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Book 54 Chapter 1 – Pursuing Relentlessly, Unwilling to Let Go

Translator: Foxs\' Wuxia

Xu Ziling and Hou Xibai sat on a mountaintop on the north bank of the Huai River, looking into the distance at the faintly-seen dots of light far away on the opposite bank. It should be the lanterns of a certain town that has just entered the dusk.

Hou Xibai cheerfully said, “If I am not guessing incorrectly, the city on the opposite bank should be Badong County. This city is located on the junction of the rivers, we could buy a small boat to ride, so that Ziling could sit in meditation to treat your injury, no need to depend on our two legs to walk painstakingly.”

Xu Ziling spoke emotionally, “I hope we won’t see war over there; it would be best if we don’t hear any news about the war.”

Hou Xibai went silent. His countenance darkened, he said, “Although I constantly remind myself not to think about Kou Zhong and his Shao Shuai Army, I clearly am unable to control my own train of thought. Ay! If Kou Zhong is unable to escape Li Shimin’s pursuit, what are we going to do?”

Xu Ziling’s countenance remained tranquil, he changed the subject, “There is a place that Kou Zhong and I have always wanted to return to, but also most afraid to go back.”

Obtaining a flash of understanding, Hou Xibai said, “Is it your Niang’s final resting place?”

Xu Ziling nodded and said, “Precisely that beautiful small valley that Kou Zhong and I will never forget. If Kou Zhong lost the war and died, I will ask Li Shimin to return his bones to me, to be brought and buried in the small valley, and then I will build my house and live there, and henceforth pay no attention to the outside world.”

Knitting his brows, Hou Xibai said, “Listening to the tone of Ziling’s voice, it seems like you won’t even pay attention to Qingxuan.”

Smiling bitterly, Xu Ziling said, “That is another matter altogether. If she is willing to forgive me, I would only weep [orig. tears and mucus flowing profusely] in gratitude. But frankly, until this moment, she still cannot pass the barrier of herself, I don’t have the slightest confidence about her, I don’t hold any extravagant hope toward her.”

Hou Xibai said, “I am an outsider who can see things more objectively that those involved, while you, being right in the middle of it, are confused. In my opinion, Shi Qingxuan is unable to restrain her emotions toward you, she has her feet deep in the mud, it’s just that you have no confidence in yourself!”

And then he sighed and said, “Turns out you are not optimistic about Kou Zhong at all.”

Laughing freely, Xu Ziling said, “On the contrary, I don’t think Kou Zhong would be so easily defeated. But I have some kind of feeling, I dare say that he’s still alive until this moment. If he dies, he will let me know in a dream in the first moments.”

Hou Xibai’s mood was immediately lifted up; nodding his head forcefully, he said, “It makes sense. It’s time to cross the river, tomorrow morning we will wake up comfortably in the upper room of one of the city’s most luxurious inns, smell the fragrant of the bath we are taking before going to bed, and discuss in which tavern in the city we are going to have our breakfast.”

Breaking into laughter, Xu Ziling said, “Go ahead! All I can think of is leaving this dangerous place, which may be occupied by the Tang Army – by boat as early as possible.”

The two men laughed and walked down the hill, flying toward the Huai River.

Kou Zhong gave the order to withdraw.

In the past three days and three nights, he did not doze off even for half a moment. Li Shimin’s main forces just arrived, he immediately sent the great generals under his command to attack into the hidden pond mountain pass. He also selected men with superior lightness skill to climb the mountain and over the mountain range in the distant place where arrow darts could not reach – to attack. The number of people in this group of enemy troops was not many, but to the Shao Shuai Army setting up defensive position on the mountaintop and high elevation around the entrance to the gorge, they posed the greatest threat and the biggest destructive power.

Fortunately, in this arduous situation, the Flying Cloud Guards that have been personally selected and trained by Kou Zhong, as well as have been refined by ample battle experience – displayed their maximum usefulness. Although their number has been reduced to be three hundred and twenty something men, but occupying higher elevation and strong position, dealing with the enemy’s invasion, plus with Kou Zhong, this kind of martial art master, although they were up to their ears, they were still able to crush Li Shimin’s wave after wave of offensive.

And then the more than seven hundred men, consisted mainly of the Yang Family Army – under Ma Chang’s command, using rolling logs, pieces of rocks, strong bows and powerful arrows, strongly defended their position on the rugged path into the mountain – dealt with Li Shimin’s main forces assault head-on.

Assuming they could maintain this situation, Kou Zhong was confident that they would be able to hold out for three, four more days. However, Li Shimin dispatched another unit of fifteen-thousand-man army under Luo Shixin’s command, heading to the east, rounding the hidden pond mountain, to attack from the east side. This army also sealed off the exit of the hidden pond mountain, so that Kou Zhong was completely trapped in the mountain just like a bie [freshwater soft-shelled turtle] in the jar. Therefore, although unwilling, before this situation occurred, he simply had to retreat from the mountain area to Tian Cheng Gorge, to rendezvous with his own army.

As they were retreating, they also felled trees to create massive barrier along the mountain road, which could not only make the enemy unable to cling on their tail to pursue and attack, but also forced Li Shimin to clear up the barrier, and thus wasting a two-days’ time to cross the mountain area.

This time, Li Shimin’s pursuing troops reached up to fifty thousand men, more than ten times Kou Zhong’s military strength. Even though Kou Zhong was both intelligent and brave, but whether he could withstand Li Shimin’s main forces, it still depended on whether Chen Laomou’s defensive structure was solid enough.

Taking the warhorses, Wang Xuanshu was waiting respectfully for Kou Zhong’s honorable self at the exit on the south side of the mountain area. The injuries and deaths in the battle guarding the entrance to the mountain area could not be considered heavy, the deaths were about a hundred men, the injured two hundred something men, they were already transported back to the Tian Cheng Gorge camp for further treatment.

Nearly a thousand Shao Shuai Army soldiers all mounted their horses, crossed over the mountain stronghold, galloped toward the Tian Cheng Gorge about thirty li away. It was the rolling-hills wilderness located between two rows of high mountains, covered densely in forest, with streams of river hidden within ancient trees reaching high to the sky: cold China fir, pine, cypress, camphor, and other lush green and full of life – trees, the natural scenery was like fine jade, nothing more beautiful could be imagined. The mountain ranges on the north and south were covered in swarm-of-cicada-like clouds, the floating clouds around the middle of the mountain was like a belt, the crown of the mountain was hazy with floating fog, carrying with it victorious-terrain-beautiful-appearance impression, quite like ‘although it was not a painting, but it looked like a painting, no need to write a poetry, it all appeared like a poetry’. A vast expanse of serenity and harmony, blurry without any knowledge of the dreadful fire of war. Not even Kou Zhong versus Li Shimin’s life and death battle had spread to this tranquil heaven and earth.

However, what Kou Zhong was thinking was something completely different; turning to Wang Xuanshu, who was riding side-by-side with him, he said, “It will take more than two days for Li Shimin to clear away the obstacles on the mountain road. Building camp and establishing stronghold will take at least four or five days of work, and then they need to cut down a large number of trees to guard against attack using fire; therefore, we ought to have nearly ten days of opportunity to take a breather. I am just wondering how’s the situation on Chen Gong’s side?”

Wang Xuanshu excitedly replied, “Tian Cheng Gorge’s terrain is extremely perfect, it’s deep with highlands, intersperse with strategic pass, with rugged mountain above, facing the plain, it is easily like the superior factor of solid self-defense with the ability to grip forcefully at the enemy. The most brilliant thing is that looking from outside the position, there is no way they would realize that unexpectedly there is a secret gorge path running through the mountains at the rear.”

Riding on the other side, Ma Chang asked, “Is there a water source inside the camp?”

Wang Xuanshu cheerfully said, “Inside the gorge path, not only there is water and grass, there is also pine resin that can be extracted as fuel. As for food, these past few days we have been going hunting all around, the harvest is plentiful, enough for ten days. When the enemy comes to attack, we can go to the other side of the gorge path to search hunting and grazing ground, as long as we can defend our position, there will be no shortage of rations and fodder.”

Ma Chang and Wang Xuanshu’s question and answer were all related to the top priority of the survival of the Shao Shuai Army. In establishing stronghold and strongly defending one’s position, other than foodstuff, fodder and fuel, all aspects of supply, the most critical factor was potable water. The so-called ‘short of water and no grass, the sky is the kitchen stove’ is the danger spot in the art of war. Fortunately, it was the transition from fall to winter, so the snow had not fallen yet. Otherwise, fodder would become a difficult problem.

Muttering to himself irresolutely, Kou Zhong said, “We must make barrels to store large amount of water in the camp. It can also be used to resist Li Shimin’s fire attack.”

Wang Xuanshu laughed and said, “It’s entirely thanks to Chen Gong’s ingenious method to get water across the mountains; using large bamboo tubes joined head to tail, we can get water directly from the many waterfalls leading into the gorge path, pouring the water into the camp, we won’t need to worry about no water available for us to use.”

Kou Zhong and Ma Chang cried, ‘Marvelous!’ at the same time. Chen Laomou was more and more like another Lu Miaozi.

Raising his head to look at the sky, Kou Zhong said, “We also have to store up fodder as much as possible, otherwise, once it’s snowing, the horses will have nothing to be wrapped in their belly.”

The mountain breeze blowing right up their faces already carried the coldness of the winter.

Wang Xuanshu said, “Leave this matter to Xuanshu, Shaoshuai, please rest assured.”

Everybody rushed up a hill, before their eyes, there was no longer any forest blocking their line of sight. They saw the camp was standing on a mountaintop ahead, with a towering steep cliff as if it was pared by a knife – behind it, and the Tian Cheng Mountain Range extending continuously to the east. About half a li all around the camp, the trees have been hewn and cleared away, leaving section after section of short tree stumps connected at the roots; it was a bizarre spectacle.

Revisiting old haunts, Kou Zhong’s mood today was completely different; he only felt that he had gone through myriad changes between the visits. He could not help all sorts of feelings welling up in his heart.

Everybody reined their horse to stop, to observe the situation all around them, thinking that in a few days, it would be Li Shimin standing here, looking into the distance at the camp ahead, the extraordinary feeling at this moment was a rare opportunity.

Ma Chang looked incredulously at the mountaintop position’s large-scale construction still in progress; he cried out in low voice, “Unexpectedly it’s a clay and stone camp! How come the shape is so strange?”

Wang Xuanshu smiled and said, “Is Ma Jiangjun referring to the irregular shape of the mountain stronghold? The reason is that Chen Gong is taking advantage of the thick and solid trees on the mountaintop; he got rid of the branch and leaf, cut the trees to two zhang of height, and then use the more than a hundred bald tree trunks with their roots intact surrounding the mountaintop as pillars and support frames, and then use other timbers to create hardwood structure that can withstand the impact of the crashing vehicles. It is both ready-made and convenient, while also saving us the effort of digging the earth and building wood-lined pits. Only because we have to follow the original position of the trees and the terrain, we can’t avoid the strange shape.”

Crying out, ‘Amazing!’, Ma Chang said, “It is indeed a different design, but I can’t think of a better way to do it. With the strong tree and solid wood as the framework, supplemented by large rocks and dried clay, the camp becomes a small mountain city with two-zhang high walls, it greatly enhances the defensive power. Chen Gong is indeed exceptional.”

Kou Zhong watched as the Shao Shuai soldiers busily digging trenches outside the irregularly-shaped camp structure. The excavated soil was transported to the mountaintop to build the stronghold wall.

Pointing to the remaining tree stumps, less than three chi tall, covering the three sides of the mountain stronghold, Bing Yuanzhen spoke cheerfully, “These tree stumps are even more amazing, they form a natural barrier against horses. If Li Shimin wants to clear it up, he must ask our archers first. Thinking about when the other side attacks they have to cautiously and solemnly go around the tree stumps and cannot charge straight forward, this stifling bird-anger of the last ten days or so immediately disappears.”

Kou Zhong could sense the elated rousing spirit of the men around him, everybody expressed their praise at this mountain stronghold, which had quite a scale; not only because the mountain stronghold could become the place where they could take shelter and strongly defend their position, more importantly, there was the secret gorge path behind the mountain stronghold that provided them with unlimited opportunity to live. Rations and fodder, food and water, fuel, as well as the reinforcement, all difficult problems were like bamboo splits when it meets the knife’s edge. They were no longer trapped in a complete passive situation and could only take the beating. Therefore, their morale was greatly aroused, and toward him, Kou Zhong, they had even more confidence.

Wang Xuanshu said, “The place to rest is located inside the gorge path. Because the tents were lost during the breaking out of the siege, Chen Gong built more than a hundred thatched cottages; more cozy and warmer than the tents.”

Kou Zhong shouted loudly, “Success! We will use this mountain stronghold that came from Chen Gong’s brains to resist Li Shimin’s main forces, which is ten times more than we are.”

The crowd roared in response.

A group of men and horses under Ba Yegang’s leadership galloped out of the mountain stronghold’s main gate to meet them.

Kou Zhong let out a strange cry to completely vent out the anger of the injustice and bullying that they received in the last ten days. Leading his men, he galloped down the hill and rushed toward the mountain stronghold.

Xu Ziling woke up from his sleep; wrapped inside a clean quilt, he recalled how he was homeless and miserable for the last ten days, spending each moment crossing over a dangerous situation, he nearly doubted that he was in two different worlds.

Last night, they were the last two persons to enter the city before Badong County closed its city gate. It was only when they reached the city gate that he found out that this city belonged to his Ol’ Dad Du Fuwei. When the Jianghuai Army soldiers guarding the gate saw their tastefully chosen clothes and headdress, that they carried no weapon on them, their scholarly elegant appearance, thinking that they were the younger generation of influential family, they busily wanted to draw out more grease [ill-gotten gains] from these two fat sheep [fig. attractive and easy mark], by exacting and demanding more money than the city gate tax.

Beyond Xu Ziling’s expectation, unexpectedly Hou Xibai did not want to let it go casually, instead, he haggled over the price with them. After several hard negotiations, they agreed on the price, which was much lower than the Jianghuai soldiers demanded. The transaction completed, the two entered the city.

Afterwards, Hou Xibai explained, “If you appear to be too loose, you will lead them to believe that you are a sheep or a cow that can be easily bullied, or perhaps a white-silk-crotch-kid [I have no idea what this is] whose family is rich enough that you need not haggle over every ounce or count every box in your basket. Either one, those bloodsucking vermin would, in thousand ways, a hundred plans – squeeze your hard-earned money to the limit, so much so that they might not hesitate to plot and kill you for your belongings. That was the reason I haggled with them over the price, not that I was reluctant to part with my money, but to avoid unnecessary trouble later on.”

He was now sleeping in the most famous luxury inn in the city – the Badong Inn’s upper room. Hou Xibai was not like him or Kou Zhong; in term of clothing, food, housing and transport, none was not tastefully chosen. And he and Kou Zhong was not like him, who was only willing to sleep in the best room.

How was Kou Zhong doing now? Would there be a day they could see each other?

“Just woke up?” Hou Xibai pushed the door and entered. He said with a laugh, “How was Ziling’s sleep last night? Mine was bitter at first but sweet later; the first dream was a nightmare, only the second was a sweet dream, I dreamt about Feixuan.”

Xu Ziling was watching him as he talked and sat down at the edge of the bed, until he heard the last ‘Feixuan’, two characters, he was suddenly shaken and wakened up from his deep contemplation and memories. He wanted to say something but then hesitated.

“What is it that Ziling want to say?” Hou Xibai asked in astonishment.

Xu Ziling stared at him for half a day, a hard-to-describe emotion welled up in his heart he sighed and said, “Xibai Xiong once told me that in the future, there will be only one way with which you enjoy the beautiful women in the world. This is your one change. But why did you change? I kept wondering about that. It was not until this moment that I began to understand the reason. It was because of Feixuan, wasn’t it?”

Hou Xibai was stunned, “Ziling is really formidable, unexpectedly you can see through what’s inside my heart. Ay! How should I explain? When I saw Feixuan for the first time, it was like seeing Zhan Ziqian’s authentic painting, thinking that there can’t be any woman on earth more beautiful than that. She made me realize the real meaning of beauty, which is beyond the Dhyana realm of my painting brush. Since she set foot on this mortal life, letting us, these few people to see, Hou Xibai is no longer the Hou Xibai of the past.”

Greatly astonished, Xu Ziling said, “Listening to Xibai Xiong, it seems like it’s entirely outside the man-woman passion of the vulgar world, rather, it holds some kind of transcending state of mind.”

The unusual light in Hou Xibai’s pair of eyes flickered, he slowly said, “In the world, I am afraid only you understand my heart. The reason why I determined to paint was on account of my inherent pursuit of everything virtuous and beautiful. In the mundane world, originally there was no perfect beauty, however, the scene I capture on the painting are always the most touching, just like the escaping one that you and Kou Zhong keep talking about.”

After a short pause, he continued, “Have you ever pondered about the essence of beauty? Beauty is the most touching, as well as the most mysterious – thing in the secular world. I am making my name in painting Dhyana. Has Ziling ever thought about what beauty is all about? Why do we think something is beautiful or not? Moreover, there is no official standard to define beauty, you and I feel the starry sky is extremely fascinating, but many people think it’s not worth considering. Furthermore, beauty can be intangible or tangible, inner beauty can’t either be seen or grasped, like Feixuan, good-looking and intelligent, she is the ultimate beauty, she is some kind of beauty that make people feel ashamed of his inferiority, a sacred beauty.”

Xu Ziling smiled and said, “Unlike you, I have never pondered about the unfathomable essence of beauty. Listening to your analysis, it was quite a murky-darkness-suddenly-opens delight. But I also think about the unfair aspect of the secular world; why should there be any distinction between beauty and ugliness? However, this is a reality that no one can change.”

Hou Xibai was still immersed in a certain state of mind, he sighed and said, “Beauty and ugliness are fundamentally some kind of irresistible [or the act of God] fate, since the first time I saw Feixuan, my life has been infinitely enriched, completely make my attitude towards women gave rise to a dramatic [orig. sky and earth turning upside down] change, from all kinds of dusty, worldly thoughts, transcending over into the pure pursuit of painting path.”

Xu Ziling asked, “Before your encounter with Feixuan, I wonder if Xibai Xiong was already weary of your life of cuddling the red and leaning on the bluish-green?”

Smiling bitterly, Hou Xibai said, “You can see through me again. In Chengdu, you have a first-hand experience of my way of life. Ay! Affection is naturally one kind of a burden. The one thing that makes me especially unable to bear is realizing that something beautiful has a not-beautiful side on it.”

And then he muttered to himself irresolutely and said, “Qingxuan is a woman who is not inferior in any respect to Feixuan, but there is a fundamental difference between she and Feixuan. No matter when and where Feixuan appeared, she always gave some kind of impression that she does not belong to the mundane world. Qingxuan is quite the opposite. Whether it was her person or her absolutely-wonderful-in-the-world flute sound, both can fuse together with time, there is no different between that and self. They both represent one kind of beautiful Dhyana realm that transcends my painting brush. When I saw her for the first time, I couldn’t wait to have brush and ink by my side, to put her living appearance on the Fan of Beauty, but as I finished listening to the sound of her flute, I could no longer grasp her most moving side, which is indeed not any brush and ink can describe.”

Xu Ziling recalled the touching circumstances of the person and the scenery blended together in the few times that he met Shi Qingxuan in person; he sighed and said, “Well said, you manage to put the feeling that I am unable to describe completely in one speech.”

Hou Xibai cheerfully said, “Let’s put this discussion of beauty to rest for the time being. How’s Ziling’s internal injury condition?”

Xu Ziling replied with a wry smile, “After Wanwan’s Tian Mo’s true qi dissolved the evil poison, it has greatly improved, but it is still far in the indefinite future from complete recovery. Moreover, it’s possible that I will lose the opportunity to enter and pry into the martial art way forever.”

Frowning, Hou Xibai asked, “Really that serious?”

Xu Ziling said, “Yang Xuyan’s demonic power is vicious and evil, the injury reaches my original essence, which, actually, not a very big deal. How my destiny develops, let it develops that way! Are we going to go to that restaurant for breakfast?”

Hou Xibai said, “Badong City’s most famous is Wang Huai Lou [lit. gazing the Huai (river) building (reminder: lou is multi-storied building)]. The building is three stories high, located in the north side of the city. From the top floor, we can see the beautiful scenery of the flowing Huai River.”

Xu Ziling got out of bed; he smiled and said, “Have you inquired about any news of Kou Zhong?”

Hou Xibai nodded and said, “No important news. I only know that the Tang Army in Xiangyang and the various cities in the vicinity are frequently maneuvered, from time to time, there are the House of Tang navy ships passing through the Huai River. Could it be that Li Shimin is deploying his troops against Zhongli? The situation is very tense. Really strange! Didn’t Kou Zhong flee to this side?”

Xu Ziling suddenly stopped his movement in putting on his clothes; revealing a weird expression, he shouted in low voice, “Come out! I know it’s you, Yang Xuyan, quickly come out!”

Inwardly, Hou Xibai was severely shaken, the most terrifying thing was finally happening.