Beaten, the Xiliang troops fled in a sorry scramble.

The Ning'an Army chased them and cut them down for a few miles, then pulled back.

Lei An took men to clear the field and tally the supplies they had captured.

Ning Chen took over Weng Jin's command tent for the time being.

Pan Yucheng looked baffled. "Shouldn't we be pressing the advantage and chasing them down?"

Ning Chen smiled. "There's no hurry. It's still five days' march to Linxuan City... Yuan Long cut off their grain, and under this blazing sun (TL Note: 烈日炎炎, "the fierce sun, blazing and blazing" — a stock phrase for the full heat of summer.) Xiliang's army is short of water and food. Give it less than two days and they'll mutiny."

"Let them fall apart on their own first and wear themselves down from inside... then we move in and beat the dog that's fallen into the water."

Feng Qizheng and Yue Congyun came in from outside, heads hanging and spirits low.

The two of them had been given the job of leading the charge to kill the enemy commander, and they had not so much as caught sight of the enemy commander's shadow.

Ning Chen glanced up and laughed. "You two went wide. The enemy commander was on your left, and you cut your way in on the right the whole way, missing the enemy commander perfectly."

Feng Qizheng and Yue Congyun stood with their mouths open, embarrassment all over their faces.

There had been men everywhere at the time, and both of them had gone red-eyed with killing.

Ning Chen reassured them. "It's all right. You did very well!"

Just then Yuan Long was at the tent flap, asking to come in.

"Come in!"

Yuan Long came in and bowed. "My lord prince, the enemy is routed and scattered in every direction... the main body that got away should come to more than eighty thousand men. We wiped out more than fifteen thousand of them this time."

Ning Chen gave a slight nod. "Then that means more than twenty thousand of the…