The runners ran, carrying Ning Chen’s words to every man’s ear, word for word and clearly.

The soldiers who had followed Zhao Bokang and had already thrown down their weapons looked at the Great Xuan’s banners streaming in the wind, then turned and looked back inside the pass.

Behind them was their home.

They had gone wrong once already. They could not go wrong again.

Ning Chen had said it: win or lose this battle, what they had done would be wiped clean off the slate.

Thinking that they might yet see their parents and their wives and children again, and that even if they died they could go back to their own soil and come home in spirit, they picked up their weapons again without hesitating.

Ning Chen was right about one thing. How their own people settled things among themselves was their own business, and no outsider was going to bully them for it.

The archers formed up on their own and went forward with the crossbow battalion.

The infantry and the cavalry did the same.

Ning Chen watched it and let out a long breath of relief.

If trouble had broken out among his own men at a moment like that, there would have been no point fighting the battle. They would have lost it beyond question.

Luckily the men of the Great Xuan proved themselves and knew which of those mattered more.

Ning Chen came down off the wall with Feng Qizheng and Pan Yucheng.

Lei An brought Diaochan over.

Ning Chen swung up into the saddle, bearing the pain.

“Lei An, have you found Zhao Bokang’s armory and grain stores?”

Lei An nodded. “Found them!”

“Take men at once and move the armory and the grain stores inside the pass.”

“Yes!”

Lei An took his orders and went.

“Someone go and tell Mu Anbang to come to me.”

A runner went off at speed, and before long he had brought Mu Anbang.

Ning Chen said, “Mu Anbang, take ten thousand archers and lie in wait on the wall. Wait for my order!”

“Yes!”

The men had just come through a great battle and were worn out.

And what they faced was a hundred and fifty thousand Wu troops, with the Wu Kingdom’s elite Divine Wolf Army among them.

If the fighting went against them, they could fall back inside the pass, and the ten thousand archers under Mu Anbang on the wall could cover the retreat.

Ning Chen thought about it and said, “Old Feng, go to the baggage train and take the master craftsmen with you. I don’t care what they do — get that gate repaired as fast as it can be done.”

The Wu had no cannon. Breaking that gate open would not be easy for them.

“Right, leave it to me!”

Feng Qizheng rode away.

Ning Chen and Pan Yucheng rode for the front.

Pan Yucheng’s brows were knotted tight. “This one is going to be hard to fight.”

Ning Chen gave a slight nod. It was going to be a brutal one.

“Zhao Bokang, the fool. He had only a hundred and forty thousand men and he dared work with the Wu Kingdom. A hundred and fifty thousand Wu troops could swallow his men whole and leave him with nothing at all.”

“Once the Wu had Zhao Bokang’s troops, that would be close to three hundred thousand men. By the time the court heard of it there would be no time to move troops or appoint officers, and with Mangzhou lost they could fight their way from Lingzhou straight through to the capital.”

Pan Yucheng said it with a black look on his face. Steady as he always was, he could not keep the curse back.

Ning Chen shook his head. “Zhao Bokang is no fool. He has been fighting wars half his life. There is no chance he did not see that.”

“He has been out of his senses for a long time. From the moment he rebelled there was no road back for him.”

“My guess is he meant to trade the hundred and forty thousand men under him to the Wu woman emperor for his own rank and riches.”

Pan Yucheng was startled. “You mean he meant to hand those hundred and forty thousand men over to the Wu Kingdom?”

Ning Chen glanced at him. “What other choice did he have?”

“He went over to the Wu Kingdom, yes — but how could the Wu woman emperor tolerate his holding a hundred-odd thousand men in his own hand?”

“He could never come back to the Great Xuan. Better to hand the command over to the Wu woman emperor meekly himself. That way he keeps his old life and buys his rank and riches with it.”

Pan Yucheng’s face darkened and he said nothing.

The two of them came up to the front.

The scouts kept sending word back.

“Report — the Wu army is less than six miles from ours.”

“Report — the Wu army is less than five miles from ours.”

“Report — the Wu army has made camp three miles off.”

Qi Yuanzhong rode up beside Ning Chen. “That’s strange. Why has the Wu army made camp?”

Ning Chen frowned. It was, at that. By any reasonable measure, the Wu scouts should long since have had a clear picture of the frontier and known that Ning Chen’s men had just come through a great battle and that men and horses alike were worn out. This was the best moment there would be to attack.

To pitch camp now — what was that supposed to mean?

Pan Yucheng said, “The Wu army has come a long way. They must be worn out too. Is it so strange that they should make camp and build their strength?”

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes and shook his head slightly. “No. That is certainly not the reason.”

“When we got word of them, the Wu army was less than ten miles from us. Which means that while we were fighting Zhao Bokang they were not far off at all, and at a forced march they could certainly have come up in time to support him.”

“But the Wu did not do it. They arrived after the battle instead, which means they were not moving fast — they may even have stopped to rest for a while. How could they be tired enough to need to build their strength?”

“And they have not attacked us while men and horses are worn out. They have stopped instead. That does not make sense.”

Yuan Long and the others were puzzled too, and could not figure it out.

“Report — the Wu have sent out a body of cavalry, about a hundred, closing on our army fast.”

The scouts sent word again.

Everyone was more baffled than before.

Even Ning Chen was at a loss. The Wu had sent out a small body of cavalry, coming straight at their army. What was this for?

With the word the scouts kept sending back, the small Wu cavalry force was very close to them now.

After a little while, a hundred-strong body of cavalry came into Ning Chen’s view.

The hundred riders halted about a hundred paces from the army.

At their head was a big man, thickly built with knotted muscles, a full beard covering half his face.

The man was so massive that the warhorse under him looked a size too small for him.

“I am Shi Shan, commander in chief of the Wu Kingdom’s Divine Wolf Army. By Her Majesty’s command I come to see General Ning Chen of the Great Xuan.”

The bearded man was called Shi Shan, and his voice was like a great bell.

Ning Chen rode a few steps forward.

Shi Shan looked Ning Chen over on his horse, and showed not a trace of contempt for Ning Chen’s youth or for the fact that he was not a big man.

He cupped his fists in both hands and called out, “You are General Ning?”

“I am!”

Shi Shan said, “Her Majesty is a mile and a half ahead. She has laid on a banquet and invites General Ning to come.”

Ning Chen was taken aback. For a moment he could not make out what the play was.

Shi Shan went on, “General Ning may set his mind at rest. Counting us, Her Majesty has brought only two hundred men. If General Ning is afraid, he may bring a thousand with him to the meeting.”

Ning Chen frowned. A mile and a half ahead — that was exactly halfway between the two armies.

The Wu woman emperor had brought only two hundred men. That was a way of saying she meant no harm.

But why would the woman emperor invite him to a banquet?

Shi Shan’s voice rang out again like a bell. “I have delivered Her Majesty’s words. Whether General Ning has the nerve to come is for General Ning to decide.”

“Her Majesty said she will wait for General Ning six hours and no longer. If General Ning is afraid and dares not come, then in six hours the Wu army will be at your walls.”

“General Ning — I take my leave!”

With that, Shi Shan turned his horse and rode off at a gallop with his men.

Ning Chen was left with his forehead filled with question marks.

Pan Yucheng rode forward. “Ning Chen, you can’t go. The Wu woman emperor means you no good at all.”

Yuan Long, Qi Yuanzhong and the rest rode up too, and all of them urged Ning Chen not to go.

(End of Chapter 278)