Prince Ning’s main camp.

Yu Jiuling stood staring at his feet while being made to stand in the corridor as punishment, and discovered to his surprise that his feet were actually quite well-shaped.

Our lord was in a temper inside — seemed rather a big one.

Yu Jiuling was the first one out here being punished, but he knew there’d be a second before long. Sure enough, Cao Lie emerged from the room.

Cao Lie looked at Yu Jiuling. “How long do people usually have to stand here?”

Yu Jiuling: “Usually they don’t. I suspect I’m being caught in your wake.”

Cao Lie asked, “Why?”

Yu Jiuling said, “Normally when our lord punishes me, he just docks my pay.”

Cao Lie: “So docking pay doesn’t work on me, so it switched to standing in the corridor. And it even dragged you into it.”

Yu Jiuling: “Of course — before, he could solve things with money. Now it’s switched to physical punishment. You tell me whose fault that is.”

Cao Lie: “Look at you, you seem quite pleased about it.”

Yu Jiuling: “As if you’re any different.”

Cao Lie sighed. “Couldn’t he just dock some money instead?”

Yu Jiuling: “Shut up… What’s wrong with standing in the corridor?”

The two looked at each other and both felt the other was a bit of an idiot.

While the two were talking, Li Chi came out from the room, having carried a chair outside with him. Yu Jiuling immediately straightened up. Cao Lie stood upright too.

Li Chi came out, looked at the two of them, and sighed. “I’ve got two people standing outside my door. The one on the left is an idiot. The one on the right is also an idiot.”

He had carried a chair out — apparently intending to sit at the door and watch them stand.

Tang Pidi stood inside in the doorway, smiling and saying nothing.

Li Chi sat down and looked at Cao Lie. Cao Lie began to slowly pivot on his heel, gradually maneuvering so that he was no longer facing Li Chi directly.

Li Chi shot him a glare. “It looks like neither of you have fully accepted this. Revenge had to be taken, Zhuge Jingzhan had to be killed — but you went into enemy territory with no plan whatsoever. You really think I’m angry because you crossed over to the Tianming Army’s side? I’m angry because you were reckless. Even if things worked out, it’s still not something worth praising.”

Cao Lie turned his head to look at Li Chi. “Understood… but do we have to stand here?”

Li Chi asked, “You’re afraid of standing?”

Cao Lie said, “It gives me a feeling of shameful embarrassment, like a child who’s made a mistake and been sent out by his teacher to stand in the corridor.”

Li Chi looked at Yu Jiuling. “And you?”

Yu Jiuling: “I don’t have any of that.”

Li Chi said, “Right, understood. Cao Lie, keep standing. Yu Jiuling, you don’t have to stand — I’ll dock your pay instead.”

Yu Jiuling: “……”

Tang Pidi: “Our lord, didn’t you say each person was to get thirty strokes of the military rod? Yu Jiuling on the mouth?”

Yu Jiuling: “Old Tang, can you act like a human being for once…”

Tang Pidi: “Gladly. Our lord, I request to personally administer the military punishment.”

Yu Jiuling: “Big brother Tang, grandpa Tang—”

Li Chi laughed. He was genuinely angry, but he certainly wasn’t the type to let anger drag on forever. The anger was real because these people had recklessly charged into Yang Xuanji’s territory — that truly had been impulsive.

“Our lord…”

Yu Jiuling walked to Li Chi’s side, swiveled his hips, and wheedled: “A person only makes their first mistake once, you know…”

Li Chi: “Old Tang — hit him.”

Yu Jiuling snapped back to standing perfectly upright.

“What’s for lunch?”

Li Chi suddenly asked.

Yu Jiuling glanced at Cao Lie. Cao Lie looked back at him. Both seemed to be wondering: is he talking to us?

Li Chi stood. “I’ll go to the river and catch a few fish. We’ll have braised fish for lunch.”

He started walking out, then stopped and turned back. “I’m not very good at catching fish, come to think of it…”

Yu Jiuling: “I’ll come — who can outfish me?”

He stepped forward and followed immediately.

Cao Lie let out a small scoff. “Fawning!”

Then he stepped forward and followed too. “I’m actually not bad at fishing myself.”

—

Half an hour later, at the riverside.

This great river was extraordinarily wide. It was the flood season, and the current ran fast — the water surface had risen considerably. It formed a natural barrier all but impossible to overcome.

The north bank was within Prince Ning’s effective zone of control. The south bank was within the Tianming Army’s effective zone of control.

What this river divided was not merely two armies — it divided two men, each of whom felt the other was the only one truly worthy of contending against him.

The rest of the world said: look at that great southern rebel, Brother Tiger Li — what power he commands, raising armies a million strong at a stroke.

Yet in the eyes of Yang Xuanji and Li Chi alike, Brother Tiger Li was not the primary target.

Li Chi settled onto the bank and asked, straightening out his fishing line, “You were over there and saw it firsthand — what did you make of it?”

Cao Lie fastened his horse to the riverbank and sat down. “More formidable than I expected. Even with the internal strife between them, their foundation is solid.”

He looked toward the south bank. “Over these past few days on the south side, I got a rough picture of things. Their foundation lies in the loyalty of the people — and so it is very stable. The common folk believe their lives under Yang Xuanji’s rule are decent enough, and they will resist any enemy who intrudes.”

Li Chi gave a nod. This was precisely what worried him.

“What’s your view?”

Li Chi asked again.

Cao Lie said, “If it can be helped, I’d advise against attacking Jing Province, Liang Province, or any of those territories. And certainly not Shu Province.”

Li Chi gave a small sound of agreement.

Cao Lie looked at Li Chi. “Put the battlefield in Jing Province.”

Li Chi looked at Tang Pidi.

Tang Pidi was standing at the water’s edge, as though in a daze — yet the moment Li Chi’s gaze landed on him, he responded immediately.

“I’ve been thinking about it lately.”

Tang Pidi walked back and sat down near Li Chi. “The strategy before was to pin Yang Xuanji down — the moment he moved toward Jing Province, we’d be stuck to his backside making trouble. But looking at things now, it’s time to adjust that strategy.”

Li Chi nodded. “Yang Xuanji treats the people reasonably well. Whether it’s genuine or feigned, I don’t concern myself with that — but my people cannot be made to suffer… The Yuzhou flood will take two or three years to recover from fully. We’ll need to draw large quantities of grain and supplies from Ji Province to send aid here, so for the next year, our attention goes to helping the people return to a peaceful and stable life.”

Tang Pidi looked at Li Chi. “Let Yang Xuanji into Jing Province?”

Li Chi gave a quiet hum. “Let him in.”

Tang Pidi said, “But Yang Xuanji actually doesn’t want to go to Jing Province anymore — he thinks now is his best chance to defeat us.”

Li Chi said, “Then let him come.”

Cao Lie began to laugh.

He suddenly thought about something amusing. Once upon a time, Tang Pidi’s stance toward Yang Xuanji had been: *don’t you dare go to Jing Province — if you go, I’ll hit you*. And now the stance had suddenly flipped entirely to: *go to Jing Province already — if you don’t go, I’ll hit you. Or come and attack me and I’ll hit you.*

“Disaster relief first — that is the top priority, not to be changed under any circumstances.”

Li Chi said. “I’ve already handed everything to Elder Yan and Elder Wu to manage. With those two overseeing it, a year should be enough to relocate and settle the displaced people and open up new farmland. That should do it.”

“But all the same…”

Li Chi exhaled slowly. “We’ve come out of this the worse for it. One Zhuge Jingzhan is not enough to repay the lives of those who died in the flood. Ten would not be enough. A hundred would not be. A thousand and ten thousand would not be.”

Hearing those words, Yu Jiuling’s eyes brightened.

He suddenly understood: their lord had come in person to the Prince Ning main camp — and not solely out of concern for their safety.

If their lord had come in person, that meant one other thing as well…

Up until now, it had been Cao Lie and Yu Jiuling stepping onto the board to play a round with Yang Xuanji. But now their lord was stepping onto the board himself.

And then he recalled what their lord had just said: *I am angry because you went into enemy territory with no plan and no preparation, acting purely on impulse.*

The implication behind those words…

Yu Jiuling’s eyes brightened further still. He immediately ran to Li Chi’s side, crouched down, and looked up at him with eager, pleading eyes. “Bring me along, bring me along — you absolutely have to bring me along.”

Li Chi smiled. “Clever as ever.”

Yu Jiuling said, “A debt of blood must be paid in blood. And it isn’t just the burst embankments and the drowned people, the destroyed crops, and all those homes washed away — they also sent soldiers into Yuzhou to kill people and burn down the granaries. Every one of those debts needs to be collected.”

Li Chi gave a quiet hum.

He shook his fishing line, cast it out — the hook made a soft splash and disappeared into the river.

Yu Jiuling said, “When you’re owed something, you can’t let even one slight go.”

Those were Li Chi’s own words.

—

Across the river.

Yang Xuanji had arrived with a personal guard contingent. He had not expected Li Chi to be here as well — he had only come to see the Prince Ning Army’s fortifications on the opposite bank for himself.

He felt he had taken a heavy blow this time. Zhuge Jingzhan’s death had shattered his plan for salvaging his reputation.

And on top of that, a substantial amount of supplies and equipment had been destroyed. The decisive battle seemed to have no choice but to be postponed.

But he had no intention of postponing it. He understood that opportunities did not wait indefinitely. A man like Prince Ning Li Chi would recover quickly — within a year, most of the Yuzhou flood’s wounds would be healed. Within two, Yuzhou’s grain output would have largely recovered.

Li Chi already commanded the empire’s granary regions. Give him two years, and the scale of his forces could more than double.

An enemy like that — give him one chance, and he might become your end.

“My lord.”

Xun Youjiu said cautiously, “Knowing Li Chi’s temperament, what has happened will not be an ending for him — it will be a beginning. He will certainly find other ways to strike back.”

Yang Xuanji gave a nod. He had long heard of Li Chi’s way of doing things — a man who repaid every debt, without exception.

“Have you calculated — if we force a river crossing right now and attack Yuzhou Province, what are our odds?”

He asked Xun Youjiu.

Though the matter of Zhuge Jingzhan had given Yang Xuanji some cause to resent Xun Youjiu, he also understood that Zhuge Jingzhan’s death had nothing to do with Xun Youjiu.

Now that Zhuge Jingzhan was gone, among all the remaining strategists who could advise him, Xun Youjiu had the clearest vision.

“In this subordinate’s estimation…”

Xun Youjiu said, “The Prince Ning Army will abandon any pincer tactics. If my lord were to attack Jing Province right now, they would no longer operate as before — they would commit fully to holding a strong defensive line. With our forces ten times their number, and thirty ten-thousand-strong reinforcement battalions already on the march due to arrive within a month — with those added, our combined strength of eight hundred thousand pressing hard against Yuzhou Province, there is a chance of taking half the province.”

“Half the province?”

Yang Xuanji frowned.

Eight hundred thousand men at full force — and only a chance of half the province?

Xun Youjiu said, “This subordinate has one more thing to say, and my lord may find it somewhat… displeasing.”

Yang Xuanji said, “Speak.”

Xun Youjiu drew a long breath and said, “This subordinate believes we should temporarily halt the plan to attack Yuzhou Province. Instead, redirect the main force to advance into Jing Province, apply pressure to Daxing City, and force Prince Wu, Yang Jiju, to withdraw his armies back. If Yang Jiju withdraws, Brother Tiger Li will seize the opening. That will drive Prince Wu and Brother Tiger Li into a decisive confrontation inside Jing Province — and my lord can sit back and reap the gains as the third party.”

“As for our strategy toward Li Chi and Yuzhou Province — seal the river crossing. Allow no one to enter Yuzhou Province. Cut off all trade relations with them entirely. And not only from our side: send envoys to Su Province and Qing Province, and in coordination with other rebel forces, seal off Yuzhou Province and Ji Province’s commerce completely.”

He glanced at Yang Xuanji’s expression and continued: “Yuzhou suffered a catastrophic flood. Within two years they will face grain shortages. Li Chi will have to send men to Qing Province to find food, because Ji Province alone cannot feed Yuzhou.”

“We have no shortage of financial resources or material capacity, and we have the great families backing us. Dispatch agents to Qing Province to buy up grain — buy every last grain. Leave Li Chi nothing to purchase.”

He looked at Yang Xuanji. “While holding Jing Province steady, send large numbers of agents deep into Yuzhou Province — even Ji Province — to sabotage Li Chi’s grain production. Destroy whatever can be destroyed.”

Yang Xuanji said, “And what of my reputation? Did you not say yourself that Zhuge Jingzhan’s actions were destroying my reputation?”

Xun Youjiu looked at Yang Xuanji — and after a long moment answered, “At this point, there is no longer any reason to concern ourselves with my lord’s reputation… in Yuzhou Province or Ji Province.”

Yang Xuanji started, about to speak — when a shout came from outside.

“Enemy troops on the opposite bank!”