Day in and day out, day after day, the Qiantang River majestically winds through and around Ox Village, near the city of Lin’an, on its journey toward the sea. On the shores there stands thirty or so tallow trees, leaves red like the fire, yet another sign that it is now August. The wild weed and grass around the village has just started to turn yellow. The sun shines down sideways on the grass, adding even more to their bleakness. Under two giant pine trees there gathered a group of villagers, the crowd included both men and women along with more than 10 children. Every single one of them are listening to a thin old man, giving him their complete attention.

The old man is about fifty or so, the green robe that he is wearing has been washed to a blueish-gray. He banged two pieces of wood together a couple of times, and with the little bamboo stick in his left hand, he started to beat on a little drum to keep pace. He started to sing:

“The peach blossoms without fail, vast unused fields feeding the crows. After the soldiers by the well, families gather in sorrow.”

The old man banged together the two pieces of wood a couple of times more, then continued, “Old Yie had a wife, a son, and a daughter. They lost each other when the Jin invaded through. Finally, after much hardship and difficulty, they were able to get back together. They returned to their home to find that it was burned to the ground by the Jin soldiers. They had no choice but to head off to BianLiang (modern day Kaifeng, capitol of North Song). ‘The heavens have unexpected storms, people have unforseen misfortunes’. As soon as the four of them got to BianLiang, they ran into a line of Jin soldiers. The leader of the soldiers looked down, saw that Miss Yie was quite beautiful, jumped down from his horse, and grabbed her. With a laugh, he threw her onto his saddle and said, ‘Pretty little girl, you are going to go home with me.’ How could Miss Yie agree? She struggled with all her might. The leader yelled out, ‘If you don’t stop struggling, then your family will die!’ He picked up his wolf-fang-club and smashed it down on her brother’s head.

“‘The nether world gains a new ghost, the real world loses one more soul.’” Old Yie and his wife fell onto their son’s body and started to cry their heart out. That Jin soldier lifted up this wolf-fang-club twice more and took care of them. Miss Yie did not cry, she simply said, ‘Sir, please stop killing more people. I’ll go with you.’ This made the soldier extremely happy. Just as he let his guard down, Miss Yie suddenly grabbed the sabre around his waist, pulled it out, and thrusted at his heart. It looks like she was about to revenge her family’s death, but alas it was not to be. That soldier has had much experience on the battlefield, without thinking, he merely pushed forward very naturally, sending Miss Yie falling to the ground. He was just able to say, ‘Little *****!’ Miss Yie has already brought the blade to her neck. Poor her:

“‘With flower’s beauty and moon’s grace, such sweet soul dying sad so young.’”

He alternates between talking and singing. Every single one of the villagers by now are all sighing in sadness and rage.

That man continued, “Dear audience members, as the saying goes,

“‘Treat others with an honest heart, hold your head up on high in pride. If evil deeds go unpunished, only the evil will survive.’

“Jin soldiers has conquered half of our Great Sung, killing and burning, raping and pillaging, not an evil deed left undone. Yet no punishment whatsoever seems to be forth coming. Our Great Sung’s officials are responsible for this, China has plenty of healthy and available soldiers. Yet every time we go up against the Jin armies, all they do is turn around and run, leaving behind us peasants to suffer. There are stories like the one about Miss Yie and her family by the thousands north of the river. Living here south of the river, is truly like being in heaven on earth, only fearing the day the Jin soldiers come invading.

“‘Rather be a dog in peace, than a man in troubled times!’

“My name is Zhang Shiwu, thank you everyone for listening to the story of ‘Miss Yie, the Young Martyr’.” After banging the two pieces of wood together several more times, he held up a tray.

Many of the villagers placed a farthing or two in the pan, which quickly filled up. Zhang Shiwu thanked the villagers and gathered the 60 to 70 farthings into his traveling bag. He got up and started to walk off.

A young man of around twenty years of age walked out from among the villagers. He asked, “Mr. Zhang, did you just come from the north?” The young fellow was very tall and very built with big eyes and a pair of very busy eye brows. Zhang Shiwu answered, “Yes.” The young man answered, “Then let’s go get a couple of drinks. I’ll pay, what do you say?” Zhang Shiwu replied, “I dare not receive such a favor as a stranger.” The young fellow laughed and answered, “Once we had a couple of drinks, then we are no longer strangers are we? My surname is Guo, given name XiaoTian” Pointing at a clean, white faced fellow behind him, he continued, “This here is Yang Tiexin. The two of us were just listening to your story. As expected, it was a good story. But we still have several questions we wanted to ask.” Zhang Shiwu replied, “No problem, no problem. To run into the two of you today is probably fate doing its work.” Guo Xiaotian led Zhang Shiwu to one of the small wineshops in Ox Village and sat down at one of the tables.

{That whole passage that Zhang Shiwu told was HARD as anything to translate. All the sayings, poems, and idioms just drove me up the wall! Excuse the poor excuse for poetry in the translation, but those were as good as I can get it. To think that there is plenty more where that comes from in LoCH is just great. On a completely different note, Guo Xiaotian looks a lot like Guo Jing, which seems to be obvious but they are almost identical in their description. I have never noticed that before until now.}

The owner of this little wineshop is a cripple. Supported by two crutches, he slowly brought out two kettles of wine, a plate of peas, a plate of salted peanuts, a plate of dried bean curd, and a plate with three salted eggs. Afterwards, he just sat down on the stool by the door and stared at the setting sun, not even glancing at the three men.

Guo Xiaotian poured the wine and made Zhang Shiwu down two shots before he began, “Here in the country, we only get to buy meat on the twond and the 16th, so we don’t have anything to go down with the wine. Please forgive us.” Zhang Shiwu replied, “At least we got wine, can’t complain about that. From your accents, seems like you two are from up north.” Yang Tiexin answered, “We are both from Shan Dong province. But we moved away three years ago because we can’t stand the Jins running loose there. When we arrived here, we fell in love with the people here and settled down. Just now you were saying that us living here south of the river is like living in heaven itself, fearing only an invasion by the Jin. Do you really think that the Jin will invade?”

Zhang Shiwu sighed, “The gold and silver could literally cover the ground and beautiful women every which way you look, such is the richness and enchantment of the south. There isn’t a day that passes without the Jin thinking about invading. But the final decision over the invasion of the Jin is not made by the Jin, but is made by the Imperial Court of our Great Sung in Lin’an!” This took both Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin by surprise as they asked as one, “Why do you say that?”

Zhang Shiwu continued, “We Han Chinese outnumber the NuZhen by more than 100 to 1. If only the Imperial Court start using honest and loyal men, 100 of us going up against 1 of them, how can the Jin army win? The northern half of our country, was literally handed over to the Jins back then by Hui Zong, Qin Zong, and Gao Zong. Those three emperors, from grandfather to grandson, trusted and used corrupted officials, oppressed the masses, and then they either killed or got rid of all the generals that were fighting the Jin. Such a beautiful land, and they just literally put it right into the hands of the Jin. The Jin people just respectfully accepted it. If the Imperial Court continues to do what it did, trusting and using corrupt officials, it is as if they are kneeling on the ground asking the Jin army to come. How could the Jin people refuse?” After hearing that, Guo Xiaotian couldn’t help but to slam his hand down onto the table in rage. All of the cups, plates, and chopsticks on the tables jumped from the impact.

Zhang Shiwu continued, “Thinking back, Hui Zong was all set on trying to trying to live forever, becoming immortal. He was surrounded by corrupt and useless officials, Zai Jing and Wong Yu only knew to raise taxes and skim off the top, Tong Guan and Liang ShiChen were eunuchs that only knew how to kiss up, Gao Qiu and Li Bangyan only knew how to mess around and get women for the emperor. The emperor did not attend to official matters at all, if he wasn’t going off to visit monks to ask for guidance, then he was traveling around in search of rare and interesting looking rocks. Once the Jins came, he became a turtle and hid in his shell, and passed the throne to his son, Qin Zong. At that time Li Gang was defending the capital BianLiang and fought off the Jin army. But who knew that Qin Zong would believe some rumors that was started by corrupt officials and dismissed Li Gang. On top of that, he did not replace Li Gang with another experienced and able general. Instead he put the defense of the capital in the hands of a self-proclaimed ambassador from the gods named Guo Jing and asked him to invite the armies of heaven to defend the city. The armies of heaven did not show up. How could we not lose the capital? At last both Hui Zong and Qin Zong were captured by the Jin army. These two fools had it coming and got what they deserved, but they also brought disaster to millions of Chinese peasants who did nothing to deserve it.” {Note, the Guo Jing mentioned here is not the one in this book. This Guo Jing is a liar and a fool who only hastened the demise of Northern Sung. Surprisingly, all of what Zhang Shiwu says here is historical fact, it is hard to imagine anybody being foolish, let alone two emperors in a row.

Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin are just getting angrier and angrier. Guo Xiaotian said, “We have all heard about the capture of emperors, the Disgrace of the year of Jing Kang, many times. We have also heard about the ‘armies of heaven’ talk before, but we just thought it was a joke or some unfounded rumor. Could this possibly be true?” Zhang Shiwu answered, “Absolutely true.” Yang Tiexin added, “Afterwards Lord Kang declared himself emperor in Nanjing, he had under him such able and loyal generals like Yue Fei and Han ShiZhong. If he had immediately attacked north, although he might not have reclaimed all the lost lands, but recapturing the capital BianLiang should have been no problem. But that hated traitor such as Qing Gui only wanted to negotiate, turning the tables and killed our beloved General Yue.” {Note, the year of Jing Kang translates to A.D. 11two7. The Jin demanded that Yue Fei be killed to show that the Sung were sincere in their efforts.

Zhang Shiwu poured a cup of wine for all three of them and downed his cup in one gulp. He went on, “Beloved general Yue once said these two lines, ‘Only aspire to eat Tartar flesh, chatting away while drinking Hun’s blood.’ This poem has conveyed what is in the heart of every Chinese. Ay! This traitor Qing Gui is awfully lucky. Shame that we were born 60 years too late.” Guo Xiaotian asks, “What do you mean?” Zhang Shiwu replied, “Then you two heroes would go into Lin’an and kill this traitor. Then the three of us would eat his flesh and drink his blood, no more need for us to come here to eat peas and drink cold wines anymore!” All three of them laughed heartily at that comment.

Yang Tiexin noticed that the kettle has been emptied and ordered another one. The three of them just sat there cursing at Qing Gui. The cripple placed another dish of peas as well as a dish of peanuts. Hearing the three men’s spirited cursing of Qing Gui, he suddenly let out a rather loud sneer.

Yang Tiexin turned to him and asked, “Qu San, what’s the matter? You don’t think we are wrong to curse at Qing Gui do you?”

Qu San, the cripple, answered, “Good cursing! Great cursing! Nothing wrong with that. It is just that I have heard that Qing Gui isn’t the chief culprit in killing Yue Fei in order to negotiate peace.” The three men asked in surprise, “Qing Gui isn’t? Then who is?” Qu San replied, “Qing Gui was the Chancellor, whether or not peace is negotiated he still is and will keep on being Chancellor. But our beloved General Yue only wanted to destroy the Jin and bring back the two emperors Hui and Qin. Once these two emperors return, how do you suppose Emperor Gao Zong is going to keep his crown?” As soon as he finished saying what he said, he turned around and struggled back to that stool, and returned to staring at the sky as if in a trance. Qu San’s face looks no older than twenty something, yet he is hunched over with traces of white in his hair. From the back, he looks like an old man.

Zhang Shiwu and the two men look at each other in silence. After a while, Zhang Shiwu spoke up, “That is so true! Sir, you have really said something! The real culprit behind the killing of our beloved General Yue could very well not be Qing Gui, but Emperor Gao Zong. This Emperor Gao Zong is shameless to begin with, he definitely could do something like this!”

Guo Xiaotian asks, “Is he really that shameless?” Zhang Shiwu replied, “Back when the beloved General Yue had just beaten the Jin army in several battles in a row, that along with the rebellion of our patriotic brothers in the north had the Jin army against the wall. The Tartars were just beginning to panic as to what to do when suddenly Gao Zong sent them a letter of surrender and asked for peace negotiations. Naturally the Jin Emperor was ecstatic, but he replied, ‘There will be no peace negotiations unless Yue Fei is killed.’ So Qing Gui went about his evil plan and our beloved General Yue was killed in the Pavilion of Changes. The beloved General Yue was killed November of the 11th year of Zhao Xing, merely one month later, peace is agreed upon. The boundary between Sung and Jin is drawn at the river Huai and Emperor Gao Zong calls himself a subject toward the Jin Emperor. How do you think the letter of surrender was written?” Yang Tiexin answered, “Shamelessly, of course.”

Zhang Shiwu replied, “Of course! I happen to know what was written in the letter. It read, ‘Your humble subject asks for forgiveness and mercy. If received, your subject will be forever grateful and humble sons and descendants will forever be of service to your majesty. Your humble subject also swear to give yearly tribute in the amount of two hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver and two hundred and fifty thousand bolts of silk.’ Not only did he sell himself as a servant, but all of his descendants as well. His becoming a servant is really no big deal, but is that not like saying that every Chinese is their servants as well?”

Bang! Guo Xiaotian slammed down hard onto the table again, this time tipping one of the cups over, spilling wine all over the table. In anger, he shouted, “Shameless! Disgraceful! How did this sorry excuse for a man become an emperor?” {Note, literal translation is something to the end of “From which family did the bird emperor fly out of?” Which does not really sound like what he meant, so I took some creative liberties.}

Zhang Shiwu continued, “When our nation heard about this treaty, there was not a person on the street who was not enraged. Especially for those Chinese people north of the river Huai were even more grieve stricken because they see that our country cannot be whole. Gao Zong sees that his seat on the throne is secured, immediately rewarded Qing Gui for his ‘meritorious’service. Qing Gui was already Lord of Lu, and now Gao Zong added a title of Tai Shi to his name, giving him almost supreme powers under the emperor. Xiao Zong succeeded Gao Zong, and Guang Zong succeeded him, all the while the Jin is still controlling half of China. Now Guang Zong has been succeeded by Emperor Qin Yuan, he has been on the throne for 5 years now, mostly going with what the Chancellor Han Tuozhou says. What is the future going to be like? Hehe, hard to say, hard to say!” During the last little bit, he did not stop shaking his head.

Guo Xiaotian replied, “What’s so hard to say about it? This is the countryside, not like Lin’an where you might get your head cut off! There isn’t a person in the world who don’t call Han Tuozhou a crook! If you go by betraying the country and oppressing the people, the man is practically a sworn brother of Qing Gui!”

Now that they are talking about current affairs, Zhang Shiwu is starting to get a little tinge of fear and dare not to criticize and talk straight from his heart as he did. He downed another cup and said, “Thanks to both of you gentlemen for the wine. May I offer a modest word of advice? I know both of you gentlemen are passionate men, but it is still most wise to be cautious in words and deeds so as to avoid any possible calamities. At this point, the most that us normal folk can hope muddle along and do the best that we can. Ay! Just like the saying:

“Surrounded by the mountains in the halls, when will West Lake parties finally go? Southern fragrances intoxicates all, happily mistook Hangzhou for Bianzhou!”

Yang Tiexin asks, “What the story behind these 4 lines?” Zhang Shiwu answers, “There is no story. It is just saying that the official of our Great Sung dynasty only care to party and drink on the shores of the West Lake. They want to pretend that HanZhou is our capital and never bother with taking back our land and moving back to BianLiang again.”

By the time Zhang Shiwu said goodbye, he was dead drunk. As he stumbles toward BianLiang, one can hear him muttering to himself the words of “River Soaked in Red” by Yue Fei, “Jing Kang’s Disgrace, still fresh in mind; people’s hatred, when will it stop? I drive my cart…”

Guo Xiaotian paid the tab and walked by home with Yang Tiexin. The two of them live right next to each other, after walking a short distance, they have made it back to their homes.

Guo Xiaotian’s wife, Li, was just chasing a chicken into a little trap. Turning around, she smiled and said, “You two gone drinking again? Brother Yang, why don’t you and your wife come over for dinner tonight? We are going to make a whole chicken.”

Yang Tiexin smiled back and answered, “Alright, I guess we are going to inconvenience you two again. We have so many chickens and ducks just there to waste food upon, but we can’t part with any of them.” Li replied, “Well your wife is just that kind hearted. She says that she has raised these chickens and ducks since they were babies, how could she possibly kill them?” Yang Tiexin laughed and replied, “I told her that I would kill them if she can’t make herself, she then starts crying and sobbing. Ay! What can I do? Tell you what, tonight I’m going to go hunting and we’ll invite the two of you over tomorrow night!” Guo Xiaotian cuts in, “We are family! Quit talking about who’s inviting and who is not! Tonight we go hunting together!”

That midnight, Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin went into the woods three.5 kilometers (a little over two miles) west of the village, hoping to catch a boar or something of that nature. But after waiting for more than two hours, nothing could be heard. Just as they were about to lose their patience, they suddenly started to faintly hear sounds of metal thumping coming from outside of the woods. They looked at each other, both wondering, “What’s going on now?”

At this moment, from afar, there came several men shouting, “Where do you think you are going?” “Stop this instant!” Then a shadow jumped into the woods. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin finally were able to see the person now that he is under the moonlight. The two of them were shocked. For this man was the crippled owner of that wineshop in the village, Qu San. He thumbed his left crutch into the ground, producing a “Zeng!” His body flew off the ground and hid behind a tree. This is a display of an incredible level of Qing Gong (lightweight martial arts). Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin looked at each other again with astonishment, both of them thinking, “We had no clue that Qu San’s kungfu is this good, and we have been living here for three whole years!” Both of them stayed hidden in the bushes, not daring to move or come out.

Footsteps kept on getting closer, three men had made it to the edge of the woods. They whispered something to each other and started to slowly walk into the woods. All three were dressed in military clothing, each of them had a sabre in hand. In the moonlight, the sabres gave off a faint green glow. One of them shouted, “Damn cripple! Your old man here can see you, better quickly surrender and come out!” Qu San kept still behind the tree. The three men started to waving their sword wildly, swinging and taking a cut at anything in their way. Very slowly, the three of them got closer and closer. Suddenly there came a faint thump, Qu San stabbed his right crutch out from behind the tree, hitting one of the men squarely on his chest. That man gave off a muffled groan before flying backwards and falling on the ground. The other two men immediately hacked down at Qu San.

Qu San gave his right crutch a push and jumped several feet to the left, avoiding the sabres. His left crutch immediately went straight for one of the men’s face. The man’s kungfu was not that shabby either, he tried to parry the crutch away with his sabre. Qu San did not wait for the two to meet before withdrawing his crutch to support him again. His right crutch came swinging in on the other man’s waist. He uses his crutches with great speed and quickness, even though he always has to use one of them to support himself, leaving only one to fight with at all times, he is not losing at all to the men. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin notices that he is carrying a huge bundle on his back, seemingly very cumbersome. After some more fighting, one of the sabres came down and hit the bundle. “Dang!” The bundle ripped and the objects inside spilled onto the ground. Qu San took advantage of his temporary distraction and smashed down hard on the head of the man with his crutch. The man fell onto the ground without so much as a whimper. The only man left is by now scared to death, he turned around and started to run. Qu San took out something from his bosom and raised his arm very quickly. A ball-like object flew through the air under the moonlight, followed by a muted thump as the object hit the back of the man’s head. The man let out a ghastly scream and dropped his sabre as his arm started to swing wildly out of control. Slowly and facing upward, he crumpled to the ground. After a couple of twitches, he stopped moving.

Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin has just witnessed Qu San kill three men in succession while displaying a level of kungfu that neither one of them has ever seen before. Both of their hearts are racing, afraid to even breath too loudly, for both of them were thinking the same thing, “He just killed government officials, that is a huge crime. We don’t stand a chance if he finds us here and want to kill us to keep this quiet.”

Qu San turned around and slowly spoke out, “Brother Guo, Brother Yang, you can come out now!” Once the two of them got over the shock of it, they had no choice but to step out of the bushes, although both of them were holding their pitchforks rather tightly. Yang Tiexin snuck a look over at Guo Xiaotian and the pitchfork in his hand and took two extra steps. Qu San smiled, “Brother Yang, your Yang Family Lance Technique (Yang Jia Qiang Fa) can be used with a pitchfork, but your adopted brother uses a pair of short halberds and the pitchfork does not fit his skills, so you step up in front of him. Such righteousness, such friendship!” Yang Tiexin, hearing that Qu San spelled out exactly what he was thinking, suddenly felt very exposed and can’t decide what to do. Qu San continued, “Brother Guo, let’s say you had your double halberd in hand. Do you think the two of you together can beat me?”

Guo Xiaotian shook his head, “No, we can’t. The two of us must have been blind, living together with you here for all those years and not even noticing that you knew kungfu, let alone a master.”

Qu San shook his head and sighed, “I can’t even use my legs, how can I be considered a master?” As if his spirits were waning, he continued, “Back then, would I have had so much trouble with several armed guards? Ay! I’m useless now! Useless!” Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin glanced at each other, not sure how to or dare to respond. Qu San continued, “Would you two help out this cripple and bury these three bodies?” The two of them glanced at each other again, Yang Tiexin answered, “Alright!”

The two of them dug a big hole using their pitchforks and tossed the three bodies in. While they were moving the last body, Yang Tiexin notices that part of the black object was still sticking out of the back of the man’s head. He gave it a good tug with his right arm and pulled it out. Turns out it an Eight Diagram made out of iron, he wiped the blood off on the body and handed it back to Qu San. {The Eight Diagram is 8 combination of three whole or broken lines used to in religious, mostly Taoist, ceremonies. The 8 combinations usually surround a ying-yang symbol. The flag of South Korea is very similiar except it has only 4 of the 8 diagrams.}

Qu San took the Eight Diagram and said, “So sorry for troubling you.” He puts the Eight Diagram back into his pocket. He then laid the piece of cloth that used to be his bundle onto the ground and started to put the objects that is scattered on the ground back into it. Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin finished putting dirt back into the hole, turning around, they see three rolled up painting on the floor as well as many other bright and shiny metals. Qu San leaves out a golden kettle and a golden cup out. After putting everything else back in the bundle, he held those two things up to Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin, saying, “These things are stolen by me from the Royal Palace in Lin’an. The emperor has done enough wrong to the peasants, taking a little bit of what he stole from the peasants isn’t really a crime. Consider these two things a present from me.”

The two of them can’t believe that he is actually brazen enough to break into the Royal Palace and steal. Neither one of the dared to accept his offer.

Qu San said in a stern voice, “Are you guys scared to accept? Or do you two not want to?” Guo Xiaotian replied, “The two of us did nothing to deserve such gifts and that’s why we can’t accept your gifts. As for what happened tonight, you don’t have to worry about a thing brother, neither one of us is going to let this secret get out.” Qu San replied, “Hmph! Why should I be worried about you two leaking this secret? I know all about you two and your backgrounds, or else why would I let you two leave here alive? Brother Guo, you are the descendent of Guo Sheng, one of the heroes of the Water Margins of Mt. Liang. You use the halberd skill that is taught in your family, only that it is short instead of long, and two instead of 1. Brother Yang, your ancestor is Yang Zaixing, one of the generals under the Beloved General Yue. You two are descendants of two patriotic heroes, when the Jin army conquered the North, you two began wandering in the martial world and became martial brothers. And then the two of you moved to Ox Village together. Am I right so far?”

The two of them sees that Qu San knows their past inside out, became even more shocked. All they could do was nod.

Qu San continued, “Guo Sheng and Yang Zaixin were both rebels before going over to the government’s side to fight for the Great Sung Empire. So both of them have stolen from the thief that is the government. So tell me, are you two going to accept my presents or not?” Yang Tiexin thought to himself, “If I refuse, then it will surely offend him.” So he took the presents from Qu San’s hands and said, “We are very grateful for this. Thanks.”

Qu San was pleased by this, he picked up the bundle and put it back onto his back, turning around he said, Time to go home.” The three of them walked side-by-side out of the woods. Qu San said, “Caught a couple of prize pieces tonight, got two paintings by Emperor Dao Jun, and a sheet of his writing showing off his calligraphy as well. This fellow is no emperor, but his Red Green Plume and Thin Gold Form is indeed supreme in the world.”

The other two men had no idea what in the world “Red Green Plume” or “Thin Gold Form” is, so all they did was nod in agreement. {Red Green Plume is a style of ancient Chinese painting featuring birds and animals with emphasize on the colors of red and green, obviously. Thin Gold Form is a style of calligraphy.}

After walking for a while, Yang Tiexin spoke up, “Earlier today you said that half of our Great Sung’s land is lost in the hands of Emperor Dao Jun. So what is so good about his paintings or writings? Why would brother you go through such troubles and taking such a big risk to go into the Royal Palace to steal it?” Qu San smiled, “This is something that I guess you just won’t understand.” Guo Xiaotian spoke up as well, “If Emperor Dao Jun can be so good at painting and writing, he must be pretty smart. Pity that he does not concentrate on being a good ruler. When I was little my dad told me that a person, no matter what he does, must concent