The border commanders of several small kingdoms even came in person with lavish gifts to offer their regards:
"Marshal Yun, thank you for making such a long journey."
"Please accept these local specialties for your soldiers."
"If you need anything, just say the word."
"Marshal Yun, are your accommodations comfortable? Why not come into the city?"
Yun Xu declined them one by one with a stern expression. "I appreciate your kindness, but the soldiers of the Heavenly Strategy Dynasty have military regulations of their own. We cannot accept gifts from outsiders."
He knew perfectly well that without His Majesty's decree authorizing them to accept gifts, no one would dare take that liberty.
Besides, these fence-sitters might fawn over them today only to turn their weapons against them tomorrow.
The Heavenly Strategy Dynasty's army had crossed the border by barely a thousand meters, yet it had already sent tremors through dozens of southern kingdoms.
In some kingdoms, riots had broken out before the Heavenly Strategy Dynasty's troops even arrived.
The Huijia Kingdom was one of the kingdoms where the upheaval had been particularly severe.
The Huijia Kingdom ranked somewhere in the middle among the Southern Kingdoms and maintained a neutral stance.
Faced with this covert struggle between the Heavenly Strategy Dynasty and the Eternal Day Empire, the Huijia Kingdom, like most kingdoms, avoided offending either side.
Moreover, with merchants from the Heavenly Strategy Dynasty becoming increasingly active lately, the Huijia Kingdom's foreign trade had been developing quite well.
A few days earlier, in the Huijia Kingdom's Royal Capital, King Roka had gone on a procession with his consort, like a lion surveying his territory.
For Roka, this was a routine occurrence. Whenever his subjects saw him, they fell to their knees.
But that day, several people actually refused to kneel, standing