Beneath the Tree of Heaven (Wingrove) читать бесплатно онлайн полную версию книги (ч. 2)

House of Ch’in built the Wall to keep them apart, House of Han has to keep the beacons alight, Beacons alight and they never go out For these expeditions have never an end:

In the line, hand to hand, they’ll die the same, The horses will fall, call to Heaven their pain, The crows and the kites pick their riders’ guts And fly to dead trees with the bits in their beaks.. . .

Li Po, We Fought South of the Walls, EIGHTH CENTURY A.D.

Life is cheap, flesh plentiful.

COMMON SAYING, 2210 A.D.

PROLOGUE WINTER 2210