After returning to the mountaintop camp at Qingqing Gorge, Iron Anvil secretly gathered the other members of the Golden Crow Guard who were also stationed there during mealtime—in other words, the commanders at every level of the army he currently led. They held a meeting, explained Xue Qingyao's plan to win people over, and outlined the main policies of the "Three Things Not to Kill" and the "Three Great Rewards."
They then discussed the specific methods of spreading the message. Only after everything had been arranged did they disperse and leave, beginning to carry out the mission Yang Feng had given them.
After dinner, night fell. Because the entire camp had imposed a lights-out order, everywhere was pitch-black except for the few places where patrolling soldiers carried torches.
Many sheds had been thrown together inside the camp with bamboo and straw mats. These were where the soldiers slept and rested, yet the soldiers lying inside them had no sleepiness at all. With a battle to the death imminent, those who had never experienced war before could hardly sleep. Thus, sighs and groans frequently drifted out from the sheds.
Under normal circumstances, the commanders patrolling the camp at night would have shouted something like, "Quiet! Go to sleep!" But tonight was strangely different. Some sheds were filled with nonstop chattering, yet no one came to stop them. In fact, some of the topics seemed to have been deliberately stirred up.
What everyone was discussing was the matter of dinner. Their food had been reduced compared to usual.
Suddenly, a stomach growled from inside a pitch-black shed. Someone was ravenously hungry, and that was the sound it made.
"Child, you didn't get enough to eat tonight, did you? I still have a handful of roasted beans here. Eat them to fill your