Without any warning at all, snow blanketed the earth, draping all of Jizhou City in silver and white.
The convoy had been in steady preparations for the move south, and everyone seemed to have come to terms with the arrangement.
So everyone found themselves cherishing Jizhou a little more than before — gazing at this silver-white city, their eyes full of warmth.
Toward the end of the first winter month, Li Chi received a letter sent by Zhuang Wudi, and this letter prompted him to revise some of the preparations he had already made.
In his letter, Zhuang Wudi wrote that after the White Mountain Army’s eldest young lady Shen Shanhu arrived at Dragon’s Head Pass, she had wasted no time in reorganizing the forces — and her approach had been so striking it gave even him a shock.
The very first thing Shen Shanhu did after arriving was to give every one of the White Mountain Army’s commanders a beating — twenty military strokes each, with no one spared.
And it had to be done for real. No leniency permitted whatsoever.
When it was done, Shen Shanhu stood before them and said loudly: “Every one of you deserved that beating — and not one of you can claim otherwise. If any of you feel wronged, you are welcome to leave right now.”
“If you still consider yourselves men, then follow me — and we’re going to fight our way back into Yanzhou right now.”
“Those animals from the Mountain-Sea Army aren’t all dead yet, and you lot are already looking to settle into comfort? I have no respect for you.”
“You’re counting on me to lead you? I’m a woman. By rights, it should be you looking out for me.”
“You should be the ones the White Mountain Army depends on — not some woman!”
The men of the White Mountain Army were berated until there was no ground left to stand on.
The next day, Shen Shanhu led the White Mountain Army’s forces in a charge back into Yanzhou. A lone woman, rallying a unit that had been on the verge of collapse, and forging it into something ferocious and undaunted.
Within one month, Shen Shanhu’s forces had pursued the Mountain-Sea Army for hundreds of li, killing over twenty thousand remnants of their forces.
She hadn’t pressed the pursuit further — not because she had lost the will to fight or felt satisfied with the tally, but because winter was closing in.
And so Shen Shanhu asked Zhuang Wudi to write to Prince Ning on her behalf, saying: the east was hers to handle. This was her vendetta and her reckoning, and she would settle it herself.
Zhuang Wudi also took the opportunity, in his personal capacity, to slip in a quiet request to Li Chi: could he possibly bring his forces back to Jizhou? He said — it had been a long time since he had seen any of them.
“Then let Zhuang-ge come back.”
Yu Jiuling said: “With him back here leading the garrison, holding Jizhou would be all the more secure.”
Li Chi made a sound of agreement, but inwardly he had no intention of leaving Zhuang Wudi behind in Jizhou.
Yan-shifu was a Jizhou native — leaving behind the land of her birth would be hard to do, and she would have Ruoling beside her for company.
But Zhuang-ge had only them. Since Zhuang-ge was coming back, it was better they all go south to Yuzhou together.
Li Chi had Gui Yuanshu arrange for the intelligence network agents to convey word to Zhuang Wudi by the fastest means available, instructing him to return to Jizhou before the end of the third month of the following year.
“Have someone go and see Old Tang.”
Li Chi smiled. “Tell Old Tang we’ll be mobilizing in the third month next year — he can expect to see us by summer.”
Gui Yuanshu bowed. “Yes. I will arrange someone to carry the message immediately.”
Li Chi said: “Xu Ji is in Fengzhou — tell him to begin preparing adequate supplies. When our forces reach Fengzhou territory in the fourth or fifth month next year, it will be the lean season between harvests. We need to prepare well in advance.”
Yan Qingzhi said: “The Blue Ox Mountain camp has over forty thousand new recruits, and Anyang City’s new recruits probably number another forty to fifty thousand. When word goes out, tell Xu Ji to prepare at minimum a full month’s provisions for an army of a hundred thousand.”
Gui Yuanshu nodded. “I’ll make sure it’s laid out in detail.”
Yan Qingzhi looked toward Li Chi. “Someone should also be sent ahead to travel the route and inform the local prefectures and counties along the way.”
Li Chi suddenly laughed. “Should we go for another jaunt?”
Yan Qingzhi sighed: “You cannot go running off again.”
Li Chi knew, of course — there was no way he could slip off on another adventure before such a momentous undertaking.
“How about I go?”
Gui Yuanshu said. “It would also be a good opportunity to get properly acquainted with the intelligence agents throughout the region.”
Li Chi gave a nod. “Then go yourself — take a team and make the necessary arrangements for the army’s southward march along the way. Don’t make formal announcements to the local prefectures and counties. Take a quiet look on your own.”
Gui Yuanshu’s heart gave a sudden jolt. He pressed his fists together and said: “By your command!”
Yu Jiuling looked on with obvious envy. “Ah… perks like this always used to be mine.”
Gui Yuanshu laughed: “I’ll leave half for you.”
Yan Qingzhi asked: “Half of what?”
Yu Jiuling said: “Not to be spoken of.”
The following morning, Gui Yuanshu set out with his people — a force of roughly a hundred or so intelligence corps operatives — and departed Jizhou City heading south.
A little over a month later, toward the start of the twelfth month, Gui Yuanshu’s group had already crossed the Nanping River and entered Yuzhou territory.
Shang’an — a small county town with several centuries of history, established as a county seat from the very founding of Dachu, and yet in the centuries since, it seemed to have changed hardly at all. The town was still the same small town. The population had grown no larger.
Shang’an County fell under the administration of Dengzhou, and the man currently serving as the regional prefect of Dengzhou was a close hometown friend of Xu Ji’s — a talent Xu Ji had personally recommended to Li Chi.
This man was named Yin Xin’an, and he was more than ten years older than Xu Ji — a senior classmate from Xu Ji’s student days.
The Yin family was a prominent house in Yanzhou as well, but the unrest from the rebel forces there had grown so severe that the whole Yin clan had relocated to Yuzhou.
Their ancestral roots were in Maoyang County, Yuzhou. About two hundred years ago, the Black Wu people had incited the Bohai people to attack Dachu, and the general guarding the pass had fought to the last — but the eunuch overseeing the campaign lost his nerve and fled, taking his men with him. His flight broke the army’s spirit, and though the general led his forces in a desperate defense, they were ultimately outnumbered and Bohai troops poured into Yanzhou.
Yanzhou suffered a catastrophe — Bohai soldiers slaughtered everything for hundreds of li in every direction, leaving not a living soul.
Although the court later rushed forces from every direction and drove the Bohai people back, Yanzhou had suffered devastating losses of life.
And so the Dachu emperor issued an edict calling for households from Yuzhou to relocate to Yanzhou. The Yin family had moved at that time.
Maoyang County also fell under Dengzhou’s jurisdiction, less than a hundred li from Shang’an County.
The current county magistrate of Maoyang County was also a member of the Yin family — Yin Xin’an’s cousin, Yin Xinping. The county magistrate of Shang’an County was another Yin family member — Yin Xin’an’s uncle on his father’s side, Yin Chang.
Gui Yuanshu deliberately kept his convoy from flying any banners, instead disguising themselves as a private escort company traveling south.
Li Chi had told him to take a quiet look — there was clearly something more behind those words.
Now that he had taken over the intelligence corps, he had to do the job right. What one saw when going about openly as Grand Commander of the intelligence corps was bound to be very different from what one could observe while operating in secret.
And so all along the journey, he had kept strict discipline over his people — under no circumstances were they to let their identities be revealed.
The journey from Jizhou to Anyang City had taken a month, and all along the way what Gui Yuanshu had seen had filled him with genuine satisfaction.
He had spent too long in Daxing City — far too long — without ever seeing the common people live this well, or seeing local officials conduct themselves with this kind of integrity and uprightness.
Jizhou under Prince Ning’s governance was like a sacred ground set apart from the rest of the Central Plains — clean and uncorrupted, in stark contrast to the murk and filth beyond its borders.
The convoy halted at a small market town roughly ten-odd li outside Shang’an County — a place called North Fifteen-Li Post.
Gui Yuanshu gave strict orders to his people: they were not to frighten the locals. They were to approach with gentle and pleasant expressions when purchasing provisions, and no cheating anyone out of payment was permitted.
Then he took Zheng Shunshun and Ding Man with him into the village, intending to strike up some casual conversation with the locals. An intelligence operative’s duties weren’t confined to gathering information in enemy territory — within one’s own territory, there was plenty to attend to as well.
As luck would have it, he spotted an elderly man crouched by a doorway, drawing on a dry pipe. Gui Yuanshu strolled over with a smile.
The old man took one look at the unfamiliar face and immediately turned, went inside, and pulled the door shut behind him.
This gave Gui Yuanshu pause.
Honestly, from the moment he had entered Yuzhou, something had felt off.
This was still Prince Ning’s territory — and yet the people here, when they saw a stranger, would instinctively shrink away.
Gui Yuanshu wasn’t entirely familiar with the customs of Jizhou’s people, but he knew the manner of Yuzhou’s people all too well.
This was indistinguishable from what he had seen in Daxing City.
The people of Daxing City would instinctively avoid strangers, and when they saw someone in official robes, they would avoid them by an even wider berth.
By rights, the people of Shang’an County should be enjoying the same treatment as Jizhou’s people — so why was there such a stark difference?
“Old gentleman — we’re travelers who have come all the way from Jizhou. We were only hoping to ask for a drink of water.”
Gui Yuanshu made his voice as warm as he could.
“Go elsewhere. We have none here.”
A response came from inside — making it abundantly clear they wanted nothing to do with them.
Zheng Shunshun lowered his voice. “The way the people are governed here is clearly nothing like Jizhou — it’s more like Daxing City.”
Gui Yuanshu gave a quiet nod. “Yuzhou has been the front line for Great General Tang Pidi for so long — the rear has had no attention paid to it at all. This may well be the very reason the Great General has been so urgently pressing Prince Ning to come south to Yuzhou.”
Zheng Shunshun suddenly understood. “And Prince Ning agreeing to let you come to Yuzhou was probably because Prince Ning had a sense of what the situation here would be.”
Just then, two young men with packs on their backs came walking in from the edge of the village. They were both clearly wary of Gui Yuanshu and his companions.
One of them, upon spotting Gui Yuanshu, reflexively stopped in his tracks. Gui Yuanshu noticed the man’s shoulder shift — as if he had nearly turned around to walk away.
“Those two have something to hide.”
Gui Yuanshu muttered under his breath.
Zheng Shunshun and Ding Man had traveled at Gui Yuanshu’s side long enough that a single look from him told them exactly what to do.
The two of them split apart, one to the left and one to the right, moving to flank the two young men from either side.
“We’re done for.”
One of the young men said quietly. “Those officials have followed us this fast.”
The other young man shook his head. “That can’t be right — there’s no way they could have traced this back to us so quickly. Stay calm. They look like outsiders.”
Gui Yuanshu walked toward the two of them with a cheerful smile, saying as he went: “You two young fellows — we’re an escort company from Jizhou, heading to Yuzhou City. We’ve been traveling a long while and we’re tired and parched, man and horse alike. We were just hoping to ask for some water. Are you locals here?”
The two young men exchanged a glance.
One of them, who appeared to be around twenty-three or twenty-four, gave a faint smile and said: “We’re both from this town. We went out to find some work and we’re just getting back — the new year’s coming soon, after all.”
Gui Yuanshu said: “Then could you do us a kindness? We’re truly famished and thirsty — the team’s dry rations are all gone, and the water’s all been used.”
The young man who had spoken gave a nod. “Come with us.”
He tugged at the other young man’s sleeve, and the second one nodded as well, turning to walk ahead with him.
As they turned, Gui Yuanshu noticed that the packs on their backs were the wrong shape.
What ordinary bundle was that long? Inside must be bladed weapons of some kind — most likely knives.
“You two young fellows.”
Gui Yuanshu saw that the ground here was fairly open — if anything were to happen, this would be the ideal place. Under no circumstances could he allow himself to be led into an unfamiliar, enclosed location.
Gui Yuanshu quickened his steps with a smile: “We still haven’t gotten your names — would you mind telling us?”
He stepped up between the two of them, one hand dropping casually onto each of their shoulders.
Both men’s expressions shifted slightly. And at that moment, Gui Yuanshu’s hands, resting on the outsides of their bundles, found the hilts of blades.
“What line of work did you say you two were doing out there?”
Gui Yuanshu smiled. “Carrying blades on the job — does that mean law and order around Yuzhou is really that poor?”
The two men simultaneously pulled away to the sides, simultaneously reaching back for their bundles.
—