The two armies faced each other across a considerable distance for a long time.
Both sides devoted themselves to their final preparations.
That was the nature of preparing for war.
No matter how much one prepared, there was always something more to prepare. No matter how much one gathered, there was always something else that seemed lacking.
More and more troops continued to pour into the Liao camp.
Yet the larger the army became, the looser its control grew.
The tribal contingents were scattered across different camps, and even determining how far an order from headquarters had reached was no simple task.
Some tribes had already arrived but waited for their commanders' instructions. Others lingered along the road. Still others fell behind, using provisions as an excuse.
From the outside, it looked like an immense army.
Inside, however, horses, men, and orders all moved at different speeds.
The Liao emperor believed that this time, he had to bring the war to an end.
He ordered everything that could be mobilized to be summoned.
The questions he asked each day were much the same.
How many more have arrived?
When will they reach us?
How far have they come?
How many men has each tribe brought?
Along which road are the provisions advancing?
He intended to win the war through sheer numbers.
More soldiers.
More horses.
More banners.
More tribal chiefs.
He believed that if he gathered enough of them in one place, he could simply crush the Jin.
But the larger the army became, the farther the camps spread.
And the farther the camps spread, the longer it took for orders to travel.
The army was intimidating in its size.
It was also heavy and sluggish.
What the emperor feared most were words that touched upon his own incompetence.
No one openly said, "The emperor is incompetent."
Yet every discussion seemed to drift in that direction.
"Why have we done nothing until now?"
"How were we driven into this position?"
"What strategy do you intend to use to resolve this war?"
"Are you saying that once all the troops have gathered, victory will simply follow?"
The emperor found such questions difficult to endure.
He knew that the meaning behind them was directed at him.
More than the questions themselves, he feared the eyes behind them.
An incompetent man fears most the moment his incompetence is exposed.
And so he will do almost anything to conceal it.
He shouts over trivial matters, drives his subordinates mercilessly, and when something goes wrong, shifts the blame to someone else.
Even matters he himself failed to decide become the fault of subordinates who supposedly failed to carry out his will.
When it comes to passing responsibility to another, such a man can move with astonishing speed.
At the first sign of failure, he changes his words.
He claims that his original instructions were never followed, or gives the failure another name.
He attaches slogans to it.
He alters the numbers.
He dresses up the reports.
False reports and inflated troop counts grow naturally in such a place.
His habit of dragging meetings on endlessly came from the same root.
If a conclusion came only after a long conference, he believed his own share of the blame would be smaller when things went wrong.
Many people had discussed it together.
Therefore, he thought, responsibility could be scattered among them as well.
The making of excuses was an old privilege of men like him.
Above all, he lacked the courage to be candid.
He could not call danger by its name.
He could not acknowledge a blunder as a blunder.
He could not admit that preparations were insufficient when they were insufficient.
After spending his time surrounded by false reports and carefully dressed-up words, he would still declare in the end that he had done everything he could.
That was the Liao emperor.
He shouted.
He pressured those beneath him.
He inflated numbers.
He prolonged meetings.
He scattered responsibility.
Every one of those actions was meant to conceal his incompetence.
And every one of them only bred greater incompetence.
It was around that time that Yelü Zhangnu disappeared.
The emperor had appointed Xiao Fengxian as Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Camp and Yelü Zhangnu as Deputy Commander.
In effect, he had entrusted the strongest of the imperial guard forces to those two men.
Only after some time did the emperor finally notice Yelü Zhangnu's absence.
Even finding him proved difficult.
Some said he was nearby.
Others said he had gone toward the hunting grounds.
There were even rumors that he had gone away to have the wounds he had suffered in the earlier attack by Jin infiltrators treated.
The emperor summoned Xiao Fengxian.
"Where has Yelü Zhangnu gone?"
Xiao Fengxian lowered himself respectfully.
"I was already having him searched for, Your Majesty."
He had already sensed that something was wrong.
Yet he had not reported it first.
As was often the case with incompetent men, his attention had gone toward covering the disturbance before his eyes rather than exposing the truth of the matter.
If Yelü Zhangnu had merely stepped away on personal business, Xiao Fengxian thought he could let the matter pass quietly until the man returned.
The emperor shouted.
"Did I not ask you where he went?"
"Forgive me, Your Majesty. It has not yet been confirmed."
"How can the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Camp not know the whereabouts of his own deputy?"
"Forgive me, Your Majesty."
"How long has he been missing?"
Xiao Fengxian pressed his lips together for a moment.
"In truth... several days."
"You let a matter like this sit for several days?"
Xiao Fengxian cautiously offered an excuse.
"There are seven hundred thousand soldiers gathered here now. The encampment stretches endlessly, and it is difficult to know exactly who is in which tent. If a man loses his way, even finding him may take time. He may still be somewhere within the camps."
A chill passed through the emperor's chest.
When he had appointed Yelü Zhangnu deputy commander and discussed the deployment of the army, Yelü Zhangnu had been looking elsewhere.
At the time, the emperor had assumed his attention had simply wandered for a moment.
Thinking back on it now, however, it seemed different.
Even while the emperor spoke, Yelü Zhangnu had hardly been listening.
His gaze had been lowered, as though he were absorbed in some deep thought.
There was something else.
Not long ago, Jin infiltrators had torn through Changchun Road.
The emperor had heard of it only afterward.
Yelü Zhangnu had failed to report the matter properly.
When questioned, he had dismissed it as something insignificant.
More than a hundred men had died at his estate.
Nearly as many had died on the road to Changchun Road.
Yet he had called it a minor matter.
A delayed report could perhaps be explained as an attempt to put things in order before reporting upward.
People often tried to solve a problem first and report it afterward.
But a report that differed from the truth meant something else.
It meant that the man's heart had begun to turn elsewhere.
Words Yelü Zhangnu had spoken in the past flashed through the emperor's mind.
'Your Majesty cannot spend all your days hunting.'
'It grieves me beyond measure to see what has become of our Great Liao.'
Those uncomfortable words now returned with an entirely different meaning.
There was something behind this.
The emperor ordered Xiao Fengxian,
"Search his estate at Changchun Road and his deputy commander's quarters thoroughly. Find out where he has gone, what he is doing, and what he is plotting. I want a full report."
Xiao Fengxian bowed deeply.
"Loyalty. It shall be carried out according to Your Majesty's command."
As he withdrew, Xiao Fengxian clenched his teeth inwardly.
He already had more than enough to deal with.
A missing deputy commander was certainly a serious matter, but the emperor's order to place it above everything else was burdensome in its own way.
The emperor always made matters worse in precisely this fashion.
There were already seven hundred thousand soldiers to feed and deploy, tribal contingents still arriving, and sprawling camps that had to be organized.
Now, on top of all that, he had been commanded to make finding Yelü Zhangnu his highest priority.
Xiao Fengxian bowed once more and withdrew.
His manner remained respectful.
Inside, however, resentment was already boiling.