Though the army had been divided into three routes, the line Gan Ning took along the Zhang River had only two cities. In reality, one of them was the seat of Hejian Commandery, the largest city with the most troops.
They boarded the inland riverboats prepared long ago and fought their way upstream along the Zhang River. Traveling day and night, they covered the distance of over a hundred li and reached the area near Chengping in just one day.
Chengping was still some distance from the Zhang River, but that did not matter. Gan Ning ordered Yan Yu, who had followed him since the days of the Brocade Sail Bandits, to bring the troops up from behind. He himself led two hundred picked elite soldiers from the army and charged straight toward Chengping.
The two hundred-plus men scattered outside the city did not look like much and attracted no attention at all. As they approached the city gate, Gan Ning drew his halberd and assembled it with a sharp click. Then he drove off with both legs, leaving behind a blur as he charged straight in.
Before the soldiers at the city gate could react, he had already passed straight through them. With a sweep of his halberd, more than a dozen heads flew high into the air amid fountains of blood.
Gan Ning did not even spare them a glance. After charging out through the gate passage, he leaped straight into the air and sped toward the government office at the center of the city.
As the saying went, to capture the bandits, first capture their leader. In his eyes, the county magistrate of Chengping was the bandit. He sprinted through the air at tremendous speed, leaving no one any chance to react. If a general at the