The Pursuing Army

The main tent was already in chaos. Reports from the front came in like snowflakes, some good, some bad, and all contradicting one another. No one could even say exactly where Luoluo's army had reached. The generals argued and shouted over one another. Shulitu remained relatively calm, but he had no idea whose advice to follow.

Prince Dudun arrived with his companions and stood near Shulitu, watching coldly.

As soon as Gu Shenwei and Fang Wenshi entered, the generals crowded around them. Just as Little Yanzhi had predicted, when crisis struck, the Dragon King was far more welcome than a prince who had never fought a battle.

Shulitu breathed a sigh of relief and almost impatiently announced that he was handing command of the army to the king's forces.

Gu Shenwei took charge of the Northern Court army as a matter of course. No one objected. Dudun seemed genuinely to consider himself a guest and said nothing.

The first thing Gu Shenwei did was stop everyone from offering random advice. He ordered every soldier who had brought news to report again, sorting the information by time and place and weeding out useless old reports and obvious exaggerations.

Two quarters of an hour later, they finally pieced together the general situation.

When Luoluo first led his army into the Dragon Court, Shulitu's army of over a hundred thousand had stood ready for battle. The two sides had faced off without any large-scale fighting. As winter approached, Luoluo withdrew, and Shulitu divided his forces and headed south. Everyone had thought the war would not begin until the spring or summer of the following year at the earliest.

Luoluo had unexpectedly doubled back. After resting along the way, he had marched south, crushing the Central Plains garrison in the eastern Western Regions with