Summer's war with the Turkic Khaganate had dragged on into autumn before anyone realized it.
The temperature dropped, and the wind turned biting.
Early in the morning, the crimson sun rose over the distant horizon, spilling its light across the grasslands. Frost and dew glistened like crystal upon the tips of the withered yellow grass.
The horses snorted, mist billowing from their nostrils as they restlessly pawed at the ground. The riders controlling them had spears slung before them and bows in hand, watching from afar as the Turkic Khaganate troops hurriedly gathered in confusion not far below the hill.
Li Jing stood at the front of the formation. He glanced at the rising sun and narrowed his eyes. "Split into three routes. Encircle them from both flanks."
As his words fell, the flag-bearing messenger beside him raised a banner and waved it back and forth.
Immediately afterward, several hundred cavalrymen split off from each side, shouting as they spurred their horses apart and charged diagonally down the slope.
Li Jing squeezed his legs against his horse's flanks. His mount snorted and began trotting down the hill. With the momentum of the descent, it grew faster and faster.
Once he joined the several hundred riders following behind him, their charge took on the force of a mountain collapsing and a sea surging.
For a time, the thunderous tremors of hooves pounding the earth echoed through the sky.
This small Turkic Khaganate force had no stomach for battle. The moment they spotted the enemy, they had already scrambled to gather their men and retreat.
In merely a few months, they had once again been beaten until all will to fight had vanished.
Because this had been a large-scale war from the outset, the conflict escalated swiftly. Less than a month after