Chapter 4: A Ledger and a Sword

Lords rule with swords, his father had said. Clerks serve with ledgers. The steppe taught Wei Yuan that a man who holds both kneels to no one.

He paid the riders in grain and promises, then wrote their names into the ledger as border wardens. It was cheaper than a war and stronger than a wall.

Far to the south, in the capital that had erased his name, someone finally noticed that the burned town on the map had stopped burning.