大唐双龙传 [Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan] by Huang Yi

[徐中銳]

Here's the map showing the Sui and Tang territories as well as some major cities:
Attachment 10055

Source: http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/ms...14_suitang.jpg

Thanks LuDongBin Seeing the graphic you found (which does indeed show the change of territories to the succeeding Tang [hit me as could be labelled a spoiler by some...]) inspired me to do a search too, what do think of :
$this->handle_bbcode_img_match('https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/China%2C_610.svg/1000px-China%2C_610.svg.png')

Is A.D 610 an especially apt year for starting this story ?

[foxs]

Jaya, Komeng, Ysabel, Anh, Chua, HPC, you are welcome. DongBin, Xu Xiong, wikipedia also has the map, among other things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transi...om_Sui_to_Tang, Bocah, Lao Qianbei, to me it's a bit too unbelievable, because in just a few short months they progressed so much. But then again, it's a plot ... Here's the rest of Chapter 6.

---

Yuwen Huaji did not expect Xu Ziling would dare to hide inside the building, he was still flying on the roof, looking for the two boys everywhere.

Inside the building cries of grief shook the heavens, about a dozen renegade soldiers were pressing down several palace maids on the floor, doing their beastly deeds.

Xu Ziling forgot their own safety, he brandished his saber with all his might, killing the renegade soldiers, but those palace maids were already at their last gasp.

Another group of renegade soldiers rushed in. Xu Ziling quietly raised another mouthful of qi to break out through the window, carrying Kou Zhong on his back.

Kou Zhong whispered in his ear, “Pagoda!”

Xu Ziling understood; he dashed toward the hiding place.

By this time most of the buildings in the palace complex have already engulfed in the sea of flame, the only people going back and forth were the renegade soldiers searching for survivors.

Xu Ziling unleashed his consummate escaping skill, fleeing high and ducking low, toward the pagoda on the southeast corner of the complex. The renegade soldiers did see them, but in a flash they already vanished, hence they did not know where to pursue.

Meanwhile Kou Zhong’s breathing has become short and weak, his hands and feet lost their strength. Xu Ziling thought fast; taking advantage while the two people’s chest and back were pressing against each other, he sent his true qi to enter Kou Zhong’s body.

The pagoda was in sight.

Suddenly there was a cold snort coming from behind.

The two boys recognized Yuwen Huaji’s voice, their soul flew away and scattered.

Kou Zhong wanted to let his hands and feet go, with the intention of letting Xu Ziling escape alive, but Xu Ziling held on to him tight, while suddenly made a sharp turn sideways to evade Yuwen Huaji’s ‘splitting the air’ palm strike, and then promptly entered a palace building that was still burning.

Yuwen Huaji had just scored a great victory – he killed his mortal enemy, Dugu Sheng, with one palm strike, naturally he was unwilling to follow the two boys taking risk, so he leaped onto the roof of the building, thinking that the moment the two boys going out of the building would be the moment they would lose their lives. To his surprise, however, all he saw was a ball of fire rushing upwards.

Yuwen Huaji stared hard; turned out it was Kou Zhong brandishing a piece or burning beam with all his might. At first glance he thought it was just a ball of fire, so with a long whistle he swooped down.

After receiving Xu Ziling’s true qi, which complemented his own perfectly, Kou Zhong was able to recover some his strength. Upon seeing that, he looked back and laughed, “Yuwen Huagu, nice move!”

Waving his right hand, he transmitted his qi into the blazing beam to created millions of burning fragments raining down on Yuwen Huaji.

If it were only sparks of fire, Yuwen Huaji was definitely more than able to deal with it, but in the midst of the sparks was Kou Zhong’s true qi, which was a different story altogether. If because of this he suffered damage on his face, the gain of killing the two boys would not make up for his losses. Therefore, he could only sigh inwardly and moved away to the side.

Just this short delay was enough for the two boys to flee into the bamboo forest under the pagoda.

Wherever the two boys went, fire sprang up everywhere.

Yuwen Huaji was so angry that he spouted smoke through his seven orifices; he knew Kou Zhong set everything in his path on fire, to block him from chasing or intercepting them. Hurriedly he gathered his mysterious power and taking advantage before the fire grew, he rushed into the woods. To his surprise, however, these past several days the weather was dry and the wind was strong, plus Kou Zhong intentionally waved the burning wood around, so that sparks flew everywhere, the fire followed the wind, the wind intensified the fire, in a blink of the eye most of the bamboo forest caught fire. Crackling noise of the fire was everywhere, forcing Yuwen Huaji to make a detour and had to enter the forest in a roundabout way.

The most annoying thing for him was that the burning bamboo created thick smoke, making it difficult for him to estimate the two boys’ position.

Suddenly a loud laughter coming from above, Kou Zhong was quacking like a duck as he said, “Yuwen Huagu, we’ll let you keep your stinky head for the time being, but just be careful! Don’t let anybody else take it before we fight you.”

A whooshing noise suddenly filled the air; by the time Yuwen Huaji cried out inwardly, there was a ‘splosh!’ of the water from the moat just outside the imperial city wall. By the time Yuwen Huaji reached the top of the wall, he saw under the illumination of the blaze that the water in the moat was as flat and smooth as a mirror; the two boys have disappeared without any trace.

Looking back, he saw the entire imperial city was like a sea of fire, thick smoke hid the starry sky above.

“Muddleheaded ruler is dead!”

The entire Jiangdu was boiling.

The big fire of the imperial city painted half of the sky above this great city bloody red.

From time to time renegade soldiers on horseback galloped by and cried out, “Muddleheaded ruler is dead!”

Some people went into hiding in fear; but some others set off firecrackers in joyous celebration. The young and the strong swarmed toward the imperial city to look for Yang Guang’s dead body, they wanted to burn and peel it to vent their anger, or perhaps they were hoping to get a bit of share of the treasure the muddleheaded ruler left behind from the hands of the renegade soldiers.

The official storehouse was broken and looted bare.

Some renegade soldiers even took advantage of the situation to break and enter common people’s houses to rape and plunder, so that a clash ensued. The entire city of Yangzhou was in chaos, Yuwen Huaji and his party were helpless to exercise control over it.

Dripping wet and cold, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling had to do their utmost just to crawl out of the moat, and groped their way toward the aqueduct outside the city.

On the streets, mobs of people allied themselves with each other, carrying clubs, staffs, swords and spears; as soon as they saw a Sui soldier alone, they would swarm toward him and beat him up, without the slightest care whether the soldier was actually the hero who had helped killing the fatuous ruler. It was a clear display of their bitter hatred toward Sui army and the government officials.

Xu Ziling was straining to carry Kou Zhong on his back walking along the street, pushing his way through crowds of spectators bustling with noise and excitement.

A burst of applause and cheers shook the heavens, turned out a squad of about twenty Sui soldiers were being dragged down from their horses by the masses and were beaten half dead.

Kou Zhong groaned, “That section of river course was really hard, and I have no true qi at all; my body feels light and fluttering, and I seem to lose all my strength. Huh? You, this kid, are not injured at all, why does your footstep also seem floaty?”

With a bitter smile Xu Ziling replied, “You have the nerve to say that? You, this kid, is so heavy. You don’t know how hard it is to carry you on my back.”

Kou Zhong knew that Xu Ziling has exerted too much strength; struggling hard to separate laughter from his coughing, he said, “You, this kid, really know how to crack a joke. Ay! This time we failed to harm Yuwen Huagu, and nearly lost our little lives instead; we are definitely out of luck thoroughly.”

Xu Ziling glanced around at the chaotic situation; he noticed that some houses at the west side of the city had just started to catch fire. He said with a heavy voice, “Yuwen Huagu will not benefit too much advantage from this, to control this terrible mess is not easy at all; and don’t forget that Ol’ Die and Li Zitong are waiting around here, glaring like a tiger watching its prey!”

Kou Zhong’s legs gave up, he nearly fell to the ground, his whole body was exhausted as he was holding on to Xu Ziling for dear life. The two boys strained hard just to walk several steps forward; finally they could not take it anymore. Entering a small alley, they sat down on the ground with their backs against the wall.

After catching up their breath, Kou Zhong said, “We might not be able to rely on that water route, can’t say for sure, but Yuwen Huaji might be waiting for us there to walk right into the trap.”

This moment about a hundred or so renegade soldiers arrived; as soon as they saw the armed mob, they immediately attacked. The battle cry shook the heavens, everybody fell over each other whether to evade or to run away. It did not seem like an organized attack, rather, it looked like these renegade soldiers’ spontaneous act of retaliation.

Watching people desperately running to the other end of the alley right in front of his eyes, Kou Zhong’s spirit was aroused. “I dare say that all the city gates are wide open,” he said, “I don’t believe no Sui soldiers will take this opportunity to flee.”

Xu Ziling was trying hard to gather his true qi, but he could not succeed. He mused that if they met even an ordinary Sui troop, they would suffer calamity. Sighing, he said, “So what if the gates are open, do we have strength to walk out? How’s your injury?”

Kou Zhong laughed and said, “After we get out of the city, let me, Zhong Shao, strip naked and have you count how many cuts are there on my body, I guarantee it will scare you. Fortunately Laozi [I, your father] have deep power, the cuts can automatically fuse together to stop the bleeding, otherwise I would have died from hemorrhaging alone. The most formidable thing was that b@stard Yuwen Shiji’s sword; he could pierce the true qi protecting my body. But at least this young master returned the compliment by giving him a kick; otherwise, how could you knock him down? Quickly thank me.”

Xu Ziling roared in laughter. “You, this fellow, will never concede,” he said, “Were it not for me, you, this kid, would have become minced meat sauce.”

Kou Zhong joined him in laughter. Wiping the tears from the corner of his eye, he said, “Why is it that even after we failed and were wiped over the floor, and now whether we will live or die is still hard to forecast, we could still be this happy?”

Xu Ziling craned his neck to look at the street where there was no lantern and no burning fire. The chaotic street just a moment ago has become as quiet as the ghost place, except for unceasing shouting and screaming from the distance. Breathing a sigh of relief, he said, “The reason is very simple: because we are still young. As long as we still have days ahead of us, and we don’t die, even if we are a bit late, we can always find Yuwen Huagu to settle the old account clearly.”

Kou Zhong acted as if he was deep in thought concerning this matter; and then, propping himself against the wall he stood up shakily, and spoke with determination, “Even if we have to crawl, we have to crawl out of town. If we don’t leave now, there is a good chance we will never leave.”

[Jayariyin]

Thanks, foxs.

[徐中銳]

DongBin, Xu Xiong, wikipedia also has the map, among other things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transi...om_Sui_to_Tang

I looked... Yet remembering :

“Muddleheaded ruler is dead!”

I'll warn readers that the map is of « Transition from the Sui to the Tang dynasties, 613-628 » (Yang Guang died April 11, 618) and has (useful, conceptual) spoilers of who rules what...

Side-note, was it regicide and a suicide-of-sorts ?

[Drak17]

Thank you for the translations, foxs!

[Ysabelkid]

Thanks foxs

[r_aribawono]

thanks foxs!
The brothers condition looked quite bad..
It seems that Xu Ziling skill is better than Kou Zong based on the fights.. maybe because he is more focus on his training..

[HPC7595]

Thanks foxs

[LuDongBin]

Is A.D 610 an especially apt year for starting this story ? ... A good guess Xu Xiong.

That's a good one. Would you able to show the Grand Canal that Yang Guan built and which impoverished the treasury? Too bad he did leverage it to establish his logistics support, uniting both north and south territories but rather use it to display grandiose parties.

Thks foxs. There was a better account of Li Mi in Wiki elsewhere dedicated to his achievements. Was hesitant in pointing it out in order not brand it out as a spoiler. I guess in this story, the plot may be different. Good Wiki map.

[9Dragons]

Maybe a bit overly dramatic on the author's part, but that Yuwen Huaji is frighteningly efficient. After dispatching Dugu Sheng and presumably Yang Guang, he located and pursued the two boys who were already running for their lives in the chaotic turmoil. Sure, Yuwen Shiji’s skirmish delayed them, but that's still some insane godly speed.

Gotta love the kids's playful insults and attitudes in times of dire straits.

[Laoren]

Thanks foxs.

[BocahTuaNakal]

i don't think XZL is stronger than KZ, its just the way their fight that made KZ got hurt first. while XZL always tried to be tactical, KZ like more 'grandiose' fight. XZL was at his limit in the end of the chapter.

[Anh Nam]

thanks Foxs

[徐中銳]

Kou Zhong’s heart was greatly moved. “How’s your lower abdomen injury?” he asked.

Xu Ziling lowered his voice, “If I tell you, you won’t believe it, but I feel even better than before.”

Referencing back—can Xu & Kou be likened to Goku & Vegeta, respectively, capacity/limits becoming greater after healing from every severe injury/depletion...
$this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://img06.deviantart.net/ff6d/i/2011/049/5/d/52000__goku_vs_vegeta__colored_by_goxve-d39truo.png')

And LuDongBin, briefly, I speak Cantonese and had watched some of The Grand Canal 《大運河》 (1987) on rental cassettes shorty after it aired... Felix Wong Yat-Wah portrayed Li Mi

[Komeng]

Thanks Foxs

[徐中銳]

The pretty nun laughed until her beautiful body shook uncontrollably. Gasping for breath, she said, “If I, the Mermaid You Qiufeng, ever let you, these two kids ever escape the net, I will never go down into the water again.”

I was looking into matching the Chinese spelling of names... She came up as 游秋雁, which is You Qiuyan. Is it easy for you to check your copy ? Could it be due to Huang Yi's later revision ?

[foxs]

Jaya, Drak, Ysabel, HPC, Lao Qianbei, Anh, Komeng, you are welcome. Ari, I have the same feeling. Perhaps because his dream was to become a grandmaster, versus Kou Zhong, whose desire was to be the emperor. DongBin, I found quite a number of entries in Wikipedia about Sui-Tang dynasty, I guess whoever is interested can read about the real historical characters in this story. A lot! I was quite surprised ... 9Dragons, yes, I also think it was quite unbelievable. Bocah, I agree with Ari in this regard. Kou Zhong is more cunning though. Xu Xiong, you are way ahead of me. Yes, I checked the future chapters, and it was indeed You Qiuyan. But as I mentioned earlier, I simply followed what the text says. I don't know whether it was a typo, but judging from some names that are completely different (character-wise), I'd say it was Huang Yi who messed up.

---

Book 6 Chapter 7 – Father and Son Reunion

Stepping into the main street leading to the southern suburbs, the two boys immediately felt at ease. They saw millions of people hurriedly moved in the same direction. People and carts fighting over each other for the right of way, the sound of crying and shouting shook the sky. It was not clear anymore who were the soldiers and who were the thieves, everybody just wanted to rush somewhere else to avoid the calamity.

Xu Ziling was helping Kou Zhong walking through the crowd, groping in the dark, forging ahead. The sky was covered with the thick smoke and the debris blown by the wind from the direction of the imperial city. The grand city of Yangzhou has turned into the terrifying hell of Asura.

When they reached another intersection with a small alley, the crowd ahead of them was suddenly thrown into confusion; they heard someone yelled, “Hear the newly-appointed Commander-in-chief Yuwen Huaji’s order: go back immediately, otherwise you will be killed without any pardon.”

Everybody shouted together; ignoring the order, they walked even faster toward the port. Soon afterwards the flow of crowd was moving freely. Nobody knew where the renegade troops’ captain, who had just made the announcement, had gone to.

Kou Zhong spoke in Xu Ziling’s ear, “This is the power of the masses. As long as you know how to use it, it can display previously unimaginable efficacy.”

Xu Ziling let out a bitter laugh and said, “How about leaving some spiritual talk behind? I am having a hard time helping you walk.”

Before he even finished talking, a crowd of men and women pushed them from behind that they had no choice but to stagger along for a dozen paces. And when they looked up, they were already in the wilderness outside the city.

The two boys followed the tide of people, suffering untold hardships to leave the Jiang County behind, walking along the river toward Danyang. As long as they could find the biggest brothel along the Yangtze River, there was a good chance they would find information about Xiang Yushan, Susu and the others.

Kou Zhong’s internal injury was actually rather heavy. Fortunately, after taking a rest in the forest by the road for two days, Xu Ziling recovered his strength first, and then he put his hand to help Kou Zhong treating his injury.

After ten days, the two boys continued their journey. While nearing Danyang, they came face to face with a group of refugees and found out that Du Fuwei’s partner, Fu Gongyou has captured Danyang, so that Danyang residents fled out of the city to take refuge in the rural areas and other towns and counties nearby.

By the time the two boys arrived at a little town called Dingshi northeast of Danyang, nine out of ten houses were vacant; a dismal atmosphere just before a great catastrophe about to strike.

After finding someone he could ask, Kou Zhong came back and said, “Turns out five days after Yang Guang was killed, Li Zitong received the news and promptly brought his force to attack Yangzhou. That coward Yuwen Huagu did not dare to meet the enemy, he took a boat and slipped away. I heard that instead of going back to Luoyang, he went to Chang’an.”

After laughing aloud, he went on, “This kid still did not dare to be the emperor, he embraced Yang Huang’s nephew Qin Wang [king of Qin], and made him the emperor, so they are going to Chang’an to seek only ease and comfort.”

Xu Ziling, who was sitting by the well, sneered and said, “The road is long, the soldiers are weary; Yuwen Huaji’s reputation has never been good, everyone regards him as the emperor’s hunting dog, and now just the evil rebel dogs’ master. Basically he does not enjoy popular support. I don’t believe he can achieve any great things. Humph! Let’s not talk about Chang’an, even if he went to Luoyang, would Li Mi be willing to let him off?”

Kou Zhong laughed and said, “Of course he is going to Chang’an! I heard the Li Clan is marching on to Chang’an, I just don’t know whether they won or they lost? That kid Li Shimin is really not a simple person.”

Xu Ziling sighed and said, “Why do you care about so many things? Right now I am most concerned over Su Jie. Danyang is a mess, that need not be mentioned, I don’t know whether they have met some mishaps. Ol’ Die is not a lay practitioner of Buddhism. If he found out that we are in the city, it would not be much different than bumping into Yuwen Huaji.”

Kou Zhong said with a wry smile, “Even if everybody in Danyang has turned into a tiger, we still have to go there; otherwise we will lose contact with Su Jie.”

Having made up his mind, the two boys continued their journey.

The towns and villages closer to Danyang have all become disaster area after the fire. Their guess was that it was all the good craftsmanship of the defeated Sui troops who were running away from Danyang. Just these batches of defeated thief soldiers returning to the north have brought about such enormous suffering to the common people.

The two boys’ heart grew very heavy.

When the city of Danyang was in sight, the two boys discussed the best way to enter the city. Xu Ziling said, “Although Danyang city wall is a bit lower than Jiangdu’s, it is still at least several zhang high. Without hooks and ropes, even if we trained the Bird Crossing Technique for ten more years, we would still be unable to jump over it. So what do we do?”

By this time the two boys’ clothes were soiled and raggedy, their hair messy and their faces dirty. In this kind of critical period, no matter how much money they had, it would be useless.

Kou Zhong has been eating only wild fruits for the last twenty days, he lost the sense of taste in his mouth already, so he was dying to get into the city. “Nobody would expect we came to Danyang,” he said, “Plus right now we can’t even recognize ourselves. We might as well swagger into the city.”

Knitting his brows, Xu Ziling said, “The city guard is most strict in wartime, my fear is that there will be spies mingling among the people going into the city. If we simply crash in through the gate, I am afraid something wrong might happen.”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Are you forgetting that we are Wulin martial art masters now? If we can’t crash in, we’ll simply run away, and then think of other ways to enter the city. Throw your ghost-headed saber first, let’s go!”

Surprisingly enough, when the two boys entered the city, they saw Du Fuwei’s Jianghuai Army were interrogating everybody at the gate; however, they only asked a couple of questions to the two boys. After finding out that they were refugees from Jiangdu, they simply let the two boys entered without any further questions.

As soon as they were inside, Kou Zhong excitedly said, “Finally our bad luck days are over. Ever since we came to Zhai Rang’s Big Boss Mansion, I don’t know whether it was because we were affected by his rotten bad luck, but we always had bad luck, so much so that we almost lost our lives in Jiangdu.”

Xu Ziling laughed and said, “All Zhai Rang’s people are dead, what else there is to say? You ought to look at it the other way: after so many calamities we did not die, our flood of good fortune is really the same as the heavens.”

Thinking that soon they were going to see Susu, Kou Zhong readily admitted, “Right, right! Our flood of good fortune is the same as the heavens. Oh, something is not right here! Didn’t Xiang kid say that after going into town, we need to walk straight for three hundred steps or so, and then we will see his mother’s something courtyard? We have walked for over a thousand steps, why didn’t we see that ghost signboard?”

Xu Ziling halted his steps in shock, “Oh no!” his voice trembled, “Did you remember we saw several buildings that were burned through the top? I am afraid it was right there.”

Like a couple little beggars the two boys sat on the street, staring blankly at the passers-by sparsely gracing the street, with occasional Jianghuai army soldier galloping on horseback, yet nobody paid any attention to these two boys. For the last few years there were people fleeing from calamity everywhere, this kind of sight no longer surprised them.

Kou Zhong sighed and said, “I really feel like ‘seeing one Sui soldier kill one, seeing two Sui soldiers kill a pair’. If they wanted to leave just leave! No one is stopping you; why would they burn everything before leaving? If they wanted to rob, why did they have to burn and kill?”

Xu Ziling indifferently, “Blaming the Heaven and blaming the Earth is useless. Logically speaking, that Xiang kid is highly intelligent, he must have a way to contact us.”

Kou Zhong dejectedly said, “We have been sitting here for half a day, not even half a person came to contact us. I wonder if we should just wait here forever, or should we go buy some clothes that are a bit brighter and neater, and then find a cure for our hungry tummy, and finally find a place to stay for the night?”

Xu Ziling straightened up and rose, “I know you don’t have the patience,” he said, “Just go!”

Xu Ziling was lying on the bed, practicing his internal energy cultivation. He only stopped when Kou Zhong came back.

This place was not a hotel or an inn, rather, it was a house abandoned by its master, who fled the calamity with his entire family, so that the two boys could use it as their temporary shelter.

Xu Ziling sat up. “Any news?” he asked.

Kou Zhong sat down beside him and said, “I left Beautiful Shifu’s markings all over the city. If that Xiang kid sees it, he will know that we are here.”

“How’s the situation outside?” Xu Ziling asked.

Kou Zhong shook his head, “Daytime is still all right,” he said, “But as soon as it is dark, everyone is afraid to go out into the streets. The shops are either closed for the day or closed for good. Ol’ Die’s men are truly disappointing, from time to time they break into the citizens’ houses to commit their evil deeds, angering the heavens and grieving the people. No wonder hearing the Jianghuai Army’s arrival, everybody ran away.”

“In my opinion,” Xu Ziling said, “That Xiang kid ought to be gone someplace else with Su Jie. Ol’ Die has so many enemies, Baling Bang could be one. Naturally Xiang kid wanted to preserve his head.”

While Kou Zhong was deep in thought, suddenly there was a knock on their door.

The two boys shivered in fear, they looked at each other in dismay.

Kou Zhong immediately sprang up and said, “Perhaps it’s Xiang kid, because I left secret marks to point out that we stay in this place.”

Xu Ziling was greatly delighted; he dashed toward the main gate, and standing behind the door, he called out, “Who is it?”

No response from the other side of the door.

Kou Zhong had a very bad feeling; he darted toward Xu Ziling and whispered in his ear, “Something’s wrong, let’s get out of here!”

But suddenly they heard a sigh coming from the middle of the hall.

The two boys’ scalp went numb; they turned around immediately, and saw their tall and thin old dad, still wearing his tall hat, with his hands behind his back, was standing in the middle of the hall, with his face devoid of any expression, he was coldly sizing the two boys up and down.

Among the people that Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling feared to meet, Du Fuwei ought to be on the top of the list; even meeting Li Mi or Yuwen Huaji was not as dreadful.

Thinking that this time Du Fuwei has come prepared, he must have prepared inescapable net before making personal appearance for this father and son reunion, the two boys were groaning even harder in their hearts.

Letting out a dry cough, Kou Zhong said, “This is Ol’ Die’s territory, just call your men out!”

Du Fuwei could not help laughing, “Good kid!” he said, “Still so cunning. You are trying to sound out what your Ol’ Die has prepared this time, aren’t you? Let me tell you straight! After receiving the information that the two of you have entered the city this morning, Die immediately rushed for more than forty li nonstop to see you, these two little demons. Right now I don’t have even half an attendant by my side. If you want to escape, just escape!”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Die is the number one martial artist in the world, you have a reputation to keep, and now your children do not have a single weapon we could lay our hands on; is it possible for Die to give us three days grace period, so that we can make appropriate arrangement, before we and Ol’ Die go somewhere out of the city to have a his mother’s battle?”

Du Fuwei looked up at the beam; he said indifferently, “I want to speak alone with you, Kou Zhong.”

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were greatly stunned; they both thought that perhaps he wanted to deal with them one person at a time. But it was unnecessary, because even with the two boys fighting together, to defeat this world-caliber martial art expert was simply lunatic ravings.

Deep in his heart Xu Ziling had a feeling that things were taking a turn for the better. Besides, if they were going to die anyway, there was no harm in taking his mother’s gamble a little bit. Thereupon he nodded and said, “In that case I’ll wait outside the door!” Finished speaking he climbed out the window.

Du Fuwei’s expression was serene; he sat down in a chair at the southern end of the room and said in a soft voice, “Xiao Zhong! Have a seat!”

A bit flattered by the courtesy, Kou Zhong sat down in an imperial tutor chair [high back with arm rests] on his right hand side.

Du Fuwei was silent for half a day. Finally he said calmly, “Yuwen Huaji has been with Yang Guang for too long, a lot of his bad habit cannot be changed. Going to Peng Cheng, because the waterway is blocked by Li Mi, he has to make a detour toward Chang’an, hoping that he could beat Li Yuan by one step in gaining control over the Capital. Unexpectedly he ordered his men to rob common people’s more than two thousand ox carts. More foolishly, he used those carts to transport palace maids and treasures he plundered from Yang Guang’s palaces, while weapons, equipment and food provision he had ordinary soldiers to carry on their back, provoking the soldiers that they are rebelling. The leader was precisely Sima Dekan, who once joined hands with him in killing Yang Guang. Although he managed to pacify the rebellion, his strength took a big hit. Ay! Yuwen Huaji has always been known for his wisdom and scheming ability, it’s hard to imagine that he would commit such an unwise move.”

Kou Zhong did not understand why the vicious and extremely wicked Du Fuwei would want to chat with him; he had no choice but to endure patiently and listen respectfully.

[BocahTuaNakal]

hmmm, ol Du saw through KZ ambition ... maybe he would give him troops and pull him to his side, realizing their potential ...

thanks foxs

[Ysabelkid]

Thanks foxs

[Jayariyin]

Thanks, foxs.