Book 27 - Chapter 10 – The Guest Acts as the Host (1/2)
Chapter 10 – The Guest Acts as the Host
That evening, about the second watch of the night (9-11p, under the cold wind and hard rain, sailing along the Han River in the direction of Xiangyang
Steering the boat was Xu Ziling He and Kou Zhong disguised theuan’s men Naturally they could not let a royalty like Tuli Khan to do such athe hel and Tuli were sitting on the boatching for anythe river course, as well as on both banks of the river With the wind on their tail, they s upstreah of relief
Kou Zhong looked up to feel the taste of rain on his face As if talking in his sleep, he said, “Zhao Deyan’s spy clearly kneho Ziling and I are; otherwise, he could not possibly pretend not to recognize us, and would not avert his eyes as theybamboo rain hat, nodded and said, “I also noticed that; this is called a thief having a guilty conscience The most blatant hen I ordered hi Qiaoli, unexpectedly he did not look the least bit surprised Just now, before we set sail, I really wanted to grab a spear and get rid of hi smiled and said, “Did Khan notice that before we set sail, his hand was tre he did was to thank God for His kindness”
Thinking deeply, Tuli said, “Do you think we can co said, “We set off this late at night, hence we created the situation where they did not have enough tiainst the current, we can’t go faster than swift horses galloping along the land route In roup of riders ht successfully be able to intercept us And theyis the confluence of Xiao River and Han River, the road diverges to various directions, so that pursuing us will be a lot more difficult!”
Tuli nodded and said, “They are uan In this case, it see will be difficult to avoid”
Kou Zhong said, “Qian Duguan is another unclear factor Yin Gui Pai is the biggest Sect within the deth, they are not inferior to shi+ Feixuan and the Four Great Holy Monks’ troops If this ti loss, based on their style, they would not be willing to let the ood shoill come one after another”
Tuli pondered silently
Kou Zhong asked, “Does ‘Khan’ mean the emperor?”
“More or less,” Tuli replied, “But there’s great and lesser distinction Great Khan is the one considered real sovereign Lesser Khan is like your wangzi [prince, son of a king] or Taizi [crown prince] If Xieli is done for, the one most qualified to ascend the Great Khan position issaid, “In that case, when he bestowed you the lesser Khan title in the past, it must be because he was constrained by circumstances and did not have any choice Now that his imperial throne is stable, he wants to find a way to eli all-out against you, otherwise he will lose a golden opportunity and fail to gain victory Ha! Very good!”
Sood about it?”
Kou Zhong cheerfully said, “When you are desperately seeking so, there’s the possibility you will fail Desperate people s; it’s difficult to escape froeable person”
Tuli stared at hi his head and said, “Only now I really understand why Li shi+min considers you as his only formidable opponent Shao Shuai is that kind of natural born leader Although I, Tuli, a a battle side by side with you, being subjected to your coence and a hundred-sche charisma, not only I am ready to hear and obey your order, I will take pleasure in it This is a trait that even Li shi+’s old face turned red, he said, “Khan overpraised uished country, are you going to see Xieli?”
Tuli said, “My command tent is located north of your Youzhou [ancient province in north Hebei and Liaoning], governing several dozens of khanates on the east side, just like another Khan court, with our own army If he is not benevolent, I won’t be friendly, ould I want to look up at his breath!”
Slapping his leg, Kou Zhong said, “That’s even better If Yun Shuai won’t succeed, Zhao Deyan will be forced to make his move, then ill have a chance to kill him This is splendid!”
And then he asked, “That kid Li Yuanji, how’s his martial art skill? Have Khan ever played a hand or tith hi?”
Tuli said, “They are three brothers, the difference in h I have not pitted h Li Yuanji is outstanding, he can’t surpass Li Shentong Athas had experienced fighting against Li Shentong; hearing Tuli’s remark, he was emotionally moved and said, “That can be considered not bad at all”
Thisa sharp corner, the river course turned perfectly straight and narrow Under the drizzle and the dark of the night, they saw bright lanterns ahead, four warshi+ps were sailing speedily toward them The three men were shocked; how could the enemy intercept thehtened both sides of the river A difficult-to-count nu places under the bushes and in the forest, with arrow on the bow, ready to shoot The three felt like they were plunging into a nightmare abyss
The sound of trebuchets and crossbowfrom the warshi+ps ahead with ten-thousand-jun thunderbolt uard
Just before the rocks and arrows reached the drew the Moon in the Well, pounced forward and swept the saber across the boat’s only !’
Upon contact with the saber, the solid ile piece of paper
This saber strike carried the entire power stored up in Kou Zhong’s body; it was certainly no s under tailwind, when the mast broke, naturally the sail fell swiftly forward totoward the understood Kou Zhong’s intention They knew that even if they jumped off the boat to flee, it would still be difficult to avoid perishi+ng under the arrows The only way out was to seize the space and ti!’
Tuli swiftly pushed forith both pal a splash of water in front of the boat Having lost its only sail, ied direction and swiftly floated backward
Xu Ziling cheered inwardly Applying pressure with his foot, he pushed the boat so that it spun seven, eight times in succession, and tilted and slipped backward about ten zhang If not for they were traveling against the stream, it would be difficult to exploit the current to achieve such an ideal result
All the shooting rocks and arrows hit an empty space
The ene, they were already outside the range of the archers on both sides of the river
Kou Zhong shouted loudly, “Pull to the shore! Brothers!”
Pulling his body up, he fleard the shore, which was noand Tuli followed closely behind In the blink of an eye they disappeared into the darkness of the forest
‘Boo rock hit their abandoned boat at the same time The poor boat shattered on contact, unable to s happened within a period of ten breathings, but the danger involved was not inferior in any way to a life and death shon between two martial art masters If any one of these three reacted a bit slower or slightly inaccurately, they would turn into corpses going down into the bottom of the river; definitely no luck was involved here Even with Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s ability, if they wanted go deep underwater, which was only about two zhang depth, hiding fro rocks was already beyond their reach
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling have a strange feeling of history repeating itself, like that ti away fro thehan’s place, and Shen Luoyan’s strange bird was replaced by an evenflitted through the gaps ale, focusing his power into his eyes to look around But under the drizzling rain and dark night, he could barely see a sround, circling overhead silently
Frowning, he said, “I wonder if this flat-feathered chap is Yun Shuai’s or Zhao Deyan? Khan, Laoxiong, can you tell?”
Tuli replied with a rueful smile, “You make me feel more and more inferior All I can see is an expanse of darkness; were it not for you tellingwatched by a hawk Yet even during dayti to fly down”
Xu Ziling said, “Just now, a us at the Han River must be Zhu Can and Yun Shuai’s coalition army If it was Zhao Deyan, it’s less likely that he’d have this kind of troop arrangement and momentum We are a bit careless as well; we did not expect the ene for rabbits [idio off the river course, while sending out the hawk to h altitude, and then conveniently lay out the a off the opponent’s way Therefore, the possibility that this hawk belongs to Yun Shuai is rather high”