Ning Chen's voice was flat. "Strip it down to the dirt."

Gaoli had gotten sixty thousand Great Xuan soldiers killed and taken the spoils of two cities.

Stripping Gaotian City down to the dirt was only collecting a little interest up front.

Feng Qizheng nodded. "Right. I'll have someone tell Qin Qiao and the others.

How did Gaoli even dare? Do they have a death wish or something? Laying a hand on our Great Xuan's men and spoils!"

Ning Chen's voice was cold. "Men die chasing money and birds die chasing food. A thief knows stealing is against the law, and if he's caught he goes to prison. He'll still steal anyway, because he's counting on his luck.

Gaoli's the same. Zhong Xiuwen was escorting the spoils of two cities, enough to feed well over a hundred thousand men, maybe two hundred thousand.

Even by the shortest road, it takes fifteen days at the very least to get from Qianfeng City to Rufeng City. You can imagine how much land that is... They could have buried eighty thousand men just about anywhere out there, and no one would ever have known.

If the Great Beginning Pavilion's intelligence network weren't so strong, we'd probably never have found out what happened."

Feng Qizheng snorted. "They're asking to die."

Ning Chen sighed. "Fortune favors the bold. If Little Xixi hadn't gotten to the bottom of it for us, Gaoli would have walked away with the spoils of two cities, easy."

Feng Qizheng nodded. "All right, then I'll take some men and go do the spring cleaning!"

Ning Chen grunted his assent, then sent Xiao Yanxi back to her tent to rest. He stayed on the wall to wait.

It was nearly noon before Yuan Long showed up.

He was bathed in blood and looked exhausted.

He'd been fighting all night, and after that he'd chased the fleeing Gaoli soldiers the whole way.

Ning Chen asked, "Well?"

Yuan Long looked ashamed. "This officer failed you. Piao Jiangyan got away with six or seven thousand cavalry.

They fled into the mountains. The trails there are…