Pingtong Armed Escort

Pingtong Armed Escort

Contents

The Pingtong Armed Escort (simplified: 平通镖局, traditional: 平通鏢局, pinyin: Píngtōng Biāojú, jyutping: ping4 tung1 biu1 guk6) was an armed escort of Beijing, whose Escort Chief was Xiong Yuanxian (ch. 1). After Yinma Creek Stockade robbed one of its consignments and killed one of its escort captains, Xiong and his allies ambushed the stockade’s chiefs for the iron box in the Changbai Mountains, and so joined the treasure hunt on Jade Brush Peak in Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain.

Overview

Xiong Yuanxian, the Escort Chief (总镖头), was thin and dark-faced, soft-spoken, and a master of the Ground Tumbling Dao (地堂刀) (ch. 1). He had spent his life escorting goods and was by nature cautious, careful and averse to trouble (ch. 8). Years of the trade had given him, like the greenwood chief Tao Baisui, a sharp eye for valuables (ch. 2). Zheng Sanniang, called Zheng Sanniang of the Twin Dao, was the widow of one of the escort’s captains. She had travelled on escort runs with her husband for years and always did as the Escort Chief told her (ch. 1, 8).

History

The robbery

Yinma Creek Stockade robbed the Pingtong Armed Escort of a large consignment. Xiong Yuanxian tried every scheme to get it back and failed, and the two sides became bitter enemies. Zheng Sanniang’s husband, a Pingtong escort captain, died of a dao wound during the robbery (ch. 1). The year before the events of the novel, Xiong had lost a large consignment and been ruined by the compensation (ch. 1).

The ambush in the Changbai Mountains

Xiong Yuanxian’s senior fellow disciple Liu Yuanhe, a first-rank imperial guard, had been hidden under Tian Guinong’s bed on the night the Tianlong zhangmen died and had watched Tao Zian carry off the dao. Because Xiong had a score to settle with Yinma Creek, the two came after the Taos together (ch. 7). With Zheng Sanniang and Great Master Jingzhi of the Baihui Monastery in Shandong, they waited three days and nights in pits hidden under the snow where the Taos had buried the iron box (ch. 1).

When the Taos and three stockade chiefs came to dig, the Pingtong party sprang out. Their hidden weapons killed two of the stockade chiefs, and Zheng Sanniang, fighting on the defensive, lured the third, Stockade Chief Ma, onto one of the hidden pits and killed him. Later in the fight she held off Cao Yunqi with her defensive Iron Gate Bolt (铁门闩) bladework (ch. 1). Xiong offered to spare the Taos, hoping to make Yinma Creek pay ransom in silver. Instead Tao Zian loosed the iron box’s hidden arrows at Liu Yuanhe, who pulled Jingzhi in front of himself: the monk was killed and Xiong was wounded in the shoulder (ch. 1). The Tianlong School’s men then fell on both sides and took the box, and Tian Qingwen’s poisoned awl struck Zheng Sanniang. Baoshu persuaded Ruan Shizhong to give her the antidote and led everyone up to Jade Brush Peak (ch. 1).

On Jade Brush Peak

On the peak Xiong and Liu joined the fight against Hu Fei’s two child servants, meaning to snatch the iron box in the confusion (ch. 2). When the rope was restored, Xiong proposed that the Tianlong School, Yinma Creek Stockade and the Pingtong Armed Escort each send a man down in turn so that none could cheat the others (ch. 6). When Liu Yuanhe raised a dao to kill Miao Ruolan, her maid bit his wrist, and he swung his fist at the girl. Xiong knocked the blow aside, saying the treasure mattered more than taking lives; he feared Miao Renfeng’s revenge (ch. 8).

In the treasure hunt, Zheng Sanniang noticed that the ruby on the dao’s scabbard had been set back to front, and the mark beneath it led Baoshu to the cave (ch. 8). Xiong was sent out for firewood with Zhou Yunyang and Tao Zian, and later fought Zhou Yunyang on the cave floor. The Pingtong party were among those Hu Fei sealed inside (ch. 8, 10).

Notable members

  • Xiong Yuanxian: Escort Chief (ch. 1).
  • Zheng Sanniang’s husband: an escort captain, killed in Yinma Creek’s robbery (ch. 1).
  • Zheng Sanniang: his widow, who followed the Escort Chief’s lead (ch. 1).

Relationships

  • Yinma Creek Stockade: bitter enemies since the robbery (ch. 1).
  • Liu Yuanhe: Xiong Yuanxian’s senior fellow disciple, who had shared his shimen since childhood (ch. 1, 2). He was not a member of the escort but an imperial guard, one of the Eighteen Masters of the Inner Palace (ch. 2, 7).
  • Baihui Monastery: its monk Jingzhi came as one of the escort’s helpers and died in the ambush (ch. 1).
  • Tianlong School: rivals for the iron box (ch. 1).

See also

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