“But it’s fortunate, at least, that we both value peace above all. Everything can still be discussed.”

In the room, as these words left his mouth, Ning Yi’s gaze had already grown stern; the chill and detachment in that gaze was, in truth, somewhat unsettling. Lin Houxuan, held under that stare, fell silent for a moment.

“Whether this war was right or wrong remains open to debate. But — what exactly does Master Ning wish to discuss? Please, speak plainly. Houxuan is merely a messenger here, but I will certainly relay your words in full.”

His response was both soft and firm, carrying a certain dignified balance. Ning Yi’s expression eased into a faint smile in response — whether of approval, or something faintly mocking, was hard to say.

“Quite right, what Brother Lin says — I understand fully. Since you’re here to relay my words, please remember carefully what I say next. When you see your sovereign in the future, don’t forget it, or convey it incorrectly. This matter is of great importance, so allow me to make that clear from the start — I hope Brother Lin will forgive my bluntness.”

“Master Ning speaks correctly. Houxuan will be careful.”

“Good.” Ning Yi smiled, rising to pace slowly about the room. After a moment, he spoke. “When Brother Lin entered the city, you must have already seen the state of things outside, haven’t you?”

“I’m not sure what Master Ning is referring to.”

“We’re in real trouble too, you know — none of this has been easy for us either.” Ning Yi said. “The northwest was already a poor, barren land to begin with, and your invasion killed people and ruined the land. This year’s wheat harvest, we recovered some of it, but a great deal was also destroyed in the fighting — the total simply isn’t enough to feed this many people. July is nearly over now, and once winter comes, there’ll be famine again, and more deaths. I’ve taken a portion of this wheat and I’m distributing rations to the people based on headcount — even so, they won’t make it through the year. Some households still have surplus grain of their own, some can still scrounge up food from the wilderness — they might get by. But the wealthy households are unhappy — they feel the land was originally theirs, the grain was originally theirs, and now that we’ve reclaimed Yanzhou, the grain ought to be distributed according to who owned which fields before — they’re stirring up trouble outside as we speak. If we really distributed things their way, even more people would starve to death. These difficulties — surely you’ve seen them yourself, Brother Lin?”

“Master Ning is truly benevolent.” Lin Houxuan cupped his hands, feeling somewhat puzzled inside, though not without a touch of schadenfreude. “But forgive my bluntness — since the Huaxia Army has reclaimed Yanzhou, distributing grain according to land deeds would be the proper approach. Fewer people would complain, and there’d be less trouble. When our Western Xia army came through, we killed a great many, and many land deeds became ownerless as a result. By placating the great families, the Huaxia Army could rightfully pocket these lands as well. Distributing grain by headcount, as Master Ning has done, is genuinely somewhat improper — though I do admire the benevolent spirit behind it.”

As an envoy, he naturally didn’t dare offend Ning Yi too much, and what he’d said here was reasonable enough on its face. Ning Yi leaned against the desk, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, offering only a faint smile.

“Brother Lin might find it strange — normally, when someone wants to negotiate, they conceal their own weaknesses. Why would I speak so openly about mine? But my thinking runs differently. This world belongs to everyone; I want everyone to benefit. My troubles today may well become your troubles tomorrow.” He paused, then added, as if just remembering, “Oh, and speaking of which — regarding the situation in Yanzhou lately, the Zhe family has also been probing and watching from the sidelines. Frankly, the Zhe family is a cunning bunch, and I have no doubt their intentions aren’t good. This has been giving me quite a headache too.”

“The Zhe family is no easy party to deal with,” Lin Houxuan agreed, nodding.

“So, to be perfectly honest, I have no choice but to turn to you for a solution.” Ning Yi tapped his fingers lightly, twice, his tone growing cold again, speaking now in plain terms. “After the battle at Dongzhiyuan, once Li Qianshun returned home, things haven’t gone well for him — I know that much…”

“Ning—” A moment earlier Ning Yi had seemed gentle and approachable; now, hearing him address his own sovereign by name with such blatant disrespect, Lin Houxuan wanted to speak up. But Ning Yi’s gaze held absolutely no warmth — looking at him as though he were already a dead man — and with a wave of his hand, he simply continued on.

“Within Western Xia, the rivalry between the emperor’s faction and the empress’s faction, the conflict between the Li and Liang clans, has been going on for a good long while now. The strength of the Weizang clan and several other major tribes shouldn’t be underestimated either. It was manageable while the Iron Kites and the hostage corps still stood, but after the two battles at Dongzhiyuan, the Iron Kites are gone, and the hostage corps has been scattered — how many died is hard to say, but we captured over two hundred ourselves. Now that Li Qianshun has returned home, it’s only to be expected that chaos would erupt — fortunately he still has some reserves of authority left. Within a month, Western Xia hasn’t collapsed outright — going forward, it’ll come down to gradually maneuvering and reconsolidating the Li clan’s authority. Whether that process takes three years or five, I honestly think that’s very hard to say.”

Ning Yi tapped the table with his finger. “Right now, on my side, I have two hundred and seventeen former members of the hostage corps, and five hundred and three Iron Kite riders. They come from families of various standing back in Western Xia — these seven hundred and twenty Western Xia brothers are what you want. As for the other four hundred and some unfortunate souls with no background, I have no interest in bargaining over them with you at all. I’ll just toss them into the mountains to mine coal — if they die of exhaustion, so be it, at least it saves you the trouble… Brother Lin, this visit today is mainly about these seven hundred and twenty men, isn’t it?”

Lin Houxuan’s expression turned grave, and he said nothing.

“Seven hundred and twenty men — that’s a substantial deal. Brother Lin, you’ve come here on Li Qianshun’s behalf, but I’ll tell you honestly, I’ve been going back and forth on whether to sell these men to the Li clan, or the Liang clan, or perhaps someone else entirely who might have use for them.”

“Master Ning.” Lin Houxuan spoke up. “Is this a threat?”

“Of course it is. If I don’t threaten you, what kind of business would this even be? Did you think I was running a charity, handing out porridge to the poor?” Ning Yi glanced at him, his tone flat, then returned to the topic at hand. “As I said before, I’ve taken Yanzhou, and you people didn’t manage to kill everyone here either. Right now, in this surrounding territory, there are close to forty thousand people. To put it vividly: that’s forty thousand mouths that need feeding. If I can’t feed them, they’ll come feed on me instead!”

Ning Yi laughed coldly. “Do you know why I give grain to the poor and not the rich? Adding flourish to abundance is nothing compared to sending charcoal in the dead of winter — if I gave grain to the rich, they’d think it was owed to them; give it to the poor, and it saves a life. Brother Lin, do you think it’s the poor or the rich who’ll actually fight to the death on a battlefield? If the northwest’s grain shortage isn’t resolved by the end of this autumn, I will join forces with the Zhong and Zhe families, cross Hengshan with them, and come devour you all the way to Yinchuan!”

Lin Houxuan’s brow furrowed tightly, and he rose abruptly to his feet. “Master Ning, the battle you fought at Dongzhiyuan was indeed impressive. But after such a great battle, how many men do you have left? If you think this alone is enough to make Western Xia fear you, then go ahead and try crossing Hengshan and see for yourself!”

“Whether we’re afraid, whether we could win, is one matter. Whether we could bring enough men across Hengshan is another matter entirely. Not counting the Huaxia Army I haven’t even mentioned, I still have a stockade of over twenty thousand people in Lüliang — I can raise another ten thousand troops easily enough.” Ning Yi’s expression turned equally cold. “I’m a merchant. I want peace. But if there’s no path forward, I’ll simply have to cut one open by force. That path would be one of mutual destruction — but once winter arrives, I will move. As for how I train my troops, just look at the Huaxia Army — thirty, forty, fifty thousand strong, I guarantee you, blades will never be in short supply. And the Zhong and Zhe families would be more than happy to kick a man while he’s down.”

The room fell silent for a moment.

“That’s how complicated the situation is — this is one path forward. But of course, I have another path available too.” Ning Yi spoke calmly, then paused.

“I can hand these seven hundred and twenty men over to you, to help you stabilize the situation at home. Or I could sell them to someone else instead, letting that someone bring your whole regime down. Of course, if, as you say, you refuse to be threatened, if you don’t want these seven hundred-odd men, and whoever else takes them wouldn’t dare make trouble for you either — then fine, I’ll simply behead every last one of them right now, and let your unified, harmonious Western Xia go on living happily ever after. As for us, we’ll just have a great reckoning once winter comes! As long as enough people die, our food problem will resolve itself entirely.”

Lin Houxuan fell silent for a long moment. “I’m merely a messenger — I have no authority to agree to anything. You…”

“—I’ll message your mother!!!”

Suddenly, a thunderous roar erupted in the room, carrying an overwhelming weight of authority. Lin Houxuan had, in fact, been employing a kind of diplomatic evasion, laying groundwork with carefully chosen words — but before he could finish, he saw the scholar across from him, his gaze suddenly sharp, a wave of icy killing intent crashing over him. In that same instant, amid the roar, Ning Yi snatched something up and hurled it — Lin Houxuan felt only a chill flash past his ear as a heavy bronze incense burner flew past the left side of his face, crashing with a thunderous boom into a cabinet in the far corner, shattering it to pieces.

In an instant, paper scraps, dust, and splinters of wood flew through the air. Lin Houxuan sat frozen, hunched down instinctively, utterly unprepared for such a consequence from a single sentence. People had already begun rushing in from outside the door, but Ning Yi’s voice cut through immediately: “Out!” In that moment, what Lin Houxuan felt was, if anything, a pressure and authority even greater than what he’d felt in the audience hall before Li Qianshun himself.

“This is a matter that could cost hundreds of thousands of lives either way, and you sit here treating it as a game. Going back and forth with all this hemming and hawing, ‘just a messenger’ — how many times do you need to say it in front of me! If Li Qianshun sent you here truly just to relay words, what difference is there between sending you and sending a dog? I could write a letter and have a dog carry it back in its mouth! Your Western Xia is a puny little state — how does it compare to the Wu Dynasty!? The first time I met Zhou Zhe, I slaughtered him like a dog. At Dongzhiyuan, Li Qianshun ran a little too slow — his head is being kicked around like a ball by my men right now! Lord Lin, you’re an envoy of Western Xia, carrying the weight of your nation’s rise and fall on your shoulders — that’s why Li Qianshun sent you here. If you keep playing dead in front of me, disregarding the lives of both our peoples, I’ll have you chopped to pieces this instant.”

As he spoke these words, Ning Yi slowly sat back down behind his desk. Lin Houxuan’s face had gone pale as paper; he took two deep breaths, then slowly cupped his hands. “Yes — yes, Houxuan was hasty. However…” He steadied his mind, though he no longer dared meet Ning Yi’s eyes. “However, our army’s mobilization this time has also exhausted our resources and manpower — our grain reserves aren’t exactly abundant either. To ransom back these seven hundred and twenty men, surely Master Ning doesn’t intend to have us shoulder the food burden for all of Yanzhou, or even the entire northwest?”

“Since I was willing to invite you here at all, there’s naturally room to negotiate. As for the specific terms, I’ve already prepared a detailed proposal in advance.” Ning Yi opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a thick sheaf of documents. “To ransom the men back, according to your tribal customs, some form of payment is naturally expected — that’s the first installment. Grain, gold and silver, whatever needs to be given, I’ll be asking for all of it. I’ll let you get past this hurdle — you’ll need to help me get past mine in turn, and there’ll be benefits in it for you as well…”

Ning Yi continued without pause. “Both sides hand over what’s owed at the same time, and after that, naturally, I’ll want to find a way to resolve our mutual food problem as well. Why do your various Tangut tribes go to war in the first place? For nothing more than various good things you lack. Now that fighting in the northwest is no longer an option, and your emperor’s authority stands on shaky ground — will ransoming back these seven hundred-odd men really stabilize things? A drop in the bucket, at best? No matter — I have a path forward. Cooperate with us in trade, and we’ll open up markets through Tibet, Dali, the Jin state, and even the Wu Dynasty. What do you want? Books? Technical knowledge? Silk and porcelain? Tea? Everything the south has — it was under embargo before, but now I can bring it to you.”

“What does Western Xia have to offer? Your blue salt is excellent and cheap — the Wu Dynasty refused to trade in it with you before, but now I’ll sell it for you. How much to sell each year, at what price — all of that can be negotiated. Not enough to eat? There’s always enough somewhere — buy it from Tibet, Dali, the Jin state. Frankly, you people don’t understand business, which is why you keep getting taken advantage of year after year. Remember how things once stood with the Liao? They forced the Wu Dynasty to pay annual tribute — humiliating, on the surface — but in the end, the Wu Dynasty made all that money back through cross-border trade.”

“You can’t fight anymore right now — so let’s work together instead. Whoever in your court you’re on good terms with, we’ll prioritize sending good goods their way first; whatever they have to sell, we’ll help sell it for them. Once this gets going, won’t your internal situation stabilize on its own? I can guarantee you — those on good terms with us will have silk and fine goods filling every household, treasures beyond counting. Those who want to cause trouble, I’ll make sure they don’t even have a blanket to sleep under… All the major points on how to go about this, I’ve written down inside — you’re welcome to look it over yourself, no need to worry that I’m just talking empty words.”

“…And then, you can take this back and hand it to Li Qianshun.”

Ning Yi tossed the document over to him. As Lin Houxuan listened, his eyes gradually began to brighten; he lowered his head to read through the bound pages, while Ning Yi’s voice rose again in his ears: “But first, you need to show some sincerity of your own too.”

Lin Houxuan looked up, his gaze puzzled. Ning Yi rose from behind the desk. “When you hand over the men — return Qingzhou to me first.”

Lin Houxuan frowned, about to speak, but Ning Yi waved a hand and walked out of the room.

“There’s nothing to negotiate on that point. Qingzhou is a chicken rib to you right now — tasteless to eat, a pity to discard. What good is it to you? Go talk it over with Li Qianshun, then decide — war or peace, the choice is yours—”

Outside the room, Ning Yi’s footsteps faded into the distance.

“—Either way, I’ll take it.”