Liu Bang's resentment

Linji, south of Henei Commandery.

Linji was a dynasty-tier city with walls hundreds of zhang high and a population of over a hundred million.

At that moment, troops raced through the prosperous city, and smoke curled into the sky as countless remnants of the defending army fought on throughout its streets. The towering walls were pitted and scarred, and countless gold-trimmed banners embroidered with the character "Liu" lined their battlements.

Dressed in purple robes with a sword at his waist, Liu Bang stood atop Linji's walls. Ignoring the ravaged city and the fighting still raging within it, he gazed south in prolonged silence, surrounded by several thousand White Dragon Sword Guards, elite special troops clad in silver armor and white capes.

"Congratulations, my lord! Congratulations! With Linji taken, it forms a triangle with Chaoge and Puyang. With three royal cities under your command, your foundation is secure, and supremacy is within reach!"

Cao Can, wearing a tall scholar's cap and Confucian robes, approached Liu Bang alongside the exquisitely handsome and astute Zhang Liang and the other strategists, escorted by elite soldiers. Excited and deferential, Cao Can offered his congratulations again and again.

In the months since his uprising, Liu Bang had seized Henei Commandery, crossed the river to invade the south, and taken the royal city of Puyang, followed by such renowned cities as Yongqiu, Duguan, Zhencheng, Chengyang, Yancheng, and Jiyin. Now he had taken Linji, arranging his three royal cities in a mutually supporting triangle modeled on the Three Powers, ideal for both attack and defense. Although his territory was only about as large as Hengshan Commandery, its population, economy, political importance, and other factors surpassed Hengshan's by dozens or even a hundred times. His rise already had the grandeur of a hidden dragon ascending from the abyss. This