Grand General of the Tianming Army Shi Fenghui sat in the shade of a tree eating his meal, listening as his subordinates delivered their reports. In recent days, all the men he had sent out to collect boats had gathered what they could — a pitifully small number. But Shi Fenghui didn’t mind at all. The fewer the better, as far as he was concerned. Not a single boat would have been fine with him too.

For if they actually turned up a great many usable boats, would they have to attack or not?

“What?”

Shi Fenghui suddenly asked, “You’ve confirmed this? The Ning Army actually went so far as to take a cut from the local businesses?”

The man reporting was a scout officer, who bowed and said, “Reporting to the Grand General — the Ning Army seems entirely unconcerned about concealing any of this. They probably know that among the coming and going fishermen there may be some of our scouts, but they’ve made almost no effort to guard against it. Your subordinate suspects they simply believe we cannot cross the river.”

The officer continued, “Your subordinate arranged to have men mix in among the fishermen and cross to the northern bank. We found a few boats a few days ago — too few to be of any use for a crossing. So your subordinate figured they might as well serve as cover, to get people onto the northern bank to gather intelligence.”

Shi Fenghui nodded. “That thinking was right. A few boats for crossing the river — completely useless. But for reconnaissance, quite serviceable. And they could even trick a little money back out of the Ning Army. Not bad.”

The scout officer felt a private flush of pride at that — though he didn’t dare say so outright. He had, in fact, thought of getting some money out of it himself.

The officer continued, “Your subordinate arranged capable men to disguise themselves as fishermen, delivered those few boats upstream, and they were then transported by the Ning Army’s horses and carts to Caitian County, several tens of li away.”

Shi Fenghui said, “You told me all this several days ago. Any other news come back?”

The officer shook his head. “Five days now. Five days without word.”

Shi Fenghui said, “What’s your assessment? Did the men you sent figure they’d stay a few more days and earn a few more taels? The Ning Army pays by the day, after all.”

The officer shook his head again. “General, I think they’ve defected.”

Shi Fenghui: “You’re joking?!”

He stared into his bowl of food and instantly found it unappetizing. Scouts sent out, five days without a single message — that could only mean they had defected. And all for a little silver. Was it really worth it?

He looked at the scout officer, trying to read the answer from his eyes. He found his answer. The look in the officer’s eyes said: with five to ten taels of silver coming in every day, plus hearty food and drink to go with it — defection is not something I find entirely unreasonable either.

And so Shi Fenghui let out a long sigh, set down his bowl, and said, “We’ll have to keep that in mind going forward. Next time we send people to fetch boats, tell them the boats can go to earn money, but any money earned must be sent back the same day.”

The scout officer thought to himself: *Grand General, that’s what you want me to keep in mind? That’s the part that matters?* What about the fact that defection — a thing of enormous gravity — seemed to have been set entirely aside? He thought about it a moment more, and concluded the Grand General’s meaning was probably: defection is acceptable, but the silver must come back.

“So then, General, should I go find more boats?”

Shi Fenghui nodded. “Go on, go on.”

The scout officer turned and left. He had barely taken a few steps when he heard Shi Fenghui call after him, “Don’t you go defecting on me.”

The officer stumbled slightly, and his legs nearly gave out beneath him. He thought to himself — I had only just that moment started thinking about it, and the General read my mind already.

Shi Fenghui looked at the food still in his bowl and ultimately decided to eat it anyway. His army’s grain supply was not plentiful; nothing could be wasted.

After finishing the meal, Shi Fenghui turned the matter over in his mind and felt increasingly uneasy. This could not continue — morale in the army would begin to waver. If nothing else, he had to at least put on a convincing performance.

Besides, though he was the commanding general of these two hundred thousand troops, not all of the officers under him were his own men. Among them, how many were watching in secret, waiting for an opportunity to file a report against him before Yang Xuanji — hoping to have him removed so they might take his place? Sometimes in officialdom, the ones you had to guard against were not only those above you in rank, but those below you as well. Especially those who were not so far below — for they were the ones with the best chance of replacing you.

“Someone come.”

Shi Fenghui thought this over and called out.

A personal soldier came running, bowing. “Grand General, what are your orders?”

Shi Fenghui said, “Go and summon Kong Qi and Sun Da.”

Kong Qi and Sun Da were both generals of the Tianming Army, and both had followed Shi Fenghui for many years. Back when Shi Fenghui was still a general in the Dachu regular army, these two had already been his subordinates.

In a situation like this, when there was something to arrange, he still had to rely on his own people.

Before long, Kong Qi and Sun Da came trotting over together. From the look of it, both had just finished their meals — there were still grains of rice stuck to the corners of their mouths.

“White rice?”

Shi Fenghui stepped forward and gave each of them a kick. “I’m not even eating white rice, and you two are sitting there eating white rice?”

Kong Qi and Sun Da quickly bowed and used their hands to rub the remaining grains and bits of food vigorously from the corners of their mouths.

“I’ve got something for you two to do.”

Shi Fenghui said, “Take your own company troops and go into the surrounding area to fell trees — to prepare materials for building a pontoon bridge to cross the river.”

Kong Qi paused for a moment, looked up, and asked cautiously, “Grand General, are we actually going to attack?”

Shi Fenghui said, “You need a bridge to cross first, don’t you?”

Kong Qi thought to himself — so this is a real offensive after all? He had lived through battles against the Ning Army, and battles against Prince Wu’s forces, and was among the rare few who had survived all of it. The very thought of the Ning Army’s terrifying fighting power made his heart go cold.

An assault — a river crossing on a pontoon bridge — any commander could imagine what the casualties of such an assault would look like.

Sun Da was equally startled and quickly lowered his voice. “But Grand General, if we start building a bridge, then we’ll really be committed to attacking.”

That sounded like a statement of the obvious — and yet it was anything but.

“What do you know.”

Shi Fenghui also lowered his voice. “Right now, how many people in this army are watching me? If I just sit here and do nothing, reports will be going off to Daxing every single day. One or two reports won’t move him to do anything, but if there are enough of them, even the Commander will start to have doubts.”

Sun Da understood the Grand General’s difficult position, yet the more he thought about it, the more worried he became. He said cautiously, “But Grand General, once the bridge is built, we’ll have no choice but to attack. And those watching us will say the Grand General has accomplished nothing.”

Kong Qi said, “What if we think of some other approach?”

Shi Fenghui said, “I told you to go cut trees, just go cut trees. Do you think I’m a fool? Or do you think the Ning Army is a fool?”

The two men looked baffled for a moment, unable to parse what the Grand General meant by that.

Shi Fenghui’s voice dropped even lower. “The Ning Army has gathered so many boats at the upper stretch of the river and just left them sitting there — isn’t that a waste?”

Sun Da nodded. “It is.”

Shi Fenghui said, “So as long as we start building a bridge, and the Ning Army notices, won’t all those boats they’ve spent money on become useful?”

Sun Da’s eyes lit up. “That’s right!”

Shi Fenghui said, “We build the bridge; the Ning Army sends fire boats to destroy it. We lose the bridge; the Ning Army loses the boats. But our bridge cost nothing — the Ning Army paid money for those boats. Think about it that way — isn’t the Ning Army’s loss greater than ours?”

Sun Da’s eyes were practically glowing now. “That’s right!”

Kong Qi broke into a delighted smile. “And as such, we keep building bridges, and the Ning Army keeps sending fire boats to burn them — this isn’t us doing nothing. This is the Ning Army being utterly ferocious.”

Sun Da: “That’s right!”

Shi Fenghui said, “After a while I’ll write a letter to the Commander, telling him that through our continuous and relentless offensive, our own casualties have been nearly zero — negligible — while the Ning Army has lost hundreds of boats, or I could write thousands, and lost silver to the amount of several hundred thousand taels.”

He said smugly, “And that would still count as doing nothing?”

Sun Da and Kong Qi answered in unison: “That’s right!”

Shi Fenghui lifted a foot and gave each of them a firm kick to the backside. “Then what are you still standing around for? Go cut those trees!”

Sun Da and Kong Qi accepted their orders and immediately turned and ran.

Shi Fenghui called after them, “Make plenty of noise about it — let the Ning Army see us cutting trees. But don’t cut trees on the embankment, blast it all — the rainy season is coming. If the embankment gives way, it’s our side that gets flooded.”

Sun Da and Kong Qi acknowledged with a shout and went sprinting off with heavy footfalls.

Shi Fenghui let out a long, slow breath. Fighting a war — could it ever be purely a matter of what happens on the battlefield? No, there was always the business of human relations tangled up in it.

As long as he was not utterly idle, those envious and scheming men could do nothing to him. While Daxing saw bodies piling up on every side, he could sit comfortably on the southern bank of the Red River and keep on waiting. When the Commander called them back — if he ever did — they would see. Whether to return at all would depend on whether the Commander won or lost.

The way things stood in this realm, who hadn’t already worked out their own calculations?

With all this arranged, Shi Fenghui had two trees found, strung a hammock between them, climbed in, and went to sleep.

On the northern bank, the Ning Army’s side.

A day later, the Ning Army noticed that the Tianming Army on the opposite bank had begun cutting trees. Word was quickly carried up to Zhuang Wudi.

In the main camp, Zhuang Wudi sat beneath a tree reading. After hearing the report, he thought for a moment, then instructed, “Please ask General Liu to come.”

Before long, General Liu Ge arrived.

Zhuang Wudi rose to receive him, and Liu Ge immediately asked, “Grand General, is there a military matter to arrange?”

Zhuang Wudi said, “The Tianming Army on the opposite bank is felling trees — they are likely beginning to build a bridge in preparation for crossing. Go personally and lead men to the upper stretch of the river. If you see the Tianming Army building a bridge, you may use fire boats to attack.”

Liu Ge cupped his hands in salute. “Understood.”

After walking a few paces, Liu Ge turned back, asking with some uncertainty, “But Grand General, would the Tianming Army actually dare to attack us?”

Zhuang Wudi said, “Whether they truly dare or not — they are putting on a show, so we must put on a show as well.”

Liu Ge understood. He nodded and said, “Then when we burn the boats, I’ll start with the small ones. The large ones cost more to compensate for.”

Zhuang Wudi’s expression showed warm approval.

Liu Ge returned and immediately led men to the upper stretch of the river. There on the northern bank upstream, boats lay stacked and overturned across the open ground — from a distance the sight was like an enormous wooden stockade that had been built there.

Liu Ge ordered that the older, cheaper boats with the lower compensation value be singled out and set aside, ready for use when the Tianming Army started building their bridge.

Someone asked Liu Ge, “General, if the other side is only putting on a show, do we even need to burn the boats? It seems like a bit of an expense.”

Liu Ge replied, “If you don’t burn the boats, how are they supposed to keep putting on their show? Show a little consideration for each other — neither side has it easy.”

His subordinates thought it over and found they couldn’t really argue with that.