After Pei Qi led his forces back toward Meicheng, Han Feibao’s ferocious subordinate Kuobieulie took fifteen thousand Yong Zhou soldiers and seized Qingmian County.

They tricked open the gates by claiming to be an incoming grain convoy. The Shu Zhou garrison inside had no reason to be suspicious.

Once through the gates, the Yong Zhou forces struck without warning, swiftly disarmed the Shu soldiers, and began hauling out provisions and supplies.

Perhaps out of some remnant of old loyalties — or perhaps on Han Feibao’s orders — the Shu Zhou soldiers in Qingmian County were not slaughtered. They were simply bound and told not to move.

It took only two days to strip Qingmian County bare.

Not just the mountains of grain — all the weapons and equipment as well.

The main battlefield lay directly at Kaoshanpass. Because of the pass’s geographic constraints, large quantities of supplies could not be stored there directly. So Qingmian County, not far away, had served as the logistical depot for Kaoshanpass.

To prepare for Li Chi’s Ning army offensive, the stockpile at Qingmian County was staggering — enough to sustain hundreds of thousands of troops for two full years.

All of it now fell into Han Feibao’s hands.

When the news reached him, the Chu Emperor Yang Jing’s heart tightened with fresh unease. This total inability to control his own fate, this complete helplessness before life and death, filled him with dread.

He had no idea what Han Feibao intended, or what the purpose of all this was.

If Han Feibao meant to make a genuine defense of Kaoshanpass, then between the Yong Zhou forces’ strength and the pass’s natural fortifications, holding back the Ning army should not be particularly difficult.

But Han Feibao’s behavior had already given Yang Jing reason to suspect he had no intention of holding the pass at all.

His suspicion was soon confirmed. Not long after the troops finished looting the supplies, the hundreds of thousands of Yong Zhou soldiers at Kaoshanpass began preparing to withdraw.

“Your Majesty.”

The Yong Zhou general Kuobieulie strode up to Yang Jing in great strides. The man was enormous — Yang Jing was no short man, yet he barely reached Kuobieulie’s shoulder.

“General… is there something the matter?”

Yang Jing asked with careful deference.

“My lord sends me to invite Your Majesty to set out.”

That one phrase — *set out* — very nearly stopped Yang Jing’s heart.

But seeing that Kuobieulie showed no sign of drawing a weapon, Yang Jing slowly realized: the Yong Zhou army was simply taking him away somewhere.

“General — might you tell us where we are going?”

“So many words. Just follow along.”

Kuobieulie glared at Yang Jing. “If you can’t keep up, I’ll have someone carry you.”

“I can walk, I can walk.”

Yang Jing said hastily, “Allow us a moment to gather some things and we’ll depart immediately.”

“Nothing to gather. We leave now.”

Kuobieulie pointed down to the base of the wall. “His Majesty’s carriage is already waiting below. Your Majesty need bring nothing.”

“Yes, yes, of course…”

Yang Jing dared not say another word. This Kuobieulie was plainly not from the Central Plains, and he looked every bit as ferocious as he acted.

Not only men from beyond the Central Plains — these days, how many men *within* the Central Plains still treated him, the Emperor of Chu, as anything worth respecting?

He had no choice but to descend from the wall. At the city gates, he could already see columns upon columns of Yong Zhou soldiers streaming out beyond the walls.

Kuobieulie pointed to a carriage. “Get in.”

Yang Jing climbed in with a trembling heart, not daring to ask anything — and then nearly leapt out of his skin when he saw Han Feibao already sitting inside.

“General Han — where, exactly, are we going?”

“Sightseeing.”

Han Feibao glanced at Yang Jing, then set down the map he had been holding and offered him a smile.

That smile sent Yang Jing scooting backward into the corner.

“Your Majesty, I have a few questions for you.”

Han Feibao said, “Tell me — whether Pei Qi supports you or supports me, what is it he ultimately wants to do?”

Yang Jing had no idea what had transpired between Pei Qi and Han Feibao, or how far their rift had grown. But from everything he could observe, it had clearly passed the point of reconciliation.

He scrambled to answer: “Pei Qi is a man of two faces. He cannot compare to General Han in the slightest…”

“Answer my question.”

Yang Jing froze. After a moment, he said haltingly, “We… we believe that Pei Qi intends to use us as a banner — to use the restoration of Chu as a pretext for seizing the realm for himself. And sooner or later… sooner or later he will kill us.”

“Haha! So you do see it clearly. And what about me?”

Han Feibao said, “I was part of your question too.”

Yang Jing swallowed with some difficulty. “Very likely… very likely Pei Qi intends to kill General Han as well.”

“Not ‘very likely.'”

Han Feibao said, “Whether it’s you sitting on the throne or me, once we’ve won — he eliminates us both.”

He leaned back against the carriage wall, smiling. “Pei Qi takes me for a brute with courage and no brains. That’s why he believes everything is within his control.”

“But how would he know that the brainless image I’ve shown him is precisely what I wanted him to see.”

“Because he thought me simple, he felt comfortable backing me — pouring Shu Zhou’s rich resources into full supply for my forces.”

Han Feibao said, “And even now, at this juncture, he still thinks he can wring every last drop of use from me before sending me to my death.”

His palm came down on the map. “Did he think I came all the way back from Yong Zhou to bleed for him?”

“The King of Ning Li Chi wants Shu Zhou with absolute certainty. With Grand General Tang Pidi’s generalship, with the many battle-hardened commanders under him, with the unbroken winning spirit of hundreds of thousands of Ning soldiers — Shu Zhou cannot prevail.”

He continued, “I came back from Yong Zhou for one reason only — to take supplies. Yong Zhou is cold and poor, and grain is scarce.”

He spread the map open in front of Yang Jing. “What province is this?”

“This is… Ji Zhou?”

Yang Jing’s expression changed sharply.

Han Feibao smiled. “I made a deliberate show of arrogance to drive Pei Qi out of Kaoshanpass — all to take the provisions from Qingmian County.”

“And then we march north from here. The Ning army thinks we’re in Shu Zhou. By the time they fight their way to Kaoshanpass, we’ll already be in Ji Zhou.”

Yang Jing’s heart was hammering so fast he thought it might burst from his chest.

He could not yet judge whether Han Feibao’s audacity was an asset or a death sentence. But he could not deny that the move was genuinely bewildering.

The Ning vanguard — more than a hundred thousand troops under the Xiahou banner, according to intelligence — was less than twenty days’ march from Kaoshanpass.

By conventional estimates, the Ning main force would not be far behind — perhaps only days later.

The Yong Zhou army had exploited a narrow window in time: slipping past Pei Qi’s Shu forces and evading Li Chi’s Ning army entirely.

“Attacking Ji Zhou — isn’t that enormously risky?”

Yang Jing asked with extreme caution.

He truly feared Han Feibao, whose moods shifted without warning and who treated the Chu Emperor as though he barely existed. Every word spoken to him — every single character — required double the care.

“We’re not attacking.”

Han Feibao smiled. “I’m not after territory. Defeating the Ning army now is all but impossible.”

His finger traced a path across the map — a route he had marked just moments before.

“Along this road we go, and from Ji Zhou we take enormous quantities of grain and supplies.”

“We don’t fight. We only plunder. Look at this — every step of the way is rich country.”

Han Feibao said, “Ji Zhou is flush with wealth right now. That is Li Chi’s granary and treasury — prepared for us.”

Yang Jing felt cold sweat beginning to run down his spine.

The scheme was genuinely bewildering — and genuinely lethal to the bone.

If the Ning army abandoned its assault on Shu Zhou and turned to pursue the Yong Zhou forces from behind, the outcome would be entirely uncertain.

“Is Your Majesty worried about a Ning army pursuit?”

Han Feibao smiled. “If Tang Pidi truly comes after us, his entire plan for Shu Zhou collapses.”

“In the end, he fails to take Shu Zhou and may not catch us either — because we have no interest in holding territory. We only plunder.”

“If Tang Pidi genuinely abandons Shu Zhou to chase me — consider that a gift from me to Pei Qi. A debt repaid.”

Han Feibao said this and folded up the map.

He gazed out through the carriage window. “Pei Qi thought I still wanted to fight for the Central Plains — that I still wanted to be the great Emperor myself. He underestimated me.”

“The three words ‘knowing when to quit’ are brutally hard. The difficulty lies in the inability to let go. But I have let go now.”

Han Feibao looked out at the passing landscape. “I will return to Yong Zhou with riches beyond counting. With what I’m capable of, the Ning army will find Yong Zhou far harder to crack than Shu Zhou.”

Yang Jing sat in long silence, not knowing what to say, not daring to ask.

Even his burning question — *why has Han Feibao brought me along? Could he still need an Emperor’s banner in Yong Zhou?* — he did not dare voice.

Han Feibao said nothing. He dared not ask.

—

*Some ten days later. Meicheng.*

When word reached Pei Qi, he froze — utterly unprepared for this.

Han Feibao had come in from Shu Zhou’s northwest, and was now going out through Shu Zhou’s east, swinging a great arc back toward Yong Zhou…

*He had been tricked.*

“Bring my horse — quickly!”

Pei Qi strode out, his expression thunderous.

“Send word to Yao Zhiyuan at Hubipass — march to Kaoshanpass immediately!”

“My lord, General Yao has already moved his forces to Kaoshanpass. But there is almost no grain or supply.”

“Go and requisition it!”

Pei Qi barked as he walked. “Issue orders across Shu Zhou — grain and supplies are to be transported to Kaoshanpass without delay. No exceptions. Anyone who dares to drag their feet will be executed on the spot!”

He stopped. “Send every Strategy Officer in Meicheng out to the counties — one officer per county, with authority over the county magistrate. Organize the local grain into convoys bound for the front.”

Ning Haocun immediately bowed. “Your subject will dispatch personnel at once.”

Pei Qi emerged from the compound, mounted, and rode hard for Kaoshanpass at full speed with his personal guard.

And at that very moment, atop the walls of Kaoshanpass itself, Yao Zhiyuan’s face was equally dark — because the Ning army had arrived.

Outside the pass, a great Ning army force was already setting up camp. By the scale of it, no fewer than one hundred thousand.

And inside Kaoshanpass at this moment, he had fewer than ten thousand soldiers to his name — including the men he had already pulled from Hubipass.

As for supplies: if no resupply arrived within five days, his soldiers would be fighting on empty stomachs.

It had to be said — Han Feibao’s gambit had been genuinely unexpected.

Pei Qi had not anticipated it. The Ning army had not anticipated it either.

Tang Pidi’s main force was still en route. Han Feibao’s forces had slipped away northwest — moving almost directly opposite to the Ning army’s line of march.

By the time the news of Han Feibao’s northwestward departure reached Tang Pidi’s column, it was already more than ten days later, and the army was nearly at Kaoshanpass.

The Ning vanguard under Xiahou Zhuo had already made camp outside the pass. With such an enormous upheaval, everyone was forced to reassess.

Inside the Ning main force camp, Tang Pidi spread out his map and drew with a charcoal pencil.

“He wants to plunder his way back to Yong Zhou?”

He muttered to himself.

“If that’s the case, it means Pei Qi and Han Feibao have fallen out completely.”

Li Chi looked to Tang Pidi. “Split the forces.”

Tang Pidi said, “Anchen went northwest, but he has only ten thousand men. The northwest is already thinly garrisoned — even if he mobilizes local militia, he won’t exceed fifty thousand in the short term.”

He looked to Li Chi. “Your Highness takes the main force to attack Shu Zhou. I’ll take one hundred thousand and go after Han Feibao.”

Li Chi shook his head. “Shu Zhou still needs you to lead the assault. I’ll take the rear echelon of eighty thousand and set out immediately — gathering garrison troops from each province along the way — and see if we can cut Han Feibao off.”

Tang Pidi fell silent.

Li Chi said, “There’s no need to deliberate further. You focus on Shu Zhou. The preparations have been made, the supplies are in place — Shu Zhou cannot be left untaken.”

Li Chi turned. “Zhuang Wudi — take the rear force of eighty thousand. Follow me north.”

Zhuang Wudi rose. “Understood.”

Li Chi clapped Tang Pidi on the shoulder. “If you take Shu Zhou, come out through the northwest pass and we’ll strike Yong Zhou from two sides.”

Tang Pidi nodded. “Good.”

Li Chi turned and walked out. Gao Xining, Zhuang Wudi, and the others followed quickly in his wake.

—