Chapter 20

Within Luoding Prefecture, the Cloudmist Mountains run through the whole prefecture, and Mount Dajiao is one of its smaller peaks.

Setting out from Mount Dajiao, one can reach the official road to Luoding City in only half a day; following that road for another half hour brings one to Luoding City.

There are no branching paths along the way, and both sides of the road are low hills, with only the occasional stretch of somewhat flatter farmland.

One end of this official road leads to Luoding, while the other leads to Deqing County under Zhaoqing Prefecture, passing through the abandoned Dong'an County along the way — for a hundred li there is hardly a soul to be seen.

Around the hour of shen, when the sun was about to vanish in the west, at a wooded hillock a little over three li east of the city, a band of men in motley clothes, armed with broadswords, iron pitchforks, and long spears, emerged one by one from their hiding places.

At their head was none other than Boss Hu.

"Brother Zhou, it's almost dark. In two more hours, Old Three and the others will make their move. I wonder how they're doing right now." Boss Hu was both excited and uneasy; gazing at distant Luoding City, his mouth had gone dry.

Zhou Shixiang, who had just walked out, blurted at once: "Rest easy, Brother Hu — Brother Zhao and the others will surely come through safe and sound!"

In the old reckoning, one hour was two modern hours, so two hours meant four hours. It was now roughly six or seven in the evening by later standards; two hours later would be deep night, around eleven or twelve — the time when people are sound asleep.

As the saying goes, in the dead of night, when all is still, that is the hour for killing and arson. Zhou Shixiang believed that when the blow suddenly fell, the Qing army in Luoding City would surely be caught off guard.

As long as they moved fast enough, they could seize Luoding City and repeat the heroic feat of Sesame Li of old!

Song Xianggong, rubbing his aching legs, added: "Zhao Sihai and his men are used to this kind of work; they won't make any mistakes. Besides, at this point the arrow is already on the string and must be loosed.

We've come all this way — can we still turn back? Worrying is useless.

Let's throw ourselves into it. If our heads fall, it's only a bowl-sized scar; if we succeed, then from now on we'll never be bandits again."

Having said that, he turned and led some men off to make torches. Mount Dajiao had emptied its entire stronghold for this venture, yet they numbered only thirty-eight in all.

Ten had gone into the city as inside agents, leaving only twenty-eight.

With so few hands, it was still rather difficult to put on a convincing show of Li Dingguo's great army arriving, so they had no choice but to use the trick of many torches to confuse the Qing troops in the city.

Boss Hu reflected that this was true — at this point, what use was more worrying? He cast his unease aside, pulled Zhou Shixiang over to see the oxhide drum they had gone to such trouble to bring, and gave the drumhead a light pat.

With a touch of world-weariness in his voice, he said: "This drum was used by the old prince himself.

When the old prince was defeated back then, I led the surviving brothers and, with tremendous effort, managed to bring this drum out with us — all for the hope that one day, at the command of this drum's sound, we would fight the Tartars once more.

What a pity that in all these years, this drum has never sounded again, and my brothers and I have fallen into a state neither human nor ghost. Truly, I have let the old prince down...

If not for Brother Zhou's urging today, this drum would probably still be sitting there covered in dust..."

After his lament, he placed the two drumsticks into Zhou Shixiang's hands. "Once the fighting starts, Brother Zhou, you stay here and beat the drum to raise everyone's spirits. I'll lead the men to seize the city gate!"

Zhou Shixiang immediately objected: "No, I'm going with you, Brother Hu, to seize the gate!"

Boss Hu laughed heartily. "Brother Zhou and Mister Song are both scholars. If you're going to do anything, it should be the work of Zhuge Kongming. Charging into battle and killing the enemy is the business of rough fellows like us — how could we let you go?"

"Brother Hu, you're mistaken there.

I, Zhou Shixiang, may be a xiucai, but I am also a full-grown man of five chi, and I bear the blood-deep vengeance of my parents, wife, and children. How could I hide in the rear and watch my brothers fight the Qing army?"

Zhou Shixiang grew agitated.

"Besides, I'm not truly some frail scholar who can't even truss a chicken.

Don't forget, Brother Hu — I killed You Yunlong with my own hands!"

Boss Hu was unmoved and insisted: "I know Brother Zhou is a true man, but this matter was already discussed between Mister Song and me. Say no more. As long as you beat this drum well and let us keep hearing its sound, that will be the greatest service of all."

Seeing that Boss Hu's mind was made up, Zhou Shixiang sighed. He knew he could not change it, and he also knew this was Boss Hu looking out for his safety, so he could only nod and agree.

As long as everything went exactly according to his plan, whether he personally took part in seizing the city did not really matter.

Zhou Shixiang was just about to go check on the big gray horse when a sudden wind stirred the previously still woods, and the treetops began to sway.

The wind was rising!

Zhou Shixiang looked astonished.

In the darkness of night, Luoding City was pitch-black, without a single point of lamplight. On the empty streets there was not even a night watchman sounding his clapper to be seen.

Had it not been for the faint figures bearing torches moving atop the city gate, a stranger might well have taken the city for a city of the dead.

Near a dwelling on the south side of the city, close to the Qing army officers' quarters, two figures lay motionless in the darkness, huddled there. Had anyone passed by at that moment, they would surely have been startled, thinking the two were corpses.

The two who looked like dead men were none other than Zhao Sihai, who had disguised himself as a Daoist priest to slip into the city, and beside him the bald-headed fellow — no one knew where he had found that tattered monk's robe, and after much wheedling he had grabbed the assignment of entering the city as an inside agent.

The sudden wind sent dust from the street blowing into their faces, carrying a chill with it.

"Damn it, why'd the wind have to pick up now?" The bald man spat out the dust and a leaf that had blown into his mouth.

"Wind's a good thing. Haven't you heard that wind feeds a fire's force?" Zhao Sihai's face lit up with delight.

The bald man hesitated. "But if this fire really gets going, won't the people in the city suffer terribly?"

"What's with all the dithering? We're bandits. If we don't kill and don't burn, what the hell kind of bandits are we? What, gone soft?"

"It's not that I've gone soft — I just can't bear it."

"Heh, you fake monk — you really think you can lay down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot?" Zhao Sihai shot back at the bald man, glanced at the sky, and slowly rose to his feet. "It's about time. Let's move."

"Right!" The bald man gritted his teeth, brushed the dust from his clothes, and stood up as well. He cast a glance toward the distant Qing army camp and said viciously: "If anyone's to blame, blame the damn Tartars!"

"Go!"

Zhao Sihai's ferocity showed plainly on his face. After determining the wind's direction, he took out a jar of lamp oil he had bought after entering the city and crept quietly toward the Qing army camp.

Seeing this, the bald man followed without the slightest hesitation. The two reached the upwind side of the Qing camp, carefully made sure there were no Qing patrols about, and only then stepped forward and opened the jar.

Soon the lamp oil from the jar was poured over the Qing camp's palisade and the piled-up fodder, and before long, flames shot up into the sky. Driven by the wind, the fire raged toward the Qing tents.

At the same time, Ge Wu and the others began setting fires throughout the city. As the great fire raged, shouts of "The old-bandit army is coming! The old-bandit army is coming!" instantly resounded through all of Luoding City.

The Qing soldiers guarding the gate, the first to notice the fires rising in the city, were startled. Before they could react and figure out whether it was an accident or arson, they heard the war drum outside the city sound: "Dong!

Dong! Dong!"

Looking up, they saw the wooded hills outside the city covered with torches everywhere, as if countless troops were charging toward Luoding.