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Book 50 Chapter 2 – Contending for Supremacy in the Arena

Hamomei and Xu Ziling spurred their rides at exactly the same moment toward the point the ball was going to land.

Horses have horses’ nature, if you want them to let go of their four legs, they could only gradually release their power, to climb toward the peak of their speed. Hamomei was an expert in polo, he has been keeping the horse in an active condition, hence in just a few breaths he was able to urge the horse to arrive at its top speed. If he obtained the ball, he could seize the opportunity to bring the ball along the north line swiftly for several steps, and then before reaching the end of the line, he would pass the ball to Meineiyi, who was rushing over along the south line to provide support, then undoubtedly they would win this point.

When Xu Ziling was spurring his horse, Hamomei was about twenty some paces on his right side, and the ball was landing about thirty paces away on Hamomei’s right side. The two men made their move at the same time. But spurred by the ‘man-and-horse-as-one’, the horse Xu Ziling was riding on reached its top speed in the blink of an eye, like a powerful arrow it darted toward the landing point the ball. If he could rush in front of Hamomei’s horse, it would be akin to intercepting the ball one step ahead.

The two horses, one in front of the other, the hoofs rose, the hoofs landed, they rushed wildly with all their strength toward the ball. The stick in the right hand stretched out, the whip in the left hand lashed the horse’s butt, the competition was intense.

All eyes in and around the arena were completely focused on these two men. Xu Ziling’s ride constantly accelerated, it appeared that he might create a miracle. None who watched did not act like they were silly or crazy; they shouted to cheer on him.

The drummers beat the drums even more forcefully.

The shout of the people, the beating of the drums, the sound shook the public square, inside and outside the playing field, the atmosphere was blazing to its extreme point.

Hamomei let out a whistle, he changed direction; unexpectedly from dashing out at an angle he changed into going straight. Based on Xu Ziling’s current momentum, he would certainly be forced by the horse toward the left, and could only accompany Hamomei rushing out the line together, or perhaps the two horses would collide into a lump, which was not allowed by the rules of the game.

At this time, Kesa, who was at the rear, was crossing the half-way line; he rushed in front of Kou Zhong, spurring the horse to full speed along the north line to run after the ball. If Hamomei was able to block Xu Ziling, he could, before the ball escaped out of the north line, snatch it one step ahead.

Kou Zhong cried ‘Not good!’ inwardly; he desperately urged his ride to chase like crazy, but because he fell behind for nearly thirty paces, even with ‘man-and-horse-as-one’ technique, he was simply unable to catch up.

Li Yuan and the others were even farther away at the back, they could only gaze at the ocean and lament their inadequacy, staring blankly while venting their frustration and were anxious in vain.

The true qi within Xu Ziling’s body cycled around, he fully injected it into the horse’s body. When it looked like he was about to crash against Hamomei head-on, suddenly he pulled the rein, the strong horse reared, it rose to the sky and let out a long neigh. Before the front legs fell to the ground, the hind legs were still carried by the momentum that the horse rush several steps forward, barely missing Hamomei by a hairsbreadth.

Hamomei never expected that Xu Ziling had this move; unable to stop the momentum, the horse galloped across in front of Xu Ziling’s rearing horse, straight toward the end of the line. It was an extremely close miss.

The cheers were like a roar of thunder; it was the most intense since the start of the game.

The front hoofs landed on the ground, Xu Ziling spurred the horse to rush forward. With no one to compete with, he brandished the stick to hit the ball, the ball shot up into the sky, above Kesa’s – who was rushing over – head, and flew toward Kou Zhong.

Kou Zhong did not wait for the ball to hit the ground, he immediately swept the stick high up in the sky, the ball traversed over ten zhang of empty air, and after it landed, it swiftly rolled on the ground about ten paces in front of Li Yuanji’s horse.

Li Yuanji was greatly delighted; seeing Zexina blocking his way ahead, he swung his stick and pass the ball to Li Yuan at the south line.

This moment the enemy’s Hamomei, Kesa and Meineiyi were still at the west side of the field, they were unable to rush over in time, so Zexina became a lone army meeting the enemy. After receiving the ball, Li Yuan did not dare to hesitate, he carried the ball to advance toward the east gate.

Zexina urged his ride to meet Li Yuan, his body suddenly moved to the left, suddenly moved to the right, and he reached forward and stooped backward, giving up the impression that any angle that Li Yuan was going to strike, he would be able to intercept it head-on.

Li Yuan swept the stick across, the ball was passed to Li Yuanji on his left, it swiftly rolled on the ground.

Zexina immediately displayed his expertise; abruptly he pulled back his horse, the horse seemed to be about to fall to the right, but suddenly it sprang up again, and has successfully changed the direction of its sprint. In a hard-to-believe situation, he dashed at an angle toward the space between Li Yuan and Li Yuanji’s two rides. It looked like that it was still too late to intercept, yet he stretched his body forward until it was almost to the ground, fast as lightning the stick swept, just enough to hit the ball.

Meeting the stick, the ball changed direction; it was sent toward Kesa, who was on the north line of the west field. Kesa swiftly sent the ball toward the on-the-south-line-rushing-over Meineiyi. The latter, before Xu Ziling rushed over, swung his stick to hit the ball, sending the ball into the goal.

Three drumbeats in succession. The Persians scored another goal, increasing their lead to four points, leaving only eight points remaining to be contested.

Someone quickly sent the ball to the middle of the field.

Li Yuan signaled with his hand, asking for a timeout. He had the other three to huddle in front of the west gate. He spoke to Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling first, “You played well! The loss of this point is not your fault.”

Li Yuanji nodded and said, “Zexina, this defensive barrier is very strong; in my opinion, he is more brilliant than Hamomei.”

Li Yuan said, “We change formation; Yuanyong and Wentong play offense, Zhen and Qi Wang play defense at the rear. As long as you play with the same level like just now, we may not necessarily lose.”

Just by hearing how he amiably called the two by their first name, it was clear that he grew very fond of Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling in his heart.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling accepted the imperial order with a loud voice. They were infected by the spirit of the game, plus they felt that the lost point just now was an injustice. Their fighting spirit was aroused, they vowed to fight the next point back.

Kou Zhong started with the ball in the middle of the field; he passed it to Xu Ziling, the latter bent down half of his body from the horseback, using the crescent-shaped head of the stick he controlled the ball to roll forward on the ground.

Ahead, waiting in tight formation, Hamomei rushed forward to intercept, Meineiyi and Kesa also attacked from left and right, while Zexina was still playing defense at the rear.

Just before Hamomei’s stick made contact with the ball, Xu Ziling, beyond everybody’s – inside and outside the field – expectation, did not pass the ball back to Kou Zhong; instead, he hit the ball to roll between the four hoofs of the other side’s horse, while he himself, like the long grass being blown by a violent gale, from one side bent to the other side, and then before the ball escaped from the range of his control, he hooked it and brought it forward, thereupon he skillfully strained Hamomei that he pounced on the empty space.

Shouts sprang up everywhere, the drumbeats intensified, everybody knew Xu Ziling was striving for the good opportunity to attack the gate.

Sure enough, Xu Ziling brought the ball forward and advanced straight toward Zexina.

Kou Zhong’s mind was interlinked with his; he cut in and pressed on, so that Zexina was like a lone palm difficult to clap, he did not know which one he ought to intercept.

Other people thought that it was their, the ‘Taihang Shuang Jie’, who were experts in playing polo – troops formation, only they, the two boys were well aware it was their experience in going through battles, big and small, together, that they brought into the ball field and put it to full use.

Zexina suddenly spurred his horse to dash forward, the polo stick in his hand fantastically created multi-layered stick shadows, it was hard to tell which one was real, which one was fake; it was fine and delicate, which quite reached perfection.

Xu Ziling’s mind entered the Moon in the Well realm. Frankly speaking, Zexina’s stick technique was indeed brilliant, however, compared to Shi Zhixuan’s Bu Si Huan, there was still some quite out-of-reach distance, therefore, how could it baffle Xu Ziling? Feigning an attack, he tricked Zexina’s polo stick to lean slightly to the left, while he immediately shifted the polo stick lightly. Just like that, he easily passed through the opponent’s seemingly-sealing-the-ground-so-tight-that-even-water-could-not-splash-through stick shadow, and then send the ball in front of Kou Zhong.

Kou Zhong did not dare to show off, because at this point Kesa was less than two horses’ long away on his left side. Straightforward, he swung his stick, ‘Pop!’ the ball obediently bored through the east gate and entered the goal net.

The drums rose up to the sky, ‘Wansui’ cry continued unendingly; no one cared that it was Cai Yuanyong instead of the Great Tang Emperor Li Yuan who scored the goal.

Li Yuan did not care even more; on horseback, he proudly looked around, as happy and excited as if he scored the goal himself. His decision to substitute players in the arena was actually a risk in troops deployment, just like replacing a general on the battlefield at the last moment, and now the fact verified that his sacred decision was a correct one, so that he would be able to answer Li Shentong and Li Nantian whom he replaced, but even more, he also recovered his glory in front of the crowd.

Li Yuanji urged his horse to come over to greet the two men, and then they returned triumphantly together.

The battle situation quickly became very tight, the House of Tang was no longer trapped in passive, only-take-a-beating situation.

Three drumbeats in succession. The first set of the second half of the game continued.

The Persian side was determined to win the last point of this set. If they won this point, they could still maintain their overwhelming lead of four points.

After kick-off, the Persian side changed tactics to full-attack. After receiving the ball, Zexina pushed forward to the middle of the field. Before Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling intercepted him, he passed the ball to Hamomei. This main striker, with Meineiyi and Kesa, three men played their polo magic trick. With their rides interweaved as they rushed along, the ball became appearing and disappearing unpredictably like a spirit or a ghost, turning to the left and was passed on to the right, suddenly it went to the front, suddenly it came back to the rear. With Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling had no time to go back to help, Li Yuan and Li Yuanji did not have any opportunity to touch the ball even more; the opponent sent the ball into the net, victory was like handling a butcher’s cleaver with ease, it was as easy as blowing off dust.

In their heart, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling could not accept this loss, yet they had no choice but to accept; they felt utterly frustrated.

The first set of the second-half of the game concluded, there was a moment’s rest.

The two followed Li Yuan and Li Yuanji to the sideline. Li Yuan’s expression was grave, he waved away the eunuch serving tea and delivering towel, who was going to wait upon him. Knitting his brows, he said, “Now there is only six points left; only if we could take all six points will we be able to triumph over the opponent. If we lose one point, the game will end up in a tie. Do you guys have any good proposal?”

Li Yuanji obviously lost his confidence, but because Kou and Xu performed well, he spoke in friendly manner, “Yuanyong, Wentong, you can boldly speak up what you think in your hearts.”

Kou Zhong calmly said, “Huangshang’s formation change just now showed extraordinary effect, hence no need to change again. But to deal with the other side’s offensive, when the enemy gets the ball, Xiaoren, two of us must go back to playing defense, we adopt the one-person-pins-one-person strategy. Wentong is in charge of Zexina, Xiaoren is responsible for Hamomei.”

“That is a way within no way; simple and easy to do,” Li Yuan replied, “Yuanji, you look after Meineiyi, Zhen will look after Kesa. Let’s do it this way.”

This moment Wei Gonggong came to Li Yuan’s side, as if he wanted to speak.

Showing understanding, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling left; they handed the horses to Cheng Mo’s men, while they themselves went to the other side to drink the tea served by a eunuch.

Kou Zhong nudged Xu Ziling’s shoulder with his, he spoke in low voice, “It’s coming!”

Li Mi left his seat and walked over to Li Yuan.

Xu Ziling was shaken inwardly. He looked at where Shen Luoyan was sitting. Sure enough, she appeared to be paying attention, her eyes were on Li Mi; he could not help crying ‘Not good!’ inwardly. She must have guessed that Li Mi fell into the crafty scoundrel’s scheme, and was privately making a request to Li Yuan. Under the circumstances, she would make an attempt to leave the palace to look for Li Mi. In which case she was falling into the enemy’s trap.

Immediately Xu Ziling focused his power into his pair of ears. On the sideline, Li Mi was paying his respect and wishing Li Yuan well, and then he said, “Since surrendering and paying allegiance to the Great Tang, Chen [official or subject; I, your servant] has continuously received Huangshang’s reward, received Huangshang’s favor in no small measure; however, Chenxia enjoys honor and favor without lifting a finger, without the least bit of return, my heart is really uneasy. Now that Qin Wang is using soldiers against Luoyang, while most of Chenxia’s former subordinates are setting up an independent regime and being self-reliant in the Shandong region, as long as Huangshang graciously grant your permission, Chenxia could go out of the Pass to recruit them. Otherwise, if Kou Zhong, via Zhai Jiao, attracts them to come over, it will be extremely detrimental to our Great Tang’s undertaking of unifying the world.”

Li Yuan spoke heavily, “What Qingjia [term used by the emperor of his subjects] said is not without reason. I wonder how much confidence does Qingjia have, how many men can be recruited?”

Xu Ziling was even more certain now that Li Yuan had the intention to kill Li Mi, because Li Mi had criminal record of murdering Zhai Rang, clearly he was a person accustomed to scheming against his master; practically he cannot be trusted. In normal circumstances, how could Li Yuan be willing to release the tiger back to its mountain? He went along with Li Mi just like that, there must be a follow-up plan.

Li Mi respectfully said, “Among Chenxia’s former subordinates, Zhang Shanxiang, who occupies Luojing, has the greatest power, the soldiers under his command surpass ten thousand men. Chenxia has complete confidence that I could persuade him. As long as he is willing to surrender, the others will certainly look at the scenery and follow.”

Li Yuan asked, “When does Qingxia plan to leave?”

Greatly delighted, Li Mi said, “Upon obtaining Huangshang’s blessing, Chenxia wants to move immediately.”

After muttering to himself irresolutely for half a day, Li Yuan said, “Just do as you say. Zhen will immediately send someone to notify the border security.”

Inwardly Xu Ziling was severely shaken. The game was not over yet, plus they did not know when they could leave the palace. If Shen Luoyan slipped away this moment, what should they do? Besides, until this time, he still could not figure out what trick and trap the enemy was going to use to deal with Shen Luoyan.

Kou Zhong received the ball that Xu Ziling passed on perfectly; under his control, the ball rolled forward on the ground, it coiled over Hamomei just a hairsbreadth away. This was the tactic that Xu Ziling stole from the other side; his rider rushed to the left and dashed to the right, both to disturb the enemy and to confuse and trick the enemy, to pin down the other three men. Furthermore, he and Kou Zhong constantly weaved around each other, separated and met together again, like butterflies dancing between the flowers, each time everybody thought Kou Zhong was going to pass the ball back to him, and finally, with the ball still under his stick, Kou Zhong rapidly pressed in toward the enemy’s gate. The people watching from the grandstands and the imperial guards standing all around the field exploded in applause and cheers, rising and falling like a tide.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were both people brimming with heavenly talent. The pre-game warm-up plus repeatedly crossing swords on the field had enabled them to play polo in what-the-heart-wishes-the-hand-accomplishes level, full of confidence. The ‘man-and-horse-as-one’ technique and join-hands tactics were displayed to the peak state on the polo field.

Kou Zhong made a false move; he seemed to be sending the ball to the charging-toward-the-gate-along-the-south-line Xu Ziling, tricking Zexina into trying to catch the ball on the wrong path, the end of his stick twisted lightly, he hooked the ball to flash through Zexina, amidst the wild shouts and shrieks to cheer them on and the inseparably-close-like-firecrackers rumbles of the drums, he sent the ball into the goal.

When the two were returning in triumph and receiving praise and congratulations from Li Yuan and Li Yuanji, Li Mi and Wang Bodang rose up from their seat and left. But Shen Luoyan was still sitting on the grandstand, so that the two boys felt slightly at ease.

The ball was rolling.

Meineiyi passed the ball to Zexina, close to the rear. With Hamomei and Kesa, the three displayed fancy equestrian trick again, letting the horse having a free reign penetrating deeply into the west field. They seemed to be moving randomly, up and down, left and right, but actually the advance and retreat, left and right, all were carefully measured, hidden within it was the flavor of changes in troop formation.

Li Yuan and Li Yuanji were unable to see through the other side’s changes, they were forced to retreat and defend their line with all their strength.

Yet Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were using movement to control movement; imitating the other side’s boring through to the left and piercing to the right, they galloped between the enemy ranks, acting on the fact that any position had intercepting enemy and blocking enemy capability.

Seeing how both sides spurring their horses speeding all over the field, the sound of hoof beats rising and falling, intense competition where neither side was willing to concede, the spectators were more nervous than the top athletes competing in the arena; the shouts were unending, the game situation rapidly climbed to a fiery climax.

Zexina was finally able to push the ball across the middle line and enter the west side of the field.

Kou Zhong rushed in front of Hamomei’s horse, he pounced toward Zexina, forcing him to pass the ball to his teammate.

The key moment finally came. Obviously Zexina did not have the confidence to dodge Kou Zhong’s magic wand, he swung the stick to hit the ball. The ball rolled diagonally toward the gap of the southern boundary, and landed under Meineiyi’s stick.

Kou Zhong pulled the rein, the racehorse reared and spun around, he rushed over to cut in the middle between Hamomei and Kesa. If Meineiyi sent the ball across, he would definitely fight the two to decide victory or defeat.

From the rear, Li Yuan spurred his ride to meet Meineiyi, while Li Yuanji hung far behind on Li Yuan’s horse’s left side to protect Li Yuan.

Xu Ziling feigned a move to gallop toward Hamomei, who was closest to Meineiyi, only about two hundred steps behind and to Meineiyi’s right, but he was actually waiting while storing up his power, intending to meet the riding-slowly-to-advance Zexina.

Sure enough, Meineiyi controlled the ball to cut into the middle of the field from an angle. He seemed to be about to send the ball to moving-close-to-the-northern-boundary Kesa, but when he swung the stick, the ball was passed on to Zexina in the back, so that Li Yuan and Li Yuanji both pounced on empty space.

Remaining behind Meineiyi’s horse, Li Yuan repeatedly signaled towards the east to charge straight. Since Li Yuanji still had energy left over, he withdrew to play defense, while Kou Zhong ran after Kesa, who was gradually getting away, for fear of the terrifying consequences if Zexina successfully passed the ball over to Kesa.

These series of actions and reactions occurred at the high speed of lightning or the spark of the flint. Once the movement started, nothing stayed still. The ball drew a touching arc high in the sky; it rose and fell in a curve, flying toward Zexina.

Xu Ziling’s mind entered the Moon in the Well realm, he appeared to suddenly pull away from the arena. The originally shaking-through-the-public-square sound of cheering suddenly withdrew like a tide that not one drop remained, all around, it was like they were watching a silent mute play full of intense action on the stage. This moment Xu Ziling already injected his qi into the horse’s hoofs, the horse under his control leaped forward, high up in the air it traversed nearly six, seven zhang of empty space, the stick barely intercepted the ball, only twenty steps or so away from Zexina. The ball took off, it flew about twenty steps in front of Li Yuan’s horse, which was rushing to the east along the southern border.

The entire arena exploded in thunderous cheers.

Li Yuan was greatly delighted; he charged forward and took control of the ball and advanced rapidly. Zexina pulled the rein stiffly to turn his horse around, but it was already too late to catch up.

By the time Xu Ziling’s horse’s hoofs landed on the ground, the sound of cheering pierced through his pair of ears like raging waves crashing against the shore, because Li Yuan, the emperor leading his troops into battle, hit the ball into the goal.

The roar of ‘Wansui’ was more intense than a thunder.

While happily returning to the west field, Li Yuan said, “Well played.” But it was unclear whether he was praising himself or Xu Ziling. However, not a person did not know that being able to display his mighty power on the field, his dragon heart was very pleased.

After kick-off, the Persian’s side was a lot more cautious. They gradually approached with long transfers and short passes,.

Yet Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling knew that the other side’s confidence has been thwarted, no longer with momentum like a rainbow like before. On the other hand, their, the two boys’ confidence were multiplied many times over. They galloped across the field, forcing the other side not daring to take the risk to attack. Li Yuan and Li Yuanji, due to their confidence in the two men grew, they no longer trembling with fear like before, rather, they had a free hand in cooperating with them, putting the spirit of group battle on display.

After receiving the ball that Zexina passed on to him, Kesa, forced by Li Yuanji who came to meet him, passed the ball across to Hamomei. Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling have been waiting painstakingly for a long time, watching for accurate opportunity, together they urged their horses to sprint; the men and horses have not arrived, the range of their threat already sealed Hamomei’s path on three sides: ahead and left and right.

Hamomei did not dare to pass the ball to Meineiyi, who was being entangled by Li Yuan on the other side. Having no alternative, he hooked the ball, making the ball rolled on the ground toward Zexina, who was behind the middle line.

Kou Zhong shouted loudly, “Qi Wang”, and then together with Xu Ziling they unleashed the ‘man-and-horse-as-one’ technique, suddenly they sped up the horses to the limit to chase the ball like a whirlwind, like powerful arrows piercing from Hamomei’s both sides like lightning.

Li Yuanji’s fighting nature was aroused, plus he also wanted to establish his prestige; hearing the call, he crossed over Kesa, and spurred the horse to full speed, galloping wildly along the southern border.

Zexina knew that the success or failure of this point depended on which family the flower was going to fall, how could he dare to be negligent? Urging the horse to charge forward, he met the ball, which was rolling in his direction.

On horseback, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling exchanged glances, because no matter how fast they were running, it was impossible to catch up before Zexina touched the ball. Their aim was to force Zexina to hit the ball in the first moment to give them the opportunity they could take advantage of.

By the time Zexina was leaning forward and swinging the stick to hit the ball rolling toward him, the two boys were still about twenty paces away.

When it looked like they were going to ruin the enterprise for the sake of one basketful, strange change suddenly happened.