Noise filled Yunnei City without cease: the pounding of horses' hooves, the clash of blades and armor, the rumble of collapsing buildings, scolding, shouting, and weeping rose and fell, mingling with the whistle of arrows, the thuds of impacts, and the cries of battle outside the city to form an indescribable background din.
Against that noise, some people were terrified, some were heartened, some were lost, some were thinking, and others were sleeping or eating.
The sleepers were Crouching Dragon Guards who had stood watch at night. They were now snoring away in a side room of the governor's residence, though their normally grating snores had long since been drowned out by the clamor outside. Under these circumstances, Zhang Xing was squatting beneath the corridor outside the communal sleeping quarters, eating with Qin Bao, Wang Zhen, Little Zhou, and seven or eight other Crouching Dragon Guards, along with a dozen or so Jinwu Guards.
A bowl of millet porridge seasoned with soy sauce, two toasted flatbreads, and a strip of dried meat. The millet had been cooked until soft, the flatbreads were crisp, and the dried meat glistened with grease. Deputy Regular Inspector Zhang ate with relish.
Of course, not everyone had dried meat... all the Crouching Dragon Guards did, but among the Jinwu Guards, only their captain, Ding Quan, had any. The others had only millet porridge and flatbread.
But even that was not the poorest fare here. In a corner of the side room's courtyard, beside the well, a fairly high-ranking eunuch from the Northern Office was tending a stove with two palace maids and two young eunuchs. On the stove sat a chipped earthenware pot full of millet porridge... they had drawn the water themselves and pooled their millet. This was the entire day's food for the