“What else are we old folks supposed to do but to reminisce about our younger days?” - Gulthom Abujan, Village Elder from Ptolodecca.

As a silent testament to the Empire’s efficient military organization, it had only taken the rest of the day – and the night that followed – for preparations to be made for the planned departure of Long Jiangjun Leung Hua-Jeong, his chosen assistant generals, and the forty thousand soldiers that would go together with them.

Given the need for alacrity, most of the generals would travel with the five thousand strong cavalry contingent ahead of the rest, while two of the Xiao Jiangjuns would lead the remaining infantry troops and follow behind them. The Empire had gained near-complete control over their conquered territories, so such a maneuver should be safe to perform.

Just in case, they also brought supplies and rations in excess, as much as the southern detachment was able to spare. The loss of the entire command staff of the northern detachment meant that they likely lost a large portion of their supplies as well, since those were typically entrusted to officers close to the command staff.

While there was likely some stockpile of supplies at the conquered city – the one the locals called “Oleynuos” – Hua-Jeong was uncertain whether it would be enough to support such a large army as the one that gathered there. Fortunately, according to reports, the Imperial army commandeered supplies from the territories they conquered and gathered it in the city since it made for a convenient base at the time.

Either way he would know once he arrived there.

As he rode on his steed along with the rest of the cavalry, the aged general couldn’t help but to think back on his past. He came from a household that used to be nobility amongst the Huan prior to the unification war and the establishment of the Empire. His family had always desired to be reinstated to their former status, but it was not until his generation that the dream came true at last.

With his skill – some would say he was gifted – in archery, Hua-Jeong had made a name for himself from a young age. Even in his youth he was famous for being able to shoot down birds in flight. His skill had not gone unnoticed and he was employed by a militaristic noble as a retainer, living a well-off life relying on his archery talents for a good chunk of his life.

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The turning point to his life – and career – came during the succession war a decade ago, where the princes and princesses of the Empire fought one another over the right to the throne. The noble he worked for happened to be on the Fourth Prince’s camp, and his archery skill had not gone unnoticed during the war either.

He personally took down enemy generals with a well-placed arrow from well out of sight – his skill had grown to new heights with age – over a dozen times during the war. Those feats saw the fourth prince reward him richly, and when the war ended and the former fourth prince became the new Emperor of Al-Shan, he granted Leung Hua-Jeong a boon that the old man had not even dared to dream about.

Leung Hua-Jeong was granted peerage amongst the nobility – and not even a low rank at that – as well as the title of the Long Jiangjun, the Dragon General. It was an archaic system from the pre-imperial era used by the Huan people where they would pick their best few generals and grant them special titles and powers above their peer.

In the present age, the Emperor chose to reinstate the system and had the newly established four generals swear fealty to him personally. The four were chosen from amongst the old and the young, skilled in different fields but each were far above their peers. Of his fellow four generals, Hua-Jeong was chosen for his skill in archery, the tiger general was known as a peerless melee fighter who led from the front, the phoenix general a supremely skilled mage, and the turtle general a fellow old veteran who was a master of defensive tactics and strategy.

As time passed and the decision to mount the invasion to relieve the Empire of its problems was made, it was only natural for one of the four generals to be chosen to head the expedition. It was in this choice that the somewhat finicky situation the Empire found itself in was revealed to those in the know, however.

While the four generals swore fealty to the Emperor personally, not all of them were suitable for such a task. The tiger general’s true loyalties had always been rumored to lay with the Eighth Prince, who supported the Emperor during the succession war, due to their close relationship. Meanwhile, the Turtle general was not suitable for leading an offensive campaign since his talents lay elsewhere.

As such, the choice was between Hua-Jeong and the Phoenix general, who was rumored to have been closer with the Emperor than was appropriate of late. After some debate, Hua-Jeong was chosen to lead the expedition, with the Eighth Prince sent along as his adjutant.

In secret, however, he was given secret orders from the Emperor to not let the Eighth Prince gain any merit from the expedition, and if he ended up falling under the enemy’s blade in understandable circumstances, it would be even better. Hua-Jeong had balked at the thought of being complicit to such an act, so he instead kept the Eighth Prince under house arrest instead in Oleynuos, keeping him in the forward base of the northern detachment, partly for his own safety.

The Eighth Prince balked at the treatment at first, but after a few personal meetings, Hua-Jeong managed to imply enough to the man that everything he did was to help keep the prince safe. After all, even if he returned from the expedition without merit, at worst it would give the Emperor an excuse to demote him and thus nullify him as a threat.

But he would still be alive, at least.