Just as Zhang Yu and his party entered the Steel Claw Tribe's main camp, a vast fleet of ships was sailing down the Dawn River outside Guangyao Town. For a time, sails stood like a forest across the river, stretching beyond sight.
The Southern Region of the Protectorate Office had always united farming and warfare. Upon receiving the joint military order signed by the Grand Commander, the Governance Office, and the Commandant, more than forty towns along the middle and lower reaches of the Dawn River were all mobilized.
In barely two days, the troops listed on the rolls had already reached more than thirty-eight thousand. The soldiers from every town came downstream by ship, gathering in an unbroken stream toward Guangyao Town.
The supplies for this campaign were wholly allocated by the Governance Office, transported along the artificial canals that the Protectorate Office had spent a century digging across the plains, as well as down the Dawn River. Before the troops had even arrived, food and military equipment were already piled into mountains.
Yang Ying had arrived at Guangyao Town ahead of them. When she left the city with one hundred personal guards, she had thought their number pitifully small. Yet as her guards carried military tallies from place to place, the forces around her swelled like a rolling snowball, growing so immense that even she became frightened.
She did not understand how to march with an army, nor did she know how to deploy troops in battle. Fortunately, she knew her own limits. Rather than getting carried away and issuing blind commands, she handed all organization and coordination over to the several camp administrators An Youting had arranged to serve at her side.
At this moment, a young camp administrator came up onto the city wall. He clasped