Liu Cheng, Chief Secretary of the Western Expeditionary General's Office, set out after all. He set out immediately.
Huan Wen assigned him a full thirty Black-Clad Guards and a brand-new scarlet banner bearing the character "Huan," recently added to the Western Expeditionary General's Office's supplies-in other words, a "Red Banner" representing Huan Wen himself... This was a typical manifestation of a powerful senior aide's authority within the army. Senior aides could not have banners of their own, since they did not command troops directly; that would disrupt military arrangements.
But when circumstances required these senior aides to supervise battles, transmit critically important orders, coordinate specific groups, or enforce military discipline, they could hardly be expected to rely on their faces alone. At such times, the Central Army issued a Red Banner, sometimes accompanied by musicians, using formal military insignia to inform everyone that its bearer represented the commander's own intentions.
Liu Acheng had no interest in putting on a show. He packed away the Red Banner and took his thirty Black-Clad Guards along the Canal, entering the Han River through Yangkou as before, then traveling downstream. Two days later, he reached Yunkou in Jiangxia Commandery. There, following his papers, he obtained an entire, though understrength, company of elite light cavalry from Zhu Tao, the newly appointed Chancellor of Jiangxia-130 horsemen in actual numbers. With some hastily assigned laborers, inferior horses, and the like, he scraped together roughly two hundred mounted men to protect him and display his status.
Honestly, it was respectable enough.
But Liu Acheng remained unhappy, because he really did not want to go to Shouchun.
Staying in Jiangling might have been called idling, but any little project—even willow-shooting, a repetitive exercise that no longer offered any challenge—would let him build ties with military officers, local officials, and