In late January, with Liu Cheng pushing, coaxing, and forcing him, and Han Bo tugging, pulling, and pleading with him, Zheng Xi finally left Tuqiu Settlement, supporting his patron's coffin.
Setting out with them were the three thousand men led by Xiao Zhong and the first contingent of a thousand sick and wounded.
To put it rather unkindly, once these allied troops left, those at the southern foot of Mount Tai felt as though the dark clouds had instantly scattered, revealing a glimpse of blue sky!
Even the unbroken spring rain counted as blue sky!
Of course, this was only the beginning. Even if this first leg went smoothly from start to finish, it would take five or six days to reach the Si River, then another seven or eight days to travel downstream to Pengcheng and bring the boats back... They would need another three or four round trips like this.
In other words, even under the most perfect conditions, it would take a month to get everything settled. But with the situation as it stood, how could conditions possibly be perfect?
They could only wait.
For now, let us leave aside Liu Cheng, locked in a mountain hollow by Xun Xian's "Words of the Dead," soaking in the spring rain.
On the other side, the court's envoy, Attendant Gentleman of the Central Secretariat Han Bo, had taken up his assignment and set out at short notice, only to endure all this trouble before finally starting home. Now he carried both the joint memorial from Xie Wan and the other generals of the Western Command and Northern Command, and Xun Xian's dying instructions and Staff of Authority. He also had to report on his own mission, so he dared not show the slightest negligence.
For the first few days,