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In general, unexpectedly no one supported a large-scale military expedition, to have the Shao Shuai Army marching from Liangdu at the western border, across the Shao Shuai State, and arrived at the Donghai County facing the sea.

Only Xu Xingzhi and Xuan Yong were smiling, but remained silent without saying anything.

Ren Meimei said, “Liangdu is located at the major crossroad on the canal, by stationing a massive military force there, not only we can face the enemy attacking following the canal either going north or coming down to the south, we can also provide assistance to the cities and towns north and south. If we really empty the military strength there, it will affect the survival of our Shao Shuai State. Liangdu is not like Jiangdu and Luoyang, that kind of strong cities, if the enemy is well prepared, forty to fifty thousand men can heavily besiege Liangdu, attacking day and night, then we will have no room to advance or to retreat, the soldiers’ heart will be in great chaos.”

Bu Tianzhi also said, “If Li Zitong divides his troops to invade our territory from several routes, while our troops are weary and unable to rise due to the long and difficult trek, plus the enemy’s strength is several times above ours, we will be powerless to strike back, and can only sit while watching the cities surrendering one by one. Therefore, feigning troops movement is the superior move, it could equally meet Shaoshuai’s requirement.”

Kou Zhong sighed inwardly, the various generals’ views were all based on safest choice, not daring to take any risk, the justification they put forward was within reason, and it was based on careful investigation, simply because Shao Shuai State was established by their hands, they had just accomplished a bit of success, hence they especially cherished it.

But war is cruel, it’s a game where the players see who is hurting more. Just like a game of chess, this piece is sacrificed to obtain that piece, the focus is not the success or failure of one corner, but the overall victory or defeat.

With the exception of Xuan Yong, the various generals sitting around the table had never taken part in large-scale battle, most were of gangs or societies’ leader background, naturally, unlike him, they did not have their eyes on the overall situation.

Kou Zhong smiled and turned to Xuan Yong, asking, “What do you think?”

Xuan Yong spoke solemnly, “Now that we are in an inferior position, we must use an unordinary method to be able to break through this difficulty. Li Zitong has been involved in wars with Du Fuwei and Shen Faxing for a long time, yet he is still able to defend Jiangdu without losing it, evidently he is not a person that can easily be deceived. Shaoshuai in my heart is not an ordinary person, and only unordinary person can use unordinary method. Xiashu will listen to Shaoshuai’s instruction in everything.”

For the first time Kou Zhong found that other than the two strong points of brave and good at fighting, and calm and collected and steady, this chief great general of his had another good aspect, which was knowing how to cooperate with him as the supreme leader, so that among the numerous personnel in the headquarters, his words had a bit more weight. The fact was that Kou Zhong still had not figured out how to state his views without hurting the generals under his command’s feeling.

Xu Xingzhi cheerfully said, “Xuan Zhen [perhaps an alias, perhaps a typo, I don’t know, characters Zhen and Yong do not look alike] said it well. Whether it was the battle of Liyang, the battle of Cijian, in all cases Shaoshuai seized victory by using wonder troops [you know already what it means, right?]. Speaking about using surprise [the ‘qi’ character can mean strange, odd, weird, wonderful, surprising, unusual, etc.], I am afraid no one in the world can surpass Shaoshuai.”

The crowd of generals all revealed a submit-cheerfully expression, because what Xu Xingzhi said was the fact that everybody in the world knew. From the battle to defend the City of Jingling, to repelling Yuwen Huaji, to Li Mi’s big defeat, to his mighty power spreading all over the area beyond the Great Wall, and the two most recent famous military campaigns that Xu Xingzhi mentioned, Kou Zhong established his unequalled fame for fighting prowess. However, the ‘unequalled’ reputation really could not be relied on forever, for example, after Li Mi’s display, all his bargaining chips were lost, and now they were faced with a situation that was everything bodes ill, no positive signs even more.

Chen Changlin respectfully said, “We are just expressing our views, ultimately naturally Shaoshuai make your decision.”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Changlin does not need to be so modest to me, we are all brothers, naturally we can have an exchange of views. Ha!”

After a short pause, he spoke calmly, “Toward the goal, we are no different at all, the slight differences are the means to reach that goal. Currently Li Zitong has high rampart and deep city walls, he holds his troops without coming out, so that we cannot attack even if we wanted to, while also cannot defend even if we wanted too. According to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, if we must attack, then we must leave a place where the enemy can escape, only then will we be able to lure him to empty his nest and come out. This required place to escape is precisely how we are going to trick him into believing that if our situation becomes critical, our Shao Shuai Army would abandon Pengliang and withdraw to Lingnan. This is something that Li Shimin will never allow to happen. And because there is not much time, Luoyang’s fall is near at hand, we only have one chance to deceive Li Zitong. Toiling the army and moving the crowd appears to be unwise, but if we view this as an opportunity, an exercise to march the army, this will be one move, two gains. Using troops put emphasis on marching the army, even though on the military drill ground outside the city we could train the army to reach the as-the-arm-moves-the-finger [idiom: freely and effortlessly] level, without testing them on a long-distant marching, the unit can’t be called elite troops. As for how to launch surprise attack to deal with Li Zitong, that will be another question. The immediate priority is to lure Li Zitong out of the high and thick city walls, and go to their escaping place. Yang Gong’s troops are precisely my, Kou Zhong’s wonder troops. As for the details, we will discuss it carefully.”

His speech was resounding and powerful, if thrown on the floor, it will make a sound [idiom: also means resonating and powerful]. Everybody understood his intention, they trusted his judgment even more, so there was no objection.

Kou Zhong could not help but miss Xu Ziling; talking with him, he had never had to expend a great deal of effort, like the simple, single matter before his eyes, he had to state it repeatedly like this. Furthermore, it was evident that whether it was the generals or the soldiers, his Shao Shuai Army was still impressive-looking but useless, and Li Zitong was precisely the best subject for him to drill his troops.

There would come a day where his Shao Shuai Army, with him putting his heart and soul to train them, would become the unequalled mighty army able to move unhindered across the world.

Luo Qifei said, “Just received news from Chang’an: Li Mi received the Master of the Tang, Li Yuan’s order to go to Shandong to recruit his former subordinates [the word here means enlisting the enemy or rebel soldiers by offering amnesty]; coming along with him were Wang Bodang and the others. Along the way, the marching troops suddenly received Li Yuan’s imperial order, which summoned Li Mi return to Chang’an alone to discuss official business. Who would have thought that against orders, Li Mi did not return, but continued to travel to the east? He was beheaded by the Tang Army’s pursuing troops.”

Kou Zhong mused how could there be such a coincidence? He had just remembered Li Mi and immediately heard the news of Li Mi’s death.

In the Shao Shuai Hall, everybody revealed a shocked expression, followed by spirited discussion; some felt sorry for his ending, which generated sigh of regret.

Li Mi raised the Wagang militia, he stood above the crowd in the Central Plains, with strong potential to replace the Sui. It’s a pity that he repeatedly made mistakes. First was by killing Zhai Rang, which made Wagang Army split up internally, and thus they were unable to seize the opportunity to go west and acquire Guanzhong. And then while his vigor had not recovered yet, he moved his troops against Wang Shichong, and Kou Zhong rendered him a big blow on Mount Mang. Unexpectedly he abandoned Li Shiji in Liyang to seek shelter to the Great Tang, which planted the seed of disaster of being killed today.

Hot tears gushed out of Xuan Yong’s pair of eyes, he spoke in trembling voice, “Da Longtou’s soul and spirit in heaven may rest in peace now!”

Kou Zhong casually asked, “How did Wang Bodang end?”

Luo Qifei replied, “I heard that not only Wang Bodang did not accompany Li Mi in death, he was not even charged with any crime.”

“What?” Kou Zhong blurted out. He was an eyewitness to the situation at that time, how could Wang Bodang escape the disaster? Unless he was the mole with secret ties to Li Yuan.

Noticing Kou Zhong’s concern over this matter, Luo Qifei continued his report, “Li Yuan sent Wei Zheng to carry Li Mi’s severed head to River Yin to appease Li Shiji. Journeying together with him was Shen Luoyan. It shows Li Yuan’s trust toward Li Shiji.”

Turning to Xuan Yong, Kou Zhong said, “Immediately send this information using the fastest possible way to notify Da Xiaojie, she will be extremely pleased.”

Xuan Yong hastily received the order and left to handle it.

And then everybody continued to discuss the details of the march. Kou Zhong finally discovered the biggest weakness of his Shao Shuai Army, which was the lack of talented personnel with experience and expertise in army logistics and supply.

The army logistics and supply were determined by two main conditions, which were its own production capacity and the transportation’s deployment. When the army was in military expedition to different region, the supply of military goods and army provisions had direct impact in the success or failure of the expeditionary force. Tujue people would just rob any place they went, using battle to raise battle. This aspect was not a big problem, but he, Kou Zhong, simply must not do it.

Mainly, Logistics and supplies could be divided into three aspects: the supplies following the army, the local supplies, and the special-purpose supplies.

The supplies following the army were the goods for military use to respond to emergencies, which the troops in expedition carry using military supply wagon and which the troops carry on their back, under care of a special unit. In his Shao Shuai Army, this aspect of military branch was not perfect at all, they were merely going through the motions, simply because Shao Shuai Army was tested only once when they went into battle in long-distance raid on Cao Yinglong, Zhu Can and Xiao Xian’s coalition forces. Since it was a blitzkrieg strategy, plus there was no need to besiege a city to capture a territory, everybody only had to carry enough provisions and it worked just fine. But if they were going to deal with Li Zitong’s city, naturally they could not be that careless.

Local supplies were only applicable if the troops only moved within their own territory, with the cities under their banner to provide the supplies. As for special-purpose supplies, it must be set up through certain routes, the goods were to be transported from the rear to the front line far away from their national border. Like Li Shimin attacking Luoyang, he must set up stations along the Great River, and had the supplies from Guanzhong transported outside the Pass. The supply troops in charge of the special-purpose supplies were as important as the troops in charge of the military supply wagons, and they were indispensable to the expeditionary force.

Presently his Shao Shuai Army’s military strength reached forty-thousand men in total, but if they really go into battle, at least ten-thousand of them have to be in charge of the military supply wagons and supply work, plus there must be men staying behind to guard important cities and towns of the Shao Shuai State; therefore, the number of troops that can go into battle would be no more than twenty thousand.

Kou Zhong made every effort to remedy this flaw; he transferred generals and built soldiers, so busy until the sky hazy and the earth turned dark, finally he decided that Bu Tianzhi would be in charge of the supplies, and Niu Fengyi in charge of heavy military supply wagons.

A personal guard hurriedly entered the hall to report, “Song Family’s San Xiaojie Yuzhi is asking an audience with Shaoshuai!”

Kou Zhong’s entire body sprang up from the dragon seat, he blurted out, “Unexpectedly she came?”

Xu Ziling finally entered the You Lin Xiao Gu [sic, it is ‘Gu’ now], a place where he searched in his dream and pulled along his soul but he had never set his foot on.

Many times his mind galloped fast to imagine what kind of hallowed place on the earth You Lin Xiao Gu was. Until this moment, where he personally experienced it, that he began to know that it was impossible to make a baseless guess.

Inside the tranquil deep valley, which was formed by a ring of mountain range, the stream was winding through the forest. Among the dense trees, he could faintly see several small stone houses. If he guessed correctly, the stream ought to flow right in front of the houses, flowing to the mouth of the valley, where it formed a clear pond, before it flowed out of the valley.

Inside the valley the maple trees reached high to the sky, dense and concentrated to become a forest, verdant and lush, hiding the sky and covering the earth. The cliff was high and steep, the rocks elegant, the spring clear; to be able to live in seclusion, shunning the world in here, in this life, what else is there to seek?

Since it was sunrise, the little valley was bathed in the first rays of morning sun. The mountains were full of red autumn leaves, the layers of forest appeared to be dyed red, bursts of autumn breeze blowing over, hundreds of birds singing together, fresh and clean air penetrated deeply into the heart.

A big rock protruded from underwater in the middle of the pond, perhaps it was like a grinding basin or like a square table, clear spring flowed over the rocks, a school of small fish swam around, brimming with freedom [orig. freehand style in Chinese painting, characterized by bold strokes rather than accurate details], carrying the not-contaminated-by-the-dust-of-the-world overtone.

Xu Ziling’s ears heard the gurgling noise of the flowing water as he walked along the stream, rounding the clear pond, and stepped onto the gravel path covered in thick maple leaves. His heart and spirit rose to a higher level, everything was like in a fantasy that he doubted if it was real, just like he was in a beautiful dream where he continuously went deeper and deeper. Each step that he took carried him farther and farther away from the cold-hearted, brimming with struggles, enmity and killing – real world.

The forest path curved, suddenly it opened up to a wide panorama, a graceful figure greeted his eyes.

Just on the flat rock by the stream in front of the house, a woman, with her both feet immersed in the water, was washing clothes with full attention, her long hair drooped down, he could not see her jade countenance, but looking at her clothes and her bearing, who else could she be but Shi Qingxuan?

But Xu Ziling halted his steps across the stream in shock, as he looked at the woman on the other side, who did not seem to realize his existence; his pair of eyes emitted an unprecedented sharp, fierce and severe divine light.

The profound image of Shi Qingxuan in his heart was not something that an outsider could understand or experience. Even though in terms of body type, bearing and clothing this pretty woman had seventy-, eighty-percent resemblance with Shi Qingxuan, he still saw through in just one glance that she was not Shi Qingxuan. At the same time, his heart sank straight down to the bottom; could it be that he was a step too late, that Shi Qingxuan has been harmed by the other side?

Thinking to this point, immediately his murderous intent flared greatly.

The woman’s both hands trembled, evidently she generated reaction; slowly she raised her pretty face to look at him.

Xu Ziling’s heart was severely shaken.

Unexpectedly it was the Da Ming Zun Jiao’s female demon, the ‘Poisonous Water’ Xinnaya. That day, in the wilderness outside the city of Little Chang’an, he had seen her and Liexia journeying together. He could not help blaming himself for being careless, unexpectedly he did not think of this; moreover, he was afraid it was too late to be sorry! First, let’s not talk about Kuo Jie being killed by Ling Longjiao in the vicinity of Cijian because of him, just based on the fact that Shi Zhixuan ruthlessly killed the ‘Benevolent Mother’ Sha Fang and all of her attendants, Da Ming Zun Jiao definitely would not want to let the matter drop.

They wanted to kill Shi Zhixuan, but not only it was beyond their power, they did not even know where to start, hence Shi Qingxuan became their only target of revenge.

They were able to know the correct location of the You Lin Xiao Gu, it must be due to Yang Xuyan’s giving them directions. From this, it was clear that Yang Xuyan has finally drawn a clear dividing line with Shi Zhixuan, he no longer regarded him as his Shifu. This could explain even more why Shi Zhixuan treated Hou Xibai, his only remaining disciple, in such an amiable manner, that he extremely cherished him.

Xinnaya’s beautiful eyes emitted ice-cold expression, but her countenance was surprisingly tranquil; she stood slowly, a pair of daggers appeared in her hands, she spoke softly, “Xu Ziling! You will die today!”

Xu Ziling felt that there were three people approaching behind him, but his expression was still as usual, he even restrained the murderous aura in his pair of eyes, while discharging all distracting thoughts from the ocean of his mind, because he was ready to open wide the monastic discipline against killing, in order to get justice for Shi Qingxuan, no one in the world would be able to stop him.

“Is Shi Qingxuan dead?” he spoke indifferently.

From behind, a female voice responded, “Shi Qingxuan has fallen into our hands. If you are sensible, you would immediately cripple your own martial art skill, we might open the net on one side by letting you (plural) live.”

Suddenly Xu Ziling’s entire being relaxed; not only because he could hear this woman speak without meaning it, he also knew that Shi Qingxuan has received Shi Zhixuan and Bi Xiuxin’s handed-down teachings, it would not be easy to kill her, to capture her alive was impossible even more. Moreover, based on her character, she would rather die than falling into the enemy’s hands.

He smiled and said, “I have never mastered such a profound skill of crippling my own martial arts; I will have to trouble Guniang to give directions.”

Behind him a male voice was letting out a cold humph.

Shocked, Xu Ziling said, “Yucheng! It’s you?”

“Today, it’s either you die or I perish.”

Xu Ziling threw his head back in long laughter, he said, “Very well! Duan Yucheng! If you are man enough, tell me what you did to Shi Qingxuan.”

On the other side of the stream, Xinnaya spoke with a cold laugh, “Since you want to know the truth, we will let you know. Shi Qingxuan is dead!”

Xu Ziling remained unmoved; while resisting Duan Yucheng’s fierce and severe, clearly outstanding sword qi, which he was certain that it was due to him mastering the martial art from ‘Yu Jin Wan Fa Gen Yuan Zhi Jing’ and already revealing his talent and becoming the new generation Yuanzi, he spoke in heavy voice, “Yucheng, answer me!”

Duan Yucheng’s voice was without the slightest bit of emotion, “She is dead!” he said.

The murderous aura in Xu Ziling’s pair of eyes was flashing, but it quickly disappeared; he still kept his hands behind his back.

Xinnaya let out a proud-of-herself tender laugh, her cold face, clear and beautiful jade countenance revealing a disdainful expression, gasping for breath, she said, “Still don’t believe? How about if her fragrant corpse is returned to you?”

Xu Ziling’s heart and spirit was like being struck by thunder, the Moon the Well realm was finally lost, with his qi being pulled back, the murderous intent of the three enemies behind him flaring out greatly, they made their move at the same time to attack his back.

Right this moment, someone came out of the door of the house behind Xinnaya, holding a woman who dressed very much like Shi Qingxuan in his hands, her hands and feet were hanging limply, her head, in the crook of his arm, was hanging face up, her long hair was draped over her face.

This suddenly-appearing person wore black hood covering his head, his body was covered in black nightwalker outfit, exposing only his pair of eyes, but Xu Ziling was certain that the other side was the Da Ming Zun Jiao’s ‘Da Zun’ Xu Kaishan.

Other than Liexia, several of the Da Ming Zun Jiao personnel with highest and strongest martial art skill were all gathered here. From this, it was clear that they determined to kill Shi Qingxuan and Xu Ziling.

In the end he still underestimated the enemy. Furthermore, An Long’s so-called ‘notification’ was brimming with misleading ideas, but he had no time to tell whether An Long unintentionally missed it, or whether he deliberately set him up.

Xu Kaishan did not say a word. He threw the woman, which appeared not to have any sign of life – in his hands toward Xu Ziling’s head, while he himself ran behind her.

One punch exploded.

Xinnaya leaped into the air over the stream to attack.

In that instant Xu Ziling fell into the inferior situation where there were enemies in front and behind him. He did not know whether he ought to reach out to catch the body, which probably was Shi Qingxuan’s remains, or to deal with the enemy’s ten-thousand-jun-thunderbolt powerful and ferocious offensive.

If Xu Kaishan’s skill was near Shi Zhixuan’s level, and Xinnaya was not inferior to Liexia, forget about it would be difficult to avenge Shi Qingxuan’s as-deep-as-the-ocean blood debt, perhaps he would be powerless to even defend himself.