Chapter 605: Xiao’s Governance Followed By Cao[1]

From looking out the exit, Kou Zhong pulled his head back, his face revealed a I-can’t-believe-my-eyes shocked expression, he drew out a mouthful of cold air and said, “You guys go and see for yourself.”

Xu Ziling and Hou Xibai quickly climbed the stone steps to the top and stuck out their heads to look.

Shocked, Xu Ziling said, “My Niang! Unexpectedly it’s right in the middle of Taiji Palace Hall. Ke Dazhi and I have stepped on this lid when we fought.”

Hou Xibai swept his gaze around, starlight and moonlight penetrated inside via the skylight on the roof of the palace hall. The gate to the palace hall was tightly closed, four octagonal palace lanterns were lit above the dragon throne on the northern extremity of the palace hall, so that that side of the palace hall was shrouded in a halo, while the other side gradually transitioned from light to dark. Knitting his brows, he said, “If this exit must be pushed to open it, it does not make any sense.”

Kou Zhong nodded and said, “That’s right! Relying on the main entrance as the only way out is absolutely impossible. This requires four, five strong men to push and operate the heavy iron door. During its move, the noise can wake up the entire Taiji Palace. Hey! I may be exaggerating a little, but there must be a backdoor behind the dragon seat. That time, during the New Year’s Eve banquet, Li Yuan and a group of imperial concubines entered the main hall from that side. But Taiji Palace is an important place within the imperial palace complex, outside the palace hall must be teeming with both covert and undercover guards. Going out from either the front door or the back door, there’s no way to avoid the guards. If I am guessing correctly, there must be another short tunnel leading to Li Yuan’s palace bedroom.”

Shocked, Hou Xibai said, “If we follow your cun-by-cun exploration method just now, without several days of hard work, we could forget about finding the other entrance to the tunnel.”

Kou Zhong sat down on the edge of the exit; tapping his own head, he smiled and said, “Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy’s plans; if we are willing to use our brains, we could save a lot of effort. If there is indeed another tunnel leading to the palace bedroom, in order to save labor, the tunnel entrance must be someplace rather close to the bedroom, Li Yuan could also save a few steps. I, Kou Xiaoshi [little master, as oppose to Dashi, great/grandmaster], am the disciple who received direct teaching from Li Dashi, I dare say that the entrance must be located on the dragon platform. The most likely position will be under the dragon seat. This way, the search scope can be greatly reduced.”

Xu Ziling and Hou Xibai nodded in agreement, because Kou Zhong’s speculation indeed made sense.

Obtaining the other two’s agreement, Kou Zhong sprang up and darted toward the white stone steps leading toward the elevated platform where the dragon seat was located. The vast and empty main hall was quite intimidating.

Xu Ziling and Hou Xibai jumped out of the exit. Noticing the bundle on Hou Xibai’s back, Xu Ziling asked, “What’s inside that thing?”

Hou Xibai sat cross-legged in the middle of the palace hall. He untied the bundle from his back and lay it down in front of him, saying, “Let Kou Zhong be busy! We must not waste time, let’s get this survival tool allocated properly first.”

Xu Ziling understood immediately. Laughing and cursing, he said, “Good guy!” Copying him, he sat cross-legged and watched as Hou Xibai unwrapped the bundle.

On the other side, Kou Zhong was unleashing his ‘professional’ research on the target, delightedly busy. Just by looking at the ingenuity of the design of the previous long tunnel, he knew that the entrance to this segment of the tunnel inside the palace could not possibly be easy to find.

Immensely proud of himself, Hou Xibai poured the contents of the bundle completely to the floor; he laughed and said, “Not even in my dream have I ever imagined that I would sit in the middle of the Taiji Palace, distributing tools to disguise as a thief, to become a thief. This part here is yours, because you are Cao San, hence you must have an extra set of eighteen flying daggers and a set of fake teeth.”

Xu Ziling was not interested in Cao San’s things, he picked up the hook and rope that Hou Xibai pushed in front of his knees. He spoke in astonishment, “This is a thick rope made of ox tendon, the hook is made of fine steel; obviously these are not something that you grabbed at the last moment. If you had one set for your own use, I would not be surprised at all, but you have as many as three sets, it is really beyond my expectation.”

Hou Xibai laughed and said, “Cheng Huang [Note: city good] is near, you still don’t know how to ask for a good sign? I asked Lu Dashi’s genuine direct disciple Lei Ye to manufacture these with utmost care. The rope is twelve-zhang long, even if you give it to an ordinary hand, he won’t be able to use it. If we have a bit of skill, it would be like we grow a pair of wings, able to come and go up high inside the palace city; it will give us convenience to be a thief, also to slip away when necessary.”

Pointing to three piled of round balls [or bullets] that were as big as jujube pits but which materials were unknown, Xu Ziling asked, “What ghost things are these?”

Hou Xibai replied, “These are not ordinary knockout incense bomb that are being used by third-class robbers, but the famous unique magic weapon that Cao San used to defend himself. It is both to knockout the enemy, but also to produce a large amount of thick fog. I got these from Cao San’s body, originally I left it alone just as a memorial, I never thought that unexpectedly I could put it to good use. We can get three bullets each. You only need to toss this bullet; especially in a closed, indoor space, it could display an unexpected result, to make people believe that you are Cao San.”

Xu Ziling was dubious, “Such a small bullet, how much thick smoke can it produce? I wonder if Cao San used several bullets at the same time?”

Hou Xibai said, “Originally I had ten altogether. I had the same doubt as you do, so I tested it by throwing one to the ground, I’m afraid you won’t believe me if I tell you the result, the thick smoke nearly choked me to death. I am not exaggerating like Kou Zhong.”

Xu Ziling spoke in displeasure, “Looking at your outfit, listening to the tone of your voice, tonight does not seem like you can just come, look around, and then you are done.”

Hou Xibai took out a scroll from his bosom; pushing aside everything else, he spread the scroll on the floor, and held it down by putting knockout smoke bullets on the four corners. He said with a laugh, “This is the map of the entire Great Tang palace city, which Xiaodi refined this past few days based on my memory, not a single grass, a single tree is missing; it is more detailed than Liu Zhenghui’s classified map of the palace city. With two Laoge’s highly retentive memory ability, after looking at it a few times, you will memorize it in your heart, and then when you are escaping, it will be as convenient as walking around in your own home. The blank spaces are places where I have not yet been.”

Frowning, Xu Ziling said, “You haven’t answered my question yet.”

‘Crack!’

The noise coming from the direction of the dragon platform attracted the two men’s attention. Looking at the direction of the noise, Kou Zhong, haltingly, but full of aspiration, stood up from the place next to the dragon seat, which had been moved away, he made a success signal toward the two.

The design of the entrance under the dragon throne was identical to the entrance of the Yin Mansion’s tunnel, except there was no bolt lock. However, without enough power, one could not open this entrance. Therefore, unless one was as resolute as Kou Zhong, one could forget about even detecting the entrance’s existence.

The secret tunnel extended straight to the north, the three men followed this tunnel straight to the rear of the palace and only then did they see the exit. This time they were a lot more careful. They organized their outfits first, each one wrapped the rope and hook around his waist, Xu Ziling even put on Cao San’s flying dagger and mask. And then Kou Zhong pressed his palm on Xu Ziling’s back so that the latter could eavesdrop any movement outside the tunnel.

Under the two men’s expectant gaze, Xu Ziling spoke heavily, “Outside must be a place like an imperial garden, I hear the sound of wind blowing, leaves rustling.”

Kou Zhong happily said, “Based on Xiao Hou’s map of the Tang palace, outside should be the imperial garden of the Fen Ge HouGong [rear palace], to the right is Li Yuan’s bedroom palace, to the left is the imperial concubines’ courtyard; Zhang Niangniang’s Ning Bi Ge is an independent courtyard inside this complex.”

The Great Tang’s palace city was located at the northern extremity of the north-south central axis of the City of Chang’an, living high and looking down, the south side was called King [not sure], the palace city consisted of Imperial City and Inner Imperial Palace, two major sections, separated by a public square cutting across it. Furthermore, the Imperial Palace was divided into three sections. In the middle was the Taiji Palace, on the west was Ye Ting Guan, where Li Shimin’s Heavenly Policy Mansion was located, on the east was Li Jiancheng’s Crown Prince East Palace.

At the heart of the Taiji Palace was Taiji Dian [palace hall], followed by Liang Yi [lit. two righteousness: heaven and earth, yin and yang], Cheng Qing, Li Zheng, and Shen Long, four palace halls. Crossing these four palace halls going to the north were the imperial garden and the courtyard where emperor’s imperial concubines lived. The rear palace gate was the Xuanwu [Black Tortoise] Gate, with the palace guard; this was where the palace’s imperial guard headquarters was located. It could house massive military force for a long term, which was responsible for the defense of the palace city. Therefore, the rear courtyard of the Imperial Palace was the most dangerous spot in the Great Tang’s Palace; one thing went wrong, they could easily attract thousands of elite imperial guards to come to besiege them.

Xu Ziling said, “I am still a little vague about the real goal of tonight’s night exploration of the Tang Palace; some say it’s to find a path, while some other seem to really want to show off their fists and feet.”

Kou Zhong laughed and said, “Why not say that we want to let Cao San show off his might? Ling Shao, no need to look at me like that, I understand that alarming Li Yuan’s so called his Niang’s Zhu Xie Dui is definitely unwise, plus it is totally crazy. Therefore, we must lead away a goat while passing, by taking a pleasant-to-the-eyes treasured object, while also leave the genuine goods at fair prices swallow marking that Hou Gongzi brought along. If that is still not enough, Ling Shao could use your handwriting to leave something like ‘Cao San was here’ on the wall.”

Hou Xibai excitedly said, “Entering Baoshan [lit. treasured mountain], how could we come back empty-handed? Just take the ‘Han Lin Qing Yuan Tu’ in passing; it definitely surpasses waiting for Li Yuan to summon our Song ErGe into the palace.”

Xu Ziling made a signal to Kou Zhong with his eyes, telling him to speak.

Kou Zhong understood; he patted Hou Xibai’s shoulder and said, “Things have difficult and easy differences, tonight we’ll choose the easy and avoid the difficult. We are going to explore Li Yuan’s study room only. Even if the treasured painting is really in there, after you, Gongzi Daye take a couple of glances, you must put it back where it belongs, and then we’ll go home together and go to bed.”

Hou Xibai was greatly astonished. He spoke in disappointment, “Are you hiding something from me?”

“Don’t be overly sensitive,” Kou Zhong said, “This is all for your own good! That’s the decision. Tonight, we are coming quietly, we are leaving quietly, leaving only some traces of Cao San. Please put out the fire paper.”

The tunnel returned to extend-a-hand-cannot-see-five-fingers pitch-black condition.

Under Kou Zhong’s skillful application of his power, the stone lid, without creating any noise at all, sank down and slid to the side.

Kou Zhong cried out in low voice, “This lid is particularly heavy.”

The star-studded night sky appeared overhead.

Xu Ziling stuck out his head to look, he could not help secretly praising the original and ingenious design of the tunnel. It turned out the exit was located inside a fake rock mountain in the middle of a large pond right at the heart of the imperial garden. The exit was on one of the flat sloping sides, with the mountain rocks all around blocking the line of sight, so that getting in and out, one would not need to worry of being seen.

The three climbed out and closed the exit, they also put on their hoods.

Xu Ziling spoke in low voice, “There seems to be no one in the imperial garden. This is probably to provide convenience for Li Yuan in going in and out, he intentionally did not set up any patrolling guards in here.”

Kou Zhong took a deep breath of the cool night wind, he laughed softly and said, “The best place to visit in Chang’an should be the Great Tang’s palace; we are coming for a tour. Come!”

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Taking the lead, he darted swiftly to traverse over the seven, eight zhang of water, and then his toes tapped the stone railing at the edge of the pond, he soared at an angle and landed on a horizontal branch of a big tree by the pond.

Like a shadow attached to a form, Xu Ziling and Hou Xibai followed closely behind.

Looking far into the distance from their vantage point, they noticed that Zhang Jieyu’s Ning Bi Pavilion was still brightly lit, they could faintly hear the sound of string and woodwind ensemble. Whether it was the imperial concubines’ residence or Li Yuan’s rear palace, both were cloisters of courtyards and palace halls surrounded by winding corridors, each with continuous high wall defining its boundary, and with imperial gardens in between as separators. At this time, apart from the Ning Bi Pavilion, most of the buildings only revealed dim lantern lights. However, along the corridor, there were palace lanterns every ten steps illuminating the path, so that it was as bright as day. Viewed from far away, it looked like lantern troop formation; quite an impressive sight.

In the Western Inner Garden about a dozen of zhang outside the rear palace wall, the lanterns were bright; if they wanted to leave from that side, the only way would be to charge by force.

Knitting his brows, Hou Xibai said, “How are we going to go over the wall without being seen?”

Having a card up his sleeve, Kou Zhong said, “If we could find the usual route that Li Yuan takes when he is slipping away to the imperial garden, we could come and go unobstructed just like Li Yuan. Li Yuan can’t possibly alarm the entire rear palace’s imperial guards each time he went out on an inspection tour, can he? Come!”

Under cover of darkness and the trees and pavilions, the three swiftly flew toward the high wall of the rear palace east of the garden. They leaped onto another big tree, immediately they were able to take in the whole rear palace’s situation at once.

The rear palace had nine courtyards in total, arranged in a square. On all four corners, there were watchtowers, up to thirty zhang high, with guards on them. According to the detailed map that Hou Xibai drew, Li Yuan’s bedroom palace was centered in the middle, and his study room was located west of his bedroom palace. Inside the palace, the trees were abundant, the scenery was extremely beautiful.

They were able to see four groups of guards, twenty men each, patrolling the winding corridors, but what worried them the most was hidden sentries.

Scanning far and near with his eyes, Xu Ziling said, “It doesn’t matter how fast our shenfa is, as long as the guards on those watchtowers are not dozing off, we can forget about leaping over the wall without alarming them. I wonder if Li Yuan has another way in and out?”

Putting on his grandmaster in architectural and civil engineering air, Kou Zhong examined the high wall separating the rear palace and the full garden. On the surface, except for the official access, which was under guards, he did not see anything different.

Hou Xibai pointed to the west of the rear palace and said, “Over there, beyond those particularly dense trees, is precisely Li Yuan’s study room. If Li Yuan wanted to go out of the palace, he could pretend to be going to the imperial study room to work, and then he could enter the imperial garden via a secret door. My guess should be reasonable!”

Kou Zhong cheerfully said, “Good kid! You are amazing!” Suddenly his countenance changed, he bent his ear to listen, and said, “What’s that noise?”

Xu Ziling focused his power into his ears to listen to that direction. Frowning, he said, “Should be the sound of dogs walking around.”

Kou Zhong sighed and said, “In that case, we can be even more sure that the secret door must be over there. Li Yuan does not want his men to know his whereabouts, hence the study room is only guarded by vicious dogs. My Niang, even if we can get in, how are we going to evade the big brother dogs’ effective and acute dog eyes and dog nose?”

Xu Ziling laughed and said, “You seem to forget that we are not afraid to limit publicity at all, we might as well have you, LaoGe make your move, using thunderbolt-fail-to-reach-the-ear technique to deal with the dogs as soon as we see them, seal the dogs’ acupoint and put them entirely under control.”

Laughing involuntarily, Kou Zhong said, “Xiongdi is teasing me again!”

Turning to Hou Xibai, he asked, “Did your Shi Shi ever teach you how to seal dogs’ acupoint? But we must not harm them.”

Hou Xibai replied with bitter smiled, “I am afraid no one in Jianghu knows this kind of strange skill to control the dogs. I wonder if Cao San’s knockout bullet can achieve similar result?”

After another round of scrutiny and exploration, Heaven indeed granted man’s wish, they found another secret door [lit. living door] on the wall separating the imperial garden and the neighboring imperial study room.

The three did not dare to create any noise for fear of alarming the vicious dogs on the other side. Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling worked together again; using the Long-Life Qi they researched and examined the secret door.

The wall was half a chi thick; if it was really made of stone, perhaps it would still be difficult for two big men pushing together to move it a hairsbreadth.

Kou Zhong pointed to the foot of the wall, indicating that the secret door could only be lifted open from the bottom, while at the same time he reached into his bosom to take out a knockout incense ball.

At Kou Zhong’s direction, Xu Ziling and Hou Xibai crouched down and tried to push the bottom of the secret door.

Sure enough, the bottom of the secret door moved inward, revealing a gap about a cun wide. At the same time, the three applied their power to close their pores to prevent their scent from spreading, otherwise the dogs might bark furiously and then they would ruin the enterprise for the sake of one basketful.

On the other side of the wall, the dogs discovered something was different, they all rushed toward the secret door; perhaps they thought that their master’s good self has come back. However, whether that was indeed the case, naturally they would never know.

Kou Zhong pinched the knockout incense ball in his hand so that a micro crack appeared, the knockout incense, in the form of a thin smoke, escaped a little bit. Under control of his true power, the smoke sprayed via the gap into the other side of the wall.

Not a moment later, from the other side came the sound of the dogs’ stifled grunt and them falling down to the ground. Kou Zhong was greatly delighted, he forcefully pushed the knockout incense ball into ground. “Great success,” he said with a laugh, “I never thought that it would be that easy. Fortunately the trees sheltered this area, otherwise the men on the watchtower would see the dogs lying all over the ground, and that will be a big joke.”

After listening carefully to make sure that all the dogs were under control, they quickly pushed the secret door open from the bottom and slipped right in.

Li Yuan’s imperial study room was a unique structure; surrounded all around by trees, it was separated from the other buildings by winding corridors. The building consisted of three sections: front, middle and rear. The front section was the conference hall; all four walls were full of mahogany cabinets where scrolls of document were kept. The middle section was the study room, where there were two sets of table and chairs and small tables for books where one could rest or read. The inner section was the dragon seat, where Li Yuan dealt with important governmental affairs. The décor was calligraphy and painting hanging on the wall, antiques and curios, and folk art. The furnishing was elegant, abundant with bookish atmosphere.

Kou Zhong went over and sat down in the dragon throne. Facing the two men, he sighed and said, “Being able to sit here, the trip has not been made in vain.”

Hou Xibai acted as if he did not hear Kou Zhong at all; his shining two eyes swiftly swept around, and then he began to search for the painting with gusto, inside the drawers and cabinets where anything could be hidden.

Xu Ziling could not help laughing. He walked over to the other side of the dragon desk and said, “If he really found the ‘Han Lin Qing Yuan Tu’, you will be in charge of holding him down, while I will be responsible to grab the painting back.”

Kou Zhong simply raised his feet onto the table, he reached out to pick up an empty seal on the tabletop and said, “How about we steal this Li Yuan’s empty seal? I guarantee that Li Yuan will fly into a rage, he will turn the entire city of Chang’an upside down to hunt and arrest Cao San.”

Xu Ziling shook his head and said with a laugh, “How could the emperor’s jade seal be placed on the table so casually like that. I am afraid it’s just an ordinary seal.”

Kou Zhong tried to look at the inscription on the seal. Half a day later, he was ready to give up. Shaking his head, he said, “This is even more difficult to recognize than the oracle bone inscriptions on the ‘Secret To Long Life’. Hou kid, come here and read it for me.”

Hou Xibai hollered, “I don’t have time for that kind of idleness; if you don’t come quickly to lend a hand, I will blame you guys for a lifetime.”

Kou Zhong was about to laugh at him, when suddenly there was a strange ‘ding-a-ling’ noise coming from the roof over his head, followed by the sound of metal scraping the surface of the roof tile, and finally some unknown metallic object fell from the roof ridge onto the ground, producing another shaking-to-the-core noise as the object made contact with the ground.

In the still and solemn rear palace of the Great Tang, such noise spread widely and could be heard far and near.

The three you look at me I look at you, their scalp went numb, momentarily they could not figure out what had happened.

Shouts were coming from all over the place outside the imperial study room.

The three called ‘Not good!’ inwardly, as if they just suddenly fell into a nightmare.

Their worst fear was finally happening.

1 Chapter Title: idiom: to strictly adhere to the policies of the predecessor/to follow precedence.

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