On the twenty-third of the ninth month, in White Horse City, Eastern Commandery, two days had passed since a brief rain. The air was warm, neither too damp nor too dry.
Just after noon, Commandant Dou Bing received an invitation from Li Tingwen, the Black Sash stationed in the commandery. The chrysanthemums in his rear courtyard were in full bloom and just right for viewing, he said, so he had arranged an impromptu banquet and invited Commandant Dou to admire the flowers and drink with him.
Dou Bing had not wanted to go. As the commandery's second-ranking military official, he had clearly sensed unrest among the soldiers in the city these past few days. From the all-important White Horse Ford to the city defenses, the atmosphere had grown tense.
As a son of a great Guanlong clan, Dou Bing naturally knew why... early in the month, hundreds of thousands of rebels had taken Dengzhou, then rampaged unchecked, capturing cities and seizing territory. As the news traveled along the great river and the Ji River, it inevitably shook Eastern Commandery, which had likewise once belonged to Eastern Qi.
But what could one say?
Life had been growing harder by the day, and that had not begun just recently. Compared with the impact and upheaval of the million-man march for the Third Dongyi Campaign in spring, and the Sage's sudden southern tour in summer, this news was something most people had long expected.
Perhaps for precisely that reason, after some hesitation, Dou Bing accepted his wife's advice. He postponed his inspection of White Horse Ford and went to the Li residence instead. After all, his wife was right: Eastern Commandery's location all but guaranteed that it would take its orders from the Eastern Capital. With Imperial Uncle Cao exercising sole authority there,