Hearing Tang Pidi’s words, Young Marquess Cao Lie’s mouth twitched involuntarily.

He laughed awkwardly and said, “Prince Ning is… certainly direct.”

His phrasing was already generous enough, considering he was standing before Tang Pidi rather than back in Yuzhou City. With Li Chi’s Ning Army Grand General standing right in front of him — swords and spears arrayed like a forest — there were certain things one simply could not say aloud. No matter how vast the Cao family’s business empire, no amount of commerce could break through a hundred thousand troops.

Tang Pidi smiled. “My lord has always been this way. He never conceals anything.”

Cao Lie thought to himself: the fact that you can say that with such admiration is itself no small feat.

He smiled with mild resignation. “Since Prince Ning has spoken, and since the Cao family does indeed have some wealth…”

He ventured a tentative question: “What exactly does Prince Ning have in mind?”

With the Ning Army now camped outside the city gates, what Li Chi had told Tang Pidi to convey was far simpler — and far more brazen — than it appeared.

A single statement like that was enough to put Cao Lie’s heart at ease, and the hearts of the entire Cao household as well.

Prince Ning’s position was clear as day: pay up, and the Ning Army would not trouble the Cao family.

Cao Lie was no fool. He understood perfectly well that this was Li Chi’s way of repaying him for the protection he had shown Li Chi back in Anyang.

Had it been otherwise, how could the attitude toward the Cao family be so simple?

The Cao family’s backing was Prince Wu. Prince Wu’s wife was currently inside Yuzhou City. Had Li Chi moved against the Cao family and used her as a hostage to coerce Prince Wu into surrender, leaving aside whether Prince Wu would even capitulate, imagine what would have been done to the Cao family in the process.

Moreover, even without the Cao family’s cooperation, the garrison forces currently holding Yuzhou were stretched thin. For Tang Pidi to take the city would hardly be a fantasy.

With a single near-joking remark, Li Chi had made his intentions toward the Cao family perfectly clear.

Cao Lie had been raised in an environment steeped in this kind of thinking, and so he understood immediately: Li Chi was, out of consideration for him personally, extending a measure of protection to the Cao family.

Since Li Chi had offered that courtesy, he had to accept it.

“Young Marquess,” Tang Pidi said, “you seem to be in pain.”

He smiled. “So if you truly are in pain, you shouldn’t have asked that extra question just now.”

Cao Lie fell into thought for a moment, then rose, stepped back, and gave a slight bow. “I ask the Grand General to wait briefly while I return to consult with the senior members of my clan. I will give the Grand General a satisfactory answer.”

Tang Pidi nodded. “Very well.”

Cao Lie then took his leave and returned to Yuzhou City.

On the way back, one of his attendants asked, “This Ning Army Grand General Tang Pidi is quite aggressive. He seems to genuinely believe Yuzhou is his for the taking?”

Inside the carriage, Cao Lie shook his head. “It’s not that it’s simply his for the taking, but it’s not impossibly difficult either. Think about it — if Yuzhou holds out for a month and the Ning Army breaks through, what will their mood be? If Yuzhou holds out for three months and the Ning Army breaks through, what will their mood be then?”

He let out a slow breath. If it truly came to a three-month siege, after Tang Pidi finally broke through, there would be mass slaughter.

He sighed quietly. “Prince Ning is a man of great wisdom.”

The attendant, upon hearing this, felt somewhat indignant.

“Young Marquess,” he said, “this Prince Ning demands money so bluntly, and makes such an unsightly show of it. What great wisdom is that? It’s just shamelessness.”

Cao Lie frowned, nearly scolding him, then decided it was entirely pointless.

Instead he replied, “And that is precisely why he is Prince Ning, and you are my servant.”

—

One hour later. Inside the Cao family’s great estate in Yuzhou City.

Two people were seated in the positions of honor: one was Cao Lie’s great-uncle Cao Zansong, and the other was Cao Lie’s aunt — Prince Wu’s wife, the Princess Consort, Cao Qingli.

Within the Cao family, this old man who appeared to never concern himself with serious matters, now well past eighty years of age and yet still capable of taking an interest in women, actually held a position of absolute authority.

Had it not been for the great elder single-handedly standing behind Cao Lie’s father all those years ago, the leadership of the Cao family might have fallen into other hands entirely.

And so even now, whenever Cao Lie’s father returned to the Cao family estate in Yuzhou, the very first thing he did was rush over to pay his respects to the great elder.

“He doesn’t dare?”

The great elder narrowed his eyes and asked.

Cao Lie replied, “It’s not that he doesn’t dare. It’s that he doesn’t want to.”

He looked at Cao Zansong and said, “Great-Uncle, I’ve told you before — Li Chi is a clever man. The cleverest man I’ve ever met.”

The Princess Consort said, “If he’s so clever, why does he ask so directly for money? Wouldn’t it be more dignified to wait for you to offer something of your own accord?”

Cao Lie said, “Great-Uncle and Aunt, the two things you were worried about — Li Chi answered both with that single condition.”

“First: Aunt, you were worried that Li Chi would make trouble for you in order to coerce Prince Wu.”

Cao Lie turned to the Princess Consort. “Li Chi would never do that. He understands Prince Wu’s character too well.”

He left the rest of that thought unspoken, because continuing would have hurt his aunt’s feelings to some degree.

Prince Wu Yang Jiju would absolutely never capitulate to an enemy because his wife had been captured. He was Dachu’s Prince Wu. He was Dachu’s God of War.

In his heart, nothing and no one could rival the primacy of Dachu’s realm and dynasty.

To put it plainly, what Prince Wu valued most was not family ties, but his loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor of Dachu. You could not coerce him with his wife’s life. Even if every member of his family were killed before his eyes, blood and tears might fill his gaze — but he would never surrender.

So had Li Chi attempted such a thing, it would have genuinely earned him the scorn of the entire world. And if the Princess Consort were driven to her death by such pressure, Li Chi would never be able to earn the reverence of the people — not in this lifetime.

Cao Lie continued, “Second: Great-Uncle, you were worried that Li Chi would directly confiscate all of the Cao family’s assets.”

He paused to draw a breath before going on. “With a single offhand remark asking for money, Li Chi answered both concerns in one stroke.”

If he’s asking for payment, he’s not going to ransack your household.

Cao Zansong turned to the Princess Consort. “The boy is right. That does seem to be the logic. However…”

The Princess Consort let out a long sigh. “We simply didn’t anticipate that this Tang Pidi would arrive so quickly. Otherwise, I would have left Yuzhou long ago.”

The Princess Consort’s presence in Yuzhou was a liability, and so this was currently the most pressing matter — the one that needed resolving first.

As for silver, did the Cao family truly care about a bit of money?

“I’ll go back out and meet Grand General Tang Pidi again,” Cao Lie said, “and tell him the Cao family is willing to advance five million taels from the family coffers.”

“Five million?”

Cao Zansong’s expression shifted slightly.

That was no small sum. Five million taels — given the current state of Dachu’s crumbling conditions, to a rebel army, five million taels was enough to cover two months’ pay for a million soldiers.

Take the Jiangnan bandit Li Xiong-hu, for instance — he was probably unable to even pay his soldiers two and a half taels of silver a month.

“Very well.”

Cao Zansong said, “Go ahead and make that offer.”

Cao Lie rose, stepped back, bowed, then turned and departed.

This time it was not the roadside pavilion outside the city, but the Ning Army camp itself.

When word arrived that Cao Lie was requesting to meet again, the corner of Tang Pidi’s mouth curved upward involuntarily.

The Ning Army was perfectly capable of taking Yuzhou by force. The city was formidable, true, but its garrison was sparse and could not hold out indefinitely.

Yet if they could take Yuzhou without a single drop of blood being shed, it could spare ten thousand casualties. The lives of ten thousand Ning Army soldiers was no trivial matter.

“Show him in.”

Tang Pidi gave the order.

Shortly afterward, Cao Lie strode briskly into the central command tent.

“Young Marquess, that was fast.”

Tang Pidi smiled. “Have you eaten?”

Cao Lie shook his head. “In what mood would I be eating? I rushed back without even stopping for a sip of water.”

Tang Pidi instructed his personal guards: “Go boil two bowls of noodles.”

He gestured toward a chair. “Young Marquess, please sit.”

Once Cao Lie was seated, he said, “After I returned, I had people tally up all the liquid silver the Cao family currently has on hand in Yuzhou. It comes to approximately five million taels.”

Tang Pidi smiled but said nothing.

From the look on his face, Cao Lie could tell that five million taels was not going to satisfy him.

Tang Pidi had rapidly seized nearly half of Yuzhou’s territory. While this wasn’t a large-scale expansion of forces per se, he now commanded over a hundred thousand troops, and urgently needed substantial funds to reward his officers and men. If he intended to consolidate Yuzhou and recruit soldiers and horses from this point forward, five million taels was, in truth, genuinely insufficient for an army of this size.

Seeing Tang Pidi’s expression, Cao Lie thought for a moment and then said, “If this falls short of Prince Ning’s expectations, I can return and try to liquidate some assets and put together a bit more.”

He said, “But I do hope the Grand General can tell me plainly what Prince Ning has in mind.”

Tang Pidi smiled. “Prince Ning said that although he and Young Marquess did not spend a great deal of time together, he imagines that Young Marquess understands him better than most…”

“Prince Ning also said: if you see Young Marquess, have him make a guess. If he settles his mind and thinks it through, he’ll figure it out.”

Cao Lie furrowed his brow slightly.

He sat there, calling to mind the time he had spent with Li Chi in Anyang, turning over in his memory everything Li Chi had done, from beginning to end.

Then he let out a sigh.

Because he thought he might have figured it out.

He raised his head and looked at Tang Pidi, and ventured a careful question. “Prince Ning’s meaning… I think I understand. Is he saying… that no matter how much money Cao Lie is willing to offer, you’re to double it?”

Tang Pidi burst out laughing.

Cao Lie’s expression turned pained. He rose and began pacing back and forth inside the tent.

“Ten million is an enormous sum. It won’t be easy to put together…”

He stopped and looked at Tang Pidi. “Even though the Cao family’s businesses span all of Yuzhou, gathering every piece of liquid silver in the region is not something that can be done in a single day.”

“Moreover, over half of what the Cao family earns from trade goes toward supporting Prince Wu’s army, so there truly isn’t that much available.”

He said with evident difficulty, “Five million taels is already the absolute limit of what I can produce right now…”

Tang Pidi said, “Prince Ning said: the moment Young Marquess starts talking about how much is his absolute limit, that means he genuinely feels the pain — but can absolutely produce more.”

Cao Lie’s eyes went wide. “Grand General, what else did Prince Ning say? You might as well tell me everything at once.”

Tang Pidi glanced outside. His personal guards entered carrying two bowls of noodles, and he smiled. “Eat first. We’ll talk after.”

With something this weighty pressing on his mind — the lives of two or three thousand members of the Cao family in Yuzhou, the future of their entire enterprise — how could Cao Lie possibly enjoy a bowl of noodles?

Tang Pidi, however, had no such concerns. He sat down and ate.

Cao Lie made a show of taking a couple of bites before setting his chopsticks down, let out a heavy breath, and said, “Grand General, let’s discuss the matter at hand first.”

Tang Pidi finished the noodles, wiped his hands and mouth, and sat up straight before turning to face Cao Lie. “Prince Ning also said he can escort the Princess Consort with full honor and safety back to Prince Wu’s camp.”

Cao Lie’s expression changed sharply.

He was silent for a moment, then shook his head with rueful resignation. “So Prince Ning doesn’t just want money. He also wants a good name.”

Tang Pidi said evenly, “My lord sent me south with an army, through bloody battle after bloody battle, every soldier pouring out their lives. Since leaving Jizhou, we have fought and won every engagement, with none able to stand against us…”

He leaned forward slightly, and met Cao Lie’s eyes, saying each word with deliberate weight: “Am I unrivaled in battle just so I can haggle with you?”

Cao Lie’s face went pale.

Tang Pidi raised his teacup and took a sip, then continued in the same even tone. “Young Marquess. My lord is not with the army.”

Cao Lie rose, gave a deep bow, and said, “I understand the Grand General’s meaning now. Prince Ning must have a good reputation — but the Grand General does not need one.”

He clasped his hands together. “Grand General may enter the city tomorrow. Give me one month, and ten million in funds will be delivered to the Grand General’s camp.”

And so the Ning flag rose above the walls of Yuzhou City.

—