The two-hour walk back to camp was a quiet, almost meditative affair. The oppressive humidity of the JiangNan circuit seemed to sap the energy from the world, leaving only the drone of cicadas and the soft crunch of our footsteps on the dusty road. Rana walked beside me in righteous indignation.

  "He is a creature of Angra Mainyu," she ranted, a world apart from the soft and melodic tones I'd been familiar with. “A vessel for the Lie. He saw evil approaching and chose not only to step aside, but to profit from it. There is no greater sin.”

  “He is a coward, Rana, and not even a greedy coward,” I replied, and I indicated the silver ingots he intended to return to Song in my hands. “But is that the same as being evil? He didn't summon the bandits. He simply… flowed around the boulder… like water.”

  “That is a distinction without a difference, Scholar Zhang,” Rana retorted, her belief in cosmic dualism leaving no room for nuance. “To fail to oppose evil is to aid it. Ahura Mazda grants us free will, the choice between light and darkness. Guo Xuan saw the light and chose to turn his back and run, clutching his silver. He is a man who has willingly surrendered his soul to the shadows.”

  Her faith was a fascinating thing, a lens of stark, beautiful clarity in a world I found to be endlessly grey. I'd assumed her heritage was much the same as Layla's, a cultural identity more than a spiritual one. “I didn't realize you were so devout,” I admitted.

  “My mother was,” she said, her voice softening. “She taught me that the world is a battlefield between truth and deceit, and that every soul is a soldier, whether they know it or not.” A small, sad smile touched her lips. “Layla... She saw too much of the world too early. In our line of work, you either cling to your faith like a shield, or you lose faith in your gods. There is very little middle ground.”

  We arrived back at the camp just before sunset to a scene of urgency. Lu Chengfeng and Wei Jin were waiting for us at the edge of the clearing's palisade gates, their faces grim. Scouts had already returned from the field, their reports painting a grim picture.

  “Three hundred, maybe more,” Lu stated without preamble, his voice like gravel. “Our scouts confirm the guard's report. They're dressed like river men, armed with crude axes and hooks. A salt gang, most likely. They've made camp five li south of the village, by the riverbank. They'll march at dawn.”

  Wei Jin's hand rested on the hilt of his dāo. “We have eighty-seven people in total, and that includes the smiths and our non-combatants. We have sixty-five fighting men and one woman. The numbers are not in our favor.” He thought for a moment. "But scouts reported they did not have any polearms, mostly knives, axes, and Dao.”

  “An auspicious number” I remarked, smiling to lighten the mood, “We don't need to defeat them in the field,” I said, my mind already sifting through tactical possibilities. “We only need to defend. They are a disorganized rabble, unfamiliar with our doctrine, our discipline, and our weapons. But we won't fight if we don't have to.”

  Both commanders looked at me, their expressions questioning.

  “We are, officially, an escort company,” I explained. “It is better to negotiate than to fight. We will set up a defensive position between them and the village. We will show them that attacking the village will be a costly affair, and then we will offer them a more profitable alternative.” This was actually how escort companies mostly acted in later eras. To be fair, escort companies also belonged to later dynasties, in the history I knew.

  After a few hours of fitful rest under the stars, we moved out in the pre-dawn darkness. The air was cool and thick with mist as the fifty of our troops marched with us in disciplined columns, our footsteps muffled by the damp earth. Lu ChengFeng and our light cavalry remained to guard the camp and we reasoned there were enough horses for a rapid getaway for those that remained there.

  We chose our ground carefully: a shallow depression in the road, flanked on one side by a steep, wooded hill and on the other by the meandering river. It was the only obvious approach to the village. The men began to dig, the scrape of shovels the only sound in the quiet dawn. By the time the sun had burned away the last of the mist, we had a shallow but serviceable ditch bisecting the road, a simple but effective obstacle.

  We waited. And to our immense surprise we were kept waiting. No army showed up at dawn. I was proud to see our men stand at attention in formation the entire time, Wei Jin marching up and down the line, encouraging them to stick to their training.

  The sun climbed higher, beating down on our shoulders. The bandits, it seemed, did not share our military punctuality. Scouts kept confirming they were coming down the road, but it was nearly noon when a low rumble from the south announced their arrival.

  They were a flood. A disorganized mass of men flowed onto the road, a chaotic river of rough-spun tunics and brandished weapons. They moved without formation, their voices a rumbling cacophony that washed over us. They stopped a hundred paces from our ditch, their leaders clearly surprised to find the road blocked by a silent, disciplined line of well equipped men.

  I swung myself onto my horse, resplendent in the black lamellar armor. Xiao Kai, on foot, stood ready, her face hidden behind the blank porcelain mask, her hand resting on the hilt of her dark steel jiàn.

  Together, we advanced forward, crossing our own defensive line and stopping about 30 paces from theirs. A low murmur of apprehension went through the bandit ranks at the sight of my Imperial Guard armor. They were a gang of provincial thugs; they had no desire for a direct confrontation with the military.

  A cluster of men who appeared to be their leaders, likely of the component gangs that formed this larger mass, burly and loud, pushed their way to the front. The one in the center, a heavyset man, plastered a greasy, placating smile on his face.

  “Greetings, honored officer!” he called out, his voice booming with forced cheer, he even gave me a martial salute. “A fine day for a ride! We are simple salt merchants, traveling to the village ahead on business. We did not expect to see the Imperial Guard so far from the capital.” He was really pushing it… as I doubt anyone would have believed his salt merchant story.

  He gave a short, oily bow. “We have no quarrel with the Son of Heaven's men. May we ask what brings an officer of your station to this humble stretch of road?”

  I sat astride my horse, and projected an aura of stern, military authority. My gaze swept over the greasy, smiling man, then to the rabble of armed thugs behind him, and finally back. My voice, when I spoke, was cold steel.

  "I am Collating Officer Zhang of the Left Imperial Guard. And you are blocking an official road. Identify your company and state your purpose here before I declare you an unlawful assembly." I hoped he had no clue what a Collating Officer actually did, so I hoped it sounded more impressive than inventory and paperwork.

  The bandit leader's smile faltered. He exchanged a nervous glance with the men beside him. His eyes lingered on the impassive, masked figure standing beside my horse and I could see a shiver run down his spine.

  "We... we are the Iron Snake… er Gang, officer," the leader stammered, his bravado evaporating. "Er… Honest men of the river trade. We are not here to cause trouble, I swear it on my ancestors."

  “The Iron Snake…. Gang?” I tried not to appear surprised but incredulous. The name had appeared on a piece of intelligence from Lord Feng's briefings on the southern salt trade. These were Vice-Director Song's smugglers. My hand tightened on the reins of my horse.

  "The river trade is far from here," I said, my voice dropping. "I take it the Vice-Director himself commands this 'business' of yours?"

  The bandit leaders' faces flooded with comprehension, then relief. They bobbed up and down with repeated bows out of synch. "Ah, forgive us, honored officer! A misunderstanding! You're one of his men, then! We weren't told a Guard officer would be overseeing the collection." He leaned forward. "As you can see, we've already done the groundwork. We've assured the villagers they won't be harmed. You needn't trouble yourself. We wouldn't want to cut into your share of the reward, of course, but the men..." he gestured to the watching crowd, "were promised a certain sum."

  "You fools!"

  The voice was a sharp, venomous hiss that cut through the crowd. A figure pushed his way to the front, the mass of bandits parting for him with a deference they had not shown their bearded leader. It was a Daoist disciple, his grey robes stained, his arm held stiffly at his side from a poorly-healed shoulder wound. He limped, but his eyes burned with a familiar, hateful recognition as they locked onto me. It was the knife-thrower, Shadowless Hand Gao's disciple. I supposed needing to protect my unconscious body meant Auntie Ying couldn't chase any routing enemies down.

  "That is not a Guard officer!" he screamed, pointing a trembling finger at me. "That's Zhang RuLin! After him! There's a five hundred tael reward for his head!"

  The world exploded into a roar. The bandits' confusion morphed into a single, unified expression of avarice.

  By then we were already running. Xiao Kai left through the air to join me on the horse. As she flew, a throwing knife hissed towards us, aimed for my horse's unprotected flank. Xiao Kai's hand shot out, snatching it from the air before landing in front of me on my long suffering steed. A second knife struck the back of my helmet with a sharp CLANG, the impact making my ears ring. A third fell short as we went out of range.

  We galloped back toward our lines and around our ditch on the hill side, the thunder of three hundred pairs of feet chasing us. "Why didn't you catch the one aimed at my head?" I yelled. I signaled Line formation with my hands to my waiting men. They couldn't hear me, their ears already plugged with cotton.

  They smoothly moved into a line of 4 squads, taking up the width of the road with our command squad—myself, Wei Jin, Xiao Kai, and two Wolves on horseback slightly up the hill just where it began to steepen.

  "I knew you would be fine," came her cool reply from behind the mask.

  We cleared the ditch with a leap from my horse just as the front line of the Iron Snake Gang, their greed ignited by the promise of a bounty, surged forward like a breaking wave.

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