Legend of Great Tang’s Twin Dragons

Translator: Foxs' Wuxia

Zuo Xiaoyou led his men back to Zhongli. Although Li Zitong did not raise any suspicion, but because the navy was nearly wiped out, the damage and the loss were so grave, he put the blame on Zuo Xiaoyou, and demoted him from Da Jiangjun [great general] to a mere Jiangjun, which made Zuo Xiaoyou’s belly filled with grievances for the unjust treatment, and made his heart leaning toward Kou Zhong even more.

Ten days later, Kou Zhong divided his army into two ways, separately deploying the troops from Donghai and Liangdu.

The main force from Donghai was ten-thousand-man strong, riding on forty warships via the sea sailing directly toward Jiangdu, under the leadership of Xuan Yong, Chen Changlin, Gao Zhandao, Niu Fengyi, Zha Jie, and so on.

The other army was further split into two units, from the canal they set off via both the water and land routes to go down south. The military strength was eight thousand men, including the flywheel boats, which had made Li Zitong scared out of his wits.

Hearing the news, Li Zitong was aghast and was greatly shaken, he led this twenty-thousand-man army hurriedly left Zhongli to return to defend Jiangdu. Zhongli was still defended by Zuo Xiaoyou, while Gaoyou was presided over by another great general Qin Chaowen. The remaining sixty navy ships were all concentrated in Jiangdu to deal with Shao Shuai Navy coming from Donghai.

Actually, by this time the military strength in Zhongli and Gaoyou still must not be underestimated, each had about ten thousand men, corresponding well with each other, they had enough power to hold back and block Kou Zhong from going down south and launching pincer attack toward Jiangdu. In term of strategy, Li Zitong did not make a mistake. As long as he could break down Shao Shuai Navy’s expeditionary forces coming from Donghai, he could turn his army to go up north to meet Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s main forces head-on.

Who could have thought that Zuo Xiaoyou opened his city to welcome Kou Zhong? It scared Gaoyou’s Qin Chaowen that he closed the city gates and did not dare to go out to fight, which gave free passage to the twenty-four flywheel boats under Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling, Bu Tianzhi and Chen Laomou’s leadership to sail straight down, entering the Huai River and passing through the canal heading for Jiangdu, so that together with the Shaoshuai Navy coming from Donghai, they formed a converging attack to the Jiangdu navy. They inflicted heavy defeat to Li Zitong at the mouth of the Yangtze River, thoroughly destroying his barely remaining navy.

The military strength of the [State of] Wu Army defending Jiangdu and the city across the river, Yanling, was still more than forty thousand men, which was still above Kou Zhong’s. Kou Zhong was not greedy for meritorious service at all. After rejoining Xuan Yong’s main force, they hastened north along the canal toward Gaoyou, passing through Jiangdu but did not attack. Qin Chaowen knew the great momentum has gone, but also because he admired how Kou Zhong conducting himself, even more, he was afraid of his might and his skill in the art of war, he offered the city and surrendered.

Up until now, Zhongli and Gaoyou, these two Wu Army’s military strategic cities north of Jiangdu, along with more than a dozen county towns in the vicinity, have all fallen into Kou Zhong’s hands. Shao Shuai Army’s military strength grew to fifty-thousand men, their prestige was even more flourishing.

Kou Zhong accepted Xu Xingzhi’s proposal. He had Qin Chaowen and half the military power under his command, along with their families, moved to various cities in Donghai County, and appointed Xuan Yong with five thousand Shao Shuai troops to defend Gaoyou, equipped with Bu Tianzhi’s flywheel boats, putting the canal and the Huai River, two main watercourses, under his control.

The two vacancies among the Shao Shuai Army’s Eight Subduing [or garrison] Great Generals were filled by Yang Gongqing and Zuo Xiaoyou. And then he added Qin Chaowen and Luo Qifei, two garrisons [see above, same word], so that altogether, there were Ten Great Subduing Generals. The rank was as follow: Yang Gongqing was at the top of the list, followed by Xuan Yong, Bu Tianzhi, Gao Zhandao, Chen Changlin, Bai Wenyuan, Jiao Hongjin, Zuo Xiaoyou, Qin Chaowen, and lastly Luo Qifei.

As for Niu Fengyi and Zha Jie, due to their outstanding performance, the former was promoted to be the Supervisor of the Ministry of War’s Six Departments Superintendent, while Zha Jie was appointed as the Supervisor of the Ministry of Justice, sharing the burden of Xu Xingzhi, who was originally holding several positions at once.

Xu Xingzhi, in addition to be in charge of the Ministry of Appointments and the Ministry of Justice, two departments, was also being promoted to be the Chief of Military Counselors of the Shao Shuai Army, with the authority to lead the troops in military campaign.

Because he had shown outstanding talent in military matters during the Battle of the Gorge, everybody submitted cheerfully to this appointment.

Ren Meimei and Chen Laomou were still in charge of the Internal Affairs and Work, two ministries.

The Shao Shuai Army’s organization was growing tighter and tighter. The lower-ranked officers and soldiers also enjoyed promotion, which greatly aroused their morale, which was already high-spirited.

Kou Zhong also adopted Xu Xingzhi’s proposal to bestow rewards based on merit, because they had enough fund in the treasury, everybody, from top to bottom, was rewarded.

After arranging everything, Kou Zhong led the troops back to Liangdu. The news of Hulao’s fall came at this time, because the lacking-in-confidence and cowardly Wang Xuanying retreated without a fight, so that Hulao was offered with both hands to Li Shiji, while he himself fled back to Luoyang.

Kou Zhong knew the affairs of his own household, once Luoyang fell, Li Shimin’s main forces would move to the east. Facing Li Shimin’s strategy, with fierce generals as numerous as the clouds and the elite Tang Army soldiers divided into several prongs of attack, the allotted share of the Shao Shuai Army, which on the surface its fame and power was greatly flourishing – would only be taking a beating, they definitely would not last until the warm spring and blooming flowers of the following year.

The only redeeming way was to be one step ahead in capturing Jiangdu, so that if necessary, they could retreat to the south. As long as they could steadily defend Zhongli and Gaoyou, two garrisons, they could defend Jiangdu without any worry.

Therefore, as on one side he ordered Xuan Yong and Zuo Xiaoyou to reinforce Gaoyou and Zhongli city defense, by building fortress on strategically situated and easy to defend places along the river course, as well as putting in human resources to build navy vessels, to increase the number of flywheel boats, and to improve the combat effectiveness of the navy, on the other side, with secret gongs and tightened drums he prepared large scale march toward Jiangdu.

The military prestige now was different from the former days. Gui Xiliang and Xing Rong finally persuaded the other leaders of the Zhu Hua Bang to give their full support to the Shao Shuai Army, which made Luo Qifei’s intelligence network grew to reach the eastern section of the Yangtze River and various regions of Jiangnan.

One particular day Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling, along with Xu Xingzhi, Luo Qifei, Gao Zhandao, Chen Laomou, Ren Meimei, Bai Wenyuan, and Jiao Hongjin, inside the Shao Shuai Mansion’s conference room, were discussing the operation to attack Jiangdu.

Even after talking about it over and over, no one could offer any solution with complete confidence.

Luo Qifei said, “Li Zitong’s Wu Army’s navy, the name remains, but the reality is gone. Currently only about a dozen left, which appeared to be merchant ships which belonged to civilians who were pressed into service and refitted to be military vessels at the last moment. With our flywheel boats, we could easily blockade the Great River, and make Jiangdu, Yanling, two cities difficult to correspond with each other. If we attack Yanling and blockade the waterway, Jiangdu will be isolated and without help, and could only let themselves being slaughtered.”

Yang Gongqing sighed and said, “If there was no Li Shimin, this fears of trouble in the rear, sooner or later Jiangdu would surrender to us; however, since Li Zitong knew that one day Li Shimin’s main forces will go down south to attack our Shao Shuai Army, he will hold fast to Jiangdu and not come out, relying on Jiangdu’s strong city and thick walls, as well as adequate provisions. Holding out for a year or a half should not be any problem. Furthermore, because the officers and soldiers inside the city has Li Shimin, this hope, the soldiers and generals are of one mind, it won’t be easy to sway them.”

Gao Zhandao agreed, he said, “If Li Zitong gives up Yanling and concentrates all military power and army provisions in Jiangdu, our situation will be even more unbearable. Naturally we cannot have the whole nest coming out to attack Jiangdu, but even if we exhaust our entire army, our military strength is no more than fifty-thousand men, not enough to subdue the forty-thousand Wu Army troops in the City of Jiangdu.”

Kou Zhong recalled the battle to attack and defend Liyang. At that time, Dou Jiande’s preparation was adequate, his strategy brilliant, his military strength was several times above the army defending the city, yet he still suffered grave damage. For him, pulling thirty-thousand men to attack Jiangdu would already entail strenuous effort, and compared to Liyang, Jiangdu was a hundred times stronger, plus the defenders inside the city would be ten-thousand men more than the besieging army; undoubtedly it would be like striking a stone with an egg, they were only asking for trouble.

The biggest problem was that Shao Shuai Army was still unable to bear the loss of a large number of soldiers; otherwise, they would not have any strength left to withstand Li Shimin. Deploying the troops against Jiangdu, they must have a 100% confidence, any loss could not be tolerated.

This moment, a Flying Cloud personal guard came to report, Wang Xuanshu of Luoyang was asking for an audience. Kou Zhong was greatly astonished. Accompanied by Yang Gongqing and Xu Ziling, they went to the outer hall to see Wang Xuanshu, Wang Shichong’s second son.

Wang Xuanshu was full of windblown dust, his face carried a beaten expression, unlike in the former days where he had rich, spirited, handsome and bright appearance. Seeing Kou Zhong, the two boys, he was like seeing his close relatives; hot tears gushing out of his pair of eyes, unexpectedly he went down on his knees in front of Kou Zhong and cried mournfully, “Shaoshuai, please save my Die!”

Kou Zhong quickly grabbed him and helped him up; he had him settled down and seated properly first, until he calmed down, before asking for details.

Wang Xuanshu said, “Hulao is lost, Wang Xiong [brother king; his family name happened to be ‘Wang’ (king), but I don’t think he called his own brother ‘Brother Wang’] retreated back to Luoyang, Li Shimin moved his troops east to Qing Cheng Palace in the Eastern Capital’s Jin Yuan [forbidden park], cutting off the waterway at the confluence of the Gu River and Luo River, while also pressing on towards Luoyang. Fuhuang knew the situation is desperate, he took chances to come out and attack, using twenty thousand troops to fight the Tang Army at the Gu River. Li Shimin sent the great general under his command Qu Tutong to lead five thousand troops to cross the river and attack. While the enemy and us, two sides were refusing to concede, Li Shimin led his main forces to help. Moreover, Li Shimin personally led the many Tian Ce Fu fierce generals, as well as several dozens personal guards, elite cavalry to crisscross and charge the battlefield, straight to the rear of our troop disposition, sweeping everything before them, our deaths and injured were very heavy. The enemy and us, two armies collided and separated, separated and met again, repeatedly exchanging blades. After three sichen of battle, our troops finally could not match them and retreated, Li Shimin seized the opportunity to send his troops to chase and kill, all the way to the wall of the capital city, they captured and beheaded our troops more than seven thousand men, and besieged our capital city. Now Li Shimin is besieging us on all sides, and attacking our capital city day and night, non-stop.”

Just by looking at Wang Xuanshu’s appearance and expression, they could imagine the desperate hand-to-hand battle until the sun and the moon lost their light at that time, with dead bodies strewn all other the field, blood flowed to become a river.

Wang Xuanshu spoke in distress, “Fuhuang regrets endlessly that he did not listen to Shaoshuai’s loyal words. He often said that if he did not withdraw the troops from Cijian, and perhaps was willing to let Yang Da Jiangjun and Shaoshuai to defend Hulao to the death, the situation would not develop rapidly after abrupt turn [idiom: dramatic change] like right now. As long as we could hold out until the severe winter, the Tang Army’s grain and grass will not last, surely Luoyang’s siege will be relieved.”

Hearing that, Kou Zhong and Yang Gongqing you look at me I gaze at you, while Xu Ziling remained silent without saying anything.

Yang Gongqing asked, “This time Xuanshu Gongzi came to see us, was it Gongzi’s idea, or was it your Fuhuang’s idea?”

Looking ashamed, Wang Xuanshu replied, “It was Fuhuang’s idea, but all of us are very much in favor, hoping that Shaoshuai would not remember old hatred and help us to defend Luoyang.”

“How’s the food situation in the city?” Kou Zhong asked.

Wang Xuanshu replied, “Due to all external routes for providing foodstuff are cutoff, food and daily necessities are in short supply. Clothing and jewelries, treasure and antiques, gold and silver, money and valuables become as worthless as grass and mustard, a bolt of silk fabric can only be exchanged with three sheng of grain. A thousand bolts of cloth just worth one sheng of salt. The amount of grain in the storehouse is barely enough to support one month, even with us living frugally. The situation in extremely critical.” [Sheng is a unit of volume for dry grain, equal to 1/10 of a dou, equivalent to about 1 liter (a little over one quart) in modern measurement.]

The three men understood suddenly. Turned out Luoyang has reached this kind of the-water-exhausted-the-mountain-used-up degree, no wonder Wang Shichong disregarded his face and sent Wang Xuanshu to Kou Zhong to ask for help.

Wang Xuanshu spoke in distressed, “Common folks are now eating grass roots and tree leaves. So much so that some people used mud oars [not sure] and rice crumbs to make round flat cake to satisfy their hunger. After eating, they fell sick, their bodies bloated and their feet swollen. Every day we have to send people to the streets to clean up dead bodies and cremate them, to prevent the break out of pestilence.”

After a short pause, he went on, “If Shaoshuai and Yang Da Jiangjun are willing to return to Loyang to help us, Fuhuang promised to hand over the command authority, so that Shaoshuai will have command over the entire army.”

Kou Zhong secretly mused that this was probably Wang Shichong’s biggest concession. He nodded and said, “I need a little time to consider, Xuanshu, you go to the guesthouse to rest first, tomorrow morning I will give you a positive answer.”

After Wang Xuanshu, with his personal guard showing the way – left, Kou Zhong exhaled slowly and said, “Gentlemen, what do you think?”

Smiling wryly, Xu Ziling said, “You practically don’t have any choice. Wang Shichong can, at most, last until the first third of the ninth month, while it is absolutely impossible for us to attack and seize Jiangdu in such a short period of time.”

Yang Gongqing said, “There is another way, which is to try to deliver a batch of food and daily necessities to Luoyang for Wang Shichong, so that the Zheng Army could hold out for a period of time.”

Shaking his head, Kou Zhong said, “Other than food shortage, Luoyang’s biggest problem is the fatal weak point of the warriors’ will to fight has sunk very low. If we want Luoyang to live through the winter, the only way is to defend the city for them. On the other hand, we will ask Dou Jiande to relinquish former hatred and send his army to come to help. As long as Dou Army can cross the river to recover Hulao, the headache will belong to Li Shimin and not to us.”

Yang Gongqing agreed, “This may be the only chance to defeat Li Shimin,” he said.

It should be noted that Li Shimin was the unequalled commander-in-chief who was able to move unhindered across the world. The Tang Army was the best-trained, with the most well-developed, veterans of a hundred battles, powerful army. If not under a very special situation, anybody in frontal confrontation against them would not have any confidence speaking about victory. However, presently Li Shimin was attacking Luoyang with all his strength, not only the damage was very heavy, he did not have time to deal with separate task. If Kou Zhong could steadily defend Luoyang, plus Dou Jiande’s main army cross the river to the east, Li Shimin would face the enemy in front and behind him. If he did not withdraw his troops, it was extremely possible that he would lose this battle; hence Yang Gongqing’s view.

Kou Zhong nodded and said, “This time Wang Shichong sent Wang Xuanshu here to ask me to come to Luoyang’s aid, on the surface it seems like I am their savior, but the fact is that Luoyang is also my only savior. So, we decide we’ll do it this way then.”

“This matter must be discussed in details,” Xu Ziling said, “You must not act blindly without thinking, if Li Shimin got the wind, he would send his army to intercept our troops transporting the provision, then we would have to pack our food and leave before we finished eating.”

Full of confidence, Yang Gongqing said, “The roads to Luoyang, Laofu is most familiar with; as long as we lie low during the day and travel at night, we could get close to Luoyang, the gods do not know, the ghosts do not perceive. If our military strength is adequate, breaking through the Tang Army’s siege should not be a problem. Luoyang is not like our Liangdu at all, to have it surrounded until not one drop can trickle through, even if the Guanzhong Army’s whole nest came out, I am afraid it is still impossible to achieve.”

Muttering to himself irresolutely, Kou Zhong said, “Ling Shao’s advice to move the troops cautiously is extremely useful. We will employ his Niang’s threaten the east and strike to the west tactics; we pretend to launch large-scale operation to attack Jiangdu, while the actual target is the city across the river, Yanling. With Ling Shao in command of the whole army, I will go with Yang Gong, Ma Chang, and Yang Gong’s five thousand men to sneak provisions into Luoyang, and then we will stay to steadily defend Luoyang for Wang Shichong. After that, we’ll make an attempt to persuade Dou Jiande to come to help. Ha! Ling Shao only need to bluff, perhaps Li Zitong would present Yanling to us with both hands. One day our Shao Shuai Army is stationed in Yanling, one day Li Zitong would not dare to leave the city even for half a step.”

Xu Ziling smiled ruefully but remained silent. Kou Zhong did not ask him to come to Luoyang, the real reason was not to ask him to lead the Shao Shuai Army in feign attack toward Jiangdu, rather, it was because Kou Zhong knew that he was unwilling to have frontal confrontation against Li Shimin.

Yang Gongqing excitedly said, “This is a good turning point for our Shao Shuai Army in contending for hegemony over the world. I will immediately go to prepare everything.” Finished speaking, he left.

When it was only the two boys, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling – left, they were both overcome with emotional stirring that quite half a day passed with thousands of words to say, but neither one knew where to start.

Kou Zhong finally broke his silence; he said, “Brother! We are going to be apart again!”

Xu Ziling was deeply moved. These simple words of Kou Zhong really contained profound meaning.

Under such an enormous military offensive from Li Shimin, whether Kou Zhong would be able to defend Luoyang steadily was still unknown, therefore, this sentence could mean life or death farewell.

Secondly, whether Dou Jiande would be willing to come to help, or whether he could spare time for a separate task – was still impossible to predict. If Luoyang was captured, even if Kou Zhong was able to break the siege and successfully escape, Li Shimin would not be willing to let go of this opportunity to kill Kou Zhong. At that time, Kou Zhong would never want to abandon the officers and soldiers under his command to flee alone, there would be great possibility that Li Shimin could catch up with him and kill him.

Finally, Kou Zhong and Li Shimin were old enemies foreordained by Heaven, eventually they would reach the moment where they would stake everything in life and death battle, there was no room to maneuver in the middle.

Kou Zhong spoke heavily, “If I am unfortunate enough to die in Luoyang, I am asking Ling Shao to disband the Shao Shuai Army for me, because surrendering to Li Shimin, I am afraid there won’t be any good outcome in the end.”

Xu Ziling sighed and said, “The situation can’t be that bad, right? Yang Gong also said that this is perhaps the only chance where you have the hope of defeating Li Shimin.”

Shaking his head, Kou Zhong said, “I don’t know. Li kid is the only person in the world that can make me lose confidence; no matter how meticulous your planning is, all of a sudden he managed to totally win all the bargaining chips in your hands. Ay! There is something that I have not had a chance to tell you, to this day, Yuzhi is still unwilling to forgive me.”

Xu Ziling was stunned.

Kou Zhong revealed a frustrated I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it expression, he said, “If things really developed to that stage, after Ling Shao disband the Shao Shuai Army, you will go to the place Shi Qingxuan is living in seclusion and accompany her spending her last years, don’t get involved with anything in the secular world. All those his Niang’s Shi Zhixuan, demonic school’s Two Sects Six Ways, Xiang Yushan, Chi Shengchun, Da Ming Zun Jiao’s Duan Yucheng, or what have you, no need to pay them any attention. Ay! The only thing I am still concerned about is Little Lingzhong. But Da Xiaojie should take a good care of him. One day there’s still you, Xu Ziling, there shouldn’t be anyone dares to harm him.”

Xu Ziling sighed and said, “How did you become like a defeated rooster? Don’t talk such a demoralizing talk, all right?”

After letting out a hollow laugh, Kou Zhong quickly became dejected again as he said, “It’s precisely because I am thinking about Zhizhi that suddenly I have the every-hope-turns-to-dust feeling, thinking that it might be better if I die; once the main problem is solved, all troubles are solved.”

Astonished, Kou Zhong said, “Looking at you, you sincerely fall in love with her, you want an intimate relationship with her, that’s why she brought about such serious harm and heavy blow to you.”

Smiling bitterly, Kou Zhong said, “Do you still need to say that? These days I really have a bit of regret for contending for hegemony over some his granny’s world; why can’t I, while completely focusing on, and involved in, one matter, also pursue and obtain her? Every night I would cuddle around her fragrant and tender body, coaxing her, while also let her coax me, to pass his Niang’s envious-to-mandarin-ducks-but-not-envious-to-immortal happy and prosperous life, unlike now, where she resents me for a lifetime. The most tragic thing is that in front of my men I still have to maintain an unequalled-under-the-heavens staunch look, while the fact is that I know better than anybody that we definitely won’t be able to last until the warm spring and blooming flowers of next year. If you hadn’t arrived in time, even Li Zitong and Xiang Yushan, I wouldn’t be able to contend with them.”

Xu Ziling understood him better than anyone else, he knew that Kou Zhong was momentarily venting out his emotion, he did not really lose his will to fight. Smiling bitterly, he said, “Quickly summon your men for a meeting; very soon you will recover.”

Kou Zhong took a deep breath. He stood up shakily and said, “Frankly, I am scared listening to Xuanshu describing the situation in Luoyang, where the streets are littered with dead bodies. Ay! Where the hell is Ba kid? I need someone strong like him by my side to defend Luoyang to the death together.”

Xu Ziling let him put his hand on his shoulder; he said, “Do you want to go back to the conference room?”

Kou Zhong replied, “I don’t really care, I guess any place is good. Ay! You don’t know how miserable I was when Zhizhi spoke those heartless words. It was only that moment that I deeply felt and was aware how serious my mistake was! I was even clearer that even if I had tongue as glorious as a lotus flower, I would never be able to change her opinion about me. I felt incomparably lonely. That night, I was tossing and turning restlessly in my bed, all night long; shame, self-blame and regret intertwined, as if Shi Zhixuan’s Bu Si Yin was attacking me; I could neither dodge nor block. I wonder if you could take me someplace where there’s no one else and let me cry bitterly for a moment?”

Xu Ziling spoke indifferently, “Shaoshuai! I’m sorry, but we don’t have much time. You are going to Luoyang tomorrow, now is the time you ought to move an army and send a general.”