After the most sweltering days had passed, the trees had visibly grown lush again. Outside Lihu, several dozen riders came galloping up, heading straight for the south of the city. After a brief exchange with the sentries, they turned their horses around without even entering the city and rode around it toward the north.
Arriving north of the city, the riders could see from afar a great stretch of interconnected camps and stockades laid out along the main road. Between the encampment and Lihu, on one side of the road, stood a simple open-sided shelter with a square in front of it bordering the road. A great many people had already gathered all around, though several loosely arrayed squads of armed warriors in light armor kept the groups apart.
Outside the lightly armored warriors, on the road and across from the square, the crowd was a varied one: commoners, merchants, hangers-on, soldiers, scholars, wealthy men, and, of course, many who were clearly bold fellows of the martial world, even a few wandering Daoists... Their clothing was even more varied. The martial adventurers alone could muster dozens of styles.
As for the people in the square before the shelter, their clothing was less varied, even somewhat uniform.
Most wore close-fitting cloth or brocade outfits cinched at the waist and sleeves. A few still had leather or iron armor on, whether because they had forgotten to take it off in the heat or were wearing it deliberately. Most wore various headcloths and headwraps, but a considerable number wore warrior caps, and a scattered few wore the ridged scholars' crowns rarely seen in the Eastern Territories.
Almost everyone, however, wore identical, brand-new six-seam boots... These were common leather boots pieced together from seven scraps of hide, named for their six seams. They were