Many hours later, they heard shouting in the distance.
The sound of galloping hooves and clashing swords
increased in volume until they heard a man near the
pit shout: "Daughter! Master Chen! Where are you?"
"Father! Father! We're here!" Princess Fragrance
called.
The heroes leapt out of the pit and saw Muzhuolun,
sabre in hand, galloping towards them with a ragged
bunch of Muslim soldiers behind, fighting bravely.
Princess Fragrance ran to him crying "Father! Father!"
Muzhuolun took her in his arms. "Don't be afraid," he
said soothingly. "I have come to save you."
Xu jumped onto the back of a horse to get a better
view of the situation. He saw a great cloud of dust
rising to the east and knew the Manchu armoured
cavalry were coming.
"Master Muzhuolun!" he called. "Let's retreat to that
high ground to the west!" Muzhuolun immediately
ordered his troops to comply. They started out from
the pit with the Manchus close behind, and as they
reached the hill, saw another force of Manchu troops
moving in from the west.
"Huo Qingtong was right," Muzhuolun thought glumly. "I
should not have accused her like that. She must be
feeling very bad."
They threw up temporary defences on the hilltop and
settled down to wait for an opportunity to escape.
With the Muslims firmly established on high ground,
the Manchus did not dare, for the moment, to attack.
Huo Qingtong stationed her unit about four miles away
from the enemy forces. At noon, the unit commanders
came to report. She told the commander of the Green
Flag's second unit: "Go with five hundred troops and
take up positions along the southern bank of the Black
River. The Manchu troops are not allowed to cross the
river. If they attack, do not engage them head on, but
rather delay them as long as possible." The commander
bowed and retired.
She then turned to the commander of the White Flag's
first unit. "I want you to lure the Manchu forces
westwards. If your troops clash with the enemy, they
are not allowed to win the engagement, but must
continue to flee into the desert, the further the
better. Take our four thousand head of cattle and
goats with you and leave them along the road for them
to seize."
"Why should we give them our livestock? I won't do
it!"
Huo Qingtong's lips tightened. "Do you refuse to
follow my orders?" she asked quietly.
The commander brandished his sabre. "If you tell me to
win a battle. I will follow your orders. If you tell
me to lose a battle, I would rather die then comply!"
"Seize him!" Huo Qingtong commanded. Four guards ran
forward and grabbed the commander's arms. "The Manchu
forces are oppressing us and to beat them, we must
work together with one heart. Will you or will you not
follow my orders?"
"No! What are you going to do about it?"
"Execute him!" she commanded, and the officer's face
turned pale. The guards pushed him out of the tent and
sliced off his head with one sword stroke as the other
commanders quivered with fear.
Huo Qingtong promoted the assistant commander to take
the dead officer's place and told him to retreat
westwards before the Manchu forces until he saw smoke
rising from the east, then to return as quickly as
possible, avoiding battle with the Manchus. She
ordered the other units to gather beside the Great
Quagmire to the east.
Her work complete, she mounted her horse and drew her
sword. "The first and second units of the Black Flag,
follow me," she shouted.
Muzhuolun, Chen and the others were trapped on the
hill. The Manchu troops had attacked twice, but had
been beaten back. The hill was surrounded by piles of
corpses. Losses on both sides had been heavy.
Sometime after noon, there was a movement in the
Manchu lines, and a column of mounted Muslim soldiers
charged through towards them. Amidst the flying snow
flakes, they spotted Huo Qingtong at its head.
"Charge!" shouted Muzhuolun, and led his men down the
hill to meet her. Princess Fragrance galloped over to
her sister and embraced her.
Huo Qingtong took her hand and shouted: "Commander of
the Black Flag Third Unit: lead your men west until
you meet up with the first unit of the White Flag and
follow the orders of its commander."
The officer and his troops galloped off, and a column
of Manchu cavalry broke from the main force and chased
after them.
"Excellent!" exclaimed Huo Qingtong. "Commander of the
Black Flag First Unit: retreat with your men towards
Yarkand and follow the orders of my brother. Commander
of the Second Unit, you retreat towards the Black
River." The two units broke out of the encirclement,
and disappeared into the distance pursued by two more
columns of Manchu cavalry.
"Everyone else head eastwards!" Huo Qingtong ordered,
and the remaining Muslim soldiers along with the Red
Flower Society fighters galloped through the circle of
Manchu troops and away.
The Manchu cavalry, under the command of Zhao Wei
closed in on the fleeing Muslims and cut off several
hundred of them. All were slaughtered. Zhao Wei was
delighted. He pointed to the huge Crescent Moon banner
near Huo Qingtong and shouted: "Whoever seizes that
banner gets a reward!" The cavalrymen surged forward,
galloping madly across the desert.
The Muslims were riding good horses and the Manchu
cavalry had difficulty keeping up with them. But after
ten or fifteen miles, some of the Muslim fighters
began to fall behind and were killed by the Manchu
troops. Zhao Wei saw they were all either old men or
boys, and exclaimed: "Their leader has no crack troops
with him. After them!" They galloped on for another
two or three miles and saw the Muslim force
dispersing, apparently in confusion. Fluttering on the
top of a large sand dune ahead was the crescent
banner.
Zhao Wei flourished his sword and led the charge
towards the dune with his bodyguards behind. But as he
reached the top and looked out beyond, he was almost
frightened out of his wits. To the north and south,
were rank after orderly rank of Muslim warriors,
waiting silently. The Manchu force had originally been
several times larger than the Muslim force, but so
many units had been sent out in pursuit of the
breakaway Muslim columns that only ten thousand
armoured cavalry now faced the concentrated might of
the Muslim army. Two more Muslim columns appeared
behind them, and with enemy troops to the north, south
and west, Zhao Wei shouted: "Everyone forward!
Eastwards!" The Manchu forces surged forward as the
Muslim fighters gradually closed in on them.
Suddenly, there was a chorus of cries from the cavalry
unit in the lead. A soldier rode up to Zhao Wei and
said: "General! We're finished! There's quicksand
ahead!" He could see a thousand cavalrymen and their
horses already flailing about as they sank into the
soft mud.
Chen and the others stood on a sand dune and watched
as the Manchu troops fell into the quagmire. The
soldiers behind tried to escape, but the Muslims
pressed relentlessly in, forcing them into the mud.
The air was filled with the screams of the hapless
Manchu soldiers, but the mud crept up their legs, and
when it reached their mouths, the noise ceased. The
dwindling numbers of Manchu troops fought desperately,
but in less than an hour, the whole army had been
forced into the quagmire. Only Zhao Wei and a hundred
or so guards managed to escape after carving a path of
blood through the Muslim ranks.
"Everyone head westwards and gather on the south bank
of the Black River," Huo Qingtong ordered. The entire
force of more than ten thousand troops galloped off.
As they rode, Chen and Muzhuolun discussed what had
happened since they parted. Muzhuolun's heart was
uneasy. He loved his two daughters more than anything
in the world, and they had both fallen in love with
the same Chinese man. According to Islamic law, a man
could marry four wives, but Chen was not a believer,
and he had heard that Chinese had only one wife while
the second and subsequent women were not considered
real wives. He wondered how the matter could be
resolved. "Wait until the Manchus have been beaten,"
he thought. "One daughter is wise and the other kind.
A way will be found."
The great Muslim column arrived at the south bank of
the Black River towards evening. A soldier galloped up
and breathlessly reported: "The Manchus are attacking
hard. The commander of the Green Flag Second Unit is
dead, and the commander of the Black Flag Second Unit
is badly wounded. Losses are heavy."
"Tell the deputy commander of the Green Flag second
unit to take over. He is not to retreat one step," Huo
Qingtong ordered. The soldier galloped off again.
"Let's go and reinforce them!" Muzhuolun suggested.
"No!" she replied and turned to her personal guards.
"The whole army will rest here. No one is allowed to
light a fire or make a sound. Everyone will eat dry
rations." The order was transmitted, and the soldiers
settled down silently in the darkness. Far off, they
could hear the waters of the Black River and the cries
and shouts of Manchu and Muslim fighters.
Another soldier galloped frantically up. "The Green
Flag Second Unit's deputy commander has also been
killed," he reported. "We can't hold them back much
longer!"
Huo Qingtong turned to the commmander of the Green
Flag Third Unit. "Go and reinforce them," she said.
"You will be in command." He raised his sabre in
salute and led his unit away. Soon after, the sound of
battle rose to a roar.
"The Green Flag units will lie in ambush behind the
sand dunes to the east. The White Flag and Mongol
units will lie in ambush to the west," Huo Qingtong
ordered. "The rest, come with me."
She rode off towards the Black River, and as they
approached it, the metallic ring of weapons clashing
became deafening. In the torchlight, they saw the
Muslim fighters bravely defending the wooden bridge
across the river in the face of ferocious assaults by
the best Manchu cavalry.
"Give way!" Huo Qingtong shouted, and the fighters on
the bridge retreated, leaving a gap through which
several thousand Manchu mounted troops swarmed like
bees. When about half of the Manchu troops had
crossed, she shouted: "Pull away the bridge!"
The Muslims had earlier loosened the beams of the
bridge and used long ropes to tie them to horses on
the river bank below. The horses strained forward, a
series of loud cracks rent the air, and the bridge
collapsed, throwing hundreds of Manchu soldiers into
the river. The Manchu army was thus cut in two by the
river, with neither side able to assist the other.
At the order from Huo Qingtong, the mass of the Muslim
army, hiding behind the sand dunes, emerged and
overwhelmed the Manchu troops on the near bank. In a
short time, they were all dead, and the Manchu force
on the other side of the river were so frightened by
the sight of the slaughter that they turned and fled
towards Yarkand city.
"Across the river and after them!" shouted Huo
Qingtong. A make-shift bridge was swiftly constructed
with the remains of the former structure and the
Muslim army charged off towards Yarkand.
The citizens of Yarkand had long since evacuated their
city. Huo Qingtong's brother, on her instructions, had
resisted perfunctorily when the Manchus attacked, then
led his troops in retreat from the city. Soon after,
the Manchu forces fleeing from the banks of the Black
River arrived along with General Zhao Wei and his
hundred-odd battered bodyguards. The walled city was
now full of Manchu soldiers.
Just as Zhao Wei was about to go to bed, he received a
report that several hundred troops who had drank water
from wells in the city had died of poisoning. He sent
a unit to collect some uncontaminated water from
outside. Then the sky turned red. All over the city,
fires were lit by a small number of Muslim soldiers
left behind, and the city turned into a huge oven.
Under the protection of his bodyguard, Zhao Wei fought
his way through the flames and smoke towards the west
gate as the rest of the Manchu soldiers trampled each
other in their haste to escape. The bodyguards slashed
at them with their swords, forcing them to make way
for their general. But when they got to the west gate,
they found it had been blocked by the Muslims. The
fires were burning even more ferociously, and the
streets were filled with frenzied mobs of soldiers and
horses. Through the confusion, a small group of riders
appeared shouting: "Where is the General?"
"Here!" Zhao Wei's bodyguards shouted back.
"There are fewer enemy troops at the east gate,"
replied one of the riders. "We can force our way out
there."
Even in such danger, Zhao Wei remained calm and led
his troops in the attack on the east gate. The Muslims
fired wave after wave of arrows at them, and several
attempts to break out failed with heavy losses. But at
the critical moment, Zhang Zhaozhong led a troop of
Manchu soldiers in an attack from outside the city and
managed to snatch Zhao Wei away to safety.
Many thousands of Manchu soldiers had already been
burned to death, and the stench was sickening. The
whole city was filled with cries and screams. Huo
Qingtong and the others watched from a piece of high
ground.
"It's terrible! Terrible!" cried Muzhuolun. Huo
Qingtong sent more troops down to help blockade the
east gate of the city. With Zhao Wei gone, the Manchu
soldiers left inside were leaderless. They raced
frantically about, but with the four gates blocked by
the Muslims, they all died in the monster furnace.
"Light the signal fires!" Huo Qingtong ordered, and
piles of wolf droppings that had been prepared were
put to the torch, sending a huge column of black smoke
up to the heavens. (The smoke from burning wolf's
dropping is the thickest and blackest of all.) A short
while later, a similar column of smoke arose five or
so miles to the west.
The Muslims had won three victories and wiped out more
than thirty thousand of the best Manchu troops. The
warriors embraced each other and sang and danced
around the Yarkand city wall.
Huo Qingtong called her officers together. "We will
camp out here tonight," she said. "Each man must start
ten fires and must spread them out as much as
possible." |
