As all the Luohai marines masquerading as pirates, by order of Mu Rongfeng, disembarked from their warships and landed on the shore, marines of the Great Wen from the merchant ships in the port also got ashore. At the same time, the port guards, who hadn’t really been lured far away, charged out of hiding and towards Mu Rongfeng and the several thousand troops under his command.
“Kill these goddamn pirates! Take no prisoners!”
Mu Rongfeng, in order to hide his identity to make it more convenient to carry out his plan, had disguised himself as a pirate, but by doing that, he had actually tossed away his protective talisman. Now soldiers of the Great Wen could directly kill him without any misgivings.
“Do not stay here! Retreat north!” bawled Mu Rongfeng, beside himself with rage. Watching this scene, he inwardly cursed Wang Xiangxin numerous times. He knew very well that with this army of merely several thousand men, he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating the Great Wen’s navy and the Haizhou garrison, that he must not fight the enemy head on, that the right thing to do was make his escape as quick as possible.
According to his original plan, this several-thousand-man army of his was supposed to launch a sneak attack on Pingtao City, blow up the port, prevent the navy of the Great Wen from landing on the shore to save Pingtao City, then join hands with Wang Xiangxin’s army to attack the Haizhou garrison from two sides, but it’d never crossed his mind that he and his men would be forced into running for their lives before they could take action!
Mu Rongfeng was consumed with fury. He and Shan Congyi had agreed that they would cooperate with Wang Xiangxin and assist him to escalate the situation and make life difficult for Yuwen Tong, but now Wang Xiangxin had betrayed him, and he had no idea whether or not Shan Congyi had played a part in this. What with the chaos, Mu Rongfeng was unable to give it any careful thought and believed that the only plausible explanation was he’d been betrayed. Right now he must shake off the marines of the Great Wen and the port guards as soon as possible…
“This is bad, Your Highness. The road ahead is blockaded. It–It’s the Haizhou garrison!”
“What?!”
…
At the checkpoint on the boundary between Jiangzhou and Haizhou.
This checkpoint was located on a relatively high position. Standing on the hilltop, people could see the movements in and outside Pingtao City. Besides, there were also faint battle cries coming from that direction. One of the soldiers on duty, as a matter of urgency, hurriedly reported to his superior what was happening at the port.
“General! Some pirates made a landing at the port outside Pingtao City. The naval forces of the Great Wen pursued them to the shore, disembarked and caught up with them. The two sides have engaged.”
“What?!”
The general in charge of the checkpoint was thunderstruck. “Are they real pirates or–”
“I couldn’t see them clearly.”
The general hastened to the hilltop to see for himself and then returned. The round trip to the hilltop took him quite some time. Eventually he decided that no matter whether those people were real pirates or not, the circumstances were obviously quite suspicious, that he needed to report it to Wang Xiangxin without delay.
Wang Xiangxin was hiding in the military encampment, and currently the general was the only one aware of his true identity. When the general found Wang Xiangxin, the latter was very displeased. “Why are you here? Did I not tell you to never risk blowing my cover identity?!”
“There’s an emergency, Commander. Those pirates took action ahead of schedule and are now surrounded by the marines. As far as I could tell, those people from the Luohai Kingdom are probably among them!”
“How did that happen?!”
Wang Xiangxin was immediately rendered too shocked to consider how to punish the general for coming to his hiding place without his consent, his face instantly darkening.
“Commander, should we go there to rescue them right away or…” said the general in an anxious tone.
Heedless of the risk of blowing his cover, Wang Xiangxin hurried to the hilltop to look in the direction of the ongoing rough-and-tumble in the distance. The battle cry was getting clearer and clearer. If Mu Rongfeng was indeed in there and he didn’t go to rescue Mu Rongfeng, he would be leaving Mu Rongfeng and his men in the lurch, but why had Mu Rongfeng chosen to make his move on this day?!
…
Outside Pingtao City, Mu Rongfeng and his men were ringed. The city gates had been shut. They were almost like fish in a barrel.
“Your Highness, this whole thing is so weird. Maybe we should send a signal and see if Wang Xiangxin would come to our rescue!” said one of Mu Rongfeng’s subordinates, who was relatively sober-minded.
This was their only option, and Mu Rongfeng had to take it with an inclination of the head, though he hated Wang Xiangxin’s and Shan Congyi’s guts.
Thus, a signal flare was sent up into the sky and exploded.
In the checkpoint in the distance, Wang Xiangxin’s face changed drastically at the sound. “Mu Rongfeng is really there!”
“What do we do, Commander? I think we might have a chance of saving the day if we go down there and join hands with Mu Rongfeng to attack them from two sides!” said the general.
Wang Xiangxin, however, believed otherwise. “Why did Mu Rongfeng make his move on this day? Why hasn’t the port been blown up? Why have the naval forces of the Great Wen arrived so soon? It must be because Mu Rongfeng’s whereabouts had been leaked some time before, and maybe even…”
After a brief pause, he continued through gritted teeth, “The letter I wrote to Mu Rongfeng might’ve been tampered with. Otherwise he wouldn’t have chosen to take action ahead of schedule without telling me! Given the current circumstances, we would be walking straight into a trap laid by the Haizhou garrison if we go out there!”
“B–But the Wan Kingdom’s support has become the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow already. If we stay here, we’ll lose the Luohai Kingdom’s support as well, and our chance of surviving the attack from the army of the imperial court under Yuwen Tong’s command would be…”
The general didn’t finish his sentence, but his meaning was explicit. Wang Xiangxin was not an incarnation of the God of War, and the special geographical location of Jiangzhou was the sole reason why he had dared stay in this prefecture, blockade the four checkpoints and work against the imperial court. Wang Xiangxin knew that given the current strength of the rebel forces in Jiangzhou, he didn’t stand a chance of defeating Yuwen Tong’s army on the battlefield.
As a result, he had to expand his army. Even if he couldn’t take Haizhou, he must take Pingtao City!
Clenching his teeth, Wang Xiangxin stared fixedly in the direction of Pingtao City. After a long moment’s apparently painful internal struggle, he said, “Get the men into marching formation. We’re going to Pingtao City! Your job is to take some men and stall the Haizhou garrison. I’ll go to Mu Rongfeng’s rescue!”
“Yes, Commander!” replied the general.
…
The movements of the Jiangzhou rebel army immediately came to the knowledge of Hai Mu, the commander of the Haizhou garrison, whose men had been staking out the checkpoint constantly. He sneered and gave the order for the whole garrison to get ready to fight the Jiangzhou rebel army who would soon come out of the checkpoint.
The Jiangzhou rebel army poured out of the checkpoint with a lot of noises. The Haizhou garrison, who had been lying in wait for some time, immediately launched an offensive.
Thunderous beat of battle drums could be distinctly heard both in and outside Pingtao City.
…
“Wang Xiangxin made his move. It’s time I went there to take a look.”
Ling Zhang turned around to look in another direction. Wang Dashan and some others had gone to finish the last step of the deployment of the formation. Wang Xiangxin had just set out to rescue his allies when he was about to enter a containment formation!
Looking in the direction of Mu Rongfeng who was putting up a desperate fight, Yuwen Tong said, “Be careful.”
“I will,” Ling Zhang answered and then left with some bodyguards.
Yuwen Tong instructed, “Yao Yi, go and protect him.”
Yao Yi glanced at the other bodyguards beside Yuwen Tong and then replied with a head bob, “Yes, Sire.”
Mu Rongfeng was now like a turtle in a jar, posing no threat to anybody.
…
As the Haizhou garrison had pre-planned the ambush, the Jiangzhou rebel army had just went through the gate of the checkpoint when they were attacked and got into tangled fighting. Unable to extricate his army from the battle to have them go to Pingtao City to rescue Mu Rongfeng, Wang Xiangxin had no alternative but to break out of the surrounding circle with only a small number of soldiers and his hit squad while the Haizhou garrison were fighting the main force of the Jiangzhou rebel army, galloping towards Pingtao City.
“They’re coming.”
Wang Dashan and the other twenty-three bodyguards, along with two teams of picked soldiers, had been waiting for quite some time. At the sight of the group of rebels hurtling downhill to rescue their allies, they opened the entrance of the containment formation that they’d deployed beforehand, waiting for the targets to enter.
“These people are not what they appear to be. Look, those wearing black skintight outfits don’t seem like soldiers. They’re more like…”
“Kung fu masters. They’re probably Wang Xiangxin’s hit squad that Young Master once mentioned.”
“Everybody stay sharp!”
All of them squared their shoulders, poised to attack. Ling Zhang arrived just in time to see Wang Xiangxin and his men charge into the containment formation, and he naturally noticed the group of kung fu masters beside Wang Xiangxin who were clothed in black skintight outfits.
One of Wang Xiangxin’s men, shortly after following him into the large-scale containment formation, perceived that something was wrong. “Wait!” he cautioned.
Wang Xiangxin on horseback looked at him in bewilderment, “What’s the matter?”
“Something’s not right. Look at the road ahead of us. I’m sure it was different before we exited the checkpoint. That turning wasn’t there, and neither was this fog!” answered the man, his cold eyes sweeping around him, a suspicious look on his face.
It was after hearing his warning that Wang Xiangxin observed that fog had quietly begun to close in. It was clearly still daytime, but somehow the sky suddenly darkened. He remembered very well the weather hadn’t been like this a short while before…
Wang Xiangxin immediately turned his horse to look in the opposite direction only to find that the road along which they had traveled to this place had vanished without a trace, and the thunderous beating of battle drums was also receding into the distance, along with the battle cry. All of a sudden, a deathly hush reigned!
“We’re trapped.” Wang Xiangxin clenched his teeth, his eyes menacingly darting around. Except for his men, everything was blurring and flickering, making it difficult for him to see any of them clearly.
…
Meanwhile, at the eastern city gates, most of Mu Rongfeng’s men had been downed, the surviving ones closely clustering around him.
Looking at Mu Rongfeng, Yuwen Tong sneered, “Tell them I want Mu Rongfeng alive.”
“Yes, Sire!” one of his bodyguards replied and then immediately took a flying leap, heading for the city gates to deliver the instruction.
Eyes on Mu Rongfeng who was now a sorry sight, Yuwen Tong inwardly sneered another few times. Currently the Luohai Kingdom’s exchequer was fuller than either of the other two countries’. Unlike the Wan Kingdom which was now in dire poverty, the Luohai Kingdom was quite wealthy and would pay a lot of ransom in exchange for its crown prince. Mu Rongfeng’s life meant nothing to the Great Wen, but money meant a lot to it.
Besides, considering the fairly complicated domestic situation of the Luohai Kingdom, he would very likely be doing the potential rebel forces in the Luohai Kingdom a favor if he killed Mu Rongfeng. From the vantage point of the present, it was best if the Luohai Kingdom stayed in civil strife. Letting Mu Rongfeng go back would do more good than killing him would.
Looking at Mu Rongfeng, Yuwen Tong had started pondering how to bargain with the Luohai Kingdom.
Mu Rongfeng was unaware that his opponent had put a mental price tag on him, that he was like a fish waiting to be sold back to the Luohai Kingdom.
“Your Highness, we’re in a very unfavorable situation. It’s been such a long time since we shot the signal flare, and the beating of battle drums has lasted quite some time as well, but there’s still no sign of backup. I think Wang Xiangxin either has no intention of coming to our rescue or has been intercepted. Maybe we should figure out another way.”
Mu Rongfeng’s face was sepulchral. A while before, when he’d heard the beating of battle drums, he’d felt a sense of relief and been waiting for backup from Wang Xiangxin since then. However, after such a long time, his men had been downed one after another, and there were now only several hundred of them left, but Wang Xiangxin’s rescue team still hadn’t arrived. If things went on like this, it wouldn’t be long before his men were wiped out.
“Hang in there for a while longer. If Wang Xiangxin still doesn’t show up with reinforcements, I’ll reveal my identity.”
All those beside him were relieved at these words, feeling lucky that they didn’t really have to fight to their last breaths in this place.
Mu Rongfeng, however, was unable to feel a shred of relief. If Wang Xiangxin came to his rescue, he might get a chance to turn the tide; if not, all his dignity as the crown prince of the Luohai Kingdom would be lost, and he could already see what kind of consequences he would have to face in the future.
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