The Dragon Boat Festival was drawing near, and every household in Xiangzhou had hung up bundles of mugwort. The sweet, glutinous fragrance of rice dumplings drifted through the streets.

Li Wu walked home carrying two hands full of savory and sweet dumplings, only to be startled by bloodstains on the two stone lions at the gate.

The entrance to the Li Residence was deserted. The gatekeeper who ought to have been on duty was nowhere to be found, and in his place was a pool of blood on the ground.

A chill sank through Li Wu’s heart. He threw down the dumplings and charged into the residence, scanning his surroundings and calling out Shen Zhuxi’s name urgently.

The servants he saw every day had become bodies scattered this way and that. Li Wu searched the entire Li Residence without finding any trace of Shen Zhuxi.

“My… my lord…” A servant coughing up fresh blood grabbed hold of his trouser leg.

A survivor at last — Li Wu immediately helped him up and said urgently, “What has happened? Where is my lady?”

“My lord… run, r-run… the Wuying Army has… has come through…”

“What?!”

Li Wu would have pressed for more, but the servant’s body went rigid, and his eyelids drooped and fell shut.

How could the Wuying Army have attacked Xiangzhou? And how could they have infiltrated the Military Commissioner of Zhenshan’s own residence without any warning?! No amount of bewilderment could outweigh the truth before his eyes. No matter how he could not make sense of it, he had no choice but to accept reality: Xiangzhou had fallen, the enemy had come to his doorstep, and Shen Zhuxi was nowhere to be found.

An earth-shaking explosion erupted from the east. Li Wu rushed out the gate and found that outside had also changed beyond recognition.

Xiangzhou was engulfed in fire. The street was strewn with the bodies of civilians. But mercifully, he caught sight of Shen Zhuxi’s dazed figure standing there.

“What are you standing there for?!” Li Wu rushed to her and grabbed her hand and ran.

“Xiangzhou…”

“Escape first, talk later! Diao’er will find us outside the city walls!”

Li Wu pulled her straight for the city gate.

Three of Xiangyang’s four city gates had fallen; only one remained, and in front of it a crush of refugees had packed together. People pushed and jostled shoulder to shoulder, all scrambling over one another in their desperate rush to flee Xiangyang.

In the chaos, the hands Li Wu and Shen Zhuxi had clasped tightly together were knocked apart by the surging crowd.

“Shen Zhuxi!”

He called out her name at the top of his lungs, yet could only watch helplessly as she was swept away by the flood of people.

“Shen Zhuxi!”

Li Wu ran through the crowd calling out again and again, but never caught sight of her again.

When next they met, three years had passed.

He scraped by scooping out night soil, hauling it across all of Da Yan in search of his lost wife. One day, as he walked through the streets carrying his load, he overheard bystanders gossiping about how the Princess of Yue and the number-one gentleman in the land were a perfectly matched couple — husband and wife in full accord, a string of children already born between them, and a blissful family life the envy of all.

This couldn’t be!

He’d been scooping night soil for three years and hadn’t heard a word about the Princess of Yue returning to the imperial court! And as for a string of children — could you produce a whole string in three years? She wasn’t a sow farrowing piglets; what kind of logic was that?

Li Wu charged up to the person spreading the gossip and grabbed him by the collar and went at him with his fists.

By evening, he dragged himself back to his rundown shack covered in filth, and thinking back on his days as a military commissioner three years earlier, felt as though he had been living through a long and drawn-out dream.

Where was Shen Zhuxi?

Where was Diao’er?

Where was Que’er?

He looked all around. Empty, desolate — just himself, alone.

A powerful, wrongful outrage filled his heart.

Chunyu An had stolen his territory. The number-one gentleman had stolen his woman. And he was here scooping night soil?

“Damn it all, I swear I won’t be a Li until I’ve dumped this whole bucket over both your heads!”

Li Wu’s furious roar burst from his throat, and he snapped his eyes open.

The blazing, dazzling evening sun flooded into his eyes, and he instinctively squinted. Birds were twittering and chirping their way home in the hills, and the stream gurgled nearby as it always did. Shen Zhuxi and Li Kun, caught in the middle of digging the bird eggs out of the ash, froze mid-motion and stared at him in bewilderment.

“…Did you have a nightmare?” Shen Zhuxi said.

“Big Brother woke up hungry…” Li Kun said.

“When did you wander off?!” Li Wu shot to his feet, glaring. “Where were you when some dog was making off with your sister-in-law?!”

Li Kun stared at him in complete confusion.

“What dog?” Shen Zhuxi was equally baffled.

“From now on, whenever you see a dog, give it a wide berth — and absolutely do not get into conversation with it! Do you hear me!” Li Wu said irritably.

“How would I get into conversation with a dog?” Shen Zhuxi said, puzzled. “Are you still muddled from sleeping?”

“You’re the one who’s muddled!” Li Wu said. “Tonight when we get home, we’re eating scalded-skin dog-meat hotpot!”

“We’re going to eat more?!” Shen Zhuxi, whose stomach was already stuffed to capacity, protested.

“Scalded-skin dog! Scalded-skin dog!” Li Kun, with a hot bird egg in his mouth, murmured contentedly.

That evening, Li Wu tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. He went over the scenes from his daydream from beginning to end, then from end to beginning, not letting a single detail slip — even the Wuying-governed Eastern Capital banner he had glimpsed in some corner of his dream when Xiangyang’s walls were breached was tracked down by his exhaustive mental search.

“What are you tossing around for…” Shen Zhuxi was already half asleep, and the commotion beside her stirred a murmured question from her.

“You sleep.” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi said nothing more and drifted back to sleep.

Li Wu continued to flip back and forth in bed like a pancake.

The resentment of having his wife taken and the agony of being reduced to hauling night soil refused to leave him.

The more he thought about it, the more outraged Li Wu became: to have the enemy come all the way to his doorstep, and still do nothing about it — wouldn’t that just be begging to be bullied for having no teeth?

He turned it over from every angle, and the next morning before dawn, he was the first to arrive at the official office.

When Fang Tingzhi learned that the lord military commissioner had arrived at the official office before daybreak and had not even taken his morning meal, he hurried over at once. When he stepped into the office room, Li Wu was seated at the desk, gripping the document that had arrived the day before, staring at it fixedly with a deep frown, a map spread out on the table beside him.

Fang Tingzhi came closer before he realized it was a map of Da Yan, with the jurisdiction of the Military Commissioner of Wuying laid out at the center.

“My lord, this is…”

Fang Tingzhi bowed and ventured a question.

“Has no one yet responded to the punitive decree?” Li Wu said without looking up.

“No news has been received yet…”

“Very well,” Li Wu said. “Then I’ll be the one to eat the crab first.”

Fang Tingzhi was taken aback, completely at a loss to understand why Li Wu’s mind had changed overnight.

“When does my lord intend to set out? Which prefecture will he attack?”

“Once the troops are mustered, we move. Strike before they can prepare.”

Li Wu rolled up the map on the desk, tucked it along with the punitive decree inside his robe, and said:

“We start with that wretched Eastern Capital prefect.”

Taking into account that he had been caught off guard at home in his daydream, this time when Li Wu mustered his troops for the campaign he made a point of leaving San Hu and the elite city garrison behind, and also stationed a trusted personal guard at multiple layers around the Li Residence — to prevent a repeat of the nightmare scenario where, after a separation, a whole string of children could sprout before they met again.

Although Shen Zhuxi was surprised that he had suddenly decided to go to war with the Wuying Army, upon learning it was in answer to a punitive decree issued by the imperial court, she expressed her support.

After Li Wu had repeatedly urged the blockhead that while he was away, she must stay well clear of unnamed mongrel dogs, stray dogs, and all manner of miscellaneous dogs, he finally led the great army out of Xiangyang.

From the moment he made up his mind to the moment they departed, only one day and one night had passed.

The Eastern Capital prefect had been gloating to his colleagues just the day before that no one would be so foolish as to answer the court’s summons and come pick a fight with the Wuying Army — and the very next evening, the Zhenshan Army’s lightning campaign had reached his doorstep and taken off his head.

By the time word reached the heart of the Wuying Army’s territory, the Zhenshan Army had already swept through and captured two of Wuying’s prefectures like a tide.

“Useless rabble!”

In the Military Commissioner of Wuying’s residence, Chunyu An delivered a kick to the general groveling before him to beg forgiveness for the defeat, his broad, square face — marked with the distinctive features of his foreign lineage — flushed dark with fury.

“Who in the world is this Li Zhuzong? Does he have seven heads and six arms? Not a single man in either the Eastern Capital or Ruzhou was able to stop him! It is a supreme humiliation to the Wuying Army!”

“My lord, please give this subordinate one more chance. This subordinate will certainly atone for the failure and bring Li Zhuzong’s head before you…”

The general who had suffered crushing defeat in the battle for Ruzhou kowtowed again and again like a pounding pestle, his sweat pouring down.

The Military Commissioner of Wuying was of foreign extraction, violent in temperament, and paramount in martial valor — his subordinates all feared him as they would a ghost. There was only one person who had earned his trust, one who could check his murderous inclinations and keep the Wuying Army cohered as a single force to this day.

That was Han Fengnian — the second-in-command of the Wuying Army, Chunyu An’s right and left hand.

The defeated general’s heart quailed at the killing intent written across Chunyu An’s face. He looked toward Han Fengnian, who was standing to the side with arms folded, in desperate appeal — and at last Han Fengnian stepped forward, made a bow toward the imposing Chunyu An, and spoke with calm, measured enunciation:

“My lord, the fall of Ruzhou is not solely the fault of the defending general. Ruzhou has long relied on the Eastern Capital for its protection, and its garrison strength and military preparedness are far inferior to the neighboring Eastern Capital. Once the Eastern Capital fell, Ruzhou’s loss was also inevitable. Now Wuying faces punitive campaigns from Da Yan, beset by enemies within and without — it is precisely the time to make use of capable men. Better to give him one more chance.”

Chunyu An dropped into his chair, his furious gaze still boring into the kneeling general. After a long pause, he pressed down the murderous impulse within him and waved his hand:

“Get out!”

The defeated general escaped with his life and made a hasty retreat.

“My lord, the loss of one city or two is no longer the most important matter now.” Han Fengnian made a bow and said, “Li Zhuzong has led the way, and the Xuanhuai and Langwen armies have already appeared on Wuying’s borders. The Cangzhen and Longbei armies are also en route. Before long, the Jihai and Shu’an armies and others will certainly mobilize as well. The Wuying Army can hold its own against any one of them, but if the military commissioners unite, Wuying will be hard-pressed to stand alone.”

“…Has Commander Han any stratagem?” Chunyu An asked, his face still dark with menace.

“In this subordinate’s view, my lord should exercise patience for the moment and reach a temporary reconciliation with Da Yan.”

“You want me to bow my head before that boy emperor?!” Chunyu An erupted in rage.

In the face of Chunyu An’s fury, only Han Fengnian could remain so composed.

He kept his head lowered, his manner respectful, yet the words he spoke were resolute.

“Only by preserving what we have now will the future remain full of possibility. What need does my lord have to show strength only to lose it?”

“…Is there truly no other way?”

Han Fengnian was silent.

“Da Yan will not accept an offer of peace.” Chunyu An said with a dark expression. “The Fu clan has long resented our dominance. With an opportunity this good, how could the Fu clan possibly let it pass?”

“The enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend.” Han Fengnian said. “We can approach it through the Fu clan’s enemies.”

“You mean?”

“To eliminate my lord’s power is what the Fu clan desires. What the Fu clan desires, the Emperor necessarily does not.” Han Fengnian said slowly. “Apart from us, what other force in this land could truly stand against the Fu clan? Does my lord suppose this is a state of affairs that His Majesty would wish to see?”

The deep furrow of Chunyu An’s brow gradually eased. He stroked his square jaw, and a thoughtful expression crossed his face.

“I take your meaning…”

“My lord is most perceptive.” Han Fengnian said just enough and no more, making a bow of flattery.

“Who on earth is this Li Zhuzong who has appeared from nowhere? He first made his name by cutting off the false emperor’s head — if he has such extraordinary fortune, how is it no one has heard of him before this?” Chunyu An said.

“This man is quite mysterious. Some say he is from Jinzhou, others say Xiangzhou, and there is also a version that places him in Xuzhou. The accounts are many and varied, and the most important reason is that this man is an orphan by origin — likely even he himself does not know clearly where he came from. It is said that for the first twenty-odd years of his life, he ambled about the streets catching chickens and walking dogs, never applying himself to anything useful. Only after he married did he begin to rise and make his mark.” Han Fengnian paused and said, “This is not without some basis. The Madam of Xiangzhou whom he married is indeed deserving of her reputation for virtue and wisdom.”

“I want to see what this late bloomer looks like. Think of a way to get me a portrait.” Chunyu An said with a cold laugh.

“Understood.” Han Fengnian bowed.

“As for the matter of peace negotiations with Da Yan—” Chunyu An looked toward Han Fengnian.

“This subordinate has some acquaintance with those close to His Majesty. My lord may entrust this matter to this subordinate.”

“When you handle something, I am at ease.” Chunyu An nodded. “Go ahead and see to it.”

“This subordinate will certainly bring good news to my lord.” Han Fengnian said. “My lord need not worry overmuch. Among the military commissioners now allied together, only the Zhenshan Army is somewhat troublesome. As long as we hold the Zhenshan Army in check, there is still room for things to turn.”

Chunyu An was fully convinced.

The one who had been marked as Wuying Army’s current most pressing threat had no idea that he had already come to Chunyu An’s close and particular attention.

After Li Wu captured the Eastern Capital and Ruzhou, he did not — as everyone had anticipated — continue to attack the remaining territories of the Wuying Army.

You cannot grow fat all in a single bite, and even if you managed it, sooner or later someone would come and knock it all back out.

Li Wu understood this deeply.

He did not continue to attack Wuying Army’s territories, but instead turned and headed for Dengzhou.

He wanted to see what the Dengzhou prefect — who had repeatedly treated his orders as invisible, and this time had even ignored a direct summons — was thinking.

After the Zhenshan Army arrived beneath the walls of Dengzhou, the prefect of Dengzhou — whose heart had always been with Shu’an — knew that Shu’an no longer had the power to hold out against this new rising force among the sixteen military commissioners, and had no choice but to personally open the city gates and prostrate himself in humble apology.

A month later, the Wuying Army and the imperial court reached a reconciliation. Wuying was redivided, and Li Wu — as the first military commissioner to answer the punitive decree — received the Eastern Capital as his reward.

The Dragon Boat Festival had truly arrived.

Amid the clean, clear fragrance of mugwort lining every street, Li Wu led his army home to Xiangyang, laden with the fruits of victory.