The twenty-sixth day of the Twelfth Lunar Month, thirteenth year of Guangde.
Just after the Wu Hour, chaos broke out near the left side of Jianzhou City's southern gate. Whether they were pedestrians entering and leaving the city or soldiers originally assigned to guard the gate, all were driven to either side of the road by a group of Goshha clad in thick cowhide armor.
The commander originally stationed at the gate had wanted to step forward and argue, but when he saw Nersa, the Bayala Camp Commander, appear at the gate as well, he immediately fell silent and did not dare make the slightest move.
Nersa was a Veteran General of the Jurchens and commanded the Bayala Camp, the most elite force in Jianzhou City. Even the ruler of the Later Jin treated him with some deference, much less a mere gate commander.
Especially since, a few days ago, Nersa had been fined five hundred taels of silver for sexually violating the wife and daughter of the Han adviser Wu Qizhi. He had passed roughly half that sum on to Wu Qizhi, and was still seething with resentment. Naturally, no one dared provoke him.
But Nersa's dark expression today was not because of those two hundred-odd taels of silver. It was because he had just received an order from the ruler—he was to await Great Zhou's envoy outside the city.
What was there to welcome about an envoy from Zhou?
Would smiling politely at them make those Han people willingly offer up all their property and women?
In the end, wouldn't it still come down to the blades and spears in their warriors' hands?!
The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved Nersa felt. He itched to return to the city at once and have his way with