At the battlefront, Xiahou Zuo spotted the enemy’s command banner rising on the opposite bank.

He had once been a frontier general of Dachu, so he naturally knew what that banner represented — it belonged to a former Dachu garrison commander, a symbol of Dachu’s supreme fighting strength.

Though Dachu had lost far more battles than it had won across centuries of conflict with the Black Wu, Dachu’s frontier army had never once cowered, never once retreated.

And Pei Fanglun was precisely that kind of man — transferred out of the frontier army and promoted to Grand General of the Right Vanguard Guard.

In the hearts of many frontier generals, Pei Fanglun held a place of great reverence, to the point that he had come to symbolize a certain spirit.

Yet people always change. After leaving the frontier army, in the second year of his appointment as Grand General of the Right Vanguard Guard, Pei Fanglun had still been capable of the bold feat of leading his troops straight toward Yanzhou without waiting for imperial orders.

When someone urged him to wait for the court’s military command, to wait for His Majesty’s edict, he had said: by the time it arrives, how many of Yanzhou’s elders and common folk will have died?

He had also said: as a soldier, if you need to wait for orders before you can strike back against an enemy that has invaded your nation, that is a disgrace.

Yet a few years later, he seemed to become an entirely different person.

Even when Pei Fanglun himself occasionally looked back on those years, he would sigh — had he never been promoted, had he stayed in the frontier army all his life, he would have remained just as pure.

Once you rose to that height, you could not help but reckon with far more complicated things — power, desire, and the future.

After a long silence, Xiahou Zuo turned to Li Chi and asked, “May I go and speak with Pei Fanglun face to face?”

Li Chi gave a small nod. “Be careful.”

“I just have something heavy on my heart,” Xiahou Zuo said. “I feel I ought to say something to him.”

“If I were you,” Li Chi replied, “I’d go too.”

Xiahou Zuo had no desire to thank Li Chi, for between the two of them, those two words were simply unnecessary.

Li Chi understood that Xiahou Zuo’s heart would be heavy. It was because of Pei Fanglun that he had resolved to join the frontier army in the first place — and now Pei Fanglun had become an enemy.

And Pei Fanglun was no mediocre man. The defeat he suffered at the river crossing at the hands of the Naran cavalry was no stain upon his name — anyone would have lost that battle.

Tang Pidi had positioned tens of thousands of cavalry to lie in wait for him to cross, then launched a sudden assault when more than half his force had made it over.

In those circumstances, pitting a disorganized infantry against a numerically superior light cavalry — it would not have mattered if Prince Wu himself had been in command, victory would still have been impossible.

Xiahou Zuo had a small boat prepared and crossed toward the south bank with only two personal guards at the oars. When he reached the middle of the river, he dropped anchor and called out toward the southern shore.

“Would Grand General Pei be willing to exchange a few words? I am Xiahou Zuo of the Northern Frontier.”

Having called out once, he did not continue. The men on the opposite bank would certainly have heard him. If Pei Fanglun chose not to come, he would not press the matter.

Yet the far bank responded quickly.

“I know your name. Wait there a moment!”

Soon after the shout, a small boat came crossing toward Xiahou Zuo, manned, just as his own was, by only two personal guards.

The two small boats stopped in the middle of the great river, less than one zhang apart.

Xiahou Zuo felt a slight nervousness in his chest. He straightened his clothes, then clasped his hands and bowed respectfully. “Your junior pays his respects to the Grand General.”

“General Xiahou, well met.”

Pei Fanglun returned the clasped-hand salute.

He was of no small age — nearly the same generation as Xiahou Zuo’s father — so for Xiahou Zuo to address him as a junior was entirely appropriate.

“I have heard your name. These past years on the Northern Frontier, it was you who led the frontier brothers in holding back the Black Wu’s southward advance. When word reached Daxing, I shut myself in my home and drank myself into a stupor.”

Pei Fanglun said, “I thought to myself — what a pity I did not know that young hero. Had I known him, I would have properly raised a cup in his honor.”

Xiahou Zuo’s heart surged at those words.

“When I resolved to go to the frontier and enlist, it was the Grand General’s influence that moved me. When I was still a student, your name was carved into my writing desk.”

Hearing this, Pei Fanglun fell silent for a moment, then straightened his own clothes and returned a clasped-hand bow. “I am sorry. I must have disappointed you.”

Xiahou Zuo shook his head. “I am not sure whether I have been disappointed or not. I only feel that since the Grand General is here, I should come and pay my respects. It was the Grand General’s battle at Yanzhou that taught me — a man who takes up arms should guard the frontier; the blades of Central Plains men ought to point outward.”

Pei Fanglun let out a long breath, then turned and took two flasks of wine from his personal guards, tossing one across to Xiahou Zuo.

“I drink to you.”

Pei Fanglun pulled the stopper from his flask and tilted his head back for a long, deep pull.

Xiahou Zuo did the same, tipping his head back and drinking in great gulping swallows.

“This cup,” Pei Fanglun said, “I offer on behalf of the common people of the Central Plains. So long as the Northern Frontier did not fall, the people of the Central Plains were spared one great catastrophe. I served in the frontier army — I know how brutal those battles are, how hard, how bitter, how cruel. You had… you had no reinforcements.”

“I had some,” Xiahou Zuo said. “These past years, every time the Black Wu came south, Prince Ning was the one who supported me.”

Pei Fanglun was taken aback.

It had been a very long time since he had been to the north. What he knew of Prince Ning, Li Chi, came mostly from what men on Yang Xuanji’s side had told him, and from rumors he had heard at court in years past.

“Prince Ning…”

Pei Fanglun murmured those two words to himself, then fell quiet.

“Grand General,” Xiahou Zuo said, “you are a hero of the Central Plains, a model of the frontier army. I venture to say one thing, though it may be forward of me —”

Before he could finish, Pei Fanglun shook his head. “This is not merely a matter of each serving his own master. You know as well as I do — if I acted only for myself, I would not be here. I would not still be a subject of Chu. I would long since have shed this armor and gone off somewhere to live in idle comfort. In this chaotic world, who would be worth my laying down my life?”

This time it was Xiahou Zuo who fell silent.

The Pei Family was a great clan — among the great clans of the entire Central Plains, ranked in the top ten. For a man like Pei Fanglun, where was the freedom?

“Drink.”

Pei Fanglun raised his flask.

The two men drank again at the same time, deep and full. Two pulls apiece, and both flasks were already more than half empty.

“Are the Black Wu difficult to fight?” Pei Fanglun asked. “You know — though I served on the frontier, I was garrisoned at Yanzhou and rarely faced the Black Wu directly.”

Xiahou Zuo nodded. “Difficult. The Black Wu are physically larger and stronger than us men of the Central Plains. Their strength is greater, and they are ferocious by nature — they kill for the pleasure of it.”

A quiet shock moved through Pei Fanglun.

Thinking back to those battles against the Black Wu — even with Prince Ning Li Chi’s support, how could Xiahou Zuo’s numbers have compared? And on top of the Black Wu’s natural advantages, winning even once in such battles would be a source of pride for a lifetime. Xiahou Zuo had won more than once.

“Extraordinary!”

Pei Fanglun raised his flask again. “I drink to you!”

Xiahou Zuo raised his own flask. “I drink to the Grand General.”

Pei Fanglun gave a slight shake of his head. “I am not worthy of your toast.”

Then he tilted the remaining half of his flask back and drained it to the last drop.

He tossed the empty flask aside, then rose to stand at attention in the small boat and delivered a formal Dachu garrison military salute.

“Old frontier soldier Pei Fanglun — salutes General Xiahou!”

Xiahou Zuo stood at attention and returned the salute. “Frontier new recruit Xiahou Zuo — salutes the old regimental commander!”

Pei Fanglun lowered his hand and looked at Xiahou Zuo with a faint smile. “Though the court has long spread the story that the frontier army was defending the northern border against the Black Wu while Prince Ning Li Chi was attacking from behind — until even the common people of the capital believe it — your word, I trust. Frontier soldiers do not lie to frontier soldiers.”

He exhaled slowly. “But we must still meet on the battlefield. I will bring everything I have, and you should not let your guard down. We are no longer fighting a foreign enemy — we are killing each other now. Victory and defeat mean life and death. I also know that Ning Army’s main force is not here. You probably have fewer than ten thousand men. If I win… I will personally build a grave mound for you.”

Xiahou Zuo nodded. “I will be waiting for you on the battlefield.”

Pei Fanglun clasped his hands once more, then turned away. “Let us both return.”

Xiahou Zuo watched in silence as Pei Fanglun’s small boat moved away into the distance. And yet he seemed, compared to the moment he had first learned that it was Pei Fanglun commanding the enemy force, to have set something down.

Li Chi had been standing on the bank the whole time with an iron javelin gripped in his hand. Only when Pei Fanglun had returned to the far bank did he pass the javelin to a nearby guard.

Xiahou Zuo’s boat came back. Li Chi reached out and steadied him as he stepped ashore.

“Prepare for battle.”

Xiahou Zuo strode up onto the bank. “They will attack with pontoon bridges and ferryboats simultaneously. We need to destroy their pontoon bridges and prevent them from pressing their superior numbers directly onto our shore.”

Li Chi watched him, a look of quiet tenderness in his eyes.

Xiahou Zuo turned back to look at Li Chi. “What are you waiting for? The enemy will attack soon, and you still haven’t publicly announced me as the commander of this battle — so hurry up.”

Li Chi nodded vigorously and fell into step beside him.

“He is formidable,” Xiahou Zuo said as they walked. “When he was garrisoning the frontier at Yanzhou, he never lost once.”

He paused, then smiled. “But I am more formidable.”

Li Chi asked, “Confident?”

Xiahou Zuo replied, “They have more men and can take turns throwing everything at us — we have superior equipment, excellent technique, and the endurance to outlast them.”

Li Chi: “…”

“Don’t think I missed it,” Xiahou Zuo went on. “The catapults behind the main camp — I also saw how many heavy crossbow wagons and volley crossbows you’ve stacked inside.”

Li Chi said, “As you know, I’m someone who grew up poor and never forgot what it felt like, so my only instinct is to stockpile — as much as possible, always more.”

Xiahou Zuo thought back to a saying of Li Chi’s from their time on the Northern Frontier — *trade equipment for lives; no matter what it costs, it’s worth it.*

“Zhuo Qinglin.”

Xiahou Zuo called out.

Zhuo Qinglin came immediately. “Grand General, your orders?”

“If I put your four thousand men in the rear and kept my own men up front, would you be resentful?”

Zhuo Qinglin: “Yes.”

Xiahou Zuo let out a hearty laugh. “If you’re resentful, what would you do about it?”

Zhuo Qinglin: “Endure it. You are the Grand General!”

Xiahou Zuo laughed even more freely, and nodded. “Then endure it. Take your four thousand battle-hardened brothers to the rear formation. The catapults, volley crossbows, and heavy crossbow wagons are all under your command. I’ll take my men to handle close combat.”

Zhuo Qinglin said, “I obey the Grand General’s orders.”

He gave a military salute, then added another sentence: “But I am still resentful — because my men know this enemy best of all.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “If I don’t fight well enough, you can replace me. My men just arrived here. I need to let them know — the pride they earned fighting in Jizhou should stay in Jizhou, but we cannot afford to lose here in Yuzhou either.”

He turned to look back at the far bank. “Even if you are soldiers trained by Old Tang — don’t think I will yield to you.”

Zhuo Qinglin smiled as well. “Understood!”

Li Chi stood beside Xiahou Zuo, and in that moment, he saw the familiar Xiahou Zuo he knew — the one who strode through Jizhou City without a care in the world.

—