The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 23 – Part 4

Guo Jing was lost in a far-off reverie when Huang Rong suddenly tugged at his sleeve and sprang behind the pavilion into a thicket of flowers and shrubs. She pressed on his shoulder and the two of them crouched down. Footsteps sounded and someone came into the pavilion. After a while a voice said, “Han Shizhong¹ was a hero, naturally. His wife Liang Hongyu,² though she was born a sing-song girl, afterwards beat the war-drum to drive the troops on and helped her husband to victory, so she too may be counted a heroine among women.”

Guo Jing thought he knew the voice, but for the moment he could not place it. Then another voice said, “Yue Fei³ and Han Shizhong were heroes, no doubt, but when the Emperor wanted a man dead, or wanted his command taken from him, Han and Yue alike could only obey. Which shows that the might of an emperor is something no hero can defy.”

Guo Jing recognised the speaker as Yang Kang and started. He thought, How did he come to be here?

While he was still wondering, another voice, like a cracked cymbal, astonished him far more. “Quite so,” it said. “So long as a benighted ruler sits on the throne and a grasping chancellor rules the court, the greatest hero in the world is of no use at all.”

The speaker was none other than the Western Venom, Ouyang Feng.

Then the first voice said, “But with a wise ruler governing the realm, a great hero and great man of valour such as yourself, Mister Ouyang, could give full rein to his ambitions.”

As Guo Jing heard these words it came to him in a flash. The speaker was his father’s murderer, the Sixth Prince of the Great Jin, Wanyan Honglie.⁴ He had met the man only a few times and heard him say no more than a handful of sentences, which was why he had not recognised him at once.

The three of them chatted and laughed a little longer, then left the pavilion.

Guo Jing waited until they were well away, then asked, “What have they come to Lin’an for? And why is Brother Kang with them again?”

Huang Rong said, “Hmph. I could see long ago that this sworn brother of yours was no good, but you would have it that he came of heroic stock, that he’d only been muddle-headed for a while and since then had come to understand where right lay. If he were really a good man, how could he be running about with two villains?”

Guo Jing was at a loss. “Now I really am muddled.”

Huang Rong reminded him of what they had heard that day in the Hall of Fragrant Snow in Prince Zhao’s Estate.⁵ “Wanyan Honglie gathered Peng Lianhu⁶ and that crew together to steal the book Yue Wumu left behind, Wumu’s Art of War.⁷ If they’ve suddenly turned up here, the book may well be in Lin’an. If he gets his hands on it, the people of our Great Song are sure to suffer terribly.”

Guo Jing said grimly, “We must not let him succeed.”

“The hard part,” Huang Rong said, “is that the Western Venom has thrown in with him.”

“Are you afraid?”

She turned the question back on him. “Aren’t you?”

“Of course I’m afraid of the Western Venom. But this is no small matter. Even if we… even if we’re afraid, we can’t just look on and do nothing.”

Huang Rong smiled. “If you’re going to do it, of course I’m with you.”

“Good. Let’s go after them.”

When they came out of the pavilion there was no sign of Wanyan Honglie and the other two, and they could only search the city at random. But Lin’an was a vast place. How could they find them in a hurry? They walked for half the day, and evening was drawing on. The pair came to Wulin Park before the Zhongwa marketplace.⁸

Huang Rong noticed a shop with a row of masks hanging at its entrance, their features painted with such vivid detail that they were great fun. Remembering her promise to buy toys for Zhou Botong, she spent five qian⁹ of silver on a dozen or more masks: Zhong Kui the Demon Queller,¹⁰ the Judge of the Underworld, the Kitchen God, the Earth God, divine soldiers, ghostly messengers, and the like.

As the shop boy was wrapping the masks in paper, gusts of the smell of wine came drifting from a wine-house next door. The two had been walking all day and were quite hungry. Huang Rong asked, “What place is that?”

The shop boy smiled. “So you two have only just come to the capital, and that’s why you don’t know. The Three Primes Wineshop¹¹ is famous all over Lin’an. For wine, food and tableware it’s the best under heaven. You really must try it.”

Huang Rong was tempted by his pitch. She took the masks, pulled Guo Jing along, and they made their way to the front of the Three Primes.

Before the wineshop stood a gaily painted festivity-gate¹² and a row of red and green barriers, and gardenia lanterns hung high at the top of the building. Inside, the trees and flowers grew thick and the pavilions and terraces were graceful. It was a fine wineshop indeed. As soon as they went in, a serving boy came forward with a smile to greet them, led them along a corridor, picked out a neat private room for them and set out cups and chopsticks. Huang Rong ordered wine and food, and the attendant went down to pass on the orders.

By the light of the lamps and candles Guo Jing saw several dozen gaily dressed sing-song girls¹³ sitting in a row along the side of the corridor. He wondered at it privately and was about to ask about it when he heard Wanyan Honglie’s voice from the room next door. “Very well! Have someone come in and sing for us over our wine.”

Guo Jing and Huang Rong exchanged a glance. Both thought, Wear out iron shoes hunting high and low, and then it falls into your lap for nothing.

The serving boy called out, and one of the women rose gracefully to her feet. Holding a pair of ivory clappers, she walked into the adjoining room.

Before long the singing girl began to sing, and Huang Rong cocked her head to listen. This is what she sang:¹⁴

The south-east’s finest ground, chief city of the Three Wu,
Qiantang has flourished since of old.
Misted willows, painted bridges,
Wind-stirred curtains, kingfisher drapes,
A hundred thousand homes, roofs high and low.
Cloud-tall trees ring the sandy dykes,
Angry billows roll up frost and snow,
A moat of Heaven without end.
Pearls and gems line the markets,
Silks fill every house, each outvying each in splendour.
Twin lakes and layered hills offer their clear beauty,
Osmanthus through the autumn months,
And ten li of lotus flowers.
Qiang flutes play in the clear day,
Water-chestnut songs drift by night,
Old anglers and lotus girls make merry.
A thousand horsemen throng the lofty standard,
Drunk, he hears the pipes and drums,
And chants in praise of mist and cloud.
Another day, with these fair scenes painted,
He’ll go home to the Phoenix Pool to boast of them.

Guo Jing, of course, had no idea what she was warbling about, but the light tap of the ivory clappers and the long, lilting notes of the flute were very pleasant to hear.

When the song was over, Wanyan Honglie and Yang Kang said together, “Well sung.” The singing girl thanked them again and again and came out with the musicians, all smiles. Wanyan Honglie must have rewarded her handsomely.

Then they heard Wanyan Honglie say, “My boy, this ci of Liu Yong’s, Gazing at the Tide, has a story connected with our Great Jin. Do you know it?”

Yang Kang said, “I don’t, Father. Please tell me.”

Guo Jing and Huang Rong heard him call Wanyan Honglie “Father”, and with such warmth in his voice, and they looked at each other. Guo Jing was angry and wretched at once, and longed to go straight in there, seize him and have the truth out of him.

Wanyan Honglie said, “In the Zhenglong reign of our Great Jin, our sovereign, Emperor Liang of Jin,¹⁵ read this ci of Liu Yong’s and fell in love with the scenery of West Lake. So when he sent envoys south, he sent a famous painter with them to paint the hills and waters of Lin’an, and to paint the Emperor himself on horseback on the summit of Wu Hill, inside the city. On the painting the Emperor wrote a poem:

‘Ten thousand li of carts and script now all made one,
How can south of the River keep a realm apart?
I’ll lead a million troops to the shores of West Lake
And rein my horse on the highest peak of Wu!’”

Yang Kang said admiringly, “What heroic spirit!”

Guo Jing was so enraged that his knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists.

Wanyan Honglie sighed. “Emperor Liang led his troops south, and though his ambition to rein his horse on Wu Hill was never fulfilled, that bold spirit of his, ready to fill the River with his men’s whips and cross it, is something we his descendants ought to follow. He once wrote a couplet on a fan, ‘Let the great handle be in my hand, and a fresh breeze fills all under heaven.’ What an ambition that was!”

Yang Kang recited it again and again, “‘Let the great handle be in my hand, and a fresh breeze fills all under heaven.’” His voice was full of longing.

Ouyang Feng gave a few dry laughs. “One day, Your Highness, when the great handle is in your hand, the ambition of reining your horse on Wu Hill will surely be fulfilled.”

Wanyan Honglie said quietly, “May it be as you say, Mister. But there are eyes and ears everywhere here. Let us just drink.” With that the three changed the subject and talked only of the sights they had seen and the ways of the place.

Huang Rong whispered in Guo Jing’s ear, “They’re enjoying their wine far too comfortably. I’ll see they don’t.”

The two slipped out of the room and made their way to the back garden. Huang Rong shook her tinder tube¹⁶ alight, set fire to the firewood and straw in the woodshed, and started fires all round.

Before long the flames were leaping, and in an instant there was uproar on every side, with people yelling, “Fire!” and “Put it out!” and bronze gongs clanging wildly.

Huang Rong said, “Quick, round to the front, before they slip off and we lose them again.”

Guo Jing said savagely, “Tonight I must kill that villain Wanyan Honglie!”

“First we must take Shifu into the palace for a good feed,” Huang Rong said, “and then get the Old Wild Child to hold off the Western Venom. Only then can we deal with the other two villains.”

“Right,” said Guo Jing.

The two pushed their way through the crowd to the front of the wineshop, just in time to see Wanyan Honglie, Ouyang Feng and Yang Kang walking out. They followed far behind and watched the three go through street after street and lane after lane, until they went into the Canopy and Crown Lodge,¹⁷ an inn in the West Market.

The two of them waited outside the inn a long while, and when Wanyan Honglie and the others did not come out again, they knew they must be staying there.

Huang Rong said, “Let’s go back. Later we’ll bring the Old Wild Child and give them a nasty surprise.” And they went back to Jinhua Lodge.¹⁸

Before they had even reached the inn, they could hear Zhou Botong making a great commotion. Guo Jing started, afraid that something had gone wrong with his shifu’s injury, and hurried forward. He found Zhou Botong squatting on the ground, squabbling with six or seven children. He had been playing at pitching coins with the children at the inn door, using his hidden-weapon technique, and had won hand over fist. Some of the children were welshing and would not pay up, and he would not let it go on any account, hence the row. When he saw Huang Rong returning, he feared a scolding and ducked back inside.

Huang Rong brought out the masks. Zhou Botong was delighted. He put one on and played the Judge for a while, then switched to a little ghost.

Huang Rong asked him to help them fight the Western Venom later. Zhou Botong agreed at once. “Don’t you worry. I’ll fight him with a different style of fist in each hand.”

Huang Rong recalled that on Peach Blossom Island, he had been afraid of inadvertently using the Nine Yin Manual’s techniques and had bound his own hands as a result, which was how he came to be wounded by her father. She said, “The Western Venom is thoroughly wicked. Your shige fought him once himself. Even if you hurt him with the Manual’s techniques, it wouldn’t count as going against your shige’s last instructions.”

Zhou Botong stared at her. “That won’t do. But I’ve already worked out a way of not using the Manual’s techniques.”

---

All that day Hong Qigong’s heart had been in the imperial kitchen. When at long last the second watch¹⁹ came round, Guo Jing took him on his back, and the four of them went up onto the roofs and made straight for the palace.

The palace rose high above the houses of the common people, its tiles a blaze of gold, and it was very easy to pick out. Before long, the four of them had slipped silently over the palace wall.

Inside the palace, guards with daos at their sides kept a close patrol, but with qinggong²⁰ such as Zhou, Guo and Huang had, how could any guard spot them? Hong Qigong knew where the imperial kitchen was and showed the way in a low voice, and in a moment they had reached it, behind Liubu Hill.²¹ The imperial kitchen was under the Palace Administration,²² east of the Hall of Bright Illumination.²³ That was where the Emperor’s meals were served, next to the Hall of Diligent Governance,²⁴ where his bedchamber lay, and all around it the palace guards, the Emperor’s own attendants and the eunuchs kept a very strict watch. But by now the Emperor had gone to bed, and the kitchen staff had gone off duty.

When the four of them reached the kitchen, they found the candles burning brightly and a few young eunuchs on watch, every one of them nodding off.

Guo Jing helped Hong Qigong up to sit on a beam, while Huang Rong and Zhou Botong found some ready-made food in the cupboards, and the four of them had a hearty feed.

Zhou Botong shook his head. “Old Beggar, the food here is nothing to Rong-er’s cooking. Rushing all this way was a waste of time.”

Hong Qigong said, “I only want the one dish, Yuanyang Wuzhen Kuai.²⁵ Heaven knows where that cook has got to. Tomorrow we’ll catch him and have him make it, and once you’ve tasted it you’ll know.”

Zhou Botong said, “I don’t believe it can equal Rong-er’s skill.”

Huang Rong smiled, knowing that all this praise of his was his thanks for the masks.

Footnotes

1. 韩世忠 — Hán Shìzhōng. The celebrated Song general who fought the Jin armies. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 梁红玉 — Liáng Hóngyù. Wife of the Song general Han Shizhong, famed for beating the war drum to rally the Song forces at the Battle of Huangtiandang. See Wikipedia. ↩

3. 岳飞 — Yuè Fēi (1103—1142). The most celebrated Song general of the wars against the Jin, executed on false charges. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 完颜洪烈 — Wányán Hóngliè. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 赵王府 — Zhàowáng Fǔ. Wanyan Honglie’s residence in Zhongdu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 彭连虎 — Péng Liánhǔ. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 武穆遗书 — Wǔmù Yíshū. The military treatise left by Yue Fei (1103—1142), the Song general posthumously titled Wumu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 中瓦子 — Zhōng Wǎzi. A market and entertainment quarter of Lin’an; the wazi were the city’s pleasure districts. ↩

9. 钱 — qián. A unit of weight, one-tenth of a liang, used in reckoning silver. ↩

10. 钟馗 — Zhōng Kuí. A mythical demon-queller, popularly depicted as a fierce-faced figure who subdues evil spirits. See Wikipedia. ↩

11. 三元楼 — Sānyuán Lóu. Literally Three Primes Tower. A wine-house in Lin’an. ↩

12. 欢门 — huānmén. Literally gate of joy. An ornamental gateway of coloured lattice and silk set up before a wineshop or eating house, a common sight on Song dynasty streets. ↩

13. 妓女 — jìnǚ. Courtesans and singing girls, who sang and played for guests in the wine-houses of the Song. ↩

14. 柳永 — Liǔ Yǒng. A celebrated Northern Song ci poet (c. 987—c. 1053). The song is his lyric to the tune ‘Watching the Tide’ (望海潮), in praise of Hangzhou. ↩

15. 完颜亮 — Wányán Liàng (1122—1161). The fourth Jin emperor, known as the Prince of Hailing, who was killed by his own officers during his invasion of the Song. ↩

16. 火折子 — huǒzhézi. A tinder tube: rolled paper or fibre treated with saltpetre, kept smouldering in a tube and revived with a puff of breath. ↩

17. 冠盖居 — Guāngài Jū. Literally lodge of caps and canopies, after the caps and carriage canopies of officials. An inn in the West Market of Lin’an. ↩

18. 锦华居 — Jǐnhuá Jū. Literally Brocade Splendour Lodge. An inn on Imperial Street in Lin’an. ↩

19. 更 — gēng. A night watch, one of the five periods of about two hours into which the night was divided. ↩

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

21. 六部山 — Liùbù Shān. Literally Six Ministries hill. A hill within the imperial palace grounds at Lin’an. ↩

22. 殿中省 — Diànzhōng Shěng. The Palace Administration, the office in charge of the imperial household, kitchens included. The source writes 展中省. ↩

23. 嘉明殿 — Jiāmíng Diàn. Literally Hall of Bright Illumination. A hall of the imperial palace at Lin’an, where the Emperor’s meals were presented. ↩

24. 勤政殿 — Qínzhèng Diàn. Literally hall of diligent governance. A hall of the imperial palace in Lin’an, the emperor’s private quarters. ↩

25. 鸳鸯五珍脍 — Yuānyāng Wǔzhēn Kuài. Literally mandarin-duck five-delicacy mince, a dish of the Song imperial kitchen. ↩