after two days and nights of being starved, frightenedand angered, qian long's resistance was virtually wornaway. on the morning of the third day, a boy appearedand said: "master dongfang, our master invites you tocome and talk with him."qian long recognized the boy as chen's attendant, andhe followed him down to the floor below.

as he entered, chen, smiling broadly, advanced togreet him, and bowed. qian long returned the bow, andthe two sat down. xin yan served some tea.

"bring some titbits to eat," chen ordered. a momentlater, xin yan carried in a tray on which was placedplates of spring rolls, prawns, chicken and ham. heset out two sets of bowls and chopsticks and pouredwine for them both.

"please forgive me for not being able to see yousooner. i had to go to visit a friend who waswounded," said chen.

"it is nothing.""there is something i wish to talk to you about, butplease eat first," chen added. he chose a morsel fromeach plate, then put down his chopsticks and watchedqian long wolf down the food.

when he had finished, qian long sat back, unspeakablycontented, and raised his tea cup. he looked closelyat the tiny dragon's well tea leaves and took aleisurely sip, savouring the feeling of the liquidseeping into his stomach.

chen walked over to the door and pushed it open. "allthe others are downstairs standing guard. there couldnot be a more convenient place for us to talk. no onewill hear us," he said.

qian long's expression hardened. "why did you have mebrought here?" he asked. "what is it you want?"chen stepped forward and stared into his face.

"do you still not recognize me, brother?" chen askedafter a moment's silence. the words were soft, thetone intimate, but they hit qian long's ears with theforce of a clap of thunder, and he jumped. anexpression of deep sincerity on his face, chen slowlyextended his hand and took qian long's.

"we are blood brothers," he said. "there is no need tocontinue the deception, my brother, i knoweverything."chen pulled on a chord beside a painting hanging onthe wall and the painting rolled up to reveal amirror. "take a look at yourself," he said.

qian long stood up and gazed at himself in the mirror,wearing chinese clothes: his face contained not theslightest likeness to a manchu. he looked at chenstanding beside him, and had to admit that despitetheir difference in age, their faces were similar. hesighed and sat down.

"brother, we were not aware of the situation before,"said chen. "we even took up arms against each other.

the spirits of father and mother up in heaven musthave been heartbroken. luckily neither of us was hurtand nothing happened which cannot be rectified."qian long felt a rasping dryness in his throat and hisheart beating rapidly. a moment passed. "i asked youto go to beijing with me to work, but you refused," hesaid finally. chen turned and gazed out at the greatriver without answering.

"with your scholastic abilities," qian long continued,"what reason would there be for not promoting you?

such a situation would be of great benefit to ourfamily and to the nation, to both you and i. why be sodisloyal and unfilial as to continue with thiscriminal course of action?"chen spun round. "i have never accused you of beingdisloyal or unfilial, or of acting criminally, and yetyou accuse me of these things.""hah!" replied qian long. "it is true that ministersmust be completely loyal to their emperor. but since iam already emperor, how could i be disloyal?""you are obviously a chinese and yet you submit to themanchus. is that loyalty? when our father and motherwere alive, you never attended to them properly. isthat filial behaviour?"beads of sweat dripped off qian long's forehead. "atthe time, i did not know," he said quietly. "i firstheard about it when the former leader of your redflower society, master yu, visited me last spring.

even now, i'm not sure whether i believe it.""look at yourself," chen said. "what resemblance isthere to a manchu? how can you have any furtherdoubt?"qian long brooded in silence.

"you are chinese. the homeland of the chinese peoplehas fallen into the hands of the manchus, and youyourself lead them in the oppression of our people. isthat not disloyal, unfilial and criminal behaviour?"for a moment, qian long was at a loss for a reply.

"and now i have fallen into your hands," he finallysaid, haughtily. "if you are going to kill me, thenkill me. there is no point wasting words.""but we made a pact on the embankment at haining thatwe would never do anything to hurt one other," chenreplied softly. "how can i go back on my word? andanyway, now that we know we are blood brothers, wehave even less reason to do each other harm." a teartrickled unbidden down his cheek.

"well, what do you want me to do? do you want to forceme to abdicate?""no," said chen, wiping his eyes. "you can continue tobe emperor. but as the wise, enlightened founder of anew dynasty.""founder of a new dynasty?" qian long echoed insurprise.

"yes. you will be a chinese emperor, not an emperor ofthe manchus."qian long suddenly understood. "so you want me todrive out the manchus?" he said.

"yes, you will be emperor just the same, but insteadof being regarded as a criminal and cursed by futuregenerations, why not establish an outstanding andrejuvenating dynasty that will last?"chen saw from qian long's expression that his wordswere having the desired effect.

"being the emperor you are at present, you are simplybasking in the glory of the former manchu rulers," hecontinued. "what is so special about that? look atthat man."qian long went over to the window and looked down inthe direction chen was pointing, and saw a peasant inthe distance hoeing the ground.

"if that man had been born in the imperial palace andyou had been born in his farm house, he would beemperor, and you would have no choice but to hoe thefield."qian long started at the novelty of the idea.

"a man is born into the world and his life is gone ina flash," said chen. "if you achieve nothingworthwhile, you decay and rot like grass and treeswithout leaving a trace behind. the emperors of thepast who established their own noble dynasties weretruly great men. even a tartar such as genghis khancould also be considered to be outstanding."every word stabbed deep into qian long's heart. if, hethought, if i really do as he says and throw themanchus out and restore the chinese homelands, i wouldtruly be the founder of a dynasty and a man of greaterachievements than any emperor before me.

just as he was considering an answer, he heard thesound of dogs barking in the distance. seeing chenfrown slightly, he looked out and spied four massivehounds galloping towards the pagoda with two figuresfollowing.

in the wink of an eye, they reached the base of thepagoda and there was a sharp challenge from below.

qian long and chen, in the second-highest storey ofthe thirteen-storey pavilion could not hear distinctlywhat was said, but they saw the two new-comers andtheir dogs charge into the pavilion. a moment later,there was a loud whistle indicating danger.

seeing help had arrived, qian long was overjoyed. chenlooked around carefully, but could see no other signsof movement: the two intruders were alone.

he heard the shouts of youngsters mingling with thebarks and growls of the dogs, indicating zhou qi andxin yan on the second floor were doing battle with theanimals. all of a sudden, there were two screams, andtwo swords were hurled out of the window. just then,'crocodile' jiang wielding his mighty iron oar chasedthe four dogs out of the pagoda and began beating themmercilessly. someone on the sixth floor and gave anear-splitting whistle. the four dogs turned and racedaway.

noting the intruders had reached the sixth floor, chenrealised it meant twelfth brother, ninth brother andeighth brother had been unable to stop them. hegroaned inwardly.

suddenly, he saw 'mastermind' xu leap out of theseventh floor window onto the narrow roof pursued by atiny old woman with a head of white hair and a swordslung over her back.

"watch the dart!" xu yelled with a wave of his hand,and his opponent hastily withdrew. but it had beenmerely a feint, and xu took advantage of the trick toescape round the corner.

the old woman chased after him.

"watch out!" xu yelled.

"you bastard monkey," the old woman cursed. "you can'tfool your grandma again."she made a grab for him, but this time, it was nofeint: a piece of tile xu had picked up from the roofhurtled towards her. unable to avoid it, the old womanblocked the tile with her hand and it shattered. thetwin knights, standing guard on the eighth floor,appeared to be fully occupied dealing with the oldwoman's partner, for they gave xu no help. xu's kungfu was no match for the old woman's, and after a fewmoves, he was forced to dodge out of the way again.

qian long watched with pleasure as the two new-comersfought their way up, but chen also seemed strangelyunconcerned. he pulled a chair to the window so thathe could sit and observe the battle. there were onlytwo of them, he thought. in the end, they could notovercome all the red flower society's fighters.

then he heard the sound of more dogs barking in thedistance intermingled with shouting and gallopinghorses.

footsteps sounded on the stairs and xin yan raced in.

"the guards outside report that more than two thousandmanchu troops are approaching, heading straight forus," he told chen, using the red flower society'ssecret language.

chen nodded and xin yan raced back downstairs. qianlong did not understand what xin yan had said, butseeing chen's anxious expression, he knew it wasunwelcome news. he looked into the distance andspotted amongst the maple trees a white flag on whichwas written one large word: "li". overjoyed, herealized commander li had come to save him.

chen leaned out of the window and shouted: "brotherma, retreat into the pagoda and prepare the bows andarrows!"suddenly the old woman rushed into the room with theheroes close behind. lord zhou attacked her with hisgreat sword while chen pulled qian long into a corner.

xu motioned some of the others to guard the windows,and chen shouted: "throw down your sword and we'llspare you!"the old woman could see she was surrounded, but shecontinued to fight, completely unafraid.

"i've seen her sword style somewhere before, i'msure," zhou qi said to xu.

"yes, i thought it was familiar too," he replied.

the old woman forced lord zhou back a pace, thenshouted at qian long: "are you the emperor?""yes, i'm the emperor," he replied hastily. "are allthe rescue forces here?" the woman leapt onto thetable, then with her sword pointing straight out, flewat him like a great bird, thrusting the blade at hisheart. the heroes had assumed she was one of qianlong's underlings come to rescue him, and were caughtcompletely unaware by this fast move. but chen, whowas standing by qian long's side, thrust his fingersat a yuedao point on the old woman's arm. her bladeslowed, giving chen time to draw his dagger and placeit in the way of the sword. the two blades clashed,then both retreated two paces. chen pulled qian longback and placed himself in front of him, then saluted.

"what is your honourable name, madame," he asked.

"where did that dagger of yours come from?" shereplied.

chen was surprised by the question. "a friend gave itto me," he said.

"what friend?" the woman demanded. "you are a servantof the emperor. why would she give it to you? what isyour relationship with master yuan, the strange knightof the heavenly pool?""he is my teacher," said chen, answering the lastquestion first.

"so that's it," the woman said. "your teacher may bepeculiar, but he's an upright gentleman. how could youhave dishonoured him by becoming a running dog of themanchus?""this is our great helmsman, master chen," 'ironpagoda' yang shouted. "don't talk such nonsense."the old woman's face took on a puzzled expression.

"are you the red flower society?" she asked.

"correct," said yang.

she turned on chen. "have you surrendered to themanchus?" she screeched in rage.

"the red flower society is just and upright. how couldwe bend our knees before the manchu court?" hereplied. "please sit down, madame. let us discuss thiscalmly."her expression softened slightly. "where did yourdagger come from?" she asked again.

having seen her kung fu style, and hearing herquestions, chen had already almost solved the puzzle.

"it was given to me by a muslim friend," he said. theexchange of presents between boys and girls was not anordinary thing, and chen was unhappy about discussingthe matter in front of everyone.

"do you know huo qingtong?" the old woman demanded.

chen nodded.

"it was sister huo qingtong who gave it to him," zhouqi interjected. "do you know her? if you do, we're allon the same side!""she is my pupil," the old woman said. "since you saywe are all on the same side, what are you doinghelping the emperor, and stopping me from killinghim?""we caught the emperor," said one of the twin knights.

"if he is to be killed, it will not be you who doesit.""huh!" the woman exclaimed. "you mean you caught theemperor and brought him here?""this is a misunderstanding, madame," said chen. "weinvited the emperor to come here. we assumed you werepalace bodyguards coming to rescue him, that is why wetried to obstruct you."the old woman went over to the window and stuck herhead out. "come down, husband!" she shouted at the topof her voice. an arrow shot in through the window frombelow and the old woman grabbed it by its tail, thenturned in one movement and threw the arrow so that itimplanted itself in the table top.

"you untrustworthy rascal," she screeched at chen asthe arrow quivered. "what is the meaning of this?""please don't be angry madame," replied chen hastily.

"our brothers at the base of the pagoda are not yetaware of the situation." he walked to the windowplanning to tell the heroes to stop firing and sawthat the pagoda was already surrounded by manchutroops.

"third brother," he said to 'buddha' zhao. "tell theothers to guard the doorway, but not to go outside."zhao nodded and went downstairs.

"you must be madame guan," said lord zhou to the oldwoman. "i have long respected you."madame guan nodded slightly.

"this is lord zhou zhongying," said chen to her.

"ah, i have heard about you too," she said, thensuddenly screeched out: "husband, come down! what areyou doing?"the others all jumped at this unexpected outburst.

"your husband is fighting with priest wu chen," saidlord zhou. "let's go and explain the situation to themquickly."chen motioned to the twin knights to guard qian long,and the rest raced up the stairs to the thirteenthfloor.

"husband!" madame guan shouted. "they're the redflower society!"her husband bald vulture, locked in fierce combat withthe taoist priest, started in surprise, and hesitatedin his attack. "really?" he said.

there was a laugh from above their heads and master lufeiqing dropped to the floor.

"excellent swordsmanship, excellent," he chuckled,nodding appreciatively at both bald vulture and atpriest wu chen.

"do you recognize me?" he asked bald vulture.

bald vulture looked at him closely for a moment, thengave a shout.

"ah! you're 'hidden needle' lu," he exclaimed.

"that's right," lu smiled.

"what are you doing here?" bald vulture asked.

lu turned without answering and bowed before the oldwoman. "madame, it has been many years since i lastsaw you, but your kung fu is better than ever!""ah," exclaimed bald vulture again, staring at lu'sblade. "that's a very precious sword you have there!"lu smiled. "it belongs to someone else," he said. "i'mjust using it temporarily." but let me introduce you.

he introduced all the heroes, to 'bald vulture' linand his wife madame guan, the tianshan twin eagles.

"i thought you two were living happily in the tianshanmountains," lu said. "and here you are, trying to killthe emperor.""you have all met my young pupil, huo qingtong,"replied madame guan. "this affair started with her.

the emperor sent an army to attack the muslims, butthey couldn't match the manchu troops' strength andlost some battles. later, the manchu grain supplieswere ransacked...""that was the red flower society," interrupted lu.

"they did it to help muzhuolun.""mm, i heard about that," said madame guan. sheglanced at chen. "no wonder she gave you that dagger.""that was before. we met when they came to recovertheir sacred koran.""you also helped to get that back. the way the muslimstalk of you, you're all great heroes!" her tonesuggested she disagreed. "after the manchu troops losttheir grain, they also lost a battle and muzhuolunsuggested peace talks. but just as the truce talkswere getting started, the manchu general got hold ofsome rations and attacked again.""manchu officers have no sense of honour," said lu,shaking his head sagely.

"the ordinary people of the muslim areas have beenbrutally treated by the manchu troops," madame guancontinued. "master muzhuolun asked us to help. weoriginally didn't want to have anything to do withit....""it was you!" bald vulture butted in accusingly. "nowyou're trying to feign innocence.""what do you mean, me? look at the way the manchus areburning and pillaging across the muslim lands,oppressing the people. don't you care?"bald vulture grunted in indignation and was about toargue further when lu raised his hand.

"you two are just the same as ever," he said with asmile. "as soon as you open your mouths, you'rearguing. don't take any notice, madame, pleasecontinue."she eyed her husband distastefully, then said: "wefirst thought of assassinating the manchu general,zhao wei, but there wasn't much point in killing onegeneral, because the emperor would just send anotherand it would go on for ever. so we decided to kill theemperor instead. we went to beijing, but heard on theroad that he had come down south. we followed him outof hangzhou with our dogs using the tunnel you used tobring him here. at the time, we were very puzzled asto why the emperor would suddenly want to travelaround in tunnels.""what? so you captured the emperor?" said baldvulture. chen nodded. "you did pretty well," baldvulture commented.

suddenly, there was a roar from the manchu troopsaround the base of the pagoda.

"i'll go and tell the emperor to shut them up," saidxu, and ran downstairs. a moment later they saw qianlong stick his head out of the window on the seventhfloor and shout: "i'm here!""there's his highness!" called bai zhen down below andthe troops all prostrated themselves on the ground.

"i am all right up here!" qian long added. "there isno need for such noise." there was a pause, then headded: "all of you retire thirty paces!" they compliedimmediately.

"seventh brother directs the emperor and the emperordirects the troops," said chen with a smile. "that'smuch better than charging out and killing andslaughtering. the emperor is the most precious objectunder heaven. it is better to use him than to killhim." the others laughed.

'leopard' wei, who was watching the manchu soldierswithdraw, saw several men in their midst with huntingdogs on leashes.

"ah, i was wondering how they found their way here,"he said. he took a bow from one of the attendants, andshot off two arrows, and there were two long screamsand two of the dogs fell to the ground, dead. a roarwent up from the manchu troops, who speeded up theirretreat.

"master lu, lord zhou," said chen. "please entertainthe twin eagles while i go downstairs and have anothertalk with the emperor."as chen reached the seventh floor, the twin knightsand xu bowed to him and retired. qian long was sittingdespondently in a chair.

"have you made a decision yet?" asked chen.

"since you have caught me, you might as well kill meif you are going to. what is the point of talking?"chen sighed. "it is such a pity," he said.

"what's a pity?""i have always thought of you as an extremely talentedman and have pride in the fact my parents gave birthto such a good son, my brother. but...""but what?"chen was silent for a moment. "but although outwardlyyou appear to be a man of courage, you are virtuallyhollow inside. not being afraid of death is theeasiest thing in the world. but the formation of agrand designs, the making of great decisions, that issomething that can only be done by a man with truecourage. that is precisely what you are incapable ofdoing."qian long was silent, but he appeared to be moved bychen's words.

"all you have to do is to decide to restore thechinese nation and we unruly fighters will immediatelyfollow your every instruction," chen added. "i canstrike my chest and guarantee that they will not dareto do anything disrespectful towards you."qian long nodded several times, but there was still anarea of doubt in his mind which made it impossible forhim to speak out. chen guessed his thoughts.

"all i want is to see you throw the barbarian manchusout of china," he said. "then i will be content," hesaid. "then i will ask you to allow me to retire tothe seclusion of the western lake and live out therest of my life in peace.""what sort of talk is that?" said qian long. "if thisgrand design was achieved, your assistance would berequired in planning affairs of state.""we are getting ahead of ourselves," replied chen.

"but once the grand design has been completed, youmust allow me to retire."qian long slapped his hand down on the table. "allright," he said. "we'll do as you say."chen was overjoyed. "you have no further doubts?" heasked.

"none. but there is one thing i would like you to dofor me. your former great helmsman, yu wanting, hadseveral items stored in the muslim areas and said theywere proof of my birth. go and get them so that i cansee them. only then will my last doubts disappear.

then we will discuss detailed plans."chen felt this was reasonable. "all right," hereplied. "i will start out tomorrow and get themmyself.""when you get back, i will assign you to the imperialbodyguard, then promote you to be commander of thebeijing garrison," said qian long. "i will graduallytransfer the military power in every province into thehands of chinese we can trust. i'll make you secretaryof the armed forces with orders to disperse the keymanchu banner units, and then we can act."chen knelt down and performed the ritual act ofobeiscence of a vassal before his lord, but qian longhurriedly helped him up.

"an oath must be sworn in front of the others overthis," chen said. "there must be no reneging."qian long nodded.

chen clapped his hands once and ordered xin yan tohelp qian long change back into his original clothes.

"please ask everyone to come to pay their respects tothe emperor," he said.

the heroes crowded in. chen told them qian long hadagreed to chase out the manchus and restore thechinese throne, then swore in a clear voice: "infuture, we will assist your highness, and togetherplan the grand design. if anyone should reveal thissecret, he will be damned by heaven and earth."he drank a draught of a specially prepared brew ofcovenant wine to seal the pact, and qian long didlikewise.

"bald vulture, madame guan," said lu. "come and drinka cup of the covenant wine as well.""i have never believed the word of any official, sowhy should i trust their leader?" said bald vulture.

his right hand suddenly struck the wall, smashing asection of it to rubble and pulled out a brick.

"whoever breaks the covenant, betrays his friends, anddestroys the grand design will be crushed like this!"he shouted harshly, and with one movement of his hand,the brick broke into a thousand pieces which tumbledto the floor. qian long looked at the hole in the walland down at the smashed brick in fright.

"even though you decline to join the vow, we are allfriends," said chen. "but i trust your highness willnot vacillate and forget the covenant establishedtoday.""please rest easy over that," replied qian long.

"all right. let us escort his highness out," saidchen. wei raced out of the pagoda and shouted: "comeand meet his highness!"half-suspicious, commander li and bai zhen ordered thetroops to move slowly forward, afraid that this wasyet another red flower society trick. suddenly, theysaw qian long emerge from the pagoda and prostratedthemselves on the ground. bai zhen led a horse overand qian long mounted.

"i have been drinking and composing poetry with themhere," he said to bai zhen. "i wanted a few days'

peace and quiet and you had to make a mountain out amolehill and rob me of my pleasure."the heroes returned to the pagoda.

"we are extemely happy to have met you all today,"said bald vulture. "especially lord zhou, whom we haverespected for so long, and master lu, whom we have notseen for many years. but now my wife and i have someother minor affairs to deal with, and will take ourleave."madame guan pulled chen over to one side. "are youmarried?" she asked.

chen blushed deep red. "no," he replied.

"are you engaged?""not engaged either," he said. madame guan smiled toherself. then she suddenly screeched: "if you are everso ungrateful as to turn your back on the one who gaveyou that dagger, i will never forgive you." chen wasso shocked by the outburst he was completely lost fora reply.

"you scorpion!" her husband shouted from the otherside of the side of the room. "what are you lecturingthat young man about? let's be going!"madame guan turned round, emitted an ear-splittingwhistle and four dogs raced out of the trees. thecouple bowed before the heroes and took their leave.

"let us go back upstairs to talk," chen said. theyfollowed him back up to the top floor of the pagoda.

"i promised the emperor that i would go to see myteacher and collect two important items from him,"said chen. "but let us first go to heaven's eyemountain to see how brother wen and brother yu aredoing and then make further arrangements."they left the pagoda and master ma and his sonreturned to hangzhou by themselves while the rest ofthe heroes galloped off westwards.