Suddenly, he felt pain in his stomach; he had been kicked by Guo Jing. He flew backwards while the force remaining in his left hand moved his axe towards his own head. The third martial brother of the axe man blocked it with his iron whip. When the two weapons met there was a ‘clang’ and sparks flew. The man released his axe when the weapons collided and sat down on the ground with a frightened look on his face, dumbfounded but alive. The man was a fool and it took him a minute before he realized that he had lost. He shouted angrily and picked up his axes to attack again. After a few axe slashes he hacked Guo Jing’s spear into two pieces. Guo Jing had lost his weapon, so he used his palms to counter him. The man with the iron whip came to his martial brother assistance and Guo Jing saw that he was at a disadvantage but had no choice but to keep fighting.
This provoked indignation amongst the soldiers. Mongols are simple and direct and respect men of courage. They were scandalized to see these four men taking turns fighting Guo Jing, and now, they were pitting themselves two against one unarmed man! They regarded that as dishonorable, and shouted for them to stop. Guo Jing was a worthy opponent and they cheered him.
Borchu and Jebe drew their sabers and joined the battle; they did so well that the other two assailants also joined in the battle. The two Mongolians were invincible on the battlefield, but they were out of their depth in single combat against experts in martial arts. They fought only a couple of exchanges with great difficulty before they were disarmed and had to retreat. Guo Jing saw that Borchu was in danger and stormed towards him to attack the man that used the saber. Guo Jing struck a palm towards the back of the eldest martial brother who used his saber to hack at Guo Jing’s wrist. Guo Jing retracted his palm and used his elbow to attack the second martial brother to save Jebe. His attempts to provide some assistance to them proved futile.
The four assailants had only one obsession, to kill Guo Jing. They doubled their efforts to attack Guo Jing. The soldiers on the summit and at the foot of the hill redoubled their shouts and insults; but the four turned a deaf ear on them. The spearman had collected a javelin from the ground.
Coming at him Guo Jing saw, at the same time, a saber, javelin, whip and axes! Since he was 180
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unarmed, he could not parry or reply, so his only option was to avoid the blows employing his lightness art [Qinggong]. He moved back and forth and avoided numerous attacks in him.
For another twenty odd stances the men continued their attacks on Guo Jing. His arm, cut by the saber, was bleeding and he was in a dire position.
Suddenly a disturbance disrupted the ranks of Senggum’s army as six individuals nimbly brushed through the soldiers and ascended the hill. The Mongolians thought that they were more lackeys of Wanyan Honglie coming to lend assistance to their comrades, and noisily voiced their disapproval.
Temujin’s men prepared to shoot arrows at them to prevent their approach when Jebe, whose vision was particularly acute, saw that it was the ‘Jiangnan Freaks’. “Jing’er,” he cried, “Here come your teachers!”
Guo Jing, nearly unable to resist any longer, was cheered up.
Arriving first, Zhu Cong and Quan Jinfa realized right away the perilous position their disciple was in. Quan jumped forward and struck the four weapons with a blow of his balance scale, “Have you no shame!” he cried.
Feeling great pain in their hands, the four men realized that a more powerful opponent had just arrived and drew back. Zhu Cong had rescued Guo Jing. Meanwhile, the other Freaks arrived.
“Shameless scoundrels,” Quan Jinfa scolded. “Be off! Have you no face?
The man with the saber was well aware that they had lost their advantage, and if they continued the fight, they would be defeated. But if they backed down, they would lose face and could no longer dare to serve the Sixth Prince!
“Are you the ‘Seven Freaks of Jiangnan’?” he demanded, to give himself some breathing space.
“Indeed,” Zhu Cong replied, laughing. “Who are you?”
“We are the disciples of the ‘Dragon King of the Demonic Group’.”
The ‘Freaks’ were very surprised, for, given that these individuals had openly abused their numerical superiority, they believed that they must be vagabonds without a master. But the ‘Dragon King of the Demonic Group’, Sha Tongtian, is a weighty personality in the martial arts world.
“Are you misusing that name, or not?” Ke Zhen'E demanded in an icy voice. “The ‘Dragon King of the Demonic Group’ is a renowned personage, how could he have disciples as miserable as you?”
“Misusing a name?” the axe man said. “This is Elder Brother Shen Qinggang, nicknamed ‘Saber Breaks Down The Soul’; this is Second brother, Wu Qinglie, nicknamed ‘Lance Seizes Life’; this is Third brother Ma Qingxiong, nicknamed ‘Whip Captures Spirit’; and I, Qian Qingjian, am nicknamed ‘Axe Buries Family’.”
“So,” Ke Zhen’E said, “it seems to be true. You really are the ‘Four Demons of the Yellow River’.
You occupy a certain position in the Jianghu world; how could you lower yourselves to attack four against one?”
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Wu Qinglie said cunningly, “What, four against one?” he argued. “Isn't your disciple helped by all these Mongols? Indeed, we are four against several hundred!”
“Third brother,” Qian Qingjian demanded of Ma Qingxiong, “this blind person appears to be very boastful. Who is he?”
He had asked the question in a low voice but Ke Zhen'E heard him. Very upset, he leapt forward and struck with his staff at Qian. Grabbing him by the collar he threw him to the bottom of the hill.
Ke Zhen'E, already among them, grasped them one after the other and pitched them far away. The Mongolian soldiers called out joyfully. The ‘Four Demons of the Yellow River’, covered with sand, rose painfully to their feet with their limbs aching and shame on their faces.
At that moment, immense dust clouds rose in the distance, as if tens of thousands of horsemen were coming. A flutter of nervousness immediately moved through Senggum’s army.
Temujin, delighted to see reinforcements arriving, knew that iron discipline reigned in the army of Jamuka. Its officers and soldiers were all battle hardened. Senggum, protected by the reputation of his father, was a less formidable commander in chief. Temujin pointed to the left wing of Senggum’s army and shouted, “Attack in that direction!”
Jebe, Borchu, Jochi and Chagatai signaled the first ones. One could hear the faraway cries of the warriors of the relief column. Muqali swept his saber down on the nape of the neck of Dukhsh and shouted, “Get out of the way! Get out of the way!”
Senggum, who was going to order his men to intercept them, hesitated upon seeing that his son menaced. In a wink, Temujin’s small troop moved to the foot of the hill. Jebe carefully aimed and loosed an arrow headed for Senggum’s head. He shielded himself quickly, but the projectile struck his left cheek and he tumbled down from his mount. Seeing their chieftain fall, his men made their escape in pitiful disarray.
Temujin and his companions broke out of the siege, firing arrows at those that pursued them.
Several li away, in the cloud of dust, was Tolui and his soldiers. The pursuers had always feared the bravery of Temujin. Now that they no longer had the advantage of numbers, they turned tail.
It turned out that because Tolui was young, the chieftains and generals refused to obey him since he didn’t have Temujin’s command seal. He could only convince a few thousand young soldiers to follow him here. He then conceived the idea of attaching branches to the tails of the horses, so that quantity of dust thus raised concealed the number of his soldiers. The ploy was a success.
Temujin’s army returned to his camp. On the way they met Hua Zheng leading a small company of soldiers. When she saw that they were unharmed, she was so happy that she wouldn’t stop talking.
That evening, Temujin gave a large banquet to reward his soldiers, but he placed Dukhsh in the place of honor, which caused general indignation. The Khan offered three toasts to pay homage to Dukhsh and said, “Ong Khan, my adoptive father, and my brother Senggum have always treated me well. There is no reason for hatred between our families. Please present my excuses to them, which will be accompanied with gifts of great value. I won't hold a grudge against you because of what you have done. After you return, you will prepare for your marriage to my daughter. We will hold a great feast and we will invite the chiefs of all the tribes. There will be great rejoicing. You will be 182
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my son-in-law and thus my son. From now on the two families must be united as one and not let themselves be divided by gossip.”
Dukhsh, relieved at not being killed, accepted all that was offered. He noticed that when Temujin spoke, he kept his right hand on his chest under his tunic, and coughed nonstop. He wondered,
“Could it be that he's wounded?”
“This day,” the Khan said, “I was hit by an arrow. It will take three months to recuperate before I'm healthy again; if this hadn’t happened, I would accompany you back myself. He withdrew his hand from under his tunic; it was covered with blood! “There’s no need to wait for my wound to heal before you get married. Otherwise…otherwise you’ll have to wait too long.”