Book 50 Chapter 10 – Grievous News Coming Repeatedly

Translator: Foxs" Wuxia

More than ten days after that, Kou Zhong was so busy that he barely had any time to sleep, not only to try to understand the Shao Shuai State’s administrative, economic, and all aspects of people’s livelihood – issues, he also wanted to train the Shao Shuai Army to become his ideal’s all-around fighters, plus he attempted to cultivate five hundred personal guards like Li Shimin’s Black Armor Warriors; naturally he was awfully busy.

These 500 soldiers were selected not only by whether they had the physical requirements, but first, they must not have any problem with loyalty. Therefore, the vast majority were chosen from among his former subordinates in Shuang Long Jun [twin dragons army], from among Bu Tianzhi’s Jukun Bang’s disciples [actually, the text here is Ju Jing Bang, ‘jing’ – whale, ‘kun’ – mythological beast (I think I translated it as Leviathan before); perhaps Huang Yi forgot?], and the men who had been with Xuan Yong for many years. This group of men not only had martial art foundation, they were also proficient in Jianghu’s way.

Those who came from Shuang Long Jun had already received the martial art xinfa that Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling imparted on them. After sneaking into Chang’an, they were never slacking off in training, even more, those who were handpicked had outstanding martial art skill, on loyalty aspect, they were beyond doubt. They were like Kou Zhong’s disciples who became his soldiers.

Xuan Yong’s men were entirely from Wagang Army, men who joined Zhai Rang’s system, with ample experience on the battlefield, and have been going through troops disposition in battle for a long time.

As for the warriors who came from Jukun Bang, they were adept in the way of boating and naval warfare.

Men from three different backgrounds were integrated into the personal troops’ unit, they brought together various forms of military branches, and then Kou Zhong put his heart and soul into grooming them, although their number is small, their power simply must not be underestimated. Kou Zhong gave them the name ‘Flying Cloud Riders’.

Kou Zhong was not a selfish person, he was willing to pa.s.s on everything he learned from outside the Great Wall entirely to the various generals under his command, such as the technique to train the horse and to ride the horse, the secret to observe the sky and examine the changes, the Tujue people’s tactics in marching; he taught them everything, holding nothing back, so that the various generals, based on their individual talents and pa.s.sions, understood. Naturally they reaped not a few benefits, as a result, the quality of the military training was greatly improved.

Bai Wenyuan, Jiao Hongjin, Ren Meimei, Chen Changlin, Luo Qifei, Niu Fengyi, Zha Jie, Chen Jiafeng, Xie Jue, and the others, who were scattered around the country and were working hard to build the Shao Shuai State, rushed back one after another to Liangdu to see Kou Zhong. Toward Kou Zhong, they had some kind of blind confidence and adoration. Although knowing that the situation was dangerous, they still believe firmly that Kou Zhong had the ability to reverse the rotation of the sky, vaguely unaware that Kou Zhong himself was anxious whether the Shao Shuai Army would exist or perish.

Upon returning to Pengliang, another pleasant surprise was waiting for him. Under Chen Changlin’s supervision, the shipbuilders that they recruited from Jiangnan plus the skilled workmen that the Song Family sent to them, following the diagram and materials in Lu Miaozi’s secret scroll, have built twenty-eight ‘flywheel’-powered fast warship. Each flywheel boat could carry fifty warriors, who used their legs to manually operated the paddles on the circular wheel mounted on the aft of the boat. The speed of the boat was far better than wind-powered speedboats, plus it could maneuver nimbly in narrow river course, and thus greatly enhancing the Shao Shuai Army’s combat capability on the water.

On the upper deck, the flywheel boat was equipped with crossbow machine, with design improvement by Chen Laomou after he gained more understanding from Lu Miaozi’s secret scroll. It was capable of shooting fire arrows continuously at a target over fifty zhang away. The machines were manufactured by the skilled workmen that Song Que sent. Without them, even if Lu Miaozi was reborn, he would not be able to manufacture such a mighty, astonishing war machine in just a short period of one year.

As for other equipment, such as for city defense, for battle on the open field, for a.s.saulting a fortified position, and so on, it was simply too numerous to mention one by one.

Kou Zhong’s greatest strength was, similar to Li Shimin, his deep understanding of people and their strong points. The difference was that Li Shimin was suffering under a yoke in all respects, while Kou Zhong had a free hand in his action, plus he had strong and solid financial resources, talents and goods, which was also backed by Song Que’s endless support. Moreover, a just cause enjoys abundant support [idiom: those upholding justice will find help all around], such as from Zhai Jiao and Longyou Bang, who were ready to do their utmost to lend a hand in all aspects.

This day, Kou Zhong was listening to Luo Qifei’s report in the main hall of the Shao Shuai Mansion. The latter was the Shao Shuai Army’s Chief Intelligence Officer, an expert in exploration and intelligence about the enemy; although his martial art was not too outstanding, his lightness skill was first-cla.s.s.

Also present was Chen Changlin, Chen Laomou and Ren Meimei.

When Kou Zhong casually asked him about the deployment of his reconnaissance network, Luo Qifei replied, “The reconnaissance technique that Xiashu [subordinate/underling] employs is mostly by cruising, with land and water as secondary technique.”

Greatly interested, Kou Zhong asked, “Cruising, I can more or less imagine, but what is ‘land and water’? What does it have to do with reconnaissance?”

Luo Qifei replied, “Land and water is a code word in reconnaissance. If cruising is a reconnaissance style that is mobile, active, not fixed to certain time, then land and water is deployment that is static, pa.s.sive, and fixed to a certain time. In the past, Xiashu primarily used this technique, with the other as secondary. How to use land and water, Xiashu can give an example, Shaoshuai will understand. For example, the major road on the mountaintop is filled with fine sand to make it flat, which has to be inspected every day, to be swept clean and flat. As men and horses entered the area, as long as we observe the printed impression on the sandy soil, we’ll know how many footprints. Therefore, even though the other side grope in the dark and move stealthily, they still cannot hide from Xiashu’s eyes and ears.”

Chen Laomou laughed and said, “That was the technique used by Pengliang Bang to deal with other gangs and societies, which was transferred and is being moved into the Shao Shuai Army!”

Casting a sidelong glance at Chen Laomou, Ren Meimei said, “People who came from gangs and societies are just like that! Only Meimei has never thought that today, unexpectedly I continuously giving money to people instead of demanding money.”

Warm feeling welled up in Kou Zhong’s heart. Doing good things always make people feeling good. He laughed and said, “This land and water method is indeed something, those who don’t know the fact will definitely be fooled. However, this method can only be used under special circ.u.mstances, fixed-point detection of the enemy is a must; but how about unfixed-point detection?”

Luo Qifei replied, “There are three main tasks in cruising: the first one is reconnaissance, including going deep inside the enemy’s territory, using all kinds of tricks to spy on the enemy’s situation; the second one is the transmission of the information, by means of secret network and clandestine channels, by sending the information back at certain day and certain time, let the specialist collect and a.n.a.lyze the data, and then pa.s.s it on to the relevant department. In this aspect, Xu Xiansheng has spent a lot physical and mental efforts, otherwise it would not be as comprehensive as it is today. The third one is to capture alive and ask for information, which is capturing a prisoner alive, and then carry out torture to force confession. This is to obtain information that cannot be seen from the outside via crafty method.”

The words ‘torture to force confession’ reminded Kou Zhong of the cruel, by hook or by crook – nature of war; moreover, it made him recalling Yin Zuwen’s ‘Seven Needles to Control the Mind’. He secretly thought that if one of the great generals under his command fell into Yin Zuwen’s hands, he definitely would not be able to endure this torture; therefore, if he had the chance, he had to kill this person first.

Kou Zhong’s heart was anxious for Luoyang’s situation. This metropolis, one of the three famous cities with the most scale in the world – was like a lone boat in the vast angry ocean, it could capsize any moment. Thereupon he inquired about Hulao’s situation.

Luo Qifei replied, “Zhu Ji had just suffered a big defeat from the Tang Army, w.a.n.g Shichong’s hope of opening access to Luoyang’s southern road has been completely obliterated. Yibi, Yingyang, fell into the enemy hands in succession, now only Zhucheng on the eastern road, which Hulao relies mainly on, is still under his banner. The situation is not too optimistic.”

Luo Qifei heaved a sigh before continuing, “I should say it’s very critical. Naturally w.a.n.g Shichong knew Hulao’s significance; he sent the Crown Prince w.a.n.g Xuanying with ma.s.sive military force to strongly defend Hulao. Li Shiji is a man with deep understanding of the art of war, he knew he must not immediately capture Hulao by force, hence he adopted a roundabout tactics. They schemed against various cities in the vicinity first, in order to isolate Hulao, to make w.a.n.g Xuanying retreat without fighting. Li Shiji appeared to be marching toward Guancheng, another big city southeast of Hulao.”

Inwardly Kou Zhong sighed for w.a.n.g Xuanying, who could be considered without any hope; how could he be Li Shiji’s match? He asked, “Who is defending Guancheng?”

Luo Qifei replied, “Guancheng’s defending general is Guo Qing, formerly guarding Rongyang, the capital of Wagang Army. He has always had good relationship with Li Shiji. After Wagang Army was defeated, Guo Qing realigned his allegiance to w.a.n.g Shichong.”

His countenance changed, Kou Zhong said, “With w.a.n.g Shichong’s paranoid character, how could he make the mistake of having Guo Qing to deal with his old colleague Li Shiji?”

Luo Qifei replied, “w.a.n.g Shichong has his secret trouble. First of all, Guo Qing is a Laiyang man, a place which local power is closely related to Rongyang and Guancheng, himself he has several thousand disciple’s troops. For this reason, w.a.n.g Shichong wanted to win over him very much, he even gave his beautiful niece [brother’s daughter] in marriage to him, hoping that this relationship will work for him. I hear Guo Qing is loyal to w.a.n.g Shichong.”

Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “Putting benefit at the forefront, how effective can a political business deal, buying and selling style marriage be? Ay! If Guancheng is done for, I will be surprised if the other defending generals of Rongyang, Zhengzhou, are not surrendering! No one is willing to throw their life in for w.a.n.g Shichong, father and son. If the defending general of Hulao is Yang Gongqing, naturally it will be a different situation.”

Luo Qifei said, “Rongyang’s defending general is Wei Lu, Zhengzhou’s defending general is w.a.n.g Yaohan and Zhang Cibao, Xiashu is not too clear how loyal are Wei Lu and w.a.n.g Yaohan toward w.a.n.g Shichong, whether they are willing to die for w.a.n.g Shichong? However, since they obtained w.a.n.g Shichong’s trust, naturally they are not men who would surrender that easily. As for Zhang Cibao, he has followed w.a.n.g Shichong for many years, in term of loyalty, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

Kou Zhong sighed and said, “We will know the outcome very soon.”

This moment an underling came to report that Gui Xiliang and Xing Rong’s boat has arrived at the dock outside Liangdu.

Kou Zhong has been waiting anxiously; greatly delighted, he went out to meet them.

Xu Ziling had just climbed the pier, someone stuffed a piece of paper into his hand. He opened and read it, the note said, ‘Cast away the stalker, meet at Huiling [lit. favor/benefit/benevolence tomb/mausoleum] in Chengdu’s southern suburb’, two lines of character. Underneath, the signature said ‘Zheng Shiru’.

Xu Ziling was greatly astonished in his heart. Unexpectedly Zheng Shiru possessed such a great magical power; he could accurately grasp the exact time and place Xu Ziling would arrive in Shu, that he arranged his subordinate to secretly tell him the place to meet. Thinking to this point, he secretly took notice of the surrounding area. Sure enough, his senses generated the feeling that he was being watched.

Although he did not fully trust Zheng Shiru, but he had a feeling that he had no malice. He figured out that Xu Ziling must have already been aware that there were people with evil intention toward him, hence he wanted to warn him.

Suddenly Xu Ziling flew onto his horse, unleashing the man-and-horse-as-one technique, in just a few breaths, he spurred the horse to the limit, so that the hoofs moved freely, leaving the dock area where people were coming and going, rushing in the direction of the City of Chengdu. Even if the stalker was as brilliant as Shi Zhixuan, surely he would be caught off guard and thus Xu Ziling would be able to throw him off.

In the study room, Kou Zhong and his good friends, whom he had known since childhood, Gui Xiliang and Xing Rong, sat side-by-side and had a heart-to-heart talk, speaking and laughing extremely joyously.

After understanding the two men’s current situation, Kou Zhong smiled and said, “Zhu Hua Bang is now split up into two factions, the criminal ringleader, the main offender is Shao Lingzhou. As long as we can get rid of his supporter Li Zitong, I guarantee that Shao Lingzhou will immediately sue for peace and acknowledge allegiance to you guys. It will depend on whether you have the guts to do so.”

Gui Xiliang sighed and said, “We already knew that you have the heart to seize Jiangdu, so he had a meeting before coming here to make a decision. It’s not that we don’t want to help you, but under current circ.u.mstances, even if you have the ability to know all under heaven [idiom: exceptionally talented], there is no possibility at all that you will be able to accomplish it within half a year to a year. Even Shen Faxiang and Du Fuwei, whose military strength is much stronger than yours, still worked to no avail, and suffered soldiers damaged and generals broken instead. Furthermore, your Shao Shuai Army has no way of doing what they cannot do. It would be better to put your spirit in Pengliang, hoping to defend your position until the moment the Song Army arrive in the north.”

Kou Zhong felt like a bucket of cold water was poured out onto his head, the muscles on his face stiffened up, he said with a frown, “In direct siege, naturally we don’t have any chance. But Yangzhou is our territory, we could topple Li Zitong from the inside. For example, we’ll try to burn his navy first, so that we could enter the Yangtze River from the ocean, using wonder troops in surprise attack, coupled with coordinating the inside and the outside, we kill his Niang’s until they have no time to deal with it. It won’t be without any chance of success.”

Xing Rong said with a wry smile, “We are all brothers; of there is any chance of success, we definitely will not stand idly by. The problem is that Li Zitong already called himself a minister of Li Yuan, so that now he is standing on the same side as Du Fuwei. Shen Faxing is hesitating whether he ought to surrender to the Tang or not. Under such circ.u.mstances, Li Zitong no longer has no worry of the rear, he could focus his strength to be deployed to Zhongli, Gaoyou, Yanling, and Jiangdu, four cities. His navy is scattered around the major river courses in Jiangdu’s vicinity, so that they could correspond to each other. Even if you could attack into Jiangdu, let’s not talk about you don’t have enough military strength to advance and carryout street warfare, if the other three cities dispatch troops via the waterway to come to help, they could speedily resolve the Jiangdu crisis.”

Kou Zhong shook his head and said, “Do you guys know that a problem arose between Fu Gongyou and Du Fuwei? Fu Gongyou poses certain threat toward Li Zitong.”

Gui Xiliang said, “Du Fuwei and Fu Gongyou’s face do not match with their heart. In the Yangtze River region, no one does not know. However, they are controlling each other; even if Fu Gongyou has the heart, he has no power to do so. Ay! Don’t have an extravagant hope of capturing Jiangdu, all right? We know our old home’s situation better than you do. Shao Lingzhou and Li Zitong are villains colluding together, they control city defense extremely tightly, our men practically have no way of penetrating it.”

Xing Rong said, “Li Zitong recruited a large number of martial art masters from Jiangnan’s Wulin, you and Xiao Ling, although your martial art skill is outstanding, but it will be difficult for a pair of fists to match four hands. According to our intelligence, just inside the City of Jiangdu alone, there are quite twenty thousand Li Army’s elite troops. Plus the troops stationed in the two barracks outside the city and the navy fleet, the military strength in Jiangdu alone reaches fifty to sixty thousand men. You guys can enter the city easily, but leaving the city is more difficult than ascending to heavens. We have discussed this matter for a long time, and our final conclusion is still you are completely without any chance of success.”

Kou Zhong dejectedly leaned back into his chair; he sighed and said, “You guys can’t possibly mislead me, but if I can’t capture Jiangdu, all I can do is just sitting here waiting for death.”

Gui Xiliang said, “Frankly speaking, what we are worried about now is not whether you can conquer Jiangdu, but whether Li Zitong will go up north from Zhongli via the waterway to launch surprise attack against your Liangdu. If I were Li Zitong, I would split the troops into two ways, one way heavily surrounds Liangdu, so that you will be impeded in here, the other way will attack Donghai from the ocean. That is also the territory where he was coming from, he still has his people hidden inside the city.”

Xing Rong also, giving earnest and well-meaning advice, persuaded him, “Rather than siting back and waiting here, why don’t you give up Pegliang, and slip toward Lingnan by the sea, from there you can expand, put Shen Faxing and Lin Shihong in order first, and then when the south is completely under your banner, your disposition of troops stand firm, then you cross the River to challenge the Li Clan.”

Grabbing his head, Kou Zhong said, “Your words are not without reason, let me think about them first!” And then he laughed aloud and said, “Let’s not talk about these frustrating things; let’s go into the city to find a place to drink, we’ll think of other things. It won’t do to work all day long, we need to have some relaxing moment, right?”

Alone, Xu Ziling entered Gu Bai Sensen [lit. dense (forest of) ancient cypress, not sure if it is a place’s name], a cemetery with fresh green vegetation. He only heard the insects buzzing and the birds singing, but did not see anybody. Since it was nearly sunset, there was some kind of lazy peace and quiet.

He already had an expert-level appreciative sight toward building architecture, in just one glance, he could see clearly that the entire cemetery, const.i.tuted the walls around it, the fences along the divine paths, the graves [lit. lie-down palace hall], and the mausoleum – was arranged in north-south central axis.

He originally thought that Zheng Shiru would have someone waiting for him here, but he did not see any trace. He thought that since he already came to this cemetery, where lying under the yellow earth in eternal rest were the buried bones of Liu Bei, the Three Kingdoms’ Shu Emperor whose name spread throughout all ages, the thought about the ancient, a serene feeling arose involuntarily in his heart, thereupon he turned toward the screen wall with relief sculpture of a pair of dragons playing with diamond-shaped pearl carved on it. Above the fence gate, there was a plaque with ‘Han Zhao Lie Ling’ [Han Zhaolie Mausoleum] written on it. Stepping into the divine path with a pair of stone-beast-with-an-elderly-man statues standing on either side, he walked slowly toward the mausoleum.

He left the Ten-thousand-Li Spots on the secluded area of the gra.s.sland outside the cemetery complex. With each setback, he grew a bit wiser; when dealing with people that he was not familiar with, he would take precaution, hence he did not want his beloved horse to be involved in some danger.

He finally came to Chengdu.

If he so desired, in just one day he would be able to reach Shi Qingxuan’s You Lin Xiao Zhu*. He wondered whether this beautiful woman was living in seclusion in the valley, or for some reason she was roaming outside the valley and thus letting him to pounce empty air. [*I could have sworn that in the past, it was always You Lin Xiao Gu (lit. secluded forest small valley), but the last two or three instances, it was Xiao Zhu (small building/construction), only I changed it back to ‘Xiao Gu’. But now I am not too sure; I don’t know whether it was deliberate, or simply a typo.]

To see her really required a bit of courage, and in this respect, he has never been a courageous man. His bravest achievement was in the Little Chang’an’s downtown area, where he openly expressed his love to Shi Feixuan. Ay!

Pa.s.sing through the hall were the statue was enshrined and worshipped, greeting his eye was a big and tall mound, surrounded by red walls. On the mound, gra.s.s and thicket were grown, so dense that it became a shade.

Huiling finally appeared before his eyes.

Thinking that he and Liu Bei were separated only by a layer of dirt, he could not help sighing with sorrow in his heart.

It does not matter whether during one’s life one considered oneself unexcelled in the world, able to move unhindered and outstanding, in the end the yellow earth buries his bones. Any glorious achievement, in the end still vanished like smoke in thin air, disappeared without any trace.

One day he, Xu Ziling, would become another heap of dry bones, just like Liu Bei, who once rebuked the wind and the cloud angrily – under his feet.

Zheng Shiru’s voice was heard behind his back, “Does Ziling like Liu Bei, this person?”

Not the least bit surprised, Xu Ziling shrugged his shoulders and said, “I never thought whether I like him or not; in my mind, his image is very vague, like a person with no distinct character. On the contrary, his Junshi [military adviser] Zhuge Wuhou, his Da Jiang [great general] Guan Yunzhang, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun, were all resounding heroes and towering figures. Liu Bei was able to make these outstanding figures to work for him, himself must have a bit of weight.”

Not caring about his appearance, as coa.r.s.e and wild as before, Zheng Shiru came to his left side, and said with a cold humph, “You should say that Liu Bei received the benefit of their glory. To love the house and its crow is not only regarded as orthodox at that time, he was already modeled by the historians as the person whose ‘honor was known across the four seas’, while the fact is that he really was not a person who talked about honor. In his kindness Liu Zhang invited him into Shu, yet he colluded with Liu Zhang’s subordinates Fa Zheng and Zhang Song, to take over Shu from him. Evidently Liu Bei was a person with ruthless heart and ferocious hands. Honor was simply to decorate his façade; when the stakes are high, how could he still be interested in talking about honor? A hypocrite is really more despicable than a real lowly person.”

Xu Ziling wanted to respond but he really had nothing to say, because toward this matter, he indeed had a deeper understanding compared to anybody else. The victor will be called the king, the loser will be called a bandit. In the struggle for hegemony over the world, one would never speak about Heaven’s Law and human emotions. Benevolence and righteousness are just one among the many means to beguile the people’s heart.

Zheng Shiru sighed and said, “The most amazing character in the Three Kingdoms is Cao Cao, yet he bore the bad name, so that the later generations have a saying ‘respect Liu and restrain Cao’. Just look! Liu Bei’s tomb is majestically standing tall and upright before our eyes, while Cao Cao’s has been obliterated completely early on. Liu Bei is popular, his tomb basks in the light. Legend has it that before his death, Cao Cao ordered his subordinates to build seventy-two fake burial mounds on the bank of Zhang River, so that those who hated him could not open the coffin and mutilate his corpse. This is clearly a fictional story that the later generations made up, because when Cao Cao died, the Wei Kingdom’s military power was in bloom; how could there be anybody dared to disturb his imperial tomb? People of later generations were so content in making up stories about him, from this, one could see how terrible people’s favoritism is.”

Knitting his brows, Xu Ziling said, “Why does Zheng Xiong look like you have a belly full of complaints?”

Smiling bitterly, Zheng Shiru said, “I indeed have a belly full of complaints, because for the past month the wind has been rising, the clouds have been surging in Bashu, Chengdu, which had always been like the breeze is still, the waves are quiet – is no longer peaceful; chaotic situation of gangs and sects fighting each other appears at the slightest pretext.”

Stunned, Xu Ziling asked, “What is actually happening?”

Zheng Shiru dejectedly replied, “What else but because of the letter that the ‘Heavenly Saber’ Song Que sent?”

Xu Ziling’s mind was severely shaken, realizing that the battle to contend for hegemony over the world, due to Song Que’s partic.i.p.ation, has finally drawn the Bashu Wulin into this dreadful big vortex.