Ning Chen got out fast. Any slower, by the look on His Majesty’s face, and he really might have been given thirty strokes.

His Majesty is impossible. The man doesn’t take a hint… When I said I couldn’t fail Yudie, that was where His Majesty was supposed to say: this emperor grants you leave to take a concubine, and pardons Yudie off the slave register, and gives her her freedom.

He can’t hold a conversation!

Ning Chen shook his head, came out of the palace, and rode Diaochan straight for the courtesans’ quarter.

The next day, before noon.

Ning Chen came to the Hall of the Four Barbarians and found Li Hanru and Shen Min.

With the door shut, Ning Chen came straight to the point. “My lords, how is the silver coming?”

Li Hanru said, “Most of it came in yesterday. There is a little still out. Lord Shen and I will make another round today and there should be no trouble.”

“These soft-boned men. When it comes to ceding land and paying indemnity they are open-handed indeed!”

“These useless things, fat in the head and the guts. Do they not know that a real peace is built on the point of a weapon?”

為結好而盟，總無善終。 為停戰而盟，難止刀兵。 為強橫而盟，近可取地，遠可取勢。

An alliance made for friendship’s sake never comes to a good end. An alliance made to stop a war will not stop the weapons. An alliance made out of strength takes ground in the near view and takes position in the far one.

“Cede land and pay indemnity, and how many years of quiet does it buy?”

“So this war has to be fought, and fought handsomely, and Nanyue has to be hurt by it… That is the only policy that gives peace for long.”

Li Hanru and Shen Min were civil officials, but the backbone of a man of letters was still in them. The two of them were of the war party.

Shen Min said heavily, “Ning the Silver Coat has great ability, and there is much in what he says. I admire the depth of it!”

Li Hanru shook his head and sighed. “That crowd has been safe too long. They lost their blood and their backbone long ago, and they have forgotten that the Great Xuan was won from the saddle as well.”

“To have a man of such ability as Ning the Silver Coat, a young man with that much blood in him, is a piece of good fortune for our Great Xuan.”

Ning Chen smiled, and then said, “It is hard work for you both. I must trouble you to have the rest of the silver in before tonight.”

Shen Min looked astonished. “As soon as that?”

Ning Chen nodded. “So long as the Nanyue embassy is still here, word may get out.”

“Very well!”

Li Hanru and Shen Min nodded.

Ning Chen did not stay long. He turned and left.

Toward evening he came back.

But only Shen Min was there.

Shen Min told Ning Chen that he and Li Hanru had gone separate ways, that his own part of it was collected, and that Li Hanru was not back yet.

Ning Chen sat and waited a while and drank a few cups of tea, and then Li Hanru came in.

Ning Chen asked, smiling, “Hard work, Lord Li. How did it go?”

Li Hanru smiled. “I have not failed the trust!”

Ning Chen smiled. “So the million taels is all made up?”

“We only said the Nanyue embassy could not wait any longer, and they handed the silver over readily enough.”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “These soft-boned men.”

“In that case, my lords need only pass the silver quietly to His Majesty tomorrow.”

The two of them nodded.

Ning Chen muttered, “Time to send them on their way!”

Li Hanru and Shen Min looked at each other, with no idea what any of that meant, but it sounded impressive.

Ning Chen left. It was not long before he was back, with a body of the garrison behind him.

A silver coat had no authority at all to move the garrison, but the moment they heard it was Ning Chen, Ning the Silver Coat, the garrison came along without thinking twice.

Inside the room, Kang Luo and the Nanyue State Preceptor sat facing each other.

The Nanyue State Preceptor could not keep the hatred out of it. “Fourth Prince, the men are all in place… When do we move?”

Kang Luo thought about it for a long while before he spoke. “This is the imperial capital of the Great Xuan, and Ning Chen is a favorite of the Great Xuan’s emperor. Moving against him is no easy thing.”

“Fourth Prince, if this one is not got rid of he will be Nanyue’s great enemy.”

Kang Luo nodded. “This Ning the Silver Coat has talent running over in him and is skilled in war and stratagem. How would I not know he will be Nanyue’s great enemy? It is only that to move against him we must be prepared for everything.”

“Give me three more days. I have men out already looking into where he goes, and the moment we are sure of it we can move.”

“And that thing that sounds like a thunderclap — we must get hold of one and study it… If that is used on a battlefield the consequences do not bear thinking about, so we have to understand it and prepare against it early.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor’s eyes were vicious, and he inclined his head slightly.

Kang Luo said, “Tomorrow I will ask Ning the Silver Coat to take us out for a walk. We have been here several days and have not seen this imperial capital of the Great Xuan properly, and they say it is a very fine, busy place.”

“State Preceptor, come with me… It will also give us a chance to sound this Ning the Silver Coat out. Know yourself and know your enemy and you’ll come through a hundred battles.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor was about to nod when there was a crash and the door was kicked open.

Ning Chen walked in with one hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

Kang Luo’s face and the Nanyue State Preceptor’s changed slightly, and they looked at each other, uneasy… afraid Ning Chen had heard what they had just been saying.

The Nanyue State Preceptor shouted, and his voice tried to be fierce with nothing at all behind it. “Ning the Silver Coat, have you no manners at all? Do the people of the Great Xuan all walk into another man’s room as roughly as this?”

Ning Chen put out two fingers and said, smiling coldly, “I’ll correct you on two points. First, this is the Great Xuan. You have the right to live here because I nod, not because you moved in and made it your room. Do you understand?”

“Second, the Great Xuan is a land of rites and ceremony, unlike you barbarians… We understand courtesy and we understand the forms perfectly well. They simply don’t apply to you, because you aren’t worth them.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor flew into a rage and was about to speak, and Kang Luo stopped him.

Kang Luo looked at Ning Chen and smiled. “Ning the Silver Coat calls late at night. What brings you?”

“I was going to look for you tomorrow, in fact, and ask you to show us the imperial capital of the Great Xuan. We have been here all these days without going out, and it is dull work. I wonder whether Ning the Silver Coat has the time?”

Ning Chen smiled slightly. “I have the time. You don’t.”

Kang Luo was surprised. “What does Ning the Silver Coat mean by that?”

Ning Chen said it one word at a time. “I have come to send you home… I’ll give you a quarter of an hour. Pack quickly. I’ll see you out of the city.”

Kang Luo and the Nanyue State Preceptor were caught flat, at a loss.

Kang Luo frowned. “Ning the Silver Coat, what is this?”

Ning Chen said flatly, “My meaning is simple enough. The Great Xuan does not give up an inch of ground… So the negotiation has failed. Go back where you came from.”

Kang Luo and the Nanyue State Preceptor looked at each other, and their faces changed completely.

They had never imagined Ning Chen had come to throw them out.

Their plan had not been carried out. Nothing had been done at all. They could not possibly leave.

Kang Luo said, and there was anger in it, “Ning the Silver Coat, the night is far on and you are turning us out now… Is that not going a little far?”

Ning Chen said, with no respect for anything, “Set against your wanting the Great Xuan to cut off its own territory, I am being very civil about it.”

“Fourth Prince, pack quickly… You have a quarter of an hour and no more.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor lost his temper altogether. “Ning Chen, you are always telling us the Great Xuan is a land of rites and ceremony. Is this how you treat a guest?”

Ning Chen looked at him and burst out laughing, and the mockery in it was past hiding. “Should I call the State Preceptor innocent, or stupid? You seem to have forgotten that you are not guests. You are the Great Xuan’s enemies.”

“Your time is running out. Ning here is a rough man, and if you sit here and refuse to go, I can’t answer for what I might do.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor said furiously, “And if we do not go, what will you do?”

Ning Chen smiled slightly. “The State Preceptor came to our Great Xuan and committed rape and robbery, and I caught him in the act… I lost my senses and beat the State Preceptor soundly, and then stripped him and paraded him through the streets. Nothing unreasonable in that, is there?”

The Nanyue State Preceptor was trembling from head to foot. “You… that is slander.”

Ning Chen shrugged and said it one word at a time. “And what if it is?”

The Nanyue State Preceptor was shaking with rage.

Kang Luo fixed his eyes on Ning Chen. “So Ning the Silver Coat is determined to drive us out.”

Ning Chen smiled. “That depends on whether you know what is good for you. Go now and I will see you out of the city… Sit here and refuse to go, and all I can do is have you thrown out.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor shouted, “You would dare?”

Ning Chen said flatly, “You can try it. You have less than ten minutes left. I’ll wait for you outside.”

With that Ning Chen turned and walked out.

The Nanyue State Preceptor was beside himself. “Outrageous. How dare he? How dare he do such a thing?”

Kang Luo’s self-command was as good as ever, and even so his face went livid and he could not hold his anger down.

For an envoy, it was a naked humiliation.

“Pack the things.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor stared at him in astonishment. “We are simply leaving?”

Kang Luo said heavily, “This is the imperial capital of the Great Xuan. Setting ourselves against Ning Chen gets us nothing.”

“It seems we have come all this way for nothing. For Ning Chen to dare turn us out at a moment like this, the Great Xuan’s emperor must mean it too.”

“I underrated the blood in the men of the Great Xuan. Beaten as they have been, their pride and their blood have not gone off at all… The worst of our failure on this journey is that we learned too late that this Ning the Silver Coat existed.”

“Pack the things and let us go… At least that way we keep the last of our dignity.”

A quarter of an hour later.

The Nanyue embassy went out of the city under the escort of Ning Chen and the garrison.

“Fourth Prince, go carefully on the road. It’s dark and the footing is slippery. Put a foot wrong and you’ll be two front teeth short.”

Ning Chen said it with his eyes crinkled up in a smile.

Kang Luo looked at Ning Chen for a good while. “Ning the Silver Coat, on the battlefield next year Kang here will wash out today’s shame himself.”

Ning Chen shrugged. “Good. If you have it in you.”

Kang Luo said nothing more. He turned and walked off with long strides. “Ning the Silver Coat, I’ll see you on the battlefield!”

Ning Chen smiled. “I’ll be there.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor’s eyes were dark and vicious, and the hatred was all over his face as he stared at Ning Chen.

Ning Chen looked back at him with no expression at all. “Is there something you want to say? I’d think it over before you say it… If you make me angry, the State Preceptor may not get back to Nanyue alive.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor’s face changed. He set his back teeth, did not make a sound, and turned and slunk away.

Ning Chen gave a cold, contemptuous laugh.

Li Hanru shook his head. “That Nanyue State Preceptor must hate you to the bone.”

Ning Chen said with contempt, “Vermin, nothing more. If he had so much as thrown a stone at me I would think better of him… The one who is really to be feared is the Fourth Prince of Nanyue.”

He watched Kang Luo’s back and muttered, “I’d very much like to keep that Fourth Prince of Nanyue in the Great Xuan for good.”

Li Hanru’s and Shen Min’s faces changed at once.

“Ning the Silver Coat, you must not have such a thought in your head… If you killed the Fourth Prince of Nanyue, I doubt we would even reach next year before Nanyue brought its armies down on the border, and we are not ready.”

Li Hanru had barely finished when Shen Min said immediately after him, “When two states are at war, envoys are not put to the sword. If we killed a man of the embassy the Great Xuan would have no face left, and other countries would laugh at us… Who would ever dare send an embassy to the Great Xuan again?”

Ning Chen looked at them and laughed. “I was only saying it. I was expressing a regret. I wasn’t actually going to kill him.”

Li Hanru and Shen Min looked at each other. What is there that you wouldn’t do?

The two of them would have to keep a close eye on Ning Chen and not let him really go and kill the Fourth Prince of Nanyue.

“Enough, let’s go back!”

Ning Chen said it, turned his horse’s head, and rode toward the city.

Once inside, Ning Chen sent the garrison back and said to Li Hanru and Shen Min, “My lords have worked hard these last few days. It’s late. Go home and rest.”

Li Hanru said, with a perfectly serious face, “Until it is light, wherever Ning the Silver Coat goes, we go.”

Shen Min nodded in agreement.

Ning Chen looked at them, not following. “What do my lords mean by that?”

Shen Min said, “We are afraid you will take men and go quietly and kill the whole Nanyue embassy.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. “My lords are worrying over nothing. I won’t.”

“Ning the Silver Coat had better come back to the Hall of the Four Barbarians with us tonight.”

Ning Chen looked at them sideways. “Don’t you two have wives and concubines? On a long cold night, isn’t it sweeter to sleep with a woman in your arms? I am going to the courtesans’ quarter, to the friend of my bosom.”

Shen Min said, with a perfectly serious face, “Until it is light, wherever you go, we go.”

Ning Chen had absolutely nothing to say. “Can there not be a little trust between men?”

Li Hanru said, “Ning the Silver Coat will bear with us.”

There was no getting out of it. He could hardly beat the pair of them.

“All right! I’ll go back to the Hall of the Four Barbarians with you.”

(End of Chapter 196)