Before Kong Yongchun could get his feet under him, Liang Jingwu came over in long strides and brought a hand like a palm-leaf fan down hard on the top of his head.

Not everybody can take a slap from Liang Jingwu.

Thud!!!

The one blow had Kong Yongchun seeing stars, with a humming in his skull, and he sat down hard on the ground.

Liao Xingwen stepped up and kicked him hard on top of it, hard enough to send him several meters through the air.

Kong Yongchun let out a wail!

And that was not the end of it. Even Pan Yucheng, always the steady, cool-headed one, came up and joined in this time, and kicked him several meters again.

“Old Chen, hold on a minute!”

Feng Qizheng, who had been on the point of showing off to Chen Chong, took to his heels, ran over and stamped twice on Kong Yongchun’s belly, hard.

Kong Yongchun clutched his stomach and screamed in pain!

It was a good while before he got his breath back.

He stared at Ning Chen and the rest with poison in his eyes. “You… You dare beat an officer appointed by the court? This minister will not let you off. I will certainly impeach you before His Majesty—”

Kong Yongchun did not finish. His voice stopped short, and his whole body went rigid.

The poison in his eyes turned to terror.

Because Ning Chen had brought out a sheaf of secret letters, and on them was written… To be opened by the King of the Left Court in person!

Ning Chen walked up in front of him and said sharply, “Supervisor Kong. Do these look familiar?”

Kong Yongchun shivered.

He put on a show of calm. “Fa, familiar? What would be familiar?”

“What’s this? You don’t know your own secret letters to the King of the Left Court?”

Kong Yongchun swallowed. He made himself sound contemptuous. “This minister has no idea at all what you are talking about.”

“You animal… An officer of the Great Xuan, and you conspired with a foreign enemy and had our own Great Xuan commanders murdered… Kong Yongchun, did the dogs eat your conscience?”

Liang Jingwu was shaking with rage, and he roared it until his voice tore.

“Slander. This is slander… Liang Jingwu, slandering an officer appointed by the court is past forgiving. I will impeach you before His Majesty.”

Liang Jingwu roared, “Death is on top of you and your mouth is still hard… Kong Yongchun, Ning Chen took men clean through the North Royal Court and captured the King of the Left Court alive, and these secret letters were taken out of the King of the Left Court’s royal tent.”

“You animal, you’re a dead man. You’ll be given a thousand cuts.”

Kong Yongchun went rigid all at once, his eyes blank.

Then, suddenly, like a man gone mad: “Impossible… There is no possible way he took the King of the Left Court alive. You’re bluffing me, and this minister does not believe it.”

“Don’t think you can slander this minister with cheap tricks like these… This minister will not be taken in.”

Ning Chen smiled coldly, took out one of the letters and opened it. “Supervisor Kong. In the lower right corner of this letter there’s a small hole punched with an embroidery needle. What does that stand for?”

Kong Yongchun’s face was a dreadful white, the color gone out of it entirely.

“This minister has no idea what you’re talking about. Don’t think you can slander this minister — that isn’t even my handwriting.”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “It doesn’t matter that you won’t admit it… When we reach the capital, in the audience with His Majesty, the King of the Left Court will say all of it himself. His Majesty will decide then.”

“Somebody. Take this dog for me. Search the Army Supervisor’s residence and seize it, and hold everyone connected with him… When we’re back in the capital, we wait on His Majesty’s judgment!”

There was no blood left in Kong Yongchun’s face — the face of a man who had buried both his parents.

Still he held out. “I am the Army Supervisor appointed by His Majesty. This is slander… This minister does not accept it. Does not accept it—”

Ning Chen unhooked the blade at his waist and brought it down on the man’s head.

Thud!!!

Kong Yongchun screamed like a pig on the block.

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “There’ll come a time when you accept it!”

The Army Supervisor’s residence was searched and seized.

Everyone connected with him was taken into custody.

Ning Chen looked at Chen Chong. “Old Chen. Watch Kong Yongchun close for me. This man matters enormously, and he must not be allowed to die.”

Chen Chong nodded, then asked urgently, “What you said just now, about cutting clean through the North Royal Court and taking the King of the Left Court alive — that was to frighten Kong Yongchun, wasn’t it?”

Ning Chen shook his head, smiling. “It’s true!”

Chen Chong’s eyes went wide all at once, and he stood there stunned.

Feng Qizheng said, preening, “Old Chen, what did you think we disappeared for a month to do?”

“Ning Chen took us a thousand miles at a run to raid the North Royal Court, and captured the King of the Left Court alive, and the goods we seized are past counting.”

“That fight was so damned satisfying. Not one of us was wounded, we killed better than three thousand of them, and we took the King of the Left Court alive.”

Chen Chong’s eyes were red with envy, and he howled out loud with longing.

“Why didn’t you take me? Why didn’t you take me—”

Feng Qizheng said, preening, “Ning Chen said you had parents above you and a wife and children below you, and this trip was too dangerous, so we didn’t bring you along to play.”

Chen Chong howled with rage and jumped up and down where he stood.

“So what if I have parents above me? So what if I have a wife and children below me? Even if I died for it, would the brothers not look after my parents and my wife and children?”

“Cutting clean through the North Royal Court, taking the King of the Left Court alive — a feat that size and you left me out of it. Are we brothers or aren’t we? Are we brothers or aren’t we—”

Ning Chen clapped him on the shoulder and said, smiling, “All right! We got through it because you had Kong Yongchun nailed down and never gave him a chance to send word out. The first credit ought to be yours.”

“Don’t worry. There’s a fortune falling out of the sky, and your share of it is in there.”

Chen Chong howled, “Bullshit! This will be written into the histories, and my name will carry its fragrance for a hundred generations… I don’t want a fortune falling out of the sky. I want to be a hero of the Great Xuan.”

Ning Chen could not hold it in. He kicked him.

“What are you howling about? Your name will be in the histories, count on it.”

Chen Chong’s eyes burned. “Really?”

Ning Chen nodded, and then said, “But you’d better keep Kong Yongchun watched for me. If he dies, what you leave in the histories is a bad name.”

Chen Chong thumped his chest and swore to it. “Don’t you worry. From this moment on I’ll watch him around the clock, and I won’t so much as loosen my belt.”

Ning Chen and the others went back to the general’s residence.

Liang Jingwu said, “General Ning, you’ve had a hard road. Rest well! I have to get a memorial off to the court right away.”

Ning Chen waved a hand and said, smiling, “Let me write this memorial!”

Liang Jingwu blinked, then said teasingly, “What’s this? Afraid I’ll steal the credit?”

Ning Chen laughed and said:

“Ning here isn’t afraid General Liang will steal the credit. It’s only that this business is tangled, and there’s a great deal caught up behind it.”

“Kong Yongchun is one Army Supervisor. He doesn’t have the nerve to sell out to the enemy and betray the country on his own. There is certainly somebody behind him directing it, and that man must stand high and hold power.”

“If General Liang sends the memorial up, then the moment the man behind Kong Yongchun catches wind of it, he will certainly move.”

“So I have to write this memorial, and it can’t go to the Grand Secretariat… I’ll have it sent straight to the Inspectorate.”

Liang Jingwu nodded slightly. “General Ning thinks it through better than I do. I was making the thing too simple!”

“Good. Then I’ll trouble General Ning with the memorial!”

Ning Chen teased him. “General Liang isn’t afraid I’ll steal the credit?”

Liang Jingwu laughed out loud. “How about this. Count the whole of this credit as yours… As long as you’ll stay at Beilin Pass, I’m willing to serve as your second.”

“With you holding Beilin Pass, I believe that in a few more years you could lead us all the way to the Tuoluo capital.”

Ning Chen began to laugh. “I still have a great deal to deal with in the capital… When I’ve dealt with it, I’ll come to Beilin Pass, and we’ll fight our way to the Tuoluo capital together and take the Tuoluo sovereign alive.”

Liang Jingwu said, laughing, “Then that’s a promise?”

Ning Chen nodded. “That’s a promise!”

“So when has General Ning decided to go back to the capital?”

Ning Chen said, “Tomorrow!”

Liang Jingwu started. “So soon?”

Ning Chen nodded. “In war, speed is everything. The memorial goes out and I go for the capital at the same time… Counted up that way, we’ll be no more than a few days behind it.”

“Then even if the man behind Kong Yongchun gets word, it will be too late for him to act!”

Liang Jingwu nodded slightly, full of admiration for how closely Ning Chen thought a thing through.

“In that case, we’re drinking properly tonight… You’ve been at Beilin Pass all this time and we still haven’t had a proper drink together.”

Ning Chen nodded, smiling. “Good!”

Ning Chen went back to his room and wrote two memorials.

One to Geng Jing.

One to Old General Chen.

That way, even if one side ran into trouble, the news would still be sure to reach His Majesty.

Those two memorials cost Ning Chen a good deal of time.

He racked his brains over them and polished and polished, working to make the soldiers’ part in it as large as he could.

When he had finished, Ning Chen picked them up and looked them over, and nodded, satisfied.

Knock, knock, knock!!!

A knocking came suddenly at the door.

“Come in!”

The door opened and Pan Yucheng walked in.

Ning Chen stuffed the memorials into his coat in a hurry.

“Old Pan. Something you wanted?”

Pan Yucheng looked at him. “The memorial’s written?”

Ning Chen nodded.

“Let me see it?”

Ning Chen frowned. “Old Pan, that’s not very sensible of you… This is a memorial to His Majesty. How could I hand it around for anyone to read?”

Pan Yucheng said nothing. He looked at Ning Chen for a while, and then asked slowly, “How much did you take?”

Ning Chen looked at him with no idea what he meant. “Meaning what?”

“Don’t play the fool. A little doesn’t matter… but you can’t take much. This is a capital crime! Tell me honestly. How much did you take?”

Ning Chen shrugged. “Half.”

Pan Yucheng’s face changed.

“Have you gone mad?”

Ning Chen smiled a little. “I haven’t gone mad… All of it came out of the soldiers fighting in their own blood and paying with their lives. It ought to belong to us.”

“Look at those great men and grandees in the capital, every one of them fat in the head and the guts… and our soldiers carry their heads tucked in their waistbands and guard the Great Xuan with their lives, and they can’t even manage a wife and children.”

“When I went out I promised them all that every one of them would get a wife and be able to buy a house.”

Pan Yucheng frowned. “This action will be written into the histories… His Majesty is certain to give out rewards when the time comes.”

Ning Chen said, “His Majesty ought to give out rewards, and I ought to get my soldiers a little something too.”

“Not to put it prettily — spread out among the soldiers, what His Majesty gives out won’t come to much of anything each.”

“If we hadn’t cut clean through the North Royal Court, never mind those dozens of chests of gold and silver, the five thousand and more warhorses, the tens of thousands of head of cattle and sheep… the court wouldn’t have gotten so much as a sheep dropping out of it. Letting them have half is already as far as I’ll go.”

Pan Yucheng frowned. “But the moment anybody finds out, it’s a capital crime!”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Have I committed so few capital crimes? If they’d kill us over a small thing like this, is the Great Xuan still worth being loyal to?”

Ning Chen pointed at his own head. “One petty Army Supervisor could put up fifty thousand taels of gold for this head of mine… He got seven Great Xuan commanders killed, and every time it was tens of thousands of taels of gold going out.”

“And my soldiers take a share of the gold and silver they bought back with their own lives. What’s wrong with that?”

“Old Pan, you’ve been in the Inspectorate more than ten years. Even if His Majesty is merciful and strikes Miss Nanzhi off the slave register — I’m asking you, do you have enough silver to buy her out?”

Pan Yucheng was silent.

He could not put his hands on that much silver.

Even if His Majesty were merciful and struck Miss Nanzhi off the slave register and allowed her to buy herself out… at what Nanzhi was worth, two hundred thousand taels at the least, he could not put his hands on that much silver all at once either.

Ning Chen smiled a little. “Old Pan, in a man’s whole life, as long as he doesn’t go crooked on the big things, a small wrong now and then is worth forgiving.”

“All right, stop turning it over! If anything comes of it, I’ll carry it myself… Come on, let’s go find General Liang and drink. We go back to the capital tomorrow.”

“Honestly, I miss Yudie… You must be missing Miss Nanzhi too. Tell me, how far have the two of you actually gotten? Have you gone to bed or haven’t you?”

Pan Yucheng set his face. “Crude!”

“Holy shit… No. No. Don’t tell me there’s a man alive who’s been this long and still hasn’t gotten into that girl’s bed?”

Ning Chen said it in that snide voice of his, and Pan Yucheng’s fists were clenched with rage.

“Ning Chen. How well do you hold your liquor?”

“About average.”

Pan Yucheng said “Oh,” and then said, “Come on, then. General Liang has the wine laid out already.”

(End of Chapter 167)