Book 62: Chapter 13: Succeed Will Be Called The King
Xu Ziling, dressed in a black nightwalker outfit, with black hood covering his head, hid behind the outer courtyard wall near the south gate of Yanjia Dian, waiting for the imperial guards to create a good opportunity for him to leave the palace hall.
Since Yanjia Dian was where Li Yuan was, the Tang’s outside garrison troops concentrated both their military power and attention on the surrounding area outside the palace hall, any unusual change could forget about staying hidden from the other side, it was akin to the Yanjia Dian was completely sealed off. Without Li Xiaogong’s help, certainly it would be difficult to leave even for a cun of step.
Orderly sound of footsteps was heard, a team of two-hundred imperial guards, under Liao Nan’s command, was heading to the South Gate, which immediately aroused the expected reaction, the high-ranking military officer of the garrison troops guarding inside and outside the South Gate immediately shouted, ordering them to stop.
Xu Ziling knew that unless Li Yuan came in person, even if Li Xiaogong, in his rank as the Hejian Wang, was trying to leave, he would still be driven back, forget about Liao Nan, whose military rank was a few levels lower.
He did not have time to listen to the argument between the two sides, his mind and spirit were elevated to the realm like that time where he proposed marriage to Shi Qingxuan at the Yu He An. The mind and spirit crystal clear, empty and bright. Using his, Xu Ziling-style ‘Huan Mo Shen Fa’, in an instant he already crouched on top of the wall. Seeing the troops guarding outside the wall looked away toward Liao Nan’s side, he promptly swept up from the top of the wall, and disappeared into the depth of the dense branches and luxuriant leaves of a large tree by the side of the road. The sound of footsteps of Liao Nan’s troops provided the most effective cover to the unusual noise of him splitting the wind, the branch swaying and the leaves moving.
The heaven and earth became complete.
Everything was completely sewn together in his heart, his super sense of hearing, instinct, and his spirited vision allowed him to capture all the changes in the surrounding human activities without missing anything.
Where his spirit moved, his intention arrived, his body followed where the heart was moving. The next moment he was far away from Yanjia Gong, like a soaring bird, moving up and down towards his destination.
“Huangshang’s decision to move to the Yanjia Dian was made quite hastily. It was decided at dusk, after Yin Zuwen and Pei Ji came to see Huangshang together. He issued an order to Hejian Wang to prepare an escort. At that time Wei Gonggong was also present. When the xu hour [7-9 pm] came, the various imperial concubines set off first, with Huangshang moved his good-self in the middle of the hai hour [9-11 pm]. Taizi and Qi Wang went to the Yanjia Gong to see Huangshang at the second quarter of zi hour [11 pm – 1 am], and at the beginning of chou hour [1-3 am] left together with Yin Zuwen and Pei Ji. And then Huangshang personally issued the order to change the guards, the imperial edict was delivered by Wei Gonggong to Tang Jian. After making preparation, the latter entered via the Xuanwu Gate into the Taiji Gong and stationed there at the yin hour [3 – 5 am], and started the change of guards operation. Previously, Wei Gonggong came out from the bedroom palace with imperial decree, instructing Li Fan to summon Qing Guifei to the bedroom palace to wait upon Huangshang. Later on, after passing on the summon, Wei Gonggong came back, entered the bedroom palace to report the situation to Huangshang. About the time to burn half of incense stick, the personal guard chief came to report that Hejian Wang, taking Shaoshuai and Xu Xiansheng came to ask an audience with Huangshang. Knowing the situation was serious, Li Fan hastily made his report from the other side of the door. A short moment later Gonggong came out with the dragon tally in his hand. He summoned the martial art masters protecting the emperor’s good self, and handed over the dragon tally to Yuwen Jiangjun, while depriving Hejian Wang from his military power. After Wei Gonggong ordered not to allow anybody to disturb Huangshang, he left in a hurry with the little Gonggong who always accompanied him. The whole process was as described above.”
Finished listening to Hou Junji’s report, Li Shimin cast his gaze at Kou Zhong, Ba Fenghan and Hou Xibai. He said, “To use the command tally to take control of an army unit, there are certain procedures and restrictions. The substituting unit must be at the same level or above of the substituted unit. Assuming that this person is Yuanji, after receiving the order, accompanied by the person transmitting the order, they must go to see the man being substituted, and then assemble the army camp officers of the rank of generals and above, and publicly read out loud the imperial order, and produce the command tally. After this process, Yuanji becomes the marching commander of the army. He could appoint Tang Jian as the deputy commander, or could appoint another general of the same rank. After everything is finalized, the camp officers will return to their respective camps and convey the information down level by level. Therefore, if Yuanji received the order at the yin hour, he would need several quarters [of an hour] to successfully assume control over Tang Jian’s army. Since Wei Gonggong has to return here before dawn to retrieve the dragon tally, I’m certain that Yuanji has not yet had the opportunity to contact the city defender army.”
Greatly delighted, Kou Zhong said, “I hope Yuanji and Wei Gonggong will come back together, so that we can regain control of Tang Jian’s troops with no blood on the men’s swords.”
Shaking his head, Li Shimin said, “In my opinion, Wei Gonggong ought to come back alone, after understanding the situation clearly, he would retrieve the dragon tally. And Yuanji must have appointed someone to replace Tang Jian as the deputy commander, most likely it would be Xue Wanche. Even if Yuanji is captured, Xue Wanche can still command the army to attack the Yanjia Dian. The progress of this story will not be so simple.”
Ba Fenghan spoke indifferently, “How about showing Xue Wanche a glimpse of Yuanji’s severed head? We could command the Xuanwu Gate army using fire beacon and block the opponent’s way back to the West Palace. After all, Xue Wanche’s rank is far below Li Yuanji’s, he may not necessarily able to command Tang Jian’s army, let alone the target of attack is the palace where Ling Fuhuang [your honorable father emperor] is.”
Hou Xibai sighed and said, “I’m starting to understand now the principle of only those who are cruel enough will be able to survive.”
Smiling bitterly, Li Shimin said, “I have always been a bit soft-hearted towards my own brothers.”
Kou Zhong spoke decisively, “It’s decided then. I don’t want, after Huangshang wakes up, other than Li Shimin – to have another alternative.”
Li Xiaogong, Yuchi Jingde, Zhangsun Wuji, and Duan Zhixuan, four generals flew over from the front palace hall.
Kou Zhong patted the Piercing-the-Sun Bow in his bosom, a smile escaped from the corner of his mouth, his appearance calm, he said, “The distinguished guests are here!”
Xu Ziling was really grateful to Shi Zhixuan, if he had not received the xinfa that he passed on, using the ‘life in place of death, death in place of life’ inner qi change, combined with the true qi reversal, there were at least three times that he might have exposed his track, but now he was lucky enough to pass the barrier and sneak into the entrance at the fake mountain rock in the imperial garden.
A team of patrolling troops passed by.
Since this was not an important place in the palace, there is no one standing guard, only the entrance and exit had some people guarding them. The only thing he had to pay attention to was that he must be able to see the guards on the two sentry towers from here. Of course, this was not difficult for him, Xu Ziling.
He jumped out from inside the deeply hidden bushes, and suddenly disappeared into the fake mountain rock where the sentinels’ eyes could not reach. After opening the lid of the entrance, Xu Ziling’s entire body relaxed. He flashed into the tunnel, closed the lid, and then from the tunnel he flew in the direction of the Taiji Palace.
He had the order signed by Li Xiaogong in his bosom, plus the stone rubbing [to copy an inscription] of the dragon tally. He only needed to hand it over to Li Jing, and then he could mobilize the imperial guards of the Imperial City, especially Cheng Mo’s troops. He was not afraid of Cheng Mo’s suspicion, because Cheng Mo could climb over the fire beacon tower of the Northwest City Guard Station, and used the light signal to confirm the written order to Li Xiaogong. The result would naturally be he had to act according to the order.
Xu Ziling bored out from the exit of the dragon seat. He moved the dragon seat back to its original place, and then flew towards the entrance in the middle of the spacious and empty, no one in sight – Taiji Dian, and opened the entrance without stopping at all.
In his heart, he suddenly thought of the Yin Mansion’s exit. If the exit had been unlocked, what would happen? But then he immediately blamed himself for having too much imagination. According to the previous analysis, the exit should still be locked.
Right this moment, an unusual noise came from behind.
Even with Xu Ziling’s cool-headedness and skills, he still could not help but was shocked. Immediately he sprang up from the entrance and looked in the direction of the dragon seat on top of the steps.
The dragon chair slowly moved away, the ‘Demonic King’ Shi Zhixuan, like a demon from the underworld, light as a feather, rose from the tunnel entrance and sat in the dragon chair.
Xu Ziling felt the chill crept up his entire spine, he could not help extending his attention to the tunnel behind him. If a large number of demonic school martial art masters charged up from the tunnel, definitely his little life could not be protected, forget about being able to complete the heavy responsibility he bore even more.
Shi Zhixuan shook his head with a wry smile, he spoke softly, “Ziling, no need to worry, the tunnel is still sealed. Ay! How did you guys do it? This surpasses ten thousand horses and a thousand troops, and breaks the most important part of our plan.”
Xu Ziling took a deep breath to recover his calm, he spoke heavily, “Since Xie Wang knew that the tunnel is sealed, why did you not tear it open to remove the obstruction?”
Shi Zhixuan sighed and said, “It’s too late! When I found out that things had changed, the Taiji Palace is unable to move a single step. This is called creating cocoon to bind oneself. When I saw that Ziling was about to leave via the secret passage, I finally realized that the great momentum has gone, but I don’t feel like doing anything.”
And then he smiled and said, “Ziling braved gargantuan risk yet still wanted to leave the palace, is it because there is an urgent matter that needs to be done?”
Xu Ziling cried, ‘Here it comes!’ inwardly. Secretly gathering his power, he nodded and said, “If Xie Wang has nothing else to say, Ziling must leave immediately.”
Shi Zhixuan’s brows were deeply furrowed, but immediately loosened up. He slapped his forehead and said with a laugh, “I understand! Turns out that other than the three exits, there is still the fourth exit. I wonder if Ziling could tell me where it leads?”
Without concealing anything, Xu Ziling answered, “It’s the tunnel leading to Qin Wang Mansion, it was built at the same time as the Duke Yang’s Treasure-house.”
The divine light in Shi Zhixuan’s pair of eyes flaring dramatically, he stared fixedly at Xu Ziling.
Xu Ziling sighed inwardly, all along the life-and-death battle between he and Shi Zhixuan was unavoidable, yet Shi Zhixuan was clearly his fiancée’s father. Nature [as the mother of all things] was like this, it made people sigh with feeling.
Li Shimin, Kou Zhong, Ba Fenghan, Hou Xibai, and so on, a group of men separately lay in ambush in various strategic locations around the bedroom palace’s plaza, waiting respectfully for the enemy’s great self.
Perhaps because dawn was near at hand, in addition to Wei Gonggong, surprisingly there were also Li Yuanji, escorted by Qin Wutong, Qiu Tianjue and nearly fifty personal guards, under military banner of Li Yuan’s summons, high and mighty, upright and unafraid, coming toward the bedroom palace, oblivious that with each step they took, they were going deeper into the trap, throwing themselves into the inescapable net of heaven and earth.
Kou Zhong cast his gaze at Li Shimin hiding behind the other side of the bedroom palace door, a burst of emotional stirring burst in his heart.
From the first day he knew Li Shimin, until this night, this moment, fighting side by side inside the forbidden palace in the City of Chang’an, striving for the unification of the world, he had been through many twists and turns and the vicissitudes of the ways of the world. If not for Xu Ziling’s mediation, the two sides would definitely be mortal enemies that the two could not exist together, and he would lose a happy and beautiful future, his brains would still be full of enmity and struggle, not knowing when to stop. Thinking about this made him feel the chill on his spine, a feeling of not cold, yet shivering [idiom] welled up in his heart.
Reaching into his bosom, he slowly took out the Piercing-the-Sun Bow. The arrow that he shot and missed outside the City of Luoyang that day, tonight, history would not repeat itself. Dou Jiande’s blood debt, he would demand it back tonight. Li Yuan, who gave the nod of approval behind his back, would also receive the punishment he deserved. The moment his powerful arrow penetrated Li Yuanji’s chest, Li Jiancheng would be doomed to die outside the Xuanwu Gate.
Behind him, Ba Fenghan spoke heavily, “Shall we bestow it to Li Yuanji?”
Kou Zhong nodded slightly. Suddenly, the weariness of the life licking blood on the head of the saber welled up in his heart. He was only hoping that everything would pass as soon as possible. In the future, he would simply let the Moon in the Well gathering dust.
Ba Fenghan said, “In my opinion, Wei Gonggong has the ability to withstand the powerful arrow, break through the siege and escape. Just let me personally wait upon him!”
Kou Zhong spoke indifferently, “How about Xiaodi make a bet with you?”
Suddenly, the shout of ‘Qi Wang’s good-self has arrived’ came from the entrance, followed by the sound of footsteps from afar coming near.
Li Shimin cast his gaze on Kou Zhong, emitting a sad and helpless expression, as if he was pleading for leniency, requesting earnestly that he would let Li Yuanji go.
Kou Zhong revealed a hint of bitter and astringent look, and then his expression resolute, he slightly shook his head.
On the battlefield, the enemy and us, two sides were both pursuing success, by fair means or foul, the winner will be called the king, the loser will be called the bandit. There was no place for mercy and tender heart. Just like when martial art masters vying against each other, they absolutely must not allow the slightest degree of weak point and split seam.
Apart from the saber, there was nothing else.
Since they entered Chang’an, they have already embarked on the road of no return, either you die or I perish. The decisive battle was in full swing by the time Li Yuanji was coming closer. Only until one side seized total victory would Chang’an return to the peace and prosperity of the former days.