The two of them seemed to have planned it beforehand. They put on a coordinated act among the militiamen—one asked the questions while the other hurried out to answer them. The man continued,
"At the beginning of the year, the Great Leader really did order every tribe and village to prepare arrows and cut arrow bamboo. At first, I thought this time would be the same as usual, with everything being sold to the steppe people. But later, I realized something was wrong, because the number of arrows the Great Leader wanted was simply far too great.
Later, when I escorted that batch of arrows to Clear Spring Valley for delivery, I saw the arrows sent from other places as well. The quantities produced were unprecedented—there were practically mountains of them.
There were also bamboo-strip Lamellar Armor, wicker shields, wooden shields, Bamboo Javelins, bamboo ladders, and all kinds of Bronze Spears and copper arrowheads. It was dazzling. At a glance, it clearly didn't look like something meant to be sold to the steppe people as usual. Rather, it looked like preparations for war."
"That's right. And it wasn't just that. I don't know if you noticed, but when those weapons were sold to the steppe people, the Great Leader's side also had several Elders' clans call up a large number of able-bodied men. They wore those bamboo armors and carried those weapons while escorting the military supplies to the steppe across the strait.
"You all know that my father is the Tribe Elder of our village, and I'm the eldest in my family. Normally, whether it was delivering grain or dealing with the Han Tribe, I was usually the one who went. That time, too, I personally led people to deliver the weapons to Clear Spring Valley.
"At the time,