Xu Ji naturally knew the abilities of this old classmate and fellow townsman of his. Seeing him smile, a feeling of delight rose in Xu Ji’s heart.

“Tell me quickly — have you thought of a way out of this?”

Xu Ji asked urgently.

The handsome young scholar smiled and said: “To resolve a problem, don’t start by examining the problem itself — start by examining what capabilities you possess. Before doing anything at all, you must first know yourself.”

Xu Ji said: “Stop keeping me in suspense. I’ve heard you say that before. What I want to know right now is what method you’ve thought of.”

The young scholar smiled: “You’re always so impatient, completely incapable of settling yourself… Since we’re thinking about what you have at your disposal, and the thing you have in the greatest abundance is armor and weapons — armor can break an enemy. Do I really need to spell it out?”

Xu Ji’s expression shifted constantly as he turned over in his mind what “armor can repel the enemy” actually meant.

The young scholar sighed: “Truly a case of the one caught up in the situation being the blindest?”

He rose to his feet and began pacing slowly around the room as he spoke: “You know that the great bandit of Qingzhou, Gan Daode, is leading his army into Jizhou with at least three hundred thousand troops — how did that information reach you?”

Xu Ji replied: “Naturally through intelligence gathered by Prince Ning’s spy network, then relayed as quickly as possible to all parties. I received the report here as well.”

The young scholar said: “This so-called intelligence is, in the end, nothing more than hearsay — hearsay that Gan Daode is coming with three hundred thousand troops. Whether it’s actually three hundred thousand is not confirmed.”

Xu Ji nodded: “But it’s unlikely to be off by that much.”

The young scholar said: “You just said yourself that your storehouse holds at least a hundred and fifty thousand sets of armor. You can recruit men from Fengzhou — any able-bodied man will do. Your treasury is short on funds anyway; recruit a hundred and fifty thousand men, give each one twenty taels of silver, and simply tell them they’re being hired to escort armor to Jizhou and ensure it isn’t seized along the way. Give them ten taels upon departure and ten more upon return. If all goes smoothly, they’ll reach Jizhou in three months at most — which, by the timing, is precisely when the Qingzhou bandit forces would be arriving in Jizhou. If the bandit army sees what appears to be over a hundred thousand troops arriving — or even just hears about it — do you think they won’t give it a second thought?”

Xu Ji’s eyes flickered with uncertainty as he asked: “You want to deceive the bandit forces into believing that Grand General Tang Pidi has turned his army back to Jizhou?”

The young scholar said: “Precisely.”

Xu Ji said: “But doing this would cost at least three million taels of silver…”

The young scholar laughed and swore at him: “You truly are a miser. Three million taels of silver — if it can buy Jizhou City’s peace and safety, do you think that’s a loss or a gain?”

Xu Ji sat in silence, turning the matter over in his mind, unable to reach a decision.

After a moment he looked at the young scholar and said: “Jingya, those hundred and fifty thousand sets of armor — the Grand General issued military orders long ago. They’re to be sent south to the front lines in two months…”

The young scholar shot him a sideways glance: “You — you want to accomplish great things and yet you flinch at every step. You want to solve the problem and yet you weigh every risk before and behind. I’m done trying to persuade you. Do as you see fit.”

Seeing him about to leave, Xu Ji hurriedly grabbed him: “Since when are you any easier to deal with yourself? Back when we were studying, anyone who didn’t follow your advice, you simply refused to engage with them.”

The young scholar said: “It’s not that I ignore anyone who won’t listen to me. It’s those who ask my opinion and then have no intention of following it — those are the ones I stop engaging with. Because such people are truly not worth my time.”

Xu Ji knew this was a dig at himself. He let out a helpless sigh and said: “The position I’m in right now is genuinely awkward. If this succeeds, naturally there’s nothing more to say, but if it fails…”

The young scholar sighed again: “Fine, fine. Consider it as though I never came and never said anything.”

Xu Ji grabbed him again: “I’ll listen to you — I’ll do everything you say, isn’t that enough?”

The young scholar shook his head: “What I’m worried about is this nature of yours — plenty of courage to think, not enough to act; and even when you do act, you’ll second-guess yourself at every turn. Sooner or later you’ll ruin yourself over this.”

Xu Ji sighed: “I fall short of you in everything — are you satisfied now?… That said, I’ve written you letters, sent men to find you, invited you to serve under Prince Ning’s banner, and yet you’ve always refused.”

Letters — does he just say he wrote them without actually having done so?

The young scholar didn’t expose this, only smiled and said: “This temperament of mine — I cannot afford to offend others, yet I cannot help but offend them. So it’s better for me to remain a free-roaming wanderer. What you do, I cannot do; what I do, you cannot do either — ha ha ha… don’t try to talk me into it again.”

Xu Ji nodded: “I won’t, I won’t. But do remember — if there ever comes a day when you wish to enter official service, come serve under Prince Ning. Anywhere else would waste your great talents.”

The young scholar curled his lip: “Those words of yours are not spoken from the heart.”

Xu Ji said: “Why do you say that?”

The young scholar said: “You want to persuade me to come serve under Prince Ning’s banner for two reasons: first, you believe I can be of use to the Prince; second, there would be credit to you for the recommendation. But in your heart you also know that if someone like me were to arrive under Prince Ning’s command, I would likely overshadow you, and you’d be outstripped by me in everything, in every regard, just as always… No good, no good — deeply no good.”

Xu Ji sighed: “You were unlikable back when we were studying, and you’re still unlikable now.”

The young scholar laughed: “Just say directly that I’m insufferable as a person… Even so, thank you — at least you have the nerve to say it out loud. Some people don’t even dare to say it.”

He folded his hands in a parting gesture: “All the same, I must take my leave now. Otherwise you’ll ask me about any number of trivial things, and it will be utterly tiresome.”

Xu Ji said: “How does anything under heaven become trivial in your mouth?”

The young scholar said: “Things that have nothing to do with me are naturally not pressing… Even if you made a pretense of keeping me to share a drink, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy that drink in peace. At the very least you’d want me to help you refine this scheme of impersonating the Ning Army — and I simply won’t.”

He clasped his hands together, turned, and walked away.

Xu Ji watched that fellow stroll away with such easy unconcern, and let out a long, heavy sigh.

Xu Ji murmured to himself: “You were right — I am indeed afraid that you’ll overshadow me in everything…”

He had actually understood the meaning in the young scholar’s words.

Spend three million taels of silver — if it resolves the siege of Jizhou, wouldn’t it be worth it?

And besides — if Grand General Tang Pidi were to learn that the hundred and fifty thousand sets of armor had been used in a stratagem to break the bandit army’s assault on Jizhou City, would the Grand General truly hold it against him?

Yet he still wanted to keep that young scholar here. Even though he had indeed been seen through, having him stay would still be better than letting him go.

Xu Ji let out a long sigh, then turned and walked out the door. As he walked, without realizing it, his steps gradually grew lighter.

If he could truly use a hundred and fifty thousand commoners — even if he couldn’t muster the full hundred and fifty thousand, even if only a hundred thousand of them were enough to drive back the Qingzhou bandit forces — the credit for such a feat would surely weigh heavily in Prince Ning’s heart.

The more he thought about it, the lighter his steps became.

Outside the gates of the prefectural magistrate’s compound, the young scholar boarded his carriage. The small book-boy who doubled as his driver, waiting outside the gates, was visibly surprised to see him emerge so soon.

“Didn’t Master say he was going to look up an old classmate and try to get a meal and drinks out of him?”

The small book-boy climbed up onto the carriage and flicked the reins. The old horse plodded forward, pulling the carriage slowly along.

Inside the carriage, the young scholar gave a quiet sigh: “I only wanted to cadge a drink off him, but he had plans to do me harm. Better to leave as quickly as possible.”

The small book-boy asked: “Why does Master say that?”

The young scholar said: “I came only to catch up with an old friend. Out of consideration for our years of study together, I offered him a plan. Yet he kept insisting that I stay on and work alongside him, to serve under Prince Ning’s banner — if that’s not him trying to harm me, what is it?”

The small book-boy didn’t quite understand. He asked: “Before we came here, didn’t Master also say that looking at the world as it stands now, Prince Ning is the only one worthy of being called a true lord? Since Master has already set his heart on going to Prince Ning’s side, wouldn’t staying on be ideal? Xu Ji and Master are classmates — he would naturally lend Master a helping hand.”

The young scholar smiled: “His intentions are not pure… I thought of a plan for him, and he wants to keep me not by Prince Ning’s side, but by his own. If this plan ends up helping him greatly, then all is well. But if the plan fails — and the hundred and fifty thousand sets of armor are lost along with it — when Prince Ning demands an explanation, he will naturally shift all the blame onto me.”

He shook his head: “Back when we were studying together, that man was always too clever for his own good — and it was only ever a petty cleverness at that. I had thought that these past two years might have matured him somewhat, that his character might have changed. Looking at it now, it seems I was the one who thought too much.”

The small book-boy, hearing this, also sighed: “If it’s because of this one person that Master doesn’t go to Prince Ning’s side, that would be a real shame.”

The young scholar smiled: “What is there to be ashamed about? I don’t like being constrained by others — I’d never last long anywhere. Even if Prince Ning is the rarest of wise lords in all the realm, he still wouldn’t take to my temperament. It’s better to roam the world freely.”

The small book-boy made a sound of acknowledgment: “Then I’ll just keep traveling the world with Master forever.”

The young scholar said: “You’re sharp-witted. When you’re a little older, I might send you to serve under Prince Ning’s banner.”

The small book-boy shook his head: “I won’t go. Anywhere Master isn’t — it would all be dull.”

The young scholar burst out laughing. He stretched out inside the carriage, reached over for a flask of wine: “Just the two of us, happy wherever we go — that is the finest way to live.”

The small book-boy laughed too, then said: “It’s only a pity that Master, with such great talent, could order and pacify the realm.”

The young scholar sighed: “This little ability of mine amounts to nothing. You never saw my own Master in his prime…”

He leaned back, languid and at ease.

He said: “If you had seen what my Master was like — truly seen it — you would understand that what I know is nothing more than the barest scraps of his learning… I only wonder where he’s gone.”

The small book-boy said wistfully: “Master’s Master must be a person like an immortal — and people like immortals naturally go to places like immortal paradises to live in seclusion, passing their days in elegance and refinement, so sublime that even true immortals would envy him.”

The young scholar said: “You don’t understand. First — my Master is not an old man. He looks only a few years older than me at most. Second — even if my Master did go off somewhere to live in seclusion, he would absolutely not be living any kind of elegant, refined life. He, ah…”

The young scholar suddenly smiled, murmuring almost to himself: “He’d probably be happiest finding a place to raise pigs.”

The small book-boy was dumbfounded.

The young scholar lay back, crossed his legs, and thought of the days spent with his Master — those were the days of true, unbounded joy.

There was no one else in this world who could compare to his Master. As for immortals… how could any immortal possibly compare to a person like him?

“Perhaps…”

The small book-boy said: “Let’s go look for Master’s Master.”

The young scholar paused, then smiled: “All right. Then let’s head north. My Master once said he was going to Jizhou — whether he’s still there, I don’t know. If he’s not, then he’ll be hard to find.”

The small book-boy said: “Didn’t you say Master’s Master likes raising pigs? Then whoever raises the best pigs must be Master’s Master.”

The young scholar burst out laughing.

He lay there and said: “If my Master heard you say that, he’d probably think you, you foolish creature, actually had a touch of wisdom about you.”

He closed his eyes to rest, and without meaning to, found himself thinking again about Xu Ji’s behavior just now. Smiling at the thought, he sighed once more.

That Xu Ji — with a disposition like that, there would likely be serious trouble ahead.

So his one and only thought right now was this: keep his distance from that fellow.

—