Two hours later the three elders shattered the ice column, let Ouyang Feng free. Ouyang Feng sat cross-legged on the ground, circulating his energy. After vomiting three mouthfuls of dark blood he went away angrily.
Guo Jing and the three elders were watching him the whole two hours; although looked weary he was able to walk away just like that, he had made them sighed in admiration.
All this time Guo Jing was continuously in a daze. He was afraid when Ouyang Feng was still inside the ice column, but after Ouyang Feng was gone, he still could not calm his heart down.
He sat down, thinking hard. Never in his life had he felt so lonely, his heart was empty. He tried hard to think the reason behind it all. Suddenly it dawned on him that before Lu Youjiao issued the command to pour the water, he recalled hearing someone shouted in low voice, ‘Pour the water!’
He felt that voice was so familiar, he was 80, 90% certain that voice had Huang Rong’s accent; but because Ouyang Feng was falling into the trap that he was thinking of a more urgent matter and did not pay too much attention to the voice. ‘Pour the water!’ these words were buzzing in his ears while his heart was full of doubt. He sprang up and muttered, “Rong’er is really in the army. I have 1
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to examine everybody, officers and soldiers alike, not overlooking anyone. I am sure she won’t get away this time.” But then another thought came into his mind, “She doesn’t want to see me, why would I painstakingly force her to come out?” Unrolling the painting, he stared blankly at the girl in it; his heart was filled with bitter sweet feeling.
In the quiet night suddenly he heard hoof beats coming fast from afar. A short while later he heard his guard asked permission and soon a messenger entered his tent, bringing Genghis Khan’s military dispatch. Turned out the Mongolian army had advanced far into the enemy’s territory, enjoying victory everywhere they went. Just a few hundred ‘li’s to the west they would reach Khoresm’s fortified city of Samarkhand. Genghis Khan had learned that this city had become Khoresm’s new capital. It was defended by a large army of at least a hundred thousand strong with enough provision to last a long time. The defense was solid; the city wall had enjoyed a notorious reputation as unbreakable. Therefore, Genghis Khan ordered the four armies to join forces and attack simultaneously.
At daybreak the next day, Guo Jing’s army left their camp heading south along the river. In ten days they arrived outside Samarkhand’s city wall. Seeing Guo Jing’s small army, the enemy went out the city to engage them in fierce battle. With his ‘feng yang’ [scattering wind] and ‘yun chui’ [dangled cloud] Guo Jing managed to kill about five thousand enemy’s soldier in just half a day. With this defeat the Khoresm army was forced to go back inside their fortified city.
On the third day Genghis Khan’s big army, as well as Jochi’s and Chagatai’s, arrived one after another. More than a hundred thousand soldiers surrounded the city, attacking it from all directions.
But Samarkhand’s defense was so tight; thousands of Mongolian soldiers and officers were wounded or dead, yet the city was still standing strong.
The next day Chagatai’s eldest son attempted to render meritorious merit; bravely he attacked the city wall, unfortunately an arrow was shot from the city wall, hit his head and he died. Genghis Khan loved this grandson, seeing him die in the battlefield his grief and anger was unspeakable.
When the grandson’s personal guards brought his body over, Genghis Khan threw himself over the corpse with tears in his eyes, embracing his dead grandson. He pulled the arrow that killed him, only to see it was a wolf tooth arrow decorated with an eagle’s feather, the shaft was inlaid with gold, engraved with four characters, ‘da jin zhao wang’ [Prince Zhao Wang of the Great Jin]. The people around him who were literate read those words to him.
“Ah!” Genghis Khan angrily roared, “It’s that scoundrel Wanyan Honglie!” Leaping to his horseback he issued a decree, “All officers and soldiers, big and small, hear this: Anybody who is brave enough to break the city’s defense and capture Wanyan Honglie to avenge my grandson; the city’s women and children, jade and silk, everything is his.” A hundred riders immediately were dispatch everywhere to announce the Great Khan’s decree.
The other three armies heard this proclamation and their spirit rose; like a swarm of locust they attacked the city wall with earth-shattering battle cry. Some were trying to climb the wall barehanded; some were scaling ladders, some were throwing ropes with hook, some were using large tree trunk as a battering ram against the city gate. But the warriors on the city wall defended their city bravely. The battle continued until evening; the Mongolians had lost about four thousand men, yet the city of Samarkand was still standing like a mountain.
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Since his military expedition against Khoresm started, this was Genghis Khan’s first major defeat.
That night inside his tent he grieved over his beloved grandson’s death, his anger erupted like a thunder.
Guo Jing went back to his tent, browsing through his ‘Wumu’s Legacy’, trying to find a way to break the city; but Samarkhand was different from the cities in China, hence the methods described in the book were useless.
Guo Jing invited Lu Youjiao to his tent to discuss this situation. Knowing Lu Youjiao would go to Huang Rong for advice, as soon as he left the tent, Guo Jing followed behind. Who would have thought that Lu Youjiao had arranged Beggar Clan disciples to stand all the way from Guo Jing’s tent to his own? As they see Guo Jing, those disciples saluted him with loud voice.
Guo Jing understood immediately, “This must be another one of Rong’er’s schemes,” he thought,
“Ay! She has always found a way to evade me. She is able to predict my every action and every movement accurately.”
More than two hours later, Lu Youjiao came back and reported, “This big city is really difficult to break, Xiao Ren has not found any good idea. Let us wait a few more days, perhaps an opportunity will present itself for us to attack.”
Guo Jing nodded without saying anything. When he left Mongolia heading south for the first time, he was just a naïve and simple-hearted youngster; but over the past year he had experienced misery, difficult and sometimes dangerous days. His experience had matured him tremendously. That night inside his tent he could not help but feel emotional as he quietly pondered the meaning of two lines of poems in the painting. He thought, “Rong’er must think I am heartless, she is waiting for me to apologize. Too bad I am stupid since the day I was born, I don’t know how to make amends, I don’t know how to do as she wishes.” Thinking these things he became more anxious than ever.
That night he could not sleep well, his thought was full of Huang Rong; he kept tossing and turning in his tent. It was after the third hour that he finally was able to sleep. He dreamt of meeting Huang Rong. He asked her how he could apologize to her. Huang Rong replied by whispering something in his ears. Guo Jing was elated, he woke up immediately; but then he could not remember what Huang Rong had said. He tried painstakingly to remember, but no such luck. He wanted to go back to sleep again and asked Huang Rong in his dream, but it seemed like the sleep had already left him.
Burning with anxiety he knocked his own head several times; suddenly he got an inspiration, “I can’t remember, but why don’t I ask her again?” He loudly shouted, “Quickly invite Lu Zhanglao to come over.”
Lu Youjiao thought what kind of urgent military affair would need his attention? Wrapping his body with the sheepskin he went barefooted to Guo Jing’s tent.
“Lu Zhanglao, no matter what I want to meet with Miss Huang tomorrow evening,” Guo Jing said,
“I don’t care how you’d do it. Whether you come up with an idea yourself, or you ask others, but I want you to present me with a clever idea how I can see her. I give you until noon tomorrow.”
Lu Youjiao was flabbergasted. “Huang Bangzhu is not here, how can Sir meet with her?”
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“You have a divine wisdom, you should be able to think of something,” Guo Jing replied, “If you can’t present a good idea by noon tomorrow, I am going to handle you according to the military law.” Being aware that he was speaking nonsense, Guo Jing was secretly amused.
Lu Youjiao was about to reason when Guo Jing turned his head to tell his guard, “Prepare a hundred soldiers to act as executioners tomorrow at noon.” His guard acknowledged with a loud voice.
Lu Youjiao looked distressed; dejectedly he walked back to his tent.
It was snowing heavily early morning the next day; the city wall was covered with ice, slick like oil.
It was impossible to scale the wall. Genghis Khan withdrew his army that day. He thought the winter was coming, the coming days would get colder and colder; they wouldn’t see warmer days until the second or third month, which was still several months away. If he decided to leave this city and proceeded to the west, then he would practically leave around a hundred thousand enemies behind him, with a potential to cut his way back to Mongolia. But if he stationed some of his army to guard the city, he was afraid the enemy would get some enforcement then his troops would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Once a battle broke, his troops might be scattered in this foreign land and he would lost considerable men and horses.