by Jin Yong
When he came near, he saw his sons’ troops sat on the ground, with Guo Jing’s troops standing around, guarding them. His two sons, although they were still sitting on the horsebacks, but each were surrounded by eight of Guo Jing’s men wielding unsheathed blades in their hands. He was very surprised.
Guo Jing stepped forward and knelt down on the ground, reporting everything. Realizing that a major disaster had been unexpectedly thwarted, Genghis Khan’s delight was unspeakable. He came rushing in thinking that two Mongolian armies had fought each other, the casualty must be serious;
his two sons might be dead already. Who would have thought that his two sons were alive and well, three armies were intact. Of course he was delighted.
Immediately he called a general assembly of all the princes and generals. He scolded Jochi and Chagatai, and heavily rewarded Guo Jing and his men. He said to Guo Jing, “Do you still say that you cannot lead troops to war? Your merit in this matter alone can easily dwarf the war against the Jin country. If we cannot destroy the enemy’s city wall today, we can always come back tomorrow and try again. But if my sons were dead, how can we make them alive again?”
Guo Jing took the rewards, but divided the gold, silver and livestock to his troops. There was a thunderous cheering and applause among his troops that day. All generals came to congratulate him on this great merit.
After sending off the guests, Guo Jing took out the note given to him by Lu Youjiao. He examined it carefully, the handwriting was shoddy, most likely it was Lu Youjiao’s handwriting, but he was suspicious, “Although I have trained my troops in ‘coiled snake’ and ‘winged tiger’ formations, but I have never mentioned these names to Lu Zhanglao. The difficult parts of the book that I asked him for advice also do not have anything to do with this battle formations. How did he know? Did he read my military strategy book without my knowledge?”
Right away he invited Lu Youjiao into his tent. “Lu Zhanglao, if you like to read this military strategy book, I will gladly lend it to you.”
Lu Youjiao smiled, “A poor beggar like me will not become a general in my lifetime; leading a whole bunch of little beggars also did not need to use the art of war. What use will the military strategy book for me?”
Guo Jing pointed his finger to the note, “Then how did you know about the ‘coiled snake’ and ‘winged tiger’ formations?”
“Sir has mentioned it to Xiao Ren, have you forgotten?” Lu Youjiao said. Guo Jing knew he was not telling the truth. The more he thought about it the more he was perplexed; but he was not sure what did Lu Youjiao hide.
The next day Genghis Khan held another general assembly. The vanguard was under Chagatai and Ogedei’s command. The left flank was under Jochi’s command, while the right was under Guo Jing’s. Each of the vanguard, left and right units were thirty thousand men strong. Genghis Khan and Tuolei commanded over sixty thousand soldiers as the main army. Each soldier rode on one of a pair of horses; they would ride one horse at a time to conserve the horses’ strength. The officers took even more horses. With one hundred and fifty thousand men, they took with them nearly a million horses.
The horns were sounded, the drums were beaten, the noise was deafening. The thirty-thousand strong vanguard cavalry unit started to gallop majestically to the west. The great army moved farther and farther west, entering Khoresm territory with irresistible force. Muhammad’s army was bigger, but they were not the Mongolian’s army match. Guo Jing led his unit destroying cities and killing the enemies, he had rendered not a few merits.
Chapter 37 - Descending From the Sky
Translated by Frans Soetomo
From all over the camp officers and soldiers alike came to the command tent to watch the marvelous sight. The soldiers joined strength to raise the ice column. Under the bright torch light they saw Ouyang Feng showing his teeth with an angry look on his face, his hands and feet splayed wide. He was frozen inside the ice column and could not move even one bit. The officers and soldiers erupted in thunderous applause.
One day Guo Jing’s troops pitched a camp by a riverbank. In the evening Guo Jing was reading the military strategy book when suddenly there was a commotion outside his tent. The curtain to his tent was opened, and somebody was forcing his way in. The guards outside shouted, trying to stop him, but that person moved his hand and one by one the guards fell to the ground. That man lifted up his head and laughed. Under the bright candlelight Guo Jing could see his face clearly; it was none other than the Western Poison Ouyang Feng, whom Guo Jing had searched high and low for tens of thousands ‘li’s. Unexpectedly he appeared here in a foreign land, Guo Jing was pleasantly surprised. He jumped up from his seat and called out, “Where is Miss Huang?”
“I was just about to ask you,” Ouyang Feng replied, “Where is that little girl? Quickly hand her over to me!”
Hearing this, Guo Jing’s delight was beyond measure, “So Rong’er is still alive; not only that, but she managed to escape from his evil hands too,” he thought.
“Where is that little girl?” Ouyang Feng sternly asked again.
“She went with you in Jiangnan, then what happened? She ... is she well? You haven’t killed her, I really should thank you! I ... I must thank you,” Guo Jing said. He was sobbing from overwhelming delight.
Ouyang Feng knew Guo Jing was not able to lie, but all signs indicated that Huang Rong was with him; how could he be so oblivious, Ouyang Feng had to re-think his assumptions. He sat crosslegged on the carpet in Guo Jing’s tent.
Guo Jing wiped out his tears, then unsealed his guards’ acupoints and asked them to deliver ‘ru jiu lao cha’ [lit. milk wine cream tea - don’t know exactly what kind of drink it was].
Ouyang Feng drank a bowl of ‘ma ru jiu’ [horse milk wine], he said, “Dumb kid, I might as well speak frankly with you. That little girl was with me since we were at the Temple of the Iron Spear in Jiaxing, unexpectedly several days later she escaped from me.”
Guo Jing cheered ecstatically, he said, “She is so smart, once she decided to escape, she will find a way to escape. How did she do it?”
Ouyang Feng full of hatred said, “At the Cloud Manor, by Lake Tai . Bah!” he spat, “Why would I tell you? In short, she ran away.”
Guo Jing knew Ouyang Feng was a conceited man; he did not expect him to personally reveal his own setback, so he stopped asking question. Knowing Huang Rong was alive and well he was elated, he kept shouted, “Wonderful! Just wonderful!”
Ouyang Feng was annoyed, “What do you mean wonderful?” he asked, “After she escaped I was hot on her trail; several times I almost caught her, but every time she managed to get away relying on her craftiness. But I always followed her closely, she could not run away to the Peach Blossom Island. I chased her to the Mongolian border then suddenly her trail disappeared. I thought she must be hiding in your troops; therefore, I am standing on my guard to prevent her from running away again.”
Hearing that Huang Rong was in Mongolia, Guo Jing was pleasantly surprised, “Have you seen her?” he asked.
Ouyang Feng was indignant, “If I saw her, wouldn’t I capture her?” he said, “Day and night I stayed in your troops keeping my eyes open, I did not even see this little girl’s shadow. Dumb kid, what kind of crafty trick are you playing?”
Guo Jing was silent for half a day, he asked, “Day and night you are in my troops? How come I did not recognize you?”
Ouyang Feng smiled, “I am just a lowly western area soldier in your ‘tian qian’ [front sky] group; you are the commander-in-chief, how would you recognize me?” In the Mongolian army, there were many prisoners of war who were then given jobs as soldiers; Ouyang Feng was from the west, once he intermingled with other soldiers from the same region, it was really not easy to single him out.
Listening to him Guo Jing was startled, he thought, “If he meant me harm, I would be dead by now.” He muttered, “Why did you say Rong’er is in my army?”
“You captured the Great Khan’s two sons, you destr
oyed cities and crushed the enemies, if not by that little girl’s direction, how can a dumb kid like you accomplish all that?” Ouyang Feng replied, “But that little girl has never shown herself up; it’s really strange. I have no choice but forcing you to hand her over to me.”
Guo Jing smiled, “If Rong’er is willing to show herself up that will be my earnest desire. Just think: would I hand her over to you?”
“Fine,” Ouyang Feng said, “You are not willing to hand her over to me, I’ll find my way to get hold of her. You have great authority as the commander of tens of thousands soldiers, but in Ouyang Feng’s eye, hey, hey ... outside or inside this tent, I can come and go as I like; who can stop me?”
Guo Jing nodded, silently agreed to what he said.
“Dumb kid, what do you say we make an agreement?” Ouyang Feng asked.
“What agreement?” Guo Jing replied with a question.
Ouyang Feng said, “You tell me her hiding place, I guarantee not to harm even a single strand of her hair. But if you don’t want to tell me, I will find her sooner or later anyway. When that time comes, humph, it doesn’t matter anymore, does it?”
Guo Jing knew Ouyang Feng was smart and resourceful; as long as Huang Rong was not on the Peach Blossom Island, there would come a day when she would be captured by him. Ouyang Feng was not making an empty threat. He hesitated for a moment before finally saying, “All right, I am going to make an agreement with you, but not like what you said.”
“What do you mean?” Ouyang Feng asked.
“Mr. Ouyang,” Guo Jing said, “Your martial art is a lot higher than mine, but I am a lot younger than you are. One day you will grow old and your strength will be gone; you won’t be able to defeat me anymore.” Before, Guo Jing always called him ‘Uncle Ouyang’ but since he killed Guo Jing’s five benevolent masters, Guo Jing’s hatred was as deep as the ocean; therefore, he could not say the word ‘Uncle’ anymore.
It never occurred to Ouyang Feng that someday he would grow old and lose his strength; this revelation send a chill to his heart, “What this dumb said is actually not dumb at all,” he thought. “What then?” he asked.
“There is very deep enmity between us,” Guo Jing said, “I can’t leave this enmity un-avenged. Even if you fly to the sky, there will come a day when I will come looking for you.”
Ouyang Feng lifted up his head and laughed loudly, “Before I grow old and lose my strength, I will kill you!” As soon as he finished talking he bent his knees slightly, and thrust both palms forward with an earth-shattering force.
By this time Guo Jing had mastered the ‘yi jin duan gu pian’ [changing muscle forging bone] from the Nine Yin Manual. Also he had trained himself in the part that Reverend Yideng had translated; his internal energy had enjoyed quite a bit of improvement. He leaned his body slightly to avoid the attack, and at the same time counterattack with ‘jian long zai tian’ [seeing dragon in the field].
Ouyang Feng received Guo Jing’s attack head-on, thinking that he was already familiar with this ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’. Besides, Guo Jing was Hong Qigong’s disciple, so his strength should be a lot less than Hong Qigong. Hence, he did not put too much energy on his defense. But unexpectedly when their palms met he was shaken. If his internal energy was not strong enough, he would be seriously injured. He was being careless and nearly lost in Guo Jing’s hand. He was shocked, “Perhaps this kid will already catch up with me before I grow old and lose my strength” he thought. Quickly he sent his left palm out.
Guo Jing again leaned sideways to evade, then returned the attack. This time Ouyang Feng did not dare to take it head on, he flicked his hand to redirect Guo Jing’s palm. Guo Jing did not know Ouyang Feng’s real intention, he thought Ouyang Feng simply parried his attack, who would have thought that inside that defensive move there was a hidden attack; Guo Jing felt a strong force surging toward his face, there was not enough time to evade, so he was forced to stretch out his right palm to block.
Speaking about internal energy strength, Guo Jing was still one level inferior to Ouyang Feng. The current situation was similar to the day at the imperial palace in Lin’an, inside the cave behind the waterfall; although Guo Jing would be able to hold his ground for a while, but in the end he would suffer a heavy injury or even death.
Ouyang Feng’s movement resembled a gourd, enticing the opponent to enter; which Guo Jing did. Ouyang Feng was delighted, but suddenly sensed Guo Jing pulled his right palm slightly, like he was losing his strength. Ouyang Feng sent more force to his palm, pressing harder; who would have thought that Guo Jing’s palm slid a little bit and thus avoid being crushed.
Ouyang Feng grunted ferociously, sending all his strength to his palm, thinking, “Today is the day you are going to die.”
Seeing the opponent’s fingertip swept to his chest, Guo Jing parried by sweeping his left palm horizontally while his right-hand index finger stretched out and fiercely went to Ouyang Feng’s ‘tai 1098 Eagle Shooting Hero yang’ [sun] acupoint. It was the ‘Solitary Yang Finger’ he saw Reverend Yideng used. However, what he learned was superficial, he only saw the form, but did not know the variations within. In this critical moment instinctively he used mutual hands combat technique.
‘Solitary Yang Finger’ was the ‘Toad Stance’s adversary, how could Ouyang Feng not startled when he saw it? He leaped backward to elude, shouted angrily, “Old Duan Zhixing wants to give me a hard time?”
Unfortunately Guo Jing’s finger technique was not the real ‘Solitary Yang Finger’, hence it could not break the Toad Stance; but Ouyang Feng was scared away, without looking clearly he jumped back in shock. Only afterwards did he remember that the Solitary Yang Finger had an infinite variations; how could after launching an attack Guo Jing retracted his finger? Hence he knew Guo Jing had not learned it in its entirety. Without waiting for Guo Jing to launch the next stance both of his palms, one upward the other downward, one attack the other guarded, moved toward Guo Jing. This attack was so swift that Guo Jing did not have time to think, he simply jumped back to escape. ‘Crack!’ the small table behind him was smashed by the Western Poison’s palms.
Since he was gaining an upper hand, Ouyang Feng continued his attack by successively sending his palms; but suddenly he felt a gust of wind coming from behind, somebody attacked him. Without turning around he sent his left foot kicking backward. Turned out the attacker was also using his leg, so two legs collided, the attacker was thrown backward; luckily his bone was not broken, it looked like he had anticipated Ouyang Feng’s counterattack.
Ouyang Feng turned his head around only to see three old beggars standing on the tent’s entrance, they were the Beggar Clan’s three elders, Lu, Jian and Liang. Lu Youjiao swiftly moved toward Jian and Liang Zhanglao [Elders], then interlinked his arms with theirs. It was the Beggar Clan’s technique of combining power to fight a superior enemy using the-weak-subdue-the-strong method. During the Beggar Clan general assembly at Mount Jun to elect the new Bangzhu [Clan Leader] the other day, the Beggar Clan disciples had formed a human wall, rendering Guo Jing and Huang Rong helpless against them.
Ouyang Feng had never fought these three people, but from his first contact with Lu Youjiao’s leg he knew that Lu’s internal energy was not weak. The other two beggars looked not much different. If he fight Guo Jing one on one, he was certain he would win; but with the addition of these three stinky beggars he knew things would not end too good for him. He laughed a big laugh and said, “Dumb kid, your martial art has improved tremendously.”
He bent his legs and sat on the carpet, totally ignoring Lu Youjiao and the other two beggars. “What kind of agreement you want to make? Let me hear it,” he said.
“You want Miss Huang to explain the Nine Yin Manual to you,” Guo Jing said, “Whether she is willing to do that or not, it is entirely up to her; you must not harm even a single strand of her hair.”
Ouyang Feng laughed, “If she is willing, of course I won’t want to harm her in any way. Do you
think it is easy to deal with the Old Heretic Huang?” he said, “But if she is not willing, how can it be that I can’t use a little bit of persuasion?”
Guo Jing shook his head, “No, you can’t.”
“Well, you want me to agree to this, what is there for me?” Ouyang Feng asked. Eagle Shooting Hero
“From now on, if you fall into my hand, I will spare your life three times,” Guo Jing replied.
Ouyang Feng stood up, letting out a long laughter. His laugh was supported by a strong internal energy; it traveled far into the prairie. The horses were disturbed, they neighed and made commotion.
Guo Jing’s gaze pierced Ouyang Feng’s eyes, with a low voice he said, “This is not funny, and you know it. There will come a day you will fall into my hand.”
Although he was laughing Ouyang Feng was actually scared. He realized this kid knew the secret of the Nine Yin Manual, his martial art was improving by leaps and bounds; he really must not underestimate him. While his mouth was laughing, his mind had made a decision. “I, Ouyang Feng, am going to ask you, a stinky kid, for mercy? All right, let’s just wait and see,” he said with a smile.
Guo Jing extended his hand and said, “Once a gentleman said a word.”
Ouyang Feng smiled and replied, “Like a fast horse getting a whip.” He also extended his hand and patted Guo Jing’s hand three times. This was the way the people of Song Dynasty sealed their agreement; whoever broke it would be despised and disgraced for the rest of his life.
After sealing their agreement Ouyang Feng was about to interrogate Guo Jing on Huang Rong’s whereabouts some more, but suddenly with the corner of his eyes he caught a shadow moving outside the tent. That shadow was very swift; Ouyang Feng’s heart was stirred, quickly he went out the tent, but did not see anyone. He turned his head and said, “Within ten days I am going to visit you again. We’ll see whether you will spare my life, or will I spare yours?” With a loud laughter he moved swiftly, and a sort moment later his laughter was heard dozens of ‘zhang’s away.