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Book 47 Chapter 4 – Cutting Weeds and Eliminating the Roots

Kou Zhong returned to the camp. The top and under the city walls were brightly lit, defensive works, such as digging the trench and so on, were still progressing under the illumination of torches, it did not stop due to the arrival of the night. The most eye-catching was the construction of eight wooden guard towers surrounding the camp, each about five zhang high, the top had two floors, with eight archers standing guard on each floor.

Ma Chang was directing his men in doing the work, seeing Kou Zhong returning, he could not help asking, “Did you fight with them? Huh? Did Shaoshuai just drink wine?”

Kou Zhong wrapped his arm around his shoulder and pulled him toward the main tent. He said, “The fight will happen sooner or later, but not tonight. Your nose is very good, I only drank three cups!”

Astonished, Ma Chang said, “Li Shimin’s military law has always been extremely strict, no alcohol in the army, where did the wine supply come from?”

Kou Zhong cheerfully replied, “It was Old Cheng, that fellow, who buried the last jar of his wine collection in the ground before they built the camp, ha! His Niang’s! Therefore, during the erection of the command tent, this fellow had to personally supervise it, it must not miss even a hundredth fen [unit length, approx. 1/3cm]. Me and Old Qin, Old Cheng, and Old Luo, four men hid inside the tent, drinking wine in secret, it was so much fun and exciting.”

Ma Chang’s emotion was touched, he said, “Should be similar to when I was young, hiding in the room at night, reading banned books. I won’t see you off! Da Jiangjun [great general] is in the command tent, tonight we must be 120% alert, based on Luo Shixin’s usual style, he would mount sneak attack tonight and burn several tents just as a military show of force, to demonstrate that our military strength is a notch below his.”

Kou Zhong laughed and said, “Don’t worry! Old Luo must give me a bit of face, no matter what. Not that he and I have any kind of friendly relations, strictly speaking, he ought to look at my Moon in the Well, small-scale attacks will only give me small advantages for nothing.”

Ma Chang showed a look of deep reverence; he saluted in respect and said, “Shaoshuai is right, Mojiang completely agree.”

Kou Zhong lifted the tent’s curtain and went in. Yang Gongqing, his body armor and helmet were removed, was sitting on the ground with a small table on both his left and right; the small table on his left had a sandalwood burner, so that the entire tent was full of fragrance, on the table on the other side, there was a pot of hot tea and several cups.

The great general was relaxing. Seeing Kou Zhong came back, he smiled and said, “Come! Have a cup of hot tea first!”

Kou Zhong sat down by the tea table, he accepted the cup that Yang Gongqing poured for him and said with a laugh, “I never thought Yang Gong still know how to enjoy life on the battlefield.”

Yang Gongqing sighed and said, “Sandalwood and fragrant tea are my unique secret recipe to eliminate tension. For me, sleeplessness is the real big taboo for military experts. Later on I will have to relieve Ma Chang for the next shift, how can I do that if I do not rest and relax a little?”

Kou Zhong said, “Yang Gong, please feel free to sleep his Niang’s until the sun is three-pole high; about the next shift, let me take it on your behalf.”

Yang Gongqing shook his head and said, “Outside are the younger generations and soldiers who have been with me for many years, if they found out that I am lazing around and did not share the delight and common hardships with them, their hearts will be very uneasy. Anyway, what’s the result of your talk?”

Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong replied, “What could be the result? The House of Tang’s leader is Li Yuan, the Crown Prince is Li Jiancheng.”

Letting out a cold humph, Yang Gongqing said, “Li Jiancheng!”

Noticing the blazing hatred shooting out of his pair of eyes, Kou Zhong knew that he was recalling old enmity; changing the subject, he said, “But Luo Shixin is indeed a talented field commander with both courage and intelligence, he is not easy to deal with.”

His gaze fell into the deep green tea inside his cup, inwardly he was severely shaken, because he had just realized that he was in an extremely dangerous situation, because he had just lost his confidence to overcome Li Shimin.

Wang Shichong’s ignorance and stubbornness in thinking that he was clever was really beyond Kou Zhong’s expectation. His falling out with Dou Jiande disrupted Kou Zhong’s troops disposition even more, and then after Li Shimin’s victory at Baibi, he still had enough strength to come to the east. Xin’an was lost due to Luo Shixin surrendering to the Tang, coupled with various generals of different surnames plotting to assassinate Wang Shichong. The Zheng Kingdom was beset with difficulties inside and outside, it was just like a sinking ship, giving Kou Zhong the dejected feeling like he was a lone log of wood trying to support everything.

On top of that, earlier Qin Shubao and Cheng Yaojin were doing their best to pull him into the Tang camp, he deeply felt the strict discipline, as well as the high morale of the Tang soldiers, how the Tang generals worshipped and were willing to die for Li Shimin, which destroyed his barely remaining fighting spirit even more. If he kept this kind of mentality, the battle of Cijian would be undoubtedly lost.

Inwardly Kou Zhong’s entire body was covered in cold sweat. In the past, whether it was great battle among magnificent army with thousands of men and horses, or a one-on-one duel against powerful enemy to determine victory, he could use the weak to defeat the strong, entirely relying on his own confidence and enormous will to fight, with which he was able to maintain his Moon in the Well realm, fusing the art of war strategy and saber way into one, and bringing it out to the extreme saturation to strive for victory.

Therefore, he must now recover his confidence to bring about impossible result within the impossible, disadvantageous situation, to regard the battle among magnificent army with thousands of men and horses as a game of chess, only then would he have the hope of victory.

Yang Gongqing’s words entered his ears, “Naturally Luo Shixin is not easy to deal with, but how could Qin Shubao and Cheng Yaojin be easy to deal with? Tomorrow, when Wang Shichong’s main forces arrive, if I do not guess incorrectly, Wang Shichong will force us to attack their camp for him, sacrificing a large number of our men for nothing.”

Laughing involuntarily, Kou Zhong said, “What a big idiot!”

He was about to continue, Ma Chang’s voice came from the outside of the tent, “Mei Huji [beautiful Hu (barbarian) woman] seeks audience with Shaoshuai.”

Kou Zhong and Yang Gongqing exchanged a glance. “Please let her in,” he responded.

Ma Chang said, “She wishes to see Shaoshuai outside the tent.”

Knitting his brows, Yang Gongqing spoke to Kou Zhong, “Go see what she has to say. Be careful, she has always been Wang Shichong’s people.”

Kou Zhong patted Yang Gongqing’s shoulder, telling him not to worry, and then he lifted the tent’s flap and went out.

Ma Chang said, “Shaoshuai, please follow me.” And then he turned around to lead the way.

Ling Longjiao’s beautiful shadow appeared at the perimeter of the camp. Kou Zhong reached out and lightly patted Ma Chang’s shoulder, saying, “Ma Jiangjun, go back to work, let me deal with her.”

After Ma Chang accepted the order and left, Kou Zhong walked over toward Ling Longjiao. Since that night, where she set the Rong Mansion on fire to help him escape, he had not had any contact with here. But for some reason, this moment unexpectedly he felt a bit strange feeling like there was some distance between them. Possibly because he was affected by Yang Gongqing’s remark, or perhaps because of the expression showing on her eyes as she looked at him.

The two finally stood face to face.

The light from the stars and the moon added some mystery to this beautiful woman’s smart and pretty jade countenance.

“Come with me!” Ling Longjiao spoke in low voice. Unleashing her shenfa, she darted into the darkness outside the camp.

Immediately Kou Zhong followed closely behind. They rushed toward the mountain wilderness along the rolling hills more than a dozen li northwest of Cijian. There was a stream inside a dense forest, quietly reflecting the moonlight in the sky above.

Ling Longjiao sat down on a big flat rock by the stream, she also motioned him to sit next to her, before speaking indifferently, “Li Shimin already disembarked from the Yellow River. If they march all through the night, they will be here tomorrow.”

Stunned, Kou Zhong said, “That kid is coming so fast.”

Turning her head at him, the strange light in Ling Longjiao’s pretty eyes flickered, she said, “His fleet consists of eighty big ships, but only forty-three landed on the shore, the other ships continued to sail eastward. My estimate is that Li Shimin’s strength is between thirty to forty thousand men, possibly the other group is going to attack Luoyang.”

Kou Zhong shook his head and said, “The troops on the other forty ships won’t go straight to Luoyang; rather, they are deployed to attack the outlying cities around Luoyang, most likely Huiluo city on the south bank of the Great River, northeast of Luoyang. Not only it supplies Luoyang with the much-needed grains, it is also the fort connecting Luoyang with the Great River. If they capture Huilou, they could link the city with Heyang on the opposite bank to seal the Great River’s waterway to the west, and thus seize control over the Great River. Moreover, they could use it as the reinforcement base to attack the other granary, Luokou. From there, they could advance to Hulao. Li Shimin’s move this time is really formidable.”

Casting her gaze toward the flowing water of the stream, Ling Longjiao spoke softly, “I only hope that this battle of Luoyang will end quickly.”

Surprised, Kou Zhong asked, “Are you hoping Wang Shichong would win, or lose?”

“I don’t want to think about it,” Ling Longjiao replied impatiently.

Astonished, Kou Zhong asked, “Have you talked with Wang Shichong about the Da Ming Zun Jiao?”

Ling Longjiao was suddenly emotionally moved, her breathing grew faster, she shook her head and said, “Don’t ask me. The battle of Luoyang, no matter who wins who loses, I have accomplished Niang’s instructions. Now I just want to go back to my hometown, no longer pay anybody any attention, I won’t care about the Five-Colored Stone even more, since it is beyond my ability anyway.”

Kou Zhong knew that she must have had a big quarrel with Wang Shichong, hence she became this downhearted and frustrated; he spoke softly, “If Jiao Xiaojie wants to leave, why don’t you leave immediately? As long as I, Kou Zhong, don’t die, one day I will get the Five-Colored Stone for Xiaojie, and deliver it into Xiaojie’s hands. Ha! I also want to visit Qiuci.”

Sighing lightly, Ling Longjiao said, “This is not the time for me to leave yet.” Finished speaking, she rose up to her full height.

Kou Zhong accompanied her standing up. He asked in surprise, “Is that all you wanted to tell me?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Ling Longjiao replied, “Isn’t that enough? Originally I was looking for Yang Gongqing, but since you were there, I could not help speaking with you a little bit. Just tell it to Yang Gongqing for me, all right? I am leaving!”

Frowning, Kou Zhong asked, “Where are you going?”

Ling Longjiao’s beautiful eyes emitted blank expression, she shook her head and said, “I don’t know. Be careful, Wang Shichong is harboring malicious intention toward you.”

Kou Zhong watched as her figure disappeared into the depth of the dense forest. Sighing inwardly, he was positive that Li Shimin’s main forces were heading toward Cijian. Tomorrow would be a difficult day.

※ ※ ※

Under cover of the night, Xu Ziling attached himself to the hull of a large ship transporting military supplies, to sneak out of Tongguan via the waterway. When he was out of the Pass, he abandoned ship and went ashore to rush toward Cijian.

His original destination was Luoyang; fortunately he eavesdropped the guards on board and found out that Li Shimin was leading his main forces to attack Cijian, hence he changed direction.

Shi Qingxuan’s beautiful image continuously appeared in his mind, while Shi Feixuan seemed to become an unattainable distant place. The reason could be because he was afraid of Shi Zhixuan, but the higher possibility was because of his concern and his longing for Shi Qingxuan.

Shi Qingxuan was the first woman that he fell in love with. Not that he was without affection toward Shi Feixuan, but due to her special status, he had no choice but to intentionally suppress any feeling involving love between a man and a woman, hence his reverence to her has always been greater than the romantic love between a man and a woman. It was not until Longquan, a place brimming with exotic flavor – that his painful longing toward Shi Feixuan erupted like uncontrollable lava and nearly got out of hand.

With Shi Qingxuan, however, there was no obstacle like Shi Feixuan. Moreover, this good-looking and intelligent beautiful woman’s attractive power was not inferior in any respect to Shi Feixuan’s. Plus she seemed to treat him favorably, and was willing to perform her Xiao art for him, letting him to watch her flowery jade countenance. On top of that, Xu Ziling’s pained and bewildered life experience also made it difficult for him to control his emotion. But when Shi Qingxuan clearly stated her true feelings, it was like a bucket of cold water being poured onto his head, so that he made up his mind at that moment to do his best to forget her; otherwise, he would not have the love he felt toward Shi Feixuan in Longquan.

Shi Feixuan already retuned to Jing Zhai, it was extremely possible that she would never set foot on this mortal world anymore. Longquan has become a memory, which he would never forget for the rest of his life. After returning to the Central Plains, especially when he was in Chang’an, when he was facing the threat from Shi Zhixuan, he constantly remembered Shi Qingxuan, as if his heart, like a withered tree, dead and became ashes, was coming back to life.

Would he ever fight for himself? If he strived hard, would he be able to move Shi Qingxuan’s fragrant heart, to let her put down her intention to spend her last years at the corner of the world somewhere?

Xu Ziling sighed inwardly, he smiled bitterly in his heart. Each family has its own problem. He was well aware that in the affair between men and women, he would never grab the initiative to strive for anything.

That day in Longquan, if Shi Feixuan has uttered the word to sever all relations with him, there was no way that their spiritual love would continue. He did not want to force anybody to do anything; even if he had to bear the greatest pain, to pay the heavy price of only having a shadow in his heart for the rest of his life, he would still bury the pain deep at the bottom of his heart. This was his at-home-wherever-one-is [idiom] character. Shi Feixuan was able to see this spot on.

Ay! Why couldn’t he change for the sake of a woman that he admired? Was he really an idiot?

The first light of dawn appeared on the eastern horizon, a new day finally descended on the mother earth.

Right this moment, he heard the sound of a woman’s tender shout and the clashing weapons, coming from the forest about a li away to his left. Hurriedly he raised a mouthful of qi and rushed over at top speed.

※ ※ ※

In the dim early morning light, Kou Zhong and Yang Gongqing climbed the arrow tower in their camp to look at the enemy’s situation from a higher elevation.

Li Shimin’s main forces were coming continuously from the northwest to enter the big camp. Luo Shixin, Qin Shubao, and Cheng Yaojin divided their troops three ways and advanced toward Cijian, where they laid out defensive battle array to prevent the enemy from launching an attack, taking advantage while Li Shimin’s main forces’ disposition of troops had not steadied their footings.

Kou Zhong lamented, “Were it not for Luo Shixin and others building the fort in here and be an obstacle, last night we could have launched surprise attack to Li kid, to give him a shock.”

Shaking his head, Yang Gongqing said, “Li Shimin’s style of work has always been stable and steady, he always thinks everything through with meticulous care, he would never give the enemy the opportunity to mount a sneak attack on him. Looking at it now, we are already caught in the passive position that can only wait for him to attack, to see how long we can last.”

Kou Zhong was shocked; he knew that Yang Gongqing has lost his confidence and his will to fight, just like he himself last night. If he could not arouse his fighting spirit, most probably before Wang Shichong’s main forces arrived, Cijian already could not be defended.

Laughing calmly, he said, “How could that be the way to achieve victory? Offense is the best defense. Currently Li Shimin is sending the remainder of his strength after the battle of Baibi to the east, their morale is high. If they feel that we are timid, it will only increase their haughtiness, so that they will be even more unstoppable.”

Now Yang Gongqing was really shocked. He looked at him, and spoke in astonishment, “Shaoshuai is not thinking of relying on my five thousand soldiers to take the initiative to challenge the opposite side’s more than fifty thousand military power, is it?”

Kou Zhong burst into loud laughter; revealing a strong confidence, he nodded and said, “Why not? Li Shimin’s main forces barely got here, plus they were jolted and bumped on the waterway, plus they traveled at double speed last night, they have not even had time to eat breakfast yet. This moment, only Old Luo’s troops are able to meet the enemy head-on. We are not without a chance. As long as we fight his Niang’s hard battle, we can prove that the Tang Army is not terrifying at all. Only then will we be able to suppress the enemy’s haughtiness while stirring our side’s morale at the same time. Otherwise, if we give the Li Army one day to recover, and Wang Shichong’s reinforcement will arrive only tonight, it will be very difficult for us to last until tomorrow.”

Smiling wryly, Yang Gongqing said, “Shaoshuai’s analysis makes a lot of sense, but just the number of Old Luo’s troops is already three times ours; if we could not withstand their military power and had to retreat to Cijian, the consequences will be even more unimaginable.”

Kou Zhong cheerfully said, “Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy’s plans. Currently, Old Luo’s troops’ only deployment is to defend against our attack on Li kid’s body weary, strength exhausted expeditionary force; furthermore, they never expect that we dare to dispatch our troops to attack him. Therefore, if we dare to send troops, we already become the wonder troops [troops appearing suddenly (in a raid or ambush)]. In frontal confrontation, naturally we would have to pack our food and leave before finish eating. But openly, our target is the Li Army, yet in the dark, it is a tactic against the Luo Army. As long as we follow my brilliant scheme, we could avoid the important and dwell on the trivial, and lead the enemy by their nose. Although big victory is not possible, small victory can be expected. As long as we could give Li kid a shock, our goal is already achieved.”

Expressionless, Yang Gongqing thought for a moment. He nodded and said, “Shaoshuai’s battle strategy is indeed different from others, it is extremely daring even more. Let’s do it.”

Kou Zhong leaned over and whispered in Yang Gongqing’s ear his marvelous-like-the-heaven’s-opening plan.

The moment he was facing Li Shimin’s main forces pressing down on his territory, he completely recovered his usual self-confidence.

※ ※ ※

The two men and one woman fighting fiercely on the open space outside the forest were all known to Xu Ziling.

The two men were the ‘Extinguished Fire’ Kuo Jie and the ‘Vicious Wind’ Yang Mo of the Da Ming Zun Jiao’s Five Kinds of Demons. The woman was the ‘Beautiful Barbarian Woman’ Ling Longjiao. She was under attack from both sides, who carried out killer strikes, so that she was forced to block to the left and evade to the right, danger seemed to grow without restraint, her tender body already bleeding in many places, it looked like it would be difficult for her to last longer.

Anger welled up in Xu Ziling’s heart, he increased his speed while accumulating the power in his entire body.

The ‘Extinguished Fire’ Kuo Jie’s double sabers and the appearing-quite-scholarly-and-handsome Yang Mo’s long sword were interweaved into an inescapable net, so that no matter how Ling Longjiao strived to break the siege, the sword momentum still forced her inside the narrowing space, rendering her unable to escape. She could only rely on her superior lightness skill to repeatedly escape the opponent’s killer moves.

Kuo Jie was the first to catch a glimpse of Xu Ziling approaching the battle arena with astonishing speed. He had never met Xu Ziling; although he knew that the other side was not easy to deal with, he still did not show any fear as he said, “Go deal with him!”

Yang Mo pulled his sword and pulled back, he turned to meet Xu Ziling flying out of the dense forest. “The night is long, the dreams are many, quickly take her down,” he cried out.

Kuo Jie let out an evil laughter, his double sabers moved like rainstorm to attack Ling Longjiao. The latter saw the newcomer was Xu Ziling, immediately her spirit was greatly aroused, unexpectedly she took the opponent’s offensives one by one.

The sword in Yang Mo’s hands turned into a violent lightning shooting toward Xu Ziling; his power abundant, he was worthy to be a figure within the Five Kinds of Demons.

If even Shi Zhixuan was unable to do anything to him, why would Xu Ziling take Yang Mo’s attack to heart? He stopped abruptly, as if his body was nailed onto the meadow.

Immediately Yang Mo’s countenance changed. Not even in his dream did he ever imagine that somebody could, brought by his momentum while dashing swiftly, completely without any warning, stop as soon as he wanted to stop. Therefore, he completely missed his calculation, while there was not enough time to change move, and the only thing he could do was to brace himself to continue his momentum to stab toward the enemy’s chest.

Suddenly Xu Ziling charged forward again, as if he wanted to use his chest to meet the sword. But suddenly he pressed on to Yang Mo’s left side and waved his palm to sweep across the blade.

A burst of irresistible force pulled Yang Mo forward that he staggered and fell. By the time he realized that the enemy was using borrowing-force-to-discharge-force technique, it was already too late for regrets; he lost his balance and could only stare blankly as Xu Ziling spun around and launched a surprise and violent attack toward Kuo Jie’s back.

Yang Mo knew better than anyone else that Kuo Jie definitely was not going to see tomorrow’s sun. This thought arose in his heart, he immediately converted his falling down momentum to continue rolling forward, he wanted to run away as far as possible, to leave as fast as possible, to flee for his life, leaving Kuo Jie behind.