Luo He glanced between the three great ancient commanders. "Well?" He asked. "Who is going first?" Sister Xia stepped forward first.
She carried no bow but her sharp eyes remained fixed on Luo He. "The first trial." Her voice was calm.
"A ruler may possess ten thousand soldiers and still lose his kingdom. A city has ten thousand soldiers, yet not one soldier stands upon its walls. An army crosses a river, yet not a single man steps into the water. A thousand arrows are loosed, yet not one bowstring is drawn. At dawn, the enemy retreats. At dusk, the city falls."
She lowered her brow slightly. "Tell me, Human Sovereign." Her gaze sharpened. "Where was the battlefield?"
The question hung over the courtyard. Several of the ancient soldiers remained perfectly expressionless, but Luo He noticed the subtle attention in their eyes.
This was not a question about soldiers. It was a question about understanding war. Luo He considered it for only a few breaths.
Then he smiled.
"The battlefield was never the city." His eyes met Xia's. "It was the enemy's mind." Something faint flickered through the ancient commander's eyes.
Luo He continued. "The ten thousand soldiers were the army the enemy believed was waiting for them. The river was the fear that prevented them from advancing. The thousand arrows were rumors, false reports, misinformation and fear spreading through their ranks."
He paused.
"By the time the enemy reached the city, they were already fighting an army that didn't exist." The corner of his mouth rose.
"You didn't defeat their soldiers, Sister Xia. You defeated their judgment."
A long silence followed. Xia slowly lowered her brow.
"Correct." She said exited.
Luo He nodded. "That was easier than I expected."
From behind him came a cold voice. "Do not become arrogant you idiot." Luo He glanced over his shoulder.
Princess Ning Luo was staring at him.
"I wasn't." Luo He answered.
"You were." She replied.
"I was merely stating a fact." He said proudly.
Ning Luo closed her eyes for a moment. She was beginning to regret letting this man anywhere near her capital.
Xia, however, ignored their exchange. She stepped backward.
Xiong Hong moved forward. The cavalry commander crouched and drew three lines on the ground.
He pointed at each line. "The second trial." His voice carried the weight of a battlefield commander.
"Three roads lead to the same city."
He pointed at the first line with his figure. "The first road is short. But ten thousand soldiers guard it."
His finger moved to the second. "The second road is long. Only one hundred soldiers guard it."
Then the third. "The third road has no soldiers at all."
He paused.
"Yet every man who enters it dies anyway."
Luo He looked at the lines. Xiong Hong continued.
"You command one thousand cavalry. You possess food for only three days. You cannot defeat the ten thousand. You cannot survive the third road. The hundred soldiers guarding the second road possess the city's only gate."
He lifted his gaze.
"You must take the city before the third sunrise." A faint smile appeared.
"Which road do you choose?"
Luo He stared at the three lines. The answer appeared obvious. And that alone made him suspicious.
He remained silent for several moments. Then he shook his head. "None."
Several ancient soldiers shifted their gazes. Xiong Hong's expression remained unchanged.
Luo He pointed at the lines. "Your great question assumes that I must choose one of these roads." He crouched beside the lines.
"Why?"
He pointed at the first. "If I cannot defeat the ten thousand, I don't fight them." He erased it.
"If the third road kills everyone who enters it, I don't enter it." He erased that as well.
"And if the hundred soldiers possess the city's only gate, then I don't necessarily need to attack the gate." He erased that as well.
"I take the city." He said. I don't always have to enter through the gate.
Xiong Hong's eyes sharpened.
Luo He stood.
"I can make the ten thousand believe the first road is under attack. I can make another force threaten the second. I can spread rumors that the city is about to be surrounded."
"I can make the defenders move their forces until the city's actual weakness appears."
He looked directly at the ancient cavalry commander.
"The army's objective isn't to conquer a road. It is to conquer the city." His voice became quieter.
"A lesser commander asks which path his army can conquer." He gestured toward the three erased paths.
"A better commander creates his own path, a path that gives him the greatest advantage." Then he smiled.
"A great commander asks why his army needs to take a path at all." For the first time, approval became visible on Xiong Hong's face.
"Correct."
Luo He nodded. "Two done. One more to go and I have an army of the dead." Ning Luo sighed behind him.
"You are counting again." She sighed.
"Of course." Luo He teased her.
"You haven't finished." She mocked him.
Xiong Hong stepped back. The courtyard became silent once more.
Then Wu Shan moved forward. The oldest and the wisest of the three great commanders. He did not immediately speak. Instead, he had crouched and took three stones from the dust.
The gesture was simple.
Yet Luo He immediately understood that the final question would not concern the battlefield. It would concern the throne.
"The third trial." Wu Shan looked up.
"A king has three generals." He pointed toward the three stones.
"The first is loyal because he fears the king." He pointed toward the first.
"The second is loyal because he loves the king." He pointed towards the second stone.
Then at the third. "The third is loyal because he believes the kingdom belongs to him as much as it belongs to the king."
Luo He listened quietly. "One day, the king discovers that each general possesses enough soldiers to over throw him and capture the city."
Wu Shan's voice remained steady. "He may kill one. Reward one. Exile one."
"But whichever general he removes, the remaining two become stronger. The king cannot command them forever. He cannot trust them forever. And he cannot destroy them without destroying the kingdom he is sworn to protect."
Wu Shan's eyes settled upon Luo He. "How does the king keep three men who possess the power to kill him... ...without chains? ...without threats? ...and without killing them?"
Silence.
This time Luo He did not answer immediately. His gaze remained upon the three stones in the ground. For several moments, even his usual careless expression disappeared.
Then he finally spoke again. "I don't." Wu Shan's eyes narrowed slightly. "I don't try to make them loyal to me." Luo He stepped forward.
"I make them loyal to something greater than me." His finger moved toward the first stone. "The fearful one can fear the law instead of the king."
"If the law is stronger than the man who sits upon the throne, then his reason for obedience survives even when the king does not make it."
His finger moved to the second. "The loving one should love the people, not merely the king. Then his loyalty does not disappear when the king dies."
Finally, he touched the third. "And the ambitious one?" Luo He smiled faintly. "Give him somewhere to put his ambition in to good use, for the kingdom's benifit."
Wu Shan remained silent.
"Give him rank. Responsibility. Authority. Give him a path toward greater power that does not require him to murder the man sitting on the throne."
Luo He straightened. "I don't need three men who worship me." His voice carried farther now.
"I need three men who each have a valid reason to protect the throne. The fearful man protects the law. The loving man protects the people. The ambitious man protects the future he hopes to inherit."
He paused.
"Then they may hate me. They may disagree with me. They may even challenge me. But destroying the throne would destroy the very things they value. So in the end they won't have a choice but to follow me."
Wu Shan studied him. "And if one of them still betrays you anyway?"
Luo He answered without hesitation. "Then I was a fool."
A faint ripple passed through the ancient soldiers.
Luo He continued. "I was a fool if my kingdom survives only because three perfect men remain loyal to me, then I haven't built a kingdom..."
He looked at the three commanders.
"...I've built a cage."
The courtyard became completely silent.
"A ruler who controls men by their necks must keep his hands around them forever." His eyes hardened.
"But a ruler who understands men doesn't need to control where they walk. He only needs to make sure the roads they choose lead toward the same destination where he wants them to."
Wu Shan's expression changed. Barely. But Luo He noticed. The old commander looked toward Xia. Then toward Xiong Hong.