When dawn first broke, a sea of mist seemed to shroud Dongting Lake. The morning fog had yet to lift, yet smoke, dust, and firelight filled that sea of mist as well. From afar, it looked as though flames were trapped within it.
Countless birds could find nowhere to land and could only fly wildly about, adding still more disorder to Dongting Lake.
This scene meant that, whatever unexpected developments they might encounter, the reinforcements Bai Yousi led had in fact launched an all-out assault on the Dongting Lake rebels, theoretically the most troublesome of the Hunan rebels.
It also meant that Bai Sanniang only finished that letter after the battle, and it did not reach Yecheng until after the autumn harvest.
An autumn rain happened to fall on Yecheng when the letter arrived. It was not heavy and did little to affect the harvesting and storage of grain, but it did throw the countryside into a certain state of haste.
In fact, even the Wind-Watching Courtyard had two stacks of stalks piled inside it. This was not because Chief Zhang insisted on displaying his close ties to agricultural production, but because the courtyard had its own small kitchen and needed firewood anyway. When Zhang Xing sat upstairs in the Wind-Watching Tower and opened this letter, the people below were discussing whether to move those stalks under the stable roof in the rear courtyard.
Calling it a discussion was generous. Yue Niang was as forceful as ever and was merely issuing orders; Qin Bao and Zhang Xing's younger female cousin Huai Niang could only obey.
Zhang Xing listened to the activity below for a while, then opened the very thick letter upstairs in the Listening-to-the-Wind Tower:
"Sanlang, may these words be as meeting face-to-face. The battle of Dongting Lake has