"Did you not even have time to bring your wife and children out?" The spring afternoon sun shone brightly. Behind a table in a sheltered spot outside the tents, Liu Cheng was filling in forms, and his astonishment prompted a string of questions. "You had troops of your own. How did you still lose your families? Were there many who lost theirs? Where are they now? Do you need us to fetch them?"
"Secretary Liu." A so-called Banner Chief sitting across the table addressed the youth with a thoroughly incorrect and discourteous title, though he certainly believed he was being very polite to this young man from the staff of the General Who Attacks the West. "You're a Northern Migrant too, but you arrived a year or two before us. You have no idea how chaotic the north has become in that time."
"How chaotic has it become?" Liu Cheng asked earnestly, ready to take notes.
The officers sitting haphazardly around him had grown accustomed to his habit of wasting paper and ink on everything, and paid it little mind. Instead, his question stumped them.
After a long while, someone beside him suddenly thought of a splendid answer. "So chaotic it's worse than when Shi Hu was alive!"
Liu Cheng clicked his tongue. The others slapped the table in admiration, and someone shouted that they ought to drink to that.
"There's no hurry to drink." Liu Acheng waved a hand to remind them. "We agreed beforehand: daylight hours are for work, and no drinking is allowed. Once the soldiers have eaten, I'll naturally invite you all down to the Yu River for drinks again."
Seeing that they had failed to sway him, the men could only burst out laughing, while Liu Cheng continued questioning the man before him. "So you