Bodyguard Rui saw Zhang approaching and ordered the
soldiers to fix arrows in their bows in
readiness. The
roar of the approaching column was getting louder and
both Red Flower Society and the soldiers were afraid
that they were reinforcements for the other side.
"Brother Wei, take three others and scatter the
Eagle's Claws," Chen shouted.
Wei and the others raised their weapons and charged
into the Manchu ranks, slaughtering as they went.
A youngster darted out from behind Lu Feiqing saying:
"I'm going too!" Chen frowned: it was Li Yuanzhi, once
more dressed in boy's clothes.
When Lu met up with her again after the battle,
Yuanzhi had insisted that he take her with him to help
rescue Wen. Lu finally agreed, but made her promise
that she would do as she was told. Yuanzhi then wrote
a letter to her mother in which she said she had
decided to go on ahead alone to see her father in
Hangzhou.
Chen quickly issued his instructions, and 'Buddha'
Zhao raced after the carriage and sent two sleeve
arrows flying into the eyes of the mule pulling it
along. The mule gave a long scream and reared up on
its hind legs. The Twin Knights charged to either side
of the carriage and flung their Flying Claws at Zhang,
who fended them off with his sword. Simultaneously,
Priest Wu Chen and Xu attacked Zhang's back.
"Now!" Chen shouted to Xin Yan. The two soared through
the air and landed on top of the carriage.
Zhang heard Chen and Xin Yan land above and behind him
and threw a
handful of Golden Needles at them.
Chen saw the movement, and pushed Xin Yan off the
carriage and placed the shield in front of his own
body. There was a
patter of
metallic noises as the
needles hit it, but despite the extraordinary speed of
his reflexes, he heard Xin Yan cry out. Knowing the
boy had been hit, Chen hastily leapt down to help him.
Zhang threw another
handful of the needles at Priest
Wu Chen and Xu. The Priest flew out of the back of the
carriage like an arrow, moving faster and further than
the needles. Xu, however, only had time to lift a
cotton
coverlet in the carriage to block the needles.
But his left shoulder was left exposed and with a
sudden feeling of
numbness, he fell out of the
carriage.
Zhang Jin raced over to help him. "Brother Xu, are you
all right?" he shouted, bending over. Suddenly he felt
a great pain in his back as he was hit by an arrow,
and stumbled.
"Brothers! Everyone regroup!" Chen shouted. Arrows
were flying towards them like thick clouds of locusts.
Zhang Jin put his left hand on Priest Wu Chen's
shoulder and hit out at the arrows with his wolf's
tooth club.
"Tenth Brother, don't move!" the Priest said. "Control
yourself." He stopped the flow of blood from Zhang
Jin's wound with a touch to the
artery and carefully
pulled the arrow out. Then he ripped a corner off his
robes and bound up the wound.
Then they saw a pitch-black mass of Manchu soldiers
surging towards them from the east.
Zhang was ecstatic at the sight of reinforcements
arriving, but his breathing was becoming difficult and
he knew that his injuries were serious. Chen and the
others attacked the carriage once more, and he lifted
up Wen's body, and swung it round and round as a
detachment of
cavalry charged towards the Red Flower
Society fighters with sabres raised. Chen could see
that Wen would certainly be killed if they attempted
to recapture him by force, so he gave a loud whistle
and raced behind a nearby mound with the others
following.
Chen conducted a head-count, and found that Xu, Zhou
Qi, Yuanzhi, Lord Zhou and Meng were missing.
"Has anyone seen Brother Xu and Lord Zhou?" Chen
asked.
Zhang Jin, who was lying on the ground, raised his
head and said: "Seventh Brother was injured. Isn't he
here? I'll go and find him."
He stood up, but the arrow wound on his back was too
serious, and he swayed unsteadily.
"Don't you move, Tenth Brother," said 'Melancholy
Ghost' Shi. "I'll go."
"I'll go too," added 'Crocodile' Jiang, but Chen held
him back. "You and Fourth Sister make your way to the
river bank and prepare the rafts," he said. Jiang and
Luo Bing, her hopes dashed again, left.
Shi leapt onto a horse and galloped off around the
mound with sword in hand. By this time, the Manchu
troops were everywhere. Shi rode up onto higher ground
and looked around, but could see no sign of Xu and the
others, so he rode into the enemy's ranks to search
for them.
Not long after, Lord Zhou and Meng appeared.
"Have you seen your daughter?" Chen asked. Zhou shook
his head, full of anxiety.
"My young pupil has disappeared too," Lu Feiqing said.
"I'll go and look for them."
As he rode out, the ranks of the Manchu troops
suddenly parted and several horses charged towards
him. In the lead was Priest Wu Chen dragging Wei along
with his hand. Lu started in surprise when he saw Wei,
his whole body covered in blood and dirt, and
immediately moved forward to
obstruct any pursuers.
But the Manchu troops did not dare to obsttruct these
ferocious-looking men and let them retreat behind the
mound.
Chen quickly went to see Wei, who was delirious,
shouting: "Kill the bastards!"
"Ninth Brother has worn himself out with all this
killing," Priest Wu Chen said. "His mind is a little
confused. Nothing serious."
"Have you seen Brother Xu and Brother Shi?" Chen
asked.
"I'll go and look for them" the Priest said.
"There's also Mistress Zhou and the Master Lu's
pupil," Chen said.
Priest Wu Chen mounted up, sword at the ready, and
charged back into the Manchu ranks. A Manchu officer
spurred his horse forward and charged at him with
spear raised, but the priest dodged the spear thrust
and drove his sword into the officer's heart. The
officer slumped off his horse and the soldiers under
his command howled and scattered in all directions.
Priest Wu Chen continued his onslaught and soldiers
fell wherever his sword went. As he galloped along a
stretch of the road, he saw a crowd of soldiers with
'Melancholy Ghost' Shi in the middle fighting fiercely
with three officers.
"Get away, I'll cover you!" Priest Wu Chen shouted.
The two raced back to the mound, but there was still
no indication of what had happened to Xu and the
others. A Manchu company commander led his soldiers in
an attack on the mound occupied by the Red Flower
Society, but the heroes immediately killed more than a
dozen of them, and the rest retreated.
Chen led his horse up onto the mound. "Brother Meng,"
he said, handing him the reins. "Hold it steady and
made sure it doesn't get hit by a stray arrow." He
leapt up onto the horse's back and stood on the
saddle. Looking around, he saw the huge Manchu column
surging towards them from the east. A bugle sounded
and the column turned into a fiery dragon as each
soldier raised a torch. Amidst the glow, he saw a
large banner flowing in the wind on which he could
just made out the words "Border Pacification General
Zhao" written in large characters. Each soldier in the
column was riding a tall,
sturdy horse, and there was
a clanking noise as they marched, indicating they were
probably wearing armour.
Chen jumped down from the horse. "Armoured troops on
the way," he shouted. "Everyone head for the river."
Lord Zhou was very worried about his daughter, but
finding her among such a huge body of troops was
impossible. The heroes helped up Wei, Zhang Jin and
the other wounded, and galloped towards the banks of
the Yellow River with the Manchu
cavalry in hot
pursuit. Luo Bing and Jiang punted the sheepskin rafts
up to the shore and took the wounded on board first.
"Everyone get on the rafts quickly!" Chen yelled.
"Priest Wu Chen, Third Brother, Lord Zhou, we four
will hold..."
Before he could finish, a wave of crossbow arrows flew
towards them.
"Charge!" roared Priest Wu Chen, and the four threw
themselves at the first ranks of
cavalry. Lord Zhou's
huge sword rose and fell, cutting Manchu soldiers down
from their horses, while 'Buddha' Zhao slung copper
coins at the eye-slits in their armour. Although it
was impossible to see clearly in the dark, he still
managed to blind five or six men. By this time,
everyone except Chen and the other three had boarded
the rafts.
Chen spotted a mounted officer directing the troops,
and sprang over to him. He pulled the fficer from his
horse and ran for the river bank with him under his
arm. The Manchu troops rushed forward to try to save
their commanding officer, but they didn't dare to fire
any arrows. Chen leapt onto one of the rafts and Jiang
and Luo Bing began to move them out towards the centre
of the river.
The Yellow River was in full flood and with the
current powerful and turbulant, the two large
sheepskin rafts flew off
downstream. The hubbub of the
great armed column slowly faded as the river roared
around them.
The heroes set about tending to the wounded. 'Leopard'
Wei's mind gradually cleared and his body was found to
be free from wounds. 'Buddha' Zhao was an expert at
medical treatment as well as with darts and he bound
up 'Iron Pagoda' Yang's and Zhang Jin's wounds. Zhang
Jin was more seriously injured, but was in no danger.
Xin Yan had been hit by several Golden Needles, and
was in such pain that he cried out
continually. The
needles had penetrated right through the flesh into
the bones, and Zhao took a
magnet from his medicine
bag and drew them out one by one. Luo Bing rowed on
silently. Not only had they failed to rescue Wen, but
'Mastermind' Xu, Zhou Qi, Lu Feiqing and his pupil had
been lost as well, and no-one knew where 'Scholar' Yu
had got to.
Chen roused the captured Manchu officer. "What the
hell was your column doing travelling through the
night like that?" he asked.
The officer said nothing. Yang slapped him on the
face. "Are you going to talk?" he shouted.
"I'll talk...I'll talk," the officer said quickly,
holding his cheek. "What do you want me to say?"
"What was your column doing travelling at night?"
"General Zhao Wei received an Imperial command
ordering us to attack the Muslim areas and take them
over before a certain date. He was afraid we wouldn't
make it in the time limit, and also that the Muslims
would hear of our approach and make preparations. So
we've been marching day and night."
"The Muslims are very well-behaved," said Chen. "Why
are you going to attack them?"
"That...that, I don't know." the officer said.
"If you are heading for the Muslim areas, why did you
come to interfere in our business?"
"General Zhao heard of some bandits making trouble in
this area and ordered me to lead a detail to deal with
them, but the main army didn't stop..."
Before he could finish, Yang gave him another slap.
"Damn your mother!" he shouted. "It's you who are the
bandits!"
"Yes, yes! I made a mistake!" the officer cried.
Chen was silent for a while, then questioned the
officer closely
regarding the army's troop strength,
route and rations. Some of it the officer didn't know,
but he did not dare to hide what he did know.
"Head...For...The...Shore" Chen shouted at the top of
his voice. Luo Bing and Jiang steered the rafts
towards the bank and everyone stepped ashore.
Chen called the Twin Knights over.
"Travel back as fast as you can and find out what
happened to the others," he said. "If they have fallen
into the hands of the Manchus, they will certainly be
taken back to Beijing along the Great Road. We can
intercept them further east and work out some way of
rescuing them."
The Twin Knights nodded and started out.
"Twelfth Brother," Chen continued, turning to
'Melancholy Ghost' Shi. "I want you to do something
for me."
"Whatever you say, Great Helmsman."
Chen wrote out a letter under the light of the moon.
"Please take this letter to Master Muzhuolun in the
Muslim regions," he said. "We have only met him and
his people once, but they showed the greatest
friendship towards us, so we cannot stand idly by.
Fourth Sister, please lend your white horse to Twelfth
Brother for the trip." Luo Bing had kept the animal
aboard the raft throughout the battle.
Shi mounted up and disappeared in a cloud of dust.
With the horse's phenomenal speed, he estimated he
could
overtake the army in a day and be in time to
warn Muzhuolun.
Chen then directed Jiang to tie the officer's hands
behind his back. They placed him on one of the rafts
and pushed it out into the stream and left it for Fate
to decide whether he should live or die.
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