Now, the moment Zhou Kun spoke the name of Dou Yongheng, the Tiger-Slaying Hero, the Black-Faced Bear, the three chiefs quickly swung down from their horses and came forward with a bow. “So it’s our elder brother Dou!” they said. “It’s been far too long.” Dou Yongheng looked them over. He did not know any of the three, and he hurried to return the bow. “And what might your honourable names be, Chiefs?” he said. “I really can’t place your faces.” “Brother Dou, you’re a great man, and great men forget easily,” said the three chiefs. “Please come up to our stronghold and we’ll talk.” “But who are you three?” said Dou Yongheng. “When it comes to that,” said the yellow-faced one, “you and I are no strangers. But this is no place for talk. Please come up to the stronghold and we’ll talk there.” Dou Yongheng could hardly refuse, and he went up the mountain with the whole company. When they came to the gate of the main stronghold, he saw that it had a good many buildings. They went in through the first gate, handed the horses to the attendants and went straight on to the great hall where the band shared out its spoils and gathered in brotherhood. There they took their seats, and the men served tea. “May we ask your honourable names, Chiefs?” said Zhou Kun. “Five hundred years ago you and I were one family,” said the yellow-faced one. “My surname is Zhou too, and my name is Hu. I have a small nickname: people call me the Smiling Pixiu1 (Xiaomian Pixiu). These are my two sworn younger brothers.” He pointed at the dark-faced one. “He is Gao Zhen, Iron Back (Tiebeizi). The pale-faced one there is Gao Shun, the Black-Haired Scorpion. And this mountain is called Cuiyun Peak. Brother Dou, where are you all coming from?” “Don’t ask,” said Zhou Kun. “My brother-in-law was living in Lin’an, and for no reason at all he was dragged into a lawsuit over a wrong he never did. Luckily we met an eminent monk, who saved us from the dragon’s pool and the tiger’s den. I meant to go with my brother-in-law and take refuge with a friend, and we were passing this way when we met you three Chiefs. But how do you three come to know my brother-in-law?” “We three brothers have been waiting here a good many days,” said Zhou Hu. “We were posted here on orders from above. We have long heard that Brother Dou’s fame shakes the land far and wide; today we have the luck to meet him, and that is truly the good fortune of three lifetimes. Twice before we sent men to invite you, Brother Dou, but they couldn’t find where you lived. And today we run into you here by chance! Younger Brother Zhou, don’t you two go any further.” “You gentlemen hold this mountain,” said Dou Yongheng. “How is it you have superiors as well?” “We hold this mountain,” said Zhou Hu, “for the purpose of gathering the heroes of the world. In days to come we shall all be great generals who founded a dynasty.” “So you three are generals of the Great Song?” said Dou Yongheng. “We’re no officers of the Great Song,” said Zhou Hu. “We have a Patriarch, the Red-Haired Divine Officer, Shao Huafeng. He has a treasure called the Heaven-and-Earth Meridian Bowl of Primal Unity, and the old gentleman can reckon on his fingers and divine; he knows all that is past and all that is to come. In the middle of the Pingshui River in Changzhou there is a hill called Woniu Rock2, and on the hill there is a temple called Ciyun Temple. In that temple right now are the Perfected One of the Front Hall, the Perfected One of the Rear Hall, the Perfected One of the Left Hall and the Perfected One of the Right Hall, and more than five hundred men of the greenwood. They mean to found the Incense-Smoke Society3 (Xunxiang Hui), and everyone makes that temple his base. Brother Dou, don’t you go any further. Stay here on my mountain. We’ll send a letter to the Patriarch at Ciyun Temple and wait for his reply. You help us bring off the great enterprise together, and some day you too can get yourself some post or rank. How about it?” Dou Yongheng thought, “For now I’ve nowhere else to go anyway. I may as well stay here for the time being.” And so he agreed on the spot. Zhou Hu sent men to sweep out a house just for Dou Yongheng and his wife to live in, with old serving women and others to wait on them. Zhou Kun stayed on the mountain too. The Smiling Pixiu sent a man to take a letter to Ciyun Temple. All day long the five chiefs kept company together; time slipped by, the days and months flew like a weaver’s shuttle, and some while passed. One day, as they were all talking in the great hall, Dou Yongheng spoke of the humiliation Wang Shengxian had dealt him in Lin’an and how bitterly he hated it. “Never mind,” said Zhou Hu. “Some day, when you and I have brought off our enterprise, you can have your revenge.”

They were still talking when a bandit soldier came running in from outside. “Reporting to the Chiefs,” he said. “Down at the foot of the mountain, Lu Bingwen, commander of the capital garrison at Lin’an, is passing by on his way home, having left office,. We went out and stopped his mule litters4 and carts. He handed over his visiting card and says he pays his respects to the Chiefs and asks leave to pass through the mountain5.” When Zhou Hu, the Smiling Pixiu, heard this, he said, “Brothers Gao, does either of you know Lu Bingwen, commander of the capital garrison?” Gao Zhen and Gao Shun both shook their heads: they did not know him. Then Zhou Hu asked, “Brother Dou, do you know him?” When Dou Yongheng heard it was Lu Bingwen, his face changed colour with rage on the spot. “There’s something you three Chiefs don’t know,” he said. “This Lu Bingwen and I have a feud as deep as the sea. In Lin’an it was he who bought some bandits to name me as their accomplice and threw me in jail. He tricked my wife away and sent her off to Wang Shengxian, the Flashy Libertine, and brought ruin on my whole family. If Ji Gong hadn’t saved me, we’d all have died at his hands. Ji Gong told me long ago that he was my enemy. Now that he’s come here today, how could I let him off? Since none of you three knows this Lu Bingwen, it’s my luck that today I get my revenge and wipe out my wrong.” With that he snatched up a broadsword and dashed out.

A word of explanation: how did Lu Bingwen come to be here? There is a story behind it. Earlier, after Lu Bingwen had let Dou Yongheng go, he came to his senses and sent men out to hunt him down again, but they never caught him. He thought to himself, “This affair has already been reported to the Emperor. How am I to bear the blame for it?” He hurried by sedan chair to Wang Shengxian’s house in Taihe Ward and asked to see him. Wang Shengxian showed him into the study, and Lu Bingwen made his bow. “Teacher, you must save your pupil6,” he said. “I’m in trouble.” “What is the matter, my worthy pupil?” said Wang Shengxian. “Take your time and tell me.” “Dou Yongheng, who robbed the army pay silver at Baisha Ridge, has broken jail and escaped,” said Lu Bingwen, “and the affair has already been reported to His Majesty. I beg you, Teacher, protect your pupil.” At this Wang Shengxian flew into a rage. “Don’t you know Dou Yongheng is my enemy?” he said. “He set fire to the Hehuan Tower and burned my beauty to death in it, and I lost both the woman and the money. And you went and let him go, so he can come at me with a knife and fight me to the death, and you still want me to protect you? If he comes after me for revenge, who’s going to protect me? This is your own fine handiwork, and you’ll reap what you’ve sown. There’s nothing I can do. Kindly go home.”