After entering the city, Ning Chen took up temporary quarters in the Governor's residence.

The night he arrived, Ning Chen held a banquet for the army's officers and for Lingzhou's officials, great and small.

Lingzhou's officials were finally able to breathe again.

What they had feared most was that Ning Chen would settle scores with them once he was inside the city. They had never crossed Ning Chen, but they had been the De Emperor's ministers, after all.

A new sovereign brings his own ministers.

But Ning Chen gave no sign of anything of the kind, and they let out a huge sigh of relief.

Lingzhou's officials proposed building a traveling palace for Ning Chen, but Ning Chen turned it down... A big construction project would wear the people out and waste treasure. There was no need for it.

With Lingzhou taken, grain was no longer in short supply. But he had more than three hundred thousand troops under him now, and everything cost money. Whatever could be saved had to be saved.

That night, Ning Chen got blind drunk!

The next day he sobered up.

Pan Yucheng brought him hangover soup. Ning Chen drank it, had something to eat, and sent for Yuan Long, Qi Yuanzhong and the others.

With Lingzhou in his hands, the next step was to take Xiuzhou, which was just as rich.

It wasn't far from Lingzhou.

But Xiuzhou had only thirty thousand troops stationed there. There was no need for him to go in person.

Once he held Xiuzhou, he would have money, grain and men, as much as he wanted.

"Yuan Long, you and Brother Qi go to Xiuzhou. Any problem with that?"

Yuan Long grinned. "Rest assured, Your Majesty. The Xiuzhou troops haven't seen a battlefield in years. Their fighting strength is weak... Your subject will stake his life on a pledge: Xiuzhou taken in fifteen days, or answer to military law!"

Ning Chen smiled. "All right. In three days, you'll lead the Ning'an Army, and Brother Qi will lead fifty thousand of the Xuanjia Army. Then you march."

"Your subject obeys…