In Chapter 9, Gao Pian reaches his final post as military governor of the southeastern economic hub Huainan and establishes his headquarters in Yangzhou as commander-in-chief of the Tang Expeditionary Armies and Salt, Iron, and Transport commissioner in charge of the empire’s monopoly and financial administration. After the disastrous year jihai, the decline of the Tang accelerates, testing the allegiance of military and civilian officials alike (“All the King’s Men”). Gao Pian stands by as Huang Chao crosses the Yangzi at Stone Quarry and heads north. In “Tilling with My Brush,” Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn joins Gao’s headquarters staff as Huang Chao’s armies approach the capital in 880. Emperor Xizong flees into exile at Chengdu in early 881 (“The Fall of Chang’an”). Gao Pian assembles an expeditionary army at “East Dike” for the recovery of the capital. With the “Ultimatum to Huang Chao,” written by Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn on Gao Pian’s behalf, the young scholar from Silla becomes widely known in China. In “Citadel Yangzhou,” referring to the faltering empire’s crucial commercial, manufacturing, and trading hub at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangzi, Gao Pian consolidates the city’s fortifications.