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Liangdu was like the capital of the country for Shao Shuai Army. Although in term of scale it was only a tenth the size of a metropolis like Chang’an or Luoyang, it was indeed the center of economic and military affairs for the Shao Shuai Army. The military training camp was setup on the hills and mountainous region northwest of the city, where they built fort and stone stockade on the high places. There was a certain defensive power; they could pose a threat to the enemy attacking by coming along either banks of the canal.

Upon seeing the accomplishment of everybody’s great efforts in building the city, naturally Kou Zhong, who had always felt that he had nothing at all, was greatly pleased.

Remaining in Liangdu were Xuan Yong, Gao Zhandao, Xu Xingzhi and Chen Laomou. The other high-ranking military officers like Bai Wenyuan, Jiao Hongjin, Bu Tianzhi, Chen Jiafeng, Luo Qifei, Niu Fengyi, Zha Jie, Chen Changlin, and Ren Meimei, were all busy with their tasks in the other cities within the Shao Shuai Army’s sphere of influence, to make good preparations in order to help Kou Zhong in striving for the world.

Kou Zhong, sitting upright and unafraid on his beloved horse, which Xuan Yong fetched for him, entered the city. The residents lined the streets to welcome him. Just from this point, it was evident that Xu Xingzhi lived up to the expectation of what was entrusted to him; the governance of the ‘Shao Shuai State’ was clear and orderly, so that Kou Zhong, who has already left such a fine impression at the bottom of the people’s heart, received even more popular support.

Urging his horse toward the Shao Shuai Mansion at the heart of the city, along the way Kou Zhong could not help asking left and right, “Yang Gong did not come?” [Note: the character ‘Fu’ can be translated either as ‘Mansion’ or ‘Government Office’, but just for convenience’s sake, I opted to use the word ‘Mansion’.]

Xuan Yong replied, “Shaoshuai, don’t worry, Yang Gong already sent someone to deliver his message: this is not the time to leave yet. When Hulao falls, he will immediately rush over.”

Gao Zhandao joined in, “Yang Gong is afraid that if he leaves, the Wang Army soldiers’ heart will be even more shaken, it will speed up Wang Shichong’s defeat. He is staying by Wang Shichong’s side, it is in order to give us more time to make our preparation.”

Xu Xingzhi added, “However, his men’s family members are already sneaking in bit by bit, we have sent people along the way to organize everything for them, and after getting here, they have been properly settled.”

Kou Zhong began to feel the heavy burden that he had to carry on his shoulders [note: the original character refers to carrying something on a shoulder pole]; if Pengliang was broken, the ones to suffer hardship would be his own people. Even if Li Shimin treated common people well, but it was hard to avoid officers and soldiers dying in battle, then most families would have to suffer the pain and sorrow of losing their loved ones.

Relying on his seniority and the wisdom that came from an old age, Chen Laomou said, “When Shaoshuai was not here, I dare say that no one dared to be lazy; not only to rebuild Pengliang from ruins back into a city with a scale, but also to drill the originally a mob into an army having sound and color.”

Kou Zhong cheerfully said, “That is precisely the thing that I was concerned the most when I got back.”

Xuan Yong said, “Shaoshuai spreading out your mighty power beyond the Great Wall, you regarded the Tujue main army as nothing, I am afraid that in Shaoshuai’s eyes, our accomplishment is merely a trick with which a child is amusing himself.”

This moment they entered the Shao Shuai Mansion. The people were crowding outside the gate, shouting ‘Wansui’ [long live, lit. ten thousand years (old)] loudly; the atmosphere was vehement and uplifting.

After Kou Zhong and his party flew off their mount, he hugged the Thousand-Li Dream’s neck and said with a laugh, “Xuan Da Jiangjun, you don’t need to be modest; in term of training the troops, you guys are more adept than I am. However, I did learn something from the Tujue. Tomorrow morning when we go to the military camp, I’ll let you look and examine it critically, see if it can be used.”

The crowd of generals voiced their agreement in loud voice.

The Shao Shuai Army, wearing bright [or distinctive] armor, with green and red as the main colors, marched from the main gate straight across the public square, toward the stone steps of the main gate of the main building. Seeing Kou Zhong came back, everybody’s morale was rising high; they raised their weapon to salute, their movement was uniform, their equipment was different from before, where the troops and the armor were shabby. It was indeed something that must not be discussed on the same day [idiom: not to be mentioned in the same breath].

Chen Laomou whispered in his ear in strange voice, strange intonation, “This is precisely the benefit of gold. Duke Yang’s Treasure plus Cao Yinglong’s buried treasure, not only made Shao Shuai State prosperous and rich, the equipment is even one notch better than others.”

Xu Xingzhi said, “Most of our weapons, bows and arrows were from the Song Clan from the south transported via the water. The Song Family also dispatched five hundred skilled workmen of all categories, to help us building ships and weapons. Without the Song Family’s support, we would not be in today’s situation.”

Letting go of his beloved horse, which was taken away by a personal guard, Kou Zhong said, “How many soldiers are available now?”

Gao Zhandao replied in low voice, “Following Shaoshuai’s directive of soldiers’ quality over quantity, we expand the armed forces step by step, so as not to overburden the provision supply and thus affect the production. Currently, the total number of regular troops in the entire country is around forty-thousand men, separately stationed in Liangdu, Pengliang, Langya, and Donghai [east sea], four counties; all are recruited soldiers. In the villages and townships, there are also regiments of soldiers taking turn to guard. Five out of the forty-thousand men are the navy, under the responsibility of Changlin and Tianzhi.”

Xuan Yong added, “In Liangdu here, the military strength is twenty-thousand men, in order to guard against Li Zitong or Fu Gongyou attacking from the canal.”

Xu Xingzhi said, “Liangdu has become our most important military center, the Donghai County overlooking the sea is our economic lifeline, Pengcheng is being rebuilt under Hu Bu Du Jian [Supervisor of the Ministry of Revenue] Ren Dajie’s management. Because Pengcheng is located at the core of the Shao Shuai State, it plays the greatest role in our country’s stability, therefore, all three sites must have massive military force stationed there. As for Langya, as our country’s northernmost military strategic town, we also have no choice but to reinforce its city defense, in order to support the cities in the northern part.”

A fantastic feeling welled up from the bottom of Kou Zhong’s heart; everybody was ‘you spoke one sentence of our country, I spoke one sentence of Shao Shuai State’, it made him suddenly feel that he had become the lord of one nation. That kind of feeling simply could not be described properly.

Kou Zhong slowly exhaled a long, long breath, and said, “I understand! When necessary, I can at least deploy twenty thousand men to battle. I will try to race against time as much as possible, to have this group of brothers trained to become the Shao Shuai Army that is capable of moving unhindered across the world. Even if he, Li Shimin has a hundred thousand main forces, I am not the slightest bit afraid.”

Finished speaking, with the generals and soldiers crowding around him, he took a striding step, upright and unafraid, toward his own Shao Shuai Mansion.

Xu Ziling stood on the upright summit, staring fixedly at the star-studded night sky, overwhelmed with the feeling of helplessness and how minuscule a human was.

For the sake of his beloved horse, he had to take a boat to enter Shu [Sichuan] slowly, but he lost the mood to feast his eyes on the Three Gorges’ scenery.

His meeting with Li Shimin five days ago gave him deep understanding of the difference between the two sides. For him, someone who came from the marketplace, he still could not understand Li Shimin’s affection toward his family and clan.

Li Shimin came from a clan influential for generations, unavoidably he was nurtured in influential clan’s environment, which put the family’s ideals and reputation at the most important position, just like being loyal to the monarch, he had to display utter loyalty to his family. It would be nearly impossible for him to openly oppose his family.

However, there was also a sense that the matter depends on the individual [idiom: with effort, one can achieve anything]. Li Shimin was a mighty and talented individual, he should be able to find a way, no matter what.

Would he, Xu Ziling, as Li Shimin predicted, eventually be swept into the vortex of Kou Zhong’s great undertaking of contending for hegemony over the world, having his feet deep in the mud? Several times he had wanted to leave, but as things developed, furthermore, also because of the deep brotherly feeling toward Kou Zhong, he had the desire but was difficult to leave.

Choosing what is good and holding fast to it [idiom], whatever is beneficial to the world and its common people, he would work hard and not to be shirked without dishonor [another idiom].

Thinking to this point, the melancholy and the sense of loss in his heart were swept clean.

Xu Ziling summoned the Ten-thousand-Li Spots, jumped onto the horseback, and galloped fast along the Yangtze River.

Accompanied by Gao Zhandao, Xuan Yong, Gao Zhiming, and Zhan Gongxian, four generals, with the eagle Wuming standing on his shoulder, riding his beloved horse Thousand-Li Dream, Kou Zhong inspected the military drill ground outside the city, where the army was in training. Behind him on both sides were Xuan Yong’s deputy generals; they were Wagang’s former officers, who came with Xuan Yong to cast their lot on him. They were young and promising, veterans of a hundred battles, and were specialists in training soldiers.

On the plains east of Liangdu, twenty-thousand Shao Shuai Army lined up in formation, waiting for Kou Zhong to climb the commander platform, built on top of a small hill, to conduct the inspection. The flag was flying in the sky, the military prowess was extremely flourishing.

Under the light of the morning sun, everybody’s morale was rising high. They shouted ‘Shao Shuai’ loudly three times, their voices resonated across the plain, so that everybody’s blood was boiling, intense strength filled their bosom.

He swept his eyes around first.

To his left, Xuan Yong said, “These twenty-thousand soldiers are the elite troops of our Shao Shuai Army, divided into seven army units: the middle army has four thousand men, the left and right flanks and rear are one army unit each, every unit has two thousand and eight hundred men, left and right sides are two army units, two-thousand six-hundred men per unit. The army, battalions, and squads form the basic unit, marching, advancing and retreating under direction. The army has the army banner, the squad also has the squad’s banner, being maneuvered and deployed according to the flag signal.” [Sorry, my understanding might be off, the numbers do not add up.]

Standing on the other side, Gao Zhandao laughed and said, “Zhandao trains them in the fighting technique according to the hand-to-hand fighting method that Shaoshuai and Xu Bangzhu passed on to us in the past, the result is outstanding; on the battlefield, we will certainly not suffer losses.”

Kou Zhong said, “In direct confrontation on the battlefield, even if the enemy forces are ten times ours, I still have confidence in going head-to-head against Li Shimin. However, you guys could also see the situation where Li Shimin is attacking Luoyang, the troops are divided into several ways, using the toppling-the-mountains-and-overturning-the-seas momentum they came from four sides, eight directions. First, they nibble away at the weakest cities and towns one by one, to cut off the provision route, and to seal off the waterway. And then when we collapse and fall apart, they evade our sharp points and seek our weak points, until we only have one breath left and then they would launch total assault. Xue Ju was struck and collapsed just like this, Song JinGang also had his feather clipped and returned like that. This is Li Shimin’s strategy, if we cannot come up with a set of tactics against his strategy, I am afraid we simply won’t have any opportunity to fight hand-to-hand; we barely engaged in battle and will be promptly finished.”

Xuan Yong and the others, none did not reveal grave expression. Evidently, it’s not that they had not thought about this problem, rather, they practically could not think of a way to deal with it.

Kou Zhong rode his mount slowly, suddenly he asked Xuan Yong, “Did Yang Gong’s messenger mention anything about Ba Fenghan?”

Xuan Yong shook his head to indicate that he did not.

Immediately it added another distraction in Kou Zhong’s heart. On the other side, Gao Zhandao asked, “Have Shaoshuai thought of a way to deal with the Li Army?”

Kou Zhong revealed a smile brimming with confidence; he spoke cheerfully, “If there is no way, I will immediately disband the Shao Shuai Army, everybody can return to his hometown to enjoy his later years in peace. Ha! Others may underestimate Li Shimin, but I, Kou Zhong will never make this mistake. There’s also a fundamental difference between Wang Shichong and me, that is, there is no surrendering general under my command.”

The four generals responded in loud roar.

Kou Zhong suddenly raised his arm and shouted, “Anyone who follows me, Shaoshuai Kou Zhong, I, Kou Zhong, will definitely not treat you unfairly.” Finished speaking, he issued an order, Wuming let out a cry in response and soared into the sky, she circled around in the clear sky, increasing the threat even more.

These two sentences were spoken with inner power, so that his voice reverberated across the field, the mountain cried and the valley responded.

The crowd of soldiers cheered in chorus to respond, the cry ‘Wansui’ was unending.

After boosting the morale of his men, Kou Zhong revealed an as-brilliant-as-the-sun smile, he greeted the lining soldiers that he passed, infected every single one of them with a strong-without-any-equal confidence. He laughed and said, “Just by looking at the buglers, the archers, the cavalry, the infantry, all categories of military branches are ready for deployment, the organization is in order, I know that you are well-trained, definitely will not weaken my, Kou Zhong’s accomplishment.”

Xuan Yong quickly said, “Taking the main army’s middle unit’s four thousand men as an example, there are four hundred military buglers, four hundred archers, one thousand cavalry, one thousand infantry, one thousand two hundred heavy machinery soldiers, the total is four thousand men.”

Kou Zhong nodded to express his appreciation. All around, under the leadership of their captains, the Shao Shuai Army cheered and raised their weapon high to salute. On the horseback, Kou Zhong raised his hand to return the salute.

Gao Zhiming, who was following behind and to the side, could not help asking, “Just now Shaoshuai mentioned Li Shimin’s tactics, which is not going to give us the opportunity to have frontal confrontation against him; I wonder if Shaoshuai has a way to deal with it.”

Kou Zhong did not immediately answer him. First, with heroism reaching to the clouds, he shouted loudly, “Our Shao Shuai Army is acting on behalf of the Heavenly way, for the sake of the common people under the heavens so that they could live peacefully and work hard in their profession; only us, people who came from among the people, can understand the suffering of the people. This is precisely the difference between Han Gaozu Liu Bang and Qin Shihuang Ying Zheng.”

The crowd of soldiers responded in cheers, more intense than the last one.

Hearing that, Xuan Yong and the others admired inwardly. While chatting and joking, Kou Zhong still, from time to time, acted with diligent care to encourage morale. His method was brilliant, simple, direct, yet effective. First, he promised benefit, and then he set far-reaching ambition and target for the whole army. Even more, he vaguely made comparisons between he and Li Shimin, so that it generated sympathetic response from the warriors, who came from among the people, who had been subjected a lot to the bullying of the aristocratic families and large and influential clans.

However, even if Xuan Yong and the others also know how to say it, they would never achieve powerful effect like Kou Zhong, because Kou Zhong had become the fierce general and strategy expert that people all over the world looked up to. Together with Xu Ziling, they were considered to be the honor and glory of the Han ethnic people. His speech carried incomparable inspiration.

Kou Zhong has not finished inspecting the whole army, he already successfully established an irreplaceable position within the army, a position where the officers and soldiers were willing to die for him. And this was precisely the power of his affection, flexible against changes, not confining himself to established standard.

Responding to Gao Zhiming’s question, Kou Zhong said, “Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy’s plans. When Ling Shao is rushing back from Bashu, we will immediately attack and capture Jiangdu. With Jiangdu as our backing, the ocean will be our world. Even if Li Shimin has three heads and six arms, there is no way he can seal off the ocean. If he is thinking of doing that, it will just be a joke. Ha!”

The crowd of generals’ spirit was greatly aroused. Although it still could not really solve the problem, they still felt that the future outlook is brimming with opportunity to live.

Kou Zhong asked Xuan Yong, “Do you keep contact with Xiliang’s side? How’s their situation?”

Xuan Yong respectfully replied, “We are supporting each other, our relationship is close, and now Zhu Hua Bang split into two factions; one faction is under Shao Lingzhou as the Dangjia, and they use Jiangdu as their base of operation, since they received Li Zitong’s support. However, their number is only a quarter of the original Zhu Huabang. Moreover, Shao Lingzhou is regarded as a traitor, his daughter’s husband Mai Yunfei is tyrannically abusive, so that Shao Lingzhou does not enjoy popular support. The other faction is under Gui Xiliang as the Bangzhu, and Xing Rong as the deputy. They obtained Feng Zhu Tang’s [wind bamboo hall] Shen Beichang and Luo Feng’s support. With our and the Song Family’s help, their influence covers Jiangtong. Shaoshuai’s insight enables you to recognize heroes, both Gui Xiliang and Xing Rong are talents who can help us.”

Hearing that his childhood friends were outstanding and successful, Kou Zhong spoke in great delight, “Immediately invite them to Liangdu to see me, I have an important matter to discuss with them, capturing Jiangdu using military force is a secondary policy, we can’t afford the loss even more. Fortunately, Jiangdu is the place I am most familiar with, moving around and employing stratagem over there is incomparably convenient. His Niang’s! Li Zitong, this man is capricious; early on I could already see that he is not pleasing to the eye.”

Gao Zhandao said, “Currently Li Zitong is stationing a massive military force at Zhongli in the lower reaches of the canal, he also amassed a fleet of ships there. In just three days of sailing north, they will be able to reach our Jiangdu. If we cannot eliminate this threat, we won’t be able to move a single step.”

Muttering to himself irresolutely, Kou Zhong said, “Give me five hundred elite troops, martial art experts, let me personally train them in my spare time, they can be my personal guards, also can be used to topple Jiangdu from the inside. If on top of that there are also Ling Shao and Old Ba helping us, why should we be afraid of Li Zitong?”

Knitting his brows, Xuan Yong said, “Li Zitong stations his troops at Zhongli, it’s precisely so that we can’t spare time to attack Jiangdu. As for toppling him from the inside, unless we can assassinate Li Zitong, it would only create a mess; it won’t do us any good.”

Gao Zhandao also said, “Li Zitong has deep understanding on how formidable Shaoshuai is, he must have strengthened palace guards and city defense substantially, to assassinate him is definitely not easy. I hear that recently he had recruited a large number of desperate criminals in order to deal with our surprise attack.”

Kou Zhong smiled and said, “You missed Yang Gong and his five-thousand strong elite squad. Li Zitong and Shen Faxing are waging war all year long, plus he still has to deal with Fu Gongyou, who is glaring like a tiger watching its prey on the west side. Were it not for Jiangdu’s high and thick city wall, Old Li would have been beheaded early on. This person has no moral backbone, all the year round he is preparing his fleet, so that as soon as the tendency is not right, he can pack and quit and either run away or surrender. Now he considers himself a minister to the Li Family. His Niang’s! Just let me be clear of what’s true and what’s false in him, and then I’ll think of a way to put him in order.”

Zhan Gongxian, who all along has not made any sound, sighed in admiration and said, “Even a difficult problem that after splitting our heads we still cannot find a solution, as soon as it gets into Shaoshuai’s hands, immediately it becomes effortless and easy, as if you can immediately get it done as easy as blowing off dust.”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud. This moment they finished the inspection of the whole army, everybody pulled the reins and turned around, they galloped toward the commander platform at the top of the knoll.

The seven armies began to maneuver, they were ready to practice the changes in troop formations, in order to demonstrate the results of the exercises over the years.

Ten-thousand-fathom heroic emotion welled up in Kou Zhong’s heart; since he made his debut, not a single moment he was not in some inferior, vile situation; even until this moment it was still the case. How could he seek victory amidst defeat? How could he seek survival amidst adversity? This was precisely what he felt as the meaning of life.

Kou Zhong laughed and said, “As long as we train the men and horses so that they can attack as nimble and as extraordinary as the Tujue people, and can defend as steady and calm as Li Shimin, and then in terms of navy fleet and attack and defense equipment we build it according to Lu Dashi’s design, when the enemy is scattered we are focused, and when the enemy is focused we are scattered, using extraordinary to control the extraordinary, using steady to control the steady, plus we obtain Jiangdu, then at least half of the world will fall into my pocket. At that time, Li Shimin could forget about proclaiming himself the mighty over the Central Plains.”

Xuan Yong said, “Last month Song Lu Xiansheng personally came to Liangdu, to convey the verbal order of Song Fazhu [clan master]: if Shaoshuai can hold on until next year when the spring is warm, the flowers are blooming, his main forces will begin to arrive by the sea.”

Kou Zhong sighed inwardly. Although he was fully aware that the Song Family’s army would arrive next spring at the soonest, but he still held on a sliver of hope that Song Que would be able to rush over before the tenth month. But hearing that Song Lu personally delivered the message, this fantasy was immediately shattered.

Although he spoke with full confidence, the fact was that most of what he said was exaggeration to stir up the soldiers’ heart. Even if they could really seize Jiangdu, he would risk Pengliang area to be unguarded; how many cities would the insignificant forty-thousand troops be able to defend? Once the success became failure, Li Shimin would, like a hot knife through butter, go down south along the canal, ultimately he could only guard Jiangdu as a lone city, following the tracks of a cart that overturned, repeating Wang Shichong’s mistake of being trapped.

The key would be to see when the city of Luoyangg would be broken. If Wang Shichong was able to hold out until next spring, naturally it would be another matter altogether.

Now it was the seventh month; if Hulao was broken, Li Shimin would directly besiege the city. At that time, if Wang Shichong could hold out for a month, it could be considered not bad.

Kou Zhong flew off his horse. Accompanied by the four generals, he climbed onto the commander platform. In the midst of the drumbeat, the troops maneuver was in full swing; he saw that they suddenly advanced, and suddenly retreated, everything was clear and in good order, the coordination was flawless.

Gao Zhandao asked, “What is the Tujue people’s strong point?”

Kou Zhong replied, “You randomly pick any one of the Tujue warriors, he would be an expert in archery, riding, saber, and all kinds of battlefield operation, they use tactics in an extraordinary way, catching the enemy off guard, coming and going like the wind. When they attack, they are more bold and powerful than us, Han people; when they run away, they slip faster than us. They can sleep and urge their horse to march at the same time. Ha! I am exaggerating a little, but it’s very close to the truth.”

As he spoke, he was watching his own Shao Shuai Army performing changes according to the flag signal. First it was fifty-man squad, when the two banners intersect, immediately five squads merged into one team of two hundred fifty men. When five banners intersect, ten squads merged into one team of five hundred men, dazzling the eyes of those who watched it. No matter how it changed, the formation remained intact and was not thrown into disorder. From this, it could be seen that in order to train them, Xuan Yong and the others must have exhausted their heart’s blood; they were no longer like before, a bunch of ragtag mobs, which became an army relying entirely on their will to fight.

It’s a pity that compared to Li Shimin’s Tang Army, both in real combat and in experience, the difference was still too far. He could randomly pick a few from among the high-ranking officers under Li Shimin’s command, they would not be men that Gao Zhandao, Chen Changlin, and so on, men who had not been on the battlefield too many times – could compare.

Kou Zhong made the decision in his heart that he must exhaust his strength to train the army, so that when his men went to the battlefield, they were not throwing away their life, but to score a victory.

Mount Beiyou: in the last chapter, it was Mount Beilang, might be a typo, since the two characters look similar, but I don’t know which one is correct, because when I googled both, there is neither Beilang nor Beiyou Mountain near Luoyang, but my disclaimer: I don’t know China.

The word ‘master’ here is ‘zhu zi’, as in master-servant relationship, but the dictionary also says ‘Your Majesty’.