The Flying Cloud carried over three thousand armored soldiers, sailing slowly toward the docks under the protection of numerous ships.
Farther off, the Covering the Sea and the Defeat the Rebels followed behind.
The armored soldiers aboard gazed into the distance, their expressions calm.
The Veteran Soldiers who had worked their way into military posts looked into the distance and could not help laughing.
"Haven't been here in years. This place doesn't look any different!"
These were all Guanqiu Jian's elite troops from Huaiyang.
The core of Guanqiu Jian’s elite force consisted of Veteran Soldiers who had followed him into battle against Goguryeo.
These men now held lower- and middle-ranking military posts. Even "veterans of a hundred battles" could not describe them; no one knew how many engagements, great and small, they had fought. They were the elite of the elite, the sort who could drive back their own Central Army in a head-on battle.
One should not let their designation cause confusion and assume they were all southern soldiers. In fact, they were all northerners, most of them from Hebei.
Sima Shi had once said that the families of Guanqiu Jian's elite troops were all in Hebei. They only needed to wear them down; worried for their families' safety, they would collapse without an attack.
Why had such a situation come about?
This was, of course, the imperial court's policy of checks and balances, just as the eldest legitimate sons or families of these outer generals usually had to remain in Luoyang.
Most of the officers and soldiers stationed in the north had been sent there from the Central Plains, where their families remained, while the families of the troops stationed in the south were mostly in Hebei.
This was an effective way to prevent rebellion. Even if their