Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan Volume 6 Chapter 1 part2

When the two boys finally took a walk on the cabin deck, Kou Zhong blamed Xu Ziling, "How could you agree so readily? I was thinking of dragging this matter with that Xiang kid as long as possible, to teach him a lesson that he should not carelessly take any rash action.”

Xu Ziling sighed and said, "I only do that for Su Jie.”

Kou Zhong was still resentful about it, "Can't you see that that kid deliberately courting Su Jie only because he wants us to heal his injury?”

Xu Ziling reached out the bow of the ship, he grabbed the railing's horizontal pole and breathed deeply of the ice-cold air of the river breeze. He said in heavy voice, "If in the future Xiang Yushan dare to turn his back on Su Jie, I, Xu Ziling will be the first not to let him off.”

Seeing how resolute and decisive [orig. chop the nail and slice the iron] Xu Ziling was, Kou Zhong knew that there was no room for discussion in this matter. Changing the subject, he said, "How do you think we should deal with that dog thief Li Mi?”

Xu Ziling said, "Unless you have a magnificent army with thousands of men and horses, what can you do? Just Wang Bodang that lowly man we are already unable to deal with him, much less Li Mi?”

Kou Zhong laughed and said, "What you said is in deep agreement with my thinking; right now he is forcing us to our head, therefore, we must establish our own troops, must make a supreme effort to recruit soldiers and buy horses. Just like everything else, without money nothing can be done. I am thinking that before we get the ‘Duke Yang Treasure', we need to borrow money from the Xiang kid. After we get money, naturally doing things will be easier.”

Xu Ziling was shocked. "It is for Niang's sake that we are doing this; how could we want other people's money?”

Kou Zhong felt snubbed big time; with a wry smile he said, "Ay! How come nowadays every time I came up with any plan you always disagree?”

Xu Ziling reached out to wrap his arm around Kou Zhong's shoulder; he said, "If we want to earn money, we have to earn it using our pair of hands. Since temporarily we need to go into hiding, we might as well hide at the ‘training beach', take that batch of salt out, transport it to the northwest and gain great wealth. After we have the money, we can buy a large house to be our base of operations. At that time, you could shut the gate, declare yourself a king or proclaim yourself a hegemon or whatever you want.”

Kou Zhong's eyes lit up immediately; he excitedly said, "We'd better do it sooner rather than later. Taking advantage while the Ol' Die is cutting off the Song Clan's livelihood and the price of salt is skyrocketing, we will make a good fortune. Ha! This time we will succeed!”

Footsteps were heard from behind, Susu was coming. Squeezing herself between the two boys, she wrapped her arms around the boys' waists, and said in a low voice, "Are you angry at Jiejie?”

Kou Zhong was puzzled, "Angry at Jiejie for what?” he asked.

Susu hung her head low and said, "Angry at Jiejie for forcing you to treat Xiang Gongzi's illness. Ay! His character is not as bad as you think. He even told me about cricket fight he used to do when he was young. I did not know cricket has intelligence!”

Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong exchanged a glance; the former seized this opportunity to ask, "Does Jiejie like him?”

Susu was blushing so deep that even her ears were red; greatly displeased and annoyed, she said, "I only get along well with him! Jiejie has already said I won't marry!”

Suddenly Kou Zhong was severely shaken, "Disaster!” he exclaimed.

Xu Ziling and Susu followed his gaze and saw under the moonlight, on the river ahead, two big ships sailed speedily like torrential rush, from the tributary, blocking their way.

Alarm sounded on their ship, Xiang Yushan, Yun Yuzhen, Big Sister Xiao, and about a dozen Baling Bang martial art masters rushed out. When they got to the three people's side, they looked suspiciously to the two big ships, which were gradually getting closer.

Frowning, Xiang Yushan said, "They are Li Zitong's ships. If this time he is personally coming, we will be in big trouble.”

Kou Zhong sneered and said, "Isn't Xiang Gongzi getting on very well with people from both the black and white ways?”

"Xiao Zhong!” Susu scolded him, "At this moment you still say such thing?”

Xiang Yushan smiled wryly and said, "Whenever it involves the struggle over the world, there is no favor between sons and fathers, to say nothing of our Baling Bang has had no dealings with Li Zitong before.”

Xu Ziling said, "We have also heard about this man, but we don't know enough details.”

Yun Yuzhen said, "Li Zitong is a hegemon of the Eastern Sea, a vicious and merciless man. At first he was the leader of the uprising at Changbai Mountain; after crossing the Huai River, he supported Du Fuwei as the leader. Later on for some unknown reason he had a fall out with Du Fuwei; leading his own troops he occupied Haling and called himself the Commander-in-Chief, his fame and power is extremely flourishing.”

Big Sister Xiao added, "His ‘bamboo joint copper whip' is shaped like a long stick, it ranks among the ‘amazing skill incredible art', it can be flexible it can be stiff, its specialty is to break the inner power and true qi of the opponent; very formidable.”

And then she continued softly, "Two Gongzi and Miss Susu better avoid it in the cabin, let us deal with them.”

Kou Zhong swept his gaze around; seeing all of the Baling Bang masters on the ship were waiting in tight formation, his heroic spirit was aroused at once. "So much avoidance already,” he said, "Can I borrow a saber or something? Xiao Ling will be in charge of protecting Su Jie.”

One of Xiang Yushan's subordinate respectfully asked, "What kind of weapon does Xu Ye want?”

Xu Ziling shook his head, "I don't need weapon,” he said.

The man was startled, and then he simply left.

Yun Yuzhen asked in astonishment, "Xiao Ling don't use weapon?”

Xu Ziling did not have the least bit of good opinion on her, he coldly said, "My hands are my weapon.”

Meanwhile the incoming ships were only about ten zhang away from them. The opposite party flashed them a signal, requesting them to lower the sail and stop the ship.

They saw the two ships' deck, as well as the viewing platform, were densely packed with people; it was indeed an impressive show of force that intimidated the people's heart.

Their ship was actually half size bigger than the opposite party's, but it was design mostly to ferry goods. In battle, not only it would not win against the nimble enemy's warships, it would also become a prominent target for fiery arrows and sling stones attack, because the bigger the ship, the more difficult it was to protect.

The situation right now was that although the opponent was strong, but to easily give in and surrender would also seem to be unwise.

Xiang Yushan muttered, "I did not expect Li Zitong's influence would reach to this place.” And then, waving his hand, he gave his order, "Prepare to break a siege!”

Baling Bang people acknowledged the order loudly.

Suddenly a cold snort, which actually rose above the hundred or so people's voice shouting their acknowledgement, was heard from the enemy's ship, followed by a one hundred percent bold male voice, "Excuse me, may I ask if the Er Dangjia Xiao Xian Xiong [second master, see Book 4 Chapter 9] is on board, presiding over the current situation?”

Big Sister Xiao laughed tenderly and responded, "Turns out it is indeed Li Longtou [lit. dragon head, i.e. big boss] himself who is coming to visit; Xiao Huan pays her respect!”

When everybody heard that it was indeed Li Zitong himself, they all groaned in their hearts.

Li Zitong laughed aloud and said, "Turns out it is the ‘Coquettish Lady' Xiao Dajie. Looking at your esteemed brother's face, this time the Ol' Li will act according to Jianghu rules; everybody please stay where you are.”

Xiang Yushan knew that he was going to come; hastily he ordered his men not to act.

Before he even finished speaking, a man in white already soared from the deck of the enemy ship, across about a dozen zhang of empty space between the ships, and landed steadily on the bow of their ship.

Composing themselves, they saw that this Li Zitong was about thirty-five or thirty-six years old, his appearance was rather handsome and majestic. However, the hair on his temples was frosty white. His white clothes fluttered under the caressing of the river breeze, giving a bit of impression that he was a confident and at ease, someone who was above the dust of the earth. The only defect would be his eyes, which were thin and long, so that it felt out of proportion, something that did not match the perfect outline of his face.

They did not expect Li Zitong to be this refined and graceful, so every felt a bit surprised.

Li Zitong stood with hands behind his back, his bright and glistening eyes slowly swept across everybody's face. Finally he stopped at Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong's faces. Acting as though there were nobody else present, he said, "I want the two of you to follow the Ol' Li obediently! I guarantee glory, splendor, wealth and rank, as well as endless benefit for you.”

Meanwhile the enemy's two ships turned around nimbly. One in front the other at the rear, they sandwiched the big ship in the middle.

Yun Yuzhen saluted and said, "Jukun Bang's Yun Yuzhen pays her respect to General Li; I was wondering …”

Li Zitong cut her off offhandedly, "Turns out it is Yun Bangzhu. Unexpectedly you look this beautiful; no wonder there are so many heroes of Jianghu are infatuated with you.”

On the surface he was putting it nicely, but it was actually a very mean remark; he was implying that Yun Yuzhen was a very loose woman. Other than being extremely rude, he was also making it very clear that he did not have any regards toward Jukun Bang. Of course everybody's countenance changed.

Yun Yuzhen's pretty face turned cold; she was about to flare out when Xiang Yushan took a step forward in front of her and said, "Wanbei [younger generation] Xiang yushan, my humble father is Xiang Gui. May I ask what kind of task General Li has for these two brothers of mine?”

Li Zitong cast a disdained glance toward Xiang Yushan; with a mocking tone he said, "I don't care if your father is here; would the Ol' Li take any instruction from him?”

Kou Zhong signaled Xu Ziling with his eyes; he shouted, "I don't care if you are Li Zitong of Li Butong [butong means ‘don't understand/does not make sense'], if you want us to obey your orders, you will have to show us a bit of your real skill; would we, two brothers, be afraid of anybody?”

Seeing Kou Zhong playing a joke on his name, surprisingly Li Zitong did not feel it to be disrespectful at all; he laughed aloud and said, "Young upstart hero, no wonder Old Du also viewed you in a new light. Let us make a bet, as long as within a hundred moves I can beat the two of you together, both of you must obediently follow me, and listen to everything Ol' Li orders you to do.”

Kou Zhong took the steel saber that was handed over to him; he strode out and said with a cold laugh, "What if you cannot force us? I definitely don't want to follow you by your side like a dog!”

Li Zitong finally could not take it anymore, his eyes flashed a murderous look, he swiftly moved forward.

Kou Zhong stayed calm without showing any fear, his saber also moved swiftly to hack.

Stay tune for the big fight tomorrow. Bonus post in observance of Fourth of July ...

Chapter end