Chapter 26

Rin’s win at Jinzhou creates shi—momentum that forces Nezha to abandon outlying territories and contract behind the Qinling and Daba ranges. The Southern Army advances through scorched, evacuated provinces, but their morale, supplies, and growing ranks keep them rolling. Rin’s shamans—Dulin, Lianhua, and Pipaji—stabilize with coping routines, and Pipaji privately confronts Rin about the cost of shamanism; both acknowledge her likely death.

At a Murui port, Chiang Moag arrives with contraband weapons hidden in coffins. After a tense standoff over payment, Moag defers collection and lectures Rin on the economics of ruling, proposing covert postwar trade despite Hesperian embargoes. Rin trades Ram Province loot for fire powder, missiles, and arms, preparing for heavier fights ahead.

Resistance stiffens near Dragon Province. Republican units dig in with heavy Hesperian gear, making them static targets for Rin’s more mobile forces. Village gossip forms a powerful intelligence web that helps Kitay map Nezha’s defenses. Still wary, Kitay suspects Nezha has an anti-shamanic counter, but with no proof they proceed cautiously.

Rin and Kitay recover a cache of new arquebuses and quickly learn to operate them, recognizing their battlefield impact but facing ammunition shortages. To resupply, they stage a river decoy using nailed, clothed corpses to draw Republican fire and later retrieve deformed bullets for melting and reuse.

Near Hare Province’s border, a letter from Venka reports Nezha moving to meet the Northern Division near Xuzhou, a narrow, monsoon-choked mountain pass ideal for a conventional bloodbath and limiting shamans. Although it is Nezha’s terrain, Rin and Kitay accept because it separates Nezha from Arlong’s waters and the Dragon’s strength. Rin orders a rendezvous at Dragab to join forces for the decisive battle.