On the morning of the tenth day of the first month, in the thirty-seventh year of Jianyuan, Shimei Commandery, Yan Province.
An army forty thousand strong was marching across a stretch of open country northeast of Shimei Commandery.
This was the central force of the Black Tortoise Army.
Their marching formation was somewhat loose, lacking the strict order of Ice Province's other main armies, but the officers and soldiers were all brimming with vigor.
Even as they trudged through the mire, their boots covered in black mud, their morale remained high.
Only the damp weather here made them somewhat uncomfortable.
Xia Longxiang, Regional Commander of the Black Tortoise Army, also felt that the moisture here was far too heavy.
So heavy that some old, hidden injuries in his body had begun to ache faintly.
Though it was still the end of winter and spring had yet to arrive, temperatures in southern Yan Province had already risen considerably. The early morning sunlight evaporated the moisture, spreading it through the air.
Yan Province's climate somewhat resembled that of the southern provinces of the Divine Land and Penglai City of Nevernight. Thanks to the intense sunshine on the plateau, even its lowest winter temperatures matched those of summer in Youzhou.
Ice Province, by contrast, lay south of the Endless Icefield and was bitterly cold.
Many places there froze over in late autumn and stayed that way until spring the following year.
The people who had moved to Ice Province could grow only one crop of grain a year.
Fortunately, Ice Province's soil was fertile and its grain yields extremely high. The land was vast and sparsely populated, with fields suitable for farming and grazing everywhere.
They could also gather spirit medicines and hunt beasts to supplement their livelihoods.
Xia Longxiang had formerly been