Night had settled in for a while now, and the lights of Fuzhou burned bright. The city’s nightlife was in full swing — pleasure houses, taverns, teahouses, all alive with activity. People gathered in venue after venue to talk about all manner of things, politics included.

The road from the imperial city to the Princess’s residence had seen a brief lockdown, which had since lifted; the imperial procession had gone to the Princess’s residence, though that was nothing unusual in itself.

The many meetings held throughout the day at court had run nearly the entire day, and by now, the many arrangements decided at the center of power had gradually begun spreading and seeping outward, thereby setting the hot topics for many a gathering across Fuzhou that evening.

However it was framed, the court’s greatest pain point in Fujian right now remained, as ever, money and grain.

“There’s no money or grain.”

Beneath warm yellow lanterns, in a courtyard shaded by an enormous banyan tree, Jun Wu looked at his elder sister, who lay in a reclining chair, one hand rubbing her temple as she read through documents, and let out a sigh. He sat down on a stone stool, and Zhao Xiaosong brought him well water drawn from behind the Princess’s residence.

“…I’ve counted through every last store of grain and silver in the Ministry of Finance, emptied out the private coffers, even the ‘dowry’ I got this time around has been poured into it, and it’s still hard to scrape together enough for this campaign. Look at me, sister — if I have to marry off again, I really won’t have any face left.”

In this private setting, with no one else around, the Emperor’s self-deprecating remark was meant to be lightly amusing, with a touch of deliberate cuteness. Zhou Pei set down the document listing expenditure items in her hand, her mouth twitching — and the laugh brought a fresh twinge of pain to her forehead. She turned her gaze aside.

“The Ministry of War’s list is padded with nonsense — some items can be struck out. But once troops are sent, the situation stops being something we can control. Jiangnan’s wealthy households have already been swept clean by the Fairness Party. Marching out means years of investment just to resettle refugees and restore people’s livelihoods — without a reliable financial base, we can’t sustain the situation in Jiangnan. And besides, are we even truly prepared to fight the Fairness Party?”

“Xu Zhaonan, Shi Baofeng, and the rest of their so-called heroes aren’t hard to beat — Marshal Yue and Marshal Han are both confident there. But He Wen is a different matter entirely. Going by the precedent from the southwest and what’s been reported from there, if he manages to complete his internal reforms, Jiangnan’s going to be a real problem for us…” Jun Wu took a sip of water. “So honestly, I’ve been torn. Han Shizhong and some of the Zuo family’s people have suggested in their memorials that if possible, getting rid of He Wen first would work in our favor.”

“You still want to recruit him though,” Zhou Pei said with a smile.

“Of course I want to recruit him — he’s not a bad man, he’s a genuine hero. I’ve looked into what he’s been through these past years, sister, and if I’d gone through what he did, I probably couldn’t have become the man he is — I’d have been finished long ago. Ever since the Jiangning Conference last year, I’ve sent envoys every month trying to win him over, but on the surface he just laughs it off, and underneath, he doesn’t budge an inch… In previous years, when I sent people, he kept a straight face, but that didn’t necessarily mean he had no thought of joining forces with me. Now that he laughs things off instead, I know it — after the Jiangning Conference, he’s grown even more resolute. He’s been influenced by the southwest — he genuinely wants… equality for all. He and I can’t be friends anymore.”

“Hmph.” Zhou Pei rubbed her temple and gave a soft snort.

Jun Wu sat there, looking exhausted. Over the past day and night, Zhou Pei had managed only fitful bits of sleep, while he had been up since the previous night summoning advisors, meeting with various factions, discussing strategy — once things had settled somewhat, he’d brought his retinue over to his sister’s side. If it came down to hours spent awake, his had far exceeded hers.

They fell quiet for a moment.

“The southwest… after Master defeated the Jurchens, he wrote several essays about the importance of grassroots enlightenment, of reforming the ordinary soldier. I’ve read them over many times, and that’s why I so fully embraced this reform of ‘reverence for the throne, expulsion of the barbarians’… Soldiers who simply form ranks and obey orders aren’t impressive — soldiers who can form ranks and follow orders when gathered, but who also understand, once dispersed, exactly why they’re fighting — those are truly formidable. If you want soldiers like that, you have to give them a reason. Master carried out this kind of reform most thoroughly of anyone. The ones who’ve truly grasped even a fragment of his ideas are Zou Xu in the Central Plains and the Lady Chancellor in Jin territory, and before long, I imagine He Wen of the Fairness Party will join that list too — and he’s probably doing it more thoroughly than any of them… As for us…”

He held the cup of well water, turning it in his hand. “As for us… we finally have some kind of reasoning behind what we’re doing, but the grain’s run out…”

Zhou Pei thought for a moment. “Didn’t you say before that Zuo Xiuquan went to see Gao Chang?”

“Hmph. Sent another delegation…” Jun Wu let out a cold laugh as well.

This was a move the court had already made before — reckoning that Lin’an might well fall, they had hoped Gao Chang could get into the city ahead of the enemy and bring the situation under control, giving the court a measure of face. Who would have thought that when word came back, he hadn’t managed to get there first after all.

“The reason for that will need to be looked into afterward… but as things stand, he’s a warlord — either his forces really aren’t up to it, or… he’s just paying lip service without putting in real effort. Say what you will, though Lord Zuo barely managed to persuade him last year, our own strength really isn’t there — it’s only natural if people look down on us…”

“And even now, he still won’t fully commit to helping us?”

“How could he possibly see how dangerous He Wen is!” Jun Wu lowered his eyes. “Besides, he’s a man within the Fairness Party’s own ranks — if things truly go badly for him, he could still turn and join He Wen. Though He Wen wouldn’t want him — he’s nothing but a warlord thug.”

“Wasn’t there also a group who submitted petitions saying we should kill off a few more of the disloyal great clans?”

“We can’t keep killing. Kill any more and they’ll all flee into the mountains.” Jun Wu said. “Fujian is such a complicated place — three years ago when we first arrived, everyone got along fine, and we collected a good year’s worth of taxes and grain without trouble. Then we started killing people, and it looks like our control over some areas has tightened, but sister, you know better than anyone — the amount of tax and grain we collect has actually gone down, not up… After all, it’s eight parts mountain, one part water, one part farmland — collecting any tax at all depends on their cooperation. If we really drive everyone into the mountains, we don’t have nearly enough of our own officials to manage it — Han Shizhong can barely hold two main roads under control as it is, and that’s already no small feat.”

Zhou Pei lifted her eyes calmly. “If it truly can’t be sustained, then push harder — drink poison to quench the thirst, if we must. We just need to hold out through this year — maybe by autumn the fleet will be back.”

Jun Wu opened his mouth. “…And then what, tell the people who fled into the mountains to come back out and get rich together?”

“There will always be some who come out. The rest, we deal with slowly. As long as we have the money, we can spend ten years suppressing them if we have to — eventually it’ll all be suppressed.”

Zhou Pei’s voice drifted quietly through the courtyard, her gaze fixed on some empty point in the distance, as though she herself were chewing over this near-suicidal resolve. She fell silent for a moment before speaking again.

“Jun Wu, this is the path you chose for yourself. We did have roots to fall back on — the imperial family’s roots, the roots of the Wu Dynasty — that was always your deepest, most reliable foundation. In Fujian, if we’d followed the old precedent, even with insufficient money and grain, if we marched out now, there would always be influential clans and even warlords from Jiangnan willing to come over to us, and with their support, people’s hearts would rally quickly. Even without money to provide relief, we could still win back Jiangnan swiftly and return to Lin’an. But you no longer want that path — so this is the only way left for us to walk.”

“Sister, don’t you believe… don’t you believe in the things Master taught?”

“I…” Zhou Pei lay there, her gaze shifting in the darkness. After a moment, the corners of her eyes twitched faintly. She clenched her teeth, and suddenly flung the cup beside her hand away — and, for reasons she couldn’t quite explain, tears began falling from the corners of her eyes.

“Sister…”

“I believe! What is there for me not to believe!” Zhou Pei said suddenly. “He’s our teacher — I’ve told you so many times, don’t just call him teacher, and you still keep saying it… He’s our teacher, so formidable! He fought for three years at Xiaocang River, fought until blood ran like rivers, fought until even the Jurchens feared him! In the southwest, he defeated Wanyan Zonghan outright — he killed the man’s own son right in front of him! Out there, people call him a demon of the heart! He’s that formidable, and yet now he’s our enemy — and you just believe everything so blindly, aren’t you even afraid? Huh? What if there’s something in what he’s been sending us… something in it…” I’m afraid you’ll just die like that, that you’ll lose the Wu Dynasty’s whole legacy—”

Amid the sudden tears, Zhou Pei’s words grew abruptly fierce, her expression a tangle of complicated emotion — grief, pain, agitation, vulnerability. Jun Wu set down his cup and walked over, standing behind the reclining chair to gently massage her temples. Zhou Pei shut her eyes tightly, and after a good while, she finally raised a hand to rest it over her brother’s, on the back of her head.

“Actually, I don’t think Master has those kinds of malicious intentions…” Jun Wu said softly.

Another spell of silence, eyes still closed. When Zhou Pei spoke again, her voice was hoarse.

“I want to believe it too… but these past years… the things we’ve seen… the people we’ve encountered… we… it’s been so many years since we last saw him, Jun Wu…”

“But he defeated the Jurchens,” Jun Wu said. “If he weren’t a hero unlike anyone else, how could he possibly have beaten the Jurchens… To accomplish extraordinary things, one must be an extraordinary person — sister, look at Marshal Yue. The rigor with which he commands his troops — he’s about as upright a man as they come… you see, having been Emperor for a few years now, I’ve picked up something of a sense for judging people myself.”

“And what about Han Shizhong then…” Zhou Pei said with a faint laugh.

“Marshal Han… a towering, upstanding man — even his rougher, more unrestrained side comes across as remarkably distinct, doesn’t it… So that’s my view. Master, he really is different from everyone else…”

“Some Emperor you’ve become…” Zhou Pei laughed faintly, hesitated a little, then said, “…You’re starting to sound like one.”

“Sister, if you’d stop worrying about Master, that headache of yours would probably get seventy percent better.”

Jun Wu let go of her and moved to sit off to the side, and the two siblings’ hands remained clasped together.

Once the mood had settled, Zhou Pei finally spoke. “I don’t support this all-or-nothing so-called constitutional monarchy, Jun Wu. No one has ever done this before. Confucian teaching may reach the masses, but at the end of the day, plenty of common people simply can’t be taught properly. When Master handed all this to us, he made it very clear himself — this was an experiment, a gamble, and yet here you are, throwing yourself into it wholeheartedly…”

Jun Wu only smiled.

Zhou Pei held onto his hand. “But in the end, Jun Wu, you’re the Emperor, you’re the sovereign, you’ve made your own firm decisions. As your elder sister, all I can do is fill in the gaps for you, patch things up here and there. Since you’ve already decided to see this through to this extent, sister will help you see it through completely as well… If there’s truly no other way with sending the troops, then we’ll drain the pond to catch the fish. I’ll take charge of dealing with the clans that need to be purged — I’ll draw up the list, I’ll handle the cleanup.”

“…”

Feeling the strength conveyed through his sister’s hand, Jun Wu fell briefly silent as well, then looked up. “It hasn’t come to that yet. As for sending troops, there’s already a preliminary draft in place. Throughout the court, top to bottom, everyone’s begun tightening their belts together — spending within the palace has been cut down to thirty percent of what it was before.”

“Thirty percent?”

Jun Wu nodded. “Every expenditure across the court, top to bottom, we’re mobilizing everyone to share in the hardship, cutting as much as possible down to seventy percent of previous levels — officials’ salaries across the board, cut in half. Master Li will help stir up public sentiment to support it. Any Military Academy students who’ve completed at least half a year of study will go to the front lines, working alongside the Beiwei Army soldiers to properly resettle the refugees streaming south. These students, the soldiers, the refugees… will all eat and live together. And then we’ll spread the word to everyone — our army answers to the Son of Heaven above and rescues the common people below… this ‘rescuing the common people’ part is going to be the core of what comes next in our reforms.”

Zhou Pei opened her mouth. “That’s… the Zuo family’s idea? Can it actually be done?”

“It won’t be easy to pull off, but Zuo Wenxuan says that back when things were hardest in the southwest, that’s exactly what they did. Master and the others… ate the same food as the soldiers, only one meal a day… Going forward, I’ll be doing the same.”

“…” Zhou Pei thought it over for a moment. “If we really cut the officials’ salaries, they’ll just start taking it from elsewhere…”

“We kill them. Master Cheng will oversee it, with the Zuo family and Military Academy core members forming the enforcement squads — checking every day, executing every day, and making sure word of it spreads…”

Hearing this, Zhou Pei narrowed her eyes. “This last part… whose idea was this?”

“I understand what you’re getting at.” Jun Wu smiled. “Zuo Wenxuan proposed the first part, but he didn’t dare suggest the second — that part was my own idea.”

Only then did Zhou Pei relax. “So in other words, you’ve decided not to purge the great clans for now, and instead break with the court’s own officials? Jun Wu, these are your own men…”

“Without strict laws and harsh punishment in the rear, if the soldiers up front are scrimping while the officials in the back keep skimming, none of this will work out either way…”

“This whole affair is difficult enough as it is — you want the court’s officials to be as incorruptible as water, while also breaking ties and alienating some of them… I understand you’ve long since prepared yourself for this, but the order in which you do it — you need to think it through carefully…”

“…Mm.” Jun Wu nodded. “Actually, Master Cheng brought up this same point too — I’m still weighing it.”

“But this is good too.” Zhou Pei sighed. “This way, at least there are two options now…”

Because of how the courtyard had been positioned, there was a touch of coolness in the night air even now. Having discussed such intense matters, the two siblings finally sat quietly together for a moment. As the conversation turned to lighter things, Jun Wu mentioned something he’d witnessed the night before, up in a corner of the imperial city — talk of assassins breaking into the Princess’s residence, and what that had actually been about.

Zhou Pei only shook her head — that had surely been something Cheng Zhouhai and Zuo Wenxuan had staged. The two of them had been out and about all day, swamped with it, and she herself, after waking, had been busy gathering money and grain, with no time yet to look into it.

“Should I have Zhao Xiaosong come and ask about it?” Zhou Pei said.

“Never mind.” Jun Wu shook his head. “Let’s just sit here together, the two of us, for a while. If an assassin does show up, I’ll protect you.”

Zhou Pei smiled. “With that skill of yours…”

“Don’t underestimate me — I’ve been on a battlefield too… and besides, sister, have you forgotten whose disciples we are? Plenty of people in the jianghu say Master is a martial grandmaster, the greatest under heaven… Ah, it’s a shame Master never properly taught me that Heaven-Overturning Seal technique of his back then — he only ever gave me a few pointers on physical conditioning.”

“That one’s fake.”

“Master hid it well back then…” Jun Wu didn’t listen, and after a moment, “Sister, all these years, you get upset whenever Master comes up, you get upset every time — but when I talk about Master, I always feel happy… What do you actually think of him? Why do you get so upset?”

“…”

“Well, now that I’m Emperor, I’ve dealt with enough affairs and met enough people to have picked up a few insights of my own.” Jun Wu held her hand, opening her palm gently. “Sister, when you think of Master, do you feel wronged?”

Her hand trembled slightly but finally went still. Zhou Pei’s gaze turned toward Jun Wu, and Jun Wu looked back at her, gently. He was picturing, in his mind, the story of what had happened between his sister and their teacher on that journey to the capital all those years ago, and her gaze grew somewhat distant. In the far reaches of memory there was a girl’s longing for something perfect, and a gentle, parting gesture of courtly grace.

And it was in that very moment of quiet, held gazes that, not far from where they sat, in a courtyard nearby, someone cried out.

A sudden commotion broke out.