(a)

The northern camp of the Han army on the shore of Lake Drew.

When the Ice City Fortress of the winter camp was built, Liu Shen's first will came. He asks you to leave the northern route and recuperate at the royal family's Biyu Hot Springs Winter Palace before the harsh winter arrives.

When the decree came, you were in a meeting with Yang Biao and the others, and you asked them to secretly dig tunnels under the fortress every day while building the ice city.

Because the soil is freezing, the ground is heated with horse manure to make it soft before it can be excavated.

You ordered Yang Biao and others to formulate a day-by-day excavation plan, and if the progress of the day is not reached, the work cannot be stopped.

All excavations had to be carried out secretly under the cover of building an ice city, and while digging for ice, the excavated earth had to be quietly poured into the lake, and the direction and route of the excavation were handed down day by day, and everyone only knew the task of the day, and did not know the purpose and the whole picture of the whole project.

You put Sun Haocheng in charge of protecting the construction of the fortress, and you must not let the enemy destroy the ice mining and construction of the fortress on Lake Drew, and you must not let the enemy know about the excavation works under the fortress.

You didn't explain why you were digging these underground tunnels. The excavation plan of the entire underground tunnel, you only gave Yang Biao one person.

While you were discussing how to balance the use of troops between winter warfare and winter camp construction, and reduce the burden on the local area, the Han King's will arrived.

(b)

After you read the will, you replied to a recital, thanking Liu Shen for his care, but you said that as a commander, you can't leave the northern front and go to a warm place alone when the soldiers on the northern front are stubbornly guarding the cold and insisting on the grassland.

Liu Shen had already anticipated your answer. So he wrote back again, "This is for the sake of your physical condition and the needs of the war." If you're winter camping on the northern route, the upcoming snowstorm may cut off road traffic between the north and the south, and you may not be aware of emergencies on the southern route in time.

After you received Liu Shen's will again, you went to the recital again and said that you hope to see the completion of the construction of the Ice City Fortress on the northern front before you set off.

After reading your reply, Liu Shen wrote to you for the third time, and he attached the medical case that the doctors reported to him every day, and all the doctors believed that your physical condition was absolutely unable to survive the long winter in the severe cold of minus 50 degrees. In the letter, Liu Shen wrote in detail about the incident of my summoning of Fu Tianliang to inquire about the severe winter weather conditions in the grassland, and wrote about the fireside conversation between him and me, and he earnestly hoped that you would take care of your health and stop refusing the king's will, which would make the king anxious and uneasy.

It took a long time for Liu Shen's third letter to be delivered from the snowy field to you.

By the time Liu Shen's letter arrived, you had fallen ill from exertion and cold, and were coughing day and night. The medics are nervous about your condition.

After reading Liu Shen's letter on the sickbed, you didn't hold on any longer.

When the rivers of Han also began to freeze, you led Wu Shun, Guan Wenliang, Xie Shuangcheng, 200 Guards and your staff clerical team back to Han land and arrived at the hot spring palace of Bitang Hot Springs.

Yang Biao later succeeded in building as many as 12 ice castles in the Dru Lake area. They are like a fairy tale, standing in your time.

After the establishment of the ice city, the Beji people also made several attempts to invade the supply lines of the Han army and attack the storage grounds. But these attempts quickly failed.

The walls of the ice city were slippery and difficult to climb, which also made the enemy discourage the idea of capturing the fortress.

Ulinden Mukhan finally had to reluctantly accept that his opponent would be stationed by his side for the winter.

The continuous northward movement of the front was thus a foregone conclusion.

(c)

Later, after the emperor's great trip, I was nearly 60 years old and still physically strong, and I once traveled to the grasslands in the north.

I have been to the place where Yang Biao established the winter camp of the Han army. It is no longer a grassland, where a lot of Han land has been cultivated, cities have been established, there are many horse caravan trade routes, there are many trading centers for goods from the east and west, north and south, and a large number of amusement occasions with foreign customs, and the climate is not as cold as it was back then.

There, I couldn't find any traces of the Han army's winter camp. Except for one ancient place name that will not be marked on the map and is said to be the old man's legend: the Twelve Ice Cities.

Only forty years have passed. The stars are changing, and things are not people. Yang Biao is dead, Sun Haocheng is also dead, Wu Shun is also dead, Guan Wenliang is also dead, and you and Liu Shen are all gone.

Everything about you, like the melting ice of spring, has long since disappeared without a trace.

I looked at this familiar and strange place in front of me, and I felt that life was like a dream, and my heart was filled with the deep sadness of the passage of time.