On the morning after Sun Ce had crossed the river, a young man reined his horse before the gate of Liyang (歷陽) in Jiangdong (江東). His name was Zhou Yu (周瑜), style Gongjin (公瑾), of Shu County (舒縣) in Lujiang (廬江).

Zhou Yu dismounted and took Sun Ce's hand. "Elder brother Bofu. I have waited long beneath this sky of Jiangdong." Sun Ce laughed deeply. "Gongjin. Your name has been the other name inside my bosom. Today, beneath this sky of Jiangdong, let us lean one body against the other and open one work together."

The two young men were of the same age — twenty-one. The years when, as children, they had read books together beneath one roof lay again upon the air of Liyang this morning.

Zhou Yu laid out a low plan. "Elder brother Bofu. To take Jiangdong, men must come first. The two scholars Zhang Zhao (張昭) and Zhang Hong (張紘) live in seclusion within houses of Jiangdong. Bring these two names beneath your tent. When they come, the hearts of the scholars of Jiangdong will gather with them." Sun Ce nodded deeply.

After that, Zhu Zhi (朱治) and Lü Fan (呂範) paid the ceremony of the three visits (三顧) before the houses of Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong. Zhang Zhao opened the door first and came out. Zhang Hong followed behind. The two scholars' hands clasped Sun Ce's hand.

Sun Ce spoke low to the two scholars. "From today, I shall place the two of you at the seats of Chief Clerk (長史) and Chief Counselor (參謀). Please open the first line of the daily work of this Jiangdong with your words." The two scholars bowed their heads low.

A few days later, the camp of Liu Yao (劉繇) at Niuzhu (牛渚) stood in array upon the southern side of Jiangdong. Sun Ce's army reached the front of that camp. From inside, a young general rode out upon a horse. His name was Taishi Ci (太史慈), style Ziyi (子義). It was the same name that had, on Day 44, loosed an arrow at Beihai.

The horses of the two young men met in the middle of a field. Spear crossed spear for more than fifty bouts. Neither side won. Sun Ce gripped, for a breath, one shaft of Taishi Ci's Sky-Piercing Halberd (方天畵戟) in his hand and did not let it go. Taishi Ci gripped, for a breath, Sun Ce's helmet in his hand and did not let it go. The two hands, each with a fistful of the other's weapon and helmet, withdrew.

That night Liu Yao's camp broke, and Taishi Ci vanished into the mountains. The next morning, Taishi Ci appeared of his own will before Sun Ce below a mountain path. "General Sun. I have come to return the weapon and helmet of yesterday." Sun Ce laughed loudly. "Ziyi. When your two hands held my helmet, I had already written your name upon a line of my tent-roll. From today, let us go together."

Taishi Ci bowed his head deeply. Within his heart lay together his mother's old breath, the arrow of Beihai, and this morning's single word of Sun Ce.

Sun Ce began to settle in order the six commanderies of Jiangdong. The people of Jiangdong gazed upon this young man and whispered low. "The bearing of that young man resembles the ancient Overlord Xiang Yu (項羽)." That word passed from mouth to mouth, and the name Little Overlord (小霸王) was born beneath the sky of Jiangdong.

One evening, Zhou Yu slipped a war-robe (戰袍) upon Sun Ce's shoulders. The hem settled lightly on his shoulder. Zhou Yu smiled low. "Elder brother. May this war-robe become the robe of the first name of the Little Overlord."

Inside Sun Ce's tent that night, the weight of the robe did not lie upon the fabric. It lay within the old afternoons when two boys had sat across a single table, reading, and one had laid a thin cotton scarf across the other's shoulder in a winter draft. Twenty years on, the cotton had become silk, the scarf a war-robe, and the draft a sky beneath which six commanderies would be counted. Sun Ce did not speak of the cotton. Some robes carry the grain of earlier fabrics without ever needing to be named by them. Zhou Yu, too, did not mention the afternoon. The two men drank one cup and set the cups down at the same instant.

Outside, in the courtyard, Taishi Ci sat beside a small lamp and cleaned the edge of the spear that had been held, the day before, in another man's hand. He did not sharpen the edge. A spear that has been held by a future lord rarely needs a sharper edge in the hour just after. He set the spear down and watched the moon cross a slow degree above the Jiangdong tiles. Somewhere, a child of the city was practicing a line of a song about an overlord long dead; the child did not know the overlord's name, or that a new one was being stitched into a robe two courtyards away.

The fifty-sixth night of Book 2 deepened quietly beneath the sky of Jiangdong. The three characters Paewangpo (霸王袍, the war-robe of the Overlord) were planted as a seed: the breath on which the clasped hands of two young men, the returned helmet of Taishi Ci, and a single hem of a war-robe lay upon one shoulder at one seat. The pledge of Day 55's Chabyeongsae (借兵璽) was, this night, setting down its first results upon the land of Jiangdong.

—