The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 34 – Part 6

Zhang Wuji said, “Of course we must redouble our search for sworn father. But who can say when we'll drive out the Tartars? Are we to wait until we're a grey-haired old man and old woman, trembling as we bow to Heaven and Earth? An old couple bowing is neither here nor there, but we won't be able to have children, and the Zhang family line will end.” Zhou Zhiruo's face flushed and she burst out laughing. “Here you are, such an honest man. Where did you pick up such a glib tongue?” The month of gloom and misery dissolved between their laughter, scattering like smoke on the wind.

When Yang Xiao and the others returned to the convent, they bade Zhou Zhiruo farewell and headed straight back to Haozhou. Zhang Wuji earnestly promised Zhou Zhiruo that once matters in Haozhou were settled, he would come to fetch her for the wedding, and he also asked the Emei Order to assist in searching for Xie Xun.

Meanwhile, the Ming Order’s righteous armies fought several pitched battles against the Yuan troops. Though they won every engagement, the losses were grievous. For the next three or four months the armies would be consumed with recuperation, reorganisation, and recruiting fresh soldiers, unable to mount another major campaign against the Yuan. Yang Xiao, Fan Yao, and the others spoke of the rapport between Zhang Wuji and Zhou Zhiruo, and learned that the two had become engaged under Xie Xun’s auspices. Fan Yao also knew that Zhang Wuji’s connection with Zhao Min was far from ordinary. If the Order Leader of the Ming Order were to marry a Mongol princess, it would deal a grave blow to the great cause of resisting the Yuan and restoring the nation. With nothing pressing at hand, they all urged Zhang Wuji to wed Zhou Zhiruo at once. Zhang Wuji had already given Zhou Zhiruo his word, and he agreed without hesitation. Yang Xiao chose the fifteenth of the sixth month as an auspicious day, and he and Wei Yixiao served as Gift-Bearing Envoys, bearing the betrothal gifts Zhang Wuji had prepared. They journeyed to White-Robed Convent in Dinghai and secured Zhou Zhiruo’s agreement to the date. Both the Ming Order and the Emei Order bubbled with celebration, bustling with wedding preparations.

By now the Ming Order’s might shook the realm. In the east, Han Shantong’s forces had taken one great city after another along the Huai and Si rivers. In the west, Xu Shouhui had dealt the Yuan army defeat upon defeat in northern Hubei and southern Henan. When news of the Order Leader’s auspicious marriage spread abroad, congratulations from the jianghu¹ came pouring in like a tide. The Kunlun School, the Kongtong School, and the other factions had old grievances against the Ming Order, but first, Zhang Wuji had rescued them from Wan’an Monastery in Dadu, placing all the factions in his debt, and second, Zhou Zhiruo was the Emei zhangmen,² so the leaders of every faction sent gifts and envoys to offer their congratulations. The Kongtong Five Elders’ presents were the most lavish of all.

Zhang Sanfeng personally wrote the four characters “A Fine Son, A Fine Daughter-in-Law” on a hanging scroll, together with a handwritten copy of the Taiji Fist Manual, and sent Song Yuanqiao, Yu Lianzhou, and Yin Liting, three of his senior disciples, to attend the celebrations. By this time Yang Buhui had married Yin Liting, and the pair travelled together to Haozhou. Zhang Wuji went forward to greet them with a broad smile and called out loudly, “Sixth Shishen!”³ Yang Buhui’s face turned crimson. She took his hand, and looking back on all that had passed, she felt both joy and a pang of melancholy.

Fearing that Chen Youliang and Song Qingshu had not abandoned their treacherous designs and might seize their chance to strike, Zhang Wuji appointed Wei Yixiao Thank-Gift Envoy to Wudang. In secret he told Wei Yixiao the whole story of how Song Qingshu had murdered Mo Shenggu and then plotted against Zhang Sanfeng, and instructed him to go to Wudang Mountain, pay his respects to Zhang Sanfeng, and then keep company with Yu Daiyan and Zhang Songxi as a guard against Chen Youliang’s schemes. He was to wait until Song Yuanqiao and the others returned to Wudang before taking his leave. Wei Yixiao said fiercely, “Ever since I pledged to follow the Order Leader’s orders, I have not touched a drop of human blood. If I lay hands on those two traitors, I’ll drain them both dry, blood and bone.” Zhang Wuji hastened to say, “Where Dharma King Xie has fallen may yet be traced through Chen Youliang. We must take him alive, not kill him on the spot. Song Qingshu is Eldest Shibo Song’s only beloved son, the Wudang Order’s future zhangmen. Wudang must cleanse its own house, so as not to wound Eldest Shibo Song’s feelings.” Wei Yixiao agreed, bowed, and departed.

By the tenth of the sixth month, the Emei swordswomen arrived in Haozhou bearing gifts. Zhou Zhiruo was waiting in a large mansion in Zhongli City, southeast of Haozhou. Ding Minjun sent a congratulatory gift by proxy but did not come in person.

On the fifteenth, the appointed day, every member of the Ming Order wore new clothes. The wedding hall was set up in the main hall of Haozhou’s wealthiest gentry family, adorned with lanterns and silken garlands, decked out in resplendent splendour. Zhang Sanfeng’s four-character hanging scroll, “A Fine Son, A Fine Daughter-in-Law,” hung in the place of honour. Yin Tianzheng officiated as wedding sponsor for the groom’s side, Chang Yuchun for the bride’s. Iron Crown Adept served as Chief Inspector of Haozhou, deploying Order disciples in patrols on all sides to guard against enemy infiltration. Tang He and Deng Yu commanded elite troops encamped outside the city as a further defence.

That morning, the Shaolin Order and Huashan School also sent envoys bearing gifts. Yin Yewang led the Tianying Order’s rank and file, escorting the wedding sedan chair, the musicians, and the master of ceremonies to Zhongli City to fetch the bride.

At the first quarter of the shen shichen,⁴ the wedding sedan chair bearing the bride arrived at the groom’s residence. The auspicious hour had come. Signal cannons roared in succession. All the guests assembled in the great hall, and the master of ceremonies chanted the rites in a clear voice. Song Yuanqiao and Yin Liting escorted Zhang Wuji forth. The silk-and-bamboo music swelled, and a brightness lit before everyone’s eyes: eight young Emei Order swordswomen accompanying Zhou Zhiruo as she entered the hall with graceful, swaying steps. Zhou Zhiruo wore a crimson brocade robe, a phoenix coronet and rainbow cape, her face veiled in red silk. Groom on the left, bride on the right, they stood shoulder to shoulder. The master of ceremonies cried out, “Worship Heaven!”

Just as Zhang Wuji and Zhou Zhiruo were about to kneel on the red felt, a sweet voice rang out from beyond the gate, “Hold!” A green shadow flashed. A girl in green robes stood smiling in the courtyard. It was Zhao Min.

The moment the assembled heroes caught sight of her, shouts went up on every side. Not a few from the Ming Order and the various factions had suffered bitterly at her hands, and they could not believe she dared venture alone into such a den. The more hot-tempered among them were already moving to attack.

Yang Xiao spread his arms and cried, “Hold!” Then he addressed the crowd, “Today is the happy day of our Order Leader and the Emei Order zhangmen. Miss Zhao honours us with her presence, and is therefore our guest. I ask you all to respect the Emei Order and the Ming Order’s modest face, set aside old grievances for the moment, and offer Miss Zhao no discourtesy.” He signalled with his eyes to Cannot Tell and Peng Yingyu, who understood at once and slipped round to the rear hall to go out and investigate, to see how many experts Zhao Min had brought with her. Yang Xiao turned to Zhao Min and said, “Miss Zhao, please take a seat here and observe the ceremony. Presently I shall offer you three cups of wine.”

Zhao Min smiled faintly and said, “I have a few words for Order Leader Zhang. Once I have spoken, I shall leave. Another day I shall impose further.” Yang Xiao said, “Whatever Miss Zhao has to say, it can wait until after the ceremony.” Zhao Min said, “After the ceremony, it will be too late.” Yang Xiao and Fan Yao exchanged a glance. They knew she had come determined to disrupt the proceedings, and that she would stop at nothing to intervene at once, before a joyous occasion turned into a scene of embarrassment, souring the entire hall.

Yang Xiao took two steps forward and said, “Today host and guest observe propriety to the full. Miss Zhao, I must ask you to conduct yourself with dignity.” He had already made up his mind: if Zhao Min meant to cause trouble, the only course was to strike swiftly and seal her acupoints.⁵ Zhao Min turned to Fan Yao and said, “Bitter Master, they mean to lay hands on me. Will you help me or not?” Fan Yao’s brow furrowed. “Princess, in this world eight or nine things out of ten go against our wishes. Since it has come to this, one cannot force the matter.”

Zhao Min said, “I insist on forcing it.” She turned to Zhang Wuji. “Zhang Wuji, you are the Order Leader of the Ming Order, a man and a hero. Do your words count or not?”

Zhang Wuji’s heart had been pounding wildly ever since Zhao Min appeared. He had been hoping Yang Xiao could resolve the impasse and persuade her to leave in good order. Hearing her sudden question, he could only answer, “What I have said, of course it counts.” Zhao Min said, “That day I saved the lives of Third Shibo Yu and Sixth Shishu Yin. You promised to do three things for me, without violation. Was that so, or not?”

Zhang Wuji said, “It was. You asked to borrow the Dragon-Slaying Dao to look at. You have already seen it, and on top of that you stole the treasure dao away.” For decades, everyone in the jianghu had been consumed with curiosity about the whereabouts of the Dragon-Slaying Dao, that weapon deemed supreme in the wulin.⁶ Hearing that it had been in Zhao Min’s hands, the assembled company stirred in astonishment.

Zhao Min said, “As for who actually holds the Dragon-Slaying Dao now, only the Golden-Maned Lion King, Xie daxia,⁷ knows. You may go and ask him yourself.”

The news that Xie Xun had returned to the Central Plains was unknown to most of the assembled heroes. At the mention of the Golden-Maned Lion King, the hubbub in the hall fell instantly silent.

Zhang Wuji said, “Where my sworn father is at this moment, I worry day and night. I earnestly beg you to tell me.” Zhao Min smiled faintly and said, “I asked you to do three things, stipulating only that they not violate the principles of xia in the wulin, and you must comply. Borrowing the Dragon-Slaying Dao to look at, though not entirely above board, at least allowed me to see the weapon, and its later theft was not your fault. Consider the first task fulfilled. Now I have a second matter to attend to. Zhang Wuji, before all the heroes and brave men of the realm, you cannot break your word.” Zhang Wuji said, “What do you want me to do?”

Yang Xiao cut in, “Miss Zhao, if you have some request to make of our Order Leader, since there is a prior agreement, and provided it does not run counter to the principles of the jianghu, then not only will Order Leader Zhang agree, but our entire Order shall devote itself to the task. But this is the auspicious hour for Order Leader Zhang and his new wife to worship Heaven and Earth. Other matters are set aside for now. Please do not obstruct the ceremony with further words.” By the end his tone had grown decidedly stern.

Footnotes

1. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them, including pedlars, physicians, fortune-tellers, entertainers, boatmen, beggars, outlaws and the like. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 掌门 – zhǎngmén. The leader of a martial arts school or order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 师婶 – shīshěn. Lineage aunt. The wife of one’s shishu. Shī means teacher. Shěn means uncle’s wife. ↩

4. 时辰 – shíchén. A unit of time equivalent to two hours. The traditional Chinese day was divided into twelve shichen. The shen shichen falls between three and five in the afternoon. ↩

5. 穴道 – xuédào. Acupoints. The vital points along the body’s meridians, used in martial arts to disable or injure an opponent with precise strikes. ↩

6. 武林 – wǔlín. The martial forest; the community of martial artists. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 大侠 – dàxiá. A title of respect for a renowned and chivalrous martial artist. Literally great xia. ↩