"Greetings, Your Majesty!"

As soon as they heard Ning Chen had come to the camp, Qi Yuanzhong and the others dropped what they were doing and hurried over to pay their respects.

Ning Chen raised a hand. "On your feet, all of you!"

They thanked him and stood.

Ning Chen asked, "How are the preparations coming?"

Qi Yuanzhong said, "Rest assured, Your Majesty. Nothing will hold up tomorrow's march."

Yuan Long spoke up right after him. "The Ning'an Army is ready to go at any time!"

Ning Chen gave a slight nod.

Then, with Qi Yuanzhong and the others at his side, Ning Chen walked through the camp and then left!

The next day, the army set out!

The war drums thundered.

Ning Chen didn't take the whole army with him.

He took only a hundred thousand men, plus the Ning'an Army and the modao army.

The northern frontier pass had a hundred and sixty thousand troops in all.

Ning Chen had officially renamed that whole force the Xuanjia Army.

The hundred thousand men, an endless column stretching across the land, pushed on toward Lingzhou.

They didn't march fast, because Ning Chen had to give Prince Wu time.

Several days passed in a flash.

The Lingzhou camp.

A soldier carrying a food box came to a tent.

It was Prince Wu's tent.

The guards outside the tent stopped the soldier bringing the meal.

They opened the food box and checked it carefully, then searched the soldier too. Only once they were sure there was nothing wrong did they let him in.

Every one of those guards was Xun Ruiming's man.

On the surface, Lingzhou's garrison commander was Prince Wu, but the one who really held power was the Army Supervisor, Xun Ruiming.

The De Emperor didn't trust Prince Wu. There was no way he'd feel easy handing a hundred thousand troops over to him, especially with ten thousand of them equipped with firearms.

So Prince Wu was watched very closely.

When Prince Wu saw the soldier bringing in his food, his eyes lit up a little.

He knew this man.…