A player who hesitated over his move could not defeat his opponent.
A man of action had to decide when decision was due; only then could he achieve his purpose.
Jinghe Year Fifteen, the twenty-ninth day of the tenth month, Shen Residence.
In the early-winter afternoon, the wind already carried knives.
The charcoal fire warmed the study. Shen Duan sat alone behind his desk, a copy of the [Ningxia Victory Dispatch] spread before him.
"What a tiger of a general." Shen Duan murmured the words once.
He had to admit that Zhou Quan's ability had exceeded his expectations.
He had thought him an idle piece-a veteran stifled for fifteen years, given a command seal and sent to the frontier to grind his teeth.
Yet in a single battle, three thousand cavalry had been wiped out, Jingyuan had been preserved, and the Tanguts had been shaken to their core.
That idle piece had become a living eye that breathed life into the entire board.
"Wei Zi'an's game..." Shen Duan picked up the teacup on his desk and took a sip.
"From Zhou Quan entering Ningxia, to Zhang Zai managing provisions, to Wei Shouzheng bearing the imperial credential-one link locks into the next."
"Heh. He means to... make Gansu the subject of a grand composition."
With that, Shen Duan set down his teacup and tapped lightly on the desk.
"If I remain a mere spectator, once that grand composition is complete, no one will be able to stop the Wei Faction's rise," he murmured to himself.
"I must enter the game as well."
"There are only two ways to enter: either talk to Wei Zi and claim a share of his soup,
or talk to someone who can restrain him." Shen Duan gazed at the early-winter light outside the window.
"Zhou