The two were at a loss; they were just thinking of leaning against the ship's railing and jumping into the sea when a man stopped them and shouted, "Why haven't you go down to the bilge and get me the ‘water armor' and ‘breaking-hill bore'?”
The two boys jumped in fright; they went down to the bilge with heads hung down.
More than a dozen men were already busy carrying some wooden chests up. One of the men said, "Only one chest left, you two can take care of it.”
Their mind went blank, the two boys groped their way down the bilge. They saw under the dusky light of a wind lantern, piles of junks, but there was no one else; and then they saw the chest.
Kou Zhong was overjoyed; he pounced onto the chest and opened up its lid. Inside there was a huge, sharp helix auger, weighed at least fifty, sixty catties.
The ship shuddered slightly; apparently it cast off and set sail.
Xu Ziling helped him taking the auger out of the chest; without prior discussion they put the sharp tip against the bottom of the hold and turned the handle.
Kou Zhong laughed and said, "If we can sink this ship, all our enmities are avenged in full.”
"This matter is related to Yuwen Huaji,” Xu Ziling said, "We cannot just sit and watch and remain indifferent. After the water enters the ship, we will run to the deck and making a ruckus, to spoil Haisha Bang's plan on ‘attacking the unprepared enemy'. And then we jump into the sea flee for our lives, and immediately steal some salt. Ha!”
The more they talked, the more excited they got; they turned the handle faster and faster like a windmill. Less than half a day later, ‘pop!' a hole appeared on the bottom of the ship; hastily they pulled the auger out.
By the time they were ready to take the chest to the deck, the seawater had already reached their ankles.
Like a crouching monster the giant Dong Ming Pai ship sat still by the dock, the area surrounding it was dark without any lantern at all, only its bow and its stern had four small wind lanterns shining their cheerless, lonely and cold lights, which flickered incessantly in the sea breeze.
There were hundreds or even thousands of other ships and boats around the harbor; some were moored close to the shore, but most dropped their anchor in the bay.
The three Haisha Bang ships sailed quietly through this array of boats, until they were about ten zhang away from the giant ship before stopping.
The boat that had its bottom drilled has been sinking for about two chi, only about a chi or so more, and the water will reach the deck. But because everybody's attention was on the enemy's ship, no one took any notice yet.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were hiding in the darkest area near the bow; they each had a bow and an arrow, which tip was wrapped in a piece of cloth that had been soaked in oil. Their hearts were pounding wildly in anticipation.
Tan Yong gave his command, "To the water!”
Silently eight of his men, wearing wetsuit and carrying the ‘breaking-hill' auger dived into the water.
Suddenly someone let out a muffled shout, "Why is the water level so high?”
Kou Zhong knew it was time. Nudging Xu Ziling, he lighted the arrow, and then, in everybody's amazement they shot the fiery arrows toward the big ship, drawing two beautiful fiery arcs in the dark sky.
"Are you crazy?” Tan Yong roared in shock.
The two boys shouted together, "Sea sand raises its power, eastern sea in trouble! Haisha Bang attacks the unprepared!”
Tan Yong stormed across the boat. "You, two little demons again!” he thundered.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling threw their bows by swinging their arms like throwing secret projectiles toward Tan Yong. And then they turned around and jumped into the water together.
On the other side, closer to the dock, the battle cry shook the heavens. The big ship slowly left the shore heading north to escape. It passed behind Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, who had just climbed out of the water right behind Haisha Bang's warehouse by the dock.
The two boys laughed and ran toward the warehouse.
When they reached the entrance, Kou Zhong grabbed the iron lock with one hand and exclaimed, "Look at my internal strength!”
"Umph!” the padlock did not budge.
Kou Zhong was at a loss.
Grabbing the iron chain, he yelled, "Get your saber and chop this thing!”
Xu Ziling shook his head, "What if it breaks my saber?”
Kou Zhong angrily said, "You break your saber, you can buy a new one. But if we cannot make a fortune, we will be paupers for the rest of our lives. It's not every day that Haisha Bang would deploy their entire troops to fight a battle like this!”
Xu Ziling giggled happily and pulled Kou Zhong's saber. Exerting his entire strength he chopped down.
‘Tchak!' The iron chain met the saber and broke instantly.
The two boys were taken aback. But they were too busy to think too much.
Pointing to the biggest sailboat moored on the dock behind them, Kou Zhong said, "Quickly row that boat here, I'll get the goods.”
They have lived for more or less eighteen and seventeen years, respectively, but have never seen a better scenery than they saw right now.
Kou Zhong was lying on the sacks of salt piling high on the boat, enjoying the early morning sunshine, while humming Yangzhou's most popular folk song. He was so comfortable that he looked like he was about to die of laziness.
Xu Ziling was looking at the road stretching along the river on the left bank, his eyes darted quickly to the water level that was very close to the deck. "I told you not to steal this much salt,” he said with a frown, "Now even the place to sleep is crammed with goods, and the boat will sink very soon. We'd better cast off a dozen sacks or so!”
Kou Zhong jumped in fright; he turned around to hug the salt sack tightly and cried out, "These are shining white silver; if you want me to throw away money into the sea, you might as well tell me to throw my life away into the sea.”
Seeing Xu Ziling stayed silent, he sat down again and giggled, "Xiao Ling, please don't get angry. Alright, how about this: when we come ashore to buy clothes and provision later, let me see if there are people willing to offer good price for several sacks!”
"This is coastal salt-producing area,” Xu Ziling angrily said, "You want to sell salt here, those who are willing to offer good price must be either a lunatic or an idiot just like you. The difference is one spends money recklessly, the other considers wealth as important as his life.”
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and came over to the stern. He wrapped his arm around Xu Ziling's shoulder and said, "One world, two brothers; there's no need to be mad. Ha! I am a bit greedy, but it's all for our future. If we could earn a few coins, we will be a bit more comfortable and happy in the future. Perhaps we can even organize a militia, strike the capital and be a happy emperor. At that time, won't we be able to push Yuwen Huagu out of Meridian Gate and behead him to avenge Niang?”
With a forced laugh he added, "Look! This boat is so sturdy, we are making good progress with tail wind and following the current.”
Xu Ziling fetched his saber and shrugged his ‘embrace'; he stood up and stepped over nobody knew how many sacks of salt, toward the middle of the boat under the sail mast, where he stopped with his saber in hand. "Do you, Zhong Shao, know how to operate the sail?” he said with a wry smile, "Right now the sky is clear the weather is fair, the breeze is still the waves are quiet; naturally we won't have any problem. But if we come across the wind and waves, in a moment or two when we are sinking down, don't you ‘fight over the heavens and cry over the earth' to me.”
Kou Zhong stroked his own big head and pointed to the shore to their left; he laughed and said, "This head of mine, which you think does not have any plan inside, has already thought about all those problems. When the sky turns somewhat ominous, we immediately sail toward the shore. Ha! I thought you are worried about some serious things, turns out merely this trivial matter.”
Xu Ziling pointed his saber to Kou Zhong and said coldly, "If this boat suddenly pull toward the shore, if we do not crash and have our body torn and our bones crushed, I won't open my mouth again, ever; and then you can laugh at me that I am worried in vain.”
Apparently Kou Zhong has exhausted his argument, "How many sacks do you want to throw away?” he asked painfully.
Xu Ziling dejectedly kneeled down on the sacks of salt; he sighed and said, "That's not our biggest problem, but if we travel along this route, sooner or later we will enter inland via the Great River, thus Yangzhou is the only route we must follow. At that time you should know who we are going to encounter.”
Kou Zhong acted as if he had just seen the light; laughing aloud he said, "How could my outstanding brains not think about that matter? When we get there, we crash our way through Yangzhou in the night. Not only we will avoid the government boats, we also conveniently avoid coming across our old Die. When we arrive at Liyang, we will disembark a bit early to sell half of our goods, and transport the rest by mule cart to his mother's far away places, hence completed our great scheme to make a fortune. Look! This plan is so perfect.”
Xu Ziling knew he could not argue with him, he stood up and started practicing his saber play.
Kou Zhong watched with rapt attention for a moment. Finally he drew his saber and said, "Looking at you waving your hand and kicking your leg alone like a madman, let me, Zhong Shao accompany you playing for a couple of stances!”
Xu Ziling flatly said, "I am afraid my hand will slip and injure you.”
"You? Injure me?” Kou Zhong screamed, "En garde!”
The saber in his hand emitted a sharp cold wind that even he himself could not believe as it swept across toward Xu Ziling.
Xu Ziling had never expected that he would be this formidable. Unleashing the stance ‘Unyielding and Escaping' of the ‘Bloody Battle Ten Styles' taught by Li Jing, he swiftly moved sideways before hacking down his saber once again.
The two boys were so worked up that soon they even forgot the styles and simply moved their sabers any way they pleased.
They also forgot to look at the sun, which was covered by dark clouds, and the sea breeze, which was getting stronger; they thought it was the wind generated by their sabers.
Finally what Xu Ziling was worried about has arrived.