Book 51 Chapter 9 – Secretly Crossing the Wei River at Chenchang
Translator: Foxs' Wuxia
Xu Ziling stood on a hill by the canal, the city of Liangdu was not too far behind him, the sky above him was full of stars, the Ten-thousand-Li Spots was eating grass by his side.
Kou Zhong was still in the city, presiding over one military affairs meeting after another, doing his utmost to properly arrange everything before setting off tomorrow. After participating in the meeting to discuss the entire operation, Xu Ziling took the Ten-thousand-Li Spots and rode him out of the city to get fresh air and to rest, to enjoy the serenity and peace of being alone.
His mind wandered to Shi Feixuan. What would this fairy-like beauty think of him? Now he has been drawn into Kou Zhong’s great undertaking of contending for the hegemony over the world. If he had the choice, he definitely would not want to do this, because it was not in line with his leisurely-cloud-wild-crane, did-not-wish-to-struggle-against-anybody character. However, because of his deep brotherly affection to Kou Zhong, and for the sake of the common people in the world’s happiness, he simply could not watch with folded arm.
To a certain extent, he was also a little disappointed with Li Shimin, with his attitude of putting his family and clan first, which he did not agree with the most. If Li Shimin was willing to turn his head to oppose his family, which had been corrupted by the demonic school and the Tujue people, he would have done everything in his power to persuade Kou Zhong to support Li Shimin. Unfortunately, things turned out contrary to the way he wished [idiom]; Li Shimin clearly expressed his loyalty to his family, and that he would never let Kou Zhong off. This had left him with no other choice.
Would Shi Feixuan understand him?
Shi Qingxuan should have arrived at her new residence in the vicinity of the Demonic Emperor Temple by now and began her new life of living in seclusion. How he was so eager to put aside everything in front of him and go over there to accompany her. If she still refused him, he would never blame her, he might only blame the Nature for playing tricks on people. Since she chose the unmarried life, he must respect her choice.
Earlier, Kou Zhong revealed his weak side. Not only Xu Ziling sympathized with him, he even understood him better. The pressure of war was indeed terrifying, because it involved people in all walks of life, most of them were innocent and pitiful common people! Any decision that a leader might make would bring about different harm to them. Just like Kou Zhong once said, war was a cruel reality to see whose injury was heavier, who would be the first unable to endure it.
Wang Xuanshu’s description of the terrible situation in Luoyang was something that ordinary people would not be able to bear, they would not be willing to witness even more, yet Kou Zhong was forced to confront all of these.
Quite possibly Shi Qingxuan’s intention to live in seclusion was his only happy place, his only refuge. However, he had to stay in the sludge and take part in the callous conflict where it was either to kill or be killed.
The sound of hoof beats was coming from afar but quickly getting near. Xu Ziling did not need to turn around to look, because he recognizes the Thousand-Li Dream hoof beats.
There was also the sound of something splitting the air coming from the sky, followed by Wuming landed on his shoulder. This spirited falcon, other than Kou Zhong, also obeyed his orders.
Xu Ziling reached out to lightly stroke the soft feathers on Wuming’s back. Kou Zhong came to his side and spoke excitedly, “Good kid! Unexpectedly you are hiding in here living in ease and comfort, while I was so miserable over there! The meetings really made my head spins that at the end I completely at a loss of what I was talking about.”
With the wind on his face, Xu Ziling took a deep breath and then asked, “What important decision did you make?”
Kou Zhong replied, “Xuan Yong will be responsible to lead the overall feign attack on Jiangdu.”
“You don’t need me?” Xu Ziling asked in astonishment.
Kou Zhong replied, “To kill a chicken, no need to use a butcher’s cleaver. Starting tomorrow, our Shao Shuai Army begin the mobilization; we will assemble the navy and field army at Gaoyou, and prepare the equipment to besiege a city. This is called to threaten the east and strike to the west. While Li Zitong is unclear of what is true and what is false in our army, perhaps just like we expected, he might concentrate Yanling’s provisions and troops in Jiangdu, so we can spit into our hands and capture Yanling. This is a battle that does not need to be fought; it will be just another dispatching-troops-transferring-generals military exercise, to give Xuan Yong another opportunity to command Shao Shuai Army in water and land, amphibious combat.”
Knitting his brows, Xu Ziling said, “What do I do then? You don’t want me to accompany you to Luoyang, do you?”
Kou Zhong laughed and said, “How could I be such an inadequate brother, knowing full well that you don’t want any frontal confrontation against Li kid, yet I still force you to fight him to the death?”
Xu Ziling said with a sneer, “Your mood is indeed swinging greatly up and down; just now you looked like you wanted to die, but now you are fully content with your achievements, acting with optimism of victory within your grasp.”
Kou Zhong replied with a bitter smile, “Because I know that if I don’t pull myself together, I would wear myself out and wear others out! The Li kid on the battlefield can’t possibly chat and laugh with you, he may be more ruthless, mean, and merciless than anybody, and that might be the reason why he is still so successful up until now. Jiancheng, Yuanji, if they don’t have Tujue people and the demonic school, respectively, supporting them behind their back, perhaps they would have been assassinated by the men that he dispatched.”
Xu Ziling sighed and said, “I hope he is not that kind of vicious and merciless person like you said, too bad that the fact is really not so.”
Kou Zhong said, “Getting back to the main point, according to our rough estimate, the first batch of the food and daily necessities that the transporting-grain troops that Yang Gong and I lead will be able to deliver to Luoyang, even at maximum capacity, will, at most, be enough to feed Luoyang’s troops and common people only for ten days, and then we need to continue sending food.”
Xu Ziling understood suddenly, “You want me to be in charge of supervising the food delivery,” he said.
Kou Zhong said, “The first time we are delivering provisions, our chance of success is the highest. First of all, it is because of the threatening the east and striking to the west scheme, and then because Li kid has not been alerted, and the Tang Army still has not had enough time to dig moats and build ramparts all around Luoyang. Moreover, Xiaodi has Wuming to help find the path, we could evade the enemy’s eyes and ears, to break through the siege and enter the city.”
Xu Ziling agreed, “Makes sense!” he said.
Kou Zhong continued, “But when Li kid is alerted, not only transporting-the-grain operations will become increasingly difficult, the more urgent concern is that Li kid might send Li Shiji to attack our cities and towns. Therefore, not only we have to constantly supply Luoyang’s necessities, we will also have to deal with Li Shiji, who is using Hulao as his main base of operations to send his troops to attack. Under the circumstances, only Ling Shao is able to bear this heavy responsibility.”
And then, lightly patted Wuming, he said, “And this baby, other than me, she only listens to your order, plus you are the only one who knows how to communicate with a falcon.”
Hearing that, Xu Ziling’s brows were furrowed even deeper, musing inwardly that since Shen Luoyan was already in Hulao, wouldn’t it be like he was fighting against her?
Kou Zhong said, “For you, this could be considered a good assignment. I really don’t want you to fight against Li kid, I just want you to rescue the innocent, the starving and sick common people of Luoyang, right?”
Xu Ziling sighed and said, “Li Shiji was the top ranked great general under Li Mi’s command. If he deployed his troops to attack, dealing with him, I would already have to fight with all my heart and soul, how could I have the spare time to deliver food? One thing goes wrong, I would fall into his heavy siege, and then the one needing food supply would be me.”
With a card up his sleeve, Kou Zhong said, “Ling Shao, set your heart at east. You, LaoGe have this worry, it’s simply because you are not clear about the actual situation. I guarantee that Li Shiji will not dare to exhaust the elite troops under his command to invade our territory. Everybody knows about our relationship with Dou Jiande. If Li Shiji reduced the military strength guarding various cities on Hulao’s front line, the Dou Army might dispatch troops to cross the river in surprise attack any moment. If Hulao fell, our army and Dou Army meet up, at that time, other than withdrawing the troops, Li Shimin will not have any other way. Therefore, at best, Li Shiji could only make surprise attack, which is only harassing in nature.”
Xu Ziling nodded in agreement.
With smile of exultation, Kou Zhong said, “Our city that is closest to Hulao is Chenliu, located on the south bank of the upper reaches of the canal; via the waterway, we can reach Luoyang in one day, via land route, it will take half a day more. I decided to have Hongjin, leading two thousand troops, to enter and station themselves in Chenliu, to steadily defend the city. And Changlin is the commanding officer to keep watch of Liangdu, he will deliver provisions from Liangdu to Chenliu using flywheel boats. If necessary, he could transfer Liangdu’s troops to help Chenliu break the siege and get out of difficulties. As long as Li Shiji cannot seal off the canal, he will be helpless to isolate Chenliu. His Niang’s! I wish our flywheel boats will have a chance to have a hard battle against the Tang Navy.”
Xu Ziling had to admit that in term of strategy, Kou Zhong’s deployment arrangement was impossible to fault.
Patting his shoulder, Kou Zhong said, “I’ll hand over the five hundred Flying Cloud Riders and Wuming to you; while you are at it, you, LaoGe can train them for me. This is called the soldiers’ strength is in their training. Everything that I can teach them, I already passed on to them completely, including saber technique, equestrianism, lightness and leaping-vertically skill, and archery. I also let Chen Gong Laomou to take measurement and develop body armor and helmet and battle attire, shield and weaponry. Their equipment is excellent, not inferior to Li kid’s Dark Armor Warriors. With more battlefield training, they will become my most important backbone. They are precisely the transporting-provisions troops, and you are in charge.”
Xu Ziling finally nodded his head and said, “Very well!”
His eyes burning, Kou Zhong swept his gaze across the mountain and the field and the plain on the opposite bank. He said, “Since I decided to contend for hegemony over the world, there has never been a moment where I felt that the key moment of success or failure is this close. As long as I can persuade Dou Jiande to cross the river to the west, we will have seventy-, eighty-percent chance of victory. I hear that in the struggle between Dou Jiande and Meng Haigong, victory or defeat has been decided. The latter’s allotted share is just to have their remaining force to take a beating. One already surrendered, the other died in battle, the situation is absolutely favorable to us.”
Xu Ziling asked, “Supposing you and Dou Jiande join forces and defeat Li Shimin, how are you going to handle your relationship with Dou Jiande?”
Kou Zhong calmly shrugged his shoulders and said, “Dou Jiande, this person, can be considered not bad, he is both benevolent and righteous; moreover, there is Liu Heita, whom we absolutely trust, to assist him. What if we let him become the emperor?”
“That might not be Song Que’s expectation of you,” Xu Ziling replied, “How are you going to answer Song Que?”
Kou Zhong sighed and said, “We are brothers, let’s have a straight talk, direct speech. Now, my only wish is to survive, I don’t want the large group of brothers who are following me to be massacred that their dead bodies strewn across the wilderness and on top of the broken-down city walls. As for other things, leave it to be solved in the future. This moment, not only our Shao Shuai Army still cannot match the Tang Army, compared to Wang Shichong’s troops, they are still one or two notches inferior.”
“Within the Shao Shuai Army, the unit with greatest military power is still Yang Gong’s younger generation troops, who have ample battlefield experience. Currently, I am trying my best to cultivate my Shao Shuai Army. On one hand, I avoid hard battles that will bring about grave damage and loss; on the other hand, I want to increase their marching and combat experience, to strengthen their team spirit. Fortunately, we have Li Zitong to be their touchstone. Otherwise, if as soon as they are deployed and come across the Tang Army, a few frontal confrontations and we will be utterly defeated.”
Issuing a command, Wuming soared into the air, she flew straight to a high altitude.
Kou Zhong raised his head to look at Wuming, smiling bitterly, he said, “Brother! What concerns me the most is that I am rolling you into this conflict, and you are someone who loathes war; it’s like I am forcing you to do something that you are unwilling to do. However, since ancient times to this day, history is made of different wars strung together; the earliest could be as far as ‘the Battle of Ban Quan’ [lit. spring on hillside] and ‘the Battle of Zhuo Lu’ [lit. cutting/carving (as in cutting gems) deer]. Xuan Yuan Emperor [the Yellow Emperor, mythological emperor of China, reigned c. 2697-2597 BC] relied on these two battles to capture and kill Ying You, and established our Huaxia’s [old name for China] foundation. Since then, there were even more wars; this one started that one followed, written continuously in history. The Shang sent armed forces to suppress the Xia, the King Wu of Zhou overthrew the tyrant Zhou of Shang, the warlords of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods contended for hegemony, only then did the Emperor Ying Zheng unified the land under heaven. Liu and Xiang of the end of the Qin dynasty vying against each other, Western Han sent military expedition to attack the Xiongnu, and then there was the Yellow Turbans Peasant Uprising at the end of the Later Han [dynasty], followed by the Wei, Shu and Wu, the three kingdoms’ armed conflicts, the Western Jin’s internal disorder and foreign aggression, the Northern and Southern dynasties’ unrelenting mutual opposition, and the Old Sui uniting the north and south.”
“From this series of chaos of wars, it can be seen that only through large-scale war, a large number of soldiers throwing away their heads and spilling their blood, a period of long-term peace and stability’s beautiful auspicious days can appear in the world; this is an indisputable historical fact. War can bring great disaster, but it is also the only way to achieve peace. I, Kou Zhong am not a person who loves to kill. It was only because of witnessing the terrifying war that I am hoping to use military [or martial art] to stop the military, so that the common people of the world can have a day of peace and happiness.”
Xu Ziling spoke in astonishment, “Why do you suddenly have such a great emotional stirring? You are not trying to convince me, are you? You should know how I conduct myself; unless it is something that I believe firmly without any doubt, no one can change my mind. And I don’t need you to argue needlessly to persuade me.”
Kou Zhong shook his head and said, “You misunderstood me! I just want to say that just like you, I do not like conflict and hatred-killing. Therefore, if I can defeat the Li family, I will let Dou Jiande to become the emperor, I believe he will be a good emperor who loves the common people as his own children [a praise for a virtuous ruler]. You can also consider this as giving you an answer, other things are secondary.”
Xu Ziling’s heart was touched; based on Kou Zhong’s competitive nature, he was willing to put down his determination, it was extremely rare. Furthermore, he understood that Kou Zhong making this decision, it was mostly because of him.
If Kou Zhong maintained this attitude, he could almost be certain that he would be able to persuade Dou Jiande to send his troops to come and resolve Luoyang’s siege.
Xu Ziling reached out to wrap his arm around Kou Zhong’s shoulders, he nodded and said, “You are indeed my good brother! Now finally we have identical views!”
Over the next seven days, while assembling the troops in Gaoyou in order to bluff, Kou Zhong also, under the cover of the night, used flywheel boats to continuously transfer grains, goods, as well as troops, to Chenliu via the canal. The heavy responsibility of governing the Shao Shuai State fell onto Xu Xingzhi, with Ren Meimei as his deputy. Because the Supervisor of the Six Departments Niu Fengyi and Zha Jie could be considered new in governing a country, they were still at the stage where they groped around and learned by doing, hence from time to time Xu Xingzhi and Ren Meimei had to guide and give them direction. The Superintendent of the Ministry of Work Chen Laomou had plenty of qualifications to do his job, he also constantly came up with new ideas, so that at any moment various types of improvement projects were underway in various cities, with the focus of strengthening the strategic cities’ defensive power.
The Shao Shuai Army’s greatest strength was that their public purse was loaded. With the full support from Long You Bang, Zhu Hua Bang, and Zhai Jiao, they never had to worry about shortage in purchasing foodstuff and daily necessities on a large scale on the outside. New cities like Zhongli and Gaoyou received the same benefit: tax-exemption for one year. The people benefited directly, naturally they gave their allegiance to the new lord. Xu Xingzhi continued the policy of the benevolent government by returning the riches to the people, by not disturbing what was important to the people, by encouraging production, so that the Shao Shuai State became full of vitality, even absorbing a large number of people from other area, refugees who were fleeing the chaos of war, so that their national strength was growing continuously.
This particular night, after the sun set over the western hills, Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling, Yang Gongqing and Ma Chang led a huge grain-transporting team consisting of five thousand Yang Family Army and the Flying Cloud Riders, carrying nearly 500 mule carts full of foodstuff and miscellaneous goods from Chenliu setting off to Luoyang. Traveling with them were also Wang Xuanshu with his three hundred personal guards.
The route of the march was already drawn up early on, after leaving Chenliu, they turned back to the west, passing through the mountains and fields north of Kaifeng, to avoid the northwestern Guancheng, Rongyang and Hulao, where the enemy stationed massive military force, circumventing Gushi, taking the Mount Song’s shortcut to the Yiluo Plain, located between River Yi and River Luo east of Luoyang, and then using the forest tree as cover they would sneak into Luoyang, and then break the siege and entered the city.
Because Li Shiji was confused by Gaoyou’s bluff, plus the Tang Army’s heart was wary over the Dou Army more than they did the Shao Shuai Army, and on top of that Kou Zhong had Wuming finding a path, time and again they were able to evade the enemy sentry and spy’s eyes and ears. They lay low during the day and traveled at night, without any alarm, without any danger, they reached the east bank of Yi River.
Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling, Yang Gongqing and Wang Xuanshu urged their horses to the edge of the bank of Yi River, and hid inside a dense forest by the shore to look for an ideal place to cross the river.
Wuming was circling high in the sky, scouting the situation far and near.
Yang Gongqing pointed to a particularly dense forest on the upper reaches of the river, he said, “I crossed the river over there, the pontoon bridge installation is still hidden somewhere inside the forest. If no one discovered and destroyed it, with a bit of repair, it would be ready to be reused, it will save us at least one night of effort to build the bridge.”
Kou Zhong looked up to observe the weather. It was afternoon, but cumulonimbus clouds were hanging heavily in the sky; frowning, he said, “I am afraid there will be heavy rain tonight. If the river water rises dramatically, the river will become a rapid, it would be quite bad for us to cross the river.”
Wang Xuanshu said, “In that case, wouldn’t it be better to cross the river immediately? As long as we send men to keep watch on the nearby high elevation and we move quickly, we could avoid the rain.”
Shaking his head, Yang Gongqing said, “In this matter, we must not be reckless. Currently our riders are tired, our horses are weary, without several sichen of rest, it is difficult to recover. In case the enemy came to attack, we would not have the strength to fight back. Success is in sight, we must be especially careful.”
Wang Xuanshu has always revered Yang Gongqing; although in his heart he did not completely agree with his view, he had no choice but to shut up.
Kou Zhong knew that Wang Xuanshu was eager to get to Luoyang, turning to Xu Ziling, he asked, “Ling Shao, what do you think?”
Xu Ziling looked up at Wuming above, he spoke heavily, “Something’s a bit off.”
Stunned, Kou Zhong asked, “What do you mean off?”
Yang Gongqing and Wang Xuanshu were nervous, they also asked in chorus.
Xu Ziling replied, “Yi River’s tranquil atmosphere is not what I expect. We are here for half a sichen, yet we haven’t seen even one speedboat of the Tang Army patrolling the river; don’t you think this does not make sense?”
Heaving a sigh of relief, Wang Xuanshu said, “Since we have successfully avoided the enemy scouts’ eyes and ears, they neglecting to take precautions ought to be expected!”
Xu Ziling asked, “Xuanshu Gongzi going to Liangdu this time, did you encounter any thrills?”
Wang Xuanshu was taken aback; he nodded and said, “We were taking advantage of the Tang Army has not finished their deployment to siege the city, and broke the siege at night and went out. Relying on fast horse, we quickly cast away the pursuing troops. The course of events was indeed very thrilling.”
Slapping his thigh, Kou Zhong said, “I understand what Ling Shao means. Based on Li Shimin’s ability and wisdom, he must have guessed that Luoyang might ask for our Shao Shuai Army’s help; therefore, they must more or less strengthen the monitoring of this area. We are relying on Wuming’s sharp eyes to do the reconnaissance from high altitude, although we could avoid sentries and scouts, we cannot avoid the enemy finding out our wheel tracks and footprints after we passed. From this, Li Shimin could determine our route to Luoyang, as well as the time of arrival. While our troops are weary, our generals tired, plus we are thinking that success is in sight, he would deal us a fatal blow. Yi River is calm, this is because Li Shimin does not want to beat the grass to scare the snake.”
Yang Gongqing’s countenance changed, he said, “If Ziling is guessing correctly, crossing the river will be the most dangerous moment.”
Wang Xuanshu’s soul was lost, his spirit fell [idiom: beside himself], he said, “What should we do?
The divine light in Kou Zhong’s pair of eyes flashing, he spoke slowly, “The only way is to find the enemy’s assault team first, and then using ten-thousand-jun-thunderbolt-momentum we rout them out. If I am guessing correctly, the enemy must be hiding somewhere upstream, Wuming can easily find their position. Leave this matter to me and Ziling, we’ll search along the river, I am sure we will find them.”
“Hold on!” Xu Ziling said, “Look at Wuming!”
The two men raised their head to look, Wuming was performing the eagle dance, showing that someone was coming toward them from upstream.
Scratching his head, Kou Zhong said, “This does not make any sense, how could the Tang Army be this bold to come and attack us?”
Less than half a day later, they indeed heard the sound of hoof beats from the upper reaches of the river, coming quickly toward them.
Knitting his brows, Kou Zhong said, “Only one person. Huh?” Unexpectedly, he slapped the horse’s bottom and charged out of the forest, to gallop upstream.
Yang Gongqing and Wang Xuanshu looked at each other, they were completely at a loss.
Xu Ziling’s face also revealed a delighted expression, he said with a laugh, “No need to panic, it’s someone from our side.”
Finished speaking, he also slapped his horse’s bottom and chased behind Kou Zhong’s tail.
Same title as Book 18 Chapter 7. Please see footnote there for explanation.