The weeks after Orda's report carried the campaign steadily toward the mountains. One river crossing followed another until the land itself began to change. The endless steppe broke into rolling foothills. Those rose into pine-covered slopes, the first true mountain country the army had entered since crossing the passes above Samarkand.
Zhao finished his surveys before the month was out, with every remaining ford marked and every crossing checked for the full column. Bayan had not waited for the reports. His screening force was already ranging deep through the lower valleys, testing each pass to learn which could carry an army and which would swallow one.
