at least one straw figure.

More and more arrows accumulated on the boats. The boats sat lower and lower in the water.

On one of the larger warships — one of the few true battle vessels in the fleet — Dantai Pojing stood behind a wall of shield-bearers, watching, his pleasure mounting with every moment he looked.

“Our Prince is truly extraordinary!”

He could not help but voice his admiration.

He thought to himself: just how much is stored away in that head of Prince Ning’s? That he could come up with the scheme of borrowing arrows with straw figures…

What he did not know was that the idea had come from the military text Li Chi’s teacher had given him.

Li Chi had said that in the original story, the man had gone to borrow arrows and not gotten enough — they had simply never had enough to worry about going back for more. For their own purposes, the more the better.

The Chu Army dared not let the Ning Army reach the bank, and as long as the boats remained on the river, the arrows kept flying.

“Sound the horn — order the boats to reverse!”

At the sound of the horn, the Ning Army boats on the river began slowly turning around.

One side bristling with arrows — swing around and let the other side collect some too. Every last boat came back loaded to the gunwales.

“Commander, this cannot go on.”

One of Yuwen Jing’s subordinates spoke urgently. “The Ning Army boats have stopped tens of yards from the bank. We are simply handing them our arrows.”

Yuwen Jing thought for a moment and agreed — this was no way to continue.

He called out, “Pass the order: archers hold fire. If the Ning Army boats do not close on the bank, stop shooting.”

The order went down the line, and the Chu Army archers gradually fell silent.

On the Ning Army’s boats, Dantai Pojing actually laughed out loud.

“Ah…”

A long breath of satisfaction. “Fighting under Prince Ning is such a pleasure.”

“Report!”

Someone called out. “The forward boats report that the Chu Army has stopped shooting!”

Dantai Pojing said, “If they have stopped, press forward — but not too far. Keep the pressure on and force them to shoot again.”

So the Ning Army boats advanced again. When the Chu Army saw them actually coming on, the archers opened up once more.

“Sound the withdrawal!”

Dantai Pojing decided the moment was right — time to unload and go back for more.

The withdrawal horn sounded, and the Ning Army boats peeled away one by one, disappearing back into the thin mist on the river.

“The Ning Army has retreated!”

A cheer went up through the Chu Army.

Dantai Pojing stood on the large vessel, still far away, and he heard it.

He smiled. “I wonder what they think there is to cheer about. They are acting as though they have already won.”

—

On the Chu Army’s side.

Song Dejing came rushing up to Yuwen Jing. “The Commander sends me to ask: how does the situation stand here?”

Yuwen Jing gave a brief account of the Ning Army’s attack. That made one more person with a headache.

Song Dejing thought to himself: *these Ning Army people — how can they fight like this?* Fighting is fighting — but stealing our arrows is going too far.

Yuwen Jing then asked Song Dejing how things stood inside the city. Song Dejing’s face was full of worry.

Song Dejing shook his head. “It is not going well. The Commander has sent me to ask whether forces can be spared to reinforce.”

Yuwen Jing thought it over. “The Ning Army here does not look like they are truly trying to force a crossing — they are only tying down our forces. I will detach a unit for you. Take it back and support the Commander.”

Song Dejing acknowledged quickly and followed Yuwen Jing to arrange the troops.

Dantai Pojing, estimating the timing, gave his order: “Send in the second wave!”

The horns sounded again, low and long. The second Ning Army flotilla began moving toward the northern bank.

Before Song Dejing and Yuwen Jing had even finished dividing the forces, word came that the Ning Army was crossing again.

The two men hurried back to the waterfront, only to find the Ning Army doing exactly the same thing as before — boats stopping tens of yards from the bank.

The Ning Army’s approach here was both relentless and infuriating.

“Do not worry about what happens on the river. Take your troops and go reinforce the Commander.”

Yuwen Jing finished speaking to Song Dejing, then ordered his subordinates to pull out two units.

He kept thirty thousand to hold the riverbank, and gave Song Dejing twenty thousand to swing around and close on Tang Pidi’s Ning Army from the rear.

In the darkness, not far from the Chu Army’s position, several Ning Army scouts lay flat in the undergrowth, watching the Chu Army split its forces.

“Get word back immediately — tell the General that the Chu Army has divided its forces toward Anyang City!”

The squad leader gave the order, and two scouts immediately rose, slipped back a distance, found horses hidden in a ditch, mounted, and rode off at full speed.

Before long, some thirty miles from the Chu Army’s riverbank camp.

The scouts came riding back hard and reined in before two generals with a salute. “Both Generals — the Chu Army has split off forces heading back toward Anyang City!”

The two men looked at each other, then broke into simultaneous laughter.

“The General Commander’s planning is truly something else!”

Cheng Wujie said, “I’ll take one unit and hit their riverbank line. You take one unit and cut off their retreat.”

Gao Zhen laughed loudly. “You’re older than me, so I should be the one to attack. You go cut off the retreat.”

Before Cheng Wujie could respond, Gao Zhen was already spurring his horse forward. “Follow me — attack!”

Cheng Wujie thought: *I’m older than you, so what — now that’s a crime?*

*You’re younger — does that make you right?*

The Ning Army had never been entirely on the southern bank of the river.

When the Chu Army under Yuwen Yingxiong had swept the area after learning that Yuwen Shangyun had faked his drowning, the Ning Army had spent two or three days searching in those same waters.

What that search had actually covered, though, was Dantai Pojing using the opportunity — under Tang Pidi’s orders — to quietly divide his forces.

The troops he brought across the river numbered fewer than thirty thousand. The other two units had remained on the northern bank.

One unit under Gao Zhen, one unit under Cheng Wujie — both had marched northward along the Nanping River for dozens of miles before going to ground in concealment.

When Yuwen Yingxiong swept the area for Ning Army forces, he had searched eastward. He had never searched north.

He had no idea that those two Ning Army units had been lying in wait there for days.

In the darkness, at a single thunderous shout from Cheng Wujie, his unit launched its assault.

Yuwen Jing, holding his defensive line on the riverbank, could never have imagined that there were Ning Army forces anywhere on the northern bank.

The Chu Army formation was blindsided.

The two Ning Army units struck from both flanks — one driving toward the water’s edge, one cutting into the Chu Army’s rear. A pincer attack, front and back.

In the darkness, with no way to know how many Ning soldiers were pouring in, and with the entire defensive formation oriented toward the southern bank, the Chu Army collapsed.

Gao Zhen and Cheng Wujie — once the blood was up, they had no interest in keeping to their assigned directions. Both men drove back and forth through the Chu Army formation as though it were made of cloth, slashing through it once, then wheeling around to do it again, and again.

Like two blades cutting and cutting through a mass of men.

In less than an hour, the Chu Army under Yuwen Jing was routed.

Seeing the Chu Army’s riverbank defense in full collapse, Dantai Pojing gave the order immediately. The river crossing began.

Over twenty thousand Ning soldiers came across from the southern bank — more tigers into the fray.

On a rise, Yuwen Jing watched as the men around him grew fewer and fewer, until only a few hundred remained, surrounded by Ning Army forces on all sides, the rise ringed completely.

Gao Zhen looked at the remnant Chu soldiers still holding on, and felt a kind of respect for them. He ordered his men to shout out that any who surrendered would be spared.

A ring of Ning Army soldiers called out in unison:

“Surrender and live!”

“Surrender and live!”

Yuwen Jing stood at the highest point, raised his hand, and wiped the blood from his face, then shook his hand. Drops of blood flew outward.

“Chu Army soldiers do not surrender!”

A few hundred men felt the same surge rise through them and called back together: “Chu Army soldiers do not surrender!”

Yuwen Jing parted the men around him and strode to the front of his formation.

His battle armor was soaked through — he could not tell if it was the blood of Ning soldiers or that of the Chu soldiers who had fallen beside him.

He walked to the front with his saber in hand, looked at Gao Zhen, and shouted across the distance, “Two armies fight — each serves his own lord!”

He paused before continuing: “I have respect for the Ning Army and its valor. I ask that you honor us in turn as soldiers. The men of Yuwen Jing fight to the last and do not yield!”

He cupped his hands. “I ask that the Ning Army grant us this!”

Gao Zhen stepped forward. “Your wish is granted — attack!”

“Hah!”

The Ning Army answered as one and charged up the rise.

Gao Zhen reached the foot of the rise, seized a shield from the nearest soldier, held his saber in the other hand, and charged at the head of the assault, shouting as he ran: “No arrows — give these Chu Army brothers a proper send-off!”

“General’s order — no arrows!”

Riders called it out as they swept around the perimeter.

“Send the Chu Army brothers off with honor — attack!”

On the rise, Yuwen Jing tightened his grip on his saber, looked back at these few hundred Chu soldiers, drew a long breath, and then turned to face the Ning Army surging up from below.

“Dachu garrison troops — charge!”

“Kill!”

The hundreds of Chu soldiers followed him, charging downhill to meet the enemy.

A cloud drifted across the sky, covering the moon.

When it passed, the moonlight fell once more across the land.

The rise was covered in bodies.

Gao Zhen stood before the body of Yuwen Jing, crouched down, and quietly straightened the iron helmet on his head.

He rose, raised his hand, and struck his chest armor once.

All around him, the Ning Army soldiers raised their hands and struck their chest armor in unison.

*Boom. Boom boom.*

It was the greatest honor they could offer their enemy.

“Strike toward Anyang City!”

Gao Zhen turned and mounted his horse. “Ning Army combat troops — charge!”

*”Hah!”*

*”Hah!”*

*”Hah!”*