Book 2 Chapter 6 - Benefiting Self, Benefiting Others
When they got to the city gate, they found out that not only the city gate has closed, there was also a large assembly of people. For some unknown reason, the yamen [government office in feudal China] officers who guard the gate were also replaced by big men.
Being new thieves, the two boys still lacked confidence; they retreated to a dark alley not far from the city gate and sat down on the ground.
Kou Zhong took out the purse he snatched from his victims earlier. Under the dim golden and orange light shining from the torches at the city gate, he counted his booty.
Xu Ziling took out the saber and lovingly played with it in his hand.
After counting it twice, Kou Zhong exclaimed in delight, "This time we hit the jackpot; there are altogether about twenty taels of silver. Not only it is enough to cover our travel expenses to Luoyang, we can also have a feast, and stroll into a low-grade brothel for three days.”
With the saber rested on his knees, Xu Ziling stretched out his neck in disbelief, and then happily said, "In that case, we need not steal salt, transport salt and sell salt; such a hard work.”
"So lack of ambition,” Kou Zhong scolded, "Twenty taels is just to satisfy the most annoying needs, we will still steal Haisha's salt as planned. We stay here one night, when the city gate opens tomorrow, we immediately pick up the goods and leave. Ay! I hope nobody will find Ol' Liu.”
Xu Ziling said in dismay, "I wish we know qinggong [lightness skill], so we could climb over the wall and leave. Ah!”
The two boys' countenance changed greatly. They heard hoof beats in the distance coming rapidly over. As their scalp went numb, a large group of riders galloped along the main street outside the alley; there were at least a hundred riders, and all were speeding toward the city gate.
Soon they heard someone yelled in subdued voice, "Sea sand [haisha] raises its power!”
The other side replied, "Eastern sea [dong ming] in trouble!”
When the two boys stretched out their neck to look, they saw the small door by the city gate was opened, the crowd of Haisha Bang riders urged their horses to file out of the city.
The two boys looked at each other. But soon afterwards several more people went out of the city; all with the same secret password. Some of the gang members even went out on foot.
Xu Ziling said, "Seems to me Haisha Bang is going to attack Dong Ming Pai's big ship tonight. Should we notify them? Haisha Bang definitely does not have even half a decent person!”
Kou Zhong's eyes lit up as he said in low voice, "Do you want to go to Ryukyu? Just by marrying that little maid, our luck cannot be considered shallow. Come!”
Xu Ziling followed him standing up. With terrified expression he said, "What if they recognize us?”
Puffing up his chest, Kou Zhong replied, "Without going into the tiger den, how can we get a tiger cub? Oh! I get it. It's the tiger's daughter, and the tiger is female. For the sake of those beautiful Dong Ming Pai's beautiful tigresses, we have to fight his mother's battle. Look! The city gate is still open, we have sabers; if we get recognized, we'll kill our way out. As long as we could reach the seaside, ‘splash!' we can plunge into the water. With our Nine Mysteries breath-holding Great Method, who could possibly catch us? Come on! Coward!”
Finished speaking he strode forward.
Xu Ziling had no choice but to follow him out.
They had just stepped into the main street, there was the sound of hoof beats again. Four riders came over, fast.
Kou Zhong cast his gaze toward the city gate, but did not see the big men earlier; there were only about a dozen yamen officers, who were staring hard at them. He could not go back even if he wanted to. Turning around to face the four riders he called out, "Has Er Ye left of the city?”
The four riders brushed past; one of them replied, "Da Ye [big/first master] and Er Ye are in the back!” Then they went like a whirlwind.
Terrified, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling hastily increased their speed. Still far away from the yamen officers, they called out, "Sea sand raises its power!”
One of the officers, presumably the leader, laughed and said, "You, two kids whose smell of your mother's milk has not yet dried, also want to follow those men doing their work; don't you like to have a long life?”
The officers burst into laughter.
One of the troops said, "Who are you? How come I've never seen you before?”
Kou Zhong patted his saber; assuming a forthright manner he said, "Er Ye is our elder [orig. agong - grandfather], Xie Feng is our adoptive senior [orig. adie - dad/old man]. It was only last month that they included us in.”
Seeing he spoke reasonably and with confidence, the troops did not stop them; they let the two boys got out of the city.
The two boys were wild with delight; they rushed out of the city.
But as soon as they stepped out of the city gate, both groaned inwardly. Because the area just outside the gate was densely packed with a large group of men and horses, at least the number was close to a thousand. However, because no one lighted a torch and that everybody was silent, the two boys did not find out until they were outside the gate; therefore, they were now stuck.
Someone shouted, "Sea sand raises its power!”
The two boys responded in unison, "Eastern sea in trouble!”
A man came over to meet them, "Which hall?” he asked in low voice.
Bracing himself, Kou Zhong replied, "Yuhang division!”
The man did not suspect anything; he pointed to a group of men and said, "Tie the red band and stand over there. Boss will be here soon!”
Seeing him handing out two pieces of red band, Xu Ziling hastily stepped forward to receive it.
When they got to the Yuhang division group, the two boys pretended to be busy tying the red band, and then with head hung low they stood at the last of the line; surprisingly, nobody said anything.
Several men at the front turned their heads around to look at them, but since it was dark, they could not see clearly. The men were just about to question the two boys when sound of hoof beats was heard; a group of riders went out the city gate. Hence nobody paid them any attention anymore.
When they looked up, they saw a big man like an iron tower. Because the two men standing on his left and right were holding their torch high, everybody was able to see him clearly.
This man looked intimidatingly impressive; on his back he carried a pair of hatchets, his eyes were like copper bells. When he swept his gaze around, everybody, including Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, felt that he was looking straight at him.
The other people with him were different from each other. One of them was a rather good-looking Buddhist nun; her oversized Buddhist robe was blown by the sea breeze that it stuck to her body, revealing her beautiful and captivating curves.
That Tan Yong was also one of them, it's just that he was at the last of the line; apparently the other people ranked higher than him.
The troops opened up a path in the middle. The big man urged his horse to gallop in a small circle before he finally stopped. One after another the Haisha Bang people pulled their weapons and paid their respect.
While raising his saber, Kou Zhong took the opportunity to whisper in Xu Ziling's ear, "Looks like this Boss is much more superior than us, two martial art masters. As soon as we have the opportunity, we must slip away; don't care about anything else.”
Seeing this kind of display of power, Xu Ziling was also extremely nervous; he nodded incessantly.
The Haisha Bang Boss reined his horse and shouted, "This time, we, Haisha Bang are working for Yuwen Huaji Daren; generous reward is not difficult to attain, plus there are other benefits as well. The key to victory this time is to attack when they are not prepared, leaving no one alive. You must make an all-out effort to follow your Boss in handling this matter; anyone who shrinks back on approaching the battlefield will be dealt with according to our house rules. When we achieve success, everybody will be heavily rewarded. Got it?”
The crowd responded in unison.
This place was still quite far from the dock, separated by a gulf. Even if they shouted loudly, Dong Ming Pai people on the dock would not hear it.
Kou Zhong was just about to pull Xu Ziling to slip away from the back when he suddenly realized that there were people shouting their response from a small hill behind them as well; therefore, he abandoned his plan.
In the meantime, Tan Yong and a short man rode toward the Yuhang division people; he talked in a low voice for a moment, and then he gave the order to move. Those with horses galloped on horseback, those on foot ran behind them. The annoying thing was that Tan Yong fell behind, he rode at the rear of the formation, so that the two boys were unable to go AWOL. Without any choice they ran in the middle of the group.
After traveling for little less than half a sichen, they arrived at the seaside, where three double-mast boats were already waiting. They were about three, four li away from the shore where the big Dong Ming Pai ship was anchored.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling braced themselves to climb onboard one of the ships under Tan Yong's supervision. As soon as they were on board, everybody started working. Some were preparing the stone catapult; some took care of the fire arrows, and some others manned the sail and untie the mooring rope. Only the two boys did not know what to do, so that they were sticking up like a sore thumb.
While they were terrified and extremely nervous, Tan Yong suddenly decided to board their ship. Fortunately the ship was in total blackout; otherwise, they would be discovered early on as fake articles.