No discussion of what one stands to give can stand alone — the return must also be weighed.

Situated at the same Jiulong River mouth, with Jiahe Island to the north and Zhangzhou Prefecture’s Yuegang to the south, they could only watch as Yuegang had flourished within a mere decade or two and the Chen clan’s power grew day by day.

How could the three clan heads not be moved? Or more honestly — how could they not be envious?

But the matter concerned ships and men, and they did not dare agree on the spot. The Qi clan head said again: “I ask the Prefect to give us one day, to allow us to confer briefly with the clan.”

One day Pei Shaohuai was willing to wait. He said: “That is fine. Once the three clan heads have conferred and reached a decision, you may give this official your reply.”

“Does my lord have any other instructions?” the Qi clan head asked.

They intended to leave as soon as possible.

Pei Shaohuai shook his head. “Please go as you see fit.”

The three clan heads took their leave. The Twenty-Seventh Elder limped along at the very rear. His face carried a look of some excitement; he declared to Pei Shaohuai with firm conviction: “Prefect, please set your mind at ease. The younger generation of the Qi Clan Hall who have gone out to sea year after year — they are not a faint-hearted lot.” His meaning was clear: the Qi Clan Hall would agree.

The Twenty-Seventh Elder added: “All these years, what we have lacked is someone to take the lead.”

As long as there was someone to lead the charge, the rest would rise together — under those conditions, how could they lose the field?

Pei Shaohuai bowed respectfully in seeing them off and replied: “I trust the elder will pass this spirit and courage down from one generation to the next.”

“The lord overpraises this old man.” The Twenty-Seventh Elder laughed with easy warmth. “One stretch of land raises one kind of people. The generations who have been born here since ancient times are destined to carry a certain measure of boldness… Without that boldness, how would anyone dare go to sea to wrest a living from the waves?”

So it has always been.

——

After seeing the others out, Pei Shaohuai made his way back from the council chamber to the main office. In Yan Chengzhao’s cup, the tea had just been drunk down to the last drop.

“Could Commander Yan hear clearly?”

“Clearly.”

The exchange between Pei Shaohuai and the clan heads had been brief, yet it was worth careful reflection.

Before coming from Jiahe Island, Yan Chengzhao had been puzzled as to why Pei Shaohuai had still not publicly announced the court’s order to open maritime trade, and had intended to ask. Now, having heard the conversation in the council chamber, things became clear; he had worked out the answer on his own.

The longer he worked alongside Pei Shaohuai, the more he came to see the quality of Pei Shaohuai’s steadiness. The wise plot for momentum; the capable plot for position; only the mediocre plot for short-term gain.

“Prefect Pei has a gift for winning people’s minds and hearts,” Yan Chengzhao said. “Yan has finally understood why the Prefect has been holding back the announcement of the maritime opening.”

Pei Shaohuai raised his cup, smiling at himself with mild resignation: “Pei has little to speak of in the way of talent. The only card up his sleeve is ‘opening of maritime trade.’ Naturally he could not afford to lay it on the table at the very start.”

With a ring of wolves looking on, how could he dare bring out the meat before the moment was right?

Yan Chengzhao offered further praise: “After a few exchanges just now, Prefect Pei has secured both ships and crew. Yan is full of admiration.”

“It is still not enough.” Pei Shaohuai said. “To break the Japanese raiders’ sea ‘sorcery,’ ships and crew alone will not suffice. There is one more thing that is missing.”

“What is it? If it is firearms, Prefect Pei need not worry.” Yan Chengzhao asked.

Among the elite troops he had brought from the capital — in addition to the finest soldiers of the Southern and Northern Offices of Imperial Inspectors — there were also weapons craftsmen from the Divine Mechanism Battalion. These craftsmen had already set up furnaces on Jiahe Island and were smelting iron and mixing gunpowder.

The scale was modest, but over the course of several months, a fair number of fire-lances and ship cannons should be ready.

Pei Shaohuai shook his head. “No.”

“What is missing,” Pei Shaohuai explained, “is men of exceptional talent who can observe the heavens and foretell wind and storm on the open sea.”

Da Qing prohibited the private study of celestial observation and the private reading of astronomical phenomena, and still more the spreading of dangerous talk — all of it punishable by beheading. Anyone who made observations and divinations from the sky was considered a “sorcerer.” Raising such a matter in the court would make one the target of attack from all quarters.

“Sorcerers” and “dangerous talk” were frequently associated with “plotting rebellion.”

Yan Chengzhao, though he knew Pei Shaohuai harbored no treasonous intent, still let his expression grow somewhat grave. He asked: “What is Prefect Pei planning to do?”

“Commander Yan need not be alarmed just yet.” Pei Shaohuai said calmly, and asked in return: “Commander Yan does not believe the Japanese raiders possess sea sorcery — yet he is wary of men gifted at reading wind and rain from the heavens?”

Pei Shaohuai believed that Fujian, lying along the coast, was certainly not lacking in people of such ability.

He continued: “The Japanese raiders dare to perform their tricks on the open sea for no other reason than that someone aboard the Japanese ships is skilled at reading the signs of wind and rain, using this knowledge to craft the illusion of ‘calling up wind and waves.'” The Japanese raiders had spent years and years roving at sea, accumulating knowledge grain by grain; they were far more adept at harnessing the wind and riding the waves.

The more one knew, the more precisely one could predict — and the more mysterious the illusion one could construct.

“Xunzi has written: ‘In deploying troops, the supreme commander must first master the way of heaven above, then command the advantages of the terrain below, and in between win the hearts of men.’ The ‘way of heaven’ he speaks of refers precisely to the patterns of the sky and weather. If we wish to break the Japanese raiders’ ‘sorcery,’ we cannot do without men versed in the ‘way of heaven,’ to help us predict wind and rain at sea ahead of time.” Pei Shaohuai explained.

What he wanted was simply someone who could forecast the weather — not someone to “read the heavens and divine the fate of the dynasty.”

Pei Shaohuai’s intention was this: the Japanese raiders were supremely confident in their own “sorcery” — it was their proudest boast, the thing they relied on most. Strike them there first, at the very point of their greatest arrogance.

Yan Chengzhao considered for a moment, then said: “Allow me to take responsibility for this matter.”

Finding people was something he was better suited for. He added: “What Prefect Pei needs is not a man of mysterious gifts. What Prefect Pei needs is a military adviser for Jiahe Guard.”

Pei Shaohuai understood Yan Chengzhao’s good intentions and clasped his hands in a silent bow of thanks.

With business concluded, the hour was nearly right. Yan Chengzhao rose and prepared to take his leave. He suddenly recalled a “private matter” and mentioned it briefly: “I have looked over two neighboring residences in the south part of Tong’an City, built side by side. Whenever Prefect Pei has a free day, we might go and have a look together.”

“Commander Yan’s air of domestic contentment grows richer by the day.” Pei Shaohuai teased him, then added: “Once I have finished with the present matter, we will go. Any residence that meets the Commander’s eye will certainly not disappoint.”

It had been two months since arriving in Shuang’an Prefecture. It was indeed time to find different lodgings. The young Commandery Princess Zhao and little Yi’er could not remain on Jiahe Island indefinitely, and Yang Shiyue and the children Xiao Nan and Xiao Feng could not go on staying in the yamen’s rear courtyard either.

——

The yamen had no pressing business that afternoon, and Pei Shaohuai headed home somewhat earlier than usual.

As he entered the courtyard, he saw from a distance two children under the eaves hanging sheets of paper out to dry — they were trying to spread the water-soaked pages flat and drape them over the railings beneath the eaves to air them out. They were still too young, and their small hands were not yet nimble; the wet pages they had draped over the railing leaned and toppled every which way.

Both children had their sleeves rolled back, moving with great care, trying their best to peel the water-soaked pages apart one by one. Their eyes were slightly red — they had clearly been crying not long before.

Yang Shiyue was seated nearby “keeping watch,” doing needlework in the meantime.

The afternoon shade beneath the eaves, and the needlework stitching back and forth in and out — together, they slowed the very passing of time.

Taking in the scene, Pei Shaohuai felt a mixture of vexation and suppressed amusement. He did not need to guess: the two little ones had inevitably gotten into trouble, ruined an entire roll of paper by soaking it through, and Yang Shiyue was making them do penance.

Pei Shaohuai walked over. Xiao Nan and Xiao Feng immediately spotted him as though they had sighted their rescuer, and at once called out: “Father.” Their voices rang clear, carrying a note of aggrieved appeal.

They wanted to run over and wrap themselves around Father’s legs, yet realized their hands still held a wet page. Afraid of tearing it, they hesitated — and in the end, hastily draped the page over the railing first, then ran to their father.

Pei Shaohuai asked: “What trouble have you gotten yourselves into this time?”

Children never fail to get into some kind of trouble.

Yang Shiyue set down her needlework and said to Xiao Nan and Xiao Feng: “Tell your father yourselves.”

The two children lowered their heads and pulled at the hems of their clothes. After a long moment, they finally found their voices.

Xiao Nan spoke first: “Mei Mei and I were folding paper boats to play with.”

Xiao Feng picked up the thread: “And we found out that paper boats can float on water.”

Xiao Nan continued: “So we wanted to fold a boat to bring little Yi’er over to play with us.”

Xiao Feng added: “But the boat folded from one sheet of paper was too small.”

Xiao Nan stole a sideways glance up at his father and then said in a halting voice: “We saw that Father’s study door was open…”

Speaking in turns, one after the other — the two siblings had a natural and easy rapport. Pei Shaohuai could fill in the rest himself. He said: “So you carried off a stack of paper and soaked it all through?”

The two small heads sank even lower.

“Mother said not to go making trouble in Father’s study…”

“Mother said if all this paper were turned into food, it would last a very long time…”

By now, the scolding Yang Shiyue deemed necessary had clearly already been delivered.

It was simply his nature — and besides, public duties kept him away from home — so Pei Shaohuai had always been warm and gentle with Xiao Nan and Xiao Feng: telling them stories, teaching them things, an indulgent father by any measure.

Yang Shiyue managed the two children day in and day out, attending to every large matter and small, giving far more — and was naturally the strict mother of the pair.

Pei Shaohuai crouched down and said to the two children: “Zhengguan, Yunci — your idea was a good one, but the trouble you caused cannot go unpunished.” One matter was one matter.

Xiao Nan and Xiao Feng nodded.

Pei Shaohuai coaxed them: “Finish hanging up the pages to dry first. Tonight, Father will tell you the story of how great ships are built. And before too long, we will be neighbors with little Yi’er’s family, and then you can see little Yi’er every single day.”

Children need playmates.

Xiao Nan and Xiao Feng’s eyes lit up with delight.

The two children went back to hanging up their pages. Pei Shaohuai turned to his wife and said: “Shiyue, you have worked hard.”

Yang Shiyue set down her needlework basket and straightened the front of her husband’s robe. Noticing how dark the shadows beneath his eyes had grown and the weariness that was beginning to show on his face, she said: “The household will not trouble you, and the two little ones are very well-behaved.” She added with tender concern: “You must rest more in these days. Your health matters above all else.”

None of the ideas or plans that emerged came from nowhere. Pei Shaohuai had spent long stretches of these recent days alone in the study, turning things over deep into the night.

Yang Shiyue had seen all of it.

——

That night, Pei Shaohuai made good on his promise and told the children the story of how great ships were built, then coaxed them to sleep, and at last made his way back to the study.

Yang Shiyue followed him in quietly.

“A letter arrived from the capital.” Yang Shiyue said, handing her husband an envelope. “Everyone at home is well. Fourth Elder Sister’s medical clinic is running smoothly and has expanded to twice its former size. Third Elder Sister writes that the cotton weaving workshop has added a new device — it can spin seven or eight threads of even thickness all at once. It was an idea that came from several of the women working in the workshop.”

The letter was thick — a substantial sheaf of pages, clearly not just a few sheets.

No doubt the whole family had each written something and sent it all together.

With a new spinning device in the weaving workshop, cloth was being produced at a faster pace. Yang Shiyue sighed with feeling: “The lord was right — the world is not short of one or two clever people. They simply lack the chance.”

Da Qing had never been short of clever people. Only in the world as it had been, there had been no opportunities for them to show what they could do.

These had been Pei Shaohuai’s own words once. Hearing them now from Yang Shiyue’s lips, they sent him into deep reflection. After a long moment, he came back to himself and murmured: “Yes. In any endeavor, too much leads to the opposite of what is intended. Opening one small crack is enough — and the clever people will press through on their own.”

It seemed as though something had just become clear to him.

“What does the lord mean by that?”

Pei Shaohuai did not pick up the family letter straightaway. Instead, he took a key and opened the bookcase, and brought out several sheets of technical diagrams.

He had spent two months designing these — plans for a type of military weapon. The design had reached an early prototype stage; as long as trial production and testing proved successful, it could be put to use in naval warfare. Yet he had been holding back, uncertain, and had not brought the diagrams out to hand to Yan Chengzhao.

He had not let the weapons craftsmen of the Divine Mechanism Battalion attempt to build them.

Tonight, after hearing his wife’s words, Pei Shaohuai at last saw clearly. Without further hesitation, he held the diagrams over the candle flame.

Paper catches fire quickly. The room brightened briefly. In a short while, only a few charred curls of ash remained in the brazier on the floor.

The diagrams he had drawn through sleepless nights were given to the flames. Yang Shiyue did not entirely understand, but she did not stop him — she trusted that her husband had his reasons.

Pei Shaohuai said: “A naval force armed with superior weaponry — while it might give the Japanese raiders cause to shrink back in fear, it would at the same time give the court cause to shrink back in fear.”

Once that happened, even with the Emperor’s favor behind him, it could not last.

The raiders would not be destroyed. He would destroy himself first.