(˙˙) What Are You Doing? (2)
August 10, sunny, with crisp autumn skies.
The number of martial artists outside Hangzhou Prefecture had grown ever larger, forcing the local authorities to declare a citywide lockdown. Armed martial artists were no longer allowed to enter the inner city.
Even the city walls, which had gone nearly a century without repairs and usually had only the occasional patrol, were now lined with soldiers from the Ming military households.
There were more than ten times as many as usual!
Every one of them was fully armed, tense, and on high alert, as if they feared the martial artists outside the city—whose numbers were nearing twenty thousand—might suddenly attack and storm Hangzhou. The entire city was steeped in a murderous, hair-trigger tension, affecting even the common people's daily lives.
It was no wonder the officials at the Hangzhou Prefecture government office were so nervous and wary. With so many martial artists, all armed with sharp weapons and trained in the martial arts, if they really wanted to attack Hangzhou, the few thousand soldiers on the walls wouldn't be able to hold them back!
From atop the walls, the martial artists and sects could be seen gathering in groups of three or five, or in larger bands of dozens or even hundreds. They had taken over farms, inns, ruined temples, and teahouses all around the outer city. Banners fluttered everywhere, displaying the insignias of all kinds of sects. What official wouldn't be terrified by such a sight?
And with only five days left until the martial arts gathering by West Lake, called by Zuo Lengchan of the Songshan Sect, even more martial artists were on their way to Hangzhou Prefecture. There was no doubt their numbers would eventually exceed twenty thousand!
But none of that mattered—not