Translator: Foxs' Wuxia
The next day, the four men left the Flying Horse Ranch, and went down south to the Yangtze River, to enter Shu via the Three Gorges. Song Shidao went to Liangdu to rendezvous with Lei Jiuzhi and Ren Jun, whom they summoned to come.
On the surface, with the exception of the Song Army’s violent attack on Lin Shihong in the south, the Central Earth was in a momentary state of ceasefire. However, in the dark, preparations for the battle of Chang’an were proceeding like wildfire.
With Song Que’s support, on their return trip, abandoning-sleep-forgetting-rest, the four men drafted a comprehensive strategy. The most important part of this is to thoroughly destroy the demonic school’s intelligence network, which covered the south.
This was originally something that was impossible to do, however, after obtaining the Xiang Family’s account books, the impossible became possible. The identities of the Xiang Family ringleaders in various regions were all exposed. Many of them, because they had misgivings toward Kou Zhong, fled to the north, these have become Li Shimin’s responsibility to capture and send to Liangdu in secret. Song Lu’s side tortured them, and thus, from these prisoners, the vine linked to the melon, the melon linked to the vines, they continued tracking down the rest and wiped them out, until the Xiang Family’s power outside the Pass was pulled up by the roots.
Another target of attack was the Haisha Bang, who provided firearms to the demonic school. The way to survive was: when the contention among the various hegemons was at its peak, to strike water right and left [idiom: to benefit from both sides]. Currently, this favorable situation for the Haisha Bang no longer existed. With the Zhuhua Bang providing assistance, the navy division of the Shao Shuai Army, under personal command of Chen Changlin, launched a siege-and-annihilate attack toward the Haisha Bang under You Qiuyan’s leadership, which, for a period of time, dominated their region.
By the time Kou Zhong and the others arrived in Chang’an, the Xiang Family’s intelligence network outside the Pass had completely collapsed. For a long period of time, in term of intelligence gathering, especially information about the situation in the south, Chang’an could only rely on the intelligence network set up by Li Shimin with Pang Yu taking the lead.
This was a critical matter, Li Shimin could make Li Yuan and Jiancheng’s side to mistakenly believe that Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling and the others were still engaged in the battle to unify the south, which would greatly benefit their maneuver to sneak into Chang’an.
On the other hand, Lei Jiuzhi, through Pingyao’s Ou Liangcai and his brothers, created a variety of false images of Situ Furong’s establishment of new businesses and banks. This time, Li Shimin sent his men to undertake the task of making arrangement with Pingyao businessmen, so that it was where water flows, a canal is formed even more, making Situ Furong’s return to Chang’an would not cause any suspicions, because the headquarter bank for the flying money business, as it should be by rights – ought to be located in Chang’an.
At this time, the Haisha Bang was seven-naught-eight-broken-up, dispersing and fleeing – even more. With Yun Yuzhen’s help, Chen Changlin captured You Qiuyan and a group of Haisha Bang leaders alive in Jiujiang and sent them back under escort to Liangdu to be imprisoned, and tortured them about their affiliation with Liang Shidu.
Du Fuwei was not idle either, he divided his troops into two groups and stationed heavy military forces in Jiujiang and Jingling, two counties. The former was to press down on Xiao Xian so that he was not able to divide his troops to aid Lin Shihong; the latter was only to bluff, pretending to attack Xiangyang, the most important military town south of Luoyang, and putting on an air of the-two-cannot-exist-together-with Li Shimin, to give Li Shimin the pretext for delaying his return to Chang’an.
On the other hand, Kou Zhong sent secret envoys to see Gao Kaidao’s number one great general Zhang Jinshu, and the Shanhai Pass’ Ba Wang [hegemon king] Du Xing, telling them not to surrender, because new changes of the situation would appear, and informed them that Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin would both return to Chang’an.
Everything was deployed properly, the four men sneaked into the Duke Yang’s Treasure via the secret road, and lighted up the four wall lamps. This was the first time that Ba Fenghan and Hou Xibai set foot in this underground military warehouse designed by Lu Miaozi, they both gasped in amazement.
The four inspected one of the underground storehouses where weapons were spread over an area. Ba Fenghan took out a crossbow and praised, “This is a high-quality powerful crossbow. It is rare that after so many years, it is still like newly manufactured, clearly that in term of preservation, the effort was extraordinarily excellent.”
Hou Xibai plopped his butts on a chest of weapon, he spoke leisurely, “We are finally in Chang’an! Before Situ Furong arrives, what can we do to relieve boredom?”
Ba Fenghan laughed and said, “I propose to kill a few people to offer a sacrifice to the banner, to feed my Stealing-the-Heaven Sword or Shooting-the-Moon Bow.”
Kou Zhong squatted leisurely on another chest of weapon, acting like a rascally local ruffian; he blurted out laughing and said, “Lao Ba, don’t cause trouble, we are here not to kill and burn, stir up trouble, and then slip away leisurely, but to fight for the final victory. Furthermore, we have to consider Chang’an as our city, it’s just that momentarily it is still under the control of the enemy. The less damage Chang’an suffers, the stronger our strength to beat attack Xieli will be. The past few days I have been moving my little brains to see how we could win a locally limited battle? And it must be decisive, not a fierce street fighting that spread to the whole city, because that will be something that our strength cannot overtake.”
Xu Ziling sat down by Hou Xibai’s side, he looked at Kou Zhong and said, “First of all, we have to create the conditions for localized battle. The only way is to divide Jiancheng and Yuanji’s teams, and strive for the high-ranking military officers and cabinet ministers under Li Yuan’s direct command. Under normal circumstances, this is practically impossible to achieve, but we and Li Shimin are working together, which is another matter. At least this is a new situation that has never been tried before, unlike the difficulties that Li Shimin had to face on his own before.”
Ba Fenghan put down the crossbow. Muttering to himself irresolutely, he said, “To persuade any high-ranking military officers or cabinet ministers, we have no choice but to reveal the secret between us and Li Shimin. This is very dangerous. One thing goes wrong, we may still be able to leave Chang’an alive, but Li Shimin and his men could forget about any of them having a good end.”
With a card up his sleeve, Kou Zhong said, “Since we have a goal, we can also achieve it safely.”
Kou Zhong said, “There is one thing I forgot to tell you. Among Li Yuan’s most trusted ministers, there is one of ours. Strictly speaking, he is my future father-in-law’s man, Feng Deyi.”
The three men were emotionally moved, because Feng Deyi was not only Li Yuan’s man, but also had close relation with Li Jiancheng.
Kou Zhong said, “Ling Shao and he are rather familiar with each other, so let Ling Shao go to see him, ask him clearly about the current situation, and tell him our latest situation. He might tell us who can be bought, and who are unnecessary for us to spend a great deal of time and effort.”
Hou Xibai nodded and said, “As long as they are not blind and deaf, and do not understand the great tendency of the world, they ought to know that Li Shimin is the Great Tang’s only savior. Moreover, Li Yuan’s feeling contented with seeking pleasure, going against the tide [idiom: perverse way of doing things] behavior, Li Jiancheng’s collusion with the Tujue, and Li Yuanji’s unwise recklessness, none are not favorable conditions for us. Those with aspirations will see that our situation is very good; there are definitely some people who will renounce the dark and seek the light.”
Ba Fenghan has nothing else to say. The key was Kou Zhong’s support for Li Shimin. If Li Shimin was killed, Li Tang still had to deal with Kou Zhong’s Shao Shuai Army and the like-wolves-and-tigers [i.e. ruthless] Tujue’s Wolf Army. However, if he supported Li Shimin’s ascension to the imperial throne, the whole world would be united, it would be able to deal with the coalition forces from beyond the Great Wall with all its strength.
“Why don’t we go to see Feng Deyi together?” Xu Ziling asked.
“This is called division of labor,” Kou Zhong replied, “You go to see Feng Deyi, I go meet a beautiful woman, ha! This is the advantage of being a commander, you can assign the most enjoyable tasks to yourself.”
Hou Xibai asked curiously, “Which beautiful woman?”
Kou Zhong cast a sidelong glance to Xu Ziling, and said slyly, “Naturally Shen Luoyan, Shen Meiren’er, ay! Ling Shao, I am doing it for your good; I don’t want your old affection to reignite. In the raging inferno of dry firewood, it would cause trouble.”
“Please close your dog’s mouth,” Xu Ziling spoke crossly.
Ba Fenghan laughed in spite of himself and said, “You two brothers have your own problems, are Xiao Hou and I supposed to wait here doing nothing?”
Hou Xibai laughed and said, “Why don’t we go to Shang Lin Yuan to kill time?”
Kou Zhong said, “I am fair and have no selfish motives, ha! Xiao Hou is responsible for going to Chen Fu to pawn your most valuable calligraphy and painting, make arrangement for Furong Ye to come to Changan to open the bank. Lao Ba is responsible for going to Chi Shengcun’s gathering place, it would be best if you could find Yang WenGan’s hiding place, to make some preparations before the killing and burning.”
And then the murderous intent in his pair of eyes flaring greatly, he spoke heavily, “There is someone that we must kill without mercy, which is Zhuge Dewei who betrayed Liu Dage. If it were not for him, at most Liu Dage would have been in a bit difficulty, he could not possibly lose his life.”
Xu Ziling stole into the heavily guarded Feng Mansion, located at the Bu Zheng Lane, relying on his out-of-the-ordinary spiritual senses to avoid the patrolling dog and the Feng Mansion’s house generals, and then, from the architectural perspective, he judged the building where Feng Deyi lived his everyday life. The gods did not know, the ghosts did not perceive, he came to the study room from where the lantern was still shining through. When he, through the window, recognized Feng Deyi’s back as he was bending over his desk, immersing himself in scrolls of documents, he could not help feeling that his level of mastery in hiding and disappearing had advanced by leaps and bounds.
Bending his finger, he knocked on the window frame, to greet him according to the secret signal that Song Lu told him, in order to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding.
Feng Deyi’s shook violently, he turned his head around, Xu Ziling deftly slipped in through the window, saluted and said, “Xu Ziling pays his respect to Feng Lao.”
Feng Deyi breathed a sigh of relief and said, “It’s Ziling, I am relieved, because I don’t have to worry that you will reveal any trace. Also, only Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong can come and go freely in Chang’an. Please sit down!”
Xu Ziling sat down in the corner. Even if someone looked in from the window, no need to worry that he would be seen.
Feng Deyi sat down beside him, nodded his head and said, “It’s always good to be a bit more careful. At this time of the day, no one dares to disturb me in the study room.”
Xu Ziling smiled and said, “Did Feng Lao see through at first glance who I am that day?”
Feng Deyi replied indifferently, “Ziling finally realized.”
And then his pair of eyes shot sharp divine light, he said, “I wonder if Shaoshuai also came to find a path? I hear that you are going to draw a defensive map of Chang’an City, this matter is considerably not easy.”
Xu Ziling said, “Things have changed, we have obtained Song Fazhu’s nod of approval; we are determined to do our best to put Li Shimin on the emperor’s seat, so that the reunification and peace can be realized immediately.”
Trembling violently, Feng Deyi’s pair of eyes emitted disbelief expressions, he spoke heavily, “Is that true?”
Xu Ziling respectfully replied, “How could Ziling dare to swindle you, the Senior?”
Feng Deyi looked up at the beam and the pillars, he asked, “How did you persuade Song Que?”
Xu Ziling told the story in details, including the Duke Yang’s Treasure’s secret, Ci Hang Jing Zhai’s intervention, Song Que and Ning Daoqi’s battle where both sides suffered, and Li Shimin’s determination to rebel against his family. He did not dare to conceal anything. Because under the current situation, it was crucial to obtain Feng Deyi’s full support.
Finished listening, Feng Deyi revealed a deep-in-thought look. Finally he sighed and said, “This is indeed the best solution. No one has more qualifications to be the emperor than Li Shimin, but to accomplish this matter, it is not easy at all. Even if Song Que comes in person, with six thousand soldiers trying to control Chang’an, the chance of success is very slim. Ha! Turns out the Duke Yang’s Treasure still has real and fake differences; this is really previously unimaginable.”
Xu Ziling said, “Hence we must split apart the enemy first. In this regard, the more successful we are, the less resistance we are facing.”
Muttering to oneself irresolutely, Feng Deyi said, “I understand what Ziling meant, but if you want to bribe the men from the other side, you have to take great risks, which might make Qin Wang lose his standing at every turn. But it is not impossible. Li Yuan obstinately clinging to his course by executing Liu Wenjing has caused people to panic, fearing that Li Yuan will quickly be like Han Gaozhu [posthumous name of the first Han emperor, Liu Bang], the birds are over, the bow is put away [idiom], killing the ministers who have given outstanding service in the founding of the country. Let me think about this.”
And then he frowned and said, “Have you ever thought of a large-scale invasion from Hanzhong via the Shu Road, with the soldiers at the city walls, coordinating outside and inside offensives to attack Chang’an? This way, won’t you have more assurance?”
Xu Ziling replied frankly, “That was a plan that was thought of but was overthrown, because if we do it this way, the one who conquered the world will be Kou Zhong instead of Li Shimin, and Chang’an’s vitality will definitely suffer great harm. If the allied forces outside the Great Wall hear the news and immediately go down south, we fear that we will be lacking strength to fight back. Therefore, we hope that a coup will take the place of a bitter, fierce battle, and the casualties on both sides must be minimized, only then will it be more beneficial to Li Shimin’s political power.”
And then he wondered aloud, “Li Yuan is man who understands military affairs, how could he not see Xieli’s ambitions? The allied armies beyond the Great Wall are being amassed on a large scale, any hotblooded man in the Central Earth can’t possibly turn a blind eye to that, and be unconcerned.”
Smiling bitterly, Feng Deyi said, “I don’t understand Li Yuan more and more. It may be that the wild victories in quick succession have muddied his brains. His idea is to resolve the dispute between Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin before the barbarians are coming down to the south.”
Xu Ziling was stunned; he said, “People say that even cruel tiger won’t eat its own cubs, could it be that Li Yuan really want to kill his own offspring?”
Feng Deyi spoke heavily, “It will depend on whether Li Shimin is willing to surrender. If he is willing to hand over the military power and dissolve the Tian Ce Fu, Li Yuan may be willing to spare his life, otherwise he will undoubtedly be killed. The murder of Liu Wenjing precisely shows Li Yuan’s determination in this matter. One might well ask, in this situation, who would dare to say half a good word on Li Shimin’s behalf?”
And then he laughed involuntarily and said, “Up to this moment, who in the world can do anything to Xu Ziling? I really don’t have to worry too much. Ziling can freely tell me in detail about your grand plan for fabricating the emperor, see how I can act in concert with you.”
Xu Ziling was greatly relieved, knowing that finally he obtained the full support of the highly favored person by Li Yuan’s side.
Kou Zhong crouched down in the dark at the rear garden of Li Shiji’s General Mansion on Banzheng Lane, which was separated from the Imperial City by one Anhua Street, and he was sighing greatly for his bad luck.
Shen Luoyan was not in the Mansion. According to Li Shimin, she should have returned to Chang’an from Kaifeng more than ten days ago. Therefore, she must have gone out and has not returned yet. Based on Shen Luoyan’s style, not returning home tonight should not be surprising at all.
Should he continue to wait a bit longer?
While he was hesitating, suddenly the alarm went off in his heart.
Immediately Kou Zhong curbed everything that could stir up a martial art master’s induction, as he cast his gaze toward the courtyard wall. A tender, skillful dark shadow, fast like a ghost, appeared on top of the wall, and in the blink of an eye flew toward a snow-covered horizontal branch of a big three inside the courtyard. The tip of her foot lightly tapped, without dropping the slightest amount of snow, in a few ups and downs, she disappeared into the dark-lantern-black-fire Shen Luoyan’s fragrant chamber.
Looking at the uninvited guest in nightwalker attire, whose head and face were concealed in black hood, a feeling of déjà vu welled up in Kou Zhong’s heart. Momentarily he was not able to guess which one was this person among the people that he knew? But he had a vague feeling that it should not be difficult to guess; the number of women with such outstanding martial art skill in the world truly could be counted on one’s fingers.
Thinking to this point, Dugu Feng’s fragrant appearance suddenly floated up from the bottom of his heart. Her figure was precisely this kind of delicate and nimble. She obviously came here because of the hatred of killing her brother to look for Shen Luoyan to give her bad luck, but her intelligence must be not too accurate, unexpectedly she did not know that Shen Luoyan was not at home.
Suddenly Dugu Feng came out through the window. Without stopping at all, she left in the same direction she was coming from. Everything returned to its original state, as if nothing had happened.
Kou Zhong greatly felt that the turn of events was not too encouraging, he hurriedly flashed out of his hiding place, and in the blink of an eye he placed himself inside Shen Luoyan’s fragrant chamber.
He swept his gaze around, and finally fixed his eyes on the neatly folded brocade quilt on the bed.
He walked over.
Suddenly a streak of golden light burst out from under the blanket, shooting toward his throat, as fast as lightning flashes, just like a martial art master making a move to mount a sneak attack.
Kou Zhong had already guarded against this, his right hand reached out, he pinched the shooting thing head-on; the light turned into a little golden snake about half a chi long, wrapping itself around his hand, wriggling and struggling.
Kou Zhong looked down to look closely at the continuously-struggling-swiftly little golden snake; he cried ‘Formidable!’ inwardly.
This snake must be extremely poisonous, seeing-blood-sealing-the-throat kind, if Shen Luoyan was dragging her weary body home, thinking with all her heart that she could go to bed and rest, without guarding against it at all, there was a very good chance that she would be fooled. She was not like him and Xu Ziling, who were not afraid of poison. If from then on the jade perished and the fragrant vanished, and after the fact, the little snake slips away without a trace, even if there was doubt, it would be difficult to put the blame on the Dugu Family.
Dugu Feng came not because of intelligence error, on the contrary, she had accurate information, knowing exactly that Shen Luoyan was not at home. From this, Kou Zhong inferred that Shen Luoyan should be on the way home, otherwise if Shen Luoyan did not return all night, the one meeting misfortune bitten by the poisonous snake would be the innocent servant girl who came to clean up.
Kou Zhong sent out his power, the little golden snake was immediately finished.
Kou Zhong walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, as he heard the noise of vehicles and horses entering the gate from the front courtyard.
He casually waved his hand, the golden snake was tossed onto the little table by the bed.
Without any trace of politeness Kou Zhong lay down on the big bed, closed his eyes and waited quietly.
After a long time, the sound of footsteps was heard, he recognized that it was only Shen Luoyan, one person’s footsteps, he could not stop a burst of emotional stirring in his heart.
Although Shen Luoyan gave up her military career, she was, after all, accustomed to Jianghu life. If it were some other noble family’s ladies, even though she returned home in the depth of the night, it would be strange indeed if a group of maid servants did not endure the night to come and wait upon her. And Shen Luoyan definitely did not like this tune. Her General Mansion was like her former residence in Xingyang, the defense was loose, so much so that Dugu Feng was able to enter as if it was an uninhabited place to harm her.
‘Creak!’
The outer door of the boudoir was pushed open first, followed by Shen Luoyan pushing the inner door and entered, and let out a soft cry.
Kou Zhong slyly sat up from the bed, grinning widely, and said, “Meiren’er Junshi, how are you?”
Shen Luoyan stroked her chest with a having-just-recovered-from-a-shock touching manner. She cast her gaze on the golden snake on the small table, and then cast him a sidelong glance. She stepped over to the corner, where a palace lantern was hanging, and just like that she took off the cotton outer robe to defend herself against the cold, revealing her graceful, charming figure. Frowning, she said, “What’s going on here? Can you not stare at me so lecherously like that? If you really want to see it, I can show you enough.”
Inwardly, Kou Zhong was shocked. Shen Luoyan has always been willful, even though she had become the Li Family’s woman, she still did not change her character. No longer dared to be Liu Zhen looking straight ahead [sorry, can’t find any reference on this, probably based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms], he spoke with serious expression, “I happened to see Dugu Feng hiding this little golden snake inside your quilt, so I cleaned it up on your behalf. Oh! What are you doing?”
Without the slightest care Shen Luo Yan lazily unbuttoned the lapel of her gown; shrugging her shoulders, she said, “You are still so confused, when you get home, of course you have to change your clothes. Otherwise, how can you sleep comfortably? Quickly take off your filthy boots, you make my bed dirty.”
Kou Zhong was so scared that he turned around to look at the other side; he sighed and said, “Don’t seduce me, in this aspect, all men are weak.”
Shen Luoyan scolded angrily, “Gutless ghost!”
The rustling noise of the clothes being removed was heard from behind. For the first time, Kou Zhong regretted his overly-rich imagination; furthermore, he had never expected that he would encounter such an erotic scene. He secretly thought that Xu Ziling should carry out this mission, at least his power of concentration was far better than Kou Zhong’s.
