Chapter Summaries

Yang Zhengshan learned that Chongshan Town faced political upheaval after its defeat and growing danger from a severe drought, then heard Luo Shang urgently offer him his cloth shop. The chapter ended with Yang Zhengshan stunned by the offer, whose reason remained unclear.

• Zhou Lan told Yang Zhengshan to avoid Chongshan Pass City because it was unsettled after the defeat, and Yang Zhengshan checked on the ailing Zhao Yuan.
• Zhao Yuan said Zhang Shouwang would probably have to leave Chongshan Town, while Zhou Lan would remain safe but lose some of her freedom to act.
• Yang Zhengshan saw that drought had nearly dried up the river near Linguan Fortress and ordered Old Li Tou to dig a deep well for drinking water.
• Luo Shang urgently asked Yang Zhengshan for a favor and offered to give him Luo's Cloth Shop, leaving Yang Zhengshan astonished.

Luo Shang begged Yang Zhengshan to rescue his family after his son broke Zhang Chen’s arm, but Yang initially refused because he could not openly oppose the Zhang Family. After Yang Mingzhi suggested a risky escape plan, Yang Zhengshan saw a way to use the turmoil surrounding Zhang Yude to help the Luo Family.

• Luo Shang asked Yang Zhengshan to bring his family out of Pass City because Zhang Chen had imprisoned his son and was watching the family.
• Yang Zhengshan refused to intervene, and Luo Shang knelt and offered his family’s property in exchange for help.
• Yang Mingzhi proposed secretly controlling the guards watching the Luo household, but Yang Zhengshan rejected the plan and warned that demanding payment would make enemies of the Luo Family.
• Yang Zhengshan considered the trouble surrounding Zhang Yude and decided that a small spark might bring down the embattled garrison eunuch.

Yang Zhengshan advised Luo Shang to expose Zhang Yude’s embezzlement of military grain so the Zhang Family would be too occupied to target him, while keeping himself out of the matter. Rumors spread through Pass City as drought measures began, and Yang Zhengshan received letters describing the Yang Clan’s new school, repaired roads, and purchased farmland.

• Yang Zhengshan told Luo Shang that spreading the truth about Zhang Yude’s embezzlement could distract the Zhang Family and give him a chance to rescue his imprisoned son, while warning Luo Shang not to implicate him.
• Three days after Luo Shang left Linguan Fortress, rumors about embezzled military grain and the army’s defeat spread through Pass City, and the Zhang Family kept a low profile.
• Yang Zhengshan’s deep well was completed as drought orders directed military camps and garrisons to dig wells, though the year’s harvest was still expected to suffer.
• Yang Minghao brought Yang Zhengshan letters from Yang Mingcheng and Yang Zhengxiang, who reported that the Yang Clan School had opened, village roads had been repaired, and farmland had been bought for clan property.

Yang Zhengshan wrote to the Yang Clan about its growing strength and his plans for the family, then cleared his Spirit Spring Space to plant medicinal herbs. Five thousand elite riders arrived from the Capital, and Chongshan Town’s officials began facing sudden changes.

• Yang Zhengxiang told Yang Zhengshan that three more young men had become Martial Artists, bringing the Yang Clan’s total to fourteen.
• Yang Zhengshan wrote to Yang Zhengxiang, refusing the Patrol Inspector post for Yang Mingcheng and recommending Yang Minghui while advising the clan to save grain amid the drought.
• Yang Zhengshan harvested the Spirit Spring Space’s vegetables, brought them back to Linguan Fortress, and told Yang Mingzhi that he had picked them up on the road.
• Five thousand elite riders from the Capital arrived beneath Chongshan Pass City, and the city fell silent.
• Sun Xincheng was dismissed on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty, while Zhang Shouwang and Zhang Yude were transferred back to the Capital.

As Chongshan Town’s new leadership took power, the Zhang Family fell and Luo Shang thanked Yang Zhengshan for protecting his family. Zhou Lan was transferred to Jianning Guard, where Yang Zhengshan was promoted to Defensive Officer of Yinghe Fortress and given jurisdiction over Linguan Fortress.

• Yang Mingzhi reported that Lu Chongde, Liang Chu, and Eunuch Lu had taken new posts in Chongshan Town, and Yang Zhengshan said the changes were unlikely to affect them.
• Luo Shang arrived with his son, Luo Zhen, thanked Yang Zhengshan for helping his family survive the Zhang Family’s threats, and presented him with a generous gift.
• Yang Zhengshan advised Luo Zhen to think carefully before acting and accepted Luo Shang’s gift while keeping their favor between them unrepaid.
• Zhou Lan told Yang Zhengshan she had been transferred to serve as Assistant General of the Central Route Jianning Guard.
• Yang Zhengshan asked to follow Zhou Lan, who gave him a promotion appointing him Defensive Officer of Yinghe Fortress over four fortresses, including Linguan Fortress.

Yang Zhengshan was appointed defensive officer of Yinghe Fortress and arranged posts for his relatives and trusted men. As he prepared to take office, he considered the hardship facing the fort’s military households and worried that the drought had left them without wells.

• Zhou Lan asked Yang Zhengshan to lend her soldiers to train Jianning Guard troops, and he agreed to send Yang Mingzhi and five older men.
• Yang Zhengshan celebrated his promotion with his followers and appointed Yang Chengze Fortress Official of Linguan Fortress, with Old Li to assist him.
• Yang Zhengshan assigned Yang Mingwu as Vice Thousand-Man Commander and Yang Mingzhi as Pacification Officer of Yinghe Fortress.
• Yang Zhengshan considered the settlements, beacon towers, soldiers, and military households under his new command and resolved to address their poverty.
• Yang Zhengshan worried that the drought might have left the military settlements without wells and wanted to take office soon, but had to wait for his seal and official robes.

Yang Zhengshan took office as Defense Officer of Yinghe Fortress and immediately moved to secure its offices and examine its accounts. The chapter ended with Yang Chengxu and the others finding numerous problems in the fortress's books.

• Zhou Lan sent Yang Zhengshan his official robe and seal, and Yang Zhengshan left Linguan Fortress with his family and fifty soldiers.
• Xu Zhen and the other officials welcomed Yang Zhengshan at Yinghe Fortress, where Xu Zhen resented him for taking the post he had hoped to obtain.
• Yang Zhengshan sent Yang Mingwu and two Squads to guard the official office's study, accounting office, storerooms, and granaries.
• Yang Zhengshan observed the poor, hostile-looking military households and went to the Accounting Office instead of the Study or Council Hall.
• Yang Chengxu and the others inspected the account books and quickly found numerous irregularities.

Yang Zhengshan uncovered widespread corruption among Yinghe Fortress’s officials and had them arrested after Xu Zhen attacked him. He then took control of the neighboring forts and began addressing the drought’s effects on soldiers and military households.

• Yang Chengxu and the other auditors found missing grain, misused silver, and twenty missing ox-sinew bows in the accounts.
• Yang Zhengshan rejected Xu Zhen’s attempt to blame Official Zhang and ordered the officials arrested for violating national and military law.
• Xu Zhen attacked Yang Zhengshan, who knocked him unconscious with a slap, then had the officials locked in prison.
• Yang Zhengshan sent Yang Mingwu and Yang Chengxu to take over Xiangyuan Fortress and Sanshan Fortress without resistance.
• Yang Zhengshan surveyed the three forts and their watchtowers, found military households suffering from drought, and arranged carts to deliver drinking water to remote outposts.

Yang Zhengshan’s promotion to Thousand-Man Commander brought celebration to Yang Family Village, while he remained focused on the drought and the danger it posed to the border. At Yinghe Fortress, he sensed that rain was coming despite the cloudless sky and planned to bring his family there after the autumn harvest.

• Yang Mingcheng learned that Yang Zhengshan had been promoted to Thousand-Man Commander, and villagers from Yang Family Village and nearby settlements flocked to offer congratulations.
• Yang Zhengshan inspected the parched fields and worried that the drought would leave military households with little food and drive the Hu Tribe to raid the border.
• Yang Zhengshan sensed that rain was coming, though the sky was clear, and wondered whether the Spirit Spring Space caused the feeling.
• Yang Minghao doubted his father’s prediction, and Yang Zhengshan told him the family could come to Yinghe Fortress after the autumn harvest.
• A sudden, violent gust of wind swept through the courtyard at Yinghe Fortress.

Yang Zhengshan sensed the rain that ended Chongshan Town’s long drought, then traveled to Jianning Guard to seek resources for his struggling troops. Zhou Lan ordered him to begin training an elite force despite the grain shortage, leaving him considering how to recruit enough men.

• Yang Zhengshan sensed an approaching storm, and heavy rain fell across Chongshan Town for a day and a night.
• Lu Chongde assigned warhorses, armor, and weapons to the garrisons rather than giving them all to Liang Chu’s Zhenbiao Five Battalions.
• After the poor autumn harvest, Yang Zhengshan rode to Jianning Guard with ten elite cavalry scouts to seek supplies.
• Yang Zhengshan learned that the newly appointed Lü Hua was a Secret Martial Guard agent and met with Zhou Lan.
• Zhou Lan offered Yang Zhengshan three thousand taels, five hundred sets of arms and armor, and three hundred warhorses to train troops, and allowed him to recruit from military households.
• Yang Zhengshan accepted the assignment and considered turning refugees into military households to build his force.

Yang Zhengshan arranged grain purchases, refugee settlement, and troop training for Yinghe Fortress, while discovering that raising horses with Spirit Spring Water could become a profitable Yang family business. He left the fortress preparing its military households for winter and beginning the work of training soldiers and hiring laborers.

• Yang Zhengshan sent Yang Mingwu to Anning County with two thousand taels of silver to buy grain for the tun fortresses.
• Zhao Yuan delivered three hundred warhorses and five hundred sets of armor and weapons, and Yang Zhengshan realized Spirit Spring Water could make horse breeding profitable.
• Yang Zhengshan appointed Old Li as horse-rearing officer and ordered him to stock fodder by hiring military households.
• Yang Zhengshan planned rotating basic and advanced training for troops from the four tun fortresses, beacon towers, and signal fire towers.
• Yang Zhengshan assigned Yang Chengze to recruit refugees, Yang Chengxu to organize drills, Yang Chengche to patrol, and Yang Qinwu to hire twenty laborers.

Yang Mingwu returned to Yang Family Village, where Yang Zhengxiang arranged for the villagers to sell their grain at the current market price. At Yinghe Fortress, Yang Zhengshan organized charcoal production and improvements to the tun fortresses, while preparing to begin training soldiers.

• Yang Mingwu reunited with Yang Zhengxiang, his parents, his wife, and his child after returning to Yang Family Village with fifty soldiers.
• Yang Mingwu delivered Yang Zhengshan’s letter about the drought, and Yang Zhengxiang set the village grain price at four taels of silver per dan.
• Yang Mingwu told Yang Mingcheng to prepare to return to Yinghe Fortress with him in a few days.
• Yang Zhengshan directed workers to build and fire a charcoal kiln outside Yinghe Fortress, hoping to create work for military households.
• Yang Zhengshan ordered improvements across the tun fortresses and forbade households from privately raising pigs, chickens, or ducks, arranging instead for shared livestock pens.
• Yang Chengxu reported that the first two hundred soldiers, their cooks, and their lodging were ready for training to begin three days later.

Yang Zhengshan completed his first charcoal-burning trial and began intensive military training at Yinghe Fortress, promising promotions to top performers. Yang Mingcheng then returned with his family, and Yang Zhengshan reunited with his children and grandchildren.

• Yang Zhengshan praised Li Erhu’s first batch of charcoal, put him in charge of charcoal production, and ordered more kilns built at Yinghe Fortress and Sanshan Fortress.
• Yang Zhengshan sent Yang Minghao to ask Luo Shang to sell the charcoal in Chongshan Pass City for a commission.
• Soldiers from the surrounding fortresses and towers gathered at Yinghe Fortress, where Yang Zhengshan warned them that training would be harsh and offered officer appointments to the top performers in a later martial tournament.
• Yang Mingcheng returned to Yinghe Fortress with more than twenty carts of grain and his family, and he and the others knelt to greet Yang Zhengshan.
• Yang Zhengshan reunited with his grandchildren and gave them maltose, but Yang Wanqing pulled several strands from his beard and then cried until Wang took her to soothe her.

Yang Zhengshan settled his family in Yinghe Fortress, arranged work for his nephews and disciples, and brought his family together briefly before Yang Minghao returned to training troops. As autumn advanced, Yang Chengze brought more than four hundred refugees to the fortress, and after Yang Zhengshan arranged housing and work for them, he took Yang Mingcheng out for a ride to discuss an important task.

• Yang Zhengshan read Lu Songhe's request for positions for his grandsons and invited Lu Wenchun and Lu Wenjie to Yinghe Fortress while excluding Lu Wenhua.
• Yang Zhengshan reassured Yang Mingcheng that he would soon entrust him with an important matter, and discussed Lin Zhan's studies and welcomed Wang Mingzhe.
• Yang Minghao returned to Yinghe Fortress for a family reunion meal, then went back to Jianning Guard to continue training troops for Zhou Lan.
• Yang Chengze brought 130 refugee households, numbering more than 400 people, to Yinghe Fortress, where Yang Zhengshan arranged registrations, homes, farmland, supplies, and work for them.
• Yang Zhengshan told Yang Mingcheng he had rested enough, then rode with him out of Tun Fortress.

Yang Zhengshan established plans for a horse farm and arranged to sell the fortress’s charcoal through Luo Shang. When Second Master Lu arrived with a proposal to send the Lu Family’s grain to Chongshan Pass, Yang Zhengshan agreed to introduce him to General Zhou and rode with him to Jianning Guard.

• Yang Zhengshan chose a grassland near Tun Fortress for a horse farm and tasked Yang Mingcheng with buying horses and organizing its construction.
• Yang Zhengshan introduced Yang Mingcheng to Luo Shang and agreed that Luo Shang would sell charcoal for a twenty-percent share of the sale price.
• Yang Mingcheng and Yang Minghao bought ten inexpensive, weak horses in Pass City, and Yang Mingcheng began arranging the farm’s construction.
• Luo Shang reported that Governor Lu Chongde and Marquis Changping Liang Chu had begun reforms that were revitalizing Chongshan Pass and preparing for a future expedition against the East Sea Hu Tribe.
• Second Master Lu asked Yang Zhengshan to introduce him to General Zhou so the Lu Family could offer its grain to Chongshan Pass during the shortage.
• Yang Zhengshan agreed and rode with Second Master Lu and their attendants to Jianning Guard.

Yang Zhengshan arranged for the Lu Family to sell grain to Zhou Lan, earning a favor, silver, and five hundred dan of grain for his own use. He then took in a group of exiled convicts, including former Right Censor-in-Chief Liu Yuanfu, and planned to use their labor to repair beacon towers and signal fire towers.

• Yang Zhengshan introduced Second Master Lu to Zhou Lan, who agreed to buy the Lu Family’s ten thousand dan of grain for four taels and three qian per dan and promised to remember the favor.
• Second Master Lu gave Yang Zhengshan two thousand taels in silver notes, and Zhou Lan offered him five hundred dan of grain and assigned him a group of military exiles.
• Yang Zhengshan learned that the Liu Family included Liu Yuanfu, a former Right Censor-in-Chief exiled after calling the emperor old and muddleheaded in a court remonstrance.
• Yang Zhengshan led more than five hundred convicts to Yinghe Fortress with Zhao Yuan and his soldiers, then sent most of them to Sanshan Fortress and Xiangyuan Fortress while keeping the Liu Family at Yinghe Fortress.
• Yang Zhengshan planned to use the convicts as laborers to repair beacon towers and signal fire towers.

Yang Zhengshan assigned the Lu brothers new administrative duties and funded construction of the Horse Farm before visiting the exiled Liu Family. He invited Liu Zhe to run Yinghe Fortress's free school and recruit more teachers, leaving the school set to begin with local children.

• Yang Zhengshan appointed Lu Wenchun to oversee the Accounting Office and Lu Wenhua to take over the Needlework and Charcoal Workshops.
• Yang Zhengshan gave Yang Mingcheng two hundred taels of silver to accelerate construction of the Horse Farm.
• Yang Zhengshan visited Liu Yuanfu's courtyard and asked Liu Zhe to take charge of the school in Yinghe Fortress.
• Liu Zhe accepted the teaching post after Yang Zhengshan explained that military households' children would attend for free and that the first class would have over forty pupils.
• Yang Zhengshan offered Liu Zhe three taels of silver monthly and asked him to help recruit six additional teachers from among the Liu Family.

Yang Zhengshan oversaw the school and soldiers’ training, guided his family’s cultivation, and inspected the Yang Family’s horse farm and workshops. He sold the improved horses and directed the charcoal workers to replant trees, while the family prepared for the New Year.

• Liu Yuanfu brought six Liu Family disciples to Yinghe Fortress, and Yang Zhengshan showed them the school as it opened for its first forty students; the first batch of soldiers also finished basic training and returned to garrison duty.
• Yang Zhengshan trained Yang Yunxue, Wang Yunqiao, Lin Zhan, and the other Yang Family martial artists, then cultivated by the Yinghe River before returning home for breakfast.
• Yang Zhengshan visited the horse farm with Yang Mingcheng, learned from Ma San that the horses were thriving, and ordered the ten improved horses sold and replaced with mares and foals.
• Yang Zhengshan secretly poured Spirit Spring Water into the horses’ manger before leaving the farm with Yang Mingcheng.
• Lu Wenhua brought Yang Zhengshan the Needlework Workshop and Charcoal Workshop earnings, and Yang Zhengshan told him to have Li Erhu’s workers plant trees in spring and record the money under Wenchun’s account.

Yang Zhengshan organized the Yang Family’s New Year gifts and visited Chongshan Pass City to prepare presents for his superiors and acquaintances. While searching for a gift for Zhou Lan, he found inspiration to write military texts himself and bought every military book in the shop.

• Yang Zhengshan instructed Yang Mingcheng to prepare gifts for the Yang Family’s in-laws and acquaintances, and gave him five hundred taels for the purchases.
• Yang Zhengshan visited Yang Chengze at Linguan Fortress and allowed him five days to return home for the New Year.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yang Mingcheng traveled to Chongshan Pass City, where Yang Zhengshan delivered gifts to the Luo Family and Shopkeeper Lu.
• Yang Zhengshan struggled to choose a gift for Zhou Lan, then entered a bookstore and selected a sword technique and a spear technique.
• Yang Zhengshan realized he could write military texts, including the Thirty-Six Stratagems and a Record of Military Training, and bought all six military books in the shop.

Yang Zhengshan spent his savings on gifts and wrote a revised Thirty-Six Stratagems to present to Zhou Lan for New Year. Zhou Lan recognized the military text’s extraordinary value and asked Yang Zhengshan where it came from.

• Yang Zhengshan bought books, a hundred-year-old ginseng root, tea, furs, and cloth, then returned to Yinghe Fortress to prepare a New Year gift for Zhou Lan.
• Unable to finish his planned Record of Military Training in time, Yang Zhengshan composed a revised Thirty-Six Stratagems over ten days, changing references that did not fit the world’s history.
• Yang Zhengshan traveled to Jianning Guard with two carts of gifts and spent two days visiting its officials, including Zhong Luan and Mu Qiu.
• Yang Zhengshan went to Zhou Lan’s shogunate and met her elder brother, Zhou Xu, whom he recognized as the heir of the Duke Ning Mansion and sensed was dangerous.
• Yang Zhengshan presented Zhou Lan with Thirty-Six Stratagems, and she read it with growing astonishment before asking where it had come from.