Several months later. West Capital City, Yanzhou.

Cao Lie was remarking that the weather had finally turned a little warmer, and that many affairs were at last approaching their final resolution.

Lu Wuman had been killed. Mei Wujiu now stood alone at the top, and within the Shanhai Army his authority had grown more commanding than ever.

And the more commanding he became, the more insufferably arrogant his son Mei Yan naturally grew in turn.

Of course, within the Shanhai Army Mei Yan still didn’t dare to go too far — but when it came to bullying the common people within the city, he showed not the slightest restraint.

The brazier in the room could finally be removed. In all the months Cao Lie had been in Yanzhou, every day felt as though the room were so dry it could burst into flame from a single stray spark.

This kind of dryness was utterly unknown in Youzhou — it felt as though every drop of moisture in his skin were being evaporated away.

Mu Fengliu came in from outside. Seeing the Young Lord standing in the courtyard, he quickly stepped forward and bowed. “Greetings, Young Lord.”

Cao Lie gave a sound of acknowledgment. “Whenever sir comes, he always brings good news with him. What good news is it today?”

Mu Fengliu shook his head. “Young Lord, today’s news is not good.”

Cao Lie asked: “Has Mei Wujiu been treating sir poorly?”

Mu Fengliu shook his head again. “No — Mei Wujiu is still very much deferential to me. His manner toward me has not changed.”

He looked at Cao Lie. “This unfavorable news — it may be that Jizhou has made a move first.”

“What do you mean?”

Cao Lie’s brow furrowed slightly. “You mean Li Chi intends to act against Yanzhou?”

Mu Fengliu said: “Acting may be overstating it, but the preliminary positioning — or rather, the preliminary aggravation — is already underway.”

He sat down, drank a sip of water, and continued: “Last month in Jinhui County — no one knows where the rumor came from, but word spread that on the fifteenth day of the month, the Shanhai Army was going to open the Jinhui County granary to distribute grain to the people in order to help them through the spring, fifty catties per person.”

Hearing this, Cao Lie’s expression shifted slightly.

“But when the fifteenth arrived, the people came flooding in from every direction and surrounded the Jinhui County granary — tens of thousands of people, wrapping the granary in layer after layer three rows deep…”

Mu Fengliu sighed. “But how could the Shanhai Army ever hand out grain to the common people? So chaos erupted immediately. When Mei Wujiu got word, he immediately mobilized fifteen thousand troops to go there — and only then managed to scatter the crowd of people who had already rioted and seized the county seat.”

“Not even half a month later — on the first day of this month, the same thing happened in Fuyang County. Tens of thousands of people, no one knows where they heard it from, also saying that the local government was going to open the granary and distribute grain. But the Shanhai Army’s people there handled it badly, quarreled with the crowd, and got beaten to death in the melee.”

Mu Fengliu said: “Mei Wujiu rushed more troops there to put down the disorder. They investigated for a long time but couldn’t figure out where the rumor had started.”

He looked at Cao Lie: “And just today, on my way back, I noticed a confectioner’s shop with its doors open. I thought about going in to buy some pastries for the Young Lord, and overheard people in there buzzing with talk — saying that on the fifteenth of this month, West Capital City was going to open the granaries and distribute grain…”

Mu Fengliu said: “Fuyang County is roughly twelve or thirteen hundred li from West Capital City, and Jinhui County is about fourteen or fifteen hundred li from West Capital. The people of West Capital don’t yet know what happened in those two places, and Mei Wujiu would not publicize it… So if Mei Wujiu can’t find a solution in time, I’m afraid when the fifteenth comes, trouble will erupt in West Capital too.”

Cao Lie let out a quiet sigh. “This is worthy of Li Chi… these moves, which are virtually impossible to guard against, are executed beautifully, and they are all jianghu moves at that…”

He looked at Mu Fengliu. “Has sir thought of a countermeasure?”

Mu Fengliu shook his head. “If all we wanted to do was stop people from going to the granary on the fifteenth, that wouldn’t be difficult. But this is only Li Chi’s opening move — what comes after is what’s truly hard to deal with.”

Cao Lie nodded. “You’re right… this is only his first move. The second move will be far more ruthless than the first.”

He asked Mu Fengliu: “Sir, you would agree — the moment Mei Wujiu takes the initiative to have people paste proclamations all over town announcing that there will be no grain distribution, Li Chi’s people’s next rumor will be that the granaries of the Shanhai Army throughout Yanzhou are all empty — there’s simply no grain to distribute.”

Mu Fengliu sighed. “I fear the story won’t stop there. It will twist and turn with many more chapters… I can already think of several.”

He said helplessly: “For instance — they could spread word among the common people again, saying that the Sea-Surge King Mei Wujiu truly did intend to distribute grain to the people — but then when the granaries were opened, it turned out they were all empty. Someone had evidently stolen and sold it all, and there is not a single granary in all of Yanzhou with any grain remaining.”

Cao Lie smiled helplessly as well. “Sir can think of that chapter, and so can Li Chi without a doubt — so that chapter will almost certainly appear.”

He rose and walked to the window, and smiled with a certain bitterness. “He truly walks a path no one else walks.”

Mu Fengliu said: “An ordinary man, wanting to destroy an enemy’s foundation, would most likely choose to spread rumors — saying Mei Wujiu is brutal and heartless, that he eats people alive, drinks their blood, whatever makes him sound most vile — painting Mei Wujiu in the darkest possible colors.”

“And yet this Li Chi — he uses a method of praising Mei Wujiu. He first lets the common people all know that Mei Wujiu is about to give them grain, so one can imagine how deeply grateful they would all be feeling toward Mei Wujiu.”

Cao Lie sighed: “And then the people go off one by one full of hope, and return one by one full of despair — and they’d curse Mei Wujiu’s ancestors back eight generations without a moment’s rest.”

He sighed again.

“If sir can’t think of a way to deal with this for the moment… I’m in the same position. This move of Li Chi’s is ruthless enough.”

Cao Lie said: “He laid out the play in full view, right in front of us. If we can’t parry it…”

He turned to look at Mu Fengliu. “This foundation we’re building in Yanzhou will be very nearly ruined.”

Mu Fengliu gave a sound of assent. “But we must still find a way quickly. Yanzhou does not belong to Mei Wujiu after all — it belongs to the Young Lord.”

Cao Lie paced in circles around the courtyard, brow tightly furrowed. Mu Fengliu, for the moment, did not dare open his mouth to interrupt.

He knew how sharp Cao Lie’s mind was, and he was equally certain that if there was anyone in this world who could stand as a true rival to Li Chi, it could only be the Young Lord.

Looking back now — when the Young Lord first encountered Li Chi in Youzhou, he had recognized Li Chi as a man of rare talent right away, and his judgment had been entirely accurate.

Later, on the day Li Chi departed Youzhou, the Young Lord had more or less discerned Li Chi’s true identity. When he returned, he spoke of Li Chi in the most glowing terms before the Mountain and River Seal’s door lord.

And so all that came after was set into motion — which ultimately led to the rebellion of Mei Wujiu and Lu Wuman.

Looking even further — one could see that just as the Young Lord had seen through Li Chi at the time, Li Chi had surely done the same.

Li Chi must have recognized it in that very moment — that the carefree, laughing, apparently dissolute Young Lord was only a facade.

“I have it.”

Cao Lie, who had been circling, suddenly had his eyes light up.

Cao Lie looked at Mu Fengliu. “Sir can go now and find Mei Wujiu, and tell him the countermeasure I’ve devised.”

Mu Fengliu immediately asked: “What solution has the Young Lord thought of?”

Cao Lie said: “Tell Mei Wujiu — to break Li Chi’s scheme is actually not so difficult. From tomorrow, issue orders to all county magistracies and government offices controlled by the Shanhai Army, and have them immediately post notices saying…”

He smiled. “Saying that it has been determined that a certain high-ranking general under the Sea-Surge King — or perhaps some important official — has been bought off by Jizhou’s Li Chi.”

“This person stole grain from the granaries with the aim of starving every man, woman, and child in Yanzhou — so that when the Jizhou Ning Army attacks Yanzhou, they will encounter no resistance whatsoever.”

“Li Chi’s plot is of the most vicious kind — his aim is to put everyone to death by famine. This individual who colluded with Li Chi has already been executed by the Sea-Surge King, and the stolen grain has been recovered in full…”

He looked at Mu Fengliu and said: “Have Mei Wujiu pick anyone at random and have them killed. Then issue orders everywhere to distribute some grain — however little — to the common people. When distributing the grain, tell the people: the Sea-Surge King will not let Li Chi’s vicious scheme succeed, and will ensure that the people of Yanzhou survive and live well. One move breaks Li Chi’s plan — and a second move turns around the Shanhai Army’s reputation among the people.”

Mu Fengliu’s eyes lit up, and he could not help clapping his hands together. “Young Lord, this plan is brilliant!”

Cao Lie said with a smile: “If I didn’t need to take Yanzhou, why would I go to all this trouble helping Mei Wujiu… Once this matter is resolved, Mei Wujiu’s time will be up. As for what to put out then…”

Mu Fengliu immediately finished the thought: “Post notices, let all of Yanzhou’s common people know: because the Sea-Surge King saw through Li Chi’s vicious scheme, Li Chi flew into a rage and sent an assassin to kill the Sea-Surge King.”

Cao Lie smiled and nodded. “First give the common people a little grain, and then Mei Wujiu dies… and just like that, the Shanhai Army’s name will turn around. Common people are the easiest to win over — give them a little benefit, and they will stand on your side.”

He looked at Mu Fengliu. “Isn’t that exactly what Li Chi does? His method of winning hearts — he uses it with great fluency.”

Mu Fengliu smiled. “The Young Lord’s plan is fully capable of breaking Li Chi’s scheme, and it smooths the path for Mei Yan’s accession so the people will accept him more readily.”

Cao Lie said: “Go quickly, sir.”

Three months later — just at the point Cao Lie had spoken of, the half-year deadline for bringing Yanzhou under control — word came from Yanzhou and reached Jizhou City. And when Li Chi received the news, his brow immediately creased.

“Intelligence from the network.”

Yu Jiuling said: “Mei Wujiu has been poisoned to death. Our people suspect that someone convinced Mei Wujiu’s son Mei Yan to put poison in the aged wine he offered his father.”

He too looked rather disgruntled as he said: “The moment Mei Wujiu died, his strategist — that fellow called Mu Fengliu — immediately installed Mei Yan as the new leader, inheriting the title of Sea-Surge King.”

He looked at Li Chi. “On top of that, our positioning throughout Yanzhou has been dismantled by Mu Fengliu as well.”

Li Chi shook his head slightly. “The one who broke this situation wasn’t Mu Fengliu — it was Cao Lie. He is someone who understands with great clarity how to make use of the human heart. That this play was broken by him means when it comes to Yanzhou, we will face far greater difficulty advancing…”

Li Chi raised a hand and gently pressed his fingers to his temple. “This is going to be harder to manage… trying to march into Yanzhou now will be considerably more difficult.”

Yu Jiuling said, vexed: “This Cao Lie does have some real ability. Should we not arrange more intelligence operatives to go to Yanzhou and try to dig him out?”

Li Chi said with a smile: “We only had a single strategy broken by someone else — it’s not as though we were out-maneuvered in our own home. We failed to out-maneuver someone else, that’s all. No need for you to be this crestfallen.”

He clapped Yu Jiuling on the shoulder. “Cao Lie was right under Mei Wujiu’s nose, and even Mei Wujiu couldn’t find him. It won’t be easy for us to dig him out…”

He walked to the window and stood there, hands clasped behind his back, looking out.

A moment later, Li Chi said: “The way things look now, he’s used the people of Yanzhou against us to create obstacles for us — but in time, he’ll probably be cursed bitterly by the people of Yanzhou… He’s the one who made Yanzhou difficult for us to bring under governance.”

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