“Your Highness… are we going to attack Yanyuan?”
“Does killing with a borrowed knife count as ‘attacking’?”
“…”
Deep within a secret chamber of Yeguang Hall, paper and ink lay scattered across the table. At the center was spread a map of the six nations covered in markings. The Moon Envoys sat around it, and after nearly four hours of intense discussion, they were already leaning crookedly, collapsing sideways, and sprawled across the table in a scene of universal misery, as though Yugong Zhaoye had rounded them up and beaten each of them personally.
Two months earlier, in the deep mountains along Dongyu’s border, Yugong Zhaoye, Cheng Yu, and Ying Yue had been the first to leave the Heavenly Pit. Once they emerged, he instructed Cheng Yu to pretend he had departed early, then remain hidden and observe Xie Youlan’s movements. At the same time, he ordered Ying Yue to infiltrate Yanyuan immediately and find a way to locate the Ten Aspects Sect’s secret stronghold on Yun Lake.
After Yugong Zhaoye returned to Bihan City from Xiling, Ying Yue sent word confirming the location. Yugong Zhaoye immediately led men across the lake from Dongyu territory and landed on the island, sweeping the stronghold clean before Xiling’s covert guards could arrive. Then, taking advantage of the chaos surrounding Yun Lake, they disguised themselves as Ten Aspects Sect members and slipped into Kongming Valley in the Yanji Mountains. The terrain there was treacherous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, while the valley itself extended deep and wide. After scouting it, they unanimously concluded that it could not be taken by force. So they slipped onto a nearby mountain and engineered a landslide by hand, burying Kongming Valley forever inside the mountain.
With thunderous speed, Yeguang eradicated two of the Ten Aspects Sect’s greatest malignant tumors in one stroke, yet acted with extraordinary secrecy. They were like gods of death walking through the night, descending soundlessly upon the mortal world before quietly vanishing again into thick fog.
Their covert agents remained in Yanyuan and continued lying low, like drops of water entering the sea and dispersing among the crowd. Those without Yanyuan identities withdrew separately in different directions to avoid being tracked by pursuers, and only recently had they gathered again in Bihan City.
Those two achievements alone could already be called earth-shaking, but for Longsha, it was still far too soon to rest easy.
Yugong Zhaoye gathered the various reports sent back from Yanyuan and presented them to the King, asking Wei Fu and the other trusted senior ministers to deliberate over the situation together. In the end, they settled on their next strategy: break Yanyuan apart from within, allow it to rot internally, and ultimately send it collapsing into pieces.
Yanyuan was mountainous and had no coastline. It could not produce enough salt for itself and had to purchase salt from the neighboring countries of Longsha and Dongyu. Ever since relations between Longsha and Yanyuan were severed after the great war, Dongyu had become Yanyuan’s sole source of white salt.
Unfortunately, Yanyuan’s greatest wastrel, the Ten Aspects Sect, had set its sights on the enormous profits of the salt trade. Claiming that the war had consumed vast resources and emptied the treasury, it encouraged the court to impose heavy salt taxes on merchants. At the same time, it organized its own Salt Hall and used the Ten Aspects Sect’s name to exempt itself from those same burdensome taxes, purchasing large quantities of white salt from Dongyu and reselling them to the common people.
The corruption of the Yanyuan court was notorious throughout the nations. Even foreign envoys visiting Yanyuan could expect officials to skin a layer off them under one pretext or another, while the Ten Aspects Sect, that one pampered darling of the regime, was rotten with every imaginable vice. Layer upon layer of exploitation went without saying. Adulterating goods and shorting customers on weight practically counted as minor offenses. Sect members even had to pay an additional “salt-conveyance fee”—the logic being that the Ten Aspects Sect had worked so hard to buy everyone’s salt, so naturally the costs of carts, horses, and manpower ought to be voluntarily shared among the members.
Many commoners who could not afford salt spontaneously formed gangs to sell it illegally, while the great salt merchants grew increasingly disgusted by the greed of both the court and the Ten Aspects Sect. Dongyu did not care who bought its salt, but the more illicit salt entered circulation, the more likely the Ten Aspects Sect’s own stock was to sit unsold.
They were unwilling to spit out this rich piece of meat already between their teeth, so they naturally incited government officials—who likewise could no longer collect their taxes—to suppress illicit salt sellers by force. The conflict between the two sides grew fiercer by the day.
Present-day Yanyuan could be described as a land where jackals prowled everywhere and tigers and leopards ran rampant. Officials imposed crushing taxes and extorted without restraint, while the Ten Aspects Sect had virtually become a second government. Refugees who had lost their homes and land could be found everywhere. Entire families had already starved to death, and some people, desperate for even a little money to survive, dug apart the bones of the dead and sold them to the Ten Aspects Sect for use in ritual implements.
The aging Emperor Tianbao had grown increasingly capricious and unpredictable, with a severe case of paranoia. In six years, he had replaced his chancellor four times. The crown prince and Prince Dai were locked in fierce struggle, the court declined by the day, and even the surviving subjects of the small kingdoms once invaded and conquered by Yanyuan were beginning to stir. The people’s hearts were in chaos. Even Longsha, an enemy nation, could only look on and say: How miserable.
Watching the spectacle was one thing, but no one could guarantee that they themselves would not become part of it. What if Yanyuan, cornered and struggling at death’s door, once again turned its spearhead toward Longsha in order to ease its internal conflicts?
The same old trick was no longer fresh. A situation like the one years ago, where killing a single person could stabilize everything under heaven, was unlikely to happen again. This time, Yeguang had to dive beneath the surface and become one current among the surging undercurrents, waiting until the right moment came to raise a heaven-shaking wave in a single stroke.
Half of Longsha’s borders were coastline. If there was one thing it did not lack, it was salt. Yeguang’s plan was for Ying Yue, Kui Yue, and Can Yue to assume false identities, disguise themselves as illicit salt sellers, and infiltrate Yanyuan amid the chaos. They would widely befriend other salt merchants and salt gangs and, when necessary, incite them to launch local uprisings.
Can Yue, Bai Ling, stared blankly and asked in a trembling voice, “Your Highness really plans to send the three of us small fry to overthrow Yanyuan?”
Ying Yue and his siblings turned their heads at the same time, several pairs of large eyes staring straight at him. Yugong Zhaoye suddenly choked.
If this had been the old Bihua, such a sentence would never have been spoken.
Xie Wangshu’s style had been of a piece with every previous leader of Bihua, only even more forceful: If someone else has done it, then I can do it too. If no one has ever done it before, then I can do whatever I please.
When fifteen-year-old Yugong Zhaoye went to kill the leader of the Ten Aspects Sect, the thought Can I actually do this? had never once crossed his mind. His country had stood on the brink of destruction. The opportunity would come only once, and if they failed to seize it, everyone would become citizens of a conquered nation. Never mind that he had been fifteen. Even if he had been five, so long as he could lift a weapon, he still would have had to stab Helan Zhenjia. There had simply been no room for so many doubts.
But the newly established Yeguang did not possess that same fearless spirit that feared neither heaven nor earth. Their youth and inexperience were only part of the reason. The present situation was nowhere near as urgent as it had been then, and long-term missions involving infiltration and careful planning were fundamentally different from risking everything on a single strike. On top of that, over the years, every nation—especially Yanyuan—had guarded strictly against the remnants of Bihua. The wall standing before them was, in truth, much thicker than the one that had stood before Bihua.
The instant that subconscious comparison surfaced, Yugong Zhaoye nearly wanted to slap himself.
Was Yeguang merely the final faint reflection left behind after Bihua’s brilliance had scattered?
Toward that glorious past that could never be surpassed or reproduced, was he longing for it, criticizing the present against it, or afraid of it?
And as for Can Yue and the others judging themselves so harshly—did they truly believe themselves incapable, or had they spent so long being influenced by their leader’s attitude and suppressed by Bihua’s mighty reputation that they had begun to feel they were not trusted?
A few days earlier, during a private conversation, Wei Fu had remarked that if the Ten Aspects Sect had continued expanding as it did in its early years, spreading its businesses and branch halls throughout the realm while plundering wealth and people from neighboring countries, Yanyuan’s domestic situation would have been much calmer. Its power would certainly have grown stronger, and perhaps before long it would have invaded Longsha again.
Wei Fu had said that Yeguang was already extraordinary; they simply had not realized it themselves. Steady persistence over many years was always easy to overlook. Even if Bihua still existed, it might not necessarily have done things more thoroughly than they had.
“Over these years, we have cut away many of the Ten Aspects Sect’s wings. In particular, destroying the two strongholds on the isolated island in Yun Lake and in Kongming Valley was no different from severing its hands and feet. The Ten Aspects Sect has suffered a devastating blow, and Yanyuan is in chaos. Now is precisely our opportunity. We must keep them so occupied with internal strife that they have no attention to spare elsewhere and never again have the leisure to set their sights on Longsha.”
“We’ve already walked the hardest part of the road. Now that only the final stretch remains, are we suddenly afraid to take another step?”
Yugong Zhaoye looked around at the silent crowd and remembered when they had first arrived at Yeguang. They had been like a pile of trembling little animals, hovering hesitantly at the edge of the training ground, looking around without daring to step forward.
That day, he had sat in a tree at the edge of the grounds and watched them from afar, thinking that if Xie Wangshu were still alive, she would definitely sneak up behind them and kick them in one by one, right in the backside—because he had personally watched her do exactly that before.
But when Yugong Zhaoye himself had first entered the training ground, his own mother had not kicked him in. Of course, he had not been so unnaturally calm that entering felt as easy as returning home. He simply had not been given much time to hesitate before a handsome youth with drooping eyes noticed him, walked over of his own accord, and gently asked, “Do you want to come in?”
The leader was already gone. The seniors had scattered in different directions. Even Bihua itself was forbidden from being mentioned. Worldly affairs swept old friends away like the tide, leaving Yugong Zhaoye with nothing but an empty training ground and a newly born, fragile Yeguang.
He was still thinking about the question he had asked himself countless times:
What should the Yeguang commanded by Yugong Zhaoye look like?
A figure beside the wall suddenly moved. Hua Mian, the oldest of the children, voluntarily took the first step. His younger sister Hua Jue and several other children followed behind. The whole group looked as though they were preparing to climb a mountain of knives and descend into a sea of fire, slowly and awkwardly wriggling their way onto the training ground.
Yugong Zhaoye froze briefly, then gave a soft snort of laughter and leapt from the treetop several chi above the ground.
The inexperienced little brats were so startled that they cried “Wah!” “Wah!” and retreated several steps.
Cautious and careful, not decisive in the slightest, but capable of huddling together and gathering enough courage to explore forward…
They were nothing like the old Bihua.
But this kind of Yeguang was enough.
“I’m willing to go.”
Within the silence filling the room, Kui Yue, who had barely spoken until now, suddenly opened her mouth. Her face and tone were both unusually tense, making her sound slightly cold. “Since Your Highness is willing to give me this opportunity, I want to try.”
Ying Yue and Can Yue both turned toward her, worry showing in their eyes. Ying Yue called softly, “A’Jue.”
Earlier, Kui Yue had fallen into Xie Youlan’s hands at Beizhu Palace. She had suffered no serious injuries and had not been tortured. Xie Youlan had even ordered his people not to treat her harshly, and in the end she had returned completely unharmed. Yet she had been utterly powerless before him and had even been detained as a hostage, causing both her elder brother and Yugong Zhaoye to be threatened. The incident had dealt a severe blow to her pride, and she had been dejected for a long time afterward.
She had not had time to participate in the operation to destroy the Ten Aspects Sect’s strongholds. Yugong Zhaoye had neither called her to account nor demanded that she return the money—after all, that job had been private work—which only intensified her fear that she was about to be left behind.
Kui Yue swept her robes aside and bowed to Yugong Zhaoye, every word falling with force. “This subordinate previously handled matters poorly and dragged Your Highness into cleaning up my mess. Despite such a failure of duty, Your Highness did not expel me from Yeguang and has allowed me to redeem myself through merit. I will go through fire and water to repay Your Highness.”
“I’m asking you to sell illicit salt, not climb into a cooking pot. Stay safe.” Yugong Zhaoye suddenly remembered something. “Don’t you still owe me money? Once you become some mountain bandit chief over there, remember to pay me back.”
Everyone: “…”
Kui Yue wiped the tears that had suddenly surged out with the back of her hand and declared loudly, “I am willing to serve Your Highness with my life!”
“‘It cannot be obtained from ghosts and spirits, inferred from events, or verified by calculation; it must be obtained from men.’ There are no small fry in Yeguang. Every one of you is a brother or sister in arms who has followed me through life and death—a divine weapon capable of safeguarding Longsha’s peace for a hundred years.”
Elio’s Notes: Yugong Zhaoye is quoting The Art of War, “The Use of Spies.” The passage concerns foreknowledge: reliable intelligence must ultimately be obtained from people who know the enemy’s situation.
Yugong Zhaoye pushed back his chair and rose, calmly inclining his head toward the three of them.
“I entrust this battle to you.”
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