It rained today.
Raindrops the size of beans pounded into the mud, only to be trampled deep into it by military boots whose original color could no longer be seen...
A defeated army, its banners slanting and its men staggering, trudged onward through the weather, each step deep, then shallow.
It gradually drew near Huyang Pass.
This pass lay within Huiming Prefecture and had always been a famous formidable pass in the eastern Southern Regions.
Later, as Xia Kingdom's territory expanded, Huiming Prefecture was no longer a border prefecture, and Huyang Pass lost much of its significance, gradually falling into disuse.
But with the outbreak of the Qi-Xia war, it had once again been given serious attention.
The walls had been reinforced, war machines added, the grand formation strengthened, and troops repeatedly deployed...
Especially after the fighting in Linwu Prefecture became dire, the garrison here had swelled to thirty thousand, all of them elite troops from Huiming Prefecture's own army!
Huiming Prefecture as a whole was long and narrow in terrain, with Huyang Pass situated at its neck.
The one guarding this pass was Chu Shuo, a peak Outer Tower expert from Great Xia's renowned Touch Clan. It was said that he stood only a thread away from the Divine Presence Realm.
He was of the same generation as Chu Rang, the Touch Clan's patriarch. At forty-three this year, both his vigor and physique were at their peak, and he still had ample chance to make a bid for Divine Presence.
With elite soldiers and fierce generals under his command, along with natural hazards and city defenses, Huyang Pass might not be as immovable as a mountain, but it was still exceptionally hard to breach.
Such a defeated army approaching through the rain had long since been noticed by the