Fang Xidao looked at Lü Wuman and asked, “Why has Master Lü not yet made a move?”
Lü Wuman answered with a question of his own. “And why has the Thousand-Commander not yet made a move?”
Fang Xidao smiled slightly. “I don’t yet know the lay of the land here, so I’m still working out a plan of escape. Haven’t found a completely reliable one yet.”
Lü Wuman said, “Since you’re not certain of success, why did you come at all?”
Fang Xidao gestured toward the two bodies on the floor. “Before I saw how those two were killed, I had some confidence.”
Lü Wuman gave a nod. “Fair enough. I’ve heard that every soldier in Prince Ning’s Censorate Army is a formidable fighter, and that to rise to Thousand-Commander is no small matter. That is precisely why I was willing to sit down and talk with you.”
Fang Xidao moved to a seat to one side and picked up the freshly brewed tea. He took a sip.
“Such a fine tea — it would be wasteful not to drink it.”
He asked Lü Wuman, “Master Lü still hasn’t answered — why haven’t you made a move?”
Lü Wuman replied, “I wanted to try something.”
Fang Xidao asked, “Try what?”
Lü Wuman walked to the seat across from Fang Xidao and sat. He poured himself a cup of tea as well.
He spoke as he poured. “It’s a very fine tea indeed — brought from Yangzhou in the south of the Yangtze. With the wars and upheaval, transporting it was no simple matter.”
He drank, and let out a slow breath.
Lü Wuman said, “Let me tell you a story. You’re in no hurry, and I’m in no hurry — we have time to spare.”
Fang Xidao made a gesture of invitation.
Lü Wuman said, “Before the story, may I first ask the Thousand-Commander two questions?”
Fang Xidao smiled. “Ask freely — I’ll answer what I know.”
Lü Wuman gave Fang Xidao an appreciative look. “If all of Prince Ning’s people carry themselves with the Thousand-Commander’s composure, they are truly remarkable.”
He raised his cup and blew gently on the surface.
“First question: did the Thousand-Commander follow the trail here because of the matter with Jinzhou Prefect Zhou Qixi?”
Fang Xidao said, “It seems rather one-sided if only I answer your questions. What if we trade — I answer one of yours, and you answer one of mine? Equal footing. You ask me a question, I ask you one.”
Lü Wuman said, “I had also heard that Prince Ning’s people share one particular trait — they never accept a disadvantage. Now I’m beginning to see why.”
He smiled. “Very well. One for one, then. Thousand-Commander, please go first.”
Fang Xidao replied, “Yes — I followed the trail here because of Magistrate Zhou’s situation. My prince instructed me to investigate the area surrounding Jinzhou, starting with the underground money houses.”
Lü Wuman gave a satisfied nod. “Your turn to ask.”
Fang Xidao said, “I was thinking of the dossiers in the Censorate’s records. Before heading north, I took the time to review them. Over the past year or so, across the dozens of prefectures and counties of northern Jizhou, six or seven officials have died unexpectedly — some drowned accidentally, some died of illness, some were taken by natural disaster…”
He hadn’t even finished the question before Lü Wuman nodded. “Yes, that was me — though to be precise, it began a year and a half ago.”
Fang Xidao acknowledged this and said, “Your turn to ask, Master Lü.”
Lü Wuman said, “I had originally meant to ask whether the Thousand-Commander thought I had operated in Jinzhou alone — but now that seems unnecessary. So… it’s the Thousand-Commander’s turn again.”
Fang Xidao thought to himself that this man did indeed have a certain bearing to him.
He thought for a moment, then asked, “You are attempting to control the prefectures and counties of northern Jizhou — is it to hollow out Prince Ning’s foundation? And if so, whose people are you? The imperial court’s? Prince Wu’s? Or some other rebel faction?”
Lü Wuman said, “That is more than one question — the Thousand-Commander is being rather clever. But I will answer honestly all the same. First: our control over the prefectures and counties of northern Jizhou is not to undermine Prince Ning’s foundation. On the contrary, it is to assist him. Second: we serve no one. In all the land north of the Yangtze, the only person who merits our regard is Prince Ning. South of the Yangtze, the only one who merits our regard is a man named Li Xionghu.”
Fang Xidao frowned slightly. “South of the Yangtze, rebel leaders are as numerous as flies. Li Xionghu may appear the strongest, but he is not necessarily the most formidable. Why would only he merit your regard?”
Lü Wuman’s tone was flat. “Because he has not yet been brought under control.”
Fang Xidao had been trained with great discipline — yet even he could not suppress a change in expression. Lü Wuman’s words carried a depth of implication.
Among those who rivaled Li Xionghu in the south, the foremost was surely Yang Xuanji. Yet Lü Wuman said Li Xionghu merited their regard because he had not yet been controlled. The implication was clear — even Yang Xuanji might already be under their influence?
Fang Xidao asked, “Could you just be boasting?”
Lü Wuman sighed lightly. “What a waste of a question. I’ll let that one slide — ask me another.”
Fang Xidao smiled and said, “Fair enough. Then a useful one: why did you say you wanted to try something — what exactly were you trying?”
Lü Wuman replied, “I wanted to see if I could win you over. Winning over a man like you would be far more valuable than winning over a Jinzhou prefect.”
Fang Xidao frowned.
Lü Wuman continued, “I can give you a guarantee. Our strength is beyond anything you can imagine.”
“If I told you it is enough to turn the entire Central Plains upside down, you might take it for boasting…”
He looked at Fang Xidao and said, “But if I told you it was we who built the Chu dynasty’s throne — would you take that for boasting?”
Fang Xidao replied, “Of course.”
Lü Wuman said earnestly, “At your current position and vantage point, you likely have neither the means nor the perspective to perceive this — but in truth, this world, regardless of which dynasty sits the throne or which man reigns as emperor, is controlled. It always has been.”
He raised his cup and took a sip, moistening his throat.
“But some of those who are controlled know it. Others do not. Who is permitted to know, and who is not — that is our decision.”
“Take the analogy I just used: did the founding emperor of Dachu know that he was, in fact, being controlled? Did he know that his founding of Dachu, his ascension to the throne — were all arranged in the shadows by another hand?”
Lü Wuman smiled and said, “These things I can say to the Thousand-Commander, but I would not say them to Prince Ning.”
“Because Prince Ning may one day become emperor. And if the man who wears the crown learns that there are those who pull the strings behind him — that he is merely a puppet on a string — it wounds his dignity. A man with a fiercer temper might even want to fight to the death to root us out…”
He rose and began pacing as he spoke. “Let me be direct with the Thousand-Commander: we have existed for a thousand years, tracing our roots to before the Zhou dynasty. Even the Zhou emperor was a man we chose.”
Fang Xidao forced a contemptuous laugh. “Master Lü truly has a gift for storytelling.”
Lü Wuman glanced back at him and sighed softly. “As I expected — when speaking to a man whose position and horizons are insufficient, comprehension is difficult.”
He walked to the window and gazed out at the refined courtyard beyond, letting out a long, slow breath.
“Let me give you an example.”
Lü Wuman said, “Who was the founding emperor of the Zhou dynasty? It was Zhao Pingsheng — but he was not the one who opened the dynasty. The man who truly opened it was his elder brother, Zhao Pingzhou.”
“Zhao Pingzhou broke through enemy lines, defeated his rivals, and stood on the verge of founding a new dynasty — and then fell gravely ill. He was only thirty years old, and he had no heir, so he had no choice but to pass the throne to his younger brother Zhao Pingsheng.”
“That was because…”
Lü Wuman glanced back at Fang Xidao and said, “Zhao Pingzhou had learned of us. He tried to resist, tried to break free — and so he could not be permitted to live. And so he died.”
His tone was composed and even, yet what it conveyed struck with an almost incomprehensible force.
“One more example.”
Lü Wuman said, “Of every generation of Dachu emperors — did every successor truly reflect the choice of the emperor who came before him?”
Fang Xidao scoffed. “Your boasting is getting bigger and bigger.”
Lü Wuman shook his head. “Thousand-Commander, you’re wrong — let me explain it clearly. The succession rule of the Dachu imperial family for installing a crown prince was what?”
“Primogeniture through the legitimate line.”
“And yet… did every eldest legitimate son survive long enough to take the throne? Does the Thousand-Commander know Dachu’s history well?”
He went on: “If the eldest is unsuitable, he dies — we take the second. If the second is unsuitable, he dies too — the third steps up. And so on…”
“If the emperor himself cannot decide — what does he do? He turns to his ministers, to the senior officials at court… But what if every one of those ministers, every one of those powerful officials at court, were people under our control?”
Lü Wuman let out another long exhale — not from displeasure, but from a kind of quiet, restrained pride.
“Thousand-Commander — many things you cannot imagine, not because they don’t exist, but because you have not yet risen to the height from which they can be seen.”
Lü Wuman said, “Every generation of Dachu emperors believed that all the decisions they made, every decree they issued, came from their own will — but in truth, they were all the pitiable ones…”
Lü Wuman returned to his seat, drank his tea, and paused.
“Thousand-Commander — in all the hundreds of years since Dachu’s founding, there has been only one emperor who was not chosen by us.”
He spoke with a note of regret. “That is the current Emperor, Yang Jing. He was an accident. By rights, he should never have been emperor. In the generation of his father, Dachu was already supposed to fall.”
Inside, Fang Xidao’s mind was surging like a tide — yet he kept up his facade of disbelief.
He asked, “Doesn’t what you just said contradict itself? If you were the beneficiaries, why would you let Dachu collapse step by step?”
Lü Wuman said, “Because we decided Dachu was no longer viable, and so we saw it off. We have our moments of helplessness too — in its first hundred and fifty years, what was Dachu? Strong, prosperous, at peace…”
“And after that? After that, the Yang line undid itself. Their descendants were largely incompetent and without learning. We gave everything we had to shore Dachu up — we managed to extend it by another two hundred years. And after that? When there was no one left to choose, we decided — let it end.”
Lü Wuman said, “Thousand-Commander, let me be even more direct. Prince Ning is currently a candidate — and so I have come to manage affairs on Prince Ning’s side. A year and a half ago, he was not yet a candidate. At that time, he was truly still small.”
“Prince Ning, honestly speaking, is not the most suitable candidate. Neither is Li Xionghu. But there is no perfect option — and in the end we must attend to both.”
“The most suitable candidate is Yang Xuanji. The so-called ancestral connections and powerful backers standing behind him are all ours.”
“Yet I am here with Prince Ning’s faction, not Yang Xuanji’s — do you know why? Because among ourselves, the competition is real. We contest with each other in earnest, with live blades.”
“I am backing Prince Ning. If he wins, those on the other side are pressed down by me — and I stand to become the figure who operates behind the curtain. That is what I am working toward.”
“Since I have been assigned here, I must give it everything I have with complete sincerity — otherwise I am eliminated, and elimination means death.”
“Thousand-Commander, you think Prince Ning is surrounded by talent? Let me tell you: there are sixteen people like me across the field. I am only one of sixteen.”
Lü Wuman asked, “Now do you believe me, Thousand-Commander?”
Without waiting for an answer, he continued: “The Thousand-Commander may also pretend to believe me, pretend to be won over, and then go back and report all of this to Prince Ning.”
Fang Xidao narrowed his eyes. “So you have a way to stop that?”
Lü Wuman smiled — with boundless confidence.
“We can stop not only you, but Prince Ning himself as well. Do you remember the story I just told you about the founding of the Zhou dynasty?”
Lü Wuman said, “Prince Ning is currently a candidate — at least he is that much. If you go back and speak of this, Prince Ning will not even remain a candidate.”
Fang Xidao gave a contemptuous smile. “I’m quite curious — if you’ve been around for a thousand years building all of this, how are your methods of intimidation still so crude?”
Lü Wuman shook his head. “Thousand-Commander, you misunderstand. This is not intimidation. This is a notification.”
He gestured. “Come with me. What I have to show you and tell you next — that is what will actually change your mind.”
Fang Xidao stood. “Then let’s go and see. Whatever it is that has made so many able and worthy men throughout history willing to become instruments of your organization.”
“Thousand-Commander, you are wrong again.”
Lü Wuman led the way forward, speaking as he walked. “The ministers were not the puppets — the emperors were. The ministers were the instruments.”
He glanced back at Fang Xidao. “If the Thousand-Commander agrees in a moment, you will be a future minister of great power.”
—