by Jin Yong
The soldiers shouted as one: "Catch the traitors, don't let them get away!" Yang Tiexin thought to himself: "Are they here to catch Qu San? I haven't seen him around recently. Luckily he isn't here, otherwise there is no way he could beat all of these soldiers, no matter how great his kung fu is." Suddenly one of the men on a horse shouted: "Guo Xiaotian, Yang Tiexin. You two traitors come out now and get what's coming to you!"
This shocked Yang Tiexin and Bao Xiruo's face turned white. Yang Tiexin whispered to her: "I don't know what's gotten into the authorities, they only know how to malign us normal citizens. We won't stand a chance with them. The only thing we can do is run for our lives. Don't panic, with this spear of mine, I can assure you that we'll get out of here." His kung fu was good and had made a living in the martial world before. So even though he was in grave danger, he did not panic. He put a bow and arrow bag onto his back and grabbed his wife's right hand.
Bao Xiruo spoke up: "I'll pack." Yang Tiexin replied: "Pack what? We are leaving everything!" Bao Xiruo's heart suddenly trembled as tears rolled down her cheeks. She said in the shaking voice: "What's going to happen to our home?" Yang Tiexin answered: "All we need to do is to survive. We can start another home somewhere else." Bao Xiruo asked: "What about these little chicks and ducklings and cats?" Yang Tiexin sighed: "Silly, why are you still worrying about them?" After a pause, he tried to console her: "Why would the authorities bother the little chicks, ducklings and cats?"
Just as he finished his sentence, the light from the torches outside fluttered. The soldiers had just lit two thatched cottages on fire. Two more foot soldiers were heading this way with torches to light this house on fire, all the while shouting: "Guo Xiaotian, Yang Tiexin. If the two of you don't come out now, we'll burn all of Ox Village down to the ground!"
Yang Tiexin had about all he could take, so he opened up the door and walked out. He shouted at the top of his lungs: "I am Yang Tiexin! What do you people want?" The two foot soldiers were shocked and they dropped their torches, turned around, and ran back. In the firelight, a man rode forth on his horse and shouted: "Good, so you are Yang Tiexin. Come with us to the magistrate. Seize him!" At once four or five foot soldiers ran up. Yang Tiexin twirled his spear, swung a ‘White Rainbow in the Sky’ move, and swept three of the soldiers onto the ground. He followed it up with the ‘Madly Deafening Spring Thunder’ move as he picked up a soldier by the spear shaft and threw him into the crowd. He shouted: "If you want to arrest me, first tell me what crimes I committed."
The man shouted back: "Traitor! How dare you resist arrest?" Even though he was calling him names, he nevertheless feared his foe's courage as well as skill and was afraid to get any closer. Another man on horseback behind him shouted: "Just come with us to the courthouse peacefully, that way there won't be more punishments added to your crimes. We have the official document for your arrest here." Yang Tiexin replied: "Let me see it!" That man replied: "What about the other traitor, Guo Xiaotian?"
Guo Xiaotian stuck half of his body out of a window with his bow and arrow in hand and shouted: "Guo Xiaotian is here!" The arrow was aimed at the man on horseback.
The man's heart felt all fluttery as cold waves of fear washed up his back. He shouted: "Put down your bow, and then I'll read the document to you." Guo Xiaotian viciously shouted back: "Read it now!" He pulled his bow full draw. Seeing that he had no say in the matter, the man brought up the document and read aloud: "Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin of Ox Village of the Prefecture of Linan colluded with traitors and criminals with intentions of wrong doing. Capture them and bring them in to be strictly judged by the law." Guo Xiaotian asked: "Which official issued the order?" The man replied: "Chancellor Han himself."
Both Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin were shocked by this: "What could be so important that Han Tuozhou himself got involved? Could it be that Reverend Qiu's actions that night were discovered?" Guo Xiaotian asked: "Who is the plaintiff? Based on what evidence?" That man shouted back: "We only worry about capturing you guys, if you want to plead your case then come to the courthouse with us." Yang Tiexin shouted back: "Chancellor Han only knows how to do harm to us good honest people, everyone knows that! We won't fall for that lie!" The leader shouted in response: "Refusing arrest! That is another crime to your sheet!"
[Actually Han Tuozhou is not as bad as portrayed in the book. Between Yue Fei's execution in 1142 and Han Tuozhou's ascension as head chancellor in 1206, the Southern Song emperors did not once invade the Jin territories in an attempt to reclaim some lands. Only after Han Tuozhou became chancellor was another attempt was made. However, this attempt was poorly planned and general preparations were lacking. On top of that add the internal conflicts within the imperial court, and it is no surprise that it failed. Ning Zong, the emperor at the time, and a bunch of officials favoring peace executed Han Tuozhou and presented his head to the Jin emperor as a show of their willingness for peace. This was the last attempt by the Southern Song dynasty to drive out the Jin.
So Han Tuozhou was actually a patriot who died for his country instead of how he is portrayed in this book.]
Yang Tiexin turned toward his wife and said: "Quickly put on some more clothes. I'll go get his horse for you. Once I shoot down the leader, the rest of them will panic." The sound of bow being released was followed by a meteor-like arrow hitting the leader's right shoulder. The leader let out an "Ai-Yo!" before tumbling down onto the ground. All the soldiers shouted in surprise. Another official shouted: "Seize them!" All the soldiers came rushing forth. The two men were shooting arrows one after another and in an instant, they had already shot down six or seven soldiers. But there were too many of them and they still managed to charge to the front of both houses.
With a loud shout, Yang Tiexin jumped out of the door with his spear making the soldiers back up in surprise and fear. He jumped to the side of an official that was riding a white horse and thrust the spear at him. The official tried to parry with his spear but the ‘Yang Family Spear’ was too fast; Yang Tiexin's spear flashed down and hit the official on his leg. He then lifted his spear up and flipped the official off his horse.
Yang Tiexin put his spear shaft on the ground and pushed off, jumping onto the horse. He squeezed his legs, making the horse neigh and gallop towards the house. Yang Tiexin killed a soldier by the door with a thrust, leaned down, extended his arms, grabbed Bao Xiruo, and lifted her up onto the horse as well. He then turned and shouted: "Brother, follow me!" Guo Xiaotian was waving his twin halberds and protecting his wife as he charged out from the crowd. Seeing the ferocity of the two men, none of the soldiers dared to get any closer. So they started to shoot arrows at them. Yang Tiexin made his horse run to Li Ping's side and shouted as he jumped off: "Sister, get on!" Li Ping anxiously said: "That won't be any good." Yang Tiexin didn't care what she said and threw her onto the horse. The two sworn brothers followed behind the horse and slowly walked off while battling off the soldiers.
After a bit of walking, they suddenly heard loud shouting coming from ahead as another group of soldiers came charging in. The two men silently groaned. As they were looking for another direction to run, arrows started coming in from ahead. Suddenly, Bao Xiruo screamed: "Ai-Yo!" Her horse was hit by an arrow and it fell over, throwing the two women on its back off. Yang Tiexin said: "Brother, you guard them; I'll go get another horse." He charged toward the crowd of soldiers. Ten or so soldiers lined up, pointed their spears at Yang Tiexin, and let out a yell together.
Seeing the overwhelming number of enemies, Guo Xiaotian thought: "For us two brothers, escaping is not hard. But with enemies in front and behind, there is no way our wives can escape. It is not like we broke any laws, so going to the courthouse in Linan to argue our case is much better than dying here for no reason. When Reverend Qiu Chuji killed all of the men there, not a single one of them got away. Therefore there is nobody to prove we did it, so the court can't say for sure that we were guilty of anything. Besides, the two of us didn't kill any officials or Jin sol
diers." So he yelled: "Brother, stop! Let's go with them!" Yang Tiexin was very surprised by this and ran back dragging his spear behind him.
The leader of this group of soldiers ordered the men to stop shooting and surround the two men. Then he shouted: "Throw down your weapons, and your life will be spared."
Yang Tiexin spoke up: "Brother, don't fall for their lies." Guo Xiaotian shook his head for a while and then threw his twin halberds onto the ground. Yang Tiexin looked over at his beloved wife and could not bear the frightened look on her face. He sighed and threw his spear on the ground as well. As soon as both of their weapons fell on the ground, ten or so long spears immediately came and surrounded the four of them. Eight foot soldiers walked up and tied the four of them up with their hands behind their backs.
Yang Tiexin held his head up high and sneered. The leader of the group lifted his horse whip up and smacked Yang Tiexin squarely on his face: "Damn traitor! Do you really want to die?" A welt appeared on Yang Tiexin's face from his forehead all the way down to his neck. In rage, Yang Tiexin replied: "Ok! What is your name?" That official got even madder as his whip came down like rain: "This old man is Duan Tiande! Remember that? When you get to the gates of hell you can tell them all about me!" Yang Tiexin did not back down or flinch as he stood there staring at him. Duan Tiande continued: "I got a knife scar on my forehead and a birthmark on my face! Can you remember all that?" His whip came down again.
Seeing her husband being treated like this, Bao Xiruo cried out while tears rolled down her cheeks: "He's a good man and has done nothing wrong. Why are you... you beating him? Don't... Don't you know anything about justice?" Yang Tiexin suddenly spit at him, hitting him on the face. Furious, Duan Tiande pulled out his saber and screamed: "I'm going to kill you traitor, right now!" He brought his saber up and swung it down. Yang Tiexin sidestepped the strike. The two foot soldiers by him pushed their spears up against his sides to stop him from moving as Duan Tiande chopped down once again. With nowhere to dodge on the sides, Yang Tiexin could only jump back to avoid the strike. It turned out this Duan Tiande knows a little bit of kung fu, even though he missed again, he immediately thrust his saber forward. The saber he was using was saw-toothed and with his move he sawed a gash on Yang Tiexin's left shoulder. He then immediately followed it with another chop.
Seeing that his sworn brother's life was in grave danger, Guo Xiaotian suddenly jumped up and aimed his feet at Duan Tiande's face. In shock, Duan Tiande brought his sword back to parry this away. Even though Guo Xiaotian's hands were tied behind his back, his footwork was still quite formidable. So before his body fell down, he twirled his left leg and brought it back and at the same time sent out his right leg, hitting Duan Tiande in his stomach.
In extreme pain and rage, Duan Tiande shouted: "Stick those spears in them! Orders from above, if the traitors resist arrest, kill them all!" The soldiers thrust with their spears. Guo Xiaotian kicked down two soldiers in a row, but having his hands tied behind his back was restricting his quickness as he had to jump away from the spears. Duan Tiande came up from behind him and swung down hard, chopping Guo Xiaotian's entire right arm off at the shoulders. Yang Tiexin was trying to struggle out of the ropes but could not, no matter how hard he tried. Suddenly seeing his sworn brother wounded on the ground, a surge of strength came from somewhere inside him and he snapped the ropes from his body, punched a soldier, grabbed his spear, and whipped out the ‘Yang Family Spear’. This time he was fighting without regard for his own life; it was as if he could take on tens of thousands of soldiers all by himself. He had just started but had already taken down two soldiers.
Seeing that the situation had turned, Duan Tiande immediately backed away. The last time, Yang Tiexin was holding back somewhat, not really wanting to kill government soldiers; but now he could not care less. Flicking right and swinging left, he killed several soldiers in an instant. Seeing his ferociousness, the rest of the soldiers scattered at once.
Yang Tiexin did not bother chasing them as he helped his sworn brother sit up. Blood was gushing from where Guo Xiaotian's arm was chopped off and by now his whole body was covered in blood. Yang Tiexin could not stop tears from falling at the sight. Guo Xiaotian gritted his teeth and shouted: "Brother, don't worry about me... leave, leave now!" Yang Tiexin replied desperately: "I'm going to get a horse, and then I'm going to fight until I die to make sure you escape." Guo Xiaotian faintly replied: "No... no...." He passed out. Yang Tiexin took off his outer shirt so he could bandage up the wound. But Duan Tiande had chopped off his shoulder and portions of his chest as well; the wound is almost half-a-body in length and impossible to bandage up. Guo Xiaotian slowly came to and shouted: "Brother, go save our wives. I... I can't... make it...." Before he finished what he was saying, he slumped over and died.
The two sworn brothers always thought of each other as real blood brothers. Seeing his brother die like this, a phrase popped up amidst the anger and the rage in Yang Tiexin's mind. It is the phrase that they said when they became sworn brothers: "Hope to die on the same day of the same month of the same year." He lifted his head up to look around. The two wives had gone missing in all the chaos. He screamed: "Brother, I'm going to avenge your death!" He grabbed his spear and ran toward the crowd of soldiers. By now, the soldiers had already lined up in formation. Duan Tiande issued an order and immediately arrows flew towards him. Yang Tiexin did not care, as he knocked the arrows out of the way and charged ahead. An official swung the saber in his hand down hard at Yang Tiexin's head. Yang Tiexin ducked and suddenly scrambled underneath the belly of his horse. That official was just about to turn his horse around when a spear penetrated through his heart from the back. Yang Tiexin threw off the corpse and jumped onto the horse. Waving his spear around, none of the soldiers dared to come closer to battle and they started to run off.
After chasing for a while, he suddenly saw an official running away as fast as he could with a woman in his arms. Yang Tiexin jumped off his horse and knocked down a foot soldier. Picking up the soldier's bow and arrow, he aimed the best he could in the dim fire light and let loose. The arrow hit the horse's behind, making the horse kneel down all of the sudden. The two people on the horse came tumbling off. Yang Tiexin let loose another arrow and killed the official. Running up he saw that the woman on the ground, who was now trying to sit up, is his wife.
Overwhelmed with surprise and excitement upon seeing her husband, Bao Xiruo jumped into his arms. Yang Tiexin asked: "Where's our sister-in-law?" Bao Xiruo answered: "Ahead, with... with more soldiers." Yang Tiexin instructed: "You stay here and wait for me. I'm going to save her." Bao Xiruo suddenly said in shock: "But there are more soldiers coming from behind!"
Yang Tiexin turned around and, as she had said, there really was a group of soldiers coming this way with torches in hand. Yang Tiexin gritted his teeth and said: "Brother is dead. No matter what, I have to save Sister-in-Law to save the Guo family bloodline. If the heavens pity us, there will be a day when we meet again." Bao Xiruo put her arms around her husband's neck and would not let go. She said in between sobs: "We'll never be apart, you said it yourself, even if we die we will die together! Remember? You said it yourself!" Yang Tiexin's heart went sour for a moment as he picked up his wife and gave her a kiss. Then despite every part of his heart not wanting to, he shook free of her arms and charged forward with his spear. After charging for ten steps he turned around and saw that his wife was sobbing in a cloud of dust and the soldiers had already arrived at her side.
Wiping away the sweat, blood, and tears on his face, Yang Tiexin threw his consideration for own life out and thought only about saving Li to make sure that his sworn brother had descendants. After chasing for a while, he got another horse. After grilling an official, he found out that Li was just a bit ahead. So he raced on as hard as he could on the horse. Suddenly, he heard the cries and screams of a woman coming from the woods by the path. He immediately turned the horse and charged into the woods. Li had freed her hands from the rope
s and was desperately fighting off two foot soldiers. Being born and raised on the farm, she was very strong for a girl; so although she did not know any kung fu, her desperate fighting was quite tough to handle. The two foot soldiers were cursing and laughing at her, but, at the moment, still could not quite handle her. Yang Tiexin did not bother to say anything and just charged up and killed the two soldiers with two thrusts. He then helped Li up onto the horse. The two of them rode back together, trying to find his wife. When they got back to the place where they parted ways, nobody was there. By now the sky is getting slightly brighter, so he jumped off the horse to inspect the ground. There were traces of someone being dragged away; his wife was probably captured by the soldiers again.
Yang Tiexin immediately jumped up onto the horse and gave the horse several wild kicks in the stomach. In great pain, the horse shot forward. Just as they were galloping at full speed, a bugle suddenly sounded to the side of the path and ten or so warriors clad in black charged out. The first one lifted up his ‘wolf fang’ club and smashed down. Yang Tiexin parried it with his spear and answered with a thrust. That man replied by swinging his club sideways. His club techniques were very unique, as if it wasn't a skill from the Central Plains.