Book 52 Chapter 12 – Death Secret Order (1/2)
Book 52 Chapter 12 – Death Secret Order
Translator: Foxs' Wuxia
Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling and Ba Fenghan, threethe top of the city wall Everywhere they went, the warriors respectfully saluted, their eyes e expression, which evolved from the bottom of their hearts
The three war for dawn, their heads resting on a spear – well-being, and coent care to attempt to improve their circumstances and to raise their morale
Outside the city, the arroers at the enehts, extended forever into the distance on the plains, scattered outside the city There was indeed a -without-even-fighting hty power
Finally the three reached the Upper East Gate on the northeast Clih above the city wall, they leaned over to look into the distance to their left at Li Yuanji’s cohland between the Cao Canal and Luo River, under protection of strong defensive structure and trenches The command ca Luoyang
The soldiers guarding the city gate tower quietly withdrew to give the three the convenience to talk
Kou Zhong sighed lightly and said, “If I could capture the command camp and behead Li Yuanji under my saber, I certainly can rewrite the fate of the future”
Xu Ziling sneered and said, “This is called rejoicing in grandiose deeds, also overesti laughed apologetically and said, “I was just using words to vent up the pent-up frustration in y is recovered co, on the way rushi+ng toward Luoyang, my mood was so bad that it could not be worse than that Only after a good sleep, when I woke up, han smiled and said, “No matter how bad your mood is, you , everyone is taking you as their only guide, they look at you to conduct themselves, not just in naht in Kou Zhong’s pair of eyes flashi+ng, he spoke heavily, “I, Kou Zhong, will never concede While killinghis voice, Xu Ziling said, “What are you going to do ang shi+chong?”
Ba Fenghan interjected, “Gain the initiative by striking first, those who move later will be under the control of the others”
Kou Zhong’s eyebroere deeply furrowed, he muttered to himself irresolutely, and then spoke with bitter s no signs of rigorshi+chong is at odds with the officers and soldiers under his co tih-rankingsurname that are related to hi, very likely it will trigger internal battle If that happens, no need to wait for the enemy to come and attack, ill collapse on our own first”
Ba Fenghan said, “If wang shi+chong secretly open the city gate and surrender, ill suffer total defeat of the entire ar shi+chong, this ive up his power, if not until the last one, he won’t be willing to give up Anyway, if he is willing to surrender, the Tang Army can’t possibly kill him Based on his character, it’s only natural that he will hold out to the lastto surrender At the present ti and Xia, tar, he won’t give up too easily Therefore, we only need to closely uarantee there’s nothing to worry about”
Xu Ziling swept his gaze around the outside of the city, far and near, he spoke indifferently, “Currently, Luoyang is like an isolated island, not only traffic co is cut off, but also isolated fro and Xia, two ar When Li shi+min defeats Dou Jiande, he will turn his troops back to Luoyang At that time, not only ill have to deal with external problems, but also to deal with internal worries!”
Kou Zhong spoke in astonish Shao is in favor of Lao Ba’s proposal to gain the initiative by striking first?”
S the matter as it stands I don’t take life or death ht to the brothers who fight side by side with us”
Ba Fenghan spoke in heavy voice, “War is a deadly ga, youwos up”
Kou Zhong reached out to wrap his arms around the two men’s shoulders, he smiled and said, “LaoGe, your rebuke is well-deserved, however, the fortunate ti of this operation must still be considered carefully I still have a trick up rievance at Hulao, Qifei will personally rush over, he will light up three fire beacons on the hilltop southeast of Luoyang That will be the moment ill commence our operation But under current circue-scale counterattack on the Tang Ar-out all kinds of careful deploy shi+chong’s knowledge At that ti to betray us”
Ba Fenghan spoke in delight, “Good kid! You really have so said, “Actually, I still have another trick up my sleeve, which is to open access to the tunnel first, send a scout to go through the tunnel to make contact in secret with our troops in Chenliu But I aht save a little only to lose a lot, by exposing the existence of the tunnel, hence I discard this idea”
After a short pause, he went on, “The ht now is to conserve our strength Once the city is broken, the entire aro down south to seize Xiangyang If we can defend then ill defend, if we cannot defend then ithdraw to Zhongli via the ay, and then ill have a decisive battle against Li shi+ forward to that day The days of painfully defending Luoyang are not easy at all; in the self-cultivation in the martial art way, it could be considered an ascetic practice”
Kou Zhong let go of his arrain supply?
Xu Ziling replied, “Food and daily necessities can still last for about twenty ally is a e, which is one of the reasons e do not dare to launch a large-scale counterattack”
Knitting his brows, Ba Fenghan said, “We have one tunnel that is open but we are not using it, isn’t it unwise?”
Kou Zhong laughed and said, “Great ree]; I was just racking h the tunnel, the Gods do not know, the ghosts do not perceive, we could have Xuan Yong send us rations, medications and arrow darts and weapons Part of it will be transported into the city via the tunnel, the rest can be hidden on the mountain and fields near the exit, so that e run aon’t lack food supplies and run short of arrows Even if Li shi+o and pursue relentlessly from behind, ill still be in a position to deal with hin and Ba Fenghan have any objection? Relying on Xu Ziling’s inco the enemy territory was as easy as a hand’s turn Moreover, he could lead the transporting-grain troops the Gods do not know, the ghosts do not perceive – to sneak back into the city
Kou Zhong gladly said, “I’ll entrust everything to Ling Shaoi then”
Pointing to Li Yuanji’s co a tunnel that leads directly to Li Yuanji’s doghouse?”
Laughing involuntarily, Ba Fenghan said, “It won’t work unless you get rid of wang shi+chong first”
Kou Zhong said, “If Li Yuanji’s is killed, Luoyang’s siege will be autoree?”
Xu Ziling understood his intentions, Kou Zhong was unwilling to look on helplessly at Dou Jiande being defeated and dispersed He advised, “To dig such a tunnel will need at least twenty days, that is assu the way, plus it will delay the tunnel project to the south Even if wang shi+chong is willing to cooperate sincerely, in terht!” Kou Zhong dejectedly said, “Let’s proceed according to the plan we agreed on I hope Dou Jiande can display his great divine power to capture Hulao, so that we can successfully retreat, along the way going down south we can capture Xiangyang, and enjoy a little bit of just and honest good fortune”
The next day at dusk, Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan led the troops to go out and attack; they were just bluffing, they wanted to attract the attention of the besieging-the-city army’s attention, while Chen Laomou seized the opportunity to open access to the tunnel, constructing an ingeniously-designed concealed exit, while Xu Ziling also took the opportunity to slip out of the exit and go to Chenliu, so that they could transport food and weapons back
In order to confuse the ene and the others took turns to attack, to fill the trenches and destroy the arrohile underground, Chen Lao the first tunnel to dig cross tunnel, so that they could dig the other two tunnels from several different sections at the sa ca troops; he also brought bad news
It turned out that Li shi+ that the Tang Army’s horses had exhausted their fodder supply, so that they had to take their horses to Hebei, while transferring a large nu the news, Dou Jiande was greatly delighted, thinking that this was a good opportunity to attack Hulao, hence the whole nest co out, he mobilized the main forces out of Banzhu, and set up battle formation at Niukouzhu, connected to the Yellow River in the north, approaching Fan River to the west, leaning on the Magpie Mountain on the south The battle for over e the opponent to a fight
Li shi+min setup his battle formation about a li on the other side of the Fan River to o out, so that it beca-opposite-each-other situation
The proble food supplies, while Li shi+min had elite soldiers, a at his ease for the exhausted enemy [yep, another idiom] Furthermore, he had Hulao behind hireatly benefit the Tang Arzhi, and so on were not too optimistic about Dou Jiande