Chapter 429: 429
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Before long, they heard the innkeeper calling out from outside, "Ah Fu, Ah Fu! Are you still chatting incessantly again? Quickly fetch some face-washing water for the guest in room three!"
Han Lin'er was amused; he slapped the table and called out, "Quickly send us some food and wine, your masters are hungry!"
A moment later, another attendant came in delivering food and wine, while muttering to himself, "Ah Fu must have gone to the palace to watch the fireworks. This kid has never done anything proper; he wants to have fun all the time."
Early morning on the next day, Zhang Wuji was just getting out of bed when he heard a clamorous noise on the street. He went to the door and saw the street was packed with men and women wearing bright colored and fancy clothes. Everybody was heading north, while laughing and joking; the atmosphere was livelier than the New Year celebration, with incessant sounds of firecrackers coming from all directions.
Zhou Zhiruo also came to the door; she said, "Let us also go and watch."
"I have fought the warriors from the Ruyang Palace," Zhang Wuji said, "They must not find out I am here. If we want to go, we must go in disguise."
Immediately, along with Zhou Zhiruo and Han Lin'er, they disguised themselves as farmers and villagers, by smearing yellow mud on their faces and hands; and then following the crowd on the street, they went to the Imperial Palace.
It was around the end of the fourth hour [between 5 – 7 am], and the beginning of the fifth hour [between 7 – 9 am], the ground around the Imperial Palace was like a sea of people; already they could not find a place to set their feet on. Zhang Wuji stretched out his arms to gently shoved people around to clear the way. Finally they stopped under the eave by the Yan Cun [lit. extended spring (season)] gate of a rich family home. The stairs rose several feet upward, which gave them an advantageous spot to watch the show.
They had not stood too long when they heard the banging noise of a gong. "They are here! They are here!" the crowd cried out. Everybody craned their necks to watch. The gong was getting nearer. They saw 108 big and tall men wearing dark green clothing. Their heft hands lifting up big gongs, about three feet in diameter, and their right hands struck the gongs with mallets. When these 108 gongs were struck together, the noise was deafening.
The gong formation was followed by 360-man drum formation. After that it was people singing, blowing horn and beating the drum; followed by western region people playing 'pipa' [Chinese lute], and then Mongolian bugle horn. Each formation consisted of at least more than a hundred people, at most about four, five hundred people. After these marching ensembles, there were a couple of large red satin banners, flying high in the air. One banner carried these letters: 'An Bang Hu Guo' [peace to the nation, protecting the country], while the other said: 'Zhen Xie Fu Mo' [suppressing demonic influence, subduing the devil]. Other than these large letters, the banners were also full of bright golden Sanskrit characters. Before and after the banners each were two hundreds Mongolian elite troops, the imperial guards, with their long sabers glittering like snow, and their spears like the clouds; these four hundred men all rode on white horses. As the common people watched this display of formidable military prowess, they loudly cheered.
Zhang Wuji sighed inwardly, "In other places there aren't any common people who do not hate the Mongolian soldiers to the bones, but the people of Beijing have become shameless slaves of the government. To think that for decades day in and day out these people have seen Mongolian imperial household's impressive power, and thus have forgotten their own perished country."
As the two banners passed, suddenly from among the west crowd several white light flashed by; two rows of flying daggers flew straight toward the two flagpoles. Each row of flying daggers consisted of seven daggers. These seven daggers neatly pierced the flagpole. Although the flagpoles were thick, after receiving seven cuts, they swayed and finally broke; with a couple of whishing noises they fell down. People were yelling and screaming miserably, as dozens of them were crushed by the flagpoles; while the rest of the people were also shouting and scrambling away. It was total chaos.
This change was so abrupt that even Zhang Wuji and the others were taken by surprise. Han Lin'er was very happy and was about to cheer when suddenly a soft palm reached out and cover his mouth; Zhou Zhiruo managed to curb his shout in time. The four hundred elite troops moved their weapons and charged into the crowd, randomly searched for the shooter.
Zhang Wuji noticed that whoever launched these fourteen flying daggers had a tremendous strength, obviously it was a martial art master of the Wulin world; only among those many onlookers, nobody could tell who the person was. If he could not see who did it, then how could the Mongolian soldiers? They blindly searched among the crowd and not too long afterwards dragged seven, eight men out, who called out miserably, "Injustice …" But the Mongolian soldiers struck their blades and spears and killed those men on the spot.
Han Lin'er was very angry; "The flying daggers shooter has gone for long, what can this useless bunch do? They massacred innocent people to vent off their anger instead," he said.
"Yes," Han Lin'er said; he did not dare to open his mouth anymore.
The chaos only lasted a few moments; the sound of music quickly followed, other groups marched by one by one: acrobats who swallow knife and spit fire from their mouths, and various western region entertainers, which sent the crowd cheering and clapping again, quickly put the bloody incidents on the street out of their minds. Next came group by group of puppeteers, jugglers, performers balancing plates over sticks and all kinds of acrobatic acts. After these groups came large parade floats pulled by beautiful steeds. On each float there were handsome men and beautiful women dressed as characters of the classical stories, such as 'Journey to the West' [orig. Tang Sancang went to western sky to fetch the scripture], 'Emperor Tang Ming Touring the Moon Palace', 'Li Cunxiao Beat the Tiger', 'Liu Guanzhang Fought Lu Bu Three Times', 'Zhang Shengyue Gathered the Hawks', and so on; legendary battles and wonderful accomplishments, presented with the best of workmanship.
Zhang Wuji and the others, all three people, grew in poor rural environment; they had never seen this kind of bustling festive atmosphere. They sighed inwardly, thinking today their horizons were broadened.
On each float there was an embroidered silk banner, with inscriptions such as 'Humble Presentation of so-and-so, the Prefect of Hu Guang [Hubei and Hunan provinces]', or 'Respectfully Presented by so-and-so, the Governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang'. As the procession passed by, the official who presented the float became progressively higher in rank; the float itself became progressively fancier, the men and women playing the characters were now wearing pearls and bright jewels, the hairpins and necklaces were also made of precious jadeite and precious stones. First, the Mongolian princes, dukes, and chancellors wanted to curry favor from the Emperor; second, they also wanted to flaunt their prosperity; therefore, no expense was spared in the building and the adornment of the float.
Amidst the melodious sound of string and woodwind instruments, a float with the 'Liu Zhiyuan's Chronicle of the White Rabbit' theme passed by. Suddenly the cheerful melody changed into an awkward melody of old tune; the plain banner on the float read 'Zhou Gong banished Guan Cai'. On the float there was a middle-age man with a tablet in his hands [this is the tablet held by officials during imperial audience], he was playing the role of Zhou Gong. On his side sat a small child wearing an Emperor clothes, he was playing the part of the Emperor. Guan Shu and Cai Shu were standing on the side, whispering to each other and pointing their fingers to Zhou Gong. This float was followed by another float with 'Wang Mang's Hypocritical Act of Generosity'. The man on this float wore a very thick white face-powder, with gold and silver in his hands, pretending to give generously to poor people. Following these two floats was a cart with white banners on all four sides, with these writings on them, 'When Zhou Gong feared the days of rumor, Wang Mang enjoyed being praised as a polite and modest scholar. If both of them died at that time, their loyalty and talent would be hidden for eternity.'
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Before long, they heard the innkeeper calling out from outside, "Ah Fu, Ah Fu! Are you still chatting incessantly again? Quickly fetch some face-washing water for the guest in room three!"
Han Lin'er was amused; he slapped the table and called out, "Quickly send us some food and wine, your masters are hungry!"
A moment later, another attendant came in delivering food and wine, while muttering to himself, "Ah Fu must have gone to the palace to watch the fireworks. This kid has never done anything proper; he wants to have fun all the time."
Early morning on the next day, Zhang Wuji was just getting out of bed when he heard a clamorous noise on the street. He went to the door and saw the street was packed with men and women wearing bright colored and fancy clothes. Everybody was heading north, while laughing and joking; the atmosphere was livelier than the New Year celebration, with incessant sounds of firecrackers coming from all directions.
Zhou Zhiruo also came to the door; she said, "Let us also go and watch."
"I have fought the warriors from the Ruyang Palace," Zhang Wuji said, "They must not find out I am here. If we want to go, we must go in disguise."
Immediately, along with Zhou Zhiruo and Han Lin'er, they disguised themselves as farmers and villagers, by smearing yellow mud on their faces and hands; and then following the crowd on the street, they went to the Imperial Palace.
It was around the end of the fourth hour [between 5 – 7 am], and the beginning of the fifth hour [between 7 – 9 am], the ground around the Imperial Palace was like a sea of people; already they could not find a place to set their feet on. Zhang Wuji stretched out his arms to gently shoved people around to clear the way. Finally they stopped under the eave by the Yan Cun [lit. extended spring (season)] gate of a rich family home. The stairs rose several feet upward, which gave them an advantageous spot to watch the show.
They had not stood too long when they heard the banging noise of a gong. "They are here! They are here!" the crowd cried out. Everybody craned their necks to watch. The gong was getting nearer. They saw 108 big and tall men wearing dark green clothing. Their heft hands lifting up big gongs, about three feet in diameter, and their right hands struck the gongs with mallets. When these 108 gongs were struck together, the noise was deafening.
The gong formation was followed by 360-man drum formation. After that it was people singing, blowing horn and beating the drum; followed by western region people playing 'pipa' [Chinese lute], and then Mongolian bugle horn. Each formation consisted of at least more than a hundred people, at most about four, five hundred people. After these marching ensembles, there were a couple of large red satin banners, flying high in the air. One banner carried these letters: 'An Bang Hu Guo' [peace to the nation, protecting the country], while the other said: 'Zhen Xie Fu Mo' [suppressing demonic influence, subduing the devil]. Other than these large letters, the banners were also full of bright golden Sanskrit characters. Before and after the banners each were two hundreds Mongolian elite troops, the imperial guards, with their long sabers glittering like snow, and their spears like the clouds; these four hundred men all rode on white horses. As the common people watched this display of formidable military prowess, they loudly cheered.
Zhang Wuji sighed inwardly, "In other places there aren't any common people who do not hate the Mongolian soldiers to the bones, but the people of Beijing have become shameless slaves of the government. To think that for decades day in and day out these people have seen Mongolian imperial household's impressive power, and thus have forgotten their own perished country."
As the two banners passed, suddenly from among the west crowd several white light flashed by; two rows of flying daggers flew straight toward the two flagpoles. Each row of flying daggers consisted of seven daggers. These seven daggers neatly pierced the flagpole. Although the flagpoles were thick, after receiving seven cuts, they swayed and finally broke; with a couple of whishing noises they fell down. People were yelling and screaming miserably, as dozens of them were crushed by the flagpoles; while the rest of the people were also shouting and scrambling away. It was total chaos.
This change was so abrupt that even Zhang Wuji and the others were taken by surprise. Han Lin'er was very happy and was about to cheer when suddenly a soft palm reached out and cover his mouth; Zhou Zhiruo managed to curb his shout in time. The four hundred elite troops moved their weapons and charged into the crowd, randomly searched for the shooter.
Zhang Wuji noticed that whoever launched these fourteen flying daggers had a tremendous strength, obviously it was a martial art master of the Wulin world; only among those many onlookers, nobody could tell who the person was. If he could not see who did it, then how could the Mongolian soldiers? They blindly searched among the crowd and not too long afterwards dragged seven, eight men out, who called out miserably, "Injustice …" But the Mongolian soldiers struck their blades and spears and killed those men on the spot.
Han Lin'er was very angry; "The flying daggers shooter has gone for long, what can this useless bunch do? They massacred innocent people to vent off their anger instead," he said.
"Yes," Han Lin'er said; he did not dare to open his mouth anymore.
The chaos only lasted a few moments; the sound of music quickly followed, other groups marched by one by one: acrobats who swallow knife and spit fire from their mouths, and various western region entertainers, which sent the crowd cheering and clapping again, quickly put the bloody incidents on the street out of their minds. Next came group by group of puppeteers, jugglers, performers balancing plates over sticks and all kinds of acrobatic acts. After these groups came large parade floats pulled by beautiful steeds. On each float there were handsome men and beautiful women dressed as characters of the classical stories, such as 'Journey to the West' [orig. Tang Sancang went to western sky to fetch the scripture], 'Emperor Tang Ming Touring the Moon Palace', 'Li Cunxiao Beat the Tiger', 'Liu Guanzhang Fought Lu Bu Three Times', 'Zhang Shengyue Gathered the Hawks', and so on; legendary battles and wonderful accomplishments, presented with the best of workmanship.
Zhang Wuji and the others, all three people, grew in poor rural environment; they had never seen this kind of bustling festive atmosphere. They sighed inwardly, thinking today their horizons were broadened.
On each float there was an embroidered silk banner, with inscriptions such as 'Humble Presentation of so-and-so, the Prefect of Hu Guang [Hubei and Hunan provinces]', or 'Respectfully Presented by so-and-so, the Governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang'. As the procession passed by, the official who presented the float became progressively higher in rank; the float itself became progressively fancier, the men and women playing the characters were now wearing pearls and bright jewels, the hairpins and necklaces were also made of precious jadeite and precious stones. First, the Mongolian princes, dukes, and chancellors wanted to curry favor from the Emperor; second, they also wanted to flaunt their prosperity; therefore, no expense was spared in the building and the adornment of the float.
Amidst the melodious sound of string and woodwind instruments, a float with the 'Liu Zhiyuan's Chronicle of the White Rabbit' theme passed by. Suddenly the cheerful melody changed into an awkward melody of old tune; the plain banner on the float read 'Zhou Gong banished Guan Cai'. On the float there was a middle-age man with a tablet in his hands [this is the tablet held by officials during imperial audience], he was playing the role of Zhou Gong. On his side sat a small child wearing an Emperor clothes, he was playing the part of the Emperor. Guan Shu and Cai Shu were standing on the side, whispering to each other and pointing their fingers to Zhou Gong. This float was followed by another float with 'Wang Mang's Hypocritical Act of Generosity'. The man on this float wore a very thick white face-powder, with gold and silver in his hands, pretending to give generously to poor people. Following these two floats was a cart with white banners on all four sides, with these writings on them, 'When Zhou Gong feared the days of rumor, Wang Mang enjoyed being praised as a polite and modest scholar. If both of them died at that time, their loyalty and talent would be hidden for eternity.'
Before long, they heard the innkeeper calling out from outside, "Ah Fu, Ah Fu! Are you still chatting incessantly again? Quickly fetch some face-washing water for the guest in room three!"Han Lin'er was amused; he slapped the table and called out, "Quickly send us some food and wine, your masters are hungry!"A moment later, another attendant came in delivering food and wine, while muttering to himself, "Ah Fu must have gone to the palace to watch the fireworks. This kid has never done anything proper; he wants to have fun all the time."Early morning on the next day, Zhang Wuji was just getting out of bed when he heard a clamorous noise on the street. He went to the door and saw the street was packed with men and women wearing bright colored and fancy clothes. Everybody was heading north, while laughing and joking; the atmosphere was livelier than the New Year celebration, with incessant sounds of firecrackers coming from all directions.Zhou Zhiruo also came to the door; she said, "Let us also go and watch.""I have fought the warriors from the Ruyang Palace," Zhang Wuji said, "They must not find out I am here. If we want to go, we must go in disguise."Immediately, along with Zhou Zhiruo and Han Lin'er, they disguised themselves as farmers and villagers, by smearing yellow mud on their faces and hands; and then following the crowd on the street, they went to the Imperial Palace.It was around the end of the fourth hour between 5 7 am, and the beginning of the fifth hour between 7 9 am, the ground around the Imperial Palace was like a sea of people; already they could not find a place to set their feet on. Zhang Wuji stretched out his arms to gently shoved people around to clear the way. Finally they stopped under the eave by the Yan Cun lit. extended spring season gate of a rich family home. The stairs rose several feet upward, which gave them an advantageous spot to watch the show.They had not stood too long when they heard the banging noise of a gong. "They are here! They are here!" the crowd cried out. Everybody craned their necks to watch. The gong was getting nearer. They saw 108 big and tall men wearing dark green clothing. Their heft hands lifting up big gongs, about three feet in diameter, and their right hands struck the gongs with mallets. When these 108 gongs were struck together, the noise was deafening.The gong formation was followed by 360-man drum formation. After that it was people singing, blowing horn and beating the drum; followed by western region people playing 'pipa' Chinese lute, and then Mongolian bugle horn. Each formation consisted of at least more than a hundred people, at most about four, five hundred people. After these marching ensembles, there were a couple of large red satin banners, flying high in the air. One banner carried these letters: 'An Bang Hu Guo' peace to the nation, protecting the country, while the other said: 'Zhen Xie Fu Mo' suppressing demonic influence, subduing the devil. Other than these large letters, the banners were also full of bright golden Sanskrit characters. Before and after the banners each were two hundreds Mongolian elite troops, the imperial guards, with their long sabers glittering like snow, and their spears like the clouds; these four hundred men all rode on white horses. As the common people watched this display of formidable military prowess, they loudly cheered.Zhang Wuji sighed inwardly, "In other places there aren't any common people who do not hate the Mongolian soldiers to the bones, but the people of Beijing have become shameless slaves of the government. To think that for decades day in and day out these people have seen Mongolian imperial household's impressive power, and thus have forgotten their own perished country."As the two banners passed, suddenly from among the west crowd several white light flashed by; two rows of flying daggers flew straight toward the two flagpoles. Each row of flying daggers consisted of seven daggers. These seven daggers neatly pierced the flagpole. Although the flagpoles were thick, after receiving seven cuts, they swayed and finally broke; with a couple of whishing noises they fell down. People were yelling and screaming miserably, as dozens of them were crushed by the flagpoles; while the rest of the people were also shouting and scrambling away. It was total chaos.This change was so abrupt that even Zhang Wuji and the others were taken by surprise. Han Lin'er was very happy and was about to cheer when suddenly a soft palm reached out and cover his mouth; Zhou Zhiruo managed to curb his shout in time. The four hundred elite troops moved their weapons and charged into the crowd, randomly searched for the shooter.Zhang Wuji noticed that whoever launched these fourteen flying daggers had a tremendous strength, obviously it was a martial art master of the Wulin world; only among those many onlookers, nobody could tell who the person was. If he could not see who did it, then how could the Mongolian soldiers? They blindly searched among the crowd and not too long afterwards dragged seven, eight men out, who called out miserably, "Injustice " But the Mongolian soldiers struck their blades and spears and killed those men on the spot.Han Lin'er was very angry; "The flying daggers shooter has gone for long, what can this useless bunch do? They massacred innocent people to vent off their anger instead," he said."Yes," Han Lin'er said; he did not dare to open his mouth anymore.The chaos only lasted a few moments; the sound of music quickly followed, other groups marched by one by one: acrobats who swallow knife and spit fire from their mouths, and various western region entertainers, which sent the crowd cheering and clapping again, quickly put the bloody incidents on the street out of their minds. Next came group by group of puppeteers, jugglers, performers balancing plates over sticks and all kinds of acrobatic acts. After these groups came large parade floats pulled by beautiful steeds. On each float there were handsome men and beautiful women dressed as characters of the classical stories, such as 'Journey to the West' orig. Tang Sancang went to western sky to fetch the scripture, 'Emperor Tang Ming Touring the Moon Palace', 'Li Cunxiao Beat the Tiger', 'Liu Guanzhang Fought Lu Bu Three Times', 'Zhang Shengyue Gathered the Hawks', and so on; legendary battles and wonderful accomplishments, presented with the best of workmanship.Zhang Wuji and the others, all three people, grew in poor rural environment; they had never seen this kind of bustling festive atmosphere. They sighed inwardly, thinking today their horizons were broadened.On each float there was an embroidered silk banner, with inscriptions such as 'Humble Presentation of so-and-so, the Prefect of Hu Guang Hubei and Hunan provinces', or 'Respectfully Presented by so-and-so, the Governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang'. As the procession passed by, the official who presented the float became progressively higher in rank; the float itself became progressively fancier, the men and women playing the characters were now wearing pearls and bright jewels, the hairpins and necklaces were also made of precious jadeite and precious stones. First, the Mongolian princes, dukes, and chancellors wanted to curry favor from the Emperor; second, they also wanted to flaunt their prosperity; therefore, no expense was spared in the building and the adornment of the float.Amidst the melodious sound of string and woodwind instruments, a float with the 'Liu Zhiyuan's Chronicle of the White Rabbit' theme passed by. Suddenly the cheerful melody changed into an awkward melody of old tune; the plain banner on the float read 'Zhou Gong banished Guan Cai'. On the float there was a middle-age man with a tablet in his hands this is the tablet held by officials during imperial audience, he was playing the role of Zhou Gong. On his side sat a small child wearing an Emperor clothes, he was playing the part of the Emperor. Guan Shu and Cai Shu were standing on the side, whispering to each other and pointing their fingers to Zhou Gong. This float was followed by another float with 'Wang Mang's Hypocritical Act of Generosity'. The man on this float wore a very thick white face-powder, with gold and silver in his hands, pretending to give generously to poor people. Following these two floats was a cart with white banners on all four sides, with these writings on them, 'When Zhou Gong feared the days of rumor, Wang Mang enjoyed being praised as a polite and modest scholar. If both of them died at that time, their loyalty and talent would be hidden for eternity.'
