ives. After carving some horse meat and cooking it, she searched around for some thicker clothing. She wrapped some around her baby and put some on herself as well. Luckily, the weather was so cold around this time of the year that nothing rots, so the horse meat was able to last her for a good few days, during which she was able to recover her strength. Then, carrying her baby, she began walking confidently towards the East. Even though she had lost the hated Duan Tiande, all the hatred in her heart submerged and turned into love and tenderness. All she wanted was to protect her baby’s face from the harsh steppe winds.

After several more days, she noticed that the plant life around her was getting denser. This particular dusk, she suddenly spotted two horses galloping towards her. The riders noticed her and stopped to ask her what happened. Making wild gestures with her arms, she described her experience of meeting the defeated army and giving birth in the snow. These two riders were Mongolians. Even though they couldn’t understand her at all, they, being the friendly and hospitable kind of people Mongolians are, felt sorry for her and invited her to spend the night with them in their Mongolian ger. Mongolians are a nomadic group of people, migrating along with their herds and the seasons. They live in huge shelters called gers that are easily put up and taken down. The next morning this particular group of nomads departed, but they decided to leave her four small sheep to help her survive.

After much suffering and labor, Li Ping settled down on the steppe. She erected a little hut using tree branches and reeds and obtained food through barter using the sweaters she knitted from wool of the sheep.

Time flew, and the little boy was soon six years old. Following the wishes of her former husband, Li Ping gave him the name of Guo Jing. The boy was rather slow and only began to speak at the age of four. Luckily, he was a very strong boy and was able to herd the animals by himself. The two of them, mother and son, relied on each other, surviving on only the barest of essentials and leading a very simple and happy life. Both of them had learned Mongolian, and only when they were alone with each other did they speak in the Linan dialect of Chinese. Seeing the manly face on her son and hearing him speaking everything in the Linan dialect of her home frequently made her feel a bittersweet sadness: “Your father was a man among men in Shandong, you should by all means speak the Shandong dialect as well. But we weren’t together a long enough time and I couldn’t learn it from him, so I can’t teach you.”

It was October and the weather was slowly becoming colder and colder. Guo Jing climbed onto his own little pony and set out, with a shepherd dog, to herd the sheep. Around noon, a huge black eagle suddenly appeared in the sky and dove down towards the herd. A particular young sheep was frightened and began to run for its life towards the East. Guo Jing shouted several times at it to make the sheep stop, but it just kept on going.

Guo Jing immediately climbed onto his pony and went chasing after it. After 4 or 5 li or so, he finally caught up to the little sheep. Just as he was about to head back, he suddenly heard a very loud and constant rumble. Startled, he could not figure what the rumble was, even though he suspected that it might be thunder. The rumble got louder and louder until, after a while, he was able to detect the sounds of horses neighing and humans screaming within the rumbling. Having never heard such things before, he was frightened and hurriedly led his little pony and the sheep into a clump of bush on top of a nearby hill top. Only then did he dare to stick his head out to see what was going on.

\

What he saw was dust covering the sky as countless numbers of chariots rushed about. Several leaders were shouting out commands as the armies were lining up. One was to the East while another one was to the West and both contained more people than Guo Jing thought there were in the whole world. Everyone was wearing a white-colored bandana on their heads; some even stuck colorful feathers in them. By now Guo Jing wasn’t frightened anymore; he was too curious and excited.

After another pause, from the left there suddenly came the sounds of horns and several rows of soldiers charged. They were led by a tall and thin looking young man wearing a blood red cape. He was holding his saber above his head, ready to strike at anyone he happened upon. The two armies clashed and gruesome fighting ensued. The attacking side was outnumbered and was slowly being overwhelmed and began to retreat. But reserves soon came in support and the fighting escalated to a deafening level once again.

It looked as if the attacking armies were about to collapse once again when the ten horns that had signaled the start of the battle suddenly came to life again, making the noise level even more deafening than it had been. The attacking soldiers shouted: “Temujin is here! The Great Khan Temujin is here!” Even though the two armies were still fighting relentlessly, everyone’s head periodically turned toward the East, where the horns were located.

Following their gaze, Guo Jing looked toward the East as well. Through all the sand and dust that was filling the sky, he saw a group of riders galloping forth. Within the group there was a huge pole, on which there was several white feathers. The cheering got louder as the riders got closer and the attackers seemed to fight more and more fiercely. The formations of the defending army were torn apart instantly. The huge pole slowly moved toward the very hill that Guo Jing was hiding on; he retreated even deeper into the bush, but was still peeking out with his huge, bright pair of eyes. He noticed a very big and tall middle-aged man in the midst of the riders who ridden onto the hill. He was wearing an iron helmet on his head and had a brown tuft of beard on his chin. His eyes were beaming with energy and force. What Guo Jing didn’t know was that he was the leader of the Mongolian tribe, Temujin; but even if he did know, he wouldn’t have known what a “khan” was.

On his horse, Temujin, accompanied by several riders, calmly surveyed the battle that was occurring at the foot of the hill. After a while, the young man with the red cape rode up the hill. “Father, there are too many of them, should we retreat a bit?” He shouted once he made it up the hill.

By now Temujin had already finished surveying the battlefield. In a low voice, he commanded: “Take your team and fall back to the East.”

“Muqali, go with the second Prince and fall back to the west. Bogurchi, you and Tchila’un retreat to the north. Kublai, you and Subotai take your army and head south.” Temujin continued, never taking his eyes off the battlefield. “When you see my banner raised up high, that’s my signal. Immediately sound the horns, turn around and counter-attack!”

All the officers rode off with their orders. Within seconds, the Mongol troops began retreating on all fronts.

The enemy soldiers let out a great collective howl and, upon seeing Temujin’s White Feathered Banner being raised high on the top of the hill, shouted in unison: “Capture Temujin…Capture Temujin!” Like ants, the opposing army began charging up the hill, completely ignoring the retreating Mongol troops. Horses and men charged with abandon; a yellow fog surrounded the hill from the dust they kicked up.

Temujin stood at the top of the hill, not moving and resolute. A score of foot soldiers held up their shields and were protecting him from arrows flying from all directions. Temujin’s sworn brother Kutuku and standout general Jelme, along with three thousand elite troops, were defending the base of the hill with everything they could muster, determined to the last man.

Amid the flashing of blades and spears, the cries of battle were shaking the earth. Witnessing this, Guo Jing was at the same time excited and scared.

After an hour or so of intense fighting, and under the relentless charges of tens of thousands of enemy troops, Temujin’s elite guard of three thousand had suffered about four hundred casualties while cutting down more than ten thousand enemies. Looking out, Temujin saw that even though the battlefield was covered with enemy bodies and rider-less horses running aimlessly, the number of enemy arrows flying in was still intense. On the northeastern end of the battle, the enemy attack was especially fierce and the defense looked closer and closer to collapse. “Father,” Ogedai, Temujin’s third son, anxiously asked, “is it time to raise the banner?”

“Their troops aren’t tired yet!” Temujin answered gravely, not moving his eyes away from the battle, even for a moment.

By now there were three black banners at the northeast end of the battle, indicating that the enemy had gathered three standout generals there to command the troops. The Mongol defenders were steadily dropping back. Up the hill came Jelme, shouting at the top of his lungs: “Khan, we can’t hold them any longer!”

“Can’t hold them?” Temujin angrily shouted back. “What kind of man are you?”

Jelme’s expression changed and he grabbed a saber from one of the foot soldiers. With a shout, he charged into the enemy formation. Fighting with utter abandon, he carved a path of blood to the black banners. The enemy commanders, seeing his ferocity, immediately pulled hard on their reins and backed away. Jelme, with three swings of his saber, cut down the three men that were carrying the banners. Throwing down his saber, he wrapped his arms around the three banners, took them back to the top of the hill, and stuck them into the ground upside down. Seeing this incredible display, the enemy’s morale was rocked. The Mongol troops responded with fury and the hole in the defense on the northeast end was quickly plugged.

After more fighting, an enemy general with a black cape suddenly appeared in the southwest corner. Not wasting a shot, he quickly took down a dozen or so Mongol soldiers with his bow and arrows. Two Mongol officers turned and charged at him with their spears. Using only two arrows, he easily shot the two officers off their horses.

“Such amazing skill!” Even Temujin had to praise him after seeing that.

By now, the general with the black cape had fought to near the foot of the hill. With the faint twang of a released bow, an arrow hit Temujin in his neck. Another arrow quickly followed, heading straight for Temujin’s stomach. Realizing that he had been hit and another arrow was coming, Temujin immediately pulled hard on his reins, making his horse rear up on its hind legs. The arrow buried itself into the horse’s chest all the way to the feathers, knocking the horse to the ground. Seeing the leader hit and falling, the Mongol troops were shocked. Screaming at the top of their lungs, and pouncing on the opportunity, the enemy charged forward like floodwater.

Ogedai had just finished helping his father pull out the arrow in his neck and was tearing off his shirt to bandage up the wound when Temujin shouted: “Forget about me, defend the hill!” Nodding quickly, Ogedai turned and immediately shot down two enemy officers.

Kutuku was commanding his troops guarding the west side of the hill, but, because they had run out of arrows and spears, he had to retreat. Jelme’s eyes turned red as he saw him: “Kutuku, are you going to run like a scared rabbit?”

“Who’s running?” Kutuku smiled back, “I ran out of arrows.”

Temujin, still lying on the ground, took a handful of arrows and tossed them over to him. Kutuku quickly put an arrow onto his bow and shot the closest black bannered general off his horse. Quickly charging downhill, Kutuku grabbed that general’s horse and returned.

“Brother, you are really something!” Temujin praised.

Covered with blood from head to toe, Kutuku quietly asked: “Can we raise the banner and sound the horns?”

“The enemy still isn’t tired yet, just a bit longer.” Temujin said, blood streaming down his palm that was pressing hard on the wound in his neck, trying to stop the bleeding.

Upon hearing that, Kutuku dropped to one knee and begged: “We owe our lives to you and have no reservations about dying here. But Khan, please, you have to take care of yourself.”

Temujin shakily stood up, took the reins of the horse from Kutuku, and struggled mightily before finally mounting the horse. Waving his saber and shouting, “Hold the hill!” at the top of his lungs, he cut down three enemy soldiers that had charged up the hill. Seeing Temujin reappear, the opposing army’s morale was shaken once again and the momentum shifted and they began to fall back down the hill.

“Raise the banners! Sound the horns!” Temujin commanded, seizing on the fact that their enemy’s morale was at a low.

The Mongol army let out a collective howl as an officer climbed onto a horse, stood up, and raised the white feathered banner up as high as he could. The horns from all corners sounded. Immediately, the screaming of men drowned out the horns as row after row of Mongolian solders suddenly appeared from far away and approached with lightning speed.

The enemy outnumbered the Mongols, but they were gathered around the hill. As soon as the soldiers on the outer edge began to fall back, the middle of their formation became chaotic. The general in black, noticing that the tide was turning, immediately began giving orders in hopes of rallying his troops. But the formation had already collapsed and the soldiers had no desire to fight any longer. Within an hour, the army had been smashed into pieces; those who weren’t killed were running for their lives. The general in black, riding his black horse, turned and joined them.

“50 taels of gold for the man that catches that scoundrel!” Temujin shouted. This immediately sent several score of Mongolian elites after him.

The general in black, not missing a shot, turned and shot down about a dozen or so pursuers one after the other. The rest of the pursuers did not dare get too close and, in the end, let him get away. Seeing all this from inside the bushes, Guo Jing was in awe of that general’s bravery and skill.

The battle was a complete victory for Temujin, destroying more than half of his nemesis, the Tatars, army. Surveying the battlefield, Temujin’s memories of his past flashed before his eyes again: the poisoning of his father, being captured by the Taijiuts, and all the torture and shame he went through at their hands. Although his mental wounds were still not healed, his joyful heart was filled with the sweet taste of revenge. Unable to hold it in any longer, he leaned back and laughed in triumph. Every soldier joined in with cheers, which shook the earth as they began to organize into formations and leave the battlefield.

Guo Jing waited until even the gravediggers had left due to darkness before he came crawling out of the bush. It was midnight when he got home and his mother, who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown waiting for him to come back, was overjoyed to see him. Guo Jing described what had happened to his mom, as best as he could. Li Ping, seeing his face alight with joy and amazement and without a trace of fear, thought to herself, that even though he was just a kid and a bit dumb, he was still very much like his father in this respect. Bittersweet feelings filled her heart.

\

Two mornings later, Li Ping went off to the marketplace 30 li away with two hand made wool blankets. Guo Jing was guarding the sheep out in front of his house when his mind wandered back to what he had seen two days ago. Deciding to have a little fun, he raised his shepherding whip and began waving it around. Riding on his little horse, shouting at the top of his lungs, and moving the flock around, he felt just like a general commanding his own troops into battle. Just as he was really getting into it, he suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves from the east. A solitary horse slowly approached with a person lying on its back. The horse got close and stopped, causing the man on the back of the horse to lift his head and look up. The sight of the man made Guo Jing shriek in fear.

The man’s face was covered with mud, dirt, and blood. It was the general in black that he had seen the day before yesterday. In his left hand was the bottom half of what had been a saber, which was stained purplish red with blood. The bow and arrows that he had fought so many foes with were gone. It looked as if he had another encounter with his enemies after escaping two days ago. His left cheek had been slashed open and was bleeding profusely. His horse was injured as well. His body shuddered as his blood-shot eyes fell upon Guo Jing, muttering in a hoarse and exhausted voice: “Water, water… some water?”

Guo Jing immediately ran into the house and brought out a bowl of water from the water tub. That man grabbed it out of Guo Jing’s hand and drank it all in one gulp. “More!” He demanded.

Guo Jing retrieved another bowl for him. He drank half before the blood dripping off of his face turned the water red. The man let out a loud laugh, then suddenly, his face twitched and he fell off his horse and fainted.

Guo Jing panicked; he didn’t know what to do. Luckily, the man came to after a while. “Give my horse some water too,” he said, “and do you have anything to eat?”

Guo Jing brought out some roasted lamb for him and got a whole bucket of water for the horse. After gulping down the hearty meal, the man was thoroughly refreshed and got up off the ground.

“Thanks, brother.” He said as he took off the gold bracelet he had around his wrist and held it out at Guo Jing. “Here, take it.”

Guo Jing shook his head: “Mom said that we should take care of guests and not ask for or take anything in return.”

The man laughed at this and commented: “You are a good kid!”

He put the bracelet back on his wrist, tore off half of his sleeve, and began to attend to both his and his horse’s wounds.

Suddenly, from the east came the faint rumblings of horses galloping. The man’s face dropped: “Huh, looks like they are not going to let me go!”

The two of them ran out of the door and saw that the land in the distance was covered by dust kicked up by countless horses heading this way.

“Kid, do you have a bow and arrows in the house?” The man asked.

“Yah, sure.” Guo Jing replied just before darting back into the house.

Hearing that, the man looked somewhat relieved, but that soon changed when he saw that Guo Jing had just brought out his own little toy bow and arrow. He let out a little laugh before frowning: “I need the fighting kind, the big one.” Guo Jing merely shook his head.

The pursuers were getting closer, theirs banners could be faintly seen waving in the distance. The man figured that, with his horse injured, he wouldn’t be able to get away. While hiding is always dangerous, he had no alternative. “I can’t beat them all by myself, so I’ve got to hide.” He said, turning to Guo Jing. He looked around and noticed that there was nowhere to hide in or around the hut. In desperation, he settled on the big pile of grass outside.

“I’m going to hide in there. Could you chase my horse as far away as you can? Be sure to find a good place to hide for yourself too and don’t let them catch you.” he instructed as he dug himself into the grass pile. Traditionally, as soon as the scorching summer has passed, Mongolians would immediately cut down all the available tall grass and pile it up. During the harsh winters, Mongolians relied on these grass piles for feed for the animals as well as fire for warmth. Often these grass piles would be bigger than their gers. The man was actually very well hidden inside the grass pile and probably wouldn’t be discovered without careful inspection.

Guo Jing turned and gave the black horse a couple of good lashes, causing the horse to gallop off. Only until it was almost entirely out of sight did it finally stop and started to graze. Guo Jing jumped onto his little horse and took off to the west.

The pursuers, noticing that someone was there, sent two advanced scouts forward to give chase. Guo Jing’s pony wasn’t fast and the two scouts soon caught up. “Kid, did you see a man riding a black horse around here?” One of them demanded.

Guo Jing didn’t know how to tell a lie, so he couldn’t find the words to answer the question. The two scouts asked several more times, but there was still no answer. “Let’s take him to the First Prince!”, one of them finally suggested, seeing blank looking face on the kid. The two scouts took hold of Guo Jing’s reins and led him back to the hut.

“I just won’t say.” Guo Jing made up his mind on the way back.

A good number of Mongolian soldiers surrounded a tall and skinny young man. Guo Jing recognized the face, he had seen him on the hill two days before. Noticing that the soldiers were all obeying his commands, Guo Jing decided that he was an enemy of that black robed general. “What did the little kid say?” The First Prince shouted.

“This kid is scared stiff; he hasn’t said a word.”

The First Prince looked around and suddenly noticed the black horse grazing in the distance. “Is that his horse? Go and bring it here,” he quietly ordered. Ten Mongols split into five groups and quietly surrounded the horse. By the time the horse noticed and tried to escape, it had already run out of places to run.

“Isn’t this Jebe’s horse?” The First Prince asked rhetorically in an arrogant voice. “Yes sir, it is!” The solders answered in unison.

The First Prince, using his riding whip, lashed the side of Guo Jing’s head and shouted: “Where is he hiding? Spit it out. Think you can fool me?”

Hiding in the pile of dried grass, Jebe held his broken saber tightly. Seeing Guo Jing getting hit and a huge welt immediately starting to develop on his head, his heart began to beat wildly. He knew that this was Temujin’s eldest son, Jochi, whose cruelty and savagery was famous throughout the entire Steppe. He figured that the kid would undoubtedly be frightened into telling where he was hiding, and then he would have to jump out and fight to the death.

Guo Jing wanted to cry, but, trying with all his might, he kept back the tears. Holding his head up high, he asked: “Why did you hit me? I didn’t do anything wrong!” He knew kids only get beaten when they did something wrong.

“Trying to be tough huh?” Jochi shouted angrily before he whipped Guo Jing again, making Guo Jing burst out crying.

By now other soldiers had already given Guo Jing’s house a thorough search. Two of the soldiers even poked about the grass pile with their spears. Luckily, the grass pile was huge and they didn’t hit Jebe. “The horse is still here, he couldn’t have gone far. Kid, are you going to tell or not!” Jochi continued as he lashed at Guo Jing’s head three more times. Guo Jing reached out and tried to grab the riding whip, but how could he?

Suddenly, they heard horns sounding from afar. “The Khan is coming!” All of the soldiers shouted as Jochi stopped and turned to greet his father. “Father!” He shouted as an army with Temujin at the head came galloping in.

The wound that Jebe inflicted on Temujin turned out to be severe. During the battle Temujin was able to fight through it, but after the battle was over he actually fainted several times from the pain. His trusted general Jelme and third son Ogedai took turns sucking the bad blood clots out of his wound. The officers and his sons waited by his bedside for an entire night until he was no longer in mortal danger. The next morning, swearing to catch Jebe and quarter him so as to avenge this wound to the Khan, the Mongol soldiers spread out in all directions. By dusk on the second day, a small scout team finally ran into Jebe, but was decimated by him. However, Jebe was injured as well in the melee. Upon hearing the news, Temujin immediately sent his eldest son Jochi after him before taking his other sons with him as a rear guard.

“Father, we found that bastard’s horse!” Jochi reported, pointing at the black horse.

“I don’t want the horse, I want him!” Temujin replied.

“Yes father, we will find him.” Jochi answered before returning to Guo Jing’s side. Pulling out his saber, he swung it in the air a couple of times and shouted: “Are you going to tell me?”

His face covered in blood from the earlier beating, Guo Jing actually got feistier and shouted back: “I’ll never tell! I’ll never tell!”

From that response, Temujin noted how innocent the kid was, replying with “I’ll never tell” instead of “I don’t know”, giving away the fact that he knew where Jebe was hiding. So he turned to Ogedai and whispered: “Go and trick it out of him.”

Smiling, Ogedai walked up to Guo Jing, removed two gold studded peacock feathers from his helmet and said: “If you tell me, this is yours.”

“I’ll never tell!” Guo Jing still replied.

“Let loose the dogs!” Chagatai, Temujin’s second son ordered as the soldiers immediately brought forth six huge hunting dogs.

Mongolians love to hunt and all of the aristocrats or people of wealth own hunting dogs and falcons. Chagatai especially loved dogs and this search for Jebe presented a perfect use for his dogs. So he ordered the dogs be taken around the black horse a couple of times before letting them loose to find where Jebe was hiding. The dogs barked wildly as they ran in and out of the hut repeatedly.

Guo Jing had never met Jebe before, but two days ago he had greatly admired his bravery and skill on the battlefield. Being whipped several times by Jochi had brought out Guo Jing’s natural stubbornness and feisty nature. He called his shepherd dog. By now Chagatai’s hunting dogs were getting very close to the grass pile, so, on Guo Jing’s command, the shepherd dog positioned itself between the grass pile and the hunting dogs, not letting any of them get closer. Chagatai gave a loud shout and all six huge hunting dogs leapt forward and the air was quickly filled with the cacophony of dog barking as the seven dogs fought. The shepherd dog, smaller to begin with and battling one against six, was quickly covered with bite marks but still fought back ferociously, not backing down one bit. Guo Jing was cheering his shepherd dog on loudly between sobs. Seeing this, Temujin, Ogedai, and everyone present knew that Jebe must be hiding in the grass pile, so they just smiled and enjoyed the show of the dog fight.

\

Furious, Jochi began to hit Guo Jing with his riding whip again, causing him to roll around in pain. He rolled next to Jochi’s legs before suddenly jumping up and grabbing his right leg. Jochi tried to throw him off with a kick, but the boy’s grip was surprisingly strong and he couldn’t get him off. The other sons, seeing their older brother in such an awkward and embarrassing state, began to laugh loudly. Even Temujin began to snicker a bit. His face flushing blood red, Jochi unsheathed his saber and brought it down toward Guo Jing’s head. Just as it looked as if the kid was about to be hit, a broken saber suddenly struck out from inside the grass pile. “Clang!” The two sabers collided and Jochi, feeling his hand go numb, almost dropped his saber. The soldiers let out a collective gasp as Jebe jumped out of the pile.

Pulling Guo Jing behind him with his left hand, he sneered: “Bullying a little kid, have you no shame?”

The soldiers immediately readied their spears and surrounded Jebe. Seeing that he had nowhere to run, Jebe tossed aside the broken saber. Jochi charged at him and landed a punch on his chest with Jebe not even trying to protect himself.

“Kill me now!” He shouted, but then he added with in a quiet and heavy voice: “Pity that I cannot die at the hands of a true hero!”

“What did you say?” Temujin cut in.

“To die on the battlefields, at hands of the hero that beat me, is dying with no regrets. But today the eagle has fallen onto the ground and was bitten to death by ants!” Jebe replied with fury in his eyes and let out a tremendous howl. Chagatai’s hunting dogs, who had collectively pinned Guo Jing’s shepherd dog onto the ground and were relentlessly biting it, jumped at the howl and ran away whimpering behind their trainers.

“Khan, don’t let this little bastard boast like that.” A person stepped out from beside Temujin and shouted. “Let me duel with him!”

“Alright, have a duel with him.” Temujin replied, happily discovering that the man was Bogurchi. “We don’t have much of anything else, but we do have some heroes.”

“I’m going to kill you by myself, so that you can die with no regrets.” Bogurchi took a few steps forward and shouted at Jebe.

“Who the hell are you?” Jebe shouted back, noticing that the challenger was very well built and had a very deep and loud voice.

“I’m Bogurchi! Heard of me before?”

A cold feeling shot through Jebe’s heart: “So this is him; rumors say that Bogurchi is the hero of heroes among the Mongols.” Not wanting to reply, he simply shot a sideways look and hmmphed.

“You boast about your skills with the bow and arrow, and others even call you Jebe. Why don’t you and this friend of mine have a little shooting contest?” Temujin declared. In Mongolian, “Jebe” means both “arrow” and “divine archer.” Jebe had another name, but because of his incredible skill with the bow and arrow, everyone called him Jebe and his real name had long been forgotten.

[Note: According to Mongol records, when he first entered Temujin’s tribe, Jebe gave his name as Jirgadei.]

“So you are a friend of his?” Jebe shouted at Bogurchi. “Then I guess I’ll kill you first.”

This remark caused all of the Mongol soldiers to let out an audible laugh, for everyone of them knew that Bogurchi was unbeatable as a fighter and was famous through out the entire Steppe. Even though they saw how great Jebe was with the bow, claiming to be able to kill Bogurchi was just a bit too much for t