The cicadas shrilled noisily!
Summer had arrived. Even this desolate frontier town in the northern kingdom was filled with greenery.
Beneath a thick willow tree, He Pingsheng was watching several neighbors play chess when he suddenly heard the clatter of hooves.
A commotion rose, and everyone looked up toward the other end of the street. Company Commander Yan rode a horse, followed by a hundred soldiers, all bearing weapons, heading toward the army camp to assemble.
"Company Commander Yan, why are you assembling the troops in this heat?"
"Is there an enemy threat?"
"Are the Ghostlands Tartars coming to attack?"
"It isn't even autumn yet. What would they attack us for now?"
The Ghostlands were a nomadic people north of the Great Song Kingdom, a powerful tribe that raised sheep and cattle and moved wherever water and grass were plentiful. At this time of year, rain was abundant and vegetation lush-the perfect season for the people of the grasslands to graze their livestock. They generally would not wage war at such a time.
Whenever the Ghostlands launched a war, it was in autumn, because that was when the Song Kingdom harvested its grain. Invading then allowed them to plunder its borderlands.
Put plainly, it was all for grain.
But it was summer now. What were the Ghostlands coming for?
Everyone was bewildered and frightened.
Company Commander Yan wiped the sweat from his forehead. "No... it's His Majesty's palace. Some of the consorts in the imperial harem have rebelled!"
The imperial palace? A rebellion?
"Move... hurry!"
Company Commander Yan led the troops past in a clattering rush.
He Pingsheng looked astonished. Good grief. In thousands of years, I've never heard of imperial consorts rebelling.
How would consorts even rebel?
*A rebellion by consorts actually required mobilizing the frontier troops? What was