Yinma Creek Stockade (simplified: 饮马川山寨, traditional: 飲馬川山寨, pinyin: Yìnmǎ Chuān Shānzhài, jyutping: jam2 maa5 cyun1 saan1 zaai6), often called simply Yinma Creek (饮马川), was a greenwood stronghold whose first stockade chief was Tao Baisui, the Terror of Guandong (ch. 1, 7). Its robbery of a consignment of the Pingtong Armed Escort left a feud between the two, and Tao Baisui’s old partnership with Tian Guinong of the Tianlong School brought the stockade into the fight for the iron box in Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain.
Overview
The stockade had several stockade chiefs. Tao Baisui was the first stockade chief (大寨主) and his son Tao Zian the young stockade chief (少寨主); three more stockade chiefs, all hard fighters, rode with them to the Changbai Mountains (ch. 1, 7). Xiong Yuanxian of the Pingtong Armed Escort remarked, not without irony, that Yinma Creek’s fame had spread far and wide (ch. 1).
Tao Baisui made no secret of being a robber. He had lived in the greenwood since boyhood, he said, and saw no shame in it. When Cao Yunqi sneered at the idea that his shifu had ever been a bandit, Tao answered that men who set up a stockade and earned their living by dao and spear were no worse than those who guarded rich houses, escorted goods, held office and flattered their betters while preying on the people (ch. 7). When Miao Ruolan’s retinue came up the peak, father and son both reflected that had they met it on the road they would have taken it for an official’s household, robbed it, and landed themselves in serious trouble (ch. 3).
History
Tao Baisui and Tian Guinong
As a young man Tian Guinong robbed with Tao Baisui as his deputy, and gave it up only when he married. Tian later betrothed his only daughter, Tian Qingwen, to Tao Zian. Tao Baisui believed the match was meant to keep him quiet about what he knew (ch. 7). Twenty-seven years before the events of the novel, he was still Tian’s deputy in the band that tried to stop Hu Yidao at Cangzhou; Hu Yidao’s coins struck him down, and Madam Hu threw him off the inn roof with the others (ch. 7). He passed Tian’s poison on to the bonesetter Yan Ji rather than smear it on the duellists’ weapons himself (ch. 7).
The feud with the Pingtong Armed Escort
The stockade robbed a large consignment from the Pingtong Armed Escort of Beijing. Its Escort Chief, Xiong Yuanxian, tried every scheme to recover it and failed. The husband of Zheng Sanniang, a Pingtong escort captain, died of a dao wound in the robbery (ch. 1).
The fight for the iron box
When Tian Guinong died on the day of his retirement, Tao Zian fled beyond the Pass with his father, carrying Li Zicheng’s Treasured Dao in the iron box that Tian had given him to bury (ch. 7). The Taos later came to the Changbai Mountains with three stockade chiefs to dig the box up. Xiong Yuanxian, his fellow disciple Liu Yuanhe, Zheng Sanniang and the monk Jingzhi had been lying in wait for three days in pits hidden under the snow. Their hidden weapons killed two of the stockade chiefs keeping watch, and Zheng Sanniang killed the third, Stockade Chief Ma, who fought with a pair of chain hammers (ch. 1). Xiong, who had lost a large consignment the year before and been ruined by the compensation, wanted Yinma Creek to ransom itself with silver rather than simply kill the Taos. Tao Zian instead turned the box’s hidden arrows on his enemies; Liu Yuanhe pulled Jingzhi in front of himself, and the arrows killed the monk. The Tianlong party then fell on both sides and carried off the box (ch. 1). The Tianlong men accused Tao Zian of murdering Tian Guinong; Tao Baisui insisted that Tian himself had given the box to his son (ch. 1).
On Jade Brush Peak
Baoshu took both parties up to Jade Brush Peak, where the Taos shared a table with their enemies (ch. 2). When the rope was restored, Xiong Yuanxian proposed that the Tianlong School, Yinma Creek Stockade and the Pingtong Armed Escort each send one man down in turn, so that none could play false (ch. 6). Tao Baisui told what he had seen at Cangzhou and laid the blame for Hu Yidao’s death on Tian Guinong, and Tao Zian told of the night Tian died (ch. 7). Learning of Tian Qingwen’s child, Tao Baisui refused to accept her as a daughter-in-law, though his son still wished to marry her (ch. 7, 8). Father and son went with the others into the treasure cave and were among those Hu Fei sealed inside (ch. 8, 10).
Notable members
- Tao Baisui: the Terror of Guandong, first stockade chief, who fought with a steel whip in the Six Harmonies Whip Technique (ch. 1, 7).
- Tao Zian: young stockade chief, Tao Baisui’s son, who fought with a single dao and a bow (ch. 1).
- Stockade Chief Ma: a stockade chief armed with chain hammers, killed by Zheng Sanniang (ch. 1).
- Two further stockade chiefs: unnamed, killed by the Pingtong party’s hidden weapons (ch. 1).
Relationships
- Pingtong Armed Escort: bitter enemies since the stockade’s robbery (ch. 1).
- Tianlong School: allies by marriage through Tian Guinong, then accusers after his death (ch. 1, 7).
See also
- Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain factions
- Tao Baisui: first stockade chief
- Tao Zian: young stockade chief
- Pingtong Armed Escort: the stockade’s enemy