Zhang Xing looked back at White Wolf Pass, still within sight. There, Great Wei's banners still snapped in the bitter winter wind. Then he looked at the armored bandits who had suddenly appeared in the middle of the road, the trees blocking the road behind them, and the steel crossbows plainly visible behind those trees, and could not help breathing out a puff of white mist.
His Highness the honored Prince of Qi looked rather bewildered. Besides, the little flash of edge he had so smugly revealed that day had only been directed at Zhang Xing; perhaps he normally put on an utterly blank expression.
Qin Bao, however, looked toward Zhang Xing with some difficulty.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Xing merely looked back at him. "They weren't here when you came?"
"No." Qin Bao told it as it was, though his expression was awkward. "When I came, the announcement had been made, but His Majesty hadn't left Taiyuan yet. Everyone thought there would be further word..."
Zhang Xing nodded. Qin Bao had actually told him this when they met.
The imperial party had left Yunnei almost as though fleeing. Never mind the Wind-Observing Traveling Palace, which had long since burned; they had not even bothered with carriages. They had simply set off early and stopped late, hurrying all the way to Taiyuan.
Then, the moment they arrived, a new reward scheme had been announced: fifteen hundred merit ranks and two hundred distinctions for exceptional service. This immediately provoked discontent among the accompanying soldiers of the Upper Five Armies. Some officers even invoked Wei Chi's death, declaring that traitorous ministers had appeared at court and demanding the death of Chief Chancellor Su Wei.
Although this was immediately suppressed, the court promptly changed its announcement as well: three thousand merit ranks and two hundred