Legend of Condor Heroes Book 4

by Jin Yong

  Genghis Khan waved his hand, shouted loudly, “Kill them all, don’t leave anybody standing.”

  Guo Jing did not dare to say anything, but then he saw a boy about seven, eight years old, dash out from the crowd and threw himself down at a woman who was just knocked down by a horse, calling out, “Mama!” A Mongolian soldier dashed in and swung his long saber, mother and son were chopped into four parts. The child’s hands were still clutching tightly to his mother.

  Guo Jing’s blood boiled; he forgot everything and called out, “Great Khan, you said that this city’s women and children, along with all gold and silk are mine; why did you give your order to massacre them?”

  Genghis Khan was startled; he smiled, “You said you didn’t want it.”

  “You said that whatever I ask you, you will not deny it, didn’t you?” Guo Jing asked.

  Genghis Khan nodded, still smiling.

  With a loud voice Guo Jing said, “The Great Khan’s words are like a mountain; I am asking you to spare this tens of thousands lives.”

  Genghis Khan was greatly astounded, not in his wildest dream would he guess Guo Jing would ask him this; but he had already given his promise, how could he refuse? He was enraged, his eyes blazing with fire looking at Guo Jing. His hand squeezed his saber’s hilt, he roared, “Kid, you really want this?”

  All the princes and generals were scared to see Genghis Khan this angry. Genghis Khan was surrounded by brave warriors, each one had fought countless battles, none were weak or had a feeble heart, they faced death straight in the face; but facing Genghis Khan’s anger they could not help but tremble.

  Guo Jing had never seen Genghis Khan look at him this way, he was also extremely scared; his body could not stop shivering, but he said, “I am asking the Great Khan to spare these people’s lives.”

  With a low growling voice Genghis Khan asked, “You won’t regret it?”

  Guo Jing remembered Huang Rong told him to ask for cancellation of his betrothal; now he let this good opportunity slipped away. He had lost the Great Khan’s favor forever, which he didn’t mind; but he actually realized his relationship with Huang Rong was just being thrown down the drain. He had seen and heard these hundreds of thousands common people wailing pitifully; how could he see others facing death and do nothing? Therefore, boldly he said, “I won’t regret it.”

  Genghis Khan heard his trembling voice, he knew Guo Jing was scared to death, but still he boldly made a request. He was forced to admire Guo Jing’s guts; drawing a long saber he called out, “Withdraw troops!”

  His guard blew the horn. Tens of thousands Mongolian cavalry with blood all over their bodies reined their horses and arranged themselves in neat formation.

  Since Genghis Khan became the Great Khan, nobody had ever dared to defy his order. This time Guo Jing bravely hampered his order to massacre the city; he was really angry. With a loud shout he threw his long saber to the ground; then sped his horse back to the city.

  The other generals cast their angry looks toward Guo Jing; now that the Great Khan was angry who knew who would be unlucky enough to bear the brunt of his anger. They were also discontented, since as Samarkhand’s defense was broken, they were hoping to plunder and kill to their hearts’ content for several days; but now their hopes were shattered.

  Guo Jing knew the resentment of others, but he ignored them all, he rode his little red horse slowly to a secluded place. Since the beginning of the war, thousands upon thousands homes had been burnt to the ground, corpses scattered everywhere, the snow covered plain was dyed red with blood. He thought, “War brings wretched disaster; bad as it is now. In order for me to seek vengeance for my father I have commanded troops to kill these many people. In order to rule the world, the Great Khan has killed even more people. But for the officers, soldiers, and the common people, what did they do to deserve the cruelest death; their bones abandoned in the wilderness?”

  The more he thought, the more restless his heart became, “I destroyed a city to avenge my father, actually killed these many people. In the end, is it worth it?” He wandered around the wilderness on horseback, going back and forth while painstakingly thinking deeply. It was dark when finally decided to go back to his camp.

  As he arrived at the camp’s gate, he saw the Great Khan’s two personal guards were waiting outside. They stepped forward and bowed, reporting, “The Great Khan summons Master Consort. Xiao Ren had been waiting for a long time; asking Master Consort to quickly go.”

  Guo Jing thought, “Today I have defied his command; the Great Khan might want to behead me. It has gone thus far, I just have to wait and see what will happen.” Beckoning to his own guard he whispered to his ear, ordering him to tell Lu Youjiao that he is going to the palace. He was anxious, but he had determined, “No matter how angry he is, I won’t take back my request to spare these people’s lives. He is the Great Khan, he can’t go back on his words.”

  His heart was full of the idea that the Great Khan would unleash his anger, who would have thought that as he approached the palace gate he actually heard the Great Khan’s merry laughter were heard intermittently from inside the palace. Guo Jing could not help but to be a little bit surprised. He sped up his footstep entering the main hall.

  He saw next to the Great Khan sat a man, and next to his foot a young maiden sat leaning on his knee. The man had a ruddy face with white hair, he was none other than the Perpetual Spring [Changchun Zi] Qiu Chuji. As for the young woman; who else but Princess Huazheng?

  Guo Jing was delighted, hastily he rushed to meet them. Suddenly Genghis Khan snatched a long halberd from his guard’s hand, turned around and fiercely attacked Guo Jing’s head with the halberd.

  Guo Jing was shocked, he leaned sideways to elude. ‘Crack!’ the halberd’s shaft hit his left shoulder and broke into two pieces. Genghis Khan burst into laughter, “Kid, let the bygone be bygone. If I am not looking at Qiu Daozhang [Taoist Priest] and my daughter’s face, I should have taken your head away today.”

  Princess Huazheng sprang up, she called out, “Father, you must be bullying my Brother Guo Jing while I am not here.”

  Genghis Khan tossed the broken halberd to the floor. He laughed, “Who said that?”

  “I’ve seen it with my own eyes, how could you deny it?” Huazheng said, “For that reason my heart was troubled, I came with Qiu Daozhang to take a look.”

  Genghis Khan laughed, he pulled his daughter with one hand, and Guo Jing with the other; he said, “Let’s not bicker, just sit nicely, listen while Qiu Daozhang recites his poem.”

  At the battle of Misty Rain Tavern [‘yan yu lou’ - ‘lou’ means upper level of buildings with more than one floor] Qiu Chuji saw with his own eyes that Zhou Botong was alive and well; he also realized that Tan Chuduan was killed by Ouyang Feng. Along with Ma Yu and the others they went to apologize to Huang Yaoshi. Later on Quanzhen Six Masters came across Ke Zhen’e who told them everything, which made everybody sigh deeply. Qiu Chuji regretted deeply that he had been careless with his disciple, he taught Yang Kang martial arts, but did not take him out of the palace. The youngster was spoiled in riches and honor, and finally met his tragic end.

  One day he received Genghis Khan’s and Guo Jing’s letter; he thought Mongolia was getting stronger and might swallow up China. It was exceptional that Genghis Khan should invite someone to come over. He thought he might want to seize the opportunity to give the Khan some advice, trying to open up his heart to the truth, so if he might prevent the slaughter of countless people all over the world, that would be his greatest contribution to mankind. Also, he missed seeing Guo Jing; therefore, braving the cold he took more than a dozen of his disciples to the west.

  Qiu Chuji saw Guo Jing had been through wind and snow, his skin was darker, but his body actually looked stronger and healthier; Qiu Chuji was delighted. Before Guo Jing arrived he had been discussing what he had seen and heard with the Great Khan. He said that he experienced the harshness of the weather first hand, so he compose
d several poems. Stroking his beard he started to recite: “For ten years the people had dreaded the calamity of war, among millions not even one or two could survive. The past year met a good fortune receiving merciful imperial order, this spring braving the cold making the journey. Taming the three-thousand ‘li’ of northern mountain range, roaming two-hundred eastern hill provinces. Exhausted and anxious, gasping for the last breath of life; consumed by the people’s suffering.”

  An officer with understanding of Chinese literature called Yelu Chucai translated the poem into Mongolian. Genghis Khan listened; he nodded his head but did not say anything.

  To Guo Jing Qiu Chuji said, “That year when your seven masters and I were having a martial art contest at the Drunken Immortal Tavern, your Second Master took a half-finished poem from my pocket. This time I am traveling to the west without being able to see your seven masters again; but finally I have finished this poem.” He started reciting immediately, “ ‘Since the ancient time, the moon of ‘zhong-qiu’ [mid-autumn festival] has always been the brightest; the cool breeze of the night is so clear. The day the shooting star is brighter than the Milky Way, the dragons of the four seas leaped from the water.’ These first four lines were the ones your Second Master had read; I have just finished the next four, he had not seen them yet. ‘The song from the Wu and Yue kingdoms tower was heard extensively, the military barrack of Qin kingdom was full with songs, food and wine. I arrived before the emperor upstream of the river, desiring to stop the spears, wishing for peace and security.’”

  Remembering The Seven Freaks of Jiangnan, Guo Jing’s eyes were brimming in tears.

  Genghis Khan said, “During the journey to the west, the Priest must have seen my Mongolia’s military prowess. I wonder if you have composed a poem about it?”

  Qiu Chuji answered, “Along the way I have seen the Great Khan’s power in destroying the cities and ransacking the earth. It made a deep impression in my heart, gave me inspiration to write two stanzas. The first one is, ‘The Heaven has sent a messenger down to the earth, why not try to save millions of suffering souls? These millions of souls day and night put to death by dismemberment, drinking the wrath, swallowing their weeping without uttering a word. They looked up and cried to the Heaven, but the Heaven did not answer; it was a mere trivial thing unworthy of Heaven’s attention. Peace among thousands of chaos, without religion building refined souls.’”

  Yelu Chuchai thought Genghis Khan would not be happy listening to this, so he hesitated and did not translate immediately. Qiu Chuji ignored him, he continued, “My second poem is this, ‘Alas, the world is opened wide, on it live millions of living beings. Cruelty and wickedness battle each other incessantly, carrying the human suffering to its utmost. The Emperor of Heaven, the Queen of the earth, along with all deities, witnessing death; why not help? The messenger is sad but helpless, day and night full of heartache in vain’” [Translator’s note: all these poems consist of seven-character sub-sentences]

  These two poems although not really deep, but the essence of lamenting the fate of mankind was so obvious. Earlier that day Guo Jing had witnessed first hand the massacre of the people in that city, he was even more somber.

  “The Priest’s poems must be good, what did they say? Quick, translate them for me,” Genghis Khan said.

  Yelu Chuchai thought, “I have advised the Great Khan not to kill too many innocent civilians, but he didn’t want to listen. Luckily this Priest has a deep merciful feeling and composed these beautiful poems. I hope he can persuade the Great Khan.” He translated the poem immediately.

  Listening to the poems, Genghis Khan was dissatisfied, he turned to Qiu Chuji and said, “I heard there is a technique to reach immortality, to never get old, in China. I hope the Priest would teach me that.”

  “There is no such thing as reaching immortality, to never get old,” Qiu Chuji replied, “But there is indeed a Taoist method of circulating the breathing that will result in preventing illness and prolong life.”

  “May I ask what the most important thing in that breathing exercise is?” Genghis Khan asked.

  “The way of Heaven knows no favorite, always recognizes good man,” Qiu Chuji answered.

  “Which one would you call good?” Genghis Khan asked.

  “A saint’s heart is undivided, his heart is for the common people,” Qiu Chuji said.

  Genghis Khan was silent. Qiu Chuji continued, “There is a scripture in China, it is called the ‘Dao De Jing’ [Holy Scripture of Virtue] which we, Taoists view as our treasure. The ‘the way of Heaven knows’ and ‘a saint’s heart’ were taken from that book. There is another saying in that book, ‘Soldiers and weapons are inauspicious devices, not the tool of person with noble character. The tool will be used against his own will, not to gain fame or fortune from it. But woe is the man who loves to murder. Those who love to kill will not be able to realize his wish under the sky.”

  When Qiu Chuji was traveling to the west, he saw the savageness of the war disaster; his heart was filled with sorrow. He took advantage of Genghis Khan asking him the secret of long life to repeatedly pleading for common people’s lives.

  Genghis Khan was getting old, his strength waned, he wanted to learn the technique of immortality; he was very delighted to see Qiu Chuji arrive, thinking that very soon he would learn the technique to defy death and the method to prolong his life. Who would have thought that instead he was advised not to resort of military power and not to kill too much? This conversation did not suit his taste. Therefore, after talking a little bit more he turned to Guo Jing and said, “Go and accompany the Priest to take a rest.”

  [Author’s note:

  1. Khoresm is a great Islamic country, located on the southern part of Soviet Union, near Afghanistan and Iran. Samarkhand is located in modern day Soviet Union’s Uzbekistan Republic. According to the ‘yuan shi’ [the history of Yuan dynasty], Genghis Khan attacked Khoresm during the year of ‘yu long jie chi’ [jade dragon, scarlet hero], using petroleum to burn the city down and break their defense.

  2. According to historical records, Qiu Chuji and Genghis Khan exchanged correspondence three times before finally he took eighteen of his disciples traveling through the snowy Kunlun Mountains. His disciple, Li Zhicang compiled a book called ‘chang chun zhen ren xi you ji’ [Changchun (perpetual spring) Sage’s journey to the west], recording their experience en route. This book is still highly esteemed by the scholars of today.]

  Chapter 38 - Secret Order in Embroidered Pouch

  Translated by Frans Soetomo

  Guo Jing grabbed one end of his long robe and let his horse run close to Ouyang Feng. Ouyang Feng held out his hand and grabbed the other end. Guo Jing squeezed his legs and gave a loud shout. The little red horse furiously charged forward and with a loud splashing sound Ouyang Feng was pulled out of the mire and dragged along on the snowy ground.

  Guo Jing accompanied Qiu Chuji and his eighteen disciples, among them were Li Zhichang, Yin Zhiping, Xia Zhicheng, Yu Zhike, Zhang Zhizsu, Wang Zhiming, and Song Defang. When they went out of the palace, they saw Huang Rong and the three elders, Lu, Jian, and Liang, as well as about a thousand Beggar Clan disciples all on horseback, waiting outside the palace.

  As soon as she saw Guo Jing leave the palace, Huang Rong slapped her horse to move forward, smiling she asked “Is everything all right?”

  Guo Jing smiled, “My luck is not bad; Qiu Daozhang [Taoist Priest] arrived just in time, changing the Great Khan’s mood to the better,” he said.

  Huang Rong paid her respects to Qiu Chuji, then she asked Guo Jing again, “I was afraid the Great Khan would kill you in his wrath, I took everybody here ready to rescue you. What did the Great Khan say? Did he agree to cancel your betrothal?”

  Guo Jing hesitated for half a day before replying, “I did not ask.”

  “Why?” Huang Rong was startled.

  “Rong’er, please don’t get angry,” Guo Jing said, “It was because ...” Right then Princess Huazheng ru
shed out of the palace, loudly called out, “Guo Jing Gege [big brother - a term of endearment].”

  As soon as she saw her, Huang Rong’s face changed immediately. She quickly mounted her horse and galloped away. Guo Jing was about to open his mouth to explain, when Huazheng pulled his hand and said, “Weren’t you surprised I came here? Are you happy to see me?”

  Guo Jing nodded, he turned his head to see Huang Rong, but she had already disappeared. Huazheng only had her eyes to Guo Jing, she did not notice Huang Rong at all; she held his hand, laughing, giggling and telling him how much she missed him.

  Guo Jing secretly groaned, “Rong’er must think it was because I saw Huazheng that I did not ask the Great Khan to cancel my betrothal.” He was silent and did not hear what Huazheng was saying.

  A moment later Huazheng realized Guo Jing was in a daze, she was offended, “What’s the matter with you? I came from far away just to see you and you do not pay any attention to me?”

  “Meizi [younger sister - term of endearment],” Guo Jing said, “I have a very important matter I need to take care of, we will talk when I come back.” Without waiting for her answer he assigned his personal guard to take care of Qiu Chuji, then hurriedly he went back to his camp, looking for Huang Rong.

  His guard said, “Miss Huang came back to take the painting, then left toward the eastern gate.”

  Guo Jing was startled, “What painting?” he asked.

  “The painting Master Consort frequently looked at,” his guard replied.

  Now Guo Jing really freaked out. “She took away this picture that means she really severed her relationship with me. No matter what, I have to go south to look for her.” Hurriedly he wrote a letter to Qiu Chuji, then mounting his little red horse he went out of town to pursue.

  That little red horse was very fast; but Guo Jing was afraid he might not see Huang Rong anymore, so he kept urging the horse to run even faster. In a short moment they had covered more than ten ‘li’s, already at the outskirt of the city; soldiers and horses’ remains scattered everywhere. Another dozen or so ‘li’s later, all he saw was a vast open prairie covered with white snow. To his delight, there were horse’s tracks on the snow heading east.