War cries hoarse, smoke curling into the sky — this battle on Dulong Ridge, in an afternoon no one had expected, suddenly surged toward its most intense peak, without warning.

The battlefield was in chaos. By the time Wu Yong hurried to the main tent, he learned that Song Jiang had already ordered several commanders out to mount a rescue. They rushed off with tremendous force.

A quick inquiry revealed that not long before, Luan Tingyu had feigned defeat to lure Suo Chao in, while several Zhu Family Manor units, relying on their familiarity with the terrain, drew a number of Liangshan units away and split off, then, timing it precisely, converged with their strongest concentration of force, blocking the road. More than forty crossbows fired in relentless volleys — on Dulong Ridge’s winding paths, such a sudden barrage of crossbow fire was devastating, and it was clear Zhu Family Manor had thrown in nearly everything they had. Lin Chong and others had rushed to the rescue, and the fighting there had already turned into a full melee.

Before this news had even finished being relayed, fresh word arrived: Luan Tingyu had committed everything to pinning down Lin Chong and the others on the road, while over a thousand men had encircled Suo Chao, capturing him along with more than three hundred of his men, now being moved back toward Zhu Family Manor. A capture-and-transport operation like this would cost Zhu Family Manor dearly even if it succeeded — these past several days they had never dared to fight so recklessly. Wu Yong frowned; something about this felt wrong.

This turn of events had come on fast. In ordinary times, even losing Suo Chao to capture would, to Wu Yong’s mind, be nothing unusual. That business of Ning Yi supposedly being “a named figure” was, after all, only an impression left over from the later legend of the Water Margin; in actual fighting, Zhu Family Manor had plenty of skilled fighters besides Luan Tingyu and the Zhu brothers — other manor hands and instructors of real ability — and in the give-and-take of real combat, so long as they too inflicted losses on the other side, having a man captured now and then was nothing strange.

And yet, all these strange incidents piling up since this afternoon seemed to hint at something. Wu Yong did not believe anything could truly shake the outcome of this battle now, but the various reports he had heard that afternoon kept surfacing in his mind — the two rounds of interrogation at Zhu Family Manor, the assigned tasks, the returned prisoners, and now this incident of Suo Chao’s capture with someone apparently signaling to the enemy — whatever it was they had done, it should not have been able to take effect this fast.

But if the other side was not simply flailing in desperation, but was instead carrying out something deliberate, step by step, then the situation might be entirely different… Some possibility had begun tugging at that dangerous thread in the back of his mind.

“Chaos Thunderbolt Hand, Lei Feng…” he murmured the sudden name to himself, and abruptly made up his mind.

“Brother Gongming — have everyone made ready. From this moment, full assault on Zhu Family Manor!”

With that order, the entire battle on Dulong Ridge surged, in an instant, to a peak it had never before reached in seven days of fighting.

Faintly, he recalled that man’s words: You’ll have to accept it whether you want to or not…

If you really did do this, let’s see how you accept it now…

…

The tide of soldiers surged forward like a flood.

Wu Yong’s sudden, decisive judgment — and the momentum it unleashed on Liangshan’s side — brought terror and chaos crashing down on Zhu Family Manor in turn.

After Luan Tingyu, Zhu Biao, and the others withdrew back into the manor, the sight of Liangshan’s commanders massing together, clearly preparing to seize the position, badly startled everyone inside. Most of Dulong Ridge’s traps and fortifications had already been destroyed, with only scattered remnants left near the manor itself; the only reason Liangshan had not yet mounted a full assault was that the cost of doing so would still be too great. But now, it seemed, capturing just one more commander had been enough to send the enemy into a frenzy, and everyone was left momentarily stunned.

Even Ning Yi, standing atop the manor’s outer wall in a pose of calm calculation, narrowed his eyes at the sight, somewhat puzzled: “What’s gotten into them?”

Within moments, the manor folk surged toward the walls, already organizing into formal defensive positions under Zhu Long’s shouted orders. Luan Tingyu and Zhu Biao, just back from fighting outside and bearing fresh wounds, rushed up onto the wall as well, equally taken aback. If Liangshan truly meant to throw caution to the wind, Zhu and Hu manors would certainly not be able to hold out in the end. Just moments earlier they had still been celebrating the capture of three hundred men; now Zhu Biao, spear in hand, looked toward Ning Yi. “This is your doing — now they’re going to attack in full force!”

“Third Young Master, don’t talk nonsense!” Luan Tingyu glanced at Ning Yi. “We’ve only just captured some of their men, and their reaction is this strong — it proves Master Lei’s scheme is working, they’re afraid! This is good news!”

“Good news, if it means the manor falls two days sooner!”

“Better than just waiting to die like before!” Luan Tingyu laughed, cupping his hands toward Ning Yi. “Master Lei, do you have any more tricks up your sleeve? If not, I’ll defend the way we normally would.”

Ning Yi, still craning his neck to watch the Liangshan forces gathering, glanced over at Luan Tingyu. “If there’s no plan, how much longer could Drillmaster Luan hold out?”

“If Hu Family Manor is willing to commit their strength, we could hold until the day after tomorrow without trouble. If they want to break through, they’ll pay several times the cost for it. All we can do is hold firm, make Liangshan feel the losses too much to bear, and hope they might withdraw.”

This had been Luan Tingyu’s plan from the very start — if Dulong Ridge fought back hard enough, and Liangshan grew unwilling to bear the losses, there was a chance they might yet be preserved. Unfortunately, days of desperate fighting had not been enough to make the enemy hesitate. His attitude toward Ning Yi had been lukewarm at best until now, but seeing this change in Liangshan’s posture, he had grown noticeably warmer. Ning Yi smiled. “In that case, I do have a few ideas.”

He explained his plan to Luan Tingyu and Zhu Biao; once the two had left, Squire Zhu and Zhu Long came over, and Ning Yi asked Zhu Long to bring Suo Chao, Qin Ming, and the other Liangshan commanders forward. “If there’s no other choice and they insist on a full assault, bring these commanders to the front lines, Brother Zhu. If they attack, cut them down one by one.”

Pinning the outcome on the enemy’s sense of loyalty and brotherhood was hardly guaranteed to work. As Zhu Long went off to see to it, Squire Zhu asked, “Master Lei — did you perhaps foresee that they would launch a full assault?”

Ning Yi shook his head with a smile. “There’s no way I could have predicted that — I haven’t gone up against this Wu Yong before. From what I’ve seen these past few days, he’s steady, clearly a man who plays it straight. This one genuinely caught me off guard.” He crouched behind a large shield, peering out. “As for what comes next… we’ll just have to see, one step at a time…”

…

The sun blazed like fire, war drums began to roll.

Wu Yong’s decision, once made, was decisive indeed — and beneath that blazing sunset, the camp was already preparing to empty out entirely. Wu Yong and Song Jiang stood outside the tent, watching the front lines; in truth, Wu Yong was also waiting for fresher intelligence to come in.

Ever since giving that order, he had kept weighing in his mind whether all these odd little incidents today were truly worth this response. But there was no need yet to reconsider the order — their army was not yet fully assembled. Then, from Zhu Family Manor’s side, the sound of fighting rose — the enemy had made the first move! Wu Yong’s eyes fixed on the distance, and before long a messenger arrived with a report.

“Luan Tingyu, Zhu Biao, and the others are harassing our lines, and they… they seem to be releasing prisoners…”

“What?” Song Jiang asked again, and the scout repeated himself: the enemy was fighting and retreating at the same time, occasionally releasing two or three of their own captured brothers, which had left the commanders up front hesitant, unsure what the enemy was up to, and so they had come back to ask for instructions.

Song Jiang looked toward Wu Yong. Wu Yong opened his mouth, and after a moment, a complicated smile crossed his face. He said through gritted teeth, “An exposed scheme… Lei Feng?”

…

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Beneath the fiery sunset, war drums thundered. Liangshan’s soldiers spread out and massed together; along the walls of Zhu Family Manor, heads crowded thick, and in the distance, Luan Tingyu’s harassing attacks continued, the sounds of fighting carrying across the field. In this evening hour, the standoff finally reached its breaking point. Every nerve was drawn taut on both sides of the battle line, waiting in grim silence.

An arrow’s distance from Zhu Family Manor, along the road and up the hillside, troop after troop gathered, commanders on horseback, the atmosphere stern and forbidding. Control of the battle clearly rested in their hands. Atop the manor walls, bows and crossbows were set in place, and the defenders clenched their jaws, hearts pounding with unease. In this moment, no one could predict how things would unfold — not even, perhaps, the very man behind it all, whose heart, too, was locked in inner turmoil.

The tense standoff lasted roughly the time it takes to drink a cup of tea…

Then, without warning, the war drums fell silent.

Far back in the Liangshan camp, the man named Wu Yong lowered his hand. “For today… let’s withdraw.”

“They’re… withdrawing?” Atop the wall, hearing the retreat horns sound from the Liangshan ranks, and watching the commanders gradually pull their forces back, everyone stood dumbstruck for a moment before breaking into startled, disbelieving cheers.

Even Luan Tingyu and the others, worn ragged from fighting, were stunned at the sight, blinking in confusion before letting out a long breath of relief.

No one had expected that, on the eighth day of the brutal fighting at Dulong Ridge, the day Liangshan’s army arrayed itself for a full assault would become the very first day they withdrew before night had even properly fallen.

Few could fully grasp the reasons behind this strange turn of events.

“Let them cling to a little more life for one more day…” Within the Liangshan camp, Wu Yong said this to the assembled men; as far as the overall course of the war was concerned, Liangshan’s dominant position remained essentially unchanged.

And on the manor side, Ning Yi let out a breath, looked up at the sky, and smiled as well. “Congratulations, everyone — we’ve all lived one more day.” Then, turning to the man beside him, he remarked, “Did you see that? Truly impressive — Liangshan’s army, coming and going, orders obeyed to the letter. I don’t know much about warfare, but to give the order for a full assault and still be able to pull everyone back like that afterward — that shows just how firm a grip Song Jiang and the rest have over their men. That kind of vigor really is blazing like the noonday sun.”

Beside him, Wang Shanyue studied him for a long moment. “Actually… you have a spy over there.”

“Shh.” Even as Wang Shanyue spoke low and softly, Ning Yi, still gazing toward the manor’s exterior, gently raised a finger to his lips, his voice hushed and grave. “Of course I do. That’s the only kind of arrangement you can truly control.”

“With this much smoke thrown up, if it’s managed well, you really could consider taking Song Jiang out…” Wang Shanyue murmured. Ning Yi glanced at him.

“Why would I want to kill Song Jiang?”

He laughed, and the question made Wang Shanyue’s brow furrow. “Then what do you want?”

Ning Yi pointed toward the manor’s exterior, where, in the sunset, the retreating Liangshan forces could be seen withdrawing. “Look at them — strong, disciplined, coming when they say they’ll come and pulling back when they say they’ll pull back. Is that because Song Jiang is so righteous, or because he’s just impressively ruthless?”

“…” Wang Shanyue still hadn’t quite adjusted to Ning Yi’s modern way of joking, and for a moment found nothing to say.

“They want to rebel. They’re strong enough to do it. They can seize more than they already have, and they know it perfectly well — we can’t beat them, so they’re not going to fuss over small losses here and there. This whole army radiates dominance. If the Wu Rui Battalion ran into them out in the open, they’d probably be steamrolled in a single pass. Kill Song Jiang, and after some small-scale infighting, a new leader rises to take his place. At least until they’ve gotten roughly as far as Fang La did last year, they won’t stop.”

Ning Yi’s expression turned serious. “Even in the best-case scenario, if Song Jiang dies and the spoils get divided unevenly and everyone scatters, the ones who’ve already tasted this kind of power won’t be content going back to being petty bandits like before. The troubles of Shandong might be resolved for a while, but before long you’d have roving bandit bands springing up everywhere, and things would get even messier. And there will always be someone trying to pull that scattered strength back together… To really solve this, most of them need to die. Also, I have my own personal reasons for doing this.”

“…You’d actually have to be able to pull it off first.”

“It does seem difficult when you put it that way, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Ning Yi smiled, watching Squire Zhu, Zhu Long, Zhu Biao, Luan Tingyu, and the others approaching, and though he kept his voice low, he made no effort to move out of earshot.

“Right now, Liangshan is at its most powerful on the outside — but internally, they’ve got more factions than you can count. Brotherhood and personal loyalty matter more to them than military discipline, and once there’s distance between hearts, suspicion creeps in between any three men — should I report this, should I report it first, should I hold back and wait and see — every kind of thinking will surface. Different thoughts create different outcomes. Send two hundred men back: a third get isolated, a third stick with their original commander, who covers for them if anything comes up, and the last third get genuinely, quietly protected.”

“There’s no shortage of clever people anywhere, especially among those capable of leading others. My brother gets sent back — I know he’s innocent. Do I go confess it? Even if the higher-ups are understanding about it, I’ll be watched more closely from now on regardless. See that much, and you hesitate — or you decide it doesn’t matter enough to bother confessing — and that’s exactly the kind of small self-interest, in the face of what looks like the bigger picture, that gets called the ‘thief of virtue.'”

“Those who did come forward and confess but gave nothing away can hold their heads up, sure — but did you confess, and did the higher-ups believe you? And those who did give something up — alone in that little room, with no one watching, will they claim to have been unyielding, or will they admit what they actually said? Those who insist they were tough carry a secret in their hearts; those who confessed everything carry guilt and unease. And then, those who did come forward and confess, seeing the ones who didn’t confess and yet weren’t punished either — what do they make of that? And further still, those who were never even captured — how do they look at these men who’ve come back, especially once it gets around that some of the tasks I gave included things like cutting a sleeping comrade’s throat? Once that spreads, even if the higher-ups let it go, people will start to wonder. Once there’s guilt in someone’s heart, there’s always an angle to work.”

“Of the two hundred men sent back, the ones who end up genuinely hidden away might, in the end, only number thirty or forty — because their identities got recognized. Of those, the ones actually willing to do small tasks for us might be fewer still. Most will simply choose to sit and watch. Who these people are, who does what and who doesn’t — even I don’t know, and I don’t need to. As long as there are some, however many, that’s enough.”

“A dozen or even just a few slipping in isn’t much on its own. But by tonight… or maybe even right now… they’ve probably already worked out exactly what I’ve done. I don’t mind them knowing — I’m happy to lay it all out plainly for them to see. The first move has been made. Now let’s see how that bright fellow over there plans to solve it. Maybe there really is some brilliant mind among them — but… at the best possible moment, they may have already been a step too slow.”

By now, several of the Zhu family stood nearby listening. Ning Yi smiled, then clapped his hands. “Anyway, what they choose to do next is their business. Brother Wang, Brother Xinhan — there’s still work to do. Two hundred men have gone, but we’ve picked up three hundred more — the workload’s too much for me alone. Tonight… or really, right now… I’ll need both of your help. And I’d also ask the Zhu family to negotiate with Hu Family Manor — have them bring over the men they’ve captured too, so we can add them to the pile here. If two hundred-odd isn’t enough material, we’ll add a few hundred more. Please also have the manor send over some well-traveled, trustworthy people to help identify prisoners — just get their names written down, and their whole families are as good as tied to a rope.”

Hearing this, Zhu Long and the others responded with excitement. However complicated the scheme, even without fully understanding it, they could tell it was devilishly clever. Squire Zhu, Luan Tingyu, Wang Shanyue and the others were still chewing over the logic of it all, when Ning Yi turned his gaze back toward the direction of the Liangshan camp.

He could now guess that, in truth, there had probably been a moment when that man called Wu Yong had faintly sensed the danger hidden within this scheme. That was the instinct of a truly sharp mind — and perhaps it was exactly why, in that moment, he had suddenly ordered the full assault on Zhu Family Manor. That instant had caught even Ning Yi somewhat off guard.

Had that instinct been carried through ruthlessly to its conclusion, the room Ning Yi had left to maneuver in would truly have narrowed to almost nothing; perhaps, in that case, all that would have been left was to persuade Zhu and Hu manors to break out together in full force, to preserve what strength remained. Had it come to that, he himself would have been in real trouble.

But a clever man was still a clever man. Once time had passed and he’d had a chance to cool down, he would judge the overall situation rationally. Weighed against several times the losses a full assault would cost, plus the chaos the returned prisoners might sow at the worst possible moment, compounding the losses further, and on top of that, the mention of the court’s name likely reminding him of the risk the Wu Rui Battalion posed as an opportunistic third party — he had, in the end, made the rational choice to withdraw. As long as he tightened up discipline and rooted out these hidden risks, Liangshan’s advantage would remain intact — Zhu Family Manor was already in the bag regardless… That was probably how he saw it. A pity, though — external wounds are easy enough to remove, but cancer cells spread fast.

That was the thing about clever men — they were always easier to predict than fools.

He shook his head, shaking off the last of his lingering unease. Zhu Family Manor’s forces were already exhausted, and this was only the beginning. Liangshan was strong, and time might not be on his side either — the situation was far from optimistic. He never underestimated an opponent when it came to tactics; if there truly was some other genius on the other side, or some unexpected turn of events that could break the deadlock, he would not find that hard to believe. The psychological pressure would only keep building, bit by bit, and until the last thread of trust finally snapped, he would simply have to keep going, step by careful step.

Now, let’s see how they try to solve this one…

The night wind blew on.

Just as Ning Yi had said, the question had already been posed, and by nightfall, nearly every commander in the Liangshan camp had learned of what had happened. The matter now lay plainly before everyone — truly an exposed scheme, one they’d have to accept whether they wanted to or not. And the name “Chaos Thunderbolt Hand” Lei Feng had already spread through the entire camp in no time at all, leaving everyone wondering just what kind of man this could possibly be.

Around the campfires, in the mingled light and shadow, even the ever-dignified Guan Sheng slammed his wine bowl down on the table.

“Charge out my ass!”