Chapter 3: Sho king Events In the Blizzard (3)
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Bang! Guo Xiaotian slammed down hard onto the table again, this time tipping one of the cups over, spilling wine all over the table. In anger, he shouted, "Shameless! Disgraceful! How did this sorry excuse for a man become an emperor?" {Note, literal translation is something to the end of "From which family did the bird emperor fly out of?" Which does not really sound like what he meant, so I took some creative liberties.}
Zhang Shiwu continued, "When our nation heard about this treaty, there was not a person on the street who was not enraged. Especially for those Chinese people north of the river Huai were even more grieve stricken because they see that our country cannot be whole. Gao Zong sees that his seat on the throne is secured, immediately rewarded Qing Gui for his 'meritorious'service. Qing Gui was already Lord of Lu, and now Gao Zong added a title of Tai Shi to his name, giving him almost supreme powers under the emperor. Xiao Zong succeeded Gao Zong, and Guang Zong succeeded him, all the while the Jin is still controlling half of China. Now Guang Zong has been succeeded by Emperor Qin Yuan, he has been on the throne for 5 years now, mostly going with what the Chancellor Han Tuozhou says. What is the future going to be like? Hehe, hard to say, hard to say!" During the last little bit, he did not stop shaking his head.
Guo Xiaotian replied, "What's so hard to say about it? This is the countryside, not like Lin'an where you might get your head cut off! There isn't a person in the world who don't call Han Tuozhou a crook! If you go by betraying the country and oppressing the people, the man is practically a sworn brother of Qing Gui!"
Now that they are talking about current affairs, Zhang Shiwu is starting to get a little tinge of fear and dare not to criticize and talk straight from his heart as he did. He downed another cup and said, "Thanks to both of you gentlemen for the wine. May I offer a modest word of advice? I know both of you gentlemen are passionate men, but it is still most wise to be cautious in words and deeds so as to avoid any possible calamities. At this point, the most that us normal folk can hope muddle along and do the best that we can. Ay! Just like the saying:
"Surrounded by the mountains in the halls, when will West Lake parties finally go? Southern fragrances intoxicates all, happily mistook Hangzhou for Bianzhou!"
Yang Tiexin asks, "What the story behind these 4 lines?" Zhang Shiwu answers, "There is no story. It is just saying that the official of our Great Sung dynasty only care to party and drink on the shores of the West Lake. They want to pretend that HanZhou is our capital and never bother with taking back our land and moving back to BianLiang again."
By the time Zhang Shiwu said goodbye, he was dead drunk. As he stumbles toward BianLiang, one can hear him muttering to himself the words of "River Soaked in Red" by Yue Fei, "Jing Kang's Disgrace, still fresh in mind; people's hatred, when will it stop? I drive my cart…"
Guo Xiaotian paid the tab and walked by home with Yang Tiexin. The two of them live right next to each other, after walking a short distance, they have made it back to their homes.
Guo Xiaotian's wife, Li, was just chasing a chicken into a little trap. Turning around, she smiled and said, "You two gone drinking again? Brother Yang, why don't you and your wife come over for dinner tonight? We are going to make a whole chicken."
Yang Tiexin smiled back and answered, "Alright, I guess we are going to inconvenience you two again. We have so many chickens and ducks just there to waste food upon, but we can't part with any of them." Li replied, "Well your wife is just that kind hearted. She says that she has raised these chickens and ducks since they were babies, how could she possibly kill them?" Yang Tiexin laughed and replied, "I told her that I would kill them if she can't make herself, she then starts crying and sobbing. Ay! What can I do? Tell you what, tonight I'm going to go hunting and we'll invite the two of you over tomorrow night!" Guo Xiaotian cuts in, "We are family! Quit talking about who's inviting and who is not! Tonight we go hunting together!"
That midnight, Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin went into the woods three.5 kilometers (a little over two miles) west of the village, hoping to catch a boar or something of that nature. But after waiting for more than two hours, nothing could be heard. Just as they were about to lose their patience, they suddenly started to faintly hear sounds of metal thumping coming from outside of the woods. They looked at each other, both wondering, "What's going on now?"
At this moment, from afar, there came several men shouting, "Where do you think you are going?" "Stop this instant!" Then a shadow jumped into the woods. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin finally were able to see the person now that he is under the moonlight. The two of them were shocked. For this man was the crippled owner of that wineshop in the village, Qu San. He thumbed his left crutch into the ground, producing a "Zeng!" His body flew off the ground and hid behind a tree. This is a display of an incredible level of Qing Gong (lightweight martial arts). Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin looked at each other again with astonishment, both of them thinking, "We had no clue that Qu San's kungfu is this good, and we have been living here for three whole years!" Both of them stayed hidden in the bushes, not daring to move or come out.
Footsteps kept on getting closer, three men had made it to the edge of the woods. They whispered something to each other and started to slowly walk into the woods. All three were dressed in military clothing, each of them had a sabre in hand. In the moonlight, the sabres gave off a faint green glow. One of them shouted, "Damn cripple! Your old man here can see you, better quickly surrender and come out!" Qu San kept still behind the tree. The three men started to waving their sword wildly, swinging and taking a cut at anything in their way. Very slowly, the three of them got closer and closer. Suddenly there came a faint thump, Qu San stabbed his right crutch out from behind the tree, hitting one of the men squarely on his chest. That man gave off a muffled groan before flying backwards and falling on the ground. The other two men immediately hacked down at Qu San.
Qu San gave his right crutch a push and jumped several feet to the left, avoiding the sabres. His left crutch immediately went straight for one of the men's face. The man's kungfu was not that shabby either, he tried to parry the crutch away with his sabre. Qu San did not wait for the two to meet before withdrawing his crutch to support him again. His right crutch came swinging in on the other man's waist. He uses his crutches with great speed and quickness, even though he always has to use one of them to support himself, leaving only one to fight with at all times, he is not losing at all to the men. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin notices that he is carrying a huge bundle on his back, seemingly very cumbersome. After some more fighting, one of the sabres came down and hit the bundle. "Dang!" The bundle ripped and the objects inside spilled onto the ground. Qu San took advantage of his temporary distraction and smashed down hard on the head of the man with his crutch. The man fell onto the ground without so much as a whimper. The only man left is by now scared to death, he turned around and started to run. Qu San took out something from his bosom and raised his arm very quickly. A ball-like object flew through the air under the moonlight, followed by a muted thump as the object hit the back of the man's head. The man let out a ghastly scream and dropped his sabre as his arm started to swing wildly out of control. Slowly and facing upward, he crumpled to the ground. After a couple of twitches, he stopped moving.
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Bang! Guo Xiaotian slammed down hard onto the table again, this time tipping one of the cups over, spilling wine all over the table. In anger, he shouted, "Shameless! Disgraceful! How did this sorry excuse for a man become an emperor?" {Note, literal translation is something to the end of "From which family did the bird emperor fly out of?" Which does not really sound like what he meant, so I took some creative liberties.}
Zhang Shiwu continued, "When our nation heard about this treaty, there was not a person on the street who was not enraged. Especially for those Chinese people north of the river Huai were even more grieve stricken because they see that our country cannot be whole. Gao Zong sees that his seat on the throne is secured, immediately rewarded Qing Gui for his 'meritorious'service. Qing Gui was already Lord of Lu, and now Gao Zong added a title of Tai Shi to his name, giving him almost supreme powers under the emperor. Xiao Zong succeeded Gao Zong, and Guang Zong succeeded him, all the while the Jin is still controlling half of China. Now Guang Zong has been succeeded by Emperor Qin Yuan, he has been on the throne for 5 years now, mostly going with what the Chancellor Han Tuozhou says. What is the future going to be like? Hehe, hard to say, hard to say!" During the last little bit, he did not stop shaking his head.
Guo Xiaotian replied, "What's so hard to say about it? This is the countryside, not like Lin'an where you might get your head cut off! There isn't a person in the world who don't call Han Tuozhou a crook! If you go by betraying the country and oppressing the people, the man is practically a sworn brother of Qing Gui!"
Now that they are talking about current affairs, Zhang Shiwu is starting to get a little tinge of fear and dare not to criticize and talk straight from his heart as he did. He downed another cup and said, "Thanks to both of you gentlemen for the wine. May I offer a modest word of advice? I know both of you gentlemen are passionate men, but it is still most wise to be cautious in words and deeds so as to avoid any possible calamities. At this point, the most that us normal folk can hope muddle along and do the best that we can. Ay! Just like the saying:
"Surrounded by the mountains in the halls, when will West Lake parties finally go? Southern fragrances intoxicates all, happily mistook Hangzhou for Bianzhou!"
Yang Tiexin asks, "What the story behind these 4 lines?" Zhang Shiwu answers, "There is no story. It is just saying that the official of our Great Sung dynasty only care to party and drink on the shores of the West Lake. They want to pretend that HanZhou is our capital and never bother with taking back our land and moving back to BianLiang again."
By the time Zhang Shiwu said goodbye, he was dead drunk. As he stumbles toward BianLiang, one can hear him muttering to himself the words of "River Soaked in Red" by Yue Fei, "Jing Kang's Disgrace, still fresh in mind; people's hatred, when will it stop? I drive my cart…"
Guo Xiaotian paid the tab and walked by home with Yang Tiexin. The two of them live right next to each other, after walking a short distance, they have made it back to their homes.
Guo Xiaotian's wife, Li, was just chasing a chicken into a little trap. Turning around, she smiled and said, "You two gone drinking again? Brother Yang, why don't you and your wife come over for dinner tonight? We are going to make a whole chicken."
Yang Tiexin smiled back and answered, "Alright, I guess we are going to inconvenience you two again. We have so many chickens and ducks just there to waste food upon, but we can't part with any of them." Li replied, "Well your wife is just that kind hearted. She says that she has raised these chickens and ducks since they were babies, how could she possibly kill them?" Yang Tiexin laughed and replied, "I told her that I would kill them if she can't make herself, she then starts crying and sobbing. Ay! What can I do? Tell you what, tonight I'm going to go hunting and we'll invite the two of you over tomorrow night!" Guo Xiaotian cuts in, "We are family! Quit talking about who's inviting and who is not! Tonight we go hunting together!"
That midnight, Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin went into the woods three.5 kilometers (a little over two miles) west of the village, hoping to catch a boar or something of that nature. But after waiting for more than two hours, nothing could be heard. Just as they were about to lose their patience, they suddenly started to faintly hear sounds of metal thumping coming from outside of the woods. They looked at each other, both wondering, "What's going on now?"
At this moment, from afar, there came several men shouting, "Where do you think you are going?" "Stop this instant!" Then a shadow jumped into the woods. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin finally were able to see the person now that he is under the moonlight. The two of them were shocked. For this man was the crippled owner of that wineshop in the village, Qu San. He thumbed his left crutch into the ground, producing a "Zeng!" His body flew off the ground and hid behind a tree. This is a display of an incredible level of Qing Gong (lightweight martial arts). Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin looked at each other again with astonishment, both of them thinking, "We had no clue that Qu San's kungfu is this good, and we have been living here for three whole years!" Both of them stayed hidden in the bushes, not daring to move or come out.
Footsteps kept on getting closer, three men had made it to the edge of the woods. They whispered something to each other and started to slowly walk into the woods. All three were dressed in military clothing, each of them had a sabre in hand. In the moonlight, the sabres gave off a faint green glow. One of them shouted, "Damn cripple! Your old man here can see you, better quickly surrender and come out!" Qu San kept still behind the tree. The three men started to waving their sword wildly, swinging and taking a cut at anything in their way. Very slowly, the three of them got closer and closer. Suddenly there came a faint thump, Qu San stabbed his right crutch out from behind the tree, hitting one of the men squarely on his chest. That man gave off a muffled groan before flying backwards and falling on the ground. The other two men immediately hacked down at Qu San.
Qu San gave his right crutch a push and jumped several feet to the left, avoiding the sabres. His left crutch immediately went straight for one of the men's face. The man's kungfu was not that shabby either, he tried to parry the crutch away with his sabre. Qu San did not wait for the two to meet before withdrawing his crutch to support him again. His right crutch came swinging in on the other man's waist. He uses his crutches with great speed and quickness, even though he always has to use one of them to support himself, leaving only one to fight with at all times, he is not losing at all to the men. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin notices that he is carrying a huge bundle on his back, seemingly very cumbersome. After some more fighting, one of the sabres came down and hit the bundle. "Dang!" The bundle ripped and the objects inside spilled onto the ground. Qu San took advantage of his temporary distraction and smashed down hard on the head of the man with his crutch. The man fell onto the ground without so much as a whimper. The only man left is by now scared to death, he turned around and started to run. Qu San took out something from his bosom and raised his arm very quickly. A ball-like object flew through the air under the moonlight, followed by a muted thump as the object hit the back of the man's head. The man let out a ghastly scream and dropped his sabre as his arm started to swing wildly out of control. Slowly and facing upward, he crumpled to the ground. After a couple of twitches, he stopped moving.
Bang! Guo Xiaotian slammed down hard onto the table again, this time tipping one of the cups over, spilling wine all over the table. In anger, he shouted, "Shameless! Disgraceful! How did this sorry excuse for a man become an emperor?" {Note, literal translation is something to the end of "From which family did the bird emperor fly out of?" Which does not really sound like what he meant, so I took some creative liberties.}Zhang Shiwu continued, "When our nation heard about this treaty, there was not a person on the street who was not enraged. Especially for those Chinese people north of the river Huai were even more grieve stricken because they see that our country cannot be whole. Gao Zong sees that his seat on the throne is secured, immediately rewarded Qing Gui for his 'meritorious'service. Qing Gui was already Lord of Lu, and now Gao Zong added a title of Tai Shi to his name, giving him almost supreme powers under the emperor. Xiao Zong succeeded Gao Zong, and Guang Zong succeeded him, all the while the Jin is still controlling half of China. Now Guang Zong has been succeeded by Emperor Qin Yuan, he has been on the throne for 5 years now, mostly going with what the Chancellor Han Tuozhou says. What is the future going to be like? Hehe, hard to say, hard to say!" During the last little bit, he did not stop shaking his head.Guo Xiaotian replied, "What's so hard to say about it? This is the countryside, not like Lin'an where you might get your head cut off! There isn't a person in the world who don't call Han Tuozhou a crook! If you go by betraying the country and oppressing the people, the man is practically a sworn brother of Qing Gui!"Now that they are talking about current affairs, Zhang Shiwu is starting to get a little tinge of fear and dare not to criticize and talk straight from his heart as he did. He downed another cup and said, "Thanks to both of you gentlemen for the wine. May I offer a modest word of advice? I know both of you gentlemen are passionate men, but it is still most wise to be cautious in words and deeds so as to avoid any possible calamities. At this point, the most that us normal folk can hope muddle along and do the best that we can. Ay! Just like the saying:"Surrounded by the mountains in the halls, when will West Lake parties finally go? Southern fragrances intoxicates all, happily mistook Hangzhou for Bianzhou!"Yang Tiexin asks, "What the story behind these 4 lines?" Zhang Shiwu answers, "There is no story. It is just saying that the official of our Great Sung dynasty only care to party and drink on the shores of the West Lake. They want to pretend that HanZhou is our capital and never bother with taking back our land and moving back to BianLiang again."By the time Zhang Shiwu said goodbye, he was dead drunk. As he stumbles toward BianLiang, one can hear him muttering to himself the words of "River Soaked in Red" by Yue Fei, "Jing Kang's Disgrace, still fresh in mind; people's hatred, when will it stop? I drive my cart"Guo Xiaotian paid the tab and walked by home with Yang Tiexin. The two of them live right next to each other, after walking a short distance, they have made it back to their homes.Guo Xiaotian's wife, Li, was just chasing a chicken into a little trap. Turning around, she smiled and said, "You two gone drinking again? Brother Yang, why don't you and your wife come over for dinner tonight? We are going to make a whole chicken."Yang Tiexin smiled back and answered, "Alright, I guess we are going to inconvenience you two again. We have so many chickens and ducks just there to waste food upon, but we can't part with any of them." Li replied, "Well your wife is just that kind hearted. She says that she has raised these chickens and ducks since they were babies, how could she possibly kill them?" Yang Tiexin laughed and replied, "I told her that I would kill them if she can't make herself, she then starts crying and sobbing. Ay! What can I do? Tell you what, tonight I'm going to go hunting and we'll invite the two of you over tomorrow night!" Guo Xiaotian cuts in, "We are family! Quit talking about who's inviting and who is not! Tonight we go hunting together!"That midnight, Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin went into the woods three.5 kilometers a little over two miles west of the village, hoping to catch a boar or something of that nature. But after waiting for more than two hours, nothing could be heard. Just as they were about to lose their patience, they suddenly started to faintly hear sounds of metal thumping coming from outside of the woods. They looked at each other, both wondering, "What's going on now?"At this moment, from afar, there came several men shouting, "Where do you think you are going?" "Stop this instant!" Then a shadow jumped into the woods. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin finally were able to see the person now that he is under the moonlight. The two of them were shocked. For this man was the crippled owner of that wineshop in the village, Qu San. He thumbed his left crutch into the ground, producing a "Zeng!" His body flew off the ground and hid behind a tree. This is a display of an incredible level of Qing Gong lightweight martial arts. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin looked at each other again with astonishment, both of them thinking, "We had no clue that Qu San's kungfu is this good, and we have been living here for three whole years!" Both of them stayed hidden in the bushes, not daring to move or come out.Footsteps kept on getting closer, three men had made it to the edge of the woods. They whispered something to each other and started to slowly walk into the woods. All three were dressed in military clothing, each of them had a sabre in hand. In the moonlight, the sabres gave off a faint green glow. One of them shouted, "Damn cripple! Your old man here can see you, better quickly surrender and come out!" Qu San kept still behind the tree. The three men started to waving their sword wildly, swinging and taking a cut at anything in their way. Very slowly, the three of them got closer and closer. Suddenly there came a faint thump, Qu San stabbed his right crutch out from behind the tree, hitting one of the men squarely on his chest. That man gave off a muffled groan before flying backwards and falling on the ground. The other two men immediately hacked down at Qu San.Qu San gave his right crutch a push and jumped several feet to the left, avoiding the sabres. His left crutch immediately went straight for one of the men's face. The man's kungfu was not that shabby either, he tried to parry the crutch away with his sabre. Qu San did not wait for the two to meet before withdrawing his crutch to support him again. His right crutch came swinging in on the other man's waist. He uses his crutches with great speed and quickness, even though he always has to use one of them to support himself, leaving only one to fight with at all times, he is not losing at all to the men. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin notices that he is carrying a huge bundle on his back, seemingly very cumbersome. After some more fighting, one of the sabres came down and hit the bundle. "Dang!" The bundle ripped and the objects inside spilled onto the ground. Qu San took advantage of his temporary distraction and smashed down hard on the head of the man with his crutch. The man fell onto the ground without so much as a whimper. The only man left is by now scared to death, he turned around and started to run. Qu San took out something from his bosom and raised his arm very quickly. A ball-like object flew through the air under the moonlight, followed by a muted thump as the object hit the back of the man's head. The man let out a ghastly scream and dropped his sabre as his arm started to swing wildly out of control. Slowly and facing upward, he crumpled to the ground. After a couple of twitches, he stopped moving.
