IRON BLOODED HEART (Book 1 of Legend Of The Condor Heroes)

Shocking Events In The Blizzard Part 2

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.