Under the banner covering the sky, Wang Shichong, under escort of a group of high-ranking military officers with the same family name and generals and trusted aides who had been with him for many years climbed onto the temporary structure to inspect the troops, which was built at the southern end of the large public square between the Imperial City and the Palace City. It was a wooden platform erected outside the Chengtian Gate to be used by the commander-in-chief to personally move an army and send a general, to confer soldier tally1 and commander seal.

On the public square, the number of Zheng Army participating in the swearing-in ceremony reached ten thousand, all were Wang Shichongs personal guards, the core force supporting Wang Shichong to be the emperor, hence everybodys morale was high, their fighting spirit was intense.

Civil and military officials separately took their position on the appointed general platforms on either side, the total was more than three hundred men.

With Wang Xuanshu eagerly leading him, Kou Zhong came to Zhang Zhenzhou and Yang Gongqings side. The three men looked at each other and smiled bitterly, knowing that under such circumstances, they could forget about assassinating Wang Shichong.

After settling Kou Zhong down, Wang Xuanshu moved to the other side of the commander-in-chief platform to join the ranks of his relatives, who were mostly from the Wang Clan.

Sweeping his gaze around, Kou Zhong saw that the men who knew him, such as Tian Zan, Yang Qing, Lang Feng, Song Mengqiu, and the others were smiling and sending their greetings toward him; those who did not know him also nodded politely at him, which showed that among Wang Shichongs generals, Kou Zhong was no-one-did-not-know and a highly-valued figure.

Zhang Zhenzhou leaned over and whispered in his ear, After the swearing-in ceremony, Wang Shichong might immediately send the army to Cijian, we must look for another opportunity.

Although there were more than ten thousand people gathered at the public square, it was the crow and peacock make no sound; the atmosphere was stately, solemn and respectful.

Kou Zhong cast his gaze toward Wang Shichong, sitting quietly on the Dragon Throne on the stage. Standing behind him were more than a dozen martial art masters, his personal guards, with the honorable crown prince Wang Xuanying standing on his right side. What is Wang Shichong waiting for? he asked in surprise.

Zhang Zhenzhou replied, He is waiting for the auspicious time, the good chen hour [7-9am].

He had not finished speaking, from the tower of the Chengtian Gate came the sound of the bell. The officers and soldiers cheered at the same time, their shouts rose straight up into the clear sky above the Palace City.

Fully content with his achievements [idiom], Wang Shichong rose up to his full height, raised up his hands, waited for the cheers of the officers and soldiers to gradually subside, and then he loudly presented his oration, saying, Since the House of Sui collapsed, the Tang rises up in Guanzhong, and the Zheng Emperor reigns in Henan, I, Wang Shichong, have never had any intention to invade the north. Nowadays Li Yuan orders his second son Shimin to invade our territory, desiring to destroy our homeland, they are indeed bullying us too much. Zhen [I (imperial use)] accept abdication and ascend to the throne and then he enumerated and sang praises to his own achievements and virtue.

Listening to that, Kou Zhong shook his head. Just by listening to Wang Shichongs opening remarks, it was obvious that he still had the mentality of wanting to set up an independent regime and proclaim himself hegemon; compared to the Li Clan who made unifying the land under heaven their business, he was far inferior.

No longer in the mood to listen further, he leaned over and whispered in Yang Gongqings ear, asking, Hows Cijians situation?

Yang Gongqing also responded in low voice, The situation is critical, Li Clans vanguard troops under the command of Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie already reached Xinan. They linked up with Luo Shixins rebel army and could advance toward Cijian any moment. All three of them were serving together under Li Mi, so working together is just like a fish back in the water. Luo Shixin also has deep understanding of what is true and what is false in our troops; therefore, this hard battle of Cijian is by no means easy to fight.

A burst of grief welled up in Kou Zhongs heart; the first battle, and he already had to face his own friends Qin Shubao and Cheng Yaojin. Certainly Nature [as the mother of all things] was playing tricks on human beings. Smiling ruefully, he said, Why would Luo Shixin rebel against the Zheng and surrender to the Tang for no reason? At least he ought to wait until the Zheng Kingdom send out the troops under his command unfavorably before surrendering; it wouldnt be too late, would it?

Yang Gongqing replied helplessly, Why else but for Wang Shichongs paranoia repeatedly wearing him out? Originally Wang Shichong treated Luo Shixin extremely generously; afterwards, he saw other Li Mis former high-ranking military officers surrendered one by one, he no longer paid attention to Luo Shixin, he even ordered Luo Shixin to return to Luoyang, an obvious sign that he was going to send other high-ranking military officer to replace him in guarding Xinan. Thereupon Luo Shixin surrendered to the Tang in anger, resulting in Cijian being caught in critical situation.

This moment Wang Shichong finished his oration. Led by the generals of Wang Clan, the Zheng army cheered together, Long live our Emperor! Great Zheng will prevail! Their shouts drowned the two mens conversation.

The important moment of assigning military authority and functions has finally arrived.

Xu Ziling finally understood what the without-any-flaw Shi Zhixuan really look like. Moreover, he directly experienced Shi Feixuans painstaking effort in thousand ways, a hundred plans to prevent Shi Zhixuans full recovery.

In the Shi Zhixuan of the past, his shenfa remained a shenfa, his Bu Si Yin only cared about his Bu Si Yin, only both aspects were working together seamlessly. However, in the Shi Zhixuan now, the two different gong fa [skill/power method], which had been separated for a long fifteen-year period, finally converged again, forming one perfect and without blemish entity, no longer had the least bit of hole or flaw.

Shi Zhixuan laughed involuntarily. He appeared to be completely oblivious of Xu Zilings punch directly attacking his face; he said, I wonder if Ziling knew that Bu Si Yin is merely one kind of brilliant illusion technique.

Xu Ziling groaned inwardly, he secretly mused that if I, someone who has had many encounters with him, still could not see through his illusion technique, other people would not be able to see it even more.

The Demonic King Shi Zhixuan was still standing in a relaxed manner approximately half a zhang away from him, and it appeared that very soon Xu Zilings fist would blast a big hole on his face, yet he was completely unable to see how Shi Zhixuan was going to meet this contingency.

Shi Zhixuan seemed to be there, but he did not seem to be there either; he seemed to be floating in and out between existences, where stillness contained within movement, and movement born inside stillness. Xu Ziling was completely unable to grasp his next step.

The without-any-flaw Shi Zhixuan ought to be like this.

He no longer dared to continue his punch; pulling his fist back, he converted it into a palm facing outward, the other hand moving forward to meet it, two hands folding together to form a lotus flower, and then all ten fingers trembled like a wave, like a newly-bloomed lotus flower, quite like a mysterious strange posture that could release some kind of abstruse mysterious inner essence.

In itself, this kind of alive lotus flower, simulated with both hands was also flawless, it could similarly be considered Xu Zilings style of No Attack.

Highly interested, Shi Zhixuan looked closely at Xu Zilings lotus flower hand image, which true or false was difficult to tell; emotionally moved, he said, I have never thought that this method can deal with Ol Shis Bu Si Yin, but it also makes me jealous of your talent, afraid that one day you might really succeed. Ziling, dont blame me for being ruthless, I have no other choice.

His left hand stretched out forward, with a rapid-beyond-human-comprehension technique he continuously drew nearly ten circles in front of his chest, big and small, in different angles and planes, odd and strange to the extreme point. Immediately the qi power sucked the air.

Xu Zilings mind entered the Moon in the Well realm, his pair of eyes was fixed to Shi Zhixuans movements without blinking at all, he did not dare to miss the tiniest detail. Smiling, he said, If from the beginning Xie Wang [demonic king] is this straightforward, wont we need to waste so much lips and tongue?

Shi Zhixuan laughed calmly. He pulled the power from his left hand as if he wanted to put it behind his back, while at the same time the fingers on his right hand closed together to become a palm chop, following a certain mysterious, strange trajectory, like a spirit snake bored through a hole, accurately passing through the center of each qi ring that he had just drawn in the air, with divine energy so marvelous that it was difficult to believe.

Such an amazing move, Xu Ziling had never thought about, not even in his dream. More than a thousand brimming-with-destructive-power qi rings, all were hanging by Shi Zhixuans wrist. The edge of his right palm swiftly stabbed toward Xu Zilings lotus hand image, the target was the stamen at the center of the flower.

This was the strongest point, but was also the weakest point.

Xu Ziling had full confidence that he could take Shi Zhixuans palm strike head-on, but he was well aware that he could not cope with the more than a dozen brimming-with-destructive-power qi rings attack that would follow; therefore, the strongest point immediately sank down to become the biggest weak point.

No one understood how formidable Shi Zhixuan was more than Xu Ziling; he has had many confrontations against him. Moreover, he had witnessed how he went all-out in dealing with Shi Feixuan and Zhu Yuyans joint attack. But that was still the Shi Zhixuan with the flaw, where the Bu Si Yin and the Huan Mo Shenfa had not merged like water and milk, completely homogeneous like right now.

Xu Zilings hands separated, but were swiftly closing together again. By the time the distance between the hollow of the palms was approximately half a chi, left and right palms separately shot a roll of qi power, which closed together to become spiraling sphere of qi, to meet the edge of Shi Zhixuans stabbing-over palm head-on.

He was forced to launch this counterattack under no-strategy-left-to-try situation.

Bang! Bang!

The sound of clashing qi power lingered on faintly. The qi power from the edge of Shi Zhixuans palm shocked Xu Ziling three steps back first, and then each qi ring jolted Xu Ziling one step back, while Xu Ziling continuously released more than a dozen spiraling spheres of qi, and by the time he blocked the last qi ring, Bang! His back hit the western wall of the hall. His throat tasted salty, he suddenly spurted out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Surprisingly, Shi Zhixuan did not follow up a victory and press home the attack. He threw his head back in laughter and said, Good! You used circles to defeat circles; fancy that you have this kind of ability. Since I woke up from the nightmare, I have brought together and integrated all the skills I learned my whole life, transforming the complicated into simple seven styles, which I call Bu Si Qi Huan [seven illusions/fantasy of the not dead]. This was the first huanfa [fantasy/illusion method], yi xu huan shi [using empty to respond to solid], taking its meaning from creating countless changes without attaching any importance to reality. You are able to only suffer injury without dying, it is extremely rare.

Hearing that, Xu Ziling drew out a mouthful of cold air. After spurting out blood, the pressure of his internal injury was greatly lessened; also by relying on the Long-Life-Qis miraculous healing nature, he was able to maintain a strong fighting power. Shi Zhixuans remark entering his ear, he knew that not only Shi Zhixuan has recovered his original state before suffering the split-personality disorder, he even made a breakthrough by creating the marvelous skill of Bu Si Qi Huan.

Just to block the first illusion, he was already straining; how was he going to withstand the other six illusions? However, he also had a vague feeling that it was part of Shi Zhixuans psychological warfare, he wanted to do everything to break his fighting spirit. If Xu Ziling was having the thought to run away, then he was falling into Shi Zhixuans trap.

He definitely could not run away from Shi Zhixuans Bu Si Qi Huan.

Shi Zhixuan appeared to be calm, confident and at ease, but the fact was that his qi power already enshrouded and locked him. Furthermore, Xu Ziling also understood that Shi Zhixuan had the ability to borrow the qi to look inside the enemy. Any changes of the true qi within his body, nothing could be hidden from him. Any changes that Xu Ziling made, whether to strike back or to escape, would only attract Shi Zhixuans focused deadly attack.

Unfortunately, he could no longer peek into the opponents movement and stillness from the qi power contact, because in the without-any-flaw Shi Zhixuan, there was no longer any gap that he could find, there was no void that he could pry into.

If he could not change this kind of situation, then today next year would be the anniversary of his death.

Xu Ziling would rather face Bi Xuan than facing Shi Zhixuan.

He quickly brought and maintained the true qi within his body to its peak state. He laughed calmly and said, Xie Wang, please bestow instruction!

Shi Zhixuan revealed an astonished look. Frowning, he said, Ziling is this brilliant, you indeed exceed my expectation. Ay, you clearly know that if I cannot produce qi in a heartbeat, I practically cannot act ruthlessly.

The qi power suddenly disappeared.

Xu Ziling only felt empty and fluttering, an unbearable sense that he had nowhere to apply his power. Bad! he cried inwardly. It was as if Shi Zhixuan turned from being existing to being nothing, and then from being nothing he suddenly appeared five chi in front of him, with his right hand stretched out, the middle finger was jabbing at the space between his eyebrows.

Within this short distance, Shi Zhixuans technique changed millions of times, he was creating a subtle, refined and amazing change every single instant. If he failed to see through any of these changes, he would be hit by the finger, and that would mean tragic ending of being defeated and perishing. And each change brought about an illusion, so that others could not tell which one was true, which one was false.

Kou Zhong set off with Yang Gongqings troops heading for Cijian. Yang Gongqings original division had more than five thousand men, all were the soldiers and their younger generation who had been with him for many years. Even though Wang Shichong was mistrustful to everybody, he did not dare to shake Yang Gongqings force, such as replacing Yang Gongqing with someone else, or other initiatives, because it would only provoke immediate mutiny. Yang Gongqing was originally a famous militia leader, who later on defected to Wang Shichong; therefore, his status was special.

This well-trained division, this army unit that has been through battles for a long time was stationed at the east bank of Luo River, west of Luoyang. Kou Zhong and Yang Gongqing rode lightly out of the city, struck the camp, and started moving immediately, to become Wang Shichongs vanguard unit heading for Cijian.

Zhang Zhenzhou had another assignment; he was sent to defend Shouan, due south from Cijian. If Cijian fell, Shouan was the other strategic town most likely to be attacked.

It was clear that in order to pacify these two most important high-ranking military officers, Wang Shichong, fully aware of the deep relationship between the two, arranged to have Yang Gongqing nearby, so that if Zhang Zhenzhou was thinking of rebelling, he must think thrice. He was willing to let Kou Zhong and Yang Gongqing be together, it was another brilliant move, because Kou Zhong was definitely someone who would never surrender to Li Shimin. Only it had never occurred to him that Yang Gongqing was already considering serving under Kou Zhongs command.

In assigning military leadership duties, Wang Shichong was still relying heavily on the high-ranking military officers of the same family name, with the high-ranking military officers of different surname as deputies, with the Prince of Chu, Wang Shiwei, the Crown Prince Wang Xuanying, the Prince of Qi, Wang Shiyun, the Prince of Han, Wang Xuanshu, the Prince of Lu, Wang Daoxun, five generals defending Luoyang.

The most important Hulao on the east was the responsibility of the Prince of Jing, Wang Xingben. As for the neighboring important cities, Yang Qing was defending Guanchuan, Wei Lu guarding Rongyang, Wang Xiong guarding Zhengyang, and Wang Yaohan defending Bianzhou. Most of these high-ranking military officers were from the old Sui who came with him and became related to him. For example, Yang Qings wife was Wang Shichongs niece.

Another more special arrangement was to send the Prince of Wei, Wang Honglie to Xiangyang. Together with Qian Duguan, they jointly defended this Luoyangs most southerly military strategic city, which could correspond well with Zhu Can.

The other powerful great generals, such as Duan Da, Shan Xiongxin, Bing Yuanzhen, Chen Zhilue, Guo Shancai, Ba Yegang, all were bestowed titles as various great generals were serving directly under Wang Shichong.

Even more formidable move was that Wang Shichong announced that only Lang Feng, Song Mengqiu, and another trusted aide, the high-ranking military officer Zhang Zhifang were the envoys qualified to transmit imperial order from him. This move showed Wang Shichongs rigorous schemes and deep foresight [idiom], to avoid the disaster of his defecting subordinates transmitting fake imperial orders.

Yang Gongqing was proficient in the art of war, he divided his five-thousand-man division into front, middle, and rear, three armies, to correspond with each other. He also sent fast horses first to occupy all high points along the way to Cijian, to ensure the safety of the marching army.

Kou Zhong and Yang Gongqing were riding side-by-side with the middle army, they both felt their enthusiasm waning, they were not in the mood to chat and joke around.

Kou Zhong sighed and said, How much do Yang Gong know about this man, Wang Shichong?

Knitting his brows, Yang Gongqing asked back, Which aspect are you talking about?

Looking straight ahead, Kou Zhong was unable to see the head of the long line of troops and horses; he sighed and said, I am referring to his origin. Since he is a barbarian, why did Emperor Yang still put him in important position?

I am not quite sure, Yang Gongqing replied, I only heard people say that his original surname was Zhi, but as for which Xiyu [western region] tribe he belongs to, I am afraid no one knows. When his Ol Die was little, he followed his mother who married a hegemon with the surname Wang, hence they changed their surname to Wang. As for why Emperor Yang still put him in important position, it should be related to his skill in patting the horse buttocks [flatter], right? Ha!

Kou Zhong could hear the hatred and contempt for Wang Shichong in the tone of his voice, he sighed and said, In that case, why were you, Yang Gong willing to serve him?

Yang Gongqings countenance sank; emotional stirring filling his heart, he said, He was not like this before, but since defeating the Dugu Clan, and then driving you away, furthermore, the big victory over Li Mi, his whole personality changed, and become even more hard to believe. If he had been like this in the past, I would rather kill myself than surrendering to him.

And then he looked at Kou Zhong; his eyes flashing, he lowered his voice and said, Is Shaoshuai saying that I need to save my strength as much as possible?

Inwardly, Kou Zhong was shocked; he spoke in low voice, Are you thinking of turning around and slipping away now?

This is our last chance, Yang Gongqing replied, Shaoshuai just say the word.

Thump! Thump! Kou Zhongs heart was leaping wildly, but then he shook his head in distress and said, If we slip away like that, I guarantee that Zhang Zhenzhou will be the first to open his city to welcome the Tang Army, which would throw Wang Shichongs troop disposition into a big mess, he would be swept away by Li Shimin like bamboo split upon meeting the knife, and then how long is our Pengliang going to survive?

Smiling bitterly, Yang Gongqing said, Its not that I did not think about these problems, its just that you want me and my brothers to throw our lives in for Wang Shichong, this despicable lowly man, its just too unworthy!

Kou Zhong shook his head and said, We are not fighting for Wang Shichong, but for our own survival. I have another proposal that will take Yang Gongs feeling into account better, which is, if we could force Li Shimin back to Xinan, we and Wang Shichong will take our separate way, separate route; what do you think?

Have you been to Cijian? Yang Gongqing asked indifferently.

Kou Zhong heard the singing to a string accompaniment [i.e. education (a reference to teaching the people Confucian values by means of song in ancient times)], he knew Yang Gongqing was offering valuable advice; astonished, he said, Isnt Cijian the most important military strategic city south of Luoyang?

Yang Gongqing sighed and said, Wang Shichong has always wanted to ally himself with Li Yuan to deal with Dou Jiande, hence he sent Dong Shuni to marry into Guanzhong to become imperial concubine, as well as to express his goodwill. Therefore, he did not build big defensive structure in Cijian. Strengthening the military defense between Cijian and Zhucheng was done after defeating Li Mi, therefore, the city defense of Cijian is far inferior to Hulao and Xiangyang, its even not as good as your Pengliang City. The citys perimeter is only about a dozen li, it is located on a hilly plain, without any natural barrier. If we want to beat back Li Shimin, we can only fight a decisive battle with him outside the city.

Kou Zhong drew out a mouthful of cold air, musing that this time the number of troops Wang Shichong could send to Cijian, including Yang Gongqings soldiers, was only around thirty thousand men, the other troops must defend all other strategic points, to guard against the threat of the other four armies, not including Li Shimin, invading their territory. It was only then did he deeply felt Li Shimins brilliance in deploying his army; he was forcing Wang Shichong that he was unable to concentrate all his strength to face Li Shimins main forces attack.

Yang Gongqing spoke heavily, The various generals of Li Shimins Tian Ce Fu are valiant beyond human comprehension, although the Dark [black/mysterious] Armor Cavalry [the term here suggests that even the horses are wearing armor] under his command is only around three thousand strong, they won the accolade as being the Celestial Soldier; mixed within the Tang Army, they often display hard-to-estimate breakthrough power, Xue Ju and Liu Wuzhou suffered big loss because of this. In the battle of Cijian this time, Li Shimin has an overwhelming military strength. Also, due to Luo Shixins surrender, they know Cijian and our situation like the back of their hand. And then there is Xinan as reinforcement and supply source, Shaoshuai, what do you think our chance of success is?

Kou Zhong remembered his own Spearhead Battle Formation; if he let Li Shimins brave generals and Celestial Soldiers carryout the Spearhead Battle Formation toward the Wang Army, not only Cijian would be difficult to protect, out of the thirty thousand troops, how many would be able to escape back into Luoyang would also become a problem.

Yang Gongqing continued, Therefore, if right now we immediately turn toward Pengliang, and then make an attempt before Li Shimins main forces pressing down on our territory to move one step ahead by capturing Jiangdu, it ought to be a sensible act.

Kou Zhongs breathing turned heavy, it was quite a while later that be spoke resolutely, We definitely cannot abandon Luoyang like this, because not only it will affect Bashus future, it would also give me the feeling that I am inferior to Li Shimin. In my opinion, the battle of Luoyang might be the only chance to make Li Shimin suffer defeat. In critical situation, I have confidence that I can persuade Dou Jiande to move to the south to help. My Shao Shuai Army can also use this opportunity to play a role. In the battle of Cijian, we must not shrink back; otherwise, if we take this one step back, there wont be a place for us to die. What we are fighting is a war of attrition; Li Shimin put his troops into trouble by marching to remote regions. No matter how well developed his supply system is, his men will eventually be weary. And thus I, Kou Zhong, in this battle of Cijian, can prove to Li Shimin that I am not easy to deal with. Didnt Wang Shichong bestow me the title of some his Niangs Hu Jia Junshi [protector of ones good self military advisor]? Although I lack military power, on the battlefield, among thousands of army and ten thousands of horses, how could he not listen to me?

Yang Gongqing threw his head back in laughter and said, Very well! Everything will be done according to Shaoshuais words. If your way of thinking is the same as mine, then you wont be the Kou Shaoshuai, whose name shook the world, whom nobody does not know.

1 From dictionary: tiger tally, a two-piece object made in the shape of a tiger, used in ancient China as proof of authority. One half of a tally could be issued to a military officer and this would be matched with the other half when verification was required.