More than ten days went by in a blink!

Liang Jingwu took Liao Xingwen up onto the wall and looked out into the distance.

He had come up every day these last few days.

The fighting at Beilin Pass had ended several days ago.

In that battle the Tuoluo suffered terribly, losing better than twenty thousand men and horses.

The Great Xuan, of course, paid a heavy price of their own.

Liang Jingwu led the army after them, killing as he went, but he followed only two or three hundred miles and then broke off.

Any farther and it was open plain, stretching out with no end in sight.

Fighting on the plain, the soldiers of the Great Xuan were far behind Tuoluo men who had ridden the grasslands since they were children.

And the Tuoluo army had come this time having made up their minds to die. Once they turned and fought to the last, even a Great Xuan victory would have been a victory that cost everything.

Enough men had died in that battle already!

Liang Jingwu’s charge was to hold Beilin Pass, not to wipe out the North Royal Court.

In Ning Chen’s words, Liang Jingwu was a fine commander, no question, brave and skilled in war… but far too cautious, without the spirit to open new ground.

Up on the wall, Liang Jingwu’s brows were knotted tight.

It had been close to a month since Ning Chen took his men away, and there had been no word of him at all. How were they faring?

The North Royal Court might be short of soldiers now, but it had seven thousand at the least.

And Ning Chen had taken only a thousand.

In sheer physical condition Great Xuan soldiers also fell a long way short of the Tuoluo. Without machines to help them it commonly went two for one.

He was also very worried that Yili Ahan, coming back with the wreck of his army, would meet Ning Chen on the road.

The Tuoluo army had lost this time, but close to twenty thousand of them had gotten away.

Liang Jingwu did not know that Ning Chen had already succeeded.

When Yili Ahan reached the North Royal Court, he would find his home robbed.

Liang Jingwu stood there from noon until sundown.

He let out a small sigh. It looked as though he had waited for nothing again today.

He shook his head and got ready to go back.

“General, look there!”

Liao Xingwen said it suddenly.

Liang Jingwu turned to look, and saw a fast horse coming hard toward Beilin Pass.

“Report—”

“I am a scout under General Ning’s command. Open the gate, quickly. I must see General Liang.”

The scout came on at a dead run, shouting at the top of his voice.

Liang Jingwu heard him, and his eyes lit up all at once. He said loudly, “Open the gate.”

There was only the one man out there. It could not be a trap.

He went down off the wall at a quick walk.

The gate opened. The scout rode in, and saw Liang Jingwu from a long way off.

He came up, swung down off his horse, went to one knee, and held up a waist tally in both hands. “This soldier greets General Liang. I am a scout under General Ning’s command, and this is General Ning’s waist tally.”

Liang Jingwu took the waist tally, gave it one look and said, “Stand up and report. How are things with General Ning?”

The scout said, “General Ning led us clean through the North Royal Court and took the King of the Left Court alive. The goods we seized are past counting. A complete victory.”

Liang Jingwu and Liao Xingwen stood rooted where they were, too shocked for anything.

Neither of them quite dared believe it was true.

Ning Chen had really done it!

Then a fierce joy went through them from head to foot.

Liang Jingwu and Liao Xingwen had fought battles great and small beyond counting.

Even so they could not keep it down now, and their heavy frames were trembling a little.

The scout went on: “General Ning ordered this soldier back ahead of them, and asks that General Liang send men out to meet them.”

Liao Xingwen said in his excitement, “General, this officer will go and muster the men now and ride out to meet them.”

Liang Jingwu nodded. “Go, quickly. Muster five thousand cavalry and ride out to welcome General Ning home in triumph.”

“Hahaha…” Liang Jingwu could not help laughing out loud. “Ning Chen, oh, Ning Chen. There really is no one like you.”

Five thousand men were mustered, and Liang Jingwu rode out to meet them himself.

Two days later, Liang Jingwu and Ning Chen met.

Liang Jingwu looked at the cartloads of gold and silver and jewels, the five thousand and more warhorses, the tens of thousands of head of cattle and sheep, and the three thousand and more prisoners, and there was no describing how it moved him.

Most important of all, Ning Chen had taken the King of the Left Court alive.

With the King of the Left Court in hand, the Great Xuan could negotiate with Tuoluo standing straight, with right on its side… and what it stood to gain from that was past reckoning.

Liang Jingwu clapped a hand like a palm-leaf fan on Ning Chen’s shoulder. “Well done. Well done… What am I supposed to say about you?”

Ning Chen bared his teeth. The man had far too much strength in him.

“General Liang, calm down… This is all just standard procedure.”

“It was only that time was short, and I didn’t have the hands… Otherwise I could have fought my way to the Tuoluo capital and taken their sovereign alive.”

The corner of Liang Jingwu’s mouth twitched hard, several times.

This fellow really did dare to think it.

Then again, it was not impossible. Ning Chen truly was the sort who dared to think a thing and then do it.

When Ning Chen had proposed cutting clean through the North Royal Court and taking the King of the Left Court alive, he had been stunned at the time, and had thought the idea far too mad.

But he had never imagined that Ning Chen would not only propose it but bring it off!

“Come on. We’ll talk when we’re back!”

Liang Jingwu gave the order to return to Beilin Pass.

Two days later the army came back to Beilin Pass.

The soldiers went to their quarters and the spoils went into the stores.

Ning Chen and the others returned to the general’s residence, where Liang Jingwu had put on a victory feast.

During the drinking.

Ning Chen asked suddenly, “General Liang, do you know a man named Xie Wen?”

Liang Jingwu’s face stiffened all at once. Then he let out a deep sigh and said:

“He was a fine commander under me. Brave, skilled in war, hard as iron and unafraid to die… A pity. In one engagement with the Tuoluo he took better than ten arrows in the body and died a hero’s death.”

“Hm? Why do you ask about him? Don’t tell me you knew him too?”

Ning Chen felt inside his coat, brought out a letter and handed it over.

Liang Jingwu opened it, curious. But when he had read what it said, his face went livid, and his whole body shook with rage.

Slam!!!

Liang Jingwu brought his palm down on the table in fury, hard enough to make the bowls and chopsticks jump.

“So Xie Wen was murdered… By whom? Who wrote this secret letter?”

Ning Chen brought out a sheaf of more secret letters.

When Liang Jingwu and the others saw them, they went past anger altogether.

Eight secret letters in all, and one of them about Ning Chen… which was to say that besides Ning Chen, somebody had conspired with the King of the Left Court and gotten seven brave and skilled Great Xuan commanders killed.

Even Pan Yucheng and the rest were seeing these letters for the first time. Pan Yucheng picked up the one about Ning Chen and said heavily, “There’s one in here about you?”

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly. “Somebody asked the King of the Left Court to take my head… I never knew I was worth so much. Fifty thousand taels of gold.”

Liang Jingwu’s fists were clenched, the knuckles white. “General Ning. Who wrote the letters?”

Ning Chen said it one word at a time: “The Army Supervisor. Kong Yongchun.”

It was him?

Every man there was shocked.

Pan Yucheng asked, “Ning Chen, is there proof?”

“The King of the Left Court is the best proof there is!”

“That animal…” Liang Jingwu drove his fist into the table in rage, his eyes red, his voice thick. “These were the treasures of my Great Xuan. Every one of them brave and skilled in war, every one of them guarding the Great Xuan… and in the end they died by their own people’s hands.”

To fall on the field, to come home wrapped in a horse’s hide — that is a soldier’s honor.

But not to die miserably on the field because some small man sold him.

Liang Jingwu roared, “I will lay this before His Majesty, and I will see him pay what he owes.”

Ning Chen got slowly to his feet. “Let’s leave the wine for next time. Is anybody willing to come with me to the Army Supervisor’s residence?”

Nobody said anything, but their faces had already given Ning Chen his answer.

The Army Supervisor’s residence.

Kong Yongchun had always considered himself a man of refinement, unlike those coarse fighting men.

Just now, though, this man of refinement was hopping up and down in the courtyard, cursing the world.

He had been shut up in the residence for a month, cut off from the outside entirely, with no idea what was happening beyond the walls.

Kong Yongchun was not stupid. He would not have climbed to his present place otherwise, or been so highly thought of by the Left Chancellor.

Being shut up for no reason he could see had put a thread of unease in him.

“I am the Army Supervisor of Beilin Pass, appointed by His Majesty himself. What right have you to stop me? Let me out.”

Outside the arched gate of the inner court, a table had been set up.

Chen Chong sat behind it, eating pastries and drinking wine.

He watched Kong Yongchun cursing away with a good deal of interest, the way a man watches a clown.

Chen Chong said nothing at all. He simply hung the imperial sword under the arch.

The truth was he did not know what Ning Chen had gone off to do either.

Ning Chen had not told Chen Chong about the raid on the North Royal Court. He had only told him to keep an eye on Kong Yongchun.

Chen Chong narrowed his eyes and said to Kong Yongchun, “You want to go out, then go out. I’m not stopping you.”

Kong Yongchun very nearly died of rage. God damn it, you hang the imperial sword on the gate and then ask if I dare walk out under it?

If he dared walk out, Chen Chong would dare cut him down.

The imperial sword was as good as His Majesty standing there in person. Who would dare take a liberty in front of it?

His steward had tried to force his way out earlier, and Chen Chong had given the order to break the man’s legs.

“Pah… You coarse fighting man. This is abuse of office. This minister is the Army Supervisor of Beilin Pass, appointed by His Majesty. You dare shut this minister up here, and this minister will certainly send up a memorial impeaching you.”

“You unschooled barbarian. Do you know how important Beilin Pass is? This is the most important line of defense my Great Xuan has. You shut this minister up, and if anything happens to Beilin Pass, that is treason, punishable to the ninth degree of kin.”

Chen Chong looked at him with a narrow-eyed smile. “Minister Kong, aren’t you thirsty? Why not come over and have a cup, wet your throat, and then go on cursing?”

Kong Yongchun was angry enough to burst his lungs.

“Coarse fighting man. You’ve been used by that small man Ning Chen and you don’t even know it… He doesn’t dare handle this minister himself, so he puts a brainless thing like you out in front. If anything happens to this minister, you are the one it falls on.”

“This minister does not talk to coarse persons like you. Go and fetch me that contemptible little man Ning Chen.”

Chen Chong’s face darkened. He was about to speak when he heard heavy footsteps.

He turned to look, and saw Ning Chen and the others, gone a month, coming toward him in long strides.

“Chief. Ning Chen. Old Feng…” Chen Chong sprang straight up and flew at them with his eyes shining. “I’ve missed you to death. What have you all been doing this whole month?”

Ning Chen smiled. “Old Chen. You’ve had it hard!”

Feng Qizheng objected at once. “Hard, my ass. Look at him. Food and drink the whole time. The man’s put on weight.”

Chen Chong looked the group over, puzzled. “How is it you all look thinner? Ning Chen especially. You used to be all clean and fair, and one month out of my sight your face is chapped raw.”

Ning Chen smiled. “Wilderness survival. Extreme survival. How could a man come back anything but black and thin?”

Chen Chong’s whole face was at a loss. “Meaning what?”

Ning Chen was about to speak when Kong Yongchun said furiously, “Ning Chen. Liang Jingwu… What do the two of you mean by this?”

“This minister is the Army Supervisor appointed by His Majesty, and the Left Chancellor’s protégé… You two scoundrels dare shut this minister up? Are you tired of living?”

“This minister will most certainly send up a memorial impeaching you—”

He had not finished. Ning Chen walked into the courtyard in long strides, raised his hand, and struck him hard across the face.

Smack!!!

Kong Yongchun lost his balance, staggered, and came within an inch of pitching headfirst to the ground.

(End of Chapter 166)