As he escorted Du Ruhui out of the house, this thought suddenly flashed through Pei Qiantong’s mind. Though it seemed absurd, unless Du Ruhui had been frightened to the point of mental breakdown, this was the only explanation.
Before he could think further, urgent and orderly footsteps suddenly rang out from all sides. He hurriedly turned to look and discovered that outside, there was now a group of soldiers from who knows where, surrounding them completely in the rain. At a rough glance, there were at least a hundred men – several times more than the soldiers he had brought.
Upon seeing a figure standing in the rain, Pei Qiantong’s pupils contracted sharply. As that figure slowly approached, he painfully forced out three words from between his lips and teeth: “Li Shimin.”
Li Shimin smiled slightly and said through the fine curtain of rain, “I never expected General Pei to recognize Shimin. This is truly Shimin’s good fortune.”
Had he not seen it with his own eyes, Pei Qiantong would never have believed that Li Shimin would actually appear outside Jiangdu City. When Li Shimin and his father had entered the capital years ago, he had been on duty in the inner palace and had thus seen the father and son. Though Li Shimin was still young, his bearing was extraordinary. Though they had only met once, the impression was deep.
After steadying himself, he said, “Weren’t you supposed to be following Duke Li in attacking Chang’an? How are you here? And these…” He pointed at the people surrounding him, “They’re all brought by you. What do you want to do?”
Li Shimin smiled and said, “Can’t General Pei see what Shimin wants to do now?”
Pei Qiantong lowered his head in thought for a moment, then his eyes suddenly brightened as he blurted out, “You deliberately lured me here?”
Du Ruhui broke free from the soldiers binding his hands and came before Pei Qiantong in the rain. “As long as you don’t catch me for even a day, you and Cui Ji will never give up. So the Second Young Master deliberately had someone send a letter to Brother Pei. He calculated that after you saw the messenger, you would definitely read that letter, and he also calculated that you would definitely follow secretly.”
Damn it! He had thought he could finally catch Du Ruhui, but instead he had fallen into someone else’s trap!
Pei Qiantong cursed silently and said coldly, “So you’re saying you invited the Second Young Master here?” Without waiting for Du Ruhui to speak, he continued, “Let me guess – since you could go find the Second Young Master, you must have already escaped from the city and are no longer suffering from pursuit. Going to such great lengths, it’s for Princess Jinyang?”
“That’s right. I must save the Princess.”
Pei Qiantong sneered at his words and turned to Li Shimin, “This general doesn’t know how he persuaded the Second Young Master, but Duke Li is currently attacking Chang’an. What the Second Young Master should be doing is wholeheartedly assisting Duke Li, not wading into these muddy waters. If the Second Young Master withdraws now, this general can pretend he never saw the Second Young Master, and can even provide a hundred cartloads of grain.”
Li Shimin looked down and said, “Since Shimin has already come, he won’t return empty-handed.”
Pei Qiantong’s cheek twitched. He surveyed the surroundings and said, “You plan to use this general to exchange for Princess Jinyang? I’m afraid… Cui Ji may not necessarily sell this favor, and besides, there are a hundred thousand troops inside and outside the city. With just you few people, before you even enter the city, you’ll already be dead with no burial ground!”
“Ruhui has already told me about this matter.” At this point, a faint smile appeared on Li Shimin’s face. “Does General Pei think that Shimin would knowingly bring only a few people to rescue someone when he knows there are a hundred thousand troops here?”
His words caused a trace of fear to appear in Pei Qiantong’s eyes, but after just a moment, it turned back to amusement. “The Second Young Master wants to say you brought tens of thousands or even over a hundred thousand troops? Haha, such a crude lie can’t fool Pei. Currently, Duke Li has his entire attention focused on attacking Chang’an. It’s impossible for him to deploy troops here for the sake of a mere Princess Jinyang. If Pei hasn’t guessed wrong, the Second Young Master should have come here alone. What’s before my eyes – this is the Second Young Master’s entire military force!”
“Is that so?” Along with these words, a signal flare shot up against the rain with a “bang” that exploded in the sky. With this sound, thunderous roars came from the southwest direction, followed by the southeast, northwest, and so on. Batches of soldiers actually appeared, waving flags and shouting in the rain. That sound was definitely not something a mere hundred or thousand people could produce – there were at least ten thousand!
Pei Qiantong retreated repeatedly, muttering, “This is impossible. Tens of thousands of troops – how could Li Yuan do this? No, this isn’t right!”
Li Shimin took an umbrella from a soldier’s hands and walked before Pei Qiantong. “You calculated everything, but you overlooked one point. Princess Jinyang has shown kindness to my father and son. When she’s in trouble, my father and son absolutely won’t stand by and watch her die. This time, Father allocated a total of fifty thousand troops to me. Though it’s half less than the hundred thousand troops you mentioned, these are all battle-hardened soldiers. If we really fight, General Pei, who do you think will win or lose?”
Pei Qiantong’s face turned pale. No one knew better than him what those so-called hundred thousand troops were like – mediocre in battle capability. Using them to deal with a few thousand or ten thousand people would naturally be no problem, but to use them to fight fifty thousand troops – winning would truly be very difficult. Moreover, in these years he had heard Li Shimin’s name quite often. This person was full of stratagems and resourceful. Saying he was like a god in military deployment wouldn’t be excessive. Yanmen Pass, Mayi – all were stunning military achievements. With him leading troops, his own side could be said to face certain defeat.
Li Shimin took in all the changes in his facial expression and said calmly, “I know that the reason you killed Yang Guang was to return to Guanzhong and reunite with your families. Now the path home is right under your feet. Is it worth giving up for a Princess Jinyang who has nothing to do with you?”
Du Ruhui took over, “I don’t know why you’re unwilling to offend the Cui family, but unless you want to see troops at the city gates, you must cooperate with us and help us rescue Princess Jinyang.”
Li Yuan naturally hadn’t allocated fifty thousand troops to Li Shimin. The latter had once again used the stratagem of feigned forces. As for those people waving flags and shouting, besides the frontmost ones who were soldiers brought by Li Shimin, the rest were all common people. In exchange for a small bag of grain each, he had asked them to pretend to be soldiers and shout in unison. Because they were hiding in the back, plus it was raining, Pei Qiantong couldn’t see anything strange and thought Li Shimin had really brought fifty thousand soldiers.
Li Shimin said calmly, “Well then, has General Pei decided?”
Pei Qiantong’s thoughts raced. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and said, “If I help you rescue Princess Jinyang, will you withdraw your troops and no longer obstruct our path home?”
“Naturally.” Facing Li Shimin’s answer, Pei Qiantong nodded, “Good, I agree to your terms. I hope the Second Young Master won’t go back on his word!”
Hearing these words, Li Shimin’s heart relaxed. In the entire plan, this step was the most crucial. Fortunately, everything was as he had predicted.
Every day at the end of the shen hour was when the city gates closed. At this time, the rain that had been falling all day was gradually stopping, with only some scattered raindrops still occasionally falling.
At Longchong Gate, the gate keeper was pushing the heavy city gate, slowly closing it. When only a crack remained, a blade thrust in to block the gate. A voice from outside said, “Wait! Let my general enter first!”