In the early hours before dawn, the wind and snow gradually began to ease.

In the ruins of what had once been a small town, bonfires were burning. The sounds of horses and men brought, for a time, a breath of life back to this place.

Soldiers cooked porridge over the fires in iron pots or washed-out helmets; some roasted hard, cold steamed buns over the flames, or what now counted as a luxury — strips of dried meat. Soldiers with light wounds still sat by the fires, chatting and laughing with others. To one side of the camp, rescued prisoners in tattered clothing huddled together in small clusters of two or three.

“Here, a blanket — take it…”

Ning Yi walked among them, along with others, handing out what few warming blankets they had. These people, having spent months in the Jurchen camp, mostly bore wounds and had suffered every kind of abuse. In terms of appearance, they might well have looked more pitiable than even the most wretched beggars depicted in later-age films and dramas — a sight almost unbearable to look upon. A few, somewhat cleaner, mostly women, even still wore brightly colored clothing, but their expressions were mostly withdrawn and dazed. What kind of treatment a woman who had been made even somewhat presentable might have received in the Jurchen camp could well be imagined.

In truth, any woman among them had likely already suffered such treatment — it was only that some had endured it longer, and so their appearance had grown correspondingly more wretched, leaving nothing to desire in the eyes of those who looked at them. Those who had been left to fend for themselves were, for the most part, simply the ones the Jurchen had been too lazy to bother killing.

Some of them, seeing Ning Yi handing things over, instinctively flinched back — they (or she) perhaps still remembered what Ning Yi had done not long ago in the Jurchen camp, driving everyone into flight without any regard for their wishes, which had led to a great many deaths afterward.

In that chaos, when the Jurchen came rushing in, some of the prisoners, held captive for so long, had instinctively dropped to their knees to surrender. Ning Yi and the others had been hiding among them, launching their assault on the Jurchen, and it was these very released prisoners who had, in the end, borne the brunt of the actual slaughter. In a sense, they had served more as human shields, covering the group of over a hundred men who had infiltrated the camp to burn the grain and carry out their assault and assassinations against the Jurchen. Because of this, many still felt a lingering unease over the ruthlessness Ning Yi and the others had shown.

But of course, aside from the handful of severely wounded who were still, even now, slowly dying in the bitter cold, the fact that any of them had managed to escape at all was certainly a good thing. Even those still shaken by what had happened had no intention of leveling any accusation at Ning Yi over it, and Ning Yi, for his part, naturally offered no defense either.

Before long, others began bringing over thin porridge and toasted slices of steamed bun. With no proper bowls to spare, people drank the porridge from washed pieces of broken pottery and shards of ceramic instead.

Having something to warm their stomachs made the ruins of the town, lit by the glow of the bonfires, feel a little more peaceful.

A small number of people were still working at the edge of the town, setting up anti-cavalry barricades and building modest defensive works based on the terrain — though a victory had just been won, and a great many highly capable scouts were already active in the surrounding area, watching the Jurchen’s movements at all times, the possibility of a surprise attack from the enemy still had to be guarded against.

“…At that moment, I fell right off my horse, and I really did panic a bit — but even so, those Jin dogs charged in, and I had armor on. One thrust, thunk, didn’t get through… damn it, I went after him, and the bastard actually dared to fight back…”

In the snow behind the barricades, the figures of a dozen or so men could be seen digging, their voices carrying over as they talked.

Among the soldiers throughout the camp, this was more or less the general mood at the time. They talked of the battle, their voices not raised too loud, but throughout the entire camp, from top to bottom, there hung a full, brimming air of confidence — walking through it, one could not help but feel steadied by it.

Ning Yi, Hongti, Qin Shaoqian, and the others were likewise moving among them, inquiring after the arrangements for various matters; there were also many small, trivial issues that others came to ask them about. The sky overhead was still dark at this time; once the various arrangements had mostly been settled, someone brought over some wine — though it had not yet been distributed, the mere scent of it already lifted the mood further still. Ning Yi’s voice rose up at the front of the camp: “I have a few words to say.”

The darkest hour before dawn was also the quietest, most still hour of all; the wind and snow had already stopped. As Ning Yi’s voice rose, the several thousand men quickly fell silent, all eyes turning, of their own accord, toward the figure now climbing atop a small heap of rubble in the center of the ruins.

There was, in fact, a smile on Ning Yi’s face.

“Are you all excited? I’m excited too. When we set out, I honestly had no idea what to expect myself. This battle today — was it a mission to send us to our deaths, or could we really accomplish something? Well, we really did it. That army, said to be unbeatable once it numbers ten thousand, the strongest force in all the realm — over these past few months outside Bian Liang, they crushed more than three hundred thousand of our men combined. Today! For the first time, we struck out formally against them, and taught them a lesson! We crushed ten thousand of their men! Right in front of their eyes, we burned their grain! We gave them a hard slap in the face, something no one else has managed to do!” Ning Yi laughed, raising a hand slightly. “In my own heart, I’m telling myself — we’re unstoppable.”

The crowd laughed along with him.

“So, once things settled down a little, I found myself feeling genuinely happy too. Word has already been sent to the village, and to Bian Liang — they’re certainly even happier than we are; there must be several hundred thousand people out there celebrating on our behalf right now. Someone asked me earlier whether we should celebrate a little. And it’s true — I did bring wine, good wine at that, more than enough for all of you to drink. But these two barrels weren’t carried all the way here just so you could celebrate.”

Ning Yi’s expression turned somewhat more serious, his words pausing for a moment; the soldiers below instinctively sat up straighter. Most of these men had come from the Lüliang Mountains or Dulong Ridge, and Ning Yi’s authority among them was beyond question — when he spoke in earnest like this, no one dared to take it lightly or ignore him.

“The enemy we’re facing is the Jurchen — unbeatable once they number ten thousand. There are fifty thousand of them assaulting Bian Liang right now. There are over thirty thousand under Guo Yaoshi’s command, equally formidable troops, currently settling accounts with the western army under Zhong Shizhong. As for the ten-thousand-plus men at Moutuo Gang today — if they hadn’t first been forced to prioritize protecting their grain supplies, throwing caution to the wind, we would have had no way of getting out of there in one piece. Compared to the quality of other armies, you might think this alone is already impressive, something worth boasting about — but if that’s all it is, all of you would already be dead here—”

“Are you strong enough already? No! Are your accomplishments glorious enough already? No! This was nothing more than a small warm-up skirmish — compared to what you’re about to face, it counts for nothing at all. Today we burned their grain, we slapped them across the face — tomorrow, they’ll come back at us even more viciously. Look at the sky around you: in places you can’t see, wounded wolves are already waiting to strip you down to the bone!”

Ning Yi spread his hands wide. “What lies before you is a stage only the strongest people in this entire world can stand upon. A clash between life and death! You die or they die! Whatever means necessary! Even if you become just a little stronger, you’ll still be no match for the others — because your enemies are, exactly the same, the most vicious, the most formidable men under this same sky! Their one and only goal is to take your life, by whatever means it takes! With their hands, their feet, their blades and spears, with their very teeth — to bite you to death!”

“What does it mean to be strong? When you’re gravely wounded, as long as you have even the slightest bit of strength left, you have to grit your teeth and keep standing, keep working. If you can push through that, you’ll have become a little bit stronger. When you’ve won a battle, there can’t be the slightest bit of slack in your mind — you leave your enemy no weakness whatsoever, no weakness at any moment — that, too, makes you a little bit stronger! When you’re exhausted, your body has to hold out — endure more than they can. When it hurts, grit your teeth — bear more than they can. Only when you’ve drawn out every last ounce of your potential are you truly the strongest you can be. Because in this world, understand this: whatever you’re capable of doing, there will always be someone among your enemies who can do it too!”

“In the past… someone who worked with me said I was hard to get along with, because I was too strict, too harsh with myself — I never even applied the same standard I hold myself to, to them. But… since when has this world let the weak set the standard! Since when have the weak had any right at all to complain about the strong! I can understand every flaw in people — the craving for comfort, the laziness, the petty scheming — in peaceful times, I enjoy that sort of thing myself, too. But right now, we don’t have that luxury. If anyone doesn’t understand, go take a look at the people we rescued today… our own countrymen.”

“I don’t want to pick at anyone’s wounds, but this — this is the future that awaits the defeated! There’s no reasoning to be had here! If you lose, this is what happens to your parents, your wives, your children — treated like dogs, treated like whores. Your children will be thrown into the fire. You curse them, you cry, you say they’re not human — none of it will do any good! There’s no reasoning to be had! The only thing you can do is make yourselves stronger, and then stronger still! Don’t even bother telling me the Jurchen have fifty thousand or a hundred thousand men — even if it were a million, ten million — defeating them is the only way out! Otherwise, the outcome will be exactly the same! When you forget what fate awaits you, just look at them…”

“And they’ll say I’m heartless, that I have no compassion, picking at people’s wounds like this — they’re crying over there…” Ning Yi pointed toward the direction of the more than a thousand rescued people, and indeed, a good number of them were weeping. “But here, right now, I have no interest in showing off my own compassion. All I want is to tell you exactly what it is you’re facing — that’s all! It’s true — a great many of you suffered the most brutal treatment imaginable! You feel wronged, you want to cry, you want someone to comfort you! I understand all of that completely — but I’m not going to give you any of that! I’m telling you — you were beaten, cursed, cut with blades, burned with fire, raped! And it won’t end there! If we lose, you’ll go through it all again — the Jurchen will do the very same things to you, only worse than before! Does crying do any good? Do you know what’s happened to the other survivors after we left? Shuliesu burned alive every single person who didn’t dare resist, or who was too slow to run!”

“Many of you are women, some of you children. Some of you have had your hands cut off, some of you have broken bones that haven’t healed yet. You’re exhausted, you’re starving, even standing up to walk feels difficult. After everything you’ve been through, hearing me talk like this, some of you probably wish you were dead — and maybe death would be better. But there’s no other way, no reasoning left to be had. If you don’t want to die, what’s the only thing you can do? Pick up a blade, open your mouth, and use your blade to cut, your teeth to bite — go and devour those Jurchen for me! And here, even the words ‘I did my best’ — take those back, they mean nothing! Because there are only two possible futures now! Either you die! Or your enemy dies—”

Ning Yi’s voice paused briefly, echoing through the pitch-black sky.

“But I’m telling you — the Jurchen aren’t as unbeatable as all that. You’ve already proven today you can beat them. What you did was simple — you just have to keep beating them, every single time. Don’t compare yourselves to the weak. Don’t say you ‘did your best.’ Don’t say however strong someone is is enough. What lies ahead of you is hell itself — and in this place, no weak thoughts will be tolerated, not for a moment! Someone said today that burning the Jurchen’s grain would only make their assault on the city more ferocious — but does that mean we shouldn’t have burned it at all!?”

“We burned their grain, and now they’ll fight even more desperately to take the city — but that city only has to hold, that’s all. They have no choice but to hold — there’s no reasoning to be had here. What lies ahead of you is a hundred trials, and failing even one of them means death! That’s how unforgiving victory is! But since we’ve already won our first battle, since we’ve already tested the mettle of the enemy, well — the Jurchen aren’t some invincible monster after all. And if they’re not monsters, then we can train ourselves into something they never even imagined!”

“A lot of their grain’s been burned — maybe they’re crying about it right now.” Ning Yi gestured casually and made a joking remark; under ordinary circumstances, people probably would have laughed, but at this moment, everyone was staring at him, and no one laughed. “Even if they’re not crying — feeling low after a defeat is only human nature. Celebrating after a victory, I suppose, is only human nature too. To be honest with all of you, I have a great deal of money — someday in the future, you can celebrate however you like, the finest women, the finest wine and meat, anything you want. But I believe that by the time you’ve earned the right to enjoy any of that, the deaths of your enemies will be the very best gift you’ll ever receive. As the saying goes, by then, you’ll be able to drink wine from their skulls! Of course, I won’t actually let you do that — far too disgusting…”

“There’s no celebrating today.” Ning Yi said. “The wine — one cup each, no more, just to warm you up and let you rest properly. But your vigilance can’t relax for even a moment! By the time you wake up, you need to be stronger than you are right now. You have no choice but to be stronger than you are right now. And then — make your enemies tremble, make them die, and you live on.”

“…That’s all I have to say.” Ning Yi said.

The camp fell into a stern, quiet stillness. Then someone stood up — nearly every soldier stood up, their eyes burning red, whether from being moved, or from being stirred into a fever, none could say.

“YES—” a soldier from the Lüliang Mountains at the front shouted, the veins standing out on his forehead. In the next instant, the same sound erupted like a tidal wave, as if answering Ning Yi’s speech — but it felt more like the pent-up fury in every man’s heart finally breaking free. Centered on this small town, in an instant, the sound shook the entire snow-covered mountain range and plain, an oppressive force even heavier than mere killing intent. Snow shook loose from the trees; an unseen scout somewhere in the darkness reined in his horse hard, circling in confusion and alarm, having no idea what had just happened over there.

Ning Yi stepped out from the crowd, with Zhu Biao, Tian Donghan, Chen Tuozi, and others following alongside him. This night, perhaps everyone’s heart found it hard to settle — but the surge this had brought was not restlessness, but something powerful and heavy beyond words. Ning Yi made his way to the small room that had been prepared for him; before long, Hongti came in as well, and he wrapped his arms around her, and they fell into a deep sleep together on the blanket spread across the floor.

Aside from those responsible for patrols and watch duty, everyone else soon fell into a deep sleep as well. And in the east, the sky was just beginning to lighten to a pale, fish-belly white.

By the time they woke, they would already be stronger people.

In the capital, the first wave of propaganda had already been released under Qin Siyuan’s direction; a good number of insiders already knew of last night’s battle at Moutuo Gang, and some were still confirming the news through their own channels.

In the Ministry of War’s main hall, Qin Siyuan, having worked through the whole night once more, was finally putting things away in preparation to rest. Beside him, Li Gang, who had hurried over to speak with him for a moment, was likewise showing exhaustion across his face.

“Once dawn breaks, things will only get harder.” Qin Siyuan cupped his hands in a bow. “Chancellor Li, please get some proper rest.”

“Yes, quite right. I too must… sleep for an hour or two. I should rest a while, the better to face the Jin dogs again.”

As the old man spoke, he laughed once more; ever since receiving this news, he had been overjoyed beyond measure, his pace, as he walked, notably quicker than usual. A room had already been prepared for them to rest in at the back of the Ministry of War; servants attended to them as they entered. Qin Siyuan fell asleep the moment he touched the bed, while Li Gang lit a lamp, pushed open the window, and looked out at the still-black sky outside. He smiled once more, and without quite noticing it, tears began rolling down from his deeply lined eyes.

Li Gang was a man of fierce, unwavering loyalty by nature; having risen to the rank of chancellor, it had been many years since he had known the taste of tears. Opinions of his abilities varied among the public, but his fervent, burning devotion to his country was beyond question. Over these past years, in pushing through various reforms, he had constantly met with obstruction, the court in disarray, the military in ruin — however much he wished to set things right, how much could he really accomplish? This time, with the Jurchen assaulting the city, he had organized its defense with unwavering resolve, even preparing himself to die here if necessary — and yet, though he did not fear death, when had he ever truly glimpsed any hope?

Only now, in this moment, did he suddenly feel that after all these days of pressure, amid so much death and blood, he could finally see a small glimmer of light and hope.

He drew a breath, paced back and forth twice around the room, then hurried to bed and made himself lie down to sleep.

He needed to rest quickly — if he could not rest well, how could he face death with any grace when the moment came…

In the Jurchen camp, bonfires burned. Wanyan Zongwang stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the massive city stretching before him.

Liu Yanzong stood behind him, likewise looking at the city.

With the fighting having developed to this stage, being caught off guard by a raid on their main camp last night was, in truth, something rather unexpected. But to these battle-hardened Jurchen commanders, it hardly counted as a major matter.

“…Yanzong, ah… if we cannot completely break this city, what face would we have to return home?”

— In a certain sense, this had only deepened Wanyan Zongwang’s resolve to take the city.

Liu Yanzong’s eyes were cold, and in his own heart, he shared exactly the same thought.

Before arriving here, they had believed the Wu dynasty would surely have some hidden reserves of strength, and had been fairly cautious accordingly. After crushing the Wu dynasty’s armies decisively, they had come to see them as nothing more than a warren of rabbits, utterly without fighting strength. And now, it seemed, they had been bitten by one of those very rabbits.

Bad luck…

They would need to kill far more of these Wu dynasty people! Utterly wipe them out… slaughter them until they no longer dared resist at all!

The crow of a rooster had already sounded. At the Fan Tower, in a warm room within the back courtyard.

Shishi lay in bed beneath the blankets, deeply asleep; beneath the covers, her pale, slender feet were visible, along with an ankle tied with a red silk ribbon.

The moment she opened her eyes, she sensed it — that strange, restless commotion outside her room…