At the sound of movement by the door, Yang Qing had already risen from the bed.
"How are things over there?"
Jiang Zhizhou had barely stepped into Yang Qing's bedroom when he heard the question.
After checking once more that he had shaken off all the snow, Jiang Zhizhou slowly walked up to Yang Qing and shook his head.
"The situation is very bad."
Yang Qing was startled again. "How bad?" he pressed.
Jiang Zhizhou pulled over a chair from nearby and sat down before continuing, "Just as you expected, after we left Yan Pass, Suotu left Yan Prefecture as well."
"Besides, the court has just signed a treaty under siege with Northern Liang and adopted a policy of rest and recuperation. The soldiers have grown more homesick by the day."
"With the New Year approaching, sixty percent of the troops guarding Yan Pass went to Tunzhuang to celebrate."
Tunzhuang lay ten li from Yan Pass, and its residents were all family members of the soldiers stationed there.
"Even the soldiers who stayed behind have done little these past few days beyond their routine patrols. Once off duty, they gather in groups to drink and make merry..."
Jiang Zhizhou knew that the soldiers at Yan Pass had simply been wound too tightly through all those years of confronting Northern Liang. Given a chance, they had seized it to relax.
But for them to relax to such an extent could only mean that their commander had no awareness that disaster could strike in an instant.
"Absurd! Utterly absurd!" Listening to Jiang Zhizhou, Yang Qing did not need to imagine what Yan Pass must have looked like these past few days.
"Go on. Keep talking," Yang Qing said with a wave.
"Yes, utterly absurd!" Jiang Zhizhou agreed.
"They thought that once Duan