The Great Xuan, Yangzhou City.

After a month and a half of moving troops into place, fifty thousand men were now massed there.

The old Prince Xiang had been the first to reach Yangzhou City.

He had brought thirty thousand of the Dragon Guard, with muskets and cannon.

Prince Wu and Feng Qizheng hadn't arrived yet.

One was coming from the western frontier and the other from the eastern, both cutting across the country from far away... It would be a month at the earliest before they reached Yangzhou City.

But the thirty thousand troops of the Lingzhou garrison were almost there.

Once the men Prince Wu and Feng Qizheng were bringing arrived too, that would make a hundred and eighty thousand, with muskets and cannon.

Yuan Long was in grave danger.

He had heard, of course.

On the southern frontier, everyone was on edge.

The court had cut off their money and grain.

Now was the moment for Ning Chen to cast his line. Who took the bait was up to Heaven.

The game Ning Chen had set up wasn't aimed at anyone in particular.

He was only fishing. Whether Nanyue or the Gaoli Kingdom bit didn't matter.

Whoever bit was going to end up in a very bad way.

Everything was in place now. All he needed was the right moment.

So, in Yuan Long's name, Ning Chen had Xiao Yanxi send defection letters to every side.

It didn't matter who.

Yuan Long would come over, with the frontier's seventy thousand men, to whoever was willing to supply the southern frontier army with money and grain. He would throw open the gates and hand over the southern frontier.

Seventy thousand men, and among them the Ning'an Army, unstoppable on the battlefield.

Most important of all, help Yuan Long and he would open the frontier gates for you... It was as good as Yuan Long tearing a hole in the Great Xuan with his own hands and handing it over.

Ning Chen had dropped dead, and the fierce troops and generals under him had rebelled... The Great Xuan was…