Luckily, by late morning the snow had stopped!

Ning Chen immediately ordered the army to march.

Scouts galloped back and forth, checking the road ahead the whole way.

With three or four inches of snow on the ground, the roads were hard going, and the army moved slowly.

Ning Chen's face was creased with worry.

At this rate, it would take an extra ten days or more to reach Bianzhou.

The days weren't so bad. But at night, the cold was bitter and the ground froze solid. Marching was impossible.

The roads were solid ice. Never mind the men—even the horses shivered with cold.

So when night fell, the army had to stop, cut down trees and build fires to keep warm.

Even so, some of the soldiers came down with a chill.

In this world, a chill could kill a man.

But they couldn't leave sick soldiers out in the wilderness to die, either.

And that slowed the march even more.

Ning Chen came back with his cloak wrapped tight around him and went into his tent.

He'd just been making the rounds of the camp, checking on the sick soldiers.

A charcoal fire was burning inside the tent.

It was so cold out there that frost had formed on Ning Chen's eyelashes. Now it melted into tiny drops of water.

He warmed himself at the fire for a while, wiped his face, then lay down in his clothes.

Fortunately, the army had plenty of provisions this time.

In weather this bitter, running out of provisions would have been real trouble.

They marched, stopped and marched again!

A few days later, the army reached a place called Wangfeng Pass.

Once they got through Wangfeng Pass, things would be a lot better.

With the mountains blocking the way, the wind and snow on the other side shouldn't be as bad as on this side.

Ning Chen studied the cliffs on either side of Wangfeng Pass through his spyglass, then said in a low voice, "What a perfect spot for an ambush."

Prince Wu looked for a while and nodded. "It…