Three months had passed since Qingming was established. Wei Yuan began to assess the situation around him.

The Shaman city in the northwest had suffered severe damage, with sixty or seventy percent of its residents killed or missing, and thirty or forty percent of its ordinary soldiers killed or wounded. Reconstruction was currently underway with immense difficulty. Every day, vast quantities of supplies and large numbers of civilians and soldiers were brought to the city. Since the reconstruction process would take some time, Wei Yuan decided to let them continue building for the time being.

To the east and south, Western Jin had established a series of strongholds. However, they were virtually useless.

The situation here differed from that of the northern regions. In the northern regions, strongholds were often positioned to provide mutual support with nearby settlements. However, the area surrounding Qingming had originally been a wasteland. The strongholds were also quite far apart from one another, so in the event of a battle, they essentially could only count on themselves. That was why it was easy to defeat them one by one.

When Yuan Qingyan had first deployed this linear “snake formation”, he had a specific strategy in mind. He was betting that Wei Yuan wouldn’t dare openly attack...