The army spent a full month assembling in Bing Province.
During that month, Qin Zhongwu reorganized the seventy thousand infantry transferred from the southern provinces into seven complete corps, standardized their tents, marching formations, and drum signals, and put them through basic drills.
The old man had been tanned dark on the drill grounds in Bing Province and had grown considerably leaner than when he first arrived. Yet his eyes held a light that only an old general taking command of a great army again could possess, polished all the brighter by the passage of years.
Meanwhile, Helan Tie led more than twenty thousand cavalry from a dozen small countries in the Western Regions, galloping tirelessly day and night across the grasslands outside Bingzhou City. At first, those horsemen had each gone their own way, but under Helan Tie's ruthless methods-and after he executed several centurions who disobeyed orders-they finally began to function as a single force.
Zhao Feng had not been idle either. Apart from his own cultivation, he spent his time studying the grassland maps Shao Kai had sent him. Although the grasslands were boundless and he could not possibly remember every feature of the terrain, a general understanding was still necessary.
On the day the entire army marched out, a northwesterly wind swept over Bingzhou City, dry and biting, carrying gust after gust of murderous chill.
The Hundred-Thousand Army streamed through Bingzhou's north gate, infantry and cavalry interspersed, banners blotting out the sun, carts and horses rumbling like an enormous black dragon whose head and tail were lost from sight, winding toward the northern horizon. Heavy armor gleamed a dull iron gray beneath the sunlight, and every step sent a faint tremor through the earth. Bringing up the rear was the Supply Train stretching for miles, loaded