The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 9 – Part 11

Zhang Songxi said, “Escort Chief Yun had everything in readiness. On the appointed day, he planned to rise simultaneously in three cities: Taiyuan, Datong, and Fenyang. He did not reckon that among the men sworn to the cause there was a great traitor. Three days before the uprising, this man stole the roll of all who had joined, along with Yun He's written plan of campaign, and went to inform the Mongol Tartars.”

Mo Shenggu slapped his thigh and cried, “Aiya! That was disaster!”

Zhang Songxi said, “By a stroke of fortune, I happened to be in Ji Ning at the time, attending to some business with the prefect of Taiyuan. In the middle of the night I caught the prefect in private conference with the traitor, and heard them plot how to send a secret report to the court whilst mustering troops to round up every man named on the roll. I leapt into the room and killed both the prefect and the traitor, then took the roll and the plan. When Yun He and the rest discovered their papers stolen, they knew at once that all was lost. Not only would the uprising fail, but every family named on the roll faced extermination. They sent word that same night for all to flee and hide. But the city gates were already shut, and no message could get out. At dawn the next morning, because the prefect had been murdered, Taiyuan closed its gates and searched the city for assassins. Yun He and his men were like ants on a hot pan, knowing full well that they themselves would soon face the annihilation of their entire households, and that throughout the Qin and Jin regions countless worthy men would be caught up in disaster. Yet after days of heart-in-mouth waiting, nothing happened. As the city failed to find the assassins, the search slowly slackened, and the whole affair fizzled out. When they saw the traitor dead inside the prefect’s yamen, they guessed someone had helped them in secret. But never in their wildest thoughts did they imagine it was me.”

Yin Liting said, “The bundles you just handed them, those were the roll and the plan?” Zhang Songxi said, “They were.” Mo Shenggu said, “And what of Gong Jiujia? How did Fourth Brother do him such a great turn?”

Zhang Songxi said, “Gong Jiujia’s kung fu is sound enough, but as a man he cannot be ranked alongside Escort Chief Yun. Six years ago he was escorting goods to Yunnan. In Kunming a wealthy jeweller entrusted him with a consignment of jewels worth six hundred thousand liang¹ of silver to deliver to Dadu. But when he reached Jiangxi, trouble struck. By the shores of Poyang Lake, three of the Four Heroes of Poyang ambushed him and seized the cargo. Gong Jiujia could have mortgaged all he owned and still not covered the loss. Moreover, his Yanyun Armed Escort held the foremost place among the northern armed escorts. Once his name was ruined, he might as well give up being a man altogether. In his inn, he turned the matter over and over, and at last resolved to end his life.

“The Three Heroes of Poyang were not greenwood² heroes, so why did they rob this shipment? It happened that the eldest of the Four Heroes had run afoul of the law and been cast into the death-row prison of Nanchang. His execution drew near. The other three had broken into the gaol twice and failed to free him, and the authorities had only tightened their guard. The Three Heroes, knowing the officials were greedy, meant to use the jewels as a bribe to lighten their brother’s sentence. Seeing the four men’s loyalty to one another, I found a way to spirit the eldest out of prison, and bade them return the jewels to Gong Jiujia. This Escort Chief Gong, though disagreeable to look at and dull in conversation, had never in his life done any real harm. In Dadu he did not curry favour with the Mongol officials or oppress the good. So saving his life was worth doing. I told the Four Heroes of Poyang not to mention my name, but to leave behind only the brocade wrapper in which the jewels had been bundled. Just now I returned that wrapper to him, and he knew the rest.”

Yu Lianzhou nodded. “Fourth Brother did well. Gong Jiujia matters less, but the Four Heroes of Poyang are decent men.”

Mo Shenggu said, “Fourth Brother, what did you give Qi Tianbiao?” Zhang Songxi said, “Nine Soul-Freezing Centipede Darts.” All five exclaimed at this. The Soul-Freezing Centipede Dart³ was well-known in the jianghu,⁴ the signature hidden weapon of Wu Yimin, a renowned hero of Liangzhou.

Zhang Songxi said, “This was the most reckless thing I have done, and thinking back, I count myself lucky it turned out well. Qi Tianbiao was escorting goods through Tong Pass when he inadvertently offended a disciple of Wu Yimin. The two fought, and Qi Tianbiao struck the man with a palm, wounding him grievously. After that blow, Qi Tianbiao knew he had courted disaster. He hurriedly delivered the escort silver and meant to race back to Jinling that very night, gather his closest friends, and face Wu Yimin together. But he had barely reached Luoyang before Wu Yimin caught up with him and challenged him to a duel outside Luoyang’s west gate the next day.”

Yin Liting said, “Wu Yimin’s kung fu is formidable. How could Qi Tianbiao match him?”

Zhang Songxi said, “Indeed. Qi Tianbiao knew that by his own skill he could not withstand so much as one of Wu Yimin’s darts. In desperation, he went to beg the Qiao brothers of Luoyang to lend their fists. The Qiao brothers agreed at once, saying: ‘With our skill, Brother Qi, you know full well we are no match for Wu Yimin. You ask us to appear, and it is only to shout encouragement. Very well, tomorrow at the hour of Wu,⁵ outside Luoyang’s west gate, we shall be there.’

“Mo Shenggu said, “The Qiao brothers are masters of hidden weapons. With their help, Qi Tianbiao three against one might have held Wu Yimin to a draw. It depends on whether Wu Yimin had allies of his own.”

Zhang Songxi said, “Wu Yimin had no allies. But the Qiao brothers played a strange trick. Early the next morning, Qi Tianbiao went to the Qiao household to discuss how to face the enemy. The gatekeeper told him: ‘My masters had urgent business and have ridden off to Zhengzhou this morning. They beg Master Qi not to wait for them.’ Qi Tianbiao was so furious he nearly burst. The Qiao brothers had been in trouble in Jiangnan some years before, and Qi Tianbiao had helped them out of a great difficulty. Yet now, when he came in desperation to ask aid, the pair talked fine but slipped away like oil under the foot. Qi Tianbiao knew Wu Yimin was ruthless and that there was no dodging this appointment. He wrote his last words in his inn, settled his affairs with the escort runners, and went alone outside Luoyang’s west gate to keep the tryst.

“I had watched the whole affair from start to finish. I disguised myself as a beggar, changed my appearance, and lay beneath a great tree outside the west gate. Before long Wu Yimin and Qi Tianbiao arrived, and the two began to fight. Within a few exchanges Wu Yimin went for the kill and loosed a Soul-Freezing Centipede Dart. Qi Tianbiao, seeing he could not dodge it, shut his eyes and waited for death. I rushed forward and caught the dart in my hand. Wu Yimin was startled and enraged. He shouted to know whether I was a man of the Beggars’ Guild. I only grinned and said nothing. He loosed eight more Soul-Freezing Centipede Darts in succession, and I caught every one. His signature hidden weapon was indeed no ordinary thing. Had I used our own school’s techniques to catch them, it would have been easy enough. But I feared he would see through the disguise, so I deliberately made a show of a lame left foot and a crippled right arm, using only my left hand, and catching the darts with Shaolin Order⁶ catching techniques, palm down, seizing and snatching. I caught all nine, but my palm nearly grazed open on his seventh poisoned dart. It was perilous in the extreme. Sure enough, he bellowed to know which Shaolin high monk I was a disciple of. I played deaf and dumb, babbling nonsense at him. Wu Yimin, knowing he could not beat me, withdrew in shame and anger. He returned to Liangzhou and shut himself indoors, and has not shown his face in the jianghu these past years.”

Mo Shenggu shook his head. “Fourth Brother, Wu Yimin is no good man, but Qi Tianbiao is no great prize either. If those centipede darts had grazed your palm that day, what then? The risk was not worth it.”

Zhang Songxi laughed. “I was being meddlesome at the time. I did not foresee that his centipede darts were truly so fierce.”

Mo Shenggu, frank by nature, did not understand the deeper purpose behind Zhang Songxi’s actions. But how could Zhang Cuishan, listening behind the screen, not grasp it? Fourth Brother had laboured heart and soul to defuse the Longmen Armed Escort’s blood-debt. He knew that the Huju Armed Escort was the foremost among the armed escorts of Jiangnan, that the Yanyun Armed Escort commanded the escorts of Ji and Lu, and that the Jinyang Armed Escort held the highest honour in the northwestern provinces. When the Longmen Armed Escort affair came to a head, these three would surely take the lead. So Fourth Brother had laid in three debts of gratitude in advance. The three affairs seemed like strokes of chance, but Zhang Songxi’s quiet enquiries and watchful waiting must have cost him days and months, no end of heart’s labour.

Zhang Cuishan, his voice breaking, said, “Fourth Brother, we brothers are of one body. There is no need for me to say ‘thank you.’ It was your sister-in-law who acted rashly that day and brought this great disaster upon us.” He then told the whole story from the beginning, how Yin Susu had disguised herself in his likeness and gone in the night to slay the Longmen Armed Escort’s household to the last soul. He ended with, “Fourth Brother, how should this matter be resolved? Give me your counsel.”

Zhang Songxi was silent for a time, then said, “This is a matter for Shifu’s judgement. But the dead cannot be brought back to life, and our sister-in-law has already mended her ways. She is no longer the woman who killed without a blink. To know one’s fault and amend it: there is no greater good. Eldest Brother, do you not agree?”

Song Yuanqiao, faced with a matter involving dozens of lives, hesitated, unable to decide at once. Yu Lianzhou, however, nodded and said, “Agreed.”

Yin Liting feared his Second Brother above all. He knew Eldest Brother was a soft-hearted man, easy to persuade, but Second Brother hated evil as a man hates a snake, iron-faced and impartial. He had been terrified that Yu Lianzhou would take Fifth Sister-in-law to task, and had been on pins and needles the whole time, not knowing that Yu Lianzhou had long since learned of the affair and long since forgiven Yin Susu. Seeing his Second Brother nod, Yin Liting was overjoyed and said quickly, “Yes! When anyone asks, Fifth Brother need only say he did not kill those men. It is not a lie, it truly was not him.” Song Yuanqiao cast him a look. “To deny everything outright: how would that sit on Fifth Brother’s conscience? We bear the name of xia.⁷ How would that sit on our conscience?” Yin Liting said urgently, “Then what shall we do?”

Song Yuanqiao said, “This is my thought. After Shifu’s birthday feast, we shall first go in search of Fifth Brother’s son. Then, at the Heroes Assembly on Yellow Crane Tower, when we have settled the matter of the Golden Haired Lion King Xie Xun, the six of us brothers, together with Fifth Brother’s wife, making seven, shall all go south. Within three years, each of us is to perform ten great acts of charity.”

Zhang Songxi clapped his hands and cried, “Right, right! The Longmen Armed Escort lost seventy-odd innocent lives. If each of us performs ten acts of charity, and we can save a hundred or two hundred innocent people from disaster, then perhaps we may just about balance the account.” Yu Lianzhou said, “Eldest Brother’s plan could not be more fitting. Shifu will surely approve. Otherwise, even if Fifth Brother’s wife were to give her life for those seventy-odd dead, it would merely add one more corpse. What good would that do?”

Zhang Cuishan, who had been tormented by this affair for so long, heard his Eldest Brother’s arrangement with immense relief. “I shall go and tell her.” He went to Yin Susu and relayed Song Yuanqiao’s words, adding that as soon as the brothers had wished Shifu a happy birthday, they would all descend the mountain together to search for Wuji.

Yin Susu had never been truly ill. Her illness came of longing for Wuji. Now, hearing her husband’s words, she thought that with the skill of the six Wudang heroes behind the search, they would surely find Wuji, and at once her heart grew lighter.

Zhang Cuishan then went to see Yu Daiyan. When shixiong met after a long parting, there was joy and sorrow in equal measure.

Footnotes

1. 两 – liǎng. A unit of weight used as currency, approximately one-sixteenth of a jin. ↩

2. 绿林 – lùlín. The greenwood, the world of outlaws and bandits. A term for those who live outside the law by force of arms. ↩

3. 断魂蜈蚣镖 – Duànhún Wúgōng Biāo. Soul-Freezing Centipede Dart. A feared hidden weapon of Liangzhou, fired from a tube and coated in poison. ↩

4. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 午时 – wǔshí. The hour of Wu, roughly 11 am to 1 pm. The day was divided into twelve shichen, each named for one of the Earthly Branches. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 少林派 – Shàolín Pài. The Shaolin Order. The great Buddhist martial monastery. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 侠 – xiá. A martial hero who upholds justice and protects the weak. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩