The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 36 – Part 4

Guo Jing saw that it was Tolui and was overjoyed. He cried out, “Tolui anda.”¹ The two ran to each other and embraced. The twin eagles recognised Tolui and crowded against him affectionately. Tolui ordered a mingghan commander² to lead the pursuit of the Jin troops, then gave orders to pitch tents on the hillside, and he and Guo Jing told each other all that had happened since they parted.

Tolui spoke of military affairs in the north, and only now did Guo Jing learn that in the year and more since they had parted, Genghis Khan had kept his horse moving without rest, campaigning east and west, until he had won vast new territories. The four princes, Jochi, Chagatai, Ögedei and Tolui, the Four Steeds,³ Muqali, Bo’orchu, Boroqul and Tchila’un, and generals such as Jebe and Subodai had all distinguished themselves in battle, and the Western Xia would fall at any moment. At present Tolui and Muqali were leading troops against the Jin Empire, and in several great battles across Henan and Shandong they had routed the Jin army so thoroughly that it could not reform. The remnants of the Jin forces had gathered at Tong Pass,⁴ where they barred the pass and held their ground, not daring to come out east of the mountains to give battle.

Guo Jing stayed with Tolui’s army for several days. Then a fast rider brought urgent dispatches: Genghis Khan was summoning all the princes and generals to a great kurultai⁵ north of the desert. Tolui and Muqali dared not delay. They handed their command banners to their deputies and rode north through the night. Guo Jing, missing his mother, travelled in Tolui’s company.

Before many days had passed they reached the banks of the Onon River.⁶ As far as the eye could see, tent after tent stood across the boundless grassland. Thousands upon thousands of war horses leapt and whinnied. Thousands upon thousands of spearheads glittered in the sun. Amid the countless grey tents rose one great tent of yellow silk, its roof cast in gold, and before it a nine-tailed great banner⁷ hung high on its pole.

Guo Jing sat his horse on a sandy ridge and gazed at that awesome display of arms, thinking how the Golden Tent⁸ awed the whole desert and ruled over the remotest lands. He imagined Genghis Khan sending forth his commands from within the Golden Tent, fast rider after fast rider carrying those orders to the princes and generals ten thousand li away, until the horns sounded, beacon fires blazed across the grassland, arrows flew like locusts, long daos flashed, and through the dust came the thunder of iron hooves.

He was just thinking, What use can the Great Khan have for so much land and so many people? when a cloud of dust rose and a troop of riders came galloping out to meet them. Tolui, Muqali and Guo Jing entered the Golden Tent to pay their respects to the Great Khan. The princes and generals were already assembled within, ranked along either side.

Genghis Khan was greatly pleased to see the three arrive. Tolui and Muqali reported on the military situation. Guo Jing stepped forward and knelt to ask for punishment, saying, “The Great Khan commanded me to cut off the head of Wanyan Honglie of the Jin. But each time we met, he escaped me. I will gladly accept whatever punishment the Great Khan decrees.”

Genghis Khan laughed. “The little hawk has grown up, and one day it will catch the fox. Why should I punish you? You have come at just the right time. I have often thought of you.” And there and then he sat down with his generals to plan the great campaign against the Jin.

Muqali offered his counsel: the Jin Empire’s elite troops held Tong Pass in stubborn defence, and it would not fall quickly. The best course was to ally with the Song and attack from two sides. Genghis Khan said, “Good. That is what we shall do.” He ordered a letter written and envoys dispatched south. The great assembly did not break up until evening.

Guo Jing took his leave and left the Golden Tent. In the gathering dusk he was on his way to his mother’s tent when suddenly a pair of hands reached from behind and covered his eyes. With his martial ability as it now stood, how could anyone creep up behind him unseen? He was turning aside to push whoever it was away when a fragrance reached his nose, and he sensed that it was a woman. Hastily he drew back his hands and cried, “Huazheng meizi!”⁹ There stood Princess Huazheng, with a smile that was not quite a smile.

They had been parted for more than a year, and now that they met again he saw she had grown a little taller, standing slender and straight amid the strong wind and tall grass, her bearing all the more spirited and gallant. Guo Jing called out once more, “Little sister.” Huazheng wept for joy. “You really have come back!” Guo Jing was deeply moved to see her genuine feeling. For a moment there were a thousand things to say, and neither knew where to begin.

After a long while Huazheng said, “Go and see your mother. You’ve come back alive. Guess which of us is happier, me or your mother?”

Guo Jing said, “My mother will be overjoyed.”

Huazheng pouted. “And I’m not happy, I suppose?”

The Mongols were frank in temperament: what they thought, they said. Guo Jing had spent more than a year among southerners, and seen a great deal of their cunning and contrivance. Now he was back where he had grown up, and hearing Huazheng speak so plainly, he could not help feeling a deep warmth of kinship.

The two walked arm in arm to Li Ping’s tent. The meeting of mother and son brought its share of both sorrow and joy. Several days passed. Then Genghis Khan summoned Guo Jing and said, “Tolui has told me everything you have done. You are a boy who keeps his word and honours duty. That pleases me greatly. In a few days’ time, let us marry you to my daughter!”

Guo Jing got a terrible shock. He thought, Rong-er’s fate is unknown even now. How could I break faith with her and wed another? But Genghis Khan’s bearing was stern and commanding, and though his whole heart wished to refuse, he stammered and could not force out half a sentence. Genghis Khan, who knew the young man’s simple nature, supposed he was addled with delight, and thereupon bestowed upon him a thousand households of slaves, a hundred jin¹⁰ of gold, five hundred horses, five hundred head of cattle, two thousand sheep, and three hundred camels, telling him to make the arrangements for the wedding.

Huazheng was Genghis Khan’s youngest daughter by his principal wife and had been her father’s favourite since childhood. The Mongol state was now at the height of its power, and Genghis Khan won every battle he fought and took every city he attacked. When the khans of the various tribes heard that the Great Khan’s daughter was to marry, they came one after another with congratulations, until precious gifts filled dozens of tents. Princess Huazheng was radiant with happiness. Guo Jing was full of troubles and wore a face of care.

The wedding day drew near, and Guo Jing hung his head in misery, at a loss what to do. Li Ping noticed her son’s odd demeanour and asked after it that evening. Guo Jing told her everything about Huang Rong, from the very beginning to the present. Li Ping listened and could not speak for a long while.

Guo Jing said, “Mother, your child is in the most difficult position, and does not know what to do.”

Li Ping said, “The Great Khan’s kindness to us is deep and great. How could we repay it with faithlessness? But that Rong-er, that Rong-er, ah, though I have never met her, she must be ever so lovable.”

Guo Jing suddenly asked, “Mother, if Father were faced with this, what would he have done?”

Li Ping had not expected so strange a question. She was stunned for a moment, then thought of her husband’s temperament in life and said proudly, “Your father all his life was willing to suffer himself. He would never wrong another person, not in the slightest.”

Guo Jing rose to his feet and said solemnly, “Though I never knew my father, I should follow his example. If Rong-er is safe, I will keep to the old bond and marry Princess Huazheng. But if anything has befallen Rong-er, I will never marry as long as I live.”

Li Ping thought to herself, If that is truly so, will not the Guo clan’s line end with you? But she knew her son’s nature was just like his father’s, as stubborn as could be, and once his mind was made up, no amount of persuasion from others would shift him. She asked, “How will you put it to the Great Khan?”

Guo Jing said, “I will say these very words to the Great Khan.”

Li Ping wished to see her son’s honour fulfilled. “Good. We cannot stay here any longer. Go and thank the Great Khan, and the two of us will return south this very day.”

Guo Jing nodded and agreed.

That night mother and son packed their belongings. Apart from their travelling clothes and a small amount of silver, everything the Great Khan had bestowed they sealed up inside the tent.

When Guo Jing had finished packing, he said, “I am going to say goodbye to Huazheng.”

Li Ping hesitated. “How can you say such a thing to her? Just slip away quietly, and spare her the grief.”

Guo Jing said, “No. I will tell her myself.” He left the tent and went straight towards Huazheng’s quarters.

The princess shared a tent with her mother. These past few days she had been bustling happily with wedding preparations. Suddenly she heard Guo Jing calling outside, blushed, and cried, “Mother!” Her mother laughed. “You will be married in a few days and cannot bear to be apart for one. Very well, go and see him.” Huazheng smiled and went out, calling softly, “Guo Jing gege.”¹¹

Guo Jing said, “Little sister, I have something to tell you.” He led her westward, away from the camp.

The two walked several li before the great camp was far behind them, then sat down on the grass. Huazheng pressed close to Guo Jing and said in a low voice, “Jing gege, I have something to tell you too.”

Guo Jing was faintly startled. “Ah, you already know?” He thought that if she knew, it would save him the difficulty of finding the words to begin.

Huazheng said, “Know what? I want to tell you that I am not the Great Khan’s daughter.”

Guo Jing was puzzled. “What?”

Huazheng looked up at the thin crescent of the new moon rising at the edge of the sky and said slowly, “After I marry you, I will forget that I am Genghis Khan’s daughter. I will simply be Guo Jing’s wife. If you want to strike me or scold me, strike and scold as you please. Don’t put up with anything from me just because my father is the Great Khan.”

Guo Jing felt a pang in his chest and a rush of hot blood. “Little sister, you are so good to me. It is only that I am not worthy of you.”

Huazheng said, “Not worthy? You are the finest person in the world. No one comes near you except my father. My four brothers are not half the man you are.”

Guo Jing sat dazed for a long while. That he was leaving Mongolia first thing in the morning to go back south was something he could not now bring himself to say.

Huazheng went on, “These past few days I have been so happy. Back when I heard you were dead, I wished I were dead too. It was only because Tolui gege stopped me that I put down the knife. Otherwise, how could I be here marrying you now? Guo Jing gege, if I cannot be your wife, I would rather not live at all.”

Guo Jing thought, Rong-er would never say such things to me. But both of them are very, very good to me. Thinking of Huang Rong, he could not help but sigh long and deep.

Huazheng said in surprise, “Oh? Why are you sighing?”

Guo Jing hesitated. “It is nothing.”

Huazheng said, “Well, my eldest brother and second brother do not like you, but my third brother and fourth brother are good to you. I always speak well of the third and fourth before Father and say the first and second are no good. You need not worry.”

Guo Jing said, “Why?”

Huazheng looked pleased with herself. “I heard Mother say that Father is growing old and has been thinking of naming his heir. Guess whom he will choose?”

Guo Jing said, “Naturally your eldest brother Jochi. He is the eldest and has the greatest merit.”

Huazheng shook her head. “I think he will not pick eldest brother. Most likely it will be third brother, or else fourth brother.”

Guo Jing knew that Genghis Khan’s eldest son Jochi was fierce and valiant in battle, and his second son Chagatai was shrewd and able. The two were evenly matched and had always been the keenest of rivals. The third son, Ögedei, loved drinking and hunting and was generous by nature. He knew that when their father died, the succession would fall to either the eldest or the second, and that among the four sons, their father loved the youngest, Tolui, best of all. The Great Khan’s throne could never fall to him, so he quarrelled with no one, and all three brothers were fond of him. Guo Jing found what Huazheng said hard to believe. “Could a few words from you really make the Great Khan change his choice of heir?”

Huazheng said, “I do not know either. I am only guessing. But even if eldest brother or second brother becomes Great Khan, you need not fear. If they give you trouble, I’ll draw a knife on them and fight them to the death.”

Huazheng had been Genghis Khan’s favourite since childhood, and her four brothers had always given way to her. Guo Jing knew that what she said she would do. He smiled faintly. “That will not be necessary.”

Huazheng said, “Yes, and if my brothers treat us badly, the two of us will go south together.”

Guo Jing blurted out, “That is just what I was going to tell you. I am going south.”

Footnotes

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

2. 千夫长 — qiānfūzhǎng. Literally chief of a thousand men. Commander of a Mongol unit of one thousand, the mingghan. ↩

3. 四杰 — sìjié. Literally four outstanding ones. ↩

4. 潼关 — Tóngguān. Tong Pass, a strategic pass on the border of Shaanxi and Henan. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 大会 — dàhuì. Literally great assembly. The kurultai, the assembly of Mongol princes and generals convened to decide matters of war and succession. ↩

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

7. 九旄大纛 — jiǔmáo dàdào. Literally great banner of nine yak tails. The supreme standard of the Mongol Khan, hung with nine yak-tail pennants. ↩

8. 金帐 — jīnzhàng. Literally golden tent. The Great Khan’s great tent, the seat of his court. ↩

9. 妹子 — mèizi. The colloquial form of 妹妹, little sister; after a name it marks affection, not kinship. ↩

10. 斤 — jīn. A unit of weight, about 590 grams in the Song dynasty. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 哥哥 — gēge. Literally elder brother. After a given name it marks intimacy, not kinship. ↩