Hedong.
Here, the Yellow River, flowing from west to east, took a bend, and countless chapters of history had been created as a result.
Hedong naturally took its name from its location east of the Yellow River.
This had been the heartland of Jin State during the Spring and Autumn period. Bingzhou had been weak under both Han dynasties precisely because it had lost the crucial lands of Hedong.
The lands of the Three Jin States offered unrivaled geography for both attack and defense. United, they were invincible beneath heaven, an ultimate, perfected version of Guanzhong, capable of repelling Qin and defeating Chu State with ease. Divided, they were lambs for the slaughter: either fertile soil without mountains and rivers, or mountains and rivers without farmland and population. In the end, they could only be defeated by Guanzhong.
After several centuries, a great state bearing the name of Yan would reunite the Three Jin States, and even unite the Six Directions and Eight Desolations.
Murong Ke directed this war-the Grand Marshal of Yan State's Western Expedition!
The army under his command this time was by no means small. He had a full thirty thousand elite troops alone, including five thousand Black-Armored Cavalry composed of both Hu and Han.
The Black Armor Army had an authorized strength of ten thousand, essentially Yan State's finest troops. More than three thousand were the unsophisticated Hu people captured from remote mountains and ancient forests, supplemented by clansmen within Yan State who had grown up fighting since childhood. These ten thousand alone could beat back several tens of thousands of Han State troops. Their strength was truly unparalleled.
The other five thousand were stationed in Jizhou, watching Han State's movements.
Murong Ke had brought these five thousand to keep the great army under control. He