Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan Volume 5 Chapter 9 part1

Drak, sorry for the delay, long day ... HPC, Ysabel, Jaya, Anh, Komeng, you are welcome. George, you may be right. For me, I only think that Huang Yi put Susu here just so that the two boys have some burden with them. You know, like in movies, usually the bad guys will have someone from the good guys' side as a hostage. Laoren, I understand. Many times I had to search for names that already appeared in previous chapters, or even previous books. Bocah, looks like trouble's brewing ... Xu Xiong, hopefully you are right. I found that older characters keep reappearing, so I won't be surprised. Sky, I agree, I had a hard time continuing the Xingyang City saga. Too long ... Anyway, here's a new chapter.

Book 5 Chapter 9 - Shaking Hands in Agreement

By nightfall, heavy snow started to fall again. After hastening on their journey, Kou Zhong and the others, six people, managed to cover more than forty li that day. Afraid that Susu would not be able to withstand the cold, plus coincidentally they came across an abandoned manor due to the chaos of war, they all decided to stop for the night, occupying one broken-down room, burning firewood, and sitting in circle to warm themselves.

Liu Heita took out his provision and fresh water, and politely offered it first to Susu, who was sitting between Kou and Xu, two boys. His demeanor looked like someone who was infatuated or intoxicated by beautiful face, but Susu did not seem to think anything.

Recalling about the sound of hoof beats against the snowy ground the other night, Kou Zhong asked, "Did Liu Xiong follow our trail last night?”

"You could say that,” Liu Heita replied, "Li Mi's underlings would do anything, by hook or by crook, to get what they want, no one is willing to abide by Jianghu rules. Therefore, we have already guessed that they would not give up on the three of you.”

Xu Ziling was staring at the dancing sparks of the firewood; hearing him, he asked, "Then who were those riders? It seems to me they are not from the Wagang Army!”

"We are not sure either,” Cui Dong replied, "Two gentlemen's legs were very, very fast, even with Miss Susu on your back, you still covered quite a lot of distance.”

Kou Zhong laughed, "Fleeing for our lives, naturally we were running a bit faster than usual.”

Zhuge Dewei said, "Tomorrow we will reach Yangwu, where are the three of you heading?”

Susu said softly, "We will go back to Yangzhou first, and then make other plans.”

Liu Heita knitted his brows, "Yang Guang and Yuwen Huaji are in Jiangdu; if you reveal your track, I am afraid disaster will immediately come.”

"We will be careful,” Xu Ziling replied nonchalantly.

Looking at his determined expression, Liu Heita had no choice but to shut his mouth.

Kou Zhong changed the subject, "Your precious army occupies Leshou, which is in the north. I wonder if there is any new development lately?”

Zhuge Dewei replied, "The three most sensational news recently are the revival of the Tuyuhun [nomadic people of Xianbei], the Li Clan occupying Taiyuan in rebellion to the Sui, and Li Mi sent Zu Junyan to promulgate the ten major charges against Yang Guang to the world.”

Kou Zhong happily said, "Finally Li Yuan is willing to revolt!” His face showed a very proud look.

"Li Yuan can't be considered anything,” Cui Dong said in disdain, "Unexpectedly he has the audacity to submit himself to the rule of Shibi Khan of the Tujue people, promising him to send the boys and girls, jade and silk, obtained from his conquest to Tujue people, so that he gained the ridicule of other people.”

Hearing this, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling looked at each other, completely speechless.

Zhuge Dewei said, "According to the latest intelligence we acquired, Li Yuan proclaimed himself as the Great General, appointed Pei Ji as the Chief Historian, Liu Wenjing as the Minister of War, his oldest son Jiancheng, his second son Shimin, and the Commander-in-chief and the Second-in-command of their three armies, ready to advance to Guanzhong.”

Giving a cold shoulder, Liu Heita said, "Li Clan is simply counting their chicken before they are hatched, they do not know what's in Liu Wuzhou's mind. As soon as Taiyuan is empty, it would be strange indeed if Liu Wuzhou did not seize that opportunity to attack Taiyuan. Moreover, along the route to Guanzhong, there are fierce generals of the Sui, Song Laosheng and Qu Tutong, along with their respective large army, separately guarding the pass. Li Clan's prospect, nobody dares to be optimistic.”

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were greatly embarrassed; turned out the real situation out there was this discouraging.

Susu did not understand; she asked, "Don't the Li Clan know that submitting themselves to the Tujue is akin to leading the wolf into the sheep pen?”

Liu Heita smiled and said, "They are wolves themselves, so what's the problem with other wolves? Li Yuan's wife is a Xianbei woman; although they are not like Yuwen Clan who are barbarians per se, but they are hardly any better. Furthermore, the Li Clan are deeply influenced by barbarian customs, hence they are no different from the barbarians.”

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling recalled during the welcoming dinner that day Li Xiuning was wearing barbarian clothes; they had nothing to say even more.

It was half a day later that Kou Zhong finally asked about the Tuyuhun revival.

Liu Heita replied, "Tuyuhun are archenemies of the Tiele, its king, Fu Yun's ambition has always been very big, from time to time he sends martial art experts to the Central Plains to gather information. One time Yang Guang sent Wang Yangxiong and Yuwen Shu, two generals to assassinate Fu Yun; they killed thousand of people, captured countless prisoners, but relying on his superior martial art skill, he led his brutal troops to kill their way out of the siege, and ran away to Dangxiang. These last couple of years, taking advantage while the Central Plains is in chaos, to send his entire army to recover lost territory, and to conspire on a large scale, becoming our Central Earth's major disaster outside of Tujue and Tiele, two ethnic groups.”

Zhuge Dewei joined the discussion, "The most disconcerting thing is that Fu Jun's son, Fu Qian is a talent of this age; not only his martial art skill has reached perfection, his strategy skill is outstanding, and his ambition is not inferior to his father's.”

Cui Dong laughed and said, ""They say that when he was born, he already had horned-dragon whiskers, hence since he was young he grew horned-dragon beard. Such a preposterous matter, only barbarian dogs can think of it.”

‘Chi!' Susu giggled tenderly. "A baby with horned-dragon whiskers, his appearance must be ridiculously weird,” she muttered.

Looking at her cute and tender expression, and listening to her naiveté, Liu Heita could not help staring blankly at her.

Zhuge Dewei was wired up from the conversation; he laughed and said, "Do you want to listen to the ten charges Li Mi brought to Yang Guang?”

Kou Zhong was delighted, "Please, tell us quickly!” he said.

As if he was enumerating his family valuables, Zhuge Dewei listed in one breath, "One: patricide. Two: incest. Three: excessive drinking. Four: building palaces and pagodas, extravagant and wasteful. Five: exorbitant taxation, crushing common people. Six: cruising the world [tian xia], building great walls. Seven: sending punitive expedition to Korea, engaging in wars of aggression at will. Eight: refusing sound advice, killing the frank scholars. Nine: rampant bribery; persons of noble character are out of power, lowly people rise to important positions. Ten: going back on his own words. Ha!”

Xu Ziling shook his head and sighed, "No matter how we count it, we can't enumerate all criminal charges against this fatuous ruler. Speaking about the deep disaster our country is in, this fellow can be considered unprecedented and never will be duplicated.”

Kou Zhong said, "He promoted his own family behind closed doors, sooner or later the imperial court will be dominated by him. The most terrifying thing is attracting foreign invasion, making our country's territory all split up and in pieces, and the people are in a terrible situation. Yang Guang is the greatest sinner.”

Liu Heita slapped his thigh and said, "Well spoken. In today's world, with the exception of Duke Jiande, who does not collude with foreign power and helping out each other? Since the two gentlemen already have ambition to be of help of the world, other than joining our army, is there any other alternative?”

Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, "Liu Xiong seems to think too highly of us, two brothers!”

Zhuge Dewei said with a laugh, "Jianghu has never been bustling with excitement like it was recently, probably the heaven's good fortune has arrived, because outstanding heroes of the younger generation are rising. Other than Heita, the ones in the limelight most recently, from the men: Yang Xuyan, Ba Fenghan, the two Xiongdi, and one who called himself ‘Passionate Prince[1]', Hou Xibai. But speaking about sensation, no one surpasses you, two gentlemen.”

Susu happily said, "Turns out my two Didi have become celebrities!”

Kou Zhong smiled wryly and said, "Our most formidable ability is to escape; I couldn't believe it has made us this famous.”

Liu Heita burst out laughing and said, "Kou Xiong is too modest, not a genuine article and without good material, how could you have any qualification to escape? Furthermore, not only you were able to snatch the account book from Yuwen Chengdu's hands, you also beat Yuwen Wudi, who considers himself unexcelled in the world, whose arrogance soared into the sky, that he escaped with his tail between his legs; how could we say that you have false reputation?”

Xu Ziling asked, "Just now Mr. Zhuge mentioned that these people are from among the men! What about the women?”

Liu Heita was about to speak, Kou Zhong's countenance changed as he hissed, "Someone's coming!”

Everybody scrambled to extinguish the fire. Cui Dong, who has just darted out to scout, flitted back inside the room, and spoke in heavy voice, "Too late! The enemy has already surrounded us heavily.”

"How many?” Zhuge Dewei asked, "Who are they?”

"Ought to be more than a dozen,” Cui Dong replied in low voice, "It's hard to see in the dark.”

This moment, a nondescript, soft, androgynous voice came from the outside, "I am Tuoba Yu, under the order of my master [here, the word is ‘shi', as in master-disciple relationship], Bi Xuan, to come with a specific purpose in mind to greet Kou Gongzi, Xu Gongzi, two gentlemen, and to inquire about your well-being.”

Everybody's countenance changed; they did not expect that the visitor were Tujue martial art masters, even more surprising, Bi Xuan's disciple was the one on charge.

Liu Heita spoke in low voice, "He does not seem to know that we are mingling in here. Who has heard about this man?”

Both Zhuge Dewei and Cui Dong drew a blank and shook their heads.

To stall for time, so that Xu Ziling could tie Susu behind his back, Kou Zhong responded loudly, "We, two brothers are still as lively dragon and animated tiger, Tuo Xiong, no! It should be Tuoba Xiong, thank you very much for your concerns. This late at night, you still have us surrounded like this, afraid that we might escape. What is exactly your purpose?”

Seeing Kou Zhong had no weapon, Cui Dong took out his pair of weapons [orig. iron, but it could mean hard object or weapon in general] and stuffed one into Kou Zhong's hand.

Liu Heita himself was using a single cane as his weapon, but inside his overcoat, he hid a long dagger, almost a chi and a half in length, which he handed to Xu Ziling.

[1] ‘Prince' is machine translator's result, orig. ‘gongzi' (young master), but I thought ‘prince' will go well with ‘passionate'.

Chapter end