Prelude to War

Overcast, light rain.

Under Great Yan's imperial procession rites, a Son of Heaven's formal journey was an exceedingly troublesome affair.

Even without counting the Imperial Guards assigned as escorts, the advance escort, guiding escort, court musicians, and the various banners and formations meant to display imperial majesty alone numbered over ten thousand.

Once the procession set out, it would often stretch for several miles.

Beyond that, all departments of the court, both within and beyond the palace, as well as the Great Yan Imperial Guards, had to coordinate their efforts before the proposal was finally submitted to the Director of the Imperial Clan, who oversaw the royal house, for review.

The entire process took at least more than ten days.

But that was the treatment afforded to an ordinary emperor.

As Great Yan's "restorer," once the Prime Minister Faction was excluded, Li Yaoxuan's control over the court even surpassed that of Great Yan's founding ancestor. With such overwhelming authority, there was naturally no need for him to abide by such rites.

Autumn, the forty-seventh year of Jiajing.

At Emperor Li Yaoxuan's command, after merely assembling an honor guard of fewer than five hundred men, the Emperor of Great Yan departed north on a hunting expedition under the escort of the Second Prince.

Imperial Dragon Forest lay a hundred li northwest of Di'an City.

This unbroken expanse of maple-covered mountains had been requisitioned as the Great Yan imperial household's exclusive hunting grounds ever since the dynasty's founding.

Aside from over a thousand forest wardens who maintained it year-round, a contingent of golden-armored Imperial Guards was permanently stationed there to drive off those poachers who valued money over their lives.

The morning dawn had yet to fade, and the sky was only beginning to brighten.

The maple forest, dyed crimson by late