Chapter 164 - To Stay or Go
Nine days had passed since the Northern Qiang scouts had been first spotted.
Qi Anjiang stood on the low wall of North Watching Pass, gazing into the distance. He could see a dark presence amassing across the landscape, vast and seemingly endless.
The Northern Qiang army had camped ten miles away.
At this distance, it would only take a few strikes of the whip for the Northern Qiang cavalry to reach them.
"Captain Qi..." A soldier next to Qi Anjiang stammered, his voice trembling. He looked at Qi Anjiang with a mix of fear and hope, as if seeking reassurance from him.
Qi Anjiang looked down at the young soldier. He was barely more than a boy with a faint trace of peach fuzz on his upper lip.
After a moment, Qi Anjiang hoarsely reassured him, "The court’s army will come."
Qi Anjiang turned to look south, where the vast, empty desert stretched endlessly, devoid of any sign of life.
He had already sent a second messenger to Liangzhou Prefecture, but, like the first, there had been no response. The second messenger hadn’t returned either.
Qi Anjiang clenched his fists, considering all the possibilities. Perhaps the messenger had been ambushed by bandits, intercepted by Northern Qiang scouts, or was even betrayed by a spy among Liangzhou’s officials!
There were too many possibilities.