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Book 54 Chapter 10 – Street of Frustration

Translator: Foxs\' Wuxia

Putting on his Gong Chenchun mask, Xu Ziling entered the City of Xiangyang at dusk.

The city defense of the City of Xiangyang was very tense, it was only opened for half a sichen in the morning, afternoon, and evening, those without any pass were all refused entry into the city. Fortunately, Xu Ziling still had his papers as the polo master Kuang Wentong, so that he was able to cross the barrier without a hitch.

Inside and outside the city, the atmosphere was brimming with the tension of the war, more than a dozen Tang Army camps were stationed outside the city. After entering the city gate, he noticed that public announcement declaring martial law were posted at conspicuous places everywhere. There were checkpoints along the main streets, where random inspection on passers-by were conducted. The Tang soldiers saw that Xu Ziling did not carry any weapon, he was dressed like the refined-in-manner younger generation of aristocratic family, they did not give him any trouble.

Xu Ziling was not trying to seek excitement at all, he took chances by especially coming to this back room of military strategic town, his goal was to make discreet inquiries about Kou Zhong, because there was no other place more suitable than this major city with the roads open in all directions.

He looked for an inn to stay the night first. After freshening up, he went back to the street to buy himself two sets of coarse hemp garment, which he was more accustomed to wear, including sleeveless garment, cotton-padded jacket that could defend against the cold. Only then did he selected a wineshop with the most scale to get his dinner.

There were more than twenty tables, but only seven, eight tables were occupied; it was a cold and cheerless atmosphere. Fortunately, the diners around five of the tables were chatting about battle-related topics, not far from Dou Jiande’s troops defeated and he died, Luoyang fell, and the conflict between the Tang Army and the Shao Shuai Army. Too bad everybody’s information was based on rumors; it was exaggerated and gave a false picture of the situation. By the time Xu Ziling’s belly was full and he was ready to leave, he still did not hear any more well-founded information.

This moment, from outside the tavern’s main gate came the sound of shouting and a horse. Xu Ziling cast his gaze over, two waiters were trying to push a tall and thin man, with disheveled hair and dirty face, his clothes tattered like a beggar’s – out of the door. One of the waiters exploded in strings of expletives as he shouted angrily, “F*ck your eighteen generations ancestors; last time the wine money has not been paid off, today you come again to look for trouble; you haven’t had enough beatings?”

A diner from the other table laughed and said, “A madman is really not simple, no matter how bad you beat him, after a couple of days it’s like nothing happened to him.”

Nevertheless, Xu Ziling’s entire body was severely shaken; he stood up abruptly and shouted, “Let him in, he’s my friend.”

Everyone present was stunned.

The two waiters turned their heads at the same time, they sized Xu Ziling up and down; obviously they were unconvinced inwardly, hence they wanted to measure his weight.

‘Plonk!’

Xu Ziling casually took out a tael of gold and put it on the table; he spoke heavily, “I, ‘Taihang Shuangjie’ Kuang Wentong am not easy to push around. Don’t you guys refuse to drink a toast only to drink as the result of having lost a bet. If you don’t know me, you can go to Chang’an to inquire. Humph! You can consider this ingot of gold as payment for my friend’s wine debt and to pay for today’s food and drink.”

Immediately the two waiters softened, they stepped aside to get out of the way. His footsteps unsteady, the tall and thin man stumbled over the door, as if he was completely oblivious that Xu Ziling has helped him out of trouble. He sat down on the first table inside the door, slapped the table and spoke hoarsely, “Get me some wine!”

Watching this, Xu Ziling was saddened. Ignoring the two waiters competing for the gold ingot, he shouted first, “Get me the best quality wine!” and then he sat down next to the tall and thin man, and spoke in low voice, “Yin Xiong! It’s me! It’s Xu Ziling!”

The beggar-like, down and out, fallen man was unexpectedly Yin Xianhe, who, after they parted at Longquan, his trace was unknown. There was not the least bit of his original ‘Butterfly Prince’ air remained; not only he lost his sword, his head and face were covered in bruises, apparently he had been beaten up many times over.

Hearing that, Yin Xianhe was shaken. Recovering a bit of consciousness, he looked at Xu Ziling, the expression showing in his eyes was scattered and not focused, he appeared to be in a daze.

Xu Ziling reached out to grab his mud-stained, filthy hand, and injected true qi inside; he found out that his meridians were mixed and his qi was scattered. Clearly he suffered from fire deviation.

Xu Ziling understood. Because there was a good chance that his younger sister, Yin Xiaoji has been reduced to prostitution, Yin Xianhe was unable to accept this cruel fact, coupled with excessive drinking, finally he took a wrong turn.

This moment the waiter respectfully delivered a jar of Fenjiu [sorghum-based Chinese liquor], while also setting up bowls and chopsticks, calling him Daye this and Daye that incessantly, before tactfully withdrew.

Yin Xianhe was going to get the wine, Xu Ziling shouted in low voice, “Xiaoji successfully escaped the clutches of evil people!”

Yin Xianhe was severely shaken, the vigor in his pair of eyes recovered somewhat, he stared at Xu Ziling.

Xu Ziling seized the fortunate timing to intensify his power to help him to get the scattered true qi within his meridians to get back on track.

Yin Xianhe spoke in trembling voice, “Xiaoji?”

Xu Ziling cried ‘Lucky!’ inwardly, illness of the heart required a medicine of the heart. If not for the definite information about Yin Xiaoji that he obtained from Han Zenan, husband and wife, this moment he would not be able to paint holding two brushes, to make Yin Xianhe’s spirit and intelligence recovered.

“Yin Xiong!” he said, “Xiaodi is Xu Ziling, this appearance is a fake one.”

Yin Xianhe’s eyes continued to focus, his eyebrows knitted, he muttered, “Xu Ziling ... Xu Ziling ...” Suddenly he opened his eyes wide and looked around, he spoke in horror, “What is this place?”

Xu Ziling let go of his hand. As if relieved from a burden, he exhaled a mouthful of air, and said, “Yin Xiong is recovering! You can set your heart at ease in everything.”

Inside the mountain stronghold, Kou Zhong and the others rested their heads on the dagger-axe, storing up momentum.

After careful study with Ba Yegang, Bing Yuanzhen, Ma Chang, Wang Xuanshu, and the others, they unanimously decided on large-scale attack, in order to dampen Li Shimin’s acute spirit.

While his men were helping Kou Zhong to put on the battle armor that Xuan Yong had a specialist made for him, Xiao He’er’s voice rang next to him, “Dage must be the Heavenly General that came from the world of the immortals.”

It was only this moment that Kou Zhong had a little bit of time to think of her, plus her remark has reminded him, secretly he blamed himself for having his mind filled with killing and burning, with negligence, but he also remembered that if the mountain stronghold was broken, Xiao He’er’s life would be in danger. He laughed and said, “Xiao Meizi, stand in front of me, let me see.”

All around, his men were greatly stunned, it was only this moment that they found out that Xiao He’er was a woman in men’s clothing.

Xiao He’er’s powdery face turned beet-red, she came in front of him; partly happy, partly crossed, she said, “Dage revealed my secret!”

Kou Zhong spoke apologetically, “It was Dage being careless. However, ugly woman ultimately must see the father-in-law, let alone Meizi looks so pretty? I wonder if Xiao Meizi is interested in staying with my Shao Shuao Army to play?”

Xiao He’er forgot her embarrassment, she spoke excitedly, “What can I do for you?”

Kou Zhong summoned his men to bring Wuming in, he said, “This is our Shao Shuai Army’s eyes in the sky, her safety is related to the survival of the entire army, from now on I hand her over to Meizi to take care.”

Not only Xiao He’er did not show the slightest bit of fear of Wuming’s ferocious appearance, seeing Kou Zhong lovingly caressed the shiny brown-grey feathers on her back, she spoke in low voice, “Can I touch her?”

Kou Zhong rose up to his full height, he took her aside, and taught her the taming-eagle-raising-falcon method. Xiao He’er was exceptionally intelligent; she understood very quickly, and she loved Wuming unconditionally.

Kou Zhong also noticed Wuming did not show any antipathy toward her, so he handed her over to Xiao He’er, before he went back to meet with Ba Fenghan and the others, ready to set off.

Wang Xuanshu led two horses to the two men, he spoke in low voice, “Xuanshu will defend the mountain stronghold firmly, I wish Shaoshuai to win a victory on raising the flag.”

“Remember to take care of our little sister,” Kou Zhong said.

For some reason, Wang Xuanshu’s handsome face blushed slightly, he nodded his promise.

Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan stepped onto their horses, they galloped side-by-side toward the stronghold gate.

Three units, two thousand men each, under Bing Yuanzhen, Ma Chang and Ba Yegang’s command, respectively, were waiting in tight formation on the open space behind the mountain stronghold gate.

The sky gradually darkened, inside the mountain stronghold, the light was replaced by torches, the flames were burning red, it flickered and flashed in the cold wind, which increased the killing atmosphere of the battlefield.

Among them, two armies consisted of lance-and-shield-wielders, archers and cavalry. The former had a thousand men, the last two had five hundred men each, they were still mainly defensive in nature.

Kou Zhong shouted his order, the battle drums were sounded together, the stronghold gate was opened wide, Kou Zhong shouted loudly, “Boys! Tonight, we’ll show a little bit of appearance for them to see, to make them know how formidable our Shao Shuai Army is.”

The three armies plus the defenders of the camp shouted in response, the morale was high.

Kou Zhong laughed aloud, together with Ba Fenghan, they were the first to gallop out of the stronghold gate.

On the enemy formation’s side, bugle horns were sounded, hoofbeats were rumbling, evidently Li Shimin reacted by mobilizing his army to engage the incoming enemy.

Inside the room at the inn, Yin Xianhe, who has recovered his consciousness, spoke in distress, “The last thing I remember was taking a boat to Chang’an; I did not know that unexpectedly I could wander in confusion to here, ay!”

Xu Ziling comforted him, “Everything is a thing of the past, Yin Xiong need not take it to heart. Yin Xiong take a bath first, change clothes, and then we’ll talk.”

Sitting inside the chair, Yin Xianhe stared blankly for half a day, he shook his head and said, “No! We must go to Badong immediately, I want to personally ask clearly about Xiaoji, to ensure that there is no misunderstanding.”

Xu Ziling understood his mood, he said, “The city gate is now closed, tomorrow morning the city gate opened we immediately rushed to Badong.”

Yin Xianhe said, “The city gate closed, we can climb the wall and go; whoever dares to stop me, I will kill him.”

Xu Ziling knew that he was helpless against him; he mused secretly that his plan to meet up with Kou Zhong could be declared dead. Smiling wryly, he said, “Yin Xiong take a bath and change clothes first, and then we’ll immediately be on our way, will that work?”

The battle after the rain showers.

Ma Chang’s middle army, Bing Yuanzhen’s left-wing army, and Ba Yegang’s right-wing army, by means of temporary trench bridges, setup their disposition of troops outside the trenches.

These twelve trench bridges were completed by Chen Laomou over half a day of work, their entire length and width were of wooden planks acting as the bridge floor, supported by wheels underneath, which were pushed into the trenches. With the giant wheels as the main support structure underneath, it was able to bear the load on the bridge floor, so that their own army could quickly cross the trenches. The one thousand military supply wagon troops that came with the reinforcement troops became Chen Laomou’s fresh-powered construction battalion troops. With sufficient manpower, Chen Laomou wanted wind, he got wind, he wanted rain, he got rain [idiom: get whatever he wanted].

After setting up their battle array, the left- and right-wing troops moved forward, and stopped about a thousand steps outside the enemy’s cart formation’s front line, and arranged themselves in a crescent moon formation. The lance-and-shield-wielders at the very front entered toward the left and right bends. The thousand men divided themselves into three rows, forming a defense line enough to resist the impact of the enemy riders. Five hundred archers positioned themselves behind them, to resist the enemy from a long distance while under protection. The cavalry at the rear was responsible for dealing with the enemy riders attacking from the sides. The formation style was mainly defensive in nature. The three thousand men under Ma Chang’s command were all light cavalry.

Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong flew off their horses. Another team of fifty elite Flying Cloud Guards were in charge of supplying the fire bullets and to ignite the gunpowder.

Li Shimin’s side did not dare to be careless, three units of infantry, consisted of five thousand archers each, laid out their defense in front of the cart formation, under command of Luo Shixin, Shi Wanbao, and Liu Dewei, three leaders, respectively. As long as they pushed forward two hundred steps, both sides could shoot arrow darts at each other. Clearly the Tang Army had deep misgivings about Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan, they were intimidated by the long-distant threat of the Piercing the Sun and the Shooting the Moon bows. The two rows at the front were using precisely the pillars of the enormous lu [water scull] shields.

Li Shimin and his various generals arranged five teams of light cavalry behind the cart formation, each unit had three thousand men, they could rush out from the gaps of the cart formation, and threw themselves into the battlefield.

If Kou Zhong’s side did not have any emergency measure, facing the Tang Army, whose military power occupied complete superiority, while the other side also had a steady stream of reinforcement troops, they would undoubtedly lose.

Wang Xuanshu, guarding the mountain stronghold, shouted an order, a team of five hundred archers rushed out of the mountain stronghold, and positioned themselves to defend the three trench bridges outside.

This moment the bugle horn was sounded, the three units of five thousand shield-and-lance-wielders troops and the archers outside the Tang Army’s cart formation, amidst the beating of the battle drums, marched uniformly toward the Shao Shuai Army, in slow and steady advance, their mighty power was extremely intimidating.

Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan waited until the enemy advancing near to the ideal position, before they simultaneously took out the Piercing the Sun and Shooting the Moon, two divine bows. From their left and right their men quickly hung the ignited fire bullets onto the two men’s arrows. The hook was of course made under Chen Laomou’s supervision.

‘Whoosh! Whoosh!’

The two arrows left the bows and shot high into the air, the sparks of the fire bullets flew about in all directions, creating a magnificent spectacle streaking across the sky, but they were not shooting toward the gradually approaching enemy, rather, they shot into the cart formation.

‘Bang! Bang!’

Two clear explosions like the sound of firecrackers, Ba Fenghan’s fire bullet exploded above the cart formation, clumps of raging flames, like violent rain, poured down on the cart formation and the Tang soldiers guarding the formation, covering an area of about two, three zhang square.

Kou Zhong’s fireball fell into a stone-throwing machine before it exploded, immediately sending the stone-throwing machine and two ramming vehicles nearby into raging flames.

The raging flames spread and scorched the Tang soldiers that they howled in pain and fell to the ground. Two other fireballs were fired from Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan’s divine bows, seeking for new targets amidst the cart formation.

The enemy inside and outside the cart formation had never thought that there was such a formidable firearm that could attack the enemy from over a thousand paces, immediately the footing of their disposition of troops was thrown into great chaos, the three units of the Tang Army still advancing had no room to advance or to retreat even more.

Kou Zhong’s fire bullets changed direction toward the advancing enemy, while Ba Fenghan’s were dedicated to deal with the cart formation. Momentarily raging flames were everywhere, fresh flames sprang up everywhere.

Seeing no time to lose, Bing Yuanzhen and Ba Yegang promptly deployed their troops to attack. Ma Chang’s troops also pushed on as before, arrayed themselves in formation to wait behind Kou Zhong.

The fire bullets continuously streaked across the night sky, joined as a string of pearls, unendingly flying toward the target.

A lot of the sections of the cart formation were already caught in raging flames, in addition to the potential of the flames to spread into the entire formation. Li Shimin made prompt decisions, he ordered his men to move the fleet of carts, which had not been burned, to the rear. He also ordered the three units of infantry to withdraw into the formation, and had the two units of three thousand each cavalry, who had stronger mobility, to take their place to attack from the left and right, while he himself stayed behind to steady the footing of their disposition of troops.

Bing Yuanzhen and Ba Yegang did not dare to pursue and attack, they pulled back to Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan’s left and right, two sides, in tight disposition of troops to meet the enemy head-on.

‘Bang! Bang!’

Two fire bullets exploded in front of the enemy riders’ formation charging from the right side, fireballs poured down like rain, the more than a dozen riders at the very front immediately became fiery-men, fiery-horses, leaning unsteadily from side to side, and fell headlong to the ground. The riders on the rear could not stop their momentum, they ran into the raging flames. Momentarily the men screamed, the horses neighed, the tragic situation was unbearable to see.

One after another Bing Yuanzhen and Ba Yegang shouted loudly, “Release the arrows!”

Row after row of arrow darts shot out from behind the lance-and-shield-wielders, ruthlessly attacking the enemy riders. Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan put down their treasured bows, flew up to mount their horses, and led Ma Chang’s three thousand elite cavalry to attack.

By daybreak, Xu Ziling and Yin Xianhe arrived outside the city of Badong, both were sleepy and unbearably tired.

The city gate has not yet opened, they mingled among the traveling merchants and the farmers taking advantage of the market waiting to enter the city. Even with his eagerness to enter the city, Yin Xianhe still felt that they ought to exercise a bit more patience to wait for the city gate to open rather than immediately climb over the city wall to enter.

Xu Ziling was afraid someone might recognize him and attract unnecessary trouble, hence he put on Gong Chenchun mask, and waited with Yin Xianhe by the official road.

The sound of hoofbeats suddenly arose, a group of men wearing tight warrior outfit galloped over along the official road, carrying an overbearing, tyrannical air, shouting and scolding the pedestrians to get out of the way. Someone was moving a bit slow, the rider in the lead immediately brandished the horsewhip overhead, creating the sound of the whip splitting the air, brimming with threatening overtone. The people originally crowded in front of the city gate to wait for their turn to enter the city hurriedly scrambled to the side in the panic, the situation was quite chaotic.

When Xu Ziling saw the horse, the first thing that came to his mind was his beloved horse, Ten-Thousand-Li Spots, who died tragically on the battlefield; grief was welling up in his heart, he was sad and depressed. And then his gaze moved up, he could not help but was shocked inwardly; hastily he turned his tiger-body around, in order not to let the other side see Gong Chenchun’s august countenance.

That group of more than a dozen warriors had not reached the city gate, the general guarding on the city gate tower already issued an order to open the city gate and lower the suspension bridge, to let this group of riders to gallop straight inside. And then in front of the people who mistakenly thought that they could follow, the suspension bridge was pulled up again, provoking a burst of complaints and discontent.

“Ziling seems to know this group of men?” Yin Xianhe asked in astonishment.

Xu Ziling replied, “I recognized the two leaders, they are Li Jiancheng’s trusted aide, his claws and teeth Er Wenhuan and Qiao Gongshan. I just don’t know why they’re here.”

Although he uttered his doubts, but inwardly he had a vague feeling that this matter was related to Liang Shunming receiving another batch of firearms from Hai Sha Bang. But because he knew that this moment Yin Xianhe’s mind was completely on his sister, he concealed the load on his mind.

The City of Badong was Du Fuwei’s territory; although this Ol’ Dad of his has already proclaimed himself a minister of the House of Tang, but he would never collude with Li Jiancheng, whom he despised; therefore, most likely the defending general of Badong City had some secret dealings with Li Jiancheng, thereupon he provided some convenience to Er Wenhuan and Qiao Gongshan.

As long as he could find out which high-ranking military officer under Du Fuwei’s command was in charge of Badong City defense, he could warn his Ol’ Dad and let him know what’s going on.

The sound of hoofbeats arose again, a horse-drawn carriage was coming over slowly along the official road.

Xu Ziling mused how could there be such a coincident? The drivers were surprisingly Hou Xibai and Lei Jiuzhi, whom he had not seen for a long time.

Xu Ziling pulled Yin Xianhe along to meet the carriage. Hou Xibai and Lei Jiuzhi suddenly saw Xu Ziling appearing before their eyes, they nearly wanted to rub their eyes, not daring to believe.

The carriage stopped by the roadside, the two men jumped down the carriage, with questions across their whole faces.

After Xu Ziling introduced the two to Yin Xianhe and vice versa, Hou Xibai could not bear it anymore, he asked, “Unexpectedly Ziling has fully recovered! This is really hard to believe. Did Qingxuan finally come?”

Xu Ziling said, “Not only my power is recovered fully, I even made big breakthrough. As for the situation within it, it’s hard to explain in a few words, I wonder if I can tell you in details later, the top priority before our eyes is to find out clearly whether Yin Xiaomei [little sister] that Han Furen spoke about was indeed Yin Xiong’s little sister.”

And then he turned to Yin Xianhe and said, “This Lei Dage is the person that Xiaodi mentioned to Yin Xiong, the one who is very familiar with the Xiang Family. With him helping, impossible things will become possible.”

Lei Jiuzhi had never thought that they barely met, Xu Ziling, who was habitually silent, immediately gave him big bamboo tall hat [fig. flattery]. In his delight, he was unable to close his mouth; he laughed and said, “Yin Xiong, don’t worry, no matter southern gang or northern society, in all parts of the country, big and small gangs and sects, there are people with head and face [i.e. reputation] who, more or less, have some friendly relations with me, so it is very convenient to do business. Badong Bang’s boss has had a few drinking bets with me. We all are brothers, Yin Xiong’s business is our business.”

Apparently, Yin Xianhe was not interested in this kind of Jianghu rhetoric, his brows were still deeply knitted, he spoke woodenly, “The city gate is opened!”

Amidst the ‘squeaking’ noise, the overhung gate was lowered again.

For some reason, a premonition that crisis was imminent suddenly welled up in Xu Ziling heart.