The opponent who was subdued by Li Yuangui in just one move wasn’t very tall, with a cloth covering his face, only revealing a pair of bright clear eyes. Yet those eyes and facial contours gave Li Yuangui a sense of familiarity. He should know this person and have seen them recently.
His wrist turned, changing the sword tip’s horizontal slash to a diagonal cut, precisely slicing away the cloth covering the opponent’s face. As the fabric fell, it revealed a young face with large eyes, thick lips, and bronze-brown skin.
“Sangsai!”
The nephew of Sasabo Kangsumi, the foreign youth who had claimed to have already left Chang’an, was lying in ambush at Palace Personnel Slope with these mysterious black-clad archers, attacking the Great Peace Palace guards led by Yin Tuo.
At this moment, Sangsai also seemed to recognize Li Yuangui, and mumbled in surprise:
“Li Shimin’s… brother?”
The two youths of similar age stared at each other in shock for a moment before Sangsai turned and ran. If Li Yuangui had pursued with his sword, he could have at least wounded him, but thinking of Kangsumi’s great kindness, he hesitated for a moment, transferred his sword to his left hand, and pulled out two stones he had picked up earlier from his chest, throwing them with force.
Both stones hit Sangsai; the foreign youth grunted and staggered, nearly falling. That was enough – Li Yuangui took long strides to catch up, planning to knock Sangsai unconscious with his sword handle and question him about the reasons later.
But just as he turned his sword to grip the blade, a whistling sound came from ahead as an arrow shot toward him at high speed. Without time to think, he swung his sword, barely deflecting the arrow at the last crucial moment.
Someone nearby shouted something urgently in a language he couldn’t understand, though the voice seemed to be the same as the person who had earlier ordered the pursuit. Sangsai suddenly changed direction ahead, running toward the shouting archer. Li Yuangui followed, and in the dim light could only vaguely see that the person was tall and fierce-looking, and was drawing his bow to shoot at Li Yuangui again.
In such heavy darkness, Li Yuangui wasn’t confident he could deflect a second arrow, so he had to bend down and take cover behind a nearby shelter. This meant he could no longer catch up to Sangsai, but unwilling to return empty-handed, he gritted his teeth, gathered his courage, stepped back half a step, and from behind the tree swung his arm, throwing a white flash toward the tall archer.
What he threw was the sword he had just captured from Sangsai. The man seemed not to expect that he also had a ranged weapon, and only noticed when the flying sword was halfway to him. He stepped back, dodging and rolling on the ground – with a “cha” sound, the sword embedded itself in a tree trunk beside him.
Sangsai let out a cry, his voice full of panic.
Li Yuangui turned to look and saw that the foreign youth had run quite close to the tall archer, but was suddenly seized by a robust figure that had emerged from nowhere. The figure held a sword in one hand while the other arm locked around Sangsai’s neck, remaining unmoved despite the foreign youth’s kicks and strikes.
Two surprised exclamations rang out simultaneously in the chaotic grove – an angry and anxious voice from the tall archer, while Li Yuangui himself called out joyfully, “Xinzhi!”
The robust man who had suddenly appeared and caught Sangsai was indeed Yang Xinzhi. He tightened his arm, and Sangsai’s struggles immediately lost their strength. The tall archer shouted “Let him go!” and rushed forward recklessly. Li Yuangui also charged forward to support but saw Yang Xinzhi raise his sword to Sangsai’s neck, causing the tall archer to stop immediately, not daring to press forward.
It seemed… Sangsai held quite a high position among these black-clad people.
Two more figures emerged from the grove, both more slender and delicate, standing behind Yang Xinzhi without moving forward. With a glance, Li Yuangui recognized them as Chai Youluo and Wei Shubin in male attire. How had the three of them come together?
After stopping, the tall archer gave a long whistle. Rustling sounds came from all around as more than ten black-clad, masked people ran to gather there. The tall archer spoke to Yang Xinzhi:
“Let him go! Let’s all go our separate ways, no need for grievances!”
Though he spoke in Han Chinese, his accent was stiff, and his word choice was imprecise, clearly not someone from the Central Plains. Yang Xinzhi didn’t respond, but Chai Youluo, standing behind him, gave a light laugh and replied:
“How easily you say that! You assassins have been causing murder and arson in the imperial preserve for so many days, and you think you can just slip away as if nothing happened? Do you think our Great Tang has no one capable?”
Murder and arson.
Li Yuangui suddenly understood. He knew where these people had come from.
On the night of the Ganye Temple fire, the guards had reported seeing someone setting the fire. Afterward, a group of people had been active near the Zixu Temple, and after being discovered by Chai Youluo’s hunting leopard, they kidnapped the leopard keeper and disappeared. The garrison troops had failed to track them and guessed they had fled north across the Wei River and out of the imperial preserve, but who would have thought these people were hiding in the Palace Personnel Slope… Well, the area was vast and desolate, convenient for both entering and leaving – it was indeed quite a good hiding place.
But how had Sangsai ended up with these bandits? And why did they value him so highly?
Completely controlled by Yang Xinzhi, the foreign youth struggled for a while, then spoke breathlessly. He spoke in a foreign language that Li Yuangui couldn’t understand at all, but from his tone, it seemed more like giving orders than begging for mercy – while the tall archer, after listening, argued back with a few words, his tone instead anxious and grief-stricken, as if pleading.
Sangsai impatiently interrupted him, speaking several sentences in a stern voice and manner, almost certainly scolding or giving orders. The tall archer breathed heavily, seeming at a loss for what to do. The black-clad masked people gathered around him also looked at each other in confusion, their body language showing dejection and helplessness.
“Drop your weapons and surrender,” Chai Youluo demanded calmly. “The garrison troops have arrived – you cannot escape.”
At her words, Li Yuangui pricked up his ears to listen, and indeed, from the direction of Wangsheng Temple came the faint sounds of commotion, like a large force approaching. Looking back, the brighter torchlight from the south had also come into view.
Chai Youluo and Wei Shubin must have arrived at the imperial preserve after him and Yang Xinzhi. Li Yuangui had hoped his brother-in-law and niece would bring the male servants from the Chai household as reinforcements, but then realized that bringing private troops into the imperial grounds without imperial decree was a capital offense of rebellion – they would never dare do such a thing, so he had given up that hope. Now it seemed Chai Youluo must have gone to find the garrison general who was properly responsible for guarding the imperial preserve to handle this matter… No wonder they had taken so long.
The matter involved the Great Peace Palace’s Emperor Emeritus – these three words could now be read directly as “Consort Yin De” – and the Eastern Palace’s Crown Prince Li Chengqian and his wife. The garrison troops didn’t dare make a single wrong move. No matter how urgent the situation, the commanding general couldn’t skip any steps of reporting and requesting instructions. The advantage of doing things this way was that it was aboveboard and would settle things once and for all when the imperial troops arrived; the disadvantage was… if Li Yuangui himself couldn’t hold out until the imperial troops arrived, then there would be nothing left to discuss.
The thin, high-pitched cry of a young girl reached his ears.
Li Yuangui’s entire body suddenly stiffened. He thought he had misheard due to excessive concern, but the sound grew closer, and both Chai Youluo and Wei Shubin turned pale as they looked in that direction. Even Yang Xinzhi, who had been fully focused until now, moved his tower-like frame slightly.
A black-clad masked person dragged Seventeenth Princess over like carrying a chicken, his large hand covering her mouth to stifle her cries. Li Yuangui’s mind exploded, and no longer caring about anything else, he raised his sword and sprinted forward.
Halfway there, a cold flash of light appeared, blocking his path like a wall. According to Li Yuangui’s original intention, he didn’t want to deal with it – even if it cost him an arm or leg, he wanted to charge through and rescue his sister. But his body, trained in martial arts for many years, almost reacted on its own – stopping, twisting his waist, raising his arm to parry the opponent’s incoming sword.
After several clanging exchanges, both sides were evenly matched and each stepped back, neither injured. But Li Yuangui could only watch helplessly as the black-clad person dragged his younger sister into their ranks, with no possibility of rescue.
“Seventeenth Sister!”
Only after shouting did he realize his mistake. The tall archer blocking his path let out a “ha” of laughter.
“Very interesting!” The foreign martial arts expert who could speak Han Chinese said, “Sister, yours? Very good, talk with our… leader. You talk together.”
Sangsai also said a couple of sentences at this time, and the tall foreigner nodded, waving his hand to signal his other subordinates to withdraw into the depths of the grove’s burial ground, taking Seventeenth Princess with them.
Pale daylight shot down through the treetops, unable to bring even a bit of warmth.
Li Yuangui leaned against the half-broken stele of some unknown palace person from a past dynasty, feeling as if every muscle and bone in his body had fallen apart, unable to summon even a trace of strength in his fingertips. This was normal – he hadn’t closed his eyes at all last night and hadn’t even had a good hour’s rest in the past few days.
Sangsai sat on a felt mat opposite him, all his weapons had been taken away, but he wasn’t tied up. There was no need – with both Li Yuangui and Yang Xinzhi watching him, he wouldn’t dare make any rash moves. Especially with Yang Xinzhi present – catching this young foreigner had almost become a habit for him.
On another side of this small clearing among the burial mounds sat three young women – Chai Youluo, Wei Shubin, and that foreign courtesan Fen Dui. The latter had been brought by Chai Youluo from the Seventeenth Prince’s residence in the Great Peace Palace this morning.
Sangsai wanted to talk with Li Yuangui, but his knowledge of Han Chinese was too poor to express himself clearly. Meanwhile, Li Yuangui and the others stared blankly at Sangsai’s foreign language, even more at a loss. Finally, Yang Xinzhi thought of the gift given to the Prefecture Lord by Kangsumi – that foreign courtesan was fluent in Han Chinese and presumably would also understand the language spoken by the Prefecture Lord’s nephew. Upon this suggestion, after dawn when the night curfew ended, Chai Youluo made a trip to the Great Peace Palace.
They could have all returned to the Great Peace Palace, or at least gone to Wangsheng Temple, to talk in a warm room. But Li Yuangui insisted that no uninvolved people should see Sangsai. He still didn’t know this foreign youth’s true identity, but vaguely felt he wasn’t simply “Kangsumi’s nephew.”
“This person is the son of the Tuyuhun Tianchu King, and also the nephew of the Great Khan’s Queen from her maiden family. He is as close as a brother with the Crown Prince Zunwang. All of Tuyuhun’s secret agents in Tang are under his command and leadership.”
After Fen Dui arrived, her answer to Li Yuangui’s first question revealed this string of information—though it wasn’t that surprising an answer.
“The night before last, someone broke into my house late at night, calling out ‘Fen Dui’ looking for someone—was it this boy looking for you?” Chai Youluo interjected. Fen Dui exchanged a few words with Sangsai and nodded in confirmation: “Yes, it was him.”
The foreign courtesan further explained that Sangsai had taken a liking to her at the Kang residence and had asked for her from Kang Sasabo several times. Kang Sasabo hadn’t given her to him but instead sent her to Prince Wu. Sangsai somehow thought she was at the Chai residence, and before doing something big the night before last, had sneaked into the Chai household alone trying to find and take Fen Dui away, but of course, hadn’t found her…
At this point, Sangsai suddenly spoke a lot of foreign words to Li Yuangui, seemingly asking questions with a very serious attitude. Li Yuangui naturally couldn’t understand and looked to Fen Dui, who translated:
“He’s asking, he heard Prince Wu is the Tang Emperor’s brother, and the Tang Emperor… um… is said to be very unkind and cruel to his brothers, is this true?”
Very cru… these words were too direct, making the others couldn’t help but laugh. Li Yuangui instinctively wanted to refute this, but immediately thought of Fourth Brother… well, alright.
Seeing his silence, Sangsai spoke more words, which Fen Dui translated:
“The young general who brought troops last night, he seems to be the Tang Emperor’s Crown Prince? He’s also very unkind, very cruel to you, this is obvious.”
Indeed, Crown Prince Li Chengqian himself had appeared at Palace Personnel Slope last night along with Right Garrison General Zhang Shigui. It seems he had waited long at the Great Peace Palace for Yin Ata to return, then led his Eastern Palace guards to investigate, and halfway down the mountain met Zhang Shigui who had come to request instructions, so they naturally joined forces to search.
As for Chai Youluo and Wei Shubin, they had arrived somewhat earlier. After Chai Youluo explained things clearly to Zhang Shigui, expecting the general would still have much to deal with, she took Wei Shubin ahead to Wangsheng Temple. The signs of battle on the road in front of the temple were still very clear, with several bodies of Eastern Palace guards and eunuchs not yet cleared away. As the two women were examining these, they heard voices from the trees beside the road, and following the sound, found Yang Xinzhi bound and gagged.
Yang Xinzhi wasn’t seriously injured—he had been captured alive by the Great Peace Palace guards led by Yin Ata. Yin Ata dared to kill Eastern Palace guards but still had some reservations about this son of a minister and princess, personally appointed by the emperor as a Kuzhen Guard, and was unwilling to take things too far. The two women cut his bonds and found him a sword from among the bodies on the road. Yang Xinzhi immediately sprang back to life like an energized dragon, and the three came together to Palace Personnel Slope, just in time to witness the fight between Li Yuangui, Sangsai, and that tall archer, managing to capture Sangsai at the crucial moment.
After Sangsai’s subordinates took the Seventeenth Princess and withdrew, Li Chengqian and Zhang Shigui arrived with the garrison troops to search the area. Li Yuangui, not wanting to cause more trouble, stayed alone to deal with them, telling Yang Xinzhi to take Sangsai and the two Chai and Wei women to find a hiding place.
He stayed mainly because Crown Princess Su, the young woman who had tried so hard to protect his little sister was seriously wounded and still bleeding, needing urgent medical attention. Even the usually arrogant Li Chengqian panicked at seeing her condition.
—After all, this woman was his properly married principal wife, the future empress of Great Tang, and the Eastern Palace’s mistress who attended his mother in the Lizheng Hall every day. If she were to lose her life in such an inexplicable way, he, Li Chengqian, would have no way to explain it to his parents— After hurriedly throwing a few harsh words at Li Yuangui, threatening “I will investigate thoroughly,” the Crown Prince left Palace Personnel Slope with his wife.
Zhang Shigui left with Great Peace Palace Deputy Supervisor Yin Tuo. By Li Yuangui’s judgment, Yin Ata’s injuries—if he was injured at all—were much lighter than the Crown Princess’s. He must have thrown himself to the ground when the first volley of arrows came, and later had three or five bodies of arrow-struck dead guards piled on top of him, other people’s blood flowing onto him, and whether he was playing dead or had fainted from fright, anyway upon rough examination, he had hardly any wounds at all.
Deep in the night in that desolate place, with chaos everywhere and many wounded urgently needing treatment, no one had time to investigate the details of what had happened. Li Yuangui only told Zhang Shigui that “The Eastern Palace and Great Peace Palace guards had a conflict due to a misunderstanding, both sides suffering casualties,” without mentioning Sangsai and the team of black-clad masked people. While the garrison troops were busy clearing the battlefield, Li Yuangui took the opportunity to withdraw and regroup with Chai Youluo and the others in another hiding place.
After dawn, Chai Youluo went to the Great Peace Palace to bring Fen Dui, and the two women also brought some food, water, and felt blankets. Everyone was cold, hungry, exhausted, and heartbroken. While talking and eating, Sangsai again emphasized his important status to Li Yuangui, saying his father the Tianchu King was the current Tuyuhun Queen’s full brother, and he had grown up as brothers with Crown Prince Zunwang. After the Tang-Tuyuhun war broke out, to help his people resist the enemy, Sangsai volunteered to infiltrate Chang’an city, cooperating with Kangsumi to turn the Tang capital city upside down.
“What do you plan to do?” Li Yuangui asked him. After hearing Fen Dui’s translation, Sangsai answered without hesitation, and Li Yuangui felt he understood directly without translation:
“Assassinate Tang Emperor Li Shimin!”
…What a tempting target. Li Yuangui himself had been thinking this every few days lately, and hearing someone dare to openly declare it, he felt a bit envious.
“Did Kang Sasabo promise you he could accomplish this?” he pressed. If that old foreign merchant dared to guarantee this to the young Tuyuhun prince, he would be utterly black-hearted to the point of eating people without spitting out the bones.
Sangsai shook his head somewhat dejectedly and mumbled that Kangsumi had advised him to take things step by step. The Tang Emperor’s security was too tight, and the Tuyuhun and merchant foreigners didn’t have enough manpower in Chang’an city to possibly enter the inner palace to assassinate the emperor. They should first choose an easier target, for example, killing the Tang Emperor’s father.
“Old Kang told me that Han people have a strange custom—when the emperor’s father dies, they also stop fighting wars,” Sangsai said excitedly, completely failing to notice Li Yuangui’s change in expression. “He said the old emperor lives on a mountain with few guards, not difficult to kill. Kill the old one, and the Tang Emperor will recall his frontline troops. Our dragon-horse elite forces can then pursue and attack, surely winning a great victory!”
Put that way… it wasn’t entirely wrong, and Kangsumi wasn’t completely without conscience. Li Yuangui asked further: “Then how do you plan to kill the old emperor?”
Sangsai rolled his eyes at him, showing a shrewd expression, and replied that he wouldn’t reveal the complete plan for assassinating a father to that father’s son, even though he knew that in Han territory, there was no respect or love between royal fathers, sons, and brothers—only hatred. In any case, he already had very thorough arrangements and many capable people to do it, now he just lacked someone familiar with the old emperor’s palace situation who could freely enter and exit without suspicion—and heaven had now sent such a person right before his eyes.
“You think I would join your team, leading you foreigners to commit regicide and patricide?” Li Yuangui asked sarcastically, but Sangsai remained serious: “You will get benefits beyond your wildest dreams.”
“What benefits?”
“After killing the old emperor, we are confident we can kill Li Shimin in a very short time,” the young Tuyuhun prince told him. “After that, Great Khan Fu Yun will need to install another Han emperor to rule the places our Tuyuhun cavalry cannot reach. If you join us, this throne will be yours.”
Note: Li Yuangui used the captured sword as a javelin, attempting a long-range killing throw, because early Tang dynasty swords were generally straight, making their flight trajectory easier to control. If it had been the “large blade” popular in later periods (Song Dynasty onwards) (Figure 1), throwing would have been much more difficult. Representative Tang swords had straight blades with cutting edges, and many merchants now make replicas, as shown in the product image in Figure 2. However, specifically in the early Tang period, the “ring-pommel sword” was more common. Figures 3 and 4 show the most complete Tang sword preserved in China, excavated from Dou Jiao’s tomb in Shaanxi.