Xiang An sat up from the bedframe and opened his eyes.
He sighed, then froze involuntarily.
Why had he sighed?
Shaking his head, he rolled out of bed, donned his armor, and stepped out of the tent to look east. Yet dawn had not come.
Xiang An's eyes were the only things shining in the darkness before daybreak.
Now that King Huai, Xiong Xin, had established his capital in Xutai and the meeting at Xue County had ended in haste, the next question was how to resist Zhang Han after Wei's fall.
In the night raid on Linji, the King of Qi had been killed and the King of Wei had taken his own life. Of the more than ten thousand Chu troops sent to aid Wei, only three thousand had escaped. Zhang Han proclaimed Qin's strength and invincibility to the Central Plains in a display of might, leaving the feudal lords everywhere deeply unsettled.
Xiang An could not help narrowing his eyes.
How tragic. A general like that served such an emperor.
As he pondered, Xiang An seemed to hear the sound of weapons slicing through the air.
Following the sound through the wind, he discovered that Zi Juan was doing her morning drills.
Her long spear whistled through the air, kicking up several taels' worth of sand and dust.
Zi Juan's younger brother, Zi Huai, stood some distance away, silently watching his sister wield her spear in broad, sweeping motions, his hands rubbing together uneasily.
None of the commanders had yet left Xue County, so Zi Huai was still by Zi Juan's side. But Xiang An had heard from Zi Juan that Zi Huai still seemed to want to follow Liu Ji.
"Pretty impressive spearwork from your sister, isn't it?" Xiang An asked with a smile as he