In the third month of the fourteenth year of Daye, on the Bingchen day, after the Jiangdu mutiny, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui was killed by Yuwen Huaji's rebel army. Since Kou Zhong, the commander of the Twin Dragons Army, had appointed himself Grand Overseer of Jiangnan Circuit and had never proclaimed himself king or emperor, the Twin Dragons Army simply continued using Yang Guang's reign title to date its records and documents, right up to the present day.
Spring, the seventeenth year of Daye.
After seeing with his own eyes the crater formed when a meteorite fell from the sky at Mengjin Ferry, north of Luoyang, wiping out an army of more than two hundred thousand Turks—and the meteorite lake that had formed there—the leader of the Huai River Army, "Universe in the Sleeve" Du Fuwei, who had met the newly risen Twin Dragons three years earlier and had nearly been slapped to death by a certain troublesome little girl, felt that it was Heaven's will. As soon as he returned, he announced that the Huai River Army would submit to Kou Zhong, the Grand Overseer of Jiangnan Circuit.
No one knew what Du Fuwei was thinking.
Perhaps it was just as he claimed to the public: Kou Zhong had obtained the Heirloom Seal of the Realm and the Yang Gong Treasure Vault, received Heaven's favor, and brought down a meteorite to destroy the Turk army. Maybe he truly was the one destined by Heaven?
Perhaps he was genuinely afraid?
After all, the Li family and Cihang Jingzhai had repeatedly made things difficult for Kou Zhong. This time, they had even gone so far as to bring in the Turks, despite the outrage it would cause across the land. But the whole affair had fizzled out, and even