Everyone at the general’s residence knew Ning Chen.

Old General Chen had said long ago that when Ning Chen came there was no need to announce him. He was to be let straight through.

Told that Old General Chen and the crown prince were in the main hall, Ning Chen carried his two jars of wine to the hall door.

Qi Yuanzhong was on guard at the door, and his face lit up when he saw Ning Chen.

“The old general is talking business with the crown prince. I’ll go in and announce you.”

Ning Chen made a sign for quiet instead, and beckoned him over.

Qi Yuanzhong came over, curious.

Ning Chen set the two jars of wine down on the stone table in the courtyard, then drew Qi Yuanzhong behind a tree, felt out several silver notes and held them out.

Qi Yuanzhong looked, and his mouth came open. Ten thousand taels on each of them, and there were five.

“Ning Chen, what is this?”

“The gold and silver and jewels we brought back from the North Royal Court. I kept a part of it and turned it into silver… This is what you have coming.”

Qi Yuanzhong’s face was all astonishment. He looked left and right and dropped his voice. “Are you out of your mind? You dared hold that back on your own authority?”

“Elder Brother Qi, we fought for that with our lives, and it is ours… Take it quickly, before anybody sees.”

Ning Chen pushed it on him without letting him argue.

Qi Yuanzhong held the notes. “This… this is far too much.”

Ning Chen smiled. “It is the same for all of us. Everybody has a share. Put it away quickly and don’t let anybody know.”

Qi Yuanzhong hesitated, and then put the notes away.

“Ning Chen, thank you!”

Qi Yuanzhong was moved by it. If Ning Chen had said nothing, he would never have known that Ning Chen had kept back any part of the gold and silver.

Ning Chen could perfectly well have kept the whole of it himself, and instead he was handing over this much. It proved what Ning Chen was, and more than that, it was trust.

“On the road north, Elder Brother Qi was busy from one end of it to the other, and taught me a great deal besides… And in the night attack on the North Royal Court you were at the front of it. This is what you have coming.”

When he had said it, Ning Chen turned it aside. “What does the crown prince want with Old General Chen?”

Qi Yuanzhong said, “The crown prince seems to have been passing, and came in to see the old general while he was about it.”

“Wait a moment. I’ll go in and announce you.”

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly.

Qi Yuanzhong went in to announce him and was out again very soon.

“Ning Chen, the old general and the crown prince ask you to come in.”

Ning Chen carried the two jars of wine in.

There were several chairs set out down each side of the main hall.

Old General Chen and the crown prince sat facing each other, drinking tea.

“I greet Your Highness the crown prince!”

“I greet Old General Chen!”

Old General Chen looked at Ning Chen and said, laughing, “Ning Chen, have you come to drink with this old man?”

Before Ning Chen could speak, the crown prince said, smiling, “I ask you out for a drink and you have no time, and then you come and drink with Old General Chen on your own… Ning Chen, that is favoring one and slighting another. It won’t do.”

“The crown prince has it wrong. I came to see Old General Chen and brought two jars of wine while I was about it… I could hardly come empty-handed.”

Old General Chen’s voice was loud and full. “Ning Chen, don’t stand there. Sit down and talk!”

“There is no better day than the day you are in. Ning Chen has wine and this old man has food. We’ll drink deep in a while.”

The crown prince nodded, smiling.

“Then I’ll trouble you.”

Ning Chen sat down and said a few civil things.

“Ning Chen, you have come at the right time. I was talking to the crown prince about Nanyue just now.”

Old General Chen said, laughing out loud, “The crown prince and I are of one mind. This war has to be fought. Tomorrow this old man goes into the palace to see His Majesty, and lays out what this war means either way, and I hope His Majesty will agree.”

Ning Chen looked at the two of them and shrugged. “It can’t be fought now. Terms have been made. The Nanyue embassy took the silver and went home happy.”

Old General Chen and the crown prince were stopped where they sat.

Neither of them had any idea the Nanyue embassy had left.

The crown prince’s face was all astonishment. “The Nanyue embassy has gone?”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent. “They went yesterday. I saw them out of the city myself… The people of Nanyue have no shame in them. Whoever has the milk is mother. They took a million taels of silver and went off as happy as a pack of sons of bitches.”

“That Fourth Prince of Nanyue was so overcome he went down on his knees to me, crying and begging to take me for his adoptive father, and I refused him in the strongest terms… I am a man of the Great Xuan. How could I take a thief for a son?”

Old General Chen’s face darkened in an instant.

Bang!!!

He brought his hand down on the table so hard that the teacups jumped and the tea went all over it.

“Cede land and pay indemnity. A disgrace. A disgrace past anything!”

Old General Chen could not hold his anger down, and his tiger eyes were wide open.

Ning Chen looked at the crown prince, and the crown prince’s face was calm enough.

The crown prince noticed Ning Chen looking, and sighed. “All of it was what I expected. Most of the court is for terms, and my father is in a hard place.”

Old General Chen’s fists were closed tight and the knuckles had gone white, and there was no mistaking the rage in him.

He had been through a hundred battles and spent his whole life in the saddle… He had never once bowed his head to an enemy state, let alone to a disgrace like ceding land and paying indemnity.

He hated nothing so much as being a leg short now. Otherwise he would have put his armor on and taken the field again.

“This old man is tired. Keep the wine for another time.”

Old General Chen’s voice was low and there was very little left in him.

For an old general who had spent his life in the saddle, to see the empire he had once guarded buying its life with land and silver was a thing no words would carry the anger of.

The crown prince knew when to go, and got to his feet. “Old General Chen, I’ll come and see you another day.”

“Go carefully, Your Highness. Old Chen does not walk well… Yuanzhong, see the crown prince out for me.”

Qi Yuanzhong heard it and came in.

The crown prince looked at Ning Chen. “Ning Chen, come out with me a moment. There is something I want to say to you.”

Ning Chen had meant to wait until the crown prince had gone and then tell Old General Chen the truth.

But with the crown prince putting it that way he could hardly refuse, and he nodded slightly.

The two of them walked out of Old General Chen’s residence, and the crown prince said nothing the whole way.

Ning Chen could not help asking, “What did the crown prince want to say to me?”

But the crown prince walked to the carriage, looked back at Ning Chen and said, “Get in and I’ll tell you.”

Ning Chen’s brows drew in, and he got in after him all the same.

The crown prince sat down, lifted a jar of wine from beside him and asked, “Do you know what wine this is?”

Ning Chen looked at the jar for a while and shook his head.

The crown prince smiled. “This is Western Spring. Sweet and fierce, and the strength of it is like fire… It is Old General Chen’s favorite wine.”

“Her Majesty the Empress asked me particularly to give this jar to Old General Chen when I had the chance, and I forgot it just now… So I’ll give the jar to you to taste instead.”

Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“A gift from the Empress to Old General Chen? Does she know Old General Chen well?”

The crown prince smiled. “Old General Chen is a pillar of the state, and even my father treats him with particular courtesy. The Empress is the mother of the country, and thinking of my father’s ministers for him is part of her office.”

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes and said, “Wine the Empress meant for Old General Chen, and you give it to me. That is hardly proper, is it?”

“Old General Chen is old and his health matters. This wine is too strong and does not suit him anymore… So keep it and drink it yourself.”

Having said it, the crown prince did not wait for Ning Chen to answer. “I have things to do. I’ll buy you a drink another time.”

Ning Chen knew when to go, and got up and climbed down out of the carriage.

Before the crown prince left he lifted the curtain of the little carriage window, looked at Ning Chen, and gave him a smile with a good deal behind it. “Ning Chen, that wine only tastes right warmed.”

Ning Chen watched the crown prince’s carriage go, and then looked down at the wine in his hands.

Then he went over and put the wine into the cloth bag on his saddle, and walked back into the general’s residence.

He came to the main hall and waved from a distance at Qi Yuanzhong by the door.

Qi Yuanzhong came over at a run. “I thought you had gone. Old General Chen was in a great rage just now and I had no idea what to do about it.”

“Never mind that for the moment. I can put Old General Chen in a better mood… Elder Brother Qi, let me ask you. When the crown prince called today, did he come empty-handed?”

Qi Yuanzhong thought about it and nodded. “The crown prince was only passing, so he brought nothing with him.”

So much the better, Ning Chen thought, and then asked, “Has the Empress ever come to the general’s residence?”

Qi Yuanzhong shook his head. “The Empress lives deep in the palace. She has no dealings with the general’s residence.”

“Has the Empress ever sent the general’s residence anything?”

“No… Ning Chen, you are being very strange today. What are you asking all this for?”

Ning Chen’s brows drew together.

That the Left Chancellor was the Empress’s man and backed the Third Prince was no secret at court.

But Ning Ziming had said the Left Chancellor had a connection with the crown prince.

So the Left Chancellor was a double agent. He backed the Third Prince in the open and the crown prince underneath it.

Whether the Empress knew the Left Chancellor was a turncoat did not matter. What mattered was that she had the Grand Tutor behind her… She only had to be rid of the crown prince, and the throne came to them in the natural course of things.

Old General Chen’s standing in the army was higher than the Grand Tutor’s.

The Empress had lived a long time deep in the palace and could hardly get a line to Old General Chen… The crown prince, set against her, was on much closer terms with him.

So the Empress meant to use the crown prince’s hand to be rid of Old General Chen, and then to inform against the crown prince… Two birds with one stone.

Only the crown prince seemed to have seen through her plan.

So he had given that jar of wine to Ning Chen, and every line of what he said had hinted that there was something wrong with it.

The crown prince was making him a present of an obligation, and saving Old General Chen while he was about it… Under an obligation that size, if he and Old General Chen failed to back the crown prince when the throne came up, they became men who forgot a kindness and betrayed what they owed.

And the point of it was that with his connection to Old General Chen he could not stand by and watch the man die, so he had to take the obligation whether he wanted it or not.

This two-faced crown prince looked simple and honest, and had a great deal of depth in him.

Ning Chen put the thinking away, looked at Qi Yuanzhong and said, with a perfectly serious face,

“Elder Brother Qi, from now on you must watch everything Old General Chen eats and drinks… Anything sent in by anybody, whoever it is, is not to be touched by Old General Chen.”

Qi Yuanzhong understood that something was wrong. “Ning Chen, what is going on?”

“Elder Brother Qi, don’t ask beyond that, because at present it is only a guess and I have no proof… If you trust me, do as I say.”

Qi Yuanzhong nodded. He knew what Ning Chen could do. “All right, I’ll do as you say. From now on I will watch what Old General Chen eats and drinks myself.”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent. “I’ll go and see Old General Chen.”

He came to the main hall, and stepped on a piece of broken teacup the moment he was through the door.

Old General Chen sat in his chair with his face livid, and the low table beside him was overturned on the floor.

Old General Chen blinked when he saw Ning Chen come back, plainly not having expected it, and then sighed. “This old man forgot himself… Cede land and pay indemnity. A disgrace past anything. There is a block in my chest over it.”

Ning Chen went over, set the overturned table on its legs again, then came and stood in front of Old General Chen and bowed low.

“Old General, there is no ceding of land and no indemnity at all… The crown prince was here and I could not say it plainly, and I have given the old general a bellyful of anger for nothing. It was Ning Chen’s fault.”

Old General Chen stared at him. “No ceding of land and no indemnity? What do you mean?”

“The truth is that it is a scene His Majesty and I acted…”

Ning Chen told him the whole thing briefly and to the point.

When Old General Chen had heard it he sat there dumbfounded… and after a moment he burst out laughing.

“Beautiful. There is nobody like you for a wicked idea… Now there’s a reason to fight the war and the money to pay for it as well.”

Ning Chen smiled. “I hope the old general won’t blame me for not making it clear just now.”

“Not at all, not at all… So long as it is not something like ceding land and paying indemnity and giving away the honor of the state, then never mind making this old man angry. You could beat this old man and he would not blame you.”

“Boy, stay and eat with me. The two of us will have a few good cups.”

Ning Chen nodded, smiling.

Then Old General Chen asked, curious, “They say the fewer people who know a thing like this the better, but the crown prince is the heir apparent. Why keep it from him?”

(End of Chapter 199)