Early the next morning, as the sky was barely light, Chen Caozhi rose and first practiced the Five-Animal Exercises in the courtyard, then had Huang Xiaotong attend to his washing and grooming. Though the boy was fairly quick-witted, he was nowhere near as familiar with Chen Caozhi's daily habits as Xiao Chan, and beside the meticulous Xiao Chan, Huang Xiaotong seemed all thumbs.
Ran Sheng and Shen Chiqian were also up early. Chen Caozhi said, "Xiao Sheng, Chiqian, come explore Su Family Fort with me."
The three left the small courtyard and walked slowly south along the fortified settlement's crossroads street. By now, daylight had fully broken, and the farming households living within the fort were leading oxen and shouldering adzes as they headed out to work the fields. All the farmland within ten li of Su Family Fort belonged to the Su Clan. The vast majority of its nearly thousand households lived inside the fort, though some farmers lived outside and withdrew within its walls for shelter whenever an alarm sounded. Su Family Fort had eight hundred private household soldiers, of whom three hundred served full-time and did no farming; the rest drilled during slack periods and had to work the fields during the busy season. Pingyu Su Family Fort in Huaibei counted as a relatively powerful fortified settlement, for most displaced-population clan commanders with more than a thousand household troops had been appointed administrators or generals by the court and stationed in the large cities of the commanderies and counties.
Su Family Fort had been built between two small hills, with its eastern and western walls running along their slopes, winding up and down like the Great Wall. At the foot of the eastern hill, Chen Caozhi and his companions encountered Su Qi, the eldest son of the