SWORDS FIGHTS ON MOUNT HUA (Book 3 of Legend Of The Condor Heroes)

Expedition To The West Part 6

Although holding a position of general, Guo Jing was still very young and he still had a childish character. As soon as Lu Youjiao exited his tent he followed immediately. He stealthily hid among the tall grass wanting to know Lu Youjiao's secret. He saw Lu Youjiao entered a tiny tent, and in just a short while he went out the tent again. Guo Jing hastily went back to his own tent. Lu Youjiao went in and said, "Xiao Ren has thought about it." Then he proceeded by explaining the character's correct pronunciation and its meaning.

Guo Jing smiled, "Lu Zhanglao, you have an expert master; why don't you invite your master to see me?"

Lu Youjiao was startled, "I don't," he said.

Guo Jing grabbed his hand and smiled, "We will go out and see." He pulled his hand and went out the tent, walked toward that tiny tent he saw earlier.

Outside that tiny tent two Beggar Clan members were standing on guard duty. As soon as they saw Guo Jing they coughed lightly. Guo Jing noticed their coughs he let Lu Youjiao's hand go and darted toward the tent. As soon as he lifted the tent's entrance he saw the rear part of the tent fluttered a little bit. Definitely someone has just gone out the tent. Guo Jing rushed forward and lifted up the tent, but he only saw tall grass, not a single human's shadow was to be seen. He was perplexed, was silent for a while.

Guo Jing turned around and asked Lu Youjiao, but Lu Youjiao said the tent was his, nobody else lived there.

Guo Jing did not give up, he kept asking Lu Youjiao difficult questions from the 'Wumu's Legacy', but from now on Lu Youjiao would wait for the next day before he could answer his questions.

Guo Jing knew the person in that tent did not have any ill intention, only did not want to see him. Guo Jing decided that person must be an expert from the Jianghu, and it would be difficult to deal with people like that, so he put this matter aside temporarily.

He studied the book in the evening then trained his soldiers during the day according to method he learned from the book. The Mongolian cavalry was used to fight an open battle, now they had to train battle formations; they were having a very difficult time. But an order is an order, they did not dare to disobey, so they had no choice and trained hard.

Another month had passed; Genghis Khan's army and its logistic were ready. Guo Jing managed to train his ten thousand soldiers in all eight battle formations: 'tian fu' [high as the sky], 'di zai' [strong as the earth], 'feng yang' [scattered like a wind], 'yun chui' [dangling like a cloud] , 'long fei' [flying dragon], 'hu yi' [winged tiger], 'niao xiang' [soaring bird], and 'she pan' [coiling snake]; which they have mastered skillfully.

These eight formations were originally created by Zhuge Liang based on ancient methods; when they got to Yue Fei's hand, he added many changes and variations. When Yue Fei was young, he went to war under Zong Ze who said, "Your bravery, wisdom and skill have exceeded those of the ancient times; however, in a real battle we can't predict everything." He was referring to the troop disposition method. Yue Fei answered, "In a real battle, the art of war does not change. Whoever manages to utilize its wonder will save their own hearts and minds." Zong Ze could not help but agree to what he said. Later on Yue Fei led many other troop movements. He was aware that he could not always follow certain method, yet he still trained his officers and soldiers according to these methods. Only when it came to the real battle he executed his plan dynamically, thus had defeated countless enemies. This process was also recorded in the 'Wumu's Legacy' book.

One particular day the weather was clear and the air was fresh, the sky stretched out for tens of thousands miles, blue like it was fresh from the laundry. The one hundred and fifty thousand Mongolian cavalry were arranged in row after row on the prairie. Genghis Khan offered a sacrifice to the heaven and earth, making a vow before going into battle. Toward all his generals he said, "Stone has no skin, but there is a limit to human's life. My hair and beard have all turned white. This time I go to war, don't know if I am going back home alive. My concubine has reminded me last night, and I think she was right. I have to assign one of my sons today to lift high my banner after I am gone."

The generals had fought hundreds of battle, following Genghis Khan's attacks to the east and expeditions to the west. His white hair had been gray. Suddenly hearing the Great Khan was going to appoint his successor, they were all surprised and delighted at the same time. All eyes gazed toward his face, waiting for him to say his successor's name.

Genghis Khan said, "Jochi, you are my eldest son, tell me, whom should I appoint?" Jochi's heart skipped a beat. He was very capable, had rendered the most service, besides, he was the eldest son. He had always thought that when his father king died, naturally the position would fall into his lap. Now that the Great Khan suddenly asked, he did not know how to reply.

Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai, was like a raging fire. He did not live harmoniously with his eldest brother. Hearing his father king asking his brother, he opened his mouth, "He wants Jochi to speak, what order will he receive? How can we let this Mergid bastard rule over us?"

Actually when Genghis Khan was young, his army was weak; as a result his wife was captured by their enemy, the Mergids. After several years in captivity, his wife was taken back, but by that time she had already given birth to Jochi. Genghis Khan accepted this fact with an open mind; he regarded Jochi as his own son.

Listening to his own brother's insult Jochi could not hold his patience any longer, he charged forward, grabbing Chagatai's chest, shouted, "Father King had never regarded me as an outsider, how dare you insulted me? What skill do you have that I don't? You are nothing more than an irritable hot-tempered arrogant man. Let's go out and have a duel; if I lost to you in archery, I will rip my own thumb. If I lost to you in martial arts, I will throw myself on the ground and never get up!" Turning his head toward Genghis Khan he said, "Father King, please give your order." Two brothers grabbed each other's chest, ready to have a duel right then and there.

The rest of the generals stepped forward to separate them; Bourchu pulled Jochi's hand, while Mukhali held Chagatai's hand.

Genghis Khan was silent; he remembered his own disgrace in his youth that he was not even able to defend his wife's honor, which had caused today's dispute. The generals all blamed Chagatai for bringing up past events and hurt their parents' hearts.

"Both of you, drop it!" finally Genghis Khan said, "Jochi is my eldest son; I will always love him no matter what. I forbid anyone to speak bad about him."

Chagatai let Jochi go, he said, "Jochi is very capable, everybody knows that. But in term of generosity and benevolence, he is inferior to the third brother, Ogedei. I vote for Ogedei."

"Jochi, what do you say?" Genghis Khan asked.

Jochi could see the unfavorable situation; he knew his hope to be the Great Khan was shattered. He had always had good relationship with his third brother; he knew the third brother was kindhearted, certainly would not do him any harm in the future, therefore, he said, "Very well, I also support Ogedei."

The fourth prince Tuolei did not challenge that nomination, Ogedei was about to decline; but Genghis Khan said, "You don't need to decline. Your battle skill is inferior to your two elder brothers, but you treat people kindly. When you become the Great Khan in the future, all princes and generals won't fight each other. We the Mongolian people will have no enemy as long as we don't fight each other. What are we anxious about then?"

That day Genghis Khan threw a big feast in celebration of the newly appointed crown prince. All the troops, from the generals to the soldiers drank until very late that night. Guo Jing went back to his tent a little tipsy. He was just about to take out his clothes to sleep when suddenly one of his officers came rushing in, gave him this report, "'Fu Ma Ye' [Master Consort], it's not good; the First Prince and the Second Prince were drunk. Each took his troops to kill each other."

Guo Jing was stunned, quickly said, "Inform the Great Khan!"

"The Great Khan is also drunk, we couldn't wake him up," the officer replied.

Guo Jing knew both Jochi and Chagatai had loyal followers, the troops under their flags were ferocious; if they killed each other the Mongolian army's strength would be hurt considerably. They were having a brawl in the Great Khan's presence earlier, but this time both were drunk; he had the urge to help, but how could he separate them? He was lost at what to do, pacing back and forth inside his tent while tapping his own forehead, musing, "If only Rong'er is here, she would know what to do." He heard a distant battle cry, looked like both troops were about to kill each other.

Guo Jing was getting more anxious than ever; but suddenly Lu Youjiao rushed in and handed him a piece of paper with this message, "Use 'coiled snake' to cut off two armies, then use 'winged tiger' to capture those who refuse to surrender." By that time Guo Jing had mastered the 'Wumu's Legacy' from top to bottom. As soon as he saw these two lines of characters his mind was enlightened. He shouted, "How could I be so stupid? What's the use of reading the military strategy book?" Immediately he gave orders for his own troops to move.

The discipline among the Mongolian army was very strict; even though all the officers and soldiers were drunk once the order was given, they armed themselves and mounted their horse; in a very short time had formed a neat battle formation.

The drums were sounded three times, the bugle was blown, the troops under Guo Jing's command started to move toward the northeast. Several li's later his scout came back reporting that the First and the Second Princes' troops had started to battle each other; their 'He hu! He hu!" shouts were heard from afar.

Guo Jing was anxious, "I am afraid I come one step too late and not able to prevent this big calamity." Hastily he waved his hand to give orders; his ten thousand men divided itself, the right-hand 'hou tian' [rear sky]'s three axes moved forward, the right-hand 'hou di' [rear earth]'s three axes moved toward the tail; the right 'hou tian' charged, the right 'hou di' charged, moved toward northwest and northeast they occupied the right-hand position. Their corresponding left-hand teams did the same and occupied the left-hand position; while Guo Jing's big banner moved in the center, followed by a 'coiled snake' formation fiercely broke through the front.

Jochi and Chagatai had each brought their twenty-thousand men, fighting with long saber in their hands. Guo Jing's 'coiled snake' suddenly charged in between still maintaining their neat formation. The battling troops were startled, they scattered slightly disorderly.

Chagatai's loud voice was heard, "Who's there? Who's there? Are you coming to help me or to help this bastard Jochi?"

Guo Jing paid no attention, his command flag waved, his teams moved around, the 'coiled snake' changed into 'winged tiger' immediately, the four smaller groups left-hand and right-hand 'qian tian' [front sky] occupied the front position, the rest of the groups enveloped Chagatai's troops from both sides, their corresponding left groups outflanked Jochi's troops on the other side.

By this time Chagatai could see Guo Jing's banner clearly; angrily he swore, "I knew from the start the southern barbarian is not a good person." He gave an order to his troops to kill Guo Jing's. But those tiger's wings contained subtle variations; each was very powerful; it was the formation Han Xin used to crush Xiang Yu at Gai Xia. It was called, "Ten principles to surround the enemy" in the military strategy books. It was said to have a power of surrounding the enemy ten times stronger, the principle of small number surrounding many using ever changing movements.

Chagatai's troops saw Guo Jing's small groups came and went continually, they did not know the exact number of the enemy and their hearts trembled with fear. In a short moment Chagatai's twenty-thousand troops had been cut off, each group could not help the other.

The fight against Jochi's troops took a different turn since their fighting spirit was already weakened. First, it was their fellow countrymen, more than half of them were good friends to each other. Second, they were afraid of the Great Khan's wrath. As soon as Guo Jing small groups surrounded them in confusing movements, they lost their will to fight.

Among the troop movement Guo Jing's loud voice could be heard, "We are all Mongolian brothers, no need to kill each other. Quickly put down your sabers, spears, bows and arrows to avoid the Great Khan's beheadings." Almost all officers and soldiers listened to his plea; immediately they dismounted their horses and threw their weapons to the ground.

Chagatai and about a thousand of his loyal followers charged ferociously toward Guo Jing's troops, but three drumbeats were heard, eight groups of riders came surrounding them from all directions; they carried horse-tripping ropes. One by one the thousand troops fell down their horsebacks. From those eight groups, four or five soldiers surrounded one of Chagatai's loyal followers. They were forced to sit on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs.

Jochi saw how Guo Jing's troops routed Chagatai, he could not help but feeling scared but happy. He was about to move forward to talk to Guo Jing when suddenly the horn sounded again, Guo Jing's front teams moved backward and the rear teams moved forward, very soon Jochi was surrounded on all directions.

Jochi had an extensive battle experience, but he had never seen anything like this. Hastily ordered his men to attack, but Guo Jing's ten thousand men split into twelve smaller groups, did not charge forward, but moved backward instead. Jochi was marveled; he did not know that these twelve groups were:

'da hei zi' [black darkness, 11pm – 1am, the first hour],
'po di chou' [worn out enemy, 1 – 3am, the second hour],
'zuo tu yin' [dashing to the left, 3 – 5am, the third hour],
'qing she mao' [green snake, 5 – 7am, the fourth hour],
'cui xiong chen' [terrible devastation, 7 – 9am, the fifth hour],
'qian chong si' [charge forward, 9 – 11am, the sixth hour],
'da chi wu' [great scarlet, 11am – 1pm, the seventh hour],
'xian feng wei' [first tip (of the tool/weapon), 1 – 3pm, the eight hour],
'you ji shen' [right-hand strike, 3 – 5pm, the ninth hour],
'bai yun you' [white cloud, 5 – 7pm, the tenth hour],
'jue sheng xu' [sure victory, 7 – 9pm, the eleventh hour],
and 'hou wei hai' [rear guard, 9 – 11pm, the twelfth hour ], according to the twelve two-hour periods of the day; with strange variations, swiftly moved back and forth.

These twelve groups moved around, the right-hand groups charged to the left, the left-hand groups strike to the right; Jochi's troops were confused. Less than the time to eat a bowl of rice later Jochi and his men were also surrounded and captured.

Jochi remembered when all of them were kids he had whipped Guo Jing half-dead. Chagatai also remembered he let his dogs loose and bite Guo Jing really bad. Both were afraid that Guo Jing would seek revenge; they sobered up immediately. They were also really scared that their father king would punish them severely.

After capturing these two people Guo Jing thought that as an outsider he had interfered in this sibling rivalry; he was not sure if his action might result in disaster or good luck. He was thinking of discussing this matter over with Ogedei and Tuolei when suddenly he heard loud horn sound; amidst the flickering torches the Great Khan's nine big banners came galloping fast.

Genghis Khan had sobered up from wine, he received the report that his two sons were about to kill each other. He was startled and angrily jumped out of his bed. Without wearing clothes or armor, with his hair unkempt he jumped on his horse and sped to the prairie.

When he came near, he saw his sons' troops sat on the ground, with Guo Jing's troops standing around, guarding them. His two sons, although they were still sitting on the horsebacks, but each were surrounded by eight of Guo Jing's men wielding unsheathed blades in their hands. He was very surprised.

Guo Jing stepped forward and knelt down on the ground, reporting everything. Realizing that a major disaster had been unexpectedly thwarted, Genghis Khan's delight was unspeakable. He came rushing in thinking that two Mongolian armies had fought each other, the casualty must be serious; his two sons might be dead already. Who would have thought that his two sons were alive and well, three armies were intact. Of course he was delighted.

Immediately he called a general assembly of all the princes and generals. He scolded Jochi and Chagatai, and heavily rewarded Guo Jing and his men. He said to Guo Jing, "Do you still say that you cannot lead troops to war? Your merit in this matter alone can easily dwarf the war against the Jin country. If we cannot destroy the enemy's city wall today, we can always come back tomorrow and try again. But if my sons were dead, how can we make them alive again?"

Guo Jing took the rewards, but divided the gold, silver and livestock to his troops. There was a thunderous cheering and applause among his troops that day. All generals came to congratulate him on this great merit.

After sending off the guests, Guo Jing took out the note given to him by Lu Youjiao. He examined it carefully, the handwriting was shoddy, most likely it was Lu Youjiao's handwriting, but he was suspicious, "Although I have trained my troops in 'coiled snake' and 'winged tiger' formations, but I have never mentioned these names to Lu Zhanglao. The difficult parts of the book that I asked him for advice also do not have anything to do with this battle formations. How did he know? Did he read my military strategy book without my knowledge?"

Right away he invited Lu Youjiao into his tent. "Lu Zhanglao, if you like to read this military strategy book, I will gladly lend it to you."

Lu Youjiao smiled, "A poor beggar like me will not become a general in my lifetime; leading a whole bunch of little beggars also did not need to use the art of war. What use will the military strategy book for me?"

Guo Jing pointed his finger to the note, "Then how did you know about the 'coiled snake' and 'winged tiger' formations?"

"Sir has mentioned it to Xiao Ren, have you forgotten?" Lu Youjiao said.

Guo Jing knew he was not telling the truth. The more he thought about it the more he was perplexed; but he was not sure what did Lu Youjiao hide.

The next day Genghis Khan held another general assembly. The vanguard was under Chagatai and Ogedei's command. The left flank was under Jochi's command, while the right was under Guo Jing's. Each of the vanguard, left and right units were thirty thousand men strong. Genghis Khan and Tuolei commanded over sixty thousand soldiers as the main army. Each soldier rode on one of a pair of horses; they would ride one horse at a time to conserve the horses' strength. The officers took even more horses. With one hundred and fifty thousand men, they took with them nearly a million horses.

The horns were sounded, the drums were beaten, the noise was deafening. The thirty-thousand strong vanguard cavalry unit started to gallop majestically to the west. The great army moved farther and farther west, entering Khoresm territory with irresistible force. Muhammad's army was bigger, but they were not the Mongolian's army match.

Guo Jing led his unit destroying cities and killing the enemies, he had rendered not a few merits.