Once the tenth month began, it was winter in earnest. Still, late-autumn rains often brought an early chill, while southerly winds in early winter could often bring a spell of springlike warmth.
That was how things had been north of the Great River lately.
This was a good thing, sparing everyone a stretch of deadly winter. Hebei had suffered far too much over the past year and more, and winter was bound to be hard.
Now, Hebei's commanderies were typically enormous. A single commandery such as Bohai, Pingyuan, Qinghe, or Hejian could easily equal an entire Commandant Province elsewhere. For precisely this reason, the governors of Hebei's great commanderies had always been men of standing.
Moreover, because they were charged with suppressing the former lands of Eastern Qi, their posts generally carried something of a military character. This had become even more pronounced after the Third Campaign.
From this perspective, it made some sense both for Li Ding, a Guanlong scion from the Ministry of War, to become governor of Wuan Commandery and for Qian Tang, a newly affiliated member of the Guanlong bloc from the Jing'an Directorate, to become governor of Pingyuan. But both had also enjoyed tremendous good fortune.
Their appointments had come about through the Eastern Capital's concessions to the state of the realm, the internal power struggles within Guanlong, and the predicament of the Hebei Righteous Army springing up everywhere across Hebei at the time.
What Li Ding thought was unknown, but Qian Tang, the Pingyuan Deputy Prefect, understood this perfectly. He knew that his life would very likely take him ever farther from the romantic pursuits he had once imagined, and so he cherished this official career, which had clearly entered a new stage, all the more.
Southerly breezes blew beneath a high sun. A