Ning Chen waved a hand. "Yuan Long, see the guests out."

"Gentlemen, if you please."

Li Wenshu and He Guanyu left with their nerves in knots.

Yuan Long drove them out of the camp... no, saw them out.

The two of them took a party of soldiers and traveled through the night back toward Haizhong City.

"Staff Officer Li, has General Ning accepted our surrender or not?"

He Guanyu asked the question on the road, sick with worry.

Li Wenshu opened his mouth, then shook his head and smiled bitterly. "I have no idea either."

"Then what do we do now?"

"What else can we do? Go back and report to General Lu first."

He Guanyu frowned, uneasy. "I keep feeling General Ning has no intention of accepting our surrender."

Li Wenshu looked no less worried. "We will talk about it once we are back."

Elsewhere, Yuan Long returned to Ning Chen's tent.

"General Ning, they have gone!"

Ning Chen only grunted.

Feng Qizheng curled his lip. "A pack of soft eggs who cling to their own skins."

Yuan Long looked at Ning Chen. "Does the General mean to accept their surrender?"

"We will see when we get to Haizhong City. That will depend on how they conduct themselves."

Yuan Long said, "Did the General hold back from agreeing at once for fear this is a ruse of Lu Ming's to draw us in?"

Ning Chen gave a cold smile. "Ruse or no ruse, in three days our army will be under his walls."

Yuan Long thought about it and had to agree.

The twenty thousand men of Haizhong City could not possibly hold off the Ning'an Army.

"All right. Go and rest. We march again in the morning."

"This officer takes his leave!"

Two days later Ning Chen's army was not far from Haizhong City.

At the same time, far away in Xiangzhou, that old rogue Prince Rui had word that Linhai City had fallen and that Xiang Xiuming had died in battle.

Ning Chen had reckoned, when he sent Banyuan Guangxi's head to Prince Rui, that the news…