many hours later, they heard shouting in the distance.

the sound of galloping hooves and clashing swordsincreased in volume until they heard a man near thepit shout: "daughter! master chen! where are you?""father! father! we're here!" princess fragrancecalled.

the heroes leapt out of the pit and saw muzhuolun,sabre in hand, galloping towards them with a raggedbunch of muslim soldiers behind, fighting bravely.

princess fragrance ran to him crying "father! father!"muzhuolun took her in his arms. "don't be afraid," hesaid soothingly. "i have come to save you."xu jumped onto the back of a horse to get a betterview of the situation. he saw a great cloud of dustrising to the east and knew the manchu armouredcavalry were coming.

"master muzhuolun!" he called. "let's retreat to thathigh ground to the west!" muzhuolun immediatelyordered his troops to comply. they started out fromthe pit with the manchus close behind, and as theyreached the hill, saw another force of manchu troopsmoving in from the west.

"huo qingtong was right," muzhuolun thought glumly. "ishould not have accused her like that. she must befeeling very bad."they threw up temporary defences on the hilltop andsettled down to wait for an opportunity to escape.

with the muslims firmly established on high ground,the manchus did not dare, for the moment, to attack.

huo qingtong stationed her unit about four miles awayfrom the enemy forces. at noon, the unit commanderscame to report. she told the commander of the greenflag's second unit: "go with five hundred troops andtake up positions along the southern bank of the blackriver. the manchu troops are not allowed to cross theriver. if they attack, do not engage them head on, butrather delay them as long as possible." the commanderbowed and retired.

she then turned to the commander of the white flag'sfirst unit. "i want you to lure the manchu forceswestwards. if your troops clash with the enemy, theyare not allowed to win the engagement, but mustcontinue to flee into the desert, the further thebetter. take our four thousand head of cattle andgoats with you and leave them along the road for themto seize.""why should we give them our livestock? i won't doit!"huo qingtong's lips tightened. "do you refuse tofollow my orders?" she asked quietly.

the commander brandished his sabre. "if you tell me towin a battle. i will follow your orders. if you tellme to lose a battle, i would rather die then comply!""seize him!" huo qingtong commanded. four guards ranforward and grabbed the commander's arms. "the manchuforces are oppressing us and to beat them, we mustwork together with one heart. will you or will you notfollow my orders?""no! what are you going to do about it?""execute him!" she commanded, and the officer's faceturned pale. the guards pushed him out of the tent andsliced off his head with one sword stroke as the othercommanders quivered with fear.

huo qingtong promoted the assistant commander to takethe dead officer's place and told him to retreatwestwards before the manchu forces until he saw smokerising from the east, then to return as quickly aspossible, avoiding battle with the manchus. sheordered the other units to gather beside the greatquagmire to the east.

her work complete, she mounted her horse and drew hersword. "the first and second units of the black flag,follow me," she shouted.

muzhuolun, chen and the others were trapped on thehill. the manchu troops had attacked twice, but hadbeen beaten back. the hill was surrounded by piles ofcorpses. losses on both sides had been heavy.

sometime after noon, there was a movement in themanchu lines, and a column of mounted muslim soldierscharged through towards them. amidst the flying snowflakes, they spotted huo qingtong at its head.

"charge!" shouted muzhuolun, and led his men down thehill to meet her. princess fragrance galloped over toher sister and embraced her.

huo qingtong took her hand and shouted: "commander ofthe black flag third unit: lead your men west untilyou meet up with the first unit of the white flag andfollow the orders of its commander."the officer and his troops galloped off, and a columnof manchu cavalry broke from the main force and chasedafter them.

"excellent!" exclaimed huo qingtong. "commander of theblack flag first unit: retreat with your men towardsyarkand and follow the orders of my brother. commanderof the second unit, you retreat towards the blackriver." the two units broke out of the encirclement,and disappeared into the distance pursued by two morecolumns of manchu cavalry.

"everyone else head eastwards!" huo qingtong ordered,and the remaining muslim soldiers along with the redflower society fighters galloped through the circle ofmanchu troops and away.

the manchu cavalry, under the command of zhao weiclosed in on the fleeing muslims and cut off severalhundred of them. all were slaughtered. zhao wei wasdelighted. he pointed to the huge crescent moon bannernear huo qingtong and shouted: "whoever seizes thatbanner gets a reward!" the cavalrymen surged forward,galloping madly across the desert.

the muslims were riding good horses and the manchucavalry had difficulty keeping up with them. but afterten or fifteen miles, some of the muslim fightersbegan to fall behind and were killed by the manchutroops. zhao wei saw they were all either old men orboys, and exclaimed: "their leader has no crack troopswith him. after them!" they galloped on for anothertwo or three miles and saw the muslim forcedispersing, apparently in confusion. fluttering on thetop of a large sand dune ahead was the crescentbanner.

zhao wei flourished his sword and led the chargetowards the dune with his bodyguards behind. but as hereached the top and looked out beyond, he was almostfrightened out of his wits. to the north and south,were rank after orderly rank of muslim warriors,waiting silently. the manchu force had originally beenseveral times larger than the muslim force, but somany units had been sent out in pursuit of thebreakaway muslim columns that only ten thousandarmoured cavalry now faced the concentrated might ofthe muslim army. two more muslim columns appearedbehind them, and with enemy troops to the north, southand west, zhao wei shouted: "everyone forward!

eastwards!" the manchu forces surged forward as themuslim fighters gradually closed in on them.

suddenly, there was a chorus of cries from the cavalryunit in the lead. a soldier rode up to zhao wei andsaid: "general! we're finished! there's quicksandahead!" he could see a thousand cavalrymen and theirhorses already flailing about as they sank into thesoft mud.

chen and the others stood on a sand dune and watchedas the manchu troops fell into the quagmire. thesoldiers behind tried to escape, but the muslimspressed relentlessly in, forcing them into the mud.

the air was filled with the screams of the haplessmanchu soldiers, but the mud crept up their legs, andwhen it reached their mouths, the noise ceased. thedwindling numbers of manchu troops fought desperately,but in less than an hour, the whole army had beenforced into the quagmire. only zhao wei and a hundredor so guards managed to escape after carving a path ofblood through the muslim ranks.

"everyone head westwards and gather on the south bankof the black river," huo qingtong ordered. the entireforce of more than ten thousand troops galloped off.

as they rode, chen and muzhuolun discussed what hadhappened since they parted. muzhuolun's heart wasuneasy. he loved his two daughters more than anythingin the world, and they had both fallen in love withthe same chinese man. according to islamic law, a mancould marry four wives, but chen was not a believer,and he had heard that chinese had only one wife whilethe second and subsequent women were not consideredreal wives. he wondered how the matter could beresolved. "wait until the manchus have been beaten,"he thought. "one daughter is wise and the other kind.

a way will be found."the great muslim column arrived at the south bank ofthe black river towards evening. a soldier galloped upand breathlessly reported: "the manchus are attackinghard. the commander of the green flag second unit isdead, and the commander of the black flag second unitis badly wounded. losses are heavy.""tell the deputy commander of the green flag secondunit to take over. he is not to retreat one step," huoqingtong ordered. the soldier galloped off again.

"let's go and reinforce them!" muzhuolun suggested.

"no!" she replied and turned to her personal guards.

"the whole army will rest here. no one is allowed tolight a fire or make a sound. everyone will eat dryrations." the order was transmitted, and the soldierssettled down silently in the darkness. far off, theycould hear the waters of the black river and the criesand shouts of manchu and muslim fighters.

another soldier galloped frantically up. "the greenflag second unit's deputy commander has also beenkilled," he reported. "we can't hold them back muchlonger!"huo qingtong turned to the commmander of the greenflag third unit. "go and reinforce them," she said.

"you will be in command." he raised his sabre insalute and led his unit away. soon after, the sound ofbattle rose to a roar.

"the green flag units will lie in ambush behind thesand dunes to the east. the white flag and mongolunits will lie in ambush to the west," huo qingtongordered. "the rest, come with me."she rode off towards the black river, and as theyapproached it, the metallic ring of weapons clashingbecame deafening. in the torchlight, they saw themuslim fighters bravely defending the wooden bridgeacross the river in the face of ferocious assaults bythe best manchu cavalry.

"give way!" huo qingtong shouted, and the fighters onthe bridge retreated, leaving a gap through whichseveral thousand manchu mounted troops swarmed likebees. when about half of the manchu troops hadcrossed, she shouted: "pull away the bridge!"the muslims had earlier loosened the beams of thebridge and used long ropes to tie them to horses onthe river bank below. the horses strained forward, aseries of loud cracks rent the air, and the bridgecollapsed, throwing hundreds of manchu soldiers intothe river. the manchu army was thus cut in two by theriver, with neither side able to assist the other.

at the order from huo qingtong, the mass of the muslimarmy, hiding behind the sand dunes, emerged andoverwhelmed the manchu troops on the near bank. in ashort time, they were all dead, and the manchu forceon the other side of the river were so frightened bythe sight of the slaughter that they turned and fledtowards yarkand city.

"across the river and after them!" shouted huoqingtong. a make-shift bridge was swiftly constructedwith the remains of the former structure and themuslim army charged off towards yarkand.

the citizens of yarkand had long since evacuated theircity. huo qingtong's brother, on her instructions, hadresisted perfunctorily when the manchus attacked, thenled his troops in retreat from the city. soon after,the manchu forces fleeing from the banks of the blackriver arrived along with general zhao wei and hishundred-odd battered bodyguards. the walled city wasnow full of manchu soldiers.

just as zhao wei was about to go to bed, he received areport that several hundred troops who had drank waterfrom wells in the city had died of poisoning. he senta unit to collect some uncontaminated water fromoutside. then the sky turned red. all over the city,fires were lit by a small number of muslim soldiersleft behind, and the city turned into a huge oven.

under the protection of his bodyguard, zhao wei foughthis way through the flames and smoke towards the westgate as the rest of the manchu soldiers trampled eachother in their haste to escape. the bodyguards slashedat them with their swords, forcing them to make wayfor their general. but when they got to the west gate,they found it had been blocked by the muslims. thefires were burning even more ferociously, and thestreets were filled with frenzied mobs of soldiers andhorses. through the confusion, a small group of ridersappeared shouting: "where is the general?""here!" zhao wei's bodyguards shouted back.

"there are fewer enemy troops at the east gate,"replied one of the riders. "we can force our way outthere."even in such danger, zhao wei remained calm and ledhis troops in the attack on the east gate. the muslimsfired wave after wave of arrows at them, and severalattempts to break out failed with heavy losses. but atthe critical moment, zhang zhaozhong led a troop ofmanchu soldiers in an attack from outside the city andmanaged to snatch zhao wei away to safety.

many thousands of manchu soldiers had already beenburned to death, and the stench was sickening. thewhole city was filled with cries and screams. huoqingtong and the others watched from a piece of highground.

"it's terrible! terrible!" cried muzhuolun. huoqingtong sent more troops down to help blockade theeast gate of the city. with zhao wei gone, the manchusoldiers left inside were leaderless. they racedfrantically about, but with the four gates blocked bythe muslims, they all died in the monster furnace.

"light the signal fires!" huo qingtong ordered, andpiles of wolf droppings that had been prepared wereput to the torch, sending a huge column of black smokeup to the heavens. (the smoke from burning wolf'sdropping is the thickest and blackest of all.) a shortwhile later, a similar column of smoke arose five orso miles to the west.

the muslims had won three victories and wiped out morethan thirty thousand of the best manchu troops. thewarriors embraced each other and sang and dancedaround the yarkand city wall.

huo qingtong called her officers together. "we willcamp out here tonight," she said. "each man must startten fires and must spread them out as much aspossible."