The Deer and The Cauldron - Unabridged Thread

[foxs]

He saw that both the two turtle slaves were big, fat and tall. One was Fat Toutuo in disguise; he could tell with just one look. The other one vaguely reminded him of Thin Toutuo, but how come he was this tall? After a quick thinking, he knew that his feet must have stepped on some elevated platform; if Wei Xiaobao had not known in advance, he could never have guessed. Wei Xiaobao poured two more cups of wine and said, “The guest tell you turtles to drink, you two turtles must drink!”

Fat Toutuo quietly picked up the cup and drank; Thin Toutuo was hot-tempered, he could not show restraint. “You, little b@stard, are a turtle!” he cursed.

Lu Gaoxuan hastily pulled his sleeve and shouted, “Quickly drink the wine! How could you dare to offend the guest?”

This time Thin Toutuo became a turtle slave, he had received the Cult Leader’s strict warning. He was startled and quickly drank his wine.

“Is everybody here?” Wei Xiaobao asked, “Is there anybody else?”

“Nobody else,” Lu Gaoxuan replied.

Wei Xiaobao said, “Is Hong Jiaozhu also masquerade as a turtle?” When he said those words, he rolled his eyes and threw his head backwards.

As soon as Lu Gaoxuan and the others, seven people, heard this, they were shocked; the four prostitutes rose up at once. Sangjie had been preparing himself by circulating his chi, his hands moved simultaneously and hit Thin Toutuo and Lu Gaoxuan’s waists. As soon as these two fingers moved, Lu Gaoxuan fell down immediately; but Thin Toutuo only grunted before he swiped his palm in a hacking move toward Sangjie’s head. Sangjie was surprised; he thought that his ‘two Zen-fingers’ skill could be considered unparalleled in the world. After his fingers were poisoned and shortened by one section, his movement was not as agile as before; but precisely because the fingers were one section shorter, when it hit the enemy’s body, the power was thirty percent stronger than before. This moment he was very sure that he had hit the acupoint on this big and fat man’s waist, why did the man act as if nothing had happened to him? Could it be just like Wei Xiaobao, he had also trained ‘Jin Gang Hu Ti Shen Gong’ [Vajra’s (Budha’s warrior attendant) (or diamond) divine skill to protect the body] to perfection?

Actually, these two did not have any ‘Jin Gang Hu Ti Shen Gong’ at all. Wei Xiaobao was impervious of saber and spear, because he was wearing the treasured vest to protect his body, while Thin Toutuo was standing on stilts so that he was one chi taller. Sangjie thought that he was really a tall and sturdy person, so that when he aimed his jab, his middle finger actually hit the outside of Thin Toutuo’s thigh. Thin Toutuo felt a sharp pain, but his acupoint was not sealed.

By this time Fat Toutuo already fought Galdan. The prostitute with face full of scars fought with Ah Qi. Another prostitute pounced on Wei Xiaobao. Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Are you crazy? [the original word implies ‘sexual craziness’, sex maniac] Why are you dressed in ugly appearance ugly shape like this?”

He saw like a pair of claws, the prostitute’s ten fingers came swiftly and viciously toward him. He was shocked; immediately he ducked down and crawled underneath the table. Stretching out his hand, he pushed the prostitute’s legs. The prostitute had drunk the Mi Chun wine, by this time the drug was starting to take effect; her mind blurred, as soon as Wei Xiaobao pushed, she was unable to stand, she swayed several times before her buttocks landed on the floor, and then she was unable to stand anymore. The other three fake prostitutes also fainted one after another.

Thin Toutuo and Sangjie exchanged several moves. Thin Toutuo did not like the stilts as they impeded his movements; sending his strength to his legs, ‘crack, crack’, he broke the stilts. Sangjie cursed, “Turns out you are a dwarf.”

Thin Toutuo angrily said, “Formerly Laozi was a lot taller than you are; I like to be a dwarf, what does it have to do with you?”

Sangjie laughed aloud. While their mouth exchanged words, their hands and feet did not stop moving least bit. Both of them were martial art experts; after exchanging several moves, they both admired each other. Sangjie thought, “Unexpectedly there is such fat and short warrior under Wu Sangui’s command with this kind of superb martial art skill.” While Thin Toutuo thought, “Although your martial art skill is high, you have been made a hunting dog [i.e. lackey] by this little demon Wei Xiaobao; not a really good role [referring to Chinese opera].”

On the other front, after several moves Galdan proved to be no match for Fat Toutuo. It’s just that Fat Toutuo had drunk Mi Chun wine, his hands and feet were not too agile, hence the reason Galdan had not been knocked down yet. Ah Qi saw that the prostitute who fought with her had very exquisite style, but after no more than several moves, the prostitute fainted; Ah Qi was baffled. Turning her head, she saw Galdan withdrew repeatedly; hastily she rushed to help him.

Fat Toutuo’s vision blackened, his body swayed several times, he felt the enemy struck the pit of his stomach with a palm, but the power behind the palm was not formidable. He closed his eyes and stretched out his hands in different directions to parry the opponents’ arms. The index fingers of both hands hit the enemies’ armpits. Ah Qi immediately felt her body weakened and slowly slumped to the ground; she collapsed on top of Lu Gaoxuan’s back. While panicked, she saw Fat Toutuo suddenly lurched forward and fell.

“Ah Qi, Ah Qi,” Galdan called out, “Are you alright?” Suddenly Fat Toutuo leaped up and sent a punch toward Galdan’s chest, sending him back several zhang that he heavily crashed onto the wall.

Fat and Thin Toutuo’s internal energy was really deep; although they had drunk the Mi Chun wine, it was no more than ordinary knock-out drug used by the brothels, not something that was difficult to deal with. Although the two of them were dizzy, their internal strength was enough to overcome the drug’s effect. By this time Thin Toutuo felt as if his eyes were covered by a veil of mist, Sangjie’s shadow blurrily swayed back and forth in front of him. Each strike he sent was easily parried by Sangjie, while his left shoulder and right cheek successively ate two fists.

Sangjie’s fist power was very heavy, even though Thin Toutuo’s skin was rough his flesh thick, he could not endure it. He could not help but repeatedly howling before turning around and running out of the door.

Lu Gaoxuan shakily tried to stand up; the acupoint on the upper part of his body had not been unsealed, with a blurry vision he also rushed out of the door.

Galdan was hit by Fat Toutuo that he crashed onto the wall, he felt as if his back was about to break apart. In his heart he was actually scared, but he saw the enemy was supporting himself against the table with his left hand, while his eyes were closed, and his right palm constantly moving in front of the pit of his stomach, as if he was afraid the enemy would attack. Galdan seized this opportunity by leaping forward and sending a violent kick toward Fat Toutuo’s buttocks. Fat Toutuo roared, his left hand reached backward to grab the pit of Galdan’s stomach and raised him up. Sangjie rushed forward to help. Fat Toutuo suddenly opened his eyes; still grabbing Galdan, he rushed out of the Sweet Nectar Hall, and flew over the wall.

“Put him down!” Sangjie shouted, as he ran after him and leaped over the wall in hot pursuit. The sound of the two men shouting gradually vanished in the distance.

Wei Xiaobao crawled out from underneath the table. He saw a bunch of people sprawling all over the floor; Shuang’er and Zeng Rou lay down on the corner of the hall, four fake prostitutes fainted on the floor, Zheng Keshuang was originally slumped over the table, during the fight the chairs were pushed over that he rolled down under the table. The lower part of Ah Qi’s body was draped over an overturned chair, the upper part of her body was lying on the floor. All these people were motionless; some had their acupoints sealed, some were unconscious because of the Mi Chun wine, it was as if they were all dead.

The one Wei Xiaobao most concerned of was Shuang’er; hastily he held her up. Seeing her eyes were turning and she was breathing as usual, he was relieved; it’s just that he could not unseal her acupoint, hence he had no choice but to lift Shuang’er, Zeng Rou and Ah Qi, three women, up and sat them on the chairs.

Concerned over his mother’s safety, he rushed toward her bedroom. He saw Wei Chunfang was lying on the floor by the bed and was greatly shocked; hastily he helped her up. He saw her body limp, yet her breathing and heartbeat were normal, he guessed her acupoint must have been sealed by Divine Dragon Cult people. In the Lovely Spring Courtyard, all the prostitutes and turtles must have had their acupoints sealed too, they should be able to wake in several sichen [two hours], hence he did not have to worry.

Returning to the Sweet Nectar Hall, he cocked his ears to listen attentively, and did not hear the least bit sign that Fat and Thin, two Toutuo or Sangjie and Galdan had returned; he mused, “The fake prostitute with face full of scar was signaling me with her eyes, apparently she was telling me to be careful. This person’s conscience is good, I wonder who she is.” He walked over and stooped down to wipe the woman’s face several times. A layer of plaster flaked off, exposing a tender and lovely, white and soft cheek. Wei Xiaobao cheered; turned out this woman was Xiao Junzhu Mu Jianping.

Lowering his head, he kissed her face gently and said, “When all is said and done, you still have conscience toward me; you must have been forced by them to deceive me.” Suddenly his heart jumped, “Who are those three fake prostitutes? Is Miss Fang among them? That little wh0re is a specialist in harming me, if this time she is not here, I will be greatly surprised.” Thinking about Fang Yi, his heart was both sweet and bitter. He saw that the woman with swollen yellow face had a slim and graceful body, most likely she was Fang Yi. Thereupon he reached out to wipe the makeup from her face. The putty powder fell, exposing an attractive, beautiful and charming face; she was around five, six years older than Fang Yi, but her countenance was more beautiful than Fang Yi. Turned out she was Madame Hong Jiaozhu.

After she was drunk, her cheeks looked like peach blossom, her skin looked as if it exuded water. In the past, although Wei Xiaobao felt that Madame Hong was beautiful and alluring, he had never dared to look at her with the least bit of frivolous intention. This time she was as drunk as mud, the opportunity had presented itself. Extending his right hand, he pinched her cheek, and saw her eyes tightly closed; she did not feel the pinch at all. His heart was thumping wildly, he pinched her other cheek.

Turning around, he walked over to the other two women. These two women’s bodies were obese, they did not look like Fang Yi at all. One of these women had fiercely pounced on him. Wei Xiaobao picked up the wine pot and drenched her face with the wine, and then pulling her lapel, he used it to wipe her face, exposing her real face; surprisingly she was the fake empress dowager. Wei Xiaobao was greatly delighted; he thought, “I am rendering a really great service. His Majesty and Empress Dowager wanted me to arrest this old wh0re for revenge. With thousand ways, a hundred plans I failed to arrest her, who would have thought she unexpectedly came to the Lovely Spring Courtyard on her own to be an old wh0re. It can clearly be seen that by calling her the old wh0re, all along it was a divine strategy, early on I have a foresight.”

Wiping the fourth fake prostitute’s makeup, he found out that behind the makeup was Fang Yi’s face. Wei Xiaobao was greatly shocked, “How did her waist become so thick? Could it be that she had an illicit intercourse with a man and conceive a child? By the heaven and the earth, the old wh0re really became an old wh0re, could it be that Little Turtle Wei has indeed become a little turtle?” Reaching out, he ran his hand over her undergarment, his hand did not touch skin and flesh; when he pulled it, turned out it was a pillow. Wei Xiaobao laughed aloud; he said with a laugh, “Your conscience is a lot worse than Xiao Junzhu’s. For fear that I might fall into your evil scheme, she repeatedly signaled me with her eyes. But for fear that I might recognize you, you even dare to disguise yourself as a big-bellied woman. Ha ha … you, little wh0re, become a big-bellied woman in Lovely Spring Courtyard, I will have an abortion for you. Early morning abortion or late night abortion, I will have the pillow taken out of you.”

Walking out of the hall, he saw several personal guards lying dead on the ground. The courtyard was without lantern, without any flame; there was not even a whisper to be heard. He thought, “Fat and Thin Toutuo have drunk the drugged wine, in the end they won’t be able to defeat those two sworn brothers of mine, but if Hong Jiaozhu and the others waiting to rescue them on the outside, the outcome will be very difficult to say. Two Gege, if today you return to heaven, please forgive Xiaodi [little brother] for not accompanying you dying on the same year the same month and the same day!”

Returning to the hall, he saw Madame Hong, Fang Yi, Mu Jianping, Shuang’er, Zeng Rou, and Ah Qi, six beautiful women were either unconscious or unable to move. Each one had her own beauty, each one had her own charm; his heart was greatly moved, he mused, “There is another good-looking young Miss inside on the bed, she is a lot more beautiful than these six persons, the one I already bowed to the Heaven and the Earth with, but have not consummate the marriage in bridal room with ornamented candles. Tonight you anxiously looked for me, if your husband did not pay you any attention, won’t I be too cold and ruthless [orig. ‘without any sense of justice’]? Won’t I wrong you too much?”

He was about to step inside when he noticed Zeng Rou’s pair of pretty eyes was fixed on him, her cheeks were blushing, her expression was tender and bashful; he thought, “From Wangwu Mountain to Yangzhou, along the way you, this little girl, were always avoiding me, I can’t even talk to you one more sentence. Tonight I must not be too polite to you.” He carried her in his bosom into the room and put her by Ah Ke’s side.

He saw Ah Ke was still fast asleep; her long eyelashes hung down, the corner of her lips slightly curled into a smiling expression. Most likely in her stupor she was having a very sweet dream, she was being intimate with Zheng Keshuang.

Wei Xiaobao thought, “Either give up, or go through to the end. I might as well have this bunch of old wh0re, fake prostitutes, good Miss, bad women, everybody moved in. This is Lovely Spring Courtyard, women came to a brothel, what good could they possibly do? It was you who came here, when you are awake, you can’t blame me.”

Since childhood, his lofty ambition was to open a big brothel in Yangzhou, to come to Lovely Spring Courtyard and have dinner party with singsong girls, to have the prostitutes of the entire courtyard to accompany him. This moment, although the situation was not the same as the plan he drew in the former days, actually it was quite a magnificent feat, not a small matter indeed.

Immediately he carried Shuang’er, Ah Qi, Madame Hong, Fang Yi and Mu Jianping, one by one into the room. Finally even the fake empress dowager was also brought in. Eight women lay side by side on the bed. Suddenly he recalled, “Must not take unfair advantage of a friend’s wife. Er Sao, you are my older brother’s wife; we are heroes and warriors, must uphold yi qi.” Hence he carried Ah Qi back into the hall and sat her properly on the chair. He saw there was a considerable praise in her gaze. Seeing her lovely and pretty countenance, her labored breathing, her chest moved up and down endlessly, Wei Xiaobao suddenly felt regret, “I become sworn brothers with Great Lama and Mongolian Prince, it was not because we have affinity with each other, but simply because of a scheme, so that they won’t come to kill me; those Da Ge, Er Ge are nonsense. This Miss Ah Qi is so pretty, it’s a pity to call her Er Sao, I might as well make her my wife. The storyteller has told the story of ‘Three Laughing Marriage Affinities, Nine-Beauty Scheme’, Tang Bohu[1] had nine wives. If I include Ah Qi, I only have eight beauties, still short one beauty. Pei, pei, pei!” he spat, “The old wh0re is old and vicious, how can I consider her as a beauty?”

Compared to Tang Bohu, he was short one beauty; it was still acceptable. But now he had to lose two beauties, he was actually quite disappointed. Thereupon he brought Ah Qi back into the room. But only a few steps later, he suddenly recalled, “Guan Yunchang escorted Huang Sao [older brother the emperor’s wife] for a thousand li; he did not turn Liu Da Sao into Guan Er Sao [referring to Liu Bei and Guan Yu, Romance of the Three Kingdoms]. Wei Xiaobao escorted Er Sao for seven steps, I can’t ignore yi qi too much. If I have to have two less beauties, then let me short two beauties; why afraid that I can’t get it back in the future?” Thereupon he immediately turned around and put Ah Qi back on the chair.

Ah Qi did not know the raging battle inside his mind; being brought back and forth like that, she wondered what kind of trick he was playing, and was a bit surprised.

Wei Xiaobao entered the room and said, “Miss Fang, Xiao Junzhu, Madame Hong, the three of you entered the Lovely Spring Courtyard to be prostitutes on your own. Shuang’er, Miss Zeng, the two of you voluntarily came with me to Lovely Spring Courtyard. What kind of place this is, although when you came you did not know, but since little girls have come to this kind of place, it won’t be right if you don’t accompany me. Ah Ke, you are my wife, you came here to patronage my Mama, that is, you patronage your own mother-in-law. Your husband is going to patronage you.” Stretching out his hand he pushed the fake empress dowager far away to the corner of the bed. He shook and spread the quilt to cover the remaining six women. Kicking his shoes off, with a loud shout he crawled into the quilt.

Heaven and Earth in confusion. After an unknown period of time had passed, the candle on the table went out, the room became completely dark. Also a long time had passed, Wei Xiaobao hummed the ‘eighteen touches’ in a low voice: “A hundred and seven touches, touching Jiejie Meimei’s [older and younger sisters] seven hands … a hundred and eight touches, touching Jiejie Meimei’s eight feet …”

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[1] Tang Bohu or Tang Yin (1470 – 1523), Ming painter and poet, one of four great Jiangnan talents of the Ming Dynasty.

[foxs]

During this ‘seven-hand, eight-feet’, suddenly he heard tender and gentle voice softly said, “No … don’t … Zheng … Zheng Gongzi … is that you?” It was precisely Ah Ke’s voice. She drank the Mi Chun wine the earliest, after sleeping for a long time, the drug effect gradually diminished, and she slowly regained her consciousness.

Wei Xiaobao was furious; he thought, “Even in your dream you are thinking of Zheng Gongzi, thinking that he is climbing onto your bed; is it good?” Lowering his voice he said, “It’s me.”

“No, no!” Ah Ke said, “You must not …” She struggled a little bit.

Suddenly they heard Zheng Keshuang’s voice calling out from the hall, “Ah Ke, Ah Ke, where are you?” Crash! Bang! There was a lot of noise as the chair, as well as the cups and plates on the table fell down to the floor.

Since his voice was coming from the hall, naturally the one embracing her was not him; in her shock Ah Ke’s mind sobered a little bit. With a trembling voice she said, “You … who are you? Why … I … I …”

Wei Xiaobao said with a laugh, “It’s your own husband; don’t you recognize me?”

To say that Ah Ke was mildly surprise was a gross understatement. She struggled desperately to break away from his embrace, but her body was limp and without any strength. “Zheng Gongzi, Zheng Gongzi!” she cried out in fear.

Zheng Keshuang staggered into the room, but there was not the least bit of light inside, ‘Bang!’ his forehead bumped onto the doorframe. “Ah Ke, where are you?” he called out.

“I am here!” Ah Ke replied, “Let me go! Little demon, what did … what did you do?”

“What?” Zheng Keshuang was baffled; he did not know that the last two sentences were addressed to Wei Xiaobao.

Wei Xiaobao was very excited and in high spirit, how could he be willing to let her go? “Good Shidi,” Ah Ke pleaded, “Please, let me go.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “I said I won’t let go, then I won’t let go! A real man gave his words, dead horses cannot pull it back.”

Zheng Keshuang was startled and angry at the same time, “Wei Xiaobao,” he said, “Where are you?”

With an air of complacency Wei Xiaobao replied, “I am on the bed, embracing my wife. I am in the bridal room with ornamented candles; what are you doing here? You want to disturb the bridal chamber?”

Zheng Keshuang was furious. “Disturb your Ma’s bridal chamber!” he cursed.

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “You want to disturb my Ma’s bridal chamber? Not today, because today she does not accept any visitor, unless you yourself want to be the groom.”

“Rubbish!” Zheng Keshuang yelled angrily. Following the direction of the voices, he pounced toward the bed. He wanted to uncover Wei Xiaobao, but in the dark he grabbed an arm. “Ah Ke,” he asked, “Is this your arm?”

“It’s not,” Ah Ke replied.

Since it was not Ah Ke’s arm, Zheng Keshuang thought it must be Wei Xiaobao’s. Thereupon he fiercely pulled with all his strength. Unexpectedly he pulled the fake empress dowager, Mao Dongzhu’s arm.

After drinking the Mi Chun wine, her brain was murky, but feeling that someone was pulling her arm, instinctively her left hand went up and slapped backhandedly. It happened to strike the top of Zheng Keshuang’s head. Her strength had gone about 80, 90%, this palm strike did not have any real power behind it. But Zheng Keshuang was greatly surprised; he quickly turned around to withdraw. His head happened to hit the pillar of the bed and he fainted right away.

“Zheng Gongzi, what happened to you?” Ah Ke cried out in alarm, but she heard no response.

Wei Xiaobao said, “He went to disturb the bridal chamber; he has crawled under the bed.”

Crying, Ah Ke said, “He did not. Quickly let me go!”

“Don’t move, don’t move!” Wei Xiaobao said.

Ah Ke struck with her elbow and happened to hit his throat. Feeling severe pain, Wei Xiaobao threw his head backward. Ah Ke struggled free and hastily wanted to get off the bed. As soon as she rolled around, her body pressed the pit of Mao Dongzhu’s stomach. Mao Dongzhu screamed from the pain and reached out to wrap her arms tightly around Ah Ke’s body. In the darkness, Ah Ke did not have any idea who was holding her; in her abject terror, she lost all the strength in her body. Suddenly she felt that someone got hold of her right foot. She was so scared that her body was drenched in cold sweats, “There are so many men on the bed!” she thought.

Wei Xiaobao could not find Ah Ke in the darkness. “Ah Ke,” he called, “Quickly make some noise, where are you?”

Ah Ke said in her heart, “Even if you chop my head, I won’t make any noise.”

“Alright,” Wei Xiaobao said, “You won’t make any noise, I will touch one, I will touch two, I will touch everywhere, in the end I will touch you.” He suddenly sang the folksong, “One touch, two touches, touching the beautiful woman. The beauty’s face is like melon seed, could it be that you are the old wh0re?” [The original rhymes: melon seed – guazi, wh0re – biaozi.] While his mouth was singing the folk song, his hands were busy groping.

Suddenly they heard the clamor of voices outside the courtyard, some people shouted orders, a large number of troops had several brothels surrounded; and then there were footsteps, some people were entering the Lovely Spring Courtyard. Wei Xiaobao knew that these people must be either his own troops or Yangzhou’s local officials; he was very happy. He was about to crawl out from underneath the quilt, but unexpectedly the incoming people were very fast; he saw torches and very soon those people had already entered the Sweet Nectar Hall. He heard Priest Xuanzhen’s voice calling out, “Wei Daren, are you in here?” His voice was filled with anxiety.

Before he could even think, Wei Xiaobao blurted out, “I am here!”

As soon as Tian Di Hui warriors found out that Wei Xiaobao had disappeared, for fear that he might be in danger, they came out to look for him. They knew that he took several personal guards toward the Ming Yu Lane area, hence they investigated that area and found out that there was a fight in the Lovely Spring Courtyard. Upon entering the courtyard, they saw several dead personal guards lying on the ground and were greatly shocked. It was not until they heard his voice replying that they felt relieved.

Wei Xiaobao heard people shouting and calling, and then everybody seemed to swarm this way. He hastily stood up to let the mosquito net down, in the process his feet were stepping on several bodies, but he could not care less on whose bodies.

The mosquito net had just come down, Priest Xuanzhen and the others already entered the room. Each person had a torch in his hand; in one glance they all saw Zheng Keshuang fainted in front of the bed, and were very surprised. Someone called out, “Wei Daren, Wei Daren!”

Wei Xiaobao called back, “I am in here. Don’t open the mosquito net.”

Hearing his voice, they all cheered. Everybody ‘you look at me, I look at you’, with smiling expression on their faces; they all thought, “Everybody was worried, you are actually here to have fun.”

Under the torch light Wei Xiaobao put on his clothes, found his hat and wore it, and then crawled out of the bed. While putting on his shoes he said, “I used some trick to capture quite a few offenders, they are all on the bed. This time everybody’s merit is not small.”

They all felt very strange, but they knew for some time that the way he worked was like ‘gods appear and devils vanish’; for the time being it was inconvenient to ask too much.

Wei Xiaobao ordered the men to have Zheng Keshuang bound, and have Ah Qi carried to the field headquarters on a sedan chair. He also had the edges of the mosquito net squeezed firmly underneath the bedding, and then asked for ten personal guards and ordered them to take the big bed back to the Imperial Envoy Field Headquarters. The captain of the personal guards said, “Reporting to Daren: the door is too small, we cannot lift the bed out.”

“Idiot,” Wei Xiaobao cursed, “Can’t you tear the wall open?”

The captain understood immediately, he repeatedly said ‘yes’, and shouted his order. The personal guards set to work immediately, tearing the three walls of Lovely Spring Courtyard open. About a dozen personal guards fetched six or seven sedan chair poles and set the poles at the bottom of the bed, and then they lifted up the big bed, level and steady, and brought it out of the room.

By this time it was already daylight, the big bed was paraded through the main streets and marketplace of Yangzhou. The personal guards carried the ‘do not panic’ and ‘step back’ signs, with a gong and herald to clear the way, while the rest of the party marched behind the bed. When the common people of Yangzhou saw it, none of them did not click their tongue in amazement.

The big bed arrived at the He Garden, the gate was still too small. Learning from experience, this time the captain of the personal guards did not wait of the Imperial Envoy Daren’s instruction, he immediately ordered his men to tear the wall open and brought the big bed into the reception pavilion, and set it down in the middle of the hall. Wei Xiaobao passed on his order: the captured offenders on the bed were not a small matter, he ordered several dozen higher-rank military officers to lead the troops with bows strung, with sabers unsheathed, to form a tight perimeter around the garden. He also had Xu Tianchuan and the others guarding outside the room, to prevent Thin Toutuo and the others from coming in and seizing the prisoners by force.

Although there were multitude men guarding all around the reception pavilion, in the hall itself Wei Xiaobao was left alone with the big bed. He thought, “In the Lovely Spring Courtyard a moment ago, it was such a good opportunity, but out of seven beauties, apparently I only embraced less than half. Besides, in the darkness I did not know which one I already embraced, and which one I have not embraced. I’d better start anew, from the first line of ‘one touch’.” Thereupon he hummed softly, “One touch, two touches, touching Meimei …” pulling the mosquito net open, he threw himself onto the bed.

Suddenly his braid tightened, followed by a sharp pain on his throat; someone pulled his braid and lifted it up, the person’s left hand fingers were wrapped around his neck. It was none other than Madame Hong. After all these time, the effect of Mi Chun wine had disappeared. Madame Hong, Mao Dongzhu, Fang Yi, and Mu Jianping, four women, had already awakened; while the acupoints on Shuang’er and Zeng Rou’s body had gradually unsealed. It’s just that the bed was carried along Yangzhou’s streets, the bed was surrounded by numerous officers and soldiers, so that the seven women on the bed did not dare to move, they did not dare to make noise. This moment Wei Xiaobao wanted to enjoy tender, amorous good fortune, as soon as he climbed onto the bed he was grabbed by Madame Hong.

Madame Hong had a ‘smile, yet not a smile’ look on her face; she sternly said in low voice, “Little demon, you have the nerve to amuse yourself even with me!”

Wei Xiaobao was so scared that his soul flew to the outer space; with a forced laugh he said, “Madame, I … I did not amuse myself; this … this …”

“What song did you sing?” Madame Hong asked.

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “That was something that I heard randomly in the brothel, you must not take it seriously.”

Madame Hong said in a low voice, “Do you want to live, or do you want to die?”

Wei Xiaobao said with a laugh, “Subordinate White Dragon Envoy respectfully wishes Madame and Jiaozhu to enjoy immortal good fortune forever, your long life the same as the heaven’s. Madame’s order, subordinate will receive and obey without delay.”

Madame Hong noticed that he was speaking those words frivolously, without any respect or sincerity. She spat and said, “You must remove the officers and soldiers around the hall first.”

“Very well,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Won’t that be easy? Let me go, I will issue the order.”

Madame Hong said, “Issue the order from here.”

Wei Xiaobao had no choice, he loudly called out, “Everybody outside, Zongdu [governor general], Xunfu [inspector general], Ministry of War Shangshu [department head], Minister of Revenue Shangshu, listen up: all officers and soldiers must withdraw, no one is allowed to remain here.”

Madame Hong pulled his braid and shouted, “What Ministry of War Shangshu, Minister of Revenue Shangshu? Rubbish!” While saying that, she pulled his braid again, hard.

“Aiyo!” Wei Xiaobao screamed, “I am dying!”

When the officers and soldiers outside heard him calling Zongdu, Shangshu, and so on, they were already suspicious, as soon as they heard him crying in pain, several dozen men with sabers and spears in their hands immediately rushed into the hall. “Imperial Envoy Daren,” they asked, “What is it?”

Wei Xiaobao called out, “No … nothing! Aiyo, Mama!”

The officers looked at each other in dismay, they were at a loss of what to do.

Madame Hong was furious; she raised her hand, ‘slap!’ she heavily struck Wei Xiaobao’s face. Wei Xiaobao cried out again, “Mama! Don’t hit your son!”

Although Madame Hong did not know that when Wei Xiaobao called someone his mother, he was actually cursing her as a prostitute, yet seeing his mischief, she raised her palm again to strike. Suddenly the ‘tian zong’ [heaven reservoir] and ‘shen tang’ [divine hall] two acupoints behind her shoulder went numb, her right arm went limp and dropped down. Madame Hong was startled; she quickly turned her head around to see who had sealed her acupoints. But the person closest to her back was Fang Yi.

“Miss Fang,” she said with a cold laugh, “Your martial art skill is not bad at all!” Her left hand swiftly moved toward Fang Yi’s eyes.

“It wasn’t me!” Fang Yi cried out, while leaning her head sideways to evade.

Madame Hong was about to attack again, suddenly two hands behind her back reached out and grabbed her left arm; it was Mu Jianping. “Madame,” she called out, “It was not my Shijie who sealed your acupoints!” She saw that it was Shuang’er who sealed Madame Hong’s acupoints.

Mao Dongzhu raised her hand to strike Mu Jianping, fortunately she lost her internal energy that Mu Jianping did not suffer any injury. Mao Dongzhu’s second palm strike came, Fang Yi stretched out her hand to block.

Seeing the four women were fighting each other, Ah Ke turned around, she wanted to get down of the bed. Her right foot had just stepped out of the quilt, “Ah!” she cried, and immediately pulled her foot back. Wei Xiaobao was pulling her left foot. “Don’t go!” he said.

Ah Ke struggled hard and cried out, “Let me go!”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “You guess: will I or will I not let you go?”

Ah Ke panicked; she turned around and sent out a punch. Wei Xiaobao ducked, ‘Bang!’ her fist landed on Zeng Rou’s left cheek. “What did you hit me for?” Zeng Rou shouted.

“I … I’m sorry … Aiyo!” Ah Ke said, but she was hit by Fang Yi’s palm.

In an instant the bed was in great confusion, seven women beating and twisting randomly. Wei Xiaobao was greatly delighted; he mused, “This is called ‘the whole country in rebellion, the heroes …’ no, ‘the heroines[1] fight each other in muddled battle!’”

---

[1] Hero and Heroines: Orig. ‘qun xiong’ and ‘qun ci’, with the word ‘xiong’ and ‘ci’ refer to ‘male’ and ‘female’ species, usually used to describe animals.

[foxs]

While he was thinking to fish in troubled water, suddenly ‘crack, crash!’, the big bed collapsed. Eight people ‘you press on my hand, I push down your leg’. Seven women screamed together. Witnessing this scene, the officers and soldiers were dumbstruck. Wei Xiaobao roared in laughter while crawling out from among the crowd. But someone grabbed his left leg and twisted it. “Everybody, let go!” he shouted, “Officers, arrest all my wives, young and old!”

The officers stood in circle, but nobody dared to make any move. Wei Xiaobao pointed to Mao Dongzhu and said, “This old wh0re is a criminal, you must never let her escape.”

The officers felt strange, “You said these women are all your wives, young and old, how come one of them is a criminal, and two of them dressed as personal guards?” Immediately some of them pointed their sabers and spears to Mao Dongzhu, while some others dragged her out. ‘Click, click!’ they put manacles on her hands.

Wei Xiaobao pointed to Madame Hong and said, “This Madame is my superior, but we’d better put her in shackles as well.”

The officers were even more surprised, but they put manacles on Madame Hong’s hands anyway. Madame Hong’s martial art skill was high, but her acupoints were sealed by Shuang’er, half of her body was numb and aching, it would be difficult for her to resist.

By this time Shuang’er and Zeng Rou managed to extricate themselves from the crowd. Recalling last night’s experience, they were blushing, but also found it very amusing.

Wei Xiaobao pointed to Fang Yi and said, “She is my first concubine!” Pointing to Mu Jianping he said, “And she is my second concubine. First concubine needs to be put in shackles, second concubine does not need.”

The officers put manacles on Fang Yi’s hands. The Imperial Envoy Minister’s strange words and weird speech came out one after another, but by this time the officers had heard a lot, hence nobody thought it strange.

By this time, only Ah Ke was left sitting on the floor. They saw her hair was in a mess, her clothes was in disorder, she was wearing men’s clothes, nevertheless her countenance was bright and outstandingly beautiful; her hands were holding down the hem of her long gown tightly to cover her naked legs. Her head was hung low, her cheeks were blushing. The officers and soldiers all thought, “Of all Imperial Envoy Daren’s wives, young and old, this wife is the most beautiful.”

They heard Wei Xiaobao said, “She is my officially wedded wife, let me help her up.” He took two steps forward and said, “Niangzi [wife (formal)], please rise!” while extending his hand to help her up.

Suddenly there was a ‘Slap!’ sharp and clear, the Imperial Envoy Daren’s face was heavily slapped. With head hung low, Ah Ke cried and said, “All you can do is bully me. Just kill me. I … even if I die I don’t want to marry you.”

The officers looked at each other in dismay; they were all shocked. The Imperial Envoy Minister was beaten in public. As the officers, it was their official duty to protect him with all their might. But the person beating and disgracing him was the Imperial Envoy Minister’s own lawful wife; they could not step forward to stop her with force, but shouting to berate her also did not seem to be the proper thing to do. For a moment they were at a loss.

Caressing half of his face which was hit, Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “How can I be willing to part with you by killing you? Niangzi needs not be angry, otherwise I’ll have my men kill Zheng Gongzi.” He raised his voice to ask, “Where is the man arrested at the Lovely Spring Courtyard?”

A Zuoling [Company Commander] replied, “Reporting to Dutong [Commander]: this fellow has his hands and feet shackled and is being guarded well.”

“Very good,” Wei Xiaobao said, “If he wants to run away, chop his left leg first, and then cut his right leg …”

Ah Ke was scared. “Don’t … don’t … cut his legs,” she called out anxiously, “He … he won’t run away.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “If you want to run away, I will chop Zheng Gongzi’s hands.” Sweeping his gaze on Fang Yi, Mu Jianping, and the others, he said, “If these first concubine, second concubine of mine ran away, cut Zheng Gongzi’s ears and nose.”

Ah Ke anxiously said, “You … you … what do these women have to do with Zheng Gongzi? Why do you put the blame on him?”

“Naturally they have something to do with him,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “My women all have countenance of a flower, face like the moon, while Zheng Gongzi is a sex maniac. If he saw them, he would definitely harbor evil designs.”

Ah Ke thought, “It’s still not his responsibility.” But she knew that this person spoke without reason; it was useless to argue with him. In her anxiety, she broke into crying again.

Wei Xiaobao said, “The women with manacles, take them away and guard them well, put fetters on their legs. Tell the kitchen to set up a banquet, the good Miss without manacles are to accompany me drinking wine in here.” The personal guards complied with loud voice.

Still crying, Ah Ke said, “I … I don’t want to accompany you to drink. Just put shackles on my hands.”

Without saying anything Zeng Rou walked out with her head hung low. “Hey,” Wei Xiaobao called, “Where are you going?”

Zeng Rou turned her head around and said, “You … you are really shameless! I don’t want to see you again!”

Wei Xiaobao was startled. “Why?” he asked.

“You … you still ask me why?” Zeng Rou said, “Others are not willing to marry you, you compel them to. You are a high-ranking official, do you think you can bully common people like this? Previously I thought you were a … a hero, who would have thought …”

“Who would have thought what?” Wei Xiaobao asked.

Suddenly Zeng Rou broke into crying; covering her face, she said, “I don’t know! You … you are an evil man, not a good person.” While saying that she ran toward the door.

Two military officers raised their saber to block; they shouted, “You insulted Imperial Envoy, you must not leave. Wait for Imperial Envoy Daren’s decision on how to punish you.”

Reprimanded by Zeng Rou like that, the happiness in Wei Xiaobao’s heart immediately vanished into the thin air; he thought that what she said actually made a lot of sense. Being a Tatar high-ranking officer, he was relying on force to bully others, thus he was no different from the treacherous court officials and evil tyrants that the storytellers were talking about. He thought, “I can’t be a hero; that’s fine. But I must not be a treacherous court official.”

Heaving a deep sigh he said, “Miss Zeng, please come back, I want to say something.”

Zeng Rou turned her head and boldly said, “I offended you, you might as well chop my head.”

Shuang’er had a good relationship with her; she hastily urged, “Zeng Jiejie, don’t be angry, Xianggong can’t possibly kill you.”

Wei Xiaobao low-spiritedly said, “You are right, if I force them to marry me, I am like the painted face treacherous court official (in the opera) seizing common people’s daughter, just like the Tiger Wang kidnapping the bride in the ‘Three Laughing Marriage Affinities’.”

Pointing to Ah Ke, he said to the Zuoling, the captain of his personal guards, “Take this Miss out, also release that man surnamed Zheng, let them go and be husband and wife.” When speaking those words, he was extremely grieving. He also pointed to Fang Yi and said, “Take her manacles off, release her as well, let her go find her beloved Liu Shige. Ay, my lawful wife loves her lover, my first concubine also loves her lover. Damn it, what kind of Imperial Envoy Daren, Dutong Daren am I? I am a double cuckold Daren.”

Seeing Wei Xiaobao was throwing a fit, the Zuoling was so scared that he stood with head hung low; he did not dare to make any noise. Wei Xiaobao said, “Quickly take these two women out.” The Zuoling complied, he escorted Ah Ke and Fang Yi out.

Wei Xiaobao looked at the two women’s back; in his heart he was really reluctant to let them go. As they walked out, Fang Yi and Ah Ke did not even turn their heads; there was not a word of thanks, there was not a single grateful glance.

Zeng Rou took two steps forward and said in a low voice, “You are a good person! You … please punish me.” There was a deep regret on her tender face.

Wei Xiaobao’s spirit was immediately aroused; he was beaming with joy as he laughed and said, “Right, right! I must punish you. Shuang’er, Xiao Junzhu, Miss Zeng, the three of you are good women. Come, let us go in and talk.”

He was about to take the three women into the inner hall and had some intimate time with them when a military officer walked in and said, “Reporting to Dutong Daren: there is someone outside, saying that he was sent by Hong Jiaozhu, asking to have an audience with Daren.”

Wei Xiaobao was scared out of his wits; he hastily said, “What Red Jiaozhu, Green Jiaozhu [the word ‘Hong’ sounds like ‘Red’, different characters]? I don’t want to see, I don’t want to see! Quickly kick him out.”

The officer bowed and said, “Yes!” He took a step backward, and then said, “That man also said that they have two men in their hands, they want to trade them with two women in Dutong Daren’s hands.”

“Trade with two women?” Wei Xiaobao said. His gaze swept on Madame Hong and Mao Dongzhu’s faces; he shook his head and said, “He must be joking! Such good merchandise, why do I want to trade?”

“Yes,” the military officer said, “Let lowly officer drive him away.”

Wei Xiaobao asked, “What kind of men he wanted to trade with? Damn it, what’s so good about men? Trading men for women, I will suffer too much loss.”

The officer said, “That man is talking nonsense, he said one was a Lama, the other was a Prince; they both are Dutong Daren’s sworn brothers.”

“Ah!” Wei Xiaobao exclaimed; he thought, “Turns out Sangjie Lama and Prince Galdan are caught by Hong Jiaozhu.” He said, “A Lama and a Prince, what am I supposed to do with them? Go tell that fellow, these two women, even if he offered two million men, I don’t want to trade.” The officer repeatedly said yes, then he withdrew.

Wei Xiaobao cast a glance to Zeng Rou; he thought, “Previously she said that I am an evil man, not a good person. I have to let my own wives go, to let them marry their lovers before she considered me a good person. Humph! To be a good man, the capital is indeed not small. Sangjie and Galdan, two men, have already sworn brotherhood with me, if I don’t trade them back, Hong Jiaozhu will definitely have them killed. Even if I keep Madame Hong, what do I do with her? Although she is extremely beautiful, she won’t agree to enjoy immortal good fortune together with me, to have live as long as the heaven’s with me. Damn it, paying more attention to a lover than friends is not a hero!” “Hold on!” he shouted.

“Yes!” the officer replied. He bowed to await the order.

Wei Xiaobao said, “Go tell him: have Hong Jiaozhu release those two men, I will return Madame Hong to him. This Madame has countenance of a flower, face like the moon; she is better than Xi Shi and Yang Guifei[1], she is the world’s priceless treasure. Originally even if he killed me I would not want to release her; to have me trade his two men with her, actually it is greatly advantageous to him. As for the other woman, although she is disappointing, I can’t let her go.” The officer complied and withdrew.

All along Madame Hong maintained a wooden expression; only this moment she showed a smiling expression as she said, “Imperial Envoy Daren really knows how to compliment others.”

“Madame,” Wei Xiaobao said, “You are seriously beautiful, why be modest? We must be good people to the end, if I have to eat into my capital, then so be it. Deliver the goods first, receive the payment later. Guards! Quickly open my boss’ manacles.” Receiving the key, he personally unlocked Madame Hong’s manacles and walked her out.

When they reached the main hall, they saw the officer was talking to Lu Gaoxuan. Wei Xiaobao said, “Mr. Lu, you must serve Madame well on her way back. Madame, your subordinate respectfully sends you, Senior, off in a triumphal return, wishes you and Jiaozhu will enjoy immortal good fortune forever, your long lives will be the same as the Heaven’s.”

Madame Hong giggled tenderly; she said, “And I wish Imperial Envoy Daren promotion and wealth, a life as long as Mount Nan, lovely wife and beautiful concubines, and to be rewarded nobility titles as Duke and Marquis for ten thousand generations.”

Wei Xiaobao sighed; he shook his head and said, “To be promoted and gain wealth is easy, to have lovely wife and beautiful concubines, that will be difficult.” Raising his voice he ordered, “Play the music, send the guest off, prepare a sedan chair.”

Amidst the sound of music, he personally walked her off to the main gate, and watched as Madame Hong climbed onto the sedan chair.

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[1] Xi Shi (c. 450 BC), famous Chinese beauty, foremost of the Four legendary beauties, given by King Gou Jian of Yue as concubine to King of Wu as part of a successful plan to destroy Wu. Yang Yuhuan or Yang Guifei (719-756), famous Tang beauty, consort of Emperor Xuanzhong, blamed for extravagance and killed as a scapegoat during the Anshi rebellion.

[foxs]

Chapter 40 - The wait for rabbit suspecting the tree trunk can be guard against, the search for fish regretting the tree is difficult to foretell.
(Translated by Foxs)

LuDingJi-40.jpg

Kneeling on the ground, Wu Zhirong presented a letter with both hands, saying, “This letter carries great responsibility. Daren, please take a look.” Wei Xiaobao did not take the letter, he asked, “What does it say? What kind of essay?”

[foxs]

The sedan chair carrying Madame Hong had just left, Wei Xiaobao was just about to turn around to go inside, a large sedan chair arrived at the main gate; Yangzhou Prefectural Magistrate had come to pay his respect. Seeing that the beauties he had in his hand left one by one, Wei Xiaobao was in a particularly bad mood, he had no interest to chitchat. “What do you want?” he asked.

Prefectural Magistrate Wu Zhirong paid his respect and saluted before saying, “Lowly officer has some classified military intelligence to report to Daren.”

Only after hearing the words ‘classified military intelligence’ did Wei Xiaobao let him come in. He said in his heart, “If it is not important classified matter, I will beat your butts.”

When they got to the inner study room, Wei Xiaobao sat down, but did not offer any seat to Wu Zhirong. “What classified military intelligence?” he asked.

Wu Zhirong said, “Would Daren please dismiss these people?” Wei Xiaobao waved his hand to order the personal guards to go out.

Wu Zhirong walked over and said in a low voice, “Imperial Envoy Daren, this is a very important matter, if Daren submits a memorial to the Emperor, your merit will be extraordinarily big. Lowly officer will also receive the benefit of the light behind the shade of Daren’s good fortune. Therefore, lowly officer was thinking of not reporting this to Futai [inspector-general (old)] and Fantai [vassal state governor (old)], the two Daren just yet.”

Wei Xiaobao frowned, “What important matter?” he asked, “Why is it so urgent?”

Wu Zhirong said, “Reporting to Daren: only because His Majesty’s good fortune is great, Daren’s good fortune is great that lowly officer managed to obtain this information.”

“Humph,” Wei Xiaobao said, “You, Wu Daren’s good fortune is also great.”

“I don’t dare, I don’t dare,” Wu Zhirong replied, “Lowly officer has received His Majesty’s grace and Imperial Envoy Daren’s promotion that day and night I always think about how to repay the great kindness. After accompanying Daren enjoying the Chinese peony outside the Chanzhi Temple yesterday, I thought about Daren talking about elegant styles, the admiration in my heart is exceedingly great, I only wish that I can work for Daren every day, to receive Daren’s advice at all times.”

“That’s great,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Then you don’t need to be a prefectural magistrate. I can see that you are clever and quick-witted, it would be better to … be better to …”

Wu Zhirong was greatly delighted; busily he bowed with cupped fist, “Thank you for Daren’s benefaction.”

Wei Xiaobao smiled and said, “It would be better for you to be my door keeper, or else my sedan chair carrier. Every day when I go out, you will be able to see me. Ha ha, ha ha …!”

Wu Zhirong was furious; his countenance changed slightly, but immediately he said with a forced laugh, “That will be wonderful. Being Daren’s door keeper is definitely better than being a prefectural magistrate in Yangzhou. Lowly officer usually sends quite a lot of idle people to make discreet inquiry and find information everywhere, if there is someone who harbor the desire to rebel or slander His Majesty, or disparage cabinet minister, lowly officer will find out immediately. This kind of heresy confuses the people and incites those who hear it; it is a major crime, lowly officer always take more rigorous precautions to administer justice.”

“Oh,” Wei Xiaobao said, thinking that this man was capable of skirting the issue of being door keeper or sedan chair carrier in just one sentence; he really knew how to be a government official, he was indeed amazing.

Wu Zhirong said, “If it were peddlers and carriers, lowly people of marketplace babbling some nonsense, it would not create much harm; the ones we must be most vigilant are the intelectuals. This kind of people compose poems and write essays, oftentimes they take events from the past to mock the imperial court politics, when ordinary people read it, oftentimes they do not know that these scholars are having malicious intention by using the past to disparage the present.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “If others read it and don’t understand, then there’s no harm done.”

“Yes, yes,” Wu Zhirong said, “Although that is true, in the end this malicious intention must be punished. These poisonous poetry and literature of treason and heresy must never be allowed to spread throughout the world.” From his sleeve he took out a piece of letter and presented it with both hands. “Daren please take a look,” he said, “This is a poetry antology lowly officer obtained yesterday.”

If he fetched a stack of banknotes from his sleeve, Wei Xiaobao’s countenance would immediately show favorable expression toward him, but seeing that it was a document, he was quite disappointed, when he heard that it was a poetry anthology, immediately he yawned big. Without receiving the document, he looked up and did not pay him any attention.

Wu Zhirong felt rather awkward; he slowly withdrew his hands that were holding the poetry anthology. “During the banquet yesterday,” he said, “There was a woman singing a new poetry depicting peasant women of Yangzhou, Daren was not too happy listening to it, hence lowly officer went out to investigate the poetry anthology from which the song came. I found quite a number of offensive and heretical sentences.”

“Is that so?” Wei Xiaobao lazily said.

Wu Zhirong opened up the book and pointed to a poem, “Daren, please look at this,” he said, “The title of this poem is ‘Hongwu’s Copper Cannon Song’ written by Zha Shenxing; it was about the previous dynasty’s Zhu Yuanzhang using copper cannon.”

When he heard this, Wei Xiaobao’s interest was mildly piqued. “Did Zhu Yuanzhang also use cannon?” he asked.

“Yes, yes,” Wu Zhirong replied, “Presently our Great Qing’s Holy Sage Son of Heaven is on the throne, yet this man surnamed Zha wrote a song to praise Zhu Yuanzhang’s copper cannon; won’t that incite everybody to cherish the memory of the previous dynasty? This poem exaggerates Zhu Yuanzhang’s power and prestige, this is not right. The last four sentences say, ‘I have come to see you in thistles and thorns, not at all like the rivers and mountain in my memory. Golden low-ranking public official gently wipe the everflowing tears, passionately strive for and endure the ever-rising ascend to gaze afar.’ The content of this man’s heart cannot be more clear than this. Our Great Qing received the Mandate of Heaven to drive out the Zhu’s Ming, all common people are overjoyed to no end, but why did this man look at Zhu Yuanzhang’s cannon and want to visit the rivers and mountains of his memory? Why must he shed tears?”

(Book note: Zha Shenxing’s earlier poem had considerable reminiscent of the previous Ming; later on Kangxi’s literature chamberlain minister changed the style of the poem.)

“Where is this copper cannon?” Wei Xiaobao asked, “I want to see it. Can you locate it? His Majesty loves cannon very much.”

Wu Zhirong replied, “According to the poem, these copper cannon are in Jingzhou.”

With a wooden expression Wei Xiaobao said, “Since they are not in Yangzhou, why do you bother? You are the Prefectural Magistrate of Yangzhou, not the Prefectural Magistrate of Jingzhou. Wait till you become the county head magistrate of Jingzhou before you investigate these copper cannon.”

Wu Zhirong was greatly shocked; being the county head magistrate of Jingzhou would mean that he was being demoted. He must not raise this subject anymore; hence he put the poetry anthology back into his sleeve and took out two other books. “Imperial Envoy Daren,” he said, “That Zha Shenxing’s book has slight improper tone; by Daren’s grace we won’t make further investigation. But these two books absolutely must not be ignored.”

Wei Xiaobao frowned, “Which fellow wrote them?” he asked.

Wu Zhirong replied, “One was written by Zha Yihuang, called ‘The Diary of a Country’, the content is a full commendation of the anti-Qing movement. The other is Gu Yanwu’s poetry anthology; it is even more extremely disregarding the ruler and superior, disregarding the law and natural morality.”

Wei Xiaobao was secretly shocked. “Mr. Gu Yanwu and my Shifu are the military strategists of the Turtle Slaying Assembly,” he mused, “How did his book fall into this government official’s hands? I wonder if our Tian Di Hui is mentioned there?” He asked, “What is written in the book? Tell me in detail.”

Seeing that Wei Xiaobao was suddenly interested, Wu Zhirong’s spirit was aroused. He opened up the book ‘Diary of a Country’ and said, “Reporting to Daren: this book is calling all the anti-Qing rebels as loyal subjects and patriots. In this chapter, ‘The Narrative on the Investigation of Master of the Ministry of War On Bestowing Supervisory Authority To The Imperial Censor’, he is talking about his [paternal male] cousin Zha Meiji fighting our Great Qing, about how he conspired with the insurgents, how he placed himself in opposition to our elite troops.”

With his right hand index finger he pointed to the book and read, “’On the seventeenth of the fourth month, the Qing troops attacked Yuan Huaji, they retreated via Tong Yuan. Meiji supervised Ling, Yang, Zhou and Wang, various patriots, leading five hundred ships, more than five thousand men, all with white cloth wrapped around their heads, by the seventh earthly branch [between 11am – 1pm, noon] the battle was over, they pursued the enemy to the end, beheading the first hundred or more low-rank troops, achieving great victory, striking fear to the enemy, that they went ashore and ran away.’ You see Daren, they called the rebels ‘patriots’, but called our Great Qing’s elite troops ‘the enemy’. Don’t you think he really deserve to die?”

Wei Xiaobao asked, “What did Gu Yanwu write in his book?”

Wu Zhirong put down the ‘Diary of a Country’ and picked up Gu Yanwu’s poetry anthology. Shaking his head he said, “The poems that this man wrote, not a single one does not speak of rebellion and conspiracy against the state. This poem’s title is ‘Qiang Hu’[1]; this is clearly a slander against our Great Qing.”

His finger pointed to a verse and read, “Our country’s golden bowl was originally whole, it was thrown into confusion like a newborn from a barbarian concubine. Recruiting the troops to establish provinces, accumulating soldier’s pay to establish provinces. There’s concern over tribal chieftains rebelling against the Western Sichuan, a worry about bewitched people singing over Shandong, so much so that among Shenzhou’s [old name for China] half-banished thieves, whoever raise his voice and make a vow can be barbarian tribal chief. Four adjoining outskirts and boundaries opressing Shandong culture, destroying villages and massacre uncountable people. Cut open abdomen, broken intestines, snapped necks and fractured jaws, pile of corpse like a pond. Those fortunate enough were taken prisoners and join the barbarians. Barbarians speak ‘ya, ya’, like chisling tooth to mend the denture. Establishing worm banners[2], mounting thick weeds carriages. Looking at shedding blood in thousand cities, gathering beautiful women like flowers. Alas, the barbarians destroyed it like this, but speaking as if that it was the Heaven’s will for the country …”

Wei Xiaobao waved his hands and said, “Enough, stop reading. Yi yi[3] ya ya, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Reporting to Daren,” Wu Zhirong said, “The poem says that we, the people of Manchuria, are barbarians, it says that it was in order to fight the war against Manchu people to keep the provinces that the Ming Dynasty recruited troops and raised the soldiers’ pay, inciting the whole country to rise in rebellion. It also says that we, Manchu people, massacred people, cut open their belly, broke their intestines, and seized beautiful women.”

“So that’s how it is,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Seizing beautiful women, that’s very good. When the Qing troops broke into Yangzhou, didn’t they kill a lot of common people? If not because of this matter, how could His Majesty exempt Yangzhou of three years’ land tax? Hm, this Gu Yanwu’s poem is so honest.”

Wu Zhirong was greatly shocked; he thought, “You are too young and do not know what’s important. Luckily it was you who said it; if it were from someone else’s mouth, I report it up, do you think the gauze hat [i.e. job as an official] you are wearing would stay steady on your head?” But he knew that Wei Xiaobao was the Emperor’s most favorite person; how could he dare to set himself against the Imperial Envoy Minister? Repeatedly he said several ‘yes’, and with a forced laugh said, “Indeed Daren has wise opinion; lowly officer was in murky darkness and suddenly it opens. Would Daren please give direction on this poem, ‘Song of the history of the heart inside the well’? This poem has a rather lengthy preface; it is indeed wildly rebellious.”

Holding the book up, his head swayed in time with his reading: “In the winter of Chongzhen’s eleventh year, the drought of the well in the Chengtian [lit. bearing (the load) of heaven] Temple in Suzhou’s capital had already deepened; obtaining a case, on the outside was written ‘The Great Song (Dynasty) Iron Case Sutra’, and it was very heavy …”

(“Daren, it tells about finding an iron box inside the well.”

“Iron box?” Wei Xiaobao asked, “Was there any gold, silver or treasure inside?”)

“Inside there was a scroll of book, the title was ‘Xin Shi’ [history of the heart], it said ‘the solitary minister of the Great Song Zheng Sixiao’s hundred songs of worship’. The nickname ‘Sixiao’ actually means ‘south’, the Song lost its people, its reputation was recorded in ancient history book. The days of the book collection enjoyed divine protection were nine years. After the demise of Song, just as day and night expecting Prime Minister Chen, Zhang Shaobao [junior guardian] gathered the troops overseas, trying to restore the Great Song’s three hundred years of soil.”

(“Daren, the essay was talking about the Song Dynasty, but actually he was referring to the Great Qing. Gu Yanwu is hoping that Taiwan’s rebel Zheng would gather the troops overseas to restore the soil of the Great Ming.”)

“Not yet repelling the barbarian Yuan back to the northern desert, could only weep in bitter tears, and pray to the Heaven and the Earth, submitting oneself to the Great God, speech failed, attention diverted, certainly there would be a day the barbarians will turn into summer.”

(“Daren, he cursed us, Manchurian Qing as Tatars, he wanted to repel us out.”

“Are you a Manchu?” Wei Xiaobao asked.

“This … this … lowly officer is a servant of His Majesty of the Great Qing, a subordinate of Manchu Daren, indeed I am concentrating my thoughts and my efforts in dedication to Manchu people.”)

“Thereupon when the people of the country saw this, none did not bow their head in amazement. The Xunfu [inspector general] Duke Du Yuanzhang preserved the writing for later time, as well as set up a memorial hall in the south, and hid the box in the memorial hall. Before long, the country met with difficulties, just like the final years of the divine protection. Alas, what a sorrow!”

(“Daren, the Great Qing’s army entered the Pass, it was to console the people and punish the tyrant, yet this Gu Yanwu said that the country met with difficulties, he also said ‘alas, what a sorrow’; can we bear not to question this man’s intention?”)

“The number of books trasmitted to the north was less, and after the misfortune, many have become taboo, hence these books were not seen in the last thirty years or so; nowadays it resurfaces at the Zhu Clan of Fuping [county, Weinan, Shanxi]. When this book first appeared in the past, the Taicang [county, Suzhou, Jiangsu] Guard Regiment’s Qian Jun respectfully composed two chapters of poetry, Kunshan’s [county, Suzhou, Jiangsu] Gui Sheng solemnly added eight chapters. When Zhejiang East fallen, Duke Zhang returned to Dongyang [county, Jinhua, Zhejiang]; he went to the moat and died there. Qian Jun escaped overseas, and died on Lang Qi Mountain. Gui Sheng changed his name to Zuo Ming, and continued to be particularly fervent and intense, until in the end he died of exhaustion and hunger.”

(“Daren, these three rebels did not acknowledge allegiance to our Great Qing, fortunately they died early, otherwise, they would definitely be executed along with their families unto the third generation.”)

“Only the untalented me, drifting along in this life, heading toward the grieving years, enduring the net that is getting tighter and tighter.”

(“Daren, he said that the imperial court supresses essays with rebellious intent, it’s getting harder and harder; yet this fellow is clearly has the audacity [orig. ‘hair grows on his guts’] and is unafraid.”)

---

[1] Qiang – ethnic group of northwestern Sichuan, Hu – non-Han people, barbarian.

[2] The word ‘banner’ here refers to Manchurian ruling class (Eight Banners).

[3] Wu Zhirong read ‘yi’ – barbarians, Wei Xiaobao said ‘yi’ – onomatopoeia.

[foxs]

“See whatever is worthy, think to imitate; standing alone without fear, expressing this matter, showing the ministers how to change in conducting themselves, pretending to write this song.”

As he was listening to this, Wei Xiaobao repeatedly yawn; he only wanted to know what was written in Gu Yanwu’s book, hence he endured patiently until Wu Zhirong finished reading the lengthy preface. “Are you done?” he asked.

“Next comes the poem,” Wu Zhirong said.

“If there is nothing important, you don’t need to read,” Wei Xiaobao said.

“Very important, very important,” Wu Zhirong replied. He read, “Minister Zheng Sixiao of the late Song, cried bitterly over barbarian Yuan [i.e. Mongol] moving nine ancestral shrines, all by himself holding on to Han cauldron with difficulty, alone devotedly desiring and wishing with lamentation on the weary Hunan. Writing a book, roll by roll to become ‘Xin Shi’, the content of ten thousand ancient hearts. A thousand searches hidden away inside the iron case in the well, a hundred worship songs that have yet to die today. In barbarian captivity not even a hundred years, perhaps by chance the divine ancestor would re-open the Heaven …”

(“Daren, by saying this sentence ‘In barbarian captivity not even a hundred years’, he is really really deserve to die. He is cursing our Great Qing to reign not even a hundred years, saying that Han people may have some ‘divine ancestor’, which will come to open the Heaven. What opening the Heaven? He is thinking of overthrowing our Great Qing!”)

“I heard His Majesty said,” Wei Xiaobao spoke up, “Only if the Great Qing treats the common people well will our rivers and mountain be steady. Otherwise any empty talk of thousand years, ten thousand years, everything will be in vain. There is a foreigner by the name Tang Ruowang, he is the Director of Imperial Observatory; do you know him?”

“Yes,” Wu Zhirong replied, “Lowly officer has heard about him.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “This man wrote an almanac, his projection is for 200 years. Some people accused him, saying that the Great Qing’s dominion will last for tens of thousands of years; why did he project only 200 years? At that time Oboi was in charge of the nation, he was completely muddleheaded, unexpectedly he was going to chop his head. Fortunately His Majesty is an enlightened sage, he reprimanded Oboi severely, and had the person who lodged the complain executed, along with his entire family unto the third generation. His Majesty dislikes the most people who wrongly accused good people, by saying nonsense about the Great Qing dominion lasts for a hundred years, or two hundred years to harm others. His Majesty said that really good ministers will cherish common people, and work diligently for the imperial court. As for people who love to lodge false accusation against others, always pick mistakes inside a poem or an essay, which is called ‘seeking for bone inside the egg’, definitely those people are the painted face treacherous officials [in the opera], he ordered me that if I see this kind of fellow, to immediately tie him up and chop his damn head.”

Wei Xiaobao was determined to protect Gu Yanwu at all cost, he was afraid that Wu Zhirong reported to him but failed, he might go to different government official and raise some noise. Thereupon Wei Xiaobao spoke more and more harshly, trying to scare Wu Zhirong that henceforth he would not dare to raise this matter anymore.

He did not know that Wu Zhirong obtained his prefectural magistrate position entirely because he reported the ‘Ming Shi’ [history of the Ming Dynasty], the writing of Zhuang Tinglong of Huzhou, Zhejiang, which talked about the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, which had words and sentences that were disrespectful toward the Qing Dynasty. Provoking literrary inquisition to seek fame and fortune was this man’s expertise.

This time Wu Zhirong found some flaws in the literary work of Gu Yanwu, Zha Yihuang and the others, he was unable to contain his joy. He believed that he found heaven-sent wealth and promotion, he might even gain three classes of promotion at once; who would have thought that the Imperial Envoy Minister would talk to him like that? In that instant, cold sweat started to drench his back; he thought, “In the ‘Ming Shi’ case, Oboi Daren personally handled this matter. Now Oboi Daren has been deposed by His Majesty, it seems that His Majesty’s temper is totally different from Oboi Daren; this time I am indeed in a very bad situation.”

On how Kangxi captured Oboi, since it was not too honorable, it was not openly discussed. The high-ranking ministers racked their brains with ideas, but among the government officials, very few talked about it. Wu Zhirong’s official rank was rather low, plus he was stationed in a prefecture far away from Beijing, thereupon he did not know that the only connection he had in the high place, Oboi Daren was dead precisely in the hand on this Wei Daren in front of his eyes. Otherwise, he would be even more terrified.

Seeing his earthly gray countenance and his trembling body, Wei Xiaobao was secretly delighted; he asked, “Have you finished reading?”

Wu Zhirong replied, “This poem, there is still … still … half.”

“So, what does it say?” Wei Xiaobao asked.

Trembling with fear, Wu Zhirong continued reading, “The Yellow River did not wait for clear person [Qing], the deep water retain its splendor. Suddenly appeared strange book out of the world, alarming the barbarian riders filling the rivers and mountains. The Heaven knows the way of the world will be repeated, hence this book revealed the goal of the government ministers. To meet again more than thirty years later, with one heart one mind restored at the same time. Duke Lu died at the cliff’s door, those who trust the country sacrifice their lives at swallow market. In olden days reciting poetry lamenting people of old, in secluded bamboo groove and restful woods worrying about mountain ghosts. Alas, cattail yellow’s [蒲黄 - ‘pu huang’, cattail pollen or pollen typhae] lifetime is so long! How would the South see it?” He read it without taking a breath, and he did not dare to add explanation either; with great difficulty he finally finished reading, his sweats dripped on the pages of the book.

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “There is nothing out of ordinary in the poem. It talks about some mountain ghosts, some faded old woman [黄脸婆 – ‘huang lian po’ (yellow-faced old woman)]; it’s really amusing.”

Wu Zhirong said, “Reporting to Daren: the ‘pu huang’ in the poem was referring to Song Dynasty’s high-ranking ministers Pu Shougeng and Huang Wanshi who surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty; it is a ridicule to the Han people who become government officials of the Great Qing.”

Wei Xiaobao’s countenance sank. “I said it was ‘huang lian po’, then it is faded old woman,” he said sternly, “Is your wife’s [lao po, same ‘po’ character] face very yellow? Why did anybody write a poem to make fun of faded old woman and you cannot stand it?”

Wu Zhirong took a step back, his hands trembling, ‘pat!’ the book in his hands fell. “Yes, yes,” he said, “Lowly officer deserves to die.”

Wei Xiaobao seized the opportunity to flare-up; he shouted, “What a nerve! I courteously recited His Majesty’s imperial edict to enlighten you. You are a very minor government official, yet you dare to throw things at me, to lose your temper at me! You look down upon His Majesty’s imperial edict; aren’t you rebelling?”

‘Bonk!’ Wu Zhirong dropped on his knees and repeatedly kowtowed. “Da … Daren please spare my life, forgive … forgive Xiaoren’s muddleheadedness.”

With a cold laugh Wei Xiaobao said, “You threw things at me, you lost your temper, that’s fine, at most you will be charged with humiliating the Imperial Envoy. Heavy punishment would be beheading, light punishment would be banishment; it’s a trivial matter …”

Hearing the charge was getting heavier, from banishment to beheading, Wu Zhirong kowtowed even more fervently, his head was like pounding on garlic. “Daren, please be magnanimous, Xiao … Xiaode [lowly one] knew my guilt.”

“You look down on His Majesty’s imperial edict,” Wei Xiaobao barked, “Can I let it pass just like that? Your family, wife, sister-in-law, son, daughter, mother-in-law, paternal aunt, servant girl, mistress, a bunch of heads must be chopped down.”

Wu Zhirong was shaking all over, his teeth chattered, making a clicking noise, he no longer dare to say anything.

Seeing that he had scared him enough, Wei Xiaobao asked sternly, “Where is that Gu Yanwu now?”

Wu Zhirong replied in trembling voice, “Report … reporting to Daren … he … he … he is at …” his teeth bit his own tongue that his speech was not clear. After quite a while, he managed to continue, trembling with fear, “Lowly officer was too brazen, I had Gu Yanwu and that surnamed Zha, also … also one surnamed Lu, detained … detained at the yamen.”

“Have you torture and question them?” Wei Xiaobao asked, “What did they say?”

Wu Zhirong said, “Lowly officer only casually asked a few questions, the three of them were unwilling to confess.”

“Are they really unwilling to say anything?” Wei Xiaobao asked.

Wu Zhirong said, “They … they are not. But … but we found a letter in that surnamed Zha’s pocket; as a matter of fact, it carries great responsibility. Daren, please take a look.” From his side he took a cloth bundle, opened it to produce a letter, and presented it with both hands.

Wei Xiaobao did not take the letter, he asked, “What does it say? What kind of essay?”

“No, it’s not that,” Wu Zhirong said, “It was written by Guangdong Tidu [local commander] Wu … Wu Liuqi.”

When Wei Xiaobao heard ‘Guangdong Tidu Wu Liuqi’, seven characters, he was shocked. “Wu Liuqi?” he busily asked, “He also write poetry?”

“It’s not that,” Wu Zhirong replied, “Wu Liuqi is plotting rebellion, this letter is irrefutable evidence, he won’t be able to deny at all. When a while ago lowly officer mentioned military intelligence and that we will render great merit, I was talking about this matter.”

“Oh,” Wei Xiaobao said, while in his heart he groaned, “It’s bad!”

“Reporting to Daren,” Wu Zhirong continued, “Scholars compose poem or write articles with somewhat rebellious content, Daren bravely made decision that it was not a big deal; lowly officer is full of admiration. There’s a common saying: Xiucai [a person who has passed county level imperial exam] rebelling, in three years he won’t have any result. Presumably it’s not something we should be worried about. But this Wu Liuqi is in command of the entire province’s troops. If he wanted to rise in rebellion, and the imperial court did not gain the initiative by striking first, then … then it would desperately serious.” Talking about Wu Liuqi rising in rebellion, immediately his eloquence came back.

All along he had been kneeling on the floor; now that he saw Wei Xiaobao’s expression alternated between grim and clear, obviously he was very interested in this matter, Wu Zhirong slowly stood up. “Humph,” Wei Xiaobao snorted, and glowered at him. Wu Zhirong was startled; he immediately dropped down on his knees again.

“What does the letter say?” Wei Xiaobao asked.

“Reporting to Daren,” Wu Zhirong replied, “The writing in the letter is very obscure; he said something about the important event in the southwest, that the undertaking of the real men is in full swing. He invited the one surnamed Zha to visit Guangdong to give directions and principles of action. The letter says, ‘Passionately planning the matter of Zhong Shan [lit. central mountain], the great feat of Kaiping [county, Jiangmen, Guangdong], will not be accomplished without Mr. Qing Tian’s [lit. clear (rice) field; see next section] planning the operation.’ That was definitely a reference to rebellion.”

“You are talking rubbish again,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Do you know what important matter they are talking about? You are a minor official, how would you know His Majesty and the imperial court’s classified strategic decision?”

“Yes, yes,” Wu Zhirong replied, “But in his letter he clearly mentioned the plan to rebel; we really must not easily neglect it.”

Wei Xiaobao took the envelope and extracted the letter; he saw the paper was full of walnut-size characters. He could tell that the ink was very dense, the strokes were very coarse, but he did not recognize a single character. He said, “The letter did not mention anything about rebellion.”

“Reporting to Daren,” Wu Zhirong said, “About the rebellion, naturally he cannot write it openly. This Wu Liuqi wanted to be Zhong Shan King, Kaiping King, and he wanted that surnamed Zha to be Mr. Qing Tian; that is rebellion.”

Wei Xiaobao shook his head and said, “Rubbish! People who take official post, which one does not wish to become ‘King’ or ‘Duke’? Are you saying you don’t want to? This Wu Junmen [lit. army gate, no idea what it is] has rendered great merit, he wanted to set up another great service for the imperial court, hoping that His Majesty would grant him the title King, it is a sign of great loyalty.”

Wu Zhirong had a very awkward expression on his face; he thought, “Talking with an ignorant and incompetent disciple like you, I can’t make anything clear. Today I have offended you; if I do not set up a merit through this matter, my career will most likely not have any future.” Thereupon suppressing his temper, he forced a laughter and said, “Reporting to Daren: the Ming Dynasty had two great generals. One was called Xu Da, the other Chang Yuchun.”

Ever since he was little, Wei Xiaobao had heard mister storytellers talked about ‘The Great Ming’s Legend of Heroic Deeds'; he knew the stories surrounding the founding of the Ming Dynasty by heart [orig. ‘ripe as a melon that rolls from its vine’]. As soon as he heard Wu Zhirong mentioning Xu and Chang, two great generals, immediately his spirit was aroused, totally unlike when he was drowsily listening to him reciting poetry and literature. He laughed and said, “Those two great generals’ prestige is known in eight directions, they are indeed very formidable. Do you know what weapon Xu Da used? What weapon Chang Yuchun used?”

This time he stumped Wu Zhirong. Because of the ‘Ming Shi’ Wu Zhirong enjoyed meteoric rise in his political career, hence he was very familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty; however, nothing was said about the kind of weapon Xu Da and Chang Yuchun used. With a forced laugh he said, “Lowly officer is of humble talent and shallow learning; I do not know. Would Daren please advise?”

Wei Xiaobao was very proud of himself. He said with a smile, “You guys only read the book rotten, but don’t know about this kind of matters. Let me tell you: Great General Xu was the reincarnation of the Song Dynasty’s Yue Fei, Yue Yeye [grandpa]; he used a steel spear with cast iron point, on his waist he carried eighteen wolf tooth arrows, he shot with great precision, his arrows never missed. General Chang was the reincarnation of Yan man Zhang Yide from the Three Kingdom era; he used an eight-snake spear one zhang [about 10ft/3m] long, ten thousand men could not withstand his bravery.” And then he rambled on and on about how these two generals Xu and Chang broke the Yuan army. These stories came from the storytellers, naturally it was a lot more fantastic, but not much of the actual fact.

Wu Zhirong was listening to the stories while he was kneeling on the floor. His knees were growing more and more painful. However, in order to make Wei Xiaobao happy, he had no choice but to pretend that he was listening with keen interest; he repeatedly gasped in admiration, and with great difficulty forcing himself to listen to the end before saying, “Daren has wide learning and retentive memory, lowly officer is full of admiration. Those two, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun’s merit was indeed very great; after their deaths, Zhu Yuanzhang bestowed the title of ‘King’ to the two of them, one was Zhong Shan Wang [king], the other was Kaiping Wang. Zhu Yuanzhang also had a military strategist …”

“That’s right,” Wei Xiaobao cut him off, “That military strategist was Liu Bowen; looking up he knew astronomy, looking down he knew geography, looking ahead he knew three thousand years, looking back he knew a thousand years.” And then like an unceasing torrent he narrated about how Liu Bowen gained his capability of knowing everything under the heavens, that even the gods and demons could not understand his scheme, how he planned this and that strategy in fighting this war or that, how to predict things that happened a thousand li away.

Wu Zhirong’s legs went numb, he could not endure anymore; he slid back and sat on the floor, and said with a forced laugh, “Daren’s story is so pleasant to hear, lowly officer’s spirit is aroused. By Daren’s grace, lowly officer is thinking of listening while standing up, I wonder if it is possible?”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Alright, stand up.”

Propping himself against a chair, Wu Zhirong slowly stood up. “Reporting to Daren,” he said, “The ‘Mr. Qing Tian’ Wu Liuqi mentioned in his letter was precisely Liu Ji, Liu Bowen. That Liu Bowen was a Qingtian [county, Lishui] man from Zhejiang. Wu Liuqi himself wanted to be Xu Da or Chang Yuchun, and wanted that man surnamed Zha to be the Liu Bowen.”

[foxs]

Wei Xiaobao said, “He wants to be Xu Da or Chang Yuchun, that’s great. That man surnamed Zha wants to be the Liu Bowen, humph, he may not necessarily have that kind of skill. Do you think it’s easy to be Liu Bowen? Liu Bowen’s ‘Shaobing Song’ [lit. baked sesame seed-coated cake] said, ‘Hand grasping a steel knife ninety-nine, killing the barbarians to the end before putting it down.’ Hey, formidable, formidable!”

Wu Zhirong said, “Daren is really smart, you are absolutely correct. That Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and Liu Bowen, three men, were all fighting the Yuan army, they help Zhu Yuanzhang driving out the barbarians. The things that Wu Liuqi said in his letter clearly mean that he wanted to rise in rebellion, he wanted to kill Manchu people.”

Wei Xiaobao was shocked; he thought, “Wu Dage’s intention, how can I not know? Do I need you to tell me? This letter indeed has enormous repercussion; it is by Heaven’s providence that it fell into my hands.” Thereupon he repeatedly nodded and reached out to pat Wu Zhirong’s shoulder. “Good!” he said, “Our luck is very good! If you did not come and tell me about this, it would be terrible. His Majesty said that I am a general who depends on good luck; indeed the Holy Sage’s golden mouth is proven to be right again.”

Having his shoulder patted several times, Wu Zhirong felt the bones in his entire body went soft; he felt that ever since he came out of his mother’s womb, he had never had such glory. He could not help but was deeply touched; with a choking voice he said, “Daren showed such affection, this kindness and grace, even if lowly officer has my body torn and my bones crushed, it is still hard to repay. Daren is good-luck general, lowly officer will follow you, being a good-luck soldier or good-luck servant, or even good-luck dog or good-luck horse; that will still bring honor to my ancestors.”

Wei Xiaobao roared in laughter; he raised his hand to stroke Wu Zhirong’s head. “Very good! Very good!” he said.

Wu Zhirong was tall. Realizing that it was not too convenient for Wei Xiaobao to reach out and stroke his head, he busily lowered his head to let him stroking the top of his head. Previously Wei Xiaobao was very angry; Wu Zhirong kneeled down, kowtowed and took off his hat, Wei Xiaobao pressed his palm on the smooth scalp where the hair was shaved, and slowly stroked toward his back, just like stroking a dog who begged to be petted while wagging its tail. When his palm reached the back of Wu Zhirong’s head, Wei Xiaobao thought, “I don’t want your torn body and crushed bones either, I just need to chop a damn blade right here.” He asked, “Other than you, is there anybody else who knew about this matter?”

“No one, no one,” Wu Zhirong replied, “Lowly officer realized the stake is very high, I did not dare to leak the least bit of rumor. If that rebel thief Wu Liuqi finds out that his rebellious conspiracy has been exposed, he might immediately rise in rebellion, and then Daren and lowly officer will not have the least bit of merit.”

“True,” Wei Xiaobao said, “You are very thoughtful. We must be very careful, we must not let Futai and Fantai know about it, they might rush to submit a report to the imperial court, hence snatching away your great contribution.”

Wu Zhirong was over the moon; he bowed with cupped fist repeatedly. “Yes, yes,” he said, “I completely rely on Daren’s support.”

Wei Xiaobao put Gu Yanwu’s letter into his pocket and said, “Just leave all these poetry anthology here, you quietly get Gu Yanwu, those several people here, after I interrogate them clearly, I will select troops and horses to escort you to Beijing. I will personally submit a report to His Majesty. In this great contribution, you are the first, I receive the benefit of your splendor and be the second.”

Wu Zhirong was unable to contain his joy. “No, no,” he busily said, “Daren is the first, lowly officer is second.”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “After you go to see His Majesty, whatever you want to say to him, I will carefully teach you. As long as His Majesty is pleased, you want to be Xunfu or Fantai, just leave it to me.”

Wu Zhirong was so happy that he almost fainted; with both hands he put the poetry anthology books on the table, and ‘dong, dong, dong’ knocking his head on the floor before taking his leave. Wei Xiaobao was afraid he might change his mind midway, hence he appointed a team of Valiant Cavalry sergeants under the leadership of a Zuoling to accompany Wu Zhirong in escorting prisoners.

Upon returning to the inner hall, he sent someone to summon Li Lishi and the others for a discussion. Suddenly he saw Shuang’er came into his presence, kneeled down, and crying, “Xianggong,” she said with a sob, “I want to ask you something.”

Wei Xiaobao was greatly baffled; hastily he reached out to hold her hands and pull her up. Without letting her hands off he said tenderly, “Good Shuang’er, you are my lifeblood. Whatever it is, I will definitely do it for you.” Seeing the tears kept streaming down her cheeks, he raised his left hand and wiped the tears with his sleeve.

“Xianggong,” Shuang’er said, “This is a very difficult matter, but I … I simply must ask you.”

Wei Xiaobao wrapped his left arm around her waistand said, “The more difficult thing to do, if I can get it done for you, the more it will prove that I dote on my good Shuang’er. What is it? Quickly tell me.”

A hint of blush appeared on Shuang’er’s pale face. “Xianggong,” she said in a low voice, “I … I want to kill that government official who has just left. But you must not be angry with me.”

Wei Xiaobao thought, “In this matter you and I are like-minded; now you came to ask me, this is extremely wonderful.” He asked, “How did this government official offend you?”

Sobbing and sniffling, Shuang’er replied, “He did not offend me. This Wu Zhirong is my family’s archenemy. The Zhuang Family’s Laoye, Shaoye [old and young master, respectively] were all killed because of him.”

Wei Xiaobao immediately understood; that night at the Zhuang Family’s house, he saw everybody there was a widow, and there were a lof of memorial tablet arranged in one of the rooms, turned out the criminal ringleader, the main offender, was this man. “Are you sure you did not misidentify the person?” he asked.

Shuang’er’s tears poured down her cheeks again as she said with a sob, “No … I can’t possibly mistook him for someone else. That day he … he brought officers from yamen to the Zhuang Family to arrest people. I was still little, but his ferocious appearance, I cannot forget it no matter what.”

Wei Xiaobao thought, “I must appear to be in a very difficult situation, then she would greatly see the favor I am giving her.” Knitting his brows, he pretended to ponder deeply for half a day before hesitantly said, “He is a government official appointed by the imperial court, the Prefectural Magistrate of Yangzhou prefecture, the Emperor happened to send me to Yangzhou on a mission, if you killed him, I am afraid my official position will be in jeopardy. Just now he came to me with a very important matter; if you kill him, I am afraid … I am afraid …”

Shuang’er was deeply anxious, she said in tears, “I … I actually knew that I am going to give Xianggong a lot of trouble, but … Zhuang Family’s Laotaitai [old Madame], San Shaonainai [third young mistress], they … they kowtowed in front of the memorial tablets every day, vowing to kill this evil government official surnamed Wu to take revenge and wipe out the grudge.”

Wei Xiaobao slapped his thigh and said, “Alright! It’s my good Shuang’er who asked me, even if you asked me to kill the Emperor, you asked me to kill myself, I will comply to your request, much less just one tiny Zhifu? But you have to give me a kiss on the mouth.”

Shuang’er’s entire face turned beet-red, she was happy and bashful at the same time; turning her head away, she said in a low voice, “Xianggong treats me this well, I … I have been yours long time ago. You … you …” Speaking to this point, she lowered her head.

Seeing her graceful, beautiful, and submissive demeanor, Wei Xiaobao’s heart turned soft. He could not bear to be frivolous toward her anymore. “Very well,” he said with a laugh, “When we achieve great success, I am going to kiss you on the mouth, you must not flee.”

Shuang’er blushed even deeper; she nodded her head slowly.

“If you killed him right now,” Wei Xiaobao said, “The revenge will not be sweet enough. I will let you bring him to the Zhuang Family, have him kneel down before all Zhuang Family Laoye, Shaoye’s memorial tablets, let San Shaonainai and the others kill this dog’s head with their own hands. What do you say?”

Shuang’er thought that it was a really great idea, but may not be necessarily real. With her round eyes opened wide, she looked at Wei Xiaobao, not daring to believe. “Xianggong,” she said, “You are not lying to me, are you?”

“Why would I lie to you?” Wei Xiaobao said, “This dog official is your enemy, he is not mine. He was going to send me great riches and honor, yet I don’t give it a damn. As long as little Shuang’er is sincerely nice to me, it is stronger than anything in the world!”

Shuang’er was very grateful in her heart, she leaned on him, and could not help but broke out in crying again. Wei Xiaobao pulled her soft, slender waist closer, he was very happy in his heart; he mused, “This readily available passion, even having it ten or eight a day, it’s can’t be considered too much. Why didn’t that dog official Wu Zhirong kill Ah Ke’s father? If Ah Ke also came to me asking me to avenge her, and let me to embrace her tightly, wouldn’t it be nice?” But he immediately had a second thought: Ah Ke’s father was either Li Zicheng or Wu Sangui, how could Wu Zhirong kill them?

They heard footsteps outside, and knew that Li Lishi and the others have arrived. “Don’t worry about it,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Right now I have something important I need to discuss with these people, go guard outside the door, don’t let anybody come in, and don’t eavesdrop our conversation either.”

“Yes,” Shuang’er replied, “I have never eavesdropped on your conversations.” Suddenly she pulled Wei Xiaobao’s hand, stooped down and kissed his hand, and then slipped out of the door.

Li Lishi and the other Tian Di Hui warriors entered the room and sat down. Wei Xiaobao said, “All Gege, last night I heard big news, it was an urgent matter, there was not enough time to discuss it with you all, hastily I went to Lovely Spring Courtyard. In the end my luck was not bad, although I created chaos, in the end I managed to save Mr. Gu Yanwu and Wu Liuqi Dage’s lives.”

The warriors were greatly surprised; the previous night Wei Xiangzhu did indeed create preposterous scene. Visiting prostitute in a brothel was not a big deal, but taking out a big bed out of the brothel, transporting seven women and parading the bed along the streets, it was indeed a hideous mess; turned out it was in order to save Gu Yanwu and Wu Liuqi. Even if they think until their heads explode, they would never have figured it out. Immediately everybody asked him for the details.

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “When we were in Kunming, all Gege masqueraded as Wu Sangui’s warriors and went to the brothel to drink and fight. Xiongdi thought this trick was not bad, hence last night I repeated the fun and went one more time.”

The crowd of warriors nodded; they all thought, “So that’s what happened.”

Wei Xiaobao thought that if he talked too much, he would inevitably reveal the cloven foot; thereupon he said, “We do not need to talk about this matter in details.” Putting his hand into his pocket, he groped for Wu Liuqi’s letter and took it out.

Qian Laoben received it, spread it out on the table, and they all reviewed it together. They saw at the beginning of the letter it was written ‘To be inspected by my dear friend Mister Yihuang’, while at the end the signature said, ‘Iron Beggar in the snow’, four characters [xue zhong tie gai]. Everybody knew that ‘Iron Beggar in the snow’ was Wu Liuqi’s nickname, but they did not know who Mr. Yihuang was.

These people’s knowledge about literature was rather limited, when they read about ‘important event in the southwest’ they thought he was referring to Wu Sangui’s rebellion, but about ‘Passionately planning the matter of Zhong Shan, the great feat of Kaiping’, or something about ‘can’t be accomplished without Mr. Qing Tian’s planning’, et cetera, the secret language, allusion to classic story, they were completely at a loss. They all looked at each other in dismay, quietly waiting for Wei Xiaobao to explain.

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Xiongdi’s tummy is stuffed with Yangzhou’s steamed dumpling and long fish noodle, there is not the least bit of ink in it. I presume that in all Gege’s tummy there are more old wine than ink. Mr. Gu Yanwu will arrive shortly, we will invite him, old mister, to explain.”

While they were still talking, a personal guard came to report that there were guests came to visit, one was a Great Lama, the other was a Mongolian Prince. Wei Xiaobao asked the Tian Di Hui warriors to act as his personal guards in receiving the guests, he was afraid that these two ‘sworn brothers’ would become hostile to him, while at the same time he also invited Ah Qi to come out.

When they met, Sangjie and Galdan was very warm, they praised Wei Xiaobao for holding yi qi in a very high regard. When Ah Qi finally appeared, they happily met each other, Galdan was bursting with joy. By this time Ah Qi’s manacles had been removed, she wore heavy make-up and was dressed neatly.

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Fortunately two Gege’s martial art skill is unrivalled that the sorcerers were killed and drove out; otherwise, Xiongdi’s little life could not be protected. That bunch of sorcerers’ martial art skill was not weak, their number was superior. Two Gege used the few to defeat the many, you beat them until they piss in their pants in terror, and flee to the wilderness; Xiongdi is full of admiration. Let us have a feast to celebrate the heroic deed, to congratulate two Gege for your formidable renown over all the world, for your triumphal return.”

Sangjie and Galdan understood clearly that they were captured by the Divine Dragon Cult, fortunately Wei Xiaobao released Madame Hong for an exchange of the two of them, yet going by Wei Xiaobao’s speech it appeared that the two of them had defeated the enemy and inflicted heavy loss on them. Sangjie’s face looked ashamed, but in his heart he was appreciative. But Galdan was radiant with delight, he was immensely proud in front of his sweetheart.

As soon as the Imperial Envoy mentioned a ‘feast’, the feast was immediately set up in the main hall. Wei Xiaobao stood up with a wine cup in his hand, flattering words continuously bubbling up toward his two sworn brothers, until finally even Sangjie had forgotten about the disgrace of being captured. Only when Wei Xiaobao praised his martial art skill as number one under the heavens that he repeatedly shook his hand, realizing that compared to Cult Leader Hong he was far inferior.

After drinking for a while, Sangjie and Galdan rose up to take their leave. Wei Xiaobao said, “Two Gege, I think it would be best if each of you write a memorial to the throne, let Xiongdi present it to the Emperor. In the future Dage wants to be Tibet’s Living Buddha, Er’ge wants to be ‘zheng ge’er hao’ [see Chapter 39], in the Emperor’s presence, Xiongdi will definitely ‘beat the drum on the side’.” Speaking to this point, he lowered his voice and said, “Later on when that old fellow Wu Sangui deploys the troops in rebellion, and two Gege help the Emperor fighting the old fellow, how could our matter be possibly fail?”

The two of them were greatly delighted; they both saw the logic behind it. Wei Xiaobao took the two of them into the study room. Galdan said, “Your uncouth brother is not too competent in writing, how about Xiongdi write the memorial for me?”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Xiongdi’s own name, only the character ‘Xiao’ (小) I can guarantee I write it correctly, my character ‘Wei’ is not reliable, and the character ‘Bao’, no matter how I do it, there’s always something not right about it. Let’s just get the secretary to write it for us.”

Sangjie said, “This matter is highly confidential, we can’t let other people know about it. Your uncouth brother’s writing is not too favorable either, but just let me do it. Fortunately we are not taking the exam for ‘zhuangyuan’ title, His Majesty also will not care if the writing style is good or not, as long as the intent is correct.”

Every single one of his fingers lost one section, but he was still able to write; thereupon he wrote is own memorial, and then wrote another one on Galdan’s behalf, and have Galdan put down his hand print and draw his signature.

The three of them reaffirmed their oath earlier that in the future they would enjoy riches and honor together, and support one another in trials and tribulations, and that they would never turn their back on the brotherhood sentiment. Wei Xiaobao ordered his men to fetch three trays of gold and presented the gold to his two sworn brothers and Ah Qi. He also had the men prepared horses and sedan chair and respectfully walked them out of the door.

[foxs]

Back to the main hall, his personal guard reported that Prefectural Magistrate Wu has arrived with the prisoners. Wei Xiaobao ordered Wu Zhirong to wait in the eastern reception hall, while he took Gu Yanwu and the others, three men, into the inner hall. He personally opened their manacles, and then ordered his personal guards to withdraw, only Tian Di Hui warriors remained. Then he closed the door and bowed and saluted. “Tian Di Hui Green Wood Hall Xiangzhu Wei Xiaobao, leading my fellow brethren pays our respect to Gu Junshi [military strategist] and Mr. Zha, Mr. Lu.”

That day when Zha Yihuang received Wu Liuqi’s secret letter, in his delight he sent a message to Lu Liuliang to go to Yangzhou to see Gu Yanwu to discuss this matter. Unexpectedly Wu Zhirong happened to be investigating Gu Yanwu’s poetry anthology, so that when the officers from yamen came to arrest him, they also arrest Zha and Lu, two people along. When the three of them were searched, Wu Liuqi’s secret letter was found in Zha Yihuang’s pocket. They were so ashamed and remorseful that they wished to die, thinking that their own lives were not a big deal, but if Wu Liuqi’s conspiracy was exposed, their great undertaking might be spoiled. Who would have thought that a strange mountain peak suddenly appeared, the Imperial Envoy Minister unexpectedly professed himself as a Xiangzhu of Tian Di Hui? They could not help but were astonished and delighted, they felt as if they were dreaming.

During the Turtle-Slaying Assembly at Hejianfu the other day, Wei Xiaobao did not show his face at all, but Li Lishi, Xu Tianchuan, Priest Xuanzhen, Qian Laoben and the others were acquainted with Gu Yanwu. In the past, when Gu, Zha and Lu, three people were in distress on the boat at the canal, they received help from Tian Di Hui Zongduozhu Chen Jinnan. When they learned that the young imperial envoy in front of them was none other than Chen Jinnan’s own disciple, all their doubts were gone; hence they happily chatted with each other.

Zha Yihuang explained the allusions of ‘Zhong Shan, Kaiping, Mr. Qingtian’, and so on in Wu Liuqi’s letter for the benefit of Tian Di Hui warriors; they all agreed that it was indeed dangerous. Lu Liuliang sighed and said, “In the past, the three of us, plus Huang Lizhou, Huang Xiong, have received your revered master’s help. Today we were not being careful and stirred up trouble, again we are rescued from disaster by Wei Xiongdi. Ay, indeed out of a hundred scholars not one is useful; worthy master and disciple’s great benevolence and kindness will be even more difficult to repay.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “We are all on the same side, why would Mr. Lu be modest?”

Zha Yihuang said, “When the Yangzhou yamen officers suddenly broke in, it was indeed like lightning on our ears. Realizing the situation was amiss, I hastily picked up Wu Xiong’s letter to rip it up, but my arms were grabbed by the officers and twisted behind my back. I knew the catastrophe would not be minor. Xiongdi then decided on a plan, if I am tortured, I will confess that the writer of this letter, the ‘Iron Beggar in the snow’ is Wu Sangui. In any case Xiongdi’s old life cannot be guaranteed, but I must do everything I can to protect Wu Liuqi, Wu Xiong’s life.”

Everybody burst into loud laughter; they all said that this trick was very clever. Zha Yihuang said, “That would be my last effort if I have no other choice. The name ‘Iron Beggar in the snow’ is renowned throughout the world, I am afraid I cannot put it on Wu Sangui’s head. If the interrogator examined Wu Xiong’s handwriting, upon investigation it will be found to be a match, and then the truth will be revealed for sure.”

Gu Yanwu said, “Twice we have leaked Wu Xiong’s secret, and twice we were saved; it can clearly be seen that there is an invisible Will of Heaven at work. Tatars’ fate won’t last long, Wu Xiong’s great merit will succeed. But from now on this matter can never be mentioned anymore. Perhaps for the third time we won’t be as fortunate.”

Everybody voiced their agreement. “Wei Xiangzhu,” Gu Yanwu asked Wei Xiaobao, “What do you think we have to do for damage control?”

Wei Xiaobao said, “It is rare that we can meet with the three gentlemen, please stay here for a few days, we can enjoy wine together. We’ll have that dog official Wu Zhirong come and let him stand on the side to watch, and so we will scare him to death. In the event that the dog official has guts and he did not die of fear, we’ll simply chop his dog head with a saber.”

Gu Yanwu laughed and said, “Although by doing this we vent the resentment in our hearts, I am afraid the information will leak. This dog official was appointed by the imperial court, if Wei Xiangzhu wants to kill him, we must have a criminal charge on him.”

Wei Xiaobao pondered for a moment and then said, “I got it. I am going to ask Mr. Zha to forge a letter, supposedly written by Wu Sangui, addressed to the dog official. This dog official loves to brag, he said that according to the genealogy, Wu Sangui is his distant uncle. If forging a letter is too much trouble, just copy Wu Dage’s letter all the way through, but change the names on top and bottom. No matter who colludes with Wu Sangui, I will chop his head, the young Emperor will definitely approve.”

Everybody agreed that it was a good plan. Gu Yanwu laughed and said, “Wei Xiangzhu is creative and quick-thinking. This ‘grafting flowers onto a tree’ stratagem can be said ‘one arrow, two golden eagles’; namely, we use the opponent’s own methods to obtain retribution. Yihuang Xiong, please pick up your brush and start to write.”

Zha Yihuang laughed and said, “I would never imagine that today I will write a letter on Wu Sangui, that old thief’s behalf.”

Wei Xiaobao had judged others by himself, thinking that forging a letter would be very difficult; hence he proposed to simply make a copy. But Gu, Zha and Lu, three people were famous scholars, to them, writing letters was just like Wei Xiaobao throwing dice or play Paigow, it was right down their alley; why would they want to copy someone else’s letter?

Zha Yihuang picked up the brush and was ready to write; he asked, “I wonder if Wu Zhirong has an alias? If Wu Sangui wrote a letter using his alias, it will appear even more authentic.”

“Gao Dage,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Please ask the dog official.”

Gao Yanchao went out to inquire. When he returned, he said with a laugh, “The dog official’s alias is ‘Xianyang’. He asked why we wanted to know his alias, I said that Imperial Envoy Minister wanted to write a letter to the two Shangshu of the Ministry of Appointments and Ministry of Justice in Beijing, to commend his meritorious service in details, submitting his official position and alias. The dog official smiled so wide that his mouth could not close, he rewarded me ten taels of silver.” While saying that, he tossed a silver ingot in his hand up and down. Everybody roared in laughter.

Zha Yihuang finished the letter and handed it to Gu Yanwu; he said, “Ting Lin Xiong, do you think it can be used?”

Gu Yanwu took the letter. Lu Liuliang scooted next to him, they read together. “Marvelous,” they both said.

Lu Liuliang laughed and said, “This sentence, ‘Who would have known that our Taizu [great ancestor, posthumous title for the founder of a dynasty] Emperor Gao’s title Wu Guo [Wu state] unexpectedly agrees with our uncle and nephew’s family name of three hundred years later?’ This ‘Wu’ character will seal his death sentence; he can’t offer excuses anymore.”

Gu Yanwu laughed and said, “These two sentences, ‘Desiring to behead the white snake and bestow a gale, hoping for my nephew to retrieve the shoe from underneath the bridge; consider to strive to get out of the trench and answer all calls from heaven, I sincerely hope my nephew will reach nobility.’ That is a modification of Liuqi Xiong’s ‘Passionately planning the matter of Zhong Shan, the great feat of Kaiping, will not be accomplished without Mr. Qing Tian’s planning the operation.’”

Zha Yihuang laughed and said, “Blindly using the same pattern, copying the way they walk in Handan [i.e. slavishly copying others, one risks becoming a caricature].”

Tian Di Hui warriors looked at each other in dismay; they did not know what these three were talking about, they thought it was a code word of some secret society or secret language of Jianghu. Thereupon Gu Yanwu explained to everybody: Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang at first called himself ‘Wu Guo Gong’ [state duke Wu], afterwards he was also known as ‘Wu Wang’ [king Wu]; the ‘Wu’ was identical to Wu Sangui, Wu Zhirong’s family name. Beheading the white snake, bestowing a gale was a reference to Han Gaozu Liu Bang [first Han emperor, reigned 207-195 BC]. Retrieving a shoe from underneath the bridge was the old story of Zhang Liang. Zhu Yuanzhang rose up from the trench and was determined to answer all calls from heaven. Conferring nobility title in sincerity was a reference to Liu Bowen.

Wei Xiaobao clapped his hands and said, “This letter is better than the one Wu Liuqi Dage wrote; that Wu Sangui actually wanted to be the Emperor, it’s just that comparing him to Hao Gaozu and Zhu Yuanzhang is holding him a bit too high.”

Lu Liuliang laughed and said, “This is Wu Sangui holding himself too high, not Mr. Zha holding him up.”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Right, right! I forgot that it was written by Wu Sangui himself.”

Zha Yihuang asked, “How do we sign the letter?”

“This letter,” Gu Yanwu replied, “No matter who look at it, will know that it was written by Wu Sangui. The more obscure the signature, the more it will look authentic. Just sign it ‘shu xi shou zha’ [lit. uncle west hand write-down], four characters.” Turning to Qian Laoben he said, “Qian Xiong, would you write down these four characters? Our writing is too scholarly, not like a military man who is used to lead troops.”

Qian Laoben picked up the brush and gingerly wrote the four characters. He said apologetically, “These four characters are wobbly, they are too shapeless.”

Gu Yanwu said, “Wu Sangui is a military man, naturally he would have this letter written by a scribe. These four-character signature is very good, they do not follow certain stroke rule, but look very bold, just like a military general’s handwriting.”

On the envelope, Zha Yihuang wrote, ‘Personally presented to Yangzhou Zhifu Laoye [Prefectural Magistrate Master], private.’ He put the letter into the envelope, and gave it to Wei Xiaobao. He smiled and said, “Forging a letter will unavoidably be harmful to our secret virtue, it’s not men of honor’s conduct, but in order to achieve the great undertaking, we are forced not to bother about trifles.”

Wei Xiaobao mused, “To deal with this kind of dog thief Wu Zhirong, what’s the big deal about forging a letter? Scholars are really ridiculous.” He received the letter and said, “After this matter is accomplished, we are going to have a drink, we will have a reception for the three gentlemen.”

Gu Yanwu said, “Wei Xiongdi and Liuqi Xiong, one ‘wen’ the other ‘wu’ [civil and military], are definitely the pillars of Ming family resurgence; Deng Gaomi and Guo Fenyang were no more than this. If we can really pull down that old thief Wu Sangui, it will be like severing one arm of the Tatars. Wei Xiongdi’s cup of wine, we’ll wait until we achieve great success before we drink it. Hereby the three of us are taking our leave, so as not to tarry here too long, the information might leak, and spoil the important matter.”

Although in his heart Wei Xiaobao held Gu Yanwu in high regard, but these three scholars talked like they were ‘biting words and chewing characters’, with an allusion in every sentence so that even to understand half of what they say was not too easy; if he talked to them a bit too long, he would not feel comfortable. Thereupon when he heard that they were leaving, it was exactly what he had been hoping for. He thought, “I am sure the three of you gentlemen do not like to gamble; I am afraid if I asked you to go to the brothel to see the young women, your body and soul will be separated. If I cursed one time, ‘damn it’, your eyes will grow big, and your beard will stick out. It’s better for you to quickly excuse yourselves.” Thereupon he took out a fold of banknotes, and presented three thousand taels to each person as their traveling expense. And then he asked Xu Tianchuan and Gao Yanchao to escort them via the back door, and out of the city.

As soon as Gu, Zha and Lu, three people left, Wei Xiaobao immediately felt relieved. He thought, “Those people in the imperial court are also scholars, but they are interesting. Those high-ranking officers of Jiangsu province, such as Ma Futai, Mu Fantai, are also more interesting than Mr. Gu, Mr. Zha, and the other. Speaking about making friends, that dog head Wu Zhirong is still better than those three old misters.”

While he was still thinking about the inspector-general and the provincial administrative commissioner, his personal guard came to report than the inspector-general and the administrative commissioner were asking for an audience. Wei Xiaobao shivered, “Could it be that the information has leaked already?” he mused.

Wei Xiaobao went out of the hall to see the guests; seeing the two men’s solemn expression, he could not help but feeling anxious.

The host and guests saluted each other and sat. The inspector-general Ma You took out a document from his sleeve pocket, stood up, and presented it with both hands. “Imperial Envoy Daren,” he said, “There is an important matter.”

Wei Xiaobao received the document, and handed it over to the provincial administrative commissioner Mu Tianyan; he said, “Xiongdi is illiterate, would Laoxiong please read it?”

“Yes,” Mu Tianyan said, and opened the document. He already knew the content of the document; thereupon he said, “Daren, the Ministry of War in the Capital sent a 600-li urgent message, instructed us to pass it on to Daren: Wu Sangui, that rebel thief has raised arm in rebellion.”

As soon as he heard it, Wei Xiaobao was greatly delighted; he could not refrain from springing up and called out, “Damn it, that old fellow has really done it.”

Ma You and Mu Tianyan looked at each other in consternation. The imperial envoy minister heard the big news of Wu Sangui’s rebellion, unexpectedly he was wildly delighted; they wondered why he did that.

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “His Majesty has a divine foresight; he had foreseen this matter long ago. Gentlemen do not need to panic, His Majesty’s troops and horses, army provisions, cannon, gunpowder, money for soldier’s pay, weapons, everything has been adequately prepared. It’s fine if that old fellow Wu Sangui does not revolt, but if he rebelled, we will definitely capture his Chen Yuanyuan.”

Although to Ma You and Mu Tianyan his words were neither fish nor fowl, when they heard that the Emperor was well-prepared, they were quite relieved. Wu Sangui was adept in the art of war, and under his command there were strong soldiers and sturdy horses. When they heard that Wu Sangui rose in rebellion, all government officials were trembling with fear; they were apprehensive that the black hat on their heads [i.e. official position] could not be guaranteed anymore.

Wei Xiaobao said, “There’s one thing I found it very strange.”

“Please advise,” the two men said together.

Wei Xiaobao said, “This news, did gentlemen learn about it just now?”

“Yes,” Ma You replied, “As soon as lowly officer received the Ministry of War’s document, I immediately notified Fantai Daren, and rushed over to Daren’s field headquarters.”

“Really no leak?” Wei Xiaobao asked.

The two of them replied together, “This is national affair involving military intelligence, we must ask Daren to decide. Lowly officer absolutely did not dare to leak it out.”

“But Yangzhou’s Zhifu already knew about it,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Don’t you think it’s a bit strange?”

Ma You and Mu Tianyan looked at each other again, they were very surprised. Ma You said, “May I ask Daren, what did Prefectural Magistrate Wu say?”

Wei Xiaobao said, “Just now he secretively came to see me, telling me that there is something big happening in the southwest, someone wanted to make him Liu Bowen. He advised me to adapt to circumstances, and to close my mouth in front of the two of you. When I heard it, I did not understand; what Zhu Yuanzhang, Liu Bowen, and all that nonsense? While I was about to scold him, the two gentlemen arrived.”

The two men were shocked; their countenance changed greatly. Ma You’s intelligence was mediocre, but Mu Tianyan was rather good at adapting himself to changes, he said in a low voice, “If that Ol’ Wu really said that, it means that he was advising Daren to rebel. He really does not want his head anymore.”

[foxs]

“I don’t understand what he was talking about,” Wei Xiaobao said, “I was going to ask him to explain a bit clearer. He always throws literary stuff, something about arising first [xian fa] or arising later [hou fa]. I said Lao Tze was young, yet he had become high-ranking official, couldn’t it be regarded as arising first?”

Ma You and Mu Tianyan both thought, “That Wu Zhifu must have said, ‘gaining the initiative by striking first [xian fa zhi ren], arising later to control the people [hou fa zhi ren]’. Imperial Envoy Daren is unlearned, he thought it was ‘developing first, developing later’ [xian fa da, hou fa da].” The two of them were mature and experienced, they did not say anything.

Actually, Wei Xiaobao had heard the expression ‘gaining the initiative by striking first’ countless times from the storytellers since he was little; this time it was not because he was unlearned, rather, he was playing dumb.

Ma You said, “What a big guts this Wu Zhifu has! I wonder if he has left?”

Wei Xiaobao said, “He is still waiting here, he said he wanted to discuss important matters with me. Humph, he is just a tiny prefectural magistrate, what large-scale program of lasting importance he can possibly discuss with me? If it is Wu Sangui’s large-scale program, Xiongdi would rather discuss it with the two gentlemen, I won’t possibly listen to minor prefectural magistrate’s long-winded words.”

“Yes, yes,” Ma You said, “Is it possible for Daren to call Wu Zhifu over? Let lowly officer ask him a few questions.”

“Very good!” Wei Xiaobao said. He turned toward his personal guard, “Invite Wu Zhifu here.”

As Wu Zhirong entered the hall, seeing the inspector-general and the provincial administrative commissioner were present, he could not help feeling delighted and anxious and the same time. Delighted because the Imperial Envoy Minister attached great importance to his secret report that he unexpectedly summon both Futai and Fantai over to discuss this matter, anxious because since the information already leaked out, the inspector-general and the administrative commissioner would inevitably share his great merit. Immediately he stepped forward to salute and pay his respect, and then stood with arms hung down.

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Wu Zhifu, please sit down.”

“Yes, yes,” Wu Zhirong replied, “Thank you very much Daren for granting me a seat.” He sat with his buttocks barely covered the chair.

“Wu Zhifu,” Wei Xiaobao said, “You have an important matter you wanted to discuss with Xiongdi, although you repeatedly said that we can’t let Futai Daren and Fantai Daren know about it, this matter is of an utmost importance, I have no choice but to invite two Daren to discuss it over; please do not take offense.”

Wu Zhirong’s countenance looked awkward; hastily he stood up and bowed to Wei Xiaobao and Futai and Fantai and said with a forced laugh, “Lowly officer was too brazen, would three Daren please understand, this … this …” He wanted to gloss over several things, but Wei Xiaobao got right to the point [orig. ‘open the door and see the mountain’] and said it out, hence he found it very difficult to cover up. No wonder the inspector-general and the provincial administrative commissioner’s countenance looked very unsightly.

Wei Xiaobao smiled and said, “Wu Zhifu’s information is very quick; he said that in the southwest there is a great general with authority over troops and horses that is going to deploy troops in rebellion one of these days. The way he deploy troops is desperately serious, it will shake the world, His Majesty’s dragon palace courtyard will be unstable, can’t say for sure our heads might also fall down. Is that right?”

“Yes,” Wu Zhirong replied, “But three Daren’s flood of good fortune fills the heavens, naturally the misfortune will turn into blessing, ominousness will turn into auspiciousness, definitely all taboos are off.”

“In this matter we will have to depend on Wu Daren’s good fortune,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Wu Daren, this general shares the same ancestor with you, he is also surnamed Wu?”

“Yes,” Wu Zhirong replied, “This is our ancestor’s …”

Wei Xiaobao cut him off, “You have obtained this general’s letter, it was written personally by him, are you sure it is not fake?”

“Absolutely not,” Wu Zhirong replied, “Definitely it is not fake.”

Wei Xiaobao nodded and said, “Although in this letter there is no mention of deploying troops in rebellion, but it did mention Zhu Yuanzhang, Liu Bowen, what have you. Xiongdi did not study books, I do not understand what is written in the letter, Wu Daren explained in details the meaning of the letter, you wanted Xiongdi to take immediate action, something about arising first or arising later, you said it’s a chance that’s hard to come by in a hundred years, that great riches and honor certainly cannot be disposed of, that Xiongdi may be granted the title Wang [king], and Wu Daren may be granted the title Bojue [earl], is that right?”

Wu Zhirong replied, “That was lowly officer’s erroneous views, Daren’s clear judgment is a hundred times better compared lowly officer’s. The content of the letter is indeed as Daren said.”

From his right hand sleeve Wei Xiaobao took out Wu Liuqi’s letter and held it in front of Wu Zhirong. His body leaned sideways to cover up the letter. “This is the letter, isn’t it?” he asked, “Look carefully, this is of a grave importance, must not make mistake.”

“Yes, yes,” Wu Zhirong replied, “This is the letter, it can’t be wrong.”

“Very good,” Wei Xiaobao said.” He put the letter back into his right hand sleeve, and returned to his seat. “Wu Zhifu,” he said, “Please withdraw momentarily, I will discuss it over with Futai Daren and Fantai Daren. It seems that our three people’s glory, riches and honor, will have to depend entirely on you, Wu Daren. Ha ha …”

Wu Zhirong could not conceal the complacent look on his face; he bowed to salute the three men again, and said, “I depend entirely on three Daren’s cultivation.” Bowing, he slowly withdrew.

Wei Xiaobao waited until he reached the door before asking, ““Wu Zhifu, what is your alias?”

“I don’t dare,” Wu Zhirong said, “Lowly officer’s humble name is Zhirong [lit. his glory], in manuscript character Xianyang [to praise/commend/hallow].”

Wei Xiaobao nodded. “That’s all,” he said.

When Wei Xiaobao was interrogating Wu Zhirong, in their hearts Ma You and Mu Tianyan were furious, but according to bureaucratic rule, when the superior officer was talking, the subordinate must not interrupt. Ma You was hot-tempered, he was about to lash it out, but Wei Xiaobao ordered Wu Zhirong to withdraw, hence he could not help the veins from bulging out his forehead, his entire face from swelling deep red.

From his left hand sleeve Wei Xiaobao took out the letter Zha Yihuang forged. “Gentlemen, please take a look at this letter,” he said, “That servant [usually used in derogatory way] Wu Zhirong said that this letter is indeed serious. Xiongdi has never learned books, I don’t know if he was telling the truth or a lie.”

Ma You received the letter. He saw written on the envelope was ‘Personally presented to Yangzhou Zhifu Laoye, private.’ He pulled the letter out and look at it together with Mu Tianyan. They saw the addressee was ‘Xianyang my nephew’.

The more the two people looked, the angrier they were. Without waiting until he finished reading, Ma You slapped the table and shouted, “That dog head is too audacious, let me kill him with a saber.”

Mu Tianyan was more careful, he thought Wu Zhirong dared to openly advise a superior officer to rebel, it was a bit too unreasonable. However, just now Wei Xiaobao questioned him in their presence, they heard each sentence the opposite party gave in answer, why would he doubt it? The previous day in front of the Chanzhi Temple enjoying the Chinese peony, Wu Zhirong did say that Wu Sangui was his distant uncle. Apparently Wu Zhirong knew that Wu Sangui rebellion would be successful, he must be so pleased that he lost his senses and hence had been acting absolutely unrestrained.

“Is this letter really written by Wu Sangui for him?” Wei Xiaobao asked.

“That dog head himself said that it absolutely true,” Ma You replied.

“The letter is lengthy and talked about many things,” Wei Xiaobao said, “What exactly is it saying? Would two gentlemen explain it to Xiongdi?”

Thereupon Mu Tianyan explained line by line, the classical quotations about ‘Beheading the white snake and bestow a gale’, and ‘Retrieving the shoe from underneath the bridge’, ‘Striving to get out of the trench and answer all calls from heaven’, and ‘reaching nobility in sincerity’, and so on.

Ma You said, “Just this sentence alone, ‘Our Taizu Emperor Gao’s title Wu Guo’ is enough to have his entire family exterminated.”

Mu Tianyan nodded; he said, “I heard that in this rebel Wu matter, it has something to do with the third Zhu crown prince’s appeal, something about restoring Ming Family.”

While they were still talking, suddenly came the report that the Imperial Bodyguards from the Capital had arrived to announce the Imperial Edict. Wei Xiaobao and Ma You and Mu Tianyan kneeled down to receive the decree; actually, Kangxi was summoning Wei Xiaobao to hurry back to the Capital, as for the imperial order to build Martyr Shrine in Yangzhou, it was to be handed over to Jiangsu Province’s Administrative Commisioner to finish it. Wei Xiaobao was greatly delighted, he thought, “The young Emperor is fighting Wu Sangui; if he sent me to be the Grand Marshal, that would be very impressive.”

Ma You and Mu Tianyan could hear the encouragement and exhortation tone in the Imperial Edict, they immediately congratulated him on his coming promotion. Wei Xiaobao said, “Tomorrow Xiongdi will return to the Capital. When I kowtow in front of His Majesty, I will commend on two gentlemen’s great accomplishment in your official duty. It’s just that how well two gentlemen are doing your official duty, I am ashamed to admit, but honestly Xiongdi is not too clear; I am forced to ask two gentlemen to tell me.”

Futai and Fantai were greatly delighted, they cupped their fist to express their thanks. And thus Mu Tianyan spoke highly of the inspector-general’s political achievements. He racked his brains to recall Kangxi’s temperament, and tried his best to explain how Ma You worked diligently in the government, how he loved the people, how he promoted religion and virtue, and so on. Among these, nine out of ten were bogus. Ma You listened with smile so wide that he was unable to put his lips together. Afterwards Mu Tianyan also listed several achievements of his own; although the words were simple, all were real meritorious service.

“I have remembered all of these,” Wei Xiaobao said, “We will also add another big contribution: Rebel Wu’s Rebellion. His Majesty abhorred this matter extremely, this Wu Zhirong wanted to be the one who respond from within, he wanted all civil and military officials of the entire province of Jiangsu to revolt together, fortunately the three of us investigated and found it out. Once this report goes up, we won’t be able to avoid titles and rewards. Tomorrow Xiongdi will leave for the Capital, two gentlemen please write a memorial to the Emperor.”

Futai and Fantai spoke together, “This is Wei Daren’s great merit, lowly officers do not dare to claim credit due to others.”

“No need to be polite,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Let’s just consider the three of us render the merit together.”

Mu Tianyan added, “Zongdu [governor-general] Ma Daren has returned to Jiangning, when Imperial Envoy Minister returns to present the memorial to the Holy Sage, it would be best if you also speak a few good words on Ma Daren’s behalf.”

“Very well,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Speaking a few good words does not need any capital.”

Ma You and Mu Tianyan expressed their gratitude again before taking their leave. Wei Xiaobao immediately ordered Xu Tianchuan and the others to bind Wu Zhirong and stuffed his mouth with a piece of hemp cloth so that he could not talk even if he wanted to. The fear and bewilderment in Wu Zhirong’s heart was unspeakable.

Early in the morning the next day, each and every one of civil and military officials in the city of Yangzhou had already lined up in the hall, waiting for the Imperial Envoy Minister to grant them audience. Each one had a heavy gift. Actually, being a government official in Yangzhou, they were already stationed at the world’s most plentiful place; each government official was not looking for promotion, they were only hoping that when the Imperial Envoy Minister returned to Beijing, he would say a few good words on their behalf, then they would be perfectly contented if they could occupy their current position for a few more years.

The previous day the governor-general had also obtained the news, and had travelled overnight to Yangzhou. Naturally the gift he and the inspector-general brought was more serious. Yangzhou prefecture received three years of land tax exemption, there would be considerable amount of commission all-around. Although Wei Xiaobao did not have time to personally manage it, the Fantai had already presented the commission due him. The military leaders and personal attendants who came with Wei Xiaobao also received ample gifts and gold.

Ma You already prepared a memorial to the throne, which he asked Wei Xiaobao to personally present it to the Emperor. In the memorial it was detailed how Wei Xiaobao opened inquiries and secret investigation, how he personally enter dangerous zone before he could uncover Wu Sangui and Wu Zhirong conspiracy, et cetera; naturally it was greatly exaggerated, even the governor-general, the inspector-general, and the administrative commissioner, three people, who were rendering their assistance on the side, were not without merit.

Mu Tianyan said, “His Majesty is deploying the troops against Wu Sangui, it’s a pity that lowly officer is a civil officer, I do not have the skill to go into battle and kill the traitor. Lowly officer has received order from Zongdu Daren and Futai Daren that within ten days we are going to send a batch of army provisions to Hunan, to be used by His Majesty.”

Wei Xiaobao happily said, “The main force has not been deployed, the army provisions are already in place. Three gentlemen are very thoughtful, His Majesty will definitely be very happy.”

After all the government officials were dismissed, Wei Xiaobao sent his personal guard to Lovely Spring Courtyard to pick his mother. He changed into civilian clothes and met his mother. Wei Chunfang did not know that her son was a high-ranking official, she thought he cheated in gambling, and had won a large sum of money. When she heard that he wanted to take her to Beijing to have a happy and prosperous life there, she shook her head at once and said, “Money from gambling, today the left hand wins it, tomorrow the right hand loses it. By the time I get to Beijing, you will have lost everything; perhaps you will sell Laoniang [your old mother] to the joy house. If Laoniang wants to do business, staying in Yangzhou is better. In Beijing, that bent-tongue language of the bureaucrat, Laoniang cannot speak.”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Ma, please set your hundred and twenty hearts at ease. When we get to Beijing, you will have servant girls and older female servants, you won’t need to do anything. The money that I have, we won’t be able to spend it forever.”

Wei Chunfang did not stop shaking her head, “If I don’t have anything to do, I will be suffocated to death of boredom. Servant girls and older female servants, Laoniang has never had the good fortune to enjoy it, in less than three days I would have to cut my braids.”

Wei Xiaobao knew his mother’s temperament; he thought that if she had to sit all day long in a big courtyard without doing anything, she would not have the least bit of interest. Thereupon he took out a stack of banknotes, altogether there were fifty thousand taels, and said, “Ma, I am giving you this money. Go and buy the Lovely Spring Courtyard, you can be the proprietress. I’ll say you can also buy three more courtyards; we can open Lovely Spring Courtyard, Lovely Summer Courtyard, Lovely Autumn Courtyard and Lovely Winter Courtyard, the four seasons. We can make money all year long.”

But in her bosom Wei Chunfang did not have high aims; she laughed and said, “I will go have someone look at these banknotes, whether they are genuine or fake. If they indeed can be cashed, Laoniang will be very happy to manage a small courtyard. If you want to open big courtyard, we’ll wait until you grow up, and then you can be the boss.” Lowering her voice, she asked, “Xiaobao, your large sum of money, you did not get it from stealing or robbing, did you?”

From his pouch Wei Xiaobao took four dice and called out, “House full of red!” [See also note 22, Chapter 34] while throwing the dice onto the table. Sure enough, all four dice showed four dots on the top face.

Wei Chunfang was greatly delighted and felt relieved instantly. She laughed and said, “Little b@stard has mastered this trick, even if you lose, you won’t be poor.”

(Book note: In the original block printed edition of Gu Yanwu’s poem, there were a lot of codeword, rhyming characters to substitute the intended words, such as ‘yu’ [expect/anticipate] for ‘hu’ [non-Han people, barbarian], ‘zhi’ [support/sustain] for ‘yi’ [barbarian], and so on, to avoid violating the taboo, making it hard for the later generations to decipher. Mr. Pan Zhonggui wrote ‘Examination on Ting Lin Poems’ [‘pavilion forest’ was Gu Yanwu’s alias]; he added comprehensive explanation to make the poems clear. Our book uses Mr. Pan’s work as reference.)

[foxs]

Chapter 41 - Yuyang instigation sends drunkenness toward the heavens, excessive supervision with poor planning will bring regret too late.
(Translated by Foxs)

Lu Ding Ji 41.jpg

Suddenly He Tishou stretched out her left hand to grab the back of Wei Xiaobao’s neck and lifted him up to the left, and then ‘zip, zip, zip!’, three candles on the table were extinguished immediately, followed by a series of dull thuds on the wooden partition on the opposite site, like the resounding patter of rain on wooden board.

[foxs]

The next day Wei Xiaobao led his companions, the troops and horses, with Wu Zhirong and Mao Dongzhu in custody, leaving Yangzhou heading for the Capital. Kangxi’s imperial edict to summon him back was very urgent, the party did not dare to tarry too long when they lodged for the night, inevitably they had to skip quite a bit of opportunity to invite wealth by accepting bribes along the way. The news on the street was that after Wu Sangui started deploying his troops, Yunnan’s Tidu [local commander] Zhang Guogui, Guizhou’s Xunfu [inspector-general] Cao Shenji and Tidu Li Benshen had surrendered, while Yunnan’s Xunfu Zhu Guozhi was killed, and Yunnan and Guizhou Zongdu [governor general] Gan Wenkun committed suicide.

One day they arrived in Shandong. The local official grabbed the imperial bulletin and presented it to the Imperial Envoy Minister. It was an edict in which Kangxi denounced Wu Sangui. Wei Xiaobao summoned the secretary to read it for him. The secretary held the imperial edict with both hands and read aloud, “Rebel thief Wu Sangui desperately trying to gain authority. Remembering his surrender, my ancestors Emperor Zhang awarded him the troops and conferred the nobility title ‘Wang’ [king], as he bound himself to our mountains and rivers. With his pledge of allegiance he earned the cap (of officialdom), the esteemed hereditary office, with favor bestowed to him on top of everything: wide open space of Yunnan and the south, and whole-hearted responsibility to rely on. By Zhen’s time, distinguished and grand favors have been repeatedly granted, his rise through nobility has brought him the title Qinwang [prince], the country has heavily relied on him to manage the cities, indeed he was the backbone of the country. Special favor superior gift, resonating throughout the world with no precedence since the ancient times.”

Listening to the secretary’s reading, Wei Xiaobao nodded his head continuously; he said, “Indeed His Majesty treated this rebel thief very well, it was not an exaggeration at all. Take me, Wei Xiaobao, for example, I am completely loyal and devoted to the Emperor, yet I am given no more than the title Bojue [earl]. If I want to reach Qinwang, the road I have to take is still missing a large chunk.”

The secretary continued reading, “How it surprised me that Wu Sangui’s nature is poor and odd, in his bosom there is spying and cheating heart, he is pampering pride and scheming to go against the law. Just in the seventh month of this year, he himself was asking to be removed from his post. Depending on Wu Sangui’s sincerity, and remembering the years his strength is waning, and that master and disciples have been in garrison for a long time, Zhen has granted his request and ordered him to rest. Therefore, the placement minister was assigned to prepare a place for him, and special minister was dispatched to announce the content of Zhen’s heart. It could be said that Zhen had profound sentiment toward Wu Sangui, no more, no less. Reviewing Chuan Hu[1] Zongdu Cai Yurong and the others’ memorial: Wu Sangui is on his path to rebel; after the kindness of the imperial court to bear the burden of looking after his needs, he is showing off his power, sowing violence and rebellion, blotting out and burning the living beings, reasons and laws cannot contain, hated by both man and god.”

For each sentence that he heard, Wei Xiaobao uttered a sentence of praise, “His Majesty is magnanimous; he did not curse Wu Sangui’s granny, it can be considered very polite.”

Zhang Yong, Zhao Liangdong, Wang Jinbao, Sun Sike, as well as Li Lishi and the others were listening on the side. They all thought, “The imperial edict only says that the Emperor’s treatment to him cannot be better, while reprimanding Wu Sangui for forgetting favor and violate justice; it did not mention even half a sentence of Manchu-Han relation, as well as how he murdered Ming Dynasty’s royal family, it’s extremely brilliant, so that the world only feel that Wu Sangui’s rebellion is something that he should not have done.”

The secretary continued reading, “The imperial edict urges and instructs local official and the people not to associate with the rebels. If by mistake they already join the thieves, as long as the conviction to turn back is sincere, they will not have to be investigated, their relatives who live in the provinces where the local officials live will not be charged with guilt by association, they will not be doubted. The edict also states: ‘Whoever is able to capture Wu Sangui and present him to the army will be granted his nobility title promptly; whoever is able to capture or put the rebel leaders under his command to death, as well as take back the troops, horses, and the cities, will enjoy preferential treatment upon evaluation of his merit. Zhen will not go back on my word.’”

Hearing the secretary read, ‘His Majesty promises that whoever is able to capture Wu Sangui and present him to the army, His Majesty will make him Ping Xi Qinwang’, Wei Xiaobao could not help to have an itch in his heart that was difficult to scratch. He turned his head around to Li Lishi and the others and said, “Let’s go catch Wu Sangui, then we can be Ping Xi Qinwang; it will be very interesting.” Everybody voiced their agreement.

Zhang Yong and the other military generals thought, “Wu Sangui’s troops numerous, his generals many; catching him is easier said than done.”

Li Lishi and the others thought, “We want to kill Wu Sangui because he overthrew Han people’s rivers and mountains, do you think that we want to strive for the sake of Tatar Emperor? But if Wei Xiangzhu can be Ping Xi Qinwang and lead troops in Yunnan, he can rise in rebellion again; it won’t be too bad.”

Finished listening to the imperial edict, Wei Xiaobao ordered immediate departure, he wanted to reach Beijing as soon as possible, he wanted to be sent to the battlefield, so that he would be the first to capture Wu Sangui and snatch the nobility title Ping Xi Qinwang.

One day they arrived at Xianghe [county, Langfang, Hebei], which was not far from the Capital. Wei Xiaobao commanded Zhang Yong, leading a large number of troops, to wait here and closely guard offender to the throne Mao Dongzhu, while he and Shuang’er and Tian Di Hui warriors, with Wu Zhirong in custody, turned southwest toward the big house of the Zhuang Family. He wanted to personally deliver Wu Zhirong to the Third Mistress to repay her generous gift of Shuang’er, such a good servant girl.

By that evening they arrived at a small town about twenty li away from the Zhuang Family’s big house. The party stopped at a restaurant to eat dinner. All of them have changed into civilian clothes. They sealed Wu Zhirong’s mute acupoint, as well as several acupoints on his body, but did not bind him to avoid drawing other people’s attention. They all sat around two wooden tables. Nobody wanted to sit at the same table with Wu Zhirong. Shuang’er was afraid that he might run away, she was the only one who was willing to sit at his table, to keep a close watch on him.

The food was delivered. Everybody was eating when a dozen or so soldiers entered the inn, led by a Shoubei [captain]. Outside the inn, the horses were neighing continuously, two ordinary soldiers fetched water and fed the horses. A Bazong [squad leader] shouted loudly, ordering the innkeeper to quickly kill the chicken and prepare a meal, saying that they were in urgent official business and wanted to reach the Capital as soon as possible to report. The innkeeper said ‘yes, yes’ repeatedly, while urging the waiters to wait upon the guanlaoye [master government official]. He personally wiped the captain’s table and chair.

The soldiers had just sat down, from the mouth of the town came the sound of cartwheel and hoof beats. The carriage and horses stopped in front of the inn, several people entered the restaurant. At the front were two big muscular men; the third was a middle-age man with the appearance of a tuberculosis ghost, short and thin, his cheeks were deep and hollow, his cheekbones high, his complexion wax-yellow, without any trace of even half a part of blood, there was a faint darkness surrounding his appearance, every few steps he coughed a bit.

Behind him were an old man and old woman walking side by side, they both appeared to be over eighty years old. The old man was also short and thin, but he looked spirited and full of life, his white beard floated in front of his chest, his face was ruddy. The old woman was slightly taller than the old man, her waist and back was straight, her eyes were bright and full of expression. At the rear were two twenty-something women.

Looking at the way these seven people dressed, the sick looking man’s clothes was luxurious, he appeared to be a landlord from a very wealthy family. The two men and two women were menservants and maidservants. The old man and old woman dressed in dark green robes, the material was very coarse, but very clean. It was unclear what their status was.

The old woman said, “Zhang Ma [nurse Zhang], get a bowl of hot water, help Shaoye [young master] taking his medication.”

One of the maidservants complied; she took out a china bowl from her basket, lifted up the copper kettle in the inn, and poured the hot water into the china bowl. She shook the bowl several times before throwing the water away, and then she poured half a bowl of hot water, and set it down in front of the sickly man.

The old women took out a porcelain bottle from her bosom, pulled the cork out, and tipped out a red pill, which she brought to the sickly man’s mouth. The sickly man opened his mouth and held the pill on his tongue. Picking up the water bowl he drank it to swallow the pill. After taking the pill, the sickly man panted endlessly, while also coughing nonstop.

The old man and the old woman fixed their gaze at the sickly man, their expression showed concern, but they also looked worried. After seeing his breathing slowing down and his coughing stopped they heaved a deep sigh. The sickly man frowned and said, “Dad, Ma, why are you always worried about me? I won’t die.”

“Humph,” the old man snorted, and turned his head away. The old woman laughed and said, “What are you talking about, dead or alive? My child will live to be a hundred years old.”

Wei Xiaobao mused, “Even if this fellow took the Jade Emperor’s miracle pill, he won’t last a few days. Turns out this old man and the old woman are his parents. This tuberculosis ghost is spoiled by his parents since he was little, his dad and mom only looked at him a bit more, his temper flared.”

The old woman said, “Zhang Ma, Sun Ma, go warm Shaoye’s ginseng soup, and then cook the meal.” The two maidservants complied. Each woman carried a basket as they walked toward the rear of the inn.

The captain inquired about the way to Beijing from the innkeeper. The innkeeper said, “Gentlemen may continue your journey twenty, thirty more li today, and stop-by for the night in the small town ahead. Tomorrow you may leave early in the morning, you should reach the Capital by the afternoon.”

“We have to continue over night,” the captain said, “No time to stay in any inn. Innkeeper, within a year from today, I guarantee your business will flourish. You’d better prepare some good food, good wine, so that when the moment comes you won’t be caught in confusion.”

The innkeeper laughed and said, “Laoye [old master] said it well. Small inns’ business is always ordinary. Business like today seldom comes by, usually only a few days in a month; it is because Laoye and other guests are showing consideration, how can I expect to have a lot of guests honoring us with your presence every day?”

The captain laughed and said, “Innkeeper, let me tell you something: Wu Sangui is rebelling, right now he has reached Hunan. We are hastening to the Capital to deliver military document. Once the big battle breaks out, at least it will take three to five years to defeat him. The troops who send reports of military intelligence every day will pass this place, hereafter you will gain wealth.”

The innkeeper repeatedly expressed his thanks, but in his heart he was grumbling incessantly, “Soldiers like you, what good business is there to make? You’ll eat and drink as much as you like, if you are generous at most you’ll give tips of a few qian. After ferociously beat and curse people, you’ll pat your buttocks and leave. Forget three to five years, in just half a year or a year, I will have to hang myself.”

Hearing that Wu Sangui had reached Hunan, Wei Xiaobao, Li Lishi and the others were shocked. “That servant moves very fast,” they thought.

In a low voice Qian Laoben said, “I ask?” Wei Xiaobao nodded. Qian Laoben walked over to the Captain and with a face full of smile he cupped his fist and said, “Just now I heard Jiangjun [General] Daren said that Wu Sangui has attacked Hunan. Xiaoren’s wife and children are actually in Changsha [prefecture, capital of Hunan]; I am very concerned. I wonder how is the situation over there? Is Changsha still safe?”

Being called a ‘general’, the captain was delighted; he said, “Whether Changsha is safe or not, I do not know. Wu Sangui dispatched his subordinate great general Ma Bao from Guizhou to attack Hunan; Yuanzhou has fallen, Zongbing Cui Shilu was taken prisoner. Wu Sangui’s subordinates Zhang Guozhu, Gong Yinglin, and Xia Guoxiang separately attacked to the east. Another great general Wang Bingfan went out to attack Sichuan; I heard his troops are very powerful. People of Sichuan and Hunan region are fleeing.”

Qian Laoben showed great concern on his face, “This … this is far from good,” he said, “But the Great Qing’s troops are very formidable, Wu Sangui won’t necessarily win, will he?”

The captain replied, “At first, everybody said so; but after Yuanzhou fell, we knew Wu Sangui’s troops and horses are not easy to resist. Ay, the situation is very difficult to say.”

Qian Laoben cupped his fist and returned to his seat. Some Tian Di Hui warriors thought, “We must not let this big traitor Wu Sangui becomes the Emperor.” Some other thought, “It would be best to let Wu Sangui attacked Beijing, let him fight with Manchurian Qing Tatars until both sides suffer.”

The soldiers ate and drank in a hurry. The captain stood up and said, “Innkeeper, I deliver to you good news, you should just invite us as your guests.”

The innkeeper bowed and said with a forced laugh, “Yes, yes. I should, I should. Gentlemen, Daren, please take care.”

The captain laughed and said, “Slow down? Then we should sit down and eat again.” With an awkward expression, the innkeeper could only force a smile. [Translator’s note: in Chinese, ‘man zou’ (lit. walk slowly) could also mean ‘take care’ or ‘wait a minute’.]

The captain walked toward the door. When he was passing the old man, the old woman, and the sickly man’s table, suddenly the sickly man reached out and grabbed his chest. “You are going to Beijing to deliver what document?” he asked, “Take it out, let me look.”

The captain’s body was thick and solid, but grabbed by this sickly man, he immediately buckled, his body shortened by one section. “Damn it,” he angrily shouted, “What are you doing?” He struggled hard until his face was bulging red, but was unable to move a single step.

‘Rip!’ the sickly man’s right hand tore the front piece of the captain’s clothes by his chest and took out a large envelope. The sickly man pushed lightly with his left hand, the captain was thrown out, and crashed onto two tables, turning everything upside down. ‘Bing, bing, bang, bang!’ bowls and plates fell to the floor and broke into pieces.

The rest of the troops shouted, “Rebellion, rebellion!” One after another they pulled their spears and sabers and pounced on the sickly man. The sickly man’s two menservants raised their fists and legs, punching and kicking, throwing down the soldiers. In an instant the soldiers were sprawled over the inn’s floor.

The sickly man tore the envelope open, removed the document and read it. The captain was scared out of his wits; in trembling voice he shouted, “That is a memorial to the Emperor; you … you dare to tear up the document, this … this … isn’t this rebellion?”

The sickly man read the document and said, “Hunan Xunfu is asking Tatar Emperor to send reinforcement to fight Ping Xi Wang. Humph, even if he sent a million troops, they will still … (cough, cough) … they will still be wiped out by Ping Xi Wang clean.” While speaking, he crumpled the document in his hand, pressed it into the hollow of his palm, and by the time he finished speaking, he spread out his palm and waved it in the air, countless pieces of paper fluttered like butterflies flying in the wind, scattered in all directions.

Seeing this kind of internal energy, the Tian Di Hui warriors’ countenance changed; they all thought, “From the tone of his voice, he seems to be Wu Sangui’s subordinate.”

The captain struggled to crawl up. Pulling the saber hanging on his waist he said, “You destroyed the document, Laozi cannot live anyway, I will fight you to the death!” Raising his saber he leaped forward and hacked it down with all his might to the top of the sickly man’s head. The sickly man stayed sitting, he merely raised his left hand and pushed slightly on the captain’s lower abdomen, as if he did not want him to cause trouble. Suddenly the captain’s arm that was holding the saber slowly drooped down, his body slowly slumped down until he sat on the floor. He opened his mouth wide to gasp for breath, but found out that he could not breathe.

Some of the overthrown soldiers crawled up, but they all stood far away. They shouted curses, but were powerless to anything. Nobody dared to step forward to help their superior.

Holding a bowl of hot soup with both hands, a maid carefully set it down in front of the sickly man; she said, “Shaoye, please take the ginseng soup.”

The old man and the old woman acted as if they were completely oblivious of the commotion happening around them; they did not pay the slightest bit of attention, their gaze was fixed on their son’s expression.

---

[1] Chuan is abbreviation for Sichuan province. I am not sure about the ‘Hu’ (lake), since Hunan/Hubei are not adjacent to Sichuan.

[foxs]

Xu Tianchuan said in a low voice, “These people are quite demonic, let us leave.” Gao Yanchao paid for the food and drink, and then they all quietly walked out the door. They saw the old woman held the ginseng bowl; she gently blew the steam and brought the bowl to the sickly man’s mouth to feed him the soup.

It was not until Wei Xiaobao and the others reached the outskirt of the small town did they break into discussion as the affiliation of the sickly man. Xu Tianchuan said, “That man ripped the officer’s clothes, his strength is that formidable, it’s really … really rare.”

Priest Xuanzhen said, “He only pushed the officer’s lower abdomen lightly, it appeared very sloppy and ordinary, but to evade or block that move is really not easy. Feng Xiongdi, what do you think?”

Feng Jizhong said, “Should not go near him three chi [foot].”

The warriors thought about it, and agreed that it made sense; it doesn’t matter if they wanted to dodge or to block, they could only do it if they were tree feet away from him, if they were too close, they would not be able to evade or to block. Xu Tianchuan suddenly said, “If I grabbed his wrist …” but before finishing it, he shook his head, knowing that the opponent’s internal energy was too strong; even if he managed to grab his wrist, as soon as the man flipped his palm and twisted, it would be highly likely that his finger bones, his wrist bones, would all be broken.

Everybody understood that the sickly man was on Wu Sangui’s side, but after seeing him violently injured people, nobody dared to make a move to stop him. Although the people he injured were Tatar military officers, in the end, it was not their habit as chivalrous heroes not to do anything. In their hearts they were quite ashamed, inevitably their mood was dampened; after talking for a while, no one was interested to discuss it any longer.

After traveling for several li, suddenly they heard hoof beats from behind, two riders galloped fast. The road they were traveling on was a small path leading to the Zhuang Family’s big house, it was not wide enough for two riders to ride side by side. The warriors were not in a good mood, although they heard the urgency of the hoof beats, other than Feng Jizhong and Shuang’er who reined their horses and stepped toward the side of the path, nobody else was willing to give way.

In a flash the two riders had reached their backs. The warriors turned their heads together, and saw that the two riders were unexpectedly the menservants of the sickly man. One of the menservants called out, “Our family’s Shaoye is asking gentlemen to wait a moment, he has something to ask gentlemen.”

Although it was not rude, the feeling of condescending could not be clearer. When the warriors heard it, they were all indignant. Priest Xuanzhen shouted, “We are busy, no time to wait. We are strangers, what do you want to ask?”

The servant replied, “It’s our family’s Shaoye’s order, it would be better if gentlemen wait, so that everybody won’t be inconvenienced.” This time the threat was obvious.

Qian Laoben said, “Is your master Wu Sangui’s subordinate?”

“Pei!” the servant spat, “What do you think my master’s status is? How can he be Ping Xi Wang’s subordinate?”

The warriors thought, “He did not say ‘Wu Sangui’, but addressed him as ‘Ping Xi Wang’; they must have some relation with that traitor Wu.”

Right this moment, they heard the sound of carriage wheels, a large carriage quickly caught up with them. The servant said, “Our master has arrived.” Turning his horse around, he rode back to welcome the carriage.

If this moment the warriors dismounted their horses and walked over, it would appear that they were afraid of the sickly man; thereupon they stayed on horseback, waiting.

The carriage approached fast, one of the maidservants drove the carriage, the other maid raised the carriage curtain, and they saw the sickly man was sitting right in the middle, his father and mother sat in front and behind him. The sickly man stared at the warriors and asked, “Why did you seal this man’s acupoint?” While saying that he pointed to Wu Zhirong, and then he asked again, “Who are you? Where are you going?” His voice sharp, his tone very arrogant.

Priest Xuanzhen said, “And what is Sire’s honored surname and great name? We are total strangers, river water does not interfere with well water, why are you meddling in other people’s business?”

“Humph,” the sickly man snorted, “You are not fit to ask my name and surname. Just now I asked you two questions, didn’t you hear? Why you did not answer?”

Priest Xuanzhen angrily said, “I am not fit to ask your name and surname, you are not fit to ask our business either. Wu Sangui started a rebellion, he is a great traitor, you kept calling him Ping Xi Wang, you must be of the same group as this traitor. I can see that Sire’s disease has already attack your vital organs, you had better go home as soon as possible so that you can die in your own bed; otherwise you’ll catch cold and cough, and will breathe your last.”

Amid the Tian Di Hui warriors’ hearty laughter, suddenly a shadow flashed, ‘Slap!’ Priest Xuanzhen’s left cheek was heavily hit by a palm, followed by another palm strike on the left side of his torso that he was thrown down from his horse. These two palm strikes were fast and nimble beyond belief; it was not until he fell to the ground did the warriors see clearly that the one making the move was the old woman. After knocking down Priest Xuanzhen with two palm strikes, she kicked the ground with both feet, and flew back into the carriage.

The warriors broke into a clamor and pounced toward the large carriage. The sickly man grabbed the maid’s, who was driving the carriage, back, lightly lifted her up, and swiftly swapped places with her; he tossed the maid into the carriage and took her seat as the carriage driver. Right this moment Qian Laoben happened to leap with both palms striking down. The sickly man sent out a left punch to meet his palms, surprisingly it was totally silent. Qian Laoben only felt a gust of powerful force rushing toward him, throwing him somersaulting backward twice in the air. As he landed on the ground, he tried to steady his legs, but suddenly felt his knees were without strength and felt that he was about to kneel down. In his shock he hastily struggled to throw himself backward so that he fell face up, hence he avoid being disgraced by kneeling in front of the enemy.

Qian Laoben had just fallen down, Feng Jizhong pounced; the sickly man sent out another punch. Feng Jizhong did not dare to meet the punch head-on, his right palm changed direction midway, suddenly it chopped down on the sickly man’s neck. “Ah!” the man exclaimed, as if he was surprised by the opponent’s superb martial art. His thumb hooked on his middle finger, and he flicked at the hollow of Feng Jizhong’s palm. Feng Jizhong quickly pulled back his palm, his right foot stepped on the mule’s back.

Gao Yanchao and Fan Gang separately attacked the two menservants. The two menservants leaped away from the horseback, “Let Shaoye deal with you,” they called out.

Gao and Fan, two people were actually thinking that by fighting the opponent’s menservants they were having an unfair advantage; seeing the two menservants withdrew, which was in agreement with their original thought anyway, they turned around at once and leaped together to attack the sickly man’s left flank.

Suddenly the mule let out a long neigh and limply dropped down to the ground, pulling the large carriage along that it leaned to one side. Turned out when Feng Jizhong stepped on the mule’s back, he secretly exerted his internal energy to his sole that as soon as he kicked, the mule’s backbone broke.

The sickly man’s feet did not seem to leap, his body did not seem to move, but amid his coughing sound he was already standing on the ground. The old man and the old woman in the carriage, each carrying a maid, also leaped out of the carriage. These three people’s movement did not seem too fast, yet they were out of the carriage before the large carriage began to topple.

Qian Laoben and Xu Tianchuan attacked the old man and the old woman. The old woman shook her left hand, while with her right hand she pointed toward the sickly man. “Go over there,” she said with a laugh, “Accompany my child playing.” Her meaning was clear; she wanted these two men to suffer her son’s punches to make him happy.

Xu Tianchuan’s right fist shot down on the top of the old man’s head; it’s just that because he saw the old man was really old, although he knew the old man’s martial art skill was not weak, Xu Tianchuan was afraid he might kill him with one punch, thereupon he shouted, “Watch the fist!” He only used 30% of his strength in this punch. Ever since he accidentally killed Bai Hansong and thus created quite a few of trouble with the Mu Palace, he had been very cautious.

The old man stretched out his hand to catch Xu Tianchuan’s fist. This old man was thin and short, unexpectedly his palm was unusually big; as he squeezed Xu Tianchuan’s fist, he said, “Go over there to play!” Although Xu Tianchuan was considerably younger than the old man, he was, after all, a white-haired old man; yet the way the old man talked to him was like he was addressing an urchin.

Xu Tianchuan exerted his strength to pull his right hand back, while with his left fist he sent out another punch. It was the move ‘Azure Dragon White Tiger’, a complementary style, in which the left punch was not really intended to strike the opponent, it was only to force the opponent to relinquish his grip; however, if the opponent did not want to let go, this punch would strike the bridge of his nose.

The old man spread his arms while letting go of his grip. Xu Tianchuan only felt a blast of muddy, thick and extremely strong force pushing him away; coupled with his own strength, his left fist punching forward and his right hand pulling back, his body whirled around like a spinning top, straight toward the sickly man.

The sickly man was fighting Feng Jizhong, Gao Yanchao, Fan Gang and Li Lishi; seeing the incoming Xu Tianchuan, he clapped his hands and said with a laugh, “It’s fun, it’s fun!” The four men’s punches and kicks rained down on him like storm, unexpectedly he still had time to clap and cheer; followed by reaching out to push. Xu Tianchuan changed direction; at first he was turning right, but now he was turning left, spinning at great speed toward the old man.

“Dad,” the sickly man said with a laugh, “It’s very fun, send this spinning top back to me!”

Xuanzhen did everything he can to attack. The sickly man casually push and pull, push and pull, unexpectedly he also turned Xuanzhen, Gao Yanchao, Fan Gang, and Li Lishi, four men into spinning tops. Only Feng Jizhong was not spinning, but he felt the chi and blood in the pit of his stomach were bubbling up in his chest; hastily he leaped three steps back with his palms as a shield in front of his body.

Five Tian Di Hui warriors were spinning incessantly; they wanted to exert their strength to stop spinning, but no matter what they do, they were unable to stop. When one of them was slowing down, the sickly man would leap and push and pull, immediately he would spin faster again. It was like a child playing with copper coins on the table; he spun five coins like tops, whichever was slowing down and was about to fall, the child would use his fingers to flick it so that the coin would continue spinning.

Watching all this, Wei Xiaobao was stunned; he was completely horrified. Shuang’er stood in front of him, trying to protect him while she herself was very scared and on edge. Wei Xiaobao said in a low voice, “We must execute the thirty-sixth stance.” [i.e. run away]

“Quickly go to the Zhuang house,” Shuang’er replied.

“Right,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Once we reach the Zhuang house, great luck, great profit. As the banker we can eat the leg vise, and make big killing on the three directions[1].” He turned around and ran. Pulling Wu Zhirong along, Shuang’er ran after him.

The sickly man was having so much fun playing spinning tops, the old couple watched their son with smile on their face. The four menservants and maidservants were clapping and cheering while standing on the side, watching their young master having fun.

Seeing Feng Jizhong was standing firm on horse stance, his left palm high, right palm low, in the style ‘Ancient Pine Standing Up Strong’, the sickly man immediately stepped forward and stretched out his hand to push Feng Jizhong’s right shoulder. Feng Jizhong pulled his right foot one step, hence his shoulder also leaned sideways to evade the push, but he did not dare to strike back with his palm.

The sickly man angrily said, “You are a bad man, you don’t want to spin around?” Stretching out his hand again, he tried to push Feng Jizhong’s right shoulder.

Feng Jizhong withdrew another step; to his surprise a burst of strong force came pushing the back of his left shoulder, immediately he lost his balance and amidst the sickly man’s loud laughter his body started to spin in great speed. He wanted to use ‘thousand-catty drop’ to stop, but the sickly man gave him another strong push at the back of his waist that he continued spinning.

Seeing the sickly man was giving his opponents trouble, Wu Zhirong realized a good opportunity has presented itself; thereupon after walking a few steps he pretended to trip and fall to the ground. Shuang’er pulled him up, but he was unwilling to get up. Wei Xiaobao was greatly anxious; afraid that Wu Zhirong would tell the enemy the truth, he grabbed his lower jaw and pinched as hard as he could so that Wu Zhirong opened his mouth. Wei Xiaobao pulled the dagger from his boot and swiped it in Wu Zhirong’s mouth, cutting most part of his tongue. Wu Zhirong fainted from the pain.

Shuang’er thought Wei Xiaobao had killed the traitor. “Xianggong,” she called out, “Hurry up!” The two of them dashed forward.

They had only run for less than a li when they heard the sound of hoof beats from behind, someone was pursuing them on horseback. Wei Xiaobao pointed to the rocky ridge to the left, the two of them left the path and scrambled over the pile of rocks. Riding on horses, the sickly man and one of his menservants soon caught up with them. Seeing the horses could not enter the rocky ridge, the servant jumped down the horse and called out, “Two children don’t be afraid. Our family’s Shaoye wants you to play with him. Come back quickly!”

Wei Xiaobao said, “To be a spinning top, laozi don’t want to do.” He ran even faster. The servant chased into the rocky ridge, but Wei Xiaobao and Shuang’er were able to run very fast, the servant was unable to catch up with them.

The sickly man called out, “Do you want to play hide-and-seek? It’s fun, it’s fun!” He dismounted; while coughing incessantly, he cut them off from the south.

Wei Xiaobao and Shuang’er turned and ran toward the northeast, rushing straight toward the servant. The servant pounced to catch Wei Xiaobao. Wei Xiaobao used the moved ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’ [divine walk hundred changes] taught by Jiu Nan; he leaned sideways, the servant landed on empty space.

Shuang’er sent a backhand palm strike toward the servant’s lower back. Seeing she was only a little girl, the servant did not take her seriously at all, unexpectedly he did not even try to parry but stretched out his arm to twist her right arm instead. Shuang’er swiftly pulled her right palm back, ‘Crack!’ the edge of her palm hit his lower back. “Ah!” the servant cried out in pain. Right this moment, Shuang’er already grabbed his right wrist and twisted it backward. Another ‘Crack!’ ensued, his elbow joint was dislocated.

“Eh?” the sickly man exclaimed in surprise. Jumping from rock to rock, just in a few ups and downs he had landed in front of Shuang’er. With a sweep of his left hand he knocked the hat on Shuang’er’s head that her head-full of fine hair came loose. The sickly man laughed and said, “It’s a girl!” He reached out to grab her hair.

“Ah!” Shuang’er screamed; with the move ‘a pair of dragon return’ both her elbows struck backward. The sickly man laughed and said, “Good!” His left hand swept from left to right and grabbed both her fists, pulled the fists behind her back, and then with his right hand he pulled her long hair and coiled it twice around her wrists and tied it into a knot, while laughing aloud.

Shuang’er was so anxious that she cried. “Xianggong,” she called out, “Quickly run, quickly run!”

The sickly man stretched out his finger to jab lightly on her waist to seal her acupoint. “He won’t run away,” he said with a laugh. Tossing Shuang’er down, he ran after Wei Xiaobao, and in just a short time managed to get near him.

Wei Xiaobao fled to the east and ran to the west among the rocks, several times the sickly man almost caught him, but in the last moment Wei Xiaobao managed to evade using the ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’ skill. The sickly man laughed and said, “Your ability in playing hide-and-seek is very good.” [Translator’s note: I know it should be ‘playing tag’, but the original was 捉迷藏, which the dictionary defines as ‘hide-and-seek’.]

---

[1]Zhuang house, ‘zhuang jia’ can also mean ‘banker’ (in gambling); ‘leg vise’ (夹棍), I don’t know what it is, I am assuming it has something to do with gambling; ‘three directions’, usually there are four positions in a gambling table, denoted by east, south, west, and north, respectively.

[foxs]

Wei Xiaobao’s internal strength was lacking, after running around for a while, he was already gasping for breath. Knowing that in a short while he would be caught, he called out, “You can’t catch me, now it’s my turn to catch you. Quickly run, I am going to catch you.” While saying that, he turned around and pounced on the sickly man.

The sickly man giggled, and surprisingly enough he did turn around and run around the piles of rocks. Wei Xiaobao had already figured out that although his martial art skill was superior, his conduct was silly like an imbecile; his age must be over forty, but his behavior was like that of a child. Yet he was able to move back and forth among the rocks swiftly; Wei Xiaobao had just seen him on the east, in a flash his shadow suddenly appeared on the west; his lightning speed movement was indeed like a ghost.

Wei Xiaobao was greatly astonished, but also full of admiration. “I will definitely catch you,” he called out, “You won’t be able to escape!” Pretending to run after him, he rushed toward Shuang’er, picked her up, and called loudly, “Hey, even by carrying a person I will catch you.”

The sickly man roared in laughter, “Toot, toot, toot, you are blowing your conch, (cough, cough) … tweet, tweet, tweet, you are blowing your cowhide!” [Both mean: tooting your horn.] Carrying Shuang’er in his bosom, Wei Xiaobao pretended to run after the sickly man, but he ran farther and farther away.

The sickly man called out, “Useless little thing, you can’t catch me … (cough, cough) …” and ran a few steps closer to Wei Xiaobao.

Wei Xiaobao yelled back, “See if this time I won’t catch you. You can’t run away when you are coughing.” While saying that he struck a posture like he was about to pounce.

“Little demon!” the old woman angrily shouted from far away, “You dare to make my child coughing!” ‘Zip!’ a pebble split the air. Although the pebble was small, the sound was astonishingly loud.

“Aiyo!” Wei Xiaobao cried out and squatted down to evade. But he was still one step too late, the pebble hit him behind his knee and he tumbled down and rolled around, along with Shuang’er in his bosom, on the ground.

“Catch them!” the old woman called out. The other servant pounced on Wei Xiaobao and Shuang’er; he caught their backs, brought them to the old woman and tossed them on the ground. The sickly man giggled and clapped his hands and sang, “Useless lot, can only eat shallot, (cough, cough) … drop a lot, bonk, bonk loud!”

Wei Xiaobao was scared and angered at the same time; he saw Xu Tianchuan, Feng Jizhong, and the others were strung together with a long rope into a human chain, with one of the maidservants holding the end of the rope; even Wu Zhirong was also tied at the end of the chain. Everybody had his head hung low in front of his chest, their eyes were closed, it seemed that all of them had passed out.

The old woman said, “You, baby girl who dress as a man, where did you learn your ‘separating tendon dislocating joint’ skill? And you, boy, where did you learn the ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’ skill?”

Wei Xiaobao was shocked; he thought, “This granny’s vision is indeed formidable, she knew the name of my school’s unique skill.” Thinking that since other people were able to recognize it, his ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’ skill must have been trained to almost perfection; he could not help feeling very proud of himself as he laughed and said, “What ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’? Did you say that I know ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’?”

“Pei!” the old woman spat, “Your doggy leaps did not look like doggy leap, your crabby crawls did not look like crabby crawl; can it be considered ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’?”

Wei Xiaobao sat up and said, “It was you who said ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’, I did not say it. How do I know if it was ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’ or ‘Shen Pa Bai Bian’ [divine crawl hundred changes]?”

The sickly man clapped his hands and said with a laugh, “You know ‘Shen Tiao Bai Bian’ [divine jump/hop hundred changes] and also know ‘Shen Pa Bai Bian’, ha ha … interesting.” He leaned over and poked a finger on Wei Xiaobao’s back.

Wei Xiaobao only felt a whiff of boiling heat stream from his finger penetrating his body, and the numb and aching feeling on his lower limbs immediately disappeared. He stood up and said, “Your unsealing acupoint skill is very brilliant.”

The sickly man said, “Quickly crawl. I want you to crawl in a hundred different styles; crawl like a tortoise, crawl like a frog, then you can call it ‘Divine Crawl a Hundred Changes’.”

“I don’t know any ‘Shen Pa Bai Bian’,” Wei Xiaobao said, “If you do, show me how to crawl.”

“I don’t know either,” the sickly man replied, “My Dad says masters of martial art should not simply learn other people’s skill, but must be able to display originality, must show creativity, only then he can be called a ‘master’. Dad, in the martial art study, is there such thing as ‘Shen Pa Bai Bian’ skill?” The old man frowned; he shook his head.

Wei Xiaobao said, “You are a martial art master. Since there is no such thing as ‘Shen Pa Bai Bian’ skill, you can create one, you can found Shen Pa School …”

Before he could finish, his buttocks were kicked by the old woman; he heard her thundered, “Don’t talk nonsense!” The old woman cast a sidelong glance toward her son, her face showed a concerned expression. Apparently she was afraid her son would listen to this youngster’s advice and really created this new skill ‘Divine Crawl a Hundred Changes’. She did not want her son to think too much; hence she asked Wei Xiaobao again, “What’s your name? Who is your Shifu?”

Wei Xiaobao thought, “These two old monsters and one little monster … no, one midsize monster’s martial art skill is too strong, Laozi cannot fight them. A hero must not suffer humiliation in front of their eyes, I had no choice but to deceive them. If Laozi pretends to be Wu Sangui’s friend, perhaps they will not dare to give me trouble.” His glance caught Wu Zhirong, and he had a sudden inspiration; he said, “I am surnamed Wu, my name is Wu Zhirong, alias Xianyang, a native of Gaoyou county in Yangzhou. Hot piece mama, before long my bofu [paternal (older) uncle] Ping Xi Wang will attack Beijing. If you offended me, Ping Xi Wang will not be polite toward you!”

The old couple and the sickly man were greatly astonished; they looked at each other. “Fake!” the sickly man said, “How could Ping Xi Wang have a nephew like you?”

“How can it be fake?” Wei Xiaobao replied, “There is no harm in you asking me anything about Ping Xi Wang’s household. If I give you one wrong answer, you can just kill me.”

“Alright!” the sickly man said, “What is Ping Xi Wang’s favorite thing?”

“Are you talking about object, or people?” Wei Xiaobao asked, “Previously, the person he loves the most was Chen Yuanyuan; later on when Chen Yuanyuan grew older, he was then very fond of a beautiful woman called ‘four-face Guanyin’. Nowadays, his most beloved beauty is called ‘eight-face Guanyin’.”

“What’s so good about beautiful women?” the sickly man said, “I am talking about his most beloved object.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “Ping Xi Wang has three treasures he loves the most. The first is a sheet of white tiger skin, the second is a ruby the size of a chicken-egg, the third is a marble screen with a painting of a tiger.”

The sickly man laughed and said, “Ha ha … you really know. Look here!” Unbuttoning his clothes, his left hand grabbed the front lapel of his long robe and lifted it up, revealing a fur coat he wore on the inside. The fur coat was white with black stripes; it was made of white tiger skin.

Wei Xiaobao was greatly surprised, “Uh, oh! This is Ping Xi Wang’s most beloved object, the white tiger skin. You … you … how did you steal it?”

With an air of complacency the sickly man said, “What do you mean ‘steal’? Ping Xi Wang gave it to me.”

Shaking his head, Wei Xiaobao said, “I don’t believe you. I heard my jiefu [older sister’s husband] Xia Guoxiang said …”

“Xia Guoxiang is your jiefu?” the sickly man asked.

“Yes,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “My tang jiefu [paternal female cousin’s husband]; my paternal cousin Wu Zhi … Wu Zhifang is married to him. My jiefu is an expert in battle, he is one of the ten great Zongbing under Ping Xi Wang’s command.”

The sickly man nodded. “So be it,” he said, “Ping Xi Wang invited my Dad, Ma and myself to drink wine, my Dad and Ma did not go, I went alone. Ping Xi Wang accompanied me personally, the ten Zongbing under his command all came, your jiefu ranks the first.”

“That’s right,” Wei Xiaobao said, “And then there are Ma Bao, Ma Dage, Wang Pingfan, Wang Dage, Zhang Guozhu, Zhang Dage; those are tops generals, expert in battle, great power and prestige, great aura of death!”

The sickly man said, “What did your jiefu say about this white tiger skin?”

Wei Xiaobao was determined to win his favor, he spoke without thinking, “My jiefu said, when Chen Yuanyuan was still Ping Xi Wang’s favorite, whenever she was under the weather, got a cold or a cough, people were saying that as long as this white skin tiger was used as a blanket, after three days under the cover, she would get well. She wanted to ask Wu … Ping Xi Wang for this white tiger skin. Ping Xi Wang said, ‘I don’t mind to lend you this blanket for a few days, but there is no way I would give this to you. This is the most auspicious treasure in the world, white tigers only appear once every eight hundred years. Even if it did appear, we can’t necessarily catch it, can’t necessarily skin it. If one has this white tiger skin in the house, when demons, ghosts, evil spirits saw it, they would immediately flee far away. When one is sick, no need to take any medicine, just use this white tiger skin as a blanket; a few days under the blanket, the skin will get rid of the illness. In the game of Pai Jiu [pai gow], the left gate is called Green Dragon, right gate is called White Tiger. Green dragon skin, white tiger skin, both are priceless treasures.”

The old woman listened as Wei Xiaobao was talking with ‘living spirit, living image’; her son was sick, and that was her only concern. When she heard that when used as a blanket the white tiger skin was capable of curing coughing, although she was not completely convinced, deep in her heart she hoped that it was true. “Son,” she said, “Ping Xi Wang gave this treasure to you, your face indeed is not small. You made the skin into a robe that you can wear, it was very clever. If this white tiger skin can really cure illness …”

The sickly man frowned and said, “I am not sick; why do you keep mentioning it?”

The old woman laughed and said, “Yes, yes, you are as lively as a dragon and as animated as a tiger. These people are Jianghu warriors, but you made them into spinning tops or shooting stars, you are having so much fun playing with them.”

The sickly man roared in loud laughter, interspersed with several coughing. The old woman said, “When you go to bed at night, we must remember to wear the skin robe as a blanket.” The sickly man turned his head away, refusing to acknowledge her.

The old man pointed to Feng Jizhong and the others and asked, “Are they all Ping Xi Wang’s subordinates?”

Wei Xiaobao thought, “I pretend to be the old traitor’s nephew, it’s not a big deal; but to ask Xu San Ge [third (older) brother] and the others to acknowledge that they are Wu Sangui’s subordinates, they would never agree. They are hardheaded, I must not let them say anything that will reveal the horse’s foot.” He said, “They are my subordinates. We heard that Ping Xi Wang arises in rebellion, Prince Consort and the Princess are still in Beijing, they cannot escape. This Wu Yingxiong Gege loves to chat with me the most, we have the best friendship. I am taking these friends to Beijing to rescue the Prince Consort. Although it is a dangerous mission, all of us attach most importance to yi qi; this is called ‘going through the water and tread on fire, under no circumstances we will decline, knowing full well that it is a mountain of sabers or a forest of swords, we still want to charge through it.’” These words were spoken with extreme vehemence.

The old man nodded. He walked over; both hands pulled several times, immediately the long rope binding Feng Jizhong and the others fell off. And then he lightly patted each person's back, twice, followed by massaging their back a bit, unsealing everybody's acupoint. One of the maidservants went over to Shuang'er and untied her hair from her wrists. The old man turned to Wei Xiaobao, "I cannot trust you completely just by what you said. This matter is of grave importance, you said you are Ping Xi Wang's nephew, but how can you prove it?"

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, "Laoyezi [old master], this is difficult. I do not have my Dad and my Mom in here. How about this: let us go to Beijing and see Prince Consort. If he is arrested by the Emperor, then we'll go see Princess Jianning. I am sure Princess will tell you whether I am a genuine goods at fair prices, cheating neither old nor young, the real Wu Zhirong." He thought that when he got to Beijing, why would he be afraid of them? In case they really twisted his arm and brought him to see Princess Jianning, even if he wanted to pretend to be the Jade Emperor of the Heaven, the Princess would definitely nod her head and confirm that it was true.

The old man and the old woman looked at each other, both were still unconvinced. Wei Xiaobao suddenly remembered something; he laughed and said, "Ah, I know, I have a letter written by Ping Xi Wang. If I show this letter to other people, unavoidably my whole family will be executed unto the third generation. But since you are Ping Xi Wang's friends, there is no harm for you to take a look." While saying that he put his hand into his pocket to retrieve the letter forged by Zha Yihuang, and handed it over to the old man.

The old man took the letter, and read it under the dim twilight. Wei Xiaobao was still afraid they might not understand the letter, he tried to explain, "Desiring to behead the white snake and bestow a gale, all those things are talking about Zhu Yuanzhang ..." Since he did not understand it himself, as soon as he opened his mouth he had already made a mistake; it was a reference to Liu Bang and not Zhu Yuanzhang. Fortunately the old man and the old woman's attention was focused on the letter, they did not even hear what he was saying.

After reading the letter, the old woman said, "Indeed it's true, Ping Xi Wang wants to be Han Gaozu, Ming Taizu, and he wants him to be Zhang Zifang, Liu Bowen. Er Ge [second (older) brother], Ping Xi Wang said that the insurgence is for the sake of restoring the House of Ming; but judging from the tone of this letter, humph, he ... his own ambition is definitely not small." Casting a glance toward Wei Xiaobao she said, "You are still young ..." Obviously in her heart she was saying, "You are still a baby, do you think you fit to be Zhang Zifang or Liu Bowen?"

The old man folded the letter and put it back into the envelope. Returning it to Wei Xiaobao, he said, "You are indeed Ping Xi Wang's virtuous nephew. We have offended you much."

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, "You are too kind, you are too kind! One who does not know is not guilty."

By this time Xu Tianchuan and the others already regained their consciousness; hearing Wei Xiaobao claimed himself to be Wu Sangui's nephew, and the opposite side unexpectedly believe without any doubt, they were all greatly surprised, but they were used to their young Xiangzhu's wily and mischievous conduct, thereupon they all kept silent.

Wei Xiaobao mused, "Laozi pretended to be Wu Sangui's son in front of that big beard Hantiemo; since I have been his son, what's the harm of being his nephew this time? Next time I'll pretend to be Wu Sangui's papa. As long as I can pull this trick, I won't suffer any loss."

The sky had already darkened, they were all standing in a desolate area, waves of cold breeze were blowing, the sickly man did not stop coughing. Wei Xiaobao said, "May I ask Laoyezi, Laotaitai [old madame], what is your respected surname?"

"We are surnamed Gui [lit. return]," the old woman replied.

Wei Xiaobao mused, "Why didn't you pick a good surname but pick the 'Gui' from 'wugui' [turtle, different character] as your surname? It's a ridiculous joke."

The old woman looked at her son and said, "It's getting dark, we'd better find a place to lodge, other things can be discussed slowly."

"Yes, yes," Wei Xiaobao said, "Just now when I was on that hill, I saw smoke coming out from that side, there must be a lot of houses, let us go to ask for lodging." While saying that, he pointed to the direction of the Zhuang Family's big house. Actually, this place was still about ten li away from the Zhuang Family's big house, separated by a hill; how could he see any smoke?

The menservants pulled two horses for the old man, old woman and the sickly man. The old woman rode with the sickly man, she sat behind her son, wrapping her arms around him. Wei Xiaobao and the others had their own mounts; they all jumped to their horses and left. The four menservants and maidservants walked.

[foxs]

After traveling for a while, Wei Xiaobao talked to Shuang’er loudly, “Go ride faster, see if ahead is a small town or a village. Find a big house or two and ask for lodging, and prepare hot water immediately. Gui Family Shaoye must drink warm ginseng soup. We will wash our feet first with hot water before eating and drinking wine. Give them a bit more money.”

For each sentence, Shuang’er said ‘yes’ one time. From his pocket Wei Xiaobao took out a big ingot of silver, along with a packet of knock-out drug. Shuang’er received both, and galloped away.

The old woman’s face light up; Wei Xiaobao ordered Shuang’er to boil water and warm the ginseng soup, obviously it was the thing that she intended to do.

After traveling several more li, Shuang’er galloped back. “Xianggong,” she said, “Ahead is not a small town, and not a village either; it’s just a large house. The people in the house said that all the men in that house have left, hence they cannot receive guests. I offered them money, they still refused.”

“Stupid girl,” Wei Xiaobao scolded her, “I don’t care if they want to receive us or not, we’ll just go there.”

“Yes,” Shuang’er replied.

The old woman said, “We only need to stay for one night. They don’t have any men, can’t we just force them to receive us in their house?”

The party arrived at the Zhuang House. A servant stepped forward to knock on the door. After a long time an elderly maid came out and opened the door; she was half deaf, and she mumbled indistinctly on and on about there was no man in the house.

The sickly man laughed and said, “There is no man in your house, don’t you see there are a lot of men coming into your house now?” He slipped past her into the house, squeezing the old maid to the side.

Everybody followed him inside and sat in the main hall. The old woman said, “Zhang Ma, Sun Ma, go boil some water and prepare some meal. The host does not like visitors, we will do everything ourselves.” The two maidservants complied and went inside to find the kitchen.

Xu Tianchuan had been to the Zhuang House before; later on he heard Wei Xiaobao talking with graceful words, flowery speech, swindling these three martial art experts whose skill was deep and immeasurable, Xu Tianchuan was secretly delighted. Thereupon he took the Tian Di Hui brethren to sit on the steps, far away from the sickly man and Wei Xiaobao, so that they would not reveal the horse’s foot.

Pointing to Wu Zhirong, the old man asked, “Who is this fellow with bloody mouth?”

“This fellow is an official of the imperial court,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “We met on the road. Afraid that he might inform the authority on our whereabouts, we then … then cut off his tongue.”

The old man was quite some distance away from him, but looking at his eyes, it was obvious that he still harbor suspicions in his heart. This time hearing Wei Xiaobao’s reply, he was still half-believing half-doubting. Walking over to Wu Zhirong, he asked, “You are an imperial court official, aren’t you?” Wu Zhirong was already hovering between life and death from the pain, he nodded immediately.

The old man asked again, “You knew there was going to be rebellion, and you were thinking of reporting it, is that right?” Wu Zhirong thought that he could not deny even if wanted to anyway, plus he was hoping that this old man would save him; thereupon he repeatedly nodded.

Wei Xiaobao said, “He knew that in the south there is a military general with authority over military force who was going to rebel; this military general is surnamed Wu, and when he starts rising in rebellion, it will be desperately serious.”

“Is that right?” the old man asked Wu Zhirong. Wu Zhirong nodded. The old man did not have any suspicion anymore, his trust in Wei Xiaobao increased several parts. Returning to his seat, he asked Wei Xiaobao, “I wonder which Shifu has taught Wu Xiongdi martial arts?”

Wei Xiaobao replied, “I have quite a number of Shifu; one, two, three, altogether there are three, but I … I am stupid and lazy, I haven’t mastered any skill.”

The old man mused, “You haven’t mastered any skill, do you think I did not know it?” Yet he was still having a nagging suspicion about Wei Xiaobao’s ‘divine walk hundred changes’. Although Wei Xiaobao only used superficial technique of the said skill, his stance and footwork was no doubt the first-class qinggong ‘Shen Xing Bai Bian’. So he asked again, “Where did you learn your qinggong from?”

Wei Xiaobao thought, “He determined to know who taught me qinggong, he must have some enmity with that Shitai, Shifu of mine; I must not mention her name. He is of the same party with Wu Sangui, most likely he also have good relationship with Tibetan Lama.” Thereupon he said, “There is a Great Lama from Tibet, his name is Sangjie. He saw me at the Ping Xi Wang’s Wuhua Palace in Kunming, he said that my martial art skill is too lacking, I won’t be able to fight anybody, it would be better for me to learn some technique to escape, so he taught me for several days. I practiced very hard, believing that I was doing a great job; who would have thought that as soon as I came across you, Laogonggong [old grandpa], Laopopo [old grandma], and this young and vigorous Gui Shaoye, whose vitality is a hundredfold, it was completely useless.”

Hearing Wei Xiaobao complimenting her son as young and vigorous with a hundredfold vitality, the old woman was happier than if she was hearing any other flattering words; she could not help breaking into a big smile, and cast her glance toward her son, happiness bubbled up from the bottom of her heart. “Er Ge,” she said, “This past few days our child’s vitality seems to be flourishing.”

The old man nodded slightly; however, as he looked at his half-awake, half-asleep son who was slouching on a chair, he was actually very dispirited, he could not help but was very grieved. He turned to Wei Xiaobao and said, “So that’s how it is.”

The old woman asked, “How did Sangjie know Tie Jian Men’s [iron sword school] qinggong?”

The old man said, “There is certain Yuzhen Zi in Tie Jian Men [see also Chapter 27], who lived in Tibet for quite a long time.”

“Ah, yes,” the old woman said, “He was Priest Musang’s Shidi. Most likely he passed on his skill to someone in Tibet.” Turning toward Shuang’er, she asked, “Little Miss, where did you learn your martial art skill?”

The old couple fixed their gaze at her; it appeared that her martial art school background was very important to them. Being stared at like that, Shuang’er was somewhat flustered. “I … I …” she stammered. She was not used of telling lies, hence she did not know how to answer.

“She is my servant girl,” Wei Xiaobao said, “That Sangjie Lama also gave her some directions in martial art.”

The old man and the old woman shook their heads together, “Definitely not,” they said together with very serious expression.

Right this moment suddenly the sickly man let out loud coughing; the more he coughed, the worse it was. The old woman quickly went over and patted his back gently. The old man also turned his head to look at his son. The two maidservants came out of the kitchen carrying ginseng soup and hot tea on wooden trays. They stood in front of the sickly man; they waited for his cough to stop before serving him the ginseng soup, and then they distributed the teacups to everybody, even Xu Tianchuan and the others also received a cup each.

The old man drank his tea and was about to quiz Shuang’er further, but he saw she was already went to the rear hall. The old man stood up suddenly and asked Shun Ma, “Where did you get the water to make the tea?”

Wei Xiaobao was shocked; his heart was thumping madly. “Bad, bad!” he groaned inwardly, “This old die-hard man knew.”

Sun Ma replied, “Zhang Ma and I boiled it ourselves.”

The old man asked, “What kind of water did you use?”

Sun Ma replied, “We got it from the water jar in the kitchen.”

“We have inspected it carefully,” Zhang Ma added, “It was very clean …” Before she could finish, ‘bonk, bonk!’ the two menservants tumbled down to the floor and fainted.

The old woman sprang up, her body swayed; holding her head in her hand she called out, “There’s poison in the tea!”

Xu Tianchuan and the others had not drunk their tea, they signaled each other with their eyes and fell down together, pretending to pass out. ‘Bing, bing, bang, bang’ the teacups fell to the ground.

“Aiyo!” Wei Xiaobao cried out and fell to the ground with closed eyes.

He heard Zhang Ma and Sun Ma spoke together, “We cooked the water ourselves, there was no one else in the kitchen.”

The old woman said, “The water in the jar is drugged. Son, how do you feel?”

The sickly man replied, “Not bad, not …” His head slumped, he also passed out.

Sun Ma said, “We did not add any water to the ginseng soup, we boiled and brought the water in the ginseng soup ourselves.”

The old man said, “When you boiled the water and warmed the soup at the same time, the steam might enter into the soup.”

“Right!” the old woman said, “And our child’s body is weak; this … this …” Hastily she reached out to touch the sickly man’s forehead, her palm was trembling continuously.

The old man circulated his strong internal energy to suppress the poison inside his stomach so that it did not disperse to other organs. “Go get two pots of cold water,” he said.

Zhang Ma and Sun Ma did not drink the tea, seeing the strange and out-of-control turn of events, they panicked and ran toward the inside.

The old woman said, “There is something strange about this house.” Since she did not carry any weapon, she stooped down to get a saber from one of the menservants’ waist, but as soon as she lowered her head, she felt as if the sky spun, the earth went around; she was unable to stand and was forced to sit down. She managed to touch the hilt of the saber, but did not have any strength in her grip.

The old man propped himself against the back of a chair with his left hand. His eyes were tightly closed, his body slightly swayed. Wei Xiaobao was lying on the floor; he took a furtive glance, and saw Shuang’er came out, leading a group of women.

The old man suddenly leaped with outstretched palm to hack onto a woman in white clothes, sending her about a zhang backward until she crashed onto a chair. Xu Tianchuan and the others yelled and shouted while leaping up toward the old man, but they saw that the old man had already passed out. Feng Jizhong quickly sealed his acupoints; he also sealed the old woman and the sickly man’s acupoints.

Wei Xiaobao sprang up with loud laughter. “Zhuang San Shaonai [third young mistress], how are you?” he called out, while bowing in respect toward a woman in white.

That woman was indeed the Third Mistress of the Zhuang Family; she hastily returned the propriety and said, “Wei Shaoye, you have captured our archenemy and brought him here, I really don’t know how to repay. Laotianye [God/Heaven] has eyes, He lets us avenge our deep enmity. Wei Shaoye, please meet our Shifu.” And she took him to a woman wearing yellow garment.

The woman in yellow was massaging the back of the woman struck by the old man. ‘Wah!’ the woman vomited a mouthful of blood, and then a moment later she vomited another mouthful of blood. The woman in yellow smiled and said, “No more danger.” Her voice was soft and was very pleasant to hear.

Wei Xiaobao saw that this woman was already old, but her voice sounded like a young girl. On her head she wore a gold headband, her feet were bare, her waist was adorned with an embroidered belt; all in all, her attire was quite unusual. Although her hair was greyed, her face was fair and tender, it’s just that the corner of her eyes were full of wrinkles. How old she actually was, it was hard to say. Looking at her hair, she looked about sixty, looking at her face, she looked about thirty. He thought that since she was the Third Mistress’ Shifu, he immediately stepped forward and kowtowed to her, saying, “Popo Jiejie [granny older sister], Wei Xiaobao pays his respect.”

The woman laughed and asked, “Child, what did you call me?”

Wei Xiaobao stood up and said, “You are San Shaonai’s Shifu, I ought to call you Popo, but looking at your appearance, at most you are no more than my Jiejie; therefore, I call you Popo Jiejie.”

The woman giggled. “At most I am no more than your Jiejie?” she said, “I wonder if I can be your Meizi [younger sister]?”

Wei Xiaobao said, “If I were next door and I heard your voice, I would have called you Popo Meimei.”

The woman laughed so hard that her body was shaking. “This little ‘slippery head’ is so amusing,” she said, “His mouth is so full of guile and cunning, he really knows how to make others happy, no wonder even such a great hero like my Gui Shibo [older martial uncle] also fell under your ruse.”

As soon as she said those words, everybody was shocked. Wei Xiaobao pointed to the old man and said, “This … this Laogonggong is Popo Jiejie’s Shibo?”

“Why not?” the woman said with a laugh, “The Senior and I have not seen each other for about thirty years; at first I did not recognize him, it was not until the Senior made his move that I knew it was him. His palm strike, ‘Snow-covered Qinling [mountain range, Shaanxi]’ is so bold and powerful, in the Central Plains, there is no second person who can use it like that.”

Wei Xiaobao anxiously said, “Since he is on our side, what should we do?”

The woman shook her head and said with a laugh, “I don’t know what we should do either. If my Shifu found out, he would definitely scold me until I am stinking-dead.” Looking at several maidservants standing on the side with thick ropes in their hands, she laughed and said, “If you ordered them to bind these people, you must issue the order yourself, I don’t want to be involved. Shibo is not bound by me; but if he is not tied, when the Senior wakes up, I won’t be his match. Xiao Didi [little brother], do you think you can beat him?”

Wei Xiaobao was greatly amused; he laughed and said, “If you can’t beat him, I can’t beat him even more.” He knew she was simply trying to escape responsibility, yet without any meaning to protect her martial uncle; busily he addressed Xu Tianchuan and the others, “These few people are on Wu Sangui’s side, they are not good people. We, Tian Di Hui, tie them up; it has nothing to do with Popo Jiejie.”

Xu Tianchuan and the others were just subjected to the sickly man’s jesting, it was an extraordinary shame and humiliation that they had never experienced in all their lives; they had been hatefully gnashing their teeth and were itching for revenge. Immediately they took the ropes and bound the old man, the old woman, the sickly man and the two menservants tightly.

The woman in yellow asked, “How can my Gui Shibo be on the same side as Wu Sangui? How are you going to deal with this matter?”

Thereupon Wei Xiaobao explained how they encountered the old man at the restaurant earlier. Naturally he skipped the part where the sickly man used Xu Tianchuan and the others as his toy, he only said that this tuberculosis ghost’s martial art was very formidable, and that everybody was not his match.

The woman said, “The Gui Family’s Xiao Shidi’s [little younger martial art brother] life was saved by my Shifu. Since he was little he has been suffering a serious illness, until today he has not been well. He is Gui Shibo couple’s only child.” After casting a glance toward the old man, she continued, “Gui Shibo is an upright man, how can he become that big traitor Wu Sangui’s ally? If that’s the case, my Shifu can’t possibly scold me. Hee … hee …” From the tome of her voice, apparently she was extremely afraid of her Shifu.

[foxs]

Wei Xiaobao said, “Whoever helps Wu Sangui deserves to be killed. If your Shifu knew, he would greatly praise you.”

The woman laughed and said, “Is that right?” She looked at the old man and the old woman, and then felt the sickly man’s breathing. “San Shaonai,” she said, “When my Shibo awakes, he will be very angry; yet we cannot kill him. Let’s do it this way: leave them here, we all will go away quietly, so that they won’t know forever who tied them up. What do you think?”

The Third Mistress replied, “Shifu commanded, we will do as instructed.” But thinking that they had lived there for many years and now suddenly they had to leave, in her heart she was very reluctant, plus she felt that moving everything away was really not easy; hence she could not help showing signs of unwillingness.

An old maidservant wearing white clothes said, “The enemy has been obtained; let us offer sacrifice in front of all the masters, and then the memorial tablets can be cremated.”

The Third Mistress said, “Popo is right.”

Thereupon everybody thronged to the mourning hall, dragging Wu Zhirong along. They made him kneel on the floor. The Third Mistress took a book from the sacrificial table and held it with both hands in front of Wu Zhirong. “Wu Daren,” she said, “Do you know what book this is?”

Wu Zhirong was very familiar [orig. ripe as a melon that rolls from its vine] with the book since long time ago; as soon as he saw the thickness, the size, and the formatting of the book, he immediately knew it was the ‘History of the Ming Dynasty’, which he relied on to be promoted and gain wealth. When he looked at the cover, it was indeed the ‘Ming Shu Ji Lue’ [‘Compilation of Ming Documents’, see Chapter 1]; thereupon he nodded.

The Third Mistress continued, “Look carefully, the memorial tablets on this sacrificial table, you know them all.”

Wu Zhirong focused his attention to read the names on the memorial tablets, and he noticed that the memorial tablets bore these names: Zhuang Yuncheng, Zhuang Tinglong, Li Lingxi, Cheng Weifan, Li Huan, Wang Zhaozhen, Mao Yuanxi … more than a hundred names on the memorial tablets, each one was executed because of his report to the imperial court in the case of ‘History of the Ming Dynasty’. Wu Zhirong read eight or nine names, and his soul had already flown to the sky. His tongue was cut, it was still bleeding continuously; he was already two-third dead anyway. This moment his body went weak and he slumped down on the ground, while trembling non-stop.

The Third Mistress said, “Due to your lust for fame and fortune you have killed this many people, other masters and mistresses of their families suffered torture in the prison and perished, some suffered the death of a thousand cuts, their bodies were subjected to thousand blades ten thousand cuts. If we did not receive Heaven’s providence and were saved by Shifu, we would have been died because of you. Today if we killed you with one blade, it would be too easy for you. However, the way we handle matters is not as merciless as you did. If you want to die easy, you may make your own decision.” While saying that, she unsealed the acupoints on his body. ‘Dang!’ she also tossed a short blade to the ground.

Wu Zhirong was shaking all over; he picked up the blade, but how could he find the courage to kill himself? Suddenly he turned around and made a dash out of the mourning hall. But he only took one step, he saw his way was blocked by several dozen women in white. His throat made a repeated ‘he, he’ noise as he slipped and fell, twisted several times, and then stopped moving altogether.

The Third Mistress pulled his body over and found that his breathing had stopped, his face was full of blood, his eyes were open wide, his expression was full of terror. “Evil has its retribution,” she said, “At last this traitor is dead.” Kneeling in front of the memorial tablets she said, “All of you Xianggong, your big enmity has been avenged, may your spirits in Heaven rest in peace.” All the women prostrated themselves on the ground as they cried loudly.

Wei Xiaobao and the Tian Di Hui warriors also bowed in front of the spirit tablets. The woman in yellow garment stood still and silently on the side with knitted eyebrows.

After crying for a while, the women turned to kowtow to Wei Xiaobao, thanking him for capturing the enemy and bringing him over. Wei Xiaobao hastily kowtowed in return and said, “A piece of cake, why be polite? If you still have other enemies, please tell me, I will catch them for you.”

The Third Mistress said, “Wicked minister Oboi was killed personally by Wei Shaoye, Wu Zhirong was also caught and brought over by Wei Shaoye. Our great hatred has been avenged in full, there are no more enemies.” Immediately the women disassembled the sacrificial table and cremated the memorial tablets.

The woman in yellow watched as these women performed their convoluted and overelaborate ritual, while making endless noise. Finally she lost her patience and went out to take a look at the people they caught. Wei Xiaobao and Tian Di Hui warriors followed her out. They saw the old man, the old woman and the sickly man were not awake yet.

The woman in yellow smiled and said, “Little baby, if you want to poison these people, you should really learn how to do it well.”

“Yes, yes,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “Junior put knock-out drug because I really did not know what else to do, their martial art skill is too strong; if I did not use any trick, my neck would have been wrung by them. By using this trick, the heroes and warriors of Jianghu will look down on me. I know I was wrong, next time I will not dare anymore.”

The woman in yellow smiled. “What look down or look up?” she said, “Killing people is killing people; using blade to kill people, using fist to kill people, using poison or drug, won’t it all comes down to one thing: killing people? The heroes and warriors of Jianghu will look down on you? Humph, who needs their opinion anyway? Take that Wu Zhirong for example; he went to report to the imperial court and killed several thousand, several hundred people. He did not use poison, are you saying that we ought to have a high regard for him?”

Every single word had caused happiness and delight to rise from the bottom of Wei Xiaobao’s heart; he could not help but beaming with joy as he said, “Popo Jiejie, what you said is very true. When I was a kid, I helped people fighting by scattering lime on the enemy’s eyes; I helped him win the fight and saved his life, but instead of thanking me, he scolded me of using third-class method and he slapped me heavily on the face. Too bad at that time Popo Jiejie was not around, otherwise you would have taught him a lesson.”

The woman in yellow said, “But you poisoned my Gui Shibo, I should have slapped you heavily on the face several times.”

“At that time I did not know he was your Shibo,” Wei Xiaobao hastily said.

The woman said, “If you knew that he was my Shibo, and that he was going to wring your neck, while you have the poison in your hand, would you or would you not poison him?”

Wei Xiaobao giggled and said, “My life was threatened, I would have no choice but to offend him.”

“You are telling the truth,” the woman said, “Others want to take your life, how could you not want to take their lives first? I said I wanted to slap you, only because you really did not know what’s good for you. Others are people with grand reputation, ‘Divine Fist Without Equal’ Gui Xinshu, Gui Erye [second master], how deep of a power does he have? You just used the dog-fart knock-out drug to make his head dizzy and make his eyes not able to see, the Senior would just regard it as ground pepper.”

“But he … he …” Wei Xiaobao stammered.

The woman said, “You mixed your not-up-to-the-task knock-out drug in the tea, others are eighty-year old Jianghu veteran, would he simply being a muddle head and drink it? That is the cheap trick used by black inn criminals. If you want to use poison, you must use first-class one.”

Wei Xiaobao was surprised and delighted at the same time. “Turns out … turns out Popo Jiejie replaced it with first-class poison,” he said.

“Rubbish!” the woman said, “I did not replace it. Gui Shibo and the others were tired, they had headache and passed out; what do I have to do with it? One is a tuberculosis ghost, the others are eighty years old Lao Gonggong and Lao Popo, they suddenly fainted; what’s so strange about it?” Her mouth was speaking in deadly earnest, but her eyes were gleaming with mischievous looks.

Wei Xiaobao knew that she was afraid her Shifu might find out later and scold her, and thus she did not want to admit it; in his heart he had an unspeakable admiration toward this kindred spirit. Suddenly he dropped to his knees and said, “Popo Jiejie, I bow to you as my master, please take me as your disciple, I will call you Shifu Jiejie.”

The woman giggled; she reached out with her right arm and placed her palm under his chin. Wei Xiaobao felt a hard object on his chin; definitely it was not a human hand. When he looked down, he was utterly shocked; what he saw was bluish-black iron hook, the tip of the hook was very sharp, it gleamed under the light.

The woman laughed and said, “Look carefully.” With her left hand she pulled her right sleeve to expose a snow white upper arm, but it was cut at the wrist, there was no hand at all, the iron hook was fastened onto her wrist. “If you want to be my disciple,” the woman said, “I have no reason not to accept you, you simply need to cut your hand, then I’ll give you an iron hook.”

The woman in yellow was none other than the Cult Leader or Five-Poison Cult He Tishou [lit. iron hand], whose fame shook the world in the past. Afterwards she bowed to Yuan Chengzhi to be his disciple, and changed her name to He Tishou [lit. guarding respectfully]. After the Ming Dynasty fell, she accompanied Yuan Chengzhi traveling overseas. That year she was sent on a mission by her master to the Central Plains, by chance she saved the Zhuang Family’s Third Mistress and the other widows, and taught them martial arts.

This time she came again, by chance she saw Shuang’er took out the knock-out drug and told her the situation. Although she did not know who the enemy was, she knew that since their martial art skill was high, ordinary knock-out drug would be quite useless; thereupon she put another drug into the water jar.

He Tishou’s skill in using poison was unparalleled in her time, only after entering Hua Shan Pai she did not use this skill for a long time. Suddenly seeing someone putting drug into the water jar, she could not stop her hand from itching to try her skill again; as soon as she made her move, who in the world would be able to resist it? Were it not for her, Gui Xinshu’s internal energy was very deep, it was even superior to her own Shifu Yuan Chengzhi’s internal strength, how could the ordinary package of knock-out drug Wei Xiaobao obtained from the Imperial Bodyguards drug him that he fainted?

The sickly man, Gui Zhong, had been ill since he was still in his mother’s womb, he was actually not expected to live, later on he took a precious miracle drug that his life was spared, but his body and brain had been damaged, he would never be strong and healthy like ordinary people. Gui Xinshu, husband and wife, only had this child, they loved him more than life. Due to his lingering illness since childhood, inevitably the couple spoiled him rotten and failed to discipline him. Although Gui Zhong had mastered superior martial art skill, even though he was middle-age by now, his character and mental development was no different than an eight or nine years old child.

When He Tishou put poison, she did not know who the opponent was; after she found out that it was her own Gui Shibo and his family, she could not help feeling anxious. But things had come to this, she knew it was too late to worry. Listening to Wei Xiaobao’s amusing words, her fondness toward him grew. She thought how could there be such a witty and naughty boy outside the island?

When he heard that he had to cut his hand before he could take her as his master, Wei Xiaobao brought his hand in front of his eyes. He was afraid of pain, plus he really did not want to part with his hand; his face carried an awkward expression. He Tishou laughed and said, “You don’t need to bow to me as your Shifu, I don’t have time to impart you any martial art skill either. But I do have a very amusing secret projectile that I’d like to give to you, so that you won’t grieve in your heart that you have kowtowed to me and called me Shifu Jiejie in vain.”

“Shifu Jiejie,” Wei Xiaobao said, “That was not an empty call; even if you did not teach me any martial art skill, you did not give me anything, you are such a pretty young lady, I would be very happy to call you Shifu Jiejie several more times.”

He Tishou giggled and said, “Oily-mouthed and smooth talking little monkey, you talked drivel to your Popo with no respect to your seniors.” She was a Miao [ethnic group of southwest China] woman, and had never cared about Han people’s etiquette and compass and set-square. Wei Xiaobao praised her as pretty; she did not feel it was inappropriate, on the contrary, she was delighted. She laughed and said, “Little monkey, call me again.”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Jiejie, good Jiejie!”

He Tishou laughed and said, “Aiyo, it’s getting more and more indecent.” Suddenly her left hand grabbed the back of his neck, lifted him up to the left, and then ‘zip, zip, zip!’, three candles on the table were extinguished immediately, followed by a series of dull thuds on the wooden partition on the opposite site, like the resounding patter of rain on wooden board.

Wei Xiaobao was startled and delighted at the same time, “What secret weapons are those?” he asked.

He Tishou laughed and said, “Go look yourself.” And then she released her grip to let him fall to the floor.

Wei Xiaobao picked up a candlestick from the side table and went over to the wooden partition to take a closer look. He saw dozens of flickering steel needles nailed deeply into the wooden wall. He was very impressed. “Jiejie,” he said, “You did not even move, how did you shoot these many steel needles? This kind of secret projectiles, who in this world would be able to dodge?”

He Tishou laughed and said, “In the past I used these ‘Han Sha She Ying’[1] secret projectiles against my Shifu, but he was able to dodge; not a single needle was able to hit him. Other than my Shifu, I am afraid not too many people would be able to do it.”

“Your Shifu must have told you to try to shoot him,” Wei Xiaobao said, “That’s why he was prepared. But if you shoot him suddenly, even if the Senior’s martial art skill was higher, how could he evade this kind of shadow-less, trace-less secret projectiles?”

“At that time Shifu and I were opponents,” He Tishou said, “We were in a hard fighting. He did not ask me to try to shoot him, he was completely without advance knowledge.”

“That is so,” Wei Xiaobao said, “But your Shifu was concentrating his attention completely on you, hence he was able to dodge. Supposing that time you pointed to the east and turned your head that way and called out, ‘Eh, who’s coming?’ Your Shifu would definitely turn to look to the east as well; if at that time you suddenly shot him with the secret projectiles, very likely he would be hit.”

He Tishou sighed and said, “Perhaps you are right. These steel needles have acute poison on them, if at that time my Shifu failed to evade, he would be killed immediately. At that time I did not wish to kill him at all.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “In your heart you were in love with your Shifu, weren’t you?”

He Tishou’s face blushed slightly. “Pei!” she spat, “There’s no such thing. Don’t talk rubbish. If my Shiniang [Shifu’s wife] heard it, she would definitely cut half of your tongue.”

The past events when she was young suddenly appeared in her heart; although it was a matter of several decades ago, He Tishou still could not stop her face from blushing. She took out two deerskin finger sheaths, which she put on her left thumb and index finger, and then she pulled the steel needles from the wooden partition one by one. She also reached into her pocket and took out an iron band, with a steel case mounted on the band, the lid of the steel case had a lot of small holes. Wei Xiaobao suddenly realized; he clapped his hands and called out, “Jiejie, this secret projectile is really ingenious. Turns out you wore it inside your clothes, and then you only need to activate the mechanism on the iron band, and the steel needles inside the iron case will shoot out.” He assumed that most likely the secret projectile she promised to give to him was this object; he could not help but was bursting with joy.

He Tishou smiled and said, “Even a secret projectile that is a lot more formidable than this will have to rely on the power and accuracy of the hand to shoot it. But your martial art skill is too lacking, other than this ‘Han Sha She Ying’, you can’t use anything else.”

Immediately she inserted the steel needles one by one into the case and told him to lift up his robe, and fastened it on his body; the steel case was positioned right on the pit of his stomach. She taught him how to activate the mechanism, she also taught him the ingredients and how to make the poison on the steel needle, as well as the antidote. She said, “The steel needles inside the case can be used for a total of five times. After that you will have to replenish the needles. My Shifu repeatedly warned me never to injure the innocent. These steel needles were originally dipped into lethal poison, but now the poison is not to take anybody’s life. When someone is hit, his body will be unbearably itchy and he will lose all his strength. But you still must not use it indiscriminately.”

---

[1] I don’t know how to translate this without sounding strange: Han Sha She Ying, ‘han’ – to suck, to keep in the mouth, ‘sha’ – sand/grain, ‘she’ – shoot, ‘ying’ – shadow; ‘shooting at shadow with the sand kept inside the mouth’? Interestingly, the dictionary has special definition for ‘han sha she ying’: to attack someone by innuendo/to insinuate.

[foxs]

Wei Xiaobao did not open his mouth to respond, he dropped on his knees again to express his gratitude. He Tishou said, “Go and help those three to sit up properly.”

Wei Xiaobao complied. He helped Gui Xinshu into a chair first, but when he was helping Gui Zhong, he bumped onto a round and bulging object hanging on his waist, something like a wine gourd. When he lifted up his robe to look, turned out it was a leather sack. Wei Xiaobao’s curiosity was piqued; he untied the leather string of the sack and looked inside. Suddenly he cried out, “Aiyo, it’s a human head; he … he … he is staring at me.”

He Tishou also felt strange; she said, “I wonder what kind of important character he killed, why would he carry the severed head on his waist? Take it out and look.”

“Dead man, oh dead man!” Wei Xiaobao said, “I am going to take you out, you must not bite me.” Slowly he put his hand into the sack, grabbed the severed head by its braid, and took it out and placed it on the table. Under the candlelight he could see clearly, this severed head had its big and round eyes opened wide, its dragon-like beard was long and pointy. Wei Xiaobao screamed and withdrew three steps. “It’s … it’s Wu Dage,” he cried out in fear.

He Tishou was slightly startled. “You know him?” she asked.

“He … he is our Society brother,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “Wu Liuqi, Wu Dage!” His heart was grieving, he sobbed loudly.

The Tian Di Hui warriors heard Wei Xiaobao was screaming and crying loudly, they rushed into the hall, and saw Wu Liuqi’s severed head. They were all shocked with grief and indignation. Everybody pressed their hands on the hilt of their weapons while keeping their gaze fixed on He Tishou, thinking that Wu Liuqi was killed by her.

Soon Shuang’er also rushed inside. Wei Xiaobao pulled her hand and pointed to the severed head, shouting, “Shuang … Shuang’er, this is your sworn brother Wu Dage, he … he was murdered by this evil thief!” While saying that, he scrambled toward Gui Zhong and kicked him several times. He then turned to Xu Tianchuan and the others and said, “I found Wu Dage’s severed head hanging on this evil thief’s body.”

When everybody examined the severed head carefully, they saw that the blood was already dry, the neck was covered in lime; obviously they used some medicaments and lime to preserve the head so it would not rot.

Shuang’er stroked the severed head while sobbing loudly. Li Lishi said, “Let’s use cold water to wake this evil thief up, we must get the full details from him, and then we’ll kill him to pay for Wu Dage’s life.” All the warriors voiced their agreements.

He Tishou said, “This man is my Shidi, you must not touch a single strand of his hair!” While saying that, she stretched out her right hand iron hook and swept it across a candle on the table several times, before flying into the inner hall.

Priest Xuanzhen angrily shouted, “Even if he was your Shifu, I still want to chop him into mincemeat …”

“Uh!” suddenly Feng Jizhong exclaimed. With two fingers of his left hand he held a piece of candle, about seven or eight fen long [1 fen is approximately 1/3 of a centimeter or 1/8 of an inch], and picked it up. The candle on the candlestick was originally still seven or eight cun long [1 cun approx. 2.5cm or 1 inch], but now it was cut into six or seven pieces, each piece was less than a cun long, and still neatly stacked together; the candle did not collapse at all. This kind of martial art skill was truly shocking. None of the Tian Di Hui warriors’ countenance did not change.

‘Shua!’ Priest Xuanzhen pulled the saber hanging on his waist and said, “I’ll kill this servant to avenge Wu Dage, let that woman kill me.”

“Hold on!” Li Lishi said, “We must ask clearly first, and then we’ll kill the three of them together.”

“Right!” Wei Xiaobao said, “That Popo Jiejie is afraid of her Shibo. If we eliminate her Shibo and Shibo’s wife altogether, it should be all right. Shuang’er, go get a pot of cold water, but don’t get the poisoned water from the kitchen.”

Shuang’er went in and came back with a large basin of cold water. Xu Tianchuan took the basin and slowly poured the cold water onto Gui Zhong’s head. Gui Zhong sneezed several times and slowly opened his eyes. As soon as he tried to move, he realized that his hands and feet were bound, and the acupoint on his waist was sealed. “Who?” he said furiously, “Who is joking with me?”

Xuanzhen lightly tapped the blade of his saber on his face and swore, “Your ancestor is joking with you.” Pointing to Wu Liuqi’s head, he asked, “Did you kill this man?”

“Correct!” Gui Zhong replied, “Mama, Daddy, where are you?” He turned around and saw his father and mother were also bound; he was so scared that he almost cried. In all his life he had always followed his father and mother, everything happened as he wished, he had never experienced any setback; when did he ever experience such a scary situation? With a sullen expression he said, “You … what are you doing? You cannot beat me, why … why did you tie me up? Why did you tie my Daddy, my Mama?”

Xu Tianchuan raised his hand and slapped him on the face with the back of his palm, “How did you kill this man?” he shouted, “Quickly tell us, if there is half a word of lies, I will poke your eyes blind immediately.” While saying that he raised his saber and pointed the tip toward Gui Zhong’s right eye.

Gui Zhong was scared out of his wits; he coughed continuously as he said, “I … I’ll talk … don’t poke my eye blind. If I am blind, I can’t see … can’t see … (cough, cough) … (cough, cough) … Ping Xi Wang said that Tatar Emperor is a big, big ‘bad egg’; he occupies … occupies our … our Great Ming’s rivers and mountains. He asked me to … to kill Tatar Emperor …”

Tian Di Hui warriors looked at each other in dismay; they all thought, “What he said is not wrong.”

But Wei Xiaobao flatly refused to accept. “Hot piece Mama,” he cursed, “Wu Sangui is a damn good thing?”

Gui Zhong said, “Ping Xi Wang is your Bofu; he … he … he is not a good thing, then you are not a good thing either.”

Wei Xiaobao kicked him heavily; he cursed, “Nonsense! Wu Sangui is a big traitor, how can he be Laozi’s uncle? Wu Sangui is your uncle!”

Gui Zhong yelled, “You said it yourself. Aiyo, so you want to renege on your words? I don’t come, I don’t come!” [renege – 赖 ‘lai’, come - 来 ‘lai’]

Seeing him muddling things together, Li Lishi asked, “Wu Sangui asked you to kill Tatar Emperor, why did you kill him then?” While saying that, he pointed to Wu Liuqi’s severed head.

Gui Zhong said, “This man was high-ranking officer of Guangdong, Ping Xi Wang said that he was a big traitor, who determined to protect the Emperor. Ping Xi Wang wanted to move the troops to attack Guangdong, hence he must have him killed first. Ping Xi Wang gave me a lot of tonic to treat my coughing, he also gave me the white tiger skin. My Ma said that big traitor must be killed. (Cough, cough) … this man’s martial art skill was very good, I … my Ma and me fought him together before he could kill him. You must quickly let me go, release my Dad, my Ma. We are going to Beijing to kill Tatar Emperor, it will be an enormous service …”

Wei Xiaobao cursed, “Killing the Emperor is not for you, a tuberculosis ghost, to do. All Gege, let’s kill these three fellows. I will deal with Popo Jiejie later.”

Suddenly they heard outside the manor several dozen people shouted together, “Tuberculosis ghost, get out quickly, we’ll hack you to pieces to avenge Wu Dage!” In front of the manor, behind the manor, they heard people all around; even all over the roof there were people shouting and yelling; apparently the manor was surrounded on all directions.

Hearing the incoming people were going to avenge Wu Liuqi, Tian Di Hui warriors knew those people were on their side; in their hearts they were delighted. Qian Laoben called loudly, “Ming restore Qing fought, mother Earth father Heaven. [ming fu qing fan, mu di fu tian – see also Chapter 33, casino scene.] I wonder which peaceful rudder road the friends outside belong to?”

Tian Di Hui slogan was ‘Heaven is my father, Earth is my mother, Fighting the Qing, Restoring the Ming’ [tian fu di mu, fan Qing fu Ming], but in front of unidentified people, these eight characters were reversed. If they were their own Society’s brethren, they would know how to respond; if it were outsiders, the opposite party would not know what they were talking about, hence their real identity would not be exposed.

There were seventeen or eighteen people outside, as well as on the roof of the manor, responding in chorus, “The earth shook the high ridge, a row of mountain creeks gracefully flow for all eternity.”

The warriors in the hall called out, “Morning gate facing the ocean, the water of the Three Rivers flows for ten thousand years.”

Someone on the roof asked, “Brothers from which Hall are in here?”

Qian Laoben replied, “Green Wood Hall brothers welcome our older brothers. Gege from which Hall have arrived?”

The door to the hall opened, someone came in and called, “Xiaobao, are you here?” This man was tall and slim, his expression elegant, he was none other than Tian Di Hui Zongduozhu Chen Jinnan.

Wei Xiaobao was greatly delighted; he rushed forward and kneeled down. “Shifu, Shifu,” he called repeatedly.

“Everybody is well!” Chen Jinnan said, “Unfortunately …” Seeing Wu Liuqi’s severed head on the table he rushed over; he propped himself against the table and was overcome with grief, tears streamed down his face.

One after another people came into the hall; Guangxi’s Latter Family Hall Xiangzhu Ma Chaoxing, Guizhou’s Scarlet Fire Hall Xiangzhu Gu Zhizhong, and the others were there. When they saw Gui Zhong, they all pulled their sabers. There were more than twenty Guangdong’s Great Obedience Hall brethren in there, their hatred had reached the extreme. Seeing all these people had fiendish expression on their face, Gui Zhong coughed twice, and then he passed out.

Chen Jinnan turned around and asked, “Xiaobao, how did you all capture these three evil thieves?”

Thereupon Wei Xiaobao narrated what they had been through; naturally he skipped the shameful matters where Gui Zhong was amusing himself by playing with Xu Tianchuan and the others and where he was pretending to be Wu Zhirong. Finally he said, “These three evil thieves’ martial art is very formidable, we were no match for them, fortunately there was one Popo Jiejie who came to our rescue before we were able to capture them. However, Popo Jiejie also said that this old man is her Shibo, hence she did not allow us to kill him to avenge Wu Dage.”

Chen Jinnan frowned. “What Popo Jiejie?” he asked.

“Although based on her age she is a Popo, her appearance looks like a Jiejie, hence I call her Popo Jiejie,” Wei Xiaobao explained.

“Where is she?” Chen Jinnan asked.

“She is hiding in the back,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “She is unwilling to meet her Shibo. Shifu, Gu Dage, Ma Dage, how did all of you get here?”

Chen Jinnan said, “This evil thief harmed Wu Dage, as soon as we received the news, we all pursued to four sides eight directions.”

The Green Wood Hall warriors and the incoming people greeted each other; turned out there were brothers from all the Halls in Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Anhui, most of them were guarding outside all around the manor. Gu Zhizhong and Ma Chaoxing said, “Wei Xiongdi has rendered this great merit once again, Wu Dage’s spirit in Heaven will definitely feel deeply grateful.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “Wu Dage treated me very well, avenging him is something that I ought to do.”

Li Lishi said, “Reporting to Zongduozhu: this evil thief has just said that they are going to Beijing to assassinate the Tatar Emperor, he also mentioned some Fighting the Qing, Restoring the Ming matters, I don’t know the real story behind it.”

“What real story?” Wei Xiaobao said, “He was afraid we might kill him, hence he spoke some nonsense. He is wearing this white tiger skin, which was given by Wu Sangui. How can there be any good thing among Wu Sangui’s pig friends and dog companions? We’d better open these three evil thieves’ chests and scoop out their hearts to avenge Wu Dage, end of story.”

“Wake these three people up,” Chen Jinnan said, “We’ll ask them clearly.”

Shuang’er fetched another bucket of cold water and doused Gui Xinshu, husband and wife, as well as Gui Zhong to wake them up. As soon as Gui Erniang [second lady] awoke, she cursed and swore, saying that putting poison to drug people was Jianghu’s despicable and shameless shady business; but Gui Xinshu did not say a word.

Chen Jinnan said, “Looking at your skill, you are not a nobody. What’s your name? What enmity did you have against our Wu Liuqi, Wu Dage? Why did you commit evil scheme and harm his life?”

Gui Erniang angrily said, “You are stinky stuff, shameless little thieves who drugged people, do you think you fit to ask Laoniang’s [old lady] name and surname?”

Gu Zhizhong raised his saber threateningly, Gui Erniang was hot-headed, her cursing became even more vile.

“Shifu,” Wei Xiaobao said, “They are surnamed Gui, the ‘gui’ of ‘wugui’ [turtle]; two old turtles and one little turtle. Let me kill the little turtle first and then we’ll talk.” Pulling his dagger, he pointed the tip to Gui Zhong’s throat.

Seeing Wei Xiaobao was going to kill her son, Gui Erniang panicked. “Little demon,” she called out, “If you have guts, come and kill Laoniang; just don’t touch a single strand of my child’s hair.”

“But I love to kill little turtle,” Wei Xiaobao replied. He lightly pushed the tip of his dagger into Gui Zhong’s throat. The dagger was extremely sharp, although the push was very light, Gui Zhong’s throat immediately spewed blood.

“Ma,” he cried loudly, “He … he is killing me.”

“Don’t … don’t kill my child!” Gui Erniang shouted.

Wei Xiaobao said, “My Shifu asks you a question, you obediently answer. Within an hour, your tuberculosis ghost son will not die.”

“My child is not sick,” Gui Erniang angrily said, “You are the tuberculosis ghost.” But hearing that Wei Xiaobao promised not to kill her son for the time being, she felt relieved instantly.

Wei Xiaobao pretended to cough; imitating Gui Zhong’s accent he said, “Ma, I … I … (cough, cough) … I almost die … Good Mama, quickly answer them truthfully … (cough, cough) … (cough, cough) … I don’t have tuberculosis, I am suffering from broken-steel-blade sickness … (cough, cough) … also from dagger-penetrating-the-throat illness, whole-body-become-mincemeat illness … (cough, cough) …”

He had an uncanny ability to imitate people’s accent that Gui Erniang was absolutely horrified. “Don’t talk like that! Don’t imitate my child!” she yelled.

Wei Xiaobao continued, “Ma, if you don’t answer their questions, I … I … (cough, cough) … I will also contact the belly-cut-open sickness, intestines-flowing-out illness …” While saying that, he pulled open Gui Zhong’s robe and moved his dagger back and forth in front of Gui Zhong’s scrawny chest.

Gui Erniang could not bear any longer. “Alright!” she said, “We belong to Huashan Pai, our family is known as Shen Quan Wu Di [divine fist without equal] Gui Er Xia [second hero]. When our prestige was shaking the Central Plains, you, this bunch of little hairy thieves have not been reincarnated.”

Hearing that these two were unexpectedly the famous Shen Quan Wu Di Gui Xinshu, husband and wife, Chen Jinnan could not help but feeling deep veneration toward them. He also remembered how established Wu Liuqi’s martial art skill was. According to the Great Obedience Hall brethren who witnessed how he was harmed by this people, only the old woman and the tuberculosis ghost went into action, yet they were able to overthrow a dozen or more Great Obedience Hall’s martial art experts. The two of them attacked Wu Liuqi together and killed him, cut his head. These people were not impostors. Divine Fist Without Equal Gui Xinshu had become famous for a long time, but for the last several decades their movement in Jianghu was never heard. It was unclear how they were involved in this terrible tragedy; there must be a strong reason behind it.

[foxs]

Immediately Chen Jinnan stepped forward to bow with cupped fist in front of Gui Xinshu; he said, “Turns out you are Huashan’s Shen Quan Wu Di Gui Er Xia husband and wife. Xiaoren Chen Jinnan, indeed I have been lacking in manners.” Reaching out, he pulled and broke the ropes binding Gui Xinshu, and then he also massaged his back and his waist to unseal his acupoints. Turning around, he also pulled and broke the ropes binding Gui Erniang and Gui Zhong.

Wei Xiaobao was greatly worried. “Shifu,” he said, “These three people are very formidable; we must not release them.”

Chen Jinnan smiled and said, “Gui Erniang scolded us for using knockout drug, which is the conduct of Jianghu’s despicable low-class people. We, Tian Di Hui, have never used knockout drug. Even if we did, Gui Er Xia’s internal energy is very profound, how can despicable low-class people’s knockout drug affect him, the Senior …”

“Right, right,” Wei Xiaobao said, “We, Tian Di Hui, did not use the knockout drug.” He thought that since the drug came from Popo Jiejie, and it was she who swapped it, technically they could not be considered drugged by Tian Di Hui. Besides, the drug was really not a knockout drug.

Gui Xinshu’s left hand brushed off his wife and son’s backs to unseal their acupoints. His technique was a lot faster than Chen Jinnan’s. He nodded and said, “It was not an ordinary knockout drug; it was a lot more powerful drug.” He stretched out his hand to feel his son’s pulse.

Gui Erniang fixed her gaze on her husband’s expression, “How is it?” she asked.

Gui Xinshu said, “For the time being he seems to be all right.”

He recalled that just before passing out, he had exchanged a palm strike with someone. Although that person’s martial art skill was very shallow, yet the internal energy cultivation was definitely from Huashan Pai. He also recalled the way Shuang’er run among the rocks on that hill, it was definitely Huashan Pai’s qinggong. In a glance he saw her among the crowd.

Seeing his bright and flickering gaze, Shuang’er could not help feeling afraid; she shrunk herself behind Wei Xiaobao. Gui Xinshu said, “Little girl, come here. You belong to Huashan Pai, don’t you?”

“I am not coming!” Shuang’er said, “You killed my sworn brother Wu Dage, I want to take revenge for him. I … I don’t belong to any Huashan Pai either.”

When He Tishou taught martial arts to the Third Mistress Zhuang, Shuang’er and the others, she did not officially accept them as her disciples, hence she did not mention her own sect or school either. These three words ‘Huashan Pai’, Shuang’er had just heard it for the first time today.

Gui Xinshu did not want to argue with this little girl. Suddenly he gathered his chi on his dantian, and with a loud and clear voice said, “Disciples and grand-disciples of Feng Nandi, come out.” Although his voice was not loud, his chi surged out, the dust on the roof rained down.

He thought that among the three martial brothers, Yuan Chengzhi’s disciples were all overseas, his Da Shixiong [oldest martial brother] Huang Zhen had passed away long time ago, but Huashan Pai still had Huang Zhen’s first disciple Feng Nandi who wielded some power; therefore, the Huashan Pai people in the manor must be Feng Nandi’s disciples. Who would have thought that after waiting for a long time, no noise came from the inner hall?

Chen Jinnan said, “Last year the heroes from all over the world held a general assembly at He Jian Fu, we swore an oath smearing our lips with blood, determined to work as one to kill the big traitor Wu Sangui. Your virtuous Shizhi [martial nephew], Senior Feng Nandi was the host of the Turtle-Slaying Assembly of He Jian Fu. Why would Senior Gui join hands with Wu Sangui instead and kill our humble Society’s patriot Wu Liuqi Xiongdi? Wouldn’t it be ‘enduring pain for the loved-one, acting in haste for the enemy’?” He said those words politely, but his remark was pointed and powerful.

Gui Erniang cast him a glance; she said, “I heard people say, ‘Whoever never knew Chen Jinnan, he calls himself a hero in vain,’ but before Sire was born, we, husband and wife, have already criss-crossing the world. If the saying was true, we should have waited for Sire to be born before we could be called ‘hero’. Hey, hey, ridiculous, ridiculous.”

Chen Jinnan said, “Based on martial art skill, Zaixia only worth a laugh in front of Gui Er Xia, worthy husband and wife. Jianghu friends think highly of Zaixia, they are no more than saying that Zaixia understands right and wrong, that I am not likely to commit outrages and make friends with bandits.”

Gui Erniang was furious. “Are you saying we committed outrages and made friends with bandits?” she said.

“Wu Sangui is a big traitor!” Chen Jinnan retorted.

Gui Erniang said, “This Wu Liuqi acted as accomplice to the tiger, he became the Tatars’ high-ranking officer, bullying our Han’s common people, yet you open your mouth left and right and calling him Dage? Isn’t that committing outrages and making friends with bandits?”

Ma Chaoxing loudly said, “Wu Dage lived in Cao camp but had his heart in Han camp. He was Tian Di Hui’s Great Obedience Hall Red Banner Xiangzhu. He held power over Guangdong military force, as soon as opportunity arrives, he would move the troops to fight the Tatars. Great Obedience Hall brothers, will you or will you not say that it was so?”

“It’s true!” more than twenty subordinates of Great Obedience Hall replied in chorus.

Ma Chaoxing said, “Bare your chests, let these two great heroes have a look.” Twenty some men pulled the front piece of their jacket with both hands and parted it outward, the dozen or so buttons in front of their chests popped out, exposing their chests. They saw that on each man’s chest these eight characters were engraved deep into their flesh: ‘tian fu di mu, fan Qing fu Ming’ [Heaven is my father, Earth is my mother, Fighting the Qing, Restoring the Ming].

All along Gui Zhong was silent, but now seeing more than twenty men had their chests engraved with eight characters, he clapped his hands and laughed, “Interesting, interesting!” The Tian Di Hui warriors glowered at him.

Chen Jinnan said to Gui Xinshu, “Your esteemed son thinks it is interesting, what do Gui Er Xia, husband and wife think?”

Gui Xinshu was extremely dejected; he shook his head and said to Gui Erniang, “Killed the wrong man.”

Gui Erniang said, “We killed the wrong man! We have fallen into that traitor Wu Sangui’s trick.” Stretching out her left hand, she pulled the single-blade saber from Ma Chaoxing’s waist and swept it across her own neck.

“Don’t …” Chen Jinnan shouted, while swiftly stretching out his right hand to grab her left wrist.

Gui Erniang sent out her right palm, Chen Jinnan raised his left palm to parry, both people swayed. Chen Jinnan stretched out two fingers of his left hand to pinch the back of the blade. Gui Erniang sent out another right palm strike toward the pit of his stomach. If Chen Jinnan withdrew, he would not be able to seize the saber away, and he was afraid that she might try to kill herself again. By exchanging palm strikes with her just now, Chen Jinnan knew that although she was really old, her internal energy was not as strong as his; however, her movement was lightning fast, her fist and palm technique was extremely refined. If he withdrew even for a single step, his bare hand would not be able to snatch the blade from her hand away. Thereupon he braced himself and took the palm on his chest. ‘Bang!’ he was hit by the palm strike.

Gui Erniang was taken aback. Chen Jinnan’s left hand’s two fingers caught her saber and snatched it away. He withdrew two steps back, ‘Wah!’ and spurted a mouthful of fresh blood.

When Gui Erniang was swiping the blade to kill herself, if Gui Xinshu made his move, he could have prevented her; however, since he killed Wu Liuqi by mistake, he was ashamed and full of regrets, he even had thoughts of killing himself to apologize, hence he did not try to stop his wife at all. After seeing Chen Jinnan did not hesitate to put his own life in danger to seize the steel blade in Gui Erniang’s hand, he was even more ashamed. His clumsy words were only, “Chen Jinnan is a hero of the present age, your name is not in vain.”

Chen Jinnan supported himself against the table while regulating his breathing. Only after half a day he managed to say, “One who does not know is not guilty. The criminal ringleader, the main offender in the murder of Wu Dage is Wu … Wu San …” speaking to here, he threw up another mouthful of blood.

Although Gui Erniang was old, most of her power of the former years remained. In order to snatch her blade away, Chen Jinnan was unable to circulate his chi to protect himself; the palm strike he suffered was really not light. Gui Erniang said, “Chen Zongduozhu, if I tried to kill myself again, I would betray your great kindness. We, husband and wife, are determined to kill the Tatar Emperor, and then we will kill that traitor Wu Sangui.” Finished speaking, she kneeled down and kowtowed toward Wu Liuqi’s severed head three times.

Chen Jinnan said, “Wu Liuqi Dage’s conduct was always very secretive, a lot of Jianghu people also revile him. Virtuous husband and wife making your move this time, your intention was to kill the traitor; it just that unfortunately … unfortunately …” Speaking to this point, he could not stop the tears from flowing down his face again.

Gui Xinshu, husband and wife, had the same thought; they made up their minds to kill Kangxi and Wu Sangui, and then they were going to kill themselves to apologize to Wu Liuqi. But this moment they did not want to talk too much, they cupped their fists toward Chen Jinnan and said, “Chen Zongduozhu, we’ll take our leave now.”

“Would you stay for a moment?” Chen Jinnan asked, “Zaixia has something to report.” The Gui couple had already taken their son’s hand and were on their way out; hearing this, they stopped and turned around.

Chen Jinnan said, “Wu Sangui is deploying his troops from Yunnan, very soon the whole country will be in rebellion, this is a golden opportunity to reinstate our Han people’s rivers and mountains. There will be quite a number of heroes who in the coming days will gather in the Capital to discuss countermeasure for dealing with current situation. Everybody will be like-minded, how about the two Seniors consider going to Beijing to join the conference?”

In his heart Gui Xinshu was ashamed, he did not have any desire to see other people; hence he shook his head, and started to walk out again.

Wei Xiaobao heard the two of them said that they were going to assassinate the Emperor. He thought these three fellows surnamed ‘turtle’ had a very high level of martial art skill, the young Emperor had never guarded against them, he must prevent them from killing the emperor. “This is a very important matter concerning the world,” he called out, “Your Gongzi’s [young master] conduct is a bit messed up. If this time you spoil this matter, even if the three of you kill yourselves, inevitably your names will … will be a stench for ten thousand years.” He had heard the saying ‘yi chou wan nian’ [to have one’s name go down in history as a byword for infamy], but he could not remember the exact words, hence he said ‘chou qi wan nian’ [stench for ten thousand years].

Although he did not say it correctly, the Gui couple understood his meaning clearly. Gui Xinshu knew that in term of martial art skill he was quite superior, but in term of ability to see things clearly he was rather weak, otherwise he would not have blindly accepted Wu Sangui’s one-sided story as the fact, and thus committed this kind of blunder. Hearing Wei Xiaobao, he could not help but shivered inwardly. He thought, “Assassinating the Emperor is indeed an important matter concerning the fate of the nation.”

Wei Xiaobao continued, “Right now the Emperor is still young, he is not too sensible yet, as soon as Wu Sangui arose in rebellion, he would collapse silly. If you kill him, another Tatar, older and more formidable, will become the Emperor, then our Han people’s rivers and mountains will be spoiled under your hands.” Gui Xinshu nodded slowly and turned around.

Chen Jinnan said, “Two Seniors, this child is young, he talks with no respect for his elders, please don’t be offended.” While saying that he cupped his fist to apologize. And then he continued, “But it seems that his concern needs to be considered at length. Such an important matter like this, we must discuss and decide what would be the best course of action?”

Gui Xinshu thought that he had committed one mistake and must not commit another mistake; just because right now he was ashamed and indignant, he must not let himself to be a sinner for all ages. Thereupon he said, “Very well! I will sincerely listen to Chen Zongduozhu’s instruction.”

“That word ‘instruction’,” Chen Jinnan said, “I absolutely do not dare to give. Tomorrow morning we will all go to Beijing. In the evening we will meet at this child’s residence to discuss this important matter. What do the Seniors think?” Gui Xinshu nodded.

Chen Jinnan asked Wei Xiaobao, “Have you moved?”

Wei Xiaobao replied, “Disciple still lives at Tong Maozi [copper hat] Lane in Dongcheng [district, central Beijing].”

“Seniors,” Chen Jinnan said, “Tomorrow night Zaixia will wait respectfully for the two Seniors’ honorable presence in this child’s Zijue Fu [Viscount Mansion] at Tong Maozi Lane in Dongcheng district in Beijing.”

“Shifu,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Please don’t be angry, right now it is called Bojue Fu [Earl Mansion].”

“Hey, you have been promoted,” Chen Jinnan said.

Gui Erniang stared at Wei Xiaobao. She asked, “You are Wu Sangui’s nephew, but also ‘live in Cao camp but have the heart in Han camp’; will you place righteousness before family?”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “I am not Wu Sangui’s nephew, Wu Sangui desperately wanted to be my grandson.”

Chen Jinnan scolded him, “Don’t be rude in front of the Seniors. Quickly kowtow and apologize.”

“Yes,” Wei Xiaobao replied. He struck a posture ready to kneel, but he did so exasperatingly slowly.

Gui Xinshu waved his hands; he took his wife and child, as well as his servants, out of the door without saying anything. He knew perfectly well that there was no other place they could lodge for the night, but he would rather go hungry and spend the night in the wilderness since he did not want to be face the face with Tian Di Hui warriors.

Gui Zhong never had any playmate since he was little, seeing that Wei Xiaobao was very clever with words, plus was still young, he found him very amusing. He waved to him and said, “Baby, come with me, accompany me playing.”

“You killed my friend,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “I am not playing with you.”

Suddenly there was a ‘whoosh!’ a shadow flashed, Gui Zhong leaped over, grabbed Wei Xiaobao, and brought him to the door. His movement was very fast, while Chen Jinnan had just suffered quite a heavy injury, plus he was quite some distance away; unexpectedly not a single Tian Di Hui warrior had enough time to react.

Gui Zhong laughed aloud and shouted, “You must play hide-and-seek again with me, we will have a lot of fun!”

Gui Xinshu’s countenance sank; he said sternly, “Child, put him down.”

Gui Zhong did not dare to disobey his father, he was obliged to let Wei Xiaobao down, but his lips were already flat, obviously he was about to cry. Gui Erniang said consolingly, “Child, let us go buy two page boys to accompany you playing.”

“Page boys are no fun,” Gui Zhong said, “This baby is fun, let us go buy him.”

Seeing his son making a fool of himself, Gui Xinshu pulled his hand and went out the door in quick steps.

The crowd of warriors looked at each other in dismay; they all felt that Wu Liuqi was a hero, yet he died for no reason under the hands of an idiot. It was indeed too much of injustice.

“Shifu,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Let me invite Popo Jiejie here to meet everybody.” Together with Shuang’er he went into the inner hall. Who would have thought that He Tishou had already left?

The Third Mistress said that it was inappropriate for the womenfolk to meet the heroes, she only instructed the maidservants to prepare food and drink and to be hospitable to the guests.

Book note: In the title of this chapter, Yuyang instigation is an allusion to An Lushan’s rebellion [755-763] in reference to Wu Sangui’s rebellion. ‘Excessive supervision with poor planning’ is an allusion to Jing Ke [would-be assassin of King Ying Zheng of Qin (later the first Emperor, Qin Shi Huang)] assassinating King Tai. Our book borrows the allusion in reference to Gui Xinshu and the others mistakenly assassinated Wu Liuqi. It was too late to regret, yet they also wanted to assassinate Kangxi. The implied meaning has no relevance with actual historical fact.

[foxs]

Chapter 42 - Hazy sky outside the imperial watchtower at Jiu Zhong [nine heavy] city walls, blowing wind and cloud spitting discontent.
(Translated by Foxs)

Lu Ding Ji 42.jpg

Wei Xiaobao bent his palm like a tiger claw, using qinna power he grabbed the shaft of the brush, dipped it into the ink until the brush was soaked, and dripped a drop of ink. Then he made a straight vertical line down on the left of the dot, writing the character ‘Xiao’. Underneath it he drew a circle, and then a squiggly line like an earthworm passing through a horizontal line.

[foxs]

The next day Wei Xiaobao took his leave from the host, and then he and Chen Jinnan went separately to the Capital. Chen Jinnan said, “Xiaobao, Gui Er Xia, husband and wife are going to assassinate the Emperor. They have agreed to accept the decision after everybody has discussed it over. When you reach Beijing, you must not notify the Emperor so that he will be on guard.”

Wei Xiaobao did indeed have this intention, but since his Shifu hit the nail on the head, he hastily said, “Of course; his Tatars occupy our Han people’s rivers and mountains, I became an official in the imperial court under Shifu, you, Senior’s order, how can I support him for real?”

“Then so be it,” Chen Jinnan said, “If you say something without meaning it, and do something to let everybody down, I will be the first who will not spare you.”

“Shifu, please let your hundred and twenty hearts at ease,” Wei Xiaobao said, while in his heart he said, “Let your hundred and nineteen hearts at ease! I, myself, am not too much at ease.”

Taking Shuang’er, Xu Tianchuan and the others, he went back to where Zhang Yong, Zhao Liangdong, and the others were waiting. With Mao Dongzhu in custody, they returned to Beijing.

As soon as he was back at the Tong Maozi Lane, he immediately wanted to see Kangxi, thinking, “The young Emperor is my good friend, how can I let him die under those three turtles’ hands? I got it; I will go to the Palace and order the Imperial Bodyguards to be on high alert, to form tight security. I promised Shifu I won’t tell the Emperor, a real man speaks and keeps his promise, I can’t tell him then I won’t tell him, but I can prevent those three turtles from succeeding.”

Just when he was going out the door, Chen Jinnan, taking Gu Zhizhong and Ma Chaoxing, arrived. Wei Xiaobao groaned inwardly. “How could you arrive so quickly?” he thought in his heart. Without any choice he raised his spirit to prepare the reception banquet.

Not long afterwards one after another Tian Di Hui warriors arrived in small groups, followed by Mu Jiansheng, leading his companions, the Iron Back Blue Dragon Liu Dahong, Shaking-Head Lion Wu Lishen, Divine Physician Hermit Su Gang and the others also arrived. Actually Mu Palace people were already in Beijing; they came together after they received the information about the conference.

Everybody finished eating and drinking, and waited for quite a long time before the three Gui Family arrived. Wei Xiaobao ordered his servants to prepare another banquet. “We already ate,” Gui Erniang said indifferently.

Gui Zhong glanced around; looking at the grand and luxurious mansion he said, “Baby, the appearance of your house is not too far below Ping Xi Wang’s Wuhua Palace. You did not lie, Wu Sangui is indeed your Bofu [father’s elder brother].”

“Right,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “Wu Sangui is your …” when he said the word ‘your’, suddenly he closed his mouth, thinking that if blurted out that sentence casually, Shifu must be angry with him. Thereupon he changed his statement to, “Since the three of you have already eaten, please come to the eastern hall to have some tea.”

They all went to the eastern hall to enjoy some green tea and light refreshments, and then Wei Xiaobao sent all the servants out. Chen Jinnan also sent a dozen or so Society brethren to guard around and on the roof of the hall before he closed the door, bolted it, and started the meeting.

Chen Jinnan introduced Gui family husband and wife with the Mu Palace people, but he did not mention anything about Wu Liuqi. Although Gui family husband and wife had lived in seclusion for a long time, Liu Dahong, Wu Lishen, and the others were still full of admirations, they were very respectful to them.

Gui Erniang got straight to the point, “After declaring war Wu Sangui attacked Hunan and Sichuan. The power of his troops is very sharp, as they swept everything. Although in the past Wu Sangui surrendered to the Tatars and forfeited the Great Ming’s world, his crime was great, his evil extreme, but he is, after all, still one of our Han people. In our Gui Er Ye’s [second master] opinion, we want to enter the Palace and assassinate the Tatar Emperor, so that the Tatars will be like a dragon without a head, and will be thrown into confusion. Gentlemen, what’s your wise opinion?”

Mu Jiansheng said, “Surely the Tatar Emperor ought to be killed, but if we do that, won’t that mean we give Wu Sangui that traitor a big help?”

Gui Erniang said, “In the past Wu Sangui killed Mu Wangye, naturally Mu Gongzi does not want to let him off. But the distinction between Manchurian and Han is of utmost importance, we must kill the Tatars first, it won’t be too late to slowly deal with Wu Sangui later.”

Liu Dahong said, “If in this rebellion Wu Sangui triumphs over the opponent, he himself will become the Emperor; to shake him later will not be easy. In Wanbei’s [Junior] opinion, we’ll let the Tatars and Wu Sangui massacre each other, fighting desperately against each other until you die, I live. And then we’ll reap the benefit of spreading the net over them. Thus Junior believes that it is inadvisable to assassinate the Tatar Emperor right now.” Although he had a chin full of white beard, Gui Family husband and wife had made their name long time ago, thus the reason he called himself ‘Junior’. Mu Palace’s enmity against Wu Sangui was as deep as the ocean; they would be very pleased to see his destruction first.

Gui Erniang said, “Wu Sangui is fighting for the Ming to demand prisoner of war, to rise the banner in assistance of the Third Zhu Crown Prince to ascend the throne. Here we have dispatch order from Wu Sangui, everybody please see.” From her pocket she took a large sheet of paper and spread it out on the table.

Chen Jinnan immediately read it aloud, “Former Shanhai Pass Guard Zongbing, current grand marshal under imperial orders to preside over water and land under the heaven, great general Wu to rise the Ming to demand prisoner of war, writing to make all civil and military officers, government officers, military soldiers and common citizens under the heavens know: our garrison profoundly received the benefit of the Great Ming’s nobility rank, to unite the garrisons of the Shanhai Pass …”

Chen Jinnan knew that most warriors did not understand literature; he read several sentences, then explained these sentences. After explaining clearly the first paragraph, he continued reading. The following section explained how Li Zicheng broke into Beijing, how Chongzhen returned to Heaven, how in order to avenge his lord father’s enmity he acted against his will to turn toward Manchurian Qing’s troops and gave them the opportunity to break in. After that he said, “Fortunately the main offender received favor under successive rulers, inherited command, received duty to guard the border, compensated the Manchu tribal chief. Caught unprepared by the deceit of going against the oath to the Heaven, availing myself to my inner void, grandly I seize Yanjing [old name for Beijing]. Humbly I become the divine tool of the former Dynasty, transforming my China’s crown and lower garment: fully aware that I must repel the entering wolves, and correcting the mistake of carrying firewood to put out a fire.”

Gui Erniang said, “Afterwards he was aware that lending assistance to Manchu troop was wrong, unfortunately it was too late.”

“Humph,” Liu Dahong snorted, “That traitor really know how to talk, it’s all a lie.”

“Chen Zongduozhu,” Gui Erniang said, “Please read on.”

“Yes!” Chen Jinnan said, and continued reading, “Our garrison pierce the heart and vomit blood, my remorse reaches the extreme, desiring to return to the north, wiping out the stench, receiving the late Emperor’s Third Crown Prince. The Crown Prince was only three years old, he did not remember the assassination, he lived as an orphan, he depended on his ancestor’s associates. For the time being drinking blood, waiting patiently, growing up in the dark waiting for an opportunity, selecting generals training soldiers, secretly drawing plans to rise and restore, until today, thirty years later!”

Listening to this part, Liu Dahong could not hold his patience any longer. He slapped the table and said, “Fart! Fart! This thief with a heart of wolf and lungs of dog whom the Heaven and the Earth cannot tolerate, if he really have half a heart of rising and restoring the Great Ming, why did he murder Emperor Yongli in the past? The Crown Prince Yongli! This matter is well known throughout the world, how would you deny that?”

When the crowd of heroes saw the look of Liu Dahong’s halberd-like eyebrows, none did not admire his loyalty. They thought that the fact that twelve years ago in Kunming City Wu Sangui hanged Emperor Yongli, father and son, could not be disputed.

Gui Erniang said, “Liu Dage is not wrong, Wu Sangui is definitely not a loyal subject or a patriot, even a three-year old knows that. The reason we want to assassinate the Tatar Emperor is to fight the Qing and restore the Ming, it is not to help Wu Sangui to become the Emperor.”

Chen Jinnan said, “Let me finish reading this dispatch order, everybody may take your time in reaching the decision.” He continued reading, “And now, to capture the tyrannical tribal chief, crafty and evil person of high status, let the scholars of righteousness and justice, colleagues who know: narrow-minded generation, all occupying prominent post …” Reading to this point, he laughed toward Wei Xiaobao and said, “Xiaobao, this sentence is talking about you.”

Listening to his Shifu reading the document, Wei Xiaobao only felt that his intonation, the falling and rising of his voice was very pleasant to hear. Suddenly he heard that Wu Sangui’s document was mentioning him, he could not help but was pleasantly surprised. “Shifu,” he hastily asked, “What did he say about me? That fellow can’t be talking anything good about me.”

Chen Jinnan said, “He said that well-educated, virtuous good men only become sesame-seed and mung-bean petty officials; those fellows without any skill whatsoever can be high-ranking officer. Isn’t he talking about you?”

“What about himself?” Wei Xiaobao said, “His official rank is higher than mine; wouldn’t it mean that he is more useless than I am?”

Everybody roared in laughter; they said, “That’s right! No one in the imperial court has a higher official position than Ping Xi Qin Wang.”

The final paragraph of the document said, “The mountains miserable the water anxious, women cry children sob, to such an extent as the comets fell the sky above shows its wrath, the landslide the soil cracks, the earth below voices its complaint. Our garrison look upward to observe and look down to examine, in sincerity dispatching expedition against cruelty to rescue the people, obeying the Heaven responding to the people’s days. Lovingly forecasting the first day of the first month of the Jiayin year [51^st year of the 60-year cycle], respectfully presenting to the Crown Prince, offering sacrifice to inform the heaven and earth, in veneration ascending the great treasure. Establishing the first Zhou consultant.”

Finished reading, Chen Jinnan explained the document. With the exception of Chen Jinnan and Mu Jiansheng two people, these people had never read any literary works, they all thought that this dispatch order seemed to be clear and logical; if there was anything not right in it, they could not tell.

Mu Jiansheng pondered deeply for a moment before saying, “Chen Zongduozhu, if he wanted to present tribute to the Third Crown Prince Zhu and offer him to ascend the Great Treasure, why didn’t he reinstating the Great Ming’s dynasty title, but wanted to change the dynasty title to Zhou? There must be a very big hole in his argument. Let alone we do not know if the Third Crown Prince Zhu or what have you is real or fake; nobody has ever heard anything about him, but all of a sudden he appeared without a head without a brain. Most likely Wu Sangui went out to find a child who does not understand anything, and called him the Third Crown Prince Zhu to appeal to the heart of the people, while in reality he would use him as a puppet.” Everybody nodded their agreement.

Gui Erniang said, “Wu Sangui uses the Third Crown Prince Zhu as his puppet, naturally I do not doubt it. Whether this person is real or fake, there is not much difference. It’s just that the Third Crown Prince Zhu is not a little child, the late Emperor died for his country already thirty years ago, if the Third Crown Prince Zhu is real, at least he would also be in his thirties.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “Thirty something baby who does not understand anything is not nonexistent, hee … hee …” While saying that he cast a glance toward Gui Zhong.

Several warriors were not able to stifle their laughter. Gui Erniang’s eyebrows stood up, she was about to lose her temper, but then she had a second thought: Wei Xiaobao was right, her own precious son was already over thirty years of age, but he was still a little baby who did not understand anything. She could not help sighing softly.

They talked for a long time. Some proposed to leave Kangxi alone and get rid of Wu Sangui first, and then draw a plan to restore the country; some thought that although Wu Sangui was crafty and evil, in the end he was still a Han, they ought to help him driving out the Tatars, after the Han people’s rivers and mountains were restored, then they would remove him. They kept debating on and on but could not reach the final conclusion. After a long time, they all turned their eyes toward Chen Jinnan, knowing that he was resourceful, certainly he would have a wise opinion.

Chen Jinnan said, “We attach most importance to our country. If at this moment we kill Kangxi, admittedly Wu Sangui’s momentum will get a lot of boost. But Taiwan’s Zheng Wangye can also cross the ocean and attack to the west; their troops could enter via Fujian and Zhejiang, and attacked straight toward Jiangsu. With this east-west converging attack, the Tatars will definitely collapse. At that time, if Wu Sangui wants to be the Emperor, Zheng Wangye’s force, combined with Mu Palace, Tian Di Hui and heroes from all over the world will be able to control and overpower him.”

Su Gang coldly said, “By saying that, isn’t Chen Zongduozhu leaning somewhat heavily toward the Taiwan’s Zheng Wangye?”

Chen Jinnan replied sternly, “Zheng Wangye’s loyalty is well-known throughout the world, could it be that Su Xiong did not believe him?”

Su Gang said, “Chen Zongduozhu is loyal, brave and chivalrous, everybody respect and submit to you. But by Zheng Wangye’s side, devious and despicable lowly people are abounded.”

Wei Xiaobao could not bear not to speak up, “That is absolutely correct; take that ‘One Sword Without Blood’ Feng Xifan for example, and then there is Zheng Wangye’s younger son Zheng Keshuang. They all are not good people.”

Hearing that Wei Xiaobao did not align himself with him, Chen Jinnan was slightly surprised; but thinking that what he said was not wrong, he could not refrain from heaving a sigh.

Gui Erniang said, “Driving out the Tatars is the most important task; as for who will be the Emperor, we have no right to interfere. Fighting the Qing is something we have to do, whether we restore the Ming or not, there is no harm in discussing it slowly. Emperor Chongzhen of the Great Ming was not a good thing anyway.”

Chen Jinnan and Mu Palace warriors had always been loyal to Zhu Family of Ming; as soon as they heard that, their countenances changed greatly. Mu Jiansheng said, “If we fail to support the offspring of the Zhu Clan to regain the throne, won’t that mean we are supporting that big traitor Wu Sangui?”

Gui Zhong suddenly said, “Wu Sangui is a good man. He gave me this white tiger skin to be made as my robe. Have you seen it?” While saying that, he opened up the lapel of his robe to expose the white tiger skin underneath, seemingly very pleased with himself.

Gui Erniang said, “Child, don’t talk nonsense in here.”

With a cold laugh Su Gang said, “In Gui Shaoye’s opinion, a leather robe is more important than our Han’s rivers and mountains.”

“Child,” Gui Erniang angrily said, “Take that leather robe off!”

Gui Zhong was shocked, “But why?” he asked.

Gui Xinshu stretched out his hand to pull the sword hanging on his son’s waist. White light flashed, ‘swish, swish!’ the sword in Gui Xinshu’s hand continuously flitted across his son’s chest, back, shoulders and arms. Everybody was shocked; they all leaped back from their chairs, they thought Gui Xinshu was killing his son. But then they saw that the leather robe Gui Zhong was wearing had become seventeen or eighteen pieces, falling around his body, revealing the short silk, cotton-padded undergarments. Gui Xinshu’s sword moved very fast; it cut the leather robe into pieces, yet it did not touch the cotton-padded silk undergarments at all. When the crowd of warriors had seen clearly, they all cheered.

Gui Zhong was so scared that he could only stared blankly, while coughing incessantly. He almost cried as he said, “Dad … (cough, cough) … (cough, cough) … Dad … (cough) … I …”

Gui Xinshu waved his hand, the sword went back into its sheath, and then he took off his own cotton robe and draped it over his son’s body. “Put it on!” he said.

Gui Erniang picked up the pieces of white tiger skin from the floor and threw them into the blazing stove; immediately the fire blazed higher, a burst of burning leather smell arose, the white tiger was gradually burned into ashes. “What a pity, what a pity,” Wei Xiaobao repeatedly stated.

“Let’s go,” Gui Xinshu said. He pulled his son’s hand and led him toward the door.

[foxs]

Chen Jinnan said, “Gui Er Xia is going to attempt great things, we would like to offer some plans.”

“I do not dare!” Gui Xinshu said, “No need!” While saying that, he walked toward the door of the hall.

Wei Xiaobao knew Gui Xinshu was going to make his move at once, it would be too late to inform the Emperor, he must use all kinds of delaying tactics. Blocking in front of Gui Xinshu, he said in a loud voice, “The number of rooms in the Palace, if not ten thousands, then there are at least five thousands. Do you know where the Tatar Emperor live?”

Gui Xinshu was startled; he realized these words made a lot of sense. Turning his head around he asked, “Do you?”

Wei Xiaobao shook his head, “Nobody does,” he said, “Tatar Emperor is afraid someone might come to assassinate him, each night he moves from place to place to sleep. Sometimes he sleeps at the Chang Chun [eternal spring (season)] Palace, sometimes he sleeps at the Jing Yang [Bright (scenery) Positive] Palace, sometimes he sleeps at the Xian Fu [harmonious good fortune] Palace, Yan Xi [extended joy] Palace, or perhaps at the Li Jing [beautiful scenery] Pavilion, Yu Hua [rain flower] Loft, or Yu Qing [nurturing (a child) celebration] Palace.” In one breath he mentioned seven or eight different Palace or Pavilion names.

Listening to him, Gui Xinshu frowned. Wei Xiaobao added, “Even the court eunuchs and Imperial Bodyguards who serve on the Emperor’s side do not know where the Emperor will sleep tonight.”

“So how are we going to find the Emperor?” Gui Xinshu asked.

Wei Xiaobao said, “When the Emperor holds the morning audience, all civil and military officials will see him. As he entered the building, he will come to see you, others will never find him.” Actually the situation was not as dire as he made it to be, Kangxi did not frequently move around to lie down, but Gui Xinshu, husband and wife, were ‘uncultivated land’ and ‘cloth clothes’; how could they know the Imperial Palace’s inner courtyards’ practices? Hearing Wei Xiaobao’s crazy nonsense, they thought that the Emperor taking strict precautions against assassins was rightly so, hence they were greatly hesitating.

Looking at Gui Xinshu’s expression, Wei Xiaobao knew that he realized the difficulty of this situation; in his heart Wei Xiaobao was very pleased. “Gui Laoyezi [old master],” he asked, “Do you know how many concubines the Emperor has?”

“Humph,” Gui Xinshu snorted; he stared at Wei Xiaobao without saying anything.

Wei Xiaobao said, “The storytellers said that the Emperor has three palaces and six courtyards, the chambers of imperial concubines’ beautiful girls … beautiful women are around three thousand. The Tatar Emperor does not have that many wives, I don’t think he has three thousand, but I’ll say he has at least eight or nine hundreds. Every night he becomes the groom; today he sleeps at the 351^st imperial concubine’s room, tomorrow he’ll sleep at the 634^th imperial concubine’s room. Even the imperial concubines themselves will not know where the Emperor will spend the night. They might have to wait three years, four years, and still do not know if the Emperor is coming or not.”

“Xiaobao,” Chen Jinnan said, “You have lived in the Palace for a long time, you must know a way to find the Emperor.”

Wei Xiaobao replied, “During the day it is easy to find him, but in the night, no matter what I have no idea how to find him.”

Chen Jinnan said, “In that case, during the day tomorrow we disguise ourselves and with you leading us, we’ll sneak into the Palace to execute the mission. Last time didn’t you take Qian Xiongdi and Wu Er Ge in and out of the Palace?” While saying that he pointed to Qian Laoben and Wu Lishen, two men.

“Qian Dage only went as far as the imperial kitchen,” Wei Xiaobao said, “As soon as Wu Er Ge and the others entered the Palace, the bodyguards … the bodyguards discovered them. To see the Emperor’s face, it was still a hundred and eight thousand li away. Qian Dage, Wu Er Ge, don’t you agree?”

Qian and Wu, two men, nodded their heads. The two of them knew that to enter the Palace and look for the Emperor was like fishing a needle from the bottom of the ocean.

“Disciple has a way,” Wei Xiaobao said.

“What way?” Chen Jinnan asked.

Wei Xiaobao said, “Disciple is going to see the Emperor tomorrow, he will surely want to talk about Wu Sangui’s rebellion, how to send the troops to fight, disciple will advise him to come out and inspect the cannon. As long as he is out of the Palace, it would be a lot easier to make our move. Whether the assassination attempt is successful or not, we can put oil on the soles of our feet, and will be able to escape a lot easier; it will be a lot less dangerous.”

With a cold laugh Gui Erniang said, “So the Emperor will listen to you, a baby? If you do not come out of the Palace for three years, do you think we should wait for three years? You use all sorts of excuses, in the end you are not willing to lead us in, is that it?”

Mu Jiansheng said, “To enter the Palace and assassinate the Emperor, Xiongdi has done it. It was shameful actually, our Mu Palace lost quite a number of Xiongdi. My own little sister, along with Fang Shimei, also this Wu Shishu, as well as two other Shidi, were trapped inside the Palace and met quite an unexpected fate. Fortunately we received Wei Xiangzhu’s help for the sake of loyalty before we could get out of the danger. It’s not that we are coward who are afraid to die, this matter is truly difficult to succeed.”

Gui Erniang looked coldly at Wei Xiaobao; she asked, “You can rescue them out of danger?”

Wu Lishen hastily said, “Although Wei Xiangzhu is young, his benevolence and righteousness surpass others, he is quick-witted and smart; Xiongdi owes my life entirely to him.”

Gui Erniang said, “Mu Palace failed, that does not necessarily mean that surnamed Gui will also fail for sure.”

Liu Dahong stood up abruptly and said, “Gui Family husband and wife are Divine Fist Without Equal; it’s only natural that you surpass us, tiny Mu Palace, by a hundredfold. I would suggest you go at once, we will be waiting in here for good news.”

A brother from Great Benevolence Hall said, “Wei Xiangzhu, you’d better also go to the Palace. Wait until the Gui Family Three Da Xia [big hero] are captured by the Tatar bodyguards, you’d better find a way to rescue them.” He was still bitter over the Gui Family, three people murdered Wu Liuqi, so that even though they were in the presence of their Zongduozhu, he could not refrain from mocking them a bit.

Wei Xiaobao cursed in his heart, “If the three of you turtles enter the Palace and are caught, even if my head is chopped I won’t save you out.” He laughed and said, “How can the Gui Family Three Da Xia be caught by the Tatar bodyguards? There are more than eight thousand Imperial Bodyguards in the Palace, Gui Shaoye only needs to cough several times, these more than eight thousand guards will have their brains shaken and die.” Quite a number of people from Tian Di Hui and Mu Palace broke out in laughter.

Gui Zhong laughed. “Is there really such thing?” he said, “That will be really fun. So they are afraid to hear my (cough … cough, cough) …? (Cough, cough) … (cough, cough) …” The Gui couple was furious; one of them grabbed their son’s arm and the three of them walked out side-by-side.

“Gui Er Xia,” Chen Jinnan said, “Please calm down. Xiongdi has a plan.”

Gui Erniang always knew that Chen Jinnan was full of stratagems; she turned around, waiting for him to continue.

Chen Jinnan said, “Gui Er Xia virtuous husband and wife are exceptionally skillful in martial arts, you are unequaled in the present age, but you are entering a very dangerous ground, all in all there will be multitude of enemies, but only a few friends. We’d better discuss a foolproof plan to …”

Gui Erniang cut him off, “I thought Chen Zongduozhu really had a brilliant idea, humph!” Turning around again, she walked toward the door.

Liu Dahong and Wu Lishen suddenly rushed forward and blocked the door. Liu Dahong said, “If the two of you want to help Wu Sangui, we from Mu Palace absolutely will not allow it to happen.”

“What?” Gui Erniang said, “You want to fight?”

Liu Dahong said, “The two of you might better kill me and my martial brothers clean first before going out this door to lend a hand to Wu Sangui.”

“Who says we are going to lend a hand to Wu Sangui?” Gui Erniang said.

Liu Dahong said, “Although the two of you do not have any intention to help that traitor Wu, but if you succeed, that traitor Wu’s momentum will gain a lot of boost, he cannot be controlled anymore.”

“Get out of the way,” Gui Xinshu said in a low voice, while taking a step forward.

Liu Dahong spread his arms to block the door. Gui Xinshu stretched his left hand forward to grab Liu Dahong’s chest. Liu Dahong raised his hand to parry, ‘smack!’ two palms collided, Liu Dahong’s body swayed two times, his entire face turned deathly pale. “I only used fifty-percent of my power,” Gui Xinshu said.

Wu Lishen shook his head and said, “There is no harm in you using a hundred-percent of your power so that all of us martial brothers will die violently.”

Gui Zhong said, “You want a hundred-percent, I’ll give you a hundred-percent.” He raised both hands, one bent close to his body, the other outstretched. Wu Lishen stretched out his arm to parry. Gui Zhong pulled his hand back, Wu Lishen struck an empty space. Gui Zhong seized the opportunity when Wu Lishen was about to pull his hand back, quick as lightning his hands grabbed the acupoints on Wu Lishen’s chest and waist.

Chen Jinnan rushed forward to stop them. “We are all good friends here,” he persuaded, “Let’s not use force.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “We all argue incessantly, in the end we still don’t have any solution. Let’s do it this way: we throw dice, leave it all to luck. If Gui Laoyezi wins, not only we will not hinder the three of you from entering the Palace, Wanbei [junior] will explain in details the situation in the Palace to the two of you.”

“And if you win?” Gui Erniang asked.

Wei Xiaobao replied, “In that case we will put this matter on the shelf for the time being, after Wu Sangui is dead, we will make our move against the Emperor.”

Gui Erniang thought, “If we do it on our own, Mu Family will most likely go to inform the Tatars, in the end this matter will be difficult to accomplish. We might as well listen to him.” She turned to ask her husband, “Er Ye [second master], what do you think?”

Gui Xinshu said to Wei Xiaobao, “If you lose you must not go back on your word.”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “A real man gave his words, dead horses cannot pull it back. The Tatar young Emperor is not my laozi [old man], why would I want to protect him? It’s just that if we win, we must win it heroically, if we lose, we must lose gracefully. No matter who wins or loses, we must not harm our friendship.”

Chen Jinnan thought that his last sentence made a lot of sense; he said, “This matter involves great responsibility, in the end it will affect the calamity or good fortune of our great undertaking of restoring our country; it is difficult to predict. People of old used divination when they were in doubt, we will roll the dice, the idea is the same. Everybody needs not argue opinionatedly, let’s depend on the Will of Heaven.”

Gui Erniang said, “Child, let him go.”

“I won’t,” Gui Zhong replied.

“This little brother wants to play with you by rolling the dice,” Gui Erniang said.

Gui Zhong was delighted; immediately he relinquished his grip, releasing the acupoint on Wu Lishen’s chest. Wu Lishen felt the pain on the pit of his stomach was unbearable, his breathing could not flow freely, he shook his head continuously.

“Gui Shaoye,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Please take your dice out. We’ll use yours.”

“Dice?” Gui Zhong asked, “I don’t have any. Do you have some?”

“I don’t have it either,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “Who has some dice?” he asked around. Everybody slowly shook their head, they all thought, “We are not rotten gambling ghost, who would carry dice everywhere?”

Gui Erniang said, “No dice, we’ll flip a coin.”

“Throwing dice is more fair,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Genuine goods at fair prices, cheating neither old nor young. I am a boy, Gui Shaoye is an old gentleman, thus it is clear that we must throw dice. I am sure one of the personal guards would have some dice; I’ll go ask.” Finished speaking, he pulled the bolt, open the door, and went out of the hall.

He went out of the eastern hall, entered the main hall, and fetched six dice from his pouch. The dice were the talisman that he carried everywhere, but if he took out dice on the spot, Gui Family husband and wife would definitely suspect him. He sat down in the main hall for a moment before returning to the east hall and said with a laugh, “I found some dice.”

“How do you decide winning or losing?” Gui Erniang asked.

Wei Xiaobao said, “The trick in throwing dice, I don’t understand the least bit. Gui Shaoye, how do you say we must gamble?”

Gui Zhong picked up two dice and said, “You and I compete in accuracy.” His finger flicked, ‘chi, chi!’ the two dice flew and extinguished two candles, followed by ‘pop, pop!’ the two dice embedded itself into the wooden partition. The crowd of warriors broke into praise, “Good skill!”

Wei Xiaobao said, “I have seen people throwing the dice; it’s a competition of the number of dots, big or small, not a competition of secret projectile throwing skill.”

“That’s right!” Gui Erniang said, “The two of you throw one time, who has the bigger number of dots wins.”

Wei Xiaobao thought, “Only throwing one time, maybe his luck is really good, all at once he rolls thirty-six dots.” Thereupon he said, “Let’s do it this way: each one of us will throw three times, two out of three will win.”

Gui Zhong thought that the more they throw the dice the more he would have fun. He said, “Each one of us will throw three hundred times, whoever wins two hundred times will be considered the winners.”

“That will be too much trouble,” Gui Erniang said, “Each one throwing three times is enough.”

Xu Tianchuan pulled the two dice embedded into the wooden partition and put them on the table. “Gui Shaoye,” Wei Xiaobao said, “You throw first.”

Gui Zhong picked up the dice, and with a giggle he was ready to throw. “Hold on!” Gui Erniang said. Turning her head, he asked Liu Dahong and Mu Jiansheng, “If we win this game, will Mu Palace be considered lost too?”

Just now Liu Dahong exchanged a palm strike with Gui Xinshu, the blood and chi in his chest was still bubbling up, by this time he had not been able to regulate it yet; he thought that the opponent had said that he was only using fifty-percent of his power, this man was a senior hero, it must be not an empty word. If he really wanted to go to the Palace to assassinate the Emperor, based on Mu Palace’s power alone, how could they stop him? Thereupon he nodded. Mu Jiansheng said, “Let the Heaven reveal its will, the decision will be based entirely on the throw of the two gentlemen.”

“Very well!” Gui Erniang said. Turning to Gui Zhong she said, “Throw it! The bigger the number of dots the better.”

Gui Zhong examined the dice carefully. He said, “The biggest number of dots is six, the smallest is two, and then there is this big indentation here.”

“That big indentation is one dot,” Gui Erniang said.

Gui Zhong said, “It’s so weird, the four dots are red.” Waving his right palm, ‘Slap!’ the six dice went into the tabletop, all top surfaces had six dots on them. Turned out he arranged the dice on his palm, with all dice have one dot facing up, so that when he slammed the dice down, naturally all six dots were facing up.

Everybody was stunned, but they were also amused. This tuberculosis ghost seemed too weak to stand up to the wind, yet his internal energy was surprisingly this deep; but where in the world would there be throwing dice technique like this?

“Child,” Gui Erniang said, “That’s not the way to throw the dice.” Stretching out her palm, she slapped the table once, the six dice immediately jumped up. Everybody cheered. Gui Erniang picked up the dice and rolled it gently. She said, “Whatever dots come up, that will be the number of dots you get. You can’t rely on your own desire.”