Chapter 1
On the second day of the eleventh lunar month in the seventeenth year of the Da Qi Yonghe era, the year's first heavy snow began falling at dusk over Wenyao Pass, the most perilous stronghold on the northern frontier. Snowflakes drifted down from the cold, grey sky and continued for an entire day, carried by the wind onto people's bodies and faces.
The snow was heavy and the cold severe. Even with padded cotton clothes on, the cold still bit deep into the bones.
