Chapter Summaries

Yang Zhengshan received only a year's salary docked for leading troops across the border, while Emperor Chengping banished Prince Xin to his fief after his failed plot against Luo Fu. Emperor Chengping approved a naval force for Tenglong Guard, and Yang Zhengshan turned his attention to opportunities in Liaodong's disrupted salt trade.

• Yang Zhengshan accepted the salary deduction and continued building Tenglong Guard.
• Emperor Chengping condemned Prince Xin for sending men to kill Luo Fu, then ordered him to leave the Capital for his fief for the rest of his life.
• Emperor Chengping read Yang Zhengshan's memorial and approved the creation of Tenglong Vanguard, allowing General Yang to command it concurrently.
• The Liaodong Salt Transport Commission corruption case ended with four officials executed, other officials punished, and salt merchants' property confiscated.
• Yang Zhengshan told Luo Shang to assess whether the Luo Family could expand into the salt markets left open by the crackdown, but did not seek Zheng Xiao's support.

After the Salt Transport Commission case, Zhang Maosheng visited Yang Zhengshan to thank him and secure a connection, but Yang Zhengshan instead arranged to buy the Zhang Family’s fleet for Tenglong Guard. The fleet arrived at Tenglong Guard’s docks, where Yang Zhengshan went to meet its captains and boatmen.

• Zhang Maosheng and his sons thanked Yang Zhengshan, who accepted only a reduced portion of their lavish gift.
• Yang Zhengshan asked to buy the Zhang Family’s eight ships and their sailors, insisting the Guard Division Office would pay market prices and higher wages.
• Yang Mingcheng completed the purchase, and Han Fei sent the silver to the Zhang Family.
• The Zhang Family’s fleet arrived at Tenglong Guard’s docks, where Yang Zhengshan inspected the ships.
• Yang Zhengshan went to meet captains Sun Cheng and Ning Bo and the fleet’s boatmen, while soldiers began guarding the ships.

Yang Zhengshan recruited boatmen and shipworkers for the Tenglong Guard, testing Ning Bo’s pride and asserting control over the dock. He left Wu Zhao in charge and planned to train a naval force and acquire warships and stationary crossbows.

• Yang Zhengshan doubled Sun Cheng’s pay and recruited him, then offered Ning Bo a centurion position that Ning Bo rejected.
• Yang Zhengshan had Ning Bo spar with Wu Zhao, who defeated him in two moves and revealed his skill as a battle-hardened soldier.
• Yang Zhengshan explained that Ning Bo’s navigation and naval warfare skills mattered more than his current cultivation, and Ning Bo submitted after being promised a chance to become a thousand-man commander.
• Yang Zhengshan ordered the shipworkers to serve under him, warned them against disobedience, and assigned Wu Zhao to oversee the dock and their training.
• Yang Zhengshan returned to Guard City and considered training sailors and soldiers, developing naval officers, and obtaining warships equipped with stationary crossbows.

Yang Zhengshan asked Emperor Chengping to split the Tenglong Vanguard from the Tenglong Guard, send an imperial overseer, and provide troops and warships for a naval force. Emperor Chengping approved his requests and appointed naval officer Yu Tonghai as Commandant, leaving Yang Zhengshan determined to build an elite force worthy of the emperor’s support.

• Yang Zhengshan read the order separating the Tenglong Vanguard from the Tenglong Guard and sent a memorial inviting the emperor to appoint an overseer while requesting ten thousand military households and warships.
• Emperor Chengping recalled Earl Haichang’s maritime map and appointed the Earl’s son Xue Ping as a Thousand-Man Commander in the Tenglong Vanguard.
• Emperor Chengping approved Yu Tonghai as Commandant, ordered ten thousand military households transferred to Yang Zhengshan, and directed the Ministry of Works to equip the vanguard with warships.
• Yang Zhengshan received the appointments and supplies, felt grateful for Emperor Chengping’s support, and resolved to build an elite naval force.

Lin Zhan passed the Prefectural Examination and left with Liu Zhe to travel, while Yang Zhengshan prepared Tenglong Guard for incoming warships and military households. A newly appointed Vanguard Commandant, Yu Tonghai, arrived at Tenglong Guard to report to its Commander.

• Yang Zhengshan prepared docks, a naval camp, soldiers, housing, and grain for Tenglong Guard’s incoming warships and ten thousand military households.
• Lin Zhan passed the Prefectural Examination as a top-ranked xiucai, then returned to Tenglong Guard with Liu Zhe before setting out to visit scholars.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi gave Lin Zhan a sword and sent him off with Liu Zhe and their traveling party.
• Lin Zhan noticed a formidable man leading an eastbound convoy as their party traveled west toward Anning County.
• Yu Tonghai arrived at Tenglong Guard with his family and convoy after receiving an unexpected promotion to Commandant of Tenglong Vanguard.
• Han Zhao, a sentry captain of the Tenglong Guard Rear Army, greeted Yu Tonghai at the city gate and went to report his arrival.

Yu Tonghai arrived at the Tenglong Guard and met Yang Zhengshan and Xue Ping, while Yang Zhengshan explained why the new naval force had been established and how it was being organized. The chapter ended with Wu Chongzhe detailing the Tenglong Vanguard’s personnel, construction, and plans for acquiring ships.

• Han Zhao checked Yu Tonghai’s documents and token, then escorted him through the rebuilding Guard City to the Guard Division Office.
• Yang Zhengshan welcomed Yu Tonghai, arranged lodging for his family, and introduced him to Xue Ping, the Tenglong Vanguard’s Assistant Commissioner.
• At a simple welcoming banquet, Yu Tonghai asked why he had been sent to the Tenglong Vanguard, and Yang Zhengshan explained that he had requested officials skilled in naval warfare but did not know why the emperor had selected Yu Tonghai and Xue Ping.
• Yang Zhengshan described how the emperor had approved the Tenglong Vanguard as an independent naval guard post and appointed him its commander as well as commander of the Tenglong Guard.
• Wu Chongzhe reported that the Tenglong Vanguard was recruiting and building its wharf and camp, had enlisted more than 280 experienced boatmen, and expected warships and additional military households within half a year.

Yang Zhengshan assigned Yu Tonghai and Xue Ping duties in Tenglong Vanguard’s naval force as it prepared to escort merchant ships and develop naval training. The first three thousand relocated military households arrived at Tenglong Guard, where Li Qicheng’s family received food, registered, and was assigned to Nanling Tun.

• Yang Zhengshan explained that Tenglong Vanguard’s naval force would escort merchant ships and assigned Wu Chongzhe to the military colony farmland, Yu Tonghai to train the soldiers, and Xue Ping to write naval training records with Yu Tonghai.
• The Central Military Governor’s Office sent three thousand relocated military households to Tenglong Guard, where officials distributed them among the Thousand-Man Battalion Offices and tun fortresses.
• Li Qicheng and his family reached Tenglong Guard after fleeing years of drought and received bowls of thick rice porridge from the soldiers.
• Li Qicheng registered his nine-person household, received a wooden tally, and learned that his family would become military households of Nanling Tun.

Li Qicheng and his family arrived at Nanling Tun as relocated military households and received a new home, food, cotton cloth, and coins. The family settled in for their first peaceful night, while Li learned about the general whose support had made their new start possible.

• Zhang Hu collected nineteen households, including Li Qicheng’s family, and led them to Nanling Tun.
• On the journey, Wang Laosan told Li about Tenglong Guard’s camp soldiers and their better pay, and said the general had helped build the tun’s houses.
• Zhang Hu explained the military households’ duties and rules, then arranged for the newcomers to receive houses and provisions.
• Li Qicheng’s family found grain in their kitchen and collected cotton cloth and two hundred and seventy copper coins from the duty room.
• Wang Laosan told Li that the general was Tenglong Guard’s commander, the General of Dingguo appointed by the emperor, and Li’s family settled into their new home.

Yang Zhengshan organized care and paid work for Tenglong Guard’s newly arrived military households while overseeing naval training and the arrival of the first warships. He left the naval force with a goal of sailing alongside merchant ships next March, though Yu Tonghai said a year of training was needed to make it an elite force.

• Yang Zhengshan told Xie Yuan to provide tonic medicine to the sick military households and form a paid labor team to help with the autumn harvest.
• Yang Zhengshan visited the naval force’s first 500 soldiers as training began and learned about their instructors and the need to compile the Record of Military Training.
• The Tenglong Guard completed a plentiful autumn harvest, and the Ministry of Works delivered the first batch of warships on September twentieth.
• Yang Zhengshan examined the ships and their Stationary Crossbows, and Yu Tonghai explained their capabilities and warned that even powerful Martial Artists could be killed by crossbow bolts.
• Yang Zhengshan said he hoped the Tenglong Naval Force would sail with merchant ships to Jiangnan and the Lisheng Dynasty next March, and Yu Tonghai agreed that the voyage could serve as training.

Yang Zhengshan received news that Yang Yunxue was pregnant and arranged for tonics to be sent to her in the Capital. There, Yang Yunxue continued light martial training despite Liang Jinyan’s worries, and she read her father’s letter as Liang Jinyan rushed to claim the Hundred Herb Brew and Dongling Spring Tea.

• Wu Hai told Yang Zhengshan that Yang Yunxue had written from the Capital to announce she was a little over two months pregnant.
• Yang Zhengshan read Yang Yunxue’s letter and arranged for Mingcheng to buy precious medicines and send them to her.
• Yang Zhengshan played with Xiao Mingzhao and teased Yu Qingyi while the family prepared for Wang Yunqiao’s upcoming wedding.
• Liang Jinyan tried to stop Yang Yunxue from practicing martial arts, but agreed to let her train for a quarter of an hour each morning and evening.
• Yang Yunxue received Yang Zhengshan’s letter and gifts, and Liang Jinyan hurried to bring the Hundred Herb Brew and Dongling Spring Tea into the courtyard before Liang Chu could take them.

As the Tenglong Guard reached full strength and prospered, Wang Yunqiao married Song Hao in a joyous celebration hosted by Yang Zhengshan. The next day, Yang Zhengshan discovered that the wedding guests had emptied the Yang family’s wine cellars.

• The Tenglong Guard’s military households reached full strength, its population approached one hundred thousand, and new clerks eased the yamen’s staffing shortage.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi celebrated Wang Yunqiao and Song Hao’s wedding, and Wang Yunqiao tearfully thanked her master before Yang Mingcheng carried her out.
• Yang Zhengshan hosted officials and guests at the wedding feast, promising them unlimited Hundred Herb Brew.
• Song Dashan and the other guests took so much wine that the Yang family’s cellars were emptied by the next day, leaving Yang Zhengshan aghast.

As winter approached, Yang Zhengshan planned next year's roads, schools, and trade for the Tenglong Guard. He recruited the Luo family to invest in the new Guard City and discussed what goods to carry on its first maritime voyage, planned for Jiangnan next March.

• Yang Zhengshan set plans for four official roads, improved local roads, and schools for children in each centurion office.
• Luo Shang and Luo Zhen reported that the Luo family faced little trouble in Anyuan City but could no longer expand easily in Chongshan Town.
• Yang Zhengshan told the Luo family to focus on the Tenglong Guard and showed them the Guard City's districts, shops, and residences.
• Luo Shang agreed to buy residences and rent several shops, including an inn, cloth shop, gold and silver shop, teahouse, and Jinxiu Workshop.
• Yang Zhengshan and Luo Shang discussed sending merchant ships to Jiangnan next March, carrying silk, tea, and porcelain there and returning with goods such as medicinal herbs, furs, dried goods, and Serpentine Jade.

Yang Zhengshan invited influential families, merchants, and jianghu sects to an investment conference in Tenglong Guard to draw them into maritime trade. As the invitees considered his invitation, Second Master Lu agreed to attend with Lu Qi, while cautioning him to save the Lu Family’s ties to Yang Zhengshan for a more critical need.

• Luo Shang asked to expand the Luo Family’s maritime trade by buying ships, and Yang Zhengshan approved while encouraging him to form an independent fleet.
• After staying in Tenglong Guard for two days, Luo Shang bought a residence and shops, left Luo Zhen to manage the Luo Family’s business there, and returned to Jiangnan.
• Yang Zhengshan sent invitations for an investment conference scheduled for the first day of the twelfth lunar month.
• The Zhang Family discussed Yang Zhengshan’s invitation, and Zhang Maosheng told his sons to attend unless Yang’s request was excessive.
• Shang Mingde welcomed Yang Zhengshan’s invitation and told his servant to keep it safe and remind him when it was time to go.
• Lu Qi consulted Second Master Lu about using the Lu Family’s relationship with Yang Zhengshan to help Lu Zhi advance, but Second Master Lu advised saving that favor and agreed to attend the conference with him.

Yang Zhengxiang received Yang Zhengshan’s letter asking the Yang Clan to send merchants and invest in Tenglong Guard, and decided to travel there with young clan members. Meanwhile, Yang Zhengshan spent his free time with his young son and grandsons before Red Cloud’s tantrum ended in a threat to geld the horse.

• Yang Zhengxiang read Yang Zhengshan’s letter about Tenglong Guard and maritime trade, then decided to take Yang Minghui and a group of clan youths there himself.
• Yang Zhengxiang told Yang Minghui to select twenty young people for training under Yang Zhengshan, despite the Clan School having only about ten martial artists.
• Yang Zhengshan walked with Xiao Mingzhao, who demanded fruit and told Yang Chengyou to call him Little Uncle.
• Yang Zhengshan tried to brush Red Cloud, but the horse grew upset when he refused to take it out and promised to show it a batch of mares the next day.
• Red Cloud kicked at Yang Zhengshan, who caught its hoof and threatened to geld it until the horse begged for mercy.

Yang Zhengshan welcomed guests from the Hengdao Sect, the Azure Sky Sword Sect, and the Yang Clan as he prepared to build ties with influential groups. He told Yang Zhengxiang that he had reached the Eighth Layer of Postnatal Realm and had some confidence in reaching the Innate Realm, leaving his clan elder hopeful and regretful about his past injury.

• Yang Zhengshan welcomed Ji Hai and Ning Qingqing, thanked them for saving Yang Mingcheng, and promised Ji Hai two jars of Hundred Herb Brew for his master.
• Yu Qingyi hosted Ning Qingqing in the rear courtyard, where Ning envied Yu Qingyi’s comfortable life and status and lamented her own ruined reputation.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi went out to welcome Hua Jinqiu, then Yang Zhengshan returned to receive Yang Zhengxiang and the Yang Clan youths.
• After dismissing the others, Yang Zhengxiang asked Yang Zhengshan about his cultivation, and Yang Zhengshan revealed he was at the Eighth Layer of Postnatal Realm and had some confidence in becoming an Innate Martial Artist.
• Yang Zhengxiang regretted that the clan had not helped heal Yang Zhengshan’s injury earlier, but Yang Zhengshan said the hardship had steadied his temperament and comforted him.

Yang Zhengshan laid out Tenglong Guard’s maritime trade plans and sold residences while renting shops in Guard City to merchants and officials. The Guard Division Office earned substantial income, and the new properties were divided among outside families and Yang Zhengshan’s subordinates.

• Yang Zhengshan told invited families and merchants that Tenglong Guard would open routes to Jiangnan, Lisheng Dynasty, and Desheng Dynasty, and offered safe passage for a fee.
• Ji Hai asked about Maritime Trade Office taxes, and Yang Zhengshan explained that the office could not levy taxes within Tenglong Guard but might cause trouble beyond its borders.
• Zhang Man asked whether the Guard Division Office’s ships could transport his family’s goods, and Yang Zhengshan agreed.
• The guests divided up Guard City’s residences and shops after Yang Zhengshan explained the arrangements.
• The families bought residences and rented shops, bringing the Guard Division Office 64,000 taels from home sales and over 10,000 taels in advance rent.
• Yang Zhengshan kept ten shops for the office and rented eight to officials including Xie Yuan, Song Dashan, Wu Chongzhe, and Yang Mingzhen.

Tenglong Guard’s new market prospered as military households flocked to buy goods, prompting Yang Zhengshan to expand city patrols and plan markets across the region. After the new year, he completed the soldiers’ basic training and reorganized the guard into five army battalions, a naval force, and a personal guard battalion.

• Military households crowded the market in Guard City, and Luo Zhen helped manage the rush that quickly sold out his family’s cotton cloth.
• Yang Zhengshan increased patrols to handle quarrels and crowding as more shops opened and Guard City grew prosperous.
• After the new year, Yang Zhengshan issued directives for schools, markets, roads, soldier training, and camp-soldier selection.
• By mid-March, all twenty-two thousand Tenglong Guard soldiers had completed basic training, and four thousand camp soldiers were organized into the Five Army Battalion.
• Yang Zhengshan appointed commanders for the Five Army Battalion and Naval Force, established the Personal Guard Battalion under Yang Minghao, and reassigned officials in the Guard Division Office.

Yang Zhengshan joined Tenglong Guard’s first maritime voyage to Jiangnan to learn about sailing and trade. As the fleet departed, Sun Cheng told him about the fearsome pirates of Black Mountain Island, whose power had even defeated the Lisheng Dynasty’s navy.

• Yang Zhengshan inspected the goods and fleet with Yu Tonghai, then confirmed the preparations for their voyage to Jiangnan.
• Yang Zhengshan bid farewell to Yu Qingyi and departed for the docks with his personal attendants and Yang Mingcheng’s escort.
• Yang Zhengshan boarded the Great Fuchuan with Yu Tonghai and Sun Cheng, and the fleet sailed away from Tenglong Guard.
• Yang Zhengshan asked Sun Cheng about maritime powers, and Sun Cheng explained the locations and dangers of the Liaohai region.
• Sun Cheng described how the Black Mountain Island pirates had become savage and said they had defeated a naval force sent by the Lisheng Dynasty.

Yang Zhengshan learned about the rival dynasties, sects, and pirate forces across Da Rong’s southeastern seas, then watched the Tenglong Guard drill and noticed how poorly ships could communicate over distance. After arriving near Songhe Prefecture, he followed Luo Shang to a secluded bay where the fleet could anchor out of sight.

• Sun Cheng described the southeastern sea’s dynasties, island sects, and pirate networks, and explained how Da Rong’s past naval campaigns had exhausted its strength.
• Yang Zhengshan watched Yu Tonghai drill the fleet and asked how ships could receive orders when wind and waves blocked signals; he realized they lacked spyglasses and considered developing telescopes.
• After three days at sea without encountering pirates, the fleet reached the coastal waters of Songhe Prefecture.
• Sun Cheng went ashore and returned with Luo Shang, who led Yang Zhengshan’s fleet to a small, hidden bay near the pier he had bought.

Yang Zhengshan arrived at Luo Shang’s Jiangnan estate and explored his Spirit Spring Space, where he discovered that its honey had potent effects and blended it into fruit wine. After spending the night preparing honey and wine, he planned to go sightseeing while Luo Shang handled the trade.

• Luo Shang showed Yang Zhengshan the newly built pier and estate, which were prepared to transfer and store cargo from the ships.
• Yang Zhengshan entered his Spirit Spring Space and gathered herbs while surveying its thriving medicinal plants and fruit trees.
• Yang Zhengshan tasted honey from the space’s beehives and found that it gave him a warm, restorative feeling.
• Yang Zhengshan mixed honey into fruit wine, poured a jar into a vat, and divided the mixture into jars; he reserved the remaining honey for Yu Qingyi and Xiao Mingzhao.
• Yang Zhengshan finished breakfast the next morning, and Luo Shang left to contact buyers while Yang Zhengshan planned to explore Jiangnan.