The moon was high in the sky, and the third watch of the night had arrived. The hazy moonlight quietly scattered across the ground, adding a faint touch of desolation to the vast night sky.
Within the temporary campsite set up more than three hundred li away from the capital, rows of white military tents stood exposed under the chilly night, and aside from the patrolling guards, the 100,000 soldiers, exhausted from traveling hundreds of li, slept on the ground. Listening closely, one could hear the sounds of snoring rising and falling in succession.
The central tent was still lit, as Xiao Ruiyuan, the commander of the 100,000 Army, had to deal with all sorts of military affairs every day. He also had to review urgent reports from the border as soon as possible in order to make the right strategic decisions upon arrival.
