The Xuan Emperor laughed out loud. "Xiliang massed two hundred thousand troops to stop Ning Chen at Shengguang City... and Ning Chen beat them so badly they fell apart."

"Two hundred thousand men. Seventy thousand dead, twenty thousand run off, and every one of the rest taken prisoner."

"Xiliang no longer has the troops to stand against our Great Xuan's soldiers."

The civil and military officials looked at one another, too shocked to speak.

This time Ning Chen had crushed Xiliang completely!

The officials had heard before that Ning Chen meant to make His Majesty the common lord of all under heaven, and they had taken it for bragging. But the way things stood now, it might very well come true.

Li Hanru stepped out of the ranks and bowed. "Congratulations, Your Majesty, congratulations, Your Majesty... If Xiliang has any sense, it will offer up a letter of surrender now and call itself a vassal."

"Congratulations, Your Majesty, congratulations, Your Majesty!"

The whole court took up the cry.

This time even those tiresome censors were won over. They couldn't find a single thing to pick at.

The Xuan Emperor was overjoyed. He couldn't stop grinning and didn't care in the least about his dignity.

Xiliang's imperial house was in a panic.

A hundred thousand Great Xuan troops were camped right outside Dingtian City.

Everyone in the imperial house understood that if they didn't accept Ning Chen's terms, Xiliang was finished!

Xiliang had nothing left that could stop the Great Xuan's cavalry.

In the court hall of Xiliang's palace.

The civil and military officials drooped like eggplants after a frost, every one of them hanging his head.

Xiliang's ruler sat in his yellow robe, his noble face slack with defeat.

He hadn't been able to eat or sleep lately, and he looked utterly haggard.

He had been on the throne only a few short years.

When he came to the throne, he had been full of great ambitions. He had wanted to push Xiliang's borders outward and bring the whole world under one rule, with every land bowing to him. (TL…