Jinyang City, Bingzhou
The provincial capital of Bingzhou is small by the standards of the Han with no more than 50,000 people in its commandery and only two towns of 5-6000 under its direct control. The port of Xi He is under the authority of the Governor as well but it is more than a week's journey along poor roads through marshy land once the main highway ends near the fortified pass of Hangu leading out of the Tai mountains to the fertile Wei plains where the Han people first arose many centuries before.
The commander of the garrison is Colonel Song Xian (style name Tizhi), an able commander of cavalry but a poor administrator. As such his court is composed of many competing factions despite having relatively few members. His chief advisers are his five captains, Wen, Hou, Han, Dang and Jing. Captain Wen Xi serves as chief lieutenant while general Hou Cheng is captain of the heavy cavalry.
Captain Dang Fu is in charge of patrolling the villages and farms to the west where the wet land gives many opportunities for infiltration by bandits and rebels. To accomplish this he has his lieutenants, Liang Ju and Wei Yan. Liang's platoon consists of skirmishers armed with shortbows and a variety of machetes and hatchets while Wei's platoon is proper light cavalry with lances, javelins and swords.
It is Lt. Wei's mission to keep the terrible roads clear so the merchants and tax collectors can move safely along them while Lt. Liang goes from village to village to learn the locations of bandits and other undesirables.
Throughout this it is the thankless task of the quartermaster, Du ZhiTeng, to keep the company supplied with grain for the horses and meat for the soldiers regardless of whether of not anyone managed to coordinate with the capital for provisions on schedule. At least he has the company of newcomer Tang Feng who despite being around less than a month already seems to know everyone and to have bested most of them at dice without having yet won enough to make anyone take a swing at him. Given his skill at winning money he has been made paymaster for the company.