On this trip escorting grain and supplies to the main camp, Li Chi had not brought Yu Jiuling along, and he found himself feeling faintly out of sorts. Though he did have Gao Xining with him.
The difference between Yu Jiuling and Gao Xining was this: on a march like this, Yu Jiuling could simply lie on that hay-cart side by side with Li Chi, but Gao Xining could not.
The young, unaware Li Chi did not know that in the future, if he were to frequently lie side by side with Gao Xining, it might well be *he* who was unable to.
The divine eagle and the dog, rarely allowed out, were especially spirited and lively on this occasion — particularly the dog, who soaring through the sky looked every bit the master of the heavens it was.
The divine eagle at first kept pace well enough, trotting alongside the column, but after a while simply jumped up onto the hay-cart and lay down to sleep.
And so the divine eagle earned its longstanding reputation as the greatest burden of every journey — requiring a dedicated cart just to carry it.
Horses eat only grass, yet still have to haul the pig along.
Fortunately, Cao Lie had also come.
On life’s road, you really do need a few interesting friends — otherwise, even your own foolishness feels lonely.
When the day comes that you suddenly want to be dramatic and melancholy, and realize there’s no one left around you willing to listen to you be dramatic, that’s when you understand. Better to have someone — someone who listens to all your dramatic nonsense with a face full of disdain, then calls you an idiot, then raises their cup and says: “Come on. Drink.”
Sometimes the distance that grows between friends is simply that: he saw it, and pretended not to.
Sometimes the enthusiasm you show a friend curdles into a one-sided effort, and you have to comfort yourself by saying… everyone grows up.
The years when you can live freely and without restraint — you can count them on your fingers.
Grown men mock the plastic sorority bonds between girls, forgetting there’s not even plastic left on their own side.
Fair-weather friends and drinking companions are all just passing guests — and yet somehow, they feel indispensable. That’s the real drama of it.
Cao Lie could not get comfortable in a hay-cart. His own carriage was so spacious, so plush, so extravagantly appointed that it made a person wonder if it was conjured by magic.
He said he wasn’t accustomed to riding in a cart without a proper compartment and eating dust. Li Chi, for his part, found the stuffiness of an enclosed compartment unbearable.
And so, on this official road, two carts traveled side by side. Cao Lie sat in his sumptuous carriage reading a book in perfect silence, with fine wine and exquisite pastries arranged beside him. Li Chi’s cart had no wine and no pastries — just a stalk of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth as he stared up at the sky, turning things over in his mind.
After a long while, Cao Lie set down his book, looked out the carriage window, and cleared his throat.
Li Chi glanced at him. Said nothing.
So Cao Lie slid over slightly and patted the seat beside him with his hand.
Li Chi turned up the corner of his mouth and patted the spot beside him on the hay-cart. Now it was Cao Lie’s turn to turn up the corner of his mouth.
Li Chi thought the smell of dry hay on his cart was pleasant. Cao Lie thought it smelled like dirt, and his nose couldn’t take it.
So, a moment later, Cao Lie produced a magnificent handkerchief to cover his nose and mouth, and climbed onto Li Chi’s cart.
Sitting on the hay, watching the dust settle onto his clothes, Cao Lie couldn’t help letting out a sigh.
With visible disdain, he shoved some of the hay toward Li Chi’s side. Li Chi immediately sneezed, then reached over and snatched that magnificent handkerchief from Cao Lie’s face and blew his nose into it loudly.
Cao Lie’s eyes went wide.
Under Cao Lie’s stunned gaze, Li Chi quite naturally held the handkerchief out to him again.
“If you dislike it so much, why did you come over?” Li Chi asked.
Cao Lie said: “If I outranked you, I’d have you get in my carriage, instead of me coming over here to flatter you.”
Li Chi scoffed: “The disdain on your face is more obvious than if you’d just said it out loud. You call this flattering me?”
Cao Lie said: “If you don’t feel my flattery is up to standard, have a look at yourself and try to adapt accordingly.”
Li Chi: “Tch…”
Cao Lie asked: “About the business south of the great river — I told you I should be the one to go. I’ve been there once before, so I’m more familiar with it. Why did you still choose Master Ye?”
Li Chi answered: “Because he’s better than you. Not in any one particular area — comprehensively better in every area.”
Cao Lie: “…”
Li Chi: “Has no one ever told you face to face before that you’re not quite as capable as you think you are?”
Cao Lie: “…”
Li Chi laughed: “Just joking. The reason I didn’t send you behind enemy lines to cause trouble, and instead brought you along to escort the provisions to the main camp, is because I have something I need your help with.”
Cao Lie: “Speak.”
Li Chi said: “Right now, people are already spreading word that we’re not just short on grain and supplies — we’re also low on money. If this gets back to the main camp, it will definitely shake the troops’ morale.”
Cao Lie understood. In Li Chi’s eyes, bringing him along was not much different from bringing along a money vault — except that, to be precise, this money vault didn’t contain any money that Li Chi himself had put in.
Li Chi smiled: “If I stood in front of all the men in the main camp and said, ‘You don’t need to worry about money or provisions, because Cao Lie is here’ — how happy do you think they’d be?”
Cao Lie: “I think *I* wouldn’t be happy.”
Li Chi: “I’m not actually going to take your money, am I? It’s not as if I could force you to fork it out.”
Cao Lie: “Thank you.”
Li Chi: “Don’t mention it. But have you thought about the word ‘voluntary’?”
Cao Lie started to get off the cart.
Li Chi laughed, his gaze drifting back to the sky: “Actually, I want you to do something significant.”
Cao Lie’s eyes narrowed slightly. He had a feeling that what Li Chi called “something significant” might be a very deep hole.
Li Chi said: “The breadth of the Cao family’s connections — even if you counted up every noble household and great family across the entire central plains, there aren’t many who could match it.”
Cao Lie looked at him sideways. Li Chi smiled: “I’m not trying to trap you. I want you to trap someone else. It might not work, but as long as it can make Yang Xuanji uncomfortable, your job is done.”
Cao Lie let out a sigh: “Are you saying I’m the uncomfortable sort?”
Li Chi: “Why are you as fussy as a woman?”
Cao Lie: “I understand Yu Jiuling now.”
Li Chi burst out laughing — the Ning Army’s Number One Rebel, Yu Jiuling.
Li Chi continued: “All you need to do is get to the front, find out from old Tang who Yang Xuanji’s key people are, and from that you can probably guess which families they come from. Master Ye is heading south and will stop at the main camp first — you just write a few letters, and Master Ye will find a way to get them into the right hands.”
Cao Lie’s eyes lit up.
This kind of scheme — low-level, you might even say beneath dignity — a straightforward attempt at sowing discord. Its greatest value was really just making someone uncomfortable.
Cao Lie: “By the word, then.”
Li Chi: “One letter, one tael of silver.”
Cao Lie: “Judging by that rate, you apparently don’t expect me to write more than three letters — because after three taels you’d start feeling the pinch.”
Li Chi said: “One tael and I’m already hurting. Two taels and I hurt in two places. Three taels and I hurt in three places. Any more than that, I can’t take it.”
Cao Lie: “You can only hurt in three places, and you’ve already chosen such sensitive spots? Are you the kind of man who finds pleasure in pain?”
This time it was Li Chi’s eyes that narrowed: “I think you’re being shameless. The evidence is extremely clear.”
Cao Lie laughed: “Three taels, all-inclusive, no matter how many letters I write.”
Li Chi: “May you have good fortune your whole life.”
Cao Lie: “I have one more gift for you.”
Li Chi: “May you have good fortune in every life to come!”
Cao Lie said: “The Cao family has considerable holdings in Jingzhou. I can try to make contact. If it goes well, at the very least we can make Yang Xuanji uncomfortable.”
Li Chi: “That’s all?”
Cao Lie: “All of the Cao family’s holdings in Jingzhou — I can give them all to you.”
Li Chi fell silent. Cao Lie thought he was moved, and glanced over at him — only to find Li Chi suppressing a laugh so hard the corners of his mouth were twitching, on the verge of cramping at any moment.
Cao Lie sighed: “You can laugh out loud, it’s fine. I know what kind of person you are.”
Li Chi: “That would be terribly embarrassing of me — *hahahahaha…*”
Cao Lie said: “Your greed is really ugly.”
Li Chi: “Many thanks for giving me all your business in Jingzhou.”
Cao Lie frowned: “Wait — did you say Jingzhou or Jingzhou?”
Li Chi: “Does it matter which? I’ll take either. Both, even.”
Cao Lie lay back and stared up at the sky. After a moment of silence, he said in a heavy tone: “Right now I hurt in two places.”
—
The Ning Army main camp.
After the Heaven’s Mandate Army’s assault had been repelled once, they had clearly changed their strategy and no longer pressed forward recklessly. Instead, they were attempting to mass large numbers of troops along the bank and squeeze the Ning Army defensive line through sheer weight of formation.
But the Ning Army had not left them much room. In front of the Ning Army’s central command, the area where formations could be deployed was no more than seventy *zhang* wide. Beyond that, the Ning Army’s heavy crossbows would sweep them clean.
On the Ning Army’s two flanks, the space available for the Heaven’s Mandate Army to land was about a hundred *zhang* wide. What struck observers as suspicious was that the Ning Army’s flanks appeared to have no heavy crossbow-carriages or volley-crossbows deployed at all.
And so the Heaven’s Mandate Army had no choice but to funnel troops toward both flanks. Both Yang Xuanji and Xun Youjiu were certain that Tang Pidi’s layout had some hidden purpose — but the terrain left them no alternative. If they didn’t spread toward the flanks, the number of men able to land would be too small to exert any pressure on the Ning Army.
On the high ground, Tang Pidi watched the Heaven’s Mandate Army’s formations extending toward the flanks, and a hint of amusement entered his eyes.
He knew that men like Yang Xuanji and Xun Youjiu had certainly seen through the intent behind his deployment.
But Yang Xuanji had no other choice. This was the power of terrain — give the enemy only one option, and even if they suspect that option is flawed, they have no choice but to take it.
What would happen next was clear to both sides. The Ning Army would push the Heaven’s Mandate Army back into the river.
With formations this tightly packed, being pushed back even one *zhang* meant countless men would fall into the water.
On the warship, Xun Youjiu bowed and said to Yang Xuanji: “My lord’s assessment is likely correct. Tang Pidi is waiting for our forces to spread toward both flanks. With only a few dozen *zhang* of width available, once we deploy across both flanks, the central formation becomes relatively thin — and then Tang Pidi will order his cavalry to charge and press, forcing our rear troops to tumble into the river.”
Yang Xuanji nodded: “Even though we’ve seen through it, we have no alternative.”
He looked at Xun Youjiu: “So — the only option is to put the Black Cord Army up.”
The sharpest, steadiest weapon in Yang Xuanji’s hand was his heavy-armored infantry — the Black Cord Army.
Only by sending the Black Cord Army up to hold the line could he render the Ning Army’s light cavalry useless.
Light cavalry charging into heavy armor was no different from sending men to their deaths.
Xun Youjiu considered for a moment, then nodded: “The Black Cord Army would certainly nullify the Ning Army’s light cavalry, but the Black Cord Army moves slowly. Once they form a line, pulling back to the ships becomes very difficult. So we must guard against the possibility that the Ning Army has other schemes.”
Yang Xuanji glanced at Xun Youjiu: “Other schemes — shouldn’t you already be thinking about those, Counselor?”
Xun Youjiu started, then quickly bowed: “Your servant has failed you. Your servant will go think it through carefully right now.”
Yang Xuanji appeared outwardly calm; no edge sharpened in his voice: “Counselor, you know what hangs on this battle. And if we cannot break the Ning Army’s line quickly, the follow-up forces cannot advance. If this drags on, summer rains will come, so…”
Xun Youjiu said: “Please give your servant one day.”
Yang Xuanji gave a nod: “Very well. Tomorrow at midday, I’ll await your brilliant plan.”
Inside, Xun Youjiu let out a long, heavy breath — thinking to himself: the Cao family, after all, had planted a splinter deep in Yang Xuanji’s heart.
—