Yuan Ying assembled his troops in northern Huai, but no one at court dared accept the military dispatch. Sixty-three-year-old Wei Rui stepped forward. He did not first call for bloodshed. He asked for household registers, ferry records, and grain ledgers. Some mocked him for being unable to ride a horse, yet he planned to head north in a sedan chair, bringing back every city that could be reclaimed and every person who could be brought home, one by one.
From a young man in Duling to an old commander of the Southern Dynasties, he tracked supply routes, arranged battle formations, and navigated court politics, paying the price through a suspicious ruler, separated family, and old friends lost to time. After a night at Zhongli, beyond the question of victory or defeat, he still had to answer: when the war is over, how should people live?
