"Look at it another way: how do you persuade the Grand General King to surrender his military authority and come to court for an audience, so father and son can be loving and dutiful?"
Lü Jing remained silent. After a long while, he said, "Now I understand why you dropped everything to recruit soldiers, even at the risk of offending His Majesty. All we can do next is wait quietly for heavenly thunder to strike earthly fire."
Li Qingxian gave a soft snort. "We might be the second patch of earthly fire it strikes."
"Huh?" Lü Jing was confused again.
"Let's go. The Northern Garrison Army has made its move," Li Qingxian said.
"Are they going to force their way in?" Zhou Hen asked.
Li Qingxian nodded. "Lü Wenhua and the others can't handle them."
"Then what will you do?" Lü Jing asked.
"The two of them want to come in for a long talk, so we'll give them a good, long talk," Li Qingxian said.
Zhou Hen said, "But General Lü and the others said that if they come in and fail to seize military authority, they might die here, and then the court will declare us rebels."
"Do you think Cha Fuli and Jie Anhuai truly intend to die?"
"Doesn't look like it."
"So we just stall."
"But they might not give us the time."
"We don't need much time. We only need to stall until heavenly thunder strikes earthly fire. Whatever the outcome, we'll be free to advance or retreat."
"But what if we can't stall that long?"
"Then we do what needs doing. A man can't let a full bladder kill him. Let's go."
Li Qingxian and the other two headed toward the south of the city.
At that moment, the Northern Garrison Army's hundred thousand