DEMI GODS AND SEMI DEVILS Book 2 of 5 (Shrouding Screen In Suzhou) by Jin Yong

Sadness Remained At Yanmen, With No Words Left Part 4

Qiao Feng let out a sigh and said: 'Then this really strange. Who could expect that in the world there's 1 man who looks exactly like me, to such an extent that my master mistook him for me?' A'Zhu said: 'Because there is this clue, it'd be easy. We just need to find this man, then torture and force him to answer.' Qiao Feng said: 'Correct. But it's extremely difficult to find 1 man in the boundless sea of people in the world. He probably also has good disguising and making-up skills like you do.'

He came near the cliff and gazed at the marks caused by axes and chisels on the stone wall, wanting to find out what words had been carved on it originally. But after looking at them carefully, he still could not recognize a single word. He said: 'I must find Zhiguang dashi and ask him what words were written on this stone wall. If I can't bring this matter to light, I won't be able to eat and sleep calmly.'

A'Zhu said: 'I'm afraid he won't be willing to say.' Qiao Feng said: 'He'll probably be unwilling to say, but I'll force and beg him. Only after he says will I stop.' A'Zhu muttered: 'Zhiguang dashi seems to be very resolute and unafraid of death. Perhaps forcing and begging him wouldn't work. It'd be better...' Qiao Feng nodded and said: 'Correct. It'd be better to ask Zhao Qiansun. Oh, probably this Zhao Qiansun guy would rather die than submit as well. But I already have a way to deal with him.'

As he spoke to here, he turned toward one side, looked at the abyss and said: 'I wanna go down to have a look.' A'Zhu jumped in fright. She looked at the mouth of that valley which was covered in clouds and mists and took several steps away from it for fear of carelessly falling down into it. She then said: 'No, no! You must not go down. What's good to see down there?' Qiao Feng said: 'In the end I'm Han or Hu? This matter has always been whirling around my head. I wanna go down to investigate and clear it up, and to take a look at the corpse of that Khitan man.' A'Zhu said: 'It's been 30 years since that man fell down. There're only several pieces of white bones left. What else will you be able to see?' Qiao Feng said: 'I just wanna have a look at that man's remains. I think if he's really my real father then I should collect his bones, bring them up and bury them properly.'

A'Zhu screamed: 'Impossible, impossible! You're benevolent, heroic and righteous. How can you be a descendant of the inhuman vicious Khitans?'

Qiao Feng said: 'You wait for me here for 1 day and 1 night. If by this time tomorrow I haven't gone up then you won't need to wait anymore.'

Very worried, A'Zhu burst into tears and called out: 'Great master Qiao, please don't go down!'

Qiao Feng's intention was very firm. In spite of A'Zhu, he did not change his mind a little bit. He said: 'At Juxian Manor, so many heroes and brave men couldn't kill me. Don't tell me that this trifling valley could take my life?'

Unable to think of any word to dissuade him, A'Zhu had no choice but to say: 'Maybe there're very many poisonous snakes, poisonous insects or ferocious monsters down there.'

'Ha-ha,' Qiao Feng laughed out loud, patted her shoulder and said: 'If there were monsters then it couldn't be better. I'd capture them for you to play.' He looked all around the mouth of the valley to find a cliff where he could manage to put his feet on to gradually climb down.

At this moment, suddenly he vaguely heard the sounds of horse hooves which were galloping southward in the northeast corner. Judging by the sounds, there were more than 20 horses. Without delay, Qiao Feng quickly walked back to the mountain slope and looked in the direction of the horse hoofbeats. From a height, he saw that these more than 20 cavalrymen wearing yellow clothes and armor. All of them were Great Song's servicemen. They were arranged in a line and coming quickly along the mountain path on the high slope below.

After seeing clearly those people, he paid no attention to them. But the place where he and A'Zhu were staying at was on the important path to enter the pass from the north of the Great Wall; that year, extraordinary people of the Central Plains had selected this place to ambush the Khitan warriors for this reason. He thought because this place was a strategic point for frontier defense, if Great Song servicemen saw unfamiliar people here, they would likely interrogate and examine; hence it would be better to stay away from them to avoid troubles. He then returned to the original place, pulled A'Zhu to the back of the big rock to hide and said: 'These are Great Song servicemen!'

Not long after that, those more than 20 cavalrymen went up the ridge. Hiding behind the rock, Qiao Feng already saw that the leading person was an officer. He could not refrain from feeling rather moved: 'That year, people such as Chief Wang, Zhiguang dashi and Zhao Qiansun prolly also ambushed behind this big rock, and in this way they saw the Khitan warriors going up the ridge. Today, the peak and the rock are still the same, but most of the warriors of both sides Song and Liao that year have turned into white bones.'

While his mind was wandering, suddenly he heard several crying sounds of children. Qiao Feng was astonished and felt as if he was in dreamland: 'Why are there also children?' After that he heard the screams of several women.

He stuck his head out and saw clearly that most of those Great Song servicemen were having a kidnapped woman on each of their horses. All of the women and children were wearing Khitan pastoral attire. Quite a few Great Song servicemen stretched out their hands and groped the Khitan women, looking extremely licentious and repulsive. Some women who resisted were immediately shouted abuse at and hit by those servicemen. Qiao Feng found this strange and did not understand the reason for this. He saw that after passing by the big rock, these people galloping straight towards Yanmen Pass.

A'Zhu asked: 'Great master Qiao, what are they doing?' Qiao Feng shook his head and thought: 'Why are defending troops at this frontier pass so obscene?' A'Zhu continued: 'This kind of serviceman looks just like bandits.'

After that, more than 30 other servicemen went up the ridge, driving along several hundreds head of cattle and sheep and more than 10 Khitan women. He heard 1 officer say: 'Gathering crops this time, our harvest isn't very good, I wonder if commander-in-chief will get angry?' Another officer said: 'We couldn't snatch a lot of cattle and sheep from Liao dogs, but 2 or 3 women among the ones we snatched look not bad. Let commander-in-chief enjoy them, he'll be in a good mood.' The 1st officer said: '30 something women aren't enough for everyone. Tomorrow we should work hard and snatch some more.' A soldier laughed and said: 'Hearing the rumors, all the Liao dogs must've already run away. If we wanna gather crops again, we need to wait for 2 or 3 months.'

Hearing to here, Qiao Feng could not refrain from getting extremely furious. He thought that the misdeeds of these servicemen were even worse than those of the most despicable robbers.