Book 51 Chapter 12 – Seeking Survival on the Luo River

Translator: Foxs" Wuxia

Amidst the rumbling noise of the sluice as its chain was wound to raise it up just enough for the wooden raft to pa.s.s through, Xu Ziling, who was in charge of steering the raft, focused his power into the wooden oar, he applied his strength to paddle, a splash boiled out at the tail of the raft, the wooden structure rushed out of the water gate like a speeding horse, riding on the current along the Luo River, into the boundless night outside the city.

Both banks and all around were pitch-black, there did not seem to be any enemy around, but the three knew that Li Shimin’s 120,000 troop besieging the city had already laid out layer upon layer of defense on the strategically located and easy to defend places in the surrounding highlands and along the waterways. No matter from which side they wanted to break the siege, it would still be difficult to avoid the enemy’s eyes and ears. If any unit of the Tang Army managed to entangle them, Li Shimin would personally lead his martial art masters to come to help, so that other than exhausting their strength to fight to the death, there would be no other possibility.

The key to success or failure was which side could move a bit faster.

Among the various rivers intersecting Luoyang, Luo River was the widest river course, which leads directly to the Great River. From the Luo River charging through the barrier, this was the most direct and the fastest way to break through the siege that they could figure out. The most ideal was, naturally, if they could reach the Great River and landed on the north sh.o.r.e. Even if they were intercepted, they could abandon the raft midway and went ash.o.r.e, the initiative would still be in their hands, hence their chance of breaking through the siege was quite high.

Ahead, the bugle horn was sounded from a distance, followed by the sound of hoof beats from all four sides and eight directions, evidently the enemy was alerted and responded quickly, men and horses from all sides were mobilized.

Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan stood in the middle of the raft, with three quivers full of powerful arrows, plus three shields, by their feet. The night breeze was brushing over, blowing the three men’s nightwalker attire so that the tight clothes were fluttering in the breeze.

His heart was devoid of any alarm, Xu Ziling paddled the raft with all his strength. He simply kept the however far they could go, then so be it – mentality.

The clouds were heavy in the night sky, the moon and the stars did not show their lights, and the weather had not turned to the better.

Kou Zhong laughed calmly and said, “Can you guess what will we encounter first? For example, big net blocking the entire river, or iron chain locking the river, or perhaps the Tang Navy’s ship?”

Ba Fenghan smiled and said, “Luoyang is the point where eight rivers meet, the mountain and river’s terrain is complicated, Li Shimin practically could not guess the route we are going to break the siege, furthermore, he wouldn’t have guessed that we are going to leave tonight. I dare say that he must be fl.u.s.tered by now.”

Kou Zhong looked at the splash at the front of the raft as its bow was cutting through the surface of the water, inwardly he praised Xu Ziling’s deep and immeasurable spiraling true qi, which seemed to be bottomless. He responded Ba Fenghan’s remark by saying, “I, Kou Zhong, can underestimate anybody, but I absolutely do not dare to underestimate Li Shimin. The method he is going to seal off the river course could be complicated, could be simple; for example, he might set up a dozen or so trebuchets on both sides of the river, plus archers, so that we will be forced to abandon the boat and go ash.o.r.e.”

From behind, Xu Ziling shouted in low voice, “Watch out for the left bank!”

The raft made a sharp turn toward the right bank. On the left bank, the sound of hoof beats shook the sky, nearly a hundred riders chased after them along the bank, bent their bows and put on the arrows to shoot at them. However, because the raft evaded to the right bank where the arrows could not reach, the powerful arrows lost their momentum and fell into the river about a zhang away from the raft.

The raft continued at a near-flying speed close to the right bank that its tail dragged a long, long splash of water, as it navigated one river bend after another, in a desperate race against the enemy riders on the left bank. The compet.i.tion was intense.

Kou and Ba, two men took out their folding bow at the same time. The former laughed and said, “Only the left bank has enemies, the right bank none, Li Shimin’s intention is to lure us to land from the right bank. His Niang’s! Laozi is definitely not going to fall into his trap.”

Ba Fenghan nodded and said, “Rather than being forced to abandon the boat and go ash.o.r.e, it would be better to take one step ahead by abandoning the boat and going ash.o.r.e; the initiative will still be in our hand.”

‘Swish! Swish!’ Amidst the sound of arrows splitting the air, powerful arrows were shot in rapid succession from the Shooting the Sun, Piercing the Moon, two bows, targeting the warhorse at the head of the enemy’s team of riders. The strong warhorse neighed miserably, stumbled and fell to the ground. Since the front of the line was blocked, immediately the enemy’s riders were thrown into a great mess, they were no longer able to continue chasing along the coast.

Xu Ziling’s mind was interlinked with the other two; he quickly moved the raft away from the right bank to lean close to the left bank.

Ba Fenghan shouted, “Remember our triangular battle array, we must not let the enemy separate us.”

Xu Ziling said, “I have another proposal: why not try to break through the gateway where the enemy block the river? As long as we lean on one side, it would be difficult for the stone-throwing machines on either side to do anything to us. If we can get through this barrier, it would make most of the Tang Army deployment useless.”

Speechless, Kou Zhong said, “Turns out Ziling is the one with the biggest guts.”

Letting out a long laughter, Ba Fenghan said, “Makes sense. The trebuchets are heavy and cannot be moved quickly. To attack big ship, they have plenty of power, but to deal with our small raft operated by Ling Shao, it is definitely clumsy. By sailing speedily close to the sh.o.r.e, to the trebuchets, the near ones will be too near, the far ones will be too far. Only dealing with a few powerful arrows, we should be able to manage well. All right! I’ll risk my life to accompany the gentleman!”

The wooden raft swiftly turned around a sharp bend, the river course changed to be comparatively straight, on both sides the mud was high. They saw human shadows flickering on high places, with stone-throwing machines arranged on both left and right. Farther into the distance, there were even six double-masted battleships arranged in a row, completely sealing the river course. Such battle array indeed carried sealing-the-river-locking-the-way momentum.

His countenance changed, Kou Zhong said, “Our counting-the-chickens-before-they-are-hatched won’t work!”

Turned out the river course narrowed, the narrowest pa.s.sage that the enemy guarded was only about ten zhang, it did not matter which side they picked, they would still be within range of the enemy’s trebuchets and powerful arrows.

He had not even finished speaking, the course ahead was suddenly brightly lit. Not only hundreds of torches were lit on both sides, the six battleships ahead also lit all their lights, illuminating approximately half a li section of the river course ahead so that it was as bright as daytime, so that even a strand of fine hair was completely exposed.

Xu Ziling knew that under such circ.u.mstances, moving forwards to crash through the barrier would be akin to throwing away their life. Making prompt decisions, he shouted, “Ash.o.r.e!” He still carried the oar in his hand.

The three jumped off the wooden raft at the same time and threw themselves toward the left bank. Before their feet even touched the ground, hundreds of powerful arrows, hiding the sky and covering the earth – were shot toward them. This was completely beyond the three men’s expectation; they never thought that the enemy would hide archers in ambush ahead of the juncture.

Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong unleashed their unique school’s skill; simultaneously they changed true qi, separately they grabbed Ba Fenghan from the left and right, and changed their momentum from falling down to sharp rise, hence they barely missed the arrow net, soared across the sky, and cast themselves toward the archers’ troop disposition spread by the sh.o.r.e.

While still in the air, the three took a quick glance to see the situation far and near clearly, and they realized Li Shimin’s determination to put them to death at all cost.

On both sides of the Luo River, in addition to the stone throwers and archers sealing off the river, there were also army divisions consisted of different military branches, arranged in formation ahead of the blocked location. The archers shooting arrows at them were positioned at the front of their formation, followed closely by shield-wielding axe-hands, and finally, at the end of the formation was the cavalry. Each branch consisted of five hundred men, which brough the total to fifteen hundred men.

Under the orders of the leading general, the archers, who had not been able to shoot the second round of arrows – put away their long bow, and pulled out the girdle ornament knife from their leg, and dispersed to all directions to let the three men fall right into the trap.

Merely this division had enough power to kill the three men, with plenty leftovers, much less only to entangle them for a short period of time, and then when the enemy from four sides, eight directions rushed over, they would be without any luck even more.

In this plain region on the north bank of the Luo River, the trees have been cut down so that it was bare. The closest wooded area was the dark shadow at the end of the plain, at least ten li away. In fact, with Luoyang as the center, the area within twenty li radius had been cleared up of any tree, only it was not clear whether it was the work of w.a.n.g Shichong’s side or Li Shimin’s side, because both sides had reason to do so. Only it was greatly disadvantageous for the three men being here tonight, because there was nowhere they could hide. Other than the dark of the night, there was no favorable condition to flee.

Even worse was that in addition to the troop disposition before their eyes and the enemies not-too-far downstream, the other battle formations farther away were intact. Various cavalry units of different strength were rushing in their direction. Once they fell into heavy siege, it would be difficult even for the Heaven to save them.

When it looked like they were about to enter the enemy’s heavy siege, Ba Fenghan shouted loudly, both palms pressed down, qi power heavily struck the ground, shaking the several Tang soldiers nearby that they fell to the east and skewed to the west, and then he borrowed the reaction force to bring Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, whose true qi has been exhausted, while new power has not been generated yet – supporting him on the left and right, moved about five zhang across, and landed safely at the edge of the enemy’s force.

As soon as their feet touched the ground, the three separated a bit to form triangular troop disposition, with Ba Fenghan as the sharp point of the triangle. Sword light flashing, two enemies, before they were able to see clearly what’s going on, were already forced back that both the persons and the sabers were thrown to both sides and fell down.

Xu Ziling applied his power to his a zhang-and-a-half-long oar to sweep, about a dozen men swarming from behind to intercept were either shaken that their weapons fell off their hands, or fell to the ground with broken bones and split muscles injury.

Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well chopped down at lightning speed, the saber never missed its target, there was always somebody hit by the saber and fell to the ground.

All of a sudden the three men broke through siege where the enemy’s strength was rather weak, and rushed out of the encirclement. The enemy chased behind them like a tide. Ahead, the Tang soldiers, who were originally responsible to seal off the waterway, abandoned their stone throwing machines and charged toward them. It was indeed there was no way to go forward, while the enemy troops were chasing behind. On the vast river plain, there was no longer any place for them to seek shelter and stay alive.

Currently, the enemies they were facing were only an insignificant part of the enemy’s military strength; if they let the enemy’s main force to rush over, next year tonight would definitely be the anniversary of their death.

Ba Fenghan shouted loudly, “Where we came from, that will be where we return.”

The two boys understood tacitly, they responded in chorus.

Just before the enemies from both sides closed in to entangle them to the death, the three soared into the air like big birds doing everything they could to traverse the nearly the seven zhang of empty air, and over more than a hundred enemies dashing on bravely with no thought of personal safety to kill them, and threw themselves in the direction of the sh.o.r.e. When they landed on the ground, the saber, the sword and the oar moved together, qi power filled the atmosphere, before the persons arrived, it already burst toward the enemy that they fell violently all around, like a gale sweeping dead leaves, they charged straight through the gap in the middle of the enemies.

The tip of their feet touched the ground, the three men soared for the second time, they leaped over the row of trebuchets lining up along the sh.o.r.e, and stepped at the edge of the sh.o.r.e.

The wooden raft, which no one controlled and no one paid any attention, was floating with the current toward the six battleships arranged in a row on the surface of the river. It b.u.mped into the rocky beach by the bank, and ricocheting back into the middle of the river.

Letting out a long laughter, Ba Fenghan said, “Heaven has not wanted us dead yet!”

Both feet exerted some strength, he bounced off the edge of the sh.o.r.e, and flew toward the wooden raft in the middle of the river.

By this time the raft was still more than a hundred zhang away from the enemy’s battleships, it has not entered the trebuchet and the archers on the ship’s firing range yet.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling did not dare to slow down, they followed closely behind Ba Fenghan, and pounced down onto the raft together.

One after another the three men landed on the raft. Xu Ziling’s oar plunged into the water behind the raft, creating a burst of a ball of splash, propelling the raft straight toward the group of enemy’s battleships ahead, it seemed just like they already pa.s.sed the barrier of the stone-throwing machines and the archers, only the six battleships ahead remained.

The trebuchets on the right bank rang, arrows and darts screamed, yet all were just one step too late. The stone bomb fell behind the tail of the raft, creating a big splash filling the air; it was thrilling to the extreme point.

“Torch!” Kou Zhong shouted loudly.

Simultaneously, with one hand he and Ba Fenghan pulled the bow, while with the other hand they drew the arrow; with fast beyond human comprehension technique, they shot arrows continuously, just like archery exhibition, ‘Swish! Swish!’ continuously. The target of their arrows were the burning torches on the ships.

The several battleships were illuminated by hundreds of flaming torches, mounted on some kind of bracket all around the ship. Hit by the arrows, one after another the bracket broke, the torches fell onto the deck, kerosene spilled onto the deck and the cabin, coupled with the high wind and dry season, immediately the fire spread rapidly, so that the Tang soldiers on the ships were thrown into extreme confusion, not knowing whether they ought to put out the fire or to strike back first.

Xu Ziling released a vortex of energy, the raft’s speed was increasing continuously, furthermore, it was advancing in a serpentine-shaped trajectory, so that one after another the enemy’s stones and arrows and darts fell into empty air.

‘Boom!’

Ba Fenghan’s right foot picked the iron shield, and then using unloading-force technique he blocked a stone bomb shooting at them, while Kou Zhong stood in front of Xu Ziling to protect him, using the Shooting the Sun Bow to parry the arriving arrows and darts, so that Xu Ziling could focus his attention to steer the boat.

Three of the enemy’s warships had their bow fallen into the ocean of fire, they completely lost their ability to strike back or to intercept. On the ship in the middle, the fire even spread toward the mast and the sail, so that they started to crack and collapse, the raging flames rose to the sky.

A hundred-zhang distance pa.s.sed by in just a few blinks of an eye, the wooden raft was moving at the speed of galloping horse, pa.s.sing through the gap between the two most-severely-burned battleships. It was only this moment that the three discovered that the battleships were linked together using iron chains, three chains per link, so that the six battleships were connected together, and tied to the big trees on both banks of the river, so that the ships could stay across the river without shifting, blocking the path of the wooden raft.

Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong moved together as if by prior agreement; they sprang into the air, when they landed back, their four feet exerted thousand-catty force onto the aft of the raft. The raft’s bow rose up high, its bottom rubbed against the iron chain, the raft tilted at an angle, while Xu Ziling ama.s.sed the power in his entire body, and then he released the spiraling energy, the water splashed about a zhang and a half high into the air, like a horse leaping over a hurdle the raft flew high over the highest iron chain, and landed on the water behind the enemy’s battleship formation, just like a bird escaping from its cage, throwing itself into the pitch-black section of the Luo River.

The raft dove underwater, taking its three pa.s.sengers into the water. But in the blink of an eye, it floated back onto the surface to continue its voyage.

The three cheered in unison; looking back, they saw that all six battleships were caught in the sea of fire.

The wooden raft rounded a river bend and left the blaze far behind, now the darker the river, the safer they felt.

Recalling the danger just now, the three quietly wiped their cold sweat.

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Li kid’s troop deployment really broaden people’s horizon, only unexpectedly we got through the barrier.”

Ba Fenghan smiled and said, “If we could continue like this until we reach the Great River, tomorrow we could call on Dou Jiande in going-on-a-scenic-tour mood.”

Xu Ziling raised his head to look at the sky, he spoke in shock, “We calculated a thousand times, ten thousand times, we still miscalculated one thing, which is: those who wanted us dead are not only the Great Tang Army, but also our old friend Kang Qiaoli.”

Hearing that, Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan also looked up and searched the sky, immediately their countenance changed.

A black dot was hovering at high alt.i.tude of sixty- or seventy-zhang over the water of the Luo River; unexpectedly it was a falcon.

Smiling bitterly, Kou Zhong said, “If my discerning eyes did not fail me, that should be Kang Qiaoli’s flat-haired beast. Ay! This is called his Niang’s before the first wave subsides, a new wave rises. The one hunting to kill us must be Li Yuanji. Last time we played with this kid on the palm of our hand, his face lost its l.u.s.ter in front of Li Yuan, hence tonight he wanted to redeem his face.”

Xu Ziling shook his head and said, “Looking at the grandeur of their deployment, the one presiding over the general situation must be Li Shimin himself, Li Yuanji is just his deputy; moreover, they are going all-out, doing the best they can. This section of the road will not be easy to pa.s.s.”

Ba Fenghan spoke with a sneer, “Our tactic of abandoning the boat, boarding the boat, setting fire to the ships on the river – ought to be beyond their expectation. As long as we take turns to drive the boat, even if they knew our position, before they could catch up with us, we will already reach the Yellow River. What is there to worry about? Hey!”

Before he even finished speaking, a very unpleasant-to-the-ears noise came from the bottom of the raft, a shaking-to-the-core sharp and unusual noise like the raft suffered wear and tear and was falling apart. It appeared that the raft has. .h.i.t some kind of sharp object in the water.

Caught off guard, the three were stupefied. Kou Zhong cried out in alarm, “It’s sharp wooden stake formation. Let’s go!”

The three leaped off the raft; by the time they could see clearly that more than a dozen zhang surface of the river was full of sharp wooden stakes, the raft fell apart. Their quivers and their shields followed the loose logs and broken ropes sinking into the bottom of the river. And thus the solid raft was gone just like that.

They landed on the left bank and looked to the west. The City of Luoyang became a cl.u.s.ter of hazy light about the size of a palm. Two teams of cavalry, one thousand riders each, were galloping fast over along both sides of the Luo River, only less than a li away from them.

Ba Fenghan pointed to a dense forest on an undulating hills and mountain range about five li in the northeast direction, he said, “That will be our refuge.”

Finished speaking, he took the lead to fly over there. The two boys promptly followed behind him.