Once inside the city, Ning Chen took a day.

Among the great gate-clans and the high officials and notables in the city, those who were to be arrested were arrested, and those who were to be killed were killed.

Most of them had been appointed by Prince Rui.

And they had put up heavy sums of silver for Prince Rui's rebellion.

Ning Chen was raking in money now.

He meant to build his own city and raise his own power.

So he was going to need a lot of silver later.

The next day Ning Chen took his army out of Haizhong City.

Some of the officers and men were left to hold Haizhong City, and the rest went with Ning Chen to attack Xiangzhou.

Lu Ming led five thousand men and set out four hours ahead of Ning Chen.

Ning Chen had him play the part of a broken remnant and trick open the gate of Xiangzhou.

Ten days later Ning Chen was not far from Xiangzhou.

Lu Ming's five thousand officers and men had run hard for days on end and were worn past bearing. They did look very much like a broken remnant.

The soldiers on the wall of Xiangzhou spotted Lu Ming and his men and reported it at once to Qu Lang, the garrison commander of Xiangzhou.

Qu Lang was big and powerfully built, all in gold armor. He came quickly up onto the gate tower.

With him came the Zhaohe general Shanben Junjie, a short man.

The Zhaohe Kingdom had sent forty thousand men in all to support Prince Rui.

Banyuan Guangxi had taken thirty thousand of them to block Ning Chen's army.

Shanben Junjie had stayed at Xiangzhou with the other ten thousand.

He had stayed, first, because he was afraid that once Ning Chen was beaten, Prince Rui would not make good on his promises to them.

Second, he wanted his men to put down roots in Xiangzhou, to grow strong and eat into Xiangzhou a little at a time.

The Great Xuan was a vast country, rich in goods of every…