Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan Volume 3 Chapter 2 part1

New chapter.

Book 3 Chapter 2 - Crafty Plots and Intrigues

The two boys stealthily [orig. walk like a snake, crouch like a mouse], very carefully walked toward the battlefield. After crossing a sparse forest, they reached the southeast corner of the battlefield. But they were finally discovered by the enemy. From the bushes on the left side, six, seven Sui soldiers emerged with swords in their hands, shouting harshly at them, pouncing at them like mad tigers.

On the other side, soldiers were already in formation for battle. Within this tight formation, when a squad of about fifty cavalry heard the commotion, they also charged toward the two boys, brandishing their lances.

The boys did not fear the enemy as much as they used to; without a word they turned to meet the Sui soldiers on foot and swiftly moved their sabers to chop and hack.

Recalling the tragic situation in that town, where the buildings were burned to the ground and the people, as well as the animals were slaughtered by these soldiers, the two boys' heart was burning with murderous intention. The persons followed the sabers, their imposing manner was way above the enemy's. The sabers split the air, the Sui soldiers fell face up, their swords flew away, not a single one was lucky enough to escape.

In the meantime, the cavalry arrived. Unleashing their qinggong the two boys dodged into the bushes where the horses could not chase them. But as soon as the horses left, they rushed out to the plains, and sneaked behind a company of archers and saber and hatchet wielders, who had never anticipated that the enemy would sneak in silently from behind. As a result, even after the two boys slaughtered quite a number of them like people chopping melons or slicing vegetables, they still thought that a large number of enemy reinforcement has arrived; hence they were thrown into chaos.

Several torches fell onto the bushes and set the grass on fire, which rapidly spread everywhere. But the two boys did not know that this fire would later on save their lives.

Actually, the number of Sui forces in this area reached three thousand. Quite a few experts with outstanding martial art skill included among these. Under normal circumstances, once they entered into the heavy siege, even people with strong martial art of Du Fuwei's caliber would have no choice but to fight with all their might and perish; much less two boys whose battle experience was severely lacking.

"This way!” Kou Zhong shouted. Five Sui soldiers stepped out to meet them.

Xu Ziling started later but he arrived first. He pounced forward, shaking out his long saber, launching the ‘Life or Death, Exist or Perish' from the Bloody Battle Ten Styles. His saber moved like a giant wave rolling wildly onto the shore, his power overwhelming, one soldier immediately lost his life, another soldier was swept over and was thrown to the side. The other three cried out in fear and ran away.

The two boys have never tested their skill with such an impressive result. They whooped in delight, and continued their killing spree into the heart of the battle.

‘Dang!' Suddenly someone blocked in front of Kou Zhong. Armed with a pair of awls he forcibly held Kou Zhong back that he was unable to advance a single step.

When Xu Ziling tried to pounce, he was also pushed back by the opponent.

Up to this point of the battle, the two boys have never encountered such a strong opponent.

Countless Sui soldiers thronged behind this man to attack the two boys. The person who blocked the two boys was actually a high-ranking military officer of the Sui army. His countenance was ablaze with rage as he roared, "Tear these two boys apart into ten thousand pieces for me!”

In the meantime, on a high ground on a hill about half a li from the plains, close to two hundred warriors in green were standing in battle array, with strong bows and powerful arrows, tightly guarding right in the center of the formation a beautiful woman in white clothes, with her long hair draped over her shoulder.

Each time the beautiful woman gave out her order, the three men under her command in charge of signal light immediately waved the lanterns in three different colors strapped to the top of long poles, directing their warriors on the battlefield to advance, retreat, attack or defend.

Behind the beautiful woman stood four people in a row. Just by looking at their expression and manner, it was obvious that they were all martial art masters. The first one was a stout man with thick beard, the next one was an iron-tower like huge man, the third one was a man wearing scholarly attire, and the last one was a big middle0aged woman with an ugly face.

The longhaired beautiful woman said in soft voice, "That's strange! How come the southeast corner of the enemy formation seemed to be in confusion? Who could be helping us?”

The four people behind her focused their attention to look, but they did not see anything different.

With deep contemplation in her beautiful eyes, the longhaired beautiful woman said, "We can't see it on the surface; but I have an inkling from the way the opponent waves their command flag. If the confusion spread, we must exploit it well. Not only we might break through the heavy siege, we might have the chance the win the battle.”

The eyes of the man wearing scholar attire revealed an admiring look; he said respectfully, "Miss' knowledge surpasses heaven and men, your proficiency in the art of war even shines like a torch, you are indeed a capable person.”

The ugly woman said, "In my opinion, if there is indeed reinforcement arriving, we ought to break out of the siege before planning any counterattack. Miss' thousand-jin gold body must not be put in danger.”

As she spoke, the others immediately frowned because her screeching-owl like voice was grating their ears. But her remark gained support from the stout man with the thick beard. "When Duke Li sent us to protect Miss, he ordered us to place Miss' safety above everything else,” he said in agreement.

A flash of displeased expression appeared on the longhaired beautiful woman's unparalleled beautiful countenance; however, the tone of her voice was still as gentle and as tender as ever. She said nonchalantly, "As the commander-in-chief, how can I care only on myself in the face of death and let my troops suffer defeat like a landslide? If I cannot resist Qin Shubao's elite Sui troops and let him take over Fuchun, getting it back will be as hard as ascending to Heaven.”

She had just finished speaking, the southeast corner suddenly burst into flames. The longhaired beautiful woman immediately saw from the subtle change in the enemy ranks that the opponent indeed appeared to be in confusion.

It must be noted that the southeast corner was the opponent's command center from which the enemy direct the troops on the battlefield; a slight change there would affect everything else*, unlike if the sudden change happened elsewhere, it would be inconsequential. [*literal translation: ‘pull one hair and the whole body moves'. Funny, suddenly Disney-Pixar's Ratatouille came into my mind …]

Maintaining her elegant, carefree, charming demeanor, the longhaired beautiful woman issued the order to launch all-around counter-offensive on the southeast corner as their primary target. The four people behind her drew their weapons as they gathered around the longhaired beautiful woman as she mounted her war-horse.

The more than two hundred riders galloped down the hill to join their two divisions of a thousand warriors each on the battlefield, unfolding a full-scale battle with the enemy.

Right this moment Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, two people, were caught in hard fighting and were unable to either advance or retreat. Suddenly the Sui army pulled back in all direction, because a group of warriors in green charged in on horseback, scattering the Sui troops all around them.

The two boys were delighted to obtain a chance to escape the siege. By this time their spirit weary, their strength exhausted, they could not exert any strength to continue, hence they turned around and fled under cover of the raging fire burning the grassland. Holding their breath, they rounded to the left and circled to the right to get far away from the battlefield.

Finally they dropped down on a hilltop, with no strength left to run. Like ocean tide bursts of battle cry were still heard from the distance.

Kou Zhong sighed and said, "In the future we must not do such a foolish thing anymore. Even heroes are unable to withstand numerous enemies. Although we are not a hundred-percent hero, but the opponent have many men. You got it?”

"I wonder who that Sui general was,” Xu Ziling said, "He is very formidable. Fortunately we are fast, otherwise his awls would take away our lives.”

Kou Zhong let out a cold snort and said, "What kind of ‘thing' is he? We only need two more rounds of battle experience, I guarantee we will be able to beat him. Ow!”

Noticing that just as he was, Kou Zhong was covered in blood all over, Xu Ziling asked in concern, "Any injury on vital point?”

Kou Zhong sneered and said, "If there is any injury on my vital point, would I be able to run to here? What a contradictory question you are asking me. Ah right! I'd better look at your wounds first.”

"What's so good to look?” Xu Ziling replied, "After you look, then what? Fortunately we have miraculous skill of self healing; we'd better take a good sleep, tomorrow we'll talk again!”

Kou Zhong dejectedly lay on the ground. Very soon the two boys circulated their inner breathing, and entered the state of emptiness.

Xu Ziling felt he was asleep, but when he opened his eyes, Kou Zhong was still sleeping soundly like he was dead on the grassy land. When he stretched his four limbs, he felt that the seven, eight wounds on his body were burning with pain.

The sun had just risen in the sky, all around were birdsong and fragrant flowers, the mountain was eerily quiet. The war last night seemed to be a distant and unreal nightmare. If not for the acute pain all over his body, he would think that such bloody battle has never happened.

A flock of birds flew unhurriedly over the seemingly still blue sky. In this instant, Xu Ziling seemed to capture a great mystery of the nature that has existed since time immemorial, but he was unable to describe it in concrete words.

Xu Ziling felt his heart was calm, his mind was bright and clear. After going through last night's battle, where he was continuously on the brink of death, he felt that he had entered a brand new stage in life. All the dangers and suffering were merely course of events that he must go through and experience as part of his spiritual journey.

Kou Zhong nudged him with his elbow, with a low chuckle he said, "You are staring blankly at the empty space, what are you thinking about?”

Xu Ziling sat up. Frowning, he looked at his tattered clothes and torn trousers, which was covered in bloodstains and filled with black soot. He said with a wry smile, "I am thinking of a clean set of clothes and a big dish of meat and vegetables. Other things can wait for a bit.”

Kou Zhong struggled up; glancing to the left and right, he said in self-effacing way, "Xiaodi [little brother, referring to self] seems to lose my bearings. I can't tell whether Pengcheng is to our east or west; what do you think? Shall we pick a direction at random and leave it to fate?”

Xu Ziling said, "How could Zhong Shao suddenly lose his head? A big city like Pengcheng must be connected by official roads. If we go back to the major road last night, we can humbly ask whomever we come across, I am sure we will find the right way.”

Kou Zhong laughed and said, "Very true! Let's go!”

Chapter end