But of all ruddy things that morning the brightest were two broad arms of painted wood, which rose from the margin of a yellow cornfield hard by Marlott village.

Santikhiri has retained much of its scruffy Yunnanese-influenced charm, with its rickety wooden shops and numerous tea-houses.

Then they crossed a hollow to Semyonovskoye, where the soldiers were dragging away the last logs of the huts and barns.