By mid-August, the autumn harvest across the Chengdu Plain had been completed. Vast quantities of grain were now being gathered across the plain, weighed, taxed, transported, and stored, with the Huaxia Army’s enforcement teams stationed across every inch of the region, overseeing the process.
At Zhang Village, the heart of the Huaxia Army, the lights still glowed warmly after nightfall. In the moonlit hush of this small town, patrolling soldiers passed through the streets, brushing past the residents and children who lived there.
In the study of a small courtyard, Ning Yi sat buried amid a great pile of documents, absorbed in his writing. Occasionally he would sit up, reach a hand to press against the right side of his neck, and grimace slightly. Hongti came in from outside carrying a bowl of dark medicinal tea and set it down beside him.
“The cooling tea’s been sitting a while — drink it while it’s still bearable.”
As Hongti spoke, Ning Yi’s gaze remained fixed on the documents on his desk; he reached over absently, picked up the bowl, and drained it in a few gulps, then set it down and muttered, “Tastes awful.”
His voice was slightly hoarse, his throat aching. Hongti took the bowl away and came back to gently massage his neck. “You’ve been far too busy lately, thinking too much. Rest a bit and you’ll be fine…”
Ning Yi pursed his lips, about to say something, when Hongti added, “All right, don’t talk. Get your work done first.”
Ning Yi leaned forward again, continuing to sort through the information on the various documents. After a moment, he spoke, his voice muffled and low. “The General Staff still hasn’t fully settled on the battle plan.”
Hongti continued massaging his neck. “Mm.”
“But when I went over yesterday, the topic of the operation’s codename came up. I said we should strategically hold the enemy in contempt while tactically taking them seriously — and that whole crowd of camp-bed sleepers thought it over for a while, then came back to me in the afternoon and said… cough, cough… they said let’s just call it ‘Fatherly Love.'”
The night was calm and quiet; Ning Yi continued working through the information on his desk, his tone matter-of-fact. Hongti froze for a moment. “Uh…” A moment later realization dawned, and she couldn’t help bursting out laughing. Ning Yi laughed too, and the two of them shook with laughter, Ning Yi’s voice coming out hoarse and cracked, until after a moment he let out a low groan: “Ow, ow, that hurts…”
With so many matters piling up, Ning Yi had been run entirely ragged these past few months. A little while later, when Su Tan’er returned from outside, he told her the joke again, and Tan’er, frowning, held back her own laughter as she scolded her husband for his lack of proper decorum…
…
East of Chengdu, a small village outside Yupu County.
“Feather Blade” Qian Luoning was led along a dark path and, upon entering the room, found Xigua sitting at the table, brow furrowed, working out some calculation, a piece of charcoal in hand, scribbling as she went.
Faint voices of an argument drifted over from a room on the other side of the courtyard.
“…At Little Cangshui, killing Jurchens — I earned merit there! I truly earned merit! Back then my regimental commander was Feng Min. When we withdrew from Gongshan, we held the rear — the Jurchens came at us with tens of thousands of surrendered dog-traitors behind them, and we killed until the ground ran red with blood, and I never once retreated! I took thirteen blade-wounds on my body, lost a hand, and my feet still ache every year. I’m a hero of that battle — Mr. Ning himself said so! You, you people…”
“So ever since coming here, you’ve been compensating yourself for it, teaming up with Lin Guanghe to become your own little local tyrant. Who approached whom first — did you find him, or did he find you?”
“…I want to see Division Commander Feng.”
“We already met with Feng Min before coming here. He asked us to get to the bottom of this. If it’s true, his only regret is that he never got to see you off personally, back in those days. So tell it straight — Lin Guanghe says this was your idea, that you set your sights first on the woman in his household…”
“He’s spouting slander—”
The clamor of voices rose briefly, then fell again. Both Qian Luoning and Xigua were highly skilled in martial arts, and such sounds hardly escaped their notice. Xigua frowned and sighed.
“Another wasted talent. How are things on your end, Brother Qian?”
“These past few months, Old Bull’s Head’s people have been quite restrained internally. There’s a consensus now that they’ll only reach north, and not touch the Huaxia Army. As for the state of the realm, there’s been discussion internally — the feeling is that although everyone split off from the Huaxia Army, many are still Mr. Ning’s own disciples at heart, and they accept the principle that no one can stand apart when the fate of the realm hangs in the balance. So about a month ago they sent a letter over this way, saying that if the Huaxia Army had any need, they need only speak — it wasn’t insincere. Though Mr. Ning’s refusal left them feeling somewhat embarrassed about the whole thing. Of course, most of the mid-level ranks see it as Mr. Ning’s own mercy, and feel genuinely grateful for it.”
“Which side are you on — have they worked that out in their own minds yet?”
“I’d genuinely be happy to stand with them, but Chen Shanjun, Li Ximing, and the others seem to prefer treating me as a go-between with you instead. Old Bull’s Head’s reforms are already underway, and plenty of people are responding enthusiastically. Honestly, even I don’t fully understand Mr. Ning’s decision. Look at it from this side…”
Qian Luoning spread his hands and sighed. He was the youngest of all Liu Dabiao’s disciples, but had originally shown the greatest aptitude of any of them; by now, nearing forty, his martial skill had quietly surpassed even his senior brother Du Sha. As for Xigua’s ideals of equality, others merely paid them lip service, but his own understanding of them ran the deepest of anyone’s.
When Old Bull’s Head had split off, those who left had still harbored real affection for Ning Yi — they’d originally only intended to prepare a formal remonstrance, only for things to spiral into an outright coup, and afterward Ning Yi had even let them go their own way unharmed. This left everyone more than a little baffled.
And compared to Ning Yi, those who believed in the ideal of equality over these years had, if anything, felt a deeper affection for Xigua herself — only in this particular matter, Xigua had ultimately chosen to trust and stand alongside Ning Yi, and Qian Luoning had voluntarily joined the opposing camp. Partly this reflected his own inclinations; partly, as Ning Yi himself had put it, if things ever truly reached an irrecoverable point, it might only be Xigua’s own faction that could still save some portion of the survivors.
But as things currently stood, the situation on the Chengdu Plain had grown complicated amid both internal and external upheaval. At first glance, the state of affairs on the Huaxia Army’s side might even seem less inspiring than the unified, poised-for-action mindset over on Old Bull’s Head’s side.
Hearing Qian Luoning sigh, Xigua rose from her seat and sighed as well. She opened the window at the back of the mud-brick house, revealing a courtyard outside — exquisite and rustic, clearly the product of considerable effort. A warm spring flowed in from outside the courtyard and out the other side, with a small path winding back toward the buildings behind.
“The house itself is a thatched mud hut, but look at how carefully everything’s arranged. The man’s a hero of Little Cangshui, but ever since coming here, he’s teamed up with Liu Guanghe to start lining his own pockets. Never had any real education, but he’s genuinely clever — the two of them figured out the gaps in the Huaxia Army’s inspection system together, falsified land registers, cooked the books. He’s carried on with over a dozen pretty girls from the surrounding villages and counties, and after he was done with them, he’d recommend the young men of those same families to join the Huaxia Army — and the families actually thanked him for it… This case got investigated far too late.”
Xigua shook her head. “Ever since the whole affair with Old Bull’s Head began, Liheng’s already been anticipating what would come next. The Wu Dynasty collapsed far too quickly, and the situation across the realm was bound to take a sharp turn for the worse — there isn’t much time left for us. And even before the autumn harvest, Liheng had already said the harvest would become a major problem. In the past, imperial authority never reached down to the county level — all these matters were handled and reported by the local landed gentry and great clans. Now it has to be us controlling it directly. In the first year or two, they were afraid of us and kept their heads down somewhat, but by now, the first wave of resistance has already begun.”
Qian Luoning nodded. “So the internal rectification in May, smoothly transitioning into the external crackdown in June — that was all preparing in advance for what was coming. Sister, that husband of yours really does calculate everything down to the last detail — but it’s exactly because of that, that I find his decision here all the more puzzling. On one hand, if this situation is ever going to change, you’re bound to end up in conflict with these great clans sooner or later — wouldn’t it have been better to accept Chen Shanjun’s counsel? On the other hand, if he wasn’t going to accept Chen Shanjun’s proposal, then at a moment this urgent, simply arresting and imprisoning them would surely have been understood by everyone as well. As it stands now, neither one thing nor the other — how much more effort is he going to have to spend to manage what comes next…”
Xigua fell silent for a moment. “Liheng really has… been exhausted lately too. What you’re describing, honestly, I can’t fully explain either — but on his end, he’s quite certain you’ll run into enormous problems in the medium-to-long term. And from where I stand, he believes that even if it ends in failure, what you’re doing still carries real significance… So these past few days he’s been sighing, saying something about how it’s his own pot to carry, and he’ll carry it even in tears. I hear his voice has gone bad these past few days, he can barely speak.”
As she said this, Xigua tilted her head and smiled faintly, as though feeling a certain rueful helplessness at having such a husband. Qian Luoning frowned in thought, then said, “Is Mr. Ning really… this confident about it?”
“Scared?”
“Given how many years Mr. Ning’s calculations have proven correct, who could afford not to take his views seriously?”
“That’s the general sentiment within the Huaxia Army too, though it doesn’t make Liheng happy — he says after finally managing to reduce his own personal influence a bit, to let people think more independently for themselves, now he has to go and pick the whole personality-cult thing back up again. But there’s no helping it — he’s doing it all to preserve what remains of Old Bull’s Head’s achievements… You’d best be careful over there too. When things go smoothly, everyone can laugh and joke together, but if things really go wrong, you might well be the first one they come looking for.”
“Mm.” Qian Luoning nodded. “The reason I’ve come this time is that they’re not entirely willing to be excluded from the campaign against the Jurchens. We’re all brothers, after all — break a bone and the sinew still holds. Plenty of the people over there fought at the Battle of Little Cangshui too, and they have blood debts with the Jurchens. There’s a strong call for fighting together. Chen Shanjun was hoping I’d come speak with you privately and get an answer from your side.”
Xigua shook her head. “On matters of ideology, Liheng and I see things differently, but when it comes to military affairs, I still defer to him. You’ve got barely three thousand people over there, and half of them are tied up in administrative work — what would be the point of coming over here? Unified command would just complicate things further. If it needs to be cut, then cut it. The war with the Jurchens will likely open on two fronts. The first fighting will be at Changsha — there’s still some time before that. Advise Chen Shanjun to focus on steady development for now, using the Wu Dynasty’s turmoil to expand territory and grow their numbers — that’s the priority.”
Qian Luoning nodded, and the two of them walked toward the door. Out in the courtyard, the inspection team was carrying gold and silver ornaments up out of the cellar; both figures kept themselves hidden in the shadows.
“As for this war, you don’t need to worry too much.” Xigua’s voice was light as she tilted her head slightly. “Things are already moving on the Dayang front. In this campaign, we’re going to keep Zonghan pinned down here.”
The moon shone clear as water. Qian Luoning nodded slightly.