CHAPTER 69

The Tangled Hair Ghost is rescued; Headman Zhou seeks his father’s advice

EACH of the headmen assembled a dozen top deputies to help. They happened to be making inquiries in the neighborhood of Wild Tiger Hill just as some travelers were returning from Linan. One of them came running up to the headmen to report that they had been stopped by a robber who demanded their money, saying that he was master of that road and that all who passed must pay him.

One of the travelers who was stopped by the highwayman was Jeng Xiong, who lived at Phoenix Hill In Linan. He was known as Iron-Faced Jeng Xiong because of the strength of his character, which matched his unusual body strength. As he looked at the outlaw who demanded payment from the travelers, Jeng Xiong thought to himself, “This is a fine-looking fellow, well built and strong, who has been driven to a life of crime by poverty. Perhaps I can help him out so that he can return to the right path.”

Therefore, he said: “My friend, I can see that you are an impressive hero, straightforward and courageous. I feel that you must have taken the wrong road because of your difficulties. I would like to lend you twenty ounces of silver to set yourself up in some kind of business. I don’t like to see you simply become a robber. If you have some pressing trouble, you can tell me about it and I can help you further.”

The outlaw laughed loudly and said, “You can stop wagging your tongue about helping me out with twenty ounces of silver. You will have to give me whatever you have—your valuables, your donkey, everything.”

When Jeng Xiong heard this, he became furious. “You think that I’m afraid of you, you ignorant beast! Today I will teach you a lesson!” As he spoke, Iron-Faced Jeng Xiong began to beat the robber’s back with his bamboo staff. The outlaw leaped aside and attacked with his sword. Jeng Xiong came back at him, his blows raining down on the robber’s shoulders faster than the eye could see. It was like beating a snake in the grass. After a while Jeng Xiong ceased, since he thought the outlaw had been taught a lesson. He intended to let him go rather than sending him to a yamen.

But the robber began to curse, and then said, “You may be great lords, but would you dare to tell me your name?”

The other traveler spoke up and said, “I’ll tell you my name. It is Ma, you villain, Ma Ran. What about it? Are you going to send someone after me?”

“Good,” said the outlaw. “Ma Ran, you had better watch out.” Little did Ma Ran think that, as a result of giving the robber his name, the Ma household would be attacked and members of his family injured. The two travelers had just tied up the outlaw when the two headmen, Lo and Zhou, arrived on the scene.

“Ah! It is the official Ma,” said Headman Lo. “You have taken an outlaw. Very good indeed! Just recently, at a pawnshop outside the south gate, there has been a case of arson and theft in which a good deal of clothing was lost, and outside the east gate there has been a murder. The magistrate is extremely anxious about these two cases and has asked us to solve them. You can hand over this outlaw to us.”

“Good. We will give him to you,” said the official Ma Ran, and he called the man who had given the alarm.

“My name is Hu Deyuan,” the man said when asked. “I didn’t lose anything, but I might have lost my life if you, sir, had not come along. Thank you all.” With that, he went on his way. The two travelers, Jeng Xiong and the official Ma, also continued on their journey.

The two headmen, Lo and Zhou, had the deputies bring the outlaw into the yamen. The magistrate took his seat in the hall and ordered the man brought before him for questioning. The two headmen immediately did so. The outlaw glared defiantly and stood instead of kneeling.

“What is the robber’s name?” demanded the magistrate from his high bench.

“My surname is Yun and my personal name is Fang,” replied the outlaw, “and I am known as ‘the Tangled Hair Ghost’.”

“Well, my good Yun Fang,” said the magistrate, “how many did you have with you at that affair at the pawnshop outside the south gate? If you speak before it is too late, you can save your skin and flesh some pain.”

“I know nothing about it,” said the outlaw.

“And how many of you committed that murder in the lane outside the east gate?”

“I know nothing about that, either,” replied Yun Fang. “It was not I.”

“How many years have you been in the Greenwood?” asked the magistrate, “and how many petty crimes have you committed?”

“I never committed any crimes previously,” said Yun Fang. “This is the first time.”

The magistrate flew into a rage at his statement, and startled the hall as he pounded the desk in front of him. “You robber with a beast’s heart! I am surprised that you dare to lie to the district magistrate! Come, my men. He is unwilling to talk. Take him down and give him eighty blows with the bamboo!”

They gave the outlaw eighty blows, but when they had finished, he still would not talk. The magistrate ordered that he be brought back into the hall. “Yun Fang,” the magistrate said, “You now have a chance to tell the truth and I will reduce your punishment. If you do not speak, investigations will continue.”

“I truly do not know,” said Yun Fang. The magistrate ordered that he be beaten with rods, but again this action brought no result. The magistrate threatened to apply the five punishments ending in death, but the outlaw said nothing, and while a postponement was being declared, he fell asleep. Since there was nothing more to be done, the outlaw was thrown into a jail cell.

Who would have thought that at the third watch a hundred or more river pirates would scale the walls and break into the prison to release Yun Fang! When they came to the east gate of the town, in addition to their other crimes, they killed the night watchman there as they left.

The next day the district yamen was in turmoil. The magistrate called his two headmen in. He promised that they would be rewarded with two hundred ounces of silver if they made an arrest within three days and threatened that they would be beaten with the bamboo if they failed.

The two headmen, Lo and Zhou, were not sworn brothers, nor had they been fellow students of the martial arts. Instead, Lo’s teacher in the martial arts had been Zhou’s father. Now, as they talked about the difficulties in the case, they decided to seek the advice of the elder Zhou, who was now living in retirement at home. Zhou Rui thought that his father might know more about the outlaw Yun Fang.

The father lived in Rising Ground Village not far from the No Mother-in-Law Iron Shop, where Cloud Dragon Hua would shortly go to buy darts. When the two headmen arrived at the father’s house, he asked, “Son, what are you doing with all this crowd of deputies?”

Zhou Rui explained about the rescued outlaw and the magistrate’s promises of a reward to the two headmen if they succeeded and threats of punishment if they failed.

The old man said, “These newly arrived magistrates are always difficult to work for. You say in both the cases of the arson and robbery of the pawnshop as well as the murder of the carter, that you have no suspects, and now this highwayman Yun Fang has been forcibly rescued by his friends. As for this Yun Fang, I can tell you that he is one of the river pirates who in recent times have lived at Four Rivers Road in the capital at Linan. There were a string of these ghosts, five in all, who made up what is sometimes called the Long Dragon. There were the Tangled Hair Ghost, the Rising Wind Ghost, the Cockcrow Ghost, the Black Wind Ghost, and the River Rat Ghost—Cloud Dragon Hua. Why don’t you people wait here in my house while I go out and ask a few questions?”

The old man went out and walked up the street. He had just arrived in front of the iron shop as Cloud Dragon Hua was inquiring about darts. The little boy who had been sent to make tea passed on the message that the proprietor of the iron shop had whispered in his ear: “The outlaw Cloud Dragon Hua is here.”

The old man immediately became excited. “Cloud Dragon Hua is asking for darts that can ride on the wind. He surely intends to poison the darts,” the old man thought. “In the beginning there was only Ma Yuanzhang who knew the secret of mixing the poison, and he passed it on to Yang Ming. Yang Ming then passed the secret to Cloud Dragon Hua, not knowing what kind of a person Cloud Dragon Hua would become. Very likely Cloud Dragon Hua has some connection with the two cases about which my son told me, and certainly with the rescued outlaw Yun Fang. If my son and the other headman can capture Cloud Dragon Hua, everything may be solved.”

As soon as the two headmen got the news, they surrounded the iron shop and went around to the back gate in the wall.