Saving Luoyang (Part One) (Free chapter)
At the Hour of the Rabbit on the third day of the fourth month, the morning sun had just risen, casting ten thousand rays of rosy light. Boundless fields of green barley rippled gently in the wind, their leaves swaying like a green sea as far as the eye could reach. The beauty of the plain opened the heart and lifted the spirits.
Chen Caozhi and his party of more than three hundred left Su Family Fort in Pingyu for Chang'an. Su Daozhi led his clansmen more than ten li out to see them off and bid them an earnest farewell. "Envoy Chen, you must stop at our humble fort again on your return home," Su Daozhi said sincerely. "I will have more matters on which to seek your advice then."
Su Daozhi's eldest son, Su Qi, took ten household troops and followed Chen Caozhi west toward Chang'an, saying that he wished to broaden his horizons and gain more experience. Chen Caozhi intended to cultivate ties with the Su Clan of Pingyu, so he naturally agreed.
Over the next several days, the weather remained clear and fine. The party passed through Shangcai, Yinyang, and Linying, traveling northwest all the way. A hundred li north of Linying lay Xuchang, the former seat of Yingchuan Commandery. Over the preceding decades, the armies of Jin and Yan had clashed there several times. Xuchang, a major city of Yu Province, belonged now to Jin, now to Yan, making lasting administration difficult. Thus, thirty years earlier, in the second year of Xianhe, the Eastern Jin court had merged Xiangcheng Commandery into Yingchuan Commandery, moving the seat of Yingchuan from Xuchang to Xiangcheng. Xiangcheng lay more than a hundred li from Xuchang, and Administrator Gao Rou was stationed there. Bordering