Wangwu Mountain.
White snow blanketed everything. The mountain paths had always been steep, and now they were even harder to travel.
In weather like this, never mind horsemen-even armored soldiers could not enter the mountains.
Wang Yuan wore a thick winter coat that bundled him up almost like a bear. He trudged through the snow with great difficulty, each step plunging straight into drifts that nearly reached his knees. Yet he was not annoyed in the slightest. Instead, he laughed.
"Even if the rebels had a million troops, they couldn't climb Wangwu Mountain in weather like this!"
A dozen or so men followed behind him, all thickly dressed and fully armed.
Beside him walked a strangely dressed man. His felt hat was not of Han style, an animal's tail was tied at his waist, and his lower garments were mainly fur. He was dressed like one of the Hu People, yet his appearance was no different from a Han man's.
He said, "The snow has been getting heavier these past few years. I've never seen snow as heavy as this year's before... When heavy snow blankets the mountains, neither people nor livestock can travel easily."
He spoke in a Hexi dialect.
Wang Yuan, however, said quite earnestly, "That's all because the mandate of heaven is with us!"
"Grand Tutor Guo is leading us against the rebels under His Majesty's edict, so heaven is protecting him."
At the mention of that name, the people following Wang Yuan wore different expressions. Those who had followed him from the beginning had some helplessness in their eyes, while the others' eyes were full of longing.
The strangely dressed man fell silent for a long while at those words and did not argue.
Wang Yuan led them to a camp.
The men outside hurriedly saluted