Saihetu (simplified: 赛赫图, traditional: 賽赫圖, pinyin: Sài Hètú, jyutping: coi3 hak1 tou4), called Commander Sai (赛总管) throughout, is Commander of the Imperial Guard (御前侍卫总管) in Jin Yong’s Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain. He is reputed the foremost warrior of the Manchus and is relied on above all others by the Qianlong Emperor (ch. 2, 7). Hu Fei knows him as the foremost master among the Manchus, master of both inner and outer gongfu, cunning and vicious, the killer of many loyal and upright men, and the emperor’s most trusted bodyguard (ch. 9).
Biography
Tian Guinong’s offer
Commander Sai invites the eighteen guards known as the Eighteen Masters of the Inner Palace (大内十八高手) to dinner at his residence to meet Tian Guinong, zhangmen of the Northern Branch of the Tianlong School. Tian offers to present Li Zicheng’s treasure to the emperor and lays out a plan for dealing with Miao Renfeng, whose family holds the map. Sai sets his guards to carry out the plan, but doubts that Tian wants neither rank nor wealth and sends men out of the capital to watch him. Liu Yuanhe, one of the eighteen, carries a secret order under Sai’s name (ch. 7).
Guild Chief Fan
Sai personally leads the Eighteen Masters to seize Guild Chief Fan of the Xinghan Beggars’ Guild at Kaifeng and holds him in the imperial prison, as bait to draw Miao Renfeng to Beijing (ch. 2, 8, 9). Miao does come. He breaks into the prison alone and fails to free Fan, but kills eleven palace guards and wounds Sai in the arm, and Sai cannot take him. He counts it the greatest humiliation of his life and never speaks of it; before others he claims that Miao was too wary to take the bait (ch. 9).
With the prison trap failed, Sai looks for another way to take Miao and the key to the treasure that Tian Guinong spoke of. He settles on Fan’s family art, the Dragon Claw Grasping Hand, which cannot be shaken off once it grips: Miao would never let an enemy lay hands on him, but an old friend striking without warning might succeed. Threats and bribes fail to move Fan, so Sai lodges him in his own residence and has his most practised flatterers praise him day after day. Sai’s guards claim that their commander had Miao beaten before he fled, and Sai then invites Fan to a bout. Using his pair of short-handled wolf-fang maces, he fights Fan’s dao for more than three hundred moves, lets himself be driven into a corner and concedes, throwing down his maces in feigned despair. In earnest, the text says, he would have beaten Fan within a hundred moves. Won over, Fan agrees to use the grip on his old friend, and Sai swears an oath that Miao will not be harmed (ch. 9).
The trap on Jade Brush Peak
Sai comes from Beijing to Du Ximeng’s manor on Jade Brush Peak with six guards and meets Du’s gathering of wulin masters in the dark in the east wing, not knowing that Hu Fei and Miao Ruolan lie in the curtained bed there. He hears Miao approaching long before the others, sends Du’s guests out to greet him and hides his guards about the room (ch. 9).
When Fan seizes Miao Renfeng’s acupoints with the Dragon Claw Grasping Hand, Sai seals Miao’s Jingmen acupoint; his striking is slow but lands very heavily. Once Miao is shackled, Sai takes a dao to cut the tendons of his arms and legs, saying that none of them would eat or sleep easy otherwise. Fan catches his wrist and reminds him of his oath, and Sai throws him through the wooden wall with his shoulder (ch. 9).
Three moves against Hu Fei
Hu Fei bursts from the bed, kills two guards and seizes Du Ximeng and Xuanmingzi by their acupoints to use as weapons. He taunts Sai for needing a dozen men and a trick to take one man, and wagers that he will beat him within three moves. Sai accepts, vowing he could not live with the shame of losing. Hu Fei absorbs his first punch by drawing in his chest. With his second move he spits in Sai’s face while kicking with both feet, so that Sai must stand and take it. With the third he swings Du and Xuanmingzi at Sai and frees their acupoints at the last instant; flailing to break loose, they strike Sai at the temple, chest, belly and flank. Sai sinks to the floor, his spirit broken, and has Miao’s shackles removed (ch. 9). The novel does not follow him further.
Relationships
- Qianlong Emperor: Sai is his most trusted guard.
- Tian Guinong: Tian brings him the plan to take Miao Renfeng and the treasure.
- Guild Chief Fan: Sai captures him, then flatters and deceives him into seizing Miao.
- Miao Renfeng (Enemy): Miao wounds him in the imperial prison; Sai traps him on the peak and means to cripple him.
- Hu Fei (Enemy): Beats him in three moves.
- Liu Yuanhe: One of his Eighteen Masters, acting under his secret order.
Martial arts
Saihetu is credited with mastery of both inner and outer gongfu and fights with a pair of short-handled wolf-fang maces (狼牙棒), with great strength and ferocity. His hearing is exceptionally keen. His acupoint strikes are slow but very heavy. He knocks Guild Chief Fan through a wall with one shoulder, and when Hu Fei swings Du Ximeng and Xuanmingzi at him he is ready to strike down his own allies (ch. 9).