The Northern Gambit
The first place to receive word that the Xiongnu had encircled Ji was Dai. Not only was it geographically closest, but it had also been the one to directly orchestrate the encirclement. The Zhao forces stationed in Dai did not move. The army surrounding Ji belonged to someone else entirely. They merely watched the commotion in Ji as if it were a fire across the river.
"Wow… Ji really has been surrounded?"
The girl seated across from Li Mu in his chambers muttered in disbelief. Her hair was black on the outside but blue within—a strikingly unusual sight. She looked about fifteen, the age of zhixue. Her cold expression matched her cynical tone, and the sharp, cat-like upturn of her eyes gave her an air of beauty laced with arrogance.
"Uncle, the one who received Lord Pingyuan's seal was that Prince of Yan, wasn't he?"
The girl addressed Li Mu with familiar warmth, calling him "uncle." She bore no resemblance to the gentle Li Mu, so they were clearly not blood relatives, yet his natural acceptance of the address confirmed their closeness.
Li Mu nodded. "That is my belief."
"If it's your belief, then it's correct."
Like Lian Po, Li Mu had immediately recognized the owner of Lord Pingyuan's seal the moment it reappeared. Though he had never met Ji Dan in person, the rumors had reached him long ago. The girl clicked her tongue as she pictured the stranger.
"Still, isn't this completely insane? No matter how important the Vertical Alliance is, letting those northern barbarians into your own country…"
She was right. The force encircling Ji was neither the Zhao army that had suffered the first strike nor the Qi forces that had long coveted Yan. It was the Xiongnu, who had long lurked beyond the Great Wall, eyeing the Central Plains. The letter had been explicit: it asked Li Mu, the very man who had become the Xiongnu's nightmare, to lure them into Yan territory. The method was left entirely to him.
At first glance, it might seem the sender had simply failed to devise a plan, but to Li Mu it felt more like the writer knew him too well to bother spelling it out. And so Li Mu had complied. He spread rumors that western Yan now lay empty, then withdrew the troops from Dai and Yanmen into their fortresses, promising not to strike the Xiongnu's rear if they entered Yan. The Xiongnu, delighted, moved exactly as Li Mu intended.
Ten years ago, in the great battle against Li Mu, the Xiongnu and other northern tribes had suffered nearly a hundred thousand casualties. Because Li Mu still stood guard, they had not dared glance toward the Central Plains—until this fresh prey appeared. Without hesitation, they drove their horses forward.
Yet was inviting the Xiongnu into one's own land truly a reckless sacrifice made without thought for the aftermath, all for the sake of the Vertical Alliance? Li Mu thought otherwise.
"That is not the case. This is most likely a meticulously crafted stratagem."
"It is?"
"If I were to explain—"
"No! Let me think about it. Just a moment."
The girl thrust out her hand to stop him, folded her arms, and began tapping her fingers while deep in thought. Li Mu watched her with a gentle expression, waiting patiently. Soon she spoke again.
"First, the Xiongnu's strength has not fully recovered. But they have regained enough leeway to look outward again."
"Correct."
Ten years was long enough for boys and girls to become adults. For the Xiongnu, defeat at Li Mu's hands had wiped out an entire generation; they remained weaker than before, yet still dangerous.
"And the Prince of Yan must have his own agents inside Yan. So he could have already sent people to move the civilians near the invasion route into the safety of the cities."
Just as she said, Ji Dan had used his merchant networks in Yan to guide the people along the Xiongnu's path into fortified cities. Though he held no official authority, the mere rumor of an Xiongnu incursion had been enough. The rumors had been spread before the Xiongnu even departed, but since they had indeed come, the truth of the matter hardly mattered.
"While defending the people from within the cities, he makes peace with us Zhao, recalls his army, and wipes out the Xiongnu. Is that the core of it?"
"Essentially, yes."
"But there are parts I still don't understand. More than one."
"Which parts?"
"First, if the Xiongnu decide to rampage through Yan's interior, it will be a massive headache. What was he thinking, opening the way all the way to Ji?"
Even granting that he had protected the people and supplies with a swift forced evacuation, and even granting that he had deliberately baited the Xiongnu toward the tempting capital of Ji, if he succeeded in recalling Zhao's invasion force, defending Ji would be simple enough. But what if the Xiongnu fled eastward, or scattered inside the country to pillage everywhere?
Li Mu saw no problem at all.
"The Xiongnu cannot flee east. The Great Wall blocks the north, and the Yi River flows to the south. Their only escape route is west—and when the Yan army returns from that direction, the Xiongnu will be trapped with nowhere to go."
"Why can't they go east?"
"Because he is in Liaodong."
It was said that King Zhao of Yan, who had brought Yan to its golden age, possessed two peerless swords. The sword in his right hand was Yue Yi—the legendary general who had nearly destroyed Qi, Yan's great rival. When Yan formed its coalition army against Qi, Lian Po had been among them. As Zhao's representative, Lian Po had met Yue Yi and readily acknowledged his supreme command. Though they did not know it, the fame Yue Yi would one day enjoy—when Zhuge Liang compared himself to him—already surpassed even Lian Po's in their own era.
And King Zhao of Yan had possessed another sword equal to Yue Yi: the left-hand sword, Qin Kai. While Yue Yi pacified Qi, Qin Kai crushed the Xiongnu and Donghu, then won a great victory against the rising state of Joseon, vastly expanding Yan's territory. With Yue Yi and Qin Kai subduing the southwest and northeast respectively, all four directions trembled before Yan.
"Qin Kai's reputation for annihilating the Xiongnu still lives on among them, even now."
Qin Kai had driven out the Xiongnu a full decade before Li Mu's own triumph. His purge had pushed the surviving tribes across Zhao's borders, where they had caused trouble until Li Mu swept them away in turn. Though a generation had passed and fear of Yan had faded, the terror of Qin Kai remained.
"Even if he does not move from Liaodong at present."
Still, the Xiongnu had dared invade Yan only because Qin Kai had remained silent after King Zhao's death. People called him the crouching tiger of Liaodong. Had he left Liaodong and taken command of the current Yan army, it would not have been Lü Fu leading them, but Qin Kai—and even Lian Po would not have dismissed such a force so lightly.
"He may not leave Liaodong, but if they enter it, he will strike without mercy. I understand. Then the second thing I don't understand: even if he is confident he can wipe them out, isn't the damage to his own land enormous the moment he allowed them in?"
The land Yan occupied was not ideal for farming. Raising an army already made agriculture difficult; if Xiongnu hooves trampled the fields as well, this year's harvest was effectively lost. Yet even this, in Li Mu's eyes, was part of Ji Dan's design.
"On the contrary, it is a good thing."
"Why?"
"A reduced harvest means reduced military provisions."
Thus the full scope of Ji Dan's plan was laid bare: persuade Lian Po to pin down the Yan army, persuade Li Mu to drive the Xiongnu into Yan, instill terror in the King of Yan while ruining the harvest and stripping away the will to fight. There would be some bloodshed between Yan and Zhao, but nothing like the one-sided massacre of Changping; peace would remain possible. Create a crisis, forge an alliance with Zhao, then use the Yan army to exterminate the Xiongnu and end the war.
For us, it means we can finally deal with the increasingly troublesome Xiongnu. For Yan, though they made a mistake, the war ends without catastrophic loss. The path to a Zhao-Yan alliance remains open.
If that boy Ji Dan had devised all of this alone, he was undoubtedly a greater genius than Li Mu himself—a vision that surveyed a thousand li from where he stood.
Yet that is impossible. He may know of Qin Kai, but the Prince of Yan cannot possibly know every detail of the Xiongnu's current situation.
Someone must have advised him. Li Mu quickly identified the likely source. Lord Pingyuan's retainers—Feng Ji, Zou Yan, Mao Sui—came to mind, but none of them excelled at painting on so vast a canvas. Only one answer remained.
Lord Xinling.
If it was her, anything was possible. The woman who commanded followers even inside Qin could certainly survey the world from a single seat. Yet even if this bore Lord Xinling's touch, it did not diminish Ji Dan's achievement. On the contrary, successfully winning her counsel was itself worthy of admiration.
Ji Dan. There must be a reason Lord Pingyuan entrusted his seal to you.
Li Mu would watch. Not from distant Dai, but from his side—through another's eyes.
"Sang-a, it seems you must make a trip to Handan."