Just as the people of the Capital were whispering among themselves, another sound, drowned out by the thunder, finally arrived.
Hooves clattered, pounding down the long street in urgent beats.
Looking closely, they saw a fine horse galloping in through the city gate-one horse, and one alone.
Having seen such sights often, everyone knew that someone had urgent news to bring into the city and paid little attention. After all, these were the affairs of the mighty and rarely had anything to do with ordinary Capital folk like them.
Of course, a few people noticed something amiss.
The horse entering the city showed no sign of slowing. Even as it ran foaming at the mouth, its rider, his face covered in dust and alarm, showed it no mercy and kept lashing it desperately with his whip.
"Something's strange..."
Some pedestrians had seen plenty of riders bringing urgent dispatches into the city, but rarely one in such haste. Above all, one glance somehow told them that this was different from usual.
Then an old man of the Capital said in a trembling voice, "It's... it's a white cloth! He's... he's wearing a white cloth!"
The pedestrians discussing it along the roadside fell silent in an instant.
A white cloth...
The younger generation certainly had no memory of it.
But those from decades before, the generation who had lived through the days when Northern Qi was still Northern Wei, who had witnessed Qing muster the strength of the entire nation for three northern campaigns, understood its meaning all too clearly!
"Something terrible has happened!"
Someone spoke in a trembling voice, but dared say only, "Something terrible has happened." As for what terrible thing it was, they dared not say it, or even guess!
With a white cloth tied around his arm, the