The woman’s shrieking cut off dead, and she stared at Ning Chen in terror.

Pan Yucheng dropped down off the roof beam and said, low, “No telling how the others made out.”

Ning Chen smiled bitterly.

The others were probably having a rough time of it too. There was no controlling the speed of these delta wings, and where a man came down was entirely up to his luck.

All over the city at that moment, Ning Chen’s men were hanging off things.

Some had come down in trees, some had gone into walls, and some, like Ning Chen, had punched through somebody’s roof.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Right then the shooting started in the city.

And the shooting was everywhere, as though the whole city were full of Ning Chen’s men.

Ning Chen and Pan Yucheng looked at each other and ran for the door.

At the doorway Ning Chen stopped short and looked back at the terrified woman. “Good and white. Just a little small!”

Then he was out and running.

“Old Pan, be careful!”

“You too!”

Outside the door Pan Yucheng went straight for the north gate.

Ning Chen went for the south.

And by now the whole city was in an uproar.

Shooting everywhere.

Ning Chen ran flat out.

Then all at once he slipped sideways into the shadow of a wall.

A troop of horse came galloping up.

When they were about the right distance, Ning Chen burst out of the dark, his saber clearing the scabbard, and dropped low — and cut the legs out from under a horse.

The horse screamed and went down at the shoulder.

The soldier on its back went straight over the front and hit the ground hard.

The rest hauled their horses up in a panic.

Whssht!

Ning Chen loosed an arrow with a flick of the arm, and with a scream a man came off his horse.

“Get down here!”

While they were still in confusion, Ning Chen caught a soldier by the leg, dragged him off his horse, and finished him with one stroke.

“Kill him!”

One of the soldiers came out of it and drove his spear at Ning Chen.

Ning Chen slipped aside, caught the shaft before the man could pull it back, and hauled him off his horse — and was on him with the saber before he could get up.

Two more spears came in with the cold light on them.

Ning Chen went under the belly of the horse beside him instead.

Then he caught a soldier by the leg, dragged him down off the saddle and cut him down.

Ning Chen moved like something out of a nightmare.

Man after man went to the ground.

By now the city was in chaos.

A large number of enemies had appeared inside it out of nowhere, there was shooting everywhere, and there was no telling how many — or where they had come from.

And the rebels had never seen a musket.

All they saw was that the iron thing let off a bang like a thunderclap, that fire and black smoke burst out of it, and that the man next to them fell.

Their horses took fright too, and bolted in every direction.

Plenty of rebels went off the back of a panicked horse before they knew what was happening, and those were the fortunate ones… some caught a foot in the stirrup and were dragged, and by the time the horse stopped there was only half a man left.

The men of the musket battalion held to Ning Chen’s orders exactly.

They did not spare their ammunition or their bolts, and they did not stop to fight.

They stayed out of hand-to-hand as much as they could.

They ran for the south gate, and whenever they met their own men on the way they joined up and worked together.

Great Xuan’s soldiers were easy enough to tell from the enemy.

The enemy’s uniforms were a gray-white.

Great Xuan’s soldiers wore black.

The men of the firearms battalion drilled every day, and their shooting was far better than it had been.

So against the enemy they had all the advantage.

The Governor’s residence in Mangzhou.

This was where the Left Chancellor was staying.

The shooting woke him out of his sleep.

The three young women in the bed with him, all of them pretty and none of them old, were startled awake too.

The three women were bed-warming girls.

The great men of this world were perverse, and they knew how to be comfortable. In cold weather they had bed-warming girls… the girls all had to be stripped bare, one at the foot of the bed for the feet and one on either side for the body.

The Left Chancellor propped up his bulk and sat, and bellowed toward the door. “What’s going on?”

“Your Excellency, firecrackers have started going off all over the city. Nobody knows what’s happened.”

Someone answered from outside.

The Left Chancellor shifted his bulk down off the bed, threw a cloak over himself and came out.

Just then someone knocked at the door.

“Come in!”

A middle-aged man in undershirts and drawers with a cloak thrown over them, dressed exactly like the Left Chancellor, pushed the door open in a state of panic.

This was Zhuo Heguang, Governor of Mangzhou.

Zhuo Heguang had been raised up entirely by the Left Chancellor’s own hand.

To be exact, every official in Mangzhou, high or low, was the Left Chancellor’s man or the Empress’s.

Zhuo Heguang’s face was white. “Your — Your Excellency… the enemy has broken in and they’re killing.”

“What?”

The fat of the Left Chancellor’s face shook, more from shock than anything else.

The gate had been forced?

That was impossible… if the gate had gone there would have been some sign of it.

“Where did they come from?”

Zhuo Heguang shook his head. “Nobody knows. They just — they just appeared, as though they had come out of thin air.”

The Left Chancellor’s face went dark. “How many of them?”

“A lot of them. Their men are all over the city… nobody has any idea of the number.”

The Left Chancellor was shocked and furious at once.

Zhuo Heguang said in terror, “Your Excellency, every one of those men is carrying a strange iron thing. The moment they raise it there’s a noise like a peal of thunder, and black smoke and fire, and our men are down before they can react.”

The Left Chancellor’s face went white and he roared, “That’s a musket. That’s the thing that little mongrel Ning Chen cooked up.”

“Where are Li Ping and Zhang Zhengde?”

These two were the generals under him, brave men and good fighters.

Zhuo Heguang said quickly, “Li Ping is leading men against them… nobody knows where General Zhang is.”

The Left Chancellor’s eyes went cold and he said sharply, “Take my order. Li Ping is to hold them, whatever it costs… and find Zhang Zhengde and have him come to me at once.”

“Yes!”

Zhuo Heguang ran out in a panic, caught his foot on the threshold and went down, and did not even stop to cry out — he was up and running again.

The Left Chancellor’s face was cold, his brows drawn tight, and under it there was a fright he could not keep down.

He could not for the life of him figure out where Ning Chen’s men had come from.

And by now Ning Chen was riding hard.

After killing that troop he had taken one of their horses and was making for the south gate.

On the way he ran into a fair number of men of the musket battalion.

A troop of rebels came on toward him.

Ning Chen drew the breath down into his belly and shouted, “Put down your weapons! Surrender and you live!”

The rebels came on with their blades and spears swinging.

Ning Chen made a cold sound in his nose. “Fire!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The noise was like a peal of thunder, and fire and black smoke spread out from it.

The rebels charging in went down, men and horses together.

“Kill every one of them. Leave nobody.”

Ning Chen gave the order.

If they would not surrender, then they could die.

His men went in and finished them.

Once he was sure there was nobody left alive, Ning Chen took his men on.

More and more men gathered to Ning Chen as he went. By now there were over a hundred of them.

Every time he met rebels on the way, Ning Chen offered them the chance to lay down their weapons and surrender.

If they would not surrender, he sent them to the King of Hell.

Ning Chen pushed on toward the south gate.

Then a troop of horse came out from the side.

Feng Qizheng was at the head of it.

The two of them joined up and pushed on for the south gate, cutting their way through to it.

It went more easily than Ning Chen had expected.

Because the men of the musket battalion had flown down off the mountain and landed all over the place.

There was shooting everywhere in the city.

Which left the rebels running around like flies with their heads off, with their strength scattered.

So Ning Chen had cut his way through without meeting any real resistance.

At the gate Ning Chen reined in and stopped.

Because the road was blocked.

A full thousand rebels stood in front of the gate.

At the head of them was a black-faced man in silver armor with a spear in his hand.

The black-faced man leveled his spear at Ning Chen. “This general knew it. The gate was what you were after… who comes there? Give your name. This general does not kill nobodies.”

Feng Qizheng smiled coldly. “What kind of nonsense are you talking? This is Ning Chen, the god of war of Great Xuan. If you know what’s good for you, throw down your weapons and surrender.”

Ning Chen had nothing to say to that. Since when was he the god of war of Great Xuan?

(End of Chapter 245)