Ning Chen took off his cloak and had Xiao Yanxi put it away for now. It was still a little early in the year for something that warm.

"Little Xixi, once the navy's training is settled, I'm thinking of making a trip to the Wu Kingdom.

I'll stay there a while, spend some time in Xuanwu City, and then head back to the Great Xuan's capital... It'll be just about New Year by then."

Xiao Yanxi had just one answer. "Wherever you go, I go!"

Over the next few days, Ning Chen picked out fifty thousand troops and handed them over to Qi Yuanzhong.

Thirty thousand of them came from the eastern frontier army. They lived by the sea and already knew their way around the water, so they would train up in half the time.

Still, the eastern frontier army had just surrendered, and Ning Chen didn't fully trust them. So he added twenty thousand of the men he'd brought with him. With those men, plus the Ning'an Army and the modao army, he was sure nobody would dare step out of line.

Shen Min had full charge of governing the eastern frontier.

The weather got colder by the day.

Ning Chen decided it was time to go. He would come back once spring arrived next year.

They would leave in three days.

Traveling in this era wasn't like the modern world, where you could grab some cash and go.

Here, a long trip was a real hassle, and money alone wouldn't cut it. Most of the road ran through wilderness, and where were you supposed to buy anything out there? You had to prepare a lot ahead of time.

The night before they left, Ning Chen threw a feast for Yuan Long and the others.

This time Yuan Long, Lei An and Yue Congyun would all stay on the eastern frontier to train the navy.

Ning Chen was taking only Feng Qizheng, Pan Yucheng and Xiao Yanxi... and a little over two hundred ordinary soldiers.

They would go by ship first, sailing north the whole way. The whole…