Ning Chen burned the Tuoluo Kingdom's Imperial Court to the ground again!

The fire burned all night and only died out at dawn!

After a night's rest, the soldiers were fully restored.

Ning Chen wasted no time and ordered a forced march!

From the Tuoluo Kingdom's Imperial Court to Beilin Pass would take a month or two.

The story of his wound couldn't be kept up for long. If he kept hiding and never showed his face, sooner or later people would get suspicious.

So he had to reach Beilin Pass before the news got out, in case the King of the Right Court got word and ran.

With plenty of grain and fodder, the army moved fast!

In a month and a half, Ning Chen and his army were nearing Beilin Pass.

The sky was dark and heavy, as if it were about to snow!

The first snow of the year still hadn't come.

Outside Beilin Pass, tents stretched on and on, and the Tuoluo Kingdom's war banners streamed in the wind!

The people of Beilin Pass were having a hard year.

First their seed grain had been stolen, and this year they had harvested nothing at all.

They'd thought the court would open the granaries for relief. Who could have imagined the Tuoluo people would slip into the city and loot the granaries?

The court had sent grain, but pitifully little of it reached the common people. The soldiers of Beilin Pass had to be fed first.

Now it was winter. There was no snow yet, but the cold was bitter, and life was even harder for the people.

The people cursed the new emperor behind his back until his ancestral graves were practically smoking.

Nor, of course, did they spare Lin Changsheng.

When Liang Jingwu held Beilin Pass, the Tuoluo people had raided too, but they never dared go too far. The people had land to farm, and even when the harvest was poor there were the granaries. At the very least, nobody went hungry.

But ever since Lin Changsheng took over Beilin Pass, their seed grain…