The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 5 – Part 4

At this Guo Jing could hold back no longer. He took Huazheng’s hand, vaulted onto a horse, and the two shared the saddle as they galloped to the foot of the cliff. Sure enough, seventeen or eighteen black eagles were besieging a pair of white ones. The two sides pecked and tore at each other until feathers flew in every direction.

A pair of white eagles nested upon the cliff, enormous of frame, fully twice the size of common eagles, a rare breed indeed. White-plumaged eagles were uncommon enough, yet these two were so vast that even the oldest men of the Mongol tribes called them exceedingly rare. People called them “divine birds”, and there were simple women there were who knelt and worshipped them.

The white eagles’ great size was matched by the ferocity of their beaks and talons. One black eagle, a heartbeat too slow in dodging, took a peck square on the crown from one of the white eagles and died at once. It tumbled from mid-air and landed before Huazheng’s horse. The remaining black eagles scattered in flight, but soon wheeled back to resume their assault.

After more fierce combat, many Mongol men and women from the grasslands arrived to watch the battle. Six or seven hundred people gathered beneath the cliff, pointing and talking. When the news reached Temüjin, he too rode over with Ögedei and Tolui, and watched with keen relish.

Guo Jing, Tolui and Huazheng often played beneath the cliff and saw the pair of white eagles fly to and fro almost every day. Sometimes they watched the twin eagles hunt birds and beasts for food. Sometimes they tossed great chunks of beef and mutton into the air, and the white eagles swept down to catch them, never missing once in a hundred. The three had grown fond of the birds. Seeing the white eagles outnumbered yet fighting on, the three of them cheered the white eagles on without pause, “Peck him, white eagle, there’s one coming on the left, turn round, quick, that’s it, that’s it, after him, after him!”

After long, fierce fighting, two more black eagles fell. The pair of white eagles too were covered in wounds, their white feathers stained with blood. Suddenly a black eagle of exceptional size cried out several times. More than ten black eagles wheeled and fled, vanishing into the clouds. Four remained, still fighting desperately. The crowd, seeing the white eagles prevailing, cheered aloud.

After a while, three more black eagles also turned and fled eastward at full speed. One white eagle, unwilling to let them go, gave chase. In moments all had flown beyond sight. Only one black eagle remained, careering high and low, pressed hard by the surviving white eagle until it could scarcely escape. Just as the black eagle seemed doomed, a shrill cry rent the air. More than ten black eagles plunged from the clouds, all attacking the white eagle at once.

Temüjin cried out in admiration, “Fine tactics!”

Now the lone white eagle could not withstand the assault of so many black eagles. Though it killed one more, it took grave wounds at last and fell upon the cliff. The black eagles swarmed upon it, clawing and pecking.

Guo Jing, Tolui and Huazheng were all distressed. Huazheng even wept, crying again and again, “Father, shoot the black eagles.”

Temüjin, however, was thinking only of how the black eagles had won by a surprise stroke. He said to Ögedei and Tolui, “The black eagles won the day. This is a fine lesson in warfare. Remember it well.” The two nodded and assented.

The black eagles, having killed the white eagle, dived towards a cavity in the cliff. Two small white eagles poked their heads out from the hole, about to be pecked to death at any moment. Huazheng shouted, “Father, won’t you shoot?” Then she cried, “Guo Jing, Guo Jing, look, the white eagles have had a pair of babies, how did we never know? Oh, Father, shoot the black eagles dead, quick!”

Temüjin smiled faintly. He drew his stiff bow, nocked an iron arrow, and let fly with a twang. The arrow sped like lightning and pierced clean through one black eagle. The whole crowd cheered as one. Temüjin handed bow and arrows to Ögedei, saying, “Your turn.” Ögedei’s arrow also killed one. When Tolui in turn struck another, the remaining black eagles, seeing the tide had turned, scattered and fled.

The Mongol commanders also bent their bows, but once the black eagles beat their wings and soared high, they proved near impossible to bring down. The arrows, their force spent, dropped away before they reached the birds. Temüjin called out, “A reward for whoever hits one.”

Jebe the Divine Archer,¹ meaning to give Guo Jing a chance to display his skill, took his own powerful bow and placed it in Guo Jing’s hands, whispering, “Kneel. Aim for the neck.”

Guo Jing took the bow and knelt on his right knee. His left hand held the iron bow rock-steady, without the slightest tremor, and summoning his strength with his right, he drew the stiff bow of some two hundred jin.² He had trained in martial arts under the Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan for ten years. Though he had not plumbed the depths of the supreme arts, his arms possessed unusual strength and his eyes unusual keenness. Seeing two black eagles fly past on his left, wing to wing, he shifted his left arm a fraction, aimed at the black eagles’ necks, and snapped open the fingers of his right hand. The bow bent like the full moon, and the arrow fled like a falling star. The black eagles sought to dodge, but the arrow-shaft had already pierced clean through the neck of the first. Its force still unspent, the arrow drove on into the belly of the second, and with both eagles strung on it, it plunged from the sky. The whole crowd cheered. The remaining black eagles dared not linger a moment longer, but scattered and fled high into the sky.

Huazheng whispered to Guo Jing, “Give the two eagles to my father.”

Guo Jing did as she said. He lifted the pair of eagles and ran to Temüjin’s horse. Dropping to one knee, he held them high above his head.

Temüjin loved good generals and brave warriors above all things, and he was delighted to see Guo Jing bring down two eagles with a single arrow. The great eagles of the north were no ordinary birds. Their spread wings measured over ten feet, and their feathers were as hard as iron. Swooping down, they could carry off a whole foal or a grown sheep. So fearsome were they that even tigers and leopards made haste to keep out of their way. To bring down two with a single arrow, though chiefly a stroke of fortune, was no mean feat.

Temüjin ordered his guards to collect the eagles and said with a smile, “Good lad, your archery is excellent!”

Guo Jing would not claim Jebe’s merit as his own. He said, “Jebe shifu³ taught me.”

Temüjin laughed. “The shifu is Jebe, and the pupil is a Jebe too.” In the Mongolian tongue, Jebe means “divine archer.”

Tolui, wanting to help his sworn brother, said to Temüjin, “Father, you said whoever struck one would be rewarded. My anda⁴ brought down two eagles with a single arrow. What will you give him?”

Temüjin said, “Anything at all.” He asked Guo Jing, “What do you want?”

Tolui said delightedly, “Really anything at all?”

Temüjin laughed. “Would I deceive a child?”

Guo Jing had lived under Temüjin’s protection these many years. The commanders all liked him for his simple goodness and did not slight him for being Han. Now, seeing the Great Khan well pleased, they all looked to Guo Jing, hoping he would receive a weighty reward.

Guo Jing said, “The Great Khan has been so good to me. My mother has everything already. There is nothing more to give me.”

Temüjin smiled. “You are a filial child, thinking of your mother first. Then what do you want for yourself? Say whatever you like. Don’t be afraid.”

Guo Jing paused a moment in thought, then dropped to both knees before Temüjin’s horse. “I do not want anything for myself. I am asking the Great Khan for something on another’s behalf.”

Temüjin said, “What is it?”

Guo Jing said, “Wang Khan’s grandson Tusakha is wicked and cruel. If Huazheng marries him, she will surely suffer. I beg the Great Khan not to betroth Huazheng to him.”

Temüjin started, then laughed aloud. “That’s a child talking. How could that be? We hold to our word. A promise once given cannot be broken. Very well, then. I shall reward you with a treasure.” He untied a short dao from his waist and handed it to Guo Jing.

The Mongol commanders clucked in admiration and envied him greatly, for this was the dao Temüjin wore at his side and prized above all, the dao with which he had killed countless enemies. Had he not already promised so freely, he would never have parted with it so lightly.

Guo Jing bowed his thanks and took the short dao. He had often seen it at Temüjin’s waist. Now, examining it closely, he saw that the scabbard was cast in gold, and the end of the hilt was cast as a golden tiger’s head, snarling and fearsome.

Temüjin said, “You bear my golden dao. Fight for me.”

Guo Jing answered, “Yes. I shall do my utmost for the Great Khan!”

Huazheng suddenly burst into tears, leapt onto her horse and galloped away. Temüjin’s heart was iron, yet seeing his daughter so distraught softened him. He sighed faintly, wheeled his horse, and returned to camp. The Mongol princes and commanders followed behind.

Guo Jing, seeing them all gone, drew the short dao from its sheath. A chill came off the blade, and a faint bloody sheen showed along the edge, and he knew that this dao had killed more men than anyone could tell. The blade was short, but thick and heavy, a formidable weapon.

He studied it a while, then tucked the sheath into his sash. Drawing his long jian,⁵ he took up the Yue Maiden Swordplay once more. He practised for a long while, yet that one move, “Branch Strikes the White Ape”, still would not come right. Either he leapt too low, or he had no time to turn the full flat circles. Growing impatient, he lost his calm, and the more he tried, the worse it grew. Sweat poured from him.

Then he heard the sound of hooves. Huazheng was riding back.

She reined in nearby, dismounted, and lay sideways on the grass, propping her head on one hand as she watched Guo Jing practise. Seeing him struggle, she called, “Stop. Rest a while.”

Guo Jing said, “Don’t bother me. I have no time to talk with you.”

Huazheng fell silent. She watched him with a smile. After a time, she drew a handkerchief from her robe, tied two knots in it, and tossed it towards him. “Wipe your sweat.”

Guo Jing grunted but did not reach for it. He let the handkerchief fall and kept practising.

Huazheng said, “Earlier you begged Father not to let me marry Tusakha. Why was that?”

Guo Jing said, “Tusakha is cruel. He once set his cheetahs on your brother Tolui to eat him. If you married him, he would beat you.”

Huazheng smiled. “If he beats me, you’ll come and help me.”

Guo Jing was taken aback. “That… how could that be?”

Huazheng gazed at him and said softly, “If I do not marry Tusakha, then whom do I marry?”

Guo Jing shook his head. “I do not know.”

Huazheng spat in annoyance. The flush that had coloured her face turned suddenly to anger. “You do not know anything at all!”

After a while, a smile returned to her face. From atop the cliff came the ceaseless chirping of the two small white eagles. Then, far away, came a shrill and anguished cry, and the great white eagle came flying swiftly back. It was only now returning from its chase, and the black eagles must have lured it very far away. An eagle’s eyes see a very long way, and it had long since seen its mate lying dead on the cliff. In a blink it swept overhead like a white cloud, then wheeled swiftly back.

Guo Jing stopped and looked up. The white eagle circled and circled, crying in grief.

Huazheng said, “Look how pitiful that white eagle is.”

Guo Jing said, “Mm, it must be so sad!”

The white eagle gave a single long cry and beat its wings straight up into the clouds.

Huazheng began, “What is it going up to…”

Before she could finish, the white eagle plunged from the clouds like an arrow and dashed its head against the rock with a thud. It died at once.

Guo Jing and Huazheng cried out together and leapt to their feet, too shocked to speak for a long while.

Suddenly a resonant voice spoke from behind, “Admirable! Admirable!”

The two turned. A Han man with a grey beard stood there, his face ruddy and his expression gentle. In his hand he held a fly-whisk.⁶ His dress was most peculiar. Three topknots were combed upon his head, standing tall. His Daoist robe was without a speck of dust. In this windblown, dusty place, none could say how he remained so clean.

Guo Jing, since that night when he had seen Yin Zhiping,⁷ had asked his shifus about him and learnt that such men were Daoists, who left their homes for the religious life in the Central Plains. This one spoke the Han tongue, which Huazheng did not understand. She paid him no mind but turned to gaze again at the cliff-top. Presently she said, “The two small white eagles have lost their parents. What will they do up there?”

The cliff rose sheer to the clouds, ringed on all sides by perilous rock and jagged stone with no purchase for climbing. The two young eagles had not yet learned to fly. They would starve to death upon the summit, it seemed.

Guo Jing looked up at the cliff for a while. “Unless someone grows wings and flies up, there is no way to save the little eagles.” He picked up his long jian and went back to practising, but after a long while “Branch Strikes the White Ape” showed no improvement at all. He was growing exasperated when a cold voice behind him said, “Practising like that, you could train for a hundred years and it would be no use.”

Guo Jing lowered his jian and turned. The speaker was the Daoist with the three topknots. “What did you say?”

The Daoist smiled faintly and did not answer. Suddenly he closed two steps. Guo Jing felt his right arm go numb. Without knowing how, he saw a flash of blue light, and the long jian he had been gripping tightly was now in the Daoist’s hand.

His Second Shifu had taught him the Barehanded Blade Disarm,⁸ and though he had not mastered it, he had grasped the gist. Yet this Daoist had snatched his jian in an instant, and he could not even tell what method he had used. Badly frightened, he leapt back three paces and placed himself between the Daoist and Huazheng. He drew the golden-handled short dao Temüjin had given him, ready to defend her should the Daoist mean harm.

The Daoist called, “Watch carefully!” He leapt into the air. With a burst of hissing he swung the jian and turned six or seven flat circles in the air, then drifted lightly to the ground.

Guo Jing stood dumbstruck, lost in wonder.

The Daoist cast the jian to the earth and said with a laugh, “The white eagle was most admirable. Its young must be saved!” He drew in his breath and dashed towards the foot of the cliff. His hands and feet moved together, swift as an ape and light as a bird, and he began to climb the cliff face. The cliff stood several hundred feet tall, its sheerest parts smooth as a wall. Yet wherever the rock offered the slightest ridge or hollow, the Daoist found purchase and sprang upward.

Footnotes

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

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

3. 师父 — shīfù. Teacher responsible for technical instruction and moral guidance. Shī means teacher. Fù means father. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

5. 剑 — jiàn. A straight, double-edged blade. ↩

6. 拂尘 — fúchén. Literally whisk away the dust. A fly-whisk of horsehair on a handle, a traditional implement of Daoist priests. ↩

7. 尹志平 — Yǐn Zhìpíng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 空手夺白刃 — Kōngshǒu Duó Báirèn. Advanced unarmed technique for disarming armed opponents. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩