Upon arriving in camp, the sun is already set and the moon is hanging in the sky. The gentle breeze is blowing in the air. On the open space, lay thirty three men who have sacrifice their lives to fight off the XiongNu. Li Cheng request to have their names written down and search through the military records of who the heroes are. So that their families will be notify and will received the payout from the govement promptly. Because the road to home will take months, it is not possible to keep the bodies that long thus that night, they had a mass cremation. Before that, the hair of the departed is cut off and place in an urn. The urn had a white paper with the decrees name, place of birth, birth and dead dates written on it. The label is paste at the front center of the urn. The top is seal with another white paper . A black tie is tie on and a label with the Tang flag is hang on it. Carefully the soldiers place each urn on a table set up with a giant urn which have some joss sticks in it.
Thirty three cup of wines are place in front of the dead along with some food and money papers. The remaining soldiers all bow deeply and some cry. Li Cheng lead the prayers and recite poems for the fallen men. With three joss stick in his hand, he dow deeply and place in the giant urn which is place in front of the dead men. After wards, he pour the wine onto the floor. Later the next ranking officers will do the same steps. Till everyone in camp complete the ceremony then the mass cremation starts. The men wail the name of the departed and ask them to reincarnate soon and maybe be brothers again the next life. The air is fill with grief and burnt ashes. Banou watch in a distance. She offer her prayers too. She is thankful for them. May they all rest in peace.
The fire burnt through the night. The children sleep well but not the soldiers. They still remain standing to guard the camp. Keeping a watchful eye in distance. While inside the camp, the rest are attending their injures. Li Xing have cuts on his hands and bandages around his left leg. He is given crutches to walk around. His curly long hair is hard and stiff from the sweat and blood in it. Min Min offer to help him to wash his hair. They don't speak the same language but he understand her hand gesture. While Banou help out the physicians by applying medicine paste on wounded men. Some of the children did not know what to do so they sing a song that Banou taught them long ago. This delighted some men, it cheer them up. Some of them are reminded of their own children back home. The moral in camp is rather good.
After three days, the fire died down. Now it is all left is a pile of ashes. With sorrow, the soldiers collect them into three urns. They will be taken back to the capital for official prayers for at least three months. Later they will be release in the ocean, mountain and a cliff with the highest wind point. After the urns are fill in, they seal it up with the white paper and label it with the Tang symbol. Carefully, they put them in a wooden crate with hay cushion in between each urn. In turn the crate will be place in the same tent as where Li Cheng is working in. Li Cheng who is busy writing military report back to the capital city. He needs to arrange and release the men who need to return home for a long rest and replace them with someone who is ready to serve the nation. Besides that he starts to order the making of weapons to replace the missing or worn out weapons. HIs left hand man will constantly report the flow of food supplies. They have to ensure that their men have enough to eat per day. So that when there is a surprise attack, they are well equip and prepare to fight till the end.
Banou constantly walk in to replace the cold or empty tea with a warm tea. She put on dry biscuits on a plate just incase he gets hungry. Throughout the five days, they did not have a conversation. She only get to speak to her son who is now in-charge of a small army. He is the commander of the number thirty eight platoon. At a young age, he had gone through a few tough test from the military requirement. He had pass them all hence he is trained and now given a small platoon of his own. He had a hundred and two men under his command. They are slightly younger than him and they are mostly commoners. There is a noble born man from another clan with him. At the same age, they hardly get along but when it comes to combat fighting in the battle ground, they all understand they have to listen to whatever's ranking is higher.
Banou listen to her son telling her what he had been doing since she is missing. He had been going to school and passing the examinations. Since then he and his brothers are looking for jobs in the administrative office. However he is slightly different in looks and most worry for what he will bring. Wherever he goes, there will be a group of noble girls following him. Outside the Prince mansion, there are servants who sent gifts on behalf of their masters. Thus going through interviews are usually disrupted by the girls who are waiting to see him. Each time he fail miserably. Yet he can't scream at them to leave him alone. So he sneak away using back doors or cover up entirely. Sometimes Li Ping will come out of the mansion to scream at those servants. In the end, the only interview he pass was from the military. At that time, Banou is preparing to get marry to Li Cheng. Suddenly she is missing in the capital. It caused a chaos and every where is search for her. While he under go training, he is ensure that once his mother is found he will be notify. After several months of training, he got a letter from Li Ping that they found Banou. So he continue to stay in camp for training. He learn all the skills and weapons at hand. He raise up in rank as commander for he excel in all training given. Another year past, when he returns home from training breaks, he is inform that Banou is missing once more. He gets frustrated and did he own searching starting from Uyghur and found suspicious people in a caravan. He attempts to follow them but he was call back to the army. Reluctantly he leaves the source slip away and he serve his military training till the end. By the time he landed in the army, it's too late for everything. He resent his father who did nothing. He never go home after Banou goes missing. While patrolling he come chance on a XiongNu, he question that man and found that he had robbed a caravan long ago and it had two strange women in it. They are dress in Tang but the face doesn't match a Chinese person. Li Xing know that it must be his mother. Thus he spend days within the grassland looking for her. He bravely ram into camps to look for her. That is when he finally a few days back he meet her. Banou thank him from the bottom of her heart. Her so did not forget her and search for her when he can. She kiss his cheeks and hold his hand.