mournful dirges played as the muslims dug deeptrenches and buried the bodies of the fallen warriorsupright and facing west. puzzled, chen asked one ofthe nearby soldiers why the dead were buried in thisway.
"because we believe in islam," the soldier replied.
"if the body is buried upright, then the spirit willascend to the heavenly kingdom. they face west becausethat is the direction of sacred mecca."when the burials were finished, muzhuolun led theentire army in prayer to thank allah for helping themachieve such a great victory. then a great cheer wentup from the ranks and the commanders of all the unitswent before huo qingtong and presented their sabres toher in respect.
"inflicting such a crushing defeat on the manchus alsodoes us a great service," 'leopard' wei remarked toxu, but xu was deep in thought.
"the emperor made a pact with us, yet he didn'twithdraw his forces," he said. "could it be that heintentionally sent his troops into the desert to bedestroyed?""i have no faith in this emperor," said wen. "howcould he know mistress huo qingtong would win sodecisively? what's more, i doubt if he sent zhangzhaozhong out here for any good purpose."as the heroes talked, they noticed chen gazing at huoqingtong in concern. she was seated to one side, herface as white as a sheet, with a wild look in hereyes. luo bing went over to talk to her and as huoqingtong stood up to greet her, she swayed unsteadily.
luo bing caught hold of her.
"sister, what's wrong?" she asked. huo qingtong saidnothing, but fought to control her breathing. princessfragrance, muzhuolun, chen and the others ran over.
princess fragrance led her into a tent and laid herdown on a carpet.
muzhuolun knew his daughter was exhausted after thebattle which she had both directed and taken part inalongside the other warriors. she had also had to bearthe suspicions of her own commanders. but he wasafraid that the thing affecting her most was therelationship between chen and her sister. unable tothink of anything to say to comfort her, he sighed andleft the tent. he went for a walk round the camp, andfrom all sides heard nothing but praise for huoqingtong's brilliant strategy.
that night, he slept badly, worrying about hisdaughter. early the next day before the sky was light,he went over to her tent to see how she was, but foundher tent was empty. he hurriedly asked the guardoutside what had happened to her.
"mistress huo qingtong left about two hours ago," theguard replied.
"where did she go?""i don't know, lord. she told me to give you thisletter." muzhuolun grabbed it and tore it open.
inside, in huo qingtong's delicate hand, was written:
"father, the war is now over. all that is necessary isto tighten the encirclement and the remaining manchusoldiers will be annhilated in a few days, (signed)your daughter.""which direction did she go?" he asked. the guardpointed east.
muzhuolun found a horse and galloped off immediatelyin pursuit. he rode for an hour into the depths of theflat desert where it was possible to see several milesin all directions, but found no sign of any livingbeing. afraid that she may have changed direction, hedecided the only thing to do was to return to thecamp. half way back, he met princess fragrance, chenand the other heroes who were all anxious about hersafety. once back in camp, muzhuolun sent units out tothe north, south, east and west to search. by evening,three units had returned without finding anything,while the fourth brought back a young chinese youthdressed in black clothes.
'scholar' yu stared at the youth in shock: it was liyuanzhi dressed as usual in boy's clothes.
"what are you doing here?" he asked, hurrying up tomeet her.
"i came to find you, and happened to run into them,"she replied, very happy to see him again.
princess fragrance was frantic with worry about herlost sister. "what can have happened to her?" sheasked chen. "what can we do?""i will go and find her," he replied. "come what may,i`ll convince her to come back.""i'll go with you," she said at once.
chen nodded. "all right. go and ask your father.""you all do just as you like anyway," muzhuolunreplied angrily, stamping his foot. princess fragrancelooked up at her father and saw how bloodshot his eyeswere. she took his hand and squeezed it.
yuanzhi ignored the others, and bombarded yu withquestions about what had happened to him since theyhad parted.
"that's the boy your sister likes," chen said toprincess fragrance, pointing at yuanzhi. "he willcertainly be able to convince her to come back.""really? why has she never told me? she's toohorrible!" the princess replied. she walked overtowards yuanzhi to get a closer look. muzhuolun, whowas equally curious, did the same.
yuanzhi had met muzhuolun previously and she bowedbefore him in greeting. then she saw princessfragrance and was immediately struck speechless by herextraordinary beauty. princess fragrance smiled atchen and said: "tell this gentleman that we are verypleased to see him, and ask him to come with us tohelp find my sister."only now did chen greet yuanzhi. "why are you here,brother?" he asked. "how have you been since we lastmet?"yuanzhi blushed and laughed. she glanced at yu,wanting him to explain.
"great helmsman, this is master lu's pupil," yu said.
"i know, we've met several times."yu smiled. "she is therefore my martial sister.""what?" chen exclaimed in surprise.
"she likes wearing boy's clothes when she travels."chen looked closely at yuanzhi and noticed for thefirst time how delicate her eyebrows were, and howsmall her mouth, not at all like a man's. because ofthe relationship with huo qingtong, chen had neverlooked closely at her before, but now he stared inshock.
"i was completely wrong about mistress huo qingtong,"he thought. "she told me to go and ask master lu abouthis pupil and i never did. could she have left thecamp because of me? and then there's her sister wholoves me deeply."luo bing could see how yuanzhi felt towards yu and shehoped that with such a beautiful girl in love withhim, he could release himself from the self-torture ofhis adoration of herself. but he looked as desolateand unhappy as ever.
"where is sister huo qingtong?" yuanzhi asked. "i havesomething important to tell her.""she's gone. we're looking for her now," luo bingreplied.
"she went out by herself?"luo bing nodded.
"where did she go?" yuanzhi asked urgently.
"she left the camp heading east, but whether or notshe changed direction, we don't know.""oh, no!" yuanzhi exclaimed, stamping her foot. theyasked her what was wrong. "the three guandong devilsare looking for sister huo qingtong to get theirrevenge on her. you know that already. but i met themon the road. they're behind me. if she is headingeast, she might run into them.""we don't have a moment to lose," said chen. "i willgo and find her.""don't underestimate the three devils," xu warned. "itwould be better if several of us went. great helmsmanchen should go first with princess fragrance. mistressli, you also know her, but it would be too dangerousfor you to go alone. perhaps brother yu could go withyou. my wife and i can go and search too, while theothers remain here at the camp to watch for zhangzhaozhong.""fine!" said chen. he borrowed luo bing's white horseand he and princess frangrance galloped off with theothers not far behind.
at about noon that day, wen and the other heroes werechatting with muzhuolun in his tent when a guardrushed in to report that the manchu general herda hadescaped and the four soldiers guarding him had beenkilled. they hurried over, and found a dagger stuck inthe chest of one of the dead soldiers with a noteattached to it which read: "to the heroes of the redflower society from zhang zhaozhong".
wen angrily screwed the piece of paper up into a ball.
"master muzhuolun," he said. "you maintain theencirclement of the manchus, and we'll go and findthis traitor zhang zhaozhong." muzhuolun nodded, andwen led the other heroes off into the desert,following the tracks of the manchu horses.
