Book 16 - Chapter 10 – Reluctant Parting (1/2)
Book 16 Chapter 10 – Reluctant Parting
The three stood side by side on the bridge, looking towards the east, the winding river extended as far as their eyes could see The bright night sky, under the s on both sides of the river, bri with rich layers of serene beauty, as picturesque as a drea to disturb the residents of the nearby buildings, ere still in deep slu, aren’t you underesti the enemy too much? How come you don’t see the warlords vying for supreth they possess, he is second only to Li Mi before his battle against Yuwen Huaji; perhaps he is even better than that”
Xu Ziling nodded, “I had never heard Li shi+min suffers defeat,” he said
I said, “The so-called sending down the troops, dispatching bravery, based on th, I would be a fool to shake hi i, the for down the troops, dispatching bravery’ Others are ‘sending up the troops, dispatching a sche it upside down, so that it becomes out of place If the troops are not brave, they would be defeated without any battle”
Kou Zhong laughed together with the other two Half a day later, he said in low voice, “Li kid basically does not have time to deal withasked
Kou Zhong replied, “The self-proclaiemon of Western Qin Xue Ju and his superbtheir gongs and beating their dru’An; and Liu Wuzhou ht take this opportunity to attack Taiyuan, to rattle his Li Family’s foundation Under these circumstances, how could that Li kid still have tihan said, “These troops and horses fro Xue Ju’s subordinates there is one great general by the na Luohou, with un Guan saber [I believe it refers to Guan Yu fro, Xu Ziling said, “Zhong Shao can play his abacus any way he wants, but unfortunately nobody knehen it would happen That guy Li shi+min still has plenty of time to try to kill us first”
With a card up his sleeve, Kou Zhong said, “You can try to guess: when that Li kid slipped away just nohere do you think he was going?”
The tere stuh-spirited, Kou Zhong said, “He went to see wang shi+chong”
The two nodded in agree ability and wisdo explained, “Good or bad, currently I can be considered a ’s camp Li kid wanted to re, to sound out what he thinks about it Last tireed to put the city under curfew, simply because he did not expect he would be drawn into the dispute involving the Jade Annulus of He Clan; he wanted to declare his innocence, but also because he did not believe that in the Jade Annulus of He Clan’s matter, before the water recedes, the rocks appear, shi+ Feixuan would killis an old fox, he h your wild a Li shi+ said, “If you had spoken those words yesterday, I really did not dare to contradict you But after giving it a lot of thoughts, I know that wang shi+chong already weighed the pros and cons, and he won’t dare to touch ht now he still needs to protect han asked, “How could you have such confidence?”
Pleased, Kou Zhong replied, “First of all, because of Zhai Jiao Currently I a obtain valuable intelligence on Li Mi’s ’s old unit who are still loyal to hih reason for wang shi+chong to treat you like pearl or jehich he has to protect with great care And what’s the other reason?”
Kou Zhong replied, “The day after to shi+chong will attend This will give Shen Luoyan an opportunity to assassinate hi is a man who cherishes his life, without ic adviser and ulti hi-a-snake-fro in ad bravery and dispatching a scheret it”
Re said, “In ree to join hands with Li kid to deal withthe operation At that ti to be used by hiht set a trap to eliainst him This is called ‘the birds are over, the bow is put away’, a faes that Bai Lao Fuzi [old ht us”
Xu Ziling joined in, “But with Li shi+ht to be able to see that wang shi+chong is helpless against you; perhaps he had another operation in place Supposing right now you are found dead on the street, even if Zhuge Liang cauess which party did it”
Kou Zhong giggled and said, “As long as Li kid does not dare to assee , am that easy to kill, God kno many times I would have died!”
It was indeed an inalienable fact
Muttering to hih currently you are able to secretly influence sothe situation of the Central Plains, I still don’t understand why you have soa deep breath, Kou Zhong said, “The key is the ‘Duke Yang Treasure’ If I can’t find it, I will have no choice but to kill this vying-over-the-world desire, go to the great desert to pass happy days with you galloping over the prairie, or perhaps do business in illegal salt trading, leading a befuddled existence [orig as if drunk] of the second half of han did not understand, “Even if you have treasure and weapons, you don’t have territory, you even lack troops and horses; how could you challenge those with deep and solid foundation like the Li Clan?”
Kou Zhong’s eyes flashed with cold light; he spoke heavily, “It all goes back to the proble a scheet of aas I can scheme to frustrate Du Fuwei, I will have a chance to use the Flying Horse Ranch and Jingling as the center, establish my power, then at the same time expand to the north and south To the southClan, to the north win over Dou Jiande and Liu Wuzhou If wang shi+chong is still able to hold the Li Clan to the west, there will come a day this land under the heavens will be inside hed and said, “Such a difficult and coabout it is givingsaid, “I also have only 50 confidence But if Xiao Ling is willing to helpspoke indifferently, “What you have already said, you e Otherwise, how can you win the world’s trust?”
S said, “Xu Ye, please cal, and spoke without thinking the reed to accoratitude!”
Xu Ziling changed the subject, “Although currently I a I never thought of hilory Let alone we e our secret: perhaps Li kid found out frouise ourselves and change our appearance”
When the Four Big Bandits attacked the Flying Horse Ranch in the past, Shen Luoyan and Li Tianfan were plotting against Li Xiuning, Kou Zhong intervened to help her At that ti Lu Miaozi’s masks to conceal his true identity [see first few chapters of Book 10]
“How could I forget?” Kou Zhong said, “Hence I deliberately asked Li Jing, and he admitted with his ownasked
Kou Zhong pondered for half a day, and then replied, “That ti like ‘just consider that I did er that I could not think straight, so I hatefully scolded him some more Never mind! Why do we care if he did it or not? He has beco anyway; there will coht meet head-on with him All those brotherhood and friendshi+p won’t worth a penny”
Ba Fenghan felt another headache cos that it would be better if we do not think about it too reatest worry in life is that we have tooasked, “How’s your injury? While it’s not dawn yet, we’d better take advantage of this ti ruefully, Ba Fenghan said, “By alleverywhere, any one of us lose any power could possibly bring unforeseen disaster”
Sighing, Xu Ziling said, “I still feel that you are afraid that if you are completely recovered, you won’t have any reason to leave i said, “I get it! You want to steer clear of that Tujue beauty”
Ba Fenghan opened his right pally, there was that shi+ny hairpin that Ba Dai’er returned to hiht arm, and then, under the blank stare of the two boys, he threw the hairpin into the river It sank and disappeared without stirring up half a ripple
Ba Fenghan spoke indifferently, “Alalloped out of town at top speed After passing through a sparse forest northwest of the city, they climbed a dirt slope, and reined their horses to stop
Surrounded by hills all around, there was a quiet sreen waves and the crystal-clear water rippled in front of the forest, the dawn reen and lush surface of the water The three felt their spirit aroused
Pointing to the poetic and picturesque scenery ahead with his whip, Kou Zhong let out a long laughter and said, “If we did not insist on sending you off for a while, ould not know there is such a good place nearby”
Ba Fenghan ju ’s saddle and said with a s one tael each in this purse This is called ‘before the three arht, center and left] move, the arhan’s, s’s [ehted, he said, “Between us, brothers, there is no need to , appreciate your kindness! You’d better put on your han has disappeared”
Shaking his head, Ba Fenghan said, “Changing et to the nearest town, I’ll change clothes, putmerchant This way I will fool people’s eyes and ears better”
Xu Ziling said, “If it weren’t for Ba Dai’er, who couldyour true colors with thousand ways, a hundred plans?”
Ba Fenghan flew back onto his horse After turning his head around to scan the area, he sighed and said, “Froer think of her, and I do not wish to see her again”
After staring deeply into the two boys’ eyes, he fixed his gaze forward, and spoke in heavy tone, “We’ll part here I don’t knohether ill see each other again Two brothers, please take good care of yourselves!”
He squeezed the horse’s belly with his legs, the steed neighed anddown the slope, and disappearing behind a cloud of dust
The two boys followed hialloped through the forest and the prairie, soht, until finally he turned into a small dot, and vanished in a dense wood in the distance
Only then did Kou Zhong breathe a sigh of relief “nobody’s following hireeed their horses to turn around, and then rode back slowly down the slope
Kou Zhong repeatedly exhaled to clear his heavy heart filled with the sadness of separation “Separated in life and death, unexpectedly could be this depressing,” he spoke in agony, “Niang is dead, Ba Fenghan is gone, this is all very difficult, yet nothing we could do about it Were it not for that poniang [reatory way] Ba Dai’er, perhaps Ol’ Ba would still be with us for a while longer”
Noticing Xu Ziling’s pensive look, as if he did not hear what he said, Kou Zhong asked in surprise, “What’s on yourus? Actually, this is to be expected Just think, ould want to provoke us noithout thinking three ti shook his head, “I suddenly remember Su Jie,” he said, “My heart is not happy”