Yuzhou lay at the very center of All Under Heaven and had been a major grain-producing region since the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
The seventh month of the eighth year of Jian'an.
Yet desolation lay everywhere in Yuzhou. Beneath the scorching, blazing sun, streams had run dry, and fields lay barren, their clods hardened and cracked.
The once-fertile soil had deteriorated to this state. Seedlings had withered and yellowed, and even the wild grasses that no wildfire could burn away could no longer survive.
This was a natural disaster, but also a man-made calamity.
The mighty power of nature was vast and boundless; even the slightest change could cause an enormous catastrophe.
Official inaction would magnify that catastrophe without limit.
Jagged white bones lay in various poses along both sides of the road. After exposure to wind and rain, their already shabby clothing had long since become strips of rags.
Among the shrubs and tangled weeds, broken carriages and rusted weapons could still be seen, bearing faint traces of beautiful patterns and the marks of sword and saber blows.
Impoverished commoners and wealthy nobles of the great clans had died together. The scattered weapons showed that a fierce battle must have taken place, but no one knew who had ultimately won.
Perhaps in times like these, there were no victors. All anyone received in the end was the ultimate fairness: death for all.
Whatever glory and wealth you had enjoyed in life, at this moment, you still had to die with boundless regret.
On this weed-choked road, where no one had come for who knew how long, hoofbeats now sounded. At its far end appeared three hundred horsemen, each with three horses, leading over a thousand infantrymen and auxiliary troops.
These horsemen all wore the uniforms of the Court's