General Xi Yan gazed down from the city wall, and a heavy sigh escaped his lips. The initial shock of the situation had given way to a sombre acceptance.
"Tens of thousands of horses, and tens of thousands of barbarians. If only Xu Bailong were here, his strategic brilliance could defeat ten thousand men,"
he mused silently.
Xi Yan was well aware that the Xu family had all abandoned the city, and he understood their reasons.
The current interim lord of the city is proving to be utterly incompetent.
The chain of command had become a tangled mess, leaving the soldiers in disarray.
The people of the city were divided, lacking a unified purpose, and the weight of unresolved internal issues was bearing down on them.
It is a dire situation, and as Xi Yan surveyed the challenges before him, he knew that overcoming them would require nothing short of a miracle.
And clearly the current interim lord could not produce such miracle