Ning Chen and Feng Qizheng reached the stables without trouble.

The bailiffs on night watch were all in the front courtyard. There were watchmen in the rear courtyard too, but not many, and they were on the outer wall, worried about thieves coming over it from outside.

For men with Ning Chen's and Feng Qizheng's skill, getting to the stables was easy enough.

They dealt with the few guards on the back gate and rode out of it.

The crossroads of Yangping County were still watched at night.

Ning Chen and Feng Qizheng wasted no words on it. They went straight at the constables, put them down in short order, and rode off.

"Ning Chen, where do we go now?"

Ning Chen thought about it. "Two ways to do it. One is Xiuzhou. By the time we get there it'll be first light, and we slip out of the city in the crowd."

"Two is we go and find Old Gao and Old Chen and hide in the mountains."

"If it were you, which would you take?"

Feng Qizheng thought it over. "I'd say we go and find Old Gao and Old Chen. We hide in the mountains and wait for the Chief to bring the musket battalion."

Ning Chen nodded slightly. "That could work. But we don't know how things stand with Old Pan. I'm worried he's stuck inside Xiuzhou and can't get out."

"Never mind. We'll do it your way and go find Old Gao and the others."

They rode all night.

The two of them came to the place where they had met the hill bandits.

By now it was light.

The two of them went up into the mountains.

Before long they found the marks Gao Ziping and Chen Chong had left.

The mountains here were high and the woods were thick, and the tracks were hard going.

The two of them wandered around and finally, halfway through the afternoon, came upon Gao Ziping and the rest.

It was not that Ning Chen found them. The men Gao Ziping had posted as lookouts found him.

Gao…