Chapter Summaries

Xiao Ning misread Wang Yang’s riddle as a promise that he would return, while Wang Yang’s delegation was ambushed near Tiger Head Pass. Wang Yang escaped east with Chen Qing Shan and four guards, but they reached the Ju River before their rescue boats arrived as barbarian riders closed in.

• Xiao Ning decided the fifth character of Wang Yang’s message, “return,” meant he would come back, and Xie Xinghan dismissed her interpretation.
• Wang Yang and Wang Yi exchanged pointed remarks during a rest stop outside Fishbelly Ravine as Wang Yi kept his illness and intentions guarded.
• Five days later, Chen Qing Shan wrapped Wang Yang’s wrist and warned him to flee rather than fight just before the delegation was ambushed near Tiger Head Pass.
• Wang Yi escaped south with more than ten riders, and Wang Yang urged the delegation to protect the chief envoy, drawing the barbarians after the main party.
• Wang Yang, Chen Qing Shan, and four guards rode east toward Tigerhead Shoal, but a barbarian commander spotted them and sent riders in pursuit.
• The six reached the Ju River without finding the expected rescue boats, and the pursuing barbarian riders caught up behind them.

Wang Yang and Chen Qing Shan’s group defeated the pursuing barbarians with a caltrop trap and help from Feng Yiling’s boats, then escaped by river. Elsewhere, a cargo ship sank near Jinjin Ferry, and divers hired to salvage its goods brought up unexpected things.

• Chen Qing Shan killed the barbarian commander and another rider while Wang Yang lured a pursuer into the caltrops and killed him.
• Barbarian archers forced Wang Yang and his companions to retreat to the Ju River, where Feng Yiling arrived with three Red Horse Boats and their archers routed the enemy.
• Chen Qing Shan killed a fleeing barbarian with her lance, and Wang Yang promised the four guards rewards for their part in the fighting.
• Wang Yang and Chen Qing Shan discussed losing two horses as their boats traveled downriver, and Chen Qing Shan shyly offered to keep him.
• A cargo ship ran aground and sank near Jinjin Ferry, prompting its owner to hire Jingzhou swimmers to salvage the lost goods.

The Prince of Badong confronted his advisers after their plan to ambush the court delegation collapsed in the Green Camphor Forest. He ordered them to focus on containing the damage, then heard Guo Wenyuan ask whether Zhang Jue had deliberately sent troops to thwart them.

• The Prince of Badong berated Li Jingxuan over the failed plan and demanded to know why Yongning Commandery Troops had appeared in the Green Camphor Forest.
• Kong Changyu explained Zhang Jue’s feud with Qiu Feier and reported that the bandits likely died in the battle, while Wang Yang remained missing.
• The Prince of Badong angrily ordered his advisers, including Tao Rui, to take and eat melon before demanding a plan for what to do next.
• Kong Changyu proposed taking control of the investigation, finding Wang Yi and Wang Yang, seeking the court’s pardon, and avoiding contact with the Yongning Barbarians.
• Guo Wenyuan asked the Prince of Badong what he would do if Zhang Jue had planned his intervention to counter the ambush.

The Prince of Badong’s advisers debated who had mobilized the Yongning troops and whether the court had uncovered their plot. Li Jingxuan urged an immediate uprising, but the Prince ordered him to stay behind while the others went to dine, then sent him away with a pointedly ominous gift.

• Kong Changyu, Tao Rui, and Chen Qiming debated whether the Son of Heaven or the Eastern Palace had ordered Zhang Jue to deploy the Yongning troops, while Tao Rui rejected the Eastern Palace as the culprit.
• Guo Wenyuan urged the Prince of Badong to prepare for the worst, and the other advisers agreed.
• The Prince of Badong asked Li Jingxuan for his plan, and Li proposed detaining provincial officials, seizing their seals, deploying armies, and taking control of Jiangling.
• Li Jingxuan argued that the failed ambush had already forced their hand and urged the Prince to rebel immediately, while the other advisers warned against acting too soon.
• The Prince of Badong stopped the argument, ordered everyone but Li Jingxuan to dine with him, and made Li remain kneeling in the hall.
• A eunuch brought Li Jingxuan a meal from the Prince and told him to be on his way, meaning the road to the azure clouds.

After Wang Yang vanished during the attack on the delegation, Jingzhou mourned him and continued searching while friends, scholars, and officials reacted to the loss. Wang Tai celebrated his apparent death but held back from launching his plan, saying one final step remained.

• The attack on the delegation sparked intense pressure on the authorities, and people throughout Jingzhou sought news of Wang Yang and Wang Yi.
• Liu Zhao, Zong Ce, Le Zhan and his wife, Le Xiaopang, Yu Yuling, and Xie Xinghan used their connections to continue searching for Wang Yang.
• Scholars and students mourned Wang Yang, recalled his writings, and struggled with the thought that he was gone.
• Zong Ce attacked three men who mocked Wang Yang, and Liu Zhao joined him after saying his rule against fighting did not apply to himself.
• An imperial prince rubbed a bronze coin while a maid sobbed, and Wang Tai laughed over Wang Yang's death before breaking into loud, performative grief.
• Wang Tai declined to put his plan into motion, telling the eyepatched man that one final step remained.

Wang Yi captured General Fan Dalu and confronted him over helping barbarians infiltrate Jingzhou and abduct the Liu Family’s young master. Meanwhile, Madam Le predicted unrest in Jingzhou and persuaded Le Zhan to prepare their forces while leaving Gao'er in Yongning for now.

• Wang Yi’s men seized Fan Dalu, and Wang Yi revealed his identity and accused him of moving garrison troops to aid illicit dealings with the barbarians.
• Fan Dalu denied involvement as Wang Yi pressed him about the cover-up surrounding the abduction and the withdrawal of troops.
• Madam Le questioned why Jingzhou was preparing martial law and warned Le Zhan that the province might fall into turmoil.
• Madam Le and Le Zhan decided to gather their retainers, carts, and horses at Jiangling and Green Forest Mountain.
• Le Zhan decided to let Gao'er remain in Yongning and planned to ask Zhang Jue to look after him.

Xie Xinghan solved Wang Yang’s riddle, which pointed to Yang crossing the Ju River and surviving. On Great Bamboo Ridge, Wang Yang’s staged ambush sprang into a real battle, and Chen Qing Shan used her lance, Sunset Breaker, to defeat the assassin leader.

• Xie Xinghan explained that the riddle’s clues referred to the Ju River and Wang Yang, and Xiao Ning praised her solution.
• Wang Yang and Chen Qing Shan shared rations on Great Bamboo Ridge, and Wang Yang arranged a plan to lure out their attackers.
• More than twenty masked assassins ambushed Wang Yang’s party, but Liu Family guards emerged from hiding and encircled them.
• Chen Qing Shan fought the assassin leader among the bamboo, where the cramped terrain hindered her lance and he wounded her arm.
• Wang Yang tricked the leader into looking for an imaginary attacker, giving Chen Qing Shan time to recover and use Sunset Breaker to shatter the bamboo.
• Chen Qing Shan defeated the assassin leader with a thrust beneath his armpit and called Sunset Breaker a fine lance.

After surviving the assassins’ ambush, Wang Yang tended Chen Qing Shan’s wound and was moved by her promise to face danger with him. When a horde of Raw Barbarians pursued them into the Tallow Tree Grove, masked archers emerged to defend them.

• Chen Qing Shan and Wang Yang escaped the bamboo grove after their men held off the assassins, then rested in Upside-Down Bowl Ravine.
• Wang Yang gave Chen Qing Shan candy and preserved plums, cleaned her wound, and sang to calm her.
• Chen Qing Shan sensed Wang Yang’s loneliness and promised to face whatever troubles him, even death, with him.
• After Chen Qing Shan spotted a barbarian, Wang Yang chose to flee toward the Tallow Tree Grove, where dozens of Raw Barbarians soon pursued them.
• Wang Yang discarded his pouches to distract the pursuers, but the barbarians kept coming; masked figures in blue-green robes appeared and fired a volley of arrows.

Liu Tan worried that Wang Yang could not rescue A Shen, while Wang Yang entered Wuyang Gorge and declared himself an envoy to the barbarians. After frightening his escorts with a tale of a cannibal land, Wang Yang was led into the stockade by a forceful barbarian woman.

• Liu Tan feared for A Shen and doubted Wang Yang could gain the barbarians’ trust or secure his release.
• Wang Yang’s party entered Wuyang Gorge, where he announced that he was an envoy of Great Southern Qi.
• A dozen barbarians ambushed Wang Yang’s party, then allowed Wang Yang alone to proceed into their territory blindfolded.
• Wang Yang frightened his escorts by claiming he came from the Land of Chaos-Making, where people ate humans.
• A barbarian woman seized Wang Yang’s wrist, ignored the soldiers’ protests, and led him into a tent.

Wang Yang talked his way out of being treated as a prisoner, met the Wenyang Man Young Chieftain, and turned their hostile exchange into a chance to negotiate. He began a carefully planned confession to explain who was forcing Han and the barbarians toward war.

• Lema mistook Wang Yang for someone sent to take her husband Liu Cheng, but softened after he claimed not to know him and gave him cured meat before leaving.
• Wang Yang stopped four barbarians from blindfolding him and demanded they take him to their chief.
• The Young Chieftain demanded three thousand brocade robes and three thousand crimson padded jackets in exchange for Liu Cheng, then threatened to send Liu Cheng's head if Han advanced on Wuyang Gorge.
• Wang Yang said the court intended to go to war because someone was forcing its hand, prompting the Young Chieftain to ask who he meant.
• Wang Yang decided to win the Young Chieftain's trust through apparent candor and began his planned confession.

Wang Yang tried to persuade the young tribesman that Southern Qi’s court was divided over whether to make war or grant the tribe’s demand for brocade. He left the young chief wavering between fear of war and hope that the peace faction could prevail.

• Wang Yang described Southern Qi’s tangled factions and vast territory, shaking the young chief with the scale of the Han lands.
• Wang Yang told the young chief that the emperor did not want war because the tribe’s remote territory offered little value and the court faced greater priorities.
• The young chief assured Wang Yang that his men had not burned, killed, or plundered, and asked what the peace faction had proposed.
• Wang Yang claimed the peace faction had favored giving the tribe five thousand robes and five thousand padded jackets, but the war faction had rejected the offer to defend the state’s authority.
• The young chief concluded that the Han still wanted war, but Wang Yang insisted that the war faction would not necessarily get its way, leaving the chief uncertain.

Wang Yang persuaded the young chieftain that releasing Liu Cheng would undermine the Han war faction, while hinting that he had brought the Wenyang Tribe a treasure more valuable than brocade. The young chieftain punished a guard who insulted Wang Yang and ordered a feast, leaving the promised treasure unrevealed.

• Wang Yang told the young chieftain that the war faction lacked rightful grounds for war and had used accusations to force Liu Shilong to beg forgiveness in Taiji Hall.
• Wang Yang stoked the young chieftain's anger at the war faction, then argued that releasing Liu Cheng would thwart its plans and prevent war.
• The young chieftain realized Wang Yang expected him to release Liu Cheng without receiving silk and asked what he would gain instead.
• Wang Yang claimed he had brought a treasure worth more than tens of thousands of lengths of brocade and demanded food and wine before explaining.
• Wang Yang rebuked a barbarian guard for interrupting him, and the young chieftain had the guard removed and apologized.
• The young chieftain ordered a feast for Wang Yang and his men, and Wang Yang requested roast leg of lamb.

Wang Yang used a drinking contest to expose the Young Chieftain’s drunken, desperate act and insist that his promised treasure was real. The Young Chieftain dismissed his guards and asked how Wang Yang saw through him, while Wang Yang demanded his two owed bowls and the return of the mountain juice.

• The Young Chieftain tried to make Wang Yang drink wine instead of mountain juice, but Wang Yang offered three reasons he could not drink freely.
• Wang Yang argued that the Young Chieftain should drink because the feast’s food and wine did not suit him, and then invoked the treasure as his second reason.
• The Young Chieftain declared he would execute Liu Cheng, burn his stronghold, and retreat into the mountains, then led his guards in a battle cry.
• Wang Yang identified the Young Chieftain’s performance and insisted the treasure was real and only he could provide it.
• The Young Chieftain dismissed his attendants and guards, dropped his drunken act, and asked how Wang Yang had seen through him.
• Wang Yang demanded that the Young Chieftain drink two bowls and have the mountain juice brought back before he explained.

Wang Yang used the Young Chieftain’s slips and the threat of a Southern Qi campaign to persuade him that the Wenyang tribe could not survive a war. The Young Chieftain was left shaken and asked whether the warlike official Wang Yang had described was Xiao Zixiang.

• Wang Yang explained that the Young Chieftain’s eager response to the offer of robes and coats and his feigned naïveté had exposed his suspicions and changing intentions.
• The Young Chieftain argued that the Han Court could not destroy the Wenyang tribe, but Wang Yang cited past campaigns and warned that the War Party would welcome a prolonged war and other tribes joining the fight.
• Wang Yang revealed that a powerful, war-loving figure had called for the Wenyang tribe to be slaughtered if negotiations failed, then said he did not want its children left with no bones to gnaw.
• The Young Chieftain, frightened by Wang Yang’s warning, asked whether the man who wanted to slaughter his tribe was the Governor of Jingzhou, the Prince of Badong, Xiao Zixiang.

Wang Yang tried to persuade the Young Chieftain that the Wenyang tribe could become wealthy by selling its abundant timber to Han markets. After winning him over with an animated pitch, Wang Yang asked to see Liu Cheng as the next test of the chieftain’s sincerity.

• Wang Yang warned the Young Chieftain that ambitious schemers might use a campaign against the tribe to seize power, while the chieftain said he could not free Liu Cheng without ransom.
• Wang Yang presented the Wenyang forests as a vast treasure and explained how the tribe’s knowledge of the mountains and control of its territory could overcome the usual obstacles to timber trading.
• Wang Yang described the high demand and profits for fine timber, leaving the Young Chieftain excited by the prospect of selling Wenyang Man Timber.
• The Young Chieftain asked how they could sell timber while the Barbarian Route was sealed and merchants were banned, and Wang Yang replied that he needed to see Liu Cheng.

The Young Chieftain questioned Liu Cheng about Wang Yang, then claimed Wang Yang had come as an envoy and refused to ransom him. Liu Cheng chose to keep defending Wang Yang, and the chapter ended with the Young Chieftain revealing that Liu Cheng would live or die alongside Wang Yang depending on their negotiations.

• The Young Chieftain questioned Liu Cheng about Wang Yang’s character and official post, while Liu Cheng praised him and insisted he knew nothing about his office.
• The Young Chieftain told Liu Cheng that Wang Yang had arrived, refused to pay brocade for his ransom, and ordered the barbarians to do as they pleased with him.
• Liu Cheng suspected the Young Chieftain was testing him, but decided to keep defending Wang Yang and asked that his remains be taken to his father if he died.
• The Young Chieftain claimed Wang Yang was an impostor under guard, and Liu Cheng laughed and defended the Langya Wang clan’s standing.
• The Young Chieftain feigned a saber strike, then told Liu Cheng that he and Wang Yang would live or die depending on the negotiations and warned him not to sow discord.

Wang Yang visited Liu Cheng, who had been living among the barbarians, and persuaded him to share what he knew about the tribe. Their conversation revealed Liu Cheng’s ties to Lema and left him stunned when Wang Yang hinted he might take responsibility for resolving their situation as an elder brother.

• Wang Yang sent the barbarian guards away and entered Liu Cheng’s hut, where Liu Cheng tried to maintain a calm, scholarly air.
• Liu Cheng threatened to expose Wang Yang as a false imperial envoy, but Wang Yang mocked him and threatened to tell his family that he had died, prompting Liu Cheng to beg not to be left behind.
• Liu Cheng briefed Wang Yang on the tribe’s leadership, explaining that Leluoluo shared power with the left and right haye and that negotiations would require gifts.
• Wang Yang questioned Liu Cheng about Lema, and Liu Cheng admitted he had been involved with her and eight other women while living among the barbarians.
• Liu Cheng said he wanted to return but could not marry Lema as a wife or take her as a concubine; Wang Yang suggested the problem might be solvable and hinted he would help as an elder brother.
• Liu Cheng misunderstood Wang Yang’s hint and exclaimed that Wang Yang wanted to be his elder brother too.

Wang Yang convinced Liu Cheng that the court had approved a trial trade route with the Wenyang Tribe, though Liu Cheng feared the conditions would keep him captive. Wang Yang reassured him and proposed that they build the Ten Thousand Mountains Freight Depot together, asking Liu Cheng to invest ten million.

• Wang Yang persuaded Liu Cheng to call him Elder Brother by threatening to leave him to handle his captivity and tangled relationships alone.
• Wang Yang explained that the court had approved a trial Barbarian Route after he submitted a policy essay through Liu Cheng's father.
• Liu Cheng learned that the tribes had to release him and request trade before the court would permit commerce, and he feared he would never return home.
• Wang Yang promised to use his own methods to secure Liu Cheng's release and reassured him that he would do everything he could.
• Wang Yang proposed that he and Liu Cheng establish the Ten Thousand Mountains Freight Depot, with Liu Cheng investing ten million and the two sharing the remaining profits.

Liu Cheng reconsidered Wang Yang’s criticism of his disdain for trade and agreed to join him in establishing a freight depot for the Barbarian Route. Their argument over funding ended with Wang Yang offering three million of his own, leaving Liu Cheng to wonder why he had initially been asked for ten million.

• Liu Cheng recalled his hunger and suffering in captivity and realized Wang Yang’s arguments about money and profit were right.
• Wang Yang persuaded Liu Cheng to help fund a freight depot, presenting it as a private partnership that could benefit both the Han lands and the Barbarian Tribes.
• Liu Cheng agreed to join but said he could raise only three million, refusing to sell his books or involve his family without need.
• Wang Yang admitted he had hoped Liu Cheng would provide ten million while he contributed expertise for half the profits, angering Liu Cheng.
• Wang Yang offered to invest three million himself, saying their combined six million would be enough to start with a smaller shipment.

Xie Xinghan arranged slips depicting people and places, ending with a warning of a lethal ambush. Meanwhile, Wang Yang talked Lema into going to Jiankang with Liu Cheng, leaving the couple reconciled and grateful to him.

• Xie Xinghan arranged slips around a willow and the Eastern Palace, then placed a slip marked “lethal ambush!” between Luling and Badong.
• Lema confronted Wang Yang and Liu Cheng with her saber, but Wang Yang pretended to mistake her pronunciation and claimed Liu Cheng was his younger brother.
• Wang Yang praised Lema as his sister-in-law, and Liu Cheng reluctantly played along until Lema accepted the family relationship.
• Wang Yang described Jiankang’s jewelry, scenery, and amusements to tempt Lema into visiting with Liu Cheng.
• Liu Cheng promised to make wherever Lema lived better, and Lema agreed to go to Jiankang with him.