Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain Chapter 5 – Part 2

“Elder Master Hu¹ was very angry. He said, 'That Zhao fellow is so high-handed and tyrannical, I ought to go kill him with a stroke of my dao. Only I have business on hand and no time to settle accounts with him. I'll give you a hundred liang² of silver. Take it home to your father so he can pay off his debts. Use what's left to live properly, and whatever you do, don't borrow from a rich man's moneylending again.'

“I thought he was joking and trying to amuse me. Who would have guessed he really did take out five great silver ingots and hand them to me? How could I dare take them? Elder Master Hu said, ‘I’ve had a son today, and I love the boy and feel sorry for him. Putting myself in their place, your father and mother must love you just the same. Go home now. I’ll speak to the innkeeper myself and tell him I’m the one sending you home. He won’t dare make things difficult for you.’

“I just stood there staring at him, my heart pounding, not knowing what to do. Elder Master Hu took a piece of cloth, wrapped the five big ingots in it, tied the bundle to my back, then gave me a gentle kick on the rear and laughed, ‘You silly boy, what are you waiting for? Get going!’

“I stumbled home in a daze. When I told my parents, the three of us nearly went mad with joy. It was hard to believe such a good man really existed in this world. We thought we must be dreaming, yet there on the table lay five gleaming white ingots. My mother and I helped my father walk back to the inn to kowtow our thanks to Elder Master Hu. He kept waving his hand, saying he had never liked being thanked, and pushed the three of us out.

“My parents and I were just leaving when we heard the sound of hooves. Several dozen men came galloping up to the inn. They turned out to be Elder Master Hu’s enemies. I was worried, so I let my parents go home first while I stayed behind to see what would happen. I thought to myself that Elder Master Hu had saved the lives of my whole family. If there was anything I could do for him, I’d wade into water or plunge into fire without so much as flinching.

“Golden-Faced Buddha Miao daxia³ and Elder Master Hu were sitting face to face drinking. Everything Great Master Baoshu⁴ has told you about Elder Master Hu doting on his son is true. What he didn’t know is that while the bonesetter was in the next room listening to Elder Master Hu and his wife talking, a little scullion who tended the stove saw it all.”

As he spoke, Baoshu sprang to his feet, pointed at him and barked, “Who are you, really? Who sent you here to talk nonsense?”

The servant’s expression did not change. He said coolly, “My name is Ping Asi. I knew the bonesetter Yan Ji. But the bonesetter Yan Ji naturally didn’t know a scullion like me, Scabby-Head Asi.”

When he mentioned the name “Yan Ji,” Baoshu’s face changed at once. He seemed to recall that there had indeed been a scabby-headed scullion in that little inn all those years ago, though he had paid no attention to the boy’s face at the time and could not have recognised him now. He glared fiercely at the wooden couplet cradled in Ping Asi’s arms and spat, “Pfui!”

Ping Asi went on, “I couldn’t settle down that night. I went outside his room and saw a dark shadow cast on the window of the next room. I walked over and peered through a crack in the window. It was the bonesetter Yan Ji, pressing his ear against the wooden wall and eavesdropping on Elder Master Hu and his wife. I was about to go and tell Elder Master Hu, but just then Elder Master Hu went into Yan Ji’s room and spoke to him at great length. Great Master Baoshu never mentioned a single word of that conversation to the company today. I wonder why.

“The things Elder Master Hu said were a long story, and some of them I didn’t understand. But I did grasp this much: Elder Master Hu was sending Yan Ji the next morning to explain several matters to Golden-Faced Buddha Miao daxia. The matters were of great consequence and ought not to have been entrusted to an unconnected outsider. Only Madam Hu⁵ had just given birth and could not travel. Elder Master Hu had a fiery temper. If he went to explain things to his opponent in person, he would inevitably quarrel with Guild Chief Fan, Young Master Tian and the rest, and once words failed, blades and spears would follow, so that telling or not telling would come to the same thing. He had no choice but to send Yan Ji to carry the message. Just now Great Master Baoshu said that Elder Master Hu had sent him to deliver a letter to Golden-Faced Buddha and promised a heavy reward on completion. That isn’t quite right. Delivering a letter is a simple errand. Why would it need a heavy reward? Why would the husband and wife discuss it for half a day? Perhaps Great Master Baoshu has forgotten what Elder Master Hu said that night. I haven’t forgotten a single word.”

Only now did the company realise that Baoshu’s lay name before he took orders had been Yan Ji. The looks on the faces of the two men made it plain that Yan Ji was intimately connected with Hu Yidao’s death, and that much of what he had said earlier must be untruth. Everyone’s curiosity was aroused. They wanted Ping Asi to lay bare the mystery, but at the same time they feared that if he revealed some terrible secret, Baoshu might fly into a rage and strike him down. There was not a man on the snowy peak who could stand against him. Even if Golden-Faced Buddha found Baoshu and settled accounts later, once Ping Asi was dead the secret would be buried with him forever.

Everyone was anxious for Ping Asi, yet his own manner was wooden and without fear. He seemed to have nothing to dread, and went on, “While Elder Master Hu was talking to Yan Ji, I stood outside the window. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I knew the bonesetter had always been a toady of Squire Zhao, who bullied my parents, and that he was no good man. I was afraid Elder Master Hu would be taken in. I was young and ignorant at the time, and didn’t understand very much of what Elder Master Hu said, but I remembered every single word. When I grew older, I came to understand them bit by bit.

“That night Elder Master Hu told Yan Ji to explain three things. The first was the origin of the feud between the Hu, Miao, Fan and Tian families. The second was the cause of death of Golden-Faced Buddha’s father and Young Master Tian’s father. The third concerned the Storming King’s military dao.”

Everyone turned their eyes to the military dao on the table, their desire to know the truth growing more urgent.

Ping Asi said, “Miss Miao⁶ has already told you why the Hu, Miao, Fan and Tian families feuded for generations. But there was another great secret buried in the middle of it, unknown to outsiders and unknown even to Miao daxia himself to this day. The secret began in the second year of the Storming King Li Zicheng’s Yongchang reign of the Dashun dynasty, the year yiyou, which was also the second year of Shunzhi. The four families’ ancestors had sworn that if the Qing dynasty did not fall, the great secret must not be revealed until a hundred years later, in the year yichou. The year yichou was the tenth year of Qianlong, more than thirty years ago now. So when Elder Master Hu spoke to Yan Ji twenty-seven years ago, the hundred-year term had already passed, and there was no longer any need to keep the secret.

“That secret was of tremendous consequence. It turns out that when the Storming King’s army was defeated at Jiugong Mountain, he did not die!”

At these words everyone started and rose to their feet as one, crying, “What?” Only Baoshu sat unmoved, plainly already aware of the fact.

Ping Asi said, “That’s right. The Storming King did not die. But the Qing army had the mountain ringed tight, and there was no way out. The three guards surnamed Miao, Fan and Tian fought their way down the mountain to fetch reinforcements, but help was slow to arrive while the enemy drew closer and closer. The soldiers under his command were killed or wounded until they could hold out no longer. The Storming King lost all heart. He raised his military dao to cut his own throat, but the guard surnamed Hu, the one they called the Flying Fox, stopped him.

“The guard surnamed Hu was at his wits’ end when an idea came to him. He found a corpse among the fallen soldiers that was roughly the same build as the Storming King, dressed it in the Storming King’s yellow robe and padded arrow-jacket, and hung the Storming King’s golden seal around its neck. Then he took his dao and hacked the corpse’s face to pulp so that no one could recognise it. He carried the body on his back into the Qing camp and surrendered, saying he had killed the Storming King and come to claim his reward. What a mighty merit that would be! The enemy general would report it up the chain, win promotion and a title. He would not entertain the slightest suspicion, and even if he did suspect, he would cover it up and pretend the body was genuine so that he could claim the reward and the promotion. The false Storming King was declared dead, and the Qing army lifted the siege of Jiugong Mountain the very same day. The real Storming King had already changed his face and his clothes, disguised himself as a commoner, and slipped quietly down the mountain. Alas, the Storming King escaped from danger, but the Flying Fox was about to face a calamity of his own.

“The stratagem the Flying Fox devised cost him dear. In the jianghu,⁷ heroes and brave men will endure a knife in the ribs for a good friend’s sake, that is true. But to save the Storming King he had not only to humble himself and surrender to the enemy, he had to bear the filthy name of a traitor who sells his master to seek his own advancement. The Flying Fox had once been renowned throughout the world. When men of the wulin⁸ heard his name, they would raise a thumb and cry, ‘What a man!’ Now he was asked to sully a lifetime’s honour, and that was ten thousand times harder than going nobly to his death.

“After he surrendered to Wu Sangui, he served as an official under that traitor. He was brilliant in both wisdom and courage, keen and efficient, and won Wu Sangui’s complete trust. He thought to himself that the Storming King’s Dashun empire had been ruined at Wu Sangui’s hands, and if he did not avenge it, he was no man. He could have killed Wu Sangui with a single stroke, but the Flying Fox was deep in counsel and would not settle for something so simple. Over the course of several years he worked without leaving a trace, setting in motion a chain of schemes. On one side he stirred the Qing emperor’s suspicion of Wu Sangui to a fever pitch. On the other he made Wu Sangui so uneasy that in the end he had no choice but to take up arms in rebellion. He sent secret reports to the Qing court with hard evidence of Wu Sangui’s recruitment of troops in Yunnan, his arrogance and his treasonous designs. Then he stole the court’s own counter-measures against Prince Pingxi and passed them back to Wu Sangui.

“In a few short years, Wu Sangui was bound to rebel. The world would be plunged into chaos, and the Qing dynasty gravely weakened. That would be the Storming King’s chance to restore his empire. And even if Wu Sangui’s rebellion were swiftly crushed and the Storming King’s restoration failed, at the very least Wu Sangui would be exterminated with his whole clan, which was far better than a single assassin’s stroke that would leave him honoured in death with a posthumous title and a lavish funeral from the Qing court.

“When the three sworn brothers surnamed Miao, Fan and Tian went to Kunming to assassinate Wu Sangui, the Flying Fox’s plans were already bearing fruit. So he came forward at the crucial moment to stop them, for fear they would ruin everything.

“On the fifteenth day of the third month that year, he met his three sworn brothers for drinks by Dian Lake. He was about to tell them the whole truth, that the Storming King was alive and Wu Sangui was on the verge of rebellion. But his three sworn brothers were afraid of his formidable martial arts and did not dare talk long. They took him by surprise and killed him. As the Flying Fox lay dying, he wept and said, ‘It is a pity I could not accomplish my great purpose.’ That was what he meant. He went on, ‘The king is at Shimen Gorge…’ It seems that after the Storming King fled down Jiugong Mountain he went to the Puci Temple on Jiashan in Shimen County, Hunan, where he took monastic vows. His dharma name was Monk Fengtian Yu. The Storming King lived on until the second month of the jiachen year of Kangxi, when he died at the age of seventy. When the Storming King first raised his army, he called himself the ‘Grand Marshal Who Proposes Righteousness at Heaven’s Command.’ His dharma name was really ‘Fengtian Wang, the Heavenly-Mandated King.’ To keep the secret, an extra dot was added to the character for ‘wang’ to make it ‘yu,’ jade.”

The company listened to Miao Ruolan’s earlier account and had supposed the Flying Fox a consummate villain. They had no idea there was so great a secret hidden in the middle of it. The tale was so staggering that for a moment they could not bring themselves to believe it.

Seeing their doubt, and the astonishment on Miao Ruolan’s face, Ping Asi went on, “Miss Miao, you said earlier that the Flying Fox’s son went to the three sworn uncles’ house on the fifteenth day of the third month, spoke with them in a sealed room for a while, and then the three men came out and cut their own throats in public. What do you think was said in that sealed room?”

Miao Ruolan said, “Could it be that the son told the three uncles about the Flying Fox’s self-sacrifice?”

Ping Asi said, “That’s right. If they had not realised they killed the wrong sworn brother, why would they have cut their own throats in public? But at that time the Storming King was still alive, and this secret absolutely could not be revealed. The pity of it is that although those three men were true at heart, they were too rash. Killing their sworn brother was wrong enough, and they took their own lives in public a step too soon. They had not first instructed their followers not to seek revenge against the son of the Hu family. In their anguish and remorse they could think of nothing else, and so one error compounded another. From that day on, the Hu, Miao, Fan and Tian families were locked in bitter enmity for generation after generation.

“The son and the three uncles agreed in the sealed room that the secret must not be made public until a hundred years had passed, in the year yichou. By then the Storming King, however long he lived, would certainly be dead. If the secret were revealed too soon, the Qing court would launch a great manhunt, and the Storming King’s life would be in danger. The Hu family knew the secret from generation to generation, but the Miao, Fan and Tian families did not. When it came down to Elder Master Hu Yidao, the hundred years were up. So he sent the bonesetter Yan Ji to tell Golden-Faced Buddha.

“The second matter concerned the death of Golden-Faced Buddha’s father and Young Master Tian’s father. More than ten years before Miao and Hu fought their duel, those two elders of the Miao and Tian families went together to beyond the Great Wall and were never seen again.

“The two men were superb in martial arts and famous throughout the jianghu. For them to vanish so obscurely meant that whoever killed them was a person of great consequence. Elder Master Hu had always been beyond the Wall, and the Hu family were hereditary enemies of the Miao and Tian families. Anyone would have assumed he was the one who had done the deed. Golden-Faced Buddha and Young Master Tian each investigated for more than ten years but could not find the slightest clue. They never so much as caught sight of Elder Master Hu. Golden-Faced Buddha, at the end of his resources, plastered the world with his seven-character epithet ‘He Who Has Fought All Under Heaven and Found No Equal’ to provoke Elder Master Hu into coming through the pass. Elder Master Hu saw through his purpose but took no notice. At the same time he was searching everywhere for the two Miao and Tian elders, thinking that only by finding out what had happened to them could he clear his name before Golden-Faced Buddha.

“Heaven does not forsake the determined. After several years of investigation, he finally learned the truth. Madam Hu was with child at the time. She was from Jiangnan, and as her time drew near she was seized with a sudden and powerful homesickness. Elder Master Hu, ever attentive to his wife, accompanied her south. When they reached Tangguan Village, he first ran into Fan and Tian’s men and started fighting, and then he met Golden-Faced Buddha. Elder Master Hu told Yan Ji to go and say that once Elder Master Hu had escorted his wife back to her homeland, he would personally take Golden-Faced Buddha to bring home his father’s remains. The manner of his father’s death would be plain to see at a glance. Only, the two elders’ deaths had been undignified in the extreme, and Elder Master Hu could not bring himself to describe them face to face. He could only take them there to see for themselves.

“The third matter concerned the Storming King’s military dao. Hidden inside the dao was a vast treasure. Not to speak of gold and silver, the hoard contained priceless treasures beyond counting.”

The company were puzzled. The dao could not hold so much as a single ingot, let alone a fortune in jewels.

Ping Asi went on, “That night Elder Master Hu explained the whole story to Yan Ji. After the Storming King broke Beijing, all the Ming dynasty’s imperial kinsmen and high officials surrendered. Every one of them was immensely wealthy, and the Storming King’s generals forced them to hand over gold, jewels and precious objects to buy their lives. In a few days the treasure was piled as high as a mountain, past all counting. When the Storming King withdrew from Beijing, he sent trusted generals to escort the treasure and hide it in a place of extreme secrecy, to serve as military funds when the day came to return in force. The Storming King was a man of brilliant intelligence, well versed in the art of war. He said to his trusted men, ‘Sun Tzu’s Art of War says: Place them in mortal peril and they will survive; thrust them into a deadly situation and they will live.’ The place the enemy least expects is the safest place. He ventured into the most dangerous ground and hid the treasure in the very heartland of the Manchu Qing. Anyone searching for the Storming King’s cache would look in Shanxi or northern Shaanxi. They would never dream of looking in the old homeland of the Jurchens themselves. He drew a map showing the hiding place and put the key to reading it inside the military dao.

“When the army was routed at Jiugong Mountain and the Storming King fled, he gave both the treasure map and the military dao to the Flying Fox. Later, when the Flying Fox came to grief, the map and the dao fell into the hands of his three sworn brothers, but were soon recovered by the Flying Fox’s son. For a hundred years they changed hands through struggle and bloodshed. In the end the military dao was kept by the Tian Family of the Tianlong School, while the treasure map was handed down in the Miao family. Only the Miao and Tian families did not know there was so great a secret involved, and so they never went looking for the treasure. The secret was passed down within the Hu family from father to son, but without the dao and the map the Hus had no way to find the treasure either.

“Elder Master Hu told Golden-Faced Buddha all this and asked him to dig up the treasure, use it to relieve the poor of the world, or perhaps even use the vast wealth to raise a great army, drive the Manchus back beyond the pass, and restore our Han rivers and mountains.

“Every one of the three things Elder Master Hu spoke of was of the utmost consequence. Why, after learning them, did Golden-Faced Buddha still seek him out for a duel to the death? Even to the moment of his death, Elder Master Hu could not understand it. Perhaps Golden-Faced Buddha, for all his title of daxia, could not tell right from wrong. Or perhaps the three matters seemed so strange and beyond belief that he simply did not accept a single one of them.” At this point his face grew sombre, and he let out a long, slow sigh.

Tao Baisui, who had been listening in silence, suddenly spoke. “I know why Golden-Faced Buddha still insisted on duelling Hu Yidao. But I won’t speak of that for now. Let me ask you, what business brought you to this mountain peak?”

This was precisely what everyone else wanted to ask.

Ping Asi said, his voice cold and steady, “I came to avenge Elder Master Hu.”

Tao Baisui said, “Avenge him? On whom?”

Ping Asi gave a cold laugh. “On the man who killed Elder Master Hu.”

Miao Ruolan’s face went white. She said in a low voice, “You mean to go after my father?”

Ping Asi said, “The man who killed Elder Master Hu was not Golden-Faced Buddha. It was the man who was once the bonesetter Yan Ji and is now the monk called Baoshu.”

Everyone stared in astonishment. Hu Yidao killed by Baoshu? It made no sense.

Baoshu rose to his full height and laughed loudly. “Very well! If you have the skill, come and kill me. Get on with it!”

Ping Asi said, “I’ve already begun. From today you have seven days and seven nights to live.”

A shock ran through the company. They wondered how he could have struck at Baoshu in secret. Baoshu felt a cold fear at his back, but his words were tough. “With your pitiful skill, you think you can scheme against me?”

Ping Asi’s voice turned sharp. “Not just you. Every man, woman and child on this peak will be dead within seven days and seven nights!”

Everyone was alarmed. Some started up from their seats, others stared wide-eyed and shifted in place. Since climbing the snowy peak they had been ill at ease, and although Ping Asi’s words sounded absurd, every one of them felt a chill of dread.

Baoshu barked, “Did you poison the tea and the cakes?”

Ping Asi said coolly, “If I poisoned you, you’d die too quickly. That would be letting you off. I’m going to starve you to death, slowly.”

Cao Yunqi, Tao Baisui, Zheng Sanniang and the rest all cried out, “Starve us?”

Ping Asi’s expression did not change. He said in the same level tone, “That’s right. This peak was stocked with food for ten days. Now there isn’t a day’s supply left. I’ve thrown it all off the mountain.”

Amid the cries of alarm, Baoshu lunged forward with a grappling hand and seized his left arm. Ping Asi made no resistance. A faint, cold smile touched his lips. Cao Yunqi and Zhou Yunyang stepped forward, fists clenched, ready to strike.

Steward Yu hurried inside. After a while he came back to the main hall, his face ashen, his voice trembling. “The granary, the beef and mutton, the chickens and ducks, the vegetables… it’s all true. Every last bit of it… this fellow has thrown it all off the peak.”

With a dull thud, Cao Yunqi’s fist smashed into Ping Asi’s chest. The blow carried tremendous force. Ping Asi spat a mouthful of blood, but still wore that faint, cold smile. Not a trace of fear showed in his face.

Baoshu said, “Was no one in the granary or the kitchens?”

Steward Yu said, “There were three labourers. This fellow tied them all up. Aiya, those two children causing a scene in the hall earlier, everyone came out to watch. Who would have thought it was the Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain’s ruse to lure the tiger from the mountain? Miss Miao, we took this fellow for one of your servants.”

Miao Ruolan shook her head. “He wasn’t. I took him for one of the manor’s staff.”

Baoshu said, “Not a scrap of food was left?”

Steward Yu shook his head, his face hopeless.

Cao Yunqi raised his fist to strike again. Miao Ruolan said, “Wait, Elder Master Cao. Have you forgotten what I told you?”

Cao Yunqi did not understand. His fist hung in the air but did not fall.

Miao Ruolan said, “He invokes my father’s name. I said no one was to harm him.”

Cao Yunqi said, “He’s going to be the death of us all, and you still…”

Miao Ruolan shook her head. “Life and death are one thing. A promise given is another. This man has thrown all the food off the peak at the cost of his own life. He will not survive it either. A man who stakes his life on a course of action must have a reason weighty beyond all measure. Great Master Baoshu, Elder Master Cao, life and death are in Heaven’s hands. Anxiety helps no one. Let us hear what he has to say, and whether we truly deserve to die.”

She spoke calmly, but her words carried an authority none could resist. Everyone felt helpless. Baoshu released Ping Asi’s arm, and Cao Yunqi returned to his seat, still seething.

Miao Ruolan said, “Master Ping, you mean to starve us all to death. Could you tell us why? You are avenging Uncle Hu Yidao,⁹ are you not?”

Ping Asi said, “You honour me with ‘daye,’ and I am unworthy of it. All my life I have been the one calling others ‘daye.’ I was never fit to receive such a title myself. Miao guniang, years ago Elder Master Hu gave me silver and saved the lives of my whole family. I was grateful beyond measure. But there is another thing I am equally grateful for. Do you know what it was? Everyone called me Scabby-Head Asi, and held me cheap. Elder Master Hu called me ‘Young Brother’ and made me call him Big Brother. I, Ping Asi, had always been ordered about and pushed aside. Elder Master Hu told me that there is no high or low among men. In the eyes of Heaven, everyone is the same. Hearing those words was like a man blind for ten-odd years suddenly having his sight restored. I had known Elder Master Hu for barely a day, and already I loved and honoured him as my own flesh and blood.

“Elder Master Hu and Golden-Faced Buddha fought for several days without a victor emerging. Naturally I was worried for Elder Master Hu. On the last day of their duel, Elder Master Hu was wounded by a poisoned blade and died. Madam Hu took her own life to follow him in death, just as Miss Miao described. I saw it all with my own eyes, and I will never forget the least of it. Doctor Yan, that day you carried your medicine box in your left hand, and in the bundle on your back were a dozen or more big silver ingots, weren’t there? You were wearing an old sheepskin robe with a dark cloth cover, and a holey, smoke-yellow felt hat on your head, weren’t you?”

Footnotes

1. 大爷 – dàye. Literally eldest master. A respectful form of address for a man of standing, rendered Elder Master. ↩

2. 两 – liǎng. A unit of weight, approximately one sixteenth of a jin, and the unit in which silver was reckoned. ↩

3. 大侠 – dàxiá. A title of respect for a renowned martial artist of great prowess and rectitude. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 大师 – dàshī. A respectful form of address for a monk, equivalent to ‘Great Master.’ ↩

5. 夫人 – fūrén. A respectful form of address for a married woman, equivalent to ‘Madam’ or ‘Lady.’ ↩

6. 姑娘 – gūniang. A respectful form of address for a young unmarried woman, equivalent to ‘Miss.’ ↩

7. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them, including pedlars, physicians, fortune-tellers, entertainers, boatmen, beggars, outlaws and the like. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 武林 – wǔlín. The martial forest. The community of martial artists and their world. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 伯伯 – bóbo. Father’s elder brother; a respectful form of address for a man of one’s father’s generation. ↩