The man in white frowned deeply and muttered, "That shouldn't be... Ning Chen of all people should have had no use for a ten-thousand-man vanguard. Why would he suddenly strike?"

Lou Guanghe said angrily, "I say you're a spy Ning Chen sent... Guards, seize him!"

"Yes!"

The Xiliang soldiers around them moved at once and closed in, swords out and bows drawn.

The man in white didn't panic. "If I were a spy Ning Chen sent, I wouldn't have told you so much.

And Ning Chen wouldn't have given up the big prize for a small one by hitting your vanguard... He'd have waited for your ninety thousand to go through Tiger Roar Gorge before striking."

Bian Yangze and the others nodded slightly. The man in white had a point.

He waved a hand. "This isn't the time for that. Ning Chen's army is already charging this way... Pass on my order: prepare to meet the enemy!"

A runner passed the order down at once.

The army responded quickly.

The man in white's eyes glinted. Suddenly he said, "What you should do now, before Ning Chen's army gets here, is turn around and wipe out the Ning'an Army in Tiger-Taming Valley."

Lou Guanghe sneered. "Idiot. You think the Ning'an Army is that easy to wipe out? Before we could finish them off, Ning Chen's army would be on our backs."

The man in white said grimly, "Split your forces. Leave some to hold off Ning Chen's army, and send the rest to wipe out the Ning'an Army."

Everyone stared at him as if he'd lost his mind.

The Ning'an Army was an army of tigers and wolves: fierce fighters, well equipped, and armed with firearms besides.

It would take fifty thousand men just to have a hope of destroying them.

They had only ninety thousand now. If they split and sent fifty thousand after the Ning'an Army, how could the remaining forty thousand possibly hold off Ning Chen?

"Report..."

A scout came racing up. "Reporting to Commander-in-Chief Bian! The Great Xuan army is no more than three miles from us."