I sent two Miao tribesmen ahead to warn the General, while we slowly made our way back to Huang Long. We had to accommodate the old Grand Master as he could not walk as fast as the rest of the party.
By the time we reached Huang Long city, preparation was well underway for the invaders; the entire city was mobilized for the defense. Every citizen of the city knew that if we allowed the Xi Xia Kingdom to enter the city, the consequences would be unimaginable. And we knew we were on our own, the weak and corrupted Imperial Court would not be able to come to our help.
Cities walls were fortified; food and water were moved into the city, every single bit of harvest-able grain were taken in. All able-bodied young men were pressed into service. Little did we know that all these preparations were unnecessary; as soon we were presented with a pleasant surprise…
Sunrise Inn gave us a present
Early one morning we were awaken by the servants of the Ding household, we were told that there was a message for me at the front door. When we approach the main door a huge crowd was already gathered there, the General was there as well. In front of him kneed three person, they were tied up like a Chinese dumpling. They seem to be some prisoners captured by the General.
The General turned to me and said, “Mister Yan, I apologize to have disturbed you so early.”
I replied, “That is fine, are these people your prisoners?”
The General smiled and said, “No Sir, it looks like they are your prisoners.” After that he handed me a piece of paper.
He continued, “This piece of paper was pinned on them when they were delivered here this morning. Nobody saw who had dumped them at our front door step, just read the note and you will understand.”
I was very puzzled as I read the note; it said, “To Mister Yan Ching, here are the three Generals commanding the Xi Xia army, they are a small present from us.”
No name was mentioned in the note, but I knew very well who had done this great deed for the citizens of Huang Long city. It must be the Innkeeper and his gang. This gift had saved the city from a painful battle with the Xi Xia army, now we could use these three captured Generals to force the Xi Xia troops to withdraw, that would buy us time to persuade the Imperial Court to take the threat seriously. With these prisoners, the Ding family finally had the proof they needed to show to the Emperor that Xi Xia was indeed plotting to invade us.
The three captured General sheepishly agreed to write a letter to their junior officers to have them withdraw the Xi Xia army fifty miles back into their territory. Meanwhile the General sent messengers to the Imperial Court to inform them of this Xi Xia’s invasion attempt, we requested the Imperial Court to send inspectors to Huang Long city to interrogate the captured Generals.
It would be a long drawn process to convince the Court that there was indeed an invasion attempt. I think it was not that they did not believe that there was such an attempt, rather the Imperial War department did not have the resources to deal with it; therefore they would choose to ignore it. And I believe someone high up in the hierarchy had been bought by the Kingdom of Xi Xia, this person had manipulated the Court’s decision repeatedly; he would certainly block it again this time.
At times like this, it was up to the People of the land to take over the responsibility of defending our home; the authorities were no longer in charge. The corrupted officials and the weak Emperor had failed us; they had allowed people like Black Bear to decide our future, if we had failed to stop him, now the life of the people of Huang Long city would be unthinkable. The fate of the people under Black Bear might be similar to the many caged animals I found inside the mountains.
When I considered the plight of the ordinary people of the land, I was very much saddened by the picture before me. The ruling elite had absolutely no interest in the welfare of the population, while they engaged in their courtly politics; everything else was expendable…
Such were the times when the Wulin must step forward to help the People of Land. We might not be able to fight the huge Xi Xia army in the long run, but we might be able to help in our small ways. This time we were fortunate to be able to force the army to retreat, but we all knew that they will be back, bigger and stronger. The next time they are back, the Innkeeper and his gang might not be around to help us…