"Come, come, all of you, get over here and collect your letters! Hey, you over there, no shouting, no crowding! Each unit sends its own squad leader over, otherwise nothing will be handed out."
"Yours, four letters... yours, five. Hold them carefully. It rained yesterday and the ground is damp—if they get soaked and the writing blurs, don't come looking for me. Hey, let me see... What's your surname? Yes, yes, got it."
Early in the morning, the military camp was already in an uproar.
The restless atmosphere was visible to the naked eye.
Liang Qu, who had been working to digest the medicinal effects that clashed within him, opened his eyes. Hearing the clamor outside, he lifted the tent flap and followed the sound out.
"General!"
At the fence, the soldiers saluted.
The troops were organized by establishment, and the camp was arranged accordingly. Normally, five men shared a small tent; those five men formed the same squad. Several small tents made up an octagonal medium tent, housing around a hundred men. Their eating, drinking, relieving themselves—all had communal areas, making deployment and sanitation easier.
Fences stood between the medium tents to keep soldiers from wandering about. The large tent was Xu Haitao's core area, the place surrounded and guarded by all the medium tents, where orders were issued.
Half of the Perfected Elephant grandmasters lived there, encircling the core, generally several people to each medium tent.
Liang Qu was rather special.
He occupied an entire octagonal medium-tent area by himself.
Xu Haitao had directly set up an enormous camp tent for him, complete with an Ice Platform, desks, rosewood folding screens, and everything else.
The bedding was brand-new and free of mildew; he could move in with nothing but a bag. There were even separate small tents for