Book 12 Chapter 9 - Brilliant Scheme to Escape
The four people hid behind a mountaintop. On the distant, from all directions came long queue of torches, moving slowly like a fiery dragon. It appeared that they had fallen into another heavy siege.
Kou Zhong pointed to a place about five li to their left, where several lanterns of three different colors, red, white and yellow, were hung on bamboo poles, each one reached several zhang high. "Xiao Ling,” he said, his voice was filled with hatred, "Your Shen sweetheart is no good; were it not for her directing her people using those lanterns, how could we fall into the situation we are in now?”
Dong Shuni, who was behind Xu Ziling, pushed him and said sourly, "Shen Luoyan is your old flame?”
Xu Ziling crossly said, "You need to stop listening to Zhong Shao's nonsense; she and I don't have the least bit of involvement.”
"That's really good then!” Dong Shuni excitedly said.
Seeing that while being surrounded by the enemies, isolated and without help, yet she still maintained her blunt demeanor and expressed her jealousy openly, the three men could only shake their heads and smile ruefully.
Letting out a cold snort, Ba Fenghan said, "If I am guessing correctly, Li Mi and the Two-Malevolent of Changbai are all here. Otherwise their morale would not be this high.”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were shocked. Speaking about martial art skill, Li Mi might rank in the top three among the warlords vying for supremacy over the world, while the Two-Malevolent of Changbai were second only to Wang Bo. Merely these three, they would have to struggle to cope with, not to mention the rest of the people, plus they had to protect this pampered girl.
Ba Fenghan went on, "Were it not for tracking experts like Fu Zhen presiding over the general situation, we would not be stuck in this predicament.”
Kou Zhong nodded and said, "We already used all kinds of techniques, and still cannot get rid of them, and now their hidden troops are pressing from all sides that we can't advance or retreat. By this time they ought to know our position in general, and are gradually tightening the net around us. This is an extremely brilliant scheme.”
Pointing to the southeast, Xu Ziling asked, "Isn't Yanshi in that direction?”
"Exactly,” Ba Fenghan replied, "Less than thirty li.”
This moment Dong Shuni also realized the gravity of their situation; she spoke in low voice, "Can we forcibly break our way through?”
"That would be our contingency plan,” Kou Zhong replied, "The enemy is already cleat about our strength. If they do not have any confidence, they would not foolishly come here to provoke us. Just by counting the torches' light, I can estimate that the opponent has at least two, three-thousand men; how many can we kill?”
Subconsciously Dong Shuni squeezed herself between Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, "What can we do then?” she asked, "Think of something!”
Ba Fenghan coldly said, "Aren't we thinking of something? Panicking now will only be a bad thing.”
Ba Fenghan's eyes flashed sharp gaze at her, Dong Shuni shut up immediately.
Xu Ziling said, "Is there any way to alert Yanshi? Have them send help here. According to reason, Wang Shichong ought to station men on the hills outside the city to monitor the situation around.”
Hearing that, Dong Shuni's sprit was greatly aroused; she whispered excitedly, "Shuni has two special signal flares on my back, if my Da Jiujiu's men saw it, they would know one of our people is in danger. Can we do it?”
Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, "Question is: can we hold on until the reinforcement arrive?”
Dong Shuni dejectedly shut up.
If they release the signal rocket, it would be tantamount to revealing their position. Li Mi's side would definitely go into an all-out attack at once. On the other hand, from the moment the sentinel saw the flare and transmitted the news to Yanshi via fire beacon and so on, supposing Wang Shichong was able to make prompt decisions and immediately moved his army and sent his generals, it would take at least one or two sichen for the help to arrive. By that time they would have been done for.
While they were talking, Xu Ziling and the others, four people, were paying attention to the situation. This moment they noticed that a line of torches was moving straight to their hideout; they promptly ran away again.
Ba Fenghan led them groping in the dark downhill, toward a sparse wooded area at the bottom of the hill. Finding a stream, they quickly continued their escape by wading in the water. After covering approximately two li, the terrain was sloping up, turned out the source of the stream was a small waterfall from up the mountain, with water flew out from hundreds of small cracks, pouring down into a small clear deep pool.
By this time the moon was high overhead, so that the reflection of the moon made the water glistened. The scenery was exceptionally beautiful, too bad the four people were not in any mood to enjoy it.
Dong Shuni heaved a deep sigh and said, "We are getting farther and farther away from Yanshi.” Dispiritedly she sat down by the pool, with a mentally and physically exhausted, as well as pitiful, expression on her face.
Kou Zhong nodded and said, "This is exactly the enemy's tactic: forcing us to constantly on the run to the south, so that in the end they can take care of us without much trouble.”
Ba Fenghan suddenly came close to Dong Shuni and asked, "Miss Dong, what kind of perfume are you wearing?”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were shaken; their burning gaze was fixed on Dong Shuni.
Dong Shuni was crossed, "What kind of question is that?” she asked.
Kou Zhong understood suddenly; he said, "That was the precisely the reason why Du Ganmu was able to track you to the village. It was simply because he was accustomed to the perfume Big Miss is wearing, and that was also the reason why presently we can't throw off our pursuers.”
Xu Ziling said, "I don't know if we are already accustomed to her scent, but I don't smell anything.”
Ba Fenghan smiled and said, "Clear pool under the bright moon, why don't Miss Dong be the beauty who takes a bath here? We will act as lookouts for you, and I guarantee no one will be able to watch.”
Dong Shuni revealed a sweet, sweet smile; reaching up, she started to unbutton her gown, and cheerfully said, "So what if someone is watching? As long as they don't do anything, I am not afraid. Ay! Perhaps I will have to wash my clothes as well; everything I wear is already soaked in my fragrance.”
Even under this extremely tense situation [orig. wind sighing and crane calling, i.e. panic at the slightest move], and Ba Fenghan, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were not lechers, yet such an alluring, captivating words coming from cherry-red lips of a stunning beauty, the three could not help palpitating with excitement.
Xu Ziling suddenly reached out and pressed his hand against Dong Shuni's lily-white hand, stopping her from taking off her clothes. "I have a better way,” he said.
Puzzled, Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong looked at Xu Ziling.