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Book 53 Chapter 3 – Nasty Situation

Translator: Foxs\' Wuxia

The three looked up at the night sky on top of the city gate tower of the Changxia Gate, they still did not see any shadow of Kang Qiaoli’s falcon.

Outside the city, the enemy’s maneuvering men and horses has come to an end. One hundred and fifty thousand Tang soldiers, stationed in various camps and arrow tower positions outside the city, yet in the camp and vast plain between the camps and towers and the trenches there was no one to be seen, revealing a profound mystery, the kind of unusual tranquility brimming with the tension before the mountain rain came.

Kou Zhong let Wuming fly straight into the night sky, hovering high above the city gate tower, he even ordered her to fly outside the city, yet there was still no reaction whatsoever from Li Shimin’s side, they did not send the vicious vultures to deal with Wuming.

The three you looked at me I gazed at you, ominous feeling crept up in all their heart.

Blowing out a mouthful of air, Ba Fenghan said, “This move of Li Shimin is really brilliant, he makes us unable to ascertain his strength and deployment, plus he could wait at his ease for the exhausted enemy, our grand plan of killing the vulture can be declared fizzling out.”

Xu Ziling swept his gaze across the two camps south of the city, inside both camps, the lanterns dark, the fire black, which felt mysterious and strange; he spoke heavily, “Li Shimin can see through that we are going to break out of the siege from the south of the city.”

Kou Zhong said, “He may not necessarily be able to see through that we are going to break out of the siege from the south of the city, but he is adopting the most proper strategy; even if we flip over or rolling on our side, we still cannot leap out of the hollow of his palm. Li Shimin’s usual style can be summed up in two characters, which are ‘restraint’ and ‘ruthless’! Whether it was Xue Ju, father and son, Song JinGang, or perhaps Dou Jiande, all were defeated in these two words. Now he is exercising restraint, by not sending out the falcon to scout the enemy, and by letting go of the opportunity to kill Wuming using the vicious vultures. This is precisely the ‘restraint’.”

Ba Fenghan scanned the snaking Yi River with his eyes, he spoke heavily, “The biggest threat to our great escape plan is that Luoyang is the site where eight rivers converge, big and small river courses crisscrossed, as long as the enemy has huge navy ships, they could quickly send the assembled elite troops to any distant location, to launch surprise attack toward our troops who successfully breaking out of the siege at the least expected time. One day we have not reach Zhongli, one day we are still in danger.”

Kou Zhong’s tiger-body shook, he said, “That is exactly the strategy Li Shimin is currently adopting, he is letting Li Yuanji’s main forces to continue besieging the city relying on the solid stronghold, arrow towers disposition and trenches, while he himself assembles the elite troops, so that he could swiftly and effectively intercept us at any moment. His granny’s! Although we understand his intentions, there is nothing we can do, except staking everything to flee to the south, completely losing the initiative.”

Ba Fenghan said, “In the breaking-out-the-siege battle, less casualties we suffer, the greater our chance will be to get away. There’s not much time, we must make a final deployment for the breaking-out-the-siege battle.”

Kou Zhong pondered for half a day, he nodded and said, “I’ll hand over the Flying Cloud Guards to you, LaoGe to command, they have been under my personal training for a long time, these days they have been through battles and troops dispositions even more. Although their number is small, but each one has solid skill. In order to raid the enemy camp, they are better than ten thousand horses and a thousand troops.”

And then he recalled Wuming and handed her over to Xu Ziling, while saying with a laugh, “Please take a good care of this darling for Xiaodi, our fate in the future might possibly be tied up with her.”

Xu Ziling took Wuming, he cast his gaze toward the plain between mountain forests in the south, which concealed murderous aura under the beautiful starry sky. Beyond his control, his mind remembered Shi Feixuan, so far away from he was, he wondered what would she think if she knew that he was directly involved in this cruel battle for supremacy?

Kou Zhong and Li Shimin finally arrived at the moment where they were in direct conflict, without any leeway or buffer in between. If Kou Zhong was defeated and killed, naturally everything would come to a stop, otherwise the situation would become intense, with the Central Earth turning into a big battlefield, sweeping both the north and the south. No one would be able to stop it, no one would be able to change this dreadful situation even more.

The contention for the world hinged upon Kou Zhong and Li Shimin, two mighty men vying for victory. The one thing that Shi Feixuan was most worried about has finally become an iron-clad fact.

The nightmare would open its prologue just before dawn.

Kou Zhong mounted the Thousand-Li Dream, his heart was as calm as still water, his Lingtai was clear, bright, empty and limpid. The hatred, the remorse, the feeling of injustice, grief and indignation, which rushed forth violently since the moment Dou Jiande was murdered, were entirely transformed into fantastic power. Under the terrifying threat of total defeat of an army pressing in on his eyelashes, he made a comprehensive breakthrough, and advanced into the ‘Heavenly Saber’ Song Que abandoning his saber outside, into the supreme level of no-self-no-object’s Heaven, Earth, and Man became one – realm.

This really was not an accidental realm, rather, starting from that moment, he has obtained the inalienable part, bringing the Moon in the Well one level up.

Spurring their horses, Yang Gongqing and Ma Chang came behind him and to his side. Following the three were eighty warriors in formation, they were the main force of the breaking-out-the-siege army, which was divided into three units: forward unit with four thousand men, consisting of lance and shield-wielders and saber and arrow-wielders, in charge of the thirty eight-bow-and-crossbow-and-arrow machines and the fifteen big trebuchets, which could launch long-range attack on the enemy’s disposition of troops.

The middle army unit had one thousand men, equipped with the wooden donkey carts and toad carts standing firm behind the forward unit to fill the trenches. The rear unit had twenty men, all were light cavalry, these were the rapid response units that can cope with any situation.

The three army units were under respective command of Ba Yegang, Bing Yuanzhen and Duan Da.

The other two armies had twenty men each, stationed between the South Gate and the other two gates Houzai and Dingding, with Shan Xiongxin and Guo Shancai as the commanding generals, to intercept the enemy troops attacking from the west, so that the main force army could concentrate their strength to deal with the enemy ranks coming from straight ahead. [Note: I find it odd that the rest of the armies were in thousands and tens of thousands, but suddenly there were units with only ‘twenty’ men, but I checked multiple sources and they are the same.]

On the public square, all the officers and soldiers’ eyes were focused on Kou Zhong, quietly waiting for his order to open the gate and attack.

Suddenly the Thousand-Li Dream stood like a human, rearing its head and neighing. Right when its pair of front legs was high in the air, the hind legs stepped on the spot, it spun around to face the officers and soldiers, before the front hooves were back on the ground.

This trick was greatly beyond everybody’s expectation, it was brilliant even more, it enabled those with less ability, which immediately provoked the officers and soldiers under his command to uncontrollably shout loudly and cheer, the battle spirit greatly increased.

‘Qiang!’

Kou Zhong pulled the Moon in the Well out, holding it at an angle pointing to the starry sky, he laughed out and said, “In all my life, I, Kou Zhong have been through thousands and hundreds of battles, each time always using the few to fight the many, using the weak to defeat the strong, to rely on the strategy of the art of war, with the courage to defy the powerful and mighty. This time also ...”

He had not finished speaking, the officers and soldiers already forgot to keep quiet and cheered, drowning his voice, the morale rose up to its peak.

Kou Zhong knew it was time. Furthermore, he was glad of the timely decision to immediately go out and attack tonight, and built the case that Dou Jiande and most of the officers and soldiers following him were militia of peasant background, while Li Shimin and Li Yuanji actually represented high-school, big-clan, of the old Sui’s influential officials who had always pushed them around since the Wei [220-265 AD] and Jin [265-420] dynasties, who went on the rampage without any scruples. Li Yuanji murdered Dou Jiande in public, stirring the righteous indignation in the city-defenders army’s, in their common hatred toward their enemies – hearts. On top of that, his impact on them was still fresh in their memory, it has not been diluted by time, everybody had the heart to disregard life and death, to stake everything in order to survive.

Under his command, Wang Xuanshu, presiding over the general situation in the city from the city gate tower, ordered his men to lower the draw bridge.

Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well returned to its scabbard. Amidst the sound of the battle drums, he took the lead to enter the gateway, and was the first to go out of the city.

‘Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!’

The Tang Army at the two arrow towers position sounded the bells and beat the gongs to raise the alarm and call for help.

At the same time, the two camps sounded their bugle horn, the camp’s gate opened wide, three groups of armies galloped separately, and formed battle array outside the camp. Just by looking at how swift their reaction was, it was obvious that they had been waiting with stored-up momentum.

One camp’s force was still under Qu Tutong’s command, his military strength was the strongest, reaching thirty thousand men. Under ordinary circumstances, even if there was no trench, the military strength was enough to seal off the southern route. The other two camps’ military strength was around fifteen thousand men, under Xue Wanche and Shi Dabao’s command, respectively, becoming Qu Tutong’s force’s left and right wings. The army’s appearance was at its peak, their momentum was like the rainbow.

The breaking-out-the-siege army rapidly went out of the city, and formed their battle array between the first layer of trenches and the city gate, ready to attack. The thirty eight-bow-and-crossbow-and-arrow machines and the fifteen big trebuchets were arrayed in two rows across right at the front. Big rocks, weighing around fifty, sixty catties and specially-manufactured crossbow arrows were transported by the toad carts. The other two gates’ breaking-out-the-siege army still held back their troops without moving, lying low behind the tightly closed city gates, quietly waiting for the fortunate timing to go out and attack.

Kou Zhong’s swept his gaze back and forth to examine the two arrow towers and stone-throwing machine formation at the other edge of the second layer of the trenches, each formation consisted of over a hundred men. If not for some other arrangement, only these two enemy front-line defense points were already not easy to break.

On his right, Yang Gongqing said, “They abandon the first layer of trenches.”

On his other side, Ma Chang laughed and said, “Because of the example of the former cart [idiom: learning a lesson from the mistake of one’s predecessor]. Last time we cut the enemy’s cavalry’s tail entering between the two layers of trenches and attacked them out of the trenches. By coincidence, one arrow established the meritorious deed, and we won a beautiful victory on that battle.”

‘Dong! Dong! Dong!’

Amidst the sound of drums, the enemy’s three camps’ troops and horses advanced toward the second layer of the trenches, stopping about a thousand paces away from the second layer of trenches.

Kou Zhong smiled and said, “Fill the first layer of trench!”

Ma Chang transmitted the order, fifty toad carts from within the army pushed out at lightning speed, directly into the trenches, followed by bags of mud and dirt being transported in endless stream, just a short moment, a section of the trenches, which was originally extending more than twenty zhang across in front of them has become flat ground.

Kou Zhong waited until the soldiers returned to their formation before he pointed at the three temporary wooden bridges spanning the Yi River to the left, saying, “When we take control of the overall situation, we must immediately destroy those three bridges using the large flying stones, to cut off the route of the enemy’s main forces from the east of the city to come to help. If Li Yuanji wants to come to help, he must take a longer route, by going around the west of the city.”

At the same time, he gave a hand signal. ‘Boom! Boom!’ amidst the rumbling noise, crossbow-and-arrow machines and stone cannon were the first to move forward, crossing over the first section of the trenches, which had been filled flat, straight toward the second layer of trenches.

Ma Chang nodded to accept the order, “Let Xiashu take care of that,” he said.

As the enemy horns sounded, the main force divided into a twenty-man shield and spear-wielders and archers, pushing forward to reinforce the second layer of the trench.

The breaking-out-the-siege army’s vanguard unit, armed with long-distance attack heavy equipment, stopped at five hundred paces from the outer trenches, waiting for Kou Zhong’s attack orders.

Kou Zhong calmly said, “After Houzai and Dingding, two gates drop, the troops behind the city gate must remain holding back without moving.”

Yang Gongqing was slightly surprised, the signalman [lit. soldier who transmit messages] behind them already used flag signal to transmit the order to Wang Xuanshu on the city gate tower, and then Wang Xuanshu conveyed Kou Zhong’s order to the other two armies.

A short moment later the two gates dropped, but no men and horses came out; indeed it had a profound mystery effect.

Kou Zhong smiled and said, “This is called the troops deployed to mislead the enemy tactic, to make Qu Tutong not daring to act rashly, afraid that we might suddenly attack from the side across their flank.”

Ma Chang said, “The enemy only saw Shaoshuai, but did not see Xu Ye and Ba Ye; I wonder what they are thinking?”

Kou Zhong replied indifferently, “Naturally they are overly suspicious, not knowing what our follow-up move will be.”

And then he exhaled a mouthful of long, slow breath, and said with sigh, “How I wish that on the other side of the trench was Li Shimin rather than Qu Tutong, then perhaps we won’t need to give up Luoyang, but rely on Luoyang to advance against Guanzhong.”

Yang Gongqing and Ma Chang mused that this was precisely Li Shimin’s brilliance; he would never give the enemy any opportunity to face him head-on with adequate preparation. Wanting to attack, they were unable to attack, hence wanting to defend, they were unable to defend either.

Kou Zhong pulled out the Moon in the Well and swung it in a circle above his head, he shouted loudly, “Attack!”

His command was like scorching thunder on the plain, it rumbled on far and near; hearing that, the men and horses on his side’s spirit was greatly aroused, while the enemy’s fear toward his unequalled valiant was awakened.

‘Dong! Dong! Dong!’

The breaking-out-the-siege army’s battle drum was sounded, it was a giant drum, which construction was under Chen Laomou’s personal supervision, its rhythmic drumming sound could be transmitted deeply to the ambushing troops underground, so that with each drumbeat, they were able to match their movement with the ground troops.

The big battle began.

The drumbeats shook the mountains. At the other end of the exit, Xu Ziling, under cover of the dark night, swiftly sent the heavy military supply wagons to their position on the mountaintop, a simple yet effective site, which the construction battalion soldiers built, in order to resist the Tang Army’s pursuing troops.

On all the strategic high points of the southeast, there were outposts ready to issue warning in case Li Shimin’s wonder troops appeared, so that the retreating army could escape by avoiding the important and dwelling on the trivial.

The food, weapons and all kinds of supplies, which were brought from Chenliu, were hidden in a secret place in the dense forest twenty li to the south, if everything was achieved according to the plan, the breaking-out-the-siege army should be able to escape to this place after sunrise, and then after replenishing their equipment and supplies – to continue their journey to the south.

Xu Ziling paid particular attention to any activities on the River Yi and River Luo, two rivers, because their escape route was precisely between the two rivers. He wanted to find out one step ahead if Li Shimin’s navy fleet came to pursue from that river course, since it bore upon the success or failure of their retreat.

Chen Laomou came to his side. Listening carefully to the shout and the sound of battle coming from Luoyang’s direction, he said, “It’s starting! The two battle towers’ formation will collapse within twenty drumbeats.”

From far away, the battle cry reached the sky, yet the quietness of this place was suffocating. The three hundred warriors guarding the mountaintop position, everybody’s expression was heavy, they were waiting with stored-up momentum.

The team in charge of guarding this exit was entirely chosen from the Yang Family Army, none was not a one-able-to-hold-out-against-ten elite troops. Although their number was small, coupled with Xu Ziling, a martial art master of his caliber, they were enough to deal with any situation. Using stillness to control movement, they bore the heavy responsibility of holding up the enemy.

Xu Ziling said, “I wonder if Chen Gong could take care of the army provisions and supplies seized from the enemy camp and send them over, just leave the matter here for me to manage.”

Chen Laomou nodded his agreement, and led more than a dozen personal guards back into the tunnel.

Xu Ziling looked at the high camp from a distance. An uneasy feeling welled up in his heart, where exactly was Li Shimin right now?

Kou Zhong sat securely on Thousand-Li Dream’s back, coldly running his eyes over the attack and defense battle situation on both sides, the enemy and us. The attack on the second layer of trenches was under Ma Chang’s command. This was the method of employing generals that he sneakily learned from the ‘Heavenly Saber’ Song Que.

No matter how outstanding a talent is, if he was denied the opportunity to learn through experience, to expand his ability, it would be difficult for him to shine and mature. Just as Song Que wanted him to support the situation in the north, to resist the Li Clan’s Great Tang Army; the intention was the same. It was like Song Que forcing him in a life and death decisive battle, so that he would make a breakthrough in the Way of the Saber.

The big carts of thirty eight-bow-and-crossbow-and-arrow machines and the fifteen big trebuchets launched a ruthless violent attack on the enemy ranks outside the trenches. The former’s firing range was more than five hundred paces, the latter was two hundred steps, all were moved at two hundred paces distance from the enemy ranks, outside the threat of the enemy’s stone throwing machines. The arrow darts shot by the enemy were blocked by the lance and shield soldiers.

The five wooden donkey carts were placed across the front line, the crossbow-wielders on their side returned fire toward the enemy ranks from under cover. Upon contact, under the powerful offensive of the crossbow-arrow and stone-thrower, the enemy’s flesh and blood flying, one after another they retreated behind the battle formation. If not for the long trench separating them, the breaking-out-the-siege army would have pressed forward early on.

Kou Zhong shouted, “Cancel the excavating plan!”

‘Boom!’

The arrow tower on the left could not stand the destructive power of the flying stone, it toppled down and collapsed, pressing down on the soldiers inside the formation that they screamed miserably and rushed out to evade.

Yang Gongqing transmitted the order, the drumbeat changed suddenly, to inform the men in the tunnel to abandon the plan to pull down the supporting beam, which would let the enemy to collapse underground, in order not to expose the deceitful trick underground.

Kou Zhong secretly blamed his own blunder, he never thought that the enemy’s aspiration was not to defend the trenches, but on the real battle outside the trenches, so that he had wasted manpower.

The fifteen thousand Tang Army from the left camp under Xue Wanche’s command has completed their operation of crossing over the river, via the three wooden bridge, pouring men into the plain ahead, to rendezvous with the main forces with Qu Tutong as the commander-in-chief, so that their military power reached sixty thousand men. Like a male eagle spreading its wings, the soldiers filled the wide plain, waiting in tight formation. Behind them was the high camp with its banner flying high.

Were it not for Kou Zhong already made arrangement to break through the high camp from underground, this moment he would have no choice but to admit defeat and concede, and retreated back into the city to think of another way. Because under the overwhelming pressure of the enemy’s strength, combined with the attack of the rapid cavalry, the crossbow-arrow machine and the big flying stones would lose their threatening force to attack the enemy across the trenches; if the enemy cut off their retreating path, they would be in tragic situation where the whole army would lose their heads.

As the horns sounded, the enemy finally gave up guarding the trench and the arrow tower formation and retreated.

Ko Zhong had no other choice, he gave the order to fill the trench. Amidst the clanking noise of the wheels, all the remaining toad carts all moved out, they pushed toward the deep trench, soon after the dirt bags arrived, and were thrown into the trenches.

On the city gate tower, the battle drums were sounded urgently. On the city gate tower at the southwest corner, the signalman sent out a signal using torches, notifying Kou Zhong that the enemy’s side had another unit of thirty thousand men coming from the west, going around the city.

Yang Gongqing’s expression grave, he said, “Li Shimin is coming!”

Kou Zhong shook his head and said, “It should be Li Yuanji, not Li Shimin. Immediately shut Houzai and Dingding, two gates. Shan Xiongxin and Guo Shancai should go out from Changxia Gate instead, crossbow machines and flying stone big carts strongly defend our army’s right wing, to resist the enemy’s attack.”

Yang Gongqing accepted the order, he left to personally direct the operation.

Kou Zhong’s heart and spirit was peaceful and tranquil, no alarm, no delight; that kind of being one with the Heaven and Earth feeling came back, life and death, honor and disgrace were no longer important, the important thing was only to make the most proper decision in this incomparably nasty battlefield. Although he had a near-perfect breaking-out-the-siege battle plan, but Li Shimin’s strategic ability was not inferior in any respect. He let him going out of the city in severe battle, after ascertaining what is true and what is false from him, after waiting for his soldiers-weary-strength-exhausted, schemes-used-up-plans-drained-completely, he would use the preserving-and-nurturing-their-spirit troops and horses, to launch a ten-thousand-jun-thunderbolt momentum intercepting battle on his running-away-to-the-wilderness main forces.

He was fully aware of Li Shimin’s strategy, yet he was unable to change anything that was about to happen. The only thing he could do was to go all-out to contend against the opponent, to fight with all his might until the last soldier, the last troop.

The hoofbeats rumbled to the sky.

The Great Tang Army, flying Li Yuanji’s banner, appeared on the southwest plain. A team of twenty-man [sic] vanguard cavalry unit, galloped along the two layers of filled-up trenches to attack, followed by another team of twenty-man cavalry, along the first layer of trenches – in coordinated attack, to charge directly toward the breaking-out-the-siege army’s right flank.

The battle drums were sounded.

Ahead, the three armies were starting to move, pressing down directly from the front.

Kou Zhong pulled out the Moon in the Well and shouted loudly, “Cross the trench!”

The time for a bloody battle between the soldiers has finally come.