The grand maritime kidnapping operation officially got underway right in the dead of winter.
By the time their beat-up little smuggling boat finally drifted into the wide, choppy waters off Panyu, an entire month had passed.
Thirty straight days crammed together on that tiny wooden hovel messed with a person in ways you could not predict. You could only glare at each other over bowls of salted fish so many times before talking started looking like the saner option. Somewhere between the nonstop seasickness, the nights where neither slept a wink, and the burning hatred they had both developed for anything preserved in brine, Lu Su and Gan Ning had actually hammered out something that sort of looked like a plan.
The first step, surprisingly enough, was to play nice and polite. They would make landfall in Cangwu Commandery and shamelessly exploit Lu Su's pen-pal relationship with Zhuge Liang to get a secure line of communication going.
Everything after that was total guesswork until they got there and saw what was going on. That was the second step.
If the mountain paths were clear, they could brave the rugged trails through Zangke and make their way into Shu on foot. If the frontier turned out to be too dangerous, they would have to sneak past the front lines by water and slip upriver through Jiangling instead.
To be fair, Gan Ning had played his hand like a master.
He knew exactly what card to play.
The moment he dragged Lu Su's mother into the conversation, the argument was over. Lu Su might have been an aristocrat who cared deeply about his dignity, but he cared about his mother's safety a whole lot more. What was he supposed to do? Refuse and let his mother be dragged along anyway? There was no winning move.
So he stopped resisting.
But that did not mean he had suddenly become a loyal supporter of Liu Bei. He had simply accepted that he was being kidnapped. Those were two very different things. One meant he had a choice. The other meant he was making the best of a bad situation.
After several long, frosty debates beneath the winter stars, Lu Su finally laid down his terms. He would take his mother to his ancestral home in Linjiang first. She needed to recover from the voyage, and he was not about to let her travel any further than absolutely necessary. Only after he knew she was safe would he sit down and seriously think about where his political future belonged.
Until then, he was not promising anything to anyone.
Gan Ning was not exactly thrilled with the arrangement, but he accepted it anyway. At that point, neither man had much to gain from pushing the other too hard.
That was precisely why Cangwu made so much sense as their first stop. If Lu Su wanted time to think, there was no safer place to lie low than territory run by people who already knew his name.
Calling Zhuge Liang an old friend was not even much of a stretch. They had spent years working for rival governments, sure, but the two scholars had exchanged enough letters over the years to develop a genuine mutual respect. They disagreed on politics, bickered about strategy, and seemed physically incapable of writing a short message when a long, rambling one would do. But the correspondence had never really stopped.
Under the circumstances, introducing himself as an old acquaintance was probably the most honest lie Lu Su had told in weeks.
During those long days stuck on the boat, Gan Ning noticed Lu Su was getting really good at dodging the big questions. Every time the conversation edged toward what came next, the strategist would smoothly steer it somewhere else entirely.
But Gan Ning was not fooled. During all those long talks on the boat, he noticed that Lu Su had a habit of steering the conversation away whenever it got too close to the future. Every time the topic of what came next came up, the strategist suddenly had something else to discuss. The weather. The fishing. The quality of the salted fish. Anything but politics.
Gan Ning had finally had enough.
One evening, leaning against the mast and picking a fishbone out of his teeth like it was the most important job in the world, Gan Ning finally called him out.
"Alright, let's stop dancing around the issue, Zijing."
Lu Su looked up from the map spread across his knees. "Stop dancing around what?"
Gan Ning shrugged. "You keep talking like you've still got every option in the world. But you don't." He waved a hand at the endless horizon. "Look around. Half the warlords who were running around picking fights and stabbing each other in the back twenty years ago are already dead, and the ones still breathing are getting swallowed up one by one. This whole era is winding down. Before long, somebody's going to reunify the whole empire."
His gaze swung back to Lu Su. "When that happens, who can actually offer a man like you protection? Real protection. Not a fancy title that gets revoked the moment you're inconvenient. Not some paranoid ruler who'll make your life more miserable than it already is."
Lu Su stayed quiet.
Gan Ning answered his own question. "As far as I can tell, there's only one answer, and his surname is Liu."
Lu Su couldn't deny the logic.
The days when every ambitious governor dreamed of carving out his own little kingdom were long gone. The political map had shrunk to the point where you could count the serious contenders on one hand, and among them, Liu Bei had a reputation that was almost absurdly valuable.
A talented minister might argue with him, push back against him, or even fail him outright, but few people believed Liu Bei would execute capable men just because they made him uncomfortable.
Unfortunately for Gan Ning, Lu Su had spent his entire career perfecting the art of escaping difficult questions by throwing better ones back.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "If the answer is so obvious," he said, "why haven't you gone to Chengdu yourself?"
Gan Ning's expression stiffened almost imperceptibly. Instead of answering, he turned his face toward the sea, pretending the rolling waves had suddenly become the most fascinating thing in the world.
Lu Su understood immediately and very wisely chose not to laugh out loud.
Gan Ning's pride was legendary. Joining Liu Bei right now meant arriving as "Gan Gui's father," and Gan Gui's exploits had already become the talk of Shu. For most men, that would've been an honor. For Gan Ning? It probably felt like walking into a party only to discover everybody was already talking about his kid. For a man who'd built his entire reputation with his own two hands, living in somebody else's shadow was humiliating, even if that somebody happened to be his own flesh and blood.
Lu Su let him off the hook and got back to business. "Whatever we end up doing... I think we'd better start planning for the mountain route through Zangke."
Gan Ning grimaced. "I was really hoping you'd changed your mind. You want me to drag your mother through mountain trails?"
"I'd much rather sail straight up the Yangtze," Lu Su admitted. "If the river were open, we'd just pass Jiangling, keep going west, and eventually reach Linjiang without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, I doubt Lu Meng intends to leave that road open for sightseers."
Gan Ning frowned. "You sound awfully sure for a guy who's been floating at sea for the last month with no news."
"I don't need courier reports to guess what he's going to do." Lu Su leaned over the map and tapped the Yangtze with his finger. "Lu Meng's position is actually pretty restrictive. He has to defend Sun Wu's heartland while expanding westward at the same time, and the Yangtze is the only line that lets him do both. If he loses control of that river, his whole campaign falls apart."
His finger slid toward Jiangling. "That means his first move is basically written in stone. He has to secure Jiangling because it controls the river crossing and splits Jingzhou in half. Once he locks that down, he can send separate armies sweeping into the southern commanderies before Liu Bei even has time to blink."
Gan Ning studied the map for a long moment. "So you reconstructed his entire campaign just by thinking about what he can't afford to lose?"
Lu Su nodded. "Strategy becomes a lot less mysterious once you understand what your opponent is terrified of losing. I know Sun Wu's finances, I know Sun Quan's temperament, and I know how Lu Meng likes to fight. Once you put those pieces together, the number of realistic options shrinks pretty fast."
Gan Ning slowly exhaled. "Remind me never to play weiqi against you."
A faint chuckle escaped Lu Su before his expression turned serious again. "The real problem is geography. The southern commanderies of Jingzhou share a border with Jiaozhou, and Nanhai borders Guiyang directly. If Lu Meng is moving the way I think he is, that border is going to become a battlefield long before we can get anywhere near it."
His fingertip rested on the winding mountain roads. "By the time we reach Cangwu, we'll need to know whether that route is still open. If it's not, then no matter how much neither of us likes the idea, Jiangling will be our only way home."
Gan Ning's eyes narrowed, then suddenly went wide. "...The Bu Zhi incident."
"Exactly." Lu Su nodded. "If Sun Quan really commits its full strength to this campaign, there's always the chance that some ambitious commander decides to 'secure the frontier' by conveniently marching into Nanhai while everyone's looking the other way. A nice little bonus territory grab, and if anyone complains, well, they were just 'protecting the border.'"
Gan Ning frowned and glanced toward the coastline in the distance. "If that's your worry, then dropping anchor in Panyu right now sounds like walking into a tiger's den while wearing a suit made of raw meat."
He fell silent, instinctively running the campaign through his head. Years of commanding fleets had trained him to think in distances, tides, supply lines, and marching speeds. Every route unfolded naturally in his mind until he eventually shook his head.
"...No."
Lu Su looked over. "No?"
"The timing doesn't fit." He crouched beside the map and pointed east. "The main fleet has to sail from Jiangxia, while the field armies march west from Yuzhang. Their priority is Jingzhou. Everything else comes second."
His finger traced the coastline south. "Even if some idiot dreams about grabbing Nanhai while everyone's busy, he still has to get here first."
He paused, considering the one variable neither of them could see. "Whatever deal Sun Quan struck with Cao Cao is anyone's guess, but Cao Cao's cavalry can't just ignore the seasons. If the northern armies are part of the plan, they won't be moving before the second lunar month."
Gan Ning continued tracing imaginary routes across the map. "And southern Jingzhou isn't exactly a friendly neighborhood. The rivers split every which way, the roads twist through mountains, and half the hills are full of tribes who think shooting strangers is a perfectly acceptable greeting. Even if Liu Bei abandoned the region completely, occupying those commanderies would still take time."
He leaned back and folded his arms. "My guess? At least ten days before they've secured the south."
Another moment passed while he adjusted the calculation. "Which means even if some greedy general suddenly decides invading Nanhai sounds like a brilliant career move, the earliest we'd see him is roughly half a month after the war starts."
Lu Su slowly exhaled. The tightness that had been sitting in his chest for days finally began to ease.
The irony wasn't lost on him. He was perfectly capable of reaching the same conclusion himself. Strategy and logistics were hardly unfamiliar subjects. The problem was that a month at sea, cut off from every courier and informant he had spent years cultivating, had left him in the uncomfortable position of making decisions with incomplete information. For someone like Lu Su, ignorance was almost physically painful.
Gan Ning, on the other hand, seemed completely at ease. He had pieced together the same conclusion through nothing more than instinct, experience, and an almost frightening feel for the rhythm of military campaigns.
Lu Su couldn't help smiling to himself. Zhou Gongjin saw it immediately. So did I. Gan Xingba was never just another fearless vanguard. Beneath all that swagger sat one of the finest battlefield minds in the southeast.
His thoughts grew a little heavier. It's a pity that after Zhou Yu's death, so many people started treating him like his only talent was charging straight at the enemy.
Meanwhile, the subject of that silent admiration remained blissfully unaware. Apparently satisfied that the world wasn't ending quite yet, Gan Ning stretched lazily, wandered to the stern, picked up his fishing pole, and dropped the line over the side like they were on a leisurely holiday instead of fleeing across hostile waters.
Lu Su watched him for a moment before letting out a quiet laugh. Perhaps that was Gan Ning's greatest talent. No matter how dire the situation became, he always managed to convince everyone around him that things would somehow work themselves out.
It was strangely reassuring.
---
When the sprawling port of Panyu finally emerged on the horizon, both men let out a sigh of relief.
After spending an entire month trapped on a boat barely big enough to stretch your legs without kicking the other guy in the shins, just about any patch of solid ground would've looked like paradise. Panyu just happened to come with one of the busiest harbors in the south, which was a nice bonus.
As the little vessel drifted toward the docks, the waterfront gradually came into focus. Han merchants shouted over the price of silk and salt while local traders argued about baskets of tropical fruit. Tribal warriors wandered between the warehouses carrying bows, spears, and enough animal pelts to outfit a small army. Half a dozen different dialects bounced around the humid air at once, blending into a wall of noise that somehow never quite descended into chaos.
Frontier ports had their own weird rhythm. Everyone looked suspicious, everyone expected to get cheated at least once before lunch, and yet business somehow kept going like that was just part of the deal.
Gan Ning's attention, however, was fixed on something else entirely.
The guards.
He watched several patrols pass by before giving a satisfied nod. None of them wore the polished armor or crimson banners of Sun Wu. Most carried local gear, and quite a few were obviously tribal mercenaries hired to keep the peace around the docks.
"We're clear."
The moment those words left his mouth, Gan Ning started stripping off his expensive military robes.
Lu Su watched with growing amusement as the transformation unfolded.
The embroidered brocade that had marked him as a high-ranking general was rolled up and tied around his waist like an ordinary sash. His fine silk undershirt followed, opened without the slightest concern for modesty until years of sun-darkened skin and an impressive collection of old battle scars were on full display. He pushed his sleeves above his elbows, exposing the thick bracelet of polished beast bones around his wrist, then messed up his own carefully arranged topknot by tugging loose several strands of hair until they fell across his forehead.
It was remarkable how a few small changes could completely alter a man's appearance. Only moments earlier, Gan Ning had looked every bit the distinguished commander of Sun Wu.
Now he looked like a guy who'd spent the morning unloading cargo, planned to spend the afternoon gambling, and would probably finish the evening in some tavern arguing over whose knife was bigger.
Lu Su shook his head in admiration. "The sheer audacity of Gan Xingba is something no one else could ever hope to pull off."
For the first time since entering Jiaozhou, Lu Su also became aware of how conspicuous he looked by comparison.
His robes were spotless, his posture practically screamed "I grew up with servants," and every gesture suggested a man who belonged behind a writing desk rather than wandering the docks of the empire's southern frontier.
Gan Ning, meanwhile, looked perfectly at home. If he walked through the streets of Jianye dressed like this, respectable citizens would probably cross the road to avoid him and the city watch would soon start asking uncomfortable questions. Here in Panyu, though, he blended into the crowd so naturally that he almost disappeared before he'd taken ten steps.
He grinned over his shoulder. "You stay aboard with your mother. I'll go see what people are saying."
Lu Su smiled faintly. "I assume by 'listening' you mean drinking with smugglers until someone accidentally tells you what you want to know?"
Gan Ning looked genuinely offended. "I'll also gamble."
Before Lu Su could answer, he vaulted onto the pier and slipped into the crowd. Within moments he'd vanished among the merchants, caravan guards, sailors, mercenaries, and wandering tribesmen with such practiced ease that even Lu Su, who had been watching him the whole time, lost track of where he'd gone.
Watching the pirate disappear into the organized chaos of Panyu, Lu Su couldn't help thinking that there were plenty of places in the empire where Gan Ning stood out like a wolf among sheep.
This just wasn't one of them.
---
Gan Ning hit the docks running.
Within three heartbeats, he'd already elbowed past a caravan guard, ducked under a merchant's arm, and snatched a half-eaten meat skewer off a street vendor's tray without breaking stride. The vendor shouted something in Cantonese dialect. Gan Ning just flashed a grin over his shoulder and tossed a copper coin back without looking.
First rule of any port city: Find where the money flows, then find where the drunks gather.
He spotted both within five minutes.
A massive tavern called "The Drunken Carp" sat right at the intersection of three major trade routes. The place was packed with smugglers, mercenaries, river pirates, and enough off-duty soldiers to start three separate wars. The air was thick with the smell of cheap wine, roasted meat, and unwashed bodies.
Perfect.
Gan Ning kicked the door open and strode in like he owned the place.
"Barkeep!" he roared, slamming a silver tael onto the counter. "Your strongest rice wine. And bring out your best gambling tiles. I'm feeling lucky today."
The barkeep, a wiry old man with one eye and a scar running down his cheek, sized him up. Then he grinned, revealing three missing teeth.
"You got the look of a man who's lost everything and doesn't care," the barkeep said. "I like you. Sit down. I'll bring you something that'll put hair on your chest."
Within ten minutes, Gan Ning was surrounded by a crowd of drunken mercenaries and smugglers, all of them completely captivated by his stories. He'd already picked up three different dialects, won two gambling games, lost one on purpose to make friends, and convinced a river pirate that he was actually a retired general from the north who'd seen Cao Cao's personal guard up close.
"Tell me," Gan Ning said, leaning forward like he was sharing a secret, "what's the real situation here in Panyu? I hear the governor's son is quite the character."
The crowd erupted into laughter.
"Shi Hui?" one mercenary snorted. "That kid's a walking disaster. Spends more time in taverns than in his father's mansion. Drinks like a fish, gambles like a degenerate, and has a habit of collecting strange friends."
"Strange friends?" Gan Ning raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, you wouldn't believe the crowd that kid hangs out with," another smuggler said. "Tribal warriors, foreign merchants, wandering scholars, even a few pirates if they're quiet about it. The governor's furious, but what can he do? That boy's his favorite, and everyone knows it."
Gan Ning's eyes lit up. This was the kind of information you couldn't get from spies or couriers.
"Where can I find this legendary Shi Hui?" he asked casually.
The barkeep pointed toward the back of the tavern. "He's got a private room upstairs. Usually drinks with his friends until sunset. But be careful that kid's got a temper."
Gan Ning grinned. "I love guys with temper."
---
He found Shi Hui exactly where the barkeep said he'd be in a private room at the back, surrounded by a motley crew of tribal warriors and foreign merchants. The young scholar was dressed in fine silk robes that were slightly rumpled, his hair tied in a loose knot that suggested he'd been drinking for hours. His face was flushed, his eyes bright, and he was laughing loudly at something one of the tribal warriors had said.
Gan Ning didn't knock. He just kicked the door open and strode in like he belonged there.
The room went silent.
Shi Hui looked up, his hand instinctively dropping to the dagger at his belt. "Who the hell are you?"
Gan Ning flashed his most charming grin. "Name's Gan Yi. I heard you're the man who knows everything about Panyu. I need information, and I'm willing to pay."
Shi Hui's eyes narrowed. "Gan Yi? That name sounds familiar..."
"Probably because I'm famous," Gan Ning said smoothly, stepping into the room and helping himself to a cup of wine. "Now, here's the deal. I'm passing through, and I need to know the current political situation in Jiaozhou. Who's aligned with whom, who's planning what, that sort of thing."
One of the tribal warriors stood up, his hand on his sword. "You've got some nerve walking in here—"
"Sit down," Shi Hui said quietly. The warrior hesitated, then sat back down.
Shi Hui studied Gan Ning carefully. "You're not from around here, are you?"
"Nope."
"And you're not afraid of my father's guards?"
"I'm afraid of a lot of things," Gan Ning said honestly. "But bored governors' sons with too much money and too little supervision isn't one of them."
Shi Hui burst out laughing. "I like you. Sit down. Have some wine."
Gan Ning sat.
For the next hour, they drank, gambled, and talked. Gan Ning played the part of a wandering mercenary perfectly. Rough around the edges, knowledgeable about military matters, but clearly not from the south. He told stories about battles in the north, about Cao Cao's tactics, about the strange customs of the steppe tribes.
Shi Hui was fascinated.
"You've seen all this?" he asked, his eyes wide.
"Every word of it," Gan Ning said. "And let me tell you, the north is nothing compared to what's happening here in the south. Your father's playing a dangerous game, you know."
Shi Hui's expression darkened. "Don't I know it. Father's trying to stay neutral, but everyone's pulling at him. Sun Wu wants him to join them against Liu Bei. Liu Bei wants him to stay out of it. Cao Cao's sending envoys every other month. It's exhausting."
"Smart man, your father," Gan Ning said. "But neutrality doesn't last forever. Sooner or later, he's going to have to pick a side."
Shi Hui sighed. "I know. That's why I spend so much time drinking. It's the only way to deal with the stress."
Gan Ning leaned forward. "Tell you what. I've got a friend on a ship in the harbor. He's got information that might interest you. Information about what's really happening in the north."
Shi Hui's eyes lit up. "What kind of information?"
"The kind that could change your father's entire strategy," Gan Ning said. "But I can't tell you here. Too many ears. You'll have to come to the ship."
Shi Hui hesitated. "I don't even know who you are."
Gan Ning grinned. "Fair enough. Tell you what. I'll introduce you to my associate. He's a scholar, very educated, very respectable. He can vouch for me."
Shi Hui considered this for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Alright. But if this turns out to be a trap, I'll have my father's guards hunt you down."
"Deal," Gan Ning said, standing up. "Let's go."
---
Left alone on the gently rocking deck, Lu Su leaned against the railing and stared out at the harbor. His mind started to wander.
He thought back to the letters Zhuge Liang had sent him months ago. There was one phrase that kept popping up over and over: "Technological Innovation."
Lu Su had rolled his eyes reading those letters back in Jianye. Sounded like typical Zhuge Liang showing off, some philosophical nonsense about how a gentleman just uses his tools better than everyone else.
Then he'd stood on the docks of Jiangxia and watched those monstrous dreadnoughts sail down from Jiangling.
In that moment, staring up at those floating fortresses, he realized something: He wasn't speaking theoretically. He was being literal.
Standing right next to those ships, Lu Su couldn't even figure out how they worked. The paddle wheels, the multi-bow siege engines, the weird internal layout. None of it made sense to a man who'd spent years commanding Sun Wu's navy.
And now, standing at the edge of the empire, watching Panyu fishermen paddle around in their hollowed-out canoes, it finally clicked.
A caveman would look at one of those canoes and think it was divine magic. Those fishermen would look at Sun Wu's warships and wet themselves in terror. And Lu Su, who'd commanded that very navy, had looked at the dreadnoughts from Jiangling and felt the exact same way.
The terrifying part? Those dreadnoughts were probably just prototypes. Zhuge Liang was already working on the next generation.
For the first time, Lu Su understood what Zhuge Liang had really been doing. The man wasn't just building better weapons. He was changing the rules of the game entirely.
Lu Su went below deck, shared a simple meal with his mother, and spent the next hour staring at nothing while his brain tried to process the implications.
He hadn't quite figured out a solution when heavy footsteps thudded on the deck above.
"Zijing! Come up here! I found somebody you need to meet!"
Lu Su appeared at the top of the gangplank, looking wary. Gan Ning could see the suspicion written all over his face.
Perfect, Gan Ning thought. Now for the show.
He turned to Shi Hui and announced loudly, "This is my new best friend, Shi Hui! His father happens to be the Marquis of Longdu Pavilion, the General Who Pacifies the Far Away, and the undisputed Governor of Jiaozhou, Lord Shi Xie!"
Then, without missing a beat, he pointed at Lu Su and declared, "And Shi Hui, my boy, I want you to meet my associate. This man is Lu Meng, from Linhuai."
Lu Su's face went pale.
Gan Ning leaned in closer to Shi Hui, dropping his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "His older cousin is none other than the legendary Supreme Commander of Sun Wu, the great General Lu Su."
Shi Hui's eyebrows shot up. "Lu Meng? The famous strategist?"
"The very same," Gan Ning said, grinning like a wolf.
Behind him, Lu Su's soul quietly left his body.
Oh no, he realized with horrifying clarity. This lunatic isn't just trying to pass through quietly. He's actively planning to tear the entire political situation of the south apart.
But it was too late to back out now. Lu Su forced a smile and stepped down the gangplank.
"Young Master Shi," he said smoothly. "Please, come aboard. We have much to discuss."
Shi Hui beamed. "This is going to be interesting."
Gan Ning grinned over his shoulder at Lu Su. His expression said: You're welcome.
Lu Su's expression said: I'm going to kill you.