Portal:Investiture of the Gods/Chapter 28

This chapter is titled "Punitive Expedition Against the North Grand Dukedom". Greatly delighted at Grand Old Master's leave, King Zhou returned to the palace shortly while ordering Fei Zhong and You Hun to be freed—for the king labeled them as being wrongly accused when they are clearly loyal and undeserving of death. Now that Wen Zhong was effectively gone, King Zhou knew that he could return to his original ways without anyone truly able to criticize his actions. As spring raged forthward spreading great beauty throughout the capital, King Zhou declared to his ministers that a party within the royal garden shall be performed. Finding the garden as beautiful as the Penglai Fairyland, the Peony Pavilion of old along with the Brocade Hall could be seen with great extravagant detail. Holding a banquet within the Peony Pavilion, the king enjoyed his own personal table with Splendor and Daji while other high ranking ministers such as Yellow Flying Tiger and Wei Zi sighed at such a grand celebration taking place even though the land was clearly rampant with deluded chaos and constant rebellion. Thanking the king for their party after midday, King Zhou convinced every former minister present to stay and drink away their woes from dusk till night. As Daji and Splendor became exceedingly intoxicated while sleeping within the royal library, Daji lusted to attain human flesh immediately -- and thus swooped about the midnight sky in her specter form. With attendants shouting about that a specter had been seen in the skies, Yellow Flying Tiger left his seat hurriedly as he thrashed one of the pavilion's railings at the horrible beast. Ordering the hunting hawk with golden eyes to be unleashed immediately due to the lack of his weapon's effectiveness, the hawk soon soared to the specter while clawing violently with its great talons. Being clearly wounded, Daji hid herself underneath some rocks within a neighboring artificial hill. King Zhou thus ordered his attendants to start digging away in hopes of capturing the specter. Unexpectedly finding an incredibly large pile of half-eaten corpses beneath the rock mound, the king became horrified at the reality of the situation: specters were present within the Shang Dynasty and are the evident reason for such disaster. As King Zhou awoke the following morning after unhappily excusing his minister's the former evening, he stared in alarm at Daji, who possessed many scratches across her face. Being told that she happened to scratch her face upon overhanging branches within the royal garden, King Zhou told her to be very careful of her new surroundings considering the specter incident.

Pondering over what the king had said, Daji vaguely remembered through her intoxication that Yellow Flying Tiger had been the minister who thrashed at her with his pole—and she thus immediately vowed revenge against the former at all costs possible. Meanwhile, Jiang Ziya had shortly obtained report on King Ping Ling's rebellion and Chong Houhu's brutal treating of the people duirng the Happy Terrace's development. Vying with rage at Chong's qualities, Jiang Ziya approached Prince Wen and suggested to him that if the Grand Duke of the North, Chong Houhu, is effectively destroyed—considering his many acts of tyrancy through blatant brutality and impulsiveness--King Zhou would be assisted greatly in the path of becoming a benevolent ruler such as that of Yao or Shun of old. Being delighted at a chance to effectively help King Zhou as he accepted the prime minister's proposal, Jiang Ziya offered himself to be the commander of the army on the prince's behalf. After declaring that he too will assist Jiang Ziya on the battlefront, Prince Wen chose an auspicious date before charging out of the capital with 100,000 soldiers. Many individuals present within the Western Foothills—especially the original Morning Song refugees--rejoiced in great happiness at the prince's departure to destroy Chong Houhu. As the army arrived before Chong City, the north grand dukedom, after a few days of travel, Chong Houhu was meanwhile present within Morning Song while Chong Yinbiao, the duke's son, attained headship over the city. Attaining information shortly that Ji Chang was commander over the forces stationed outside his dukedom, Yingbiao grinned in delight at a chance to do away with the former in order to better the reputation of his father—even if Ji Chang arrived with intentions other than battle. With full resolve to wipe out Chong Houhu at all costs possible, Jiang Ziya ordered General Nangong Kuo to head to the front and unleash the first battle immediately. As Huang Yuanji charged out of the city gates with a contingent of soldiers, the former fiercly clashed blades with Nangong in great vigor and heated rage at Ji Chang's clear intentions to destroy them. Attaining word in short time that Huang Yuanji had lost his life by the enemy general's blade, Yingbiao pounded his desk in rage while ordering a fierce engagement of mortal combat to be unleashed the following day. With both forces aligned before each other the next morning, Jiang Ziya stepped forward from his army while taking the appearance of a honored celestial in the eyes of Chong Yinbiao. Barking at Yinbiao for defending the evil ways of his father, the latter barked back at Jiang Ziya angrily while ordering a general from his side to quickly kill the opposition. As Prince Wen charged before Yinbiao less Jiang Ziya experienced any harm, the former profusely yelled at Yinbiao, stating that it would be better off for him to simply dismount from his horse and experience death instead of opposing the will of Heaven any further. With both sides feircely clashing blades in great resolve, Chong Yinbiao additionally threw himself into combat in order to take Ji Chang's head if at all possible. Once two generals under the north dukedom had been effectively slain, Yinbiao ordered a full-scale retreat. Urgently setting forth a meeting to discuss how they are to repell the enemy forces, everyone present under Yinbiao had no clue what to do. Seeing this as the perfect chance to strike forth at the city, Prince Wen declined Jiang Ziya's offer to attack their dukedom less the innocent were to be hurt and his benevolence would be known amongst the country as mere folly. A letter was thus immediately sent to Black Tiger Chong Heihu in hopes that he could assist them in taking over Chong City.

Categorized Events

 * King Zhou's continued deludedness; freeing of Fei Zhong and You Hun
 * The peony garden celebration
 * Drunken stupor of of Splendor and Daji; Yellow Flying Tiger's physical defense
 * Catastrophe of the water lily pond
 * Daji's sworn hatred to Yellow Flying Tiger
 * Jiang Baby Tooth's suggestion - to attack Tiger Duke
 * King Wen attacks Tiger Town, Tiger Duke's capital
 * Nimblefoot vs. Huang Yuanji; Yuanji's death
 * Young Tiger's great hated; presentation before King Wen
 * The complete victory; King Wen's resolution not to attack the capital

封神演義/卷028