"Water, water... some water?"
Guo Jing immediately ran into the house and brought out a bowl of water from the water tub. That man grabbed it out of Guo Jing's hand and drank it all in one gulp. "More!" He demanded.
Guo Jing retrieved another bowl for him. He drank half before the blood dripping off of his face turned the water red. The man let out a loud laugh, then suddenly, his face twitched and he fell off his horse and fainted.
Guo Jing panicked; he didn't know what to do. Luckily, the man came to after a while. "Give my horse some water too," he said, "and do you have anything to eat?"
Guo Jing brought out some roasted lamb for him and got a whole bucket of water for the horse.
After gulping down the hearty meal, the man was thoroughly refreshed and got up off the ground.
"Thanks, brother." He said as he took off the gold bracelet he had around his wrist and held it out at Guo Jing. "Here, take it."
Guo Jing shook his head: "Mom said that we should take care of guests and not ask for or take anything in return."
The man laughed at this and commented: "You are a good kid!" He put the bracelet back on his wrist, tore off half of his sleeve, and began to attend to both his and his horse's wounds. Suddenly, from the east came the faint rumblings of horses galloping. The man's face dropped: "Huh, looks like they are not going to let me go!"
The two of them ran out of the door and saw that the land in the distance was covered by dust kicked up by countless horses heading this way.
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"Kid, do you have a bow and arrows in the house?" The man asked.
"Yah, sure." Guo Jing replied just before darting back into the house. Hearing that, the man looked somewhat relieved, but that soon changed when he saw that Guo Jing had just brought out his own little toy bow and arrow. He let out a little laugh before frowning: "I need the fighting kind, the big one." Guo Jing merely shook his head.
The pursuers were getting closer, theirs banners could be faintly seen waving in the distance. The man figured that, with his horse injured, he wouldn't be able to get away. While hiding is always dangerous, he had no alternative. "I can't beat them all by myself, so I’ve got to hide." He said, turning to Guo Jing. He looked around and noticed that there was nowhere to hide in or around the hut. In desperation, he settled on the big pile of grass outside.
"I'm going to hide in there. Could you chase my horse as far away as you can? Be sure to find a good place to hide for yourself too and don't let them catch you." he instructed as he dug himself into the grass pile. Traditionally, as soon as the scorching summer has passed, Mongolians would immediately cut down all the available tall grass and pile it up. During the harsh winters, Mongolians relied on these grass piles for feed for the animals as well as fire for warmth. Often these grass piles would be bigger than their gers. The man was actually very well hidden inside the grass pile and probably wouldn't be discovered without careful inspection.
Guo Jing turned and gave the black horse a couple of good lashes, causing the horse to gallop off.
Only until it was almost entirely out of sight did it finally stop and started to graze. Guo Jing jumped onto his little horse and took off to the west.
The pursuers, noticing that someone was there, sent two advanced scouts forward to give chase.
Guo Jing's pony wasn't fast and the two scouts soon caught up. "Kid, did you see a man riding a black horse around here?" One of them demanded.
Guo Jing didn't know how to tell a lie, so he couldn't find the words to answer the question. The two scouts asked several more times, but there was still no answer. "Let's take him to the First Prince!", one of them finally suggested, seeing blank looking face on the kid. The two scouts took hold of Guo Jing's reins and led him back to the hut.
"I just won't say." Guo Jing made up his mind on the way back.
A good number of Mongolian soldiers surrounded a tall and skinny young man. Guo Jing recognized the face, he had seen him on the hill two days before. Noticing that the soldiers were all obeying his commands, Guo Jing decided that he was an enemy of that black robed general. "What did the little kid say?" The First Prince shouted.
"This kid is scared stiff; he hasn't said a word."
The First Prince looked around and suddenly noticed the black horse grazing in the distance. "Is that his horse? Go and bring it here," he quietly ordered. Ten Mongols split into five groups and quietly surrounded the horse. By the time the horse noticed and tried to escape, it had already run out of places to run.
"Isn't this Jebe's horse?" The First Prince asked rhetorically in an arrogant voice. "Yes sir, it is!" The solders answered in unison.
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The First Prince, using his riding whip, lashed the side of Guo Jing's head and shouted: "Where is he hiding? Spit it out. Think you can fool me?"
Hiding in the pile of dried grass, Jebe held his broken saber tightly. Seeing Guo Jing getting hit and a huge welt immediately starting to develop on his head, his heart began to beat wildly. He knew that this was Temujin's eldest son, Jochi, whose cruelty and savagery was famous throughout the entire Steppe. He figured that the kid would undoubtedly be frightened into telling where he was hiding, and then he would have to jump out and fight to the death.
Guo Jing wanted to cry, but, trying with all his might, he kept back the tears. Holding his head up high, he asked: "Why did you hit me? I didn't do anything wrong!" He knew kids only get beaten when they did something wrong.
"Trying to be tough huh?" Jochi shouted angrily before he whipped Guo Jing again, making Guo Jing burst out crying.
By now other soldiers had already given Guo Jing's house a thorough search. Two of the soldiers even poked about the grass pile with their spears. Luckily, the grass pile was huge and they didn't hit Jebe. "The horse is still here, he couldn't have gone far. Kid, are you going to tell or not!" Jochi continued as he lashed at Guo Jing's head three more times. Guo Jing reached out and tried to grab the riding whip, but how could he?
Suddenly, they heard horns sounding from afar. "The Khan is coming!" All of the soldiers shouted as Jochi stopped and turned to greet his father. "Father!" He shouted as an army with Temujin at the head came galloping in.
The wound that Jebe inflicted on Temujin turned out to be severe. During the battle Temujin was able to fight through it, but after the battle was over he actually fainted several times from the pain.
His trusted general Jelme and third son Ogedai took turns sucking the bad blood clots out of his wound. The officers and his sons waited by his bedside for an entire night until he was no longer in mortal danger. The next morning, swearing to catch Jebe and quarter him so as to avenge this wound to the Khan, the Mongol soldiers spread out in all directions. By dusk on the second day, a small scout team finally ran into Jebe, but was decimated by him. However, Jebe was injured as well in the melee. Upon hearing the news, Temujin immediately sent his eldest son Jochi after him before taking his other sons with him as a rear guard.
"Father, we found that bastard's horse!" Jochi reported, pointing at the black horse.
"I don't want the horse, I want him!" Temujin replied.
"Yes father, we will find him." Jochi answered before returning to Guo Jing's side. Pulling out his saber, he swung it in the air a couple of times and shouted: "Are you going to tell me?"
His face covered in blood from the earlier beating, Guo Jing actually got feistier and shouted back:
"I'll never tell! I'll never tell!"
From that response, Temujin noted how innocent the kid was, replying with "I'll never tell" instead of "I don't know", giving away the fact that he knew where Jebe was hiding. So he turned to Ogedai and whispered: "Go and trick it out of him."
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Smiling, Ogedai walked up to Guo Jing, removed two gold studded peacock feathers from his helmet and said: "If you tell me, this is yours."
"I'll never tell!" Guo Jing still replied.
"Let loose the dogs!" Chagatai, Temujin's second son ordered as the soldiers immediately brought forth six huge hunting dogs.
Mongolians love to hunt and all of the aristocrats or people of wealth own hunting dogs and falcons.
Chagatai especially loved dogs and this search for Jebe presented a perfect use for his dogs. So he ordered the dogs be taken around the black horse a couple of times before letting them loose to find where Jebe was hiding. The dogs barked wildly as they ran in and out of the hut repeatedly.
Guo Jing had never met Jebe before, but two days ago he had greatly admired his bravery and skill on the battlefield. Being whipped several times by Jochi had brought out Guo Jing’s natural stubbornness and feisty nature. He called his shepherd dog. By now Chagatai's hunting dogs were getting very close to the grass pile, so, on Guo Jing's command, the shepherd dog positioned itself between the grass pile and the hunting dogs, not letting any of them get closer. Chagatai gave a loud shout and all six huge hunting dogs leapt forward and the air was quickly filled with the cacophony of dog barking as the seven dogs fought. The shepherd dog, smaller to begin with and battling one against six, was quickly covered with bite marks but still fought back ferociously, not backing down one bit. Guo Jing was cheering his shepherd dog on loudly between sobs. Seeing this, Temujin, Ogedai, and everyone present knew that Jebe must be hiding in the grass pile, so they just smiled and enjoyed the show of the dog fight.