Book 1 Chapter 10 - Dashing on bravely with no thought of personal safety
When the sky was still dark early the next morning, the two boys slung their bundles over their shoulders and set off on another journey.
It was precisely this sudden decision that would change their destiny. Not only theirs, but the Wulin's as well as the world's [tian xia] destiny.
Their destination was the Great Sui Dynasty's eastern capital, Luoyang.
That day Song Lu said that after their business in Sichuan was done, they would go to Luoyang to look for the legendary Jade Annulus of the He Clan. Since it was not something that could be accomplished in ten days or half a moth, although it was already half a year ago, they were still thinking of going to Luoyang to try their luck, to see if they could still come across Song Lu.
The closer they got to Yangtze River, the more they felt the oppression and chaos of war. Along the way, from time to time they met groups of refugees. When asked, nobody could give them clear answer as to whom they were fleeing from; these people could not even tell the difference between Sui army and the rebels' army.
One day they arrived at a small county town, and found a small hotel that was not busy. They slept until midnight when suddenly the street was like a boiling cauldron of voices, a total chaos. Realizing that something was amiss, the two boys hurriedly packed their bundles and rushed downstairs. Pulling aside another guest that was just about to run outside, they inquired of what was going on.
The man replied, "Du Fuwei crushed Sui army at Dongleng occupied Liyang. It's just that nobody expected to see his army coming this soon.” Finished speaking, he ran away in fear.
The two boys were surprised that Liyang would fall this soon, which means their plan of going up north by boat to Liyang was disrupted.
When they got to the street, they saw people and carriages were fighting over the road, everybody was scrambling to escape to the south; people were screaming and calling out their child and their mothers, the cries of grief shook the heavens. Although the two boys' courage was above average, at the end of the day, they were still big kids. Infected by this kind of terrible dooms-day-is-coming atmosphere, immediately their minds were on chaos, so they blindly followed the stream of people leaving the city.
The road was littered with clothes, furniture, household utensils, shoes, everything, that people simply abandoned; evidently the situation was extremely dire. The two boys were holding on to each other with dear life, afraid that they might get separated by this tidal wave of people.
Once they were outside the city, they saw covering the mountains and the plains were lanterns and torches of the people fleeing the war. They could not believe that such a small county town, which streets ordinarily were sparsely travelled, all of a sudden could produce these many people.
Kou Zhong pulled Xu Ziling aside to go to different direction, following another road away from the crowd. He said in subdued voice, "We still want to go north, worst case scenario it won't be via Liyang.”
Xu Ziling nodded, "We should,” he agreed, "We'll just have to be a bit more careful.”
The two boys turned; winding around the town, they proceeded to the north.
After leaving Cui Shan, this was the first time the traveled at night. To their surprise, they found out that under the faint starlight, they could still see the road clearly.
After walking for several hours, they saw blazing fire filling the whole sky ahead, and they heard shouting and killing noise. Panicked, the two boys ran without looking where they were going. They took a long detour, and because of this, they completely lost their sense of direction.
By daybreak they reached a small village. While they were thinking of asking for directions, suddenly they heard the sound of hoof beats. A group of riders were charging toward their direction from the hillside. The two boys were shocked, and quickly hid inside nearby bushes.
There were about sixty riders. But looking at their all mixed up and chaotic warrior outfits, it was clear that they were rebels' army. Everyone had a green cloth tied on their arms. As soon as they entered the village, they shot dead several dogs that ran out toward them; and then they went from house to house to search, dragging several hundred villagers, men, women, young and old, out of their homes. In that instant chicken flew out and dogs ran away, parents called for their children and children cried out for their mother. The sound of wailing shook the heavens, making the two boys could not bear to watch much longer.
If they had matchless martial art skill, by this time they would have gone out to uphold justice. But they also remembered that even a tyrannical man with superb martial art skill, who ran amuck in the world such as Chu's Overlord Xiang Yu[1], still required coordination and all kinds of favorable factors before he ended up cutting his own throat at Wu Jiang [lit. Black River]. In this turbulent time, the power of a single person was negligible.
The green cloth army divided the men and women into two separate rows, which were surrounded all around, to prevent anybody from escaping.
It was only then that the two boys understood why upon hearing the rebel army approaching, the entire city immediately fled clean. Tragic was the fate of these villagers who heard the news but waited here, who, until the troops entered their village they still did not know what was going on.
The two boys had never seen such troops movement; seeing how those saber-wielding, halberd-holding militia troops look fierce and ruthless as if they are ready to kill without blinking an eye, they did not even dare to breath too loud. Especially the closest militia troop was only about fifty steps away from their hiding place; it was indeed extremely dangerous.
One of the riders, who seemed to be the rebel leader, flanked by four escorts, urged his mount toward the row of village men. He picked several healthy, robust men, and drove them to the side, where some other riders immediately tied them with ropes. They appeared extremely harsh, brutal and inhuman. Anybody dared to resist, instantly horsewhip lashed down, beating him until he was half dead.
Watching the scene, the two boys' faces turned green and their lips white, but their hearts were boiling with anger.
As those mothers and wives saw their sons and husbands being dragged away to be forced labor, they wailed and cried out miserably that those who hear it could not bear it anymore. But those so-called ‘righteous army' maintained their fierce expression, without showing the least bit of compassion.
[Translator's note: the word ‘volunteer army' or ‘militia' consist of two characters 义军 - yi jun, the first character literally means ‘righteous'.]
Finished selecting the men, the leader went through the womenfolk and the children. Suddenly he pulled the reins. Pointing toward the crowd with his horsewhip, he barked, "You, come out!”
It immediately provoked uproar among the villagers, which the rebels army quickly quenched, naturally not without several people fell down in injuries.
Watching this, Kou Zhong, two boys' eyes were bloodshot with fury, but they knew that if they stepped forward bravely right now, they would suffer the same fate. It was this moment that they knew that their idea of joining the militia was a very ignorant and naïve.
The village woman was dragged out, sure enough, she looked rather pretty, with a well-developed figure; no wonder the rebel leader's heart was moved.
While the rebel leader was laughing lecherously, from the side a young militia soldier coldly said, "Qi Laoda [boss, see Chapter 1], Du Zongguan [chief manager, also Chapter 1] has an order, we must not rape women. Qi Laoda right now is at the edge of a cliff, reining your horse; there's still time.”
This man was brimming with righteousness, and he dared to confront his superior. The two boys were surprised that there was such man in the rebel army; in their hearts they cheered for him.
With a cold snort Qi Laoda said, "Li Jing[2], you mind your own business. Am I raping any woman now? I want to bring this pretty woman back home and marry her legally, making her my official wife. Ha! Do you think Du Ye [master Du] will also manage my marriage?” [reminder: ‘guan' of Zongguan above means ‘manage']
Li Jing was about to reply, the village woman suddenly bit the back of the green-cloth soldier's hand. The green-cloth soldier was startled and let go his grip. With the strength that nobody knew where it came from, the woman dashed out wildly from the encirclement, and ran toward the direction where Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were hiding.
Immediately four green-cloth soldiers laughed and cursed while urging their horses to give chase.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling saw the fear in the village woman's pretty eyes, their hearts swelled with righteous indignation. Forgetting about their own safety, they picked stones from the ground, jumped out of their hiding place, and threw the stones at the green-cloth soldiers pursuing the village woman.
When they were still at Yangzhou, their most formidable martial art skill was throwing rocks. It is called with a lot of work, the art is perfected, their throw has become accurate. This time they made their move without hesitation, also it was a sudden attack that was not anticipated, two of the green-cloth soldiers were hit at the pit of their stomach and fell down from their horses.
By this time the village woman's strength was finally exhausted, she tumbled down on the ground.
Kou Zhong suddenly felt his entire body was full of energy, the true qi inside him was surging, he felt as if he could beat two tigers to death, the strength with which he threw the rock was also doubled. With great excitement he called out, "Xiao Ling, snatch the horse and save her.”
The stones were thrown in rapid succession. Two other green-cloth soldiers were about to shoot with their arrows when suddenly their cheeks were hit. With a miserable cry they fell to the ground.
Hoof beats thundered as the rest of the green-cloth soldiers swarmed down to them.
In the meantime Xu Ziling has already pulled the village woman up. While he was worrying about how to ride a horse, he saw the crowd of soldiers was closing in. In his panic, he forgot that he did not know martial art; hastily he rushed forward toward a war-horse, while still dragging the village woman, who seemed to be as light as nothing, he leaped onto the horseback. To his surprise, he easily landed steadily on the saddle.
This moment Kou Zhong already jumped onto another horse. He clamped his legs on the horse's belly, but the horse reared on its hind legs and threw him down on the ground.
Xu Ziling's horse was also going around in circles, he was unable to make the horse run or even move forward. The green-cloth soldiers were only about twenty steps away. The several soldiers at the front have already prepared their bows and arrows, but they were afraid of hurting the horse, hence they did not shoot.
"Zhong Shao(ye),” Xu Ziling called out, "Come quickly.”
Kou Zhong was at his wits' end; hearing the call, he dashed madly and unexpectedly leaped high in the air and landed on Xu Ziling's horseback. Wrapping his arms around Xu Ziling's waist, he shouted, "Let's go!”
[1] Xiang Yu the Conqueror (232-202 BC), warlord defeated by the first Han emperor.
[2] There was a real historical character Li Jing (570-649AD), Tang Dynasty general and purported author of ‘Duke Li of Wei Answering Emperor Taizong of Tang', one of the ‘Seven Military Classics' of ancient China; not sure if this Li Jing was the same one. I guess we'll have to wait to find out.