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He was not surprised at all; his qi steady, his spirit leisurely, he and Kou Zhong hugged each other on horseback. The two horses also you-sniffed-at-me-I-sniffed-at-you intimately. Leading Yang Gongqing and Wang Xuanshu along, Xu Ziling arrived and did the introduction all around.

Ba Fenghan looked up at Wuming in the sky, he spoke cheerfully, “Seeing the Tujue falcon in the air, I immediately guessed that that must be the big gift that Tuli presented to you, and I thought that you must be nearby, hence I deliberately used the sound of hoof beats to lead you to come and meet me.”

“How did you know that you could find us here?” Xu Ziling asked in astonishment.

Ba Fenghan smiled and said, “After entering the Pass, I asked around and found out that you guys are not in Luoyang but in Liangdu; I promptly rushed over, but pounced the empty air again. Luckily Changlin told me that you are transporting grains to Luoyang, he even told me the approximate route you are taking, thereupon I lifted my tail and pursued relentlessly, but found some interesting things along the way, hence I put on a day’s work; otherwise, I would have been able to catch up with you last night.”

Kou Zhong’s spirit greatly aroused, he asked, “Is it the Tang Army who want to put us to death?”

Ba Fenghan laughed aloud and said, “Shaoshuai is indeed astute. Let’s find a good place to talk; it will be best to recall your falcon.”

Kou Zhong was slightly startled, but he made a signal to call Wuming to fly back to his shoulder. Following Ba Fenghan, he galloped to a hilltop nearby.

The five men dismounted from their horses at the foot of the hill, and then climbed to a high elevation on foot.

Under the sunlight shining over all things, bursts of autumn wind still made people feel a nip in the air; on the open country, yellow, green and red, three colors intersected and mixed with each other, creating a random mixture of colors.

Ba Fenghan pointed to a distant place in the west, he said, “About ten thousand Tang Army are hiding behind that mountain over there, all are cavalry, under the leadership of Li Shimin’s Tian Ce Fu great generals Zhangsun Wuji, Yuchi Jingde and Pang Yu, three men.”

“Unexpectedly the three of them?” Kou Zhong blurted out.

Xu Ziling, Yang Gongqing and Wang Xuanshu understood Kou Zhong’s shock. If the pursuing troops were Li Shiji, it would be proper and to be expected as a matter of course, representing the fact that their secret march had been exposed to the light; the scout flew back to report to Li Shiji, and Li Shiji personally led the cavalry to pursue and intercept. However, Zhangsun Wuji, three men were the great generals who were close to Li Shimin; they should have stayed by Li Shimin’s side to help him attacking Luoyang. And Pang Yu to Li Shimin was just like Luo Qifei to Kou Zhong; he was a specialist in intelligence gathering. Since the pursuing troops were under their leadership, it was clear that Li Shimin was already one step ahead in knowing that they would transport provisions to Luoyang; hence he dispatched his elite troops to ambush them, the provisions-transporting team.

Ba Fenghan spoke heavily, “I arrived at Chenliu two sichen after you left Chenliu, so I should have been two sichen behind you on the road. But I barely passed Kaifeng when I discovered a group of men and horses following about thirty li behind you. I took advantage of the time when they pitched camp to rest to sneak up on them to investigate, and discovered that they had eight fierce and tough vultures. At that time I still did not know what those birds are for, until I saw your falcon just now that it dawned on me that these are the assassins in the sky; they will be used to deal with your falcon. Also, their scouts’ clothes were covered in tree leaves, obviously it is to deceive the falcon’s eyes.”

Shaken, Yang Gongqing said, “There must be a traitor in our Shao Shuai Army.”

Kou Zhong reached out to lightly hug Wuming; wiping the cold sweat, he said, “A close call!”

Ba Fenghan said, “Yuchi Jingde, Zhangsun Wuji and Pang Yu are all old hands on the battlefield, they divided the marching troops into several units; front and rear, left and right, they are corresponding to each other, unafraid of ambush and surprise attack. Moreover, this entire region is where the plains and the rivers meet, there is no strategically situated and easy to defend terrain that can be exploited. Unless you guys abandon the grain and goods, no matter how you fight them, undoubtedly the one suffering losses will be us.”

Everybody felt big headache. The greatest disadvantage was that they no longer dared to send Wuming into the air to observe the enemy. If it were not Ba Fenghan coming to give the information, Wuming would not avoid misfortune. Since the enemy brought eight ferocious vultures, these vicious vultures must have undergone training to be the bane of Wuming.

Xu Ziling sighed and said, “Li Shimin really cannot be underestimated. These vicious vultures must have been cultivated to deal against the Tujue people’s falcons.”

Frowning, Kou Zhong said, “This traitor [lit. inner ghost] knew that I will personally deliver the grains to Luoyang, his position in our Army can’t be too low, because the operation this time is a top secret, the lower-ranked officers and soldiers only found out that the grains are to be delivered to Luoyang, and that I personally escort it – when we set off.”

Ba Fenghan said, “Leave this matter to be investigated at a later date, for now the top priority is how, with no alarm, no danger, to cross the Yi River. At that time, whether we want to fight or we want to run away, we will have a very high chance of success.”

“Why don’t we execute the repairing the plank road by day while secretly crossing the Wei River at Chencang [see footnote Book 18 Chapter 7] tactic?” Kou Zhong said.

Xu Ziling was the first to understand; he nodded and said, “But the prerequisite is that the pontoon bridge installation that Yang Gong abandoned can still be used.”

Ba Fenghan did not understand, “What pontoon bridge?” he asked.

After giving him brief explanation, Kou Zhong said, “The method is very simple: we unload the grain and goods, and substitute it with rocks of approximately the same weight. And then we go about five li downstream and cut timber to build another bridge and use it to bluff. And then if the enemy is lured and come to follow us, our men who stay here can swiftly build the pontoon bridge, and rapidly bring the grain and goods to the opposite bank. After that ... ay! This method seems to be too complicated! What would be a better way?”

Ba Fenghan laughed and said, “What wind is blowing now?”

Kou Zhong replied, “The wind seems to be blowing from the northwest.”

Ba Fenghan raised his head to look at the sky, he said, “If I don’t misread the Heavens, tonight, before midnight, there will be heavy rain. We will build the pontoon bridge when the rain is pouring. Although it’s a bit more exhausting, based on our skill, it should be still achievable. Due to the water level is rising dramatically, pontoon bridge will be hidden under the surface of the water. The enemy’s scout is watching from a distance, they might only see that we are still felling trees to build the bridge downstream, they will definitely unable to guess that we have already built the pontoon bridge connecting the two banks. By tomorrow night the water level will decline, the bridge floor will be exposed, we can swiftly cross the river.”

Yang Gongqing said, “However, with five hundred mule carts carrying heavy load, we could forget about crossing the entire team in less than three sichen. The enemy’s horses are fast, they could arrive in the blink of an eye, our situation will not be any better.”

Ba Fenghan responded indifferently, “Therefore, water and fire, two tactics must be carried out simultaneously. The place where we build the bridge to bluff must be within half a li from the real river crossing. When we are ready to cross the river, we will release fire to burn the forest according to the direction of the wind. Although there is heavy rain, after a day of being exposed to strong sunlight, plus the wind is high and the material dry, the fire intensity will spread rapidly, thick smoke will cover the sky, even if the enemy dares to take risks to attack, they will miss the real river crossing point and miss the golden opportunity.”

And then he patted the Stealing the Heaven Sword on his back, his pair of eyes emitted flashing divine light, he said, “The initiative is in our hands, we can surely make stable deployment and ruthlessly obstruct the Tang Army, to make them powerless to cross the river to pursue us.”

Kou Zhong slapped his thigh and cried out, ‘Marvelous!’ He said, “This stratagem is called water and fire corresponding to each other to cross the river, even Sun Tzu’s The Art of War does not record it. Yang Gong, please take us to look at the pontoon bridge first, and then we’ll discuss other details.”

After Kou Zhong and the others determined that most of the pontoon bridge installation was still more or less intact and could still be used, Kou Zhong and the others hurriedly moved the cart team to the region of the forest that should be dense enough. They also set up disposition of troops on all four sides according to the School of Military’s usual practice.

Too bad that ‘Heaven did not fabricate beauty’. After arranging everything, by nightfall, the Heavens indeed poured down rain, only it was not heavy rain like Ba Fenghan’s – this expert in observing the sky and distinguishing climate – expectation, but only vast and obscure drizzle filling the whole sky, enveloping the entire river and plain region of the forest in wet and cold fog like in a dream. A bit farther into the distance, the opposite bank of the river already disappeared in boundless drizzle, visibility was greatly reduced, even without any threat from the vicious vultures, Wuming still could not display her ability to watch for the enemy, it was favorable to attack, but unfavorable to defend, the most worrisome was that their five hundred grain carts were crammed inside the forest, so that it became a well-defined target, and thus became a burden to them.

Kou Zhong and the others felt big headache, they were unsure whether they ought to immediately build the pontoon bridge, or to find another way.

This moment Ma Chang proposed, “We must immediately start to work on felling the trees, to make the enemy thinks that we are rushing to build the pontoon bridge, hence they won’t immediately send their troops to attack. We only need to pick particularly big and tall trees to chop off, let them topple over and lie across the ground, then they can become barrier to stop the enemy from attacking, while the enemy still thinks that we are chopping trees to build the bridge.”

Emotionally moved, Kou Zhong, Ba Fenghan, Xu Ziling and Yang Gongqing were greatly delighted; Ma Chang’s method was simple and easy to do, more effective than the method that Ba Fenghan previously proposed. Moreover, it was surefire [lit. ten thousand and not one failure]; they would be able to cross the river tonight, by cutting down several hundred big trees, it was equivalent to keeping the enemy on the other side of the cut trees. It was more stable than building big stockade, they could take their defensive position behind the cut trees with powerful bows, so that even if the enemy’s strength was several times above theirs, it would still be difficult for the enemy to do anything to them.

After expressing his heartfelt compliment to Ma Chang, while sending his men to put up the bridge downstream, Kou Zhong dispatched two thousand axe-wielders, along with arranging the grain carts in formation inside the area of the chopped down trees.

Under the illumination of the burning-high torches, everybody worked hard, ‘Ding! Ding! Du! Du!’ in the river forest region – inside the vast and hazy fog.

Amidst the ‘Crash!’ and ‘Boom!’ noises, one big tree after another, pulled by the ropes, collapsed and fell to the ground. Just two or three logs already formed an irregular barrier or enclosure reaching to three to four zhang wide. By the time the bridge construction reached its halfway point, the chopped-tree troop disposition was completed, but the enemy still had not made their move.

On one side of the river course, Yang Gongqing and Ma Chang conducted the bridge construction, Wang Xuanshu was in charge to look after the grain carts, while Kou Zhong, Ba Fenghan and Xu Ziling were waiting behind the chopped-tree formation in tight-formation.

The drizzle was still coming down endlessly.

Kou Zhong laughed and said, “Old hands also have old hands’ weak point, which is to think that everything would happen according to their calculation. They might use their previous experience to calculate how much time we would need to build the bridge, guessing that we would at least need one night of work to build the pontoon bridge, thereupon they must have set the attack time accordingly. Who would have thought that unexpectedly we have a ready-made pontoon bridge, so that when their warhorses are knocked against our chopped-tree formation and lose consciousness, they will know that they are falling into our trap, and then it will be too late to be sorry.”

Laughing involuntarily, Ba Fenghan said, “The three of us have always been conceited as being smart, yet none of us ever thought about such a convenient and fast, and easy to do method. Your subordinate, this gentleman Ma Chang is a rare talent; Kou Zhong, you must cherish him.”

Kou Zhong cheerfully said, “I have already seen his strong point during the Battle of Cijian, and now I have just confirmed my original assessment one step further. Ha! The three of us brothers are fighting side by side again, Laotian [old heaven, God] really does not treat me, Kou Zhong, meagerly.”

Xu Ziling said, “Right now the enemy must have been using the rain and the fog as a cover to sneak close to us, using the listening-to-the-ground technique to watch our movement. When the grain carts are starting to move, that will be the moment the enemy launch their offensive. Xiao Zhong must not let Wuming leave your side, because this moment the enemy must have released the vicious vulture into the air to attack Wuming.”

Kou Zhong gently stroked Wuming perching on his shoulder, he laughed and said, “Don’t worry! Without my order, Wuming will definitely not leave my shoulder.”

And then, turning to Ba Fenghan, he said, “Good kid! We still have not had any chance to ask you why it took you so long to come to the Central Plains to look for us; you are not indulging in pleasure and forgetting home and duty [idiom], hating to part with Badai’er, are you?”

Ba Fenghan replied, “In Tuli’s territory, I came across Fu Yang [I think it was Fu Qian back in Book 12 Chapter 12], who was still hanging around that area; I accompanied him to visit Gaochang first, before going to the desert for a hundred days of hard work in the way of the sword. After I was satisfied with my progress, I immediately came to look for you; wasn’t the timing just right?”

“Fu Yang!” Kou Zhong spoke in delight, “I haven’t heard about that kid for a long time; how is he doing?”

Ba Fenghan said, “Not only he is doing very good, he has made a lot of progress, at least he built a good relationship with Tuli, and established a life-long friendship, so that he gained a lot of benefit in his fight against Tongyehu [Dunyugu/Tonyukuk?] of the Eastern Tujue. He should have returned to his own country by now. Listening to the tone of his voice, he might be back to the Central Plains in the near future. Whether it will be the Li Clan who achieves victory, or the one unifying the world is you, Kou Zhong, either way, he will try to build good relationship, to borrow your Han people’s force to contend against the Eastern Tujue.”

But then he sighed and said, “Fu Yang is a man with both ambition and vision; originally he had the heart to invade your Central Earth, but after seeing Li Shimin and you, Kou Zhong, he put this desire to death early on. Unless the two of you have a negative view of him and sooner or later you finish him off, he will only seek development outside the Central Earth.”

Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “Sooner or later Li kid or I will finish him off, what you said is very interesting, but the possibility of it becoming a reality is great.”

And then he asked, “Good kid! Unexpectedly you know how to avoid the important and dwell on the trivial [idiom: to keep silent about major charges while admitting minor ones]. You should know that we wanted to ask you about Badai’er.”

Evidently Ba Fenghan did not want to answer this question; he responded indifferently, “When we have time later on, I might tell you!”

Knowing Kou Zhong’s character, Xu Ziling knew that he would not let him off, thereupon he changed the subject, “In the way of the sword, what breakthrough did Fenghan Xiong accomplish?”

Immediately the refined light in Ba Fenghan’s pair of eyes was flashing; revealing a reminiscing expression, he spoke in heavy voice, “That will be an unforgettable episode in my life; I put all the human affairs of the secular world at the back of my mind, no-one-no-self [anatta, Buddhist concept], every day I sat in meditation and trained my sword, so that by comprehensive study of the surrounding areas I mastered and comprehended all my previous experience. The greatest impact on me was not the two confrontations against Bi Xuan; rather, it was the experience of being dead and came back alive. Therefore, this Luoyang battle is extremely important to me. Only in confronting that kind of extreme life and death situation will my Stealing the Heaven Sword Technique be able make a break through. Ha! When at first I heard that Kou Zhong was not in Luoyang, I was so disappointed that I wanted to cry.”

“No need to cry now!” Kou Zhong spoke cheerfully, “Ling Shao, look! Old Ba is the person who really like battle.”

Xu Ziling replied with a sneer, “He loves martial art and not war; it should be a bit different!”

This moment Ma Chang came to report that pontoon bridge construction was completed.

Kou Zhong said, “Send a thousand men to cross the bridge on foot quietly first, arrange troop disposition on the other side and do reconnaissance work, set up sentry posts on high elevations. After we are sure that it is safe, take all the horses to the other side, including our rides. Carry out immediately.”

Ma Chang accepted the order and left.

Ba Fenghan praised, “Shaoshuai’s brains is getting more and more nimble, no wonder your prestige is like the sun at noonday. From Shanhai Pass going down south, I made some inquiries about you along the way, no one, after hearing your great name, dared not to show deep veneration.”

Kou Zhong sighed and said, “I am painfully aware of that, Ling Shao knows it best. Were it not for a bit of luck, practically I would not have any chance to be here, chatting and joking with you.”

Ba Fenghan spoke earnestly, “This time you are going to Luoyang, what pulling-strongly-against-a-crazy-tide [idiom: to try hard to save a desperate crisis] grand plan do you have? Among the people I met, no one regarded Wang Shichong as having a good prospect.”

Kou Zhong replied, “My grand plan is to stabilize the situation first and then seek help; which is helping Wang Shichong to defend Luoyang steadily first, to settle down the army’s heart, and then break the siege and seek help from Dou Jiande.”

Ba Fenghan’s spirit greatly aroused, he said, “Breaking the siege and seek help? That will be very exciting and interesting.”

Xu Ziling was staring into the depth of the dense forest covered in water droplets and the fog; his mind visualizing the intense situation where Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan were rushing out of the gate of the City of Luoyang, charging in the direction of the Great River, where the enemy’s military strength was the strongest, and Li Shimin was dispatching his fierce generals and elite troops, going all-out to intercept. It was quite different from going out from Pengliang and crossing the Great River to see Dou Jiande. Due to Li Shimin stationing massive military force north of Luoyang, the various cities on the Yellow River’s north bank have fallen into his hands, the hard and difficult journey could be easily imagined.

Minute by minute time passed on. By the time Ma Chang came back to report that all horses have completely crossed the river, it was only two sichen to daybreak, the drizzle was still falling non-stop from the pitch-black sky.

Kou Zhong issued his order for the grain carts to cross the river.

‘Squeak! Squeak!’ The sound of the wheels was heard from behind, the five hundred Flying Cloud personal guards and the two thousand Yang Family troops guarding inside the tree formation all around had their bow bent and the arrow at the ready, storing up their momentum to wait.

Ba Fenghan cried out in low voice, “They are coming!”

The sound of hoof beats was getting clearer, coming from ahead, in a three-way attack. Were it not for they were already prepared, plus there was the tree formation standing between them and the enemy and blocking the enemy, this moment they would have been at a loss to know what to do, their disposition of troops would be in great chaos, victory or defeat was only separated by a fine line.

Kou Zhong shouted, “Throw the torch!”

His order was transmitted far away, his men quickly tossed the torches in their hands outside the tree formation, streaking across the wet, foggy air inside the forest, creating streak upon streak of rays of light, very beautiful to behold.

The burning torches were actually made of fire-resistant resin grease, falling between the grass and the trees, although they could not burn the wet leaves, wet grass, but they did not go out either, so that inside the tree formation was pitch-black, but in the surrounding area the fire was blazing everywhere.

The enemy riders were getting closer and closer, like ghost riders from the deep, dark shadow, without any substance, appearing from the abyss of the fog.

Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan’s Shooting the Sun and Piercing the Moon, two bows burst at the same time, two riders were hit and fell to the ground.”

“Release the arrow!”

Two thousand and five hundred powerful arrows shot out from inside the encirclement, passing through the gaps between the forest trees, piercing the men and penetrating the horses. For a short while the sound of horses neighing and the people’s screaming resonated in the dense forest outside the tree formation.

The warhorses that lost their master rushed toward the tree formation before realizing that the path was blocked; they reared and neighed, and either knocking each other to the ground or turning around and running back. The horses that stepped on the torches neighed miserably over and over even more, the situation was chaotic to the extreme point.

The arrows kept pouring like rain, row after row of powerful arrows shot out from powerful bows, mercilessly shot dead any living creature either appearing or moving outside the surrounding tree formation.

Someone from the enemy’s side called out, “A trap! Retreat!”

The enemy came quickly, they retreated even faster, leaving behind the horse carcasses and human corpses in fantastic oddities of every description sprawling everywhere in the forest, the sound of the heavily wounded and had not died men and horses’ groan rose and fell in succession, so that it was too horrible to endure.

Xu Ziling did not shoot a single arrow; he stared blankly at the dreadful sight, like the Asura’s hell – before his eyes.

The sound of the grain cart’s wheels grinding against the pontoon bridge resonated at the river crossing, far behind the front line, while there was silence on this side of the tree formation, the only sound was the heavy and nervous breathing.

Ba Fenghan listened carefully to the sound of the enemy hoof beats, he said, “Do you think the Tang Army might come back to throw away their life?”

Shaking his head, Kou Zhong said, “If that’s the case, then Zhangsun Wuji, three men don’t deserve to be Li Shimin’s trusted aides, beloved generals. This intercepting-grains battle, they must admit defeat. After all the grain carts finish crossing the river, we will retreat in batches and destroy the pontoon bridge. By nightfall tomorrow we could toast Li Shimin outside the city from Luoyang, while listening to Old Ba and Badai’er’s touching and romantic passionate tale of a hero and a beauty.”

The sound of flapping wings was coming from the air above the trees, the vicious vultures were already deployed. Wuming on Kou Zhong’s shoulder revealed an alert look, obviously she was aware of the dangerous situation in the sky.

The vicious vultures were Wuming’s nemesis; could it be that Li Shimin was Kou Zhong’s bane?