Another winter had come, and even with the new year close at hand, no snow had fallen in Jianghan. The weather was so comfortable it made people drowsy.
In the blink of an eye, Liu Cheng had already been in office for several months.
Over those months, his duties had made him quite familiar with everyone in the Western Expeditionary General's Office, from top to bottom. He had also gone on three assignments, learning a good deal more about Jingzhou's local affairs and its army. Now, only a few days after returning to Jiangling from Wuchang, he had received another assignment and hurried off to Shicheng, a key stronghold on the lower Han River.
The Han River was the central waterway of northern Jingzhou and naturally commanded Jiangling's throat. Gan Zhuo, the General Who Guards the South whom Liu Mi—a fellow member of the Sixty-three Friends of Shangsi alongside Liu Cheng—had followed back then, had become a grave threat to Wang Dun by virtue of his command over the territory north of the Mian, or Han, River. The court had always regarded him as its strongest reserve measure for keeping Wang Dun in check... Of course, with Duke Huan now governing Jingzhou, he would never allow such a thing to happen. In fact, the man currently commanding the entire Han River basin in northern Jingzhou was Huan Huo, Huan Wen's third younger brother.
Shicheng, however, lay farther downstream than Xiangyang and could practically be considered Jiangling's gateway. A separate commandery had been carved out here, called Jingling Commandery, stretching from Shicheng downstream of Xiangyang all the way to Yangkou, where Jiangling had direct access to the Han River.
And Deng Xia, the Administrator of Jingling currently stationed in Shicheng, actually took his orders directly from Jiangling.
The assignment Liu Cheng