Becoming the Phoenix – Seven
The war reaches its climax. Meng Yao refuses to stay back for the final battle, which turns out to be a very good thing, especially when Jin Guangshan tries to grab whatever power he can in the aftermath. Wen Qing calls on Jiang Wanyin to honor his word to her, and ends up in Lan custody while Jiang protects the rest of her clan.
Coordinating an aggressive campaign was extremely wearing. Time to prepare or double check decreased, the Wen commanders became more close-mouthed the worse things went for them, and Wen Ruohan was becoming both less predictable and more isolated, neither of which were conducive to getting information on his plans. On top of that, no one could predict when the appalling new corpse puppets might appear. Meng Yao might be the only one who took the uncertainty as a personal affront, but it was wearing on everyone.
When Jiang Yanli, of all people, arrived at his tent to go over his projected numbers and her supply lists looking downright frazzled, Meng Yao tied his tent doors firmly shut and made them tea. He was absolutely not letting one of the campaign’s pillars of calm snap.