The 120,000-strong army of Prince Chuangnan wound like a massive python along the muddy Bashan official road after the heavy rain, heading toward Jianping County City. Their iron armor gleamed with a blinding, cold light under the scorching sun, and the dust kicked up by their horses blotted out the sky and the sun. Prince Chuangnan rode a prized Western Regions steed, draped in a gold-threaded python robe, with the nine-ringed broadsword that had severed countless heads hanging at his waist. His gaze was as grim and piercing as an eagle's as he swept it across the steep cliff walls on either side.
Suddenly, his pupils contracted sharply, and his hand tightening on the reins abruptly clenched so hard that the veins on the back of his hand bulged.
High on the cliff face a hundred meters ahead, several lines of vermilion characters, each over a zhang high, were strikingly carved:
"Surrender and you will be spared, rewarded with two liang of silver."
"Capture a Commander of a Hundred, rewarded with ten liang of silver."
"Capture a Commander of a Thousand, rewarded with a hundred liang of silver."
"Capture a Commander of a Ten Thousand, rewarded with a thousand liang of silver."
"Capture Prince Chuangnan, rewarded with ten thousand liang of silver."
Chapter 161