The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 16 – Part 1

The Nine Yin Manual

Guo Jing and Huang Rong came out of the Cheng residence after half a night’s exertions, and were thinking of going back to their inn to rest when they heard hoofbeats. A single rider was galloping from the south towards the north, drawing steadily nearer, and then the hoofbeats abruptly stopped. Huang Rong thought, Something else odd going on? Well, it keeps things lively. She hurried over to see what it was, and Guo Jing followed behind her. As they came close, both were taken by surprise. Yang Kang stood at the roadside holding a horse by the bridle, talking with Ouyang Ke.

The two of them went no closer. Huang Rong wanted to hear what was being said, but they were too far off and the men were speaking low. She caught only Ouyang Ke saying something about “Yue Fei” and “Lin’an Prefecture,” and Yang Kang saying “my father.” When she tried to hear more, Ouyang Ke cupped his fists in farewell and went off eastward with his concubines.

Yang Kang stood where he was for a while, lost in thought. Then he heaved a long sigh and swung himself into the saddle.

Guo Jing called out, “Worthy brother, I’m over here.”

Yang Kang was startled to hear Guo Jing’s voice. He dismounted and came over. “Big Brother, you’re here too?”

“I ran into Miss Huang here, and then had another fight with that Ouyang Ke,” Guo Jing said. “That is what held me up.”

Yang Kang’s face went hot, and he was full of unease, not knowing whether the two of them had overheard what he had just said to Ouyang Ke. But Guo Jing’s face showed nothing out of the ordinary, and he felt a little easier. He thought, This man can’t pretend. If he had heard what I said, he wouldn’t still be treating me like this. He asked, “Big Brother, do we press on tonight, or find somewhere to stay? Is Miss Huang coming with us to Zhongdu as well?”

From here, heading further north, past Chu Zhou and across the Huai River, they would enter the lands under Jin rule.

Huang Rong said, “It isn’t me coming with you. It’s you coming with us.”

Guo Jing laughed. “What’s the difference? Let’s all go and rest at that ancestral hall. Tomorrow night we have the Beggars’ Guild’s wine to drink before we leave.”

Huang Rong whispered in his ear, “Don’t ask him what he was saying to Ouyang Ke. Just pretend you didn’t see.”

Guo Jing nodded.

The three of them went back to the ancestral hall and lit a candle. Huang Rong took the candlestick and picked up, one by one, the steel needles she had loosed earlier.

The weather was hot, so each of them took down a door panel, laid it in the gallery off the front courtyard and lay down to sleep. They were just drifting off when the faint sound of hoofbeats reached them from far away. They listened hard. There was more than one rider. After a while the hoofbeats grew louder.

Huang Rong said, “Three riders ahead. Behind them, more than a dozen seem to be in pursuit.”

Guo Jing had grown up in the saddle, and could tell how many horses there were just by listening. He said, “Sixteen of them in pursuit. Huh, that’s odd!”

Huang Rong asked at once, “Why?”

“The three in front are on Mongol horses, but the ones chasing them aren’t. How could Mongol horses from the desert have got all the way here?”

Huang Rong took Guo Jing by the hand and went out through the gate of the ancestral hall. There was a whizz, and an arrow flew over their heads. The three riders had already reached the front of the hall.

Suddenly an arrow from the pursuers struck the last horse in the rump. The horse gave a long, shrill whinny of pain and went down on its forelegs. Its rider sprang from the saddle, quick and nimble, but he landed heavily. He knew no qinggong.¹ The other two reined in to wait for him.

The man on the ground said, “I’m all right. You two go, quickly. I’ll hold them off here.”

Another said, “I’ll help you hold them. Fourth Prince, go, quickly.”

The Fourth Prince said, “How could I?”

The three spoke in the Mongol tongue.

The voices sounded very familiar to Guo Jing, like those of Tolui, Jebe and Boroqul. He was astonished, and thought, What are they doing here? He was about to call out to them when the pursuing riders closed in around them.

The three Mongols shot arrows to hold off the enemy, so hard and fast that the pursuers dared not come too close and could only shoot back from a distance. One of the Mongols shouted, “Up there!” and pointed at the flagpole. The three of them climbed into the basket on the flagpole, where, high above their enemies, they held the stronger position. The pursuers dismounted one after another and surrounded them on all sides. Someone gave an order, and four of the pursuers, holding shields high to cover themselves, rolled along the ground and set about hacking at the flagpole with their daos.

Huang Rong murmured, “You were wrong. There are only fifteen.”

“I’m not wrong. One of them has been shot dead.”

The words were scarcely out of his mouth when a horse came slowly ambling towards them, dragging a man along the ground by his left foot, which was caught fast in the stirrup. A long arrow stood in his chest. Guo Jing crawled over to the body on his belly, pulled out the arrow and felt along the shaft. Sure enough, it was bound with a band of wrought iron, and on the iron was carved a leopard’s head. It was one of the hard arrows used by Jebe the Divine Archer, two liang² heavier than an ordinary arrow. Guo Jing had no more doubts. He called out, “Is that Jebe shifu, my sworn brother Tolui and Boroqul shifu up there? It’s me, Guo Jing.”

The three in the basket shouted for joy. “Yes, it’s us. What are you doing here?”

Guo Jing shouted, “Who is after you?”

Tolui answered, “Jin soldiers!”

Guo Jing picked up the dead Jin soldier, dashed forward a few paces and hurled the body with all his strength at the foot of the flagpole. It knocked two of the soldiers flat, and the other two, not daring to go on hacking at the pole, ran back.

Suddenly white shapes flickered overhead, and two great white birds came swooping down. Guo Jing heard the rush of wings and looked up. They were the two white eagles he and Huazheng had raised in Mongolia. The eagles’ eyes were sharp beyond measure, and even in the dark they had known their master. They cried out gladly and swooped down to perch on his shoulders.

When Huang Rong had first come to know Guo Jing, she had heard him talk about shooting eagles and raising them, and had envied him enormously. She had often thought that one day she would go to the desert herself and raise a pair of eagles to play with. Now, seeing the white eagles so suddenly, she paid no heed to the pursuers closing in. “Let me play with them!” she cried, and reached out to stroke the eagles’ feathers.

As her hand came near, one of the eagles suddenly lowered its head and struck at it with its beak. Had she not snatched her hand back so quickly, it would have been gashed. Guo Jing hurriedly shouted at the bird to stop.

Huang Rong laughed and scolded, “You wicked flat-feathered beast!” But she liked them all the same, and stood with her head tilted to one side, watching them.

Suddenly Guo Jing cried, “Rong-er, look out!”

Two powerful arrows came flying at her chest. Huang Rong paid them no attention, and reached down to search the Jin soldier who had been shot dead. The two arrows struck her, but they could not pierce the Soft Hedgehog Armour,³ and fell slantwise at her feet. Huang Rong found a few pieces of dried meat inside the soldier’s coat and fed them to the eagles.

Guo Jing said, “Rong-er, you play with the eagles. I’ll go and scatter those Jin soldiers!” He sprang forward and caught an arrow shot at him. His left palm flipped over, there was a crack, and the arm of a Jin soldier beside him was broken.

A voice shouted out of the darkness, “Where did this dog of a bandit come from, running riot here?” To his surprise, the man spoke the Han tongue.

Guo Jing was taken aback, and thought, I know that voice. Steel whistled through the air, and two short axes came chopping at him, one at his chest and one at his belly.

Seeing how savage the attack was, Guo Jing knew this was no common soldier. He ducked low and struck back with his palm, the move Divine Dragon Sweeps Its Tail.⁴ The palm caught the man on the shoulder and his shoulder blade broke into several pieces at once. He flew backwards with a loud scream of pain, and Guo Jing remembered at once, This is Qian Qingjian, the Mourning Gate Axe, one of the Four Ghosts of the Yellow River.⁵ He knew his neili⁶ had advanced a great deal in recent months and was quite unlike what it had been when he fought the Four Ghosts in Mongolia, but he had never expected one palm to send the man flying ten feet or more. He was still recovering from his surprise when steel rang out on either side, and a dao and a spear came at him together.

Guo Jing had expected Shen Qinggang the Soul-Severing Dao and Wu Qinglie the Life-Chasing Spear to be close by. His right hand hooked back and seized the spearhead thrusting at his side, and he yanked it towards him. Wu Qinglie lost his footing and pitched forward. Guo Jing drew back a little, and Shen Qinggang’s stroke was now chopping straight at his own shidi’s head. Guo Jing’s left leg flew up and kicked Shen Qinggang on the right wrist. A blue gleam flashed in the dark, and a long dao went flying upwards.

Having saved Wu Qinglie’s life, Guo Jing pressed down on his back in the same movement. Wu Qinglie was already unsteady on his feet, and with the force of that push behind him, he and his shixiong slammed into each other with a thud and both were knocked senseless.

Of the Four Ghosts of the Yellow River, Ma Qingxiong the Soul-Devouring Whip had slipped in among the Lake Tai bandits and had been killed by Lu Guanying and his men. The three Ghosts who remained were the best fighters in this troop of pursuers. In the darkness the Jin soldiers had not seen that all three of their leaders were down, and they were still trading arrows with Tolui, Jebe and Boroqul.

Guo Jing shouted, “Why aren’t you running? Do you all want to die here?” He charged in, punching and kicking, picking men up and throwing them. In moments the Jin soldiers were scared out of their wits and running in all directions. Shen Qinggang and Wu Qinglie came round one after the other. Neither had seen who their enemy was. All they knew was that their heads were splitting and stars were dancing before their eyes, and they took to their heels, in opposite directions as it happened. Qian Qingjian the Mourning Gate Axe was moaning and groaning, but his feet were quick enough, and he ran off in yet another direction.

Jebe and Boroqul were formidable archers. Their arrows whistled down from the basket and killed three more Jin soldiers. Tolui leaned out and looked down, and when he saw his sworn brother Guo Jing driving off the pursuers, irresistible, he was overjoyed. “Anda,⁷ well done!” he shouted. He wrapped his arms round the flagpole and slid down to the ground. The two clasped hands and looked at each other, too happy for a moment to speak.

Then Jebe and Boroqul slid down from the basket too. Jebe said, “Those three Han men kept our arrows off with their shields, and we couldn’t hurt them. If Jing-er hadn’t saved us, we would never have drunk the clear water of the Onon River⁸ again.”

Guo Jing led Huang Rong over by the hand to meet Tolui and the others, and said, “This is my sworn sister.”

Huang Rong asked with a smile, “Will you give me this pair of white eagles?”

Tolui did not understand the Han tongue, and the interpreter he had brought had been killed by the Jin soldiers as they fled. He could only tell that Huang Rong’s voice was clear and sweet and pleasant to hear, not what she meant.

Guo Jing asked Tolui, “Anda, how is it you’ve brought the white eagles?”

Tolui said, “Father ordered me to go and see the Song emperor and arrange for both of us to send out armies, north and south, and attack the Jin from both sides. My younger sister said I might run into you, and told me to bring the eagles to give you. She guessed right. Here we are, aren’t we?”

When Tolui spoke of Huazheng, Guo Jing was struck dumb. Ever since he and Huang Rong had given their hearts to each other, he had felt, whenever he thought of Huazheng, that something was not right. But he did not know what to do about it, and so he had simply pushed it aside and not let himself think about it. Now, hearing what Tolui said, he was at a loss. Then he thought, Anyway, within a month I have the appointment on Peach Blossom Island, and Rong-er’s father is bound to kill me. I can’t worry about any of this. He said to Huang Rong, “These white eagles are mine, so they’re yours now!”

Huang Rong was delighted, and turned away again to toss the eagles more meat.

Tolui told them how it had come about. Genghis Khan had defeated the Jin in battle, but the Jin realm was vast and its armies numerous, and many years of building had made its foundations strong. The Jin were holding several strongholds to the last, and the Mongol troops could not break through, so for the time being there was nothing they could do. Genghis Khan had therefore sent Tolui south to arrange for the Song to send out an army and attack the Jin from the south while the Mongols attacked from the north. On the way they had been stopped by a large force of Jin soldiers. Their attendants and guards had all been killed, and only the three of them had escaped as far as this.

Guo Jing remembered how at Returning Clouds Manor he had heard Yang Kang tell Mu Nianci to go to Lin’an and see Chancellor Shi Miyuan, and ask him to have the Mongol envoys killed. He had not understood why at the time. Now he knew that the Jin had got wind of the mission, and had sent Yang Kang south as Imperial Envoy of the Great Jin precisely to stop the Song and the Mongols forming an alliance and joining forces.

Tolui went on, “The Jin mean to kill me whatever it takes, so that the Mongols and the Song can’t make their alliance. This time it was the Sixth Prince himself who led the men sent to stop us.”

Guo Jing asked at once, “Wanyan Honglie?”

“Yes. He was wearing a golden helmet, and I saw him clearly. It’s a pity. I shot three arrows at him, but his guards knocked them all aside with their shields.”

Footnotes

1. 轻功 — qīnggōng. The martial art of body lightness. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 两 — liǎng. A traditional unit of weight, one-sixteenth of a jin, and the unit in which silver was reckoned. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 软猬甲 — Ruǎnwèijiǎ. A vest set with tiny barbs, proof against blades and fists, treasured on Peach Blossom Island. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 神龙摆尾 — Shénlóng Bǎi Wěi. Literally divine dragon swings its tail. A move of the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing. ↩

5. 黄河四鬼 — Huánghé Sìguǐ. Literally four ghosts of the Yellow River. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 内力 — nèilì. Literally internal force. The kinetic manifestation of cultivated qi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 安答 — āndá. The Mongol word for a sworn brother, bound by oath before Heaven. ↩

8. 斡难河 — Wònán Hé. The Onon, a river of the Mongolian steppe. See Wikipedia. ↩