At dusk.

On the riverbank, a group preparing to return to Jingzhou was stopping here briefly to rest. The group numbered roughly one hundred and fifty to sixty people.

Unlike the men Yang Xuanji had previously sent to Yuzhou to carry out sabotage — those recruited from among his household retainers — and unlike the hundreds of thousands of troops under Yang Xuanji’s command, these were soldiers. But not ordinary soldiers.

Yang Xuanji had under his command an Armor-Breaking Army of forty thousand men — heavy-armored infantry.

In heavy armor, holding their formation, they were an unstoppable force.

Where would any ordinary rebel force find the wealth to sustain a heavy armored force on this scale?

Those forty thousand soldiers of the Armor-Breaking Army each had a dedicated attendant. Each soldier also needed to be equipped with a packhorse to carry their armor during the march, plus logistics and supply trains. Called forty thousand, the total number of personnel exceeded one hundred thousand.

The attendants’ duty was to tend to the heavy soldiers’ food, daily needs, and the maintenance of their armor and their long blades. When there was no fighting, the heavy soldiers trained only — everything else was handled for them.

This group of over a hundred men came from the Armor-Breaking Army, and specifically from the most elite of the elite within it — the Azure Cord Warriors.

In the Armor-Breaking Army, the sashes and cords securing the heavy armor were all black. Only two thousand soldiers were entitled to wear blue cords, and these two thousand were also Yang Xuanji’s personal bodyguard battalion.

Within Yang Xuanji’s Army of Heavenly Mandate, the status of the Azure Cord Warriors was so elevated that even generals of other armies had to treat them with courtesy.

They were distinguished by the terms “Black Cord Army” and “Azure Cord Army.” Within the Army of Heavenly Mandate, there was a saying: *Offend the Black Cord and face ten days’ lockup; offend the Azure Cord and ascend to heaven.*

If an ordinary soldier got into a conflict with a soldier of the Armor-Breaking Army, regardless of who was at fault, it was never the Armor-Breaking Army soldier who was punished.

Offend the Black Cord Army, and you’d spend ten days in detention, subject to punishment each day — even if you survived it, you’d lose half your life. Offend the Azure Cord Army, and you’d be put to death.

Xun Youjiu now held the rank of battalion commander within the Azure Cord Army, commanding over three hundred Azure Cord soldiers.

This made clear the weight Yang Xuanji placed upon Xun Youjiu.

It was no wonder, then, that Zhuge Jingzhan regarded Xun Youjiu with such hostility. He could see that this man had the ability to supplant him.

When Xun Youjiu had first arrived under Yang Xuanji, Zhuge Jingzhan hadn’t given him a second thought. But later, he found that this Xun Youjiu’s advice and counsel to Yang Xuanji aligned with his own thinking seven or eight times out of ten.

This drew Zhuge Jingzhan’s attention. If he didn’t suppress this man, he feared his singular and irreplaceable position would be challenged.

So he arranged for people to eliminate Xun Youjiu — only to find it was as if the hired killers had been swallowed by the sea, not even a ripple left behind.

Unwilling to give up, he arranged for even more formidable men to make another attempt. The same result — as if swallowed by the sea.

Xun Youjiu still appeared to treat him with deference. But Zhuge Jingzhan knew full well that Xun Youjiu must know perfectly well that both assassination attempts had been his doing.

So the fact that Xun Youjiu had come to receive him made him uneasy.

These soldiers were all Xun Youjiu’s men — if Xun Youjiu chose to kill him here, he wouldn’t even have a chance to escape.

But he also reasoned that Xun Youjiu would not make a move. These were the Azure Cord Army, Yang Xuanji’s personal guards — if the Mandate King learned it was Xun Youjiu who had killed Zhuge Jingzhan, Yang Xuanji would not let Xun Youjiu off either.

So the shrewdest play was naturally to supplant Zhuge Jingzhan — not to use this chance to kill him.

By the riverside, Zhuge Jingzhan sat resting, and Xun Youjiu walked over slowly and handed him a water flask.

“Master.”

Xun Youjiu sat down beside Zhuge Jingzhan. “There is a matter I would like to ask Master about.”

Zhuge Jingzhan said: “Go ahead and ask.”

Xun Youjiu said: “How did Master manage to breach the Luo River embankments? Earlier when Master sent word asking us to wait here, we were also told about the Luo River situation. I’ve thought about it at length and still can’t work it out. We’re in flood season right now — Prince Ning Li Chi must have arranged tight security along the Luo River. It would be extremely difficult to get close. And I can’t figure out how one would persuade those retainers to risk their lives breaching an embankment.”

Zhuge Jingzhan smiled slightly. Though he was hostile and guarded toward Xun Youjiu, the fact that Xun Youjiu couldn’t figure out how he had done it made him feel self-satisfied.

So he smiled and said: “It was simple enough.”

He looked at Xun Youjiu and said: “Along the way I gathered the men scattered in various places and had them fly Prince Ning Li Chi’s banner, posing as an inspection party checking the embankments. The civilian militiamen and village folk — they had no reason to be suspicious.”

“The water level had already nearly reached the top of the embankments. When I had my men open up a breach, I stood on top of the embankment while they were below. I told them: *I give you my word right here — when the embankment breaks, I’ll be the first one hit. Rest easy and get to work.*”

“Those men were truly foolish. They believed me. Initially they only dug open a small gap — the flow wouldn’t be too great, and they’d have enough time to get away. Otherwise, how would they have dared do it?”

“But the embankment was rapidly torn open wider and wider. I rode along the top of the embankment on horseback, keeping clear of the surge. Most of the men who dug the breach were swept away and drowned… Ha ha ha ha.”

Zhuge Jingzhan laughed and said: “Fools like that will always be tools for others to use. They will never be the ones who put others to use.”

Hearing these words, the expression on Xun Youjiu’s face shifted slightly.

He looked at Zhuge Jingzhan and said: “The flooding won’t stop at one county. Countless civilians will be killed or injured. Who knows how many fields will be submerged. With this, by summer, Tang Pidi’s forces will likely be running short of grain.”

Zhuge Jingzhan said: “How could it be just one county? The Luo River has changed course — every county along its path will be inundated. You wouldn’t be wrong to say Yuzhou’s entire summer grain harvest has been halved. And beyond that, those fields may not be farmable for years to come. The civilian death toll will be enormous, and Yuzhou will have its vitality gravely wounded.”

He looked at Xun Youjiu: “Most importantly, Prince Ning Li Chi doesn’t have enough troops. If he wants to manage the disaster relief, he’ll have no choice but to pull back the reinforcements he assigned to Tang Pidi. Tang Pidi will then lack the strength to continue fighting our lord.”

Xun Youjiu said with admiration: “Master’s plan is truly formidable.”

Zhuge Jingzhan smiled and said: “The flooded area will likely take years to recover. This one stroke of mine is equivalent to cutting away half of Prince Ning Li Chi’s strength.”

He smiled with pride: “This trip to Yuzhou was not wasted.”

Xun Youjiu gave a small nod, then asked one more question: “But because of this, when our lord leads his army into Yuzhou someday, it will be a scene of devastation he’ll have to clean up. Has Master considered how to win the hearts of the people?”

Zhuge Jingzhan said: “The people living there now are not our lord’s people — they are Prince Ning’s people. No matter how many die, it is no great loss. When our lord leads his army into Yuzhou, distributing aid and food to the people will be quite enough to win their hearts.”

Xun Youjiu nodded again: “I understand. Thank you, Master, for your generous instruction.”

He clasped his hands in a bow.

Zhuge Jingzhan smiled, then slowly let out a long breath. In his mind he was already thinking: once he got back, he’d at least have something to show for himself.

Without that, with the World’s Fourth and all the others having been lost in Yuzhou, the Mandate King would certainly have raked him over the coals, and he wouldn’t have been able to explain himself.

He thought: *Time to go home. Finally, time to go home. He shouldn’t have come in person in the first place.*

It had to be said — in arranging his safe escape back to Jingzhou, his preparations were extraordinarily complex and clever.

He had set up over a dozen groups as decoys, all of them false trails. Even if Prince Ning’s men chased them down one by one, it would be for nothing.

Ten-some days later, at Dunshan County on the northernmost edge of Jingzhou.

The Army of Heavenly Mandate’s main camp had been relocated here, pressing forward roughly fifty li, while the Ning Army had been forced to pull back north of the great river.

Because of the flood disaster, Tang Pidi had received Li Chi’s message and immediately dispersed the ninety-plus thousand new soldiers Li Chi had brought, sending them back along with Zhuang Wudi’s more than ten thousand combat veterans, to return to Yuzhou for disaster relief.

Left with drastically insufficient troops, he could only manage a defensive stance.

Below Dunshan, within the Army of Heavenly Mandate’s camp, Yang Xuanji himself came out to receive Zhuge Jingzhan. He took Zhuge Jingzhan by the hand and led him back into the camp, where a banquet was laid in his honor.

At the feast, Yang Xuanji declared before everyone present that Master Zhuge was his, Yang Xuanji’s, lucky star — words that carried a great deal of weight.

After the meal, Yang Xuanji personally walked Zhuge Jingzhan back to his tent to rest, and the two talked at length deep into the night.

Yang Xuanji returned to his own tent well past the second hour of night. He sat down and let out a long, somewhat weary breath.

“You have something you wish to say?”

Yang Xuanji looked at Xun Youjiu, who stood bowed to one side.

During the banquet, Yang Xuanji had already noticed that Xun Youjiu appeared to have something on his mind, so he had quietly had someone pass word to Xun Youjiu: once the feast was over, slip away from the others and wait in the central command tent.

That had been only shortly after nightfall. It was now well past midnight, and Xun Youjiu had been waiting in the tent this whole time for Yang Xuanji to return.

Xun Youjiu was silent for a moment, then pulled his robe aside and knelt: “My lord, your subordinate has a word to say. It is not proper for me to say it at this time, yet for my lord’s sake, I cannot but say it.”

Yang Xuanji leaned back, pulling off his boots as he asked: “Is it about Master Zhuge?”

Xun Youjiu said: “Yes.”

Yang Xuanji said: “Master Zhuge has returned in triumph, and here you come to speak of him — you’ve come to make complaints, haven’t you. It really is not the right time…”

Xun Youjiu raised his head and glanced briefly at Yang Xuanji, then quickly lowered it again.

Yang Xuanji said: “Speak. I know that if it weren’t something urgent, you wouldn’t come to me at this hour. You don’t fear making me unhappy, so I know what you have to say must be important.”

Xun Youjiu said: “Master Zhuge’s breaching of the embankments and releasing the floodwaters — that action has caused too great a damage to our lord’s reputation.”

Yang Xuanji was taken aback: “What do you mean?”

Xun Youjiu said: “On Prince Ning Li Chi’s side, they will certainly spread the word far and wide that the Luo River breach was done by agents working for our lord. The people of Yuzhou will come to hate our lord with a hatred that goes to the bone. A disaster of this magnitude won’t be the people of one city or one place who despise our lord — it will be the entire population of Yuzhou.”

“On the way back, your subordinate deliberately asked Master Zhuge what was to be done if, on the day our lord enters Yuzhou, this wreckage needs to be dealt with. Master Zhuge only said that the common people are easy to fool — merely distribute grain and buy their goodwill.”

He looked up at Yang Xuanji: “My lord, what Master Zhuge said is a cover. He knows as well as anyone that the hearts and goodwill of Yuzhou’s people cannot be recovered. First: can people truly forget the Luo River disaster over a little grain distribution? Second: the summer harvest has failed. The people of Yuzhou will struggle for the next two years. When our lord enters Yuzhou, what will there be to distribute to the people as goodwill?”

Yang Xuanji’s expression had already turned unsightly.

Xun Youjiu continued: “Master Zhuge’s stratagem has far more costs than benefits. On the surface it appears to have struck at the foundations of Prince Ning Li Chi’s power, gravely wounding his strength — but in truth, it has also wounded our lord. When our lord unifies the Central Plains someday, this act of breaching the embankments and drowning the people… will be an infamy that cannot be washed away.”

He looked at Yang Xuanji and said: “Your subordinate believes Master Zhuge must have considered all of this. But because the World’s Fourth and the rest were all lost in Yuzhou, and Master Zhuge had nothing to show for himself, he didn’t dare come back to face our lord empty-handed — so he resorted to this desperate measure.”

The expressions crossing Yang Xuanji’s face shifted and changed for a long time. Finally, he waved his hand: “I understand. Go rest.”

Xun Youjiu responded, knowing he could say nothing more. He rose, bowed again, and then turned to leave.

He had just reached the doorway when Yang Xuanji suddenly called out to him: “Master Xun — in that case, what would you say… I should do to wash this away?”

Xun Youjiu turned back to look at Yang Xuanji, and bowed: “On the day our lord enters Yuzhou — kill Zhuge Jingzhan, to appease the fury of the people.”

Yang Xuanji’s eyes flickered again. He raised his hand and gestured: “You… withdraw.”

—