Two li outside the Revolutionary Army's encampment, just as General Aude had said, he had pushed his army of two hundred thousand forward a full three li.
Now, only two li separated the two sides. Their soldiers could even make out the outlines of each other's camps. The scene was as strange as could be: the two hostile forces stood so close together, yet neither showed any intention of attacking. They simply stared each other down.
"General Aude!"
A scout clad in the Kingdom Army's light armor entered the command tent, his expression unusually strange.
"How did the search of those mountains go? Did you find any trace of the Revolutionary Army?"
The moment Aude saw him, he rose from the chair at the head of the tent and asked urgently.
The scout's expression grew even stranger. "Well..."
"What is it?"
Aude's face darkened slightly. He asked coldly, "Speak. What exactly did you find?"
"Reporting to the general, I led two thousand scouts to investigate more than ten li of the Mt. Colubo range, but..." He paused there, and after a long while, said with difficulty, "We found no trace whatsoever of the Revolutionary Army. Not even a footprint."
"Nothing?" General Aude's pupils contracted, and a sense of foreboding immediately rose within him. He stepped forward, seized the scout captain by the collar, and roared, "How could there be nothing? Did those hundred thousand troops turn to ashes?"
"General... why don't we launch an attack?" Another general in the command tent stood and said softly, "Even if they have an ambush, they only have one hundred and fifty thousand men. Our two hundred thousand troops have already assembled. There's no need to fear them anymore."
Aude frowned at those words. He knew that general was right, yet for some reason,