Things in Chongzhou were worse than Ning Chen had guessed.

The twenty thousand-odd Zhaohe got inside the city and set to work: rape and robbery, burning and killing and plundering.

Prince Rui had gone mad with wanting the throne. He had robbed his own ancestors' tombs to get it, and not spared his own father's remains. That was how far gone the man was.

The Zhaohe had no humanity in them. They had petitioned again and again to have trade with the Great Xuan restored, and the Xuan Emperor had refused every time. On top of that, Ning Chen had slaughtered fifty thousand of them to the last man at Xiangzhou... So they took every bit of that resentment out on the people of Chongzhou.

Put a degenerate and a pack of animals together and you can imagine the result.

Ning Chen made himself wait six days.

"Lei An, get the cannon ready!"

If there was still no word from Yuan Long tomorrow, he would shell the gate, and let them curse him for it.

"Yes!"

Lei An went to see to it.

The sun was going down in the west. Ning Chen stood in front of the camp, looking out toward Chongzhou.

Where has Yuan Long got to by now?

Outside Chongzhou's south gate, where the mountains were high and the forest thick.

Yuan Long had arrived with his three thousand of the Ning'an Army.

The road had been hard on them. Treacherous mountain tracks, venomous insects and wild beasts, miasma... Just getting this far had cost the Ning'an Army a dozen-odd men.

As losses went, that was light.

A scout came quietly back.

Yuan Long lowered his voice. "Report!"

The scout said, "General Yuan, there aren't many of the enemy up on the wall, but the gate is shut fast. Forcing our way in would be hard."

Yuan Long frowned slightly. "Then it'll have to be my lord prince's trick!"

Ning Chen had said they could pose as Prince Rui's reinforcements, and might get into the city that way.

"Pass the word. Everybody out of armor!"

The armor…