Translator: Foxs' Wuxia
With Hou Xibai making the arrangement, Xu Ziling left Bashu by boat via the Three Gorges. He felt that it would be wise to leave this trouble spot as soon as possible. The dispute between Xie Hui and the four tribes was not only his business, it was beyond his capability to control even more.
He disembarked at Jiujiang, and then spurred the Ten-thousand-Li Spots to travel along the northeast route, passing through a large area of open country, forging ahead in the direction of Pengliang. His mind gradually entered the Moon in the Well realm. Whenever the Ten-thousand-Li Spots ate the grass and rested, he would sit in meditation to cultivate his power. More than ten days later his lingtai was an expanse of clarity and emptiness; not only he did not think about Kou Zhong, he did not even think about Shi Qingxuan or Shi Feixuan. Unintentionally, during the cultivation process, the experience that he accumulated while going through the fire and the water in the past has finally enabled him to step across into the harvest time, particularly in the observing-the-enemy aspect, the moment of enlightenment [Buddhist concept, epiphany] inside the stream in the deep valley had made him breaking a new ground, propelling him into the realm of martial art way that he had never dreamed of before.
One particular day he crossed the Huai River, and proceeded eastward along the northern bank. As soon as he reached the canal, he could go up north along the canal, straight toward Liangdu.
By this time the sun has set in the west, the sky gradually turned dark, the birds in the sky returned to the forest, a burst of cold wind blew over the mother earth, signaling the end of autumn and the arrival of winter. Xu Ziling’s heart was an expanse of bright clarity, the sound of Ten-thousand-Li Spots’ hoofs was rising and falling. After passing through a forest of cypress trees, the mountain road extended upward, the Huai River was flowing to the east on his right side, the momentum was vigorous.
Suddenly the alarm went off in his heart, Xu Ziling hastily urged his horse to evade into the depth of the forest by the road.
Torches’ light was coming from a distance, a group of men and horses rushed down from up the mountain, there were about twenty men in total, and in the blink of an eye they had gone far.
From their uniform, Xu Ziling recognized them as Li Zitong’s men; he mused inwardly that this area was near Zhongli, where Li Zitong stationed a massive military force. Men patrolling the area was proper and to be expected as a matter of course, so it was not surprising at all.
He was just about to leave when the sound of hoof beats was heard from the direction the enemy was disappearing. That team of patrolling troops had turned around and sped back; he could not help shivering inwardly.
The team of Li Army arrived outside the dense forest where he was hiding. The leader shouted his order, the more than twenty riders reined their horses to stop. Three of them raised the torches in their hands high to illuminate the forest.
Xu Ziling was hiding outside the light, hence he was not afraid he would be discovered by the enemy.
The leader uttered some cusswords, and then he muttered, “I clearly heard the sound of hoof beats, yet there is nobody here, it’s really strange [orig. seeing ghost while still alive].”
Another man said, “I hear the ghosts that appear during the transition from day to night are the most ferocious; we absolutely must not come across this kind of evil spirit.”
Inwardly Xu Ziling was greatly astonished; listening to the other side’s conversation, this area must be under close surveillance of the Li Army, hence they deployed specialists to listen to the ground, in order not to be invaded without they finding out about it.
Could it be that something that should not see the light was underway somewhere nearby? Could it be that it had something to do with Kou Zhong? Thinking to this point, his curiosity was greatly piqued, he leaped off the horseback and climbed up to the top of the tree to chase the enemy riders secretly.
Before entering the inner hall, Kou Zhong was finally stopped by Xu Xingzhi, the latter said, “Shaoshuai, please tell them that you are leaving for Donghai tonight.”
Kou Zhong patted his shoulder and said with a laugh, “I understand!”
Crossing the threshold, he saw Gui Xiliang and Xing Rong, sitting at the round table in the middle of the hall, quickly stood up to greet him.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “You guys really have a skill, unexpectedly you knew I am staying here and did not go to Donghai.”
Gui Xiliang laughed and said, “Kou Zhong has always been a person who won’t concede even to the death; if someone is telling me that you run away without any fight, I, Gui Xiliang, will be the first not to believe it.”
Kou Zhong beckoned the two to take their seat again, and then he said, “What good news are you bringing me?”
Xing Rong’s smile vanished, he sighed and said, “After we left last time, our hearts were very uncomfortable; would we really watch you sit and wait for death and do nothing? Other people may not understand your temperament, but how could we as your brothers do not know?”
Gui Xiliang said, “Therefore, when the news of your Shao Shuai Army’s march to Donghai arrived, we are certain that you have made your mind to attack Jiangdu by the sea. Since that is no different from following the path to your own doom, plus it does not look like you are running away back to the south at all because it does not conform to your character – we know that there must be another conspiracy. Therefore, we immediately rush over to see how we can offer you our help.”
Kou Zhong’s countenance changed, he said, “Since you are able to guess, wouldn’t it be possible that Li Zitong could also guess?”
“Don’t worry!” Xing Rong said, “How could we be the same as Li Zitong? We have been watching you growing up from a hairy-head kid to be an adult.”
Laughing involuntarily, Kou Zhong said, “That’s true! Li Zitong is a coward, naturally a coward would think that others are greedy for life, afraid of death, just like himself.”
Leaning closer, Gui Xiliang said, “Are you thinking of luring Li Zitong to attack, while setting up an ambush so that he will be in a sorry state? But the rumor says that you have really emptied Liangdu and transferred the entire main forces to Donghai. How are you going to face Li Zitong’s main forces’ attack?”
An uneasy feeling welled up in Kou Zhong’s heart. In the battle for supremacy, even if Gui Xiliang and Xing Rong helped him with all their strength, they would not play too great of a role. However, if they became the enemy, they would definitely pose a great threat to him, because the two knew his character too well; they understood him even more deeply than Xiang Yushan did. Still, this thought only flashed by his mind and was immediately gone, because toward these two childhood friends, he had always had absolute trust.
However, it did not matter how he trusted the two, he still could not reveal the existence of Yang Gongqing’s five-thousand-strong elite troops. Thereupon he smiled and said, “You are concerned about me, naturally I am very grateful. It’s just that presently victory or defeat has not been decided, it is not advisable for you to be drawn into the battle between me and Li Zitong. Let’s wait until after the situation is clear, then I will have to trouble two gentlemen LaoGe to persuade the other brothers in the Gang to help me to seize Jiangdu. How about that?”
Gui Xiliang shot a quick glance toward Xing Rong, and then he nodded and said, “Very well! It’s a deal.”
Xu Ziling pounced to the top of a big tree at the edge of the forest, a wide panorama suddenly opened up before his eyes, unexpectedly it was a wide-open big lake connected to the Huai River, where nearly a hundred warships were anchored. But there were only several dozens of wind lanterns hanging on the sterns of the ships providing the lighting. The wind lanterns were even covered up, so that the lantern light would not be reflected up into the sky, giving up a ghostly, evil-spirit mysterious taste.
There were hundreds of craftsmen and soldiers working frantically, building dummies made of rice straws and set them up on the deck; they even put military uniform on the dummies. In the dark and looking from such a distance, even with Xu Ziling’s eyesight it was still difficult to tell which one was real, which one was fake.
Nearing the completion stage, two ships left their anchor point, steered away from the river bay and entered the Huai River.
Xu Ziling felt his entire spine was drenched in cold sweats. What he saw before his eyes must be the big conspiracy Li Zitong was carrying out to deal with Kou Zhong. Right now, even if he spurred the Ten-thousand-Li Spots at top speed, using the man-and-horse-as-one technique – to rush toward Liangdu, due to the mountain range separating them, he could never be faster than the other side going up north via the canal. However, he had no other choice, he simply had to retreat quickly.
‘Knock! Knock! Knock!’
Kou Zhong was awakened from a nightmare; he sat up in a cold sweat from his bed and responded, “Who is it?”
Luo Qifei voice came from outside the door, “It’s Qifei, there’s an urgent matter to report to Shaoshuai.”
Kou Zhong snatched his outer garment and draped it over his shoulders. Remembering the nightmare just now, he was still palpitating with fear. He dreamt about being heavily surrounded by the enemy, the generals under his command perished one by one, until finally he, holding Song Yuzhi’s ice-cold body in his arms, was trapped in a marsh. Ay! Luckily it was just a dream.
He let Luo Qifei in, and then they sat down in the small hall of the bedroom. Luo Qifei said, “Just received the news: right after dark, Zhongli’s navy the whole nest came out, finally they go up north along the canal. If they don’t stop anywhere along the way, they could arrive any moment tomorrow after dark. The ships are full to capacity with troops, some of the ships even have their hulls extremely deep in the water.”
Kou Zhong’s brains was still not too clear, “What time is it?” he asked.
“Just passed the third watch [11pm – 1am, or midnight],” Luo Qifei replied, “There are two more sichen before daybreak.”
Muttering to himself irresolutely, Kou Zhong said, “You said ‘finally they go up north along the canal’, what do you mean by ‘finally’?”
Luo Qifei replied, “Since dusk, approximately ninety warships moored outside the city of Zhongli were setting off one by one, they went upstream on the Huai River heading west. At the beginning of Xu hour [7-9pm], the warships came back from Huai River, with dark lantern and black fire, going nonstop from the confluence of the Huai River and the Canal, entering the Canal and sailing speedily against the stream in our direction. I received three flying pigeon letters in succession, hence I knew it’s urgent and thus immediately reported it to Shaoshuai.”
“Is there any movement on Jiangdu’s side?” Kou Zhong asked.
Shaking his head, Luo Qifei replied, “They are still amassing their military strength, the number of warships is increasing to nearly a hundred, but they are still holding back their troops without moving.”
Kou Zhong sobered up a little; he said, “Your intelligence effort is doing very well. His Niang’s! Li Zitong is falling into the trap!”
Luo Qifei said, “With an average of three hundred men per ship, the navy coming to attack from Zhongli’s strength is about thirty-thousand men. The ship should be equipped with instrument to besiege a city. If they attack suddenly, we would indeed be caught off guard.”
Currently, Liangdu’s Shao Shuai Army’s military strength was five thousand men, the enemy’s strength was six times theirs, plus they were coming fully prepared. Liangdu’s city defense was far inferior to Luoyang, it also fell short of Hulao. If they had enough power, they could deploy some of the troops to the four forts on both sides of the Canal in order to prevent the enemy from concentrating their forces to attack Liangdu. But now, the entire army must stay to defend the city.
Thinking hard, Kou Zhong said, “Why did Zuo Xiaoyou’s ships have to go west first? And then they came back to the east before turning north on the Canal?”
Luo Qifei replied, “My guess is to load the instrument to besiege the city. There might be a logging site on the bank of Huai River east of Zhongli, the craftsmen must be building cloud-ladders, vehicles to ram the gate, and so on to besiege the city.”
Kou Zhong nodded. “It makes sense!” he said, “In that case, we still have two days to deploy the troops. If we only want to fight one victorious battle, that would be the exertion of lifting our hand; but if we want to seize the opportunity to capture Zhongli, we must control our deployment tightly. Immediately invite Wenyuan, Hongjin, and Zhi Shu [uncle] here, we must immediately decide all the actions.”
Xu Ziling rushed up the slope of the hill, to see from the distance the enemy ships being loaded with the dummies were filling the left side of the Canal, and then they set sail against the stream to go up north. He took his horse along to swim across the Canal. As he was just coming ashore, the enemy warships majestically arrived.
Since he did not know the situation on Kou Zhong’s side, until now he still did not know what was going on? He only knew that since Li Zitong was carrying out this deception, naturally he had the confidence that Kou Zhong would fall into the trap.
The moon was hanging high in the sky, there were still two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, but he was not in the mood to admire the full moon, he had to race against the enemy’s fleet, to do everything in his power to be one step ahead of the enemy’s ships in reaching Liangdu.
Leading the five-hundred-man Flying Cloud Riders, Kou Zhong left at daybreak to go to Yang Gongqing’s camp, hidden in the dense forest on the west bank of the canal.
He issued his order, from perching on his shoulder, Wuming soared into the sky, circling in the air for reconnaissance, and then together with Yang Gongqing and Ma Chang who came out to meet him, they entered the tent for a meeting.
Hearing the news, Yang Gongqing and Ma Chang were greatly delighted. The former said, “We have two options: one, we go all-out; we prepare an ambush on strategically situated and easy to defend places along the canal, to inflict heavy losses on Zuo Xiaoyou’s navy coming up north to attack, and then we seize the opportunity to attack Zhongli. Two, we split up to two ways, one proceeds with the ambush, while the other, avoiding the enemy’s navy, attack Zhongli via land route. Because the enemy is unprepared, although their military strength is above ours, we still have a very high chance of success.”
Ma Chang said, “Li Zitong is a Donghai County man, he knows boat very well since childhood; furthermore, his navy has been battling Shen Faxing’s Jiangnan Navy, whose reputation is renowned under the heavens – all year long. Therefore, whether it is river battle or sea battle, they have ample experience. If we set up am ambush on both sides of the canal, I am afraid it won’t be too effective.”
Kou Zhong agreed. He said, “Since their whole nest is coming out, obviously they want to take unfair advantage of our Liangdu’s few soldiers and scant generals, so they are not afraid of our ambush. In fact, in frontal confrontation, due to multitude of enemies, few friends, we will only be defeated without any chance of victory. The only way to win is using Yang Gong’s second option; taking advantage of sudden decline in Zhongli’s military strength, plus the loss of their navy’s support, we use light cavalry in surprise attack against Zhongli via land route. With Zhongli in my hands, we can cut off Zuo Xiaoyou’s retreat route, then it will be difficult for the navy coming from Zhongli to attack to escape the fate of being completely wiped out.”
“That’s the decision then,” Yang Gongqing spoke decisively.
Receiving Kou Zhong’s nod, Ma Chang went out of the tent to transmit the order.
Scrutinizing Kou Zhong’s expression, Yang Gongqing spoke in astonishment, “Since Li Zitong is falling into the trap, our success looks promising, why does Shaoshuai still look like you have a heavy load on your mind?”
Kou Zhong sighed and said, “I always have a feeling that something is not quite right. Either because the enemy’s navy the whole nest came out, which shows their determination, or because I cannot guess why Li Zitong’s Jiangdu Navy still hold back their troops without moving, or maybe because of the nightmare I just had, which affect me adversely. This moment, there is always an uneasy feeling in my heart.”
Yang Gongqing laughed and said, “That is human nature. Every time, before any major battle, I also have this kind of worry-about-personal-gains-and-losses feeling, yet we can only trust our own judgment. Hesitating as the time draws near is a big taboo of a military commander.”
Kou Zhong nodded and said, “Yang Gong’s lesson is well-received. When things come to a head, three hearts and two intentions will only make a botch of things.”
And then his pair of eyes emitted a staunch expression, he slowly said, “The moment Zuo Xiaoyou’s thirty-thousand main forces painstakingly attack Liangdu without success in here is the moment we attack Zhongli. And Zhongli’s fall will represent the rise of our Shao Shuai Army.”
After eating their fill, Kou Zhong, his Flying Cloud Riders, and Yang Gongqing’s army struck the camp and departed, following the plan they drew out that morning, their route brought them along the west bank of the canal, passing through the forest and across the plain, they traveled day and night to advance toward Zhongli.
After rushing along for a day and a night, the troops arrived at a hilly plain on the northern bank of the Huai River, only half a day ride from Zhongli. Both men and horses were already unbearably weary, thereupon they took a temporary rest, to eat the dry rations to fill their stomach.
Kou Zhong released Wuming to scout the situation near and far.
Their camp was hidden in a sparse forest, Kou Zhong and Yang Gongqing walked up a nearby hill, taking advantage of the high elevation, they looked into the distance in the direction of the Huai River.
A very fine drizzle was falling down from the sky, which reduced their visual significantly, the grassland in the distance disappeared inside the boundless drizzle.
Kou Zhong said, “This is really Heaven helps me! I hope this rain will continue to fall; after raising enough spirit, we will set off at dusk, to cross the river in the middle of the night, and before daybreak we launch a sudden and violent attack to Zhongli from the south of the city, with me and Fei Yun Qi [flying cloud riders] in the lead, as long as we can seize the south gate, Yang Gong move the main army to enter the city, we will attack and seize the Zongguan Mansion first, so that the enemy lose their command center, and the enemy resistance will crumble.”
Yang Gongqing cheerfully said, “This time, the strategy of the battle can be described in only eight characters: Gong Qi Bu Bei, Su Zhan Su Jue [to catch the enemy off guard with a surprise attack (idiom, from Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’)]. While the enemy is thinking that we are shaking behind the walls of Liangdu, we are here, ready to attack the city.”
The two looked at each other and laughed.
After dark, Xu Ziling finally caught up with the enemy ships. But it was not because of his Ten-thousand-Li Spots bending to the left and turning to the right on dry land, going up the mountain and going down the hill – was faster than the boat sailing on the water, but because when the enemy was still two sichen away of sailing time before they reached Liangdu, suddenly the entire armada made a turn.
Xu Ziling felt even more uneasy in his heart; while urging his horse to run wildly, he was thinking deeply.
It was obvious that the enemy made their move after careful planning, their preparation meticulous, hence they advanced and retreated in an orderly manner, they had full control of the initiative. Kou Zhong was not a fool at all, why did he allow the enemy to come and go unobstructed? It was as if he was not the least bit on guard. Where exactly did he make the mistake?
Ahead, there was the sound of rapid hoof beats, a group of riders was rushing over. When the two sides were gradually coming closer, Xu Ziling was the first to call out, “Qifei!”
The newcomer was precisely Luo Qifei, with more than a dozen of his men. Seeing Xu Ziling, he met him in great delight.
Without any chitchat, Xu Ziling asked, “Where is Shaoshuai?”
Luo Qifei replied, “Shaoshuai and Yang Gong’s army are taking advantage of the fortunate timing while the enemy’s navy is coming to attack to set off toward Zhongli to attack!”
Noticing that he was still looking around in the direction of the southern end of the canal, Xu Ziling sighed and said, “No need to look. The enemy ships are already turning around to return to Zhongli. The ships are loaded with dummies, this is a trap.”
Luo Qifei and the others, none did not have their countenance changed; the color of blood was completely drained from their faces, they turned as pale as a dead person.
Luo Qifei spoke with trembling voice, “What do we do? The earliest we can contact Shaoshuai is tomorrow morning.”
Xu Ziling calmed down instead. He revealed a smiling expression to the Shao Shuai Army surrounding him, and then he said, “No need to worry, no one can ambush or mount a sneak attack to your Shaoshuai. Don’t forget that he has Wuming’s sharp eyes in the sky.”
Luo Qifei felt a bit relieved, but then he knitted his brows and said, “What I am most afraid of is that Shaoshuai, being unclear of the situation, launch an attack on the city, and the enemy let him lead his army into the city, and then they concentrated their strength to surround and annihilate them.”
Xu Ziling spoke confidently, “Before attacking the city, Shaoshuai will definitely release Wuming to scout the situation inside the city; he won’t fall into the trap so easily. Now, what I am worried about is this fleet turning back to Zhongli. They might attack Liangdu before Shaoshuai comes back, to cut Shaoshuai’s retreat route, and then split up to attack Shaoshuai’s expeditionary force, so that he would face the enemy in front and behind him.”
Going downstream, in just one night’s journey, the fleet would be able to return to Zhongli to pick up soldiers. Because the waterway is faster and more convenience than the land route, the enemy would be able to cut ahead of Kou Zhong’s expeditionary force, to besiege Liangdu one step ahead, and cut off Kou Zhong’s retreat path. In the inferior position of no room to advance and with the pursuing troops behind, the exhausted expeditionary force was bound to suffer total defeat of the army.
Out of his wits, Luo Qifei sighed and said, “How did it become like this? The enemy seems to know our plan like the back of their hand. Could it be that there is a spy within our Shao Shuai Army? This is impossible.”
Xu Ziling’s pair of eyes flickered with light of wisdom, he calmly said, “Whether there is a spy or not, we’ll think about it later. How many soldiers are available in Liangdu?”
Luo Qifei replied, “We have five thousand men and twenty-eight flywheel warships.”
Xu Ziling laughed calmly and said, “That should be enough! We will deliver a frontal assault to the enemy’s navy coming in secret, to teach them a lesson that our Shao Shuai Army is not easy to be bullied.”
Hearing that, Luo Qifei and the others were very excited, they exploded in cheers.
