The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 25 – Part 4

Yang Kang¹ pushed off with both feet and sprang up, meaning to get out of the door before he answered. He was still in mid-air when he felt a fierce rush of air behind him, and a hand like a steel hook clamped on the back of his neck. He could go no further. With a thump, he found himself sitting on the coffin beside Ouyang Ke.²

Ouyang Ke said, “You won’t tell me? Would you have me die unable to close my eyes?”

The vital acupoint³ at the back of Yang Kang’s neck was in Ouyang Ke’s grip, and none of his limbs would move. He knew there was no escape. He gave a cold laugh. “Very well, I’ll tell you. Do you know who she is?” He pointed at Mu Nianci.⁴

Ouyang Ke turned his head and saw Mu Nianci with her dao in her hand, wanting to rush to the rescue yet afraid he would hurt Yang Kang. The concern on her face was exactly the look Cheng Yaojia⁵ had worn for Lu Guanying⁶ a little while before, and at once he understood. He laughed. “She… she…” Then he began to cough and could not stop.

Yang Kang said, “She is my bride-to-be. Again and again you have insulted her. How could I suffer that?”

Ouyang Ke laughed. “So that’s how it is. Then we’ll go down to the underworld together.” He raised his hand high and, still coughing, took aim with it above Yang Kang’s head, then lifted his palm to strike.

Mu Nianci screamed and rushed forward to save him, but it was too late. Yang Kang shut his eyes and waited for death, waiting for that palm to fall. But a long while passed, and nothing touched his head. He opened his eyes. The smile had not left Ouyang Ke’s face, and his right palm was still raised high, but the left hand that gripped the back of Yang Kang’s neck had gone slack.

Yang Kang wrenched himself free and sprang clear. Ouyang Ke toppled off the coffin lid, already dead.

Yang Kang and Mu Nianci stood dazed for a long moment. Then they ran to each other and caught each other’s hands. There were ten thousand things to say, and they did not know where to begin. They gazed at Ouyang Ke’s body, still shaken with fear, their hearts pounding.

Cheng Yaojia helped Lu Guanying up and unsealed his acupoints. Lu Guanying knew Yang Kang for the imperial envoy of the Great Jin.⁷ Though he had just seen him kill Ouyang Ke, and owed him for it, that was no reason to turn an enemy into a friend. He stepped up, bowed with clasped hands, and without a word took Cheng Yaojia by the hand and strode away. The peril they had just been through was like nothing either of them had known in all their lives, and in their wild joy at escaping death they quite forgot to go and greet Guo Jing⁸ and Huang Rong.⁹

Huang Rong was delighted to see Yang Kang and Mu Nianci together again, and grateful to him for saving them from disaster. Guo Jing hoped all the more that his sworn brother would now mend his ways and turn to good. He and Huang Rong looked at each other, both of them smiling all over their faces.

They heard Mu Nianci say, “I’ve brought your father’s and mother’s coffins back.”

Yang Kang said, “That was my duty by rights. I’m sorry to have put the burden on you, little sister.”

Mu Nianci said nothing of what had passed between them. She only talked over with him how to bury Yang Tiexin¹⁰ and his wife.

Yang Kang pulled the iron spear-head out of Ouyang Ke’s belly and said, “We must bury him, quickly. If his uncle ever learns of this, big as the world is, there will be nowhere in it for the two of us to stand.”

So the two of them buried Ouyang Ke’s body in the overgrown garden behind the inn. Then they hired villagers to carry the coffins and buried them behind the old Yang home. Yang Tiexin had left home long ago, and his old acquaintances in the village had all died off, so no one asked any questions. By the time the burial was done it was quite dark. That night Mu Nianci lodged with a village family, while Yang Kang stayed at the inn.

Early the next morning Mu Nianci came to the inn to ask what he meant to do next. She found him in the hall, stamping his feet again and again and groaning in dismay, and asked him at once what was the matter.

Yang Kang said, “What a fool I’ve been. That man and woman yesterday should have been killed to keep them quiet, and in my panic I let them go. Where am I to find them now?”

Mu Nianci asked in surprise, “Why?”

Yang Kang said, “If word gets out that I killed Ouyang Ke, where will that leave me?”

Mu Nianci frowned, displeased. “A true man owns what he dares to do. If you were afraid, you should not have killed him yesterday.”

Yang Kang made no answer. He was only turning over in his mind how to hunt down Lu Guanying and Cheng Yaojia and silence them.

Mu Nianci said, “His uncle may be formidable, but if we only go far enough away, he will be hard put to find us. Besides, he has no idea it was you who did it.”

Yang Kang said, “Little sister, I have another reckoning in mind. His uncle’s martial arts are the greatest of the age, and I mean to take him as my shifu.”

Mu Nianci gave a soft “Ah.”

Yang Kang said, “I’ve had it in mind for a long time. Only, his school has always kept a rule that in every generation the art passes to a single disciple. Now that this man is dead, his uncle can take me as his disciple!” He was very pleased with himself as he said it.

Hearing what he said and seeing the look on his face, Mu Nianci felt her heart go cold. She said in a trembling voice, “So when you risked your life to kill him yesterday, it was not to save me at all. You had some other design.”

Yang Kang laughed. “You are far too suspicious. For your sake I would gladly be ground to powder and have every bone broken.”

Mu Nianci said, “We can talk about that some other time. What do you mean to do now? Will you be a loyal and righteous subject of the Great Song, or will you go on grasping after boundless riches and honours, and still take a thief for your father?”

Yang Kang gazed at her slender, lovely figure, and his heart was full of longing for her. But the sharp edge of her words displeased him at once. “Riches and honours? Hmph. What riches and honours have I? The Central Capital of the Great Jin has fallen to the Mongols. Every battle fought is a battle lost, and the kingdom’s fall is close at hand.”

The more Mu Nianci heard, the less she liked it. She said sharply, “When the Jin lose a battle, it is just what we have longed for, and yet you lament it bitterly, as though nothing could be more regrettable. Hmph. What is this about the kingdom’s fall? Is the Great Jin your country? This… this…”

Yang Kang said, “Why do we keep going on about these idle matters? Ever since you left, I have missed you so painfully.” He walked slowly up to her and took her right hand in his.

At these soft, low words Mu Nianci’s heart melted. Her hand, in his, drew back a little, but she did not pull it free, and so she let him be. A faint flush rose in her cheeks.

Yang Kang’s left hand was about to go round her shoulders when there came several bird calls from the sky, loud and clear. He dashed out of the front door, looked up, and saw a pair of huge white eagles skimming across the sky. On the day Wanyan Honglie¹¹ led his men to hunt down and kill Tolui,¹² Yang Kang had seen this pair of white eagles, and he knew Huang Rong had later taken them away with her. He thought, How have the white eagles come here?

Mu Nianci ran out too and stood beside him. The two white eagles were wheeling to and fro in the air, and beside a big tree a girl sat on a fine horse, gazing into the distance. She wore leather boots and held a riding whip, and she was dressed as a Mongol, with a long bow slung on her back and a quiver of feathered arrows at her waist.

The white eagles circled for a while, then flew off along the high road, and before long they came back. Then hoofbeats sounded on the road, several horses coming at a gallop.

Yang Kang thought, It looks as if the white eagles are guiding these riders to meet the Mongol girl.

Where the dust rose on the high road, three riders came gradually nearer. With a hiss, an arrow split the air, flying this way from the riders. The girl drew a long arrow from her quiver, set it to her bow and shot it into the sky. The three riders heard it whistle and gave great shouts of joy, galloping faster still.

The girl spurred out to meet them. When she was some thirty feet from one of the riders, the two of them whistled together, sprang from their saddles at the same instant, caught each other’s hands in mid-air and came down to the ground side by side.

Yang Kang was inwardly dismayed. He thought, The Mongols have brought riding and archery to such a pitch that even a girl can do this. How can the Jin not be beaten?

In the secret chamber Guo Jing and Huang Rong had also heard the cries of the eagles, the flight of the arrows and the drumming of hooves. A little later they heard several people come into the inn, talking.

Guo Jing was startled and delighted. He thought, How has she come here too? This is strange indeed.

For the Mongol girl who was speaking was none other than his betrothed, Huazheng,¹³ and the other three were Tolui, Jebe¹⁴ and Boroqul.¹⁵

Huazheng and her brother chattered and laughed away. Huang Rong could not understand a word of their Mongolian, but Guo Jing’s face went ashen, then white, and his joy of a moment before had all turned to worry. He thought, Rong-er has my heart now. I can never marry Huazheng. But she has come all this way after me. How can I turn my back on what is right and break my word? What am I to do?

Huang Rong whispered, “Jing gege,¹⁶ who is this girl? What are they saying? Why are you so unsettled?”

Several times before he had meant to tell Huang Rong plainly, but each time the words had reached his lips and gone back again. Now that she asked, how could he hide it? He said, “She is the daughter of Genghis Khan, the Great Khan of the Mongols. She is my betrothed.”

That day at the inn in the Central Capital, when Qiu Chuji¹⁷ and the Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan talked to Guo Jing about his marriage, the Six Eccentrics had mentioned that Genghis Khan had promised him his beloved daughter. But Huang Rong had not yet come to the window outside and had not heard it, so she had known nothing whatever of the matter. Hearing it now, she was struck dumb with shock, and tears welled into her eyes. She asked, “You… you have a betrothed? Why have you never told me?”

Guo Jing said, “Sometimes I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid it would upset you. Other times, I simply forgot about it.”

Huang Rong said, “She is your betrothed. How could you forget?”

Guo Jing said blankly, “I don’t know either. In my heart I have only ever thought of her as my own younger sister, or my own brother. I don’t want to marry her.”

Huang Rong’s face lit up with joy. “Why not?”

Guo Jing said, “The Khan arranged this marriage for me. At the time I didn’t dislike it, but I wasn’t especially glad of it either. I only thought that whatever the Khan said must be right. But now, Rong-er, how could I leave you and marry someone else? Whatever happens, I’ll marry only you. If I can’t marry you, I won’t go on living, whatever anyone says. That’s why I never talked it over with you.”

Huang Rong said, “Then what will you do?”

Guo Jing said, “I don’t know either.”

Huang Rong sighed. “So long as you are always good to me in your heart, I don’t mind even if you do marry her.” She paused, then added, “Still, it would be better not to marry her. I don’t like the idea of another woman following you about all day long. Who knows, I might lose my temper and run a hole through her heart with my jian, and then you would scold me. But never mind that now. Listen to what they’re jabbering about.”

Guo Jing put his ear to the little hole and listened to Tolui and Huazheng telling each other all that had happened since they parted.

After Huang Rong and Guo Jing sank into the sea, the white eagles had searched everywhere for their masters through the wind and rain. With nowhere to perch on the open sea, they had had to return to the mainland, and remembering their old home and old master, they had flown back north.

Huazheng had been surprised enough to see the white eagles come back. Then she found a scrap of sailcloth tied to one eagle’s leg, with a few Han characters cut into it with a dao. She took it to the Han interpreters in the army, and the two characters, they told her, meant “In danger”.

Huazheng was gravely worried and set off south that same day to find out what had happened. Genghis Khan was then leading his armies against the Jin, fighting fierce battles day after day inside and outside the Great Wall, so she could leave the moment she chose, with no one to stop her.

The white eagles understood what their mistress wanted. Every day they flew several hundred li¹⁸ south in search of Guo Jing and flew back again at nightfall, and so by stages they came to Lin’an.¹⁹ They had not found Guo Jing, but they had found Tolui.

Tolui had been sent to Lin’an as an envoy by his father the Khan, to propose that the Song join in a pincer attack on the Jin. But the Song emperor and his ministers, content to live in safety in the south-east and terrified of the Jin armies, counted themselves blessed that the Jin did not attack them. How should they dare stroke the tiger’s whiskers? So they treated Tolui very coldly, lodged him in the guest house and put off giving him any answer.

It was lucky for him that Wanyan Kang had been captured on Lake Tai²⁰ by Lu Chengfeng and his son. Otherwise the Song court would have obeyed the Jin’s orders and killed Tolui. Later, when news came that the Mongol armies had won victory after victory and even the Jin Central Capital of Yanjing had fallen, the Song ministers changed their faces at once. It was Fourth Prince this and Fourth Prince that, and there was no end to their flattery. As for joining the alliance against the Jin, it had become a matter of beating a dog already in the water, with no effort at all, and a chance to reap rich gains besides, so why not? The whole court at once pressed for the treaty to be concluded.

Tolui despised them in his heart, but he concluded the treaty of alliance against the Jin with the Southern Song all the same. That day he had set out on his journey north. The Song ministers escorted him respectfully out of the city, but Tolui could not be bothered to waste more pleasantries on them, and spurred his horse away.

In the country outside Lin’an he had seen the white eagles and thought Guo Jing had come, only to meet his younger sister instead.

Huazheng asked, “Have you met Guo Jing anda?”²¹

Tolui was about to answer when there came a clamour of voices and a clanking of armour outside. The Song troops escorting the Mongol envoy had caught up at last.

Yang Kang stood quietly in the doorway of the inn. On the Song banners he saw the words “Respectfully Escorting the Mongol Envoy, the Fourth Prince, on His Return North” in great characters, and a tide of thoughts rose and fell in him, and a thousand feelings stirred. Only a few dozen days ago he too had been a prince and an imperial envoy. Today he was alone, and no one paid him any heed. All his life he had known the taste of riches and honour, and to give them up lightly was hard beyond measure.

Mu Nianci watched him coolly from one side. Seeing the strange look on his face, she did not know what he was thinking, but she supposed he still could not forget the glory and riches he had won by serving a foreign race, and she grieved in silence.

The officer in command of the Song troops came into the inn, paid his respects to Tolui with great deference and answered a few questions. Then he turned and came out again, shouting, “Go and ask at every house whether a gentleman surnamed Guo, Guo Jing by name, is in this village. If he isn’t, ask where he has gone.”

The soldiers roared their assent and scattered in a rush. Before long the whole village was full of chickens flapping and dogs running, men shouting and women wailing. Naturally the soldiers, having learned nothing by their asking, were helping themselves to whatever valuables came to hand. How else were villagers so ill-informed to be punished?

Footnotes

1. 杨康 — Yáng Kāng. His name meaning “well-being”; paired with Guo Jing’s 靖 it recalls the Jingkang Shame of 1127. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 欧阳克 — Ōuyáng Kè. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 穴道 — xuédào. Acupoints, the nodes along the body’s meridians through which qi flows. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 穆念慈 — Mù Niàncí. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 程瑶迦 — Chéng Yáojiā. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 陆冠英 — Lù Guānyīng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 金朝 — Jīn Cháo. Jurchen dynasty (1115-1234) ruled by the Wanyan clan. Invaded Song Dynasty and conquered northern China, and posed constant threat to Southern Song. See Wikipedia. ↩

8. 郭靖 — Guō Jìng. His name meaning “to pacify”; paired with Yang Kang’s 康 it recalls the Jingkang Shame of 1127. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 黄蓉 — Huáng Róng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 杨铁心 — Yáng Tiěxīn. His name meaning “iron heart”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

12. 拖雷 — Tuōléi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 华筝 — Huázhēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 哲别 — Zhébié. Literally spear and divine archer, in Mongolian. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 博尔忽 — Bó’ěrhū. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 靖哥哥 — Jìng gēge. Literally elder brother Jing. ↩

17. 丘处机 — Qiū Chǔjī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 里 — lǐ. A traditional unit of distance, about 500 metres or one-third of a mile. ↩

19. 临安 — Lín’ān. Capital of Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1276) known for its cultural refinement and West Lake scenery. Modern day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. See Wikipedia. ↩

20. 太湖 — Tàihú. Literally great lake. Lake Tai, on the border of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. See Wikipedia. ↩

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